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Episode 1 of the glorious adventures of The Fellowship of the Bracelet.

The tale begins as our brave (or perchance foolhardy?) adventurers trudge along the path known as the Uldoon Trail that leads from the southern nation of Amn, winding its way in a north-easterly direction. To the north of the path is the forest known as the woods of sharp teeth for the tribe of were-creatures that in distant decades attempted to settle in the region before being exterminated. To the east is the Greenfields, a land sparsely settled and not claimed by any other country. A man can set up his own kingdom in such a place, although he holds power only by force of arms.

Walking in front is a blue-haired elf. Arnes Vyragosa is her name. A long time wanderer of the wild places of the world, she is well versed in how to survive in them and deadly with her longbow. Most people who make their living through violence name their weapons and she is no exception, calling her favourite weapon Windstalker. A fine elven long sword is carried by her side and she is protected by a suit of leather armour reinforced with metal studs. She is something of a mystery to the others in the group having shared little of her history or plans for the future.

Walking alongside Arnes and occasionally chatting with her is a man. Like the female he has something of the elfen about him, although not as strongly as the female. He carries the armour of a fighting man and a heavy wooden shield but bears the sigil of a holy man who follows the foremost of the elven gods, Corellon Larethian. He is approaching middling years. He is called Zayel by the others and is a wandering priest, serving his god by travelling the world and seeking to thwart the enemies of his faith.

Just behind them trudges another who has the look of a fighter. He is a tall man who carries an axe almost as tall as he is, with the name Phillipa stencilled into the metal head. His powerful muscles bulge beneath his leather armour. Around him is an aura of sorrow and tragedy. His eyes speak of much pain in his past. Glaxo is his name, weaponsmith by trade but adventurer by choice.

The final two members of our group bring up the rear and could not be more different in appearance. The first one is by far the smaller. Looking almost like a child, he is in fact a halfling and to prove stereotypes come from somewhere, he is also thief by inclination. Alas, what he has in larcenous intent, he makes up for with his lack of general common sense. He goes by the name Maddock Smallburrow. His much larger companion, both in height and girth has a greenish tinge to his skin, a common sign of Orcish blood. His favoured weapon is a club which he wields in two hands. If Maddock ran and hid when they were handing out brains, then perhaps his companion (Hugonomous by name), ate his share. And then kept on eating. Flab bulges out from between the straps on his too-tight leather armour. While Arnes discusses deep matters of the gods and the state of the world with Zayel and Glaxo broods deeply, Maddock and Hugo (as his companions call him), are debating just how the livestock in a field they are passing died.


"I tell you it was a big sky rock that fell on them all and squished them dead!" The Orc declared this in a confident voice as if there was no other possible reason for the abandoned farms they had passed with burned-out fields of crops and dead animals.

The pair continued bickering in this fashion for quite some time. Deciding that the matter was perhaps worth further investigation, Arnes and Zayel decided to go investigate the closest farm. They walked over the field, disturbing the clouds of flies feasting on the rotting meat lying around. The farm buildings themselves looked abandoned. The roof had caved in and the windows were all broken. Investigating around the building, they found the occupants. They were all hanging from a tree and evidently had been hanging there for quite some time. The six bodies were all in an advanced state of decay, but from what they could tell there were children there alongside the adults. Hugo decided to cut the bodies down, but perhaps he should have taken a little more care are the bodies crashed to the ground, splattering dead fluids on those standing around. Tired of her companion's incompetence, Arnes told them to dig some graves, and they found a broken shovel to start digging in the ground. Maddock wanted to help out, but lacking a shovel he decided that he could use his mouth instead and started biting up mouthfuls of earth.

The others investigated the ruins of the house searching for clues (and completely missing the big one that would have told them exactly who the bad guy is when they meet him and how to defeat him, oh well). Eventually, though they decided to finish burying the bodies. With her knowledge of the ways of the natural world, Arnes could see a trail leading off towards the woods. However, she could also see three thin threads of smoke rising up from the northeast. After some debate, it was decided to head towards the smoke.

After a few hours further travel the group ended up outside what could be generously be termed a village. A small wooden walled compound, but one with wide-open gaps where the gates should be. Four buildings stood inside as well as numerous crude tents scattered around wherever there was space to erect one. The largest building looked to be an inn and looked the most impressive of the structures. Another declared itself to be a store, while the third was a crudely built wooden longhouse. Finally, the fourth building was a small hut with a burned-out thatched roof and empty holes where the windows would normally sit.

The most curious of the group, Arnes wandered over to the burned out house. It seemed too small for a human to comfortably inhabit, and indeed when she peeked inside there was what appeared to be a tiny, wizened old man squatting on the floor cross-legged. His stringy white hair was matted and tangled up. As Arnes peeked inside he opened one eye and asked "Are you here for enlightenment?"

