Journal of Tod Quasit Jr. Sunday January 26th, 209
I can't get the stench of Orc out of my nose. Yes. It's been a while since I wrote in this journal. Too long. But I can finally calm my thoughts down enough to seem rational. I think. Am I dreaming this? Do you hear me? Jibber was right. Maybe I should think about adjusting my life style. But then again, he's started talking in earnest to a stuffed rabbit he bought at the Goblin Market for a kiss who he has named Lord Stuffins. It is hard to take serious life style advise from a fellow prone to this sort of behavior. When I confronted him about it, he said it was a form of therapy condoned by The Church and he was doing research. He mentioned something about a phone to God. I have no idea what that means.
So yesterday, we descended into the Under City as usual, to check up on the gnome's progress in the hole we have commissioned. Flap Jinkins said it would probably be a couple more weeks. That hole is already 30 feet deep. How thick are these floors? Then we ran into the Wraith King. I like to think I'm a brave sort. I generally don't back down from a fight but the sight of this guy froze me in my tracks. Jibber and his rabbit did not seem at all concerned. I don't want to talk about the Wraith King anymore, other then to say he seems concerned with the general tidiness of the tunnels and he generally didn't harm anyone.
We gathered ourselves together and went down to the second level. Just for the fun of it I drank the pink liquid from the fountain in the orgy room. Now I'm a girl. Let's just leave it at that. That elf drank it too and now she's a man. Jibber refused to drink. Lord Stuffins apparently advised him against it.
After much discussion, we decided to have a go at the orcs standing guard by their annoying gong. Gulleck hates that gong and I do too. We confronted the guards telling them we were there to inspect their gong. They weren't buying it. Then I said we were taking a census. They didn't buy it. Out popped an Orc and he shot an arrow at Gulleck and missed. I got out my bow and shot back. Thwunk! Right through the neck. We killed three of them and one got away. We took their gong and dumped it into the ravine. Then we went around and tried to attack from the other entrance.
A Great Battle ensued. I think that guy Meat who travels around with Gulleck hit Gulleck in the back with an arrow. Nice miss Wally. Gulleck tumbled down the steps but made it back up. Many orcs and orclike men were killed. Gulleck got himself a fancy shield. It got late and it was time to go home. We'll save the rest of the orcs for another day I guess. Time for another bath and then I'm meeting Jibber at The Filthy Arab for a well deserved Sunday brunch and drinks.
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Idalium Game 57: Gong Inspectors
Session date: Monday, July 25, 2016
Game date: Saturday, January 18, 209
PCs:
Tod P. Quasit, Jr., Fighter 3, hp 16, xp 6235/8000
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 4, hp 23, xp 10054/17000
Tyrriel, Elf 2, hp 7, xp 6237/8000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 11687/20000
Retainers:
Father Jibber, Cleric 3, hp 16, xp 3196/6000
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 2, hp 13, xp 3409/4000
Wilhelm, Magic-user 2, hp 4, xp 2603/5000
Brother Chase Pike, Cleric 1, hp 6, xp 99/1500
Another unusual opportunity for Tod and Tyrriel's players to attend, which of course meant a somewhat sillier and less focused session than usual. (It's just the nature of things when your more "irregular" players finally get to play.) The session opened with some back story and exposition from the other players to fill in Tod and Tyrriel about the strange shadow demons, the golden idol they guarded, and the daring heist that was planned to liberate said idol from their clutches. Craftsmen in the city were hard at work making a custom harness, supplying a winch, etc., and the dungeon gnomes were busily digging away at the shaft straight down into the room with the idol.
On their way to the second level, the party stopped by the temple room where the gnomes were digging to check on their progress. The diminutive miners had a whole operation rigged up, with ropes and scaffolding in the partially completed shaft, and the southern end of the underground avenue outside the temple was filling up with discarded dirt and rubble. The shaft was perhaps thirty feet deep, and the gnome foreman said that he expected that they would complete the excavation in a couple of weeks. Gulleck made it clear that they were not to break through the final ceiling slab until they were present and ready to execute the heist.
