Haunted Battleground

The party ran into a group of Tovagian soldiers who yelled out some words such as, spy, Cavitius, kill them.  The battle was soon waged as the soldiers moved forward and some shot crossbows at the party.  There appeared to be a couple of leaders, soldiers with swords and halberds and crossbowmen.  As the battle was engaged the leaders of the Tovagian patrol did much damage to Pretis and Mara.  At one point Mara was knocked prone and when she tried to stand up a soldier knocked her down again.  Demin stayed at range and fired his crossbow into the battle while Gofin found herself engaged with a halberd bearing soldier.  Lythandar threw a fireball at the advancing group to soften up the soldiers.

Blood...Blood...Blood

As the party moved out of the Library of Kas they were soon surrounded by a group of black robed, knife carrying, face painted figures.  The figures had the same leering face painted to look like a one-eyed skull.  The Cultists were chanting "blood...blood...blood" in Common. The battle was on as they cultists attacked moving swiftly around the party.  Melisana used Curse of the Divine Plague to again daze and confuse several of the cultists.  The party then tried hurriedly to move away from the infected cultists before they were also affected.  Several cultist minions were soon eliminated and a few of the cultists were bloodied but the kept using "Dance of the Knife" to apply multiple attacks and dance around the party.  

The Library of Kas

As the party continued into the passage under Castle Xiphos they came upon a twenty foot square shaft that bisected the tunnel.  It rose up towards the Castle and led deep into the earth.  Darkness in both directions quickly swallowed up the parties light source.  The sides of the shaft were even more slick with moisture and yellowish slime than the passage itself.  A narrow one foot wide ledge ran around the sides of the shaft and on the other side a tunnel extended into the rock.  On the wall next to the shaft were three metals levers protruding from the wall.  The first and third level were pulled down and the middle lever was parallel to the floor.  As the party looked around a quiet sound rose from the depths -- some sort of wet, sloshing, slurping noise.

The Finger

We left the party being escorted by Virianis out of the Sheathe.  He suggested they stay at Larossa Baru's since they would no longer be welcome at Lefty's.  Arriving at Larossa's they were let into a two story house by a matronly woman looking around 45 years old, also staying in the house was her son Dellis, a towering presence with a pronounced limp.  He does not speak but his mother seems able to communicate well enough through hand signals.  He was wounded in battle against the Chained God and has not spoken since returning.

City of Dread

The party was in the middle of a battle with some Cultists and Minions as we left them last week.  Alhellara kept her "Moment of Glory" active so that all members except Mara still had resist 5 for all damage through the encounter.  Lythandar kept using Wizards Fury to provide a second Magic Missile attack each round which eliminated several Minions.  Pretis and Mara kept up their attacks on the enemy while Melisana fought the enemy while trying to keep Marit safe from attack.

Wages of War

We left our intrepid adventurers on the road in the Burning Peaks, a volcanic mountainous area.  They were traveling with Marit a VERY pregnant woman that they met on the road.  Marit is looking for her husband Victor who has not returned from war.  As the party traveled farther the road became more difficult and the air became silent with nary a bird or beast calling out.  Over a rise they group heard the human cries of pain and anguish that violated the stillness.

The Burning Peaks

The adventurers climb out of the Shadow Rift into the Mists of Ravenloft.  Having been accustomed to the mists they start off walking in a random direction.  Soon the mists start to clear and they find themselves in a jagged, volcanic mountain range.  There was no such mountain range in Tepest where the party entered into the Shadow Rift.  The party was on a a crude pathway passing a lake, Mara looked for tracks but there were many tracks heading in both directions so the party started walking to the right.  The pathway was rugged and movement was rather slow until they joined a wider damp, muddy road rutted and rough with old wagon tracks and boot prints.

Dramatis Personae or Lambs to the Slaughter

Following their escape from the Shadow Rift the adventurers found that they felt strange and different, they were now 4e characters.  This post will introduce the players, give the characters backgrounds and describe their new personae.

Requiem for a Nightmare - Part Deux

Frustrated at the lack of success in finding Melisana's father the company sailed south to Bridgewater and spent the night.  The party had nightmares of a huge cat hurtling itself upon the character ready to rend flesh, the character then awoke in a tightly confined space, they lift the lids to find themselves in coffins!!   They escaped the coffins, a crypt cat, a horse stampede, a mummy attack and learn of the Koshka Bluffs.  Prince Othmar hired them to find a staff which he allowed them to keep for a price.  Prince Othmar sent them to Castle Faerhaaven to see Sir Hiregaard who told them of strange happenings at his quarry at the Koshka Bluffs.  They also learned of a new great Rift to the west of Nova Vaasa that recently opened where Gehenna used to be.  It is covered with shadows. 

Requiem for a Nightmare

The most recent campaign that I ran started with the players as 0th level 2e characters.  The adventurers found themselves as slaves manacled in a ships hold.  They ship ran aground on an island during a gale and the adventurers soon overcame the remaining pirate.  They found various metal items to use as weapons and with Isis'  help they battled orcs and goblins who were trying to find lost King's treasure (N4 - Treasure Hunt).  Escaping the island in a boat found in the catacombs.  Sailing home to their archipelago the characters found that the father of Melisana (one of the party)  had sailed off in search of her.  The hearty group now enamored with adventuring (and having gained 1st level) decided to sail off in search of her father. 

Through the Past - Darkly

I have been shamed into writing this blog since I am the person who most liked reading the blogs of our two previous adventures, see rogerlmills.blogspot.com and merlins-gate2.blogspot.com.   We are an 8 person D&D group that has been meeting Sunday evenings for 31+ years.  The first Dungeon that the group played was the classic S1- Tomb of Horrors.  We stumbled around the entry hall for several sessions since none of us had ever played D&D previously.  After that we made our way through the G1-3 - Against the Giants followed by several other D&D and AD&D modules.  Sometime we had new dungeons written by a member of our group, the best of which was the Search for the Holy Grail that Mark ran before the DaVinci code was published.