Due to schedule shifts, we took a break from AD&D. Hopefully we will be getting back into the swing of things. Not sure where I left off, so some may be a re-hash. Or I may be skipping quite a bit. And please pardon my use of tense.
I saved Que from the wyvern poison with the help of a demi-lich and an elven druid. Demons are still coming through and we headed south to Alexandria.
Now, because of the way The Great Library of Alexandria handles books, we decided to hide our some of our books outside of town. We took the demon book to the magic dead zone and buried it there. Why bury it in the dead zone? So no one will find it - nobody.
We didn't want to go through the gates due to baggage checking, so we went invisible and flew in. Gotta love being a mage in a world with very little magic.
Alexandria was my dream town. Full of culture and artistry. (Much like Squidward when he moved to that town full of fellow squids.) People on the side of the road painting, people in the park reading, all dressed nice and tidy. Even a small variety of nice bathhouses. Ah, Nirvana.
Even though my dream town, it wasn't quite right. Here I am, a gay half-elf in a town full of metro-sexuals, and I was uneasy.
One of the main reasons we came here was because of the Great Library. We didn't go. If we had gone, we would have ended up loosing what books we brough wtih us and helping the bad guys that run the information underground.
(I had a very brief encounter with the bad underground. My previous job was sewer maintenance. Alexandria being a town with bathhouses and stuff, I checked out the sewer system ever so briefly. Ran into some smart rats like the ones we ran into in Undermountain. Yes, the rats are bad guys. Exit Darren stage out.)
I did make contact with the good guys that also run an information underground. Mages on the sly that look for guys like me and girls like Que.
We find out that a second demon book has been found and it on it's way to Alexandria. The bad guys want to buy it and the good guys don't want the bad guys to have it. Our contact gives us a few pudges to help us get the book and keep it away from the bad guys.
*One of the pudges was a new PC being introduced into the party. PC name Mike, if I remember correctly.
Mike meets the merchant in a bar. This merchant is the one bringing the book to Alexandria. Que and I are both invisible keeping tabs on the conversation. Loud mouth Mike lets the merchant know that the demon book is worth way more than he is asking. So I put the merchant on edge with subtle mumbling to subdue his excitement and to let him know that he is in real danger.
"Should I kill him now or wait?" Oh, that was classic.
After Mike leaves, the merchant has a few more drinks. Que and I stick with him.
When the merchant gets to his caravan just outside of town, Que and I have to come up with a plan of attack. We don't know exactly were the book is, but we know he's got it.
Que says to me, "Let me handle this. I'll be all nice and full of ettiquete and stuff."
I reply, "Sure."
The merchant is outside of his wagon and giving lots of hushed orders to his men. We approach still invisible.
Que busts out with, "Give us the book or I'll kill you."
So much for ettiquete.
Well, she set it off, so I might as well follow suit. I Flame Strike the merchant and totally fry his ass. The guards scatter. We have plenty of time and do Detect Magic. One of the wagons detects, so we steal it. I even cast Haste on the horses. We get away, the wagon breaks, and we ransack.
Didn't find the book.
Mike the Pudge suddenly remembered a little something important. The merchant I just fried and another merchant named Chamberlain pulled a switch-a-roo. :sigh: Off to find Chamberlain.
Que and I approach Chamberlain right in the middle of his camping caravan. Invisible, of course. I say, "Give us the book."
He looks up with a start, but quickly gains his composure.
I continue, "We know you have it and you know what happened to the other guy. Please give us the book. Last warning."
He keeps his smugness, which kind of surprises me. I almost respect this guy.
I sighed and did Max's Earthen Grasp. He fails his save and just plain freaks out when the hand comes up out of the ground and grabs his leg. So much for composure. He starts hollering and the book is brought to us in short order by one of his henchmen.
Demons are coming. Captain Mathews is a good fighter with a magic sword. Mathews happens to be in Alexandria. Before setting off, we decide to bring Mathews with us.
Turns out Mathews wants us to come with him. Alexandria has given him a sizeable command and he wants us to fight with his army. We can't reach an agreement, so we leave without Mathews. Best of luck.
We are out in the wild and heading north straight into the hordes that are heading south to Alexandria. We try to stay out of the way, but bad things happen to good guys.
A small group of demons break cover. We take cover. I Fire Wall them in. They just walk right through it like nothing. Of course, they look around and spot us. Of course, they teleport right to our position and attack.
Hmm, not your average demon. At least, not like the wimpy ones we've encountered already. These guys are thin and gaunt. Crazy hair and long beards. Nasty glaives and looking to fight.
Que got the worst of it. One of the demons actually grabbed her with both of his hands and proceded to rub his face all over her. Might sound weird, but their beards were iron strands or something and a good close quarter weapon. She was a bloody mess.
We did win, but barely.
Then we saw the main body of the demon army break cover. We also saw Mathews and his army break cover. Man, it was going to be a slaughter. Que flew off and grabbed Mathews right off of his horse and we all hid in a Rope Trick.
Mathews wasn't happy. We had disillusioned him once, and here we were doing it again. There was a time when Mathews was The Man in Pendulum. We broke him of that. Now he's trying to be The Man again with a fresh start in a big town with a big command. All sword-ho to regain his honour and dignity. We broke him of that, too. Poor guy. I honestly feel sorry for this guy.
