| Saga : Escape From Farscult : Session 3 | Back to the Escape From Farscult Campaign |
Session/Game: Escape 3e #3 Date:06/04/02
Campaign Date: Vay 21 - Vay 24, IY 485
GM: Andrew Smith
Characters:
Maliki Malfoe, human necromancer-2/cleric-2, Mike Miller
Quintus, half-dragon fighter-1, Toby Miller
Illyiana Jhorn, drastin sorcerer-4, Chuck Tillinghast
Nebakanezzar Bubex, minotaur fighter-1, Justin Fernandez
Log:
In the cursed city of Farscult, the tyrant Mox Krustal paces the opulent chambers he took over following the fall of his successor five years before. His wizened brow furrows as he considers the fate of his kingdom. He pauses to consider a stylized painting of Krustal's predecessor standing triumphantly over the body of a golden-haired pretender to his throne. The pretender attempts to defend himself with the remains of a shattered sword with a green hilt and a gold blade. In a moment, it is as if a weight has been lifted from his frame. Mox Krustal croaks out in his ancient, cracking voice...
Mox Krustal: Servant! Send in Sir Rory, master of the Green Bonnets.
The servant leaves, and returns a moment later with the tall and proud Master Rory and his two lieutenants - the brawny Wag and the more mousy Carmichael.
Mox Krustal: Those thieves have escaped me too long. My scrying tells me they are reaching the Eastern edge of the swamp. I want you to personally get me the bounty hunter, Brainy Loosemuscles. He will find the thieves. He will deal with them.
Rory: M'lord. The Greenbonnets have a proud and rich history. In the past, we have never allowed a single being to escape the grip of Farscult. I suggest you take a page from your predecessor.
Mox Krustal: And what page would that be, Master Rory?
Rory: (excitedly) First, get rid of these Orcish "guards" that you have mustered. They stand in our way, doing more harm than good. My troops have refused to work with them. I fear that if their stay here goes on, I will be forced to teach them a lesson of my own. Second, tell us what you know. Why are we searching for these wretches anyway? How are they able to escape capture so easily? Do they have some sort of magic that you feel that they have stolen from this precious "vault" of which you speak? And finally, let us do our job. The thieves still wear the collars. We have no need for any bounty hunters like that unscrupulous and most inaccurately named "Brainy Loosemuscles".
Mox Krustal: It is brave of you to question my judgements, and to ask questions. That is remarkable in a soldier, and in a servant.
Rory: Thank you, m'lord.
In a heartbeat, Mox Krustal reaches out and grabs Rory by the head. With an audible snap, the tyrant wrenches the soldier's head to an odd angle, snapping his neck. Before the others can act, Rory lays helpless on the ground, paralyized and gasping for his last breath through his broken throat.
Mox Krustal: It is a pity that I dislike those traits in my servants. Don't you feel the same, Master Carmichael?
The heroes have run as far away as possible from the town of the lycanthropes. Once the sun rises, the party toys with the idea of returning and dealing death to the entire lot of them, but decide that rest is a better idea with all the Greenbonnets out on the lookout for them. Nebuchenezzar regains as much of his health as he can while Illyiana and Maliki prepare more spells. During their rest, Quintus spots a most unhealthy man in a cart pulled by a pair of sickly-looking tusked boars. The group sneaks up on the farmer Clem, doing his best to harvest marsh radishes and collect firewood in the swamp. Once the heroes have convinced Clem of their good intentions, Clem leads them back to his hovel.
At the hovel, the heroes meet Clem's family, Mrs. Clem, and Clem jr. All three of them are suffering from some sort of pox they simply call "the plague". Apparently, the plague can spread to the lungs of the afflicted eventually suffocating them in their sleep. Both Clem and his wife suffer from the disease, but their young son is the worst off. The heroes are very thoughtful to Clem and Mrs. Clem. Maliki does his best to make Clem Jr. comfortable. Quintus and Nebuchenezzar repair the ailing family's thatched roof. Maliki also finds that all the fresh water in this area of the Rootmuck swamp is magically poisoned with "the plague". Apparently, the swamp has afflicted this ailment for the longest time. It was only after the death of Mox Krustal's predecessor that "The Plague" returned to this portion of the swamp.
That evening, Quintus and Nebuchenezzar have trouble sleeping. Still flushed with their success at removing Maliki's slave collar, the two stay up talking with one another about their future. They are beset by five bugbears, who all die horribly at the hands of the pair. In the morning, the entire group is attacked by a whole host of well-armed and armored bugbears. Nebuchenezzar gets too far from the others in the group and falls. As the fight rages around the fallen minotaur, one of the bugbears maims the minotaur by tearing his manhood (minotaurhood?) from him with a knife. Luckily, the others are able to drive the remaining bugbears off before the hero is killed outright.
Maliki is able to return Nebuchenezzar back to fighting shape, but not before re-naming the poor fellow, "Nutless Neb". The following afternoon, Clem leads the adventurers to a low crag that he believes is the bugbear's hideout.
The crag is in fact a monument to a fallen warrior-wizard. Old frescoes and mosaics are plastered against every wall of this subterranean hideout venerating a man with golden hair who weilds a sword with a green hilt and a gold blade. The token bugbear resistance is removed easily and provides more bodies for Maliki's skeletal servant spells.
The complex is searched. Little treasure is found, but a vault to a sort of temple to the golden-haired individual is found. A secret trapdoor leads to a small room where perhaps this individual once lived. Inside they find several items of value as well as many books written by the gold-haired man such as "My treatise on spellcasting" and "Why I can beat anyone in a fight". A spectre appears and drains life levels from Nebuchenezzar and Maliki before being dispatched. Just then, the ogre bounty hunter Brainy Loosemuscles and some of his followers return to their lair. Using the power of his greatclub "Skullcreeper", brainy dimension doors behind the characters. The fight is incredible, with Nebuchenezzar again absorbing the most damage, with Quintus barely able to hold back the raging ogre barbarian and Maliki fending off the rest of the bugbear horde with his skeletal servants. The heroes are victorious, but tired as they emerge from the crag the next day to continue their trek toward the city of Zhukar.