Year Two of the Game

The Game Thus Far: Year Two

Game Session Forty-Nine...September 19/00

Game Session Fifty...September 26/00

Game Sessions Fifty-One Thru Fifty-Five

Game Sessions Fifty-Five Thru Sixty

Game Sessions Sixty-One Thru Sixty-Five

Game Sessions Sixty-Six Thru Seventy

Game Sessions Seventy-One Thru Seventy-Five

Year Three of the Game

Year Four of the Game

Year Five of the Game

Current Gaming Sessions

Session Forty-Six

Experience: none

Roleplayer of the week:
Player's Choice (120xp):

none
DM's Choice (60xp):

none

This game did not exactly happen. 3e came out and we spent the evening discussing it and whether or not we were going to adopt it. We attempted a play test, but got as far as the first Attack of Opportunity® before we bogged down and could not continue.

Session Forty-Seven

Experience: There is not much point in calculating experience here, since the game was mostly character shopping and us talking. Besides, since the characters are being converted to 3e, there is not much point in giving out xp until we are converted over.

Roleplayer of the week:
Player's Choice (120xp):

no votes
DM's Choice (60xp):

A'Ha - back and in your face!

28th Goodmonth
The party pools their money to get rations for the trip back to the castle. Muranel gives back 50gp (without too much of a fuss) to A'Ha in return for the "unbreakable" prism he sold El'Fross. They go to Terry's Tavern for iron rations. Terry recommends (after some coaxing and a promise to drop by later for a drink) that Old Man Ratik's General Store is a place to go and buy gear without getting taken for a ride.
The party gets some gear at Old Man Ratik's. He is slow and tends to forget whether he has stuff and where he might have put it if he does have it, but he is honest and does not try and overprice anything.
A'Ha gets soem clothes for Rassmusen the tailor. He is more like a female elf than a male, but he makes excellent clothing and does not charge too much for it.
They head to Misseel's Flower Shop, having been recommended it by Rassmusen the Tailor as a place to get Veggie Rations. They go and buy 50 days worth for 47 gold.

Sheh'Tep helps to carry the rations. They are divvied up and the party is ready to travel. They head down to terry's Tavern to have one last beer before checking in with Teur to see if he has their information. Unless Teur's information includes something radical, the party plans to will leave in the morning.

Session Forty-Eight

Experience: No more experience until we begin 3e, although there was some very interesting stuff going on.

Roleplayer of the week:
Player's Choice (120xp):

A'Ha would have won if he had voted, and if I was giving away any xp for this game.
DM's Choice (60xp):

Everyone was great.

28th Goodmonth (cont...)
Back at Uni's hut A'Ha and El'Fross let slip they are going to meet someone named "Teur" to get information about Uni. Sheh'Tep is very interested and wants to come. El'Fross tells A'Ha to take Sheh'Tep to "that bar" where they are supposed to meet Teur, while he "does some other stuff". Sheh'Tep is very agreeable, but wants to know what El'Fross is going to do. Somehow they convince Sheh'Tep that going to see Teur is very important and off A'Ha and Sheh'Tep go. As El'Fross and S'Part go down toward the dock to talk to (the real) Teur, they notice the wind has come up.
Sheh'Tep is kept busy with A'Ha, while El'Fross and S'Part are taken by a fake drunkard to see Teur, who waits in a shadowy abandoned building. Teur first asks for money. All they have to give him is 400gp. It seems this is enough, but Teur informs them that if he gives out the information and the party decides to attack Uni, the Guild gts the set of black rings to keep. He also informs them that the two thieves will not interfere with the fight, except to try and steal the master black ring while Uni is distracted. The party agrees.
Teur tells them that Uni is leaving that very night at midnight from his hideout. Hideout is to the north of town in the forest. It is a small, seemingly abandoned shack. It has a secret entrance which comes out of a nearby boulder.