Arnes decided she was not that curious and beat a hasty retreat to rejoin her companions.

Reunited, it was decided to sample the delights of the local inn.

Just before they went to the inn, Zayel decided to check out the long wooden building. A man sitting cleaning a crossbow in the doorway. Seeing her approaching he grunted, "You looking for work, see Dinger in the inn." He kept sitting in the doorway in a way that indicated he was in no mood to let anyone else enter. With a shrug of her shoulders, Zayel rejoined the others as they headed in.

The inn was about half full. A talented minstrel played a cheery tune in one corner of the room, but the mood seemed flat. Locals huddled quietly around tables or sat on their own. The party found an empty table, then made themselves comfortable. One of the young barmaids (aged around 14 or so), brought them drinks, but Zayel decided to go ask at the bar for the Dinger the man outside had mentioned. The barman (and it is amazing just how many adventures centre around going and talking to a barman), was a large man. Fat rather than muscle and a balding head of long fair hair finished off with a long, curled moustache. Although he looks stressed, he smiled and said he was Dinger. He was too busy to chat just now, but if they could come through to his office after closing time, he would have a mutually beneficial proposition to make to people who knew how to use a blade.

Retiring to the table with the others, it was quickly agreed to meet with the innkeeper and in the meantime enjoy some drinks. The sun had only just begun to sink below the horizon when time was called, the locals were cleared out and the party was asked to come through to Dinger's office at the rear. Knocking on a door that had the name "Mayor Humm Bell" written on it, they entered. The room was spacious. One wall was dominated by a large window which showed an impressive view of... well the grey stone wall surrounding the inn. Another wall, the one facing them as they walked in was a painting of Dinger, in front of which sat the man himself, behind an impressive-looking wooden desk. Once the group were settled he told them his recent life story. How he was a wealthy merchant who had moved to this region of the wilderness looking to settle it. For the first few months, everything had gone well, but then the village had been raided by some of the brutish local tribes. They'd managed to fight off the invaders, killing many of them but they had just switched to attacking the outlying farms. The farmers had either been killed, took shelter in the town or fled the area completely and Dinger was fast running out of money. If he couldn't get the settlement back on its feet soon, he'd be bankrupt. All his men were needed to defend the village, and he had little money left for a reward, but surely the creatures would have lots of treasure. If the party agreed to deal with them, then he'd be willing to provide a place to stay, free food and healing.


The party gladly agreed and with a smile, Dinger produced some contracts for them to sign. Hugo and Maddock made their marks immediately, but having worked many long hours as a scribe, Zayel decided to study them in detail. It took quite some work, but she figured out that in a twisting and turning way if they signed they were agreeing to hand over 90% of all treasure gained from adventuring in perpetuity. The rest of the group decided they would help without signing the contract.


That may have been a major mistake on their part, but they will only find out about that later on...

Satisfied, the group then decided to retire to their rooms, but as they did so they could hear shouting and cries of alarm coming from outside. They ran out into the night only to see flaming arrows streaking across the night sky over the southern wall.


And with that, the session ended for the night.

Well described. You know what I've said before: you should turn these into novels. (Or at least pick-a-paths.)

The Second Session.


Our game starts with the village under attack from an unknown source. Zayel ran inside looking to alert the mayor while most of the rest of the group ran to the south, looking to defend the village. All except for Glaxo who being a bit inexperienced, ran off to the north, looking to fight off the invaders.


Just from entirely the wrong direction.


The rest made their way to the south-east where the nearest gate was. Two guards returned fire from a tower built onto the log building and Arnes ran up to join them. She decided to make her own fire arrows to shoot back. Quickly she thought "What can I use to make fire arrows? I can't very well cut bits off my armour, tie them to my arrows, set them on fire and send that shooting at the attackers..."


And then it came to her. She could set use her undergarments. It was something of a distraction to the guards when an elf climbed up into their tower and suddenly pulled off her trousers and knickers. Before she could follow through with her plan though, several fire arrows found their target and she fell to the ground unconscious and pierced in several places. Seeing her fall, Maddock ran over to help, his slower legs meaning he was behind the rest. Hugo decided to take cover in a nearby burning tent, showing his intellect at work.


At this point, I was expecting everyone to die and the campaign to be a rather short one.


Hugo bravely cowered in the burning tent while more arrows came raining down. Eventually, though both he and Glaxo realised they should head to where the action was. Zayel ran through the inn but found the doors locked. Meanwhile, a rather confused elf was wandering around the inn, wondering what all the fuss was about it. He demanded continually to be told what was happening, presenting an interesting sight in his night-clothes.

Maddock climbed the tower and tried to wake his friend, but Arnes was curiously immune to his ministrations. He knew little of elvish anatomy and had no idea how to wake a half-dead, half-naked elf.


BRAINWAVE!


