Post by Ginger on Nov 1, 2008 22:11:48 GMT -5
Party:
* Kazan - Human, Monk 1
* Basil Athelstar - Half Elf, Fighter 1
* Zinc - Human, Cleric of Jascar 1
* Rennslaer - Human, Cleric of Lendor 1
* Morvan - Elf, Cleric of Bralm/Magic User 1/1
In the morning, after a restful night, Kazan and Morvan wake their fellows and the priests begin morning prayers. Basil stands alert, while Kazan cleans up the campsite and prepares a small meal before extinguishing the fire. There is much deliberation as to the party's destination and strategy. Eventually it is decided that, for good or ill, the crude huts Kazan observed from the treetop should be first on the list. Zinc suggests that Kazan climb back up the tree and perform a more thorough reconnaissance. With a nimbleness belied by his great size, Kazan scampers back up the tree and watches the huts for any activity. After half an hour, with no sign of movement, he climbs back down - but not before spying another clearing in the far-off distance, which may or may not contain what he thinks is a ruined stone building. Reporting his findings, he is met with many questions.
"Do you think its a monastery?" Rensslaer asked. "Being a monk and all, you'd know, right?"
"I'm not sure..." Kazan replied, "I could only see it from a great distance."
"How can we get there from here?" Basil queried.
"Again, I'm not sure," Kazan said, "from atop the tree one cannot see the various game trails that intersperse the hill. I do know, however, that it is north of here and to the west."
"Did you see any Apis mellifera while you were up there? What color were they?" Morvan pressed, "How big?" Everyone looked at him strangely.
"Any what?" Kazan asked, confused.
"Bees, man, bees," the priest of Bralm said earnestly.
Shaking his head, Kazan indicates that he feels the leftmost of the two trails atop the small hill would lead in the right direction. Setting out along the game trail, they left behind their campsite and headed off into the wooded hillside. After a short while the trail sloped downwards, into a large clearing dominated by a large weathered humanoid-shaped statue. From the angle they entered the clearing, no one could get a look at its features.
"Good place for an ambush," Basil noted.
"Run down there and take a look, would you Kazan?" Rensslaer asked.
"Sure," the monk said, taking off at breakneck speed. Circling the statue warily, Kazan saw that it was of a horned humanoid leering menacingly, with hands folded over a large pot-belly - vaguely devilish in appearance. He also spotted a concealed cave mouth, only noticeable when one was standing directly in front of the statue.
"All clear," Kazan called back across the clearing, waiting for everyone to join him. After some prodding and pulling it was discovered that the statue was just a statue, albeit an ugly one. With some eagerness, and readied weapons, the party entered the cave. Kazan volunteered a torch. Inside was a small cavern with three passages, one straight ahead, one to the left and one to the right. Heading left, Basil led the group into an increasingly narrow passage, filled with stalagmites and stalagtites that ran together from floor to ceiling, producing an odd cage-like area that the larger members of the party had to squeeze through. The cavern dead-ended in a smooth stone wall, from which flowed a small quantity of water. No doubt the source of the strange rock formations. Morvan and Basil were urged to use their keen Elven senses to search for hidden passages, but none were found. Backtracking to the entry chamber, the opposite passage was taken. Another dead-end, this time choked with rubble. Clean air flowed through a hole in the ceiling which Kazan speculated exited into the woods near the clearing. Discouraged, the party headed back to the entry chamber and took a right, down the final passage. After several hundred feet it opened into a large cavern, much larger than what was revealed by torchlight. The flutter of wings and the stink of bat guano permeated the air.
"Bats," whispered Basil, "and lots of them."
"We should go," Zinc whispered back.
"No, we can take them. We'll lure them one by one into the torchlight and slay them!" Basil retorted.
Everyone disagreed, some more strenuously than others, and reluctantly Basil left the entrance to the bat cave, leading the grop back to the entry chamber.
"That was a waste of time," Rensslaer grumbled.