The party now has to decide quickly how to neutralize Sheh'Tep without alerting Uni that they are coming for him. S'Part and El'Fross do their best to discuss a plan while walking back to Uni's hut in the huge wind that has cropped up. They also notice a particularly bright star that was not in the heavens on previous nights.
S'Part decides to cast wyvern watch to get Sheh'Tep with. He tells El'Fross to go and get Sheh'Tep back from the bar however he can and make sure that Sheh'Tep goes through the cabin door first. El'Fross takes off to try and find which bar they went to, since they never did say.
W=S'Part casts the wyvern watch just on the inside of the cabin door, with its range so it will hit anyone passing in front of the door. He tells Daranel and the critters, who are inside the cabin, to stay away from the area.
El'Fross makes a panicked entrace to the bar, saying there is trouble and come quick. Sheh'Tep hesitates because they have not seen this Teur guy yet, but El'Fross doesn't seem to care and he runs out. A'Ha tells Sheh'Tep to get going as he leaves too. A'Ha and El'Fross sprint away from the poor bard. They briefly discuss the plan to get Sheh'Tep to go first into the cabin. It is difficult while running in the strong wind.
A'Ha starts to hang back, telling Sheh'Tep he is winded and that Sheh'Tep better hurry forward. Sheh'Tep runs around the cabin just behind El'Fross. He sees El'Fross suddenly attacked by some shadowy shape that dissipates in a loud clap. As he ponders this, he can hear someone chanting. Then he feels suddenly sleepy and remembers nothing more.
The wyvern watch tried to attack El'Fross as he went by the front of the cabin, and then S'Part cast a sleep spell, getting Sheh'tep and Daranel (still inside the cabin). The party gets Tikkel to wrap up Sheh'Tep in webs, while they make to head out. It is 11:15 PM, and they have only a little time to get to Uni's secret hideout to ambush him. Tikkel and Siroth stay behind to watch Sheh'Tep and guard S'Rang. A'Ha, S'Part, Daranel and El'Fross make tracks in the growing storm to head north to the hideout. The star in the sky is getting brighter and brighter; bright as Luna at the full now.

The party arrives at the hideout as the storm (oddly cloudless) is at full swing. Just before midnight, as the party takes positions around both the exit from the hut and the secret door in the boulder, the sky begins to brighten and the wind becomes deafening. Suddenly something as bright as the sun streaks over thier heads, heading from East to West. There is a pause, and then suddenly an earthquake-like force knocks everyone from their feet. They stager to get up and get back in position, El'Fross afraid that somehow this was Uni's doing, while S'Part is convinced it is a sign from Sehanine. As the ground stops shaking and the party is back in position, suddenly there is an orange wall of light sweeping past them from the West and heading East, knocking them all down once again and leaving them feeling odd and tingly. The party slowly gets up on their feet again. The spells they had going have been dispelled and their fingers have miniature bolts of lightning jumping from finger to finger for a few moments. There is a curse from the rock in front of them, and as they are just getting into position, the panel opens in the boulder and a figure steps out into the night.

From the diary of El'Fross:

Are you kiddin'? I'm in the middle of a battle for crying out loud!

Session Forty-Nine

Experience: Took out Uni himself (maybe - talk to A'Ha or Daranel if you think you did). Dealt with two thieves. Several traps got in your way. Battled 4 extra hit die orcs. All in all the party gains the story bonus of 3,000xp for dealing with Uni (or someone who acted like he was Uni). The orcs are worth 500xp to a party of your level. The traps were worth a total of 300xp for the party. 3800xp total divided by the characters present = 633xp each.

Roleplayer of the week:
Player's Choice (120xp):

One vote for Daranel "...for whacking the thief El'Fross had made a deal with" and one for El'Fross for "...still trying to be lazy. Matter of fact he's tryuing pretty hard to be lazy. Isn't that a contradiction or something."
El'Fross' player voted by Wednesday night but no others did. El'Fross wins Player's Choice!

Beginning next gaming session, Player's Choice will change to 100xp, and DM's Choice will change to 50xp.
DM's Choice (60xp):

My choice for role-playing was NOT Snf'L (just because it no longer gains you something you choose NOT to be honest - NOT realistic) but El'Fross. He gains nothing for role-playing lazy but did it anyway because it is the way his character IS. Very good.

