Min/Max Boards

Day 33 cont:
Upon entering the old Sycamore, the party immediately discovers two mites shooting caltrops into each other’s mouth. Upon seeing the PC's, the Kobolds attack.
With the first mite slain instantly, the surviving one retreated further into the cave in hopes to alert the others.

Following the retreating mite, Felix created an illusionary army in hopes to trick the mites into surrendering. Unfortunately that didn't work out too well.

What did work out though was Felix's other illusion about the cave collapsing. With an impressive bluff check, Felix was able to convince the Mites that they would die if they didn't escape the cave. Unbeknownst to Felix, this cleared out a good majority of the weaker willed mites.

Continuing to make their way through the mite lair, the party's progress was impeded by a massive fissure. Felix decided to go first in navigating the chasm, which would have been a good idea if he didn't accidentally alert the fissure's inhabitant - A giant whiptail centipede.

Rushing to Felix's help, Ed easily climbed down the side of the cliff just in time to see Felix take a crushingly powerful assault from the multilegged monstrosity. His body coursing with venom, Felix found it harder and harder to keep his eyes open. Felix clinging on for dear life saw a two headed dog rip the centipede to shreds. Somehow that gave him the strength to stand up, turn invisible and flee. Having given Felix temporary health, Sansa ordered shaggy dog to continue the assaults. A quick tail slap drops shaggy dog off his feet and just as the centipede coiled back for another attack, Ed's heavy pickaxes tore open the beast's flesh and the guardian of the fissure's lifeless body crashed to the rocky floor.

Sansa had given Felix temporary health, but little by little it began to wear off and Felix returned closer and closer to death. Felix begged Sansa to heal him and after a while she did.

On the other side of the chasm was a small room which the party assumed was their destination. Inside this room was a large spider and a mite rising atop its back.
The mite didn't have time to react. By the time he was aware of his intruders; Ed had already vaulted over the table and jumped in a fit of rage at the spider.
The spider counterattacked and easily brought Ed down to his knees. Shaggy dog and Sansa attacked the spider to draw it's attention while Felix repositioned himself. Ed continued to fail his stabilize rolls while his slurk retaliated in a protective fury. The slurk finished off the Ogre spider and with Sansa's ability to steal health from the frightened mites, Ed was soon back up to full health, as was Felix. After grabbing what they sought, the party killed off any remaining mites and left the dungeon.

Returning to the kobold's camp, the party delivered the statue to its rightful place. However, Tartuk, the rogue kobold who manipulated the others with promises of magic, attacks the party and demands that the kobolds do the same. With the statue returned though, Sootscale no longer fears the curse of Tartuk's god, and instead joins the party in slaying Tartuk.

Thanks to Felix's Island of Blades, Sootscales killed Tartuk with a deadly sneakattack and claimed freedom for himself and his clan. With the eternal gratitude of an entire kobold clan, the party departed and continued mapping the greenbelt.

Day 34:
The party discovers a burned down bridge and uses it to cross the surprisingly large river.

Day 35:
Finally, the party discovered the bandit's main camp. Using the passcode learned from Kressle, the party easily infiltrated the camp and began to explore.
After a while the party remembered (realized) that they had no plan whatsoever and decided it would be best to observe the bandits and find an opportunity to strike.

After a while Kressle and her squad delivered the stag lord's wine and the party took the advantage. Communicating with Kressle via doubletalk but Kressle notices the third in command bandit (Novan) was trying to eavesdrop on their conversation. Luckily, Sansa was able to change the conversation to that of a telepathic one.

Having learned about the three main bandit commanders: Auchs a large, yet stupid, powerhouse. Dovan, an devilishly beautiful dark elf wielding a rapier. And Akiros, a mysterious fighter who personally guards the Stag Lord, the party was ready to make its move.

Felix conjures up a fake wine case and infiltrates the Stag Lord's private quarters. Akiros, guarding the Stag Lord's bedchamber, tells Felix to deliver the barrel to the storage down the stairs. Complying, Felix learns of an old man who lives in the cellar from Akiros and concludes that this man is the Stag Lord's father.

Once the camp was mostly asleep, the party buffed themselves and entered the Stag Lord's quarters yet again. Akiros knew what was going on and saw this as his chance to defeat the Stag Lord once and for all.