Arnes was woken from her fugue state by the insertion of a halfling finger into her nose and it wriggling around. In the history of the word there have been more unpleasant ways to get awoken, but not many. Her wounds left her too badly injured to help in the fight, and her nude lower half was distracting the guards from returning fire.


And the group still had no idea what they were fighting. It wasn't until Glaxo and Hugo made it out of the open hole in the wall where a gate should stand (incidentally, the entire reason behind this attack was to lure a couple of guards outside, and then the attackers (whose race is about to be revealed), would charge in and overwhelm them, kill one or two and then flee as part of a plan to wear down the defenders in a series of hit and run raids). Seeing the two fighters step outside, the pair were immediately charged by a small horde of short, evilly grinning creatures wielding crudely made weapons. The duo had never seen Goblins before, but the 18 charging towards them would make sure that they were would not forget the sight.


While this was going on the confused elf had wandered out into the night. Seeing the commotion to the southeast, he headed in that direction still demanding loudly that someone tell him what was going on. When he saw the Goblins assailing the warriors, he immediately reacted. Summoning arcane power he sent bolts of glowing magical energy flying at one of the foul creatures, sending it screaming to whichever hell such things belonged! Seeing this new threat, a couple of Goblins abandoned trying to get through the press of mobs surrounding the belaboured Glaxo and Hugo and charged the spell caster. He quickly crumbled under their attack and was beaten to the ground, still breathing if barely.


The pair of Glaxo and Hugo fought the surging horde who stabbed, slashed at clawed at them. They reaped a red harvest from their foes, but the sheer numbers meant that some blows got through and with each fresh wound they were a step closer to falling themselves. They waded through them like it was a green tide, hacking and cutting. This was more resistance than the Goblins expected and seeing their numbers seriously thinned out to the point where they were now outnumbered by the adventurers the few remaining broke and ran. With their flight, adrenaline rapidly faded leaving them exhausted and feeling the pain of their wounds.


Never the less, the party had survived their first combat.


And with that, the session ended for the night.

The Third Session.


Our game starts with the village under attack from an unknown source. Zayel ran inside looking to alert the mayor while most of the rest of the group ran to the south, looking to defend the village. All except for Glaxo who being a bit inexperienced, ran off to the north, looking to fight off the invaders.


Just from entirely the wrong direction.


The rest made their way to the south-east where the nearest gate was. Two guards returned fire from a tower built onto the log building and Arnes ran up to join them. She decided to make her own fire arrows to shoot back. Quickly she thought "What can I use to make fire arrows? I can't very well cut bits off my armour, tie them to my arrows, set them on fire and send that shooting at the attackers..."


And then it came to her. She could set use her undergarments. It was something of a distraction to the guards when an elf climbed up into their tower and suddenly pulled off her trousers and knickers. Before she could follow through with her plan though, several fire arrows found their target and she fell to the ground unconscious and pierced in several places. Seeing her fall, Maddock ran over to help, his slower legs meaning he was behind the rest. Hugo decided to take cover in a nearby burning tent, showing his intellect at work.


At this point, I was expecting everyone to die and the campaign to be a rather short one.


Hugo bravely cowered in the burning tent while more arrows came raining down. Eventually, though both he and Glaxo realised they should head to where the action was. Zayel ran through the inn but found the doors locked. Meanwhile, a rather confused elf was wandering around the inn, wondering what all the fuss was about it. He demanded continually to be told what was happening, presenting an interesting sight in his night-clothes.

Maddock climbed the tower and tried to wake his friend, but Arnes was curiously immune to his ministrations. He knew little of elvish anatomy and had no idea how to wake a half-dead, half-naked elf.


BRAINWAVE!


Arnes was woken from her fugue state by the insertion of a halfling finger into her nose and it wriggling around. In the history of the word there have been more unpleasant ways to get awoken, but not many. Her wounds left her too badly injured to help in the fight, and her nude lower half was distracting the guards from returning fire.


And the group still had no idea what they were fighting. It wasn't until Glaxo and Hugo made it out of the open hole in the wall where a gate should stand (incidentally, the entire reason behind this attack was to lure a couple of guards outside, and then the attackers (whose race is about to be revealed), would charge in and overwhelm them, kill one or two and then flee as part of a plan to wear down the defenders in a series of hit and run raids). Seeing the two fighters step outside, the pair were immediately charged by a small horde of short, evilly grinning creatures wielding crudely made weapons. The duo had never seen Goblins before, but the 18 charging towards them would make sure that they were would not forget the sight.


While this was going on the confused elf had wandered out into the night. Seeing the commotion to the southeast, he headed in that direction still demanding loudly that someone tell him what was going on. When he saw the Goblins assailing the warriors, he immediately reacted. Summoning arcane power he sent bolts of glowing magical energy flying at one of the foul creatures, sending it screaming to whichever hell such things belonged! Seeing this new threat, a couple of Goblins abandoned trying to get through the press of mobs surrounding the belaboured Glaxo and Hugo and charged the spell caster. He quickly crumbled under their attack and was beaten to the ground, still breathing if barely.


