Ardspear (1 in 10/2 hrs; 2d6)
02. Nymph (1)
03. Wereboar (d4)
04. Centaur (d4+4)
05. Satyr (d5)
06. Dire badger (d5)
07. Elf company (d10+10 plus 2 3rd level sergeants and 1 leader of 3rd-6th level)
08. Assassin vine (d4)
09. Dire wolf (d4+4)
10. Pegasus (d2)
11. Dryad (d4+3)
12. Dire boar (d4+4)
Blue Barrens (2 in 10/2 hrs; 2d6)
02. Sporebat (3d6)
03. Behir (d2)
04. Displacer beast (d5+5)
05. Death dog (d8+4)
06. Dire weasel (d2)
07. Dwarf squad (d10+10 plus 2 3rd-level sergeants and 1 leader of 3rd-6th level)
08. Dire hawk (d2)
09. Ogre (d8)
10. Terror bird (d6)
11. Athach (d4)
12. Bronze dragon clutch (d4+1 from age wyrmling to y. adult; d5 to determine age)
Brass Lake (1 in 10/2 hrs; 2d6)
02. Dragon eel (d2)
03. Wererat (d5+5)
04. Bloodbloater (1 swarm)
05. Nixie (d4)
06. Dire rat (d20)
07. Otter (d12)
08. Eel (d2)
09. Snapping turtle (1)
10. Flotsam ooze (1)
11. Large diving spider (d5)
12. Huge diving spider (d5)
Dreaming Downs (2 in 10/2 hrs; 2d6)
02. Rage drake (d2)
03. Chimera (d5)
04. Griffon (d5+5)
05. Locust swarm (d6+1)
06. Shifter (d4)
07. Goblin (d6+3)
08. Goatfolk (d5)
09. Worg (d10+1)
10. Ambush drake (d12)
11. Hill giants (d5)
12. Gorgon (d4)
Foggy Gorge (1 in 10/2 hrs; 2d6)
02. Black dragon clutch (d4+1 from age wyrmling to y. adult; d5 to determine age)
03. Chuul (d5)
04. Shambling mound (1)
05. Ochre jelly (1)
06. Huge viper (1)
07. Lizardfolk band (d5+5 plus 50 noncombatants plus 1 leader of 3rd-6th level)
08. Harpy (d6+6)
09. Green hag (1)
10. Will-'o'-Wisp (d4)
11. Medusa (d4)
12. Gray render (1)
Grazelands (1 in 10/2 hrs; 2d12)
02. Megatherium (d4)
03. Ambush drake (d12)
04. Terror bird (d6)
05. Ankheg (d4)
06. Bison (6d5)
07. Blink dog (2d8)
08. Death dog (d8+4)
09. Changeling (d4 plus 1 3rd-level leader)
10. Blood hawk (d12)
11. Dire rat (d20)
12. Dog (d8+4)
13. Goblin (d6+3)
14. Mongrelfolk (2d4)
15. Giant bee (d5)
16. Shifter (d4)
17. Goatfolk (d5)
18. Spitting felldrake (d5)
19. Wererat (d5+5)
20. Dire hawk (d2)
21. Boggle (d5)
22. Cockatrice (2d6+1)
23. Dire snake (1)
24. Indricothere (d12)
Palepool (1 in 10/3 hrs; 1d6)
01. Eel (d2)
02. Glaistig (1)
03. Merfolk (d3+1)
04. Nixie (d4)
05. Otter (d12)
06. Snapping turtle (1)
Stararbor (2 in 10/2 hrs; 2d12)
02. Green dragon clutch (d4+1 from age wyrmling to y. adult; d5 to determine age)
03. Bearhound (d2)
04. Wearbear (d4)
05. Aranea (d6)
06. Dire wolverine (d2)
07. Dire wolf (d4+4)
08. Werewolf (d5+5)
09. Black bear (d2)
10. Wolverine (1)
11. Krenshar (d5+5)
12. Pseudodragon (d5)
13. Kobold (d3+6)
14. Grig (d10+1)
15. Wolf (d10+6)
16. Large monstrous spider (d5)
17. Giant owl (d5)
18. Unicorn (d6)
19. Giant stag beetle (d10+1)
20. Owlbear (d8)
21. Pixie (d4)
22. Spider eater (1)
23. Dire bear (d2)
24. Treant (d4+3)
Several of the entires can be found in the Stormwrack accessory, Fiend Folio, Monster Manuals II or III.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Online Session 20 Notes (7/5/11)
Here is a link to a .RAR bundle which includes all the .html transcripts for AIM online sessions 1-32.
PCs: Doorjamb
NPCs
Eyrene (human female): Slender, pale human woman in her late 20s with grayish/blonde hair tied back in a bun. She's a barmaid at the Leaping Knuckle Lodge in Livenoak, and drives a hard bargain for information. Doorjamb has paid her to vacate the town and flee for the Keep.