A'Ha the K'Needian Elf- 633xp - was at 4,500xp - puts him at 5,133xp - needs 6,000xp for 4th level
Daranel - 633 xp - was 4,500xp - puts him at 5,133xp - needs 6,000xp for 4th level
El'Fross - 813xp - was 12,500xp - puts him at 13,313xp - needs 15,000xp for 6th level
Snf'L - 633xp - was 12,500xp - puts him at 13,133xp - needs 15,000xp for 6th level
S'Part - 633xp - - was 8,000xp - puts him at 8,633xp - needs 10,000xp for 5th level
X'Ylo - 0xp -
L'Wehn - 633xp - was at 4,500xp - puts her at 5,133xp - needs 6,000xp for 4th level
S'Rang the NPC - 0 xp - updated!
Siroth the White Dragon- 0 xp - updated! - cannot earn experience, but takes 1 share away from party (when with them)
Tikkel the spider (what a horrid thought!)- 0 xp - updated! - cannot earn experience, but takes 1 share away from party (when with them)

1st Harverster

Huge battle about to happen. It is just after midnight so we go to the next day for timetracking. The battle fizzles as someone steps out of the secret cave door and is felled by a quick stunning blow from El'Fross and finished off by A'Ha's sneak attack from the shadows. Wow - how exciting. The creature si revealed to be a dark elf. Whether this is for sure Uni or not nobody could say, but A'Ha is not convinced.

There is some doubt as to who the thieves are and nobody bothered to tell Daranel not to attack any thieves, so Daranel almost fells one of the thieves, who is only interested in gaining the black ring that Snf'L took off his hand just after the orange flash and tossed into the bushes.

The party heads back to Unicks to see what other chaos the loss of magic has wreaked. They find S'Rang free of his sepia snake sigil, having a conversation with the bard who is still wrapped in Tikkel's webs. The party informs Sheh'Tep about the demolition of the village, since he has been under the influence (apparently) of the black ring since before the village was attacked.

Several members of the party decide to return to Uni's hideout and check it for loot. The party is going down the stairs when Snf'L suddenly trips a trap. He leaps forward, out of the way of the portcullis which falls. Another portcullis blocks the way out. Small panels in the walls lining the stairs open up, and a dull roar is heard. Then steam begins to shoot out randomly from the walls, burning L'Wehn. The party manages to get the portcullis open and nobody else gets burned.

A lock with a trap is discovered, and El'Fross sets it off trying to pick the lock. He is poisoned and feels quite weak in the knees. S'Part comes to his aid and manages to calm the poison's effect. El'Fross still does not feel well.

Four orcs are discovered. The foul creatures drop the brooms they were using to sweep up the mess of the lair and pick up great axes, which they use to attack the party!

After this battle the party discovers Uni's bedroom. It is done up in spartan style with natural cave walls ceiling and floor (a perfectly homey place for a drow elf!). Snf'L simply glances over at the wall and realizes there is a secret door there. Behind it they find a chest which does not appear to be trapped. S'Ha picks the lock and they find a lot of gold and a potion that seesm to be magic.

End of game for today...

From the diary of El'Fross:

Session Fifty

Experience: Lets see...you guys got out of the dungeon, split up the coins and went shopping. Good role-playing...Ummm...40xp each?

Roleplayer of the week:
Player's Choice (100xp):

Two votes for A'Ha, One for S'Part. A'Ha's character did not vote (again), so S'Part wins!
DM's Choice (50xp):

I have to go with Snf'L for his "That's just wrong" line, making up for last session's non-honesty issue. Also thumbs up for voluntarily giving up the pseudodragon because the roll seemed a little easy. I'm going to let it stand unless anyone has any major complaints, but in the future it will be tougher to gain a special familiar (charts will get very minor tweaking and DC of the roll to call a special will be 25 or a natural 20). Upon reviewing my tables, there were many chances for Snf'L to get Giant class normal animals, but he just rolled too high. We can explain this away as perhaps Sehanine's influence. As far as issues of game balance, S'Part has his familiar and Tikkel as well, A'Ha has his familiar and perhaps Daranel will become his henchman, and El'Fross....hmmm...well, El'Fross don't need no stinkin' familiars...

