Session Twenty-One
Roleplayer of the week:
5th Reaping cont...
6th Reaping
Snf'L is resurrected successfully, and A'Ha follows suit the next morning after Lillethanneles prays again for spells. A'Ha believes now that perhaps the prophesy is true!
Session Twenty-Two
Roleplayer of the week:
9th Reaping
9th Reaping
10th Reaping
11th Reaping
12th Reaping
Session Twenty-Three
Roleplayer of the week:
13th Reaping
Session Twenty-Four
Once again in this game the DM couldn't remember earlier rulings he had made. They are recorded here for the players to use to point out to him what he has decided previously.
Roleplayer of the week:
13th Reaping cont...
14th Reaping
Session Twenty-Five
Roleplayer of the week:
A'Ha - 253 F, 253 T, 253 MU - entered and updated
14th Reaping continued...
15th Reaping
16th Reaping
Another big discussion about what to do. Lillethanneles does not want the artifact anymore now that he has proof (in the Hobgoblin tome) that it is evil. He also appreciates the advice about the black rings. Captain Chinati starts looking for black rings among members of the army.
X'Ylo is distressed that he doesn't seem to have contact with Sehanine anymore. He prays to her, but can't make a connection.
Experience:
The experience for this week's game begins with 370xp for the bandits. The bandits were not defeated, but they were avoided as such. Snf'L's quick thinking saved the party. This experience is divided evenly among characters and classes.
The next encounter was with 5 Worgs, and El'Fross slightly naive but good-intentioned feeding of the "dogs" earns the party 600xp, divided among characters and classes as well. Lest anyone protest that the encounter was too easy for such experience, let me remind the players that but for El'Fross' actions and a poor reaction adjustment roll from the Worgs, this encounter may have ended much differently (q.v. grizzly bear).
Alas, this latter encounter ended with the death of two of our beloved companions, and hence they receive no experience for the encounter (with the grizzly). El'Fross and X'Ylo gain 975xp to divide between themselves. Each of the characters used all of their available classes to some extent, so the xp is evenly divided. If there is any debate about the dead characters gaining xp or not, let's get it into discussion now and not spend the next game bandying it about.
Player's Choice (30xp): One vote for A'Ha. One vote for X'Ylo. Two votes for El'Fross. XP goes to El'Fross!
DM's Choice (15xp): El'Fross, for his shift toward distrust of humans and his lack of humility when trying to negotiate his pals back to life. XP allocated.
A'Ha - 81 F, 81 T, 81 MU - entered and updated
El'Fross - 259 F, 259 T, 259 MU - most entered and updated (extra 10xp per class for Player's Choice Award not entered yet) - 2nd level fighter gained!
Snf'L - 81 F, 81 T, 81 MU - entered and updated - 2nd level fighter gained!
X'Ylo - 247 F, 247 T, 247 MU - entered and updated
Snf'L changes tactics as it becomes clear the bandits mean business and aren't about to leave without doing some damage to X'Ylo or their cash holdings. Snf'L offers that the thieves can take the gold that X'Ylo has if they leave X'Ylo alone and depart from the area. After a pause the offer is accepted and the bandits begin to head out of the milky-white fog and head in different directions. Once Snf'L, El'Fross and A'Ha enter the make-shift tent to see to X'Ylo, they find not only that the bandits took only he gold and left the silver and copper and also the spellbook that X'Ylo was carrying, but that the cleric is now awake and blinking at the 3 elves. He is no worse for wear, but is complaining of a bitter taste in his mouth.
The party begins immediate plans to move the camp, but cannot agree on a course of action. El'Fross and A'Ha are convinced its some devious human trick. They can't decide what kind of trick, but the whole thing just doesn't seem right. In the midst of the arguement a voice comes from one of the trees to tell the elves they are not alone. The elves ask the voice (knowing it to belong to the leader of the bandits) why they cured X'Ylo and are told that not all bandits are evil, some are good. The leader uses some sort of teleport to disappear from the tree he had been in. The party moves camp by walking to the shore of the lake, then moving north in the water along the shore for a mile to hide the trail, then making camp again.
