Session 1 (July 3rd, 2015)
Braggor
Braggor begins asking around about where a
skilled blacksmith could be of use, hoping to find a place to set some
roots between adventures, and after some minor misadventures caused by
extremely poor diplomacy rolls, he finds his way toward a small hole in
the wall bar meant for the city's miners.
He learns
that there is no official guild for his craft in the city, but good
smiths are in high demand with the mining company, especially those that
can work adamantine. Braggor never had the opportunity to try, but he
feels up to that challenge. He buys the workmen another round and sets
off to seek gainful employment.
Thanus
Thanus
sells off some of the loot from last week's battle and splits it with
Jake. From there he seeks out the branch New Sarnath branch of his
university, the University of Mount Doyle.
He knows it is
somewhere on the hill, but it proves challenging to find as there are
no current maps to be had and much of the livable city is refurbished
and amended portions of the old. It is without rhyme or reason.
Eventually
after getting directions multiple times, he passes through an alleyway
and finds himself outside the small courtyard of a what must have once
been a moderately successful merchant's house, now in poor condition,
and on the gate is a small, fairly crude sign marking the property as
the University of Mount Doyle New Sarnath Branch.
A
bored guard stands at the rusty gate and asks his business, barely
stiffing a yawn. Thanus explains he is a scholar from the university's
main branch here on business. The guard opens the gate and tells him to
enter the door across the way and so Thanus does.
He
enters into what was perhaps once the house's dining area. Inside are a
few sparsely covered bookshelves, a table covered with papers, and a few
desks. To the right is a window seat and a dazed looking man in scholar
attire sits wide eyed, but staring at nothing as if he is in a trance.
Behind one of the desks is another man, this one reading a large tome,
and he looks up as Thanus enters.
At first the man looks
puzzled that anyone would new would be here (clearly this branch does
not get many visitors), but once Thanus explains who he is, the man is
delighted, and so Thanus makes the acquaintanceship of Hadrian, the
ranking scholar of the university's New Sarnath branch.
The
title doesn't mean much as there were only two scholars in the branch
before Thanus arrived (He has some dark mutterings about other
university's poaching their members), he explains, but now things are
looking up. The branch's enrollment just increased by 50 percent after
all!
Thanus inquires about the other scholar and Hadrian explains that the man believes he can "expand his consciousness" and project his mind into the deepest reaches of the Doomed city, to "commune" with it, but he needs to ingest or smoke certain plants in order to do so. He says so quite pointedly and Thanus thinks that explains a lot.
Really, Hadrian goes on, he fears the the ready availability and low price point of such substances due to the proximity of the city to the Confederation of Growers means the poor fellow is beginning to have some sort of a problem, but still the drugged scholar insists his work is fruitful, so who is he, Hadrian, to interfere?
By then it is time for dinner. The outside guard and another along with the university's two servants, an elderly couple, join Hadrian and Thanus in the kitchen to eat. Almost apologetically Hadrian explains that since it as really only the the handful of them most times it didn't really make sense to segregate the staff from the scholars, especially as the other scholar tends to eat so rarely; if there was a scholar only table Hadrian would be eating alone most days.
Over dinner Thanus gets another interesting tidbit of gossip. It seems that there is currently talk of a joint venture between the three Free Company to send an expedition to the Abyssal Pillar. No one has set foot their since the Doom itself, so who knows what mysteries are to be uncovered there.
The plans are still in their infancy of course, explains Hadrian, due not only to the practical problems of getting so many people onto a mile high stone a mile off shore, but also due to the Company's fight for dominance. They clearly intend to divide the spoils before they even have them. Should be months before they are ready to go.
They are also looking for a number of proven and established freelance groups to supplement their own manpower.
"You were planning on performing practical research weren't you?" Hadrian asks, rather shy all of a sudden. "Wouldn't it be something if a representative from the university was part of that expedition?"
Jake
During the last week with the caravan Jake had secretly devoted time to deciphering the letter that the secret courier had died for. The contents of the letter were quite interesting to say the least, but not quite as interesting as whose words they were.
It seems to have been a letter from none other than Duke Vedam Dren, Lord of New Sarnath. It was not signed as such, but contextually it is the only person who makes sense. It is unclear who exactly the letter was meant for, as the given name was clearly a false name, but in the letter, the Duke reports troubling signs concerning potential conspiracy concerning the Confederation of Growers, House Amathy and "other entities."
He also reports fears that he has spies in his inner council. As the courier bearing the correspondence was ambushed in the middle of nowhere by a group told to go there specifically to wait for him, Jake is thinking the man may be on to something there.
And so after getting a room in the Healthy Page, he put on his noble attire and set out for the top of the hill, the Grand Square of Sarnath, and the city's seat of government.
Jake walks the grand square, a place meant for the nobles, the rich, and the powerful, and he blends right in. After listening to local gossip concerning the young noble ladies and their dashing young lords and other such trivialities, Jake heads for the Duke's hall, the finest building in the square even though it is still clearly being repaired, the once Low Fane of the Forgotten Pantheon.
Inside a grand entryway buzzing with finely dressed men and their attendants, Jake approaches a reception area and speaks to a secretary. He has urgent news for the Duke and he must speak with him now. The secretary is not impressed and explains the Duke is an incredibly busy man, but that Jake could maybe be squeezed in two weeks from now.
And so they argue, Jake insisting he must see him and the secretary firmly explaining it is not possible. As they go back and forth Jake pulls out the unsealed letter and shakes it at the woman behind the desk as he speaks.
