Never version!
NPC creator for Dungeons and Dragons 3.5
V136
Added Derro as a Race
Add Cleric Domain spells
V135
Buffs were being added (but not text!) regardless of being set or not. fixed that
Bonus Human feat is marked with an 'H'
Get it here:
http://www.roztov.epizy.com/dd/NPCDD.html
~~~~
Want to do something to help the planet?
Really keen to help out with everything going wrong in the world, but don't know where to start?
Well, you do a little to help the planet and other great causes right now, completely 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 resources 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, veterans and many more.
The list of charities are regularly updated.
Karma Kingdom also keep a track of the estimated value of your clicks and how much CO2 you have helped remove from the atmosphere.
Start Playing here:
(G545 09/12/2023 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT) YI15
[Fenrir, Corhim and Dak have set off for to find the Fortress of the Yaun-ti. But now Corhim has wanted a quick Teleportation detour to the Tower of Mathghamhna, the home of the Arcane Order.]
DAY 619 (12th Uktar) (November) cont ...
Corhim had been to the Arcane Order Headquarters once before. There is a dangerous over land route that can be taken, the tower is remote, located in the Nether mountains, 100 miles east of Sundabar. Corhim was teleported there the first time and also this time so he avoided all of that.
He was there to enrol as an Associate Member which mainly involved handing over 750 gold. He could become a full member if he wanted, but that was a lot more involved and time consuming. All he really wanted was access to their Spell Pool, which would (if I understand correctly) allow him to cast pretty much any spell as long as he paid it back later. There were a few other benefits and requirements involved with Associate Members but I'll not go into them now.
While Corhim went into Mathghamhna to deal with all that, Fang and Fenrir went into the nearby village of Narvik Rock. This settlement is right next door to the Arcane Order and is there to serve is more mundane needs. It has a population of about two thousand and two inns, one for poor travellers and one for richer folks like visiting wizards.
There was also a lodging house for visiting Associate Members, but they opted for the rich inn, and got a good table and sat down for a slap up feed of goat stew washed down with lashings of strong wheat beer.
I tell you what though, I'm glad I'm a druid, I don't have to go through all that rigmarole that wizards do. And I don't have to worry about demons coming to get me like Fenrir does, come to that.
(G544 02/12/2023 via Roll20 - JF, KT, AP(GM), AD) YI-B1
[Fenrir, Corhim and Dak have set off for to find the Fortress of the Yaun-ti. Meanwhile I (Rollo) am stuck at home planning a trading empire with my wife, using captured pirate ships.]
DAY 619 (12th Uktar) (November) cont ...
Myself and the wife had been at it for hours. Neither of us liked the idea of the xebecs straying outside of the Shining Sea for now for various reasons.
1. We didn't know the captains all that well
2. We might need them in a hurry to fight off pirates back on the island
3. Lavinia had lots of experience at sea but had never managed more than one or two ships at a time.
4. We needed supercargoes for each ship and reliable brokers at each end. It was better to start with ports that Lavinia knew.
So it was decided to have all four of them trading spices from Sasserine to Calimport and herbs, jewellery, leather goods, armour and books from Calimport to Sasserine. It was a steady, if not very adventurous trade, and with the ships having the ability to go invisible at will the cargo would be very safe.
Anyway, I'd had enough of all that and had gone for a walk when I bumped into Reinward and Fang. We then went for a nice cup of tea at Felia's shop.
Fang was there to arrange the purchase of a magical falchion. He's seen the one Dak wielded and fancied trying one out. She didn't have one in stock but told him she could have it for him in two days.
She also went on to say:
''
I've just heard through the family grapevine that the long lost Stone of the Sparkledingles has been located! This is terrific news and I'm sure my ever so brave cousin would love to go and retrieve it, since he's gone I wonder if anyone here would like to do it? I'll give you a discount on that falchion, Fang, if you go.
''
Fang and Reinward nodded approval. I said nothing. She went on:
''
Wonderful! I have drawn a picture of the entrance to the dungeon the Stone is located in. It should be possible to Teleport there from here. The only thing is I am not able to do Teleports. Do you know anyone that does?
''
Fang and Reinward turned to me. There was also Irritator of course, but to be honest I was happy to get away from all the Shipping Forecasts and Trade Deals.
'Oh very well!' I said taking the picture. 'I'll drop you off, but no more than that!'
We teleported to the subterranean entrance of the dungeon. Judging by the temperature I think we had gone north rather than south, but I didn't bother pulling my magical map out to check as the other two were already going in. Definitely in Faerune though.
I decided to follow along, just in case they needed healing or a few handy crocodiles.
We were already underground, the runes on the entrance were interesting but I had to just let them pass by as we descended into a long narrow corridor. These were rough hewn tunnels, warm to the touch.
I cast Light, then Longstrider and Tortoise Shell on myself.
This was a dungeon of the traditional sense, something carved out of the deep rock for some evil wizard to keep his treasure and monsters.
At first it was all doors and traps, and the ancient refuse of what looked like a long abandoned area of carved out chambers. Rotten crates, bent daggers, secret doors, stone ramps, stone chains, carved faces on the walls - all the things I've come to expect from this sort of place. It can feel quite random sometimes.
We pushed on through it all, room by room, corridor by corridor. When a trap needed to be disarmed, Reinward did that. When a door needed to be bashed in, then Fang did that. He had to borrow my crowbar though which so far had been my only contribution.