X'Ylo prays for cure spells and cures up the cuts and brusises on the party members. He is now feeling quite well again. They realize that they smell heavily of bacon from the Boar they had killed and cooked, so all but X'Ylo bathe to wash the smell off.
Worgs move in on the party, and El'Fross feeds these large "dogs". After a mere 2 lbs' of beef jerky, the "dogs" are still hungry and are growling and closing in on the party. El'Fross casts a dancing lights on the Worgs, and they flee the scene.
Then comes the sad part of our tale. Something large is crashing through the bush, and our party decides to wait for it o approach them instead of fleeing he heck out of there or even climbing up trees to hide. A huge Grizzly Bear colmes out into the area the party is and stand up on its hind legs and roars. Without waiting to see what it will do, Snf'L lets loose some arrows. The grizzly gets annoyed and tries to kill Snf'L. A'Ha has trouble doing much damage to the massive creature, and it turns on him and uses one claw to pull the elf closer and it then bites the elf, killing him. A few rounds later Snf'L is grabbed with both paws and hugged, rendering him unconscious. X'Ylo and El'Fross try desperately to save their friend by attracting the attentions of the bear away. The bear taikes an extra moment to be sure the breath has been squeezed out of its victim before it turns it attention on the others. Snf'L falls to the ground, dead.
The bear is finally beaten and the comrades now face the sad last rites for their dear friends. But the two young elves will not give up so easily. They pack up their dead pals and haul them toward the human village. Originally they would have been there by nightfall, but now their heavy burden makes for slow travel.
Near evening they are told to halt by guards. It seems they have come upon a hidden camp. But it turns out to be large group of elves heading toward the Land of Iuz to do battle there. They are taken to see the head priest because X'Ylo is a cleric of the same faith. Much sympathy is shown to the elves when they tell their story of genocide and the loss of their comrades. "We'd do anything," says El'Fross. "Well, besides screw stuff, I mean."
The still-living K'Needian elves plead with the high priest of Sehanine (one Lillethanneles) to resurrect the dead elves. Because he is not as wise as many others of his rank, he is susceptible to his spells failing about a third of the time. He warns the elves of this. He will cast just one spell on each of the dead elves and if the spell takes, then so be it. If the spell fails, it is Sehanine's will and he will not try again. In payment he accepts the crown taken from the ancient castle of Pall and Mykell.
The party discovers that the Elves are headed to the lands of Iuz to fight the growing evil there. The party begins discussion about whether they should stick with the entourage (it cannot even be properly called an army) or continue on to the village. They acquire holy water from the elves, so they have one less reason to go into the village.
Experience:
Not much experience this week. If there was experience for the silliest way to die or experience for being dead, or experience for every failed Resurrection spell cast on a character, or for the worst possible die rolls in a given night or even experience for killing oneself, X'Ylo woulda cleaned up! I am giving a special experience point bonus for the all-around good role-playing I have seen this week and the weeks past. Each character gets 30xp (not a lot, but you didn't fight anything either - well, except for X'Ylo...)
Player's Choice (30xp): One vote for El'Fross for his wonderful "So what sex is Xy'lo now" remarks. One vote for Snf'L for his impassioned "Don't give him a javelin," plea. This means a tie, as both players voted. Each PC will get 15xp.
DM's Choice (15xp): My DM choice for role-player of the week goes to Snf'L for his new "I did not tell the exact truth and then I got dead - I won't lie anymore" routine.
A'Ha - 10 F, 10 T, 10 MU - entered and updated!
El'Fross - 15 F, 15 T, 15 MU - entered and updated!
Snf'L - 20 F, 20 T, 20 MU - entered and updated!
X'Ylo - 30 CL - entered and updated!
