Roztov's Everquest Lore Library Update 15-12-2021

 New stuff!

 

 

15/12/2021 - added Terror of Luclin
15/12/2021 - added Night of the Dead
15/12/2021 - added Feast of Giving

 

Miss Take - Now in Paperback

Finally got round to doing a paperback version of Miss Take :)

Get it here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Miss-Take-J-H-Foss-ebook/dp/B08RD1VM51

I'm going to print out a copy and double check it before letting people know on Facebook etc :D :D

 

(G470 30/10/2021 via Roll20 - - AP(GM), JF, KT) WA91

 (G470 30/10/2021 via Roll20 -  - AP(GM), JF, KT) WA91

[And now back into the Underdark with Fenrir, Reinward, Veddic, Raz and their guides - Dinkledonk  and Soledad.]

DAY 505(20th Flamerule)(july) continued ...

Down another corridor and into another, larger chamber, it was now looking like the adventure party had stumbled into a decent sized nest of Aboleths as they was a big pool in the room, full of cold  water and tentacles. Skum, the enslaved retainers of the Aboleths attacked from the sides.

There were six of the Aboleths and while their tentacles did some damage to the front ranks none of their mind affecting magic took hold on anyone and one by one these horrors were killed  until the last two used illusions to escape. One turned into a naked woman and ran off down a  corridor to the left while another did the same down a corridor to the right.

The fighting over Fenrir looked into the pool. The water was dark and deep, about 50ft, but he could see something shining down there so he decided to swim down and take a look.

While he retrieved what turned out to be a chest full of treaure with borrowed rope, Veddic  healed up Ugelbe, who had suffered some injuries from the Aboleths' slimy tentacles.

Once they had finished in this chamber, they headed west, down a narrow corridor that ended in a door. When they listened at it, they heard the chinking of coins.

Opening the door they found a small room that contained an old man, dressed as a merchant, surrounded by trade goods. They were suspicious, but took everything at face value and Reinward even tried to buy a masterwork dagger. In the end though he handed it back.

They knew something was wrong with what they were seeing, but could not decide what to do about it, so they headed back to the main chamber and took the eastern exit.
Now the narrow corridor led to large room with an evil looking altar in its middle. On the alter was tied a youngish girl. A pile of empty flasks lay against the north wall.

Once again, they had their suspicions, but Fenrir can little a damsel in distress and especially not one as beautiful as this one appeared to be.
'Thank you, thank you!' she gasped as she rubbed life back into her wrists.
She went on to explain her name was Yvette, from a place called Eastville in the country of Gonderland. No one had ever heard of it.

After musing over his spell book for a moment or two Dinkledonk cast a spell called Analyse Dweomer. Suddenly the girl was revealed to be one of the Aboleths that had fled!

Fenrir cursed and cast Painful Slumber of Ages on it, making it flop onto the floor in a tormented sleep. There they left it.

They then returned to the room where they had found the merchant, assuming that he too was an Aboleth, but by now he had gone. So they took one of the other unexplored corridors that after a couple of turns lead to a strange sort of graveyard area.

As they examined on of the graves a ghastly centipede creature with a vaguely human face attacked them. This was a gravecrawler and usually they are pretty dangerous, but this one was not at full strength, so while it drained a lot of their vitality, it was eventually defeated by their combined might.

(G469 23/10/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) LR46

 (G469 23/10/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) LR46

[Myself and Dak are currently hunting down the pirate ship known as 'The Reaper'. While waiting for it to arrive in port we are rummaging around in a secret Snake Temple.]

DAY 549 (4th Eleint) (September) continued ...

After chasing off the huge nasty snake we moved on to the next and final chamber. It contained the skeleton of a giant snake coiled around a wooden chest. The skeleton was just as it appeared and was no threat to us and the chest contained a magical item we later learned was the 'Fanged Helm of Zengar' which bestowed on the wearer various snake related magical benefits.
As Dak has a pretty big snake fetish at the moment it is now in his possession.

Anyway, we poked around in some of the other rooms and corridors of this place, but aside from some gems (pried out of the eye sockets of a giant stone snake) and some other small amounts of gold we found nothing else.

On our return to Starmantle we gave 50gp each (for a total of 100gp) to the landlady of Lanta's Hearth and spent the remainder of the evening celebrating a job well done.


DAY 550  (5th  Eleint) (September)

Had a large breakfast in the morning, and was still eating it when Dak headed out into town. His supplies of Jibby-Jibby was running low, apparently, and he wanted to find some more.
He did not appear again until after lunch, empty handed.

As for myself I teleported Harriet back to the Barrow on Yacg'harr Island (I think she's of more use over there right now) and then wandered around the docks in my 'pirate' outfit, watching the place and making people aware of me - just another sailor with no berth and time on his hands.

Sauntered back to the tavern in the evening. I think Lanta likes me and Dak now, a 100gp would have been much appreciated I'm sure, as there were fresh flowers in my room and the bedding had been changed.


DAY 551  (6th  Eleint) (September)

Today was the day the Reaper was due and it was on schedule, drawing up at the quayside in the late
afternoon.

Myself and Dak had already spent several days talking over 'the plan' and it now formed a main plan and a contingency.

The main plan was to kill or kidnap two crewmembers and then replace them, and when the ship set, sail again we would bump off the other crewmembers and generally terrify them! If that didn't work then the backup plan was to just bomb them from the air.

I wanted to keep the Reaper though, to add it to my fleet, but quite how I was to crew it once we had it in our possession I wasn't entirely sure. We'd cross that bridge when we came to it.

We watched as the crew disembarked. There appeared to be three officers, five regular seamen and four swabbies, for a total of twelve. We followed two likely looking piratey looking scumbags, one a thickset human and the other a greasy looking halfling to a tavern and attempted to make friends with them.
When you are buying the rum, everyone is your friend.

On the way to a brothel, we jumped them in a back alley. I was a little nervous as to how tough they would be, but in the end they were easily defeated. I turned into a tiger and ripped them to shreds while Dak slashed at them with his falchion.
Still, after being stuffed into a Bag of Holding and dumped in the Barrow they both still lived, by some miracle, so I handed them over to Sylvia and we teleported back to Starmantle.

Phase one complete!

Karma Kingdom - Beta 1.0 b174

 Karma Kingdom - Beta 1.0 b174

Want to do something to help the planet, but are currently stuck at home?
Really kean to help out with everything COP26 related, but don't know where to start?

Well, you do a little to help the planet and other great causes right now, completly free by playing the game Karma Kingdom!

How it works:

When you play the game you gather resources for your kingdom by navigating to other charity click sites and pressing their 'click to donate' buttons.

With these resouces you can then build your kingdom. As it grows the kingdom comes to represent your contribution too good causes all over the world, not just the climate, but refugees, animals, breast cancer, autism, vetrans and many more.

The list of charities are regularly updated.

Karma Kindgom also keep a track of the estimated value of your clicks and how much CO2 you have helped remove from the atmosphere. 

Play here:

http://www.roztov.epizy.com/stw/generate.html

New in this version:

- BUG #16 - distrubute water and the court version should give out the same amount of water, but they dont
- Added Witches to list of people you can have
- Added courtcase where a witch comes to your kingdom
- Fixed Chestnut Burrs description
- Added links on the Items page to help navigation. Will add buttons later probably
- Added icon for a bracelets of flame
- Wasteland now spreads out from the mines more organically
- Added and ammended various item descriptions 

 

 

(G468 16/10/2021 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), KT, AD) HOM5

 (G468 16/10/2021 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), KT, AD) HOM5

[As you may remember the adventurers Griffolk Ethyn the Dragon-Shaman, Sparkledingle the Gnome Wizard, Fangorino the Barbarian and Alleyoop the cleric had just been chased out of the dungeon under the Moathouse by a good many armed guardsmen.]

DAY 3 cont ...

After a hour and a half of walking through the forest, the arrived back at the village of Hommlet.

Alleyoop was quite shaken up by the experience they had just had, she had managed the bandits, and saw t has her duty to destroy undead wherever she found them, but the brutal, cramped combat in the dungeon with the guards, with blood everywhere and severed heads rolling about the place had been far too much for her and as a consequence she headed straight home for a bath.

The others went back to the inn, had lunch, then had dinner, and finally they were suitably rested enough to plan their next move. None of them could be bothered to go persuade Alleyoop to join them again the next day. It could be argued that they did not want to upset her, but in all honesty I  suspect it was mere laziness.

So, with directions from the landlord of the Welcoming Wench they went to the ruined farmhouse about a mile along the road where Oriuphis Benvolio, the Tiefling Druid, was squatting, with an idea to recruit her as the party healer.

They found her easily enough. Oriuphis was a startling sight, even for a Tiefling. She had curly grey hair and deep red eyes. Her skin was black and there was a scar across her nose. Two big horns stuck straight up from her head and when she smiled she revealed sharp, pointed teeth.

Still, she agreed to join them for a share of the loot. She said she was not welcome in town though so she would meet them on the road in the morning.

