Author Topic: Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn  (Read 10447 times)

Offline Braininthejar

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Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn
« on: August 22, 2014, 05:44:24 PM »
It started a year ago, while I was on a break from full party gaming (mostly because of problems with getting a party to meet at the same time-place: My regular group had fallen apart because of the DM who milked the darkness aspect of his World of Darkness to the point where the world was totally crapsack and out continued failures to change it started generating real tension between players)

I was pretty much left with one friend from that group - older and more experienced player than me, she DMed some more world of darkness for me in one player - one game master system. It worked  - much easier to get two people to meet. In return I DMed some D&D for her.

So, our previous campaign had just abruptly ended when she managed to turn what was to be a dialogue exposition to the planes into an unwinnable fight (she had a bad cold with migraine and showed up slightly high on painkillers, resulting in her chaotic-neutral sorceress asking an already pissed glabrezu if he likes being scratched behind the ears - she later confessed that she was getting tired of that character, as her consistent role-playing of "elf mentally younger than she looks" was contrary to her real personality.)

Sometime around that time I learned that she isn't that much into computer games - she had never experienced the wonder of modern gaming that was the Baldur's Gate series. I decided to give it a try, with her as the protagonist.

Of course that meant that I would have to handle massive amounts of maths and manage the rest of the (probably large - the game had an artificial cap of 6 people, but in pen and paper it wouldn't be the case) party. But in return I'd get to role-play all the memorable NPCs. Plus, you know, relive one of the greatest games of my life in pen and paper form.


Offline Nanshork

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Re: Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn
« Reply #1 on: August 22, 2014, 05:46:25 PM »
Somebody around here is already doing that but with a group being the main characters. They might be able to give you some advice on how to set things up.

Offline Braininthejar

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Re: Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn
« Reply #2 on: August 22, 2014, 06:04:02 PM »
house rules for the campaign:

(some were introduced for more power - there were going to be some tough battles ahead. Others for simplicity.)

- items that give flat stat bonuses other than AC work when melded into polymorphed body
- +2 skill points per level for everyone
- after level 5, death threshold becomes levelx2. This made it easier to take some enemies alive, but the actual reason was to prevent characters from dropping instantly dead when their constitution buff / rage got disabled.
- polymorph/wildshape gives senses of the target form. Powerful, but changing into a bat with no echolocation was just silly.
- haste in 3.0 version, but no magic below time stop can give you two standard action spells per turn - trying to speak magic words faster just makes them slur and waste the spell
- Bull's strength and similar buffs with +4 bonus like 3.5, but 3.0 duration. Too much maths managing the whole party to buff with a stopwatch.
- casters with whole spell list access, such as clerics and druids only get their core spells plus 2 spells per levels from supplements (3 if they sacrifice one of the core spells of the same level) - because with the amount of books available this was getting crazy. 
- half elves get half the human bonus in addition to half the elven (so either a bonus feat or bonus skill points)
- all shields give 1 AC more
- armors give damage reduction 1 for leather, 2 for chain shirt and better, 3 for breastplate and better and 4 for full plate.

The protagonist:

For this campaign my friend created a half elf druid named Sealia. (strangely she went for skills rather than an extra feat. Since it was clear I cared more about game mechanics than she did, (and also her command of English at the time was rather poor, preventing her from accessing a lot of source material) I did some reading through the rule books and directed her towards a typical summoner build.)
« Last Edit: August 23, 2014, 08:09:33 PM by Braininthejar »

Offline Braininthejar

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Re: Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn
« Reply #3 on: August 22, 2014, 06:05:38 PM »
Somebody around here is already doing that but with a group being the main characters. They might be able to give you some advice on how to set things up.

It was probably me  :P  I just kept omitting the fact that I only have one player, because it felt... inferior to standard setup for some reason. (I was wrong to. It is the way to play this story - the role-playing is great and one player derails the game plot quite enough)

Also the campaign has been on for a year or so, so I have already learned some tricks and made some mistakes.

It's just that only now I'm writting it down in journal form.
« Last Edit: August 22, 2014, 06:07:43 PM by Braininthejar »

Offline Nanshork

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Re: Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn
« Reply #4 on: August 22, 2014, 06:14:00 PM »
Ahhh.  In that case, yeah.  It was you.   :P

Offline Braininthejar

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Re: Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn
« Reply #5 on: August 22, 2014, 06:53:04 PM »
So, our story begins. Our heroine grew up in Candlekeep - a fortress-library on the Sword Coast, dedicated to Deneir. Since youth she felt more at home in the forests surrounding the fortress than in the dusty libraries and expressed interest in the cult of Silvanus. In the end, Gorion, a mage and retired adventurer who had brought her to Candlekeep when she was a child and acted as her foster father allowed her to leave home for a time and be formally introduced to a druid circle.