For a while now as Jake had been speaking, a well dressed man not unlike the others had stopped to listen and at the sight of the broken seal his eyes widen ever so slightly and he approaches the desk. He explains to Jake that the Duke really is quite busy, but that should he leave his name and where he is staying, someone can get back with him as soon as possible to set up an appointment.
The man says this and Jake gets the message. "We will talk, but not here." Jake gives his information and leaves. As Jake leaves the man nods to him ever so slightly and though the man has a calm expression on his face, his eyes are cold and calculating.
Jake begins to wonder if he made the right play with the letter, and as he departs the city's lap of luxury and descends back to the poor part of town, he keeps his eyes open, alert for shadowy figures haunting his step.
He sees no one, but just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.
End of Session
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Saturday, July 11, 2015
1.3: Arriving in New Sarnath
Session 1 (July 3rd, 2015)
Besides stopping briefly to throw the dead disguised soldiers into the river ("It would be disrespectful to just leave them here and I'm not going to carry them back or dig a hole." - Jake), Thanus and Jake travel back toward the waiting caravan.
They find Vilius pacing and still cursing the gods and when he sees them he is quite upset. Gone too long, don't you know we have a schedule to keep, and is that a deer? You stopped to go hunting instead of getting your asses back here? And so on and on goes the tirade.
Jake eventually gets a word in edge wise and explains that they found the bridge intact but had to take care of some bandits. Vilius doesn't care about the details, but the fact that the party was securing safe passage for the caravan shuts him up.
Not long after Braggor returns from his southern scouting mission and reports that he also found a usable bridge and it is decided that since he didn't have to kill bandits that his way was obviously safer and so the caravan heads south.
Inside a wagon Jake gets the deer ready for consumption (Braggor is pleased by the gesture) and tells tales of the party's adventure to the other members of the caravan, all of whom are interested in details unlike the caravan master. Jake talks himself and Thanus up, but there is no mention of the dead soldiers.
The next week passes uneventfully and soon the old roads come to an end the king's road is the oly way forward. The last stage of the journey has begun. Other travelers again become a common sight, as do patrols and actual inns.
Finally after cresting a hill the party gets its first glimpse of their destination, the new crown jewel of the kingdom and a place of dark repute from the days of old. Once doomed, but now reborn, the city of New Sarnath awaits.
The king's road and its less traveled and maintained tributaries pass through woods and recently reclaimed farmlands heading north. The coast lays to the east and to the north; the city nestles that northeastern corner of the continent, occupying both a large plain and a hillside leading up to sheer seaside cliffs, and once, the massive Abyssal Pillar jutting out of the sea beyond.
The portions of great stone walls stand around the perimeter of the plain, but are now mostly broken and ruined, a victim of the Doom that Came to the city some 150 years ago. Beyond the walls lies two distinct cities: One of the living and one of the dead.
The most of the plain, about 80 percent of it starting from the western, in land edge, is covered by ruined, desolate building, stone and wooden structures in various forms of collapse. There is no sign of habitation in any, no sign of life, at least from this distance. Here the city may be called New, but the Doom still holds sway over all.
The most eastern 20 percent, the seaside of the plain, is the exact opposite. It is the growing city of New Sarnath and it contains the Bay of Sarnath, a newly revived trade hub for the region and it is bustling along with the land around it. At the base of the hill is the entrance to the fabled mines of Sarnath, recently reopened, supposedly some of the richest in the world for a variety of rare metals.
A similar divide of living and dead city can be seen on the city's massive hill. Clearly even after a decade the reclamation of Sarnath still has a long way to go. With so much devastation remaining it is hard to imagine it being finished in one lifetime, let alone several, but the king commands it and his subjects obey.
The caravan approaches the city and the road winds through some of the lower city's devastation before approaching a well manned wooden barricade separating the reclaimed from the ruined. The area is heavily patrolled and here and there are the wretched poor who can't afford to live within the safe zone.
It is the borderlands between the new city and the old, land where the dangers have mostly been purged, yet has not been officially opened for redevelopment.
The caravan approaches the wooden gates and sees men marked with the bloody eagle sigil of House Amathy, clearly acting in some sort of city guard capacity. The sellswords demand a toll to enter (i.e. a bribe) from the caravan leader, but Braggor intercedes on his behalf, putting the soldier at ease, and lets him get away with a much smaller bribe.
Inside the barricade is a place not unlike the poorer and dock areas of any other city. The caravan heads towards a warehouse near the docks and at this point Vilius explains to the party that their contract is officially complete. So yeah, bye.
The party is not sad to see him go and Braggor, Jake, and Thanus contemplate their next move as they are all now officially homeless and unemployed in a city they have never set foot in before today.
Day 1 in New Sarnath
They do the reasonable thing and head to the nearest dockside tavern, the Healthy Page. It is a rather ramshackle place, but it seems clean enough and the sounds of music and laughter come from within.
Once inside Jake immediately goes to the musician, a man playing a fiddle and tells him to play something dramatic and suspenseful, and being a go with the flow kinda guy, the musician does. And so Jake begins the epic tale of how his lord almost singlehandedly destroyed an army of brigands on the road to New Sarnath.
He rolls quite well on his perform and Braggor confirms the truth of Jake's words and strikes poses at the appropriate moments.
While most of the tavern watches the riveting drama unfolding for their entertainment, Thanus makes the acquaintance of the bored looking bartender and owner, a slender approach middle aged half-orc named Lucky.
