(G556 06/04/2024 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AL) YI22

 (G556 06/04/2024 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AL) YI22

[Back on Yag Island, these journal entries focus on Corhim, Fenrir and Dak.]

DAY 627 (20th Uktar) (November) cont ...

In Gyles's Inn in a private room, my wife and friends (known locally now as the "Barrowfolk") went over their plans.

Lavinia was pretty happy with the new refugees from Sertris. They were settling in beside the human camp. It was all tents and crude shelters at the moment but soon proper houses would be built.

I'm told that Cavu also turned up that evening and awarded the four heroes of the Fortress 50,000 gp each! He seemed very pleased with the outcome.

Cavu also bought Nanietharil off them for 2000 gp and the Merthuviall dagger for 50 gold. The shield Aegis Inviolable was purchased for 2000 gold.

Some of the banter around the table was what the Barrowfolk should call themselves.
No one had a strong opinion but Corhim said;
'We should be called the Adventuring Remuneration Shared Equity Scheme.'

You may notice at this point the acronym would be ARSES, so I think Corhim was probably joking!

DAY 628 (21st Uktar) (November)

Corhim arranged for Felia to act as a broker for selling all the loot they had acquired during their recent adventures. She found good deals in Sasserine and the grand total came to 302,000 gold. She made a profit of 15,100 from it.

Corhim used some of the money to buy a Twilight Mithril Chain Shirt. The others likewise found things to buy in the magical shops of Sasserine.

Once back home they had dinner in my house and discussed their next endeavours. It was thought that taking on the vampires of the Dementor might be the most pressing and so they talked about the best way to deal with them.

On another subject, Lavinia contacted the firm of dwarf masons she knew on behalf of Giselle and Fenrir. They wanted a two story house built inside the walls at the barrow. It would cost them 20,000 gold. I should note the firm is called:
The Underforge Builders of Sasserine

Corhim like the sound of having a fancy place to live and started drawing up plans for a small wizard's tower.

After dinner most of then wandered back to Gyles's Inn. They were all pretty happy with the money pouring in and were getting drunk. Even Corhim was on the shandy.

Fenrir cheekily tried to spike Corhim with "flavouring enhancers" but the wily gnome saw him do it and ordered a fresh drink.

Despite coming out on top, he wanted revenge and tried to conspire with Gyles to return the favour. Gyles was not impressed, he had only let Corhim in because Fenrir had been so charming about it anyway.

Corhim even went to the privy to cast Eagle Splendour on himself to help with  talking Gyles into it, but even then he failed and made the innkeeper angry.
'Get out, your barred!' he cried at young Sparkledingle. 'This is why I never let gnomes in the pub!'

Half an hour later Corhim was back, using magic to disguise himself as "Guy Incognito" a tall human in his fifties, a well dressed - and well fed - merchant.

Gyles was suspicious, he was used to dealing with wizards and the like.
'What ship did you come in on?' he asked.
'The Dementor' lied Corhim.
'You just came in right now?' asked Gyles, wondering if there was a new ship at the docks.
'Err... yeah.'
'What's your business?'
'I'm just here to ... trade?'
Gyles thought about it then said. 'OK, what do you want to drink?'
'A glass of your finest water, my good fellow!'
'No water, just short beer.'
'One of them then, my good jolly tavern fellow me chum!'

From where Fenrir was at the bar he realised that Mr Incognito was Sparkledingle trying his best to sound like how he thought humans spoke.
As a joke he waved and shouted over - "Hey Corhim!"
Luckily for the gnome though it was lost in the general hubbub of the tavern.

At that point Dak strolled in and then he and Corhim went to plan revenge against Fenrir. Corhim went and cast Unseen Servant in the privy and it followed him out.

Dak went for the less subtle approach and ordered five of those lethal drinks that were know as Full Body Stiffeners. They are ten gold each I should mention.

Then with wink to Corhim he said, 'Before we drink, we should all go for a pee!'
Everyone went for a pee.

When Fenrir sat down again the Unseen Servant yoinked his chair away at the last moment, but the warlock was as agile as a cat and did not fall over.

