Sunday, August 8, 2010

Game Notes - March - July 2010

PART ONE

My apologies for the delay in postings. These past few months have been pretty busy. If you know me, it’s likely you know why. If you don’t, you probably don’t care why. Truth be told, neither do I. Since we’re in agreement, its on to business!

The following is a summation of what has occurred in game over the last few months. It is, unfortunately, not as comprehensive as session-to-session notes, but hopefully it will suffice.

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In Luthia, the party recruits Garam to lead them on an expedition to the Temple of Set, for the purposes of rescuing Benedict, and hopefully putting the Fist of Set down once and for all. Garam agrees with some reluctance. Brix sets his Word of Recall for Luthia, and Virgil concocts a Teleport, which, aided by Garam and Floyd, succeeds in reaching their destination (the probability for error increased when the spellcaster has not visited the location prior).

As the party sneaks into the Temple of Set, the boys and Garam discuss Ethan and his request that they destroy Visgoth. To this end, Garam tells the party of Ethan’s research and findings into the methodology. Garam explains that Ethan had put together how to do it, but in order to protect the information and keep Visgoth unaware that it had been sussed out, he broke the instructions apart and spread them out in various locations. These pages with information were kept in a journal by Ethan, and Garam tells the boys that three of the pages are kept in Moloch’s Palace in the Meloitic Empire, the Necromancer’s Tower (Elliott’s current address), and the Eastern Lands, respectively. The boys REJOICE* over the knowledge that their journey will take that much longer.

*Sarcasm

The group works their way through a couple of levels of the temple, managing to stay hidden OR kill everything they encounter with relative ease. Having the option to go up or down in the temple, the party elects to go up. On the penultimate level of the temple, they encounter a room full of beholders, which, due to their numbers and the ability to create coverage all over the room, the party does not defeat, rather escaping to the top level with Brixmore sealing off the top via a Stone Shape spell.

On the top level, the party finds several unoccupied small rooms. In one of those rooms, Floyd finds a secret compartment in a bureau, wherein there is a magical necklace. Thinking this necklace to be his on the virtue of the fact that he found it, Floyd does not consider the need to hide his findings from the rest of the party, or for that matter, store the necklace in his rectum.
The party finds the main audience chamber. The door is closed, but by listening through the door, they realize that the Fist of Set is in there, waiting for them. Coming to the conclusion that the enemy is prepped, the party preps their own spells, abilities, etc., and they charge in. There they find the Fist of Set, along with a bound Benedict, and several of the Fist’s best friends. A fight ensues, during which Garam is killed, but so is the Fist of Set and all the room’s evil inhabitants. Benedict is rescued, and the Brix attempts to ressurect Garam, but Garam declines the offer.

The party moves on to explore the lower levels of the Temple, After bypassing the beholder room, the party makes its way down to the subterannian levels, where they encounter a partial construct, partial undead version of Virgil, who explains that he is from a future where the party fought Visgoth and lost, due to Floyd’s reckless use of his recently-obtained necklace and his boots. The party demands Floyd hand his necklace over to Virgil, Floyd reluctantly agrees to when it becomes appartent that he will be subdued for it.

The party returns to Aggravail with Benedict, where they are met by General Braddock, who has a war-related mission for them – to stop a flotilla of goblin troops sailing around the northwest corner of the continent. Using Floyd’s newly learned Shadow Walk, the group travels speedily to the beach near Britewater, where they intend to cut the flotilla off. Virgil Polymorphs to scout the flotilla, and learns that the whole thing is supported by four Krakens. The boys decide to attack the flotilla by taking out the Krakens. They prepare all manner of underwater spells (Water Breathing, etc.), and head for the flotilla. Due to their excellent preparation, the party dispatches the Krakens handily and sinks the flotilla.

The group heads back to Luthia to report their success, but are intercepted on the way by Charles Fox, who has decided to cash in his favor that Floyd owed to him for transporting him out of the Dream Realm. Fox asks the boys to retreive a scroll for him that is kept in the Eastern Lands, and tells them that once they retreive it for him, he will deposit them wherever they would like to end up. The party considers this a good opportunity, both for getting a taste of the Eastern Lands (which they will have to visit to find one of Ethan’s journal pages), but also for the chance to get into the sealed-off Meliotic Empire city.