Private Pendel (human male): An Eidolorn guard stationed at Livenoak to watch over the remainder of the population who have yet to flee the humanoid hordes gathering in Floivin Province. Friendly and astute, he's over six feet tall with dark brown hair tied neatly back, a flat nose and stern brow.
Private Percy (human male): Another Eidolorn guard from Livenoak, he's stout and barely fits into his standard issue chain mail. Also pretty friendly, though he's picked on by the locals.
Squirt (unknown male): A shape-changing brute of a man, too tall and wide to be fully human. He is supposedly a druid from Littlewolf, with limited mental capacity. Doorjamb meets Squirt when he's in his favorite form, a large gray/white pig, big enough to pull a wagon, which he does for the dwarf Walt Stuckle.
Walt Stuckle (dwarf male): A bald dwarf wearing spectacles and packing an arquebus. He meets Doorjamb on the road between Livenoak and Halehusk, while escorting some dwarf children to Floivin Keep on a cart driven by the druid Squirt. Pretty old guy, but friendly. He does claim to be related to Odd Jon Stuckle, calling him his nephew or 'Little Johnny', but not having a very high opinion of him. Walt claims to have been a trader and tinker in the past, and offers Doorjamb a parting gift of Alkinarran wine and a magical phial.
PCs: Doorjamb
NPCs
Eyrene (human female): Slender, pale human woman in her late 20s with grayish/blonde hair tied back in a bun. She's a barmaid at the Leaping Knuckle Lodge in Livenoak, and drives a hard bargain for information. Doorjamb has paid her to vacate the town and flee for the Keep.
Private Pendel (human male): An Eidolorn guard stationed at Livenoak to watch over the remainder of the population who have yet to flee the humanoid hordes gathering in Floivin Province. Friendly and astute, he's over six feet tall with dark brown hair tied neatly back, a flat nose and stern brow.
Private Percy (human male): Another Eidolorn guard from Livenoak, he's stout and barely fits into his standard issue chain mail. Also pretty friendly, though he's picked on by the locals.
Squirt (unknown male): A shape-changing brute of a man, too tall and wide to be fully human. He is supposedly a druid from Littlewolf, with limited mental capacity. Doorjamb meets Squirt when he's in his favorite form, a large gray/white pig, big enough to pull a wagon, which he does for the dwarf Walt Stuckle.
Walt Stuckle (dwarf male): A bald dwarf wearing spectacles and packing an arquebus. He meets Doorjamb on the road between Livenoak and Halehusk, while escorting some dwarf children to Floivin Keep on a cart driven by the druid Squirt. Pretty old guy, but friendly. He does claim to be related to Odd Jon Stuckle, calling him his nephew or 'Little Johnny', but not having a very high opinion of him. Walt claims to have been a trader and tinker in the past, and offers Doorjamb a parting gift of Alkinarran wine and a magical phial.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Session 20 Notes (6/17/11)
Aric, Malarous 7th, 868 ID
After facing the undead invaders at Cedarway, the survivors regroup on the far side of the Pinewater. Luz, Mudgol and Blake Bauerkroft cross the river a few miles North to swing around and find Captain Hoary, while Slab rejoins the main host camping across the river. Belgin's surviving halfling scouts are sent to scope out the Frail Forest, while the rest of the party rests and uses whatever healing magic they can. The group stops to memorize spells and such before setting out once again.
Tault, Malarous 8th, 868 ID
The scouts return with word of a nearby ambush, sounds of battle drifting in from the Frail Forest. The PCs and Hoary's men run off to see what the trouble is, and encounter a scene in which a horse-drawn carriage of elves has been waylaid by a quartet of ogres and a forest troll. They've already chewed up the horse itself, while the family of Woolish Roodeye and their guide Darkahn Gradak are trying to hold off the ogres with missile weapons. The PCs attack quickly, first with ranged weapons and then closing in. They are able to slay 3 of the 4 ogres and the troll, but not before they make paste out of Woolish' wife Rishya and one of his sons Regis. Despite his protests, the PCs leave behind Woolish' wares, and after a group of them bury Woolish's fallen family members, they escort the survivors to Floivin Keep.
En route, they learn that Littlewolf has been sacked by giant-kin (ogres, etc), and that only the druids of Crake remained behind to protect the village while the Roodeyes and Reddenbalms fled. Soon they encounter a viper which is slain so that Odd Jon might cook up some new recipe. The PCs then arrive in Halehusk with due haste, and speak with Private 'Tickler' there about the skeleton guard that has been left behind. Langston is determined to gather the remaining guard there and bring them too to the Keep, but Hoary orders against it, since they are needed to guide further survivors. Once the PCs arrive at the Keep, they find a massive group of refugees outside the East gate, being slowly processed by the Guard so they can take stock of all in the Keep if it comes to siege. The PC soldiers are ordered by Major Vanquo to help keep order outside the gates, while Hoary and Langston journey inside to speak with Commander Doolan.