With that arrangement made they went back to Hommlet to sell their looted treasure and stock up on healing potions and the like. Sparkledingle ordered a wand of Mage Armour.

Back at the Inn, the young gnome went to his room to study while the other two stayed in the tavern room. Griffolk tried to chat up a young lady called Fellia Frogbelly, but failed miserably.


DAY 4

In the morning they met Oriuphis on the road as arranged and made their way back to the Moathouse. Where the dead gnolls had been left on top of the dead zombies they now found a group of harpies that had been lured down there by the smell of a free meal.

They were not too hard to fight off though, in a frantic melee of screeching and feathers. After that they went back down the shaft to the lower dungeon area again. In the ghoul room the half eaten corpse of the ogre they had slain previously was now zombified and it attacked them as they entered the area.

These are tough things to slay, but Sparkledingle cleverly cast Grease under it and as it tried time and time again to pull itself up onto its feet, Fang would knock it down again with a mighty swing of his falchion. After it was defeated they chopped its arms and legs off to make sure they would not have to fight it yet again later on.

Instead of returning to where they had battle the guardsmen they took the other fork in the corridor and headed north into an unexplored area. Eventually they came to a diamond shaped room where six bugbears were camping out. They leapt up and attacked at once.

Sparkledingle, for reasons that can only be guessed at, unsheathed 'Kenneth' and used a spell to launch it at one of the bugbears. It hit, but had no discernable effect.

Bugbears are tough, and not dull witted like the undead. While some of them met the charge of Fang and Griff, the others ran past them to take on the spell casters. Oriuphis summoned a wolf to protect her, but Sparkledingle had nothing, not even a dagger, to fend off the attack. Flashing lights, glitter and other distractions managed to save his skin until help could come. One by one the bugbears were slain, until the last one fled down the corridor. He was slain trying to get through a closed door as Fang and Griff descended on him.

Once again they were all too battered and bloody to go on, so after they had looted the  bodies they returned again to Hommlet and the Inn of the Welcoming Wench.

(G467 09/10/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) LR45

 (G467 09/10/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) LR45

[Back to me, my family and friends, having a lovely time on Yacg'harr Island. Myself and Dak are currently hunting down the pirate ship known as 'The Reaper']

DAY 547 (2nd Eleint) (September)  cont ...

I spent the rest of the day getting ready for our trip to Starmantle the next day.  I'll be glad when this keep we are having built is done. Sleeping in one of the 'druid houses' is fine, when you are in a Magic Bedroll, but there isn't much room to stretch out, especially when you are sharing the space with a pregnant wife.

Lavinia seems to be having the time of her life though. She loves setting up a colony.

I'd better blow out the candle now anyway and get some rest.

DAY 548 (3rd Eleint) (September)

Using my boots, I teleported myself. Harriet the dire lion and Dak to Starmantle, by way of Riatavin.

We had some time to get the lay of the land. The Reaper was not due for eight days or so.

We teleported in to the official teleport area just outside of the city and walked in. I was dressed as a sailor, Dak was dressed as he always was, a hulking barbarian.

Still, we made it through the gates, even with Harriet following me, my massive dire lion animal companion. She's very gentle normally though, so the guards were won over.

We went back to Lanta's Hearth, where I had once stayed while hunting the Annubus pirate ship and arranged rooms and food. Lanta was the innkeeper, a halfling lady.

Once that was done we went down to the docks to take a look. We ended up at the Port Authority and talked to a clerk. In the end he wanted a bribe for information so we arranged to meet him in a nearby tavern for lunch.

He was not delighted when he entered quietly, trying not to be noticed and Dak very loudly called him over.

He still met with us though. His name was Greeves and for 200 gold he told us about the Reaper  and that it was indeed due soon. Dak had ordered a 'Seafood Platter' but had no idea how to eat it.
'Do I eat the shell?' he asked Greeves.
Yes, the man nodded, with a wink in my direction.
The barbarian then began to eat a large crab like an apple.
He must have strong teeth, is all I can say. I did my best to stay our of the blast radius.

Anyway, the Reaper was due in 3 days, weather dependant. We also learned it was a Xebec, just like the Annubus had been. It had a reputation for swiftness that made it sound like it was magical in the same way as the Annubus too.

So, with a few days to kill I decided to ask around for any jobs that might need doing by adventurous types.
When I asked Lanta about it, she said,
'Funnily enough, I just bought this map off a drunk old adventurer. He said there is an old temple hidden in the forest about half a days walk from town. It's well concealed, but the map - apparently - will lead you there.'

She'd paid 20 gold and a bottle of spirits for it, she said, so we bought it off her for 30.

We decided to set off in the morning, as we had already had a big dinner and did not much feel like a long walk through the night.


DAY 549 (4th Eleint) (September)

Myself, Dak and Harriet the Dire Lion set out on the warm Eleint morning on foot.  The temple was not hard to find with the use of the map, although it was well hidden in a deep gully of the forest. It cannot be seen from the road or from the air and  even a druid would have a hard time discovering the place without knowing exactly  where to look.

Anyway, the last couple of hours of walk through the deep forest lead us to the  temple entrance which consisted of a large stone snake head carved into the cliff, a waterfall and a large pool of water. There was also a narrow ledge that lead around the pool to behind the waterfall.

Dak went first, and fell into the pool. Other than getting soaked to the skin though he was unharmed. Behind the waterfall was a tunnel that lead into a small chamber that contained a stone altar. Skulls of humanoids sat atop it. In the centre of the room was a large grate. Upon it, lay a skeletal corpse. To the right was a large heavy wooden door.

Beyond the door we were attacked by two big snakes. They were easily killed though. Another corridor, and another door led us to a canal with running water.

There was a door on the other side of the canal so I tried to jump it, but fell in and received my own soaking. We made it across and entered the next room. In here was another altar room, where strange figures shuffled around in the dark.

They were animated statues, presumably roused into motion by our proximity. They made lunges at us, but Dak quickly smashed them to pieces with his falchion and Harriet tossed them about like toys.

On the altar was a chest that contained a magical dagger. Later we found out it let you cast Animal Friendship (snakes only!) at will, so Dak snaffled it.

There seemed nowhere else to go except follow the canal, so we left the lion and continued through the water.

Next we open a door to a massive chamber, where out eyes are immediately drawn to a giant snake statue against the far wall. Between us, there was a deep channel of water that expanded to cover the entire far wall.

The statue came to life and attacked us, while a female sorceress, who looked to be a yaun-ti appeared and joined the fight.
They were ferocious, but we were stronger. Dak rushed forward and chopped down the  sorceress while I used Sudden Stalagmite, then Hypothermia to deal with the snake.

Beyond this room we came to another, smaller chamber where we were attacked by four of the animated statues. They were easily dealt with. There was a chest here, that contained gold and a bunch of keys.

They next room contained a flooding trap. Four large stone snake heads with open mouths poured water into the room, but I simply Stone Shaped the door opposite the one we had come through and we were able to push it aside and move on.

The next room we came to was the largest yet and the first to present a real challenge. We entered a chamber longer than anything we'd seen so far in the temple. The channel of water here was twenty feet wide. It was flanked on either side by stone walkways. Looking down, I could see a chamber beneath, through big holes in the stone floor. There was a large ornate wooden door at the other end of the room.

A huge snake, the biggest yet, erupted out one of the holes in the floor, splashing water everywhere and flooding the walkways. It lashed about as Dak tried to hit it. The half-orc fell into the water, leaving me to face it alone for a short while.

I dodged and cast spells until Dak pulled himself back out of the water. As he distracted it I summoned five fiendish apes. But then its coils found me and I was grappled and crushed by its colossal strength. At that point I would have been dead if I had not been a druid as I was able to turn into an owl and flap out of the deadly embrace.

Dak was being pounded by the thing. I don't think it was a real snake, but rather a summoned entity, much like the apes I had just brought forth. Still, between them, Dak and the apes, they managed to fight it back until it fled down through the hole in the canal bottom.

As the apes disappeared, Dak climbed back out of the water to get healed up.

(G466 02/10/2021 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), KT, AD) HOM4

 (G466 02/10/2021 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), KT, AD) HOM4

[Now to return to Hommlet, and the adventures of Griffolk Ethyn the Dragon-Shaman, Sparkledingle the Gnome Wizard, Fangorino the Barbarian and their new holy friend - Alleyoop.]

The brave companions were still delving into the dungeons below the Moathouse. Having just chased off a band of ghouls they followed a corridor east, then at a T-junction took the southern fork down to where there was a small chamber with a big pool or well in it.

As they entered, a giant crayfish sprang out at them, but it was quickly defeated. Sparkledingle was sure that their would be good eating to be had on the creature, but in the end no one had the inclination to attempt to butcher it.

So, back at the T-Junction they took the north fork and eventually ended up at a door. Opening it they found another short corridor and yet another door, but this one was locked.

When it was knocked on, their was sounds of movement, then a rough voice snarled,
'Get lost!'

Fangorino tried to talk to the person on the other side of the door and Sparkledingle tried some smooth words, but they are all met with insults.

