Gaming

So we met Nashana an administrator for Lord Prio. We were asked to go north to Arabel and investigate some rumors that came in through unofficial channels. The rumors were vague about a dark rider terrorizing the area.We were provided provisions and mounts and given a nifty limited King’s Writ. We were promised 100 GP for successful completion of the job.

After four days travel we came to within sight of the walls of Arabel. We ran into a horse (Suzy) with her coachman (Otro) and cart. Night was falling and the shadows around formed shadow creatures and attacked! We came to their rescue and beat back the shadow creatures  On a hill we saw someone wearing dark plate armor with a helm that looked like a skull. Sehadra started to chase him but he fled into the forest.

We guarded Suzy and Otro into the city and Otro gave us a recommendation to go to the Goblins Grotto where we would get a fair price mentioning his name. On the way to the Inn we saw a crowd around a broken Obelisk (Sun Dial). It appeared to be cut with a single cut and had inscriptions to Monotaur. The locals seemed stirred up about it.

At the Inn we were told we could stay for one silver a night. What a discount! Milling about for rumors in the common room we found that Dark Skull appeared only after the attacks and at a distance. What is the connection? We also found there were no deaths so far. What are the shadows after, fear? Where did the rest of the obelisk go?

At around this point we heard some yelling and we step out to find some smelly human brat yelling about Dark Skull being after him. I don’t think he is after him but I think he may have seen something so we took down the general direction he saw Dark Skull. We escorted the boy back to his home at the Brewer Bruin. The lights were still on surprisingly and also over at the neighboring Tea & Bakery house “Moon lit harts” Meeting Bruin he offers us some foul quadruple bock. Only Songammem can finish it and impresses the brewer. I think the stuff might do well if exported to goblin territories.

Bruin tells us he has the broken piece of the obelisk in the cellar for repair but he has a problem with Shadows down there. I get a feeling he is seriously downplaying the presence of creepy murder shadows down there. Right at about this point Sehadra passes out. Luckily next door the young Lady is like a junior cleric of Selune… running a tea house… go figure. At any rate, Alyssa and I head over there for her help. Impressively enough she has an array of weapons on the wall behind the counter (Sehanine Moon bow, a katana and ornate armor). She was nice enough to check Sehadra and find she was poisoned (roofied) by some lecherous fool back at the Inn.

We still want to see the obelisk so the young lady (Yue) a daughter of Raven and Kamoy offers to help us excitedly. We beat back the numerous shadows with homicidal intent to find the obelisk top. It was sheared cleanly and it could be repaired and reactivated with runs we see on it. It looks like it was a ritual channeling point. We also find in it a bag of holding with Sunblade Longsword, Staff of Light and a scroll case. The scroll inside says that, “When the moon turns black, darkness falls on the house of twelve.” Bruin is nice enough to give us some excellent ale for our troubles.

At this point we head to so the Burgermeister. He lives in the ugliest, gaudiest, dark mansion I have ever seen. He makes the Formor look like they have good taste. We meet his tall doorman of few words (Larry) and get to meet Malius Mortan. He comes from a family of salt miners and is the most incompetent administrator I have ever seen in over a hundred years. I’d end his incompetence but the law doesn’t allow for summary execution for such infractions here. After asking a few simple questions the guy cracks and near tears tells us that the reports of Dark Skull were dumped “Books & Birds Emporium”.

So Larry leads us there to meet Ms, Brainard. She is a bit eccentric herself but at least has a head for noticing important information and sending it on. Grasshopper, Song and I repair a gaping hole that appeared in her roof previously. Looking at it, it appears to be an act of sabotage to ruin her records. Looking over the papers we find out the attacks started just over a month ago around when the obelisk broke. It seems there is a connection there.

We step out to find there is a blood moon out and we decide it’s wise to go by the obelisk. Bruin and Yue are there repairing it. AFter some discussion we live Yue there to start the ritual repairing it. We all head out after Dark Skull. We see him and he tries to take off but Duke and Alyssa keep his trail. We catch up with him in an old fairy circle which seems to help keep a curse on him at bay. So we talk to him and find out he is Sir Severen and had served in as a lesser Knight in the King’s court. He was given his armor by Lady Redfern and it was nice mail. Then… blacked out and found his rival at his feet. And his head looked like a skull at it had become some sorta death mail. Obviously cursed and now he can sense the shadow creatures.

He senses something change so we run back to the Obelisk and help defend it from murderous shadow creatures while Yue, Alyssa and the mental case fix it using a magick ritual. It seems to create a zone of protection from them. We then see somethings going on at the theater and run there. Inside the theater Jarl is some sorta high priest preaching to cultist town members and he is preparing to sacrifice a baby. We shame the town people out with our awesomeness and it’s revealed it’s not really Jarl but a Shade. We kick him and his shadow minions apart but not before the theater starts collapsing. During the fight Sir Severen jumps in takes the baby to safety. The theater collapsing was totally not our fault.

