Session Twenty-Six
Roleplayer of the week:
From the perspective of El'Fross' player...
16th Reaping (con't)...
While in the middle of contemplation and deep prayer, it occurs to X'ylo that he needs a spiked buckler in the worst way and resolves to find one later. He seeks out the services of an armourer who, in the end wasn't incredibly helpful.
17th Reaping
Before leaving X'Ylo goes to bid farewell to Lilly puddin and the rest of the party attempts to get the ring found in the Kings Chamber of the castle identified. X'ylo is successful while the remainder of the party is not.
On the way back to the castle, our brave group comes across a band of orcs. The orcs fan out preparing to capture, torture, or kill the heroes. Using K'Needian hand signals, A'Ha signals the party to form up on him and bid a hasty retreat to the castle where they can decide on a stategy. Like a well oiled machine, the party springs into action. El'Fross follows A'Ha easily out running the slow and clumsy orcs. S'Nfl and X'Ylo take a slightly different approach and charge head long into orcs, swords a swinging, in an act of …er, bravery. X'Ylo manages to entangle a number of the horrid creatures including four zombie orcs. El'Fross and A'Ha go back to the fight seeing their misguided brothers terribly outnumbered. A terrible fight ensues. As the elves try to make a retreat, X'Ylo is struck unconscious just as he turns invisible and A'Ha's arm is severed at the elbow. As A'ha staggers away, S'Nfl holds off the orcs while El'Fross searches for l'il X'Ylo's body. Finally finding the little guy, E'lFross tears off everything of weight from X'Ylo, and runs after A'Ha's trail of blood. S'nFl picks up X'ylo's pack and follows.
They come across A'ha in a pool of blood and ice. Little S'Roth has found him and breathed to stop the bleeding. Hearing orcs behind them S'Nfl and El'Fross turn to face them knowing they can't out run the orcs with the bodies of two comrades. El'Fross is knocked out during the battle, but S'Nfl manages to take out the remaining Orcs. Little S'Roth goes back to the castle and brings back a bottle of healing which El'Fross drinks. The rest of the party is carried back to the castle and put in Pall's room to rest and recuperate.
S'Nfl goes looking for Mykel and though the giant is missing he finds S'Rang and A'Ha long lost and beautiful sister, L'Wehn. S'Nfl goes into the book room to sulk and L'Wehn goes to check on her brother.
Seeing L'Wehn El'Fross begins immediately goes to A'Ha's prone body and begins to tend to his wounds hoping to impress the young maiden.
(The following has not happened, but will the next game and I'm on a roll writing)
L'Wehn is obviously distressed at the state of her brother. She asks ElFross what has happened to them in these past months. El'Fross tells her of the battles and tribulations they have faced…of how all but he had died and were brought back…. Of how poor X'Ylo has been forced to exist in a hideous 2'2" frame ….and now poor A'Ha's arm. Yet the scars left on S'Nfl and El'Fross himself may have been the worst of all. He explains that S'Nfl was very distressed at the destruction of the village and has tried to seek comfort in the arms of all manner of creatures over these past months. Impregnating at least one Sylvan elf before abandoning her. El'Fross tells L'Wehn that he fears S'Nfl might sleep with humans or worse. (I'm wondering if I haven't noticed pain while he was urinating?)
He tells her that he understands the grief that S'Nfl has been feeling all too well. For beside the destruction of the village and the Culture of K'Nee, El'Fross has been living with the belief that he had lost his one true love and had given up on ever knowing the feeling again. Indeed he had resigned himself to spend the remainder of his days faithful to the memory of his love, bent on revenge on the Drow.
But now like a vision, she has returned from the lost. He rejoices at the site of his love, L'Wehn and gives great thanks to Sehanine for this miracle………….roll that reaction.
Session Twenty-Seven
Roleplayer of the week:
18th Reaping
As we leave our heroes, the orcs are about to attack!
Session Twenty-Eight
Roleplayer of the week:
As for the rest of the party, this little poem, later scribed by Snf'L, sums it all up:
Come hither people and hear the tale,
Lies and falsehoods he did spin,
The Orcs were coming through the door
Down to the floor our hero fell.