Opening the door, Akiros and the party were finally face to face with the Stag Lord. There was no time for talk. Felix charged and used a poison to hinder the Stag Lord's dexterity. Meanwhile shaggy dog and Akiros surrounded the Stag Lord and each dealt painful attacks.

The Stag Lord called upon his Deity's power and dealt a crushing blow to Felix. Still standing, and seeking revenge, Felix scored a critical hit in his flurry of slashes and the Stag Lord's head was flawlessly removed from his shoulders.

When the party and Akiros left the Stag Lord's chambers they were assaulted by a hail of arrows from the second story. Although most bandits were loyal to Akiros, Dovan and Auchs managed to rally up a handful of bandits to aid them in their attempted revenge on their lord.

Luckily, or unluckily depending on whose side you were on, Shaggydog's newly grown(?) wings allowed him to easily attack anyone within the stronghold's walls. Felix summons a swarm of monkeys (yes, you read that right) that saps away Auch's con before effectively killing him. Novan managed to release the trapped Owl Bear and is using it to flank the party. Thanks to Felix's dodge chance he managed to go toe to toe with the owl bear and eventually emerge victorious.

Dovan was nowhere to be found. He was quite literally eaten by Shaggydog. With only one innocent bystander killed (The monkey swam fell on him through the cracks in the second floor) Felix and Sansa successfully defeated the Stag Lord and gained the trust of Akiros. Unfortunately, not everyone escaped with their life. Kressle, the bandit whom the players helped earlier by clearing out the ruined temple, lay dead on the floor, her throat opened by Novan’s blade. Seeing the Stag Lord's helmet on the ground was too tempting for Sansa to pass up, donning the bloody helmet, Sansa crowned herself the new lord of the bandits.

After clearing up some loose ends, such as murdering the Stag Lord's father in the basement, the party said good bye to Akiros, promising to call upon him if they ever needed help, and set forth to complete their exploration of the lands.

Day 41:
Lots of nothing out there in them lands. The party explored a week's worth of land.

Day 42:
Nothing here but a thicket of bushes that the party refused to enter however, Felix made a new friend when he discovered a Thylacine and offered it food. With an impressive roll on diplomacy and animal handling, Felix welcomed the friendly animal into his heart.

Day 43:
With the completion of the charter growing nearer and nearer the party thought it was be a good idea to massacre a helpless Tatzleworm couple on their honeymoon at a nearby river bank.

Day 44:
A dead unicorn lay across the forest’s floor. Unable to revive it, Sansa tried to skin it but her blade was not sharp enough to deprive the majestic animal of its flesh.

Day 45:
The party discovered a statue of Erastil.
They were unable to discover all the awesome magical properties though so they left empty-handed.

Day 46:
With only 2 undiscovered hexes left the party ran into a strange creature and his slurk.
It wasn't Ed though, in fact it had even less intelligence than Ed and only seemed to know a handful of words in common. With the communication gap so large, the party saw no reason to spill this outcast's blood and left him with his Slurk in his ruined temple.

Day 47:
Finally the party explored the last piece of land, Tuskgutter's lair. Several weeks ago Felix promised to return tuskgutter's head to Oleg to complete a request on the job board. With tuskgutter nowhere in sight the party decided to set up bear traps and ambush him when he returned. 4 hours passed before tuskgutter's roar shook the very trees that Sansa and Shaggydog were hiding in, and when tuskgutter entered his cave, he triggered both bear traps that Felix set up.

Tuskgutter spotted Felix's Thylacine and gored it using his massive tusks. Felix unleashed a flurry of quick slashes, but due to tuskgutter's natural armor, missed all but one of them. Sansa repeated her strategy of hasting everybody and giving Shaggydog temporary health while Shaggydog and tuskgutter traded blow for blow. Eventually Felix and Shaggydog bring tuskgutter's scarred remains to Oleg who praises them for defeating the scourge of the forest.

As the party entered the sitting area of Oleg's to decide what to do next, a mysterious and beautiful woman approached them. She introduced herself as an envoy from Brevoy and informed the party that the Swordlords were quite pleased with their competition of the charter. So much in fact they bestowed upon the party an honor that not many in the nearby lands had earned: The right to build a kingdom in the name of Brevoy.