They learn from Doolan that their services are required for a number of possible missions, one being to track down a missing officer (Major Scot Morrow) and his men who have disappeared near the Ettenhead stronghold; the other, to journey through to Toul Tabor, to the city of Tarair and request the assistance of the Fourth Eidolorn Guard. Previous messengers have been deployed, but the Commander fears they have been sidetracked or slain en route. Langston and Hoary return to the PCs outside the keep after gathering supplies and ammunition. Langston is approached by Jon 'Blow', a smug half-elf bastard (son to the late Rishya Roodeye), who wished to join the Guard, and he is immediately deputized. Hoary talks Darkahn Gradak into joining the PCs for the time behind, as a tracker and guide, but the elf decides not to officially enlist. It is decided that they will take on both missions: Hoary, Blake, Belgin and their men will scout out the Frail Forest for Major Morrow's missing detachment, while the PCs and Odd Jon head to Toul Tabor.
Varony, Malarous 9th, 868 ID
The next morning, they set out, through Halehusk to Livenoak, where they stop to spend some time at what is the last functional village/town in Floivin Province outside the Keep. They bargain with a strange elf Lady Ravensquash for some potions, and get into a pathetic brawl and exchange of unpleasantries with a pair of dwarf gamblers at the Leaping Knuckle Lodge. Once their business is concluded, they head along the Great Westermarch road out of the Province to the East. They run into a Skull Collar mercenary who has been separated from his clan. A rambling hobgoblin named Githgol. They press him for information, but when he tries to flee, Darkahn Gradak shoots and slays him. The PCs press on through the pass towards the Blue Barrens, when they spy a cavern along the south of the Pass. They follow a number of tracks inside, and discover a similar lift to the one inside the Skull Collars' Hydra breeding hideout on the opposite side of the Valley. Perhaps the true hideout of Chief Chizel and his Skull Collars. At any rate, the PCs decide to press on to Toul Tabor, fearing to waste time here (for now).
PCs: Bethys, Darkahn, Langston, Luz, Mudgol, Slab
NPCs
Commander Doolan (human male): A human male in his 50s, with creases and folds on his eyes and cheeks made worse by the recent stress of his position as military leader of Floivin Province. He's a tall man, his hair is whitish gray and thinning on his forehead. A finely crafted halberd is slung across his back, but he keeps a buckler and short sword at the ready.
Jon 'Blow' (half-elf male): A smug half-elf of average build with chestnut eyes and black, oiled and curly hair half-covering his mildly pointed ears. He's feebly attempting a moustache and carries a cudgel with some confidence. He's the bastard son of Rishya Roodeye and an unknown human lover, and survived the ogre ambush in the Frail Forest. Later, Jon is conscripted by Langston and joins the Eidolorn Guard, serving under Captain Hoary. Any resemblance to a George RR Martin character is purely coincidental.
Lady Ravensquash (elf female): A hunched, elderly elven female who sells charms and potions out of Livenoak. She's always trying to drive a 'hard' bargain, and actively seeks to accumulate the magical items she comes across. She also sells magical pets, though their true properties are yet undiscovered.
Major Vanquo (human male): Finely groomed and darkly handsome, Vanquo stands with broad shoulders, but hobbles on his left leg. His hair is set in a black widow's peak, but his grey eyes are cool and calculating. He prefers stylish banded mail to the standard Eidolorn chain, and wears a feather about his neck that is preserved in amber. Vanquo has a finely forged broadsword and a light crossbow crafted of bone. With Gurd Gnarlbottom out of the Province, Vanquo is now a second-in-command to Doolan.
Regis Roodeye (elf male): The younger son of the tailor Woolish Roodeye, a lad of bright blonde features and a once bright future...laid low by an ogre in the Frail Forest.
Rishya Roodeye (elf female): The wife of tailor Woolish Roodeye, she was known to take human lovers as her husband's sensual dalliances swung over to the male persuasion. The half breed Jon 'Blow' is her child by an unknown man. Rishya was mulched in the battle against the ogres in the Frail Forest. Her infidelities now a thing of the past.
Ruckum Roodeye (elf male): The older son of Woolish Roodeye, with a more swarthy build and flecks of dark brown in his otherwise blond locks. He survived the encounter with the ogres, and is now a refugee at Floivin Keep with his father.
Woolish Roodeye (elf male): A gaudy and rather flamboyant elven male in fine robes, with short cut, stylish silver hair flecked by streaks of gold and white. He is encountered by the PCs while under ambush from a quartet of ogres and a forest troll in the Frail Forest. He had hired the ranger Darkahn to lead his family safely to the south, but they were simply overwhelmed by the giant brutes. Thankfully the PCs saved the day, but he does not seem overtly concerned about his lost family...more concerned for his surviving wares, which the PCs leave behind at the ambush site as they guide Woolish and his son to Floivin Keep.
