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From humbug Tue Jun 15 19:03:20 1999
From: humbug
Subject: thing. (long)
Newsgroups: redbrick.rpg.board
Organization:
Summary:
Keywords:
User-Agent: tin/pre-1.4-980202 (UNIX) (SunOS/5.7 (i86pc))
Status: RO
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Ack. I'm not up to checking all this, so here it is.
I'll fix it up with proper placenames/spellings some other time.
A couple of months later in town, Slate, Nickos, Eltric and Greebo
having been trained, the party meet up with Kaori, a warrior woman from
one of the islands. Kaori had travelled to the town on ship, via Roister
Island from where she brought rumours of teleportation type stuff. With
nothing better to go on, and after saying their farewells, and making a
donation to the clerics that had been putting them up, the party head to
the docks looking to book passage.
As a result of the war there are regular naval patrols, but none
(interested in) passing near Roister Island. The group then begin looking
for any merchant ship that might be travelling in that direction. The
price quoted for the short journey is fifty gold pieces, the duration of
which to be spent in the brig, unarmed. The war to the north has
everyone worried, and this is the best the party can get, even travelling
on a ship with around 40 armed guards. The price is paid, and a couple of
days later the party are dropped off safely at Roister Island.
The group find themselves in Falco's Inn, and after paying for a
room for the night, set about finding out about the rumours.
The Inn is run by Falco and his cousin Gap, a couple of Dwarves. Slate
doesn't like the look of them, or their stupid names.
Being friendly, and hoping to get some information, Nickos and
Kaori agree to play Gap in a game of darts. Nickos flukes a win, and
Kaori forces a draw, but then loses. Gap isn't interested in talking, and
wanders off muttering about playing again after we've had more ale. Falco
isn't much more useful, but directs the group to the abbey in town.
Finding their way to the abbey grounds, and after scaring off an
acolyte, the party are met by the abbot. He has little time for
questions, and tells us to try an Inn if we're interested in rumours.
Wandering off to the guardpost near the entrance, and chatting with a
guard for a while, the group realise that perhaps they should have made a
donation to the church before talking with the abbot. He is even less
pleased to see the party a second time, until Eltirc hands him four
platinum pieces. After this he tells the group all they need to know.
A wizard used to live out in the wilderness to the north, on Lark
Hill, and this is the source of the teleport rumours. Returning to Falco's
, and after buying the scant few patrons a round of drinks, the party
gather more information. Going out of the town seems to be a very
dangerous idea, and the locals think we're guarnteed to be attacked
heading north to Lark Hill. There is no sign of a guide for hire, but one
of the patrons points out that he owns the general store, and next morning
the party go there to equip themselves before setting out. Chanti, in the
meantime, checks out a nearby tavern. Eltric buys some supplies, but when
Chanti returns he says that we really should check out the tavern before
we leave.
The tavern is indeed a good deal busier than Falco's, and although
a guide cannot be found, a map of part of the island is purchased. The map
and it's seller point out that the abbot was wrong, and that the wizard
used to live to the west, on Bone Hill, and that there is a road that
leads there. The patrons of the tavern again point out the dangers of
such an expedition. The party set out bright and early nexy morning,
and the first day is uneventful. Midafternoon of the second day, as the
party are passing through a small valley between two low hills they are
surprised to hear.. the sound of arrows rushing towards them.
Eltric is stuck badly, taking an arrow in the neck and stomach.
Nickos and Greebo are wounded also. Looking around the party see two
groups of enemies. Two archers and two rock-throwing large creatures high
up on the right hand side on a hill, and the same on the other side.
In the round after the party are first surprised Slate runs
towards the enemies to the right, and Kaori towards those to the left.
Greebo attempts to help Eltric with healing himself, but Eltric is stuck
with more arrows, and his 'cure light wounds' spell fizzles and dies.
Nickos levitates up about 20ft, but is still hit by an arrow. Next round,
on the right, Slate is upon the archers, but finds his way blocked by the
two large guys (Gnolls) now wielding longswords. Chanti is moving to the
back of the archers, and Nickos casts 'Melf's acid arrow' but sends it
harmlessly off into the air. On the left, Eltric still finds himself the
target of the arrows, with Greebo helping in healing him naturally. Kaori
has moved into range for throwing her spears, but misses more often than
not, and is having rocks thrown at her too.
Next, on the right, Slate is attacking one of the Gnolls with his
axe. Chanti is circling round to the back of the archers, but is seen.
Nickos is levitation down, and shouting "The town guard are on their way.
You're all going to die" at the bad guys. On the left missile fire is
exchanged between Kaori and the archers/ rock-throwers. One of the rock
throwing Gnolls even fumbles, falls and skids a small way down the hill.
Greebo casts 'magic missile', hitting hard, and killing one of the
archers.