Lucky is not a fan of entertainers and makes his opinion known and Thanus sympathizes as he had to put up with Jake far longer than Lucky. That earns Thanus a drink on the house, and so a friendship tentatively begins.
From Lucky Thanus learns there is money to be made in New Sarnath if you have the stomach and the skill for it. The Free Companies are always looking for independent groups to subcontract certain jobs to and nobles around here always need more muscle. Then there's the scavenging.
Most of the city remains unclaimed and crews can get scavenging licenses to dig through the ruins for treasure: 1,000 gold for the lower city where the lower class worked and lived and 10,000 for the hill, the domain of Doomed Sarnath's moderately rich and up and coming.
Of course, says Lucky, scavengers have already been through a lot of the surface buildings. Not to say you can't get lucky and get a good haul from them, but most of the untapped potential is under the ground, the famous and infamous Undercity of Doomed Sarnath. Dangerous though.
On the surface you might deal with some wild animals, outlaws, smugglers, crazies, or other crews, but down there... Lucky has heard strange stories about down there (not saying he believes even 10 percent of them as the scavengers tend to be braggarts like Thanus's entertainer friend), but still he suggests Thanus would live longer staying away.
If you do go down though, adds Lucky, remember that undercity is undercity regardless of if you enter if from the lower city or the hill. Might be you could start lower, go down, and find yourself in some rich man's basement on the hill. Just don't get caught there without a permit.
Thanus thanks Lucky for the information and as their conversation finishes, so does Jake's performance. From there the party decides to take some time apart and handle their own individual business for the time being.
To be continued...
Besides stopping briefly to throw the dead disguised soldiers into the river ("It would be disrespectful to just leave them here and I'm not going to carry them back or dig a hole." - Jake), Thanus and Jake travel back toward the waiting caravan.
They find Vilius pacing and still cursing the gods and when he sees them he is quite upset. Gone too long, don't you know we have a schedule to keep, and is that a deer? You stopped to go hunting instead of getting your asses back here? And so on and on goes the tirade.
Jake eventually gets a word in edge wise and explains that they found the bridge intact but had to take care of some bandits. Vilius doesn't care about the details, but the fact that the party was securing safe passage for the caravan shuts him up.
Not long after Braggor returns from his southern scouting mission and reports that he also found a usable bridge and it is decided that since he didn't have to kill bandits that his way was obviously safer and so the caravan heads south.
Inside a wagon Jake gets the deer ready for consumption (Braggor is pleased by the gesture) and tells tales of the party's adventure to the other members of the caravan, all of whom are interested in details unlike the caravan master. Jake talks himself and Thanus up, but there is no mention of the dead soldiers.
The next week passes uneventfully and soon the old roads come to an end the king's road is the oly way forward. The last stage of the journey has begun. Other travelers again become a common sight, as do patrols and actual inns.
Finally after cresting a hill the party gets its first glimpse of their destination, the new crown jewel of the kingdom and a place of dark repute from the days of old. Once doomed, but now reborn, the city of New Sarnath awaits.
The king's road and its less traveled and maintained tributaries pass through woods and recently reclaimed farmlands heading north. The coast lays to the east and to the north; the city nestles that northeastern corner of the continent, occupying both a large plain and a hillside leading up to sheer seaside cliffs, and once, the massive Abyssal Pillar jutting out of the sea beyond.
The portions of great stone walls stand around the perimeter of the plain, but are now mostly broken and ruined, a victim of the Doom that Came to the city some 150 years ago. Beyond the walls lies two distinct cities: One of the living and one of the dead.
The most of the plain, about 80 percent of it starting from the western, in land edge, is covered by ruined, desolate building, stone and wooden structures in various forms of collapse. There is no sign of habitation in any, no sign of life, at least from this distance. Here the city may be called New, but the Doom still holds sway over all.
The most eastern 20 percent, the seaside of the plain, is the exact opposite. It is the growing city of New Sarnath and it contains the Bay of Sarnath, a newly revived trade hub for the region and it is bustling along with the land around it. At the base of the hill is the entrance to the fabled mines of Sarnath, recently reopened, supposedly some of the richest in the world for a variety of rare metals.
A similar divide of living and dead city can be seen on the city's massive hill. Clearly even after a decade the reclamation of Sarnath still has a long way to go. With so much devastation remaining it is hard to imagine it being finished in one lifetime, let alone several, but the king commands it and his subjects obey.
The caravan approaches the city and the road winds through some of the lower city's devastation before approaching a well manned wooden barricade separating the reclaimed from the ruined. The area is heavily patrolled and here and there are the wretched poor who can't afford to live within the safe zone.
It is the borderlands between the new city and the old, land where the dangers have mostly been purged, yet has not been officially opened for redevelopment.
The caravan approaches the wooden gates and sees men marked with the bloody eagle sigil of House Amathy, clearly acting in some sort of city guard capacity. The sellswords demand a toll to enter (i.e. a bribe) from the caravan leader, but Braggor intercedes on his behalf, putting the soldier at ease, and lets him get away with a much smaller bribe.
Inside the barricade is a place not unlike the poorer and dock areas of any other city. The caravan heads towards a warehouse near the docks and at this point Vilius explains to the party that their contract is officially complete. So yeah, bye.
The party is not sad to see him go and Braggor, Jake, and Thanus contemplate their next move as they are all now officially homeless and unemployed in a city they have never set foot in before today.
Day 1 in New Sarnath
They do the reasonable thing and head to the nearest dockside tavern, the Healthy Page. It is a rather ramshackle place, but it seems clean enough and the sounds of music and laughter come from within.