When our story began Gorion received a mysterious message that made him very worried. He told Sealia to be ready to leave at short notice and refused to give her more details at the time. The same day there was a (very incompetent) attempt at her life.

After nightfall Sealia and Gorion left Candlekeep, heading for the Friendly Arm Inn, a fortified establishment up on the main trade route (repurposed from an evil wizard's tower after some adventurers got rid of the original owner. ) Sadly, Gorion was a specialist with banned conjuration and so unable to teleport to his destination; while travelling through the forest the two were ambushed by a mysterious armoured man accompanied by a priestess and some ogre henchmen.

And so Gorion ordered Sealia to run away and then pulled an Obi Wan to give her the time to escape. Strangely, the most vivid thing Sealia remembered from the night's events were the ogres, causing her a lasting prejudice against their whole kind.

Around sunrise Sealia met her first party member. (that not counting Prince, her companion lynx) Imoen (rogue), a fellow orphan growing up in Candlekeep had snuck out after her after reading Gorion's letter. After what had happened she decided to accompany Sealia and help her.

The first day of helping ended with Imoen needing some minor magical help for her feet - unlike Sealia she wasn't used to the hardships of cross-country treking.
« Last Edit: August 22, 2014, 07:26:48 PM by Braininthejar »

Offline Braininthejar

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Re: Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn
« Reply #6 on: August 22, 2014, 07:26:18 PM »
On the road:

On their way, Sealia and Imoen encountered a strange duo: an apparently crazy wizard Xzar (necromancer) and his halfling bodyguard Montaron (rogue/fighter). They were headed South towards the miner town of Nashkel, investigating the apparent problems with iron ore mining.

Ultimately, Sealia was headed North so the two pairs parted ways after some exposition dialogue.

Friendly Arm Inn. The first dangerous assassin and the first quest:

As our duo entered the courtyard of the Friendly Arm Inn they were met by a wizard who recognized Sealia and tried to kill her. Sealia did her first battle with summons, reasoning that their sense of smell should be able to find the real wizard among the mirror images. (at that time I let her persuade her, which made mirror image useless for a large part of the campaign  :banghead  ) Anyway, the wizard was casting from the top of the stairs so when he run out of HP the animals pushed him off from the side of the stair, finishing him of with a fall. Nobody left to interrogate. On the plus side he had a letter on him promising a bounty on Sealia's head - and one that must have been written and handed out before she even left Candlekeep.

In the inn Sealia met a married couple of half-elf adventurers, Khalid (fighter) and Jaheira (fighter/druid) - they were friends that Gorion was supposed to meet there and they had promised him to take care of Sealia, but sadly they too lacked the details of why. For now, they were headed South to Nashkel, basically investigating the same mine problems Xzar and Montaron were.

Before leaving Friendly Arm Inn the group also learned about the incresed activity of bandits along the road. One attack took place within sight of the inn's walls - Sealia helped the old couple recover the cart with their belongings by going out to slay the hobgoblin bandits. First quest done.

Later Sealia had a vivid dream of Candlekeep closing behind her and a dark road opening ahead. She woke up with a clw spell-like ability. Strange.

« Last Edit: August 22, 2014, 07:28:15 PM by Braininthejar »

Offline Braininthejar

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Re: Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn
« Reply #7 on: August 22, 2014, 08:33:45 PM »
The road to Beregost. Sinister happenings

On the road South Sealia didn't get ambushed (surprisingly) But in the second inn she tried to use along the road she wasn't admitted inn, apparently on account of her animal companion. She had had some problems with keeping Prince indoors before, but getting flat out refused entry into an establishment that requires guests for profit seemed downright strange.

However, Sealia decided not to investigate. Instead she went to look for another place to sleep in. A trail next to the inn led to the forest to a woodcutter's hut. The man had been supplying them with firewood. Upon arrival, Sealia found him slain and some bandit corpses there too, apparently shot. Doing some tracking in the night she found the camping spot of Kivan, an elven ranger who explained to her that he avenged the woodcutter and that he is hunting bandits in the area in search of a bandit chieftain Tazok the half-ogre who had killed his loved one. Sealia promised to  give him a hint if she ever learns of his whereabouts.

