Sunday, April 19, 2015

Online 5e Reboot Session 3 (4/19/15)



Here is the link to the transcript for session #3. We're now using the Roll20 web browser gaming interface, so I've cut and pasted this to a Word .doc for the time being.

Friday, April 10, 2015

Session 70 (4/10/15)

*Does a bear clit in the woods?*

Evalais, Verget the 16th, 838 ID 

Rather than return immediately to the Crowslode, the PCs decide they'll spend a minimal amount of time recuperating in Floivin Keep. Graygear, unfamiliar with the surface civilization, decides to scope out the urban setting, remaining hidden; while Lord Ballyhoo misses his audience, and goes to the Seven Floods Inn to play for them. The rest sell more of the haul they've made over the previous few months, and decide to clear out their adventurers' vault as much as possible. A decision is made to pass off the manual of Abyssal rifts to the Arkana Arkiva, for safekeeping, rather than sell it off to Teven, which would have netted a profit large enough to finish paying off Ettenhead...but at what cost, if the nefarious and potent mage decided to USE it? Gruulsh and Baro seek out Monch and the bugling's daughter Shari at the dwarves' manor, to find that she continues to grow, and her host's fascinating with her has not only unsettled his own wife, but grown to the point that Monch no longer wishes to continue the expedition into the Crowslode that he was so excited about...Baro pays the affluent dwarf around $12,000 of his treasure share towards the Ettenhead debt.

Meanwhile, Solveig, having little use for her newfound wealth, decides to shower some of it upon the local soldiery, most of which immediately head to the most expensive drinking hole they can find: the Seven Floods Inn. She is accosted by Hoary, who thanks her but deems it more appropriate to put most of her donations into the Last Eidolorn coffers to benefit everyone. But he spares them all a handful of coins. Badger heads off to the Fiery Rat tavern, where he comes up with a business proposition for Flake Falloway, offering not only to expand the tavern itself, but to invest 6,000 gold in a brothel. He justifies it as a chance to 'give back' to the community, in particular the Last Eidolorn. Seeing the potential profits of such a venture, Falloway agrees, provided there are no dwarven women used in the establishment. Badger takes it upon himself to hire 'the girls', but realizes he will need some help, so decides to take a trip locally to the town of Hobfast, hoping the Hosspotches will get involved.

Baro and Gruulsh return to the Armory Square to find that all the off-duty soldiers have jettisoned, and the army cooks have no one to serve, so they bring around the franks & beans that were being prepared and offer them to local families, an act of charity. They then decide to follow up with the soldiers at the Seven Floods, to ensure no trouble is being caused by the sudden influx of thirsty men. Solveig tries to sleep outside the city on the outskirts of the Tooth Marsh, in bear form, which stuns Badger, also traveling that way. He puts an arrow in her before realizing his mistake, and then he is on his way. Solveig decides to sleep in human form after that. Baro and Gruulsh find a long line at the Seven Floods, being tended to by Brand, the annoying waiter/host they've run across in the past. Finally finished with his insults, Baro, at the cost of part of his very soul, casts baleful polymorph on the brat, transforming him into an iguana, which then stalks off through the Keep. Not seeming to care, the line clears, everyone rushing in to the Seven Floods. Baro goes inside to make sure there is no problem, while Gruulsh returns to speak with Monch once more...

Solveig is interrupted a second time this night, by a trio of orcs wielding blades at her, asking all manner of questions upon the fortifications and manpower currently within the Keep. She does manage to escape in a bird form, but not before the interlopers can nearly bring her down! She flies off to get help, and inside the city a soldier helps her back to Armory Square. Badger inevitably arrives at Hobfast, and is let in by a crafty guard who profits off the act. He is met by a local merchant known as Harley Hosspotch, who eventually becomes intrigued by the soldier's business proposal, and offers to get involved, hiring guards and servants for the yet unnamed brothel. He then grants Badger complimentary bed and breakfast at The Crimson Harpy. Back in the city, Monch informs Gruulsh that a guaranteed means to return her to non-halfling form might come in the form of a wish spell, which she'd require a high level caster to perform, perhaps even the Regent-General of Toul Tabor himself. She leaves for Armory Square, to find out that Solveig has been attacked, and with several attentive soldiers, rushes West of the Keep.


