A Growing Business

Bailey looks across at his ‘Mushroom’ farm.
He was never a fool and realised the prospect for profit straight away.
With the surprising help of Grimes the Hill giant and his loan of a dozen Orc foot soldiers, the remaining Goblins were soon broken and enslaved.
In the last few months he’d been able to cordon off and reorganise the crude farming methods. He’d even been able to recover and raise his ‘trusted’ associate Chaplin to help oversee the operation.
The other members of his party, he left to rot. They were worthless to him in the end. He’d learnt his lesson; never trust Magicians, Thieves or the Non-Human races.
He had however, recruited two Human Fighters to help control the Goblin slaves and to oversee the Orcs. Barker; a huge if somewhat flabby man and his partner, the diminutive but quick witted Corbett.
He also hired a Human agricultural expert called Thrower to maximise the farms capacity.
Selling the product turned out to be child’s play. He was already getting a steady and increasing order from his contact Skinner the casino owner in Seawell. Grimes the Hill giant was also paying for the drug, although at a cheaper rate due to the supplying the guards.
Even at a selling price of ten gold pieces a dose, Bailey will be able to retire within a couple of years.

Everyone's Experience

Mendez: 25219 xp (7th Level: Ranger:3/Barbarian:2/Fighter:2)
Thesis: 24,556 xp (7th Level: Fighter:6/Cleric:1)
Eolar: 22,915 xp (7th Level: Ranger:2/Cleric:5)
Bodush: 22,441 xp (7th Level: Sorcerer:7)
Telfis: 22,225 xp (7th Level Rogue:5/Bard:2)
Wer: 21,470 xp (7th Level: Druid:7)
Durin: 17,768 xp (6th Level: Barbarian:6)
Kruddo: 11,973 xp (5th Level: Fighter:5)

(I was mostly right.)

A Cohort for Eolar

Eolar goes to the temple in the Elven outpost and prays.
It’s not a church of St Cuthbert, but it will do.
Afterwards he approaches some of the more important Elves and makes some enquiries about hiring some adventurers.
After a few days, Eolar starts to feel downhearted. No-one has come forward.
He thinks bitterly to himself that it’s due to his mixed heritage. The Elves have always looked down on him with a mixture of distaste and pity.
He’s about to give up when a pale Elven women approaches him cautiously.
Eolar himself feels more than a little nervous when he spies the large grey wolf hugging close to her side.
“My name is Shen-shen. If you’re looking for a guide and someone to fight by your side; I’m your Elf.”
She’s wearing leather armour and has two short swords strapped over her slender shoulders.

(5th Level Elven Ranger)

Before Durin and After

Mendez wanders through the surprisingly intact Elven outpost.
The Goblins have fled and the Elves have made the party more than welcome. Mendez feels a warm affinity to these brave woodland souls.
It’s Durin though that keeps returning to his thoughts.
The battle scarred, Dwarven Barbarian had faced that Dragon with only Wer’s dog for support.
All Mendez was able to do was cower in the background and fire a few arrows.
It takes only a few moments for Mendez to make up his mind. He will train more in the ways of the Barbarian. He will try to be just like the mighty Durin.

… Only taller and with less scarring!

Experience & Treasure

Experience is as follows:

Mendez 25219 7^th Level
Thesis 24,556 7^th Level
Eolar 22,915 7^th Level
Durin 17,768 6^th Level
Wer 21,470 7^th Level
Telfis 22,225 7^th Level

Magical Items:

You found:

A Crossbow+2 of Frost(Telfis has it)
A Longsword of +2 - Undead Bane
A Mace of Disruption +3

Also:
Horakus was carrying:
a scroll of magic missile
a potion of Blur
a potion of enlarge person
a potion of protection from good
a jewel encrusted dagger +1

Also, Horakush(being a tad dragonish) did have various gems and jewels on his body to the value of 2000 gp.

The Ironbreaker chieftain that Wer killed was carrying a pale blue, rhomboid Ioun Stone.