Beregost:

For reasons I can't remember at the moment, the stay in Beregost resulted in some "standard adventuring" from the party - from clearing a house of giant spiders, helping a paladin hunt some half-ogres to hunting down a crazy priest who turned to Ciric after his family died and kept turning his victims into undead, deluding himself that they are his family. (I changed his story from them being adventurers to them dying in a fire - he carried a sun-shaped metal decoration from his house that was blackened  by fire and used it as his holy symbol) 

They found the crazy priest thanks to the help of the local wizard Thalantyr - he needed some undead parts as components to save his assistant Melicant, who somehow managed to polymorph himself into a talking chicken while messing with his master's stuff from his adventuring days. Since the priest had undead minions, Thalantyr scried for his location and saw enough of landscape for the party to deduce where he was.

A second assignment that took a serious dark turn was a bodyguard job for a bard named Silke - she provoked a fight with some adventurers to get them killed by the party and rob them. They finally saw through the ruse (Sealia listened to her order leave the scene after the fight, leaving Silke free to finish off and loot the victims - which was supposed to be a suggestion spell but actually worked in real life - so I did interpret it as a suggestion when Sealia realised what was going on. She returned  to the spot before Silke could disappear, defeated her, then had her carried to the inn, telling the guards that both parties had been attacked by some bandits. While the guards went to fetch a priest, Sealia looted Silke's belongings and then finished her off with some coldly applied first aid. She then expressed her deepest apology for not being able to keep her alive long enough for magical healing to arrive.

(it happens that my player is an ex-nurse and somewhat competent with herbs - she is a professional fortune teller among other things. She keeps trying to use her real life knowledge along with profession-herbalist for what her character should be able to do)

While doing all that the group also met officer Vai, a woman in service of the Flaming Fist mercenaries, and learned the full extent of the bandit problem.

They left the town a good bit wealthier (though feeling guilty about the whole Silke affair), with two new characters in tow - the dwarven fighter Kagain and Silke's bard assistant Garrick
« Last Edit: August 23, 2014, 06:01:11 AM by Braininthejar »

Offline Braininthejar

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Re: Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn
« Reply #8 on: August 22, 2014, 09:05:32 PM »
Nashkel: the party splits.

The group arrived in Nashkel to find Xzar and Montaron already there. No violence resulted, but some threats were traded (mostly Montaron being unable to hold his tongue) and Sealia decided that she doesn't like them and they might need to die later.

It turned out that the iron ore coming out of the mine is contaminated and not only that, miners have been disappearing recently.

However, before entering the mines to investigate, the group encountered two more adventurers: Minsc (champion of nature ranger /barbarian) with his brave animal companion Boo the miniature giant space hamster, who asked their help in rescuing Dynaheir, the witch they were supposed to protect, and Edwin (conjurer) a Thayan wizard who apparently wanted to hire them for assassination.

Unable to resist Minsc's sincere plea for help, Sealia decided to aid him. However, Kagain was unwilling to take any detours
(he was only in it for the reward money from the town mayor) and he stayed in Nashkel to look for another party to descend the mines with.

Following the group of gnolls that captured Dynaheir took the party several days. On the way they helped a local driad protect her tree from some fiendish elves (change from computer game obviously - no human woodcutters would be a threat to a driad in 3.5 and fiendish elves are totally a thing in Fearun)  had a close encounter with a dire bear (keeping safe distance) and found that the group they were tailing split in two.

They used their tracking and smell to find out where Dynaheir was. The other group of gnolls was later found cut down - judging by the tracks, by a single person whose trail then suddenly disappeared - as if they were teleported by someone.

On the way it turned out that Minsc's wilderness abilities as a ranger are somewhat limited - the first time he tried helping in getting some food he decided against hurting bunnies and instead opted to fight a boar one on one, getting injured and providing the party with lots of meat that was almost too tough to make edible.

Anyway, Sealia arrived at a ruined fortress that the gnolls were using as a campsite. The first rescue attempt ended with the gnoll leader dead at the claws of Sealia's wolverine summon  (with augmented summoning and enrage ability... most low level opponents might as well try to fist-fight a blender) but the party cut off in the upper fortress by the rest of the tribe. However, it was only until Dynaheir (evoker) could be freed of her bindings and take a look into her spellbook. With the first fireball spell available to the party, hordes of low level enemies ceased to be a big problem.

