Edon

Edon is the capital city, host to a number of ports, taverns, theaters, and temples, as well as the seat of the Empress Avita.  It's surrounded by a large alabaster wall punctuated by turrets that each have a different color focusing crystal in them, making the city a defensible fortress.

7-5-15 Recap

7/5 game

The heroes regrouped from their silver mine excursion in the dilapidated ghost town surrounding it.  Fladuk was mourned -- to a point -- and supplies were scavenged for.  The party rested in the mine with the doors shut, but soon detected Phase Spiders advancing on them.  The spiders were scared off, but everyone decided that perhaps they'd be safer sleeping outside of the cave.  Archibald and Fladuk's corpses were hidden or disposed of, though I can't recall how.

In the morning, the party headed Northeast to get away from the plateau.  In the distance, they noticed unseasonal snow clouds over the mountains.  Eventually, the adventurers arrived at a large field with three tall obelisks.  Around the bases of the towers were several badly decomposed bodies -- perhaps Archibald's party?  As they approached the obelisks, the day turned to night, and the stars in the sky were not those of the normal realm.  Each tower pointed to a specific star -- perhaps the three swirling stars of the cult?  Also, a ghost appeared.  These strange occurrences led the heroes to conclude that they had entered the strange nega/dark/dream/spirit realm that they had encountered in their initial mission to rescue Sebastian Cornfallow.

The ghost revealed himself to be Archibald's brother, Valentius.  The heroes explained Archibald's fate to Valentius, but took care to emphasize that he had died doing a noble deed -- aiding their escape -- and that Archibald's killer had met an unpleasant end.  Valentius told them something along the lines of, "You must stay the path; only a straight arrow can pierce the whatever," before vanishing in an awesome and spooky fashion.

The party continued on through the ghost world, eventually coming to a small deserted town in a dense forest (jungle?).  Suddenly, they were attached by a giant snake skeleton!  This animated creature, called a Bone Naga, was pretty gnarly but thoroughly outgunned, and we dispatched of it heroically.  Phobos snagged a bit of the bone powder it left behind.

Suddenly (I think?) the heroes found themselves back in an alley in Edon!!  They had been transported across space and dimension back to their world.  They were almost immediately set upon by a zombie, who was no match for their combat prowess.  Climbing onto the rooftops, they oriented themselves within the city, which was curiously empty.  Recalling a previous portent in one of Vincent's letters to Kao-Su that, "the infestation had taken hold in Edon," as well as the mysteriously dead horses in the fine stables, the party concluded that the town had probably been overrun by zombies.

They hopped across the rooftops, eventually arriving at the docks where there was a large crowd of people attempting to access boats to escape the city.  The city guard, called the Phalanx, were holding the crowds back.  Mr. Pug (I think?) read the name of a boat, and (Hubert or Phobos?) tried to convince the guard to let the pirate crew access "their" property.

I forget how we ended up jumping on the boat, but in the end, we were able to make our way off the island (much to the annoyance of the Phalanx guard, who I'm sure won't harbor any grudge) and are currently sailing back toward Bernard Beaucard's manor and the Ol' Kyle to get an explanation of WTF happened and let him know about our royal screwup (but also the information we gleaned)

6-28-15 Recap

The Most Dangerous Game: or The Inevitable Yet Totally Avoidable Death of Fladuk Redarm

We started where we had left off, with our heroes awakening in a large cage somewhere in the woods. Lord Vincent Beaucard and his men were standing nearby, looking like they were preparing for a hunt. He gave a small villain speech about how he knew who we were from the moment we met him and that we had been on his cousins ship. Despite some clever parlay from Phobos, Beaucard refused to divulge his entire evil plan "just because we're about to die."

Mr. Pug noticed that despite being stripped of armor, weapons, and gear, there was a rack in our cage with some junky old weapons and leather armor. Mr. Pug immediately grabbed a handaxe and threw it at Beaucard, who deftly caught it. Then Hubert cast a sleep spell... on the guy next to Beaucard... and Mr. Pug threw another axe... at Beaucard, which he caught. So Beaucard informed them that we would be hunted and he would give us a two or three minute head start. Then and his men howled and we were off.

We ran east, which was a direction found pretty much at random, until Lapu Lapu determined a river was nearby. We found the river and saw that it flowed from the north to the south, so we dove in a swam with the current down stream a ways, putting a nice bit of distance between us and our pursuers, hopefully also throwing them off our scent. Oh at some point during our initial burst of running away, Fladuk mentioned that Beaucard and his men were all werewolves, which kinda makes sense with all the howling.

