(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.

Karma Kingdom - Beta 1.0 b172

 

 

Big Update this month to Karma Kingdom.

I've hummed and hawwed about adding mining into the game. After all Mining is not very enviromentally friendly!

But still, its always a part of games like these. 

Mining has an impact though, it generates Spoil, which lowers a kingdom's Ecology Level. The Spoil can be converted into Wasteland though.

This will be expanded on later - as all the ore that is mined currently has no use!

~

30/07/2021

Beta 1.0 b172  

- Disabled Brother Earth Link - you will still get coins for clicks though
- Disabled 'Large Chest' Link as it was triggering a virus warning. You'll still get those sweet Large Chests for your clicks though!
- Updated the Help file for the French Cat website
- Crafting tab now laid out in new format
- IDEA #176 - Water Purifiers can now be built. These give an Ecology bonus that increases with your population and can be used to purify barrels of Dirty Water.
- BUG #78 - summon the lost - is in SAVE/LOAD?
- New Court Item added - A 'Hairy Monster' comes to the kingdom to cause trouble!
- New Item added - Mindlock Orb
- New skill Sense Motive
- New court case - Naughty Goblin
- Have made the DC checks in court cases visible to the player
- Have tried to make the (admittedly muddled!) DC checks and skill checks in Court Cases clearer.
- fixed a bug that stopped the use of Water Purifiers
- New Skill: Crafting(Carpentry) - which is now used to make spinning wheels
- Fixed an issue with the building of Shrines
- Mines, Spoil Heaps, Wasteland, Iron Ore, Silver Ore, Gold ore, all added.
- Level 1 mine gives Iron Ore and Spoil, can be mined either by magic, tools or by paying miners 

 

To play go here:

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

 

NPC Generator Update v126

NPC Generator Update v126

 

Added a few things to my Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 NPC generator:

Updates:

V126
Added Tiefling and Svirfneblin races
Favoured class now works. Race is set first, and if Class is random there is a 50% chance it will be Favoured.

Find it here:

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

Roztov's Everquest Lore Library Update 12-07-2021

 Added more pages and links.

12/07/2021 - Updated: the Swamp of No Hope
12/07/2021 - New pages: Estate of Unrest, The Emerald Jungle   
12/07/2021 - Picture added to Crystal Caverns, Kurn's Tower, Howling Stones, Crypt of Dalnir, and Accursed Temple of Cazic Thule pages
12/07/2021 - Updated / corrected / added links to existing pages
12/07/2021 - New page: Cobalt Scar

Go here to see the full list of recent changes:

http://www.roztov.epizy.com/lore/new.htm

Or straight to the main page:

http://www.roztov.epizy.com/lore/index.htm

June 2021 - Ooh, my tummy!

Had my second vaccine last week and for some reason my tummy has been a bit upset ever since.

Anyway, here is the round up:

Paradise - Chapter 2 of the new book I am writing is taking a loooong time. It's a tricky task I've set myself and I'm not sure about the magical realism setting. Still, I just read the Underground Railroad and it can't be any worse than that! And it's prize winning too.

I think for writing tasks once I've finished that chapter I'll do a paper version of Miss Take. Paradise was always meant to be a slow burner anyway.

Some lunatic bought a paper copy of Angels of Scada! I wonder who and why?

~

Karma Kingdom - just a couple of tweaks this month. Nothing worth mentioning, but can be checked out here:

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

~

Javascript wise I'm back to the NPC Generator, adding things to that, great fun!

Check it out here:

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

~

What I've mainly been doing is updating my Everquest Lore website and making it all wonderful and lovely in a retro early 2000s sort of way :)

http://www.roztov.epizy.com/lore/index.htm

That's it! I really need to get that 2nd chapter done....