Eventually we came to a door where we could hear a loud buzzing coming from the other side. Reinward put out the lights and used that weird blindfold he uses. Seems like a real faff to me.
Anyway, the buzzing was coming from four large swarms of hell wasps. I shut the door again and we decided to give that room a miss!
More doors and corridors. Suddenly a trap was set off and a magical Force Cage cut off Fang and Reinward. Then a bone devil appeared in there beside them. Reinward stabbed it and Fang chopped it with his axe and that was the end of that.
Reinward then disabled the trap and the Force Cage was dispelled.
We moved on. We reached a door that Reinward couldn't pick the lock of, so Fang broke it down with his axe.
We carried on. Deeper into the dungeon. Lavinia was probably wondering where I was by now.
(G543 25/11/2023 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AP) YI14
[Fenrir, Corhim and Dak have set off for to find the Fortress of the Yaun-ti, starting in Kingsholm. Recently they have helped the locals by breaking up a gang of orc bandits.]
DAY 617 (10th Uktar) (November) cont ...
The slaves kept at the orc bandit camp were shown the way out of the cave and pointed in the rough direction of the caves. The non-combatant orcs were left as well as all the horses that were kept in one of the other caves.
Before leaving Fenrir asked one of the old orcs where the warlock and cleric were likely to have gone. She said that The Lady most likely went to Xûl-Jarak, which was also known as The Gray Citadel because of its grey ashen walls.
As night began to fall they arrived back at Kingsholm. Mia Desarna was very glad to hear of their success and was happy to pay 4000gp for the death of two of the leaders of the gang. They were given an even nicer house in the town, along with a housekeeper to look after it.
There was a big party at the Coronet and Cabbage, with as much food, booze and floozies as they could manage. Fenrir did not partake of the last reward due to Giselle being there, but Dak certainly did and was seen going off later on with one of the larger wenches.
Corhim left the party early so he could go to his room and study.
DAY 618 (11th Uktar) (November)
Today I've been at the main table in the keep, going over our shipping plans for the xebecs. I'd rather be exploring the portals or something, but it seems best to keep her happy at the moment.
Anyway, I heard from Sylvia who heard from Giselle about what Fenrir and company got up to today:
Having had a good time the night before they headed up to the famous Kingsholm Graveyard after lunch. The tomb entrance was guarded, but they were waved through as Mia had issued them a pass.
Their trip to Pedestal was the same as last time. A long tunnel lead down past the dungeon and finally brought them to the Earth Node.
As I may have mentioned before Earth nodes are rare and cherished subterranean locations where the power that flows through the mineral bones of the world pools.
Because few earth nodes possess a natural outlet into the greater Underdark, they remain undiscovered.
This node's power lay dormant until activated by any magic user. When used it teleported everyone standing in its chamber to another node somewhere near Pedestal.
As before they walked along the shore of the Sullen Sea in the Great Grotto and crossed the Oceanbridge and arrived at the city gates.
Fenrir had been to Pedestal before but the other hadn't. They paused to look at the Necromancer's Spike (or what we call the Spire), a great column of stone that grew out of the centre of the city.
The gates were unguarded, but the spikes were still there, and their were just as many heads on them as last time Fenrir had been there.
The streets were as ruined as ever and home to the same refuse of the Underdark, nasty fish-people, insane derro and aggressive grimlocks. Fenrir and company looked pretty tough though so the were left alone as they made their way to the Dripstone Inn.
Es Sarch remembered Fenrir so they were given some food and drinks and free rooms for as long as they needed them.
Dak asked if they had some Jibby-Jibby. One of the barman said they had the Underdark equivalent called Jabby-Jabby (I'm sure this was a lie, how could a bar in the Underdark know about the drinks brewed in an Overworld hidden temple by reclusive monks!?). Dak bought some and tried it. He thought it was a bit earthy, but not that bad.
It was at this point the Corhim suddenly requested that they make a quick detour. Before they went any further he wanted to back to his guild and make a few arrangements there. He wasn't a member of "The Arcane Order of Enchantment and Exposition" but he was known to them and wanted to become an Associate Member so that he could use their spell pool (whatever that was).
Fenrir shrugged as he knocked back another Underdark beer. 'Sure, why not?'
DAY 619 (12th Uktar) (November)
Lavinia doesn't want those xebecs just sitting there doing nothing now that they are fully crewed and provisioned. The Blue Nixie is like her own private yacht, so we always have one ship on standby. It still has the Jade Ravens onboard too. They were her first sort-of personal band of adventurers before me and Raz and the others came along. Liamae Teslikaria is back with them now too. Remember her? She was Oz's girlfriend for a while. Then he went missing. She stayed with the crew of the Sea Wyvern for a while. I think she liked it there, but she gets more money and less work with the Jade Ravens.
Anyway, heard more form Sylvia today about Fenrir and the others:
In the morning they teleported out of Pedestal and with Corhim using Fenrir's Boots of Teleportation they arrived at the ancient towers of Mathghamhna.
This is a fascinating place up north near Dalagar's Dagger. I'd really like to pay it a visit some time. If the wife ever lets me out of her sight for
five seconds!
(G542 18/11/2023 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AP) YI13
[Yag Island was now where many people were starting to congregate. New faces such as Sparkledingle, Griffolk and Fangornio, my friends and family, Lavinia, Sylvia, Jiggles and Irritator, and new arrivals of old faces like Fenrir, Reinward and Giselle. Recently, Fenrir, Corhim and Dak have set off for adventure, starting in Kingsholm. The local guard commander has given them a quest to go and deal with some orc bandits.]