As the adventurers left the gnomes and crossed the avenue to enter the temple of hedonism that provided them access to the second level, a terrifying thing occurred. The temple doors swung open, and a chilling apparation drifted out. It was man-shaped, shrouded in tattered, disintegrating robes, its face obscured by a deep hood, upon which rested a tarnished and dented silver coronet. Instead of legs, the apparition simply faded away at the bottom of its torso. The sight of the ghostly vision struck an unnatural fear into most of the party members, who found themselves rooted to the spot, unable to move. The figure moved into their midst, and paused to glance at the untidy pile of rubble the gnomes had been dumping at the end of the avenue. It seemed to shake its head disapprovingly and then passed between the fear-stricken adventurers, drifting silently off into the darkness to the north. The cold fear relinquished its grip on the adventurers and they drew deep shuddering breaths, collecting themselves.
They returned to the gnomes to ask about this uncanny apparition. The gnomes' faces drew pale. "We call him the Wraith Lord. He doesn't seem hostile but isn't he terrible to see?" When Gulleck pointed out that the Wraith Lord seemed displeased by the mess in the hallway, the gnomes' grim expressions grew even more uncomfortable.
The party went down from the temple of hedonism and into the inner sanctum below, pausing to consider the brightly-splashing fountains that played in the room. One of the fountains was a sculpture of a young man and young woman partially dressed in togas, embracing each other and intermingling waters from a pair of pitchers. The water from this fountain had once caused a pair of horrible orcs to become infatuated with Gulleck and Caryatid. The other fountain depicted a beautiful young woman, toga falling down around her waist, lifting a pitcher above her head to pour shimmering water into the fountain trough. No one had ventured to drink this water until now, when Tod decided it had been too long since something interesting happened. Cupping his hands under the water, he took a deep draft, and when he turned round, he was a she! Her facial features were unmistakably familiar as Tod's, but her features and figure had undergone a strange transformation. Not to be outdone, Tyrriel sipped from the same fountain, and now the elf was male. (There were jokes made about this not representing all that much of a change.)
More sips from the same fountain did not reverse the change, so still laughing at their altered companions, the adventurers headed out onto the second level. Their goal: to pick a fight with the orcs that lived nearby. Two orcs stood guard in the hallway in front of a short flight of steps leading down into their lair. A round metal alarm gong hung from a wooden frame next to them. The orcs attempted to collect a toll from the party, as usual, but Tod was in no mood for such small talk. "Gong inspectors!" he shouted. "We're here to take your gong for inspection." The orcs were as humorless as ever, and the conversation grew tenser and louder until swords were drawn and the argument became violent.
Tod and Gulleck quickly dealt with the orcs, and the victorious adventurers gleefully carried away the gong into the nearby caves to the east, where they pitched it into a chasm spanned by a flimsy rope bridge. They heard it splash into running water far below.
Then they returned to the orcs' lair to try their luck at the other entrance. The orcs were waiting for them in the dark at the bottom of the stairs, and a pitched battle ensued. Meat had a critical failure (a natural 1 followed by a successful attack roll against Gulleck) and accidentally shot Gulleck in the back at point blank range. Gulleck went tumbling down the stairs into the orc lair, bringing several orcs down with him as he rolled down the steps.
In addition to orcs, a handful of strange bestial men joined the battle. They looked to be halfway between humans and orcs, and some were more orc-like than others. They wore plate armor and wielded war hammers.
Gulleck recovered and retreated back up the stairs at the approach of the strange orclike men, but meanwhile another group of orcs came running up the hall from the direction of the southern entrance to their lair. The party was flanked! It was a fortunate day to have Tyrriel and her (his!) retainer Wilhelm along, for Tyrriel cast a magical sleep upon the bestial men and Wilhelm likewise put the newly-arrived orcs to sleep. All were then sent to a far deeper slumber with grim efficiency by Meat.