Griffolk, tired of the impasse, got a bottle of lamp oil out of his bag and poured it on the door, doing his best to make sure some of it would go under it. Sparkledingle helped with Prestidigitation.

They burned it a bit, but it didn't have much affect on the ancient portal as the wood was as solid as iron and it was bound with metal fittings.

Fangorino motioned them all back and started hacking away at it with his falchion. Once there was a hole in the door the size of a plate, a volley of crossbow bolts was fired at them.

All but Sparkledingle, who was at a lower level than the hole in the door, were hit as the missiles flew. Next the brave gnome got Fangorino to hold him up so he could cast Pyrotechnics onto the guards behind the door. Some of them were blinded by the magic, but others shot back and Sparkledingle was badly cut across the cheek.

Fangorino battered down the door, and the real battle began. There was easily a dozen armed men in the wide corridor beyond the door, and those that did not attack with melee weapons fired crossbows at any targets they could see.

Fangorino and Griffolk bravely held the line, and the mighty swings of the barbarian's falchion cut through them like sheafs of wheat. But he was hit again and again by crossbow bolts and three times he fell, only to be dragged back to be healed by Alleyoop or a potion.

When Sparkledingle went down and had to be dragged away from the fighting, they all knew it was time to retreat. They had slain many of the guards, but more kept appearing, heavily armed, fanatical men, yelling war cries and taunts.

They fled through the broken door, then onto the next one and jammed it shut behind them as they went. They then made their way quickly out of the dungeon, then the Moathouse and finally back to Hommlet to heal their many wounds.

Karma Kingdom - Beta 1.0 b173

 

Karma Kingdom - Beta 1.0 b173 

 

- Fixed some typos
- Added Uncut versions of all gems
- Level 3 mines now return Uncut Gems
- Added another court case
- Wasteland now shows up on the map
- potions of cure critical and healing now give Hit Points when drunk 

 

Check it out here:

 

http://www.roztov.epizy.com/stw/index.html

 

Play here:

 

http://www.roztov.epizy.com/stw/generate.html

 

 

 

 

(G465 18/09/2021 via Roll20 - - AP(GM), JF, KT) WA90

 (G465 18/09/2021 via Roll20 -  - AP(GM), JF, KT) WA90

[And now back into the Underdark with Fenrir, Reinward, Veddic, Raz and their guides - Dinkledonk and Soledad.]

DAY 503(18th Flamerule)(july) cont ...

And so the above mentioned companions and the minotaur Ugelbe arrived at the dwarf fortress of Boatmurdered.

Fenrir and his friends were all welcome at the fortress, but the guards would not let the  minotaur in. They were directed to some disused chambers outside the fortress entrance.
'You cannae trust a minotaur, lad', warned the captain of the guard. 'They will always turn on you in the end.'

The rooms were dirty, but they made the best of it and camped their the night.


DAY 504(19th Flamerule)(july)

They breakfasted from the magical provisions box. Ugelbe ate a portion fit for five large men.

Reinward entered the fortress for the first time. He went through the complicated entrance full of traps and murder holes, and along the intricately carved halls to the 'market square' an elegantly vaulted chamber with a wonderful moziac on the floor.
It appeared that whenever a dwarf of the fortress was at a loose end they would take it upon themselves to further beutify their home.

As Ren traded with a dwarf called Humple the trader, two other dwarfs were bust carving a scene on a nearby wall with small hammers and chisels.

Humple drove hard bargains. He wasn't much interested in gems - the fortress was full of them - but items from the overworld were greatly treasured, particuarly animal furs and skins.

After a few hours the trading was all done and they went on their way. Ugelbe and  Dinkledonk new enough of the local area to get them onto the dark ways, an area of ancient underground roadways that ran underneath the other points of interest.

I have been here myself and they are impressive in their scale, and are a favourite road for many vagrant troglodytes, kobolds, derro, dwarves and the like. I think the must have been made by the old Drow civilisation that existed here once.

They made good progress, with the help of Soledad to keep an eye things as they went and made camp for the night in a small chamber off the main road.


DAY 505(20th Flamerule)(july)

After breafast they continued on their way. They encountered a group of goblins, a troglodyte hunting party and some kuo-toa, but they either wisely fled the approach
of the adventurers or were swifyl incinerated by an Eldritch Blast.

Towards evening time they reached the entrance to the Labyrinth below the City of Pools. Ugelbe led them expertly through the outer areas to where he suspected the entrance to the Lair of Queen Arachnia was.

Their first real challange came when they entered a chamber that had skeletons chained to the wall. Inside were five basalisks, that attacked as soon as they were aware of intruders into their lair. Ugelbe was at the front so he chopped up a few of them, while the others were killed by ranged attacks from behind.
No one was turned to stone. I once was - I would not recommend it.

Along a corridor they arrived at a set of two ajoined rooms. The first one contained a bunch of wraiths, led by a large Dread Wraith. Veddic manged to turn it, but the other wraiths came on and a confused melee insued.

Just as they were finishing off the wraiths a dozen or so skum (one of the varities of fish men you get down here) attacked from the other room. They were soon cut down though, and when Dinkledonk cast Glitterdust into the chamber they had come from the two Aboleths that were in there decided to sink down into the depths of their well rather than stand and fight.

(G464 11/09/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) LR44

 (G464 11/09/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) LR44

[Back to me, my family and friends, having a lovely time on Yacg'harr Island.]

DAY 545 (30th Eleasis) (August)

Oh, I should mention another thing that happened today. Part of the 'plan' I have for this island, is to 'gather the ships' here.

There is no problem with the Blue Nixie, this ship belongs to my wife Lavinia, and since she loves setting up colonies, this vessel and her crew are entirely at our disposal.

The Black Cat and the Sister - they are in Waterdeep, waiting for me to do something with them. Maybe tomorrow.

The Sea Wyvern is annoying though. I don't know what Nobby is up to!
Well, you may remember that the Wyvern belongs to three people - me, Nobby and Veddic.
Veddic hardly counts as he was given Shifty's share out of spite, but he's never said anything to my about his part ownership of the Wyvern. Maybe he's forgotten.

Anyway, I got word back from Nobby that she has now decided to settle at Farshore, that her and Urol are now married with a baby on the way (I'm astounded!).
And since she needs a constant supply of baby things she wants to keep the Sea Wyvern down there.

She is a big shot in Farshore (or so she says) and the Sea Wyvern is now the main supply route for the colony. This is news to me - and news to Lavinia too!
It's a Vanderboren colony after all, and since my wife knows nothing about it I wonder exactly what Nobby is up to down there!

I suppose we'll need to return to Farshore at some point, and we can find out what is going on with those pesky gnomes.

DAY 546 (1st Eleint) (September)

As part of the 'Island Plan' today I teleported to Waterdeep and went to see my brother Nissa.
He agreed to crew and provision my two ships Black Cat and Sister. I gave him 500 gold to cover the cost.

After that I went to see Corum at the OJB and had a sneaky visit with the two genies in the cellar. The less said about that the better, but I will just say it is still an amazing experience!

Myself and Dak had a late lunch, then went down to the dockside taverns to see what could be found out about the two other ships (the Reaper and the Black Mirror) that I had sworn revenge on, on behalf of the Sharptooth Clan.

You may remember that when I got hold of Tinker "Blackdeath" Snuggleton, captain of the Annubus (now the Black Cat), and before I ate his heart (its what the
Sharptooth's would have wanted) he told me that these two other ships had been part of the raid on Lost Refuge that had killed most of the afore-mentioned Sharptooth Clan.

I went in disguise, as a friendly sailor called Wee Jim McSeabeast. Dak went as Dak. We started in one of the Dockward taverns (the Dog's Overbite), a friendly  place, but they had no information.
While I talked to the landlord Dak chatted up a wench called Arran Ferry. He was trying to get her to come and work at his own tavern (that existed in no place other than his own addled head) that would soon put his mortal enemy Gyles Finchey out  of business.
'Put her name down in that book of yours,' he told me later as I updated my journal.
'Her name was Arran Ferry!'
I wonder if she gave him her real name?

Anyway, from there we went on to a rougher place that the landlord of the Dog thought we might have more luck at. We didn't but Dak tried to recruit another serving wench.
Her name was Ecix Mylne.

Tired of the docks, I suggested we tried the Singing Sword, the tavern across the market from the OJB.

There we fell in with a couple of piratical looking wenches, one was a fighter called Bethel and the other was a ranger called Wenga. They were from Thay.
We had a great evening, swapping stories of adventure and daring-do over several bottles of rum and many mugs of ale.
Dak even broke out some of his closely guarded supply of Jibby-Jibby.

Dak also tried some improvised comedy with his pet snake, but it was met with confused silence. I managed to recover the situation and keep the evening on track though.

They had heard of the ships we were interested in and over the course of the evening I learned that the Reaper was due in Starmantle in the next ten days and the Black Mirror would be in Waterdeep in the next twenty.

