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Badly injured in their fight with the slavers, and Leento finding
himself naseous with a terrible headache, the party decided to spend the
night at the fort before returning the children to their villages.
Concerned over the noises heard in the dungeon and also noting from Heroll's
journal that a group of orcs were expected that night, the party opted
to be extra cautious with regards to their watch. The majority of the
party, with Leento looking after the children, and a tied up, wimpering
Heroll the slavemaster dumped in a corner, camped in the eastern tower
while Venetto and Raistlin camped in the western tower near the sea.
{Major retcon ahead} Entering the western tower for the first time,
Venetto and Raistlin discovered what the slavers had been using as a
training room. Aside from worthless wooden swords, quarterstaves, and
training dummies, the party found enough arrows and crossbow bolts to
replenish their supplies.
(4/18)
The orcs passed the gate and Raistlin quickly threw the switch that
dropped the gate. The orcs were now trapped in the double-gate mechanism
in the same manner that the party had been by the slavers the previous
day. Without bows to return fire, and too confused by the suprise
attack to note that the gate to the dog pen was still open, two orcs fell
immediately in a barrage of missle weapons from the two towers, but
before all could be dispatched, an orc retrieved a horn from his fallen
comrade and blew.
While the party paused briefly to consider this new development
(Venetto noting at least 6 more orcs climbing up from the beach) Raistlin
called out "Drop your weapons and call off your men." The 2 orcs dropped
their weapons immediatly but shouted back, "No signal to make stop."
Raistlin then stormed to the southern wall and shouted to the advancing
orcs "Stop where you are. You are outnumbered. Drop your weapons."
An orc from within the gates agreed, "It is true. Outnumbered and
overpowered." The orcs stopped.
With the remaining party members' weapons trained on the surrendered
orcs, Chyekk and Leento descended the eastern tower and raised the gate,
intending to tie up the 2 original orcs. As they approached, however,
the orcs' facial expression turned from fear to hatred. "Run!", he
shouted. "They are dwarves! Run!" The 6 orcs outside ran south,
towards the hills that the party had hid in themselves while observing the
fort the previous night. Two were dropped by the party's missle fire,
but the rest escaped.
After placing the two captured orcs in the fort's dungeon, the party
took 2 of the slavers' carts and all of their horses and rode off to
return the missing children.
One night before reaching the first village, Lashtal encountered
Malekith, the drow wizard the party battled across the continent in Endripor
Wood. Retelling the tale the next morning, Lashtal noted that Malekith
offered vague promises of adventure and knowledge in return for being
allowed to take Chyekk. After his offer was refused, Malekith
disappeared into thin air, invisible even to Lashtal's infravision.
Continuing on, the party delivered the children to the villages of
Norfolk (4/15), Hamleta (4/24), Bhamlet (4/26), where they were hailed as heroes. The only negative incident was when Leento returned the body of the one dead child to his parents and performed the Druidic ceremony of burial. The parents were much comforted by the rite, but the local priest of Tyr arrived to denounce Leento's actions as pagean and wrong. Leento found this to
be in contrast to what he understood was the standard policy of the
Temples of Tyr, namely that the Priests and Druids worked together to do
what was best for their people. Indeed it was Priesto of Hetasi, a
Patriarch of Tyr, who first noticed a young Leento's bond with nature and
brought him to Hengus the Druid to be apprenticed.
Chalking the
incident up to small town intolerance, the party moved on to Warrensville (4/29)
where they receieved their reward of 5,000 gold. The party further
impressed Mayor Warren by returning the small advance they had originally
received and returning his horses. The party then sold the excess slaver
horses, finding that the recent bout of iron shortage was beginning
to affect the stability of Chumera's economy in general. Meanwhile,
Leento left the village and travelled the surrounding plains, seeking an
animal companion. He instead encountered a pack of hungry wolves.