DAY 617 (10th Uktar) (November) cont ...
It was still just lunch time, and after a quick meal they decided to go out and take a look at the Thar. Mia had told them 'they are not hard to find, just follow the trail of destruction.'
They started with Fenrir (flying and invisible) scouting east. In only about two miles he saw a burning camp on the horizon, and some more smoke beyond that. He went back to tell the others.
They asked for horses and Mia quickly provided them. Sparkledingle shared a saddle with Dak while Fen and Giselle had horses of their own.
The burning camp was only an hour's ride away. From a safe distance they looked it over. It looked like a nomadic half-orc campsite. There were burnt tents and dead bodies lying around the remains of it.
They dismounted and walked in. They heard the crying of a baby, and noticed that two of the orcs were still alive, a male and a female.
They found the baby and healed the adults. Fenrir then had a look around the camp.
There were signs of battle of course, but also the scorch marks associated with Eldritch Blasts. There were also ground patterns that suggested a downward blast, from a spell like Flamestrike.
Corhim had a look around for treasure, but the place had been well looted.
They used a Cure Moderate Wounds potion to get the female back on her feet. She was fearful and only spoke orcish. She told them 'they came at dawn, from the sky, then others came from the land'. Her name was Parrenut and she pointed east to show where the attackers had come from.
The gave her the baby to look after and some food and water then headed east.
There was a trail of twenty or so horses, so it was easy enough to follow, but they did loose it amongst a rocky area. The Thar is a wild, desolate and windswept moor of heather and hummocks of tough grass, but every so often there is an area of exposed rock. The only shelter in this area came from the occasional large piles of rocks, overgrown with moss and reeds, that often had caves in them.
With the trail lost, Fenrir took to the sky again. There were no clouds but he could see nothing except miles and miles of the Thar. They decided to simply ride east and see what they found.
Eventually they came to a fortified homestead that had had its gate breached and was now not much more than a burnt out shell. As they approached Fenrir and Dak both spotted riders coming in from the north. There were about 12 of them and they were about a mile away.
They were orcs and looked like bandits, but Fenrir opted to stay put.
'Hello!' he called out.
'Who are you?' asked the leader.
'The names Thunderstaff. I'm out here investigation a rampaging horde of arseholes.
Let me know if you see any of them!'
He didn't even let them get a chance to reply to his witty repartee and simply blew the leaders head off with an Eldritch Blast.
'Uh oh!' cried another one. 'Leg it lads!'
As they galloped off Fenrir blew the legs off one of their horses. The rider fell but was picked up by one of the others. Fenrir then blew the legs off that horse too and both of the orcs fell to the ground.
Both were injured so Fenrir flew over to where they were cowering.
'So lets try this again,' he said smugly. 'Who are you?'
'We're just simple travellers your majesty! We get lost or what? And then all my cheese ran away! Honest, we was just passing on the way to grandma's house!'
Fenrir did his best but they were pretty incoherent. He did learn the names of the leaders - Blackrag, Demon Harry, The Lady and Mad Git McMad.
'Take us to your camp or Dak will rip you limb from limb!' he threatened.
The orcs were happy to do so, but since they both had broken legs they had to be put on a horse with their hands tied.
They came to a large pile or rocks and boulders, the size of a cathedral.
'Don't attack the camp directly your majesty!' warned the orcs helpfully.
'You'll come a cropper!'
As they observed the rocks the orcs warned again. 'They will have seen us coming! They will be planning their defences!'
Sparkledingle and Fenrir talked about using combinations of Stinking Cloud and Gust of Wind to gas them out into the open, but they had no idea how extensive the caves were inside.
'Caves go in quite far, your lordships!' cackled the orcs when asked.
There was one obvious entrance at the front, but there could have been others. The orc prisoners didn't know.
There were only a couple of hours of daylight left so Fenrir decided just to go for it. He flew into the air and started blasting away at the rocks from the sky. Not much happened until from somewhere below and Eldritch
Blast was shot back at him. Fenrir got a glimpse of someone popping back down into a hole somewhere in the rocks.
Fenrir blasted away at the heather that grew around the rocks, setting fires here and there. From a safe distance Corhim and Dak watched as clouds of smoke, but also steam, started rising from the rocky spires.
Fenrir returned. They tied up the orcs then secured their horses further back. Then Fenrir used a sort of rolling Wall of Flame to protect them all the way to the entrance.
As they went inside, the orcs attack. At first a wave of angry, but not very dangerous orc warrior attacked, supported by a cave troll.
Fenrir swept the orcs aside with Cones of Eldritch Power. Then the warlock, the one called Demon Harry, started shooting back.
Corhim cast Glitterdust that caused some confusion and Dak split the troll near down the middle with a massive stroke of his falchion.
As they pushed further into the caves, the warlock was joined by a cleric, this was The Lady, who cast Flamestrike, which hit Fenrir. Most of it bounced off.
Corhim next cast Stinking Cloud on a new wave of orc warriors that made them all vomit. Dak charged at them, straight into the cloud, and started vomiting as well. It was all rather chaotic.