They all then downed their drinks. Corhim tried to hang back, but the others
forced him.

These were the results:

Veddic - Found it a bit trippy and he lost some of his composure
Fenrir - Was frozen solid for an hour and a half
Dak - Felt wonderful, a real buzz
Giselle - Was frozen solid for an hour
Corhim - Was frozen solid for half an hour

I know from experience that when you are frozen you go into a sort of dream state.
Or if you are unlucky - then a nightmare. Everyone is different, I wouldn't
recommend it.

(G555 30/03/2024 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AL) YI21

 (G555 30/03/2024 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AL) YI21

[Fenrir the Warlock, Giselle the Bard, Corhim the Gnomish Wizard and Dak the half-orc barbarian are inside the Fortress of the Yaun-ti.]

DAY 622 (15th Uktar) (November) cont ...

Having dealt with the ground flower of the Tower of Worlds they headed up the stairs to the next chamber. 

The room had a sloping floor and as they made their way into it two hideous creatures attacked. Each had the body of a worm, the head of a snake and long sinuous arms. Behind them was a scaled figure with serpents for hair.

Dak charged in and attacked the nagas, while Fenrir held back the medusa with a wall of flames. Dak chopped up the nagas handily and Fenrir then blasted the medusa dead.

They continued upwards, up what appeared to be an unnaturally long staircase that took ten minutes to climb. And even when they tried to stick together the strange magic of the stairs strung them out. Suddenly a Flamestrike spell struck them and Giselle was nearly killed. She healed herself and carried on, looking like a burnt offering when she got to the others at the top of the stairs.

The next room was the sacramental chamber. It glowed with the light of demonic fire that seemed to burn the air itself. Three stone biers covered with serpentine imagery stood across the chamber. Two contained bodies in funeral shrouds and the third had carefully arranged yellow bones on it. Three yuan-ti in robes tended the biers, chanting while brass braziers emitted noxious purple smoke.

A fourth yuan-ti was in the centre of the room, a huge monstrously fat monster, with blood bubbling from his eyes and running down his scaly face. It carried a dark steel shield, which carried the symbol of the Forgotten King of Kingsholm.

Corhim cast Stinking Cloud, but it had little affect as the air was already putrid. Giselle started singing. Corhim tried grease, but again there was little affect as the fat yuan-ti had no legs. Dak was nearly overcome by the fumes, but managed to collect himself and attack. Corhim cast haste on him. Between them then, Dak and Fenrir killed the monster and then (somewhat cruelly I thought) killed the three priests who offered no resistance.

I have later learned that the fat yuan-ti was called Sulvaugren, Master of Worlds.

Defeating him triggered a reaction in the chamber, which started to shake and the floor shattered. The central bier broke and exploded, filling the chamber with clouds of dust. As the dust cleared a gaunt humanoid figure was revealed. It had leathery flesh with bone visible through its cracked surface. It carried an ancient bastard sword, its empty eye sockets glowing with gangrenous light.

This was the Risen King. He was protect by some sort of aura that kept Dak at bay for some time, but Fenrir could hurt it. This time it was Giselle that cast Grease but again it had little affect. The Risen King was powerful but as Fenrir blasted it backwards, Dak slowly worked his way into the aura and delivered the final blows to put the King back in his grave.

With this done, the final enemy defeated and the Vanguard's plans in ruins they headed back to the library, but Zoldathra had made himself scarce, probably guessing at their intentions. Corhim grabbed ten books that looked important from the library.

The whole fortress was filling with smoke. Fenrir had used a lot of Walls of Flame and the place was fully on fire now. Once it reached the library the whole place would go up. Coughing and choking on the smoke they headed to the entrance and went over to the village.

As they stood and watched the smoke billowing out of the main door and the tower windows the villagers and escaped slaves began to realise they were free.

Some gathered their possessions immediately and headed off. The main road was thought to be to the east and from there they hoped to find their way home. Corhim handed them all rations from the Provisions Box as they left. This included Daverov the dwarf noble and Maneri the human gallery owner.

