Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Spread your wings

It was time. The messenger had arrived.
He got up and took a look around. The walls that were his prison for so long! He smiled.
It was the Day of Suffering in Abriymoch. Belial and Fierna would be distracted while the celebrations lasted. But they had to be cautious. A gate too close to the center of Phlegethos would surely be noticed. The archduke could feel gates within his realm. A second gate was a clever idea. Perhaps he had underestimated his new ally.
All the guards on duty were loyal to him. They were waiting. Time to go.

Flying low over the rivers of fire he looked back at the city which was illuminated by the red light of magma. By the 9 levels of Baator, he will be back when he regained his strength.
Flying on, he looked at Thereanthor. His new partner had told him about the problems waiting at their destination. He had to smile again. Soon they would stop to underestimate his powers! As if a few mortals could stop him....

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The Alone Ranger

Standing by himself and trembling slightly in the cold morning air, Mendez examines the Elven arrows. He can’t shake the feeling that he’s been caught up in the middle of something bigger than he is…
Again!
At least with the Elves, Ogres and Orcs he knows what he’s facing.
What exactly is lurking under those black cloaks?
What exactly is hidden behind the shimmering portal?
Why on Fissa is he still helping them?
His friends seem oblivious to the danger all around them.
Would it be wrong to sneak off by himself back down the mountain?

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

New Banner: The shark has no chance!

Our esteemed DM is away but we have a little treat for you.

Eolar catches up with that wiley slippery fellow that used to hang around with our little group of adventurers: Telfis! An where do they find themselves? Swimming with the sharks. Eolar had better pray that Telfis can flank the beast and backstab it before it bites their heads off!

Friday, September 11, 2009

A few XP before the storm

Well, pretty close for some! I can see another levelling wave rolling towards us!

Eolar: Level 15: 117950 xp - Hunting down some guerrillas
Mendez: Level 15:117123 xp - Happy because he found elven arrows
Bodush: Level 14: 91150 xp - LEVEL UP! Sorcerer vs Mage: 1:0
Wer: Level 13: 90473 xp - If only killing a cup of coffee would give 527XP...
Chen: Level 13: 89243 xp - Can't see his own fists anymore while hitting elven faces
Thesis: Level 13(15): 88419 xp - is there, no there, ah, there.
Elogyn: Level 12: 77999 xp - Doesn't consider Eolar's charisma high enough to level herself
Durin: Level 12: 76590 xp - Finally met some giants

(DM background info: Eolar has a leadership score of 18 for both cohort and followers, so Elogyn can't reach level 13 and 40 people decided to join Eolar's monastery)

Mendez Quivers in the Morning Air

Looking down at the empty quiver in his hand, Mendez is pleased that they managed to kill two of the Elves.
Not for the senseless waste of life, but for the acquisition of the Elven quiver and arrows.
Mendez gratefully gathers them all up and puts them safely in his backpack.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

New Banner: Elves and Ogres

All got a little confusing last time out. We appear to be enemies with just about everyone except the Black-Cloaks and have the feeling that we may have got this entirely upside down!

In any case, just as before with the 50 x10th level Orcs, 4 Ogre Barbarians and an invisible Ogre Mage proved to be a small distraction for our awesome party. As were the 4 stealthy, skirmishing, 15th level uber scout elves.

But worryingly there is still the Orc army of 500 supported by druids and ogres and ....... the PRISMATIC WALL !!!!

X for Breakfast

In the brightening morning light, Mendez strolls around the huge bodies of the dead Ogres. They're barely better than Orcs in his opinion and the world of Fissa’s better off without them. Especially their Ogre mage leader.
The two dead Elves bother him though. While it’s true that they attacked first; he can’t really fault them for it. His friends are guarding the Black cloaks who, Mendez feels in his bones to be evil.
The ‘mission’ is pretty much finished, but something’s still nagging at him and he itches to finish what the Elves started.
If only they’d spoken when given the chance.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Pearls amongst Swine

Mendez stays alert while searching for his arrows. He casually searches any Orc he passes for money purses but ignores the surprisingly high quality armour and weapons.
Using a comedy stage whisper, just for effect, Mendez calls to Thesis.
“Find anything useful?”

Well did we Sven?

Monday, September 7, 2009

The Greatest Banner ever Scrolled

I just realised that I have now made fifty banners!
(OK, I’ve lazily lashed up and copy/pasted fifty banners.)
Do we have any clear favourites?
My personal one is: Thesis being chopped in two by the two-headed, three-legged Giant.
(No offence.)

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Law and Order

Eolar looked out of the window of his office. His room was one of two rooms on the 2nd floor and allowed for a great view over the valley. The other room was occupied by Leofwen, the best of his students. She had shown most potential and he had left her in charge while he was away. And she had done a good job indeed!
In the weeks he was gone, she had continued with what he had started. His followers had managed to get the trust of many people on the former white side of the valley. They were providing aid and counseling and together with Wer, who visited often to teach the farmers, the progress towards an ordered society was good. Food was not as plentiful as it couldbe yet, but the valley slowly reached apoint where it could sustain itself. To fill the gaps, Leofwen had sent Olric and Sigbert to arrange for food deliveries from surrounding settlements in return of potions and aid.

