The first of hopefully a multipart epic based on our latest D&D campaign. I've revised my original email a little bit, and added some goals for next session. Also included is a description of the Fortress of Arin from the book that Sirocco and Sybilla retrieved from Myrmeen's library.
I'm pleased with my first run of D&D 3.5.
The story went off without a hitch, although I think I could have applied some more power to the combat creatures. I'm attributing this mostly to expecting a couple of weeks to prepare the creatures. Next time, the enemies will be more formidable, but not overwhelming.
I hope that everyone is able to play next time, too. One thing that I would like to work on is getting everyone involved in every session. I think that I focus on people that involve themselves more, and that if I provide opportunities for everyone to use their skills, everyone will have more fun.
I would like to see Dan's Erik use some of his character skills, for example, which is only going to happen if I provide the opportunity for him to use them. I'll have to come up with a special case for next session.
The same thing with Bob's Adara. I think there is a lot of room for that character to do more than stun everything. She's got a lot of vows of this and that going on, and I think I will enjoy putting them under stress over the next few sessions. I might have something even more insidious in mind for her.
I think the player I left out most in this session is Dave. His Air Genasi is an interesting character, and so very different from the rest of the party, which is mostly human. There are traits of his character that I will have to make essential to the mission because they're cool. Also, he would probably benefit from much more combat, specifically, many enemies as opposed to just one big one.
Sybilla is playing a good role in this campaign. The magical experience her charcter brings to the party will prove very valuable. I think that the next session will be frustrating for her, but in a good/challenging way.
I don't know if Adam has created Devon as a utility character, but that's how I see him at the moment. Not to be mistaken, I don't picture him as a bard or a back-rank cleric. But I expect that in each session one of the other players will say, "If only we had a >something<," and="" devon="" will="" somehow="" pull="" one="" out="" of="" thin="" air.
Elmeric is going to be a challenge for me. I expect that I can provide opportunities for him to thrive beyond offering tracking and nature knowledge checks. It seems like we're always having him skin something. Hey, dungeoneering will actually be a useful skill in the next session, possibly moreso than any other skill. In fact, I would bet that he might even have heard of this fortress, which is famous for its construction.
Next session should be a shock to players, too. I'm going to be turning some things on their edges. If characters have patron gods, they might want to check in with them. I think that I might have overly de-emphasized the importance of asking for divine knowledge of the onyx stone. Not that any useful facts would have turned up, but I would have been able to provide more of an attitude concerning the game events than I have been. I'll correct that next session.
Next session: The Fortress of Arin - A prison for practicioners of the dark arts. I'm using a couple of DM supplements to give the scenario life. Basically, I'm creating a living dungeon. Not every room is an encounter, but every room is there for a reason in regard to the location. For example, the prison will have a kitchen. Any monsters that might be in the dungeon will be there for a reason. So you won't find any great salamanders lurking around in this prison unless its easy to see the reason for it. That said, it may be easy to get some strange creatures into this particular place.
I don't want to give away everything to the players, but I do want them to be prepared to deal with what they would potentially be able to read a bit about in the book from Myrmeen's library.
Little was ever spoken of the fortress for fear that its prisoners could somehow use those words to aid in their escape. The prison was designed with one goal in mind: Contain powerful magic-users. To this end many lethal non-magical means were employed, and those magical means that were used were unusual or very powerful.
The overlord of the fortress, ranger Lance Arakeen, was given free reign to construct what methods of containment he pleased as long as the prisoners were kept away. He employed wizards of his own to construct the fortress, using many wards and specialized spells. Rogues of many nations contributed to the construction as part of the reduced sentence for their own crimes.
The prison was a success for many years. Some say that the last prisoner, one of the most powerful in his day, was too much for the prison to hold. Others say that the residents finally learned to overcome their chaotic natures and work together to mount an escape. Generally, the accepted reasoning is that a prisoner made a bargain with Arakeen, who had begun to feel like a prisoner himself, and that in this bargain Arakeen was killed and the other prisoners escaped.
The location of the fortress has remained a mystery since its creation for fear that an ally of the prisoners might attempt a jailbreak. Many have searched for the prison over the thousands of years since the prisoners were known to have escaped, but it has gone unfound. Likewise, its master has never been heard from.
I'm looking forward to next session.
The war against the invading Githyanki had gone well for the party. After driving out the gith, the adventurers returned to the task of rataking their home land from the extraplanar creatures that the gith had caused to arrive during their invasion.
