Adjo's Journal (28 of N)
Mar. 18th, 2009 11:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHi,
From now on, if we can’t take Brawl, I’m not going.
So we help escort the bat-queen and her guards back to Batlandia. According to them, we’re still a couple hours out when the queen starts going into labor. Luckily, we’d just reached another large cavern with a way-station built into one of the walls. A quick investigation shows it to be empty.
Since I know nothing about birthing bat-babies, Alanna and the queen shut themselves up inside the station while the others take up various positions around the edge of the cavern trying to cover the tunnels connected to it. I stay by the door because that’s where Thrace is and she’s not only the only source of healing left, but also a bruiser who can tie up on-rushing enemies. Clearly the sound tactical choice.
Hendel goes off to investigate a noise he heard from one of the tunnels and comes back with Sarl – our guard last seen being dragged under the water by forsaken shells. He looks terrible. Thrace goes to help patch him up a bit.
At this point Kestrel bounces up and signals that some sort of skeletal centipede was scurrying down a tunnel towards her position. Skeletal centipede, not the most awful thing we’ve faced.
Then the animated skin of a silver dragon appears at another tunnel mouth.
Shay, who was closest to that tunnel steps out and sends some daggers into it. The dragonskin returns the favor with a blast of icy breath. To add insult to injury, more of those flaming skeletons have shown up behind the osteopede and sets him on fire. Not a good day for Shay. Thrace, my protector and guardian, gets it into her head that her god might not be too pleased about an animated silver dragon skin and rushes off to deal with this abomination.
At this point, there’s basically one tunnel trouble hasn’t erupted from, so I position myself to strike whatever emerges from it. What emerges are three rune-covered cultists who aren’t terribly phased by my fireball. This is quite disappointing as I am rather heavy in fire-dispensing magics today.
What’s even more disappointing is that a cleric of Orcus and his skeletal bodyguard show up just after my fireball goes off. The bodyguard harpoons me with a spear that drags me into rubble-strewn ground closer towards them. The cleric tries some laughable mind-trick that I easily ignore.
At this point, the osteopede is uncomfortably close by so I move out of the rubble, set up a zone of frost to slow down the rune-men and the cleric/bodyguard and then deftly step behind Hendel. Surely Hendel will stand firm in the face of these unholy terrors, giving me the time to employ further arcane power against them.
That was my plan. What actually happens is that the rune-men rush up to surround Hendel and promptly bat him over my head and back several dozen feet. Then the skeletal bodyguard again uses its spear to pull me deep into the center of my foes. Hendel casts some odd storm spell that batters the rune-men, but which also slides me into the one space that is kinda-sorta not as exposed and dangerous as where I was right then.
It’s at this point that Sarl reveals that he had, in fact, been defeated by the forsaken shells and turned into one of them. He starts menacing Hendel and one of the bat-guards. Luckily, Alanna had just finished helping the bat-queen give birth so she left the way-station to help out. Meanwhile the osteopede races about and rakes me with its bony legs.
I’m now seriously wounded and in a terribly exposed spot. So I do what I have to do and sprint back towards the way-station and teleport inside. I hoped to spend a few rounds catching my breath, but the bat-queen says something in that chittering language of hers and I suddenly feel a lot better. The bat-queen asks for one of my daggers, which I’m happy to give her since she has no weapon and I never bother with such mundane implements anyway.
I rush outside to find that Alanna had put up her sweet, sweet consecrated ground. I get within its healing light and promptly blast Sarl’s shambling skin out of existence. I felt that the tide was turning and from Alanna’s zone I could effectively dish out some eldritch injuries.
Then the cleric hits me with a blast that nearly knocks me out.
Then the bodyguard harpoons me and once again drags me out into the rubble which really does knock me out.
Some time later, I awoke in the field of rubble. Alanna’s consecrated ground had shifted over to my position and brought me back from the black. I’m now looking up at the skeletal bodyguard who has the most puzzled expression I’ve ever seen on a skull before in my life.