Once inside Jake immediately goes to the musician, a man playing a fiddle and tells him to play something dramatic and suspenseful, and being a go with the flow kinda guy, the musician does. And so Jake begins the epic tale of how his lord almost singlehandedly destroyed an army of brigands on the road to New Sarnath.
He rolls quite well on his perform and Braggor confirms the truth of Jake's words and strikes poses at the appropriate moments.
While most of the tavern watches the riveting drama unfolding for their entertainment, Thanus makes the acquaintance of the bored looking bartender and owner, a slender approach middle aged half-orc named Lucky.
Lucky is not a fan of entertainers and makes his opinion known and Thanus sympathizes as he had to put up with Jake far longer than Lucky. That earns Thanus a drink on the house, and so a friendship tentatively begins.
From Lucky Thanus learns there is money to be made in New Sarnath if you have the stomach and the skill for it. The Free Companies are always looking for independent groups to subcontract certain jobs to and nobles around here always need more muscle. Then there's the scavenging.
Most of the city remains unclaimed and crews can get scavenging licenses to dig through the ruins for treasure: 1,000 gold for the lower city where the lower class worked and lived and 10,000 for the hill, the domain of Doomed Sarnath's moderately rich and up and coming.
Of course, says Lucky, scavengers have already been through a lot of the surface buildings. Not to say you can't get lucky and get a good haul from them, but most of the untapped potential is under the ground, the famous and infamous Undercity of Doomed Sarnath. Dangerous though.
On the surface you might deal with some wild animals, outlaws, smugglers, crazies, or other crews, but down there... Lucky has heard strange stories about down there (not saying he believes even 10 percent of them as the scavengers tend to be braggarts like Thanus's entertainer friend), but still he suggests Thanus would live longer staying away.
If you do go down though, adds Lucky, remember that undercity is undercity regardless of if you enter if from the lower city or the hill. Might be you could start lower, go down, and find yourself in some rich man's basement on the hill. Just don't get caught there without a permit.
Thanus thanks Lucky for the information and as their conversation finishes, so does Jake's performance. From there the party decides to take some time apart and handle their own individual business for the time being.
To be continued...
Friday, July 10, 2015
1.2: Outnumbered, but not Outmatched
Session 1 (July 3rd, 2015)
The Battle
As the farce perpetrated by Jake reaches its crescendo with an obviously murderous man and his heavily armed lackeys closing in on the heavily outnumbered party, Thanus remains still in body, yet his mind is racing.
All possible battle plans and outcomes (that one can concoct with limited access to 2nd level spells) are examined by his keen intellect until finally, miraculously, Thanus computes a scenario that does not end in being mutilated/murdered in the woods by a psychopath.
The ambushers advance upon Jake and according to Thanus's calculations, they are in range. The time is right. Now is the time for their enemies to pay for their close proximity to each other and their hubris.
Thanus breaks free from the false shackles and raises his casting fingers, all of which are perhaps turned sideways to better facilitate the upcoming kill shot(s).
Color Spray, motherfuckers.
Or so it should have happened. Unfortunately everyone was prepared for the beginning of combat, so no surprise round for Thanus who does poorly on initiative.
The hound is set on Thanus and the archers take aim at Jake and miss. Myrkel now stands close enough for Jake to see the evil in his eyes, so Jake decides he should do something about that. Blindness/deafness! Success.
The enemy leader screams and begins to slash wildly at the air in front of him as he stumbles forward toward where he last saw Jake, and then the tribal guide acts and the mystery of why the slaughtered horsemen didn't (or couldn't) escape the ambush becomes clear. Web!
Myrkel, Jake, Thanus, and the murderous hound, now inches from fulfilling its desire to rip out a throat, are caught and there goes the perfect Color Spray moment Thanus had prepared for.
The battle proceeds. Archers are mostly ineffective, yet even blind Myrkel is a threat. He takes a moment to steady himself and calm himself, and suddenly he seems more adept at blind fighting, much to Jake's chagrin, especially once he gets slashed down the torso for a large chunk of his health.
Jake tries to retaliate, but his rapier finds itself ineffective against the larger man's banded mail and before he can try again, he is Burning Disarmed by the enemy mage. And then that mage Burning Hands and now everyone in the Web is burning.
The fire turns out to be a mixed bag for both groups, as the fire hurts, yet it clears away the webbing for both sides. Myrkel seems pleased to be able to move freely again and he blindly pursues the now retreating Jake.
Finally able to cast, Thanus goes with his original plan: Color Spray, motherfuckers! And only the attack dog and one grunt fail.
Jake takes an arrow and another slash from the enemy's resident psychopath and begins to wonder when he will be seeing his life flash before his eyes, but again Thanus comes up with a cunning plan: What if we weren't outnumbered?
Summons, motherfucker! The party gains its own set of attack dogs that beset the archers and the mage, distracting them long enough to not immediately finish Jake off as he kites Myrkel into the trees and out of direct archer line of sight.
The dogs are vanquished quickly, but their purpose was served. The archers, now wielding melee weapons in order to kill the magical hounds, advance into the trees and cut off Jake's escape as Myrkel stumbles slowly through the underbrush toward his prey.
Now the enemy mage faces Thanus, but unfortunately for him, Thanus has learned the tactical value of superior numbers. Summon Eagles! The eagles rip into the enemy mage, forcing him to try to flee for his life, but unfortunately for him he manages to fail casting his escape spell and six second later he is ripped apart by vicious summoned avian predators.