At the end of the night Dak went off with Wenga. The rest of the evening I have no memory of.

DAY 547 (2nd Eleint) (September)

I woke in a soft bed in one of the Singing Sword's best rooms. Bethel was awake already and eating a hearty breakfast. I groaned, what had I done last night?
My disguise was blown anyway, my Hat of Disguise lay on the floor with all my
other clothing.
Genies are one thing, but this was quite another. It was probably best I could not
recall anything past the fifth round of Jibby-Jibby.

I asked her what they planned to do next. They were on a quest, going up the north coast. I told her to get in touch if she needed help.

I dressed then went and gathered up Dak. Once I could stand him upright I teleported us back to the island.
'Not a word to anyone about what happened last night, right?' I hissed at him as we staggered into the barrow.

(G463 04/09/2021 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), KT, AD) HOM3

(G463 04/09/2021 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), KT, AD) HOM3

[We return now to Hommlet, and the adventures of Griffolk Ethyn the Dragon-Shaman, Sparkledingle the Gnome Wizard, Fangorino the Barbarian and their latest holy friend - Alleyoop.]


DAY 2 (Summer 1377DR) cont ...

Stepping over the piles of zombie remains, the brave companions continued their exploration of the dungeon under the Moathouse. The next room they found was a torture chamber of some kind with a ladder on one column that lead down into a deep gloom.

They ignored it for the time being and moved on, exploring some of the other rooms. The next chamber of interest they came to contained a big ogre that rose from his pile of dusty furs and attacked them as they entered.

Sparkledingle put his Grease spell to good work again though, and the ungainly brute landed on his backside several times, making him an easy target for Griffolk and Fangorino.

Once the ogre was dead they explored some of the side chambers and found the ogre's 'larder'. It contained three human merchants and a gnome.

After some discussion they decided to head back to Hommlet, and when they arrived they deposited the four people they had rescued at the Inn of the Welcoming Wench. They were all from Goldenfields, and said they would make sure to send a reward back to Hommlet for them when they got back home.

The gnome merchant Popkin 'Topper' was sad as the ogre had eaten some of his friends. Sparkledingle tried to cheer him up, but failed.

Mr Pin, who spent most of his day at the Wench, was happy to settle their bar bill, he was not employing them at the moment, but seemed to have a ready supply of gold.
'It all goes on expenses,' he explained dryly.

They companions spent a few hours drinking in the tavern and during a spritly round of banter Sparkledingle used Prestidigitation to delibertly spill Fangorino's pint into his lap.

Fangorino went upstairs to dry off and bumped into Baroness Partik, the noblewoman he had argued with the night before. She was having no luck moving a long chest into her room as her servents were too feeble. Fangorino could not get into his own room as it was blocked by the chest.
'Well, you move it then, you huge oaf, you are certainly big enough!' she snarled at the  barbarian.
Fangorino snarled back, but all this did was make the servent quiver in terror and run away.
The barbarian sighed, the grabbed the chest and dragged it into her room. He noticed that their was a strong smell of earth coming from the box.

Meanwhile, downstairs, as Alleyoop and Sparkledingle talked over their adventures in high gnomish voices, Griffolk, who apparently had a sense of homour (of sorts!) arranged with the Innkeeper to have the 'item' (which he had named Kenneth for reasons that are  obscure to me) delivered to Alleyoop's cottage. I should also note he had filled the box with itching powder and labeled it "from Sparkledingle".

That evening, ever the galant, Sparkledingle walked Alleyoop home to her cottage tucked away in the woods north of Hommlet. The delivery boy had managed to drop off the box as the dire wolves had been off hunting.

Alleyoop picked up the box and examined it. She dropped it though, when she disturbed some of the itching powder. Curious, Sparkledingle cast Detect Magic on the box and detected an Enchantment on it.
"Step away from the box!" he squeaked in alarm.

In the end though, they decided to go and open the box. Inside was an large, long, object covered in metal studs. Alleyoop read the note, giggled and elbowed  Sparkledingle in the ribs.

The itching powder was annoying her though, so she soon dropped it, then hoofed the horrifying phallus into the bushes.
'I'll see you tomorrow then!' said Sparkledingle as he scampered off, his face flushed bright red.

Back at the Inn he confronted Griffolk, who freely admited to the jape.
'But what was it?' asked the innocent gnome.
Griffolk told him, and Sparkledingle went to his room for a restless night of disturbing dreams.

DAY 3 (Summer 1377DR)

While all the others had their breakfast Sparkledingle went back to the cottage and retrived "Kenneth". His intentions can only be guessed at.

After they had eaten, they went back to the Moathouse and returned to the area  where they had last been exploring.

Where the zombie remains were, there was now four gnolls, who were feasting on the bones. When the adventurers approached, they attacked, but were soon slain.

In the room where they had killed the ogre, they found three bugbears, cooking parts of the ogre over a fire. They also attacked, and were more dangerous, but after the two males were slain, the female surrendered.

Her name was Debbay and she was kean to make friends with the menfolk, offering  herself to them. No one was interested though, and she was escorted out of the  Moathouse and sent on her way.

The adventurers then returned to the shaft they had found earlier and cautiously climbed down the ladder into the darkness. At the bottom a small room lead to a larger burial chamber where they were attacked by ghouls.

Alleyoop turned them all and they fled into some tunnels at the back of the tomb. The tunnels were low and narrow and after trying to follow them for a while eventually they gave up.

Hoping that they would not see the ghouls again, they moved on further into the lower parts of the dungeon.

(G462 28/08/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) LR43

 (G462 28/08/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) LR43

[Yet more on the big pickle I had got myself into on Yacg'harr Island.]

DAY 537 (22nd Eleasis) (August) ...

I know that as I get older, or maybe as my Druidic powers have grown, I have less patience with people that get in my way.

Even so, in the morning though, I decided to give this old pirate captain we had taken into custody a chance to explain himself.

Disguised as an old lady I went to talk to him in the cave at the back of the barrow. There was nothing 'unusual' about him if you understand me. He had been a pirate, and now he was not. He had killed people, but not enough good or innocent people to turn his aura evil (or so Sylvia reported to me).
Lucky for him then!

As to the skulls he said:
'The skulls were part of a cargo of a ship we liberated back in the day.'
'Why did you keep them?' I asked.
'To stop them falling into the wrong hands,' he said truthfully.
(We were in a Zone of Truth, cast by Sylvia.)

At some point Dak barged in (not in disguise) and asked:
'Who is in charge of this island here?'
'Quite a few people,' shrugged the pirate. 'I have a degree of influence, the innkeeper,
some others...'
I was getting a clearer picture of the people on the island now. They were basically opportunists, who found it easier to trade with passing pirate ships than to defy them.
They largely grew their on food on the island, it was rich in a tropical bounty of fruit and vegetables, while the sea teamed with life, most of it being delicious - such as crab, turtle,  sea snails, fish by the net-full and all manner of plump migratory birds.
Sylvia, probably out of boredom as much as anything else, joined in the questioning.
'What about the origins of this island, how did it all get started?'
'Why yes, I do know how the island came to be a sort of pirate retirement village, but that's how it is. They put on a bit of a show when a pirate ship turns up, hang a few skeletons or whatever about the place. When it's just regular ships they just act normal.'

We also learned that the place we had been calling 'Pirate Town' was called Tumunzah and that the innkeeper's name was Gyles Finchey.

After all that, myself, Lavinia, Silvia and anyone else who felt like contributing, went over our plans again. I also used my magic to throw up an earthwork rampart around the barrow.

Later on I found Dak, back pestering the Captain with random questions. It made me think though, if he's never going to be in disguise I could pretend to be a half-orc too, to further confuse the matter!

Enter Bibblebak the Barbarian!

Anyway, time to turn in. I'm sick of sleeping in this Tomb. So is everyone.


DAY 538 (23rd Eleasis) (August)

Today we teleported Lavinia to Sassering to start organising masons for the keep we plan to build on the island.

Then me, Dak and Jiggles teleported the captain to Westgate and bunged him in a secure room in Fenrir's townhouse. (He wasn't home).

I paid Gelly 500 gold to watch him for a day or two. Hopefully this will baffle him as to who raided his house and why! The only weak link is Dak, but to be honest I've  given up thinking about it. He's a loose cannon, but part of all this nonsense whether I like it or not.

Anyway, he went shopping for more powerful gear while in Westgate and this gave me a few hours alone to relax in Fenrir's luxurious front room. The staff like me here, but I think it's because they think Lavinia is a 'real lady' and nothing to do with my own charms.

We teleported back in the evening. The last thing I did today was finish off the rampart around the barrow.

Sylvia had resurrected some people form the town today. She is in disguise and staying at the inn, but I met her in secret for an update.


DAY 539 (24th Eleasis) (August)

What a lovely place this island is, I must admit, when you are not skulking around in an evil king's barrow. It is teaming with live, a lovely warm climate, kept cool by a bracing sea breeze.

Sylvia resurrected more people from the town. I've started building small 'druid houses' using Wood and Stone Shape. They are only big enough for a bed and a desk, but anything is better than another night in the barrow.