Clearly this is a time for Thunderwave. Sadly, it is not a time when Thunderwave will actually push away the terrifying, spear-wielding skeleton in front of me, although it does send the priest flying. I crawl deeper into the consecrated ground, hoping it will drive back the skeleton.
What actually drives back the skeleton is Alanna’s turn undead. Although I’m worried about getting speared again, the cleric is closer and has rushed up to menace Hendel and Alanna. So I send the whispering of the stars into the cleric’s mind which drives him mad for a moment and, more usefully, renders me and my stalwart allies invisible to him for a short time.
The cleric is not a wholly ignorant foe and promptly drops an area-effect spell in my general vicinity which hurts, but not nearly as much as the retaliatory strikes Hendel and Alanna get in which kill the cleric and also the skeletal bodyguard who seems linked to its master in some way. This leaves only a couple of flaming skeletons who are quickly dispatched.
We spend several minutes patching ourselves up. Everyone is a wreck. Once we can all move, we shamble off down a corridor and eventually link up with bat-men forces. We’re now safe in Batlandia and as soon as I get my bath, I’m going to sleep for a couple days.
(A couple of pages on)
Excellent news! Hendel and Wildtread, along with some scouts from the bat-people have determined that we no longer have to clear out the fane of Orcus. That’s because the fane of Orcus came to us. The head of the fane was the cleric we killed. He used Sarl to help track us down and attack us but certainly didn’t count on our soon-to-be-legendary refusal to realize that we are, in fact, dead.
So the fane was empty and the dwarves cleared it out. Among the other things they found was some book bound with the same crystal plates like the ones we found in the book we stole from the Yaun-ti spelljammer. Clearly this merits further study.
But for now, we must return to the Rookery. Apparently, we’re going by giant bat.
(A couple of pages on)
Travel by bat is nowhere near as nice as flying on the Dauntless, but it is...novel. Evidently the Commonwealth veterans proved more than decisive in breaking the siege. A shieldwall that can anchor on two tunnel walls is a happy shieldwall and a terror to armies that rely on a skirmish mode of combat.
Noob is pleased to see us and after a big feast (and the recipe for Terran Misu) we load up and march out. Dauntless is there to meet us at the exit (dear gods, I had forgotten how wretchedly cold it is out here!) and we fly home.
(Several more page on)
Memo to self: Government contracts aren’t nearly as lucrative as one might hope. Today marks the happy end of my contractual obligations with the Commonwealth forces. Despite my every fear, no one has activated a stop-loss clause to keep me and/or the Dauntless in service. We are now headed off to some tropical island where we will enjoy sun, warmth, a rather serious amount of fruit, coconut milk, and rum and where I will finally go through these various magical knick-knacks I’ve uncovered and see if I can’t get a few blockbuster publications out of them.
On the way, we’re stopping off to visit the Lord of Bastion who wants to thank us for that time we saved a town from Orcite zombies. I’m anxious to be off on vacation, but it’s on the way and picking up a few accolades from a Commonwealth ruler is sure to be another laurel on an already impressive resume.
I’m not sure exactly what we’ll do once our vacation is over. I’d very much like to make an archeological survey of the Dragonwall or perhaps work on replicating the power/flight mechanisms possessed by Dauntless. I’m just hoping that the more religious types don’t get some “word of god” mission that they won’t see reason on.
But that’s for later. For now, I’m on vacation!
[NOTES: At one point, 4 of the 5 PCs present were unconscious and making death saves. It was the closest we've come to a TPK since I've started gaming with this group. It's also the first time I've seen anyone get a 20 on their death save and rally from unconsciousness.
Quite frankly, Adjo should've bit it. After he went unconscious, the skeletal bodyguard stepped up to administer the coup de grace. I was down far enough that he was certain to finish me off. He rolled a 1. Then Alanna got her consecrated ground in position which got me on my feet (well, woke me up to try and thunderwave them back and crawl pitifully about to stay in the consecrated ground). Obviously god loves an asshole.]
later
Tom
From now on, if we can’t take Brawl, I’m not going.