Maybe Mathews was glad to be alive, but I didn't bother asking.
We went to visit Larlook the Unblinking, but he was kind of busy. He was fighting something down in the cellar, so we took what we needed and left. I don't know for sure, but I think he was losing. I'm sure the demons didn't want Larlook hanging around, Larlook being a demi-lich that had once fought against them and all. Pit fiends don't forget those kind of antics.
During his fight, Larlook did manage to get me a message. He told me to go to Amin Lu and wake him up. Good enough for me.
Amin Lu exists in two places. One is the sleeping lich in a tomb. While he sleeps, he dreams. His dream is a place in the ethereal. There is a permanent link between the man and the place. As long as Amin Lu sleeps, the place exists. Amin Lu the place is used as a refuge for his people. All you need to know is the key to get to Amin Lu the place.
As it turns out, there are forces in the ethereal, or that have access to the ethereal, that don't like Amin Lu. They have started invading his dream realm and messing with him. Basically making him insane in his own dream. We have to wake him.
We go to Amin Lu the place to make sure no one is in there before we try to wake him up. While we are there running around like maniacs, a tremor hits the place. We run around like maniacs some more and another tremor hits.
We bolt for the gate, look through, and don't like what we see. On the other side of the gate, we can barely make out a humanoid figure hitting the gate's altar with his head. Every time he hits it, the place shakes.
We jump through and fight like crazy. We were losing pretty badly, so we retreat to the sky. As we fly away, we see the altar finally break. One of the demons sifts through the rubble and holds up a gem with a massive victory screech. I don't know what the gem is, but they want it and they have it. My guess is that it's not good.
* The gem is Amin Lu's philactery. Talk about having a lich by the yarbles.
During that fight, Mathews just froze. Believe me, I gave him a stern talking to. Had he actually been in the melee, we might have won. What's done is done.
Barely alive, we are safe for a few.
At around this time, the DM starts stating that we feel like we are being watched. Not good, so we start moving. After a bit, we start seeing goblin search parties. They are hollering things like, "He said it was around here somewhere." And, "He says we are close." Of course they find us and swarm.
You wouldn't think that a party like us would worry about goblins. Believe me - we were worried about these goblins! One of the goblins was in possesion of a piece of armour from Myth Drannor. Egads! Plus the demons were sure to follow.
We tried to run but it was no good. Surrounded in to no time at all and the armour goblin was there. Not a chance in Hades of fighting and getting out alive.
I show my hands and retrieve the second demon book from my pack. I think it's a good bet that the book is what they were after. I hand it to a goblin directly in front of me. I watch the book exchange goblin hands until it is in the hands of the goblin with the armour. As soon as he had the book and a big grin on his face, I lit him up with Flame Strike.
Man, that was funny.
We are surrounded and have surrendered. They got us right were they want us. Not just that, but they got the book that they were after. The armour goblin thinks he's all that and will get a promotion or something. Then he just burts into flames. Gotta love it.
He didn't survive the blast and neither did the book. Kudos for us on both counts. Well, it sucked losing the book, but at least they wouldn't get it. Victory, even if a bit flacid.
Armour goblin down and all Hades breaks loose. There is a mad scramble to get the armour that the goblin was wearing. A goblin with the ability to Dimension Door beat us to it. Damn it! Scramble over and everybody disengages.
Once again, the DM states that we feel like we are being watched.
We have a few moments to reflect and plan. Then that dipshit Mathews says, "You said you buried the first book in the dead zone, right?"
Damn it! I slapped him with my limp wrist. Then I whacked him with my purse. Then I slapped him again.
I call Que over, we both memorize Fly, and we take off for the dead zone. Yes, we bother bringing Mathews with us. I know we are going to regret that decision.
In the dead zone, there can be no magic at all. None. One of the side-effects is that demons can't enter the dead zone. If they do, they go back. This is good. However, the goblins in the demon's employ can enter the dead zone. This is bad. However, we will probably get there before the goblins. This is good.
As we flew, we saw a small troupe of demons and goblins double-timing it to the dead zone. Yeah, we'll beat them there.
Then we got closer to the dead zone and saw the really bad.
Remember Dickie? He's back. He's back with a vengence and he wants his book back. He's 8' tall and has a scorpion tall. He even has his own guards composed of demons of a type that we haven't seen. I'm sure his guards are worse than the wire-bearded demons we fought.
Dickie beat us to the dead zone but he can't enter it. We are still in the air and goblins are on the way.
And that, my friends, is the current cliff-hanger.
Azuni saved Que. Azuni was asked by his elders to retrieve Amin Lu's artifacts. Azuni asked us to help him. It was the least we could do.
Amin Lu's tomb was a few days away in the top of a mountain. We walked. No big deal.
On the way up the mountain, we saw some two-headed giants in our way. Rather than fight them, I Fire Walled them, we climbed around, and I cancelled. I wish I could have seen the looks on their faces. Some other baddies, but a Fireball on the far side made them run. I made it a point to scare instead of fry. All those baddies, two spells, and no blood shed. It was a good climb.
We made it to the tomb's entrance. This is where Que and I would part company with Azuni. The tomb has a very nasty curse on it. Anybody of Talos that enters the tomb will be disintigrated. Que and I not being of Talos were just fine. Kind of funny that we were the extra-planars and that fact alone gave us a tremendous advantage.
