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Post by Andric on Jul 6, 2005 18:27:38 GMT -5
Andric
All this slaying has certainly offered me confidence with my blade...and along with my natural tumbling...hmm, perhaps a sword in my second hand? It must be possible. And these shadows...so alluring...
As I return to the Inn, in my off-hand, I hold the new short sword we have recently obtained, and begin to practice wielding two swords simultaneously. Somehow, with enough practice, there must be a way to slice a foe as effectively with the off-hand sword as with my main sword. In addition, I believe I can make this cloak more effective, by improving my ability to hide. I will practice today on both of these skills.
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Dnar
Master of the West Wind
Posts: 177
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Post by Dnar on Jul 7, 2005 8:54:41 GMT -5
Careful with that blade elf. You are dangerous enough with just the one.
Your efforts remind me that I have my own practice and training to do. While Andric plays with his swords, I shall begin the study of the two scrolls which I purchased from Spugnoir so that I may learn to cast them. However, I shall also continue to practice my rogue skills as I intend to further hone my skills.
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Post by TerraDave on Jul 11, 2005 9:35:13 GMT -5
While back in his part of the tower, Andric remembers... ...a few years back meeting a human ranger(?) and a grey elf fighter(??) who had been adventuring in the area. While fascinated by their tale, much ale was had, and the memories are few and fading, but something he saw lately...what was it... [whatever John can remember, Andric can remember...] Too much ale indeed....but with 6 days in Hommlet (though it seems like more) on that long walk back from the Moathouse, it suddenly starts to come together... It was just under two years ago that Andric met Ian Killian, a "grey friar": a human priest, but with quite a different attitude then Bertram and Lubick, a ranger who could also cast some Wizard spells. Those two had went to the Moathouse, and encountered all sorts of aberant animals: a spider, lizard, and frogs all of great size. They would also encounter cultist in those "burning eye" outfits, putting some to sleep and actually talking there way past the Hyenna-men (which he remembers being called gnolls). And he remembers Brother Ian telling of driving back the living dead. What else can Andric remember....? |
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Post by Andric on Jul 14, 2005 16:43:11 GMT -5
Andric wracks his brain, fighting through the forgetful fog in his mind, trying to remember more about that momentous night of revelry with Ian Killian and Lubick. The drink, the song, the boisterous merrymaking, and...nothing.
He knows there must be more to their meeting with him, but his memory fails him. Andric mourns silently behind the cowl of his elven cloak.
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Post by TerraDave on Jul 15, 2005 11:08:39 GMT -5
But then, yes, more comes back...they even marched some of the brigands back into town...
...Elmo, they mentioned the big lummox...who actually wasn't (though it took them long enough to figure that out) and that mage just starting out, was that Spungior?, and they were also "backstabbed"...hmm, started with a Z...
And that dramatic last encounter, Lars, no that wasn't the name...they killed him, the head of the cult in the Moathouse, right?
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Post by Andric on Jul 19, 2005 17:42:38 GMT -5
A little voice inside my head wants me to find out more about the two visitors to my enclave of Faedrin four years ago. Perhaps someone in Hommlet knows more about them than I? Perhaps a grog will cure this sudden confusion.
D'nar, Bertram, would you like to visit the inn and chat up some of the locals?
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Post by TerraDave on Aug 15, 2005 16:19:23 GMT -5
The Heirs return to the village, engage the services of of the traders to dispose of some of the loot from the Moathouse, study the Journal they found, and ask questions of Terjon, Elmo, and Spungior related to it. They don't get many answers.
With that, they spend an intesive day in training, and then return to the Moathouse. Intent on clearing out the ghouls that mauled them last time, and finding the pool/water/evil thingy refered to in the journal they do run right into a ghast, and some ghouls, and yet more cult clerics. Following all these are some of the gnolls they ran into before. Only know they are undead zombie gnolls.
Showing a surprising combination of prudence and knowledge of their suroundings, the Heirs quickly fall back at the encounter with the ghast, knowing more must be coming. They get behind a door in a small room, and make their stand. Their is shaking and sickening, the realisation that one of the clerics is scaley and smelly, and a general sense of menace.
BUT, the Heirs come through with just a few scrathces. The cult clerics don't come through at all. Could there be more? The Heirs don't wait to find out.
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Post by Andric on Aug 19, 2005 14:55:04 GMT -5
Andric wipes undead meat off his blades, and peers over the two clerics, starting with the human one. "Did this one call the smelly reptilian one by the name 'Islanch'? And this one, might this be Geynor Tan? I wonder if we could have interrogated the prisoners? Perchance their heads hold (held) more valuable information?"
Perchance these two corpses will today teach me a lesson in restraint. Perchance D'nar could have used his dark gypsy sorcery to trick it out of their minds? There is something alluring about that tricksy gypsy.