Out of boredom, in the evening we filtered back to the pub. Today I went as a a half-elf called Bongo the Magnificent!

I doubt we are fooling many people, they know we are from the barrow, but at least they will be confused about our numbers and what we all actually look like.  Except for Dak of course, they are all well acquainted with him now.


DAY 540 (25th Eleasis) (August)

Today Sylvia finished the resurrections and I picked her up via teleportation spell, in disguise as a Cleric of Illmater. She reported that all had gone well.

Today I also returned to Westgate, picked up the pirate captain and brought him back to the island. All in disguise as Bibblebak the Barbarian.
I sent him off with dire warnings - that he should keep a low profile and his mouth shut.

I built another 'druid house' today.


DAY 541 (26th Eleasis) (August)

Lovely as this island is, it can be a bit boring loafing about all day. Once I've built my daily 'druid house' I've not much else to do. Everyone else is the same.

Sylvia is constantly nagging me, but mainly about the state of her hair and how she needs a good bath. The sea is pure and clean, but apparently the salt water gives her split ends.

So, we've organised a pub rota. Everyone gets a day there. As long as someone is guarding the barrow it should be ok.

Tonight I went as Mysterious Mickey, the random man!


DAY 542 (27th Eleasis) (August)

Built another small house - it only takes minutes, then spent some time swimming in the sea and lying on the beach. I could get used to a life like this.

Went to the pub later in the evening for a good meal and a few drinks.

DAY 543 (28th Eleasis) (August)

Another relaxing day. No word from Lavinia, but I'm sure she's doing fine. She said it would take about a week to organise the masons, and I'm sure she's enjoying being in her own house for a while.

DAY 544 (29th Eleasis) (August)

Today we got a message from Lavinia and I teleported back to Sasserine to pick her up.

She has organised a squad of masons. The keep that we have designed will take them six to eight weeks apparently. It will cost extra as they have to sail to the island, but even so, since we have a fortune hidden away in the portals, it's not a problem.

The other thing that happened today was that Dak tried to buy the inn from Gyles. It did not go well.

I was there (as Mysterious Mickey) and witnessed the whole thing. Firstly he had an argument with the innkeeper as Dak was already barred.

As voices were raised the half-orc grabbed the man over the bar and threatened him. Gyles tapped him on the shoulder, with his finger or something magical, I'm not sure and Dak seemed to shiver and seize up. He shook it off though and stepped back.

He then put a bag of 3000 gold on the counter.
'How much for the Inn?' demanded Dak.
The innkeeper then started to mix various spirits in a silver tankaard (some sort of island punch  I think), saying. 'If you want to talk business, then lets have a drink.'

Dak grunted, took the drink and quaffed it down. It was heavily poisoned though, of course, and the colour drained from the half-orc and he stood stock still, paralysed.

Whatever the landlord was planning after that, we'll never know, as by then I was on my feet and beside Dak. I grabbed his arm and teleported him back to the barrow.

I guess I can't go back there as 'Mysterious Mickey' any more then.


DAY 545 (30th Eleasis) (August)

A weary Sylvia used her magic to Restore Dak's health back to normal this morning.

'Oh well,' he sighed, looking at the kettle on the campfire. 'Cup of tea anyone?'

'Nah,' I teased him. 'We are all going to the pub. You can stand guard since you're not welcome there!'

In the end though, I felt sorry for the big oaf and teleported him to Sasserine so he could invest in a Hat of Disguise.

Later that day, we went back to the inn. I decided to go as 'Gerard the Tall.' Dak decided to go as a light-footed half-elf female. I doubt we fooled many people, especially Dak, as a half-elf wench that burps, farts, scratches her arse and smells of armour polish.

Well anyway, suspecting and proving are two different things, and as we kept to ourselves and paid well we were left alone.

I've noticed though, how easy it is for me to tell who is who, out of Sylvia, Jiggles, Molly and Dak, however they are disguised, just by their voices and mannerisms. Sylvia always smells of that perfume she wears, its a dead giveaway.

But when the pub is busy, noisy and drenched in the smell of stale beer, no one seems to notice or care - just as well for us!

(G461 21/08/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) WA89

 
(G461 21/08/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) WA89

[And now back into the Underdark with Fenrir, Reinward, Veddic, Raz and their guides - Dinkledonk and Soledad.]


DAY 503(18th Flamerule)(july)

It was late in the morning when Fenrir and the others realised that Reinward was missing. When they went to his room and saw the collapsed floor they were somewhat at a loss as to what possible trouble the young man could have gotten himself into.

As they ate a quick breakfast and checked over their equipment, like the prodigal son, Reinward appeared at the door of the inn, disheveled and dark-eyed.

The mindflayers had already left the Eightways Inn, but Lugg Dwarfslicer, the Tannaruk was still there and a big Minotaur was also in the common room, minding his own business.

'So,' asked Dinkledonk of Fenrir. 'What's the plan, chief?'

Fenrir decided to see what news he could find about the local area first and went to talk to the Inn's other patrons.

Lugg, being demon touched, was greatly impressed by Fenrir, the powerful warlock that he was, and was happy to help in any way. He didn't know much that was useful to Fenrir though.

The minotaur was named Ugelbe, and although he appeared to be half-mad, Fenrir's charm still worked on him. They talked for a while and it appeared that Ugelbe, until recently, had been working in the labyrinth below the City of Pools. As this was where they were headed, Fenrir decided to try and get the minotaur's help.
'I have heard... of a thing called a beach..' said Ugelbe. 'Is this a nice thing? I've never been to the Overworld. All I do is work and the air gets sicker each day. The horns on my head get thicker each day. I said to myself, why be in the maze each day? Go to the beach instead...'
'Right, right,' interrupted Fenrir. 'You guide us through the maze and we'll take you to the beach, ok?' The minotaur agreed.

Fenrir then consulted the Doomsday Clock that Random had given him. It showed 12 minutes to midnight. He returned to the others and they went over their plans. It was decided that they would head to the Dwarf Fortress of Boatmurdered first, as it was not too far away, and they might get more advice and help.

They set off from the Eightways around lunchtime and were making good progress along the ancient drow halls when they heard something up ahead.

Reinward, as the parties most soft-stepped individual cautiously went forward to investigate. He saw a dark clad figure run into a side passage, and he followed it. The others came along behind him. The passage lead to two small chambers.

Suddenly there was howling from the main hall and a horde of Vampire Spawn rushed in towards them!

Reinward tried to avert his eyes from their gaze, he'd been under the power of vampires enough in the past to know he didn't fancy it again, but he was soon surrounded and backed into a corner.

Veddic was soon on hand though and a powerful Turn Undead blasted a good portion of the Spawn into ashes and dust. More charged in, and behind them came actual vampires, including two they had encountered before, in the dungeon below Blackthorn's mansion, Lara and Bloodwurst.

The remained of the battle was short, but intense. Ugelbe charged down the hall, sending chunks of Vampire Spawn flying, and the others, on the back foot to begin with, soon turned the tide as Veddic destroyed more and more of the Spawn.

Lara and Bloodwurst turned and fled, taking someone they had called 'Pastry' with them, the poor man being pulled along on a leash. A powerful vampire cleric covered the vampires retreat and while he soon dispatched, by the time they had reached the main hall again, the other vampires were nowhere to be seen.

NPC Generator Update v128

 

NPC Generator Update v128

 

 

V128

Added new races - Minotaur and Goblins
Made the melee weapons more sensible
Added racial favoured weapons
Small / Large size attack mods  

To use the Generator go here:

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

 

 

 

(G460 14/08/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) LR42

[More on the big pickle I had got myself into on Yacg'harr Island.]

DAY 537 (22nd Eleasis) (August) cont ...

I must say Yacg'harr Island is an odd sort of place - well the small town that we've been calling 'Pirate Town' is anyway. I want to find out who these people are - so that we know how to deal with them, but so far I can't pin them down to a generalisation.

There are 'retired' pirates here, there are thieves, murderers and the scum of the sea waves, but there are also farmers, tradesmen, sail makers, chandlers - as reasonable  people as you would hope to find in any decent port.

It's almost as if some sort of capricious drunken god has thrown them all together for his  (or her) own amusement. How did the island get like this? Did it start with settlers who then started attending to pirate ships out of fear or avarice? Or did it start as a pirate port  that slowly go more 'gentrified' as commoners came to cater to the needs of the pirates?

Who knows? Certainly not the people that live here, or at least no one will tell me. It's hard to say, if this is the work of a 'capricious drunken god' or just a strange set of circumstance that led to such an odd mix of people living together.

From what I remember of Chult, ports such as Renkrue might trade with a pirate out of fear or ignorance, but on the whole the inhabitants were good, honest people. In short Renkrue was a port. So what is Yacg'harr Island? Is it a pirate port (as I was told) or is it a regular port? But with a name like 'Yar-harr' Island and the reputation it has it can hardly be the later. But if it is the former it does not fully fit the bill.

