25 May 2008: Experience

The City of Towers, Sharn looms in the distance, waiting for you.

500 exp for Destroying the Wake Portal and escaping Haven-Fara.

200 exp for the expert handling of Harc, Keel and the administering of Justice.

100 exp for the choices made with Malacoda

Our totals currently look like:

Tombor, Coriell, Daenerys:
800 + 14,243 = 15,043 exp

Rafad:
800 + 13,493 = 14293 exp

Dymphna:
13,153 exp

These totals represent at least how many experience points you should have. You may have more if you received bonus experience points.

Our Next Gaming Date is:

Still up in the air, but I am hoping we will be able to start gaming more often (maybe twice a month?), once school is out.  We can discuss more via e-mail.

What they left behind

5/25/08 Danerys Reporting

pandemonium! Our goal: to get through the portal without getting scorched. Multiple dragons, multiple hell hounds. Everybody attacks, most baddies aim for the short one with the armor. Dragons are attacking the townspeople, ASYLM defenders and players, melting dogs with acid spit.

 

Tombor takes on two dragons, one of whom zaps lightning through Tombor’s armor and scorches a hole in Tombor’s hobgoblin opponent. Only to get attacked by a “not gigantic” green dragon. Danerys tries to step in with a scorching ray, but it doesn’t seem like a good idea when I see the green dragon’s steely glare. The blue dragon attacks Coriell while Rafad takes a parting shot at the black dragon, who swoops in to kidnap Dympnha. Dymphna launches her flaming sphere at the ship’s deck, which sets everyone in a mad panic for the portal. Coriell dives heroically through the portal like a girl, Tombor clicks his boots and bolts, only to stop before the portal entrance to save an unconscious ASYLM member.  Danerys runs and can’t help but take some parting shots at the green dragon. Tombor acts the Schwarzenegger role fighting hellhounds while pulling unconscious dude toward the portal.

 

The remaining dragons tag team on Danerys forcing her to make a tough decision, get bit and run or try and kill. Running seems best. Tombor bull runs Danerys through the portal, as she curses the breed DRAGON!

 

We find ourselves further west than we were, by 1000 miles or so.  There are a few hours of daylight left.

 

On the horizon, we see a plateau.  On top of it, there is a castle, which appears to have a castle upon it.  Upon that castle is a series of towers, with towers upon them.  In the clouds, there are floating towers.  Welcome to Sharn!!!

Coriell takes over reporting:

Riding towards us is a military phalanx.  Theodorus and Malacoda ride out to meet them.  Three hours later, it looks like Theodorus, Malacoda, and Geoffrey the Pale have been speaking with the leaders of Sharn.  Wyvern riders are circling and corralling the hordes.  Some of the members of the Sharn forces seem to be “constructs” of wood, metal, & adamantine.

 

As the night starts to set, there is a strange mood in the camp.  The Haven-Farans are out for justice and want to execute Cap Galen and his cronies.  Harc and Keel have set about building gallows to hang the criminals, but this is problematic.  The king of Sharn may see this as a transgression of his laws, which could spell doom for the Haven-Farans, the ASYLM refugees, and the group.

 

Rafad attempts to talk sense into Harc and Keel, but they’re not having any of it.  They want justice.  They fully intend to execute Galen, consequences be damned.

 

Rafad and Coriell go forth and speak to the members of the guard.  Johann Ironfounderson, a captain in the Sharn Guard, informs Rafad that if Galen and the criminals are turned over to Sharn, they will have their fates decided by the magistrates, and the punishments range from execution to hard labor to prison time.

 

Coriell and Rafad go back to Harc and Keel to make one last attempt at diplomacy.  Harc and Rafad are intent on killing Galen, so they walk into a tent in which the captain is held in a pillory.  Harc draws a knife, at which point Coriell and Rafad enter combat.