Fox transports the boys to a forested area in the Eastern Lands, but due to a teleporting error, Guy does not travel with them. Fox vows to find Guy whilst the others get his scroll. Virgil, Brix, and Floyd walk the path they have been left on, discovering that it is a road to a fortress. Further scouting reveals that the fortress is a compound for giant-folk. While continuing their scouting, the party observes the crash of a flying ship. They head over to scout it out, and find the crew all critically injured or dead. As they explore further, they find the ship loaded with precious goods – weaponry, art, etc. As they explore (invisibly), they discover one of the more mobile crewmen activatling self-destruct mechanisms on the crates. The boys sneak out to the top deck, where they find giants from the compound interrogating the ship’s captain, an turtle-like creature. Deciding this is not their fight, the boys sneak off the ship, and observe from a distance. There, they observe the giants raiding the ship for goods. The party follows the giants from a distance to observe how they enter the compound, ultimately discovering a large drainage entrance on the way.

Brix, Floyd, and Virgil sneak into the compound via the drainage entrance, huddled together under Floyd’s Invisibility Sphere and Silence spells. They pass through most of the compound unseen and find themselves in a grand audience chamber. There, they see the giants cowing to and dwarfed by their master, a titan. VERY cautiously, the party sneaks into the titan’s main chamber. There, adjacent to the bedroom, they find a treasure room. The trio discover a chest (trapped, naturally), wherein they find the scroll, among a few other goodies. Virgil searches for Ethan’s journal page, but it is not located here. Unfortunately, their entrance to the room sets off a few wards and alarms, and the party finds themselves face to face with the titan. Realizing quickly that they cannot win this fight, Virgil transforms the party into mice, and the escape under the door, much to the thundering fury of the titan, who puts out an all-points bulletin on the boys.

The party manages to sneak out of the compound, where they are met by Charles Fox, who takes the scroll and expresses his gratitude to the boys, then, as promised, transports them to the steps of the palace at the Melotic Empire. There, they find Guy has teleported along with them. Guy’s explanation for where he has been all this time bores Floyd, so he does not take note of it.

The party takes stock of the city, finding most of its citizens are under a magical compulsion. Many of them are wastrels, malnurished and looking very bad. The same cannot be said of the soldiers, who seem fully alert and well taken care of. The boys decide to take advantage of this situation by visiting the local magic shop, but find slim pickings there.

While discussing their plan, the party is visited by a future version of Floyd, who explains that history has rewritten itself so that what future Virgil had forewarned of does not come to pass. However, future Floyd explains that the party will need to return the necklace to Floyd if they wish to survive an upcoming encounter at the Necromancer’s Tower. The party takes this under consideration, but choose not to return the necklace to Floyd at this time, much to his consternation.

The party sneaks into the palace, unnoticed by the hypnotized populace and the otherwise occupied soldiers. They make their way to the library, where they find two alert librarians. Things quickly get out of hand, and the party is forced to dispatch with them. However, this alerts the castle to their presence, and they are forced to barricade themselves into the library while they think of a plan (one that hopefully comes with eight hours of rest). Much to their surprise, they find the effort to apprehend them to be token, at best, and they are allowed to sleep through the night (on watches, of course). After prepping, the party sneaks through the palace, but finds their way unobstructed as they approach the throne room. There, they find a disguised Moloch, who has decided to deal with the party himself. Moloch reveals his true form to the party, that of an Elder Green Wyrm. A seriously tense battle ensues, ending when Floyd uses a magical eye he found in the titan’s stash to disintegrate the beast. Jubilant, the party ascends to the top of the palace to ring the bell and release the city from its magical force field. However, having done so, they find that the citizens of Meloitic City, having been released from the magic that binds them, are too far gone to survive, and have sadly passed away. Meanwhile, Moloch has apparently sent a force westward to cause havoc. Virgil cuts this force off, and the soldiers, learning that Moloch is dead, disperse to their own ends.

Meanwhile, a transmission reaches party from General Braddock. The final battle of the goblin war is at hand.

End of Part 1

1 comment:

  1. It has since been revealed that "future Floyd" was in fact an illusion cast by Floyd in an effort to trick the party into giving him the necklace.

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