After facing the undead invaders at Cedarway, the survivors regroup on the far side of the Pinewater. Luz, Mudgol and Blake Bauerkroft cross the river a few miles North to swing around and find Captain Hoary, while Slab rejoins the main host camping across the river. Belgin's surviving halfling scouts are sent to scope out the Frail Forest, while the rest of the party rests and uses whatever healing magic they can. The group stops to memorize spells and such before setting out once again.
Tault, Malarous 8th, 868 ID
The scouts return with word of a nearby ambush, sounds of battle drifting in from the Frail Forest. The PCs and Hoary's men run off to see what the trouble is, and encounter a scene in which a horse-drawn carriage of elves has been waylaid by a quartet of ogres and a forest troll. They've already chewed up the horse itself, while the family of Woolish Roodeye and their guide Darkahn Gradak are trying to hold off the ogres with missile weapons. The PCs attack quickly, first with ranged weapons and then closing in. They are able to slay 3 of the 4 ogres and the troll, but not before they make paste out of Woolish' wife Rishya and one of his sons Regis. Despite his protests, the PCs leave behind Woolish' wares, and after a group of them bury Woolish's fallen family members, they escort the survivors to Floivin Keep.
En route, they learn that Littlewolf has been sacked by giant-kin (ogres, etc), and that only the druids of Crake remained behind to protect the village while the Roodeyes and Reddenbalms fled. Soon they encounter a viper which is slain so that Odd Jon might cook up some new recipe. The PCs then arrive in Halehusk with due haste, and speak with Private 'Tickler' there about the skeleton guard that has been left behind. Langston is determined to gather the remaining guard there and bring them too to the Keep, but Hoary orders against it, since they are needed to guide further survivors. Once the PCs arrive at the Keep, they find a massive group of refugees outside the East gate, being slowly processed by the Guard so they can take stock of all in the Keep if it comes to siege. The PC soldiers are ordered by Major Vanquo to help keep order outside the gates, while Hoary and Langston journey inside to speak with Commander Doolan.
They learn from Doolan that their services are required for a number of possible missions, one being to track down a missing officer (Major Scot Morrow) and his men who have disappeared near the Ettenhead stronghold; the other, to journey through to Toul Tabor, to the city of Tarair and request the assistance of the Fourth Eidolorn Guard. Previous messengers have been deployed, but the Commander fears they have been sidetracked or slain en route. Langston and Hoary return to the PCs outside the keep after gathering supplies and ammunition. Langston is approached by Jon 'Blow', a smug half-elf bastard (son to the late Rishya Roodeye), who wished to join the Guard, and he is immediately deputized. Hoary talks Darkahn Gradak into joining the PCs for the time behind, as a tracker and guide, but the elf decides not to officially enlist. It is decided that they will take on both missions: Hoary, Blake, Belgin and their men will scout out the Frail Forest for Major Morrow's missing detachment, while the PCs and Odd Jon head to Toul Tabor.
Varony, Malarous 9th, 868 ID
The next morning, they set out, through Halehusk to Livenoak, where they stop to spend some time at what is the last functional village/town in Floivin Province outside the Keep. They bargain with a strange elf Lady Ravensquash for some potions, and get into a pathetic brawl and exchange of unpleasantries with a pair of dwarf gamblers at the Leaping Knuckle Lodge. Once their business is concluded, they head along the Great Westermarch road out of the Province to the East. They run into a Skull Collar mercenary who has been separated from his clan. A rambling hobgoblin named Githgol. They press him for information, but when he tries to flee, Darkahn Gradak shoots and slays him. The PCs press on through the pass towards the Blue Barrens, when they spy a cavern along the south of the Pass. They follow a number of tracks inside, and discover a similar lift to the one inside the Skull Collars' Hydra breeding hideout on the opposite side of the Valley. Perhaps the true hideout of Chief Chizel and his Skull Collars. At any rate, the PCs decide to press on to Toul Tabor, fearing to waste time here (for now).
PCs: Bethys, Darkahn, Langston, Luz, Mudgol, Slab
NPCs
Commander Doolan (human male): A human male in his 50s, with creases and folds on his eyes and cheeks made worse by the recent stress of his position as military leader of Floivin Province. He's a tall man, his hair is whitish gray and thinning on his forehead. A finely crafted halberd is slung across his back, but he keeps a buckler and short sword at the ready.
Jon 'Blow' (half-elf male): A smug half-elf of average build with chestnut eyes and black, oiled and curly hair half-covering his mildly pointed ears. He's feebly attempting a moustache and carries a cudgel with some confidence. He's the bastard son of Rishya Roodeye and an unknown human lover, and survived the ogre ambush in the Frail Forest. Later, Jon is conscripted by Langston and joins the Eidolorn Guard, serving under Captain Hoary. Any resemblance to a George RR Martin character is purely coincidental.