The two orc barbarians entered the fray. Demon Harry retreated into the back of the caves. Fenrir cast cone after cone of Eldritch Power, pushing the orcs back, killing the warriors and wounding the barbarians. This was one of the most challenging fights Fenrir had had in a while, but even so they were slowly gaining ground inside the cave, so-much-so that predicting that all was lost The Lady cast Word of Recall and vanished.
Corhim cast Grease on the two big barbarians and Fenrir managed to land a Painful Slumber of Ages on the Mad Git. Dak killed Blackrag then went over to the sleeping Mad Git and chopped his head off.
The battle won, they searched the caves. The area where the orc bandits had been living was as filthy as you can imagine, but they had left most of their treasure behind.
There were also three old orcs, three females and five youngsters. They cowered and begged for mercy. There were also five slaves, who were all very happy to have been rescued.
LATEST UPDATES:
- Added Court Case - Spell Cursed Mass (from random MTG card - 'Chimeric Mass')
- Added Spell - Summon Storm Giant(from random MTG card - 'Galvanic Giant')
- FIXED BUG #134 - build forge, when I had one state roof - enough - it was in red
- FIXED BUG #211 - give / lib the new books
- FIXED BUG #248 - set a watch event not working
- FIXED BUG #264 - I think watchtower is not working on map. Maybe being hidden by another tile
- FIXED BUG #269 - armour tag for locations and Rusty Wrist Guards tagged as armour and can evaluate
- FIXED BUG #270 - giving and putting books improves education. Put green text for this
- FIXED BUG #271 - Educational Books can give and put
- FIXED BUG #272 - ecology bonuses for frogs and reef creatures. Added to insect bonus to give creature bonus
- FIXED BUG #273 - jar of wind should tell you how much air comes out. Give bonus on magic ele air as well as insects. Add small random
- FIXED BUG #274 - create desert and beach should use a skill - wrong seed!
- FIXED BUG #275 - red potion gives XP but reports on SP for the skill check
- FIXED BUG #276 - You summon a White Wing Angel! - say how many
- Disabled / Updated Help on all discontinued click sites
- NEW ITEM: Sulphur Nuggets
- Added Land Type - Sulphurous Springs (from random MTG card - 'Sulphurous Springs')
- IDEA #299 - court case to bring in halflings
- IDEA #565 - put in infrastrucutre how much housing is needed
~~~~
Want to do something to help the planet?
Really keen to help out with everything going wrong in the world, but don't know where to start?
Well, you do a little to help the planet and other great causes right now, completely 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 resources 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, veterans and many more.
The list of charities are regularly updated.
Karma Kingdom also keep a track of the estimated value of your clicks and how much CO2 you have helped remove from the atmosphere.
Start Playing here:
(G541 11/11/2023 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AP) YI12
[Yag Island was now where many people were starting to congregate. New faces such as Sparkledingle, Griffolk and Fangornio, my friends and family, Lavinia, Sylvia, Jiggles and Irritator, and new arrivals of old faces like Fenrir, Reinward and Giselle. Recently, Fenrir, Corhim and Fang had retrieved the Violet Gem in Harmony for Mr Honeycutt.]
DAY 597 (21st Marpenoth) (October) cont ...
On their return to Yag Island (teleported back via the magic of Corhim's handy ring) Corhim went to study and Fenrir took Giselle to the pub. They weren't bothering with disguises in such an out of the way place.
DAY 598 (22nd Marpenoth) (October)
Today Corhim continued to study today.
Fenrir and Giselle relaxed on the beach up the coast from the Barrow. There are nice coves down there and hidden little caves. Nothing dangerous lives there that I know of anyway. It's not easy to get to on foot due to the steepness of the hills on the island, but easy for someone who can fly.
DAY 599 (23rd Marpenoth) (October)
Corhim studied, while Fenrir and Giselle enjoyed the sun and sea of the island. I should note that Fang was spending a lot of time these days in the village of Tumunzah, drinking in the tavern mostly. Griff was happy to help guard the Barrow and be involved with helping Lavinia organise the colony supplies.
Sylvia liked to go out into the jungle to commune with nature, while Irritator mainly sat and drank tea and played cards with Felia and the group of other lazy short-arses that hung around there. This included Jiggles some of the time, but her job was to snoop around in the village to get advanced warnings of any threats coming from outside the island. Molly either played cards, helped Lavinia or hung around with some of the kids from the village.
You never knew with Reinward, but he sometimes joined in the card games or went to his room and hatched plots involving gold moving from other peoples pockets into his.
Veddic was keeping to himself. I think something political was going on about his position in the Church of Kossuth.
Of the last of the Dementor, Cookie Cook was now living with Felia and helping with the shop and Captain Pickles was living full time at the tavern. Supposedly waiting for a berth off the island but in reality spending his day drinking and telling his stories to anyone that would listen.
Jonathan the Seagull was meant to be watching over the island from above, but who knows how much of that he actually did while I was not around?
DAY 600 (24th Marpenoth) (October)
Lesa Ujum turned 21 today and inherited her fortune.
This was not enough to lure Reinward back to Westgate though.
DAY 601 (25th Marpenoth) (October)
The keep I had commissioned to be built by the Dwarf Mason company was now complete.
The main building had been for a while, but they had now finished the outer wall and were ready to sail off back home. They were happy to wait for a lift though and take some time off to enjoy some of the local beer.
Fenrir and Giselle took one of the big bedrooms, which made Reinward grumble, but he still had a room to himself. Corhim took the room in the cap tower at the top of the stairs.