Night at the Library

Settling down to rest, to regain some strength before the rest of the challenges that Mount Snaefang might offer, the party makes themselves comfortable in the library. A cursory examination of the library seem to indicate that almost half the tomes in the cavernous hall have been removed at some stage. Still, the insatiable curiousity of the party leads them to investigate some of the remaining books. The majority of the books are written, surprisingly enough, in an archaic form of common, which is made even less comprehensible by the rather complex choice of words and sentence structures that you find. It seems most of the books are on various engineering, natural sciences and magic, describing a variety of odd devices(complete with detailed charts and figures) and scientific principles.

Your guide through this strange storehouse of information, Skichit the Hamster tries to be as forthcoming as he(?) possibly can, but it is obvious that the rodent cannot read common. He does, however seem to have some comprehension of the glyphs that seem to have been the gnomes' own language. Most of the remaining books in this language seem to have been aimed at a younger audience, with colourful and cute characters explaining what seems to be various applications of alchemy, mechanics and steam power. One particularly cute book, seem to be about a group of happy hamsters, smiling as they run on giant wheels that power some contraption whose nature you do not understand. Through a lengthy process of trying to communicate rather abstract concepts with a spoken vocabulary of some 300 words, he explains that most of the books written in Gnomish, have been taken somewhere else by his people. When asked where, he points to the "Spare Parts" section of your map. He also says something about a 'Captain' who will be happy to answer some questions.

In the section of the library that holds the empty dais where the Gondian Primer was meant to be, you find what seem to be work desks. Most of these particular books are on the topic of astronomy. After a lengthy examination, requiring pooling of knowledge from the party , it seems that most of the books are about solar eclipses. Looking at the Starcharts, Telfis seems to recall that this particular configuration of stars played an important role in the "Eclipse of Doom", an omen of destruction in the epic poem of King Riel, and the fall of his house. This particular story took place over 2000 years ago, though....


You rest in the chamber, until suddenly, the sounds of rodents screeching reach you from the top of the chamber. Making their way down the spiralling metal staircase, they seem to speak frantically to your guide, using a combination of screeching as well as their sound-slates. The words you can hear are "Danger", "Death" , "Kobolds" , "Captain" and "Fire".

The hamsters turn to you, begging you with their big innocent eyes, "Help us!, the kobolds are attacking us!"

Character Descriptions

I pretty much guessed what everyone looked like initially.
I imagined Bodush bearded and much older than the 'reality' etc.
Now with class changes and game experience, I'm sure everyone has a better idea than me what their character looks like.
If anyone wants to give me a new description or alteration requests, I'm happy to oblige.
Will Telfis play his fife? Will Thesis look scarier with a sword that's bigger than he is?
Let me know and I'll 'try' to get them on future banners.

A moment of silence

Bodush peered over the battlements at the goblin army, hefting his crossbow, taking steady aim at one of the larger Bloodmoons. His finger slowly squeezed the trigger, but suddenly felt unable to move. The opposing armies fell silent, the engines of war ceased their pounding. Out of the morning sun, the black shape of a dragon came gliding on the wind. The din of battle had stopped, the combatants stared up at the cold sky, shuddering. It was almost as if the world had grown immaterial, as if they all were ghosts, haunting a world no more real than dreams. The dragon opened its mouth and howled, its voice laden with the grief and horror they all felt in their very bones.

Then the moment passed, and the battle raged on. The dragon dove down, acid spewing from its mouth. As if in storm lurked calm and peace, the warriors fought on...

Old Banners!

Assif's created a link to all the old banners with witty comments.
I was obviously too lazy to do one for our first adventure.
I might do it retrospectively.

Touché Away!

Mendez looks down at his sword. It’s funny but after all that practice in the Barbarian camp, he hasn’t drawn it once in combat.
Mendez smiles. Once he’d asked Telfis why he never got into the thick of battle. The canny rogue simply replied; ‘I don’t do damage.’
Maybe that is the best way forward?

In which Bodush experiences an odd sense of Deja vu...

