Adjo's Journals (10 of N)
Oct. 22nd, 2008 12:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHi,
Although we continue to plunge headlong into danger, I must admit that it has been a most enlightening day from an intellectual standpoint. I am beginning to consider that by the time I return home, I might have a very impressive academic paper to publish, although if I actually do return home it will probably be a paper on statistical anomalies and how to be one of them if it’s favorable to you.
We continued to clean up from the grisly scene of the scout’s torture and execution. Examining the bodies, Kestrel noted that the pirates didn’t bear ship marks. Aside from the Kraken tattoo, the pirates usually have one or more tattoos commemorating each ship they’ve served on. Some long-lived pirates who shuffle around have a long sleeve of ship marks, others only have one with some detail work around the outside to show years of service. These pirates only bore the basic kraken mark. I suppose they could be very fresh recruits who had yet to serve, but it’s not clear how they could’ve gotten so far north without being a regular crewmember. Perhaps they were recruited here in the Northland and hadn’t been assigned a ship, although I’m surprised the Northmen would allow for poaching of their labor force.
At any rate, we did the best we could for the poor scout and continued on our way to try and rescue the remaining crew. The forest appears to be in a permanent autumn. Certainly, the fierce snowstorms of the past week are nowhere in evidence here in these woods. It was a very welcome change of pace, and I felt inspired to sing a jaunty marching tune. Nothing picks up spirits like a jaunty marching tune. Alanna suggested that I sing in handspeak instead, which was an inspired idea. A bit of prestidigitation and some ghost sound produced a superior song. I’ve got a good sense of pitch, but I’m no trained professional. With a few of my spells, however, I’m a one-man orchestra. The other party members moved away to give the music a chance to really swell out and reach it’s full potential.
Eventually, we had to turn the music down (in part because Hendel dropped his mace on my foot breaking my concentration and the spell – clumsy oaf!). The scouts had detected digging up ahead. We held back while they went up to make a full survey. Kestrel seemed to have the most luck. Up ahead there was a clearing where a bunch of Kraken pirates were busily digging a large pit. There was a sentry up in the tree over Kestrel’s head, but he didn’t notice her. The scouts crept back and we came up with a plan: The scouts would move in, Kestrel would teleport into the tree to take out the sentry and then the rest of us would come barreling into them.
It was an inspired plan. It remained an inspired plan even when Ander spied something off in the woods and charged off after it, dragging Thrace along in tow. The plan became less inspired when Kestrel failed to sneak up on the sentry a second time, costing us the element of surprise. The pirated fled to the far side of the clearing where they set up behind some large rocks and started peppering us.
I step up and send a deadly magic missile into one of them, killing him instantly. I was expecting that Taras would move to defend me, but he decided to angle out towards our right flank, leaving me to deal with the drooling, berserker with the massive sword who took a big bite out of me. Not willing to deal with the pirate’s body odor any more than I had to, I blasted him back with a thunderwave, moved aside and then blasted him with another missile. Taras realized his error and headed back in my direction to distract the pirate who was menacing me. Although she was dealing with a berserker of her own, I was moving over towards Alanna as I had a couple of rather nasty holes in my skin that needed patching. Oh, and the berserkers were chanting about the need to skin me. I’m not quite sure what it is about my dermis that so fascinates the forces of evil, perhaps it’s my sensible regimen of avoiding exposure to sunlight and regular use of a good moisturizer whereas their skin pretty much looks like old lava flow.
At any rate, my position was a bit precarious but I was certain that between Taras and Alanna we could handle these two apes. Then some fancy-pants pirate steps out and calls Taras over for a fight. Then Alanna decides to run off and help Blaze. Then I’ve got two raging pirates “all up in my grill” as the kids say.
Oh and Shay (remember? The other scout we left behind in Icewatch?) Shay fell out of the sky at the clearing’s edge. Sadly I had no time to ponder this sudden appearance as, you may recall, I had two barbarians trying to chop me down with their greatswords.
Luckily, in their haste to slaughter me, they got in each other’s way and I took a measured step back and called fire down upon them. Taras finally got his head back in the game and returned to deal out some damage to divert them from me. They, of course, promptly turn and hack him down. They then try to slip past me to a flanking position, but I have a bit more tactical acumen than that and promptly blasted one of them into oblivion. I then stepped back and drilled the other berserker, who retuned the favor and knocked me out.
I came to when Alanna called me back to the land of the living. She even had a welcome back present – the head of the berserker who had knocked me down.