The pair of Glaxo and Hugo fought the surging horde who stabbed, slashed at clawed at them. They reaped a red harvest from their foes, but the sheer numbers meant that some blows got through and with each fresh wound they were a step closer to falling themselves. They waded through them like it was a green tide, hacking and cutting. This was more resistance than the Goblins expected and seeing their numbers seriously thinned out to the point where they were now outnumbered by the adventurers the few remaining broke and ran. With their flight, adrenaline rapidly faded leaving them exhausted and feeling the pain of their wounds.


Never the less, the party had survived their first combat.


And with that, the session ended for the night.

Session Four.


Dinger came running over, directing people to put out fires and tend to the wounded. His efforts were frequently interrupted by Zayel asking him questions, which he answered as much as he could while dealing with everything else. He summoned their local friendly gnome mystic who healed those who had signed contracts (which included free healing). Glaxo was somewhat annoyed at this and threatened the little man, who slightly cowed by the threats gave him a single point of healing before running off back to his home and doing no more healing for anyone. Eventually, the village settled down for the night and everyone was able to get a good nights sleep.

In the morning a breakfast was put out for everyone (and those who didn't sign contracts will have to pay for these at some point, they also don't get the free room and board). Hugo particularly enjoyed the freshly baked bread and sought to stuff as much as possible into his mouth. Dinger came down accompanied by the elf from the previous night. With a big smile he informed them he had recruited a wizard to help them. If he had expected the group to be grateful for his attempt to help them he was badly disappointed as the group informed him they might not want additional help.

Dinger simply pointed out that the people who had signed contracts with him were effectively his employees and he had decided they would need the extra help, especially after having seen their performance the previous night. There was then an attempt to get him to cancel the contracts (something that was completely not in his interests but there you go).

At this point, I was doing my best just to get the adventure started and things moving.

Then it was off to the local shop, which a sign declared to be "Ridley's General Store". Going inside, an elderly man greeted them and told them this was the latest store in a chain all over this part of the world. The party demanded a discount and Glaxo again attempted to intimidate to get his way, but this time despite his menacing demeanour he got nowhere. The old man curtly informed them if they didn't like his prices they were free to shop at any of his competitors. If they did not care to buy anything, they should promptly leave. His kindly manner evaporated, and it took a more diplomatic approach from Zayel to calm things down a little. Some supplies were bought and then the group went back outside.

Seeing them in the open, Dinger approached accompanied by Lizbet (who carried some leather bags). He informed them it was some extra supplies for his employees, containing a few herbal remedies that would help as a weaker sort of healing potion, along with a few other items that should help the group out.

Those who hadn't signed seemed somewhat resentful of this.

After more complaints, the party (finally) got moving as Arnes picked up the trail of the raiders. They headed off to the south hot in pursuit.

As the party travelled, the scenery increasingly showed signs of devastation with the lush forest turned to a muddy plain punctured with the stumps of trees cut down. The only thing that could be seen was a rocky outcrop in the distance. The spoor they were following though led unerringly towards it. As they got closer they could see a wooden post sticking out of the rock. Hugo decided to climb up and see if he could rip the post. Bracing himself, he wrapped his mighty thews around the post and snapped it off an inch or two off the ground. At that point, he noticed a roughly 20-foot wide hole in the middle of the rock.

This is or rather was used by the inhabitants to tie a rope around and climb down into the pit.

Eventually, they figured out what to use the post for and Hugo climbed down into the pit...

He found himself in a rectangular room with doors in the west, east and southern walls. Right beneath him was a square pit going down into the darkness. Swinging to one side, he looked around and then told the others to come down. He pulled the rope to the side to stop anyone going too far down. Once everyone was assembled it was decided to try the eastern door first. It opened out onto a short corridor. Most of the group wandered into it and found that it emptied into a vast cavern and a cliff edge. The light however disturbed a colony of bats who had made their home in the cave and the group found several members got badly injured from the thousands of tiny creatures. Except for Arnes. She had made herself busy rooting around in one nostril, trying to dislodge a booger that had gone all hard and crusty. It had been causing her some discomfort the entire journey and she could tolerate it no longer.


The next door they tried was the southern one. It opened to a short corridor that turned sharply to the west where a flickering light shone. Maddox immediately set off down the corridor only to discover a pit trap halfway down. He plummeted down smacking into the hard, unforgiving stone 10 feet down. He managed to scrabble up and climb out the other side. Peering around the corner he saw a dead end with a burning wooden torch in an iron bracket. Convinced this must have a secret passage, he searched around and discovered that he could put his hand through the torch and bracket!