A'Ha the K'Needian Elf- 40xp - was at 5,133xp - puts him at 5,173xp - needs 6,000xp for 4th level
Daranel - 40xp - was 5,133xp - puts him at 5,173xp - needs 6,000xp for 4th level
El'Fross - 40xp - was 13,313xp - puts him at 13,353xp - needs 15,000xp for 6th level
Snf'L - 90xp - was 13,133xp - puts him at 13,223xp - needs 15,000xp for 6th level
S'Part - 140xp - - was 8,633xp - puts him at 8,773xp - needs 10,000xp for 5th level
X'Ylo - 0xp -
L'Wehn - 40xp - was at 5,133xp - puts her at 5,173xp - needs 6,000xp for 4th level
S'Rang the NPC - updated!
Siroth the White Dragon- ? xp - updated! - cannot earn experience, but takes 1 share away from party (when with them)
Tikkel the spider (what a horrid thought!)- ? xp - updated! - cannot earn experience, but takes 1 share away from party (when with them)

1st Harvester
The party finds just under 13,000gp and rigs up some methods for carrying it back to town. They arrive and Snf'L, S'Part and A'Ha insist on counting it all while El'Fross, Daranel and L'Wehn sleep.
There is some argument about who should actually get a share. Siroth wants to "start his hoard" and is given 110gp, which pleases the little dragon immensely. Tikkel apparently insists he wants a share as well, according to S'Part's translation. L'Wehn just wants some armor and a new dress, so she isn't walking around town like some warrior-princess or something.
After the shares are divvied up the party goes shopping. At the blacksmith's shop (one Olitouk) they buy swords. The characters are interested in very fine weapons, but they find instead very spartan weapons with good blades but without ornament. Daranel pays the second half of a suit of chainmail his father had commissioned for him and L'Wehn is measured for a suit of chainmail for herself. She is told to come back the following week.
They then go to Rassmussen the Tailor's. Rassmussen likes El'Fross but isn't too fond of L'Wehn. She goes on and on about how beautiful the clothes are and how he could make her drab appearance so much better that the elf relents and decides he likes her. She gets a green dress with horrid clashing red shoes, but El'Fross and S'Part talk her into a pair of green shoes.
Then its off to the jewelers (Herban's Gen and Jewelry Shop) where El'Fross buys a silver necklace with opals for L'Wehn (700 gp) and the party trades in some of their gold for lighter gems.
Down at Opental's Apothecary the place is extremely busy. It seems that the party was not the only group to suffer consequences from the great orange flash. Spell components are selling like crazy. The party hears, "Louie! Bring out anodder case o' dat bat guano, pronto!" as they enter the store. The party purchases their basic cpell components. S'Rang buys enough ruby dust for quite a few castings of continual flame. Then S'Part and A'Ha buys familiar calling kits and Snf'L buys a special familiar summoning kit.
L'Wehn is happy in her new dress and gives El'Fross a quick smooch on the cheek for his gift of the necklace.
Snf'L goes out and summons a familiar, and ends up summoning a pseudo-dragon of all things! And you thought these puppies were 1e only! A'Ha gains a hawk and S'Part gains a raven. All seems pleased with the result. Snf'L names his pseudo-dragon "MacCloud" or "Mac" for short. A'Ha names his hawk "Hawk" and S'Part names his Raven "Rave".

From the diary of El'Fross:

It's been a couple of days since my last entry and it's been an interesting week, to say the least. Just when it looked as if we may not get our friends back for months, if ever, we got a break, and then another, and then another. I've been so overwrought with emotion, I've been unable to commit pen to paper until just now.

Teur informed us that he did indeed have "associates" in the employ of Uni and that they were willing to double-cross their boss in return for us turning over the black rings and control ring to them. Seemed like a reasonable trade, so I agreed. We set up an ambush for later that night.

At midnight we set up in position outside a little hut just north of town. We had found a secret door a ways behind the hut, as well. A'Ha and I had taken position on either side of the door. Daranel covered the entrance to the hut and Suddenly a ball of fire roared overhead. For an instant the sky lit up as if it were midday, then the earth shook with such violent force we were all thrown to the ground. We heard cursing from behind the secret door we had found. It became clear soon after the ball of fire passed, that things were not the same. Tiny electrical pulses coursed through our fingers as we staggered to our feet. It seems that all our magic in place had been dispelled, including the mage armor spells I had cast. Later we would learn that all magic, at least within the town had been dispelled.