After exiting the river, we continued east until we found a chasm with a rickety rope bridge spanning it. We all hurried accross it quickly and once we were safe on the other side, cut the ropes and let the bridge fall.  We took a moment to catch our breath and don our cheap leather armor, when we met a crazy old gnome named Archibald. We learned from him that we were now on an plateau which was also an island of sorts, mostly cut off from the surrounding area by the chasm. On the island was an old sealed up silver mine, which Beaucard was afraid of. Other than that Archibald wasn't very helpful and seemed content to be a crazy old hermit living in constant fear. We didn't like him.

We broke into the mine and started exploring it. Fladuk left to gather sticks for torches but also, it turns out, to murder Archinald so he wouldn't snitch on us. No one else in the party suggested he go do that. Certainly not. No oneelse thought it was a good idea to cover our bases and that the gnome seemed shifty and untrustworthy. And now, as events will reveal, there's no one left alive who can prove otherwise.

Eventually we discovered passage that opened up a bit to reveal a pit of lava with a floating, flaming skull, that seemed to be bound there. The skull warned us off and told us he was sworn to protect the cave and the silver within by one of Beaucards ancestors. We tried to reason with him and told him the person who made him swear the oath was dead and he was released but he said it didn't work that way. We asked him if he wanted to be released and he seemed open to the idea. However whole this was going on, Fladuk kept trying to attack the skull, with Mr. Pug going as far as physically holding him back from doing so. Eventually, Pug let him go because it seemed kind of futile. Fladuk did attack the skull, and while he did, everyone else ran into the room the flaming skull was guarding. It was full of silver weapons! Also, adamantine scale mail which Mr. Pug took.

Then we tried to run away but the flaming skull, sensing he was duped unleashed a fireball which reduced Fladuk, Lapu Lapu, and Hubert to less than zero hit points. Mr. Pug dragged Hubert and Lapu Lapu down a hallway to safety while Phobos was able to save himself. Fladuk was not so lucky however and the flaming skull completely incinerated his body. The rest of the party escaped the tunnels mostly intact, only of course to find Archibald corpse split in half waiting for them outside.

Session #7 06/07/15

Picking up from whence we last left off, our motley crew is en route to Chateau Boucard, Vincent's cliff-side manor in the Monteban province. We manage to make our way across a lowered drawbridge spanning a crevice while Vincent and Phobos remark on their respective wealth and standing while Mr. Pug embarrassingly tries to emulate them. Typhon dons his alabaster mask, remarking that he's been to plenty of "these types of parties before". Waiting for us in the opulent, velvet tapestry ensconced and mahogany scented foyer we enter into is one Reeves, Vincent's manservant and, as we'll discover later, vomit decontaminator. In the interim, Vincent demands he fetch some more wine for the party while Dartanian requests that afterwards he sanitizes the prostitutes they've brought along.

As Vincent leads everyone into an adjoining sitting room, Phobos takes in the decor to try and get a better feel for the man we're tasked on obtaining intel on. Dartanian, on the other hand, nicks a bejeweled candelabra. Both then join the group as drinks begin to get poured. Phobos sees an opportunity to further impress Msr. Boucard and mage hand mixes a drink, which Vincent tastes and finds satisfactory. Sensing a chance to distract our host in hopes one of us can sneak off, Mr. Pug elects to do a handstand and take a shot at the same time, a feat quite impressive considering his size. As he asks for attention, Dartanian takes note and steps quietly back into the hall. However Pug's performance has the opposite effect and actually makes Boucard a tad jealous at the display of agility instead. Pug awkwardly notices the party foul and excuses himself to use the restroom and joins Dartanian in the hallway.

Alone, the pair begin to ascend a stairway to the second floor but a mixture of Pug's heavy footsteps and Pug's chain mail armor and Pug just generally screwing things up like a medieval Urkel draws Reeves' attention. He tells us that the west wing is closed and that we're not supposed to be going up there. Feigning ignorance, we reluctantly walk back down. But, alas, Pug makes amends, throwing his arm over Reeves' shoulder and engaging him in what was surely some Sorkin-esque reporté in order to divert Reeves' attention to allow Dartanian to resume his sneakiness. Dartanian Mathias Xavier tiptoes back up the stairs and, to the immediate right on the second floor of the manse, finds a large wooden door with a lock slung across the handles. He quickly picks it with his thieves tools and is greeted by a long hallway with sconces on either side. As he makes his way down, he begins to gently turn and pull and press each sconce under the impression that one might lead to a secret passage, as wall-mounted sconces are wont to do. Instead he finds that as he moves down, the sconces further on suddenly appear to have already been pulled. How curious.

