Bunch Of Geeks

hikaru42 · Thu Jul 10, 2008 10:08 am Devron's Notes

Gonna start posting my notes here each week, as well as emailing them out.

We returned the remains of X to the Nymph, and she proceeded to reincarnate him into a half elf, and he decided to remain to be the protector of the forest with his ghostly girlfriend.

We spent the winter continuing to clean out the fort, and Devron used his new teleporting skills to acquire equipment and supplies for the group.

As winter began to fade, one day we found a bird arrived with a not attached to it. It was from Shalaylu, and it stated that giants were begining to mass apparently for attacks, Devron also had heard rumors of this on his trips to the cities.

We teleported to Sandpoint, and talked to the Mayor about the rumors and Shalaylu’s note. He stated that he had heard the rumors, but had no concrete information, and Shalaylu was not in town currently.

The next morning we were awakened by the sound of stone smashing into stone, and quickly moved outside to investigate. We headed out toward the north part of town where the commotion was. We found that standing outside of the north gate were 3 giants wearing think pelts. They were shouting out taunts in broken common, and throwing rocks attempting to break the gate.

We moved onto the battlements, and Alana started shooting arrows, while Devron cast several spells. We continued the ranged fight, when suddenly we heard cries from the other side of town. Splitting the group Alana and Devron continued the ranged fight, while the others went to investigate. However the giants at the gate quickly turned and fled once Alana downed one of them.

At Tanners bridge the saw 2 giants, and 3 dire bears marauding into town, and Brock and DT moved to engage them, while Devron and Alana came over.

The fight between the party and the bears and giants was tough, and Inara was knocked unconscious, but we were able to overcome them, however 2 new threats appeared, 3 giants on the hill began to pelt the town with boulders, and a red dragon began strafing the town with its breath weapon.

The dragon finally landed on the cathedral and began shouting out taunts, and we began attacking it with our ranged attacks. We continued making ranged attacks until Devron lured him to the ground with a well placed cone of cold, although he was knocked unconscious by the dragons counter attack, however DT charged into the fray damaging the dragon heavily, and he fled. Upon seeing the dragon flee, the giants also turned tail and fled.

hikaru42 · Wed Jul 23, 2008 7:42 am

Last weeks notes

We returned to Sandpoint to regroup, and using Devron’s teleporting abilities we warned the lord of Magnamar about the coming giant invasion, and decided to head into the Storval Plateau using the Storval Stairs.

We set out from Turtle Ferry, and coming out of the forest, the land quickly changed to be rather rough, and we came to the Storval Stairs. At the base of the stair was a huge statue that was most likely one of the former rulers of Thasalonia. Approaching the stair we saw 4 large creatures at the top, and they began to kicking and throwing boulders down on us as we climbed up.

We engaged the giants, but the stairs made the going rough, and most of us took damage from the boulders tumbling down the stairs. Kish made use of some invisibility potions and was able to sneak in and do some damage, an Alana was able to use her range to our advantage. We took damage, but were able to overcome them, with Kish running down the last one as it fled.

Searching the bodies produced nothing, however we found where they were staying, and found a fair amount of treasure.

We continued on into the Iron Peaks avoiding various giant patrols we saw. We finally made it to the Valley of the Black Tower. At the western edge we saw a watch tower. In the center we also saw a ring shaped wall with a tower on the edge with several blade like protrusions on it, and several buildings in it, including a 150 black stone spire in the center. We could hear various sounds such as animals, and combat training.

We decided to scout out the watch tower, and Kish headed in trying to stay out of sight. He found that the watch tower was sized for giants, and saw a 2 headed giant at the top, as well as movement inside. We also noticed a pile of brush designed to work as a warning fire.

We formulated a plan to try and have DT and Kish fly invisible to the top of the tower and get the ettin, while Inara cast wall of stone over the warning fire. When we came back, we found not an ettin, but a strange giant on top of the tower, so we changed our plan, we walled over the fire, but rushed the door. It worked almost flawlessly, and we dispatched them taking little damage.

hikaru42 · Fri Aug 08, 2008 6:58 pm

We camped up in the nearby hills, and Devron used his magic to invisibly fly around the valley scouting it out, We saw the red dragon flying out of the mountains opposite the valley from where we entered. Examination of the valley showed that there were 7 camps of stone giants, stone giants, and ogres around the city. There were caves in the cliffs overlooking the river. Devron explored them a bit, and found that one of them had a musty sound, and sounds of slithering, while the other was crawling with bugs…

He noticed that there was a quarry in the center and after discussion it was thought that the caves may well connect to the quarry so we decided to try to use spells to get the party into the cave with the slithering cave with the reptilian sides.

Our stealthier members first entered the cave, they tossed a sunrod to see what was in the cave, and they immediately noticed a large fire opal in the cave on a mound of sand positioned so that it would capture the first rays of the sun. Suddenly wyverns sprung out from several sections of the cave and attacked. Kish immediately took a wyvern sting, and the poison debilitated him greatly. The rest of the battle went fairly well, with us taking little damage.