As we scrambled back to position, the secret door opened and out stepped L'Wen. She looked around in a dazed sort of way. She saw us and began to say something. We cautioned her against giving our position away to anyone else that might be coming through the door. As a second figure came through the secret door, we could hear the sounds of a battle going on at the door of the hut. We let the second figure (one of the thieves that was about to stand aside as we attacked Uni) pass.

Uni came through the door last and I attacked first. As he turned to meet my challenge, his smirk turned to surprise as my blade cut through soft flesh rather than bouncing off hard stone as he had expected. Apparently ALL MAGIC had been dispelled. Before he could even react, he was dead thanks to a sneak attack from A'Ha.

And so it ended, at least seemingly. What had appeared next to impossible just the day before had become ridiculously easy thanks to "comet" that had come to our rescue. S'Part seemed to think the thing may have been sent by Sehanine - it's hard to argue with him. It certainly seemed, well, divine.

We went back to town to free our comrade, Sh'TEP from the spider's web and the black ring's control before handing the set over to the thieves. They weren't happy about having to follow us back, but I wasn't about to turn over the rings until I knew all our friends were free from the control ring.

Once things were settled, I collapsed into a corner, relieved to be free of the responsibility of saving my friends, I could finally get a decent night's rest. But no....the group wanted to go back to Uni's lair to search for treasure before the thieves went back. I agreed it was a good idea and wished them luck as I closed my eyes for some rest. However, L'Wen thought it would be a good idea if I came along......sigh. And so we left, to the north again.

We ran into a trap, which could have been much worse. As we entered the secret door and slipped down the stairs, S'Nfl (in all his grace) tripped a trap. Steam poured into the staircase as two portcullis's trapped us. L'Wen was burned slightly before we were able to free ourselves.

After the trap, we found four cleaning staff (orcs) who tried to protect the lair. They were quite unsuccessful. After a bit of a search we found a chest full of so much gold, we could barely carry it all. We did manage to split it up and we staggered back to town under the weight of our new found wealth.

The others stayed up and greedily counted the coins as I tranced. By the time I was rested, the others had finished counting and began to rest themselves. I decided to worry them and told them I was going to spend all the money while they tranced. S'Nfl slept in his back pack to dissuade me. This pleased me, as I'm sure he had a smarting back by the time he was done. Truth be know, here was the perfect opportunity for a little "me time" I napped and amused myself by clanging the gold pieces around as my friends tried to sleep.

When they finished, we debated how to split up the treasure. Instead of making it "party treasure" (my preference), we split it evenly between us all. Siroth even got to start his little hoard, which I thought was very cute. I might even offer to carry his hoard for him later. (maybe)

Then we went shopping. S'Nfl bought a sword, Daranel some armor, L'wen some armor. Nothing seemed particularly better than what I was using, so I declined. We went to outfit ourselves and I think we bought a bunch of crap, I wasn't really paying attention. Instead I was thinking about buying L'wen a dress, which she had mentioned that she had wanted.

I had the opportunity to do just that a little while later. Though I noticed that L'Wen was a little slow and deliberate, reaching for her pouch - as if expecting me to pay for it. Hmm, I'm not sure what to make of that. Of course, I had already decided I would do just that, so.... I did. Shoes too. She looked lovely, of course. Well worth the 25 gold.

Later, we went to a jeweler's shop where I bought a necklace to go with the dress. It was worth quite a bit, but it's only gold, and I would have probably just converted it to gems anyway. And I did get a kiss on the cheek. Well worth the 700 gold. And besides, that's 700 less gold I have to carry.

OK, there's a couple of loose ends we have to tie up as we wait for armor, clothes, etc.

El'Fross's to do list:

1) Go back to Uni's lair and finish searching

2) Check with Teur to see if he is aware where any of the magic our friends were carrying went. The other's think it might somehow provoke the thieves guild, but I'll ask nice and only imtimate that I could put a kibosh on his town domination plans with a visit to the authorities or the Wizard

3) Speaking of the Wizard, I suppose I should check to see if she has come up with a task for me to perform in return for turning A'ha back into a jerk, er... elf.

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