2 September 2017 630 PM
- 10 PM EDT
The DM was Steve.
When last we left our
murderhobos, there was much rejoicing over hard-won treasure; there was a great
offering to the Church of Freya to resurrect one companion, and restore to
another that which was lost. People leveled up and everyone healed.
Gruffled the halfling
Thief decided to take his fortune and retire to the shire. Raven the
half-elf Cleric of Freya decided that dying once wass quite enough,
thankyouverymuch, and escorted Yaspar the gnome fighting-man to the abbey of
Freya where he was to learn the ways of their order. Thane the human
Magic-User left his master to join our party, having found a taste for
adventure in the wider world. Ronin the human Fighter and Vuvier the gnome Thief
had come through quite well, had gained levels, and remained the nucleus of the
merry band. Thane called out to a familiar and to Julie's delight, a toad
came to her! She named the toad Jane II, and we used this little familiar
to spy for us on one occasion already.
Over the next couple of
weeks as we convalesced at the expense of Lord Clifton, Ronin called upon a
friend of his from the war to help bolster our numbers. Her name is
Meira, and she is a half-elf Fighter played by AJ. In practice she makes an
excellent rearguard because she has decent hit points and a magic sword, and
she can fire over the heads of the other characters.
(Back on Earth, my
wife AJ had joined us so we were six players 'round the table with Steve making
seven. That seems like a lot but it went surprisingly well.)
 |
| Meira the half-elf fighter |
Avast!!
We could tell Clifton
was getting antsy to get this group of murderhobos out of his camp so he could
get on with the business of being a Lord of the Manor. What we didn't
know is that he had more trouble on his hands! The bandits from the next
hex over had kidnapped his niece and ward, Sylvia, who was to be wed to the
neighboring Baron to cement Clifton's claim to power.
There was a woodsman, no
more than a boy, really, who had spied the kidnapping and saw the way the
bandits had taken her. He wasn't much use past that, so the party set off in
search of her. But before they went, Clifton introduced an earthy sort
named Ældlin who agreed to come along to take them safely through the woods.
Steve handed me a character sheet with a sly grin on his face and said,
"Since you role-play, I thought you could handle this!" Ældlin is my character,
a half-elf druid of all things! This is not a choice I would have made for
myself, but oh what fun it would be!
 |
| Ældlin the Russet, the druid |
I decided he would have strawberry blond dreadlocks and little forest animals whisper in his ear whenever he has something to say, as if he is reporting what they tell him. The weather was rainy the day they set off, so I took Call Lightning as my third level spell, but that was my only offensive magic. Between the fighters and Thane I felt confident that I wouldn't need the usual low level Druid beatdowns. (Sidebar: 1e Druids have a wacked-out spell progression that awards 3rd level spells when they are 3rd experience level! WEIRD!)
No sooner had we entered
the wood and walked perhaps a league then a whippoorwill informed Ældlin that
the party had been flanked! We readied our weapons against the two strangers,
but instead of a fight, we found we were all looking for the same little girl
and the same group of bandits.
Everaxe the Dwarven War
Cleric and his Woman Ranger companion were more than happy to join us in our
search. Everaxe was played like a short Klingon by my son, Nathaniel. He got a
handle on Everaxe right away and quickly formed a friendly rivalry up at the
front of the party with Ronin, the powerful Fighting-Man.
 |
| Everaxe the War Cleric |
Simone is a clever
player who always has great tactical ideas. Every time she speaks up, she
has an MVP idea and saves the day, as you will see if you read back over these
journal entries. But she's not comfortable getting into character. Faelin the
Ranger is competent and efficient.
That's okay.
 |
| Simone's ranger, Faelin |
Her Ranger was nondescript to be honest because she doesn't quite have a handle on the character yet. She and Ældlin took up the third rank behind Vuvier and Thane (rank 2) and Ronin and Everaxe (Vanguard).