This was a simple illusion placed there to lure people onto the pit trap. That someone might bait a trap in such a manner completely escaped the parties radar.


Others joined Maddox in the narrow corridor, but no one could find how to activate the secret door.


Which wasn't there anyway. But I might go back now and add one. I mean, yeah you can read this and think that you are getting clues to the game, but really I go back and change things. :D


Anyway...


Despite a complete lack of jumping ability, Zayel decided to jump over the pit. And promptly went splat. She would manage to fall into the pit a further twice before making it to the other side and oddly enough still didn't find a secret door. Glaxo meanwhile wandered through the door into the next room. Four orcs were sitting in the room around a table slumped in gentle repose. He ran in and killed one as the quartet groggily awoke, however, the other three quickly overwhelmed him and left him bleeding on the floor. The Orc's then pushed into the first room. As with the Goblin fight, the party responded piecemeal to them, something that came close to bringing them to a disastrous end.


While the party's reactions to combat are somewhat realistic for noob adventurers, the creatures they are fighting are experienced warriors and if the party doesn't work together better, they are going to be overwhelmed sooner rather than later. It will be interesting to see how this works out, especially if they wander into one of the fights that is too tough for the group.

Arnes fired off a shot with her bow, but still taken by surprise her shot went about as wide as it humanly (or rather evenly) possible. Zayel had managed to make her way back into the main room and waded into melee with the orcs, but unsupported by the rest of the group was sent crashing to the floor. Near-death, the only person in the group with healing spells lay unconscious. Barely the group managed to pull things together and kill the four orcs, but at a heavy cost in terms of wounds. They checked the next room and saw a single door leading further on. It was decided to take all the furniture lying around and pile it up against the door, then return to the village to rest up for the night before returning on the moro.


And with that the session ended for the night.

*Always read the fine print when signing a contract in a fantasy setting.

I'm impressed you're able to make so much progress on your games!  My husband and his friends have been playing for a couple weeks now (a palladium game, not D&D exactly) and already the party has split off in two different tangents, 3 guys have left, and they spend most of the evening arguing about one rule or another.  This happens almost every time my husband plays and he's been playing longer than I've been alive, but somehow they find it fun.   

I did mean to ask you though - I've heard that it's kind of a golden rule for party never to split up, is that true?  I keep bringing that up when I hear that it happens in one of his games.

Heh, it depends on the game. I think the saying started in Call of Cthulhu in which you really do not want to split the party and has spread through other systems. There are plenty of times in D&D when it is actually a good idea to split up. You don't want to go scouting with someone wearing clanky plate armour, or when the group goes to buy supplies. You want to all be together in the event of a fight though.

Is it Rifts he is playing by any chance? I've heard of it, although it isn't one I've played. If he ever wants to listen in on one of our games, he'd be welcome to join a couple of others who seem to like to listen in (although I do ask people listening not to interfere with the game while it's in progress, they are free to ask questions or anything afterwards).

I believe they are playing Rifts, though they've played other palladium games before as well as D&D.  My husband is just playing right now for the social interaction.  He knows this game is going nowhere and it was doomed from the start.  His main group consider themselves "seasoned gamers" so they all think they know everything and act accordingly, never playing for fun, just trying to catch each other on not knowing something.  They prefer the palladium format because they think the rules of D&D are too restrictive and they don't want to be "railroaded".  I don't think they can consider themselves seasoned gamers just because they maybe played through a game successfully when they were teenagers.  They've certainly not played through one since I've known them, but then they say girls are a distraction so they'd probably blame it on me :).

I like to think of rules as being more guidelines than anything laid down in stone. It sounds like what they have is a collection of what we normally call "rules lawyers". I've came across that in singular people before. I can't imagine playing in a whole group of them, but hey as long as they are enjoying it then more power to them.

The Fifth and Sixth Sessions.


Falling a little behind here, so I'll need to summarise a bit. The group found themselves fighting their way through a series of largish chambers, evidently where the goblins laired. A corridor at the end led to some small side offices, one of which contained their chieftain. A short but vicious fight with him left him dead along with his minions. The group found a large horde of coins, although much to their dismay they were copper rather than silver or gold. It was decided since they were badly wounded and low on spells that they would rest up for the night, scattering the horde of coins around so to prevent anyone sneaking up on them while they slept in leu of a sentry.


Their rest passed peacefully enough and on awakening, it was decided to explore more. The corridor the offices were in came to an abrupt end, with pair of doors barricaded shut. Crude carvings of various Goblinoid religious markings made Zayel think this was some sort of warning and a long debate ensued on whether they should explore further in this direction or go elsewhere in the dungeon and come back here later. Eventually, the decision was made to go back to the T junction and take the other fork.