Once in the tomb, we found some traps. Falling doors and swing floors. I noticed that the traps didn't have resets, so we were definitely the first since the tomb's existance. A couple of other traps and we were hurting. Back outside for some healing from Azuni and rest.
We went back in and ran into some more traps. Back outside again. But at least this time we knew where to go.
When we got out again, we were in for a surprise. Wonderhorse was sitting on a rock and smoking a cigar with bloody hands. Wonderhorse's young ward was a crispy tatter on the ground. Azuni was strung up Hannibal Lecter style.
Well, shit.
Wonderhorse made us an offer that we couldn't refuse. We did refuse. He picked up his crispy ward and left. Small miracle.
I don't know what changes Wonderhorse has been through, but I know I don't want to make an enemy of him. He's an A+ nutcase.
We decide to rest just inside of the tomb. Should keep us safe. Right?
After a bit, we hear some goblinoid barking outside. A rather large group of hobgoblins setting up camp and being ruffians in general. We don't announce ourselves, but just watch. As we watch, a giant claw comes up over the cliff. Then a second giant claw. Then a giant reptilian heads comes up and over. Then another reptilian head. Then another. And another.
Hydras are no fun. Especially one with a hobgoblin chieftain as a rider. Plus the 30+ hobgoblins already camping.
What does Que do? She sets it off. In goblinoid, she starts barking at them to leave and all that jazz. Like idiots, we run out of the tomb ready to fight. What in the world were we thinking?
As soon as the first group closes the distance with hatchets and swords, we run back into the tomb. The hobgoblins chasing follow us right in. What happens? They disintigrate. Right down to the bone vampire movie style.
Que decided to parlay a bit with more threats. While she is barking at them, I cast Detect Magic. Sure enough, one of the hydra heads has a magic collar and the chieftain rider is also wearing a magic collar. Well, that explains that.
I lob a Fireball to the other side of the hobgoblins. Quite a few fry. The chief starts hollering even more. He's stuck somewhere between confidence and surpise.
Que tosses a Fireball in the same manner. The rest of the hobs fry. The chieftain is still alive, but barely. He did the obligatory :cough: complete with hair blown back. The hydra, of course, was fine. Well, hurting a little bit, but still well enough to bite our heads off.
We let the chieftain go with his mount. I don't think he'll be bothering us again any time soon. He'll be too busy looking for a new tribe to rule over or something.
* The DM told us that the chieftain had only 2 hp left. While it would have been cool to have a hydra mount, we just weren't interested.
Wonderhorse is back. He's gone from schitzophrenic to homicidal maniac. You would think that homicidal maniac would be a part of his schitzophrenia, but he's been stable for a long time. I fear this incarnation of Wonderhorse is here to stay. Not to mention the non-chalance in which he deals with his ward's death. I'm sure we'll be seeing both of them again, and it won't be pretty.
* Wonderhorse and his ward are Ruckus and Makial. They are uber villians from previous champaigns. Both are basically immortal and evil to the core. The events that we are seeing in the current champaign is their rise to villiandom.
Many moons ago, I took a break from gaming. Those guys went on without me. I wouldn't expect anything different. During my break, they ran into Ruckus and Makial. While I didn't get to experience their villiandom first-hand, I heard some stories.
The brains of the operation is Ruckus. Very smart and scheming kind of guy. He wears a pair of gloves that give him the ability to appear as anyone he chooses. Highly intelligent + uber disguise = nasty. The gloves give him a few other abilities, but I don't know what they are.
One thing about Ruckus is that he regenerates wounds damn fast. Like 3 times faster than a troll or lycanthrope-like. Nearly all open wounds will heal in a round, but other types of damage take more time. This ability to regenerate drove Ruckus insane. He developed multiple personalities to deal with his congenital condition. Eventually his evil persona would become the only persona.
His personal body guard is Makial. He would become undead and bound to negative energy armour. The armour protects against most energy attacks - especially those that affect life energy. Since he is undead and bound to negetive energy armour, he also regenerates damn fast.
Makial is Mask's sick sense of humour. It was Mask's shadow dragon form that made him undead and bound him to the armour. Makial is seriously under Mask's thumb.
Not a dynamic duo that I want to mess with.
Previously I mentioned that Amin Lu is being mentally attacked in the etherial. Well, the shadow realm kind of over-laps with the etherial in an intimate kind of way. Mask makes his home in the shadow realm. It is Mask that is messing with Amin Lu.
Because our DM is a basterd, he likes using Mask to mix things up. You wouldn't believe how deep he can layer up the intrigue.
Mask is messing with Amin Lu. Who is Mask trying to mind-screw by mind-screwing Amin Lu? Is Mask doing this to gain favor with the demons? At what point with Mask screw the demons?
Makial is Ruckus's bodyguard, but who's orders does he follow? If he follows Mask with hidden agendas, can Makial be turned against Ruckus? Will Mask himself eventually screw his own uber villians just for giggles?
Ruckus's evil persona was stabilized by the mind powers of the yuan-ti. The yuan-ti worship reptiles - especially shadow dragons. What favor did they gain from Mask for doing this?
The yuan-ti are fighting againt the demon hordes. They have a sharn to help them. (Must be nice to have sharn in your pocket.) I think the sharn was given to them by Mask for fixing Ruckus. And yet Mask is attacking Amin Lu to gain favor with the demons.