Lavinia moved all our stuff into the master bedroom.
DAY 602 (26th Marpenoth) (October)
Corhim went to Harmony to buy more magical ink. He said hello to all the nerts at his house, but there was no sign of Mr Honeycutt.
DAY 603 (26th Marpenoth) (October)
Seven dwarves arrived today by ship. They came straight to the Barrow. This had all been arranged between Lavinia and the masons.
These sevens wanted to found a Dwarf Fortress nearby and see what minerals were to be had on the island. Part of the agreement was that from the rock that they mined they would build stone houses for the settlers that Lavinia was planning to bring in later. Apparently the dwarves did this sort of thing for fun anyway so it would be no hardship at all for them.
Corhim took his nose out of his books for a while today and walked around the Barrow. He saw that the stones on top were for channeling power and he really wanted to go inside to take a look. But Lavinia had the entrance guarded at all times and they had been warned particularly about keeping out interfering little gnomes!
DAY 604 (27th Marpenoth) (October)
Today the Black Cat and Sister ships arrived in convoy. These were the two ships that had come from Midpoint Island. Sleek, magical xebecs that could turn invisible if required. They were still not fully crewed.
Lavinia welcomed them and started taking stock of their inventories, supply shortages and crew requirements.
Giselle had Fenrir take her back to OSM for the day to pick up "baby stuff" for when Lavinia gave birth.
Fenrir asked if he could bring back a nanny from Waterdeep but Lavinia reckoned she would not want for babysitters. There was already Giselle, Sylvia and a bunch of gnomes about the place all willing to help out.
DAY 605 (28th Marpenoth) (October)
Today the dwarves masons left, taken home on the Black Cat.
DAY 606 (29th Marpenoth) (October)
Today Cavu turned up on the island. He made his way up to the Barrow and said hello to everyone. I guess our doings are no secret to him, but I didn't consider it ideal that he was around. The Barrow was ours to take care of now that we had found it and I didn't like the idea of others snooping around.
That many portals in one place must be incredibly rare and dangerous in the wrong hands. Cavu's intentions were always good, but he wasn't one of us and I think if Gertrude thought that the Barrow was safer in her hands rather than ours then she might well think that taking it away from us was justified.
It turned out that he was more interested in solving his ongoing problems with the Yaun-ti. They had located the 'Fortress of the Yaun-ti' and wanted to call on Fenrir to go once more to tangle with the Vanguard of Sertrous. They would have to go back to Pedestal once more and seek entry to the Spire. There was a portal in there that could be used to get close to the Fortress and hopefully deal with the Vanguard once and for all.
He also said:
''
If you do go, please don't teleport directly in to Pedestal. It will alert them and we will have to start again. Go incognito through Kingsholm.
''
Fenrir was up for it, bit Giselle wasn't keen on him leaving her alone and she wanted to stay on the island until the baby was born. He gave her 10,000 gold and told her to use it to make their room in the keep look nice. He likes to flash his gold about does young Fenrir!
DAY 607 (30th Marpenoth) (October)
Blue Nixie arrived today with ten colonists although they brought some spouses and children with them so their was 22 people in total.
There were:
Retetteae Panstash - a human cartwright, with his wife and child
Sawolat Hapint - a human sailor, just by himself
Infureet Hagglegreen - a Yuan-ti Trueblood gooseherd with his wife and child
Olchei Japepart - a human seamstress with her husband and child
Crimaie Dramint - a gnome cooper with her husband and baby
Joumbob Yardmaker - a Yuan-ti Trueblood dressmaker with his wife and baby
Elaswei Takedark - a Troglodyte Cattle-driver, just by herself
Aualit Stramgrey - a Kobolt waiter with her husband and child
Sakoret Eastsilver - a Troglodyte Peddler. who had a chicken with her
Tuorowa Redday - a Dragonborn baker, who was by herself
Quite a few yuan-ti and lizard races I thought! But Lavinia had vetted them all, and as she told me later, as these were settlers from Chult, this was representative of the folks of the region.
Vetted or not, they all set up camps away from each other.
Takedark and Eastsilver set up in "Camp Trog".
The seven humans and three gnomes set up in "Camp Paradise".
The Dragonborn couldn't shake of her kobolt admirers and they set up in "Camp Brave".
The six Yuan-ti set up in "Camp Viper".
To get away from all the activity Fenrir and Corhim decided to go for a swim. Both of them have magical powers that enable them to breath underwater. The only question was how much of their gear they minded getting wet.
They stripped down to more or less their underwear then teleported down to the docks of Tumunzah and jumped off the pier. Corhim used Alter Self to turn into a merman. This was all very surprising to two old retired sailors who were fishing off the end of it.
They were looking for sunken treasure or something, but it was likely this area had already been picked clean. They found a grand total of 8 silver pieces and a Potion of Endure Elements.
When back on the pier Fenrir played a trick on Corhim and left him there while teleporting back himself! But Corhim was able to turn into an Aarakocra and then flew back. He was little bit annoyed at Fenrir, but he could hardly complain considering how cheeky he was himself.
DAY 608 (1st Uktar) (November)
While that was going on back on the island me and Dak were on board the "Ember" sailing south, so back to my regular journal entries:
Made good progress today. The crew like the ship and handle her well. I've been getting daily updates from Sylvia on the 'Sending Round Robin' and it sounds like there is a lot going on that I am missing! We are not quiet in range of my boots of Teleportation but I think I will port back as soon as we are.