So we help escort the bat-queen and her guards back to Batlandia. According to them, we’re still a couple hours out when the queen starts going into labor. Luckily, we’d just reached another large cavern with a way-station built into one of the walls. A quick investigation shows it to be empty.
Since I know nothing about birthing bat-babies, Alanna and the queen shut themselves up inside the station while the others take up various positions around the edge of the cavern trying to cover the tunnels connected to it. I stay by the door because that’s where Thrace is and she’s not only the only source of healing left, but also a bruiser who can tie up on-rushing enemies. Clearly the sound tactical choice.
Hendel goes off to investigate a noise he heard from one of the tunnels and comes back with Sarl – our guard last seen being dragged under the water by forsaken shells. He looks terrible. Thrace goes to help patch him up a bit.
At this point Kestrel bounces up and signals that some sort of skeletal centipede was scurrying down a tunnel towards her position. Skeletal centipede, not the most awful thing we’ve faced.
Then the animated skin of a silver dragon appears at another tunnel mouth.
Shay, who was closest to that tunnel steps out and sends some daggers into it. The dragonskin returns the favor with a blast of icy breath. To add insult to injury, more of those flaming skeletons have shown up behind the osteopede and sets him on fire. Not a good day for Shay. Thrace, my protector and guardian, gets it into her head that her god might not be too pleased about an animated silver dragon skin and rushes off to deal with this abomination.
At this point, there’s basically one tunnel trouble hasn’t erupted from, so I position myself to strike whatever emerges from it. What emerges are three rune-covered cultists who aren’t terribly phased by my fireball. This is quite disappointing as I am rather heavy in fire-dispensing magics today.
What’s even more disappointing is that a cleric of Orcus and his skeletal bodyguard show up just after my fireball goes off. The bodyguard harpoons me with a spear that drags me into rubble-strewn ground closer towards them. The cleric tries some laughable mind-trick that I easily ignore.
At this point, the osteopede is uncomfortably close by so I move out of the rubble, set up a zone of frost to slow down the rune-men and the cleric/bodyguard and then deftly step behind Hendel. Surely Hendel will stand firm in the face of these unholy terrors, giving me the time to employ further arcane power against them.
That was my plan. What actually happens is that the rune-men rush up to surround Hendel and promptly bat him over my head and back several dozen feet. Then the skeletal bodyguard again uses its spear to pull me deep into the center of my foes. Hendel casts some odd storm spell that batters the rune-men, but which also slides me into the one space that is kinda-sorta not as exposed and dangerous as where I was right then.
It’s at this point that Sarl reveals that he had, in fact, been defeated by the forsaken shells and turned into one of them. He starts menacing Hendel and one of the bat-guards. Luckily, Alanna had just finished helping the bat-queen give birth so she left the way-station to help out. Meanwhile the osteopede races about and rakes me with its bony legs.
I’m now seriously wounded and in a terribly exposed spot. So I do what I have to do and sprint back towards the way-station and teleport inside. I hoped to spend a few rounds catching my breath, but the bat-queen says something in that chittering language of hers and I suddenly feel a lot better. The bat-queen asks for one of my daggers, which I’m happy to give her since she has no weapon and I never bother with such mundane implements anyway.
I rush outside to find that Alanna had put up her sweet, sweet consecrated ground. I get within its healing light and promptly blast Sarl’s shambling skin out of existence. I felt that the tide was turning and from Alanna’s zone I could effectively dish out some eldritch injuries.
Then the cleric hits me with a blast that nearly knocks me out.
Then the bodyguard harpoons me and once again drags me out into the rubble which really does knock me out.
Some time later, I awoke in the field of rubble. Alanna’s consecrated ground had shifted over to my position and brought me back from the black. I’m now looking up at the skeletal bodyguard who has the most puzzled expression I’ve ever seen on a skull before in my life.
