Session/Game: BD&D 2 Date: April 29, 2000
Campaign Date: Month of Zan (Days 15-31), Month of Yeb
(Days 1-14), Year 837 of the Gorgranic Epoch.
Characters:
Baldar
the Annoying, human, fighter, level 5, chaotic, Matt D.
Bill, human, mystic, level 6, chaotic, Greg F.
Vildor, elf, level 1, neutral,
henchman
Fester,
Friend of the Feaster, human, cleric, level 5, chaotic, Bob L.
Randy Jack, human fighter level 1,
neutral, henchman
Sneaky Pete, human thief level 1,
neutral, henchman
Flavius, human, magic-user, level 1,
neutral, henchman
Log:
Since his partner Smackdown the Barbarian was in the Fort
Lester jail for drunkenness and disorderly conduct for 30 days, Baldar was
cooling his heels at Mick’s Inn nearby.
However, on successive nights, he killed one thief and drove off another
who were trying to rummage through his wagon.
He captured one of the thieves and discovered that he had been hired to
steal a carved wooden peg leg from the back of the wagon. Baldar tracked down
his patron, a mysterious grey-robed man, whom Baldar killed when he turned his
back. The mystery man had a tattoo of a
dagger on his right arm.
Baldar examined the wooden leg and found that it opened
up and contained a map, written by someone named Salty Joe, to “Blagash the Accursed”
and some notes about a treasure pile there.
Since Smackdown was in jail and his henchmen Punjab and Shorty Bignose
wouldn’t leave without him, Baldar decided to search the town for a new
partner. He soon discovered a wandering
mystic named Bill, a servant of the Dark God, and his elf henchman Vildor
sitting in the Emperor’s Arms Inn.
After a great deal of cursing, haggling and recriminations, Baldar and
Bill decided to join forces. Bill was
especially interested when he found out that Baldar’s map led to Blagash the
Accursed, which was an ancient site dedicated to his own Dark God. Bill also discovered that the man who was
trying to retrieve the map had been a member of a renegade faction of the Dark
God cult, led by one called “The Grey Master.”
They all bought horses, Bill
and Vildor painted their faces red and black, and they were on their way up to
the mountains where Blagash lies.
On the trail, they were stopped when a herd of goats
filled the path. Bill tried to
negotiate with the goatherd but when Bill turned his back the herdsman stabbed
him, and arrows began to fall on the party from 4 hidden archers. Vildor was wounded and played dead, Bill and
the thug locked into a one-on-one fight, and Baldar suffered repeated arrow
hits form the archers. At last Bill
finished his assailant and between the two of them Baldar and Bill killed all
the archers.
They then crested a mountain ridge and were able to see
Blagash, which was a fortress complex surrounded by steep ridges on all sides
but with a single opening that had a yawning chasm in front of it. There was a strong gate complex and
drawbridge that led into the fortress itself.
Outside the fortress they met Fest, a priest of the Eternal Feaster, and
his three henchmen. Fester had been sent
to see to the destruction of the rival Dark God cult reviving in Blagash, so
they all decided to join forces.
Bill the Mystic then scaled the great cliffs and slipped
into the fortress. He caused a great
deal of confusion and chaos in the darkness, but he changed cloths with a slave
whom he had blackjacked. After they
killed the slave, thinking they had found the infiltrator, the Dark God cult
leaders sent out a force of 20 orcs to scour the countryside for his
allies. When Baldar saw the gate opened
to allow the orcs out, he did not try to slip in (as was Bill’s intention) but
instead picked up Vildor the elf, whom he had hated from the first minute they
met, and threw him down the hill at the orcs.
Vildor tried to use a spell against the orcs, but was brutally hacked
down. The orcs then charged the party
and managed to kill Flavius, Randy Jack and Sneaky Pete, before at last being
defeated by Baldar and Fester.
Bill, meanwhile, set a barracks on fire in the fortress,
but was then spotted and shot by several arrows. He discovered a wall at the back of the fortress and climbed over
it, discovering a rocky valley, cave and ruined shrine. He investigated the cave, and killed a
troll living there. He was unable to
face the remaining four Trolls in the valley, since he had run out of oil. Then
he discovered 2 mummies guarding a strange metal rod in the shrine. The mummies
then began a pursuit of Bill, wounding him and infecting him with mummy
rot. He did manage to steal the metal
rod and scale the cliffs to safety. The
mummies, however seemed to have disappeared somewhere, so joining up with
Baldar and Fester, Bill returned to the valley. They recovered a magic spear, scroll, potions and gold from the
mummy shrine. Then they attacked the
trolls in their cave, managing to kill all four and recover a magic axe and
some other treasure.
Baldar, Bill and Fester then returned to Fort
Lester. There they paid a huge sum of
money to the resident bishop of the Lawful church to have the mummy rot
healed. Baldar then approached the
wizard Mancreed and offered him the spear, scroll and some gems in exchange for
a +1 sword and some healing potions.
Bill was also present and at one point said that Mancreed had “no manly
equipment”, this angered Mancreed, who polymorphed Bill into a snail. Several days later Mancreed and Baldar
completed their swap, and Fester had to pay out 2000 gp to the bishop to have
the spell on Bill removed.
Comparing notes, the party members discovered that the
metal rod could “banish the worms of the snake god” if invoked at the center of
Blagash. And that there was a gong in
the fortress which if rung would destroy all the forces of the Dark God. Returning to the Fortress, the party
entered the back valley (again thanks to Bill’s proficient wall climbing) and
approached the gate that entered the prison of Blagash. Bill climbed the wall and attempted to lure
out the prison guards, to no avail, and merely set on fire the inner door of
the prison. This again illuminated him
and caused him to suffer arrow fire from a nearby tower, He then rushed the center of the fort and
tried to invoke the power of the Rod, but it did no good. Then he spotted the gong, guarded by 4
heavily armed Ogres. He killed one,
dodged past the others and sounded the gong.
This caused thousands of gibbering fiends, the undead remains of an Army
of the Serpent God, which had destroyed Blagash a millennium ago, to rise up
from the ground and begin to slay everyone and everything in the fortress.
Baldar and Fester had just finished chopping through the
outer prison door and killing the prison guards. Suddenly there were gibbering fiends everywhere. Bill, Baldar and Fester managed to kill
about 15 of them before Bill could climb the wall dividing the fortress from
the back-valley and lower a rope for the other two to climb. They then fled to the cliff walls. Bill tried to climb up, but fell and landed
on the roof of a storehouse. Only his
mystical discipline prevented his death.
He tried the climb again and reached the summit, lowering a rope for his
companions.
After several days it was clear that the fiends had
killed all the inhabitants of Blagash and had thrown down and leveled all of
the buildings and hurled all the bodies, goods, and treasure into the
chasm. Baldar, Fester and Bill returned
to Fort Lester to prepare further chaos.
Fester and Bill were well pleased that the cult of the Grey Master was
wiped out, but Baldar was irritated that they had missed the master’s treasure.
Of all the strongholds of
the Dark God, Blagash was the strongest and home to the most unholy rites. In jealousy and lust for power, the
followers of the Serpent God fell on Blagash and overwhelmed it. The inhabitants were slaughtered and the
temple destroyed , but the High Priest
of the Dark God, mortally wounded, held up the Rod of Banishment and cursed the invading army to live as worms
beneath the ground forever. As the
priest of the Serpent God watched his men change and crawl into holes and
chasms he hurled a counter curse: if
the Dark God’s minions should return to Blagash, so would the army of the
Serpent, and he pointed to a large ceremonial gong, saying that this would
sound their summoning.