"There's still daylight, let's explore some more of this hill," Zinc suggested.
Exiting the cave, the group set out across the clearing. Once past the statue, Kazan spotted a troop of six hobgoblins marching down the game trail, from the direction of the previous campsite. Alerting the others, he readied his spear for combat. Morvan and Zinc took aim with their crossbows, hoping to take the hobgoblins unawares. Alas, luck was not with them and after spotting the party the hobgoblins drew scimitars and charged. Basil and Rensslaer met them with sword and spear. Kazan, using his superior quickness, closed the distance, fatally stabbing one of the hobgoblins but not before taking a blow from its scimitar. Basil, expert swordsman, killed his opponent but Rensslaer did not fare as well, taking a serious injury from the hobgoblin's scimitar. Sensing the battle could go either way Morvan called upon his goddess to entangle the creatures in the high grasses. As before, this proved most successful and the fight was quickly over. Two of the hobgoblins are knocked unconscious and taken prisoner, while the others are dispatched without mercy.
After defeating the hobgoblins, the party took refuge in the cave, hoping to be able to question one of the prisoners. They carried the hobgoblins to the cave and looked for a good hiding place to rest and recuperate. A swarm of stirges had other ideas, and the party was attacked. After the stirges were defeated, Basil noticed that one of the stirges was still alive, gorging itself on the blood of one of the hobgoblin captives. "There goes the spare" he thought, while striking down the final bat-bug.
"Well, I think we'll hunker down here a bit longer than we originally planned," declared Zinc. After healing the injured, he bedded down for the night.
Basil and Morvan guarded the camp, but Rennslaer and Kazan had other plans. "We could use some fresh meat," Rennslaer thought. "I'll set some traps near the cave mouth and see if I can catch some game." Kazan spent some time looking around the clearing, looking out for more hobgoblins while Rennslaer set his traps. Instead of hobgoblins, he saw a giant, horned lizard! Fortunately, the lizard didn't see him. Rensslaer was looking for the best place to lay a trap when Kazan grabbed his arm and yanked him towards the cave. "Big lizard. Run." was all Kazan had time for before Rensslaer saw the beast and joined Kazan. After silently staring at each other for a while, Kazan and Rensslaer thought it was safe to emerge from the cave again, hoping that the lizard either didn't see them or didn't think they were important.
Rensslaer and Kazan started collecting shrubs and branches, using them to conceal the cave mouth as best as they could. "Job well done. Time for a nap." Rensslaer said. When they woke up, the found the hobgoblin prisoner was awake. "Our buddy here woke up while you were sleeping." Basil said. "He was uncooperative, but Morvan did something to his mind with his magics and he gave us a few bits of information. Basically, in between the threats about killing all humans, he said that he's part of a hobgoblin army serving under the hobgoblin king, Gral Dragonslayer."
"Great, that's very helpful." Rensslaer said, as he smashed the hobgoblin over the head, knocking him unconscious. "I'll tie him back up. What should we do with him?" After a heated discussion, with Basil arguing for killing the prisoner and Zinc refusing to harm a bound creature, the hobgoblin was tied to a stalagmite in the cave, to be picked up later.
The five adventurers head back into the forest, looking for the building that Kazan saw from the treetops the previous day. After a few hours of hiking down a game trail, Kazan spots a large clearing. The party cautiously enters and starts looking around. Morvan sees a wonderful sight. Two giant ants, favorites of his blessed goddess Bralm, are walking around the edge of the clearing. "Bralm be praised! However, we should leave their presence quickly. These are warrior ants, and they will not countenance our intrusion in their territory." The ants are given a wide berth as the party picks up the train again on the other side of the clearing.
The next clearing reveals a well maintained cottage, with an herb garden. "Be wary." warns Zinc. "A well maintained cottage in these dangerous woods is very suspicious." As they approach the cottage, an elderly woman pokes her head out of a window.