DAY 609 (2nd Uktar) (November)
I like to help out with the ship, but despite there only being nine members of the crew they do fine without me. Jhaartael makes a good enough captain - he should do, he's been sailing ships for over 200 years!
They are quite an interesting bunch, the crew we picked up in Waterdeep and Daggerford.
Just to note here, that the Black Cat and Sister were now at Yag Island and Lavinia was now in the process of hiring on crew (from Sasserine, not Tumunzah as she didn't know anyone there) to complete their compliment.
The ship formally known as the Reaper (which needed a better name than 'the other one') was on its way south and quite near the island with a crew that Lavinia had hired in Westgate.
A xebec can easily have a crew of 90 and carry up to 400! But that's if you are using the oars and plan on using it as a weapons platform. For getting about in, a crew of 20 was fine. After all they are magically assisted and all that.
So nine is very low, but Jhaartael assures they will get to the island just fine. I hope so, because we will be in range of Teleportation tomorrow.
DAY 610 (3rd Uktar) (November)
I made sure that Jhaartael could contact me if need be, then me and Dak teleported back to the island. It has been great to see everyone today.
I got everyone together and we all went to the tavern to have a bit of a reunion party.
I'd been hearing about this Sparkledingle fellow and was rather concerned that the wee fellow might be a liability. He did seem like an odd sort of fellow, even for a gnome.
Strangely, he and Dak seemed to hit it off. I think they have the same sort of quirky personality. Either that or Corhim has learned about Dak's fortune and was trying to con him out of it. Dak found the wee chap very funny anyway.
I've a feeling Dak may have told Corhim everything about the portals in the Barrow tonight too, while drunk. No good will come of that I expect.
DAY 611 (4th Uktar) (November)
You may remember that Cavu is still on the scene. I had a chat with him today. He likes the island, the warm sun (even in Uktar) and the cool sea breezes, but he is anxious to pull Fenrir away and put him to use in Pedestal.
I would have loved to go with him, but Lavinia says no more adventures for me as I am soon to be a father.
So, after much discussion and planning it was decided that Fenrir would go, he would also take Dak and Sparkledingle with him. I wasn't all that sure about that combination of travel companions but Fenrir didn't seem to mind. Veddic usually went where Fenrir went, but he opted to stay on the island for now and maybe join them if need be. It may be that he had bad memories of his time out on the Thar around Kingsholm.
Then out of nowhere Giselle decided she wanted to go with them! She is new to the adventuring life, but has been training as a bard. I hope she gets on ok, she may not know what she's getting into. The Underdark is not to taken lightly.
Cavu repeated his warnings and added:
''
Please don't teleport directly in to Pedestal. It will alert them and we will have to start again. Go incognito through Kingsholm. Oh, and the Spire has a magic shield around it so you'll need to find someone to help get through. Either Es Sarch, Merlock Tomes or Dorette should be fine.
''
Cavu was anxious for them to make a move now, but Fenrir said taking Giselle was now part of the deal and he needed to make sure she was protected. So he teleported to Sasserine went to Glittermain's to order a very expensive (64,000 gold!) Mithril shirt for her. Sparkledingle came too and ordered from Orimander:
- a Ring of Sustenance for 2500gp
- and a ring of Research for 2500gp
The shirt would be ready for Giselle in five days.
DAY 612 (5th Uktar) (November)
Lavinia kept me busy helping with the colony. She seems to have it all worked out anyway, with her papers laid out on the table in the main hall of the keep.
It looks like its all coming together anyway with the colonists and the dwarven immigrants all largely getting along.
DAY 613 (6th Uktar) (November)
Spend the day carving out a proper path down the cliff to the sea east of the Barrow area. Used Stone Shape and Wood Shape to make a small jetty. This will make loading and unloading the ships easier.
It will need to be strengthened though over the next few days or it will be washed away.
DAY 614 (7th Uktar) (November)
The Reaper arrived today, and joined the other two xebecs anchored off the eastern coast. I'm sure the locals must wonder what is going on.
Lavinia has taken charge of refitting and resupplying all three ships.
Its my job to help the colonists plant fields and orchards.
DAY 615 (8th Uktar) (November)
Right, she had me digging latrines today! This really is the limit.
I summoned some Earth Elementals to do it, but even so.
After that I worked on the path down to the shore and the jetty. I like that the Barrowfolk are now calling it "The Druid's Path".
DAY 616 (9th Uktar) (November)
Fenrir's Mithril was ready today and he went off to collect it. I must say it looked a fine piece of armour with some tasteful filigree on the collar and cuffs.
I'd consider one for Lavinia if she ever takes me off latrine digging duty.
DAY 617 (10th Uktar) (November)
And so - dear reader! From now on I will interject into my own journal the story of Fenrir (and friends) adventures in Kingsholm, Pedestal and beyond.
You can be sure his adventures will be more thrilling than my tales of digging toilets and laying paths.
As best I can I will make sure I line up the days correctly, but as you know, it can be difficult to tell the time in the Underdark and what news I will get back from Giselle may be intermittent.
With that said, today is easy. We said our farewells and the four of them Teleported off to Starmantle and then Kingsholm.
And as arranged, at the end of the day Giselle replied to a series of Sendings from Sylvia - which now allows me to record what happened after they left the island.
Fenrir and the others walked up to the gates of Kingsholm. They were well guarded and the militia looked on edge. Mia Desarna, the captain of the guard came to meet them. She remembered Fenrir and was happy to see him.