In the trees, the enemy closes in on Jake as he gains his second wind and begins to ineffectively knife fight a longsword wielding grunt as his rapier is still lost somewhere in the clearing. All the while Myrkel approaches from the side.
With the mage gone, Thanus turns his attention toward the battle in the treeline and so follows Color Spray number two (motherfuckers!), and this one hits the mark. All three remaining grunts go down and the eagles start ripping into them with gusto as Jake finally begins to act out a battle plan, thus Inspiring their Courage.
And yet the implacable Myrkel still comes for Jake, whom takes it upon himself to not only continue to kite the blind killer, but use him to end the lives of the Color Sprayed.
Jake pushes the man he had been fighting into Myrkel as he advanced, and Myrkel cuts him down. Ahh, you got me, cries out check, making a bluff check. It might have worked if not for the fact that the noise was clearly coming from an area not at the killer's feet.
As Jake and Myrkel do their merry dance, the archer who had failed the original Color Spray comes back to battle readiness, but soon meets his end at the talons of bard buffed eagles.
It is clear that the rest of the battle is merely a technicality. Eagles slay the downed men as Jake keeps their leader busy and finally Jake casts Blindness/Deafness again on Myrkel, who fails again.
Now blind and deaf, Myrkel loses his cool entirely and wildly attacks around him. Trees splinter, a nearby corpse gets even more corpse-y, and eventually he collapses onto his knees and drops his blade.
He is helpless and forsaken. Myrkel knows it is over even before Jake slits his throat and ends his torment along with the CR 8 encounter.
The Aftermath
With the battle over, Thanus and Jake look over the loot. The grunts seem poorly equipped, most likely in their own kit, but the bows they use are all well made and similar enough to be from the same source. Perhaps provided along with the arrows for the job.
As the bodies are more closely examined, the duo notice various tattoos that would mark the dead men as low level freelancers from New Sarnath, which is something they already knew from their conversation with the now dead guard.
The dead mage has a wand of Entangle, perhaps further explaining the road massacre, along with a few scrolls and potions. Thanus consumes a pint of his blood as per Blood Transcription and gains some of his magical knowledge.
Myrkel had masterwork gear, a bastard sword, a heavy steel shield, and banded mail. Examining some of the items more closely, the mark of House Amathy can be found on the items, but the mark is defaced, scratched out. Perhaps an Amathy outcast turned freelancer?
As the gear comes off, the party sees Myrkel has severe burns over much of his body, but at the edges of the burns one can almost make out tattoos, one of which might also be a portion of the Amathy symbol, a stylized blood red eagle. If he is an Amathy outcast, he clearly didn't leave the Company on good terms.
The ambush leader also had a few magical trinkets: A +1 cestus with the unique ability to do Stunning Fist once per day, but with some minor repercussions to the user, and a ring that once per day allows the user to gain access to a combat feat he doesn't possess. That would explain his sudden blind fighting skill.
Lastly, a scroll case is found and Jake examines the contents. A letter with the New Sarnath seal, though subtlety different and now broken. The letter itself is coded, though looking at it briefly Jake is confident he could probably decipher it, though it would be time consuming. He decides to keep the existence of the letter a secret for the moment and takes it without Thanus knowing.
With looting done, the two start to head back the way they had come, though Jake insists on dragging back the dead deer that the ambush party had brought with them to their camp. He is sure that his "lord" Braggor will appreciate his squire's thoughtfulness in bringing home dinner.
To be continued...
The Battle
As the farce perpetrated by Jake reaches its crescendo with an obviously murderous man and his heavily armed lackeys closing in on the heavily outnumbered party, Thanus remains still in body, yet his mind is racing.
All possible battle plans and outcomes (that one can concoct with limited access to 2nd level spells) are examined by his keen intellect until finally, miraculously, Thanus computes a scenario that does not end in being mutilated/murdered in the woods by a psychopath.
The ambushers advance upon Jake and according to Thanus's calculations, they are in range. The time is right. Now is the time for their enemies to pay for their close proximity to each other and their hubris.
Thanus breaks free from the false shackles and raises his casting fingers, all of which are perhaps turned sideways to better facilitate the upcoming kill shot(s).
Color Spray, motherfuckers.
Or so it should have happened. Unfortunately everyone was prepared for the beginning of combat, so no surprise round for Thanus who does poorly on initiative.
The hound is set on Thanus and the archers take aim at Jake and miss. Myrkel now stands close enough for Jake to see the evil in his eyes, so Jake decides he should do something about that. Blindness/deafness! Success.
The enemy leader screams and begins to slash wildly at the air in front of him as he stumbles forward toward where he last saw Jake, and then the tribal guide acts and the mystery of why the slaughtered horsemen didn't (or couldn't) escape the ambush becomes clear. Web!
Myrkel, Jake, Thanus, and the murderous hound, now inches from fulfilling its desire to rip out a throat, are caught and there goes the perfect Color Spray moment Thanus had prepared for.
The battle proceeds. Archers are mostly ineffective, yet even blind Myrkel is a threat. He takes a moment to steady himself and calm himself, and suddenly he seems more adept at blind fighting, much to Jake's chagrin, especially once he gets slashed down the torso for a large chunk of his health.
Jake tries to retaliate, but his rapier finds itself ineffective against the larger man's banded mail and before he can try again, he is Burning Disarmed by the enemy mage. And then that mage Burning Hands and now everyone in the Web is burning.
The fire turns out to be a mixed bag for both groups, as the fire hurts, yet it clears away the webbing for both sides. Myrkel seems pleased to be able to move freely again and he blindly pursues the now retreating Jake.
