D&D: The Outdoor Edition

Between battling mosquitoes, we were able to enjoy a game outdoors. 

I followed the map Sister Rebecca/Evil Wizard gave me to the mouth of a cave in the hills south and west of Skalafell.  The tunnel within forked, and I chose to pursue the one to the north. Rarely do I choose the South. 

As I approached a cavern, my torched flickered [which was supposed to be a terrible clue that something was amiss] I just assumed that a breeze swept through. I am still a newbie and all! Remembering my infravision, I opted to extinguish my torch and peer into the cavern in hopes of not drawing attention to myself. 

 A large cold glob stood in the center of the room. Lighting my torch I saw a grotesque tentacled monstrosity of a statue. I was frightened! I had hoped to quietly sneak by, but it was not to be - of course the living crystal statue animated and smashed at me with its massive tentacles. UGH! 

 I blocked and parried blow after blow before finally shattering the statue into hundreds of shards. I found the smashed crystal quite beautiful and stashed some of the shards in my backpack. I took some damage, but not much [we're using Solo Heroes, so damage at most is 2 points per hit, and quite often just 1 pt]. 

 I decided to return to the other fork and explore that direction, but found the path mysteriously blocked by a wall. I couldn't for the life of Fjörgyn figure out how the path became blocked. (It wasn't until after the game when John explained how the flickering of my torch could be related to such magic. I will never shrug off a flickering torch again) A search for secret doors revealed nothing, despite my elven prowess in such matters, so onward I went.

After trying to climb my way around the walls of a room and falling onto a great glowing sigil painted on its floor (which cost a point of INT), I made my way into a chamber wherein a large leather bound book, sealed with a clasp,  rested on a small plain stone dais. BINGO!

Taking no chances with my safety, but risking the book, I knocked it from its resting place. As the book skidded into the rough ground, this transgression triggered the rapid appearance of 3 skeleton warriors bent on making my life pretty miserable in a battle that did not go my way (I came close enough to death that I was fidgeting and getting worried).

Finally, in an act of desperation, bloodied and bruised, I grabbed the spellbook and, like a young Walter Payton (thanks John), blasted through their line and out the door into the hall opposite the way I came in. The skeletons did not pursue. I came to the precipice of a great chasm some 20' wide. 

Despair settled in for a moment before the light bulb went off and I noticed hand holds and a small ledge allowing me to cross the chasm ever so carefully. 

Ahead, I heard the distinct sound of loud voices and with torch extinguished I spied several humanoid shapes sitting about another cavern. 

With surprise on my side, I prepared my Charm Person spell. It was not until I uttered the necessary phrases that the goblins became aware of my presence and by then it was too late - all but one of them failed their save. The sole exception charged into melee (I won the initiative) but was cut down quickly and easily. As for the others, they could not understand why their brutish companion would attack their dear friend, the elf.

So happy were they to see their long lost bestie, they readily gave up information about the tunnel system. Realizing my health had been seriously compromised by the statue and the skeletons, I asked for directions to the closest entrance. As it turned out, the goblins had their own secret way in and out of the cave and happily showed me the way to the surface. Phew.

Sadly, obligations to their Boss prevented them from going with me back to town to continue our joyous gathering.

We ended the game there. Fjörgyn promptly locked up the GM before he could sick any other creatures on her. 

Fjörgyn gets stabby in Skalafell

I feel a bit cheap for copying so much from Tabletop Diversions. I would like to get these summaries out faster so that I can begin posting up to date games!

John thought that it may be easier for me to play a single character, in this case, Fjörgyn. Charlie Bucky was present as a side-kick, necessary from a survival point of view, but not from a learning of the game viewpoint. 

Enter Black Streams : Solo Heroes. This will make it far more likely that Fjörgyn can survive just fine on her own, with a few henchman hired here and there.

Fjörgyn and party made their way out of the dungeon and back to town, after our harrowing encounter with some fire beetles that left us pretty beat up. We heard horrible wailing and moans coming from the desecrated shrine of the Forgetful Bear, but we had other things to do. What a hero Fjörgyn is! 

After resting over night, Charlie Bucky parted company for Hedeby and a life in the big kitty city. 

I dismissed Badir and Zelligant for the day. 