'Oh, we've had lots of trouble just lately, and we keep the gates locked all the time. Not that it does much good. Come to the Cabbage, I'll buy you a drink and tell you all about it.'
The last time Fenrir had been at Kingsholm he had been arrested along with Arahel and the others then busted out by Cavu. Mia didn't seem to bear a grudge though and said, 'all sins forgiven and a key to the city if you can sort out the problem we have here!'
She went on to tell them that there was a band of orcs and half-orcs out on the Thar that were terrorising the local area, stirring up the tribal camps and sometimes even attacking Kingsholm. In the last attack they had burnt and looted several buildings and killed any watchman that dared try and stop them.
'The orcish riff-raff we can handle, but they are led by two tough barbarian fighters, a powerful warlock and a nasty cleric. They are far too strong for a local militia. We asked Melvaunt to send help, but they have their own problems. We've put a bounty on each of their heads, 2000 gold each, but so far you are the first people to come this way that would stand any chance of claiming it. They are a right shower of bastards.
In fact that's what people call then "The Bastards of Thar" and everyone would be glad to see the back of them, even the other orcs.'
After that she gave them the keys to a nice house in town and said, 'You can live there for as long as you like. Quite a few people have left and we have plenty of empty places unfortunately.'
(G540 04/11/2023 via Roll20 - JF(GM), KT, AP, AD) YI11 / HAR5
[Now dear reader, it seemed that many of the people that I have been writing about recently were beginning to congregate on my new home - Yag Island. New faces such as Sparkledingle, Griffolk and Fangornio, my friends and family, Lavinia, Sylvia, Jiggles and Irritator, and new arrivals of old faces like Fenrir, Reinward and Giselle. The place was getting quite crowded!]
DAY 595 (19th Marpenoth) (October) cont ...
Fenrir set himself up in the inn with a nice room for him and Giselle.
Veddic teleported in too today. I think he had been kicked out of Westgate or something. It was more important for him to stick with Fenrir apparently. He wasn't the "stay at the temple" type of cleric of Kossuth or something, but anyway, he was now also on the scene. Always handy to have a backup cleric and it did mean that Sylvia could leave when she was ready. She wanted to stay for a while longer
though, until Lavinia had the baby. Note also that Corhim, Griff and Fang had promised to bring a cleric back from Sasserine, but in all the kerfuffle they forgot - which annoyed Sylvia a little.
Reinward got a room too, and Fang followed them down and despite the business with Gyles and his daughter last time he was there, he managed to get a room too.
DAY 596 (20th Marpenoth) (October)
The Blue Nixie had arrived back from Sasserine not so long ago and the supplies were still being unloaded. Fenrir went to help for a while, as did Fang.
This was all part of my wife's plan to turn the "Yag Barrow" into a colony. This was a good idea for two reasons, the first was that there would be more people to protect the place, and the second was that it would give the reason for why we were there. The Vanderborens were known for their colonies, like
Farshore, and Yag Barrow would just be another one. Any rumours about what was inside the barrow could be put down as false stories spread by suspicious pirates.
I suppose eventually some of the big regional players would take an interest, but my wife and I hoped that by then we would be well established and able to make them aware that the place was ours and well defended.
Reinward didn't help with the loading, and neither did Corhim. Young Sparkledingle took himself to Harmony to buy some magical ink. He then spent the day studying spells. He also told Felia (his cousin who had set up a shop at Yag Barrow) all about Harmony. She came with him later to buy things for her shop, including Red Rock Candy and other things that could not be found back in Faerune.
It's not very thrilling but for the record this is what came off the Blue Nixie.
Barrels, 20
Bedroll, 50
Blankets, 50
Buckets, 10
Candles, 500
Crowbar, 5
Block and Tackle, 5
Fish hooks, 20
Fishing nets, 5
Flint/Steel, 5
Grappling Hook, 5
Hammer, 10
Lamp, common, 50
Lantern, hooded, 10
Oil, pint flask, 200
Rope, hemp, 50ft, 50
Sack, 100
Needle, 30
Sledge, 10
Soap, 20
Spade, 10
Tent, 20
Waterskin, 10
Whetstone, 10
Artisan's tools, 10
Nails, 10000
Planks, 500
Pot, Iron, 100
Rations. Trail, 500
Dog, guard, 4
Chicken, 50
Pigs, 20
Donkey / mule, 20
Kettle, 100
Cold weather outfit, 10
Artisan’s outfit, 50
Peasant’s outfit, 250
Traveller's outfit, 200
That all added up to less than 2000 gold.
I should have really been there to sort out the animals. As it was, the pigs ran amok, half the chickens flew off and several of the donkeys wandered into the jungle. There are no predators on our tiny island so the should be ok, unless one of the people from the village find them in which case fair play to them if we can't control our livestock.
Most of the stuff was just dumped inside the walls around the keep. A bit of a mess. The dwarf masons helped get it all under canvas, which was good of them.
DAY 597 (21st Marpenoth) (October)
The Blue Nixie went back to Sasserine today.
Felia was begging Corhim for another trip to Harmony for potions and things so he agreed and Fenrir and Fang went with him.
They went to his house were Polly, Scamper and Fantta were waiting.
(I should also note that I think there was a green nert around somewhere or she was on her way or something. A performer from the Circus of Illusions that had been recruited by Mr Honeycutt.)