After the battle we searched the cave and found a fair amount of silver and gold as well as an ancient staff topped with a cloudy stone and wrapped with black iron filigree. It had a strong aura of magic, but we were unable to figure out its powers.

We waited for the next morning watching the fire opal and found that it did produce an interesting color show, but nothing else.

We rested a day and using our magic, we restored Kish, and identified the staff of the Staff of Heaven and Earth, a Thasalonian Artifact with the following powers.

2 charges -- Air walk, spike stones, control winds
1 charge -- Gust of Wind, Stone Shape

We rested up, and then flew over to the other cave. We kept the bugs at bay using alchemical fire, and Devron’s Fire abilities. Searching the cave we found a narrow tunnel leading farther into the mountain. The narrow crack lead into a network of cave, ranging from 3 to 5 feet across, and DT lead us through leading out to a small cave with several piles of carefully sorted objects. There was also a net hammock hanging from some stalagmites. Immediately a small reptilian humanoid began screaming at us and frothing at the mouth. She screamed about humans being worth much to Mokmurian, and charged Kish hitting him with his spear. Due to the tight quarters, it took us a moment to get into combat, but Brock was able to teleport behind the kobold and strike it, and then Kish attacked, and opened a path for DT to come in who then killed the Kobold in one hit almost cutting him in half.

Searching the Kobold we found several magic items including a magic necklace, spear, buckler and breast plate.

We quickly began hearing sounds from the 2 exits in the cave, sounds of merriment from one, sounds of working and grunts from the other. We decided to interrupt the sounds of merriment, and Kish went first trying to see what was going on. Moving down the cave we saw a cave off to the right, and the was fur cloak covering the entrance. Peaking inside, we saw a giant with his back to us. We dropped caltrops to trip him up if he followed and continued down the hall, and it opened up into an immense cavern.

The cavern was illuminated by a large fire to the south, and many bones were scattered around the cave, and a large platform with a throne on it. We found 4 stone giants relaxing in the cave eating and socializing.

We created a plan to buff the group, and run in to the room and surprise them. The plan went very well as we were able to take out 2 of them before they were even able to respond. They countered, but were quickly overcome, but not before a large she giant with a ladle ran into the room, but she was no match for the group.

Looking to where the cook came from revealed a large kitchen with many giant sized items in it and a door in the back leading into a pantry full of mostly meat, but other foods, as well as barrel labeled “candy” full of eyeballs in brine.

Thinking that the other giant we saw earlier we would be easy picking proved us wrong when DT, Kish, and Devron tried to attack him, and after taking a little damage he took out DT in one round, and Devron ran to the rest of the party. The battle got a little better in the narrow confines of the hallway, but he was able to almost kill Brock and was about to kill Inara before we finally took him out.

We found in his room beards of dwarves held together held together with rings, a preserved frost giant head, many many shields one of them belonged to Anston Jejere, it was magical +1 arrow catching heavy steel shield. And several trophies from people he had killed. We also found many plans as he was obviously a tactician, and was planning for several contingencies.

There was a pit in the tacticians’ room, and it looked to be a garbage pit, and we disposed of the giant bodies in the pit, and discovered they had the sahedrin symbol branded on them.

hikaru42 · Fri Aug 15, 2008 4:02 pm

Here is the latest set of notes (possibly the last) unedited as I am leaving on vacation.

To recover we retreated back to the small caves, and were able to rest for a night, although we did keep seeing small humanoid shapes occasionally, but nothing eventful happened.

Moving back out into the cave we decided to go to the right where we could hear the sound of something working, grunting, etc. Moving in we could hear the sounds of perhaps combat training from one room, and blacksmithing from another.

Going to the room where we thought we heard combat training turned out to be a leather works with perhaps 8 ogres tanning hides. We moved in with surprise, and using a fireball from the necklace of fireballs, and were able to dispatch them quickly.

After the battle Kish noticed a large figure motioning to us, and upon approaching here, she said she was an ally and would help us kill Mokmurian. She lead us back to the area we were at before, to a room painted with various figures, and a large altar. The images on the wall would seem to move, but looking closely at them showed nothing.

She introduced herself as Cona. She asked us why we were here and when we answered to put an end to Mokmurian, she told us that he did not put the interest of the plateau people, and that he served a different master. She thought that he served one of the Ancient lords, Karzoug. She also said that if he has fallen under the power of one of the ancient lords then the danger was great to both our peoples. She also stated that he killed the father of his tribe, her husband.

We found out that Longtooth the dragon served Mokmurian. She also told us Mokmurian went to Xinshalast (an ancient Thasalonian city) and came back with power and ambition. She said she understood that we may have to kill more of her people, and to try not to, but that they had brought it upon themselves.