A'Ha is resurrected. The "Chosen Ones" are back. Snf'L is concerned now about how obvious the K'Needian elf skin is compared with the darker-skinned high elves they are now staying with. He mentions that he has heard of a type of cantrip that they could perhaps acquire which would allow them to disguise their skin. Snf'L thinks that perhaps one of the mages in this encampment would be willing to allow him to copy such a spell. Then again, maybe not. Strangers seem remarkably hesitant to share spellbooks. The party decides to try and see one of the mages to request that perhaps such a spell could simply be cast upon them. They are urned away at the tents of the mages, as they are quite busy with something.
They spend the day checking out the camp and visiting with the closest kin they have seen for some time (S'Rang not included). They are summoned later in the day by Lillethanneles and the other high-ups in the camp. These worthies ask the K'Needian elves if they have seen an area south of the lake which has rolling hills and shallow valleys. An item they are searching for is located in such an area. Snf'L replies that they went through an area like this when they were tracking the elves that had dragged off the major portion of an orc body, but lost the tracks in a rocky area. At the mention of this, the high-ups become very interested indeed. They ask if the party can lead them back to the rocky area. The high-ups are quite pleased and confide in the party that the item acquisition is the first thing on their list, and then they must make a side trip to kill an evil dragon that has destryoed a human village. The K'Needian elves look at each other. Could they mean Pall? Snf'L turns back to Lillethanneles and asks if the dragon they refer to is a white one. The cleric is surprised that the party knows of the dragon. There ensues a discussion of whether this dragon should be allowed to live or not, as it is evil and has killed an entire human village. The discussion progresses and the high cleric is forced to admit that they did not actually "see" the dragon destroy a village and really don't even know where such a village would be. They only have the word of some humans hat it happened. The "cousin" elves insist that the dragon is not evil nor is it hurting anything (besides orcs) and they implore the cleric to leave it alive. The cleric is sympathetic, and asks for a deal. If the PCs lead them to the crypt they seek in the rocky valley area and then go in and retrieve the item, which they are now referring to as a religious artifact, they will reconsider the dragon hunt. The party agrees.
The announcement is made to the camp - hey will move out the following day.
Within 2 minutes, X'Ylo is dead, his own javelin stuffed up into his nose by a path that includes his neck and chin. A very bad move on X'Ylo's part while trying to use the flat of the blade of a piercing weapon - not pretty.
The other K'Needian Elves take X'Ylo to the high priest of Sehanine. Because X'Ylo is one of their own, he agrees to resurrect X'Ylo for a minor fee (they must be the ones to scout out the crypt where the religious artifact lies).
Unfortunately, the spell fils not once but twice on this day. Snf'L attempts to get bless spells cast upon his fine lizard leather. The priest of Sehanine casts one bless on 10 seperate pieces of leather, but this does not work. The cleric feels a bit guilty about taking money from these poor outbacks elves, and casts some more bless spells so the party will have some blessed leather.
El'Fross casts an armor spell on himself.
The caravan begins its trek south.
Another resurrect spell is cast upon X'Ylo. This one is successful, but X'Ylo's poor body can no longer house the spirit he was. Lillethanneles has no choice but to declare X'Ylo dead. The party is grief-stricken and implore the good cleric to try something else. Lillethanneles agrees to try and communicate with the dead X'Ylo the following day and see if the X'Ylo would be willing to come back in another form using a reincarnation spell.
The caravan keeps travelling on.
X'Ylo's spirit agrees to come back as another form. He is reincarnated as a Buckawn, which is a sort of Brownie. When coming to, he sees the body of a high elf cleric of Sehanine near him. He approaches the body and finds that the elf is still alive (barely). A couple of cure light wounds spells and the elven cleric comes to, introduces himself as Rhianine, and begins to tell a strange story. It seems he had discovered a book about the crypt of Berole (the very crypt the caravan is headed to) in a human village, and in the book found out that the artifact the elves were now searching for is a vile and evil artifact of Iuz. He had planned to take his information to Lillethanneles when several other high elves convinced him that he should go with them out into the woods to discuss his findings. He went along with them and while he was talking about the artifact, he was suddenly hit in the head from behind. His last conscious image was elven feet standing near his head. Now he has a dilemma. How can he go back into camp and find out who was behind the ambush and what their plans might be? X'Ylo is happy to help. He turns himself invisible and gets on Rhianine's shoulders. He rides back to camp where Rhianine pretends that he is the reincarnated X'Ylo, so that everyone will think that Rhianine is dead, since everyone knows reincarnations occur by the spirit finding a recently dead creature and pushing itself into the formerly dead body and reanimating it. Rhianine convinces the party that he is X'Ylo by repeating answers to their questions that are being whispered into his ear by X'Ylo.