With the henchmen departed, I set off to pay old man Alfarinson another visit. Along the way, I kept my eyes peeled for an offering to present to the voodoo-witch doctor-hermit-type. I soon spotted an antler worthy of gifting the old man. 

I found Alferinson working near the side of his hut, drying a deer skin over a fire. Instead of gagging, I approached offered him the antler and after a brief exchange in which he began to get a bit salty with me, I  accused him of being one of the cultists and basically, the embodiment of evil. Do we see a pattern developing between Fjörgyn and anyone who dare speak to her in a less than enthusiastic manor? He told me to leave, but I refused. Nobody tells Fjörgyn what to do! With elven reflexes, I snatched the antler out of Alfarinson's hands and stabbed him.

Unfortunately, the furs and leather he wore absorbed much of the blow and I only managed a minor wound. This surprised me somehow, I had envisioned a swift kill there. Instead of dying, he was enraged. He reached down and grabbed a flaming log, and it was on!

To my surprise, the old man put up a tough fight - and it didn't help matters that part way through the battle, a divine light shone around him, which clearly rejuvenated him. Just as I finally managed to cut the old man down, I heard a shrill scream behind me and turned to catch a glimpse of a little girl running back towards the front of house. My first thought "Oh no! A witness!"

A moment later, the door slammed shut.

I decided to nose around the back of the hut. I found a dirty, thick glass window, and could only make out a door opposite on an interior wall. After covering the body with the deer skin, I first thought about trying to seal the girl inside, but, given that the door opened into the hut, that would prove difficult. As thunder and then rain moved in, I kicked the door down.

Finding nothing, I made my way to the opposite door. Kicking it open, I found myself in a small bedroom - the same room I had spied from outside. After lighting the lantern near the bed, I rifled through the suspicious lump of skins and furs on the bed, but found no one hiding there.  

My search was interrupted by the sounds of heavy clomping on the front porch, followed by a man's voice calling out "We know you're here Old Man!"

Fjörgyn resembled  a deer in headlights. I was truly taken by surprise and a bit frightened of what may come next. 

Ol' Tabletop's Guide to Packing for DragonCon 2014

Always such an organized fella.
http://tabletopdiversions.blogspot.com/2014/08/dragoncon-2014-ten-days-and-counting.html

Mail call

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Mondays...

Working hard? Of course I am!

Fjörgyn's decent into madness...

When we left off, Fjörgyn and Charlie Bucky met up with Zelligant and Badir outside of The Queen's Cauldron. 

 
Having thought it over, I decided  that rather than leaving town, I would attempt to get some more information about the missing girl, Thorifinna, from the girl's father.
(After John explained to me what provisions I would need to adventure on. I decided that I wanted to gain XP and build up enough GP to carry me through that trek to Gorgoroth and into the dungeon beneath Trelleborg)
Thorifinna's father was nowhere to be found and did not answer when we knocked on the door of his cottage. We peacefully went on our merry way.

 
A brief discussion with one of the older farmers in the village gave some insight into the interesting connection of the villager slain by the ghoul and the missing girl's father (Bodvarr) - the slain villager (Gunnar) was having an affair with the girl's mother. This had me wondering, did Bodvarr have a pact with the ghoul? Is BODVARR the ghoul? Is it a coincidence? Bodvarr disappeared the day after Thorifinna. He was last seen at the tavern where his wife had come in to fetch him. Did they run away together? Perhaps his wife killed him and ran off with Thorifinna? I had so many ideas swimming in my head. 


As for Thorifinna, I've only heard that she is a good girl, 9 or 10 years of age, who does all of her chores in the forest.



Returning to the Shrine of the Forgetful Bear to ask Sister Rebecca some questions, I found the Sister uncooperative [this was determined by dice rolls]. When I offered her some gold to help grease the wheel a bit, Sister Rebecca responded with visible scorn [a terrible reaction roll brought this about] and told us to go find the girl, after which she closed the door on us. This ended up being a huge moment in Fjörgyn's development and my own as a role player. I felt furious that Sister Rebecca would refuse to answer questions that could actually HELP us to find her precious Thorifinna. I was doing her a solid by even looking for the girl! Oh, I was heated and I'm getting revved up just recalling those moments. Perhaps Fjörgyn the do-gooder would have just let it go or tried to see the situation from Sister Rebecca's standpoint? After being treated with less than open arms, something in Fjörgyn shifted.