******ACT 1 OF KINGMAKER COMPLETE*******

Note from the DM:
Thanks for keeping with us these past weeks as we ran kingmaker. I know that I had large gaps and inconsistencies in my updates, but I hope that you were able to enjoy my campaign write-up despite that.

Act 2 is all about building a city and eventually a kingdom.
I have asked the players to write up any characters they wish to occupy their city and told them I would fill any voids in their assignments.
I'm actually on my way to the first meeting of Act 2 right now but don't expect an update until the end of the week or later because I have a ton of homework I need to do for my programming classes.

Look forward to Act 2: The Rivers Run Red!

Day 23: When we last saw our heroes they were arguing over a magic ring that they found on a dead man. Still trying to complete their mission, the party continued on their way to explore D2, unfortunately for them, there was nothing here.

Day 24: Having rested nearby, the party moved on into D4 where they found a lone pond that the players (and thusly the party) thought was a pond of tripling when Ed's frog (Slurk) jumped in and three emerged. Sansa decided to test out her new ring by going for a swim to see if it was any easier than she previously thought. Meanwhile Ed begins to gain the trust of the frogs by signing a lullaby (Both in character and in real life), and because it was so entertaining to the frogs (AKA me), I allowed the frogs to accompany them as observers until they are trained.

Day 25: The party discovered the remnants of an old abandoned temple. With an impressive display in knowledges, Felix immediately recognized it as being a temple of Erastil, a god who takes the form of an elk. In front of the temple is a small pool filled with murky water. Behind the pool is a set of stairs leading up to a rather large cave. Felix took it upon himself to get ahead of the party and explore this mysterious cave, but as he stepped closer and closer to the cave, a tortured almost human voice emits a soul wrenching roar.

Felix gets ambushed by a Dire Bear and is knocked unconscious before he knew what was happening. Luckily for him Sansa the Vitalist shares his pain and allows Felix to regain his composure but before doing so, he turned invisible in hopes to trick the bear. Felix's invisibility saved him from another set of brutal bear attacks, and it is at this point that Sansa and Ed begin to discuss leaving Felix and retreating as far as possible. With Felix being invisible, the bear decides that it would be best to attack a target he can actually see and goes after shaggydog. Now it is at this point that I should mention that Shaggydog is a little different than when we last saw him. He has two heads. With a critical hit the bear nearly kills and grapples shaggydog, however, unlike with Felix, Shaggydog is an Eidolon and can thusly be dismissed and removed from harm's way quite easily. Ed and Sansa began to retreat while Felix tried to tumble down the stairs away from the bear. Hiding in the nearby rubble, Felix was able to escape from the bear and eventually leave the temple due to the bear not pursuing him outside of the temple's borders. Exhausted, near death, and defeated, the party rested in the middle of the forest just outside the walls of the temple.

Day 26:
Having been defeated at the temple, the party decided that it would be better to continue exploring and return to fight the bear when they have a plan.
Preceding to the right on the map, the party discovered a small bandit camp. Deciding that it would be an excellent idea to infiltrate their ranks and gather information, the party began to argue about what they should wear to avoid suspicion and whether or not the stag medallions should be visible, however, before they could finish yelling at the top of their lungs so that every bandit within a thousand mile radius could hear them, they found themselves surrounded by several bandits and a female bandit wielding two hatchets.

Sansa politely introduced herself to Kressle, who in turn did the same, and instead of a massive brawl of blood and death breaking out, a polite conversation and an exchange of information took its place. The party learned that The Stag Lord was a good for nothing drunk who was never sober. In addition to this, Sansa flashed a mysterious tattoo to Kressle who recognized it instantly and began to change her tone to be more friendly.

In the end the party volunteered information about Oleg's reinforcements and offered to get rid of the Dire Bear in the temple so the bandits could relocate to a more secure area.

Sidenote: Sansa invented a simple explanation for Ed to understand what a "Favor" is. She calls it "Invisible Money" which basically is exactly what a favor is, but is dumbed down enough for Ed to understand.

Day 27: Dire Bear, Take 2.
Upon returning to the temple, and armed with a plan, the party sent Felix ahead to try and sneak up on the dire bear. This didn't turn out so well and the bear let out his hideous roar yet again.