Somewhere in between then, and I will have to leave it at that. Suffice to say that of the dozen or so corpses we saw littering the street where the skulls had beencausing chaos, some were scum of the sea, and some were honest folk who had just been trying to defend their homes.

We were all in disguise when we got there, except Dak who wanted, at all times, for everyone to know who he was and dam the consequences. The youthful exuberance of a fellow who had, as yet, not built up a back catalogue of powerful enemies. In my experience, enemies came not for you, but for your friends and family, so it was best to keep as hidden as possible.

So, back on the street by the captain's house we were attacked by another one of those annoying skills. Sylvia took it out straight away. A fireball hit us from somewhere. This was the third time that night I had been fireballed and it was getting incredibly tiresome. I'd have to shave my beard in the morning as there would only be patches of it left, but thank Silvanus for my dragon-hide armour.

I started summoning wave after wave of hippogriffs that then flew over and aided Dak who had found the second one and was attacking it. Jiggles had found the third one - it was back inside the captain's house. I remained outside, directing the hippogriffs I had summoned. Sylvia went in and located it in the kitchen where she eventually destroyed it with a Turn Undead.

Outside the last of the skulls still on the go got a lucky shot on Irritator that nearly knocked him flat, but we got the blighter in the end, between Dak, Irritator and half a dozen hippogriffs.

With that all over then, we stuffed the skull dust back into the captain's box, then went to attend to the wounded and the dead.
Myself and Sylvia posing as 'Clerics of Ilmater' healed those that still lived and arranged  the dead into two (for want of a better word) piles - those that were scum that no-one  would miss and those that were decent people that were deserving of a resurrection.

In total we healed 5 injured people, left 8 dead, and planned to resurrect 7.

While we were doing that, I was approached by a man who said;
'Thanks for helping out. You are one of the folks from up at the barrow, aye?'
He was jumping to (in this case correct) conclusions I thought, so I said;
'No, we are Clerics of Ilmater.'
'Oh,' he insisted. 'But...! How did you get here then? You must be one of that lot!'
'No,' I growled in an intimidating manner. 'We teleported in yesterday. We are Clerics  of Ilmater.'
Who knows what he thought of that, but he ran off to tell people what I had told him.

Perhaps it would have been good to get some good will from the people of the town,  but at what cost? Anything that alerted my enemies to my location would endanger  my family. We had to be careful. Better not to boost my ego at the expense of putting people at risk. The secrets I held of Midpoint Island were huge, the more hidden my identity the better.

After the arrangements were made in town, with the innkeeper, we teleported back to the Barrow with the box. Irritator told me that the box had 'dampening magic' on it that stopped the skulls from regenerating. That would do for now.

We spend hours back at the Barrow making plans. Sylvia will continue to pose as a Cleric of Ilmater over the next couple of days until the resurrections are done. The 35,000 gold it will cost will come out of my share as Dak is too much in love with his wealth.

I didn't ask him for any gold of course, I was well aware he would not contribute, but unbidden I was treated to a long oration on his thoughts on how male and female half-orcs interacted with each other and the complications around calling half-orcs "half-orcs" around humans and calling them "half-humans" around orcs and how it got even more complicated with half-orcs who either leaned one way or the other and how it was so easy to annoy and even provoke violence by using the wrong noun to
describe yourself.

It was interesting, but went on for some time.
What an odd fellow he is.

(G459 07/08/2021 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), KT, AD) HOM2

 (G459 07/08/2021 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), KT, AD) HOM2

[We return now to Hommlet, and the adventures of Griffolk Ethyn the Dragon-Shaman, Sparkledingle the Gnome Wizard, Fangorino the Barbarian and their reluctant cleric Beaver Boggins.]

DAY 1 (Summer 1377DR) cont...

The brave adventurers interviewed their four prisoners. They had:

Danny - a middle-aged man with many more tattoos than teeth.
Benny - a young half-orc that smelled of goats
Eggy - a fat, short middle-aged man with the sweaty appearance of someone who spent too much time hanging out in privies
"Froggy not Frog" - a tall, green-skinned "human" who ate nothing but giant frog flesh, or so he said

Tempting as it was to either kill them or throw them to the giant lizard that lurked in one of the unexplored rooms, they decided to bring them back to Hommlet and hand them over to the Militia Captain - Elem Oats. Once this was done they went back to the tavern and found Mr Pin, who happily handed over the rest of their agreed payment of gold.

Their pockets jingling with their profits, they went to the local Merchant's shop to sell loot and buy more equipment and supplies from their newfound wealth. The shop was run by two men called Rannos Davl and Gremag.

Later in the afternoon they went to talk to Mr Pin again, about the lower levels of the Moathouse.
He said to them,
'Feel tree to explore the cellars, but I've had no word about it from my patron, so I'd not have any payment to give you. She just told me to arrange the removal of the bandits. Just watch out when you are down there, you'll definitely need a healer, but you'll never persuade Beaver to go with you.
Oh, and right at the back there is a certain thing... Oh, nevermind, I've said too much, forget I said anything. Well, just leave it alone is my advice.'

Still, he treated them to a slap up feast at the Welcome Wench and as much ale as they could drink. Suitably refreshed, they decided to go look for a healer to replace Beaver. They had heard of Jaroo, the local druid who had a grove nearby. The locals warned of his fiery temper though and they told them a favourite story of the time Cale the Dervish who had very unwisely poked his bear and had died as a result.

It was thought best that Sparkledingle do the talking, as he was by far the lest threatening of the three of them.
'Let's see,' grumbled the old man. 'You might try a gnome cleric called Allyoop, she lives in a small house a mile or so to the north. She's not looking for adventure as far as I know, but perhaps you being a gnome and all, you might be able to talk her into it. Then there is a tiefling druid name of Oriuphis Benvolio. She's a tough one, and looking for work so you'd have no trouble persuading her to join you.'

The others thought the druid more practical, but Sparkledingle seemed to be already half in love with this gnome wench he had never even seen before.
'Allyoop,' he crooned. 'Such a lovely name. We should definitely call on her first!'

He could not be dissuaded, so by around six in the evening they turned up at her house. The tiny cottage was guarded by two large dire wolves though, that started barking as they approached.

(As an interesting side note - wolves do not bark (or rather - generally choose not to),  as we all know, but I am led to understand that Allyoop had somehow found and tamed two  Copper Mountain Barking Wolves, famous for the huge bellows that they use to call to each  other across the valleys. Excellent guard-dogs if you are not overly concerned about burst eardrums.)

A little gnome lady came to the door.
'Down Groucho!' she yelled at one wolf.
'Down Harpo!' she yelled at the other.

Eventually the wolves ceased their noise and slumped back down onto their bellies. Sparkledingle stepped forward gingerly and with lovehearts in his eyes explained his request.

Initially she was not interested, but whatever was driving Sparkledingle seemed impossible for anyone to resist.
'There are undead in the Moathouse,' he insisted, although he had no idea. 'Is it not the kindest thing to lay them to rest? As you are a cleric after all.'
'Very well,' she said eventually. 'Meet me at the Welcome Wench tomorrow lunchtime.'

That evening they returned to the Inn. Sparkledingle went to his room and studied but the two young men did what all young adventurers with coin in their pocket do, ate, drank and made merry.

Late on in the evening a fine lady known as Baroness Partik arrived, with her servants,  and booked rooms. She seemed in a hurry and was rude to the innkeeper as she made  arrangements. Both the young men tried to engage with her, but she brushed them off.
Fangorino even made a drunken pass at her, but she side-stepped his advances then gave him a very loud piece of her mind.
The young barbarian beat a retreat back to his table.


DAY 2 (Summer 1377DR)

Allyoop met them for lunch as she had promised.

Now, gnomish courtship is all about playing practical jokes on each other. I have seen this from Urol Forol, when he was making his clumsy advances on Nobby.
Buckets of water balanced on doors, hand buzzers, boot polish on the ends of telescopes, all the classic japes.

Sparkledingle, still smitten with Allyoop pulled up a bench for her to sit at, then pulled it away at the last minute. She noticed though, and pretended to stumble, knocking a jug of water in the direction of Sparkledingle's head.
It was going to miss him, but he leapt right under it, making sure he got drenched. He laughed and gave her his most charming smile as he wiped the water from his eyes.

Seeing that the whole inn was now watching them though, they pulled themselves together, sat down and got to business. Once they had eaten, they left, heading towards the Moathouse.

At the last minute though, Griffolk, mysteriously declared;
'You all go ahead, I'm just going to the shop for some last minute supplies!'

With unbridled curiosity Sparkledingle followed him. All that the gnome saw though, was the young man hand over some coins and receive two mysterious packages. One the size of a jam jar, the other the size of a shoe box.

They arrived at the Moathouse after two hours walk and made their way to the cellar steps without incident. They made their way down the steps to a stone walled chamber with two doors to the west and a long corridor that turned to the south to their east.