 

After much grappling, Rafad attacks the tent with a mighty blow, bringing down the supporting pole.  Tombor then arrived on the scene and proceeded to pimp slap the Haven-Faran punk-asses. 

 

After the pimp slapping, Tombor gave a rousing speech that shamed the riled up Haven-Farans.  At this point, Rafad, Coriell and Tombor round up Galen and the criminals and lead them to Johann Ironfounderson, where they were given into his custody. 

 

Later on in the evening, two Sharn guards approach us.  They inform us that the watch captain wants a word.  We are led past the tent of healing to a new area.  Inside the tent, we find Malacoda.  He tells us that he has learned many things today.  He seems pleased with our actions concerning Harc and Keel. 

 

He waxes philosophical about our place in this strange, yet familiar, new world.  Do we adhere to the laws of this new land, or do we rebel?  We must take on new roles…and what roles shall we play?

 

He admits that he has called us to the tent under false pretenses.  He speaks to us of Galen, and his possible fate.  He leaves a pouch on the table, then leaves.  He pokes his head back in and tells us that it’s very, very interesting that you can’t speak with a dead body if that body has been turned into an undead creature.

 

DM edit on what Malacoda said,

“I have been very busy today, and have learned a great deal.  For example, there are some members of the Sharn watch who do not mind earning some extra coin in exchange for a small favor.  I have called you here under false pretenses, because there may be a need to deny that we met tonight.  Many people saw you being led to this tent by the Sharn watch, and the guards outside will declare that you were called here to answer questions about Galen and his men.

 

We find ourselves in a new world.  Everything is familiar…  but so different in many ways.

 

We need to consider our role in this new world.  We, as the people of ASYLM, have a long tradition of working together to maintain a sense of justice and harmony.  How do we continue to respect that?  Do we just conform to the laws of the land?  What if we find ourselves in the land of a tyrant?  Do we rise up and fight openly?  Sometimes the subtle knife cuts more deeply than the open sword.  We may have to consider taking on new roles in this new world.  What role will you play?

 

There is no question in my mind that Galen and his men deserve to die for their crimes.  But if they are killed, they can still be made to speak against those who administered justice.  Ah, the trouble with magic in this world.  A quick call for a cleric, and speak with dead will have them making claims against the living from the plane of the dead.

 

I have faith in you to make the right decisions.  I know you will find your role in this new world.

 

<With this, Malacoda produces a pouch from within his robes and sets it on the table.  He looks at it meaningfully, then moves to leave.  As he lifts the tent flap, he pokes his head back in the tent to say,>

 

Interesting arcane trivia, you cannot cast speak with dead on a body which has been converted into an undead creature.”

 

Inside the pouch, there are six onyx gems (worth 50 gp each) and a scroll of animate dead.

 

The group decides that it wants no part of Malacoda’s machinations, and they walk out of the tent, leaving the pouch on the table.  Rafad, the last person in the tent, buries the pouch and walks out. 

 

The night wears on, and the group gathers information…

 

Coriell learns that during the Last War, the people of the Eldeen Reaches have split from the nation of Aundair to form their own nation.  This has caused a great deal of tension between the Eldeen Reaches and Aundair.

 

Rafad and Danerys play dice with the soldiers, and learn a good deal about Sharn, the Last War and current events.

 

Suddenly, at 5 in the morning, screams are heard from the direction of the tent where Galen and his men were held.  Rene DeLair, Victor Saint-Demain and Captain Pardesh struck down six undead who had risen and attacked from within the tent.

 

Good times were had by all.

 

Minor Corrections and a little Religion

Tombor wrote, “Captain Galen was apparently using this to evade being punished for piracy.”

Captain Grist Haven was a notorious gnome pirate 300 years ago. He had used the Wake Portal to evade being punished for piracy, and eventually to retire by transporting his ship, The Good Fortune, to its final resting place in the town he settled called Haven-Fara. The Wake Portal had not been used for 300 years… until today!