The bear charged Felix at full speed, but Felix prepared for this and created a magical pit in front of him to stop the charge. Unfortunately for Felix, the bear rolled an excellent reflex save and did not fall in. Felix decided it would be better to attack the bear's flatfooted, so he turned invisible and loosed an arrow, unfortunately for him, it fell short.

Meanwhile Sansa hasted the entire party and Shaggydog brutally assaulted the temple guardian using his two vicious pairs of teeth. Ed, Felix, and the bear missed their next attacks, and shaggydog continued the assault. Now on the verge of death, the guardian dealt a painful blow to Shaggydog and grappled him once more.

Sansa was used to this, and just like before, dismissed Shaggydog to avoid the grapple damage. Ed finally connected with his pickaxes and finished off the bear, which turned into an old man before eventually disintegrating and was blown away by the wind.

With the bear dead the party returned to Kressle's camp and informed her of their victory. The bandits thanked the party and began to move into the formerly abandoned temple.

Continuing on their way Eastward, the party found a strange crevice in between two hills. They followed it down to a small room where Ed identified the walls as gold veins.

With their gold mine recorded on their map, the party continued east and slew another shambling mound on the way before stopping for the night.

Day 28.
Now reaching the end of the "map", the party discovered a small tree that looked like it had been struck by lighting. Upon further investigation of the tree Felix discovered a small patch of earth that seemed unsettled. After digging through the earth, Felix found a small cache containing several magic wands, a book of spells, a ring, a cloak, and a masterwork dagger (which Ed stuck to the bad of his frog because... why the fuck not?)

Day 29.
Having traveled back to Oleg's the party sold him what useless items they had. Felix upgraded his sword, and when Ed tried to sell Oleg his slimey dagger for an amount of money that Oleg did not have, the strange man dressed like a bear who sat at the counter got up, argued with Oleg, and bought the dagger from Ed.

Day 30.
While on the way to C11 the party ran into the Hunter from Oleg's. Felix offered the Hunter some moonradishes, which he accepted graciously, and the party continued onwards eventually meeting up with Ed (Who stayed in the Tavern the night before) at D14.

Day 31.
With his original frog fully trained, Ed explained to the party that he would sometimes be with his frogs, teaching them the ways of the wild, than with the party.
On to E13. Bisecting the area was a gigantic river more than 200 feet wide with a burned down Rope Bridge dangling precariously overhead. Ed recanted about the tale of Nettles, a bridge keeper who opposed the Stag Lord and was murdered for it. In the middle of the night the Stag Lord and his men set fire to Nettles' house causing Nettles to flee across the bridge. When Stag Lord lit the bridge on fire it was the end for Nettles. With the Stag Lord's men on either side of the bridge it mattered not where Nettles fled. Fortunately for Nettles (Or unfortunately depending on how you see it) he didn't have to decide which side to flee to because the Stag Lord cut the bridge's support rope and Nettles' aflame lifeless body plunged into the river below.

The first thing the party did when they got to the crossing was... (say it with me) 'alerted the haunting ghost to their presence'. However, this wasn't as bad an idea as others might think. Nettles hated the Stag Lord and told the PC's that if they were to kill Stag Lord, he would give them continued passage across his river whenever they needed it. The party agreed and asked Nettles if he knew where the Stag Lord was based. Nettles only knew that the Stag Lord followed the river to attack him, but with this information, the party was pretty sure they knew where the Stag Lord's camp was (Or at least I think they thought they knew...)

Day 32.
With the party growing closer and closer to the end of the adventure they were running out of "blank spaces" on the map. So naturally they discovered a massive cave system of Kobolds and infiltrated it disguised as a Kobold and his pack of slaves.

Meeting up with the leader of the Kobolds (Sootscales), the party learned that a magical statue had been stolen from the Kobolds and if it wasn't returned to them as soon as possible the Kobolds would begin to die from the wrath of their god. The party agreed to go find it (Or rather, Felix did, the rest were slaves) in the Mite lair where the Kobolds suspected it was.

Day 33.
With the help of the Kobolds, the party easily uncovered the secret entrance to the Old Sycamore tree where the mites lived...

It's time for the continuation of the game AFTER this one, so I don't have time to finish this update before the next one starts.

Look forward to the continuation and possibly conclusion of Part 1 of Kingmaker.