The party quickly looted some small change and a few gemstones from the bodies of the orcs and their odd companions, and Gulleck acquired a particularly fine shield from the leader of the orclike men. Then they beat a hasty withdrawal to the Rusty Lantern, happy to have inflicted some serious losses on the orcs.
Game date: Saturday, January 18, 209
PCs:
Tod P. Quasit, Jr., Fighter 3, hp 16, xp 6235/8000
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 4, hp 23, xp 10054/17000
Tyrriel, Elf 2, hp 7, xp 6237/8000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 11687/20000
Retainers:
Father Jibber, Cleric 3, hp 16, xp 3196/6000
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 2, hp 13, xp 3409/4000
Wilhelm, Magic-user 2, hp 4, xp 2603/5000
Brother Chase Pike, Cleric 1, hp 6, xp 99/1500
Another unusual opportunity for Tod and Tyrriel's players to attend, which of course meant a somewhat sillier and less focused session than usual. (It's just the nature of things when your more "irregular" players finally get to play.) The session opened with some back story and exposition from the other players to fill in Tod and Tyrriel about the strange shadow demons, the golden idol they guarded, and the daring heist that was planned to liberate said idol from their clutches. Craftsmen in the city were hard at work making a custom harness, supplying a winch, etc., and the dungeon gnomes were busily digging away at the shaft straight down into the room with the idol.
On their way to the second level, the party stopped by the temple room where the gnomes were digging to check on their progress. The diminutive miners had a whole operation rigged up, with ropes and scaffolding in the partially completed shaft, and the southern end of the underground avenue outside the temple was filling up with discarded dirt and rubble. The shaft was perhaps thirty feet deep, and the gnome foreman said that he expected that they would complete the excavation in a couple of weeks. Gulleck made it clear that they were not to break through the final ceiling slab until they were present and ready to execute the heist.
As the adventurers left the gnomes and crossed the avenue to enter the temple of hedonism that provided them access to the second level, a terrifying thing occurred. The temple doors swung open, and a chilling apparation drifted out. It was man-shaped, shrouded in tattered, disintegrating robes, its face obscured by a deep hood, upon which rested a tarnished and dented silver coronet. Instead of legs, the apparition simply faded away at the bottom of its torso. The sight of the ghostly vision struck an unnatural fear into most of the party members, who found themselves rooted to the spot, unable to move. The figure moved into their midst, and paused to glance at the untidy pile of rubble the gnomes had been dumping at the end of the avenue. It seemed to shake its head disapprovingly and then passed between the fear-stricken adventurers, drifting silently off into the darkness to the north. The cold fear relinquished its grip on the adventurers and they drew deep shuddering breaths, collecting themselves.
They returned to the gnomes to ask about this uncanny apparition. The gnomes' faces drew pale. "We call him the Wraith Lord. He doesn't seem hostile but isn't he terrible to see?" When Gulleck pointed out that the Wraith Lord seemed displeased by the mess in the hallway, the gnomes' grim expressions grew even more uncomfortable.
The party went down from the temple of hedonism and into the inner sanctum below, pausing to consider the brightly-splashing fountains that played in the room. One of the fountains was a sculpture of a young man and young woman partially dressed in togas, embracing each other and intermingling waters from a pair of pitchers. The water from this fountain had once caused a pair of horrible orcs to become infatuated with Gulleck and Caryatid. The other fountain depicted a beautiful young woman, toga falling down around her waist, lifting a pitcher above her head to pour shimmering water into the fountain trough. No one had ventured to drink this water until now, when Tod decided it had been too long since something interesting happened. Cupping his hands under the water, he took a deep draft, and when he turned round, he was a she! Her facial features were unmistakably familiar as Tod's, but her features and figure had undergone a strange transformation. Not to be outdone, Tyrriel sipped from the same fountain, and now the elf was male. (There were jokes made about this not representing all that much of a change.)