It didn't feel right. After all, had not the latest bardic epic referred to him as 'death incarnate'? Bodush allowed himself a moment of smugness before returning to his gloomy mood. If so, what in the gloomy fog of Dis was he doing standing on behind the pallisades of a godforsaken elven outpost, with only a crossbow, a rather limited repertoire of magics and decent interpersonal skills to protect him from a raging horde of goblins that seemed very intent on getting into the outpost in order to perform some pillaging and massmurder before breakfast?

Being recruited was bad enough, some snooty elven ranger type had burst into the inn while Bodush was happily cheating at cards, demanding 'that all able-bodied elves and members of 'lesser races' were to report to the walls for military duty'. The fact that the elf looked rather agitated and already had his longsword out, prevented Bodush from making the usual sarcastic comments on elven carpentry, the appopriate semantics regarding wooden fortifications and his feelings on conscription in general.

However, all things considered, an elven prison might have been preferable to being skewered on a goblin spear. There seemed to be an awful lot of goblins approaching, in fact, Bodush could not recall ever having seen that many at once. Whoever their leader was, must have been quite the warlord, managing to subjugate so many clans. Bodush could pick out the banners of at least 5 clans from where he was standing. The bloodmoon clan were driving their worgs towards the gate, likely getting ready for the push into the town when their cousins in the Ironbreaker clan had finished getting their battering rams into place. The shock troops of the Mad Eye clan were already hoisting ladders, their thick metal armor glinting in the morning sun, while from behind the Witchdoctors of the Demoneater clan were sacrificing their thralls to Maglubiyet, chanting and shrieking, pleading for the favour of their god, blood glistening on their blackened axes.

This was not good, in fact this was almost certain to end very badly. If those goblins managed to get through the rather flimsy elven workmanship, Bodush did not consider his change of survival to be much higher than the attention span of a certain human fighter.

Ah yes, his 'friends', why did they have to go off looking for some Gnomish book of night-time stories? At least if they had been here, he might have had a chance. At least he could die fighting alongside someone who did not just stare at him blankly whenever he made a snide comment regarding the strategic abilities of the elven commander, like 'Cletus, the slackjawed elven ranger' insisted on doing whenever Bodush opened his mouth. Could elves actually be inbred? Obviously, Eolar's father had the right idea.

Silence was descending over the horde. Then the clanleaders lifted their weapons and started chanting, 'Horakus! Horakus! Horakus!'. The sea of goblins parted, and Bodush could see a large cloaked mishapen creature, mounted on a huge worg, ride down the ranks towards the outpost.
It howled, letting its hood fall back, and lifted a huge mace up against the sky. It was as if time stood still for a moment. Then, a burst of fire erupted from the tip of the goblin's mace and hurled forward, bursting against the gate with a mighty explosion. The horde roared in response and charged towards the outpost.

Somewhere, somebody yelled an order in elvish, Bodush responded mechanically, letting a bolt fly from his crossbow before he knelt down to reload. Firing again, he took a moment to look at the gate. It was still holding, obviously the elves had more than just wood to protect themselves. He hoped it was enough. He reloaded, aimed towards the goblin leader, and fired again. His elation was short-lived, as the goblin tore the bolt from his chest and roared, flames rising along the shaft of his mace. Cowering behind the battlements as the air around him exploded in flames, Bodush cursed every single god whose name he could remember.

He was well and truly doomed. He hoped that at least there would be some sort of final judgement where at least he could tell the idiot gods what he actually thought about them in person...

What Ever Happened to...

After talking with Zibzug; sorcerer of the Kobolds, the group decide to press on towards the mountaintop.
The conditions are harsh and the going slow. Soon the heavily armoured Kruddo starts to lag behind.
“Go on without me.” The Dwarf bravely states. “I’ll catch up to you at the top.”
The others push on until they reach the upper defences.
A battle ensues with half a dozen snowy white Owlbears.
The defences are breached by Telfis’ tenacity, Wer’s opportunism and Mendez’ blind luck.
They explore further down, encountering strange machines and rodent creatures.
As they stop to rest, the seriously wounded Durin wonders aloud, “Where’s Kruddo?”