And in the hall way back to back,
Down she goes our lovely lass,
Session Twenty-Nine
Roleplayer of the week:
Session Thirty
Roleplayer of the week:
1st Goodmonth (con't)...
2nd Goodmonth
In the morning, the 13 sylvan elves who keep bumping into the party bump into the party yet again. El'Fross regales them with tales of his Owlbear battle, while Snf'L checks to see if they are an illusion and X'Ylo checks them for evil. The elves notice the detect evil spell but don't seem to care. The elves are warned to stay away from the castle to the north because that is the headquarters of the K'Needian elves. They scoff at the story aboit the white dragon and the black giant.
Experience:
First of all: 100xp for El'Fross (John pointed out my Mykell / Pall pun was incorrect, as Ebony and Ivory was sung by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, not Micheal Jackson) and 5xp for Snf'L (because Fred whined that he said it first). Orc experience not calculated yet. As far as critter experience goes, 930 xp for beating/defeating/avoiding the different groups of orcish monsters met in tonight's game. I am splitting this experience between fighter and magic user, but no thief skills were used by any party members at any time during the gaming session, so nothing to the thief class for anybody. That's 186xp for each party member.
Player's Choice (30xp): One vote for El'Fross. Two votes for A'ha: one "for his wonderful imitation of stumpy the dwarf", and the other for "acting like a K'needian elf in trying to avoid a fight with an opponent that outnumbered us". One vote for Sn'Fl, for "Go East young man." A'Ha is the winner!
DM's Choice (15xp): Snf'L for his "Let's get you out of those wet clothes" line.
A'Ha - 103 F, 10 T, 103 MU - entered and updated!
El'Fross - 126 F, 33 T, 126 MU - entered and updated!
Snf'L - 100 F, 7 T, 100 MU - entered and updated!
X'Ylo - 186 CL - entered and updated! (don't forget he only gets 70% of this!)
X'lo continues to search for clues as to why Sehanine has not granted him spells for the day. El'Fross, feeling a little put out with the general lack of respect he feels he is getting from the cleric, tries to convince X'Ylo that Sehanine is offended because X'Ylo won't recognize the contribution El'Fross makes, laziness notwithstanding. X'ylo is unconvinced. S'Nfl being the randy-boy he is, convinces a young high elf maiden to accompany him to the east where it is raining, where he hoped to get her out of those wet clothes…..
The next day X'Ylo prays for spells and lo and behold, there they are.
Experience: There was some good sneaking about and its my fault there wasn't more of a game since I seem to be back in my old habit of trying to bring up interesting subjects so we don't actually play because I am not completely enjoying myself. Its a bad habit and I'll try better next week (if we have a game). I'm giving out 99xp for everyone just for having fun and playing their characters well, even those who spent the entire session unconscious and couldn't say anything.
Finally updated the Fellreev map.
Player's Choice (30xp): One vote for El'Fross. One vote for S'Nfl "as I'm coming
to realize he is a blood lusting maniac." One vote for Xy'lo because "he tried so damn hard not to say anything." That's a three-way tie. Those of you who have not voted, do it!
DM's Choice (15xp): My DM's choice is for El'Fross. He tried to keep suicide Snf'L alive long enough for the other members of the party to come around. It appears he may even have learned something from previous encounters.
A'Ha - 33 F, 33 T, 33 MU - entered and updated!
El'Fross - 38 F, 38 T, 38 MU - entered and updated!
Snf'L - 33 F, 33 T, 33 MU - entered and updated!
X'Ylo - 99 CL - entered and updated! (don't forget he only gets 70% of this!)
L'Wehn - 50 W - entered and updated!
A'Ha is in worse shape than the previous day. The frozen limb is not bleeding, but the freeaing is not doing the elf any good. Snf'L makes A'Ha and the invisible X'Ylo as comforable as he can. Hopefully they will come to. Snf'L also binds A'Ha's arm to stop the bleeding as it thaws out.