Thinking quickly, Leento caused the tall grass to reach up and bind the
wolves. He then returned to Warrensville, deciding that in the future he
would seek familiars under safer circumstances. The party then rode
off to Roesh in hopes of purchasing Plate Mail armor for Venetto and
Chyekk, exchanging pleasentaries with a small merchant caravan on the way.
(5/6)
Resuming their original plan (from before being beset upon by Mayor
Warren to find the missing children), the part rode out to Malta Forest in
search both for clues about Balin The Brave's party and to discover
what had happened to the Staff of Woodland after the Malta Druid Naron was
slain by trolls. Upon arriving at the wood, the party freed their
horses, knowing that left tied up they would surely be eaten by the local
fauna.
(5/21)
The next day's travel occured rather uneventfully, but that night on
Venetto's watch, a horrible howl was heard. Venetto quickly woke Chyekk
and the two fighters looked around. Using his infravision, Chyekk saw
the heat-shape of a large humanoid crouching at the edge of the
campground, and the fighters quickly woke the remaining party members. The
creature, knowing it was spotted, charged forward on all fours, revealing
itself to be a large and gangly creature with rubbery green skin and
matted hair: a troll, similar in appearence to the one the party
encountered and Venetto defeated with his masterful blow in Cervante's treasure
cave in the swamps south of Betaya. Fortunately, though it was
nightime and they were deep in a forest, the moonlight was strong enough that
the human members of the group were able to see, and the party attacked
the monster. Chyekk's axe put a halt to its charge while Leento
summoned a swarm of biting ants from the forest floor to harass and distract
it. Suddenly, a second troll charged in from the south attacking
Lashtal's flank. Chyekk and Venetto rushed to her aid and a grand battle
ensued. The party found that while their last encounter with a troll had
been a bit of a fluke, they certainly were, with some work, capable of
defeating two trolls. Using lore Chyekk learned in Rockholme, after
defeating the trolls the party burned their remains using oil, for it is
known among dwarves that trolls regenerate, and can reform from even a
single piece of flesh if it is not bathed in fire or acid.
With Leento reeling from another headache, the party re-camped and
rested for the night. Before sleeping Lashtal wondered aloud why the first
troll thought that it could hide after letting out such a howl. The
next morning, their third day through the the woods, the troll tracks
they had been following split, with a pair of trolls heading northeast and
the remainder travelling northwest. The party opted to follow the
larger group.
An hour later the forest opened up into a glade. Here Leento felt the
presence of pure earth power. Then a unicorn entered the glade from
far side. It was a majestic animal, powerful and confident, a long white
beard beneath its chin and green trollblood dripping from its 3 foot
long ivory horn. The unicorn approached Leento and tapped its horn on
the druid's staff, then shook its head to the northwest. Having done
this several times, and satisfied that the party understood that they were
meant to go that way to find the Staff of the Woodland, the unicorn
strutted over to Arkospixi and allowed her to scratch and nuzzle his face.
Leaving the glade under the unicorn's watchful gaze, Venetto noted that
there were no recent troll tracks in this direction. The party
travelled for a day and a half in this direction and then found that an area
of the forest had been cleared and a large stone structure had been
built. Chyekk noted that the structure had been built within the past year
by competent but not overly skillful stoneworkers. The party
approached the structure's front door, Arkospixi in the lead ready to check the
door for traps. Before she could begin her inspection, however, the
door opened, revealing a man, obviously a Druid. The man introduced
himself as Yerraterra, and, hearing the party's quest, invited them in.
The party was suprised to learn that Yerraterra had already defeated the
trolls that slew Naron, and had in his possession the Staff.