Typical Mask. Playing both sides against each other (and then some) in a deep and covert manner. On the surface, various factions fighting demon hordes. But when you dig, you start to see relationships and motives.
See? Our DM is a basterd. And I wouldn't have it any other way. I hope that there are more DMs out there like this.
My very first DM was just plain awesome. Just an all-around great DM. He let the party roam, he directly manipulated the party, and places in-between. We honestly never knew if the DM had his hand in our decisions. Just bloody awesome. Would we race the rival merchant and win a wager? Or would we be guards on a boat?
He had excellant balance. Not just between roaming and direct, but balance between party and personal. Sometimes he would mess with the party as a whole, and sometimes he would mess with individuals.
I got the 80% XP rule from this guy.
I eventually tried my hand at being DM. I have a good balance of town, forest, and delving. But my general style is more situational and free-style. I would set up situations and let the party stumble upon them. I'm not really good at the long champaigns. I remember TSR put out a bunch of random encounters on index cards. Put a little meat on the encounters and you have my style.
----
Typical WJ the DM encounter
Party is walking through the woods. Path, clearing, log cabin on a lake shore. As they approach, a naked female walks out and burts into flames. She is gone when the smoke clears.
If they enter the cabin, there is a naked man relaxing a nice leather couch that is too nice for the decor of the cabin. He is smoking a cigar. The cigar smolders where his fingers touch it. The couch is also smoldering where his skin is touch the couch. Maybe even some burn marks about the cabin.
What's going on?
The female is a minxy little fire elemental. She is having a tryst with the guy in the cabin. The guy in the cabin is an effreet.
Why would they be trysting on the material plane in human form?
Because the guy is married to a very jealous fire giant, but he won't tell you that right away. Basically have to cull it from his with questioning. But he doesn't want to give away too much about himself and his situation.
Also in the cabin is a boring cauldron. Competely boring until pointed out by the guy. He wants the party to take the cauldron and drop it in the middle of the lake. The cauldron is how he and his wife go back and forth between material and fire planes. If it's at the bottom of the lake, she'll have a hard time coming through and whipping his ass. He will also be able to claim with perfect honesty that he did not put the cauldron there. In return for this, he will be in service of the party. You know, a favor, but short of a wish (if they even figure out that he can grant wishes through questioning).
I ran the party through that and it turned out rather well. They dumped the cauldron in exchange for the guy to join the party as a spell-caster. This is the impression they got from him after various questions, so that's the capacity he filled. He made his casting style very alteration oriented. And where ever they went, the effreet was womanizing. Once in awhile, they would catch wind that a giant female was after them, and they would run for the hills. They never did get the whole story or find out that the guy was *far* more than a mage. They knew he was powerful, but not how powerful.
----
Our current DM is very much into intrique. Factions, minor players, major players, motives, agendas, and all that jazz. No matter where you go or whom you talk to, there is *always* something going behind the scenes. Just when you thought you had everything figured out at it's deepest level, there is another pair of eyes staring at you. Even hardcore conspiracy nuts would go WTF? Even when we are straight-up spelunking Undermountain, there is intrigue.
The last time we were in Undermountain we ran into a lone drow that whipped our muscular buttocks. We ran into the same drow much later in a very far off place. Something as simple as that makes us ask a lot of questions. Was the drow following us? If he was following us, for his own benefit or for someone else? If he wasn't following us, what was he doing in Undermountain and later in Talos? What is his connection between that drow in Undermountain and later in Talos?
Not only is he good at intrique, but he can free-style the intrique. Not many people can do that.
We went to Amin Lu's tomb to plunder some artifacts. After the booby traps, the hydra, and all that jazz, we did get what we were after. The artifacts being 4 books penned by Amin Lu and Larlook. One book was about the etherial plane and dreams. Another book was about gates and making permanent gates. The other two were about similiar subjects. All four books taken together were about how Amin Lu got into his lich and dream state with a permanent gate.
The main chamber of the tomb was a huge circle. Pillars and all that. Amin Lu was sitting in the middle in a simple stone throne. Undead and asleep. He was even emitting light. Odd for an elf, eh? Especially since he was a priest. But stranger things have happened.
We slowly approached. When we got within a few feet, a little demon let himself be known. A whining and wretched ball of flesh. He bared his teeth and clawed the air at us. He wanted to claw our faces off, but he couldn't get close enough. The light that Amin Lu was emitting was keeping the little guy at bay.
As I looked at this little guy with fascination, he said something in his native tongue. As soon as the foul sound was out of his mouth, another one appeared in a poof of smoke. Then we noticed the shadowy movement near the pillars just outside of Amin Lu's protective light. The second butterball uttered the same sound and two more little guy appeared.
Something in my gut was telling me that things were about to get bad.
As if multiplying demons weren't enough, the shades approached. Luckily, Amin Lu's light kept them at bay as well. Small miracle.
I waited until we were completely surrounded. Que just stood there and didn't say a word. When the time was just right, I Fire Walled all of us in. Just enough to fry the demons and shades, but not harm us. The baddies were stuck between Protection From Evil and Fire Wall. No place for them to go except back to their own plane(s).
As soon as they were all gone, I cancelled and we walked out with serious alacrity. Booty and no further injury.
Mask, that basterd, had sent shades with the little demons to physically attack Amin Lu.