Lady Ravensquash (elf female): A hunched, elderly elven female who sells charms and potions out of Livenoak. She's always trying to drive a 'hard' bargain, and actively seeks to accumulate the magical items she comes across. She also sells magical pets, though their true properties are yet undiscovered.
Major Vanquo (human male): Finely groomed and darkly handsome, Vanquo stands with broad shoulders, but hobbles on his left leg. His hair is set in a black widow's peak, but his grey eyes are cool and calculating. He prefers stylish banded mail to the standard Eidolorn chain, and wears a feather about his neck that is preserved in amber. Vanquo has a finely forged broadsword and a light crossbow crafted of bone. With Gurd Gnarlbottom out of the Province, Vanquo is now a second-in-command to Doolan.
Regis Roodeye (elf male): The younger son of the tailor Woolish Roodeye, a lad of bright blonde features and a once bright future...laid low by an ogre in the Frail Forest.
Rishya Roodeye (elf female): The wife of tailor Woolish Roodeye, she was known to take human lovers as her husband's sensual dalliances swung over to the male persuasion. The half breed Jon 'Blow' is her child by an unknown man. Rishya was mulched in the battle against the ogres in the Frail Forest. Her infidelities now a thing of the past.
Ruckum Roodeye (elf male): The older son of Woolish Roodeye, with a more swarthy build and flecks of dark brown in his otherwise blond locks. He survived the encounter with the ogres, and is now a refugee at Floivin Keep with his father.
Woolish Roodeye (elf male): A gaudy and rather flamboyant elven male in fine robes, with short cut, stylish silver hair flecked by streaks of gold and white. He is encountered by the PCs while under ambush from a quartet of ogres and a forest troll in the Frail Forest. He had hired the ranger Darkahn to lead his family safely to the south, but they were simply overwhelmed by the giant brutes. Thankfully the PCs saved the day, but he does not seem overtly concerned about his lost family...more concerned for his surviving wares, which the PCs leave behind at the ambush site as they guide Woolish and his son to Floivin Keep.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Online Session 19 Notes (6/1/11)
Here is a link to a .RAR bundle which includes all the .html transcripts for AIM online sessions 1-32.
PCs: Doorjamb
PCs: Doorjamb
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Session 19 Notes (5/26/11)
Aric, Malarous 7th, 868 ID
After Mudgol's fireball strikes the middledeck of the strange vessel while it passes between the two piers at Cedarway, the undead on board broadside the PCs and their allies with a pair of ballista and several crossbowmen. Ranged attacks are exchanged, and melee combatants leap from the vessel, including several two-headed skeletal giants and a leaping corpse with a garish sailors' outfit. The arcane robe-wearing navigator decides to launch the vessel on the West bank of the Pinewater, while Mudgol wreaks more havoc with a fireball to the bough. The Battle on the Pine truly commences when the undead in the middledeck and cargo hold, some ablaze, erupt to swarm the land. Several skeletal wolves and spell slingers also enter the fray, the latter conjuring up fiendish centipedes to attack the PCs on the docks. The ghostly figure glides to shore, while the navigator flies around the far side of the ship.
The PCs, halflings, fishermen and Eidolorn guard decide to form up a phalanx to protect Mudgol, Langston and the other ranged fighters, but it loses them valuable time in taking down the swarming masses of undead that approach. Bethys is able to turn and destroy a number of the corpses through the powers invested by Eleste (including the first mate), but many are simply too strong. A melee ensues, the PCs attacks proving most useless against the ghost, weaker against the skeletons and zombies. Everett Tasker rushes one of the undead ettins as it wades to the shoreline, breaking the line briefly. Luz, Wafflar Drull and Odd Jon Stuckle prove more effective, however, beating down the first with bludgeoning weapons. A turning point in the battle comes when the undead wizard lines up a lightning bolt that destroys a good third of the defenders' phalanx, and then chaos and individual combats break out.
Captain Hoary charges mightily against a number of undead, while Mudgol and others try to take out whatever they can. The enemy wizard manages to lay Bethys and Mudgol low, and the PCs are looking to be in a dire situation. The ghostly figure, who has at this point done little more than slay several of the Eidolorn soldiers and fishermen with a chilling touch, possesses Blake Bauerkfroft briefly, and he turns against Captain Hoary. Eventually, most of the undead make it on shore and to the PCs location, so they launch a last ditch, desperate effort to take two of the remaining rowboats and get as many as they can upriver to safety. Luz, Belgin Hosspotch, Odd Jon, Langston, Mudgol and Bethys make it to the boats, the unconscious being dragged there, with a small handful of halflings and soldiers, while the hard-pressed but heavily armored Hoary escapes running north up the West Bank, and Slab leaps the pier and swims to the far bank. The undead do not pursue, realizing they would be incapable in a foot or boat race.