The heroes talked to Clara and some of the former slaves said they liked the sound of a tropical island in the Shining Sea and for whatever reason they would like to go there.

Some had no homes to go to, some fancied a fresh start.

The prisoners that wanted to come to the island that had been rescued from the tower itself were:

Selirra - a female elf adept

Aldros - a male commoner

Rollin - a male cowherd

Illria - a female halfling dodger that Dak liked the look of, so much so that he gave her 100 gold to come

Kaleb - a male warrior and drunkard that Dak also took a liking to.

Clara and eleven others also decided to come. A handful of others just looked like nasty bastards and no one wanted them in the island. As with everyone else that wanted to make their own way they were given food, weapons and some gold.

Over the next few days all these people would be teleported back to Yag Island.

DAY 623 (16th Uktar) (November) 

Fenrir with his boots and Irritator teleport back and forth to the Serastis, bringing people to the island.

The others rested.

DAY 624 (17th Uktar) (November) 

Fenrir with his boots and Irritator teleport back and forth to the Serastis, bringing people to the island. 

The others rested.

DAY 625 (18th Uktar) (November) 

The last of the Serastis refugees were teleport back to the Barrow Area on Yag Island.  Lavinia has assigned them an area to set up camp. Luckily there is still lots of canvas and supplies for them.

DAY 626 (19th Uktar) (November) 

Fenrir and Giselle are mainly loafing around in my living room at the moment as their house is being built.

Corhim is studying and Dak is counting his gold.

DAY 627 (20th Uktar) (November) 

In the evening the Heroes of Serastis went to the pub.

Before I finish for now I will record something I have noticed about Corhim. He's a funny little fellow, and I broadly put him in the same category as Dak and Reinward for reasons I am not exactly sure of.

All three of them are driven by avarice, and when together the plot and scheme the best way to spend their gold, the best magical items to buy and that sort of thing.

Corhim is the only one that finds violence distasteful though. While Dak is never happier than when he is burying his blade into an enemies neck and Reinward likes nothing more than throwing daggers into people eyeballs, Corhim tries to never directly harm anyone.

I can understand that ethos, I never like to kill anything or anyone unless I have to. I hope Corhim stays the way he is as someone with all that power, greed and killer instinct would be really dangerous. We've got enough of those around the place as it is!

(G554 23/03/2024 via Roll20 - JF, KT, AP(GM), AD) YI-B5

 (G554 23/03/2024 via Roll20 - JF, KT, AP(GM), AD) YI-B5

[I am back on the Island once more, having survived our recent dungeon adventure. Myself (Rollo), Reinward and Fang are now ready to go and sell all the loot.]

DAY 621 (14th Uktar) (November) cont ...

I teleported us to Sasserine and we went to Gond's for the selling of the loot.

First we went to the Vanderboren mansion to get cleaned up.

When we got to Gond's I ordered:

A Periapt of Wisdom (+6) for 36,000 gp.

After that we decided to have a celebratory night out on the town. We only got as far as "The Cheesy Coxswain", a new tavern that had opened just down the street.

While we drank and moved about the place I kept my ear to the ground - listening for any news about the Shining Sea and Yag Island specifically. Nothing alarming, but then I didn't nose about too much.

Reinward started talking about wand chambers - which apparently is a way of combining a wand and a weapon.
'Sounds a bit kinky to me,' I opined.
This lead to a lot of banter about "wand chambers" for the rest of the night.

Fang was on a mission and did not stray far from the bar, knocking back drink after drink. We played darts with some other fellows, but Reinward's plans to try and hustle them were so complicated that the game rather fell apart. In the end he picked their pockets - of about 20 gold - fairly pointless after the fortune we had made out of the treasure that had come from the Wasp Dungeon.

The food at the Cheesy Coxswain wasn't up to much so we went to the market to get huge plates of deep fried fish and chips. Me and Fang entered an eating competition. I did ok - for a while - but Fang managed to eat everything and won - hmm, what did he win? - maybe just an unpredictable tummy in the morning!

After that we went to a tavern near the gates and proceeded to get drunk.