More sips from the same fountain did not reverse the change, so still laughing at their altered companions, the adventurers headed out onto the second level. Their goal: to pick a fight with the orcs that lived nearby. Two orcs stood guard in the hallway in front of a short flight of steps leading down into their lair. A round metal alarm gong hung from a wooden frame next to them. The orcs attempted to collect a toll from the party, as usual, but Tod was in no mood for such small talk. "Gong inspectors!" he shouted. "We're here to take your gong for inspection." The orcs were as humorless as ever, and the conversation grew tenser and louder until swords were drawn and the argument became violent.
Tod and Gulleck quickly dealt with the orcs, and the victorious adventurers gleefully carried away the gong into the nearby caves to the east, where they pitched it into a chasm spanned by a flimsy rope bridge. They heard it splash into running water far below.
Then they returned to the orcs' lair to try their luck at the other entrance. The orcs were waiting for them in the dark at the bottom of the stairs, and a pitched battle ensued. Meat had a critical failure (a natural 1 followed by a successful attack roll against Gulleck) and accidentally shot Gulleck in the back at point blank range. Gulleck went tumbling down the stairs into the orc lair, bringing several orcs down with him as he rolled down the steps.
In addition to orcs, a handful of strange bestial men joined the battle. They looked to be halfway between humans and orcs, and some were more orc-like than others. They wore plate armor and wielded war hammers.
Gulleck recovered and retreated back up the stairs at the approach of the strange orclike men, but meanwhile another group of orcs came running up the hall from the direction of the southern entrance to their lair. The party was flanked! It was a fortunate day to have Tyrriel and her (his!) retainer Wilhelm along, for Tyrriel cast a magical sleep upon the bestial men and Wilhelm likewise put the newly-arrived orcs to sleep. All were then sent to a far deeper slumber with grim efficiency by Meat.
The party quickly looted some small change and a few gemstones from the bodies of the orcs and their odd companions, and Gulleck acquired a particularly fine shield from the leader of the orclike men. Then they beat a hasty withdrawal to the Rusty Lantern, happy to have inflicted some serious losses on the orcs.
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Idalium Game 56: The Gang's All Here
Session date: Monday, July 25, 2016
Game date: Saturday, January 18, 209
PCs:
Tod P. Quasit, Jr., Fighter 3, hp 16, xp 6081/8000
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 4, hp 23, xp 9926/17000
Tyrriel, Elf 2, hp 7, xp 6103/8000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 11559/20000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 1, hp 4, xp 1049/2000
Retainers:
Father Jibber, Cleric 3, hp 16, xp 3126/6000
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 2, hp 13, xp 3345/4000
Wilhelm, Magic-user 2, hp 4, xp 2536/5000
Brother Chase Pike, Cleric 1, hp 6, xp 35/1500
It had been a long while since we got the entire roster of players together for a game. A fair amount of time was spent socializing, bantering, and catching up Tod and Tyrriel's players on the recent events of the campaign.
The first portion of the session involved taking care of some investigations in the surface of the Idalium. The party travelled to the crooked and steep streets of The Steps to visit the elderly sage, Professor Zinn. The professor greeted them as usual in his 5th floor apartment overlooking the city. He listened to their description of the shadowy beings with interest and consulted "the usual references, Tobin's Spirit Guide..." He told them that there were reports of creatures like these, entities of darkness itself, invulnerable to ordinary steel and capable of sapping one's very bodily strength with a touch. Contrary to their expectations, he told them that these creatures were not to be considered the undead like the skeletons and ghouls they had encountered before, but something else.
The group had a long discussion about how to pull off a "heist" and extract the idol and associated treasures without engaging the shadows, if at all possible. Some sort of leather harness would need to be commissioned to wrap around the gilded statue, and a winch would be needed at the top of the shaft. Later that they visited a leatherworker who supplied teamsters and dockworkers, and commissioned a custom harness that would meet their needs.
They next inquired at the Runcible Trading House which had hosted a magical auction the previous year. There had been a book of ancient religions of Idalium that they wanted to inquire after, but Lord Runcible informed them it had been auctioned to a wealthy landowner and when they made inquiries at his manor, they were told he was out of town inspecting his farms and would not return for at least a week.