Clearly this is a time for Thunderwave. Sadly, it is not a time when Thunderwave will actually push away the terrifying, spear-wielding skeleton in front of me, although it does send the priest flying. I crawl deeper into the consecrated ground, hoping it will drive back the skeleton.
What actually drives back the skeleton is Alanna’s turn undead. Although I’m worried about getting speared again, the cleric is closer and has rushed up to menace Hendel and Alanna. So I send the whispering of the stars into the cleric’s mind which drives him mad for a moment and, more usefully, renders me and my stalwart allies invisible to him for a short time.
The cleric is not a wholly ignorant foe and promptly drops an area-effect spell in my general vicinity which hurts, but not nearly as much as the retaliatory strikes Hendel and Alanna get in which kill the cleric and also the skeletal bodyguard who seems linked to its master in some way. This leaves only a couple of flaming skeletons who are quickly dispatched.
We spend several minutes patching ourselves up. Everyone is a wreck. Once we can all move, we shamble off down a corridor and eventually link up with bat-men forces. We’re now safe in Batlandia and as soon as I get my bath, I’m going to sleep for a couple days.
(A couple of pages on)
Excellent news! Hendel and Wildtread, along with some scouts from the bat-people have determined that we no longer have to clear out the fane of Orcus. That’s because the fane of Orcus came to us. The head of the fane was the cleric we killed. He used Sarl to help track us down and attack us but certainly didn’t count on our soon-to-be-legendary refusal to realize that we are, in fact, dead.
So the fane was empty and the dwarves cleared it out. Among the other things they found was some book bound with the same crystal plates like the ones we found in the book we stole from the Yaun-ti spelljammer. Clearly this merits further study.
But for now, we must return to the Rookery. Apparently, we’re going by giant bat.
(A couple of pages on)
Travel by bat is nowhere near as nice as flying on the Dauntless, but it is...novel. Evidently the Commonwealth veterans proved more than decisive in breaking the siege. A shieldwall that can anchor on two tunnel walls is a happy shieldwall and a terror to armies that rely on a skirmish mode of combat.
Noob is pleased to see us and after a big feast (and the recipe for Terran Misu) we load up and march out. Dauntless is there to meet us at the exit (dear gods, I had forgotten how wretchedly cold it is out here!) and we fly home.
(Several more page on)
Memo to self: Government contracts aren’t nearly as lucrative as one might hope. Today marks the happy end of my contractual obligations with the Commonwealth forces. Despite my every fear, no one has activated a stop-loss clause to keep me and/or the Dauntless in service. We are now headed off to some tropical island where we will enjoy sun, warmth, a rather serious amount of fruit, coconut milk, and rum and where I will finally go through these various magical knick-knacks I’ve uncovered and see if I can’t get a few blockbuster publications out of them.
On the way, we’re stopping off to visit the Lord of Bastion who wants to thank us for that time we saved a town from Orcite zombies. I’m anxious to be off on vacation, but it’s on the way and picking up a few accolades from a Commonwealth ruler is sure to be another laurel on an already impressive resume.
I’m not sure exactly what we’ll do once our vacation is over. I’d very much like to make an archeological survey of the Dragonwall or perhaps work on replicating the power/flight mechanisms possessed by Dauntless. I’m just hoping that the more religious types don’t get some “word of god” mission that they won’t see reason on.
But that’s for later. For now, I’m on vacation!
[NOTES: At one point, 4 of the 5 PCs present were unconscious and making death saves. It was the closest we've come to a TPK since I've started gaming with this group. It's also the first time I've seen anyone get a 20 on their death save and rally from unconsciousness.
Quite frankly, Adjo should've bit it. After he went unconscious, the skeletal bodyguard stepped up to administer the coup de grace. I was down far enough that he was certain to finish me off. He rolled a 1. Then Alanna got her consecrated ground in position which got me on my feet (well, woke me up to try and thunderwave them back and crawl pitifully about to stay in the consecrated ground). Obviously god loves an asshole.]
later
Tom