After healing Lashtal, who was still injured from her attack from the
troll, Yerraterra had the party settle down in the main room of the
structure, which he revealed was a Temple to Gaia, the Earth Mother. The
Druid then left the room to prepare a meal for the group. While he was
away, the party quickly turned to Leento with questions: Have you
heard of this man? Do Druids normally dwell within stone structures? Are
Yerraterra's slightly unnerving characteristics a giveaway that
something is wrong, or just normal traits for a hermit? Leento was unsure,
and as the party decided on their next course of action, a bear wandered
into the room from the door Yerraterra had left open. The bear sat
down, appearing friendly. Not sure if the bear was a spy, Yerraterra in
disguise, or an innocent friend of the druid, the party set about to
distract it while Raistlin summoned upon the power of Tyr to gain the
ability to detect evil. Soon Yerraterra returned with a meal of raw fruit
and nuts. While the party ate, he explained his story:
Yerraterra had been wandering the land since his forest had been
destroyed when he felt Naron's distress signal. He arrived at Malta too
late, but he was able to defeat the tribe of trolls that slew him (to the
northwest of the Temple) and recover the Staff. He since has taken up
residence in the structure he found here unoccupied and full of rubble,
and converted the building to a Temple of Gaia. It is abnormal for
druids to reside within a stone structure as they prefer to live under the
open sky, but this forest is unusually dangerous with many tribes of
trolls and other creatures (possibly even a green dragon), so he chose to
reside in the structure's relative safety while he set about restoring
the balance to the Wood. He had sent his apprentice to notify the
Druidic Council that he had regained the Staff, but probably too late for
Leento to have received notice to abandon his quest. He encountered a
group of elves sent from Nara Forest by the elven Queen Morwyn, who had
also felt Naron's signal of distress, but he assured the elves that
everything was now under control and they left.
After eating, Yerraterra excused himself, saying he needed to get to
work. The bear remained in the Temple. Keeping the bear distracted, the
party investigated the temple, but, aside from a wooden structure that
was apparently amatureishly added on to the back of the temple, they
found nothing odd. The wooden structure was apparently where Yerraterra
slept, prepared his food, and stored his supplies in large wooden
barrels. Leento then sat with the bear, speaking to it, asking questions.
He learned that the bear's name was Bearito, but didn't get any useful
information about the elder Druid.
The party was invited to spend the night, and was even welcome to use
the Temple as a base of operations while they were involved in their
search for the remains of Balin's Quest (unfortunately, Yerraterra knew
nothing of Balin The Brave or Flint Fireforge). The party accepted
staying the night, at least, and were shown to a room. Once alone, the
party began to talk, discussing who something was not quite right about
Yerraterra's story. Chyekk was confident that the Temple was relatively
new, though Yerraterra claimed he found it abandoned and full of old
rubble and rotted furniture. Additionally Leento felt there was something
odd about his master Hengus not being aware of Yerraterra's arrival and
also that a druid would choose to live within a stone structure.
Indeed the whole party found something about Yerraterra a little odd.
However, all of these vague doubts weren't concrete enough to merit any sort
of action. The best piece of evidence was the rubble Yerraterra
claimed to clean out, and the party agreed to check the site he dumped it the
next morning.
Before heading out the next morning, Yerraterra fed the party with more
fruit and nuts, and they engaged in further discussion. The elder
Druid said that he had met the unicorn while gathering breakfast and said
that the unicorn was glad that the party had arrived safetly at the
Temple. He said that the unicorn sent them to Yerraterra because it was
worried for their safety in the dangerous woods. At one point during the
conversation Yerraterra suddenly became rather accusatory, suggesting
that Leento was here specifically because the Druidic Council had sent
him. He soon calmed down and then excused himself as it was time for
his work to begin.
The party headed off to the area Yerraterra said he dumped the rubble
from the structure, and they found the pile exactly where he said it
would be. Most of the rubble had been burned, as Yerraterra said it would
be, but some remained. Chyekk inspected it and declared that it was
definitely construction material, not rotted furniture. The rubble may
have fooled the rest of the party if Chyekk hadn't been there, but the
dwarf was sure. However, the party still was not sure what this meant.
Perhaps Yerraterra was also confused upon seeing the rubble and simply
thought it was rotted furniture (though the wood was definitely not
rotten).