She told us we must go down to the library, and that there were 2 routes, one being longer, but less dangerous. We decided to take the shorted path, and just before parting, we asked about the small figures and were told that they were redcaps who were chased out of the caves by Mokmurian, and were malicious fey, that will eat anything, especially if they are alone, and can be overpowered.

We moved on back to the smithy, and took a look inside. The room itself had been chipped out to be fairly regular in size. We saw 2 stone giants, and 9 short humanoids which we later realized were dwarves with their beards shaved off. After some discussion we decided that we would leave them alone and move on.

Continuing down the hall, we came to a room that appeared to be a barracks, but were unoccupied. We kept going, and came to where the passage opened up, and were covered with furs, then the passage narrowed and started to go down, as well as there being another passage leading off to the side.

Kish moved in and began to search the furs, when suddenly a ransuer shot out and stabbed him. A troll was hiding behind it, and a battle began. We found that there were several holes behind the furs and there were 2 trolls hiding out. The battle was going fairly poorly as they continued to pound on Brock and DT, and they finally overcame Brock, and almost DT, but we knocked them out, however Brock was killed. We put a sahedrin medallion on him, and decided to try and raise him using Inara’a holy powers. We hid Brocks body, and conintued down.

As we continued down, we noticed that the architecture began to change from natural cavern to Thasalonian Architecture. In the area were all smooth curves, with no hard angles. We began to explore, and found an area where the area had collapsed with a small closet like area, but nothing of interest. We then started down the other path which lead to a room with a double door, and had a floor of polished marble, but the room itself had an odd effect that as you looked at one spot it seemed ok, but things became stranger and stranger in your peripheral vision.

Casting detect magic, Devron saw that the whole room radiated strong Transmutation, and then steped into examine it. As he did, he was overcome with vertigo, and was unable to do anything. At this point an odd hill giant with runes carved in his oddly bulging muscles. We tried to engage him, but most of the party was overcome with the vertigo, except Inara.

The battle went well, with Inara using her holy magic to wear him down, and then DT finally overcame his vertigo, and finished the giant off, however he took several hits in the process.

Moving through the double doors, we came to a hall that lead into a room where runes were carved into bands along the wall. The room was lit with red light from a cauldron with a foul smelling smoke coming from it. In the back of the room we could see a statue of a humanoid. Devron used a staff to cast gust of wind to clear the smoke, and the statue became visible and it was of a large humanoid. Upon entering the statue animated and we realized it was a stone golem. We engaged it and it seemed to be resistant to all spells, and physical damage was having a hard time penetrating its stone skin, but we were able to finally over come it.

Harbinger · Thu Nov 20, 2008 2:58 pm

Here are Devrons's notes from last time.

We decided to head through the teleporter, and we sent the warriors, and ranger through the teleporter, and as they did, they were engulfed in flame.

We saw a room with several humans, and several sinspawn wielding axes. Battle ensued, and while they were able to attack with the element of surprise, once they grouped up around DT and Nalin, we were able to beat them down.

We searched them, and found they were fairly well equipped with magic items. They also had 6 spell books written in Thasalonian that each contained the following

3rd

Displacement

Fireball

Haste

2nd

Bulls str

Mirror image

Scorching ray

Shatter

1st

Burning hands

Magic missile

Shocking grasp

True strike

Exploring the room showed that there were 2 ante chambers to the side, each with another set of the teleport runes in it. At the bottom of the room lead to what appeared to be a meeting room, and there were several doors, each leading to a kind of small barracks room.

We decided to use the teleporter on the left and appeared in a long chamber filled with 2 rows of wide work tables. At the far end were 3 alcoves 2 filled with alchemical supplies, while the 3rd one held a vat of what appeared to be twitching foul smelling flesh.

We engaged them and were able to quickly overcome them, and found the same equipment, including 9 more spell books.

We went back through the teleporter, and then went through the other one. This time we sent just the dwarves through first, and then the other 3 of us after.

They appeared in a room with polished granite walls, with glowing runes and swords and ranseurs rested in shallow depressions in the walls, and at the top of the room was a wall of smoke. Devron immediately recognized the glyphs as representing evocation especially fire, and the creation of magical weapons. Upon closer examination Devron realized it was an illusionary wall.

Nalin and DT stepped through the wall and entered a large avenued room, with flames as a ceiling. A monstrous arachnid canine like creature was in the center of the room in a circle of silver in the center of the room. Behind it was a woman with a flaming ranseur.

We immediately engaged the enemies, and the demon proved to be very resilient to our attacks, and dealt out much damage. The combat looked bad, but a well placed heal by Inara kept Nalin up, and a massive blow by DT all but killed the demon. We took the demon down and DT took a flying leap to kill the woman, and in doing so gained the Mark of Wrath, improving his combat abilities.

We decided to rest and heal up in the section of Wrath before moving on.