In the next two rounds Slate hits one of two Gnolls attacking him.
Chanti attacks the two archers with his dagger. Greebo hits the second
archer on the left with a 'magic missile', but doesn't kill. Kaori fires
her blowdart, missing. And Eltric tries to heal himself and Kaori.
As this is occuring Nickos concentrates on a 'phantasmal force'
illusion, creating the appearance, but not the associated sounds, of 6
mounted town guards charging towards the fight to help the party. Whether
fooled or not, the Gnolls do not run, and Nickos cancels the illusion, and
moves into range on the right to cast more spells.
On the left, the missile exchange is ongoing, and Eltric falls,
having been hit by at least a total of 5 arrows during the fight. Greebo
tends to Eltric, but realises he is dead, and seeing as Eltric had the
only means of magically healing anyone, he's going to have to be gotten
back to town to be healed. Kaori kills the last archer on the left with a
thrown spear. At this point the two Gnolls charge at Kaori, who at this
stage, is in bad shape.
On the right, Chanti falls to a blow from one of the archers and
they move to fire at Nickos. At the same time Nickos casts 'summon swarm'
and as if from nowhere a plague of rats set upon the 2 Gnolls. The Gnolls
seem to order the archers to help get the rats away, luckily for Nickos
who can now keep concentrating on the spell. The archers only manage to
get attacked by the rats too, and with Slate attacking the distracted,
rat covered Gnolls, all 4 enemies are soon killed. Nickos then dispels the
spell, and disperses the swarm lest it turn on Slate, and both rush off
to help Kaori.
In the meantime Kaori has been fighting the other 2 Gnolls with
Greebo helping. By the time Nickos gets close enough to cast 'levitate' on
one of the Gnolls, Kaori has fallen, having been lucky up to now to last
that long, but having manage to hit one of the Gnolls well. With Kaori
fallen, Greebo casts 'jump' on himself and bounds into the air stretching
out his arms to glide safely away. Seeing the other Gnoll floating off
into the air, Slate running in, and being the last enemy standing, the
final Gnoll flees off into the hills, at a greater speed than anyone
who would care to pursue (Slate). Nickos cancels the 'levitate' spell,
and the other Gnoll splats to it's death.
Only Nickos, Greebo and Slate are left standing. Greebo determines
that Chanti is merely unconscious, and that Eltric and Kaori are on -2 and
-3 hp respectively. After much debate, it is decided that Slate and Nickos
carry Eltric back to town, and pay the abbot to heal him. Greebo is left
to wait and tend to Kaori, and to wait for Chanti to regain
consciousness. In due course Slate and Nickos are knocking on the abbot's
door, Eltric's corpse carried between them. Thankfully he has not
deteriorated on the long journey. The abbot is reluctant to heal someone
of a different faith, but for 100gp his mind is changed. Eltric survives
the resurrection process, but by the time Eltric gets a chance to heal
Kaori she has deteriorated, and fails in magically healing her, meaning
she can never be restored. Back in town, the group wonder what to do next.
After about a week of resting the group are fetched from their
rooms one morning by Falco. There is a visitor downstairs.
From head to toe Los is covered in black plate armour, has a
two-handed sword by his side, and is very scary looking. Los is a paladin,
also of The Passing, and upon hearing of the groups quest from the group
of clerics that the group stayed with had followed the group here. All are
pleased to have the paladin along, and with no other option, the party
again set out for Bone Hill.
Again the first day is uneventful, and on the second day the party decide
to cut across the hills, rather than pass through the valley again.
Once more, about half way through the second day, the whistle of
arrows ring in the ears of the group. Slate, Greebo and Chanti are
targeted by 2 archers each, and all take damage.
High up to the left stand 6 archers, and from behind a clump of boulders
spring 3 Gnolls, calling to unseen enemies to the right to assist.
One of the Gnolls stands to the left of the boulder, in plain
sight of the archers. The other two stand to the right of the boulder.
Slate moves to attack the Gnoll to the left, and Los moves to attack one
of those on the right. Eltric moves to attack the other. Nickos casts
'grease' disarming Los' Gnoll. Chanti moves into cover beside the
boulder, and Greebo keeps an eye out for the enemies to the right.
In the next round Slate is targeted by all 6 archers, and finds
himself hit by three of the twelve arrows. One strikes his shoulder, and
spins him round, just in time for another arrow to pierce his eye. He is
badly wounded, but determined to fight on. Los misses his Gnoll, who is
now scrambling to climb up onto the boulder. Eltric steps to one side
to give Los room to swing, and attacks his Gnoll, hitting hard. Nickos
casts 'levitate' on Eltric's Gnoll, but it saves, and isn't going
anywhere. Chanti remains in cover, and Greebo moves to cast 'magic
missile' at Eltric's Gnoll ( who fumbles it's attack on Eltic, and drops
it's sword ) but decides to wait.
