Adjo's Journals (6 of N)
Sep. 24th, 2008 11:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHi,
That which does not kill us makes us stronger. With this tired old cliche, you may surmise that I survived the battle and, in fact, have gone on to even greater triumph.
You will recall we were locked in battle with a snowblinding Varten and a frost ogre of some kind (wielding a bell clapper). Kestrel was menacing the Varten and was joined by Shay -- apparently he didn't work out on shieldwall duty and they put him back with the expendables. In fact, he was part of the other scouting group that Alzor, the Elf Ranger who joined us earlier was part of (I tried to avoid learning Alzor's name, but Shay introduced us and what can you do). So those two were reunited at least.
But that was later. Right now, Kestrel and Shay were bracketing the Varten whilst the frost ogre was quite literally ringing out the lights on my teammates. I lashed out with a force orb to some good effect, but the follow on magic missiles were hampered by the scrum of friendlies in front of the ogre and amounted to little. Luckily, Alanna moved up, and potions were employed and eventually Thrace lopped off a leg and it bled out in a satisfying rush.
Taking stock, we decided that we were basically all done and looked for a place to hunker down for the night, although being underground makes that a difficult determination at best. I fear that we've rather lost the plot. Given the recent seismic activity, I would think that finding a way to the surface would be a top priority but everyone else seems content to wander aimlessly about this sprawling, unstable warren until...well something happens I guess. Our mission orders are sufficiently vague that this seems like a capital idea to Hendel. Again, I consider that the army might have better spent my consultant fees on some leadership courses for the NCOs, but what's done is done.
In his headlong flight, Shay came across the barracks that the Gibbers assaulted us from. After clearing a less-filthy space (and finding a couple of potions), we all got some sleep (except for Thrace who activated some sort of internal meditation sub-routine called "Tetris" to relieve the boredom).
It was during that night that it happened. I had a dream. An omen. I was walking along a busy city street at night. All around me the crowd was constant buzzing drone. Slowly, I began to separate one conversation from the other. I heard lovers whispering to one another, merchants haggling over some business deal, the drunken epiphanies of the bum in the street and darker plottings of shadowy figures in the alleyways. A flood of secret, hidden knowledge all flowing like a river around me, but each current easily isolated.
The night was light as if under a full moon, but when I realized this, I felt a compulsion to look up and there, hovering high above the city was not the moon, but a bright, blue-white star. From my studies, I recalled that this was the star Khirad, often considered propitious in divinations and arcane researches. The earth was wrenched away beneath my feet and I shot up into the sky. Khirad grew in size even as the earth below me dwindled to an insignificant dot.
I was suspended, unimaginably far away in the sky, in the grip of an unbelievable cold, Khirad an ice-blue light that blotted everything else out. And in that unimaginable light and chill and silence, Khirad gave me a glimpse, a hint of the power and the knowledge it could offer me in my search for the 100 Rituals. It approved of the Ahura School, it approved of my quest, it approved of me and it wanted to help. In return? Well, just be sure the Secret Six met a grisly and unpleasant end and that would be sacrifice enough. A more than fair price, it aligned with my interests perfectly. We reached agreement.
I awoke as if from a fever. I was covered in sweat, but it was a sweat made of softly glowing starlight. The others were either horrified or contemptuous of my state. I couldn't care less. A slight shake of the bedroll dispersed the starlight and now, now I have new found power to complete my task.
They all changed their tune over breakfast. One of my more trifling powers allows me to change the temperature and flavor of food. Our allotment of rations barely qualifies as food, but it's much more palatable when you think you're having hot pancakes or an omelette. By rights I should've left them to their dry, tasteless hardtack, but with my growing power comes a certain noblesse oblige and so I indulged them.
After all this, we picked a corridor and random, left Ander, Thrace and Alzor behind to guard the rear and set off to see what we could find. What we found was a t-intersection with a smear of fresh blood on the floor. The rest of us employed a variety of investigative techniques to see what we could find out. Hendel went with the more expedient method of tasting the blood to determine that it was from a Drow. Between Pitball games and "taste it" as a major laboratory procedure Dwarven culture and Dwarves themselves are highly suspect.
We follow along the branch where the Drow came from/was dragged to. The scouts (Kestrel and Shay, showing an amazing amount of cooperation for a change) find a large room with rough quarried stone stacked about. We come in on a large platform and there are two sets of steps leading down to the floor on either side. The scouts head down one flight to check things out and are promptly ambushed by a Drow.