Mr Honeycutt met them after a while and they all went to the local pub.
Fenrir noticed that Mr H ordered a big plate of cheese. Mr H was a dapper gentleman in a nice brown suit. He wore glasses on the end of his big long nose. His moustache bristled like whiskers on a cat.
This time he was after the Violet Gem. He explained that he needed to find this Violet Gem, a magic stone that he said could help the Lorekeeper Society find the cause of these colour outages.
Honeycutt reached into his leather satchel and pulled out a piece of polished amber inscribed with runes. He said that this piece of amber was the key to finding the Violet Gem, but no one in the Lorekeeper Society knew how to decipher it.
If they could help decipher the amber stone and recover the Violet Gem, the Lorekeepers and all Harmony would be forever in their debt. Mr. Honeycutt was also willing to throw in a pouch of 25 gold pieces for their trouble.
Fenrir, who quite recently had been dealing with sums of 100,000s of gold could not help a wry smile appearing on his face at the princely sum that was on offer.
'Leave a note for me here when you have completed this task,' he said.
'And then I'll meet you at the statue of Filomena the Wise within the hour.'
They took the amber runestone back to the house. They were a bit stumped but Polly was there and she suggested they look in the books in the library.
Only Fenrir could read them using magic, but that was easy enough. The runes were a series of numbers and a poem.
The numbers were: 12, 2, 6, 9, 24, and 36.
The poem was:
Attune the stone to light the way.
At Herald’s Crypt one kneels to pray,
Turn my skull then bow your head,
Lest you who seek now join the dead.
Once in my tomb, my name speak thrice,
A gift of sunlight is the price
Scamper had heard of the Crypt. It was in Prism Academy.
'It's a special place,' he said. 'Strictly off-limits to students, where the headmasters of Prism Academy are buried. I've seen the iron door (known as the Flower Door for all the intricately carved flowers in it) that leads to the crypt in the Great Hall.'
There was no time like the present so they had Scamper guide them to the Academy. There were gargoyles guarding the front gates but they were not stopping anyone from coming or going.
Corhim asked a student for directions to the hall. The answer was 'third door on the left'.
'We are on a mission from God!' said Corhim in reply. Whatever that meant.
The Flower Door was magical and impervious to any kind of mundane or magical attempt to unlock it. After some experimentation Corhim finally realised that he had to 'attune' to the runestone. This took about an hour, so the others went to get a pie and a pint in the refectory.
When Corhim had attuned to the stone it started to glow and then the Flower Door also lit up. Between Corhim and Fenrir they worked out that the numbers on the runestone matched numbers on the door and pressing them in the right sequence was enough to release the magical lock.
Beyond the door a set of stone steps lead down into the darkness and then to another door.
This door had a riddle on it that read:
Dust a hand cannot clean,
A button a hand cannot push,
A cog a hand cannot freeze.
There was also a perfect square of what looked like dirt on the door.
It took them over an hour to figure it out, trying lots of random things until finally Corhim realised it was using Prestidigitation to remove the dirt that was needed.
Once the dirt was gone, a button was revealed. Pressing it did nothing, but when Mage Hand was used the button worked. A cog behind the button started turning.
They figured out that since the other things that needed to be done to the door were low level magic spells then the next one would be Ray of Frost to stop the cog. But Corhim never used any offensive spells at all so Fenrir set his Eldritch Blast to 'Cold damage' and froze the cog, the door, the walls, the floor and everybody's boots and eyebrows.
The door opened and they continued on their way.
They were now inside the Herald’s Crypt. It was a sacred place that was venerated by all the faculty. They saw the tombs of the former headmasters in alcoves along the walls, and flowers and notes of appreciation were laid before the tombs in silent reverence.
They did their best to not defile any of the tombs, which was wise of them, but I will here describe what each of them contained.
Professor Magillicus
This tomb had the bas-relief of a wizard holding a wand aloft. The words “A founding member of Prism Academy” were inscribed on the tomb.
Professor Filomena
This tomb had the bas-relief of a wizard who looked like the statue of Filomena in the wooded glade holding an opened book in one hand and a wizard’s staff in the other. The words “A founding member of Prism Academy” were inscribed on the tomb.
Professor Orm
This tomb had the bas-relief of a wizard holding a human skull in his hand. The words, “He investigated far into the shadow realms.” were inscribed on the tomb.
Corhim remembered the lines of the riddle:
Turn my skull then bow your head,
Lest you who seek now join the dead.
After more experimentation he managed to use the runestone to shine its light onto the skull. A secret door at the top of the hall opened up.
In the next and final chamber rested a stone sarcophagus atop a black marble bier. The sarcophagus was carved with arcane symbols and an inscription: “Zimandius Prism, founder of Prism
Academy.” On the lid was a carving of a sleeping wizard. Clasped in the wizard’s stone hands was a brilliant violet gem, the same size as the amber stone Corhim was holding.
Either the Runestone or the Violet Gem had to be in the statues hands or the door was locked. Corhim did something sneaky with Mage Hand to keep both of them though.
With the Gem in their possession they left a note at the tavern and met Mr Honeycutt at the statue of Filomena.
He was very grateful for the return of the Violet Gem and wanted to hear how they deciphered the runes and found the gem, all the while scribbling notes in his black notebook.
As a reward, he gave Corhim a rust bag of tricks and also gave magical Lorekeeper pins to Fang and Fenrir.