Wafflar Drull was sadly slain in a heroic attempt to buy the PCs more time to escape on the boats, and Everett Tasker was also left behind. At last sight, he surrendered and kneeled in prayer before the ghost and its legion...
PCs: Betrys, Langston, Luz, Mudgol, Slab
NPCs
Captain Ogrous (undead male): An undead war wizard whose presence was crucial in routing the PCs and their Eidolorn allies. He was heavily damaged in the Battle on the Pine, so much that he fled for his life. Ogrous was not only the navigator for the stolen river galley, but a devastating wielder of destructive spells of lightning and frost, with an uncanny ability to remain in flight.
First Mate Hungered (undead male): Some sort of leaping, deadly mobile corpse with a predilection for paralyzing his victims. Hungered did not take much part in the Battle on the Pine, as Bethys was able to turn him under Eleste.
After Mudgol's fireball strikes the middledeck of the strange vessel while it passes between the two piers at Cedarway, the undead on board broadside the PCs and their allies with a pair of ballista and several crossbowmen. Ranged attacks are exchanged, and melee combatants leap from the vessel, including several two-headed skeletal giants and a leaping corpse with a garish sailors' outfit. The arcane robe-wearing navigator decides to launch the vessel on the West bank of the Pinewater, while Mudgol wreaks more havoc with a fireball to the bough. The Battle on the Pine truly commences when the undead in the middledeck and cargo hold, some ablaze, erupt to swarm the land. Several skeletal wolves and spell slingers also enter the fray, the latter conjuring up fiendish centipedes to attack the PCs on the docks. The ghostly figure glides to shore, while the navigator flies around the far side of the ship.
The PCs, halflings, fishermen and Eidolorn guard decide to form up a phalanx to protect Mudgol, Langston and the other ranged fighters, but it loses them valuable time in taking down the swarming masses of undead that approach. Bethys is able to turn and destroy a number of the corpses through the powers invested by Eleste (including the first mate), but many are simply too strong. A melee ensues, the PCs attacks proving most useless against the ghost, weaker against the skeletons and zombies. Everett Tasker rushes one of the undead ettins as it wades to the shoreline, breaking the line briefly. Luz, Wafflar Drull and Odd Jon Stuckle prove more effective, however, beating down the first with bludgeoning weapons. A turning point in the battle comes when the undead wizard lines up a lightning bolt that destroys a good third of the defenders' phalanx, and then chaos and individual combats break out.
Captain Hoary charges mightily against a number of undead, while Mudgol and others try to take out whatever they can. The enemy wizard manages to lay Bethys and Mudgol low, and the PCs are looking to be in a dire situation. The ghostly figure, who has at this point done little more than slay several of the Eidolorn soldiers and fishermen with a chilling touch, possesses Blake Bauerkfroft briefly, and he turns against Captain Hoary. Eventually, most of the undead make it on shore and to the PCs location, so they launch a last ditch, desperate effort to take two of the remaining rowboats and get as many as they can upriver to safety. Luz, Belgin Hosspotch, Odd Jon, Langston, Mudgol and Bethys make it to the boats, the unconscious being dragged there, with a small handful of halflings and soldiers, while the hard-pressed but heavily armored Hoary escapes running north up the West Bank, and Slab leaps the pier and swims to the far bank. The undead do not pursue, realizing they would be incapable in a foot or boat race.
Wafflar Drull was sadly slain in a heroic attempt to buy the PCs more time to escape on the boats, and Everett Tasker was also left behind. At last sight, he surrendered and kneeled in prayer before the ghost and its legion...
PCs: Betrys, Langston, Luz, Mudgol, Slab
NPCs
Captain Ogrous (undead male): An undead war wizard whose presence was crucial in routing the PCs and their Eidolorn allies. He was heavily damaged in the Battle on the Pine, so much that he fled for his life. Ogrous was not only the navigator for the stolen river galley, but a devastating wielder of destructive spells of lightning and frost, with an uncanny ability to remain in flight.
First Mate Hungered (undead male): Some sort of leaping, deadly mobile corpse with a predilection for paralyzing his victims. Hungered did not take much part in the Battle on the Pine, as Bethys was able to turn him under Eleste.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Session 18 Notes (5/13/11)
Ivric, Malarous 5th, 868 ID
The PCs carefully retreat back around the wedge in the Skunk Pass, so that the frightening legion they've spied will not be provoked. They deliberate on their next course of action, and Langston orders that the party march back to Hobfast to inform the Guard. On the way south of the Pass, they notice trails of smoke wafting up from further to the North, near the mouth of the Pass and the Shark Dunes. En route to Hobfast, the journey is uneventful as the PCs attempt to make sense of what they've seen.