"Hello there! It's been a while since we've had visitors, would you like some tea? Or scones?" The woman is very friendly. "Linda, visitors! Make another pot of tea." The two women, sisters named Rosabella and Rosalinda, are extremely chatty, but after much discussion, Rensslaer realizes that the party has learned almost nothing about them. "These sisters are crafty" he thinks. "Something must be wrong, since two old ladies in these woods wouldn't last 5 minutes against the hobgoblins."
"Excuse me," he finally says. "How can you survive in these woods? You don't seem to have any guards. I can't believe that you haven't been murdered by hobgoblins or eaten by bears!"
Linda looks exasperated by Rensslaer's rudeness. "Silly boy. When a group of hobgoblins comes by we kill all of them but one, and send him off half-dead. That's usually good enough to remind them why they leave us alone." Her bluntness leads Kazan to ask some more pointed questions about the monastary the party is seeking. Bella and Linda are indeed familar with the monastary, and could even draw a map of the complex! "For a fee, of course. Nothing is for free. Equal exchange for everything. Value for value." Apparently the value of the map is 150 gold pieces, which is a little too expensive for the party.
"Well, if you don't have the funds, perhaps there are a few tasks you could perform for us." Bella has a proposal. "One of our neighbors is particulary rude. He messes up our garden, throws things, and makes an awful racket. He is an ogre named Crushem, or Bashem, or some silly ogre name like that."
Zinc asks "Is it a single ogre?"
Bella thinks for a moment. "Hmm. I don't know if he's married or single, sorry. I'd never asked. His cave is an hours hike up that path, why don't you see for yourself?"
That seems to Zinc to be the signal that the sisters are tired of their company, so he gets up to go.
The party follows the trail leading to the ogre's cave. Soon enough, the trail dead-ends at a cave mouth. A few feet into the cave is a large wooden door. Kazan inspects the door and notices two things. The door appears to be barred from the inside. Additionally, he can hear the sounds of an ogre smashing something with a large club. "He must be torturing a prisoner! Basil, break down the door!" The hearty fighter steps up and kicks the door in.
The sight is an odd one. There is indeed a small ogre brutalizing someone with a club. However, the someone is another small ogre, who wields a club of his own! The two young ogres are shocked to see warriors break down their door, and the party charges in to combat quickly. Basil, Rensslaer and Kazan rush the ogres, with Rensslaer in the middle. Unfortunately, both ogres club him and he is knocked unconscious instantly. Basil and his bastard sword make quick work of the ogre he faces, while Kazan uses his superior speed to lure the ogre away from his brother and out the door. This only partially works, but it gives a chance for everyone else to surround it and take it down.
Standing over the ogre corpses, Kazan listens for any evidence that the party has been noticed. Everyone else looks around the room. It appears to be an ogre-sized dining room. "All clear" says Kazan, and the party reforms into its marching order and heads further into the cave. There are a few side corridors which lead off of the main cavern, but the party presses on ahead. Rensslaer is not happy. "I wish I had some paper so I could make a map. This is ridiculous. We're going to get lost and die down here."
While Ren mutters to himself, the corridor opens up into a larger space. The floor is littered with sleeping mats and some personal affects. They presumably belong to the six goblins in the room, who start screaming in alarm. Three try to engage with the party while the other three try to flee for help. Two of the fleeing goblins are killed by Zinc and Morvan, but one escapes. Zinc turns to follow the goblin, but he sees an ogre advancing towards him. The ogre smashes into Zinc, leaving Zinc barely conscious. Zinc ineffectually swings at the ogre while thinking that he cannot possible withstand another blow from the ogre. "I'm glad that you are are fighting the goblins, but maybe someone could help with this ogre?!" Zinc's prayers are answered and Basil, Rensslaer and Morvan surround the ogre and kill it.
As the large ogre goes down, another one comes charging down the corridor where it came from. This ogre looks slightly smaller than the other, and she is likely his mate. Her fury at the murder of her family is no match for combined force of arms, and the five adventurers are soon standing over two ogre corpses. "All right," says Morvan. "Who's going to carry the head?"
