November 22 Game Notes

Sorry for the unexpected delay in postings. Today, I will publish the last three weeks' game notes. After that, there will be a two-week off period (i.e., no sessions December 13 or 20) which I will try to fill with a new puppet musical installment, and a couple of NPC Profiles.

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Gameplay begins in the mountains of eastern Barovia, where the party is marching to confront and kill the Orc King. Via Scaramouche, the Pegasus, and Virgil’s polymorph ability, the party attempts to cover the distance faster via flight. However, after a couple of days of travel in this manner, they find themselves visited by an orc emissary, who tells the party that the orcs know of their imminent arrival due to some divination work by their shaman. The shaman sends the emissary with the message that the party’s lives will be spared if they have the sense to turn back now. The party does its best to convince the emissary that their intentions are not murderous, but they are unsuccessful. The next day, the party finds the elements of the air have turned against them, with windstorms and lightning bolts threatening them in the skies. Because of this, the gang decides to continue on foot through the mountains and forest.

After about a week’s time, the party finds a valley that seems to be the orc’s sanctuary. Virgil and Brix launch a volley of magical explosions and fire into the valley, only to discover that the whole thing is an illusion masking an inexplicably located elf village. As the party rushes in to minimalize the damage and save face, they discover a wall of orcs at the top of the valley opposite who begin a downward charge. Brix manages to stop an all-out onslaught by putting up a Blade Barrier. Meanwhile, Axe, Floyd, Guy, and Virgil Dimension Door to the back of the fray to confront the Orc King and the Shaman. A fairly serious battle ensues, but the party is victorious.

The boys return to Eagle’s Peak with the head of the Orc King, and the people of Eagle’s Peak agree to resume trade with DeFeo. Afterwards, the party contemplates their next move. They decide to check in with the remains of Four (of the Fist of Set), only to discover that Garam is once again in grave danger, and that the Fist of Set has likely resurrected Thumb and recruited a new Two and Four. They decide to return to Dreia to warn Garam, and get there quickly thanks to Brix’s Word of Recall. There, they are dismayed to find the government of The Freelands in turmoil, as several Executive Council members are suffering from an illness not unlike the plague that afflicted Gortia, leaving Mason, Eric, and Ajax as the only real decision makers. Mason has taken this opportunity to bring more power to the Executive Council (and it’s de facto reigning chief executive) under his umbrella, and many of the Governors and Judges currently elected by the people are under Mason’s political tutelage. Mason, meanwhile, has adopted an isolationist stance for The Freelands, pulling promised troops out of Nemia and angering Garvey of Silar. In addition, he has no intention to attend a summit called by Luth, King of Arimathea (and Lord of the West).

After warning Garam and sending him into hiding, Guy attempts to reason with Mason, but to no avail. The party seeks out Ajax for his insight, whereupon they discover Garvey is insistent that something be done about Mason due to an uncovered correspondence between Mason and the Meliotic Empire. However, Ajax informs the group that this document was created by the Fifty-Gnomes as a means of getting Mason out of the picture. Realizing that the bulk of intelligent local opinion seems to be anti-Mason, the party and Ajax debate what must be done with him.

End of Session