Post by David on Jun 23, 2008 11:47:14 GMT -5
On the morning of the 15th, the party (Dion, Clanndennagh, Marc, Mikhail with Samhain, Sky, Cliffy, and Max) met up with Helga and Moonlight in Hommlet. The group spoke with Burne, Jaroo, and the clerics of Cuthbert, attempting to discern the manner and motive behind the village leaders being charmed. Burne told them of another outpost of the Temple some three days distant, on the border of Furyondy.
Around noon, the group departed Hommlet for Nulb and the actual Temple of Elemental Evil, taking the seldom-used low road. The road was actually built during the time of the Temple's regional dominance, right after the griffons of Griffon Mountain had nearly been hunted to extinction. In the last dozen years, however, the horse-eating creatures have effectively choked off the road's use. By evening, the group reached a decent campsite, clearly well-used in times gone by.
In the middle of the night, Clanndennagh and Sky were on watch when they spied a large band of raccoons watching the sleeping party. Clanndennagh moved to wake up the group, which was when one of the 'coons darted into the party, grabbed Cliffy (dozing in elven reverie) and RAN with him into the woods!
Cliffy snapped alert with a start and magic missiled the little bandit, killing it. The group then split up with Marc leading his two new bobcats and al'miraj, Clanndennagh, Helga, Moonlight (and Quicksilver), and Sky after the raccoons. The creatures were waiting at a cave mouth and when the party approached, they attacked! One of the bobcats, the al'miraj, Quicksilver, and even Moonlight were quickly shredded, as the raccoons took powerful bits out of their victims and bounded with them back toward their cave. Marc hacked down a number of raccoons, with Helga holding her own (barely) and Clanndennagh remaining conscious. By the time Dion, Max, Cliffy, Mikhail, and Samhain arrived, only those three were still on their feet. Together, the heroes finished off the last of the raccoons, which transformed into a ten headed hydra, each raccoon actually a distinct head!
Dion had cast a light on the cave roof as he had approached and now spied a yellowish blob on the ceiling of the cave (less than 200' from the party's campsite). The cleric of Apollo said something and then Helga started trying to bite him! Marc restrained, the dwarf while Cliffy unleashed magic missiles at the yellow slime. That's when Samhain leap at the elf and attacked! An arrow from Max finished the creature off, and as the yellowish globules pealed off the cave roof and struck the ground, the charm was broken. The group searched the grotto, found lots of orc remains and some treasure, then headed back to their camp. They realized that this was right at the location of the purple mark on their map.
The heroes went back to sleep, only to be awaken before dawn to a chimera circling them in the sky. The creature had clearly been eating the hydra's carcass when it spied the heroes camping nearby. Just as the party got to their feet, the monster attacked, unleashing fire from it's dragon head that killed the last of the bobcats and seriously burned Dion and Max. The creature dodged most of the party's attacks, except Cliffy's magic missiles and unleashed a second blast which caught nearly everyone before the elf's spells finally perforated one wing, forcing the creature to land. Unfortunately, the second gout of fire set the entire forest ablaze! Moonlight, thinking quickly, used a couple of pyrotechnics spells to control the flames and save the woods. Meanwhile, once on the ground, the heroes made short work of the monster.
In the morning, the group continued on toward Nulb. Halfway there, after fording the Imeryds, the group spied something glinting golden amongst the trees. Cliffy used his elven and thieving skills to approach, but was hailed by a large brass dragon from a clearing beyond. The dragon was sitting amid the remnants of an orcish camp and claimed it all as "his treasure". Curiously, he wore a black cloak over his head with eye holes torn into the cloth and identified himself as "the Glistening One" a "bandit brass dragon, and these are my lawful prey." Cliffy elected to move on, but before he did, the dragon asked the elf for some of his treasure "for safe passage". Cliffy dropped 5pp and the dragon said "thank you, please come again!".
