Friday, February 18, 2011

PWG- Session 3

Four days pass as the party makes it's way downstream. The Gargoyle has been flying the whole time to meet up with the party and he comes upon them just as a silver dragon comes swooping in to make a meal of them. He drives a collision course with the large dragon and knocks it away from his friends. The dragon agrees not to eat them if they will bring him three deer. Luckily, many of the party are skilled in survival and handily hunt down three deer for the dragon to feast upon.
*110 xp for not fighting a dragon

As night begins to fall on day five the party spots an Inn by the side of the river called "Eddies" (where a boat may rest out of the current of a river). Checking that the place is not allied with Pthanwy the party sends Alica and the Gargoyle to book them as the night's entertainment. Alica asks the drunk orc behind the bar if their leader is P'thanwy and the orc responds that Krug is their master. Fantastic, it is decided they will dramatize the story of Krug, the mighty hero. the party is brought in since the coast is clear. Krug is played by Smooth Pebble who is thoroughly and obviously confused about the whole situation. The bad guy of the story is played by Regis who holds that intimidation is his only marketable skill. The rest of the party get into the act with Brelynn doing a dance number and Alica providing the accompaniment. Everything goes awry though when Krug himself walks in and recognizes Regis through his makeup (and from the banner Krell walked in with). He forces them to finish the show and Regis becomes extra aware of the irony that he is inadvertently playing himself in the story of an enemy who's name he never bothered to learn. Of course a fight breaks out and the heroes handle the earthtouched orcs, ogres and Krug himself with almost shocking ease. Happily, not only did they collect 180Gp from around the place and the bodies of the slain they also captured Krug's War Banner and saved the people to whom the Inn actually belonged. A capitol day all around.
*1330xp for the combat
*20 xp for fitting Krug's armour to Smooth Pebble (Mordecai, Alica and Krell)

Day six dawned as so many do when one is adventuring. The heroes headed out feeling good about actually doing a good deed. Not long into the day a twelve headed cryohydra put a crimp in their style attacking the boats from the shore. After a hard battle the party was back on its way.
*321xp for the combat

Loot +3 armour (now fit to Smooth Pebble)
GP 180
xp 1751 (Smooth Pebble, Brelynn, Gargoyle and Regis)
1771 (Mordecai, Krell and Alica)

PWG- Session 2

P'thanwy, clearly tired of their insolence, uses mass hold person to bind the heroes in place. As they stood, stuck and immobile she placed a "mark of justice" upon them making a big show of the punishment in front of the citizens who had witnessed the destruction. "I banish you from the Northlands" she said, "Should you enter any town allied to me you will activate this mark and misfortune shall follow you. You have one day to leave this place." With that, she left and the spell broke. The citizens who had been watching began edging their way out of the tavern leaving the party to themselves.
*500 xp for the combat.
All that remained in the bar are the barkeep and a bard who had been the night's entertainment. Using his bardic knowledge he remembered that P'thanwy appeared about 12 years ago having no known school or place of origin. It was also revealed that Rakinov comes from similarly cloudy origins. He agreed to join them in their journey to Innsmouth.
The party secures rooms from Al who was actually better off for the whole thing due to the local custom of getting to rifle through the pockets of the deceased who are killed on one's property. It's sort of frontier insurance.
The next morning the party wastes no time getting out of town. At first light they meet with Rendo, taking on his cargo of wood harvested on the elemental plane of fire. It is both warm to the touch and resistant to burning making it great for houses here in the north. Having checked the legitimacy of the cargo they bought rafts for the caravan, trading the horses for a discount. (30GP for the rafts)

Six hours into the journey the party's progress is interrupted by an Iron Golem who stands up from the river saying, "I hold the way." He did, in fact for a while but was quickly destroyed by the party.
*450xp for the combat.
They continue on their way and make camp for the night in a clearing near the river. Camping is made much more comfortable by the use of Leomund's Tiny Hut, a magic shelter Alica knows how to conjure. They set their watches and in the seventh hour of the night their alarm spell goes off. A werewolf lord bounds in from the woods and attacks Krell who is on watch. The threat is quickly neutralized and luckily the lycanthropy danger from a bite is quickly neutralized.
*500xp for the combat

Loot -
GP -30 GP for the rafts
XP 1500xp

Post War Games

In the moment of still which followed the destruction of Remul a gathering of light began to build quickly blinding Mordecai and Smooth Pebble who find themselves lifted from the ground of Remul's chamber. In that flash they find themselves sitting on level ground on the very island where the dig site had been. Around are ruins and in the center of the group is a large globule of natural glass. Mordecai and Smooth Pebble have more important things to worry about than mysterious appearing ruins and disappearing pits. They quickly decide to return to Boothearth to check on the army's success and see that they needed no help. They set out immediately for the ruined town (with the piece of glass in tow).

Meanwhile in the (relatively) nearby city of Fezzock's Mill a small group has found itself in the position of saving a small town square from marauding elementals. Krell Lighthaven, who was sent to Fezzock's Mill by his father to learn the art of war from those who fought in the Elemental War, holds the banner of General Regis Mai'el. General Mai'el distinguished himself in the Elemental Wars and, until he was eclipsed by P'thanwy, was among the most highly regarded figures of the war. Brelynn Lighthaven, still a little disoriented from returning from a seeming death is still getting her bearings. An animated gargoyle also seems to have lent a helping hand. United by mutual happenstance they are invited by a dumpy dwarf to join in the great General P'thanwy's journey to the Vale of creation to aid in the post war reconstruction efforts. She is looking for able combatants to join in her vanguard. The heroes of the market, seeming to have nothing else going on, agree to meet at noon the next day to head out.