Captain Arden “Cap” Galen was the villain you stopped from destroying Haven-Fara. He never used the Wake Portal. His thugs are Mik Godkin, Etan Flint, Fynn Blakcort, Drake and Tarn Machy (twin brothers).

After the trial, Westin, flanked by Harc and Keel, announced that the thugs will all get fifty lashes each. Arden Galen will hang by the neck until dead.

Tombor wrote, “Sam gives [Coriell] chain armor, which was blessed by the goddess Aroway.”

Chain Shirt of Arawai – Arawai is one of the “Sovereign Host”, a group of nine deities who are worshiped by many of the people of Eberron. Arawai is “a deity of fertility, plant life and abundance. She claims many druids and rangers among her followers, as well as farmers, sailors and any who are significantly concerned with weather and fertility.”

The Sovereign Host is opposed by The Dark Six, who are also worshiped by many (mainly evil) people of Eberron. Although many people do make offerings to the Dark Six to ward off their wrath, few worship them openly, except in evil kingdoms like the goblin nation of Darguun.

The Blood of Vol and Church of the Silver Flame are two other religious groups in Eberron. We will discuss the religions of Eberron in greater detail later.

Experience and Next Game Date

As the cries of those still fighting and those dying ring in your ears, you make haste back to the center of town, all the while thinking… “How close am I to leveling?”

Everyone receives 1045 exp for Defending the Town of Haven-Fara.

Our totals currently look like:

Tombor, Coriell, Daenerys:
1045 + 13,198 = 14,243 exp

Rafad:
1045 + 12,448 = 13,493 exp

Dymphna:
1045 + 12,108 = 13,153 exp

These totals represent at least how many experience points you should have. You may have more if you received bonus experience points.

Our Next Gaming Date is:

Sunday, May 25 at 1:00 pm PST – Gaming BBQ
Sunday, May 25 at 4:00 pm PST – The Gaming Garage

We see a familiar shape…

• We’re back at Haven Fara.  Lord Malacoda is here with the refugees, and asks us for our plan.

 

• Geoffrey the Pale is supposedly warping people through to Sharn, but he’s about an hour’s walk away.

 

• We tell Lord Malacoda about the gate, and about Geoffrey the Pale.  It’s about 12:30 pm right now.  The gate should be working in 4 – 5 hours.  There’s a ship with a magic wheel that will open a portal to wherever Geoffrey the Pale wants us to know.  Captain Galen was apparently using this to evade being punished for piracy.  You can only open a portal to places we’ve been, and GtP is opening up a portal to a field outside of Sharn that he knows well.  Lord Malacoda wants to know what happens to the device after we go through.  We have a sending stone.

 

• We talk to Jess, and he says that we can leave some people there in case of attack, but he usually sends a runner back to Haven Fara for help, but that isn’t fast enough. 

 

• Our speaking stone buzzes – Geofrrey asks if we’re coming back, and if the battle is over.  We say: “Battle over, red hand retreats, portal open?  Trust the drou.  On way.”

 

• Lord Malacoda calls together the rest of his lieutenants, and we start heading into town.  The townspeople are planning on leaving with us.  We decide to not leave anyone there.  We head towards town.

 

• Rafad finds 10 gold pieces worth of gold coins when he loots, and slits the throats of anyone still alive.

 

• Stone:  GtP says ‘portal will be open soon.  Surprised by the number of refugees, they just keep coming.’  This brings up the question of what will happen when we arrive in Sharn.  Should we send an envoy?  Should all 3000 of us just show up?  Who owns the field we’re moving onto?  Will the people of Sharn think that we’re an invading force?