They visited the Great Cathedral to ask about the shadows, and Father Merrimoon corroborated Professor Zinn's belief that these shadowy creatures were something different from undead, and the prayers of Father Jibber and Brother Pike were unlikely to influence them.
Finally, they descended into the dungeon in search of adventure and treasure. Realizing it was near the full moon, the idea was mooted to visit the Goblin Market and that met with applause from everyone except Caryatid, who viewed it as a big junk sale. Everything went well for them. They met a flock of stirges in the town square which were sleepy and let them pass. In the temple of hedonism they had the misfortune of rolling TWO random encounters while the party was split trying to get past the crystal statue that only lets you pass if you are wearing the official toga of the cult. They don't have sufficient togas for everyone, so they have to pass in batches. Tod, Jibber, and Wilhelm were still upstairs when they encountered a trio of angry orcs, but they merely slipped past the statue and taunted the orcs to run towards them, where they were stoutly punched by the statue. Downstairs, the rest of the party encountered two large and fierce baboons in the temple's inner sanctum, but Gulleck used his magical ring of animal control to compel one baboon to attack the other.
Through the second level halls and into the caverns they passed. They met an suspicious gang of merchants who were looking for the goblins as well. Tod and Tyrriel picked an unnecessary fight with the traders, and just as things started to heat up and blades were drawn, Tyrriel cast a wave of magical slumber across the men. She relieved them of a couple of nice jewels and left them a bottle of wine with a note upon which she wrote, "Think next time!"
At the Goblin Market, they reluctantly handed over their weapons at the entrance to the bizarre lanky tall goblins that looked down on them with baleful bulbous eyes and welcomed them to the market in their eerie hooting voices. The market was quieter than the last time they had been here. Four of the placid and spacey "hippies" were making purchases at one of the table. A woman dressed in black robes and an opaque black veil that hung in front of her face from a wide-brimmed hat sat at a table behind an assortment of vials and flasks. Tyrriel spoke with this woman and learned that she lived on an island in the middle of the underground sea one level below this place, and she made potions. Tyrriel took the opportunity to sell some of the strange fluids and components she had been collecting over the months: venom sacs from a giant spider, the tentacles from a carrion crawler, blood from the mysterious basin in the temple the gnomes were currently digging within. She bought an invisibility potion from the mysterious veiled witch.
As before, there were goblins selling strange and slightly unsettling things, as well. A collection of bone relics of dubious saints and heretics; a number of decapitated and meticulously preserved heads of sprites, wrapped in gauze made of spider silk (Tyrriel traded three giant hawk feathers for three of these heads); and a sad little stuffed bunny rabbit made of velveteen, slightly singed and scorched looking. Father Jibber was persuaded by Tod to buy it from the hobgoblin dealer for a kiss from a priest, which the goblin found so scandalizingly amusing that he could not refuse.
Around this point the traders that they had encountered in the caverns stumbled in, looking grouchy and out of sorts. They were carrying bags of rusty old swords and spears to sell to the goblins. The party decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and crept out of the market before they were noticed.
Game date: Saturday, January 18, 209
PCs:
Tod P. Quasit, Jr., Fighter 3, hp 16, xp 6081/8000
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 4, hp 23, xp 9926/17000
Tyrriel, Elf 2, hp 7, xp 6103/8000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 11559/20000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 1, hp 4, xp 1049/2000
Retainers:
Father Jibber, Cleric 3, hp 16, xp 3126/6000
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 2, hp 13, xp 3345/4000
Wilhelm, Magic-user 2, hp 4, xp 2536/5000
Brother Chase Pike, Cleric 1, hp 6, xp 35/1500
It had been a long while since we got the entire roster of players together for a game. A fair amount of time was spent socializing, bantering, and catching up Tod and Tyrriel's players on the recent events of the campaign.