Upon arriving, they inform Captain Hoary, Blake Bauerkroft and Captain Reckon about what they've seen, and the group holds a war conference while Belgin Hosspotch stomps off to tell Grandmother what he's seen. After reviewing the war map found in the Haunted Horrn, they come to the theory that the army of undead they've encountered will likely march unopposed straight to Hobfast, through Hobfast and to the Keep. They decide to send four pairs of halfling scouts, who can hide well, and get a better grasp of what the various enemy forces' movements are. One team is sent to Hud Horrn, one to Tarndim, another back to the Skunk Pass, and the last to Cedarway. The PCs dig in while they send out Wafflar Drull and Mayor Bauerkroft to draft recruits that can fight.
Evalais (Saint's Day), Malarous 6th, 868 ID
The first team of scouts returns to Hobfast before noon, well...one of them. His companion was picked up by a hippogriff while ascending the Haunted Pass to Hud Horrn, so its assumed that the Blooded Lash still reign over the fallen miners' town. No scouts at all return from Tarndim. It's later in the evening when the Skunk Pass scouts show up, and they report that a group of the skeletal figures the PCs had encountered have moved up to secure the very mouth of the Pass. Grandmother evacuates the residents of Hobfast while the PCs and Eidolorn guard make their plans. Word from the Keep is that Captain Reckon is to return with the refugees from Tarndim, Hud Horrn and now Hobfast, while Captain Hoary and his men continue to gather intelligence or engage/delay the enemy as they see fit.
The PCs decide that they might be able to hold the unknown legion at the shallow crossing of Midge Creek, so they travel there to get a better idea of what defenses they could construct. En route, they encounter a strange creature called a tendriculos, but it does not engage them. They end up staying the night, but before camping the fourth team of halfling scouts returns from Cedarway, reporting that the place has been overrun by kobolds and noone is left alive. The PCs leave Wafflar Drull to keep watch at the crossing while they return with the news. In the village, the final council is called. Bauerkroft has recruited a pair of handy fishermen to assist him in the defense of the village, while Hoary has his ten men, and Belgin has been ordered to assist with the remaining halfling scouts (including two of his personal retinue).
The PCs and Guard debate where best to assert themselves, and after a sobering evening of plotting and drinking at the abandoned Crimson Harpy, with the 'open bar' left for those staying behind, it is decided that they will take two small forces to converge upon Cedarway, where they have the best chance of routing the kobold intruders. Hoary, Bauerkroft and their men will take boats and Mudgol's familiar (to signal them when to land), while the PCs and Belgin's halflings travel by land to Cedarway. They get in another night of rest before making the trek.
Aric, Malarous 7th, 868 ID
Before enabling their two-pronged assault, the PCs decide to make a quick row to Tarndim across the Well and see what they can spy from a safe distance. They make use of Mudgol's familiar The Professor to scout about, and find signs of a disaster. The remaining Guard and civilians appear to have all been tortured by the Blood Eagle clan, some even given the 'blood eagle' itself by the docks. The Professor swims back safely to the boat and the PCs head back to Hobfast, where the toad is given to Captain Hoary for the assault. Everyone readies him or herself for the upcoming conflict.
The PCs set out to the Skunk Ridge, collecting Wafflar Drull along the way, who reports that nothing strange has happened. En route through the hills, though, Belgin spies an army marching at a distance, coming from the direction of Skunk Pass! The PCs try to give this legion a wide berth, essentially abandoning Hobfast and Tarndim to whatever fate might arrive. They head further east to Cedarway, and arrive late in the afternoon. Aside from some guard corpses, the small trade port seems abandoned. Even the Skunkside Tower is empty. The PCs head to the docks, where they spy a dreadful sight...a ghostlike figure astride a galleon just big enough for the Pinewater, along with a creepy looking crew. Mudgol recollects seeing the figure in the past...
A hasty and potentially dangerous tactic is decided upon, and Mudgol signals the Professor to have the Eidolorn Guard land on the West bank of the Pinewater. Then he stands upon the docks and launches a fireball into the middledeck of the oncoming vessel, right as it splits between the two piers flanking the river! Trouble is about to commence...
PCs: Bethrys, Langston, Luz, Mudgol, Slab
The PCs carefully retreat back around the wedge in the Skunk Pass, so that the frightening legion they've spied will not be provoked. They deliberate on their next course of action, and Langston orders that the party march back to Hobfast to inform the Guard. On the way south of the Pass, they notice trails of smoke wafting up from further to the North, near the mouth of the Pass and the Shark Dunes. En route to Hobfast, the journey is uneventful as the PCs attempt to make sense of what they've seen.
Upon arriving, they inform Captain Hoary, Blake Bauerkroft and Captain Reckon about what they've seen, and the group holds a war conference while Belgin Hosspotch stomps off to tell Grandmother what he's seen. After reviewing the war map found in the Haunted Horrn, they come to the theory that the army of undead they've encountered will likely march unopposed straight to Hobfast, through Hobfast and to the Keep. They decide to send four pairs of halfling scouts, who can hide well, and get a better grasp of what the various enemy forces' movements are. One team is sent to Hud Horrn, one to Tarndim, another back to the Skunk Pass, and the last to Cedarway. The PCs dig in while they send out Wafflar Drull and Mayor Bauerkroft to draft recruits that can fight.