S'Rang mentions he wants to go looking for the other K'Needian Elf who escaped with L'Wehn, but wants to wait a few days for the orcs to clear out who are watching the castle's norh side. He mentions how easy it was to slip past the orcs so "we didn't have to fight them" and looks meaningfully at A'Ha and X'Ylo's motionless bodies.
Snf'L, El'Fross and L'Wehn go to see if they can find A'Ha's arm. They see about 60-70 orcs around the scene of battle from the day before. Snf'L tries to talk the party into "firing a couple of minutes worth of arrows" into the perceived cleric leader of the orcs, but El'Fross talks him out of it.
L'Wehn accidentally gets an eyeful of a naked Buckawn body as the priest tosses around and his blanket slips off of his naked body. "I've seen bigger earthworms!" she shudders.
19th Reaping
A'Ha and X'Ylo still out but improving slowly. A Zombie is frozen down in Pall's room, and the party goes down to investigate. There is a note in its hand. It is written in orcish and says, "You can leave the castle and not get hurt or we will come in to get you and it won't be pretty" or some such thing. Snf'L writes a big "Non" on the note and sends it back.
20th Reaping
X'Ylo and A'Ha still out. A'Ha comes to, sees his sister and also realizes his arm is gone. He immediately faints. Litle Siroth comes in quickly in the middle of the day to announce, "Lots of orcs coming!" They check outside the North way and the same orcs seem to be guarding the north entrance as they were the day S'Rang and L'Wehn arrived at the castle.
Experience: Well. It seems the total experience for the orc army that attacked the castle was 7,910xp! However, before anyone goes patting anyone else on the back for gaining levels, let's calculate the xp given to the NPCs:
Henchmen and Hirelings and such get 1/2 a share xp. None of the NPCs present fit these categories, so they get a straight 1 share/level. This is my standard xp division policy, to prevent low-level parties from building up by taking high-level NPCs along for the ride. So let's see... L'Wehn gets 1 share, as do all the other (conscious) party members. S'Rang gets 7 shares (based on his level), and Pall gets 16 shares (which you have to admit, she deserves).
This breaks down to 26 shares, which is 304 xp each for L'Wehn, Snf'L and El'Fross. However, Darryl and Murray did such excellent jobs of playing S'Rang and Pall and staying interested even though their main characters were lying unconscious through the entire battle, I am giving them each 210xp for role-playing, which will be applied to their characters. Any problemswith this, please let me know ASAP!
Player's Choice (30xp): One vote for Pall the Dragon, "cuz having the lawful evil
dragon scooping the treasure at the first opportunity was bang on. It was just like he was playing shzz't.:-)"
One vote for S'Rang. "Great job Murray. If I have to vote for a PC
though, I would vote for Sn'Fl." That'd be a tie, so another 15xp each go to X'Ylo and A'Ha because of what their players pulled off.
DM's Choice (210xp): See above for explanation
A'Ha - 75 F, 75 T, 75 MU - entered and updated!
El'Fross - 101 F, 101 T, 101 MU - entered and updated! -
Congratulations on 2nd level Wizard!
Snf'L - 101 F, 101 T, 101 MU - entered and updated! -
Congratulations on 3rd level Thief!
X'Ylo - 225 CL - - entered and updated! (don't forget he only gets 70% of this!) -
Congratulations on 2nd level cleric! An amazing accomplishment while you were asleep!
L'Wehn - 304 W - entered and updated!
Pall - 4,864 xp (hardly seems worth the trouble she went through)
S'Rang - 2,128 xp (split between his classes) - not yet entered or updated
The orcs attacked and there was a massive battle. Undead streamed in to attack Pall, who wisely waited for the flesh-toting orcs to enter before breathing. She killed off the head orc cleric-type and grabbed his stiffened corpse for whatever treasure it contained.
Of how Elfross' quest came to fail.
Upon L'Wehn his sights were set
Her heart alone he swore to get.
To stop the others from butting in.
With daring acts and words so sweet,
He planned to have her at his feet.
He drew both swords to show-off more
He leaped in front to impress his date,
But the bastard orc - he rolled and eight.
