Oryn Talus, the mysterious and ancient "Halfling" who has employed the group
Aurora Isilime, the Valley Elf Bard; "The Silver Tongued Siren;" who has more instruments than she can carry, and sings to things she shouldn't
Pharin Braz'Dracon, the Half Brass Dragon, Half Drow Wizard; "The Dark Conjurer;" summoner of demon bunnies, and Andolin's twin
Skye Vindhalle, the Air Genasi Druid and saver of demon bunnies
Dervish, the Kasathe Fighter
Nanu, the NightmOrc Fighter who is late, slayer of innocent bystanders
Pimbin, the Halfling Shadow Monk of Nerull
Lan El'Mandragoran, the Human Paladin of Pelor
Lothar, the Sovani Smith and former Cleric of Moradin
Aeryn and Aerys Shayl, the Human Ranger twins
Aerathema, the Wood Elf Druid
Ralliakkan, the Drow Rogue
Andolin Braz'Dracon, the Half Brass Dragon, Half Drow Fighter/Ranger, and Pharin's twin
Narg, there's really no way to describe Narg, Narg is just Narg
Haasenpfeffer, the giant positive energy bunny that Pharin regularly tries to summon
Comrades we have lost:
Jayce, killed by Josiah
Jarrid, killed by Pharin, Pimbin, Andolin, and Dervish
Pieces of Vecna acquired: Hand and Eye
Other components being kept out of the cult's hands: Book of Vile Darkness, Fang of Kas, and the sword hilt
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Aurora's perspective. Anything in italics is from a third person.
***** Ekbir
We spent the next two and a half days in Ekbir shopping and making magic items. About halfway through the third day I felt a slight tug on my Oryn pouch, as did everyone else who was with us. Inside the bag was a copper coin, and when I touched it I suddenly found myself in Oryn's demiplane. Most of Oryn's agents who we have met were there, including Lothar, which was confusing since he was supposed to be locked up with the Book of Vile Darkness. Apparently Oryn decided Lothar needed some space from the book, it had turned him into a jackass and caused Moradin to turn his back on him; Lothar had lost his clerical power.
Oryn himself was not there, but once everyone arrived we received a message from him with instructions to select an agent to take with us to the Forgotten City. We were in for a long trek through the desert to get there, and Oryn knew we would need help. There was a lot of arguing between us about who we should bring, and it didn't help that none of our companions actually wanted to go with us. Pharin and I voted to bring Aerys along, she seemed like she would be good in the desert. The others wanted Ralliakkan, who really didn't want to go, because of the sun; drow hate sunlight enough as it is, but putting a drow in a blinding desert is torture to their sensitive eyes. Next time I have to torture a drow I'll need to remember that...
So we had finally begun to convince the others that we should bring Aerys, when Ralliakkan pointed out that none of us could pick a lock. While Pharin had a spell that could do it, it was a loud spell, and it really isn't as good as Ralliakkan is. We asked the others if any of them could open a lock, and Lothar demonstrated his lock picking skills... he smashed the locked with his hammers. I had to repair the stupid lock for Ralliakkan, because apparently I'm the only one who fixes things. Even though Ralliakkan didn't want to go, we needed her. A place like the Forgotten City had to be full of traps and locks, and none of us were able to measure up to her talents. She agreed on the condition that she got Pharin's goggles, which allow him to handle the sunlight.
We planned to leave the next morning for the Dry Steppes, the oasis on the way to the city.
***** The Dry Steppes Bazaar
We spent the next five days shopping at the Dry Steppes, and nothing really happened. We didn't get hit by either cult, there were no tournaments, no random attempts at robbery, nothing! There was a small incident with Pharin being a jackass on our second day in town, and some odd occurrences with the Deck of Many Things on the fifth day.
As for Pharin being a jackass on the second day in town... There were two flying carpet merchants, one legitimate one, and one who sold faulty carpets that were likely to explode in your face. Hazeeb, the owner of the faulty carpet stall pissed Pharin off, so he decided to get revenge in one of the most bizarre, roundabout ways I've ever seen.
Instead of directly attacking Hazeeb, Pharin decided to accuse him loudly of selling exploding carpets, while putting a delayed blast fireball in the stall of the real merchant. While he was loudly ranting about Hazeeb's faulty carpets, the other stall exploded and Pharin framed Hazeeb for the explosion. The guards were confused, and attempted to arrest Pharin for the crime, so he teleported back to Ekbir and we didn't see the wizard again until the next day. I still don't understand why Pharin felt the need to blow up that stall, and the jackass ended up making it so the rest of us couldn't get carpets.
By our fifth day in town, Ralliakkan was bored, so she pulled out one of her Decks of Many Things. Pharin got the oh so brilliant idea to thin out the bad cards by giving bums draws first... That was fucking dumb. The first several bums got really good cards, including the vizier, which allows you to get an answer to one question. Pharin decided to use that to find the Sword, but since the bum didn't know anything about Kas, he learned all of that instead. There was some useful information there, but not what we wanted; we sent that bum to Oryn.
Later that night we went outside of town to summon a lich so that Pharin could do his Fang compass trick again. He seems to have the crappiest lich ever, that guy went down in a single hit. Liches are supposed to be bitches, not easy kills; though I suppose I shouldn't complain too much about it.
The Fang pointed directly to the Forgotten City. It had to be hidden somewhere in those ruins, or along the way to them. We decided to leave the following night and begin our journey through the desert.
***** Day 1 in the desert
Since we had heard that purple worms can have cool stuff in them, because they swallow people whole, we decided to hunt the while we traveled. Since Nanu can't fly, and is very noisy while running, we used her as bait to draw the worms to us; I took the dagger hilt from her first of course, we couldn't risk her getting swallowed and losing that important item.
Drawing the worms to us was fun. Ralliakkan was throwing grenades at the ground to get their attention, and at one point she even summoned a rhino- which got swallowed whole by a worm. When the worm finally surfaced, Ralliakkan landed on it and killed it with a death lance. The second worm was even stranger. Pharin summoned 16 rothe and made them dance, while Ralliakkan cast something that wrapped it in chains. Then, that insane drow dove into its mouth and set off an entire necklace of fireballs, killing it instantly. Ralliakkan is completely insane, and damn is it sexy.
***** Day 2 in the desert
When we woke up the next afternoon, we found five Thri-kreen standing outside of our Hut. Pharin attempted some diplomatic ploy that didn't work, though it did make an excellent distraction. While attempting to talk to the bug people, he sensed another worm coming, so he began to make noise to draw it toward us. I gave Nanu my immovable rod and left her in the Hut, while the rest of us got in the air. The poor Thri-kreen were eaten by the worm, and then Pharin reversed gravity, making it airborne. It hung suspended in the air while we killed it, and Pharin skinned it while it was plummeting back to the earth. Right before the worm landed, the Hut spell ended, splattering guts all over Nanu and Pimbin, who had thought they were safe in the Hut.
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