Seeing a bluejay nearby, Leento called it to him and they began to
speak. The bird was very respectful of Yerraterra, as, it seemed, were
most animals of the forest. However, after thoroughly interrogating the
bird, the bluejay indicated that Yerraterra had been working with the
trolls, and indeed had overseen the trolls when they built this structure
not more than a year ago. The bluejay did not seem to think there was
anything wrong with this, and also said that the trolls had not been
around recently.
The party, now knowing that Yerraterra was in league with the trolls,
decided to return to the unicorn glade and pick up the trail of the
trolls, intending to investigate their lair. Upon re-entering the glade,
Leento immediately noticed that the presence of Earth Power he had felt
before was gone. The unicorn was nowhere to be seen. The party
suspected that he was killed by Yerraterra.
Turning northwest, the Venetto quickly picked up the troll's trail and
the party began following the tracks. After a few hours of travel, the
party again found themselves under attack by trolls. This time there
were three, and the party sadly discovered that the marching formation
that was so effective for them in dungeons, with the strong members in
the front and rear and the physically weaker members in the middle was
useless in an open area where there were no corridor walls to protect
their flanks. Leento was attacked immediately, overwhelmed by a troll
and unable to to cast any spells. The other members attempted to help
him but were unable to rescue Leento in time, and he was slain. The
remaining party members rallied and attacked the remaining trolls, with
Chyekk swinging his axe in a fury. After a brutal battle, the party
defeated their attackers and burned their bodies.
Greatly demoralized, the party returned to Yerraterra's temple,
carrying Leento's corpse. They place the corpse in front of the Temple's
altar and entered their room to recovery from their injuries, and to
grieve. Late that night Yerraterra banged on their door, furious. "What did
you DO?", he cried. Accusing the party of incompetence, of
maliciousness, and of paranoia, the Druid ranted madly, fretting that the Druidic
Council would now come to investigate, which would ruin all his plans.
Chyekk shouted back, demanding to know what plans he spoke of.
Yerraterra then attempted to compose himself and told the group that he had
overextended his hospitality and that the group should leave in the
morning. Chyekk objected, repeating his questions and advancing on the
Druid, but then backed down when the Druid raised his hands as if to cast a
spell. Yerraterra stormed off, and the party returned to their room.
The next morning the group left, having decided to leave the woods and
head for Warrensville, the nearest decent sized village that could
potentially have a non-Tyr temple. (Since they were still in debt to Tyr,
they could not return to a Tyr temple and ask for another resurrection.
Indeed, having less than 3,000 gold to their name, they doubted they
could afford a resurrection anywhere.) Yerraterra was nowhere to be
seen.
The party quickly travelled throught Malta Woods, and reached the edge
of the wood on the fifth day of travel. As they were leaving, Venetto
felt sure that the party was being watched, but the party pressed on,
not wishing to be distracted.
(5/31)
(6/4)
Three weeks later Leento was revived with very little fanfare. In
contrast to the elaborate ceremony performed when Raistlin was revived, the
priest of Trinot simply waved his hand over the corpse and mumbled a
few words in an archaic language, then smiled and retreated to the far
side of the Temple as the party rushed to greet their friend returned
from the mostly dead. Leento, his health permanently rattled by his
encounter with death, required a few days rest in Warrensville, and then
requested that he be taken to see his master in Hetasi.
The party's travel through Chumera to Hestasi was uneventful, as they
were travelling through the area closest to Roesh where Lord Phantar's
Knights are most effective. They arrived in Hetasi (7/9) and Chyekk took a
still shaky Leento to Hetasi Wood to meet Hengus while Lashtal went to
her parents house and the rest of the party went to the tavern.
Hengus had some information on Yerraterra: He was truly a Druid and had
indeed been at Leento's initiation ceremony. He was a the Druid of
Unirel Wood until the day that the devil Hutijin arrived on the Prime
Material Plane in the body of a giant mutated pumpkin. Hutijin's arrival
destroyed Unirel Wood, converting it to the wasteland that it is today.