"Save us Snf'l", L'Wehn did yell.
"Here I come to save the day",
Called Mr. Snf'l, "I'm on my way"
L'Wehn and Snf'l, orcs they whack
The last Orcs standing, L'Wehn swings,
But off HER noggin her sword rings.
But not to worry Snf'l saves her ass.
And where is El'Fross during the fight?
On his back out like a light.
Experience:
Wow. How much experience is the death of a friend worth? Hats off to the memory of the brave elf who died to save his arm. A straight 100xp each for role-playing and just so the night wasn't a complete loss.
Player's Choice (30xp): One vote for X'Ylo "who tried very hard to play a bit of modesty as he wandered about in all his Buckawn glory." That's it for votes, but Darryl did not vote, so nobody gets the Player's Choice Award. Perhaps the reward is too low? I hereby will up this award to 60 xp!
DM's Choice (15xp): For myself, I'd have to go with A'Ha, who showed great angst in not wanting to be crippled for the rest of his life, and willing to give it all up if he could not regain his arm. You'll be greatly missed, A'Ha!
A'Ha - 100 + 15 = 0 .......
El'Fross - 33 F, 33 T, 33 MU - updated!
Snf'L - 33 F, 33 T, 33 MU - updated!
X'Ylo - 100 CL - updated! (don't forget he only gets 70% of this!)
L/Wehn - 100 F - updated!
20th Reaping (late that night)...
Snf'L and L'Wehn (who recovers from her stun) make the others as comfortable as they can. S'Rang is nearby but does not help.
22st Reaping
All the party members are conscious as of the morning, but they are not feeling well. X'Ylo has lost one of his spells, but uses the other to try and stop the bleeding of A'Ha's severed arm. They discuss the other K'Needian Elves and find out L'Wehn and Sh'Tep the Bard escaped to the Snow Spider village. Luckily, Sh'Tep knew the language of the Snow Spiders and they were able to stay there awhile. Eventually, they wandered back and found that the dead had been buried. They wondered who might have done this and discovered A'Ha's message. Assuming the four lads must still be alive they hurried to the village of Alok. There they were sheltered for a time by Bwetney, the mother of Snf'L's (as of yet) unborn child and her father, Gilchrist Oakenshield. As the weeks went by, Sh'Tep decided he must find the party and he left, headed for Tween. L'Wehn stayed behind and that is where S'Rang found her. They left word with Gilchrist where to send Sh'Tep when he returned, so the K'Needian Elves could reunite.
El'Fross realizes that all of the bodies have been accounted for and this means his Uncle L'Starr is dead. He grieves for the loss of his family member. El'Fross apologizes to the party for his recent behavior - he has been much too spry of late.
El'Fross and A'Ha decide that orcs must be of the same group as humans - can't trust 'em, might as well kill 'em on sight.
22nd Reaping
X'Ylo cures the party and the white dragon. The party realizes their only hope now is to try and catch the elven army, which has a big head start on them and is out in the wilds of Iuz. They have to get A'Ha to -before his wound bleeds the elf to death. Much more powerful magic that X'Ylo is capable of is needed for this.
The party does take an hour out to search for A'Ha's arm and the hobgoblin book. More importantly, A'Ha is interested in finding "Vengeance" , his magic longsword. L'Wehn feels this is an appropriate time to present A'Ha with "Grandpa Hubbard's Star-studded Diamond-tipped Mega Darts" that have been in the family for generations. They were given to L'Wehn, but she abhores distance weapons (something about her eyesight?) and she wants her brother to have them.
As it becomes apparent that the party is going to be unsuccessful in finding A'Ha's arm, the others joke about how the orcs must have eaten it. They finally give up and head South to find the High Elven army.
They meet 13 Sylvan Elves who are cautiously friendly. They meet the same Elves several hours later, heading in a different direction. Both parties think the other must be lost. Plus it is very odd that the K'Needian Elves (who move so quickly) could have had the Sylvan Elves get in front of them.