Erik, Elmeric, Thomas, Adara, and Sybilla were leaving the village of Ashford after clearing the area of slad and helping clean up the town. The townsfolk needed to perform a ritual to purify their land, but they had run out of the necessary wine. The party was on their way back to Arabell to retrieve the wine.
Thomas, Adara, and Elmeric were scouting ahead on the path when Erik and Sybilla heard something coming from the South through the forest. They hid and a small troupe of orcs raced through the woods, crossing the path and continuing on their way. In spite of Sybilla's stern warnings to stop, they kept running. Erik managed the sneak up behind one, stab a nerve, and roll back into hiding so that the others didn't even know he was hit. Sybilla lit the other three on fire with such a force that their bodies and any usable equipment were turned to ash. Moments later, the stabbed orc crumpled to the ground.
They inspected the body, and found symbols of Gruumsh on bracers of both of his arms. The rest of his outfit suggested that he was a cleric of some kind. While Erik questioned the dead body using mystic powers, Sybilla noticed carvings on the slightly curved shortsword that the orc carried reading, [orcish] "In service of our Lord, Gruumsh." Erik's questionings gleaned that the orcs were heading to Arabell.
Down the path to Arabell...
Thomas bid the others in the party to go on to the inn of the Spiked Iron Wheel, to obtain the wine necessary for the ritual, since he had business to attend to at the site of the reconstruction of the temple of Tyr. Erik and Sybilla went to address this mission while Adara sought out a quiet place to meditate and Elmeric left for the forest to look for signs of more orcs.
At the inn, Devon (Adam's character, an arcane trickster) and Sirocco (Dave's character, a whirling dervish) were making use of the full-service wenches while taking in some ale. Some rowdy characters were making a fuss in the corner, treating the waitresses poorly and being noisy about their thievish exploits. Erik and Sybillla joined Devon at a table, while Sirocco made nice with the only waitress/whore left not attending to the drunkards.
One of the roguish individuals got pissy about Sirocco making off with a woman he paid for, and started to make a move toward him. Sirocco drew swords and threatened the slow-witted thief while Devon greased the floor under one of his companions, making him fall. Sybilla froze another of the men, leaving only one capable of doing anything without his head being sliced off. Erik, invisible, stood behind the man, ensuring compliance with Sirocco's commands.
Just as things were looking very poor for the rogues, a thin man in tattered clothes walked into the inn carrying several heavy-looking sacks. One of them fell to the floor, spilling hundreds of gold coins across the floor. He headed to the bar, to which Devon helped him carry his other bags.
The whores, seeing the money, decided to get friendly with him. He grabbed one, tossed her onto the bar, flipped up her skirt, and has his way with her right there on the bar.
Devon was not satisfied with the man's behavior and resistance to speaking, and so thumped him with a sap. Brushing upon the man's neck with the hit, he experienced the vision of a waterfall. A moment later, Sybilla noticed that one of the rogues had re-drawn his crossbow, and was about to shoot. Her magic missile went off too late, however; The bolt went loose and after deflecting off of a decorative piece behind the bar, sliced the rope holding one of the many spiked iron wheels (used for lighting and security), which fell and embedded itself in the strange man's skull. His last words, "I knew it would happen here."
While lurking around the window, Erik noticed that there was snow falling outside, which was strange for late spring. It turned out that it was not snow, but ash, and a wide column of ash was spewing into the sky from the distant Thunder Peaks.
As soon as the man fell away from the whore, she started screaming. After calming down her friends, Sybilla noticed the strange eye movements of the woman, as if she was seeing visions. Anyone who touched the woman experienced similar visions, including the image of a waterfall, a stone fortress on a dark night, a canyon with a rope bridge and people (humans and orcs) standing on both sides, a chasm filled with dead bodies, a torch-lit hallway being traversed by the members of the party, and a rock wall with a large smooth stone in its center surrounded by unfamiliar mystical-looking carvings.
The distrustful inn women took their friend to the temple of Tymora for assistance. The strange dead man had left his bags of gold, and when searched, it was discovered that his pocket contained a small onyx rock with one perfectly smooth reflective side. Through this stone a hole was drilled which allowed it to be threaded with a leather thong. Sybilla casually tried to detect magic on the object and was stunned with its overwhelming power.
The party headed to the center of government to ask if they knew anything of the man, the stone, the orcs, or what was going on in the Thunder Peaks. Myrmeen knew little (aka nothing of use), but had a message for their friends from Thomas, stating that he had been given a mission of utmost importance from Torm and had to leave immediately. He had left word at the temple of Tyr that you should be given any help you need. Myrmeen also extended her hospitality to the renowned adventurers, informing them that the most recent surge of orc activity has been primarily clerics of Gruumsh, though she did not know what they might be plotting.