* Kazan - Human, Monk 1
* Basil Athelstar - Half Elf, Fighter 1
* Zinc - Human, Cleric of Jascar 1
* Rennslaer - Human, Cleric of Lendor 1
* Morvan - Elf, Cleric of Bralm/Magic User 1/1
In the morning, after a restful night, Kazan and Morvan wake their fellows and the priests begin morning prayers. Basil stands alert, while Kazan cleans up the campsite and prepares a small meal before extinguishing the fire. There is much deliberation as to the party's destination and strategy. Eventually it is decided that, for good or ill, the crude huts Kazan observed from the treetop should be first on the list. Zinc suggests that Kazan climb back up the tree and perform a more thorough reconnaissance. With a nimbleness belied by his great size, Kazan scampers back up the tree and watches the huts for any activity. After half an hour, with no sign of movement, he climbs back down - but not before spying another clearing in the far-off distance, which may or may not contain what he thinks is a ruined stone building. Reporting his findings, he is met with many questions.
"Do you think its a monastery?" Rensslaer asked. "Being a monk and all, you'd know, right?"
"I'm not sure..." Kazan replied, "I could only see it from a great distance."
"How can we get there from here?" Basil queried.
"Again, I'm not sure," Kazan said, "from atop the tree one cannot see the various game trails that intersperse the hill. I do know, however, that it is north of here and to the west."
"Did you see any Apis mellifera while you were up there? What color were they?" Morvan pressed, "How big?" Everyone looked at him strangely.
"Any what?" Kazan asked, confused.
"Bees, man, bees," the priest of Bralm said earnestly.
Shaking his head, Kazan indicates that he feels the leftmost of the two trails atop the small hill would lead in the right direction. Setting out along the game trail, they left behind their campsite and headed off into the wooded hillside. After a short while the trail sloped downwards, into a large clearing dominated by a large weathered humanoid-shaped statue. From the angle they entered the clearing, no one could get a look at its features.
"Good place for an ambush," Basil noted.
"Run down there and take a look, would you Kazan?" Rensslaer asked.
"Sure," the monk said, taking off at breakneck speed. Circling the statue warily, Kazan saw that it was of a horned humanoid leering menacingly, with hands folded over a large pot-belly - vaguely devilish in appearance. He also spotted a concealed cave mouth, only noticeable when one was standing directly in front of the statue.
"All clear," Kazan called back across the clearing, waiting for everyone to join him. After some prodding and pulling it was discovered that the statue was just a statue, albeit an ugly one. With some eagerness, and readied weapons, the party entered the cave. Kazan volunteered a torch. Inside was a small cavern with three passages, one straight ahead, one to the left and one to the right. Heading left, Basil led the group into an increasingly narrow passage, filled with stalagmites and stalagtites that ran together from floor to ceiling, producing an odd cage-like area that the larger members of the party had to squeeze through. The cavern dead-ended in a smooth stone wall, from which flowed a small quantity of water. No doubt the source of the strange rock formations. Morvan and Basil were urged to use their keen Elven senses to search for hidden passages, but none were found. Backtracking to the entry chamber, the opposite passage was taken. Another dead-end, this time choked with rubble. Clean air flowed through a hole in the ceiling which Kazan speculated exited into the woods near the clearing. Discouraged, the party headed back to the entry chamber and took a right, down the final passage. After several hundred feet it opened into a large cavern, much larger than what was revealed by torchlight. The flutter of wings and the stink of bat guano permeated the air.
"Bats," whispered Basil, "and lots of them."
"We should go," Zinc whispered back.
"No, we can take them. We'll lure them one by one into the torchlight and slay them!" Basil retorted.
Everyone disagreed, some more strenuously than others, and reluctantly Basil left the entrance to the bat cave, leading the grop back to the entry chamber.
"That was a waste of time," Rensslaer grumbled.
"There's still daylight, let's explore some more of this hill," Zinc suggested.