An exhausted and wounded Solveig receives some healing, and then decides to shack up with the persistent Private Jolson for a misery/pity shag, which greatly disturbs everyone nearby. Baro clears out the soldiers from the Seven Floods Inn, sending them scurrying for armaments at the new rumors of an orc attack. Gruulsh is unassailed as he travels the road towards the Mimresh, and she finds no war party on the plains in the Pass, but then discovers that the Last Eidolorn patrol which spies on the orc stronghold has been slaughtered to a man...and horse. She rushes back to inform Hoary and his fellow soldiers, and collect the other PCs, including Ballyhoo and Graygear, before investigating further. 

PCs: Badger, Baro, Gruulsh, Solveig 

NPCs

Harley Hosspotch (halfling male): A charming negotiator based in Hobfast, with impeccable brown curls, stunning green eyes, and favors cream-colored robes and garments. He is 'on duty' when Pvt. Badger comes to the halfling community to seek help in his dubious prostitution scheme...
 
Private Jolson (human male): A trapper/furrier who has recently taken up service in the Last Eidolorn guard. Salt-and-pepper, fine beard and a haughty attitude, he takes a fondness for the druid Solveig which results in a torrid love affair, since the middle aged man, when intoxicated, does not seem to mind her sporadic wild shaping amidst the copulation.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Online 5e Reboot Session 2 (3/15/15)


Here is the link to the transcript for session #2. We're now using the Roll20 web browser gaming interface, so I've cut and pasted this to a Word .doc for the time being.

Friday, March 13, 2015

Session 69 (3/13/15)

*Giving the Shafts the Shaft*

Ivric, Verget the 15th, 838 ID

As the party proceeds deeper into the caverns, they find yet another of the deep gnome statues they ran into in the medusa/basilisk lair, and by the mercy of Ballyhoo, decide to return it too into the realm of flesh. This time, the svirfneblin doesn't flee, introduced itself, and claims to hail from a far off city of its kind, Ilindolph. He was seeking a long estranged clan of his people in this particular area of the Underdark, when he happened across the medusas, and attempted to flee. He is quite shocked to hear that the date is roughly 200 years later than the one he could remember! At any rate, he decides to stick with his saviors for the time being, who might help him find the lost clan he has been sent to reconnect with. It doesn't take terribly long to uncover some evidence, since the next cave is full of smashed crates and deep gnome equipment caches. The following chamber is hung with gruesome beast trophies, including troglodytes, and beyond that, they come across some sort of museum of small armor suits. Unfortunately, they trigger a quartet of these, and a battle ensues. The animated constructs wield humming swords and get into an excellent position to deal with the PCs, but our heroes eventually win out, rendering them into piles of plates and cans...


The armor museum is a massive cavern with several exits, and they decide to travel west, when they encounter an odd dead end where two chests, each with three parallel locks of strange sizes, are set into the floor. Baro uses knock on one of the chests, which lifts its lid, but also spawns a massive incendiary cloud which begins to sear the characters until they run out of range. They seem ready to give up, but once Monch discerns a sliding/shifting wall beyond those chests, they come up with an alternate solution: Wendel first jams the chests to disarm the cloud trap, and then both Gutwrench (the new gnome) and Wendel to simultaneously pry open the locks on each side, using Baro as a backup to knock another one if they blunder the timing. Had they but one lockpicker, it might have proven impossible, but as they moved from the outer locks to the smaller, closer devices, it became gradually simpler. After popping the inner locks, the lids flew open and the wall spun, depositing the pair into a grisly looking torture chamber. They managed to figure out how to use the chest lids as levers, and then retrieve the rest of the party before pressing on. They find a feeding shaft which is crammed with viscera, especially brain matter, and Solveig wild shapes into a rat to search through it, finding an unfinished note from a fell halfing explorer, Hal Hosspotch.