The northward path eventually brought them to another door. Opening it carefully they could see a room, part of which was taken up by a crudely constructed fort. Spears jabbed out at them from slits in the walls. There was another door leading from the room, but with no way to reach it without exposing themselves to the sharp pointy sticks. Glaxo and Tykum decided the best way to proceed was a headlong charge and proceeded to tear into the walls of the makeshift strongpoint. Xora cast a spell causing several of the spears to suddenly drop limply to the floor as their owners fell asleep. Quickly bashing a large hole in the wall, the group was confronted by a gaggle of small, lizard-like creatures, but ones that walked on 2 legs (Kobolds). After a short fight, all the strange creatures lay strewn about in a pile of dead bodies.

Finding nothing of value on the corpses, it was decided to push on. The other exit was stiff, but a bit of violence soon got it fully open.

The door opened up into a long and wide corridor. On the south wall, they could see a couple of doors by the steady lantern light while opposite them sat an opening. The corridor continued into the darkness beyond what they could see though. It was decided to have Hugo with his ability to see in the dark scout down the corridor. He first checked the open archway in the northern wall. It opened up into a room that had a strong animal smell to it and many piles of dirty furs lay scattered around with overly aged straw. Other than an undoubted horde of insects there was no living creature in the chamber. No further exits led from the room.


Finding nothing interesting in the first room, he turned to the southern doors. The first one opened easily enough and revealed a small room packed with broken crates and barrels. Disappointed in finding nothing he could squish with his club he went to the next door. It wasn't locked but would not open easily. The thought of making all the noise it would take to batter the door down seemed to be a bad one even to Hugo's dim mind so he decided to leave this room for the moment.


Moving further down the corridor, Hugo noticed a second archway in the north. He ambled towards it, vaguely noticing a crossroads opening up new passages to the east and south. He walked into the room and then suddenly stopped as he could make out a virtual horde of the same small lizardmen creatures they had fought previously. Realising he was alone and heavily outnumbered he let out a yelp, running about down the corridor to his companions hotly pursued by the creatures. His companions hearing the shouts prepared for battle. A whirling melee broke out in the narrow passageway. Their opponents were small and numerous, but individually were no match for the group. Several managed to surround Maddocks and he fell to the group pierced in multiple places!

Enraged his companions redoubled their efforts and hacked down the last of the tiny creatures. They quickly grabbed poor Maddock's body and decided to beat a hasty retreat to the village, burying their fallen companion in a hilltop en route.

The following session saw the players return to the first level, returning to where Maddock had died. They could hear crying and wailing and following the noises attempted to track down their source. In a room that was larger than they could see they found an underground village filled evidently with nominally non-combatants grieving for their lost love ones. The party attempted to establish communications, but (having slaughtered the adult males of the settlement) found their overtures somewhat... resisted. The resistance came in the form of a hail of sling pellets that while caused little damage individually, were numerous. Standing in the open and being hit multiple times meant this damage was quickly accumulating to dangerous levels. A room to the north had a low barricade and was filled with tiny weapons, small even by these stunted creatures standards.


This is what passes for daycare in Kobold society. They would be put in this room and would fight to establish dominance.

It was decided to forget trying to make peaceful contact at this point and push on. The passage turned into a spiral leading downwards.


And with that, the session ended for the night.

So kobold day care is modeled on human middle school?  :wink:

You going to get the D&D-themed MTG cards this summer?

If I see them I might pick them up out of curiosity, but I am not going to go out of my way to get them.

I must admit I've cheated a few times by looking new card sets up online without buying them.

I wonder if that'll send me to one of the Nine Hells?

Old testament, hell yeah. New testament, only if you are not sorry you did it.

I meant D&D Nine Hells, but now you got me worried.

Uhm... say 50 hail Mary's and twirl your rosery beads around like a hula hoop and you'll be all square with the man upstairs? From what I've seen on the TV he likes that kind of thing.

I know, man, he can make quasars and invent higher math, but for some reason reciting a rosary over and over just thrills the big guy!

The Seventh Session.


The group followed the path as it spiralled gently downwards. Once long ago these had been steps but the trudge of countless feet over millennia had left them smoothly sloping. They were confronted by a wide set of double doors which caused them to pause and debate for a while. Careful listening at the door revealed nothing and eventually, they opened it and stepped through. The room they entered next revealed no cause for their caution, it merely being a four-sided room with another set of double doors in the middle of each wall. To the east, the doors had a bar holding them shut, although not one that would give them any problems to remove. The southern doors were in a much worse condition. They were split in many places and only a series of jury-rigged braces kept them in place. Hugo ran over to these doors and immediately started ripping the braces away causing the stone doors to fall to the ground with an almighty crash. The other side of the doors had a passageway whose length had been rudely interrupted by a gaping chasm. It stood to reason that this was the same chasm where above they had encountered the flock of bats. Over on what was presumably the other side of the cavern the group could see some faint lights shining, including one that was perhaps 20 feet along the rockface, opening up into another room, although the angle of the walls prevented them from seeing much into the place.