The council Eolar had suggested in the beginning, containing members from both sides and both churches met regulary and smaller councils adminstered the law in case of disputes. Most of these councils were lead by Eolar's followers and the influence of the church grew steadily. Ceolwulf was in charge of training for the priests and managed to recruit young people from both sides of the valley, further strengthening the link between church and public. The church of Pelor, although present at the council meetings, kept in the background and focused on charity work. Although they also had many new recruits, Eolar gathered from the reports that the support for St.Cuthbert seems to be stronger due to the more aggressive missionary approach. He was pleased. His followers did well and he already had promoted some of them to reward their work. Cotis was head of the guards and the military training. He seem to take his duty very serious. In the short time he had gathered a well-trained small temple guard who protects the clerics when conducting visits to the towns.

Of course, not everything went as smooth. He went back to the table where the reports on the attacks were lying in a stack. From information Cotis and Leofwen had gathered it looked as if parts of the former black army had formed a guerilla army in the surrounding mountains. Their targets were mostly merchants coming into the valley with supplies or people from the former black part that were working together with Eolar's clerics. As expected the trust from people on the black side was harder to earn, but through regular visits to treat wounds and teach agriculture they had gained the trust from many in the higher ranks. The old general had flewn after the takeover together with his most trusted men and are suspected to lead this guerilla army.

Eolar went downstairs to meet Elogyn who was already waiting together with Cotis and Leofwen. It was time for Eolar to meet the new heads of both sides to discuss the next steps against these rebels. Something had to be done! Despite these problems Eolar smiled. His next report on the progress with this outpost would be a good one!

Friday, September 4, 2009

Shades of Black and Grey

Mendez struggles with his own paranoia. The ‘Black Cloaks’ have done nothing evil or made any insulting remarks throughout the journey, but yet his feelings of unease remain.
Everything he learned about them in Gom Dalat leads to no conclusion aside from that they like their privacy and they won’t tolerate thugs and bullies.
Onol Thul - The Commander of the royal army, thought they were up to no good and probably in cahoots with the Orcs.
This is now, after their recent encounter with the well-organised Orc platoon, patently untrue.
And the ‘Grey Elves’… They seem much more reclusive than any of the Elven races he’s previously encountered.
Perhaps he’s got the whole situation the wrong way around?
Mendez grips the hilt of his scimitar. Why then does he feel he’s walking to his own funeral?

Thursday, September 3, 2009

The Vicious Magic Circle

As a player and a DM I have always advocated restraint when giving out magical items.
My rational was simple: The more you give the characters, the more you have to give to the subsequent monsters and villains to enable them to stand up to the empowered players and therefore the more the characters have to face the next raft of monsters with!
The more magic you give; the more (more powerful) magic you’re forced to give.
That said, we’ve got to high levels now. I think we can relax this ‘rule’ a bit.

(Anyone fancy giving Mendez a Composite Longbow greater than +1?)

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

New Banner: Mass-orc-er!

Thanks to Kirk for the title pun and another of our Bayeux Tapestry style story banners.

This was perhaps our most successful single encounters. With just four adventurers running a protection detail through a mountain wilderness we encountered a massive force of elite orc soldiers. They were a good distance away and we had the advantage of high ground, but the level of the task became clear as soon as we (foolishly it seemed) launched a maximised fireball into their midst.

The fireball dealt 60 HP damage and not a single orc fell. They were also supported by 2 Wer like druidsin eagle form. Undeterred Mendez launched arrows, Bodush both fireballed and Magic-Missiled, Thesis took pot luck at one of the eagles from an unfeasible distance and Chen bided his time till they got a little closer.

Suffice to day the tide soon turned in our favour. Mendez and Bodush counted for over 30 of the orcs before they were even within a few hundred feet of our position, but the most incredible feat was still to come.

From over 500ft away, Thesis launched 3 arrows at one of the eagle-druids. The first had some chance of hitting, sure. But the other 2 would really only hit with a natural 20. Mendez was encouraging him saying "go for it - you never know!". Sure enough the first hit, but blinked into the ethereal plane. Then, Thesis rolled3 natural 20s in a row. Critical, plus another hit
! And the eagle was down!

From then on it was easy. Chen ran towards the orcs, but turned and waited for Thesis to catch. Between them they dealt with the few remaining orcs with Bodush seeing off the last druid and Mendez raining death on them all.

Fun, and 60,000XP :-D

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Arrowthmetic

Mendez’ smile falters as he sees the two arrows embedded in the ground in front of the Black cloaks.
Calling back his teammates Mendez gestures toward the arrows.
“Bodush and Chen, you guard our ‘friends’ while Thesis checks for treasure and I try to find some of my wayward arrows. I figure I shot fifty-three, but at least half of them missed. If I’m lucky I’ll be able to recover a dozen or so undamaged ones.
The Orc armour and equipment, although expensive, is too heavy to carry and I’m afraid if we try to hide it, we’ll get a nasty reception when we attempt to retrieve it later.
Did the Druids have anything of interest?”