It had been decided back at the tavern that Fangorino, the strongest of them, would be the one to go first.
'Pick a door!' said Sparkledingle gesturing at the two western doors.
The young barbarian, perhaps taking exception to receiving orders from someone that only came up to his knee, turned and headed east, to a door down the corridor he had just spotted.

'Don't split the par... eek!' squealed the gnome as Fangorino opened the door he had taken a liking to and a pile of zombies fell out on top of him.

There were more doors down the hall and they all opened as more zombies joined the crush in the corridor until there was a tidal wave of them.

Fangorino and Griffolk quickly formed a defensive line. Allyoop used her Turn Undead powers and turned the front rank of the zombies, causing confusion in their ranks. Sparkledingle cast Grease, causing many of the ungainly undead to fall over. Then Fangorino really got swinging. As the others fell back, he stood alone, wielding his axe left and right, a  whirlwind of destruction.

Luckily, many of the zombies were in poor shape, held together by brittle tendons, and they easily fell with just one blow. Others, fresher, gave the barbarian more of a challenge, but working together they eventually cleared the corridor of undead and the battle was won.

'I told you there was undead here!' squeaked Sparkledingle to his lady-love as she went around them, healing their wounds.
He just wondered how many more there would be!

(G458 31/07/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) LR41

(G458 31/07/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) LR41

[And now back to big pickle I was getting myself into on Yacg'harr Island.]


DAY 537 (22nd Eleasis) (August) cont ...

It had seemed such a straight-forward thing to do. Before starting to fortify the Barrow, and draw attention to ourselves, first check how many baddies there were on the island and deal with them. The last thing we needed was a horde of pirates turning up while we were in the middle of building walls around the place.

No big baddies had been much in evidence, but I had decided to check out the scholar, the inn keeper and the retired pirate captain. And now here I was blundering right into a huge mess that I will now record here before I put my head down for a few hours to recover my spells.

Anyway, you may remember I had just opened the chest in the 'magical' room of the pirate captain. Well, firstly I was hit by whirling poisoned blades, which wasn't much fun, then three flaming skulls flew out.

Now, I've battled these things before, they were defending a library in the Plane of Shadow, but in the heat of the moment I forgot everything that I had previously recorded or read about them.

As the skulls swept about the room I left and closed the door behind me. I heard voices so peaked back in, only to be attacked by the annoying things. I shut the door again, but they started blasting away at it, then something pretty serious happened and it exploded from its hinges.

I unlocked the front door, but when I saw the pirate captain come into the hall and shout, 'Who are you?!' I turned (note that I was in the disguise of a sort of ninja type person) and hissed 'You know who I am!' hoping this would confuse him.
'What have you done, you half-wit!' he yelled.
'I opened the chest in that room,' I replied honestly.
'You half-wit!'
He fumbled with his sword and scabbard then made to come at me.
I couldn't be bothered with any more of this carry on, so I left the house.
'Come back and help tidy up your mess!' he yelled at me again.

That was pretty much what I planned to do, but I wasn't taking orders from a man who kept such dangerous undead beings in a populated area. Out of sight I teleported to where the others were and we all double-timed it to 'Skull House'.

So the clean-up crew were me, Jiggles, Sylvia, Dak and Irritator. The others (Lavinia, Molly and Rolanda) were guarding the Barrow.
Jiggles was the first to spot one and she shot an arrow at it. It responded with a fireball that hit some of us in a painful explosion of fire.
We staggered, but came on, with Dak rushing up to the skull and giving it a swipe with his two-handed falchion.

Sylvia then Turned Undead and the skull crumbled to dust. Dak muttered as he turned to look at her with a shrug. Another fireball then hit me and Irritator.
That was twice I had been fireballed! My new dragon armour was holding up well, but that was my eyebrows and most of my beard gone. It was just as well I had all my healing bit-and-bobs - nuts, belts and the like.

Jiggles shot off more arrows and Dak charged in once more. Irritator, as always, shot off volleys of Empowered Magic Missiles. This time Dak got the kill, sending the skull flying into pieces with a mighty sweep of his weapon.

The third skull was nowhere to be seen so we entered the house again.
'Who the hell are you?' screamed the captain when he saw the hulking form of Dak in the doorway. 'Get out of my house!'

I changed my disguise to that of an Adept of Silvanus and in this guise I entered to try and calm things down a bit. Dak really wanted to fight the pirate though, and he was now in the habit of provoking his pet snake (that I gave him, you may remember, when it was Polymorphed from being a goblin) to strike at people he was about to attack.

'Please, brothers!' I cried, so sadly that the captain faltered. Dak went to grapple the old fellow and I joined in. Together we wrestled him to the ground then bonked him on the head. Once he was out cold we tied him to a chair and left him there.

Meanwhile Sylvia and Irritator had found the other skull. We joined them as it was being cornered and dealt with. Once it too was rendered to dust we decided what to do next.

After some discussion we all teleported back to the Barrow and threw the old captain into one of the side chambers for safe keeping.

It looked like it was all over, but then Rolanda, who was on watch came and told me;
'Err, boss, sounds like trouble in town. Lots of screams and explosions!'

We rushed down to see what was going on. Those blasted skulls were back! I then remembered that when we had destroyed skulls like these in the Plane of Shadow that they had regenerated after a short while.

'Gods dam them!' I cursed and rushed back to the Barrow, while the others continued into town.
I roused the captain and asked him, 'how do you destroy those skulls?'
'I dunno,' he snickered. 'That's why I keeps 'em in a box.'
'Old smart arse!' I snarled and shock my fist at him.

I then went to my books and flicking furiously found an entry in  "Rasirh's Fantastycle and Mythycle Beasts of Lore" that was what I was looking for.

I ran to catch up with the others, gasping 'Holy water!. It's Holy Water we need lads!'
 

(G457 26/06/2021 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), KT, AD) HOM1

 (G457 26/06/2021 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), KT, AD) HOM1


[I cannot resist collecting stories from the Village of Hommlet! So apologies dear reader, here is another one that I have heard recently, of a band of adventurers that fell in with 'Mr Pin' who you may remember was none other than Mathmoss, a former member of the crew of the Sea Wyvern and more recently an agent working for the mysterious Gertrude the White. I really must visit Hommlet one day, at it seems a very interesting place, or at least some interesting things have happened there.]

It is my understanding that this tale begins in the summer of 1377 DR. So about the time I was on Yacg'harr Island, and round about the same time Fenrir and his friends were down in the Underdark, so while I can not place an exact date to these events, for now let us start at;

DAY 1 (Summer 1377DR)

As so often is the way, the story starts in a tavern, namely the Inn of the Welcoming Wench in the village square of Hommlet.

The three fellows of this tale are:

Griffolk Ethyn - a human dragon shaman. A young red-headed man.
Corhim Sparkledingle - a gnome wizard. Very friendly and outgoing.
Fangornio - a human barbarian. A tall young man.

Mr Pin, I can only assume, had received an urgent request from his patron to hire some people to clear out the Moathouse, yet again, as it had just been taken over by a group of bandits.

Looking around the tavern he spotted Fangornio, a huge barbarian with a great-axe that he kept close to him.
'Buy you a drink, fellow traveller?' he asked.
Fangornio was looking for adventure, and together they talked to Corhim and Griffolk and convinced them to join in.
'You'll need a cleric though,' said Mr Pin. 'Get your stuff together and meet me outside in an hour. Then we'll see about getting you one.'

They did just that, and then all together they went to the small house of Beaver Baggons, a halfling cleric of Moradin. At first he did not want to join them, and even went as far as running out his back door! But they caught him and persuaded him to join in the enterprise.
'My nerves can't take it after last time, Mr Pin!' he quivered.
'Nonsense, it will be fine!' replied Mr Pin patting him on the shoulder.

Before they left he gave them 150 gold each, with a promise of more to come if they were successful and finally warned them, 'Don't go into the cellar!'

It is only a couple of hours of walk through the forest from Hommlet to get to the ruins of the Moathouse. Baggons, wearing his full-plate armour, did rather slow them down as he clanked along, tripping on roots and getting stuck in puddles.

They got there without incident though, and approached the fortified gates of the ruins. As they got closer six giant frogs of various colour leapt out of the surrounding pond water and attacked them.
This was the groups first test as a fighting unit, and while there was some confusion as to who had what job to do, in general it went well, with Fangornio taking on the biggest frogs, Sparkledingle using his magic from further back, while Griffolk took on the smaller frogs and Baggons applied his healing magic where it was needed.
Even so, Sparkledingle was badly bitten by a frog and with screams of terror managed to kill it with a blast of magic. Once Baggons had healed him, he regained his composure.

Once the frogs were defeated they entered the Moathouse and began to explore it. They went to the nearest tower and snuck inside. A giant spider dropped on them from the rafters above and attacked them. It was a brutal struggle to slay the creature and they were all badly mauled. Baggons handed out healing potions after they had killed it.

During the combat Sparkledingle kept to the back, at each moment wondering if he should cast a spell, but then deciding not to, in case there might be more powerful foes further in to the Moathouse. This is a dilemma faced by all young users of magic, but unlike most others he carried no melee weapon to defend himself with. Perhaps because he had never had to defend himself before! Even a knife on the belt or a wooden staff in the hand is something comforting to have, I have found, when you are walking into dangerous places.