From what Dynaheir said, the gnoll leader had some delusion of being blessed with divine blood and captured her in hope of increasing his power with her secrets. Strangely, the chieftain's body crumbled to dust after the fight and that night Sealia had a vivid dream of the battle as seen from her wolverine summon's point of view. She awoke with the taste of her victim's blood and guts in her mouth.



 
« Last Edit: August 25, 2014, 07:42:31 PM by Braininthejar »

Offline Braininthejar

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Re: Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn
« Reply #9 on: August 22, 2014, 09:16:54 PM »
Obviously, there will be more of such small changes as the story goes on

( I hope someone is actually reading this )

EDIT: Melicant the chicken quest added. It actually became somewhat important later.
« Last Edit: August 23, 2014, 06:01:51 AM by Braininthejar »

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Re: Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn
« Reply #10 on: August 23, 2014, 07:15:17 AM »
Back in Nashkel: Edwin leaves in a hurry

The group, currently composed of Sealia, Imoen, Khalid, Jaheira, Minsc, Dynaheir and Garrick returned to Nashkel. On their way there they found a slaughtered caravan on the mountain road. The reason turned out to be the commander of Nashkel town guard,  who had been missing for some time. Turns out someone sold him a cursed berserking sword.

He spoke in riddles and enraged unless given the right answer. Since Sealia got it right on the second attempt, she only got him a moment of clarity - which she used to free him from the cursed sword by lopping his right hand off. She then got both him and the blade to the local temple.

Back in Nashkel the party met Edwin and it turned out it was Dynaheir he had wanted killed. Edwin was last seen with expeditious retreat on and his robes pulled up around his knees, running through the town with angry sword-swinging Minsc close behind.

After arriving Sealia learned that there was a circus in town, but expressed no interest in visiting. Oh well, no Branwen for her.

Also after spending a week in the forests and mountains Garrick decided that he has enough country adventuring and would rather be back to his own element of wooing the ladies in the city.

Druids know Sun Tzu

Having cleared all the distractions, Sealia finally got to the problem of what was plaguing Nashkel mines. While she was absent, Xzar, Montaron and Kagain diagnosed the problem - they descened into the mines and found some kobold tunnels there - they were still curing the burns they got while trying to fight kobolds in kobold-sized tunnels. (because why would kobolds dig human-sized tunnels?  :D ) It looked like the creatures would be very tough to fight on their territory.

So Sealia decided not to.

She asked anyone who seemed to have any knowledge what they can tell her about kobolds and after learning how much they hate gnomes, she paid the local stonework craftsman to build a small shrine to Garl Glittergold on the mountain side outside town. She reasoned that if the kobolds were bold enough to attack miners, they'd be tempted to vandalize the shrine (and since there were rumors of them appearing in town too, there must have been an exit from their tunnels that didn't involve the mines)

She was right and one ambush later (which involved Montaron pretending to be a gnome priest, much to his annoyance) , the party tailed the survivors to find a second entrance to the kobolds' base. Since this one was a natural cave entrance, it was a more direct route and while obviously defended, not nearly as bad to face as the cramped tunnels. The tribe retreated deeper underground after taking heavy losses, leaving the party to deal with the man behind the whole problem - a half orc priest of Ciric named Mulahai and his undead bodyguards. After a fight that mostly involved fumbling in the dark the priest was killed, his minions destroyed and some evidence recovered - there were vials of chemical compound used to contaminate the ore, as well as a letter from Tazok, accusing Mulahai of incompetence and naming an agent he could use to send some messages back if he survives the inevitable adventurers he must have brought upon his head.

There was also a captive there, a perpetually depressed elven enchanter named Xan. After talking to him, Sealia decided to just let him go - since the misfortunes that kept plaguing him were obviously the result of his attitude, there was no point keeping him around. 
 
« Last Edit: August 23, 2014, 07:19:58 AM by Braininthejar »

Offline Braininthejar

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Re: Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn
« Reply #11 on: August 23, 2014, 08:07:36 PM »
Nashkel: time off in the mountains:

It turned out that the cave Mulahai was using had another exit on the other side of the mountain. Sealia decided to leave that way and have some rest in contact with nature.

She also took the opportunity to release Prince from her service - with the challenges she was now facing a lynx clearly wasn't cutting it. After some deliberation over what to summon instead she finally decided to roll a die and ended up with a typical wolf she called Lord.