At the start of the next round Slate falls to the volley of
arrows, and the Gnoll attacking him does nothing. Los' Gnoll is still
scrambling up on the boulder, but Los misses. Both Eltric and Nickos miss
the other Gnoll with their staves, but Greebo hits it this time with
his 'magic missile'. The unarmed Gnoll does hit Eltric, doing more damage
than expected.
In the next couple of rounds the fight continues on. The archers
have stopped firing, and are moving to get a better position. The Gnoll on
the boulder is throwing rocks down at Chanti. Slate's Gnoll has moved back
around the rock to attack Los, felling Chanti as he gets there. Eltric,
Nickos and Meow are fighting on against the other Gnoll.
In time, Eltric's Gnoll is slain, just as four of the smaller
guys, armed with shortswords, rush in from the right. Thankfully the
archers have not yet lined up. Nickos casts 'summon swarm', and 2 of
the 4 reinforcements find themselves beset by stinging centipedes and
beetles. The other 2 move towards Greebo, who casts 'jump' and leaps away,
but then they head for Eltic ( who is trying to move round the back of
the boulder towards Slate ) and Los. The third Gnoll is still on the
boulder, out of rocks, and feeling silly.
Greebo lands behind the boulder and hits the Gnoll on it with a
'magic missile'. After a couple of rounds Eltric has managed to break free
from the fight, and is moving towards Slate. The Gnoll on the boulder
jumps off, trying to stamp on Greebo, but hurts itself instead, and is
more infuriated when Greebo leaps into the air and glides off. The Gnoll
spots Eltric, and moves to attack him.
In the meantime, Los is continuing to fight against the Gnoll,
now with two of the shortsword guys joining in against him. The archers
have lined up, now in good position to fire at Nickos. Nickos hits the
dirt, still managing to maintain concentration on the swarm, keeping two
baddies getting hurt, and out of the fight. The arrows miss Nickos, and
one of the archers breaks a string.
Los is not doing too well against the Gnoll, not getting hit,
but not hitting much either, but doing massive damage when successful.
The archer with the broken string draws his sword, and charges at
Nickos, not realising he is blocking his companions from firing. Needing
to maintain concentration on the swarm, Nickos sends Meow to meet the
archer. Meow attacks first, and scores a critical hit. The little cat
rips the archer to bits. Of the other 5 archers, 3 are now charging at
Nickos, and 2 continuing to circle, looking to fire.
On the other side of the boulder, Eltric is beside Slate, ready
to cast 'cure light wounds', but the Gnoll is attacking him. Greebo is
still gliding in the air, and decides to cast 'magic missile' at the
Gnoll from midair, and then land on it's head. He pulls it off. The
missile strikes the Gnoll in the back, and Greebo lands on it's head
scratching with his little claws. Eltric now has the time to heal Slate,
who passes his survival checks with ease.
Slate moves to attack one of the shortsword guys, and Eltric
and Greebo continue to attack the Gnoll. Greebo climbs down his back,
scraping as he goes, and Eltric attacks with his staff.
Los has by this stage killed his Gnoll and is moving to attack
the second of the 4 reinforcements, Slate attacking the other.
In the meantime, Nickos has to deal with the 3 onrushing archers.
He is forced to stop concentrating on the swarm, but by the time it
disperses the two guys being swarmed by the centipedes are dead. Casting
'grease' in the path of two of the archers, one of them slips and falls,
breaking his neck, the other slips and takes damages. The third archer
running at Nickos messes up all on his own, and stumbles past Nickos
whilst trying to do something dexterous. Nickos has time to cast 'acid
arrow' at one of the shortsword guys, but misses. Meow attacks the
archer on the ground. But the two circling archers have drawn swords,
and at the end of the round Nickos is being attacked by 4 guys.
At the same time Slate has just dispatched his enemy, and Los
cut through another, moving towards Nickos. Eltric and Greebo are
both attacking the only remaining Gnoll.
As the next round begins the four shortsword guys are left
swinging into air, as Nickos levitates up and out of trouble. One does,
however, have the presence of mind to turn to face Los. Los meets this
guy with two attacks, and on his second, slays it. Slate is also moving
in.
At this point the enemy flee. Greebo deals a parting blow to the
Gnoll ( Looks like the same one who fled and survived last time ). The
shortsword guys flee off to the other side. Los unpacks and fires his
heavy crossbow after them, but only hits the dirt.
Eltric takes a look at the fallen Chanti, but he is only unconscious
(again). Eltric dishes out the healing spells, and group press on.
Good progress is made towards Bone Hill in the following days,
circumventing The Dead Forest, even if it probably is only a name.
And that's where we left it.
If I've left anything out, I'll reread and adjust it at some stage.
humbug.
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