El'Fross tells the party that he needs a full night's rest because of his new position as the most powerful wizard in the party. There is much protest to this statement. El'Fross ends up with a watch nyway. During his watch, he spys a small, furry creature near the others in the camp. He wakes Snf'L and the hunt is on to kill the weasel. Snf'L shrugs it off as a silly waste of time, and El'Fross proves Snf'L correct.
23rd Reaping
The party catches up with the Elven Army much sooner than expected. They are headed back from Iuz, completely routed. Lillethanneles, Rhianon, and Ted the Valley Elf are among those who still live. There are only 22 others. Ted explains that demons arrived into the fight and these killed off the army. Only a very few were lucky enough to survive. They had no further trouble with the black rings.
Lillethanneles warns A'Ha that there is a spell to bring back his arm, but there is a very real chance that A'Ha will die. A'Ha does not care, he want to take the chance. L'Wehn is not of the same mind, but she cannot convince her brother to stay one-armed. The spell will be cast the following day.
24th Reaping
A'Ha does not survive the regeneration of his lost limb. The past days of ill health and the loss of blood, coupled with the pain involved with the renewing of the arm are too much for his body to take. He gasps his last breath and lies still. The party grieves, L'Wehn more so than the others. There is a glimmer of hope, however, Lillethanneles will attempt a ressurrection spell the nex day.
25th Reaping
The spell fails. The rest of the day is spent helping the other wounded elves.
26th Reaping
The spell fails. The rest of the day is spent helping the other wounded elves.
27th Reaping
The spell fails. The rest of the day is spent helping the other wounded elves.
28th Reaping
The spell is finally successful, but A'Ha's body has seen too much abuse - he doesnot survive the ressurection. L'Wehn cries, "A'Ha is dead! He's dead! Noooo!" There is only one choice left, and that is to reincarnate the elf as X'Ylo was mere weeks ago.
1st Goodmonth
The entire camp gathers around as the spell to reincarnate A'Ha is cast. The spell is successful, as A'Ha's body begins to dissolve away. The camp looks around eagerly, awaiting the new form of A'Ha's soul to enter the camp, and take its rightful place within the party.
Experience: El'Fross gets 420 amazing fighter experience for his battle with the owlbear. There are another 3,250xp for the party for the battle against the huge skeletons they defeated. This latter battle was 100% fighter for El'Fross and 50%/50% for fighter/thief for Snf'L. The only spellcasting going on during the battle was by X'Ylo.
Player's Choice (60xp): Two votes for Snf'L thus far, one of which is "for briefly trying to snap El'Fross out of his funk before resorting to threats." One vote for X'Ylo because "I think he's really getting that yappy little brother shtick down pat." Snf'L wins this week's 60xp for role-playing (that's "role-playing", Fred, not "roll playing", which is derogatroy term used in the AD&D newsgroup to indicate hack&slashers!)
DM's Choice (30xp):El'Fross. Not because he pouted in the tree but because I really got a sense that he was depressed about the loss of A'Ha.
El'Fross - 1110 F, 10 T, 10 MU - updated!
Congratulations on 3rd level Fighter!
Snf'L - 345 F, 345 T, 20 MU - updated!
X'Ylo - 650 CL - updated (don't forget he only gets 70% of this!)
L'Wehn - 650 F - updated!
Daradel - 0 F - not applicable
A'Ha the bear- 650 B - cannot earn experience, but takes 1 share away from party
A brown bear wanders into the camp, and there are a few tense moments. Is this A'Ha's new incarnation? Or a bear that has wandered into camp in search of food? The bear sniffs X'Ylo and examines Snf'L. Then it approaches L'Wehn and rubs against her, seeming drawn to the female elf. It looks like A'Ha's new life is as a bear. The party is distressed. Never again will they hear A'Ha complaining of how humans cannot be trusted. L'Wehn cries softly as she hugs the bears matted fur. El'Fross grunts loudly and climbs a tree. The rest of the party goes to talk to Lillethanneles.