You’ll remember that she left me to deal with the berserker menacing Blaze. By the time I was back on me feet, she had run back to help Blaze and Reth was also there providing help. So, in all that time, while I was playing tag with two of them, Blaze, Reth and Alanna had been unable to handle just one of them. I pumped two magic missiles into the cretin and that was all. Oh if only someone or someones had given me a bit more cover earlier on, we probably could’ve rolled all these barbarians up much sooner. Then we could’ve tuned on their leader who…
Oh yes, the leader fled as soon as I dropped the last of his minions. A few of the scouts chased after him, but he was much better at sneaking than they were and he was gone. I was a bit more interested in the pit they were digging since there was a great deal of magic radiating from the stone slab at the bottom.
Conjuring up a few basic archeological instruments, I made an examination of the slab. The stone bore the markings of the Old Empire on it. The slab had not been completely exposed and Hendel and a few others set to work on exposing more of it for my study. This was a bit of a digression from our assigned mission, but the presence of the Kraken here is so unusual that we can’t ignore whatever activity they’re working on.
While the slab was being more fully unearthed, I took a look at our foes. The berserker’s swords were magical. Shay is the only person without a magical weapon currently, so I’ll be grilling greatsword tonight I’m sure. The berserkers were also the only Kraken pirates we found with ship marks. They all bore the shark tattoo of the Dermok, a high-ranking ship among the pirates. They were also stoned out of their mind on some street drug called Blue Dream.
By this time, the slab was fully unearthed. Aside from the original markings, two more were revealed, the raven symbol of the Raven Guard and the Bahmaut symbol for the Dragon Guard. These were the personal bodyguards of the Empress and the Emperor respectively. Based on the symbol location, we surmised that this was a member of the Dragon Guard and that it was most likely a tomb marker. Although unlikely that anyone would care some 10,000 years after the fall of the Empire, people can still be finicky about grave-robbing, especially when there’s another mission we were supposed to be on. Hendel authorized it and so we set to work.
We remarked at this point how incredibly useful it would be to have some sort of priest or paladin of Bahmaut on hand. If only such a warforged paladin of Bahmaut was here now to help us negotiate the tricky business of defiling a fellow believer’s grave. Wouldn’t that be nice?
As it was, Shay not only found the trap, (by looking for it!) he also disarmed it, (by using tools!) and then he picked the locks! Beneath the slab was a huge skeleton in rusted armor. In life, our warrior would’ve been 10-15 feet tall. His armor was a loss, but there was a shield of bashing and a bastardsword of terror in perfect condition. There was also, in a hidden compartment beneath his head, an oilskin protecting a journal of some kind.
Hendel gave it a brief overview, realized it was written in draconic and gave it Taras. Taras! Just because the man speaks draconic doesn’t mean he can read it! And even if can read it, I suspect a paladin might use a word or two with more than one syllable in it. A priceless relic from the past and we just hand it over to the stick jockey!
There would be time for protest later. For now, we had to pack up and get out. We took the gear and broke down the remains for easy portability and continued on our way. Our direction of travel was roughly the same direction in which the pirates had fled so we were worried, but near the end of the day, we turned off and Reth and Hendel lead us to a bolt hole the Scouts had established around the forest. We crawled inside the narrow tunnel which opened up into a rather nice space with provisions and a heatstone – a heatsteon which was only now just cooling. Someone had been here and had only left recently.
The message we found solved the riddle. Two members of Team Omega had holed up here, but left a few hours earlier to try and make their way back to safety. We also found out what they found out. The team had been on deep reconnaissance overlooking the Northman port of Ice Fang Bay. Apparently, the Darmok had made it’s way to the bay and the pirates were negotiating with the Northmen for the rights to conduct a large dig just north of the forest. On the way back, Team Omega had seen this dig site, but were chased into the forest by some flesh-dog creature. It wasn’t clear what the pirates were digging for, but it was big (it wasn’t the small dig we broke up, this was another site north of us).
We were then treated to Taras’s delightful attempts to sound out words as he read the journal of one Justin Drake, a Captain in the Dragon Guard. Most of the early reading was quite boring, so we had Taras skip to the end where we discovered that Justin had been entrusted with something powerful by the Emperor and he had taken it to the forest to bury it in order to protect it from the chaos tearing apart the Empire.
Looks like whatever it was, the Kraken have figured out its hiding spot and they’re anxious to dig it up. It’s also far too apparent that it’s going to be up to us to go visit the dig site and see if we can’t break it up. Very likely, I will once again have to bear the brunt of the effort while everyone else flails about indecisively. I can only hope that there aren’t that many berserkers among the crew.
I’m very curious about what this object it that the Kraken are digging up. What would interest a pirate cult enough to travel all the way up here, haggle with the Northmen and then conduct an extensive digging operation to get it back? I’m rather hoping it’s a flying boat.