Exiting the cave, the group set out across the clearing. Once past the statue, Kazan spotted a troop of six hobgoblins marching down the game trail, from the direction of the previous campsite. Alerting the others, he readied his spear for combat. Morvan and Zinc took aim with their crossbows, hoping to take the hobgoblins unawares. Alas, luck was not with them and after spotting the party the hobgoblins drew scimitars and charged. Basil and Rensslaer met them with sword and spear. Kazan, using his superior quickness, closed the distance, fatally stabbing one of the hobgoblins but not before taking a blow from its scimitar. Basil, expert swordsman, killed his opponent but Rensslaer did not fare as well, taking a serious injury from the hobgoblin's scimitar. Sensing the battle could go either way Morvan called upon his goddess to entangle the creatures in the high grasses. As before, this proved most successful and the fight was quickly over. Two of the hobgoblins are knocked unconscious and taken prisoner, while the others are dispatched without mercy.
After defeating the hobgoblins, the party took refuge in the cave, hoping to be able to question one of the prisoners. They carried the hobgoblins to the cave and looked for a good hiding place to rest and recuperate. A swarm of stirges had other ideas, and the party was attacked. After the stirges were defeated, Basil noticed that one of the stirges was still alive, gorging itself on the blood of one of the hobgoblin captives. "There goes the spare" he thought, while striking down the final bat-bug.
"Well, I think we'll hunker down here a bit longer than we originally planned," declared Zinc. After healing the injured, he bedded down for the night.
Basil and Morvan guarded the camp, but Rennslaer and Kazan had other plans. "We could use some fresh meat," Rennslaer thought. "I'll set some traps near the cave mouth and see if I can catch some game." Kazan spent some time looking around the clearing, looking out for more hobgoblins while Rennslaer set his traps. Instead of hobgoblins, he saw a giant, horned lizard! Fortunately, the lizard didn't see him. Rensslaer was looking for the best place to lay a trap when Kazan grabbed his arm and yanked him towards the cave. "Big lizard. Run." was all Kazan had time for before Rensslaer saw the beast and joined Kazan. After silently staring at each other for a while, Kazan and Rensslaer thought it was safe to emerge from the cave again, hoping that the lizard either didn't see them or didn't think they were important.
Rensslaer and Kazan started collecting shrubs and branches, using them to conceal the cave mouth as best as they could. "Job well done. Time for a nap." Rensslaer said. When they woke up, the found the hobgoblin prisoner was awake. "Our buddy here woke up while you were sleeping." Basil said. "He was uncooperative, but Morvan did something to his mind with his magics and he gave us a few bits of information. Basically, in between the threats about killing all humans, he said that he's part of a hobgoblin army serving under the hobgoblin king, Gral Dragonslayer."
"Great, that's very helpful." Rensslaer said, as he smashed the hobgoblin over the head, knocking him unconscious. "I'll tie him back up. What should we do with him?" After a heated discussion, with Basil arguing for killing the prisoner and Zinc refusing to harm a bound creature, the hobgoblin was tied to a stalagmite in the cave, to be picked up later.
The five adventurers head back into the forest, looking for the building that Kazan saw from the treetops the previous day. After a few hours of hiking down a game trail, Kazan spots a large clearing. The party cautiously enters and starts looking around. Morvan sees a wonderful sight. Two giant ants, favorites of his blessed goddess Bralm, are walking around the edge of the clearing. "Bralm be praised! However, we should leave their presence quickly. These are warrior ants, and they will not countenance our intrusion in their territory." The ants are given a wide berth as the party picks up the train again on the other side of the clearing.
The next clearing reveals a well maintained cottage, with an herb garden. "Be wary." warns Zinc. "A well maintained cottage in these dangerous woods is very suspicious." As they approach the cottage, an elderly woman pokes her head out of a window.