Towards the end of the night though, some party-pooper messenger arrived. He was in need of urgent help he said. He had just come from the east where a dragon was apparently threatening his village.

I don't know if this was the first tavern he had come to, or if someone had given him my name and location, my brain was a bit fuzzy at this point, but he seemed quite animated.

Reinward was not impressed. "How much is in it for us?" he asked.

I ordered some coffee and tried to focus. The man said he was Fulsan Hayward of the Hartsvale Watch. The dragons name was Valturnax. Valturnax was a large green dragon who had attacked the village previously, killing and injuring many.
He was demanding to become the villages ruler and that the men of the village become his soldiers. If this didn't happened the village would be destroyed tomorrow night. Fulsan had a map to the dragon's lair, but needed heroes to go and slay it.

My head was beginning to work again. The village was only a days ride away so I asked - "Is there a wizard's sigil for Hartsvale and can you draw it?"
When he said yes I said, "Then stable your horse at the Manor tonight and we will teleport to the sigil."

Back home I had Fulsan re-tell his story so I could write it down:

''
At nightfall – 8 o'clock – the day before, a large green dragon attacked the town, using his poison breath on several guards before killing and eating the local wizard. The dragon announced his name, Valturnax, and told the surviving guards and gawking villagers that Hartsvale was now his, and that he would be expecting “tribute”. Tribute involves half the town’s fighting age men serving as his militia.
Hartsvale’s men have little combat experience – most are simple farmers or fishers, and Valturnax already killed half the town guards.
If Hartsvale refuses to send him soldiers, they will be destroyed tonight at nightfall. Hartsvale doesn’t have much gold, but they can offer the rights to claim whatever treasure is available in the dragon’s hoard.
Valturnax has made his lair in a ruined temple to Bahamut, an hour into the forest of Hartsvale. It takes 4 hours to get to Hartsvale, and another hour to get to Valturnax’s lair.
Several villagers and some surviving guards reported seeing the dragon use magic during the fight – one said the dragon dispelled the wizard’s enchantments, and another claimed he saw the dragon turn invisible. A third said that he saw the dragon create an illusionary monster.
''

We had one more round of drinks and teleported to Hartsvale. Despite being a wee bit drunk and using a drawing of a sigil to land on, we arrived successfully. These boots of Teleportation have been a sound investment.

Hartsvale was a quaint, if somewhat singed stone village. The largest house belonged to the mayor and was half destroyed. Some villagers appeared to be packing up their belongings, getting ready to head west.

(The dragon killed 30 people. Out of 112. So 82 people still alive, but many were  leaving for probably Sasserine.)

There was a temple so I headed over to it to see if I could help. I found an adept and talked to him. Meanwhile the "Chosen of Ilmater" wandered over to the wizard's house to see what he could rob.

At the temple were three seriously injured people in need of healing so I used Cure Light Wounds on them. Then Reinward came stumbling in and drew a dagger.
"This one is a goner! I'll deal with him *hic*!"
I slapped his hand away.
"Oh, go away, Ren!"
He then contented himself with picking the pockets of the unconscious victims laying about in the temple. That lad has no morals at all.

Later, once everyone was attended to, Reinward came to tell me off for helping people.
"Get some money off them first you fool!" he said.
"Fine words from the Chosen One!" I offered. "Ilmater is meant to help people isn't he?"
"Not exactly," replied Reinward the apparent expert. "He is the god of endurance, martyrdom and suffering. He's all for suffering."
"That's not how it works!"

Well, you get the idea, he was in one of those moods so I left him to his theological debates and went to check the rest of the village and helped three more people. One person I summoned and Earth Elemental for to help them out of the rubble.

Meanwhile, Reinward searched the rubble not for victims, but for loot. He found a pearl of power that had belonged to the unfortunate wizard.

Once things were settled down a bit we all went to an abandoned house and went to sleep.


DAY 622 (15th Uktar) (November)

I woke up and shook my head. It took a while to remember where I was. I then sighed and wondered - was I sober enough to take on a dragon?