NOTES: It's not going to be a flying boat. But a wizard can dream can't he? In contrast to last week's mook meatgrinder, this week's fight was a good mix of minions, brutes, and leaders. I expect the fights will get more and more interesting as we go up in level because the GM will get the budget to buy a more interesting mix of opponents.
later
Tom
Although we continue to plunge headlong into danger, I must admit that it has been a most enlightening day from an intellectual standpoint. I am beginning to consider that by the time I return home, I might have a very impressive academic paper to publish, although if I actually do return home it will probably be a paper on statistical anomalies and how to be one of them if it’s favorable to you.
We continued to clean up from the grisly scene of the scout’s torture and execution. Examining the bodies, Kestrel noted that the pirates didn’t bear ship marks. Aside from the Kraken tattoo, the pirates usually have one or more tattoos commemorating each ship they’ve served on. Some long-lived pirates who shuffle around have a long sleeve of ship marks, others only have one with some detail work around the outside to show years of service. These pirates only bore the basic kraken mark. I suppose they could be very fresh recruits who had yet to serve, but it’s not clear how they could’ve gotten so far north without being a regular crewmember. Perhaps they were recruited here in the Northland and hadn’t been assigned a ship, although I’m surprised the Northmen would allow for poaching of their labor force.
At any rate, we did the best we could for the poor scout and continued on our way to try and rescue the remaining crew. The forest appears to be in a permanent autumn. Certainly, the fierce snowstorms of the past week are nowhere in evidence here in these woods. It was a very welcome change of pace, and I felt inspired to sing a jaunty marching tune. Nothing picks up spirits like a jaunty marching tune. Alanna suggested that I sing in handspeak instead, which was an inspired idea. A bit of prestidigitation and some ghost sound produced a superior song. I’ve got a good sense of pitch, but I’m no trained professional. With a few of my spells, however, I’m a one-man orchestra. The other party members moved away to give the music a chance to really swell out and reach it’s full potential.
Eventually, we had to turn the music down (in part because Hendel dropped his mace on my foot breaking my concentration and the spell – clumsy oaf!). The scouts had detected digging up ahead. We held back while they went up to make a full survey. Kestrel seemed to have the most luck. Up ahead there was a clearing where a bunch of Kraken pirates were busily digging a large pit. There was a sentry up in the tree over Kestrel’s head, but he didn’t notice her. The scouts crept back and we came up with a plan: The scouts would move in, Kestrel would teleport into the tree to take out the sentry and then the rest of us would come barreling into them.
It was an inspired plan. It remained an inspired plan even when Ander spied something off in the woods and charged off after it, dragging Thrace along in tow. The plan became less inspired when Kestrel failed to sneak up on the sentry a second time, costing us the element of surprise. The pirated fled to the far side of the clearing where they set up behind some large rocks and started peppering us.
I step up and send a deadly magic missile into one of them, killing him instantly. I was expecting that Taras would move to defend me, but he decided to angle out towards our right flank, leaving me to deal with the drooling, berserker with the massive sword who took a big bite out of me. Not willing to deal with the pirate’s body odor any more than I had to, I blasted him back with a thunderwave, moved aside and then blasted him with another missile. Taras realized his error and headed back in my direction to distract the pirate who was menacing me. Although she was dealing with a berserker of her own, I was moving over towards Alanna as I had a couple of rather nasty holes in my skin that needed patching. Oh, and the berserkers were chanting about the need to skin me. I’m not quite sure what it is about my dermis that so fascinates the forces of evil, perhaps it’s my sensible regimen of avoiding exposure to sunlight and regular use of a good moisturizer whereas their skin pretty much looks like old lava flow.
At any rate, my position was a bit precarious but I was certain that between Taras and Alanna we could handle these two apes. Then some fancy-pants pirate steps out and calls Taras over for a fight. Then Alanna decides to run off and help Blaze. Then I’ve got two raging pirates “all up in my grill” as the kids say.
Oh and Shay (remember? The other scout we left behind in Icewatch?) Shay fell out of the sky at the clearing’s edge. Sadly I had no time to ponder this sudden appearance as, you may recall, I had two barbarians trying to chop me down with their greatswords.
Luckily, in their haste to slaughter me, they got in each other’s way and I took a measured step back and called fire down upon them. Taras finally got his head back in the game and returned to deal out some damage to divert them from me. They, of course, promptly turn and hack him down. They then try to slip past me to a flanking position, but I have a bit more tactical acumen than that and promptly blasted one of them into oblivion. I then stepped back and drilled the other berserker, who retuned the favor and knocked me out.
I came to when Alanna called me back to the land of the living. She even had a welcome back present – the head of the berserker who had knocked me down.
You’ll remember that she left me to deal with the berserker menacing Blaze. By the time I was back on me feet, she had run back to help Blaze and Reth was also there providing help. So, in all that time, while I was playing tag with two of them, Blaze, Reth and Alanna had been unable to handle just one of them. I pumped two magic missiles into the cretin and that was all. Oh if only someone or someones had given me a bit more cover earlier on, we probably could’ve rolled all these barbarians up much sooner. Then we could’ve tuned on their leader who…
Oh yes, the leader fled as soon as I dropped the last of his minions. A few of the scouts chased after him, but he was much better at sneaking than they were and he was gone. I was a bit more interested in the pit they were digging since there was a great deal of magic radiating from the stone slab at the bottom.