Finally able to cast, Thanus goes with his original plan: Color Spray, motherfuckers! And only the attack dog and one grunt fail.
Jake takes an arrow and another slash from the enemy's resident psychopath and begins to wonder when he will be seeing his life flash before his eyes, but again Thanus comes up with a cunning plan: What if we weren't outnumbered?
Summons, motherfucker! The party gains its own set of attack dogs that beset the archers and the mage, distracting them long enough to not immediately finish Jake off as he kites Myrkel into the trees and out of direct archer line of sight.
The dogs are vanquished quickly, but their purpose was served. The archers, now wielding melee weapons in order to kill the magical hounds, advance into the trees and cut off Jake's escape as Myrkel stumbles slowly through the underbrush toward his prey.
Now the enemy mage faces Thanus, but unfortunately for him, Thanus has learned the tactical value of superior numbers. Summon Eagles! The eagles rip into the enemy mage, forcing him to try to flee for his life, but unfortunately for him he manages to fail casting his escape spell and six second later he is ripped apart by vicious summoned avian predators.
In the trees, the enemy closes in on Jake as he gains his second wind and begins to ineffectively knife fight a longsword wielding grunt as his rapier is still lost somewhere in the clearing. All the while Myrkel approaches from the side.
With the mage gone, Thanus turns his attention toward the battle in the treeline and so follows Color Spray number two (motherfuckers!), and this one hits the mark. All three remaining grunts go down and the eagles start ripping into them with gusto as Jake finally begins to act out a battle plan, thus Inspiring their Courage.
And yet the implacable Myrkel still comes for Jake, whom takes it upon himself to not only continue to kite the blind killer, but use him to end the lives of the Color Sprayed.
Jake pushes the man he had been fighting into Myrkel as he advanced, and Myrkel cuts him down. Ahh, you got me, cries out check, making a bluff check. It might have worked if not for the fact that the noise was clearly coming from an area not at the killer's feet.
As Jake and Myrkel do their merry dance, the archer who had failed the original Color Spray comes back to battle readiness, but soon meets his end at the talons of bard buffed eagles.
It is clear that the rest of the battle is merely a technicality. Eagles slay the downed men as Jake keeps their leader busy and finally Jake casts Blindness/Deafness again on Myrkel, who fails again.
Now blind and deaf, Myrkel loses his cool entirely and wildly attacks around him. Trees splinter, a nearby corpse gets even more corpse-y, and eventually he collapses onto his knees and drops his blade.
He is helpless and forsaken. Myrkel knows it is over even before Jake slits his throat and ends his torment along with the CR 8 encounter.
The Aftermath
With the battle over, Thanus and Jake look over the loot. The grunts seem poorly equipped, most likely in their own kit, but the bows they use are all well made and similar enough to be from the same source. Perhaps provided along with the arrows for the job.
As the bodies are more closely examined, the duo notice various tattoos that would mark the dead men as low level freelancers from New Sarnath, which is something they already knew from their conversation with the now dead guard.
The dead mage has a wand of Entangle, perhaps further explaining the road massacre, along with a few scrolls and potions. Thanus consumes a pint of his blood as per Blood Transcription and gains some of his magical knowledge.
Myrkel had masterwork gear, a bastard sword, a heavy steel shield, and banded mail. Examining some of the items more closely, the mark of House Amathy can be found on the items, but the mark is defaced, scratched out. Perhaps an Amathy outcast turned freelancer?
As the gear comes off, the party sees Myrkel has severe burns over much of his body, but at the edges of the burns one can almost make out tattoos, one of which might also be a portion of the Amathy symbol, a stylized blood red eagle. If he is an Amathy outcast, he clearly didn't leave the Company on good terms.
The ambush leader also had a few magical trinkets: A +1 cestus with the unique ability to do Stunning Fist once per day, but with some minor repercussions to the user, and a ring that once per day allows the user to gain access to a combat feat he doesn't possess. That would explain his sudden blind fighting skill.
Lastly, a scroll case is found and Jake examines the contents. A letter with the New Sarnath seal, though subtlety different and now broken. The letter itself is coded, though looking at it briefly Jake is confident he could probably decipher it, though it would be time consuming. He decides to keep the existence of the letter a secret for the moment and takes it without Thanus knowing.
With looting done, the two start to head back the way they had come, though Jake insists on dragging back the dead deer that the ambush party had brought with them to their camp. He is sure that his "lord" Braggor will appreciate his squire's thoughtfulness in bringing home dinner.
To be continued...
Thursday, July 9, 2015
1.1: Guillible Guards and Gruesome Deaths
Session 1 (July 3rd, 2015)
Thanus and Jake further examine the scene of the massacre and the prints leading West. Around this time they wish they had further back up, but Braggor had went South from the main caravan body to scout the possibility of another bridge should the Northern one also prove unusable.
The scene of the ambush is peculiar as the now dead men were on now dead horses yet they weren't used to escape the killing ground; a good gallop across the bridge or back the way they had come would have most likely meant their escape from their attackers who appeared to be unmounted based on the tracks.
There was more to this scene then what is readily apparent, Thanus is sure, yet no evidence remains besides the arrows sticking out of the corpses; they appear to be of tribal make, arrows of the "civilized" Reavers that still hold land to the Northeast.
Sometimes small bands of their warriors still raid the civilized lands and dabble in banditry, yet this is a back road far from any sight of notable plunder and not many people, let alone many merchants, come this way. A poor place for a band of opportunistic highwaymen to setup shop all around.