I suppose I should point out that these are the "bad Drow", I mean, they attacked us which pretty much means we're going to kill them, but Alanna seems touchy to point out that these are "bad Drow". I'm sure that soon, she'll be explaining that she is a real, honest-to-goodness Drow and that we're fighting some off-shoot sub-race called Drowdain or something. I'm so glad that humans don't have all these ignorant racial hang-ups.
But back to the fight. Shay and Kestrel chase down their attacker, the rest of the party moves out onto the platform and promptly splits up with one group going right and the other group going left. Alanna and I stay on the platform watch the chaos below.
Shay, Kestrel and Taras rush forward and sort of fail to notice all the other Drow standing around them. Hendel and Blaze fail to notice the Drow standing in front of them. At this point the platform Alanna and I are standing on gives way and we both take a nasty fall. I may have briefly passed out or had a concussion because there was a sudden spear of blue-white light and I conceived of a new method to weave magical energies and prevent a deadly fall. A piece of wisdom I wish I had possessed moments earlier, but survive and learn.
Struggling to my feet, I decide that we're all doing far too much fumbling about and toss a light spell into the air. It reveals another half dozen Drow we hadn't yet spotted so I'm not sure if that was a win or a loss. There follows several rounds of lashing out at the nearest Drow, chugging a potion (again, I am alone and unsupported!), and trying to consolidate my position. Finally, Alanna moves across the room to be near Taras (who's been eagerly encouraging the Drow to play poison acupuncture with him). With the healer moving out of range, I nimbly step around to be next to her. A group of Drow are hot on our heels, but I cool them off a bit with my freezing cloud. The deadly chill seeps into the Drow and shatters two of them. The last is badly damaged, but before I can blast him back into the cloud with my thunderwave, Alanna skewers him. Not as stylish as I would've done it, but form over function.
At this point, things seem well in hand. Thus, it is at this point that a group of Drow come barreling up the stairs and behind them is some evil cleric or spellcaster and some sort of weaponmaster. I prepare to launch a series of long range attacks against the cleric, when she brandishes an amulet and the Drow we've already killed rise up as zombies. Since I was standing back amidst the bodies I was once again hung out to dry. Still, I must admit, it's a really slick magical effect and I should probably learn how to do that.
But there was no time to talk shop. The sudden revival of the down Drow meant that I had to change tactics quickly. Fortunately, the negative energies holding the zombies together was rather weak and zombie Drow aren't nearly as nimble as non-zombie Drow. My scorching bursts laid waste to whole groups of zombies as the party pushed closer together. Alanna and Taras bracketed the cleric and eventually killed her while Shay, Kestrel and myself cooked off the zombies and living Drow guards. Hendel and Blaze took a pounding from the weaponmaster, but they returned the favor and once the cleric goes down, everyone piles on the weaponmaster and finshed him off.
In the aftermath I wonder if the Drow have caused/taken advantage of the recent earthquake to break into this Dwarven stronghold or if they were always here. I also wonder if perhaps they have allied with the Gibbers. Perhaps they are the source of the weird fire runes we've been finding on them? I wish we could go back and rest, but I suppose the other will insist on pushing on. I hope this is the most resistance we encounter for awhile.
I also hope my enlightening dreams continue.
NOTES: This was a great sesssion. Except for the fact that I forgot that Adjo had just taken Feather Fall as a utility power and so wouldn't have been hurt in the fall from the platform, everything else really worked for him. He made good use of his encounter and daily powers. The freezing cloud really pulled its weight by killing/severely wounding a bunch of Drow and forcing another one to choose a different target to avoid its effects. The scorching bursts ripped up the minion zombies. Adjo really felt "wizard-y" this session.
As you may have guessed, Adjo picked Pact Initiate (Star) for his 2nd level feat. These power initiate feats are neat. Not only does it give you an extra (weak) encounter power, you also get a training bonus in a skill from your feat's chosen class. I picked up Streetwise because it fits with Adjo's investigative theme. I'm seriously considering investing in more multi-class feats because I'd like to pull in some Warlock powers to give Adjo a bit more "hit one target hard" powers while saving the wizard stuff for "affect a whole bunch of creatures all at once". We'll see how it goes.
later
Tom
That which does not kill us makes us stronger. With this tired old cliche, you may surmise that I survived the battle and, in fact, have gone on to even greater triumph.