The party realized this location corresponded to the red mark on their map.
The heroes finally reached Nulb late in the evening and went into the Waterside Hostel. The hostler greeted them brusquely and sold them a pair of rooms. He went up to ask for a 5gp "security deposit" for Sammy, but ticked off Clanndennagh, who ego whipped the man. It failed and as the inn-keeper got ready to throw the heroes out, a second ego whip caused the hostler to run screaming and cower under the stairs. Luckily, Mikhail managed a mind thrust which also erased the entire event from the man's memory...so later when he came up for the deposit, Cliffy just handed it to him before there could be any trouble.
In the morning, the party tried to make contact with Otis, but the tall smith claimed to have no knowledge of Burne or Hommlet. Frustrated, the heroes set off for the Temple, but were ambushed along the way. The encounter began with an arrow sinking into Clanndennagh's chest! Although there were 33 bandits, a pair of psionic blasts from Mikhail and Clanndennagh made VERY short for of most of them, while a sleep from Cliffy took out the "rear guard". Within less than a minute, there were only two bandits left, both of whom fled into the woods.
The heroes questioned the bandit leader, "Frank", who explained that he was "freelance" but did work indirectly for the Temple. His contact was Dick Rentsch, the hostler of the Waterside Hostel. The party headed back to town to have a talk with the inn-keeper.
After a brief altercation in the hostel, the party defeated Dick and both serving wenches, while Marc killed Wat (the bartender) in a field just outside the building. Pearl and Dala offered "5gp per ear" of the party, getting most of the hostel's tavern-goers to join the battle, but again, a few sleeps from Cliffy totally evened the odds.
The heroes have taken Dick, Dala, and Pearl up to the staff's private rooms for questioning...
Clanndennagh: 30 of 32 with 25 PSPs
Dion: full (42) but cast slow poison
Sky: full (52) but [-3]
Marc: 46 of 50
Helga: 16 of 39 but cast cure light wounds
Mikhail: 26 of 39 with -1 on all stats due to poison effects
Sammy: full (24)
Max: 10 of 19 and [-2] with -1 on all stats due to poison and one (slowed) dose in his system!
Cliffy: 19 of 35 but cast sleep twice and magic missile
Around noon, the group departed Hommlet for Nulb and the actual Temple of Elemental Evil, taking the seldom-used low road. The road was actually built during the time of the Temple's regional dominance, right after the griffons of Griffon Mountain had nearly been hunted to extinction. In the last dozen years, however, the horse-eating creatures have effectively choked off the road's use. By evening, the group reached a decent campsite, clearly well-used in times gone by.
In the middle of the night, Clanndennagh and Sky were on watch when they spied a large band of raccoons watching the sleeping party. Clanndennagh moved to wake up the group, which was when one of the 'coons darted into the party, grabbed Cliffy (dozing in elven reverie) and RAN with him into the woods!
Cliffy snapped alert with a start and magic missiled the little bandit, killing it. The group then split up with Marc leading his two new bobcats and al'miraj, Clanndennagh, Helga, Moonlight (and Quicksilver), and Sky after the raccoons. The creatures were waiting at a cave mouth and when the party approached, they attacked! One of the bobcats, the al'miraj, Quicksilver, and even Moonlight were quickly shredded, as the raccoons took powerful bits out of their victims and bounded with them back toward their cave. Marc hacked down a number of raccoons, with Helga holding her own (barely) and Clanndennagh remaining conscious. By the time Dion, Max, Cliffy, Mikhail, and Samhain arrived, only those three were still on their feet. Together, the heroes finished off the last of the raccoons, which transformed into a ten headed hydra, each raccoon actually a distinct head!