Yerraterra saving what little of the local animal and plantlife he
could, he fled the forest and went in hiding for the thirty years that the
Great Pumpkin ruled the land, until its eventual defeat at the hands of
Lord Phantar's band. Yerraterra then returned to The Waste and
desperately attempted to restore his forest, to little avail. Hengus
speculated that the process of seeing a devil enter the world, the loss of his
forest, and the failed attempt at restoring it had driven the Druid a
little over the edge, and surmised that it was for this reason that the
Druidic Council dictated that Yerraterra should walk the land be a
wandering druid, responding to needs as they arose. Therefore it was
perfectly natural that Yerraterra would answer Naron's distress call.
However, Hengus still had not heard word from the Council that Yerraterra
was in the forest with the Staff, so it seemed unlikely that Yerraterra
had indeed sent an apprentice to inform them. When told that Yerraterra
was in league with trolls, Hengus became even more concerned and
released Leento from his obligation to regain the Staff, saying that he would
notify the Druidic Council of these events.
Meanwhile, at Lashtal's father's request, Lashtal's mother attempted to
be more accepting about her daughter's decision to travel the world in
such dangerous times, and even invited her "friends" in for dinner.
The party then gathered and decided that they had best take care of the
goblin menace, both because it seemed to be a serious problem for the
local villages and because, after the ease they defeated the goblin
raiding party they encountered upon leaving Malta Wood, they felt it would
a morale-boosting mission after their withdrawal from their previous
quest.
Again travelling through Roesh's immediate sphere of influence, they
encountered no signs of trouble until they passed the town of
Warrensville (8/3), when Venetto spoted goblin tracks. The party followed the tracks to
a small grove, and, upon entering, found a group of goblin who were
easily dispatched. Venetto traced the goblin's tracks back to a large
forest to the east of Malta Wood.
(8/7)
Advancing towards the entrance, Chyekk called a halt as his dwarvern
eyes had spotted a concealed pit trap in front of the cave. Walking
around it, the party entered the hill, and found themselves under fire from
goblin arrows. Instead of charging the goblin archers, Venetto and
Chyekk put up their shields and, shoulder to shoulder, slowly advanced,
protecting the rest of the group. Their slow advance was fortunate for
they found two goblins laying in ambush in an alcove. Quickly
dispatching the two assassins, the party continued its march, and the archers
turned and ran down a tunnel where the corridor split into three. The
party pursued, ignoring the other two tunnels for now, and then saw the
archers retreat through a door. The party found the door locked.
Arkospixi squeezed past her companions to attempt to pick the lock, but was
unable to. A swift kick from Chyekk also failed to bring the door
down. Suddenly the party found themselves in an effectively dead-end
corridor with a large force of goblins charging towards them. Goblin
archers rained arrows into the party while the front line advanced.
Undaunted, the party charged forward with Chyekk and Lashtal sweeping through
their ranks and Venetto inflicting massive amounts of damage while
Arkospixi and Leento fired into their ranks. Raistlin's flail took down
the few that survived the party's initial onslaught.
Having annihilated their attackers, the group returned their attention
to the door. Arkospixi began inspecting the knob for traps, but
instead of finding a trap, she accidentally triggered one, and poison gas
filled the corridor. Arkospixi choked, swallowing some gas and getting
badly damaged. The rest of the party managed to hold their breath and
avoid the gas as it dissipated. Then Chyekk gave the door another kick,
this time knocking it off its hinges. The open door revealed a room
with several wooden boxes and a corridor to the north. There was no sign
of the goblins that had retreated through here. Stopping briefly to
investigate the boxes (finding large reams of good quality cloth in one)
the party went off to the north as the corridor opened up into a room
with a pit containing bones. The party continued north and found
themselves face to face with a giant snake. Behind the snake, the corridor
had been collapsed by the fleeing goblins. Leento attempted to halt the
snakes attack with his earthpower, but the snake's will was too strong
and the snake lunged forward and bit Chyekk. Fortunately, his dwarvern
sturdiness protected him from the poison, and the group attacked and
defeated the huge reptile. The party then turned south and returned to
the other tunnels they had previously ignored. The eastern tunnel
contained the empty barracks of the goblin army, but the northen tunnel,
which was so narrow the party was forced to enter single-file, contained a
huge, deformed looking man holding a giant club: an ogre. Along with
him were his two lieutentents: larger, hairy versions of goblins called
bugbears, and five strong looking goblins, probably the platoon
leaders.