You will recall we were locked in battle with a snowblinding Varten and a frost ogre of some kind (wielding a bell clapper). Kestrel was menacing the Varten and was joined by Shay -- apparently he didn't work out on shieldwall duty and they put him back with the expendables. In fact, he was part of the other scouting group that Alzor, the Elf Ranger who joined us earlier was part of (I tried to avoid learning Alzor's name, but Shay introduced us and what can you do). So those two were reunited at least.
But that was later. Right now, Kestrel and Shay were bracketing the Varten whilst the frost ogre was quite literally ringing out the lights on my teammates. I lashed out with a force orb to some good effect, but the follow on magic missiles were hampered by the scrum of friendlies in front of the ogre and amounted to little. Luckily, Alanna moved up, and potions were employed and eventually Thrace lopped off a leg and it bled out in a satisfying rush.
Taking stock, we decided that we were basically all done and looked for a place to hunker down for the night, although being underground makes that a difficult determination at best. I fear that we've rather lost the plot. Given the recent seismic activity, I would think that finding a way to the surface would be a top priority but everyone else seems content to wander aimlessly about this sprawling, unstable warren until...well something happens I guess. Our mission orders are sufficiently vague that this seems like a capital idea to Hendel. Again, I consider that the army might have better spent my consultant fees on some leadership courses for the NCOs, but what's done is done.
In his headlong flight, Shay came across the barracks that the Gibbers assaulted us from. After clearing a less-filthy space (and finding a couple of potions), we all got some sleep (except for Thrace who activated some sort of internal meditation sub-routine called "Tetris" to relieve the boredom).
It was during that night that it happened. I had a dream. An omen. I was walking along a busy city street at night. All around me the crowd was constant buzzing drone. Slowly, I began to separate one conversation from the other. I heard lovers whispering to one another, merchants haggling over some business deal, the drunken epiphanies of the bum in the street and darker plottings of shadowy figures in the alleyways. A flood of secret, hidden knowledge all flowing like a river around me, but each current easily isolated.
The night was light as if under a full moon, but when I realized this, I felt a compulsion to look up and there, hovering high above the city was not the moon, but a bright, blue-white star. From my studies, I recalled that this was the star Khirad, often considered propitious in divinations and arcane researches. The earth was wrenched away beneath my feet and I shot up into the sky. Khirad grew in size even as the earth below me dwindled to an insignificant dot.
I was suspended, unimaginably far away in the sky, in the grip of an unbelievable cold, Khirad an ice-blue light that blotted everything else out. And in that unimaginable light and chill and silence, Khirad gave me a glimpse, a hint of the power and the knowledge it could offer me in my search for the 100 Rituals. It approved of the Ahura School, it approved of my quest, it approved of me and it wanted to help. In return? Well, just be sure the Secret Six met a grisly and unpleasant end and that would be sacrifice enough. A more than fair price, it aligned with my interests perfectly. We reached agreement.
I awoke as if from a fever. I was covered in sweat, but it was a sweat made of softly glowing starlight. The others were either horrified or contemptuous of my state. I couldn't care less. A slight shake of the bedroll dispersed the starlight and now, now I have new found power to complete my task.
They all changed their tune over breakfast. One of my more trifling powers allows me to change the temperature and flavor of food. Our allotment of rations barely qualifies as food, but it's much more palatable when you think you're having hot pancakes or an omelette. By rights I should've left them to their dry, tasteless hardtack, but with my growing power comes a certain noblesse oblige and so I indulged them.
After all this, we picked a corridor and random, left Ander, Thrace and Alzor behind to guard the rear and set off to see what we could find. What we found was a t-intersection with a smear of fresh blood on the floor. The rest of us employed a variety of investigative techniques to see what we could find out. Hendel went with the more expedient method of tasting the blood to determine that it was from a Drow. Between Pitball games and "taste it" as a major laboratory procedure Dwarven culture and Dwarves themselves are highly suspect.
We follow along the branch where the Drow came from/was dragged to. The scouts (Kestrel and Shay, showing an amazing amount of cooperation for a change) find a large room with rough quarried stone stacked about. We come in on a large platform and there are two sets of steps leading down to the floor on either side. The scouts head down one flight to check things out and are promptly ambushed by a Drow.