Conjuring up a few basic archeological instruments, I made an examination of the slab. The stone bore the markings of the Old Empire on it. The slab had not been completely exposed and Hendel and a few others set to work on exposing more of it for my study. This was a bit of a digression from our assigned mission, but the presence of the Kraken here is so unusual that we can’t ignore whatever activity they’re working on.
While the slab was being more fully unearthed, I took a look at our foes. The berserker’s swords were magical. Shay is the only person without a magical weapon currently, so I’ll be grilling greatsword tonight I’m sure. The berserkers were also the only Kraken pirates we found with ship marks. They all bore the shark tattoo of the Dermok, a high-ranking ship among the pirates. They were also stoned out of their mind on some street drug called Blue Dream.
By this time, the slab was fully unearthed. Aside from the original markings, two more were revealed, the raven symbol of the Raven Guard and the Bahmaut symbol for the Dragon Guard. These were the personal bodyguards of the Empress and the Emperor respectively. Based on the symbol location, we surmised that this was a member of the Dragon Guard and that it was most likely a tomb marker. Although unlikely that anyone would care some 10,000 years after the fall of the Empire, people can still be finicky about grave-robbing, especially when there’s another mission we were supposed to be on. Hendel authorized it and so we set to work.
We remarked at this point how incredibly useful it would be to have some sort of priest or paladin of Bahmaut on hand. If only such a warforged paladin of Bahmaut was here now to help us negotiate the tricky business of defiling a fellow believer’s grave. Wouldn’t that be nice?
As it was, Shay not only found the trap, (by looking for it!) he also disarmed it, (by using tools!) and then he picked the locks! Beneath the slab was a huge skeleton in rusted armor. In life, our warrior would’ve been 10-15 feet tall. His armor was a loss, but there was a shield of bashing and a bastardsword of terror in perfect condition. There was also, in a hidden compartment beneath his head, an oilskin protecting a journal of some kind.
Hendel gave it a brief overview, realized it was written in draconic and gave it Taras. Taras! Just because the man speaks draconic doesn’t mean he can read it! And even if can read it, I suspect a paladin might use a word or two with more than one syllable in it. A priceless relic from the past and we just hand it over to the stick jockey!
There would be time for protest later. For now, we had to pack up and get out. We took the gear and broke down the remains for easy portability and continued on our way. Our direction of travel was roughly the same direction in which the pirates had fled so we were worried, but near the end of the day, we turned off and Reth and Hendel lead us to a bolt hole the Scouts had established around the forest. We crawled inside the narrow tunnel which opened up into a rather nice space with provisions and a heatstone – a heatsteon which was only now just cooling. Someone had been here and had only left recently.
The message we found solved the riddle. Two members of Team Omega had holed up here, but left a few hours earlier to try and make their way back to safety. We also found out what they found out. The team had been on deep reconnaissance overlooking the Northman port of Ice Fang Bay. Apparently, the Darmok had made it’s way to the bay and the pirates were negotiating with the Northmen for the rights to conduct a large dig just north of the forest. On the way back, Team Omega had seen this dig site, but were chased into the forest by some flesh-dog creature. It wasn’t clear what the pirates were digging for, but it was big (it wasn’t the small dig we broke up, this was another site north of us).
We were then treated to Taras’s delightful attempts to sound out words as he read the journal of one Justin Drake, a Captain in the Dragon Guard. Most of the early reading was quite boring, so we had Taras skip to the end where we discovered that Justin had been entrusted with something powerful by the Emperor and he had taken it to the forest to bury it in order to protect it from the chaos tearing apart the Empire.
Looks like whatever it was, the Kraken have figured out its hiding spot and they’re anxious to dig it up. It’s also far too apparent that it’s going to be up to us to go visit the dig site and see if we can’t break it up. Very likely, I will once again have to bear the brunt of the effort while everyone else flails about indecisively. I can only hope that there aren’t that many berserkers among the crew.
I’m very curious about what this object it that the Kraken are digging up. What would interest a pirate cult enough to travel all the way up here, haggle with the Northmen and then conduct an extensive digging operation to get it back? I’m rather hoping it’s a flying boat.
NOTES: It's not going to be a flying boat. But a wizard can dream can't he? In contrast to last week's mook meatgrinder, this week's fight was a good mix of minions, brutes, and leaders. I expect the fights will get more and more interesting as we go up in level because the GM will get the budget to buy a more interesting mix of opponents.
later
Tom