Dion had cast a light on the cave roof as he had approached and now spied a yellowish blob on the ceiling of the cave (less than 200' from the party's campsite). The cleric of Apollo said something and then Helga started trying to bite him! Marc restrained, the dwarf while Cliffy unleashed magic missiles at the yellow slime. That's when Samhain leap at the elf and attacked! An arrow from Max finished the creature off, and as the yellowish globules pealed off the cave roof and struck the ground, the charm was broken. The group searched the grotto, found lots of orc remains and some treasure, then headed back to their camp. They realized that this was right at the location of the purple mark on their map.
The heroes went back to sleep, only to be awaken before dawn to a chimera circling them in the sky. The creature had clearly been eating the hydra's carcass when it spied the heroes camping nearby. Just as the party got to their feet, the monster attacked, unleashing fire from it's dragon head that killed the last of the bobcats and seriously burned Dion and Max. The creature dodged most of the party's attacks, except Cliffy's magic missiles and unleashed a second blast which caught nearly everyone before the elf's spells finally perforated one wing, forcing the creature to land. Unfortunately, the second gout of fire set the entire forest ablaze! Moonlight, thinking quickly, used a couple of pyrotechnics spells to control the flames and save the woods. Meanwhile, once on the ground, the heroes made short work of the monster.
In the morning, the group continued on toward Nulb. Halfway there, after fording the Imeryds, the group spied something glinting golden amongst the trees. Cliffy used his elven and thieving skills to approach, but was hailed by a large brass dragon from a clearing beyond. The dragon was sitting amid the remnants of an orcish camp and claimed it all as "his treasure". Curiously, he wore a black cloak over his head with eye holes torn into the cloth and identified himself as "the Glistening One" a "bandit brass dragon, and these are my lawful prey." Cliffy elected to move on, but before he did, the dragon asked the elf for some of his treasure "for safe passage". Cliffy dropped 5pp and the dragon said "thank you, please come again!".
The party realized this location corresponded to the red mark on their map.
The heroes finally reached Nulb late in the evening and went into the Waterside Hostel. The hostler greeted them brusquely and sold them a pair of rooms. He went up to ask for a 5gp "security deposit" for Sammy, but ticked off Clanndennagh, who ego whipped the man. It failed and as the inn-keeper got ready to throw the heroes out, a second ego whip caused the hostler to run screaming and cower under the stairs. Luckily, Mikhail managed a mind thrust which also erased the entire event from the man's memory...so later when he came up for the deposit, Cliffy just handed it to him before there could be any trouble.
In the morning, the party tried to make contact with Otis, but the tall smith claimed to have no knowledge of Burne or Hommlet. Frustrated, the heroes set off for the Temple, but were ambushed along the way. The encounter began with an arrow sinking into Clanndennagh's chest! Although there were 33 bandits, a pair of psionic blasts from Mikhail and Clanndennagh made VERY short for of most of them, while a sleep from Cliffy took out the "rear guard". Within less than a minute, there were only two bandits left, both of whom fled into the woods.
The heroes questioned the bandit leader, "Frank", who explained that he was "freelance" but did work indirectly for the Temple. His contact was Dick Rentsch, the hostler of the Waterside Hostel. The party headed back to town to have a talk with the inn-keeper.
After a brief altercation in the hostel, the party defeated Dick and both serving wenches, while Marc killed Wat (the bartender) in a field just outside the building. Pearl and Dala offered "5gp per ear" of the party, getting most of the hostel's tavern-goers to join the battle, but again, a few sleeps from Cliffy totally evened the odds.
The heroes have taken Dick, Dala, and Pearl up to the staff's private rooms for questioning...
Clanndennagh: 30 of 32 with 25 PSPs
Dion: full (42) but cast slow poison
Sky: full (52) but [-3]
Marc: 46 of 50
Helga: 16 of 39 but cast cure light wounds
Mikhail: 26 of 39 with -1 on all stats due to poison effects
Sammy: full (24)
Max: 10 of 19 and [-2] with -1 on all stats due to poison and one (slowed) dose in his system!
Cliffy: 19 of 35 but cast sleep twice and magic missile