The next chamber they came to, as they went around the ruins, contained bats that swirled around their heads in a multitudinous swarm until they left the room. The next chamber, at the end of a hallway contained a large snake that coiled up and attacked as soon as they entered.

Here Sparkledingle tried some of his magic, a Grease spell, which is commonly used to trip and slow people down. Snakes can't trip, but the snake was slowed down and this made it easier for Fangornio to chop it up with his axe.

After some discussion they decided to go back outside and walk around the Moathouse to get an idea of how large it was. When they returned to the gate though, the bandits were fully aware of their presence and eight fully armed men were waiting for them in the courtyard.

Fangornio charged at them, flying into a berserker rage, followed by Griffolk, while Sparkledingle and Baggons tentatively followed behind.

Initially they were met with a withering hail of crossbow bolts, but the ferocity of  Fangornio's attack forced them back up the steps into the main hall, where one by one the bandits were killed or so badly injured they could not fight.

Sparkledingle cast a Sleep spell which knocked some of the bandits off their feet for enough time for the others to push the assault and finally slay the bandit leader.

At the end of their first epic battle four bandits lay dead, including the leader, and four had been captured alive and after some searching of the area they found a rather interesting looking entrance to the cellars of the Moathouse...

(G456 19/06/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) WA88

 (G456 19/06/2021 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, KT) WA88

[Back in the Underdark, young Reinward is about to have an unexpected adventure. This account is translated from the original Undercommon.
Note that Shooh Oak is a Slyth druid. She is a native of the Underdark and her second name 'Oak' is rather like an Overworlder calling their daughter Ruby. Note that Slyths can turn into puddles of mud and move around as such, any time they like.]

DAY 503(18th Flamerule)(July)

Letter from Shooh Oak to her brother:

Dear Wynstone,

Peace be upon you.

I hope you and your family are well. I continue my work of finding hobgoblin mines and doing my best to prevent the destruction that they cause.

As you well know it is just gone 800 days since the wanton foolishness and aggression of the hobgoblins destroyed our home and cast the remains of our tribe to the four corners.

The 'summer' months as they call this time of the year in the Overworld often brings the surface dwellers down here into our Underdark, and this may account for the strange encounter that I recently had, which I will now relate to you.

Chauntea, blessed Earth Mother, had guided me to an area west of the troglodyte city of Pool. I was below it, in the ancient tunnels carved by the drow in times past, following behind a gang of hobgoblin tomb raiders.

They had been tunnelling upwards, close to where the Eight Ways Inn is located. I found their  mineshaft abandoned and dangerously unstable. The shaft led up to directly below a room of the in so I discombobulated and entered through a crack in the floor.

Here I found a young human sleeping. I roused him and warned that he should leave the room as floor  was unstable. He heeded my warning, but as he stepped onto the floor from the bed the floor collapsed and we fell down into the shaft.

It was a fall of a hundred feet, down into the small cave I had come from, and the hobgoblin mineworks fell down on top of us as the shaft collapsed in on itself. I slithered out of the rubble though, then pulled out the human and found that he yet lived. His name was Reinward.

Once he was revived and I had explained what had just happened he asked about getting back to the Inn.

'There is no way back up that way my friend,' I told him. 'Not after all the rock just came  down. But I know a way back to the Eight Ways. We'll need to go through the Hobgoblin City of Marek E'sith though.'

It was half a mile to Marek, that network of sewers that the Hobgoblins call a city. I took him to the entrance and told him;
'Follow this canal, it bends and turns, but it leads to a tunnel that will take us up to the Eight Ways. I have my own modes of travel, but if you keep to the shadows the hobgoblins will not cause you much trouble.'

This proved to be incorrect. I had hoped the young man would be able to skulk through the city without much incident, but I had forgotten that humans do not know the ways of the Underdark and attract danger like magnetite attracts rust monsters.

At all times I was ready to step in if need be, but as he bumbled around, at each moment I hesitated, never sure what chaos might be provoked next.

At least, as he walked up the tunnel to the first Hobgoblin gate house he had the sense to pull his hood up to hide his white skin. There is not much light in the city, but the water (if you can call it that) in the canal glows with phosphor and gives off a dull green illumination.

Initially things looked promising as young Reinward moved silently around the guardhouse and into the city. We had not reckoned on their being an ankheg fight in the street beyond though, which had drawn a big crowd as they baited the two beasts that were chained up at either side of the road.

This pretty well blocked Reinward's progress and I could see that he hesitated. How convenient it is to be able to turn into a fluid, I cannot begin to imagine what it must be like to be unable to do so. I am astounded that beings such as these humans ever make it into adulthood!

But perhaps they are blessed by the gods? The hobgoblin crowd were gambling, roaring, shouting, pushing and shoving. Reinward threw a gold coin into the crowd in front of him. A melee ensued and a female was trampled to death. Some of them turned to see who had thrown the coin, causing Reinward to jump abruptly through the doorway of a nearby house.

Inside the house he caused as much chaos as you would expect, moving from room to room surprising its occupants. When a hobgoblin wench went to grab him, he snarled at her with a mouthful of bear's teeth, which made her scream and flee.

I do not know if bear teeth is an affectation of his tribe, I never found out, but perhaps this is not so uncommon among his people? The ways of humans are of great mystery.
 
Reinward then took to the roofs, and he then noticed the chains holding the ankhegs were attached to giant cogs on the walls of the houses that some of the hobgoblins were using to adjust the chain. They were using a lever and latch to lengthen or shorten the chains  to manage the fight, and I presume, the safety of the spectators.

The young man swung down from the roof and freed the latch on the cog and the  chain ran free. Chaos ensued as the ankheg on the right hand side of the street suddenly found it had free reign. It promptly charged into the crowd, sending  hobgoblins fleeing in all directions.

Some had seen the human though, and pointed up at the roofs as he leapt away into the shadows. He jumped from one roof to another, then made a very ambitious leap for the nearby bridge. It was far too far though and he went straight into the river.

Finding that their were some large nasty fish in it, he swam under the bridge and pulled himself up under it. Here, luckily, he found a small door that led into a narrow tunnel that was being used as a home by a Kuo-toa. As you know these beings are evil, insane, and not given to unexpected guests. It attacked the human who easily killed it with a few thrusts of his sword.

The tunnel lead to the underside of another bridge further along the canal. From here he threw his grappling hook many times at the other side until he got it attached to something on the other side of the canal. Once over he kept to the bank, avoiding the road that ran along the side water. He lost his footing though and fell in. An old, half-blind hobgoblin helped him back out again.

Now back on the street, he was about halfway across the city, he kept to the shadows of the buildings and crept onwards. Moving from alley to alley, he made slow, but careful progress.

Between the houses he was accosted by a young hobgoblin wench who was standing in her doorway.
'Here you!' she yelped. 'What are you doing?'
He muttered a reply and she replied. 'Keep yer voice down you idiot!'
She ushered him inside.

Sensing that she was open to bribery he offered her a handful of gold.
'Very nice,' she said, 'but your Overworld money isn't worth much here.
Got any food?'
He admitted he did not.
'Well, I like that,' she said pointing at his potion belt. 'Real leather is it?'
'Yes,' said Reinward with a sigh as he unstrapped it.
'Ooh lovely!' she said gleefully as she put it on.
Like many Underdark races, hobgoblins of this region treasure Overworld things  such as wood, leather, bread, cheese and the like. Things from the Overworld.

Reinward moved on, until he got to the final guardhouse, at the other end of the city. This was much more heavily guarded than the other one though, with well armed hobgoblins at the door and on the battlements.

The young human was in the possession of some powerful, but unpredictable magical effects. I think he had recently peed on the grave outside the Eight Ways Inn.
Not something I would recommend as I understand there is a small, but significant, chance doing so will eat your soul, but that is by the by.

He pointed a finger at a nearby giant mushroom and while light sparked in his hand, not much else happened. This was enough to draw the attention of the guards and several of them came over to see what he was about.

Needless to say it quickly turned violent. The young man was useful with his sword and held them off smartly, but when a hobgoblin wizard came out of the gatehouse and started shooting him with Magic Missiles things started to look bad.

I was thinking of stepping in to help, but then Reinward used another of his magic fingers and pointed it at the wizard. I felt a wave of death course though my body and the wizard fell, instantly dead, along with all the hobgoblin guards that had been standing around him.

All the other hobgoblins fled, in fear of the dreadful necromancy wielded by the young man and he walked through the gate with no further molestation.

I recombobulated and met him in the tunnels outside the city, and as promised led him up from here through some ancient drow corridors that eventually lead up to near the Eight Ways Inn.

Such a strange encounter, brother! But all in all, a good one, as the destruction that was reigned down on the hobgoblins is bound to bamboozle them for a while, and who knows? Perhaps it will mean that one less Slyth tribe is decimated.