Lillethanneles says the party owes him nothing for the spells he cast on A'Ha and the effort he made to bring A'Ha back from the dead. They insist on going back with him to find surviving, wounded and dead high elves to cure and bring back. Lillithanneles indicates that he still thinks the rod of ressurrection (if that is indeed what is hidden in the crypt of Berole) could be useful for his quest. The party considers going after it.
They return to the tree to discuss their plans with El'Fross. El'Fross indicates he is very unhappy with the result of the spells Lillethanneles cast on A'Ha. He is not interested in adventuring and wants to stay in the tree. Even L'Wehn's suggestion that El'Fross rejoin the party is ignored by the sulking elf. A'Ha, in bear form now with who knows what for memories of his former life and using who knows what sort of thought processes, grunts and hugs the tree and El'Fross is finally convinced to come down.
The painful task of splitting up A'Ha's belongings came next. L'Wehn allows X'Ylo to carry the 3 Grandpa Hubbard's Star-studded Diamond-tipped Mega Darts that A'Ha was letting him use. The strange loop and handle device is tucked away in L'Wehn's pack with nary a thought about what it may do. It was her brother's and she will carry it with pride. The problems arose when it came time to give "Vengeance" up to someone. The sword just lie there in its scabbard, quiet for a change. Nobody wanted the cursed sword, despite the benefits the sword had shown in the past. El'Fross manages to convince one of the elves in the camp that he could use a magic sword. The elf, alas, has no money, so El'Fross convinces him to come and work off the 2,000gp that the sword is worth by traveling with the party and lending a hand. He would not be allowed a share in the treasure until the sword was paid off, however.
After this, the only thing that remained was A'Ha's spellbook (containing comprehend languages, hold portal, jump, light, message, Otto's Chime of Release, Tenser's Steady Aim). El'Fross decides that the high elf joining the party (one Daradel by name) could carry the spellbook as part of the fee for the sword. Daradel agrees wholeheartedly.
There is still no descision about what the party should do next. Do they search for the rod or help Lillethanneles? They all go back to Lillethanneles to get more detail about what the elves are planning to do. Are they going back onto the field to look for wounded and dead? If so, arent; they afraid of the demons? Lillethanneles gets slightly annoyed at the party's insinuation that his actions are unwise, but he forgives them because of the recent passing of their beloved friend. He is planning to go righ to the battle site, thinking the demons will not still be there.
L'Wehn makes a comment that she is not happy that A'Ha has been denied the afterlife at the Seelie Court that he deserves. "Now he has to live his life as a stinky old bear".
The descision is made. They will head back to the castle to check on Mykell and S'Rang, then head to Berole's crypt and find the rod. They set out immediately.
They encounter an owlbear and ignore it until X'Ylo daes El'Fross to attack it. El'Fross moves in, and before anyone else can even help, he slices off the claws from the beast's left paw, and then while the beast howls in pain, slashes him across the neck, killing him. The others stop dead in amazement. El'Fross can kill owlbears single-handedly!
The rest of the day's travel is spent looking for herbs and hunting as they move steadily northward. The party eats a porcupine that Snf'L has shot for them for their lunch. El'Fross prepares a porcupine soup that leaves much to be desired, but everyone is so hungry they do not argue. Meanwhile, A'Ha the Bear eats the remainer of the Owlbear.
Later that afternoon, Snf'L and El'Fross manage to bring down a deer. It is just before 4:00PM, and the party makes camp. They cook as much of the deer as they can while Snf'L does perimeter watch.
They get to the castle around 11:00AM. Mykell is back. Introductions are made and stories are told. Mykell had gone away because of the smell.
Daranel stays with S'Rang for some reason (??) as the others go out to try and find the lair of the orcs. They head first to the tower that X'Ylo and El'Fross did battle in 'way back when X'Ylo was still an elf. They are attacked as they enter by 5 big, toothy skeletons with bows and arrows. L'Wehn is hit badly and El'Fross is bleeding. Little X'Ylo turns 3 of the undead
while El'Fross fights another at the top of the stairs and Snf'L goes and climbs a wall. The platform falls after L'Wehn climbs the stairs (she'll never brag about losing 5 lbs again). The skelly are all killed. Cures are cast and the party returns to the castle.