As it turns out P'thanwy is a busy lady so she has arranged for a teleport that next day. The entire adventuring force is taken instantaneously to the gates of Boothearth where the excited populace (all twenty of them) have turned out to greet them. As soon as they have gotten over the excitement (not long) P'thanwy orders all of the members of her vanguard to spread out among the people and gather information about the town and look for things which need doing to assist the people of the town with the disaster which has left the town with only two standing structures. Naturally, many of them head to the tavern (one of the two structures) first. Regis, on the other hand, heads for the refugee camps to talk with the locals. Krell, who likes civilization, opted for the Temple of Pelor (the other structure).

As Brelynn and the gargoyle arrive at the tavern so too do Smooth Pebble and Mordecai coming from the other direction. The town is a little more destroyed than they remember and they also seem to recall the temple of Pelor being among the less standing structures. They also remember the barkeep at the local tavern to be a man named John this man, who looks strikingly like John claims to be named "Al". He has Mushroom Ale though, so Smooth Pebble is somewhat comforted nonetheless. Over drinks the four heroes are magnetically drawn to each other finding their fellow travelers and the local soldiers to be less than enlightening. Brelynn is quick to understand the trouble Mordecai and Smooth Pebble are having. They seem to have traveled through time!

Meanwhile, Regis has learned the history of the region from the locals and is forming plans to aid them. Krell has spoken with the priestess of Pelor and learned of how the people in Boothearth all celebrate their own gods here at this temple.

*100 xp for everyone's roleplaying and deductive reasoning.

Eventually Regis heads back toward the tavern and meets up with the group of four departing the place. After a brief discussion they all decided to talk with the General about their findings and how to go forward. Smooth Pebble opts instead to go to the Temple of Pelor to pray to Hieroneous for guidance.

-P'thanwy and Rakinov are in the general's tent when Regis, Mordecai, Brelynn and the Gargoyle arrive. P'thanwy listens patiently to all of the discussion about the future of the town and the concerns of those present but has other business to attend to. She leaves the party in the hands of Rakinov but his obviously evil nature and tight lipped-ness made for little progress.

-Smooth Pebble's close relationship with her god provides her with a response. The quest she is destined to complete is not yet finished. She leaves the temple feeling concerned and crosses paths with Krell who, after some waffling, had finally decided to head to the general's tent. She hears a commotion in a nearby tent and pursues it standing just outside the canvas structure she hears he voice of an old man "I was trying to help"
"you will," came the voice of P'thanwy, "more than you know." there is a brief struggle and then silence.
Smooth Pebble and Krell who has moved near do not know what to do. Torn between the desire to help the old man and get their friends they end up missing an opportunity. The rest of the party came out of the General's tent and the lot of them met for a reconnoiter in the temple. Smooth Pebble and Krell agree that they are disturbed by what they have heard. Added to the evil nature of her lieutenant and their feeling that P'thanwy reminds them of Remul overall the party comes to the consensus that P'thanwy is not a great as her name might lead one to believe.

*100 xp for comparing notes and being decisive in character.

After their discussion they exit the temple to find that a crowd has gathered. It seems that P'thanwy will address the town. Once all are assembled she makes an announcement that she came to restore the town and that she would do so right then. She then held her arms above her head and with a mighty discharge of arcane energy the town was fully restored as it once had been. each house, each shop each tiny shack is just as it had been before the war. The crowd cheered and dispersed into their former homes and places of business. The party is, understandably, shocked. They follow P'thanwy to the Tavern to let her know that the jig is up. They walk in as she is buying everyone assembled a round.
Rendo, who seems to be trying to make sure he talks to the heroes before they do something which might be bad for their health, jumps in to offer the group the job of leading his caravan of goods to the town of Innsmouth in the midlands. He comments that it will be of little use here as he was peddling lumber. They agree to the job at a rate of 250gp per adventurer and 350gp for the general.
Once P'thanwy has sat down the party approaches and ask for a private conversation. She understandingly encourages them to go ahead, that she trusted Rakinov. The party insisted and she agreed taking a room from Al and taking a few party members to sit with her there. Regis took the lead in the questioning presenting their concerns and hoping to elicit a response out of P'thanwy. She remained calm throughout and answered all of their questions. What she did not know is that the gargoyle was preventing any lies from being told. It does not seem to have hurt her at all. She rebuffed them all for their assumptions and left their company. As they discussed the turn of events Rocky came running down the hall to warn them of danger. This gave them the time to prepare for the group of soldiers coming up the stairs. they killed a few handily in the hall before the gargoyle drove one through the floor to the bar space below. most of the party followed, minorly setting the bar on fire in their zeal to neutralize the threat.
P'thanwy first ordered them to hold and only the gargoyle listened turning back and leaping back upstairs to warn the others off. They moved in anyhow killing all of the soldiers within six seconds.

Loot -
GP -50sp for drinks
XP 200xp