Unfortunately, they did manage to get Amin Lu's phylactry. Time for the ol' in-out in-out. To add insult to injury, the demons already in our current material plane are using Amin Lu's tomb as a haven and base of operations. The demons are, after all, extraplanar and they are using the curse for protection.
----
Now, I think we can actually gain the upper-hand against the demons.
We are in possession of paired magic items. One is an anchor and the other teleports to the anchor. I think this ability even works across planes.
Que can cast Rope Trick and I can cast Deep Pockets.
Can you see the combo?
She keeps the anchor and I take the part that teleports. She casts Rope Trick and I walk in with Deep Pockets. Boom! Instant travel to the etherial. Once there, it's just a matter of finding the border and doing my sneaky sneaky. Once my business is done or if things get to crazy, teleport back to the anchor.
Sneaky sneaky in the border etherial? Yeah, like spying - hopefully undetected. Or maybe set a booby trap for the goblin that can Dim Door. He has several ways of getting around and I'm sure at least one of them goes through the border etherial. Or, if I'm lucky enough to be able to step through the border, be an uber thief. I'll take that book back, thank you. Oh, you wanted to keep that armour? So sorry.
I have no idea how much of that combo will actually work.
Dickie wants his book. He has some abashi guards. We were in the air.
We decided to fly for it. Absolutely no condition to fight Dickie and his buds. Let them have the book. Too bad the abashi saw us and took flight after us. Unfortunately, our Fly spell ran out and we had to run for it on the ground. They caught up with a bunch of goblins on the ground. We did the Pro from Evil thing and huddled.
These goblins apparently know a few words in our tongue. One of those words being parlay. We started shouting Parlay! and they did whip us. Then Dickie eventually caught up with us.
Dickie said something like, "I want my book back."
I was all like WTF? How come Dickie didn't know where the book was? We were being watched and Matthews let it slip, but whomever was watching us didn't tell Dickie. Dickie didn't know that the book was in the dead circle. WTF? All he knew was that the trail to the book went cold. If Dickie didn't know, maybe it wouldn't be so bad for him to have it. Maybe.
I was like, "I'll take you to it, but we have to hurry."
We went back to the circle. I went in and dug up the book. That's when we negotiated a deal. I give him the book and he gives us back a sword that Que had lost. It was all good, but he was going to kill us as soon as the deal was done. Time to renegotiate. It fell through.
Back to being in a complete stand-off for the time being. Yeah, time. He had time on his hands and we didn't. Well, we didn't have the kind of time that a demon does.
I burned the book while standing in the circle.
That made Dickie very happy.
Once again, I was like WTF?
He finally went into his monologue. "I got what I wanted from the book. I am no longer bound by it. Now the book has to be destroyed so the higher demons don't have to worry about being summoned and forced to serve human interests."
While that is good for us, there is still a problem. That being gates that demons can freely walk through. And, of course, Marduk wants revenge.
While Dickie was giving it up, I was so tempted to give up our secrets. We still have a few tricks up our sleeves. One of them being that I copied a lot of information from the book into my personal journal using simple codes.
* When I say journal, I mean a real journal. Useful right now and will someday will make an awesome prop.
We are also in possession of Amin Lu's scrolls. The books that we plundered from Amin Lu's tomb? There were 3 very powerful scrolls magically contained within. One of them being True Name which will give the caster absolute power over the named demon. The other 2 scrolls will also be just as handy.
We also have Azunai's staff, which has retributive strike. Break the staff and everything dies. This will be our last resort. Nothing like dying like heros.
Plus a couple of other tricks.
When Marduk was originally in this plane, he was bannished by Cilas Lang. The fight was very short because Cilas got Marduk in one blow. The spot where he killed Marduk is now the dead magic circle.
---
When magic was young, magic items were unknown. The first few magic items made had to have living creatures as components. For example, to make a magic dagger, a high level thief had to be sacrificied and placed into the dagger. It took a lot of living energy to make even the simpliest enchanted items.
During this time, a group of adventurers attacked a dragon. They were all about to die, but the mage had one last trick up his sleeve. He hastily turned them into magic items so they could continue even in small capacity.
One member of the party was a bard named Dancer. He became a Long Sword of Dancing. As time went on, he became more intelligent as a weapon. He also gained a few extra magical abilities.
Al, one of my former PCs, become good friends with Dancer. We had a lot of awesome fights together. A lot of tight spots and a lot of narrow escapes. We could actually communicate telepathically if spoken words failed us.
Now, Al never got the full measure of Dancer's abilities. When we got into a tight spot, I would ask him, "Is there anything you can do to help?"
He would say, "Yeah, I can do something." Then he would and we would escape.
Sometimes I would say to him, "You didn't tell me you could do that."
He would answer, "You never asked."
I left it at that. As much as I wanted a full list of his abilities, I never did ask. If he wanted me to know, he would tell me, and I respected that. That was the kind of person Al was.
----
Then there is the dagger. We ran into the dagger a few times and each time it was nasty. The dagger isn't just magic dead, but actually sucks up magic. Anything cast near the dagger will get sucked. Any magic items near it will get sucked.
It is the perfect killer of anything magical - items, spells, and even creatures.
The dagger is destined to suck up all magic. To what ends, we don't know.