It was decided not to investigate this further and instead look at the final exit in the western wall. These doors lay slightly ajar and when pushed open showed them an even wider passageway, every surface of which was overrun with some odd plant that could apparently grow with equal ease on the ceiling, walls or floor. From her travels, Arnes recognised this as a type of fungus common underground. It was harmless and formed the staple diet of many of the smaller creatures to be found underground. Most humanoid creatures found it unpalatable, but if one were desperate one could survive for a while on it, although the lack of certain vital nutrients prevented a more long term existence based on eating it. The wide corridor let westwards for a short distance before opening up onto a massive thoroughfare running north to south. Along the opposite wall could be seen a large number of doorways lining the side, and a bit of investigation revealed some doors on the same side of the corridor as them, although far fewer than on the far wall. It was decided to investigate some of the rooms. As they went to investigate the first room, tentacles suddenly lashed out, catching Tykum and attempting to pull him into a previously hidden hole in the wall. The party hacked away at them but found the tough, rubbery hide hard to penetrate but Hugo came to their rescue, beating the snakelike creature with his massive club until it was hard to recognise what the monster once was. Having dealt with it they continued with their investigation and found a series of linked rooms, but ultimately with no exits to elsewhere. It gave the impression of having been a house or workshop (or even a combination of both). Tykum, being a Dwarf was well familiar with what these really were, but for his own reasons chose to keep this information to himself. Searching the room did uncover a substantial amount of gold that the party gladly pocketed.


The next doorway led to another series of rooms, as did the third doorway, but on entering the room the party found themselves stuck to the floor. They were unable to lift their feet. A creature that looked part humanoid and part spider ran around the walls and attempted to sink its fangs into Tykum. He bravely tried to fight the creature off, but it managed to find a chink in his armour and plunged its venom-filled fangs into his arm. Once again Glaxo came to the rescue, splattering the creature with a single blow from his club, but the potent poisons were rushing through Tykums body. The room spun and he felt uncontrollably dizzy, falling to the ground in an uncoordinated heep.


And with that the session ended for the night.

The Eighth Session.

With one party member a drooling mess, and the rest low of spells and hit points the group decided to rest up and recover. They did sort of rescue a gnome from the web of the spider thing and clear up the sticky webbing from the floor. The gnome introduced himself as Felix and even allowing for height differences, he and Glaxo did no see eye to eye, the pair almost coming to blows. Meanwhile, Xora and Zayel were having an argument.

I honestly thought the party was going to start fighting each other.


No wait, resting and recovering would have been the sensible thing to do. What the party actually did was split up and search more rooms. Glaxo found a room where two large scorpions (about the size of a very large dog each), were being attacked by a swarm of giant centipedes (smaller than the scorpions, but still big). They backed out of the room carefully, not attracting any attention and then Glaxo shouted for the rest of the group...


Yeah, so the party found itself separated and in a big fight that they didn't need to get involved in. Could have waited for a winner and then killed off the weakened survivors, but no. Glaxo was charged by an enraged scorpion. They were having problems hitting the centipedes and the human-made an easier target to vent their anger on. He was left nearly dead by its crushing claws. Felix too came close to dying (and his player was bemoaning that he'd only had the character for 5 minutes).


As the party was nearly overwhelmed, they were saved by some out of the box thinking by Zayel who cast Light. The creatures used to living in the dim, shadowy light of the fungus fled from the bright glow. Meanwhile, the party retreated to one of the empty side buildings, where they barricaded themselves inside and prepared to take a rest.


And with that the session ended for the night.

The Ninth Session.


Drained of spells and blood, the party rested up overnight. The next day found them still feeling weakened and it was decided to keep resting up in the complex of rooms they had claimed as a temporary base.


Glaxo kept them occupied by deciding to kill Arnes while the pair of them were alone in one of the rooms. He pulled out his axe and buried it deep in her side, dropping her to the floor instantly. The rest of the party came running when they heard her scream and were greeted with the sight of Glaxo standing over her, bloody axe in hand. Hugo decided to pin his erstwhile companion, while the others struggled to relieve him of his gory axe. He initially claimed she'd attacked him first but given all her weapons were sheathed this seemed to be an unlikely scenario. Unconvinced by his somewhat wavering story, Zayel used magical means to compel Glaxo to tell the truth and he admitted he has slain the unsuspecting ranger for no particular reason. Unsure of what to do next, the group extracted a promise from him that he would surrender his axe at night into the care of Zayel and made it quite clear if he attacked another party member there would not be another chance for him.

Me, I'd have killed him, burned the remains and then fed them to the various insects around the level as an insurance policy.