 

• It’s pandemonium the closer we get to Haven Fara.  Nobody knows what the plan is.  Lord Malacoda tries to spreak the portal plan, but we don’t have enough details.  We go with him to meet with GtP.  Lodar Oarknocker comes up to Dymphna, and wants to talk to her about GtP.  Lodar has been watching him, and GtP and Rene have been butting heads. Lodar was watching over GtP’s shoulder, and GtP is a divination specialist.  But the wheel is putting off a lot of conjuration aura – Lodar doesn’t think GtP knows what he’s doing.  He seems to be doing his best, and Rene isn’t helping.  Rene has stormed off.  Lodar thinks he can get the portal open if he can get some time to work on it.  Dymphna: if we can get GtP away, then Lodar will only need 20 or 30 minutes to get it working.  Lodar is an artificer.  He can’t do the part where he has to know the location of the portal, but he thinks he can get it to the point where we can activate it, and GtP can set it to where we want to be.  GtP wants to be the one who’s hands-on, and isn’t really letting Lodar help.  Lord Malacoda comes back:  he wants to come up with a plan for our arrival in Sharn.  Do we send an ambassador?  LM says he’ll pull GtP aside to discuss these issues.  LM will pretend to be ill, so that GtP will go to him.

 

• Other questions:  Will we leave this end of the portal open for our enemies to follow us?  Who owns the field we’re going to?  How big is it?  Can the portal be opened multiple times?  How long does it stay open?  Should we send an envoy; if so, who?  Should we warn the people of Sharn that goblins are on the way?

 

• Jess decides to go back and get proof of the red hand goblins.

 

• Dymphna goes to talk to GtP.

 

• Goodies:
  • Hark comes and talks to Tombor.  He was a councilman in Haven Fara.  Hark thanks us for uncovering Cap Galen’s corruption, and for getting rid of the spider.  He gives me a pair of boots with wings painted on them.  Continuous +2 bonus to jump.  At each dawn, they’ll have five charges.  1 charge:  +20 to round/move.  3 charges:  +40 to move/round.  5 charges: +60 to move.

 

•  
  • Dr. Gryll comes up to Rafad, and offers him some potions: 5 cure lt wounds, 3 cure mild wounds.

 

•  
  • Weston comes up to Rafad, and is carrying a bow.  He says: there were a few things left in the treasure bunker, but use this with caution.  One of the Dark Six was The Shadow.  This bow is called The Shadow’s Touch.  Weston thinks that Rafad has the strength to resist any temptation this bow may send his way.  +1 short bow.   +1d6 cold damage.  Critical: slows someone for 3 rounds.  When Rafad touches it, it sends a cold tingle down his arm.

 

•  
  • Sam and Marge Wilson approach Coriell.  Coriell pulled Marge out of one of the spider nests.  Sam gives him chain armour, which was blessed by the goddess Aroway.  +1 chain, +5 to armor class.  Once per day:  heals 2d8 + 5.

 

•  
  • Keel, the heavily scarred gnome councilman from Haven Fara, comes up to Daenyris.  He gives her a ring.  Ring allows you to cast a spell into the ring that other can use later, without magical training.  You can put up to 5 spell levels into the ring.  Then anyone can cast them out of the ring.  You have to be wearing the ring to cast.

 

•  
  • Dymphna gets Armor.   Armor of the Beast.  +1 armor class.  When Dymphna changes into animal form, she still gets armor in her animal form.  The total for this armor is +4.

 

• Dymphna talks to GtP.  He’s pretty frantic.  She tells him that the goblins are the Red Fang Marauders, and they are part of the Red Hand.  GtP goes to see Lord Malacoda.  Lodar starts ‘monkeying with the thing’. 

 

• Daneyris sees GtP, and leads him to LM.  They cover some important information.

 

• Rafad finds his brother and sister.  He throws them money.  His brother says: mother’s dead.  He asks if Rafad has seen their other brother – yes, but he was a horror tainted beast.  He tells his brother ‘he didn’t make it’.  Rafad feels awkward, then leaves.