Erik used a spell to speak with the body of the strange dead man, and it seemed to work, since he was answering questions, but when he would have expected the body to stop responding, it lashed out, eventually telling him to "keep her safe for me until I come back." The voice finally faded.
Sirocco, with Sybilla's help, searched the Lady Lord's library for any reference to the items in their visions. They found a book of ancient legends that included an artist's rendering of a prison, labeled the Fortress of Arin. The story told of a prison that was used to hold the worst offenders of vile magic arts the world has ever known, although the book purported all of its sites to be the stuff of fairy tales.
Devon spent the day asking questions of the townfolk, learning what he could about the strange man in the inn. He had apparently walked with his many bags of gold directly from the city gates closest to the mountains to the front door of the Spiked Iron Wheel. He made no specific stops, but was very conspicuous.
Erik learned from the clerics at the temple of Tyr that the onyx rock might be some kind of device that controls the weather, but without direct study, they would not be able to determine the nature of the item. Later, at the temple of Tymora, the party learned that the inn wench had died of her "injuries".
The rock stayed with Sybilla that night. Erik's trained ears awoke to odd sounds from outside. He saw two thieves climbing down the side of the building into the curtyard, and then hunkering against the wall to hide, presumably until the guards weren't looking.
He headed to Sybilla's room, and knocked, but she didn't come. Upon entering, he learned that some spell effect had made the room silent. He woke her, and she found the rock had been stolen. They left to the hall where they could discuss the thieves. The commotion woke the others, and Devon offered to teleport them to the courtyard to stop the thieves before they made away with the rock.
When they arrived in the courtyard, Sirocco easily dispatched the two orc thieves. Erik noticed three more orcs waiting outside the fence, and ran after them, but one fled. The two remaining orcs, sisters, were chained together at the wrist with manacles.
The sisters speak as one person, finishing each others' sentences, trading off speech to one another as they talk. It turns out that the sisters were captured by the orcs to help track down rocks such as the one now back in the party's possession. They know of at least 6 of these rocks including the one that was returned, and have been seeing horrific visions all of their lives concerning theses stones similar to the ones the party had experienced when touching the inn wench. They were forced to work with the other orcs under threat of death, and offered to provide the same information to the party in exchange for their freedom.
The party sought out Myrmeen for permission to keep the orcs in her jail until morning, but they were informed that she had already left on an important mission for her god. The lieutenant in charge saw no reason that the orcs shouldn't be jailed, which is lucky, since the ranger Myrmeen holds a heavy grudge against orcs for their prior ransacking of Arabell, and might not have let them survive the night.
The sisters were led to the municipal holding cells for the night, where they were guarded by Devon. Before they left the party, they said, "Then tomorrow we leave for the Fortress of Arin." Devon inspected the gold he had taken from the inn, and it had all turned to dirt except for one bag. As he held the coins from this last bag in his hands, they each crumbled into the same dirt. Things in the jail were otherwise uneventful.
Sybilla returned to her room to find it still silent. A thorough search revealed a small brass torus that creates a persistent silence effect. The orcs that were killed could not have created this item themselves. Upon reflection, it was determined that they could not even have cast the spell on their own. What to do with the ring was left to decide until morning, but it was left elsewhere in the municipal building where it would enable no further harm.
Just before dusk by lantern light, Sybilla gathered her components to call on powers that would allow her to commune with her god. One of the required components, incense, had turned to gold. Using her skill in alchemy, she used the stone to convert another block of incense to solid gold. She attempted other transformations, but was not as successful. After some time, the lantern in her room went out and would not reignite except by magical means.
Divinations with Azuth were performed, and many interesting questions were asked. Azuth imparted certain knowledge upon the adventurers: Following the orc sisters to the prison is probably the best next step. The stone is not evil. The stone is related to the events in the Thunder Peaks.
The events of the day have left some questions for the adventurers:
- Who are these orcish clerics and why are they after the stone?
- How many of these stones exist and what havoc could their transmutative powers create?
- Where is the lost Fortress of Arin that its location cannot be described, only shown?
- What dangers await the party in an ancient prison designed to hold the world's most dangerously evil wizards?
- Why did Storm Peak erupt in ash, and how significant is this event to the arrival and death of the strange man in the Spiked Iron Wheel Inn?
Answers to these questions next time...