This dagger was used by Cilas Lang to bannish Marduk. Now Marduk wants the dagger to take back to the Nine Hells. With it, his power will be absolute over the other eight.
Will Marduk be able to get the dagger back to the Nine Hells? Is it possible to take a magic-sucking dagger through a magically created gate? Hard to say.
----
The dagger and Dancer are bound. When the dagger sucks, Dancer has a chance of gaining it. This is how Dancer kept getting more abilities as we adventured together. This could prove interesting.
---
Our first encounter with the dagger was pretty funny. It was buried beneath this guy's house. It eventually drove him nuts. He dug it up and chased us up a tree. Even though our first encounter with the dagger, we were very afraid of it.
Since then, those particular characters steered very clear of the dagger.
Was chatting with DM the other day. I asked him how the party sans WJ defeated Ruckus and Makial.
What they did was talk to Makial using telepathy. It was the only way they could talk to him without Ruckus butting in. One fine day, right in the middle of a fight, Makial turned on Ruckus. He stuck his sword right in him and sucked his life right out.
I also asked him about the connection between Dancer and the dagger. He said that he hadn't worked it out just yet. With what's currently going on, he's fairly certain an explanation will present itself.
As it turns out, the dagger was created by Ao's son. He did this in defiance of Ao's creation. What a devious little brat.
He's not really worried about table-talking most things with me. He knows that I can keep my information seperated from my character's information. Even though I've been talking a lot about Mask, my current character doesn't know that Mask is involved. Why, even on a few occassions, I've worked with him on a few of these things.
We parted ways with Dickie and his guards. One book down. Right now I can't remember if we still have the second book.
We went to Saline's cave to rest for a few. I did some healing using Azuni's staff. Mathews and Que up a few, but I was still hurting.
At this time, Mathews decided to exert his authority as party leader. He was all like, "We should take to the lake so we can see trouble coming and can move away from it in any direction we want." He also said a couple of other bone-headed things. He also started with his optimism. He would draw his sword, hold it up high, and proclaim, "Today is a new day."
I am so close to ditching Mathews.
Even with his new found authority, he decided that we should go to Pendulum. That conversation was pretty funny. We had heard that Pendulum was retaken by the Alexandria's army. Sounds like a good time to check things out.
We walked. No demons attacked. No goblins, hobgoblins, or bullywugs. Something's not right.
When we get to Pendulum, we see that most of the town is destroyed. In the center of town around the gate, nothing is destroyed. That is a good sign.
In one of our fights with the snake men, Saline used Wall of Force to protect Thud the dwarf. The non-destruction in the center of town looks like she's been at it again. Very impressive radius. Looks like Saline may be far more powerful than we thought.
Men from Alexandria's army are cleaning up, tending, and keeping watch. Graves all over the place as people were buried where their bodies laid. The air was heavy with death.
We met Albert, the standing leader. So far he seems very level-headed. I wonder if we can swap him for Mathews?
We got busy helping with the relief. I used Azuni's staff to Create Food and Water. I also tended to the wounded. Que cast Leomund's Secure Shelter x2. That gave quite the impression.
As we were doing this, guess who showed up? Lance! He wasn't dead! We froliced into each other's arms and started catching up. Right before the initial demon attack on Pendulum, he had gone to Marn to sell my gems. He had escaped by less than a day.
With Lance by my side, we set about trying to find a pearl. We needed one to cast Identify on the teleporting medallian. The first place we looked was Su Casa, Lance's demolished knick-knack shop. Nothing. We started asking around and that led to some interesting things.
We were pointed in Natasha's direction. Apparently she is one of the top dogs in the current effort. I met with her and Albert at city hall. Before we began, they made me drink some Holy Water just to make sure. Where did they get Holy Water from? Well, they didn't know it as Holy Water as such, but they did know of it's effects.
Where did they get Holy Water from? I'll have to find out more about this later.
Turns out Saline is back and she is indeed protecting Pendulum. Not only did she save the gate and a chunk of the town, but she put some major wards on city hall. How powerful is she? Where did she get the wards from? Hers or scrolls?
The wards are so powerful on city hall, that Saline left her spell book. It was shown to us on Saline's behalf. We even got to look through it. Her spells go all the way up to fifth. I did notice that there are no ward spells in there. I guess the wards were scrolls or something else. Where did she get them?
It would seem that the race with the demons has changed ever so slightly.
We also found out just how bad Dickie used Saline. Turns out that Saline herself was the key to Dickie's power. She is the gate. Oh, Dickie is going down. I'm pretty sure that he is the top demon dog and we can stop things with him. After all, we have yet to find any reason why Dickie's boss would want to come through (other than revenge, but even then to no real ends).
While we talked, I decided that I didn't like Natasha. She was seriously giving me the hairy eyeball. Sizing me up and checking out my visible equipment more than anybody else has. Believe me, I noticed. I might have to make it a point to fry her. But she did give me a much needed pearl.
Que wasn't at the meeting. During our first night in Pendulum we noticed a bunch of camp fires in the direction of Marn. The frog men were also chirping more than usual, much like right before the staged attack on Pendulum. Even though some mundane scouts were sent to check them out, she went invisible and flew. Yeah, Que the Uber Scout.
Bad: Marn will be attacking Pendulum soon.
Good: no sign of the Phalanx, the group in charge of Marn. The drow that whipped us in Undermountain is amoung them.