Moving into the next area, they find a pair of ghastly abominations guarding a stone door engraved with tentacles. They engage, Baro and Mistlethroe wielding deadly magics that almost fully cut down the creatures, but not before a good chunk of the party is mysteriously put to sleep. But the PCs do make short work of the things, which deflate into oozing giant pustules on the cavern floor. Some study of the forms reveals that they are related somehow to illithids...perhaps a more primal version, or 'pets' of the mind flayers. They collect some random treasure littered about the area, and discover that the next chamber contains a glowing, pulsating glass sphere set into a stone shaft, which seems to ebb abjuration magic, the source of the teleporation block located in the Hazard Shafts area of the Crowslode! The rest of the PCs back off, and Badger shatters it, allowing them to now use these magics in this region of the Underdark.

Evalais, Verget the 16th, 838 ID

After a long rest, interrupted only when Gruulsh-ling hears a group of frustrated bugbears arriving at the dead end where the chests used to be, Mistlethroe and Baro teleport the party successfully back to Floivin Keep. Monch and Gruulsh take the rapidly aging dwarf offspring to Gnarlbottom Manor, and Wendel says his goodbyes, though he does mention he might hang around the Keep for some time. Then the group sells some of their new stash to Teven the Worm, hands out some of the gear, and prepares to return to complete this almost impossible task.

PCs: Badger, Ballyhoo, Baro, Graygear, Gruulsh, Solveig

Friday, February 6, 2015

Session 68 (2/6/15)

*Basilisk Bordello*

Ivric, Verget the 15th, 838 ID

After collecting the treasure from the misshapen, hunchbacked giants, some of which is too heavy for them to carry, the PCs head south through the caverns, with Wendel checking for traps all along the way, and a group of them protecting the Gruulsh's unusual dwarf offspring as best they can. Though she can hardly speak yet, she does occasionally bark out simple phrases in dwarven, and seems to have grown at an unbelievable rate, to years overnight. Monch also seems strangely smitten with the child, moreso than he should, and Lord Ballyhoo determines that there is some enchantment effect overtaken the noble. The heroes enter a new area with a pair of giant statue dials depicting a fell dwarven archmage known as Denzeth 'ManyFates' Dourmug, a descendant of the very rogue they have come to track through the Crowslode. Badger shoots an arrow at one for good measure, but then remembers that they had acquired a script in a nearby cavern, with rune-numerals similar to those on the massive dial bases of the statues.

After some debate, they decide to try the codes. With great exertion, and Solveig taking on a brown bear form, they manage to lock the two statues into the three sets of rune-numerals found on the parchment. As each pair is 'locked in', they can hear mighty movements somewhere in the earth beneath them, but there is no effect on the cave they are in. Before further exploring the garden of statues they encountered earlier, they decide to retrace their steps through some of the level to see what changes the statues might have caused. The vent room, spider egg chamber, massive spider web cavern and sludge-poo chamber all seem unaffected, so they decide it's time to explore what they dread to be a basilisk's lair, since it seems to be in the way of any further progress. Lord Ballyhoo stealthily scouts out a vast cavern while invisible, making out several serpentine forms slithering around, but also alerting a quartet of medusa sisters and their basilisk pets to the presence of the party thanks to his light source. Though the deadly petrification gazes of these particular creatures do not seem to affect one another in close quarters, the garden of statues clearly shows what might happen to the PCs should they cross those stares...