"So," bellowed the ogre in a halting common. "These are the fools that
chase away my army..." At the ogre's signal, the goblins fired their
bows at the party, but the narrow tunnel and Chyekk's shield made sure
that none hit their mark. Then the party advanced towards the waiting
ogre and bugbears, and battle ensued. Raistlin beseached Tyr to hold
three of the goblin archers in their tracks, preventing them from moving
or firing their arrows, and Leento summoned a swarm of beetles to
slowly devour the ogre. Venetto and Chyekk and Lashtal dealt dealy blows to
the bugbears as Arkospixi wounded the remaining goblins. Soon the ogre
and his lieutenants were defeated and the remaining goblins
surrendered. Chyekk approached them and began knocking them out with the
broadside of his axe, containing his racial hatred of goblins. One of the
goblins panicked and ran, but Chyekk quickly lunged after him and knocked
him out as well.
Having cleared the goblin hideout of all monsters on the south side of
the cave-in, the party returned to the room with the boxes and found
that they contained the loot the goblins had gathered from their raids on
merchant caravans. Most of the items were too bulky or not valuable
enough to be of interest to the group, but Lashtal identified some decent
quality jewelry and dishware.
While the other party members were sifting throught the goblin's booty,
Leento was forced to sit down as he was being beseiged by another
bought of naseua and headache. Meditating, Leento discovered that he had
been summoning insects in battle without enough preparation, and if he
continuted to cast the spell at that rate it would causd him permanent
brain damage.
{Of course, all of Leento's headaches are a retcon, but the reason
behind them is, in noting that the Summon Insects spell is vastly
overpowering for a 3rd level druid spell, I looked it up in the player's
handbook and discovered that Adam had been holding out on me: the spell
actually required a round of casting time before it can be employed. I'm
also trying to work out limitations to the spell, as I highly doubt that
the spell was intended to be used against high level monsters such as
dragons or dinosaurs. Honestly, I doubt it would be all that effective
on a rhino, or even a man in full plate mail, so I'm discussing it with
Josh and Adam, and also my friend Ted who also plays D&D. I may also
post a question on the D&D newsgroup, and try to find out if the spell
was modified in 2nd edition (1st edition rules are often vague (in fact
the DM guide is essentially Gary Gygax's notes in book form, and 2nd
edition often expands on or clarifies things). So we'll see. The extra
round of casting time is an actual rule from the book, though, and that
rule will take effect immediately.}
I also regret to inform you all that this past session was our last
session with Bobby. Bobby's schedule at UPS makes staying up late with us
on Saturday (even as late as he had been) almost impossible, and he
hasn't been thrilled with having to be NPCd for the majority of each
session. So his character will be leaving the party at the first logical
opportunity (probably the next time you all arrive in a decent sized
town). His character will still be around and will be available if Bobby
decides to guest-play with us on occassion. Rachel will continue to
play with us.
This means that the party will be down a character, and Raistlin was
shaping up to be a fairly powerful character at that. With a low AC and
high hitpoints, many extra cleric casting abilities due to a high
wisdom, plus the ability to cast low level magic-user spells and use
mage-only items, Raistlin will be sorely missed by the party (dispite his
abrasive attitude). Farewell, Raistlin!
If anyone knows anyone that would like to play, we now have an opening,
so let me know...
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