Irritated by the rebuff, and possessing a new, general dislike of Sister Rebecca, I produced the still beating human heart I had recovered from the ghoul's tomb and placed it on the steps of the shrine as a warning to Sister Rebecca that I mean business. She should rethink her saltiness toward me.

To everyone's surprise, the sky quickly filled with clouds, rain poured down, lightning cracked and the thunder sounded much like the roar of a bear. 

The carving of a bear's head above the shrine's entrance exploded into dust as a thick blackness oozed out of the heart, up the stairs and under the door.

We stood in awe for a brief moment before wisely trudging off in the downpour to the dungeon.


(Kudos to John for creating this scene. It was so intense and awesome in the game)

I am going to add the next session below. I'm trying to get caught up with my D&D posts so that I can be current and also focus on some solo games.
........................................

After resting for a bit, we re-lit our torches, and I lead them back up the steps into the store room to root about the items there. I was hoping to find some treasure in the chests. With Charlie Bucky and Badir watching the exits, Zelligant and I fussed about with the chests.

Out in the darkness of the hallway to the north, Badir caught sight of glowing orbs moving towards them and coming in fast. 


The chests abandoned, Charlie Bucky and I rushed to the door to see four giant fire beetles closing in on them. I named them the Fab Four.

I unleashed an arrow but it did little good and soon the battle was joined.

The gods (the dice gods, that is) were kind to Zelligant and Badir, but both Charlie Bucky and I took significant damage before the surviving beetles were driven off.

Licking our wounds, literally perhaps in Charlie Bucky's case, we returned to the potential treasures where our luck went from bad to worse.

     My feline inspiration for Charlie Bucky. She's fierce huh?

Unable to open a locked box, I instructed Badir to use his club to smash it.

Although successful, he triggered a gas trap inside, which quickly filled the room with its haze. With some relief, here, finally, was a moment of luck for us: only Badir slumped to the ground unconscious.(if you call that luck) This was my first experience with any sort of gas trap. It didn't occur to me at first that it may be a sleeping gas. I thought Badir was done for.

I decided to let him rest there while we scooped out the silver and gold inside the box.


To be continued...

Fjörgyn's Third Dungeons and Dragons Adventure

In early April, we played another game via chat. 

When we last left off, Fjörgyn stood admiring the wretched, now slain, bat beast. 


Remembering the sinking feeling I experienced after the adventure where I heartlessly (well, not ENTIRELY heartless as I still had the beating human heart in my backpack *evil laugh*) left poor Grungo in that tomb with the slain ghoul, I decided I needed to do right by Thora. With Zelligant's help, I carried Thora's lifeless body to the Shrine of the Forgetful Bear. I hoped that Sister Rebecca would perform the burial rites. Sister Rebecca tended to Thora and offered me healing which I declined. I really don't know why I declined the offer, but I assume Fjörgyn has some trust issues. I mean, how many times did Zelligant change his name?!


I left the Shrine of the Forgetful Bear to head to the Queen's Cauldron to scout hirelings and socialize with the locals.


Enthusiasm was not in the air as I searched the bar for potential help. I could make out some whispers about Grungo and Thora's fate on our little adventures. Finally. a shady character emerged with his face covered mostly by a mask. I was half terrified, half excited to have him on my side when he offered to come along.

In addition, Charlie Bucky, (inspired by my own feline friend) a halfling sized cat [a nekomata? We're just using halfling stats but she gets 2 claws and a bite per round. Giving me two PCs to increase my chances of survival and to reduce reliance on too many hirelings] in plate mail with sharpened steel sheaths for her claws and a short bow caught up with me and was more than happy to go along with whatever adventure I had planned.

Charlie Bucky

In the morning, Charlie Bucky and I met the staff outside the Cauldron and discussed the plan for the day - I announced that I wanted to leave for Gorgoroth (that was way more surprising than the warrior cat creature). I felt quite certain that, having slain the strange beast, the missing girl would be able to escape the perils of the underground lair and return home and if not, she was probably already dead. (I roll my eyes at this logic now)

Fjörgyn is nothing if not a realist!

[here the session ended as John was not prepared for a hex crawl. he explained the need to equip for the travel and the dangers that might pose, so that I could make informed decisions about what to bring. Since then, after further discussions about the nature of the game, I have decided that I should explore the dungeon a little more before moving on to the next town of Hael.]

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