Meanwhile, the after party appears to be winding down as Vincent stands to depart back to his chamber for a nightcap/hooker sex. Phobos wisely attempts to keep the revelry going and insists Msr. Boucard have one more drink. Typhon ups the ante and breaks out the gooooood stuff: a bottle of Monteban liquor. Typhon passes around the bottle and they each tip theirs back. Phobos is a tad concerned he might not be able to handle the hard stuff and uses a little spell to toughen his constitution. He and everyone else seems to stomach the booze okay but sadly the side effect of Phobos' spell comes back to bite him as a third eye suddenly sprouts from his forehead. Vincent is luckily deep in his cups at this point and assumes he's just getting some mead goggles and pretty much ignores it and begins to finally make his way to bed. Everyone pleads with him to stay but he's had his fill and heads off to hit the hay. Reeves starts to follow his master but Phobos and Typhon and Pug try to pump him for information instead. But he's a stubborn, honor bound butler and similarly begins to walk off. In a moment of quick, if perhaps ill advised, thinking, Typhon vomits. This has 2 consequences: firstly, Reeves must now grab some club soda and a rag to scrub up said vomit. That's good! Secondly, Typhon is still wearing his sex mask and, thusly, is doused by his own ricochet. That's bad.

As the sickness spills out on the floor below, Dartanian is still trying to traverse the hallway he unlocked upstairs. The further he moves down the hallway, the further he seems to end up from the end of it. Suddenly there's a slight rumble and a fireball appears at the end of the hallway. He hugs the wall and dodges it and watches it go by... only to disappear and suddenly appear at the end of the hallway again, coming towards him a second time! WHAT IS THIS SORCERY?!?

With Reeves preoccupied cleaning and Vincent back in his bed chambers, Phobos and Pug turn to the comely escorts we brought along to pry info out of. Pug finds than even when all he wants is conversation, these ladies still demand top coin. After dishing out a few dozen gold pieces, one of the ladies of the night tells of a disturbing hunting tale she heard about Vincent wherein he likes to intentionally maim animals because he enjoys their suffering and then likes to get up close and personal for the final kill. Pug wants more but her greediness and rudeness finally gets the better of the old sailor, who accuses her of many unsavory things, not least of which is cod swalloping. Phobos discovers similar accusations from his escort. He asks about secret places she might know about and ho boy she shows him one alright! HEYO!

Pug finally remarks that Dartanian has been gone a suspiciously long time at this point. They all sneak off and come upstairs to see Dartanian stuck in the hallway with this perpetual fireball going back and forth. Pug tosses a length of rope into the hallway but as he pulls it in, it snaps and the end comes out at the back of the hallway BECAUSE PORTAL. He then realizes, as the fireball disappears from right in front of them again, that the heat can only be felt along the side, not the middle. Therefore all stupid Dartanian needs to do is hug the wall and strafe along it and viola! You're free dummy! Turns out there's some runes and stuff on the floor Dartanian missed on his way in that activated all this magical mumbo jumbo. Now that it's all been spotted and noted, they move along after the fireball fizzles out.

The hallway eventually curves and leads to a room. A dark room. A dark room lit by a single blue flame. A dark room lit by a single blue flame whose darkness seems to magically swallow any other light from any other source. Only the blue flame illuminates anything. Spotting some unlit braziers, Dartanian breaks out one of his candles and lights it up... like a candle... from the blue flame, then goes around to the other braziers and lights them. With the room now nearly fully illuminated, the party see there's a firepit in the center of the room. Lastly, Dartanian lights that up to and the flames flare up brightly, briefly blinding the group. As they regain their vision, it appears that the room has transformed, or they otherwise teleported. The pillars have morphed into strange humanoid figures and hieroglyphics, much like those from the water temple we fought the gibbering mouther.