 

• The field in Sharn belongs to the king.  GtP feels that he has enough contacts through the university to arrange an audience with the king, or one of his people.  There’s enough room for all of us.  The portal can stay open for a number of hours.  How big is the portal?  We can put a good number of people through – it’s forty to sixty feet wide.  We’ll need to arrange our men to march through together.  They can enter the portal at both sides.  (We can march people through twenty-four at a time, 150 deep.)  LM and GtP work out whom to send through first.  Clergy first, then they can keep everyone in order, and heal those that come through.  On the question of what to do with the portal, any wizard can activate the portal.  We can’t take it with us, so is there a way for us to disable it?  If we can destroy the wheel, then eventually that will destroy the portal.  The portal would probably stay open a few minutes after the destruction of the wheel. Later:  Maybe we can save the portal by wheeling the boat on logs or something similar. 

 

• Rafad looks for Weston and Theodorous.  Weston’s in the middle of a trial. 

 

• Lodar fiddles with the wheel, and it starts to glow in a way it hadn’t done before.  How will we explain this to GtP?  GtP shows up back at the wheel, and tells GtP that it had started to glow on its own after he left.  He believes the bluff.  Once we get the portal open, it will take less than an hour to get everyone through.  It will take longer to get everyone lined up.  LM is working on getting everyone in place.  Theodorous will be the envoy, and he will go through with a letter from GtP.

 

• Tombor finds his father – he’s an emotional wreck.  Mother’s lost – he doesn’t think she’s dead.  They got separated in the first round of attacks.  He asks Tombor to help look for her.

 

•  GtP fills Dymphna in on the plan to destroy the gate.  Cover the deck of the ship in gunpowder, then roll a fireball through once we get through.  GtP doesn’t want to destroy it, but it’s too big a risk that it might fall into the wrong hands.

 

• Danerys goes to get Lodar.  Weston comes out of the ship flanked by Keel and Hark.  The trial is over – Arden Galen will pay for his crimes – Mick odkin: fifty lashes.  Fint: fifty lashes.  Blackcourt: fifty lashes.  Twins: fifty lashes.  Galen:  will hand from the neck until dead.  The prisoners who will be lashed are going to go through the portal with everyone else.  They are in barrels.

 

• Rafad asks Weston if the other spider people will go through the portal.  No, Weston and his kind will ‘get lost in the shuffle’, and strike out on their own.  They have no interest in going to Sharn. 

 

•  Rafad and Denerys bring their idea to carry the ship through the portal to Lord Malacoda.  No go.  We stack gunpowder around the ship.  The townspeople say goodbye to their ship, but don’t want it to fall into enemy hands.

 

• Geoffrey the Pale has some success.  It’s 4pm, and the sun is going down.  The portal opens 100 feet in front of the Good Fortune.  We see sunbathed fields through the portal.  Captain Pardesh tells us that in case of an attack, we should defend the field south of Haven Fara, where the refugees are moving through the portal.  Our job is to hold the line.  Theodorous and the clergy are organizing the refugees as they go through the portal.  Dymphna and Coriell will be the last through to destroy the ship.

 

• People begin going through the portals.  Rafad rides out to scout and see if there are any goblins coming.  He hears the sound of drums, and sees twenty or thirty goblins through us.  He doesn’t see the guy who rides a MONSTER DOG! and seems to be in command.  The goblins are about half and hour out, and have banners of a red hand on a yellow field.

 

• Tombor has three potions of cure light wounds in his bandolier.  We prepare for battle.  People have been going through the portal for about an hour.

 

•  We see goblins, wargs and hellhounds coming towards us.  Dympna prepares to entangle.

 

•  After an epic battle, with many critical fails, we defeat the goblins.  We take Urthok the Unconscious with us – right before he went down, he said something about his ‘mistress not being happy’.  After defeating the goblins, we see a familiar shape overhead – the black dragon.  After communicating with Lord Malacoda with the speaking stone, we hear that Haven Fara is surrounded by goblins and there are multiple dragons.  It’s time to blow this pop stand.  We’ll run through the portal, then destroy the wheel (and ship)!