Bad: we don't know which side the dragon and his frog men will be on. Will both sides attack in earnest, or will it be another staged attack?
Good: no demons in Marn's camp.
Que and I have decided to harrass Marn's army the following night. We will run in and really mix it up with Fireballs and what-not. Our timing will have to be just right for various reasons. The main concern is the survivors of Pendulum. They have to get out of town before we attack, or else they will get squished in Marn's retaliation.
The lack of demons past few days has got me concerned. Have they gotten most of what they have been after? What will be their next move?
And that is where we are at. Pre-emptive strike on Marn's army and hope for the best.
Just gotta say that Mathews is getting on my nerves, but he's kind of fun to have around. Now that's he back in Pendulum and given his old command back, he's having a blast. Running around and holding his sword up high in triumph. He even gave this speech about how careful planning and execution saved Pendulum from total destruction. Yeah, as if he had anything to do with it.
Let Captain Mathews have his moment. I'm sure his bubble will be burst again soon enough.
Pendulum is being evacuated. Martial, one of the big guys from Alexandria isn't happy about it. Captain Mathews is still being a dork.
I told Lance to go with them to Alexandria. I even gave him a magic dagger to keep him safe. He ran off in tears. No telling if I'll ever see him again. Or my magical dagger. Heh.
We didn't do a pre-emptive strike on Marn's army because we just don't know what is going on or what will happen if we do.
We had another little meeting with Natasha and a few other folks. Natasha came back to town after a quick jaunt with some bad news. It turns out that Marduke is in Marn. The basterd came through *way* before we thought he would. She also told us that Delano Familia is searching for the Oracle. And, as it that wasn't bad enough, Druth Daern is looking for the Magistars.
Marduke is the big demon. Or maybe he's a devil? I get them confused. Marduke is one of the eight generals in the Blood War. He wants to become one of The Nine. He wants to become one of The Nine by gaining the favor of Asmodius. To gain his favor, Marduke is trying to get rid of all of the faithful in Talos. If he succedes in this, Asmodius will have Talos to consume.
Marduke would also like the dagger. Saline told us where the dagger is. The dagger has been hidden in the demi-plane of shadow in Cilas Lang's tomb. It has been shifted. Cilas Lang is the guy that originally used the dagger to banish Marduke.
Now, Delano Familia, Cybard Delano in particular, want the Oracle. Why? Because the Oracle contains the history of everything. If the Delanos can re-write history, they can write their own future. This goes along with their recent moves to buy bardic schools.
Druth has much grander plans. He wants to become the Uber Magistar.
----
In a champaign long ago, we knew of Druth. He was an uber lich. One day we went to talk to him, but his front door kicked our asses. I'm going to repeat that: his front door kicked our asses. The entire gaming session was trying to escape his front door.
Druth Daern's front door kicked our asses.
Druth was the leader of The Cabal. There we like 7 of them. Amoung them was Inferana, Arebus, and Cybard Delano. A very nasty bunch that did things on a global scale.
One fine day, various members of The Cabal tried to steal Druth's power. They figured out how his power worked and they tried to steal it. However, what they found was a booby trap - and we tripped it. The insurgents suddenly found themselves Feeble and in the elemental plane of water. But Druth was nice enough to let them have a few hours of air. We barely escaped thanks to Plane Walk.
"King's cross and bardic monarchy"
----
Marduke wants to get rid of all of the faithful in Talos. If he succedes, Talos belongs to Asmodius. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled...
Saline told us this in confidence. By that I mean she shadow walked us to the demi-plane of shadow to tell us. She gained that ability from The King of Thieves. When Saline's blood was used to summon Marduke, she was being held captive. Well, it was the King of Thieves that rescued her. Well, not so much by KoT directly, but by a fighter and a thief sent by him. Those rescuers being Wonderhorse and his young ward.
The King of Thieves is also He Who Walks in Shadow. He is Wonderhorse's boss. He is worshipped by the yuan-ti. He is Mask, the god of intrigue.
He is the last god left to be gotten rid of my Marduke.
The funny thing is that Marduke is trying to use subterfuge to get rid of Mask. Like throwing water on a lake to dry it out. Jackass. However, if Marduke can get rid of the yuan-ti, I'm sure things will swing in his favor. After all the yuan-ti are direct worshippers.
- Begin Table Talk -
Found out why the sharn is with the yuan-ti. The sharn has sided with Mask (by helping the yuan-ti) because the Faerum are in Talos. The sharn don't want the Faerum to be awakened. If the Faerum are aroused, it's game over.
- End Table Talk -
We don't want Marduke to win because Asmodius will consume Talos and it will cease to exist. We don't want Mask to win because he will plunge Talos into shadow. WTF? Maybe it's time to snatch-n-run. Undermountain is starting to sound good again.
One option we have is to bring faith back to Talos. Either by helping Mask directly, or bringing another god in. I like the latter idea. Go back to the yuan-ti, ask His High Naganess for our anklets back, then go to the mountains to the dwarves. Armed with the anklets, we might be able to bring back Dumathoin. Might sound impossible for an elf and half-elf, but worth considering.
Many moons ago, it was Al and Zsordrin. We were going through the Times of Troubles and Cyric was being a jerk. Just when things were starting to get crazy, we found a single playing card and a piece of paper. On the paper was written "King's cross and bardic monarchy," and the playing card aptly reflected this.