Evalais (Saint's Day), Malarous 6th, 868 ID
The first team of scouts returns to Hobfast before noon, well...one of them. His companion was picked up by a hippogriff while ascending the Haunted Pass to Hud Horrn, so its assumed that the Blooded Lash still reign over the fallen miners' town. No scouts at all return from Tarndim. It's later in the evening when the Skunk Pass scouts show up, and they report that a group of the skeletal figures the PCs had encountered have moved up to secure the very mouth of the Pass. Grandmother evacuates the residents of Hobfast while the PCs and Eidolorn guard make their plans. Word from the Keep is that Captain Reckon is to return with the refugees from Tarndim, Hud Horrn and now Hobfast, while Captain Hoary and his men continue to gather intelligence or engage/delay the enemy as they see fit.
The PCs decide that they might be able to hold the unknown legion at the shallow crossing of Midge Creek, so they travel there to get a better idea of what defenses they could construct. En route, they encounter a strange creature called a tendriculos, but it does not engage them. They end up staying the night, but before camping the fourth team of halfling scouts returns from Cedarway, reporting that the place has been overrun by kobolds and noone is left alive. The PCs leave Wafflar Drull to keep watch at the crossing while they return with the news. In the village, the final council is called. Bauerkroft has recruited a pair of handy fishermen to assist him in the defense of the village, while Hoary has his ten men, and Belgin has been ordered to assist with the remaining halfling scouts (including two of his personal retinue).
The PCs and Guard debate where best to assert themselves, and after a sobering evening of plotting and drinking at the abandoned Crimson Harpy, with the 'open bar' left for those staying behind, it is decided that they will take two small forces to converge upon Cedarway, where they have the best chance of routing the kobold intruders. Hoary, Bauerkroft and their men will take boats and Mudgol's familiar (to signal them when to land), while the PCs and Belgin's halflings travel by land to Cedarway. They get in another night of rest before making the trek.
Aric, Malarous 7th, 868 ID
Before enabling their two-pronged assault, the PCs decide to make a quick row to Tarndim across the Well and see what they can spy from a safe distance. They make use of Mudgol's familiar The Professor to scout about, and find signs of a disaster. The remaining Guard and civilians appear to have all been tortured by the Blood Eagle clan, some even given the 'blood eagle' itself by the docks. The Professor swims back safely to the boat and the PCs head back to Hobfast, where the toad is given to Captain Hoary for the assault. Everyone readies him or herself for the upcoming conflict.
The PCs set out to the Skunk Ridge, collecting Wafflar Drull along the way, who reports that nothing strange has happened. En route through the hills, though, Belgin spies an army marching at a distance, coming from the direction of Skunk Pass! The PCs try to give this legion a wide berth, essentially abandoning Hobfast and Tarndim to whatever fate might arrive. They head further east to Cedarway, and arrive late in the afternoon. Aside from some guard corpses, the small trade port seems abandoned. Even the Skunkside Tower is empty. The PCs head to the docks, where they spy a dreadful sight...a ghostlike figure astride a galleon just big enough for the Pinewater, along with a creepy looking crew. Mudgol recollects seeing the figure in the past...
A hasty and potentially dangerous tactic is decided upon, and Mudgol signals the Professor to have the Eidolorn Guard land on the West bank of the Pinewater. Then he stands upon the docks and launches a fireball into the middledeck of the oncoming vessel, right as it splits between the two piers flanking the river! Trouble is about to commence...
PCs: Bethrys, Langston, Luz, Mudgol, Slab
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Online Session 18 Notes (5/11/11)
Here is a link to a .RAR bundle which includes all the .html transcripts for AIM online sessions 1-32.
PCs: Doorjamb
NPCs
Hnarsh Hosspotch (halfling male): A boatman and presumably a fisherfolk out of Hobfast. Has a lurching forehead, bald pate, ratty brown strands of hair, a webbed ear, broken and swollen nose, and a distinct unibrow. Hnarsh has a rowboat named Ol' Hemteats, to which he has attached a pair of bloated sacks with nipples painted upon them. Lt. Hoary pays Hnarsh to ferry Doorjamb across the Udders Well.
PCs: Doorjamb
NPCs
Hnarsh Hosspotch (halfling male): A boatman and presumably a fisherfolk out of Hobfast. Has a lurching forehead, bald pate, ratty brown strands of hair, a webbed ear, broken and swollen nose, and a distinct unibrow. Hnarsh has a rowboat named Ol' Hemteats, to which he has attached a pair of bloated sacks with nipples painted upon them. Lt. Hoary pays Hnarsh to ferry Doorjamb across the Udders Well.
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