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Dnar
Master of the West Wind
Posts: 177
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Post by Dnar on Aug 25, 2005 15:45:16 GMT -5
Andric, my friend. Ha-ha, I see you are gaining an appreciation of my people's skills and talents. We are very adept at manipulating and seducing the weak willed and feeble minded. You raise a good point, I could in the future, perhaps, employ my not-inconsiderable charms to elicit information from a prisoner. I shall bear this in mind.
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Post by TerraDave on Aug 29, 2005 14:48:22 GMT -5
Once again, the Heirs of NeMoren turn to the journal they found in the Moathouse...flourmill, the evil cleric who wrote it was in a flourmill...hmm...
Finally, D'nar asks if Hommlet has a flourmill. Elmo confirms that it does, and that he hasn't seen the miller for a fair bit. Elmo also mentions that one of the militia saw Chatrilon lurking not too far from there in the last few days.
The Heirs decide to scout the mill, at night. They make various preparations during the day. Andric, wishing for food to be brought to his room, speaks to the never-too-freindly bar tender, a female half-elf named Maridosen. He doesn't realise that Maridosen is surprised to see him hanging about the Inn during the day, and not heading to the Moathouse. For her freinds had plans for him, Bertram, and D'nar.
They may never know that Chatrilon and almost half a dozen other cultist where waiting in ambush that day. But they meet them at the Fourmill later. Two warriors-- a dread blood with a great axe and a Caladonian with a Claymore--another cult cleric, and an arcane caster with little horns and cloven feat! They are led by a strange man--Master Dunrat--capable of summoning an extremly viscious and truly dire weasel.
They hear the Heirs poking around outside, and see their lantern shining through the window of the adjoining miller's house. The cultist emerge and battle ensues. The Heirs hold Chatrilon after he appears (from being invisible)and sneak attacks Bertram. They fell the non-human wizard and warrior. And it seems that a divine hand (or is it cudgel?) averts one devestating blow after another. Yet the cultist are too strong, and the Heirs fear this may be their last battle. Especially after Maridosen the barkeep shows up, to join the side of the cultists!
But Elmo never trusted her (and let the Heirs know it days before...) and thought she was acting funny when she left her post. He remembered the mention of the Flourmill. He had to run to his place for his axe, and headed over. He cut down the claymore weilding northerner, and when Dunrat saw his bodyguard felled so easily, the cult leader ordered the retreat, and the last of the cultist disapeared into the night.
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Post by TerraDave on Aug 29, 2005 14:57:17 GMT -5
After a bit of poking around, the Heirs found a spell book and a chest in the cellar of the flourmill, where it was clear the cultist where staying.
They guessed that the faint abjuration the chest was radiating was a trap. Elmo helped them carry it out. Spungior dispelled the magic after D'nar failed--and gave the Heirs a potion--in return for the spell book.
Amongts its contents was a letter, instructing Master Dunrat to establish his base in Hommlet and retrieve relics of the Dark God from the Moathouse. It also mentioned something about a "gate" by a place called "Nulb".
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Post by TerraDave on Aug 29, 2005 15:19:09 GMT -5
The day after the mill-battle, Elmo lets the Heirs know that the militia buried the bodies in an unmarked grave--"seemed to be the the thing to do".
"And two lads have been working at the mill all along!. Though they have been wondering what happened to the miller. Said that the people in the cellar was freinds o' is--freinds of the miller that is. And they had been there a bit before the miller and his misses disapeared"
"Never saw any thing with horns or hooves, but said a woman was working with them in the mill who has part of that bunch."
"Ohh, and I talked to my friend in the groove. Said some'ing about creatures of the dark realm coupling with humans: if you can believe all that"
"Said even Merlin had an incubus for a father". "what is this village coming to, I wonder".
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Post by TerraDave on Oct 14, 2005 10:41:46 GMT -5
Not thwarted by ghouls, ghasts, or cultist, Andric, D’nar, and Bertram finally take the stairs in the south of the Moathouse dungeon. They find the opening of a shaft partially covered with a great round stone slab. Hanging from the ceiling of the room is a platform attached to pulley by a rope. Below, water pours from a small space beneath the floor, down through the shaft and into darkness beyond. In the corner of the room, they also find a multi-colored stone statue, with a figure carved on each side.
Perhaps the stone slab could be used to seal the bottom of the shaft and create a pond, concealing whatever lies below. And perhaps the cultist, having found that which lies below, were in the process of resealing the shaft with the help of some gnoll zombies, and would have completed the job had the Heirs dallied any longer and not finished most of the cultist off in their last visit.
Miraculously, the three raise the stone slab and are able to descend on the platform. They approach a “floor” of a strange black marble, veined with violet. A vast cavern surrounds them, and the air becomes cold, unnaturally so. Bertram steps on to the floor, and sees the tendrils of violet animate and surge towards him. He fails to jump back on the platform before they touch his feat and a cold surge weakens him.
The three also realize, they are not on the floor of the great cavern, but some kind of elevated block. Another wooden platform sits at its edge. The distance is not far, and all three cross quickly to avoid the strange tendrils—Andric by making a great jump across the 15 foot distance.