We had breakfast then I took the map from Fulsan. The dragon was in a "collapsed  temple" apparently. With Reinward and Fang with me it seemed safer to just walk there.

All the way there Reinward was teasing me about "wanting to save all the squirrels". I tried to punch him in the nuts be he easily dodged out the way.

He laughed and capered, taunting me, so I pointed a finger at him.
'Oh ho ho!' he said seeing that I was threatening to use magic. He put his hand on his bandolier of daggers.

It was tense for a moment, but then I checked the map and adjusted our path.
An hour later he was still asking me what I would do if he killed a squirrel.
"I'll squirrel you, you cunt," I snarled at him.
He then made up a song about saving squirrels. Then about putting his finger up animal's arses. Or saying I did it, not sure.
"Shut your stupid face, you stupid man," I tried.
He wouldn't shut his stupid face though so I turned into an eagle and took to the sky. He continued to shout at me so I gained enough height to be out of range of his jeering.

I could see the cliff we were headed for in the distance and flew there in a leisurely fashion so the others could follow. When we got there I landed and turned into a man.

As we come out from the trees, we saw a sheer cliff wall ahead. At the base of the cliff was a large cave entrance, set up with large stone doors. Regular foot traffic had created a dirt path in front of the cave.
In front of the cave, there was a few large stones. From behind one of the stones, a stick with some white strips of cloth tied to is shoved into the air, then waggled back and forth. In broken Common, a squeaky kobold voice shouted the word “Parlay” over and over again. Walking out from behind his stone, the two and a half foot tall lizard person was carrying a makeshift white flag in one hand and a burning torch in the other.
He squinted his eyes against the harsh daylight. He was wearing robes that bulged cartoonishly out from his body. He began waddling towards us, cringing in fear as he did so.

Reinward, ever the diplomat shouted out;
'What have you got under fucking robes, fud?
"I no fud,' answered the kobold. 'I am Raznark.'

I gave the oafish "Chosen One" a look and took over the talking.
'We just want to pass through your caves.'

Fang, who had been silent the entire journey decided to leer at the poor creature in an intimidating manner, but it was a wasted effort as Raznark was already terrified.
Again I had to push an imbecile out of the way. I said;
'We want to go have a word with Valturnax. We mean you no harm."

Raznark seemed willing to do what ever it took to resolve the situation peacefully but he did mention there were lots of traps in the caves. Reinward talked to him on that subject and it was decided Raznark would lead us through a safe route.
Raznark just wanted to protect his people and we gave him 100 gold to sweeten the deal.

As we walked in he said we should reconsider going anywhere near the dragon. I pointed out I was wearing dragonhide armour.
"Not my first dragon rodeo," I said.
"Well," he continued. "Watch out for the two starved crazy hill giants then and the
Booyag that oozes with magic."
"Right you are."

The cave tunnel we went through was protected with ballista and trip mines. These protected areas where the young and the eggs were kept. He showed us what was under his robes - a suicide bomb - that he would have set off had we appeared threatening.

I was doing pretty well so far, I thought, not to have been blown up, considering I was in the company of nincompoops.

(G553 16/03/2024 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AL) YI20

 (G553 16/03/2024 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AL) YI20

[Fenrir the Warlock, Giselle the Bard, Corhim the Gnomish Wizard and Dak the half-orc barbarian are inside the Fortress of the Yaun-ti.]

DAY 622 (15th Uktar) (November) cont ...

At about four in the morning, they all climbed down the rope from their hiding place and re-entered the fortress.

They then carefully made their way to the entrance to a tower they had not yet explored.

The rooms in this one had the same snake motifs as others they had seen so far. As they went up the stairs into the upper areas they were attacked by three undead baboons. These were easily dealt with.

Moving on up they were attacked by a necromancer and his undead minions.

These skeletons were armed with magic lightning scimitars which did a lot of damage even when just touching someone. Dak was injured and then was  healed by Giselle. One by one he and Fenrir then destroyed the skeletons.

After that Fenrir blasted the necromancer down from his perch on top of a sinister gold idol that hung from the ceiling in the centre of the room.