The caravan is still traveling. The K'Needian elves find it maddeningly slow. Rhianine (still pretending to be X'Ylo) beats A'Ha in an arm wrestle. Snf'L then beats X'Ylo while El'Fross beats A'Ha. A'Ha is feeling less sure of himself.
Experience:
This game had the massive skeleton battle. The experience for these critters was 2,145xp in total. This gives 238xp to Rhianine, and 477xp to the other party members. All characters used all their talents to at least a degree, so I'm going for an even divide among classes.
Player's Choice (30xp): One vote for X'Ylo. One vote for Rhianine - we aren't sure why. One vote is for El'Fross for his "Protect the Clerics" and going for the most kills even while taking two naps. That would be a tie between X'Ylo and El'Fross.
DM's Choice (15xp): My DM choice for role-player of the week goes to X'Ylo, for at least giving it a good ol' try to convey the confusion of waking up in someone else's body - and not being able to simply pull out. :)
A'Ha - 159 F, 159 T, 159 MU - entered and updated - 2nd level fighter reached! Hit points not yet rolled!
El'Fross - 164 F, 164 T, 164 MU - entered and updated
Snf'L - 159 F, 159 T, 159 MU - entered and updated
X'Ylo - 507 CL (but is only getting 70% of this, don't forget)- entered and updated
Rhianine - 238 CL - given out
The caravan arrives at the rocky place. After some searching, led by Snf'L, a monolith is found. It has three symbols on it going downward and behind it is a small hill with a boulder imbedded in its side. The elves move it, and it rolls safely away from the opening to the crypt. The party of K'Needian Elves enter, determined to find the religious artifact for the high priest of Sehanine.
The stairs heading down into darkness are covered with verdegris. The walls of the 5' wide corridor smell of age, decay and moisture. The walls are seemingly carved out of solid stone, but show few marks of tunneling instruments. The only tool marks visible are those of whatever chiselled out the carvings on both corridor walls. These carvings are colored vividly in blacks, whites, blues and reds. No yellow or green can be seen in them. The murals on the left side depict scenes of battle, with an impressive figure featured in black plate mail and carrying a red shield. The shield has a design which seems to be a white circle enclosed by a
red triangle then by a white circle again which is outlined in black. On the right side are shown hideous scenes of human sacrifice, the same figure in black plate mail prominent,
but with robes over the armor and his head visble. His eyes gleam a dull red.
The corridor branches at the end, with new corridors leading North and South-west.
Snf'L suggests that the party turn left, since battle would be preferable to human sacrifice. A'Ha and El'Fross disagree (since the sacrifices depicted are human and not K'Needian elf) but they take the left fork. The party does not notice that there are more ceiling supports here than would be found elsewhere in underground settings, but this may be because of their lack of dungeon adventuring (or a forgetful DM).