On the way back to Nashkel Dynaheir almost got eaten by an ankheg (it didn't help that Sealia managed to hit her by shooting a spell into grapple). They remembered that an armorsmith in Beregost could make armour from ankheg shells (I gave him a hammer with fabricate spell so he could get the job done in time to affect the plot) so Sealia used her survival skill to take the creature apart. (she then made it a habit to take apart any interesting creatures they killed in hope of learning more about them and possibly gathering some spell components for sale)

Once they returned to the town and received their reward there was much rejoicing. Also, when everyone heard the story, some of the miners started worshipping Garl Glittergold  :cool

It turned out Kagain left town for another job while they were away. Montaron and Xsar likewise decided to leave, taking the mountain path towards Amn.

Sinister dreams:

Sealia had another dream, this time one of having Mulahai's soul at her mercy. She prayed to Silvanus to grant him peace and woke up with another clw spellike ability. Such dreams then started to appear on regular basis - visions of some dark power trying to gain her obedience, of flowing blood and sacrificial daggers. As she kept showing defiance to the visions, she would manifest new spellike abilities matching her attitude: Before the end of part 1 she ended with cure light wounds, lesser restoration, bear's endurance and break enchantment.

Never a moment of peace:

As they were leaving for Beregost (to give officer Vai the news of what was going on and to get the ankheg armour made) the party was attacked by another assassin. Fortunately he was alone and clearly didn't expect them to all keep standing after he introduced himself with a fireball in the surprise round. But the event was a wake up call for Sealia - if they kept encountering more competent assassins (judging by the letter on his body, this one had been hired directly by Tazok) eventually they would run out of luck. Something needed to be done.

« Last Edit: August 25, 2014, 07:45:33 PM by Braininthejar »

Offline Braininthejar

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Re: Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn
« Reply #12 on: August 23, 2014, 08:46:39 PM »
News from the front:

The party arrived in Beregost. Since taking a wolf into inns would sometimes cause some issues (and now they had two) Sealia developed another of her trademark traits - when faced with an innkeper who didn't allow wild animals in, she would give him a choice of allowing her companion in and feeding it like he would a dog, or having her release her companion outside "to find food for himself".  She also started training Lord to locate and guard against invisible attackers.

When given the news from Nashkel Vai told them that with the recent news the bandit attacks did indeed look like an organized effort. There were more bandits around than there had any right to be. Just a couple days before one of her road patrols discovered that one inn had been taken over by bandits who killed the owners and would pretend to run the place, killing the travellers who stayed for the night - however, by the time the guards found out, someone had already killed all the impostors (see: The road to Beregost. Sinister happenings a couple posts before)

The Flaming Fist actually had some captives - remnants of a bandit group who attacked a passing circus, not expecting it to have three wizards among the staff (the wizards being Aerie, Quayle and Kalah, though the party had no way of knowing it at the time) Those claimed to have been hired by Zhentarim, but that still needed to be verified.

The joys of multiclassing:

During downtime Imoen got curious about Dynaheir's books. Obviously wizardry is not something one can learn by reading over a wizard's shoulder, even though Imoen proved much smarter than her carefree demanor might suggest. However, attempts in imitation of actual spellcasting brought surprisingly good results; it turned out that Imoen had a strong natural talent. On her next level up she would take a level of sorcerer, setting her towards unseen seer (with her stats she would have been a better wizard, but I felt sorcerer fit her much better. And considering the events of part 2, not needing a spellbook was definitely a plus.)

Going to see the wizard:

After meeting Vai, the party went West into the forest towards a fortified manor that served as the house of the mage Thalantyr. The first reason for seeing him was to commission a hat of disguise or two (or headbands as they ended up being) to shake off the people that kept trying to kill Sealia. The second was to find Tazok: instead of looking for Tazok's messanger mentioned in the letter, Sealia decided to use the letter itself as a focus for scrying - written by Tazok's own hand it seemed sufficient as an object to form the spell around.

The problem was of course that the party couldn't exactly afford all of that.

 

Offline Braininthejar

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Re: Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn
« Reply #13 on: August 27, 2014, 10:52:02 AM »
Research and recovery:

The mage Thalantyr was very businesslike. After hearing what the party had to say, he told them that finding Tazok should be possible. Of course, just seeing him in the mirror won’t be enough - it will take multiple scryings to glean enough information to actually locate him. When it came to discussing the price, he declared that if they don’t have access to that kind of money, they could do a job for him instead.