With the upper part of the tower cleared of enemies they headed down. The next chamber they came to was full of horrible demonic artworks. Six ragged prisoners were chained up here, and just as our heroes arrived it looked like one of them was making their escape.

There was also an evil cleric here but she was easily killed. The prisoners were happy to be rescued and the tough one that had helped in the fight introduced herself as Arzanezra. Dak sent the six prisoners on their way, but Arzanezra said she would join them. Fenrir was a little suspicious and asked her about herself. She told him she was a paladin, but that was about all he got out of her.

Going further down the came to a portal. After having a good poke at it they deduced that it would need "the right combination".

So they continued downwards into the bottom chamber of the tower. Here a large golem lurked and it leapt out at them and attacked. It was mostly immune to Fenrir's magic so Dak had to do all the chopping and biffing.

After the fight he asked Arzanezra to use "lay on hands" but she said she had already used it for the day.

This tower now largely cleared of any threats they went back into the main fortress and tried another one. After searching around for a bit they came to a large library.

There was a balcony area in it, and from here a yaun-ti addressed them in a deep voice.

"

I have wondered if you would show up here. I believe we should talk.

"

Fenrir and the others looked up and waited to see what he had to say.

"

I am Zoldathra, Master of the Word. I have been a member of the Vanguard of Sertrous for decades. Until recently, I thought that I was privy to the greatest secrets of my organization. I was wrong.

One day, Sertrous will rise and the Vanguard will rule in his name. You cannot stop that. But perhaps we can work together in the interim, to prevent the travesty envisioned by the Vanguard's current leaders.

Only recently have I learned that the creature they intend to bring forth with the Sacrament of the Risen Abyss is intended not to rule the world, but to help destroy it. I dare not move against my leaders directly, but perhaps with my assistance, you can accomplish what I cannot.

"

Dak and Fenrir looked at each other and shrugged. "Go on then!' they called back up.

Zoldathra gave them a lot of information about the ritual that they mostly didn't pay attention to, but he did usefully tell them how to operate all the portals and how to access the final tower where the ritual was taking place - the Tower of Worlds.

"

The tower is built atop the cliff, but it is out of phase with the rest of our world. The sacrament takes place there even as we speak. Be warned, though - enough of the sacrament's components are already assembled that it can no longer be stopped. Your only hope lies in thwarting the collection of the last relics necessary for the rites, and in harrying the so-called leaders of the Vanguard as they seek to complete their plans.

"

Corhim thought that they should kill Zoldathra now, but as they left Fenrir said. "We'll get him on the way back".

Using the direction they had been given then found the portal they needed and Fenrir went through first.

He found himself exiting through an arch that was in the centre of a room full  of corpses hanging from hooks. As the light from the arch faded a massive shape rose from the darkness.

A mass of hairless blubbery flesh surrounded him on all sides. Countless screaming mouths, rending claws and bloodstained teeth. It was a swarm of dretches, known as the Wretched Tide. It was a bit much for him to handle alone and as he battled this horror, getting nibbled on and covered in gore, he wondered where the others were.

Dak and Corhim were arguing about how long to wait, not realising that Fenrir couldn't get back again. Eventually Dak stepped through and joined the battle. Much blasting and chopping ensued.

Roztov's Everquest Lore Library Update 22-04-2024

 

Go here for all the Everquest Lore you could ever possibly desire!

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NPC GENERATOR for Version 3.5. (v138)

NPC GENERATOR for Version 3.5. (v138)

 

 

Updated log:

 
V138
Lizardfolk added as a race
Sahuagin added as a race
Goblins now not as chubby as before
Ghost template
Added Speed (and Longstrider buff for Druids)
Added Space/Reach

NPC GENERATOR for Version 3.5. (v137)

New Version!

V137

Drow added as a race
Yuan-Ti (Pureblood) added as a race
Name functions improved. Still a mess though ;)
Craft, Perform and Profession skills are now a random thing. Some races and classes have favourites

 

Get it here:

http://www.roztov.epizy.com/dd/NPCDD.html