They laid poor Arnes body out on one of the tables and with a mistrustful eye on Glaxo, they set off to further explore. The next few doors led into assorted series of rooms, each seeming to be a living space leading off from a shop or workspace of some kind. They were all empty. Where the broad main passage reached a corner though, one room seemed to contain a large, brightly painted boulder. At least that is what they thought it was until they entered the room and the 'boulder' got shakily to its multiple legs and insectile eyes stared at them. Mandibles clacked angrily, and the creature spun around to point its rear end at them. Not sure what was going on, the group decided to back out of the room and the creature settled back down on its nest. While they found numerous empty rooms, the next occupied one was to come as much more of a shock...

As the party entered the room, a pair of long, green, scimitar like forelimbs lashed out at the group as they were ambushed by a giant Preying Mantis. Tykum's head went tumbling from his shoulders. His body tumbled sideways and collapsed, fountaining blood from the torn stump of his neck. Enraged by this second death of a group member, the others closed around the monstrous insect and hacked it to gory pieces.

Having sustained so much damage it was decided to retreat to the village, which was managed without further drama. The local mystic was able to return Tykum to life, but what the party did not realise was the full price behind this (a feat far beyond his normal powers) or what would have to be paid back in the future.

And with that, the session ended for the night.

The Tenth Session.


Not a lot actually happened in this game. It was mostly spent on in character roleplaying. They did manage to return to the undercity though. That was about it.

The Eleventh Session.


A couple of previously unexplored rooms were finally discovered. The first was the boarded-up room in the Goblin area. The party prised open the doors and could see a number of semi-translucent figures floating about the room. They appeared Dwarvish in nature but were dressed in somewhat archaic clothes, much like a modern-day human discovering people dressed in Roman togas. The figures floated angrily over towards the group, but on spotting Tykum (or Kaitryn as he (or she) has renamed herself), the ghostly forms floated over to him (terrifying poor Hugo in the process who was curled up on the floor gibbering) and in his native tongue told him their sorry tale. Long ago a man had came to the city and demanded the Dwarves living their abandon it. When they refused and chased him off, he summoned down a rain of rocks from the sky that decimated the city above ground. Then he called up spirits of the earth who rent the underground city, opening it up to the Underdark. The city was invaded by all manner of fel creatures and although they fought bravely, the defenders were overwhelmed by the numbers of the host arrayed against them. The last defenders had held out in this very room refusing to let it fall to the invaders even after death. Now one of their kin had returned, surely a sign that others would come soon and retake the city. Their ancient vigil finally over the spirits slowly faded from sight leaving only an aura of sadness.


The next room was further to the north, in the Kobold zone. They entered a room finding it stacked high with corpses in various states of decomposition. Most of the bodies were those of the same types of creatures that they had encountered on this level already, although a few more exotic creatures were found amongst them. One thing all the bodies had in common was that their hands had all been severed at the wrist.


Curious about this, but unable to come up with a reason for such desecration the party continued back down to the second sub-level. They continued exploring the long-abandoned shops and workshops. They walked over to one room, finding it to be much larger than any of the previous ones. Whereas they had been a network of small interlinked rooms, this one was a massive rectangle. A dozen or so Orcish bodies lay strewn around (I was hoping the party would check to see if they still had their hands or not, but no one looked) and in the midst of the carnage stood a lone creature and a most curious one to look on at that...

The creature was taller than a human and lean. It had dry green skin and a snaky beard that writhed and loiled as if alive. In one hand it held a long polearm (Glaive), which it tossed up and caught in one hand. As the party entered it spoke to them in an archaic version of common, telling the party that the master of the dungeon was aware of their presence and did not appreciate them slaughtering his subjects. The party tried to find out who its master was, which brought an angry retort that it had no master (it tended to refer to 'the one who summoned me'). The party managed to trade some of the magic potions they had in return for some basic information (they got the name of the person who summoned it). Throughout the conversation the creature taunted the party, daring it to attack them.


And with that, the session ended for the night.

The Twelfth Session.


Deciding to accept the challenge the party attacked the demonic creature. It was a tough fight and it left the party carrying several heavy wounds (some of which will turn out to be more serious than others...), but they were in the end victorious. Glaxo immediately wanted to collect its weapon, but the rest of the party (especially with Kaitryn sensing an aura of evil from the item) refused to let him take it. The party then returned to their base camp and rested up. During what we will term the night, although no one knew what time it was, Glaxo convinced poor old simple Hugo that he should untie him. As soon as he was free Glaxo of course headed off to go find the glaive the demon had used.

In the morning, when the rest of the group returned to where they'd set up their temporary lair they found Glaxo waiting for them. A few terse minutes passed as it was argued wither to let him keep the glaive he had retrieved from where it had been hidden under the pile of Orcish bodies. Unwilling to push this to a combat, the party relented and let him retain the weapon.


And with that, the session ended for the night.