The party hears a "clunk" just as they are about to exit the corridor and enter the room that the corridor terminates in. The click does not surprise them, as they are all very alert. Suddenly, starting at the far end, the ceiling of the corridor they just finished traversing begins to collapse. They have mere seconds to decide waht to do. The rubble is smashing down into the corridor, getting closer and closer. The party leaps or scrambles out of the way and finds themselves trapped in a room with an eerie sight. In front of them, filling the 30 foot by 40 foot room are what were likely the faithful servants of whomever is buried here in life. Three horses and a score or more humans stand about in various poses but with flesh and equipment completely rotted away. Their empty eye sockets seem to regard the party with a malicious envy of the life inside them. The party is wary and does not move, watching the skeletons closely for a moment, but they do nothing. They can see a door on the other side of the room, but it is large and made of very stout wood. The party discusses their predicament. They are stuck in the room, since the corridor is completely filled with rubble and it would probably take weeks to dig themselves out. The door is likely the trigger that will animate these undead skeletons (and they ahve doubt that these skeletons WILL animate). There are too many skeletons to fight.
Now comes a strange revelation: X'Ylo has not been reincarnated into the body of Rhinaine the high elf, but as a buckawn (a small brownie-like humanoid) who has been riding invisibly on Rhinaine's shoulders for days now, guiding Rhianine to act like he is X'Ylo. A discussion with Rhianine and X'Ylo reveals that the cleric was killed by some other elves he trusted because he was going to reveal that he had discovered that the "religious artifact" that they were seraching for was actually one of great evil. They "killed" Rhianine from behind, not long after he announced his intention to tell Lillethanneles about the rod. The high elves names were Snek, Wahr, and Berz, the latter of the three being another cleric of Sehanine, making the betrayal that much more confusing. Rhianine now does not know if he can trust anyone in the high elf camp, except for perhaps Lillethanneles.
The party begins to notice that the air is getting thinner. How long can they stay here? To open the door means to fight the skeletons. So they take the time to haul some of the rocks from the corridor's collapse and build a wall to stand behind, preparing for the upcoming battle. They get the wall a couple of feet high and then the air is getting noticibly thinner and they begin to have trouble breathing. They must get rid of the skeletons now!
Rhianine and X'Ylo prepare their holy symbols and the others prepare their weapons. The turning is begun and the three battle-ready elves attack! This animates the skeletons, as the party figured it would. But the power of the priests of Sehanine is such that almost half of the skeletons cannot face them and attack and are driven away from the party. The other skeletons attack but are shattered one by one by A'Ha, Snf'L and El'Fross. A'Ha is delighted to discover that "Vengeance" does very well against the skeletons.
At one point in the battle, El'Fross falls backward off the wall the party had built and cracks his head. He is out of the battle for about 4 minutes. The party does eventually emerge victorious, but the battle is not an easy one.
Experience:
The party fought 2 rubbery icky things for 1,400xp each critter! They also beat up some high elves for 1,260xp. That's 2,660xp for the whole party. This works out to 296xp for Rhianine, and 591xp for each of the other party members. This is exactly 197xp per class. I'm going to go (once again) with a spread across classes for all involved, since all classes are being utilized by the PCs to at least some degree.
Player's Choice (30xp): One vote for X'Ylo for his concern as a cleric. One vote for A'Ha for patiently explaining his anti-human position in the face of Sn'Fl and X'ylo's blatently flawed arguments. One vote for Snf'L. Snf'L's wall building as a favorite tactic was original. And one vote for A'Ha after "much handringing... I don't really
know why..." A'Ha wins the vote for Player's Choice!
DM's Choice (15xp): My vote this week goes to Snf'L - not for his, "we'll tell them the truth, we just won't tell them our opinion on the reality of the situation" but for his portayal of the pragmatism of the equivalent of an adolescent elf.
A'Ha - 207 F, 207 T, 207 MU - entered and updated
El'Fross - 197 F, 197 T, 197 MU - entered and updated
Snf'L - 202 F, 202 T, 202 MU - entered and updated
X'Ylo - 591 CL - entered and updated (don't forget he only gets 70% of this!)
Rhianine - 296 CL - given out
The air is getting very thin in the skeleton room. The air is definitely cut off, and the K'Needian elves have used it up during the battle. A'Ha in particular is feeling very faint. They have no choice but to open the locked door. Not keen on several minutes of attempting to pick the lock, they smash it open. There they see two rubbery-skinned, gaunt, squat humanoids with almost hairless bodies. Their skin is pale white to beige, giving way to sickly blue in some areas, stretched over pulsing varicose veins. Their evil-looking mouths are slack and slobbery with many small fangs. Their hair is sparse and bristly, exposing pointed ears that hang limply from either side of the head. Their eyes slant downward and the nose appears squashed.