Alas, the medusas have other defenses in place, two more stone golems very similar to the one the PCs dealt with above! The battle is joined in full, with the golems taking the front line and the basilisks slowly creeping forward. Almost the entire party is engaged with the golems, some healing and some trying to do whatever damage they can, when a pair of basilisks get close enough to try and affect them. Fortunately, they all make their saving throws. They are picked off by a combination of magic attacks and arrows, and then Baro throws down black tentacles to slow any other attackers, who are then forced to take another route around. On that route is Wendel, who himself had decided to sneak around and perhaps surprise attack someone, but failed miserable...as the medusas and remaining basilisks come around to flank the party, the rogue flees! By this point the stone golems have finally been chipped away, and thanks to Baro's big gun spell for the day they make pretty quick work of the remaining enemies.


They search the medusa's stone habitations and find that they were primarily used for cooking, rutting and other things, perhaps with their pets themselves! Loathsome. Ballyhoo reverts two of the statues (those of gnomes) to flesh again, but both flee from the PCs, their gratitude difficult to determine. The PCs press on to find a treasury stash down a side corridor, where an imposing statue of something like an umberhulk with tentacles looms over their treasure. A pair of male medusa (maedar) are also chained up here, and able to communicate with Lord Ballyhoo. The PCs grab the gems and items, and deliberate what to do with these captives while they scope out another side corridor with stairs descending to the third level of the Hazard Shafts...

PCs: Badger, Ballyhoo, Baro, Gruulsh, Solveig, Wendel (PC-NPC, +1 session credit for Jarrett)

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Online 5e Reboot Session 1 (1/11/15)

This is a reboot of our online Udders Well solo campaign. After retiring Six-Shite, we decided to dive into 5th edition with a fresh 1st level character and test drive the new rules. Though this storyline does exist in the same setting and time as the main Udders Well tabletop campaign, and also contains a lot of the same personalities, the characters from each won't be able to interact directly until I have upgraded everything later in 2015. If Ryan shows up for tabletop games in the meantime he will use an NPC and be credited attendance/XP sessions for this solo run.


Here is the link to the transcript for session #1. We're now using the Roll20 web browser gaming interface, so I've cut and pasted this to a Word .doc for the time being.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Udders Well Renown Tracker (5e)

Arkana Arkiva

1 Pupil
3 Aide
10 Graduate
25 Instructor
50 Chancellor
75 Dean

Church of Eleste

1 Acolyte
3 Chaplain
10 Lector
25 Bishop
50 Prelate
75 Archbishop

Circle of Crake

1 Aspirant
3 Ovate
10 Fielder
25 Warden
50 Archdruid
75 Great Druid

Fifth Eidolorn

1 Private
3 Lieutenant (Sergeant)
10 Captain
25 Major
50 Commander
75 General (Admiral)

Fourth Eidolorn

1 Private
3 Lieutenant (Sergeant) Baro
10 Captain
25 Major
50 Commander
75 General (Admiral)
 
Gnarlbottom Clan

1 Arbiter
3 Smith
10 Patron
25 Noble
50 Lord

Hosspotch Family

1 Associate
3 Soldier
10 Made Man (Woman)
25 Underboss
50 Boss
75 Grandfather (Grandmother)

Imperial Recognition

1 Friend of the Realm
3 Partisan of the Realm
10 Hero of the Realm Baro, Gruulsh
25 Champion of the Realm
50 Knight of the Realm

Last Eidolorn

1 Private
3 Lieutenant (Sergeant) Baro, Gruulsh
10 Captain
25 Major
50 Commander
75 General (Admiral)

Reddenbalm Clan

1 Rube
3 Soldier
10 Patron
25 Elder
50 Patriarch (Matriarch)

Roodeye Clan

1 Rube Ivellio
3 Soldier
10 Patron
25 Elder
50 Patriarch (Matriarch)

Wizards Elite

1 9th Circle
3 8th Circle
10 7th Circle
20 6th Circle
30 5th Circle Baro
40 4th Circle
50 3rd Circle
60 2nd Circle
75 1st Circle