But we don't have a ton of time to take in the scenery as we hear a strange growl behind us and turn to see a giant eye with eye tentacles. Mufukin spectator yo. But despite the copious consumption of alcohol, we're all on point and toast that creepy looking dickcheese without anyone taking a scratch. So now we investigate things further and come across a few interesting tidbits, like a letter from Vincent to General Howsu stating "The infestation has taken hold and Edon is ripe for the picking." Hm... could that have something to do with the dead horses we saw in the stables? Maybe that won't be another unsolved mystery that goes down in history. But as a whole the room looks like a Tiefling sacrificial chamber although the writing scattered about is completely unrecognizable to any of us. There was also a book, I think, possibly a diary, noting that Eldath are being picked off by the black haired woman. There's also a totem littered with more writing and while we still don't recognize it, Typhon smartly grabs some paper and ink and a quill and places the paper flat against the totem and just scratches the quill across to highlight the inscriptions, a la Indiana Jones. Phobos then realizes he has seen those inscriptions before and pulls out an old diary he's been carrying with him, although he's unsure of the connection.

Content we've covered every inch of this extra dimensional room, we douse the flames of the firepit hoping that that should transport us back to Boucard's. Unfortunately it does, but we find ourselves back into the room we initially transported from but now in the midst of some noxious smokey fumes. The door is closed and with his last gasp Typhon heaves a battering spell and blows the door apart, along with a pair of Boucard's guards behind it. But behind them are another dozen guards and Boucard himself, with Reeves by his side. Pug and Phobos then succumb to the smoke as well and fall to the floor. Seeing a window and an opportunity to try and make a last ditch escape, Dartanian holds his breath, grabs the candelabra out of his bag and motions to throw it through the window... but sees his new comrades all out for the count and elects to join them in whatever fate destiny has set for them, and simply remarks "Oh how did this thing get in here?" and drops the candelabra as he also falls to the floor. As they slip out of consciousness, the last thing they hear Boucard say is "Reeves, please tell Lebianne that I'll be taking care of them."

 

-Dartanian

Session #6 5/31/15

When last we left our heroes, they were in the company of Caldwell, at his estate. We were discussing the vision that depicted three men coming out of a cave, one portly man of fine design (who we later found out was Lord Montebon), a tall figure wearing black, and a third, whose description escapes me. We were given the option to pursue any of the three, but since our new companion, Dartaneyen, was familiar with the Montebon family, we chose that route.

We soon realized that there was no way to access the city via the sea, making it a very strategic location. Instead, we would need to approach via land, making our way through the ____ Forest, famous for its ____ wood, which is fire-hardened and made the empire rich during war times. We made our way for a day, where we set up camp. During second watch, we were surprised by an attack by 3 direwolfs and 1 werewolf, which after a few rounds we disposed of.

At the end of another day of travel, we happened upon an inn, which we stayed at to gain some information about the lord we were about to encounter. We learned that, amongst other things, he was a lush and enjoyed other raucous behavior.

When we finally made it to the capitol of the Montebon lands, we used the deception of traveling merchants, interested in buying ____ wood for our ship building business, to get by the guards. After some discussion, we chose to go to a tavern and learn a bit more about the town and the lord. As luck would have it, we happened upon Lord Montebon, enjoying his most carnal of desires, surrounded by 8-10s and wine, with the peripheral 7 trying to wiggle her way in. While Fladuk chatted up a local with Dartaneyen looking on, the rest of the group approached Lord Montebon.

After some flattery and drinking contests.....

That's all I remember. I was discussing my exit with Brad via text and wasn't paying full attention to the rest of the game. - Ted

Full Size Map

Session #5 05/24/15

Lebienne awoke with a start, her eyes glowing red and her hands immediately wrapping around Lapu Lapu's neck. However, as quickly as it began, it was over, and she returned to her normal self before the party had time to strike out with their weapons. When asked how she had recovered from the mouther so miraculously, she gave a vague, non-commital, surely evil answer. Phobos gives the order to cast "Detect Good and Evil" as soon as possible.

The ghostly woman appeared again -- the same one from the Sebastian rescue mission, and earlier in the temple -- telling us that we would never take the temple, or uncover its secrets. She disappeared!

The ground began shaking, and water began rushing into the room. Typhon was able to blast apart the heavy stone doors with a thunderclap spell, and we squeezed through the narrow opening. In the hallway, we came to a stairwell, but lacking the time and means to dive and explore the now-flooded lower levels of the temple, we opted for not drowning, and took the stairs up to the surface.