A couple days East from Beregost there are ruins known as Durlag’s Tower. It used to be a clan fortress of a powerful and famous dwarven hero, until his family was murdered and replaced by dopplegangers. After surviving a fight against monsters that wore the faces of his kin, Durlag succumbed to despair and rampant paranoia, spending a good part of his vast wealth on turning his fortress into a trapped maze before locking himself in with the rest of it. While most of the upper floors have been plundered in the decades since, The defences of the underground portion proved impenetrable… so far. Thalantyr was researching the warding magic protecting the place and trying to emulate the original key runestones that supposedly granted Durlag safe passage through his own defenses. Unfortunately, the last adventurer party he sent to bring him more data never returned and his scry attempts on them have been unsuccessful. He doesn’t count on seeing any of them alive. However, he would very much like to recover whatever notes their wizard managed to make.

After some deliberation the party reluctantly agreed.

Firewine bridge:

After re-stocking their supplies in Beregost, the party moved East. They learned that there was a halfling village very near the tower. They also learned that it was recently plagued by some goblin intrusions and pledged to the officials for help, but the Flaming Fist was currently stretched too thin to provide help.

Sealia spent a day on the road before coming to a stop in Firewine, a ghost town that used to supply caravans passing over a large stone bridge there, abandoned years ago when a rockslide caused by a magical battle upriver redirected the water and made the bridge absolete by allowing merchants to choose an easier path further north.

An attempt to rest in Firewine resulted in a battle - a party of bounty hunters caught the trail of Sealia in Beregost and caught up with her here. The party got a couple magic items out of the fight, including Minsc's first magic weapon, a dwarven hammer Kneebreaker. While burying the bodies after the fight, Sealia cut the hair of one of the females that resembled her; she started formulating plans to fake her own death, though they were still vague at that point.

The other thing that happened was a discovery. It turned out the whole town is built on sandstone, good for digging tunnels, and that the cellars under the houses have been extended to connect with some natural caves - the goblins plaguing the halfling village had their lair hidden there.

After some deliberation (mainly consisting of Minsc expressing concern if the ceiling will be high enough for him to fight “otherwise Boo will have to defeat everyone by himself”) the party agreed to clear the caves. Sealia combined her knowledge of herbalism (she had been gathering various plants as she went through most of the way) and Dynaheir’s limited alchemy skill to make a simple fire bomb and wrap it in some natural drugs - basically making a big bag of weed, setting it on fire and dropping it into the lower level. It wasn’t much, certainly not enough to knock anyone out, but in the poorly ventilated tunnels it got nearby goblins slightly high, reducing them from a minor threat to no threat at all.

In short order the party descended underground (triggering a shrieker mushroom on their way in - their first encounter with the thing), defetead the goblin guards, encountered an othyug (who got blended by one of Sealia’s wolverine summons) and finally taken the goblin chief captive.

The goblin proved willing to cooperate. He was an evil bastard, but smart enough to keep away from trouble, under normal circumstances. Unfortunately, his tribe had been driven out of their mountain lair by a hobgoblin tribe that now occupied Durlag’s tower, bringing them close to human lands. And now they got under control of an ogre mage who bullied them into obedience and forced them to cause trouble, planning to kill and rob any adventurers it might attract.

He gladly agreed to flee with the rest of his tribe and stay low after they return later on. He seemed resigned to losing some guards every now and then and didn’t care much, but seemed more angry at losing the othyug - when hiding underground, waste disposal is a major logistical issue. He also told the party that one of the tunnels near the ogre mage’s lair was boarded up - it was because it was haunted.

After a short, but fierce battle the young ogre mage fell to Dynaheir’s fire magic. After learning that the creature could regenerate, Sealia dissected it for components - with some luck they could be sold to someone who makes healing potions or items.

She was also curious enough to enter the haunted passage. It turned out to be a resting place of a group of knights, a band of adventurers that entered those tunnels years before to fight some now forgotten evil, but were murdered in their sleep by their companion who succumbed to greed. They claimed that they’d be able to rest in peace once they know justice have been served. Sealia considered taking care of restless spirits to be a part of her duties as a druid.

Having rested, the party continued forward.

Offline Braininthejar

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Re: Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn
« Reply #14 on: August 31, 2014, 10:40:32 AM »
Gullykin and what the halflings said

Sealia’s group arrived at the halfling village of Gullykin. They received a reasonably friendly welcome. As it turned out the village was semi-regularly visited by adventurers wishing to expore the tower. Many did not return at all and those who did often needed healing. Fortunately the village elder was a skilled healer at a reasonable price.