Outside the armor falls off Sir Severen so I collect the helm and the armor. We go to the Inn to find arl and his wife locked in the cellar. There was a silence spell on the cellar. One of the captors accents was familiar (Vistani). The cities watch check in on the Sharen cultist and theater group. Checking around we find the Shade’s dagger. A +2 vicious dagger. Severen invites us back for the harvest fair in Arabel.

So back in Suzaile we get our pay and settle into boring town life. I look around for a residence other than an Inn and I find a nice little apartment for Songammem, Alyssa and I. That brings our living expenses down to five gold piece a week for all of us. I start getting plugged into the local Arcana community and start getting my finger on the pulse of Suzail. (Suzail +2 Arcana, +2 Streetwise). It’s hot. It’s a bad time for adventuring jobs and now it has entered raving fever time. Oh boy!

Some local rumors I hear are:
Local mages and alchemists have been very busy lately crafting various potions and remedies to try and cure or at least lessen the effects of the Raving Fever.  Demand for herbal and magic components associated with healing has jumped and local supplies are quickly running out.  There is talk that certain less scrupulous merchants have been using the opportunity to buy up much of the market’s reagents and sell them at steep prices on the black market.

We finally have been offered a job. Guarding a medicine shipment from Sembia. We get a brief from Captain Shaw. He’s not very sophisticated in his use of military doctrine. The medicine is coming in a boat and we are guarding it’s convoy across the city. While scouting out the route for dangers such as overhang points, choke points and other danger areas… we are approached by Madame Curaw. She tells us her son has fallen ill and she will pay us 40 gold piece for a dose. She says her family has bad history with Captain Shaw. The others begin planning how they will steal it. I’m not  sure that is the best route.

Well the assault of the fort went well even if there were a few hiccups along the way. But as they say “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy”. In this case it mostly kept together but had a surprise at the end.

Markus did well scouting the Palisade and found a secret route some Goblins had been using. That’s better than a low point in the wall I was hoping for. That made the ladder Sehadra and I had been working on useless. I was concerned about Sir Oris climbing a palisade in full plate and figured that using the bolt hole would be easier. I was somewhat wrong with that assumption as he still had a terrible time squeezing his armor through. I guess Cormyr knights value protection over agility.

We left Bellgereth on the outside of the palisade where he could suffer through the effects of his dysentery while Duke stood guard over him. He was later missed in the fight in the interior. On the inside of the Palisade we were greeted by goblinoids. They gave a fight but were quickly defeated. The swarm of vermin that attempted eating the face off Sir Oris was the longest standing enemy.

From our breach past the Palisade we entered their dining hall and moved further into the compound. We moved stealthily until we found the next group to attack. There was a group of humans, two bugbears and a goblin guarding Lady Cora’s mercenaries. With Lady Cora being obviously absent. We walked up with Songammem in the lead but our brazen bluff quickly fell apart when Sir Oris saw one of the Bugbears was wearing the flag of Cormyr as diaper. He charged and we waded in after. The battle was fierce and expended most of my inner reserves in the battle.We were ultimately successful and we found a some magic armor that had been posted on display as a reward for the men of Sir Thomas Malore. We also found a magic flail that had been used by one of the Bugbears prior to it’s gruesome and well deserved demize.

I neglected to mention the detail of those in Lady Cora’s service earlier.
Blaze – Dragonborn, large fighter.
Kaze – Small Dragonborn, not talkative, creepy.
Raven – Gypsy looks, follower of Selune.
Terrance Slinagan – Cleric
Orros – An Eladrin

We no sooner rescued them than more of Sir Malore’s men started showing up. Blaze and the others offered to perform a fighting retreat as we went to take on Sir Malore directly. As we dashed across the exposed center of the compound I shouted to the nearby men that the Fort was under attack and that they should see to the defense at the front gates. This caused them to pause just long enough to make it across before they considered that there were no pixies among the bandits.

We entered the building Malore was in and met him upstairs. He had Lady Cora captive but was willing to talk. I used my superior logic skills to convince him of the error of his was and I was able to convince him to surrender with some conditions. His conditions were that his men could go free. We relented on that condition as we didn’t have the reserves to capture them all at that time. In return he surrendered with promise of good conduct. He also freed Lady Cora and surrendered his lockbox, ritual book and food stores to us. I also gave a condition that those brigands that were freed would not take large military weapons with them. I also made sure to loot all of the ever-burning torches in the vicinity.

—

The trip back to Cormyr was uneventful except for observing the unsuccessful attempts of Sehadra to seduce Raven. That was actually quite amusing now that I think about it.

Sir Oros presented us each with a magic weapon, a badge with his house symbol and a letter of recommendation.

In Cormyr we sold the Magic Flail but Songammem kept the +1 Razor Armor. I also sold the torches at a fraction of the cost but I guess I did flood the market with them. I also wrote a letter requesting a squire from my contacts in the Summer Court.