I suppose I should point out that these are the "bad Drow", I mean, they attacked us which pretty much means we're going to kill them, but Alanna seems touchy to point out that these are "bad Drow". I'm sure that soon, she'll be explaining that she is a real, honest-to-goodness Drow and that we're fighting some off-shoot sub-race called Drowdain or something. I'm so glad that humans don't have all these ignorant racial hang-ups.
But back to the fight. Shay and Kestrel chase down their attacker, the rest of the party moves out onto the platform and promptly splits up with one group going right and the other group going left. Alanna and I stay on the platform watch the chaos below.
Shay, Kestrel and Taras rush forward and sort of fail to notice all the other Drow standing around them. Hendel and Blaze fail to notice the Drow standing in front of them. At this point the platform Alanna and I are standing on gives way and we both take a nasty fall. I may have briefly passed out or had a concussion because there was a sudden spear of blue-white light and I conceived of a new method to weave magical energies and prevent a deadly fall. A piece of wisdom I wish I had possessed moments earlier, but survive and learn.
Struggling to my feet, I decide that we're all doing far too much fumbling about and toss a light spell into the air. It reveals another half dozen Drow we hadn't yet spotted so I'm not sure if that was a win or a loss. There follows several rounds of lashing out at the nearest Drow, chugging a potion (again, I am alone and unsupported!), and trying to consolidate my position. Finally, Alanna moves across the room to be near Taras (who's been eagerly encouraging the Drow to play poison acupuncture with him). With the healer moving out of range, I nimbly step around to be next to her. A group of Drow are hot on our heels, but I cool them off a bit with my freezing cloud. The deadly chill seeps into the Drow and shatters two of them. The last is badly damaged, but before I can blast him back into the cloud with my thunderwave, Alanna skewers him. Not as stylish as I would've done it, but form over function.
At this point, things seem well in hand. Thus, it is at this point that a group of Drow come barreling up the stairs and behind them is some evil cleric or spellcaster and some sort of weaponmaster. I prepare to launch a series of long range attacks against the cleric, when she brandishes an amulet and the Drow we've already killed rise up as zombies. Since I was standing back amidst the bodies I was once again hung out to dry. Still, I must admit, it's a really slick magical effect and I should probably learn how to do that.
But there was no time to talk shop. The sudden revival of the down Drow meant that I had to change tactics quickly. Fortunately, the negative energies holding the zombies together was rather weak and zombie Drow aren't nearly as nimble as non-zombie Drow. My scorching bursts laid waste to whole groups of zombies as the party pushed closer together. Alanna and Taras bracketed the cleric and eventually killed her while Shay, Kestrel and myself cooked off the zombies and living Drow guards. Hendel and Blaze took a pounding from the weaponmaster, but they returned the favor and once the cleric goes down, everyone piles on the weaponmaster and finshed him off.
In the aftermath I wonder if the Drow have caused/taken advantage of the recent earthquake to break into this Dwarven stronghold or if they were always here. I also wonder if perhaps they have allied with the Gibbers. Perhaps they are the source of the weird fire runes we've been finding on them? I wish we could go back and rest, but I suppose the other will insist on pushing on. I hope this is the most resistance we encounter for awhile.
I also hope my enlightening dreams continue.
NOTES: This was a great sesssion. Except for the fact that I forgot that Adjo had just taken Feather Fall as a utility power and so wouldn't have been hurt in the fall from the platform, everything else really worked for him. He made good use of his encounter and daily powers. The freezing cloud really pulled its weight by killing/severely wounding a bunch of Drow and forcing another one to choose a different target to avoid its effects. The scorching bursts ripped up the minion zombies. Adjo really felt "wizard-y" this session.
As you may have guessed, Adjo picked Pact Initiate (Star) for his 2nd level feat. These power initiate feats are neat. Not only does it give you an extra (weak) encounter power, you also get a training bonus in a skill from your feat's chosen class. I picked up Streetwise because it fits with Adjo's investigative theme. I'm seriously considering investing in more multi-class feats because I'd like to pull in some Warlock powers to give Adjo a bit more "hit one target hard" powers while saving the wizard stuff for "affect a whole bunch of creatures all at once". We'll see how it goes.
later
Tom
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Date: 2008-09-24 10:33 pm (UTC)