While the mage turns his keen intellect to the mysteries of the dead men and whom killed them, Jake examines the prints leading away and determines that there were five, maybe six men involved in the ambush, but he can tell no more than that.
The party decides to investigate further and begin to follow the attackers' trail deeper into the forest. It seems they are on some sort of animal trail. The muddy trail makes for rough going, but not as rough as it would be if they had to tromp through the underbrush.
They continue on for a few miles and then Jake notices a change in the tracks as well as a rather large quantity of blood on the ground: One set of tracks turns into drag marks and those drag marks contain blood. Perhaps there is a survivor of the attack now turned injured captive?
Deeper into the forest. About half a mile ahead the two spot a large quantity of smoke, perhaps someone trying to burn wet material for their campfire. Thanus and Jake proceed, but very carefully.
Into the undergrowth they go.
Unfortunately, try as they might, stealth is the strong suit of neither and as they get eyes on a clearing, a few tents, and the back of a man tending a rather smokey campfire, a dog rounds the corner of a tent and begins to bark and growl. It is looking directly at the party.
The man jumps up, spots Thanus, knocks an arrow, and it would have been a time for initiative if not for Jake's immediate intervention.
"Hello! About time we found you!" he calls out as he steps out from his hiding spot behind Thanus and pushes him forward.
"Who the hell are you two?" asks the guard, wary and ready to shoot. The dog continues to bark and snarl, staring directly at Jake.
"We're with the second group and I was sent to check your status. Found this one (pushes Thanus) creeping around on my way," answers Jake as he rolls his bluff check.
"Myrkel didn't say nothing 'bout no second group," says the now very confused, yet still on edge guard who just failed his sense motive check. The dog continues to growl in the back of its throat and it is clear that it wants to taste Jake's blood.
"You know how his types always are, never telling grunts like us nothing," says Jake and it seems he won the man over. No one ever tells him nothin', indeed. The dog remains unconvinced, but the man snaps a command at it and it backs down. For now. Almost inaudibly the growling continues and its eyes never leave Jake.
Thanus is pushed into the mud next to one of the tents and when the guard is briefly distracted, Jake slips him a pair of false manacles to enhance the charade.
Jake makes small talk with the man and tricks some details out of him. The man and those with him (four small time freelancers from New Sarnath, a savage hired for a guide, and of course, their "leader") are here for a small merc job on behalf of some unknown employer who is paying extra for discretion.
Their leader, the man who recruited them for this, is the only one who seems to have any idea what the hell is going on really.
Jake asks what happened and where the rest of the group is now.
Their tribal guide thought he saw signs of another group nearby, further West, explains the man, so they went to investigate and perhaps get the upper hand if it came to a fight. Who in their right mind would be all the way out here after all if they weren't dangerous?
He was left behind to "guard the prisoner," says the guard with a short, almost hysterical sounding laugh. The joke is lost on Jake and Thanus.
As for the mission, they were supposed to wait on this goddamn road in the middle of nowhere in order to intercept a courier from New Sarnath and his message. Plan went ahead without a hitch, but after...
He trails off and gives a dark look at the tent furthest away from the campfire and shudders.
"After that whole business I wish I'd never taken this job," he continues, half speaking to himself.
Jake and Thanus notice his glances toward the tent and Jake inquires as to what is in there. The guard just shakes his head and says he will never forget it and that Jake should do himself a favor and leave well enough alone.
So of course, Jake goes to the tent. The guard doesn't stop him, but looks back into the flames as Jake enters. Once he sees what is inside, Jake begins to understand the man's reaction to the tent as well as the previous joke.
Inside is a heavily mutilated corpse. Flayed alive by the looks of it and not long dead. The courier, tortured to death for information or sport. The guard seems too shaken and horrified by the what had happened here and the results to be the one responsible, but whoever did this could be back soon. Jake finds himself becoming on edge, but as always, is cool under pressure.
He sympathizes with the guard and tells him that he knows all he needs to know so he and his prisoner will be on their way back to the secondary camp to the North. So it was great talking to him and everything and hopefully they can catch up later, but yeah, time is wasting.
As Jake hurries make their goodbyes to the guard and get the hell out of there, Thanus can't help but suppress a groan. Through the woods not 50 feet away and getting closer by the second is the rest of the ambush party returning, three men with bows and a dead deer being dragged by two of them, a man dressed in animal skin robes, and a large, vicious looking man with a face covered in scars and old burns.
The guard and Jake both see the returning party at the same time and the guard nervously calls out, "Myrkel! Says he's reporting in from the second group!"
The ambushers get to the edge of the clearing, perhaps 30 feet away, and the vicious looking man with the burned face steps forward. Clearly this is Myrkel, Jake's supposed employer.
Myrkel steps forward and unsheathes a bastard sword. He has a cruel smile on his ruined face and begins to laugh as he advances upon Jake.
He gives Jake a look that promises he will regret his charade and that perhaps by the time it is all over, Jake will wish that he had been granted a death as easy as the flayed courier's.
"Is that so?"
To be continued...
Thanus and Jake further examine the scene of the massacre and the prints leading West. Around this time they wish they had further back up, but Braggor had went South from the main caravan body to scout the possibility of another bridge should the Northern one also prove unusable.
The scene of the ambush is peculiar as the now dead men were on now dead horses yet they weren't used to escape the killing ground; a good gallop across the bridge or back the way they had come would have most likely meant their escape from their attackers who appeared to be unmounted based on the tracks.