 

Back at the port, civilians of Madden rushed to the dock of the Ol' Kyle, crying out for refuge from their rapidly sinking island. Taking pity on them, Mr. Pug allowed as many onboard as he could; about 40 or 50. They were allowed to stay on the condition that they remained calm. Fladuk eagerly scanned the crowd for any who weren't, and would thus be fair game to throw overboard.

 

As the dungeoneers made it to the surface, the temple disappeared into the sinkhole, and the rest of the island seemed to be following suit. Typhon drew the conch shell given to us by Ol' Tiberius, and summoned the rafting druid, who lamented the loss of his finest poophole, but rescued the group anyway. The island now nearly entirely submerged beneath the waves, Tiberius navigated his raft to reconnoiter with the Ol' Kyle, where we boarded our ship.

 

We elected to head back to Caldwell (aka Mattias) with the refugees and what information we'd gathered. During the voyage, a female gnome took sick. In an effort to swiftly prevent infection, Fladuk picked her up to toss her overboard. Mr. Pug drew his sword on Fladuk, saying that only the Captain had the authority to throw anyone overboard. Phobos reminded everyone that he was totally the captain, and that they had totally unanimously agreed on it at some point in the past that definitely happened.

While these negotiations where underway, the gnome sprouted nasty fungal growths from her head. Lapu Lapu stabbed the gnome, and Fladuk threw her overboard. The party then fell into a debate about how to deal with an infection, and who exactly was captain, anyway, when a mushroom monster jellyfish was spotted climbing up the side of the ship.

Battle was then met, against a large psychic jellyfish monster and some of its minions. Fladuk was nearly killed in melee combat, and any contact with them resulted in psychic visions of death. Phobos opted to stand back at a safe distance and lob magic missiles at the big one. It should be noted that we might be advised, in future battles, to concentrate on one target at a time. Phobos landed a killing blow, and the jellyfish exploded into truffle oil.

However, during the fight, one of the jellyfish-mushroom-spores infected Mr. Pug! Pug had visions of a peaceful field, but, knowing that his mind and body were no longer his own, attempted to throw himself overboard! Another jellyfish floated out of the water, caught Pug in its tentacles, and dropped him safely back on deck. Not wanting to join these slimy sea denizens, Pug then attempted to commit seppuku with his cutlass.

The jellyfish explained, as best it could in psychic images and visions, that it meant no harm to Pug or us. They had been a coastal colony on the island, and escaped its sinking by clinging to the bottom of the Ol' Kyle. Starving, a rogue member of their group had infected the gnome woman, and it and its band of renegades attacked us. The remaining jellyfish men were simply refugees as well, same as the dwarves and gnomes of Madden.

As an act of good faith, they provided us with some information about previous visitors to the island: three sailors, a Wei-Shen male with a long, thin beard; a Tiefling of Hajar; and a Lothair man bearing a striking resemblance to Bernard Beaucard. On their shoulders was the same symbol we had seen on the cultists' robes: three swirling stars. In exchange for this information, the jellyfish claimed another, already infected dwarf, for further dining. The ethical implications of this are...troubling.

 

The jellyfish men back in the water, Lebienne revealed herself to, in fact, be evil!

"Hey," said Phobos, "Why didn't we cast 'Detect Good and Evil' like I suggested?"

"Well," explained Typhon, "I don't actually have that spell. I just said I would do it, because I have an intelligence of 7."

Lebienne calls out in an ethereal voice, "You fools have been a bother long enough! Now, I turn my full attention to you!" Phobos facepalmed. Lebienne jumped overboard, or something, surely to never be seen again.

 

Finally, we made it back to Edon and paid Caldwell a visit. We filled him in on the happenings, and he was able to identify the aforementioned We-Shen as Kao-Su, a nasty war criminal. We suspected the Lothair human to be Vincent Beaucard, cousin of Bernard's, who we'd read about in a stolen letter. Caldwell wasn't aware of the cult's name, but he suspects it is related to the cause of the war and how various sides were able to gain new technology and drag the war on longer. Uncovering these truths is the purpose of our missions. As a reward, we were paid 100gp each, and given a Cloak of Displacement.

 

What missions will Caldwell send us on next? Who will get to wear that sweet cloak? Why didn't Typhon cast Detect Good and Evil? Some of these questions will be answered, some will be simply met with facepalms. Until next week! Eat oranges to prevent scurvy.