—

Great news I have heard back and a squire has been found for me. Her name is Alyssa. She comes from a family of Fey guides and will be coming to train with me for martial and arcana skills. I’ll make sure to order any equipment she needs. I have also received the barding for Duke that I had commissioned. He served us so well I wanted to get him something special.

Other notes:
Kedros retired
Welune – Prison City
Mithel – Powerful Magic

Sent message to meet Lord Prio Knight Exalted (Kings Court)
Met Nashana his administrative assistant.

Purchased:
Writing Case
Identification/Travel Papers

Day 2:

Sir Oris found us another person to join the adventuring company. He calls himself Belgerreth and is one of those Eladrin that has spent most of his time searching for something on the mortal plane. He also claims to be a Psion. I’ve always thought those were some variant of Sorcerer but I’ve never seen one up close to study. I’m going to watch and see if I can sense any arcane energy being put off by him when he is doing one of his tricks.

Sir Oris also set us up with some pack horses for the trip. Duke says he is glad to not need to carry any of my equipment. I passed the first day chatting with the ‘lost on land sailor’. I made a game of placing stones I shrunk down on his clothing during the day. I got to around a dozen before he got suspicious of me. He’s funny; so I will keep it to my funny jokes with him. It’s too bad I didn’t get a portable gaming board of some sort. Maybe if I gathered some stones and carved the symbols for lanceboard, Sir Oris and I could have a good game. We’ve been able to stop at an Inn each night so things have been comfortable so far.

Day 8:

We now have to leave the horses behind and walk on foot or in my case fly. Luckily Duke can still come along with us. He has a good ear for things, so he might be useful. The bad part is we won’t be able to take the Ale. Songammem will most likely be a lot more testy now. I have given the barrel to the last inn keeper. We only really needed it at the midday meal anyways and maybe the gift will build some goodwill. We had already consumed 2/3 of it anyways.. ((Pony keg =62-66 pints. Six party members would drink 42 pints in a week. Maybe more if any of the Inns lacked ale.))

Day 13:

Traveling in this wilderness hasn’t gone too well. We lost part of our main supply of food. Why it wasn’t in bear bags… I have no clue. Other notable events so far has been Markus waking us up for a false alarm. I buzzed around him for that one and placed a few expanding stones. Duke has been a huge help so far. He has kept an ear open at night and is great at finding game on the trail. I think I might commission some leather armor for him when we get back to the city. It probably wouldn’t be the strangest request the armorer has gotten. Also of note Sogammem has taken off her mask now that we are in the wilderness. Everyone has taken it well. The mask isn’t there to really fool anyone. The mask is there to give most people a pretense for people to fit her in their molds of how they view things should be. People will normally happily ignore the uncomfortable if they have an excuse. Except that jerk at the Grey Griffin. I’ll make sure he gets dysentery sometime for picking on Songammem.

Day 15:

Today has been exciting. Sehadra happened on the trail of some hunters while she was out. We all gathered and went to investigate. The hunters decided to try to turn Markus into a pin cushion, so we slaughtered most of them. I tried to take a captive but he dodged into my rapier. Honestly, who does that? Luckily the others thought to take one captive. After some vigorous questioning, he told us Thomas Malore and his Crimsom Wolves have their encampment about a mile north. I have also determined Eladrin wasn’t using magic. I won’t tell him of my theory, that might make him more cocky.

 Day 15 supplemental entry:

We found the encampment. They have a palisade 15-20 feet in height. It also has a gate with towers and some stone and mortar buildings. I had imagined a simple hasty palisade meant to slow a charge. This seems to indicate they have meant to stay here for some time. The others have asked if I could help them fly covertly over. I can make one fly every five minutes but that takes more time than I think we will have for an entry. It might be best to do some more scouting. Maybe have Markus get as close as he can, he can move pretty silent. He can probe for any under guarded points or other weak points. We could also have Songammem climb a tree. She is pretty athletic. She could draw a good view of the encampment. Speaking of trees we should grab a couple saplings and lash a simple ladder together. That will help some of them climb over. Then use a rope to slow decent on the other side. Songammem can nearly leap over if she wanted to. So only three of the party need use the ladder. A distraction would also be good. Maybe I should have Duke run to the other side and start howling, then sneak back around. I think I will go talk this over with the others right now.

Last night I wanted to make a character portrait for my character “Sir Sparrowhawk” and I found myself missing the City of Heroes character creator. For those unfamiliar with the now defunct game, players could create very detailed customizations to the look of characters. It was unlike any other game I have seen before or sense.

So last night I went looking to see if anyone had a website that would do a similar job for those that aren’t artistically inclined, like myself. I ran across Hero Machines 2.5. The website also had a 3.0 version but I haven’t dived into that yet. As I started into it I was able to create a nice little portrait. I will have to see if I can make the wings a little more translucent in the future. For the look, I was drawing heavily on inspiration from several 1980’s movies.

Sir Sparrowhawk (Level 1)