They fight the rubbery icky things, and one teleports.
They discover their mist cloud ability can negate magical darkness.
They win the fight, covered with green blood from the creatures.
They discuss their next move.
They find an evil-looking well with writing they cannot read, even with read magic.
They see there is a hole about 60 feet down in the side of the well. It is a ragged hole but looks as if someone could enter it.
They decide this might be stupid. Another night is spent in the crypt.
They discover a coffin with an occupant. It is trapped and several are hit or almost hit by flying darts.
There is a rod inside the coffin but the corpse is made of straw. Is this the true rod?
They leave to tell the elven army, find out it is now night again, and the army is nowhere to be seen.
They are captured by War, Snek and Berz, the ones who had "killed" Rhianine. They want the rod.
The K'Needian elves make short work of the high elves who have captured them and kill all but the cleric, whom they keep.
They return to the crypt to spend the night.
Experience:
This game had relatively little combat, but an extreme amount of role-playing and some sticky problem solving. What does the party do? The mix of wanting to save Pall, repay the elves, not kill but not release Berz the cleric and yet still get on with their lives and their mission was excellently played! The players even solved some stuff I hadn't even thought of as a problem (more black rings existing?). I award everyone 198xp for roleplaying. An excellent job! Plus, for solving a story problem (repay elves, get Rhianine back with his group) I award a straight 1,000xp, split by the players (not NPCs) for 250xp each.
Also, nobody seems to have noticed but me, but last game there were two Rubbery Icky Things that were each worth 1,400xp, but I only awarded a TOTAL of 1,400xp! Oops! So I must award the PCs another 1,400xp monster experience, with a share to Rhianine.
Player's Choice (30xp):Three votes for El'Fross. One because his obnoxious teenager(equivalent) elf comments such as "Nobgoblin" and "quarterling" lines. Another vote was because he makes the game fun. And dammit leave off the sizes!!!!!!!!
One vote for Snfl for his ever lovin' I'm not going back to the dungeon unless I
have to routine.
--
DM's Choice (15xp):
I have to go with El'Fross as well. A very enjoyable portrayal!
--
El'Fross - 268 F, 268 T, 268 MU - entered and updated - congratulations on third level thief! (Hit points not yet rolled)
Snf'L - 253 F, 253 T, 253 MU - entered and updated
X'Ylo - 627 CL - entered and updated (don't forget he only gets 70% of this!)
Rhianine - 156 CL - entered and updated
They find a huge black tome weighing 10 pounds on the body of Snek. They drag it, some clothes from the dead elves and the unconscious body of the cleric back to the crypt of Berole. They discover the tome is written in Hobgoblin.
Captured cleric.
Evening discussion of course of action.
Where is the high elf army now? Did they go after Pall? If so, we have to stop them. What do we do about the High Elf cleric we have as prisoner?
Before they bring the cleric back to consciousness, they remove anything suspicious from his body. One item is a black ring that absolutely refuses to come off of Berz's finger. They cut off the finger, effectively removing the ring. They cast cure spells as quickly as possible and the cleric comes to consciousness, but is in great pain. They grill him and he claims tha the last thing he can remember is getting the ring from Snek and thinks the date is 2 weeks previous to the present date. He can remember nothing else. Rhianine becomes reluctant now to kill the cleric.
El'Fross casts armor on himself. The party decides to try and catch up with the elven army.
Travel all day. Used 5 days of Berz's iron rations.
No spells are granted to the two clerics of Sehanine. No reason is obvious.
They arrive at the elven camp not too far south from the castle where Pall and Mykell dwell. They are taken to Lillethanneles (after some discussion with one Captain Chianti).