There was more to this scene then what is readily apparent, Thanus is sure, yet no evidence remains besides the arrows sticking out of the corpses; they appear to be of tribal make, arrows of the "civilized" Reavers that still hold land to the Northeast.
Sometimes small bands of their warriors still raid the civilized lands and dabble in banditry, yet this is a back road far from any sight of notable plunder and not many people, let alone many merchants, come this way. A poor place for a band of opportunistic highwaymen to setup shop all around.
While the mage turns his keen intellect to the mysteries of the dead men and whom killed them, Jake examines the prints leading away and determines that there were five, maybe six men involved in the ambush, but he can tell no more than that.
The party decides to investigate further and begin to follow the attackers' trail deeper into the forest. It seems they are on some sort of animal trail. The muddy trail makes for rough going, but not as rough as it would be if they had to tromp through the underbrush.
They continue on for a few miles and then Jake notices a change in the tracks as well as a rather large quantity of blood on the ground: One set of tracks turns into drag marks and those drag marks contain blood. Perhaps there is a survivor of the attack now turned injured captive?
Deeper into the forest. About half a mile ahead the two spot a large quantity of smoke, perhaps someone trying to burn wet material for their campfire. Thanus and Jake proceed, but very carefully.
Into the undergrowth they go.
Unfortunately, try as they might, stealth is the strong suit of neither and as they get eyes on a clearing, a few tents, and the back of a man tending a rather smokey campfire, a dog rounds the corner of a tent and begins to bark and growl. It is looking directly at the party.
The man jumps up, spots Thanus, knocks an arrow, and it would have been a time for initiative if not for Jake's immediate intervention.
"Hello! About time we found you!" he calls out as he steps out from his hiding spot behind Thanus and pushes him forward.
"Who the hell are you two?" asks the guard, wary and ready to shoot. The dog continues to bark and snarl, staring directly at Jake.
"We're with the second group and I was sent to check your status. Found this one (pushes Thanus) creeping around on my way," answers Jake as he rolls his bluff check.
"Myrkel didn't say nothing 'bout no second group," says the now very confused, yet still on edge guard who just failed his sense motive check. The dog continues to growl in the back of its throat and it is clear that it wants to taste Jake's blood.
"You know how his types always are, never telling grunts like us nothing," says Jake and it seems he won the man over. No one ever tells him nothin', indeed. The dog remains unconvinced, but the man snaps a command at it and it backs down. For now. Almost inaudibly the growling continues and its eyes never leave Jake.
Thanus is pushed into the mud next to one of the tents and when the guard is briefly distracted, Jake slips him a pair of false manacles to enhance the charade.
Jake makes small talk with the man and tricks some details out of him. The man and those with him (four small time freelancers from New Sarnath, a savage hired for a guide, and of course, their "leader") are here for a small merc job on behalf of some unknown employer who is paying extra for discretion.
Their leader, the man who recruited them for this, is the only one who seems to have any idea what the hell is going on really.
Jake asks what happened and where the rest of the group is now.
Their tribal guide thought he saw signs of another group nearby, further West, explains the man, so they went to investigate and perhaps get the upper hand if it came to a fight. Who in their right mind would be all the way out here after all if they weren't dangerous?
He was left behind to "guard the prisoner," says the guard with a short, almost hysterical sounding laugh. The joke is lost on Jake and Thanus.
As for the mission, they were supposed to wait on this goddamn road in the middle of nowhere in order to intercept a courier from New Sarnath and his message. Plan went ahead without a hitch, but after...
He trails off and gives a dark look at the tent furthest away from the campfire and shudders.
"After that whole business I wish I'd never taken this job," he continues, half speaking to himself.
Jake and Thanus notice his glances toward the tent and Jake inquires as to what is in there. The guard just shakes his head and says he will never forget it and that Jake should do himself a favor and leave well enough alone.
So of course, Jake goes to the tent. The guard doesn't stop him, but looks back into the flames as Jake enters. Once he sees what is inside, Jake begins to understand the man's reaction to the tent as well as the previous joke.
Inside is a heavily mutilated corpse. Flayed alive by the looks of it and not long dead. The courier, tortured to death for information or sport. The guard seems too shaken and horrified by the what had happened here and the results to be the one responsible, but whoever did this could be back soon. Jake finds himself becoming on edge, but as always, is cool under pressure.
He sympathizes with the guard and tells him that he knows all he needs to know so he and his prisoner will be on their way back to the secondary camp to the North. So it was great talking to him and everything and hopefully they can catch up later, but yeah, time is wasting.
As Jake hurries make their goodbyes to the guard and get the hell out of there, Thanus can't help but suppress a groan. Through the woods not 50 feet away and getting closer by the second is the rest of the ambush party returning, three men with bows and a dead deer being dragged by two of them, a man dressed in animal skin robes, and a large, vicious looking man with a face covered in scars and old burns.
The guard and Jake both see the returning party at the same time and the guard nervously calls out, "Myrkel! Says he's reporting in from the second group!"
The ambushers get to the edge of the clearing, perhaps 30 feet away, and the vicious looking man with the burned face steps forward. Clearly this is Myrkel, Jake's supposed employer.
Myrkel steps forward and unsheathes a bastard sword. He has a cruel smile on his ruined face and begins to laugh as he advances upon Jake.
He gives Jake a look that promises he will regret his charade and that perhaps by the time it is all over, Jake will wish that he had been granted a death as easy as the flayed courier's.
"Is that so?"
To be continued...
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