When asked about the man the restless spirit had talked about, the halflings responded that actually they have heard about someone like that. It’s a local legend; a visibly shaken adventurer who stumbled into the village one night, carrying as much equipment as he could and telling a story of how he was the only survivor of his party. They say he left the village the same night, escaping the suspecting stares of the villages, but never got far - he tried to brave the nearest mountain passage and a lightning striking the mountain top at a bad moment buried him under a rockslide. The pass has been haunted ever since.

True to her earlier declaration Sealia went to the mountain pass at night, shouting that she has come to free the ghost trapped there. The ghost was agressive and hateful, ready to try to kill anyone until finally someone proves strong enough to destroy him, but Sealia’s sincere intent of helping him managed to get to him and in the end he dissolved without a fight, leaving behind the rusted remains of his armor. The party then carried them back to Firewine.

When they entered the abandoned corridor, all the ghosts manifested there. The traitor said nothing, but the anguish of what he had become was enough to convince his old comrades that justice has been served. One after another, the dead departed to their afterlifes. As the place went silent and dark, the party noticed that one item didn’t rust and fall apart like the rest. It was a weapon, for some reason left with the bodies by the killer. Taking the sword (which turned out to be a +1 cold iron demonbane, a great find at this level, and was given to Khalid) the party retreated and re-sealed the tunnel behind them, now a proper grave.

With that out of the way, Sealia finally set off towards Durlag’s tower.
« Last Edit: August 31, 2014, 10:42:36 AM by Braininthejar »

Offline Braininthejar

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Re: Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn
« Reply #15 on: September 18, 2014, 01:14:16 PM »
Durlag's Tower: upper floors.

On their way to the tower, the party encountered a group of hobgoblins and wargs. Surprisingly, the group turned out to be composed mostly of women and children. Sealia decided to try the diplomatic approach and gain some information - according to what the leading female said, the chieftain got seduced by a human woman he found in the tower; he went crazy for her and exiled the whole lot of them at her whim. They were now headed in search of a new place to live in and wishing their former leader all the worst.

Durlag's tower was actually a small fortress. With some use of the newly acquired wildshape and summons Sealia managed to overcome the problem of the drawbridge and the party rushed in to towards a heroic battle.

After a short, but brutal fight our heroes defeated the hobgoblins and their chieftain. Just as Thalantyr had said, the upper floors turned out to have already been mostly plundered.

Finally they found a woman they had heard about. She was hiding in a large guest bathroom (somehow still intact) and upon discovery told them a sob story about being taken captive by the hobgoblins. Sealia was highly sceptical of course, but for all her suspicions missed one important part of the description - a faintly glowing runic inscription running around the walls of the bathroom above head level. Perhaps she didn't know how extravagant high level adventurers can get. She entered the bathroom to examine the "captive" and one failed will save later...

The rest of the day was a bit of a blur. All the party members entered the room at one point or another, all becoming instant friends with the woman. Once she got to know Minsc, she took note of his magical hammer and asked him to shatter the runes on the walls - they had weaken a lot over time, she said, but were still bothering her terribly. Once he put his weapon to work and the magical light went out, the woman laughed cheerfully, gave him a big kiss (draining him a level) and disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

Well, back to Gullykin to visit the healer. Despite the loss of time and money the party ended up ahead by finding their first big treasure - a decanter of endless water they ripped out of the bathroom's wall faucet. 


Offline Braininthejar

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Re: Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn
« Reply #16 on: September 19, 2014, 07:22:39 PM »
Thoughts of the writing style so far? more details, less details? something I should focus on more?

Offline Braininthejar

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Re: Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn
« Reply #17 on: September 22, 2014, 05:25:10 AM »
So... nobody reads this?

Offline MrPurple

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Re: Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn
« Reply #18 on: September 22, 2014, 06:34:18 AM »
I'm reading it, and enjoying it. The nostalgia fever struck me a bit :D. It's great to see how your player is managing everything and how it changes from the original game.
If there's a mistake in my post please let me know.

Offline Braininthejar

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Re: Lady of Beasts - the story of a bhaalspawn
« Reply #19 on: September 23, 2014, 07:32:55 AM »
Oh well, one person is enough  :P  Just comment on the story every now and then so I know you're still here.