Prior to the weekend, a lot of people got interested in joining the tremendous fun of geeking out with D&D, mostly through the coolness of this blog. I had to brainstorm a bit on how to incorporate the new characters into the story and thought up a really cool one involving stone replicas and devils and marshmallows, but in the end, I fell back on the classic "this guy knows that guy."
New Characters!
- Carlo (Macho Therapist) plays Elros, a Drow Ranger who rains frost arrows to rival the rogue's damage output.
- Josh (Jollibee) plays Vizuviouz, a dual-weapon wielder Longtooth Shifter Tempest Fighter. What a mouthful.
Billy was surprisingly not busy and was able to play in the morning. I made characters for Fey and Carlo based on what they'd like to play so we can dive in to the action quickly. Fey was supposed to play this really cool Swordmage who has elemental sword attacks, but sadly, higher powers than the DM's intervened with his availability to play. Carlo liked his archer dude and I think everybody was impressed with his average damage per round of 20 or so. I wasn't able to discuss with Josh his character beforehand, so when he showed up at night and we rolled up his swordie, he probably got disappointed in how it later turned out.
The story so far:
After days holed up in his room, communing with his deity Ioun, Jim emerged blessed with a +1 holy symbol slightly groggy from not eating, bathing, pissing, shitting, jerking off, etc, during the whole time. He finds that the rest of his group had gone ahead to Shadowfiend Keep to confront Kalarel. Staul asks him to aid his comrades, along with Elros, the dark-skinned brother of the elven hunter Ninaran. Staul then leaves to have a jolly good time in Lordaeron.
The Hunger Problem of Dungeon Dwelling
The Horsemen was about to retrace their steps to the locked door they had earlier passed when Jim Castillo and Elros found them. Since Aaron wasn't there yet, his Dragonborn Juno went to look after the horses that they parked outside the dungeon, because it's just dumb to call yourselves Horsemen if you ain't got horses. The group then stumbles into a blue slime lurking beneath a shallow underground pool, which bathes them in fart bubbles.
 |
| Rune of terror |
And, as Jace has previously illustrated, we know what happens to brave adventurers, don't we?
The Horsemen probably got a bit confused when they saw the dark elf screaming like a little girl headed in the opposite passageway. They follow him into a room where a very joyous welcome committee of zombies (about as joyous as starving wolves get when a flock of sheep stumbles into their cave) happily invites them in for lunch. And, similar to earlier encounters with similarly hungry rats, jelly, kruthiks and slime, the Horsemen decline the invitation, not quite keen to join a party where they are the lunch.
The Lovely Bones
The next room revealed a much larger sarcophagi than the others, with an equally larger skeleton climbing out of it. This one however, had a breastplate emblemed with a dragon, and more importantly, a voice, which then said, "The portal must never be reopened! State your intentions or prepare to die!"
You have to keep wondering why Daven was playing the intelligent wizard when he was all for attacking the dude and just taking its longsword. The backstabbing rogue and usually evil drow were quick to explain their benevolent mission, and together they successfully passed an impromptu interview via a skill challenge.
The skeleton introduced itself as Sir Leoric, the last Knight of Bahamut to guard the Keep before its ruin. Sir Leoric succumbed to the malevolent whispers of the evil from the portal and, became possessed of a terrible madness. He slew his wife and children, and, being the greatest warrior in the Keep, most of the guard battalion. The rest rallied forth and was able to trap him into the catacombs where he regained his sanity and realized in horror at the atrocity he has done. He begs the Horsemen to fulfill his mission of guarding the portal, which he now feels to be reopening, and gives them his +1 Aecris longsword.
They return to the passageways marked with runes of terror and, after being stumped on how to hurdle this impossible obstacle, tried to jump over them, which surprisingly worked (duh). Elros' spider senses detected a secret door with an illusory wall, and after destroying the hungry zombies inside, they get stumped for a while again by the following riddle:
A wondrous treasure,
Valued by all, sought by many.
Found in both victory and defeat,
Yet never at the bottom of a treasure chest.
It marches before you like a herald,
And lives long after you are gone.
Of what do I speak?
Jace finally shows his intelligence and correctly answers Reputation, getting rewarded with a +1 Black Iron scale armor he would later give to Juno. He tested its fire resistance when he later casts Burning Spray with Juno in the blast area.
It's evening (real time, not game time) by the time they venture down into the second level of the Shadowfiend Keep...
alabets. :D
ReplyDelete