The seven of us arrived
at the likely cave of the bandits who had abducted Sylvia. and observed it for
a couple of hours and from a couple of vantage points, concluding there was no
patrol.
Ronin suggested
booby-trapping the entrance to cover an escape of for some other dire reason
and we considered it. It was a good idea but it was raining and we didn't
want to lose daylight if possible. It would also have given up our presence.
So we carefully went in,
dispatching a sleeping (!) goblin guard and his lizard man crony. We explored a
small barracks, found a scroll of Cure Disease, and then continued on
to a main earthen hall. It was lighted by torches in sconces and containing
practice dummies, manacles, and straw bales with targets. We had stumbled upon
something of an operation, it appeared.
But the most interesting
thing in the room was a princess, manacled to the wall and sitting in a chair.
She was being menaced by an owlbear! They were about 70' away, just
outside melee range. When we all saw one another, the owlbear roared and
slashed the princess open. We charged toward it, and Everaxe the Cleric
prepared Cure Light Wounds for the distressed damsel! We wailed
on each other for three or four rounds, and our side inflicted numerous wounds
on the beast. However it's great claws had felled Ronin ad Faelin where
they stood, each with one blow!
Ældlin had not engaged
and had in fact backed out toward the open sky again, in case he had to cast
his Call Lightning spell. He spied Everaxe cast
his Cure spell on the Baroness-to-be, but to no effect -
and it was then that I made the connection.
THIS WAS AN ILLUSION! NO
WONDER SEVEN OF US COULDN'T BEAT A CRUMMY OWLBEAR!
So how to
disbelieve? I missed one Save, but then looked at my character sheet.
I had
memorized Faerie Fire today! Casting it into the area with the
"owlbear," it clearly outlined each animate person - which of course
did not include the owlbear! We were all able to disbelieve and awakened our
fallen comrades!
Then we heard laughter
from the opposite wall. Vuvier the thief found a peephole but there was
nobody on the other side. We decidfed to circle around through a passage
we thought would lead to the hole, and sure enough, it did.
But it also led us two
two combats with more goblins! In the second one, since Ældlin was in the
back, he cast Charm Person or Monster on a big goblin. As it turns
out, goblins have an INT of 4, and therefore he will be my friend for at least two
months. We pumped him for information but that didn't go well. We found
out his name is King Goblin (he's not a king) and he showed us his
butthole. Very helpful.
 |
| Attribution |
He pointed us down a
dark passage to a "sick thing" which the several players surmised was
the princess. Everaxe and Ældlin ventured down the hallway and were beset
by a green slime!
We nearly died.
Somehow, the goblin had been taught to cast the spell from the scroll despite
being quite stupid. He saved Everaxe's life but not his plate armor. 400 GPs
down the drain!
We decided to head back
to Castle Clifton to recuperate since two of us were under 10 HP and Everaxe in
particular had but 1, and no spells left. Sylvia would just have to wait.
So again, the cast:
Ronin, the 3rd level
human Fighting-Man played by Ethan
Vuvier, the 3rd level
gnome Thief and
Thane, the 3rd level
human Magic-User (now with added toadiness thanks to Jane II) played by
Julianna
Faelin, the 2nd
level human Ranger played by Simone
Everaxe, the
2nd level dwarf War Cleric played by Nathaniel
Meira, the 2nd level
half-elf archer Fighter played by AJ
Ældlin, the 3rd
level half-elf Druid and
King Goblin, the
bless-your-heart bumpkin goblin manservant, both played by Scott.
Props:
to AJ for getting her
game on
to Scott for actually
finding a use for Faerie Fire
to Ethan for finally
playing Ronin like the brave and resourceful front-rank Fighter he is
to Nathaniel for
stepping into the shoes of Everaxe seamlessly. He had expected to play a
dwarf Fighting Man, but he got right into having a go at playing a Cleric!
Slops:
to Scott for almost
getting Everaxe killed. I knew we were walking into some kind of trap,
but was overconfident due to strength in numbers.
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