As they descend on the second platform they find two of the items mentioned in the Journal of Geynor Ton. First is the creature. A hideous aberration, surely not of Terra, the grell is like a great hovering brain, with ten tentacles and a beak. It attacks from the dark, paralyzing first Andric, then D’nar, with its hideous touch. While Bertram reverses Andric’s paralysis, in the resulting chaos the platform plummets sixty feet to the ground.
Fortunately, all the Heirs survive, and launch a devastating counter attack on the grell when it reappears. After dispatching the horror, they find themselves on the true floor of the great cavern, looking at the other item mentioned in the journal: the obelisk. It is a huge thing of the strange black and violet marble, and is best described as “upside down”: its point is closer to the floor, resting on a pillar, its base is towards the top of the cavern, this is the “floor” where the Heirs had briefly stood not so long before.
Weakened by the fall and fight with the Grell, the three are ready to leave, willing to explore the mysteries of this great cavern at a latter time. Sound coming from rocks to the north provide further impetus. These sounds are Festrath, which Greynor Ton’s journal placed with the obelisk and the creature. And he has just consumed a potion of flight.
He appears to the party not long after they have begun their ascent. Bertram calls out his name, and Festrath's response reveals the the extent of his madness.
This time they are more cautious, and lower the platform in a controlled manner. They also strike quickly, preventing the cleric from summoning a foul and blood drinking dire weasel. They drive him back to the rocks from which he emerged. He inflicts terrible wounds on Bertram, who, in the second miracle of the day, just survives. Festrath is not so lucky, even in this place so holy and powerful for him.
The Heirs return to Hommlet, lucky to be alive. The final mysteries of the Moathouse await their return.
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Post by Andric on Oct 17, 2005 12:31:24 GMT -5
Andric
Bertram, your faith has boldly carried us out of the maw of insanity into the light of the day. After facing down wicked Festrath and his inner demons, and the grell, your spiritual courage reminds me of the elf elders of the orders of life; I should like to have an enclave poem authored to you when we return, tither.
D'nar, your gypsy ways and arcane mastery have infected Festrath and the grell with fear and awe: fear that dwells in the hearts of men, and awe of Nicodemus the Dreadbringer!
For my part, I hope that my contributions to our cause helped prove my worth to my non-elf friends, to myself, to my father, and to my lost elder brother. My nights are still restless with fits of pique, moaning aloud about the sheer power grand enough to bring to heel one such as my brother Ixyleander; his sigil has been eclipsed for far too long.
Upon my return to Hommlet, my hands blindly caress my sword hilts, and I feel a certain nimbleness in the hearts of my hands and through my fingertips. Proprioceptively, I feel that I command the entire reach of my sword arc; any enemy who ventures through my arc falls victim to an attack, whether I am attending to that particular enemy or not.
And the rapier of evil Chatrilon, I hope to master the nuances of this new sword this week; I hope to test the rapier in the very near future.
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DrSpice
Master of the South Wind
Posts: 467
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Post by DrSpice on Oct 20, 2005 0:58:34 GMT -5
Bertram would like to do the following:
1) Train for 6th level, ascending to 5th level in martial cleric. Spend 2 skill points for Speak Latin and Literate Latin, and one skill point on Concentration.
2) Wait until his suit of full plate is done being sized to his specifications, and as agreed, pay the blacksmith 100 shillings for the work.
3) Go to the mercantile and sell, as agreed previously, his half plate for 200 shillings.
4) Also at the mercantile, sell the group-swag of Festrath's Full Plate armor.
5) At the gem shop (so to speak) sell the group treasure of the small gem found on Festrath.
6) Bertram recommends to Andric that we (as a group) pay Spugnoir to identify the magic pearl found on Festrath. (of course NOT using this pearl to cast the spell)
7) If the Lantern is damaged ( how much did that excellent saving throw do to preserve it?) Bertram will buy a new Bullseye lantern.
8) Bertram will try to buy a 50 shilling portion of ruby-dust.
9) Bertram offers to the others in the group to create an inextinguishable torch if provided with 50 shillings of ruby dust.
10) Bertram goes to the Church and let's Calmer (or Terjon) know about the obelisk and Festrath, and relates the letter about Nulb, letting them know that we will be going to Nulb after finishing exploring the Moathouse.
11) Bertram donates 1 more gold pound to the Church
12) Bertram asks the Church if he can make additional "donations" in exchange for any of the following: Scroll of Remove Paralysis, One Vial of Holy Water, One Serving of Powdered Silver
13) Can a vial of anti-toxin be purchased anywhere?
14) Bertram examines the enchantment aid-type potion he is carrying and obtained from the first large room battle with cultist and skeletons. He knows it is like a spell he can cast, but suspects it is not a cure potion, since he knows what it tastes like. He tastes it again. Does he think of anything?
15) Bertram sends out two letters. See following posts:
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