"Hello there! It's been a while since we've had visitors, would you like some tea? Or scones?" The woman is very friendly. "Linda, visitors! Make another pot of tea." The two women, sisters named Rosabella and Rosalinda, are extremely chatty, but after much discussion, Rensslaer realizes that the party has learned almost nothing about them. "These sisters are crafty" he thinks. "Something must be wrong, since two old ladies in these woods wouldn't last 5 minutes against the hobgoblins."
"Excuse me," he finally says. "How can you survive in these woods? You don't seem to have any guards. I can't believe that you haven't been murdered by hobgoblins or eaten by bears!"
Linda looks exasperated by Rensslaer's rudeness. "Silly boy. When a group of hobgoblins comes by we kill all of them but one, and send him off half-dead. That's usually good enough to remind them why they leave us alone." Her bluntness leads Kazan to ask some more pointed questions about the monastary the party is seeking. Bella and Linda are indeed familar with the monastary, and could even draw a map of the complex! "For a fee, of course. Nothing is for free. Equal exchange for everything. Value for value." Apparently the value of the map is 150 gold pieces, which is a little too expensive for the party.
"Well, if you don't have the funds, perhaps there are a few tasks you could perform for us." Bella has a proposal. "One of our neighbors is particulary rude. He messes up our garden, throws things, and makes an awful racket. He is an ogre named Crushem, or Bashem, or some silly ogre name like that."
Zinc asks "Is it a single ogre?"
Bella thinks for a moment. "Hmm. I don't know if he's married or single, sorry. I'd never asked. His cave is an hours hike up that path, why don't you see for yourself?"
That seems to Zinc to be the signal that the sisters are tired of their company, so he gets up to go.
The party follows the trail leading to the ogre's cave. Soon enough, the trail dead-ends at a cave mouth. A few feet into the cave is a large wooden door. Kazan inspects the door and notices two things. The door appears to be barred from the inside. Additionally, he can hear the sounds of an ogre smashing something with a large club. "He must be torturing a prisoner! Basil, break down the door!" The hearty fighter steps up and kicks the door in.
The sight is an odd one. There is indeed a small ogre brutalizing someone with a club. However, the someone is another small ogre, who wields a club of his own! The two young ogres are shocked to see warriors break down their door, and the party charges in to combat quickly. Basil, Rensslaer and Kazan rush the ogres, with Rensslaer in the middle. Unfortunately, both ogres club him and he is knocked unconscious instantly. Basil and his bastard sword make quick work of the ogre he faces, while Kazan uses his superior speed to lure the ogre away from his brother and out the door. This only partially works, but it gives a chance for everyone else to surround it and take it down.
Standing over the ogre corpses, Kazan listens for any evidence that the party has been noticed. Everyone else looks around the room. It appears to be an ogre-sized dining room. "All clear" says Kazan, and the party reforms into its marching order and heads further into the cave. There are a few side corridors which lead off of the main cavern, but the party presses on ahead. Rensslaer is not happy. "I wish I had some paper so I could make a map. This is ridiculous. We're going to get lost and die down here."
While Ren mutters to himself, the corridor opens up into a larger space. The floor is littered with sleeping mats and some personal affects. They presumably belong to the six goblins in the room, who start screaming in alarm. Three try to engage with the party while the other three try to flee for help. Two of the fleeing goblins are killed by Zinc and Morvan, but one escapes. Zinc turns to follow the goblin, but he sees an ogre advancing towards him. The ogre smashes into Zinc, leaving Zinc barely conscious. Zinc ineffectually swings at the ogre while thinking that he cannot possible withstand another blow from the ogre. "I'm glad that you are are fighting the goblins, but maybe someone could help with this ogre?!" Zinc's prayers are answered and Basil, Rensslaer and Morvan surround the ogre and kill it.
As the large ogre goes down, another one comes charging down the corridor where it came from. This ogre looks slightly smaller than the other, and she is likely his mate. Her fury at the murder of her family is no match for combined force of arms, and the five adventurers are soon standing over two ogre corpses. "All right," says Morvan. "Who's going to carry the head?"