At the time, we didn't think too much about it. We were too busy with things getting crazy, you know. But then we found another playing card with another piece of paper. And yet another set. Each piece of paper was written a simple little line that had something to do with the card.
We started to activitely seek them out. We riddled over them. We also found out that others were after the cards and lines - and I mean powerful people.
This is how we came to know of The Cabal and it's members. Their leader being Druth Daern the Uber Lich. We found out why members of The Cabal were seeking the cards. Turns out that the cards and thier lines are a giant riddle with Druth's power locked within them. When spoken in the right order and the appropriate card displayed, Druth's power is revealed and for the taking.
It was a race to Druth's power with the likes of Inferana and Arebus. As if we didn't like them enough.
We just happened to be in the neighborhood, so we decided to talk to Druth about what was going on. Well, no audience with Druth because his front door kicked our muscular buttocks. It was a very narrow escape. It took everything we had and then some.
I guess Druth just didn't want to hear it. As if he didn't know something was going on behind his back, anyways.
Well, we eventually collected all of the pieces and mostly figured out their order. We had a good idea, but sketchy on a few pieces.
There we were, in a library, and we decided to trip the cards.
Held up the first card and said, "King's cross and bardic monarchy..." Boom! Cybard Delano appears. He was all like WTF? And we were all like WTF?
Each successive card teleported in another member of The Cabal. Well, all sans Druth.
We did a mad scramble to fit the final pieces. They were trying to figure out what was going on and we were yelling prose. As we did, bad things started to happen to the members.
They all got Feeble Minded.
Then we felt a bubble of air around all of us, much like Al's Inertia Barrier.
Then a gate opened up to the elemental plane of water.
Finally, all of us got sucked in.
There we were in an air bubble in the elemental plane of water with a bunch of powerful yet stupid people. The only member that escaped Druth's trap was Arebus. Not sure how he did it, but he did.
I just happened to have two scrolls with me. One was Plane Walk and the other was Prismatic Wall. We got these from the City of the Dead right out from under Myrkul's nose. So I used Plane Walk to get us out of there. I can't remember exactly where we went to, but I know it was were Myrkul was at and he was making his move.
I used Prismatic Wall to destroy half of Myrkul's army and he was crippled enough to be easily defeated. Arebus shows up and gets decapitated by Zsordrin and George. I marry Shaundical and become his avatar.
It was a lot of fun. We were running two different stories at the same time and they both came to a good end at the same time. There was a lot of jumping, screaming, and yelling at that session. Still brings a smile to my face.
Well, looking like we are going to give up the demon saga. Why? Because the story is already written. It was brought up by the DM and his woman. I had thought about this already and I decided that I wasn't bothered too much by it. Yeah, it kind of sucks being along for the ride, but I just like playing.
So, what is already written? All I really know is what is going to happen to Saline. Her father, Quinix, shows up and rapes her. Saline gives birth to Alisha. And then the cycle goes on again. There is also a brother involved, but I can't remember how he fits in.
In an earlier champaign, we were good friends with Alisha. When Quinix showed up and took her, it seriously rocked the party. Our priest was so mad that he was raising dead just to destroy them.
It was agreed that a lot of our best memories were when we were more free-styling and just fumbling around. This is what always made Undermountain so fun. This is what we are going to go back to.
What are we going to do? Looks like we are going to do Planescapes. This way we can really mix it up. Maybe horror in one adventure, then get crazy in Limbo the next. Climb Mount Celeste? Sounds good to me.
We haven't fleshed out characters yet, but we do have our ideas. Que wants to play a character with discipline or faith. Personally, I want to play a mephit using pixie as a guide.
Actually, I would like a champaign of mephits. Do it Invader Zim style. A handful of egomaniacal mephits on the prime trying to gain power. Always deluding themselves. A demon boss back in Hades trying to forget them. This sounds like fun.
I am not playing a mephit. Rather, I am playing a dim elf. Or shadow elf. Which ever. He is an illusionist and thief. Extremely petite for an elf. Quiet and unassuming. His name is Vendetta Van Allen.
New player. A virgin gamer. He is playing an assasin dwarf named Draggar. If you ask me, he's biting off more than he can chew for a first character. I'm sure he'll be fine after awhile, though.
Another new player. He's playing a female ranger, but can't remember her name. Doesn't get along too well with the dwarf.
Que is playing a cleric/fighter named Azumi. So far a generic cleric, but she eventually wants to find a specific god to worship. That should prove to be an interesting journey considering that we are in the outer planes.
NPC Bristol. He's half-goat like a centaur.
NPC Vox. Thief.
Just a few short encounters.
Dead horses, so the dwarf started eating one raw right off the carcass. Bristol got upset at this and rammed a horn up his anus.
We saw a floating crystal, so we followed it. The crystal eventually disintigrated a monkey.
Another monkey showed up and took to Azumi. It then proceded to charm us into fighting each other. The dwarf and the ranger fought each other. Bristol and I fought. At one point, I was chasing after Bristol, the dwarf was chasing after me, and the ranger was chasing the dwarf. It was pretty funny.
Then a flying baboon approached us.
Cliff hanger.
It wasn't much, but it was fun. Kind of nice to have a few extra players. No telling how long that will last, though.
posted 04-07-2006 12:20