The first portion of the session involved taking care of some investigations in the surface of the Idalium. The party travelled to the crooked and steep streets of The Steps to visit the elderly sage, Professor Zinn. The professor greeted them as usual in his 5th floor apartment overlooking the city. He listened to their description of the shadowy beings with interest and consulted "the usual references, Tobin's Spirit Guide..." He told them that there were reports of creatures like these, entities of darkness itself, invulnerable to ordinary steel and capable of sapping one's very bodily strength with a touch. Contrary to their expectations, he told them that these creatures were not to be considered the undead like the skeletons and ghouls they had encountered before, but something else.
The group had a long discussion about how to pull off a "heist" and extract the idol and associated treasures without engaging the shadows, if at all possible. Some sort of leather harness would need to be commissioned to wrap around the gilded statue, and a winch would be needed at the top of the shaft. Later that they visited a leatherworker who supplied teamsters and dockworkers, and commissioned a custom harness that would meet their needs.
They next inquired at the Runcible Trading House which had hosted a magical auction the previous year. There had been a book of ancient religions of Idalium that they wanted to inquire after, but Lord Runcible informed them it had been auctioned to a wealthy landowner and when they made inquiries at his manor, they were told he was out of town inspecting his farms and would not return for at least a week.
They visited the Great Cathedral to ask about the shadows, and Father Merrimoon corroborated Professor Zinn's belief that these shadowy creatures were something different from undead, and the prayers of Father Jibber and Brother Pike were unlikely to influence them.
Finally, they descended into the dungeon in search of adventure and treasure. Realizing it was near the full moon, the idea was mooted to visit the Goblin Market and that met with applause from everyone except Caryatid, who viewed it as a big junk sale. Everything went well for them. They met a flock of stirges in the town square which were sleepy and let them pass. In the temple of hedonism they had the misfortune of rolling TWO random encounters while the party was split trying to get past the crystal statue that only lets you pass if you are wearing the official toga of the cult. They don't have sufficient togas for everyone, so they have to pass in batches. Tod, Jibber, and Wilhelm were still upstairs when they encountered a trio of angry orcs, but they merely slipped past the statue and taunted the orcs to run towards them, where they were stoutly punched by the statue. Downstairs, the rest of the party encountered two large and fierce baboons in the temple's inner sanctum, but Gulleck used his magical ring of animal control to compel one baboon to attack the other.
Through the second level halls and into the caverns they passed. They met an suspicious gang of merchants who were looking for the goblins as well. Tod and Tyrriel picked an unnecessary fight with the traders, and just as things started to heat up and blades were drawn, Tyrriel cast a wave of magical slumber across the men. She relieved them of a couple of nice jewels and left them a bottle of wine with a note upon which she wrote, "Think next time!"
At the Goblin Market, they reluctantly handed over their weapons at the entrance to the bizarre lanky tall goblins that looked down on them with baleful bulbous eyes and welcomed them to the market in their eerie hooting voices. The market was quieter than the last time they had been here. Four of the placid and spacey "hippies" were making purchases at one of the table. A woman dressed in black robes and an opaque black veil that hung in front of her face from a wide-brimmed hat sat at a table behind an assortment of vials and flasks. Tyrriel spoke with this woman and learned that she lived on an island in the middle of the underground sea one level below this place, and she made potions. Tyrriel took the opportunity to sell some of the strange fluids and components she had been collecting over the months: venom sacs from a giant spider, the tentacles from a carrion crawler, blood from the mysterious basin in the temple the gnomes were currently digging within. She bought an invisibility potion from the mysterious veiled witch.
As before, there were goblins selling strange and slightly unsettling things, as well. A collection of bone relics of dubious saints and heretics; a number of decapitated and meticulously preserved heads of sprites, wrapped in gauze made of spider silk (Tyrriel traded three giant hawk feathers for three of these heads); and a sad little stuffed bunny rabbit made of velveteen, slightly singed and scorched looking. Father Jibber was persuaded by Tod to buy it from the hobgoblin dealer for a kiss from a priest, which the goblin found so scandalizingly amusing that he could not refuse.
Around this point the traders that they had encountered in the caverns stumbled in, looking grouchy and out of sorts. They were carrying bags of rusty old swords and spears to sell to the goblins. The party decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and crept out of the market before they were noticed.
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