Session/Game: Marches 3e #19 Date: May 13, 2001
Campaign Date: Sau 11 –
Sau 23, Imperial Year 469
Characters:
Kronin, dwarf, fighter-10/ dwarven defender-1,
LG Dave Hanley
Angus “Mr Fabulous” McNasty,
gnome, illusionist-7, CN Dave Nelson
Sarissa Lin, human, monk,
level 7, LN, Charles Tillinghast
Log:
Sau 11th
Sarissa and Kronin arrive at
the party and are introduced into the receiving line. As king of all gnomes, Mr. Fabulous gets his introduction last
because he is the highest-ranking noble in the entire party. The adventurers met several interesting
people there including Baron Aedris of Elfwind, Sir Mackey the Boastful of
Elfwind, and Count Broderick of Mant.
Count Broderick spent considerable time with Sarissa discussing the role
of Sir Richard of Goldhaft’s role in the shift of power in the County of Storm
Eagle. The count agreed with Sarissa
that Richard should not have taken advantage of the situation, although he was
skeptical that Sarissa could “make that dick pay for what he did to those
men”. Count Broderick ended the
conversation promising to bend the senior Count of Goldhaft’s ear on Storm
Eagle’s behalf. After a wonderful
banquet of elven masterpiece dishes, the waltzmaster Sir Francis Lightfisk got
the dancing started. Although Sarissa
and Kronin were loathe to perform any steps, many of the revelers said that the
lady Adia and her partner Angus McNasty made for a dynamic and graceful couple
on the dance floor.
The party crosses the wastes
back to Blacksword. There are no
encounters.
The heroes arrive at their
home, only to be stopped along the way by an odd, hevily armored halfling. After some explanations, the characters find
that Blacksword has been “commandeered” by an officer of the church of
Bor. Mother Superior Gleeza had arrived
at Whitefire’s manor two days before and had made a couple of changes since the
master was gone. She removed all of
Whitefire’s belongings to the basement of the main house in order to make room
for her own belongings, destroyed all of Dorgo’s alchemical equipment (alchemy
is the work of the crawling death – abomination!), and allowed her halflings
indulge their seemingly endless appetites on Blacksword’s pantry. (Note to Chuck: be sure to spend another 25gp on this month to buy more
supplies). Mother Gleeza explains that
she brings a deed to some land in the old wood for a monastery of St. Hugo if
only the druids of the wood can be tamed.
She explains that the charter would go to Sir Ostler once the residents
of that wood could be brought under Bor’s wing. She also offered 500 gold lions to all those who helped bring the
heathens of the wood to justice. The
heroes accept and go to sleep.
That evening, the party
witnesses first hand the appetites of the halflings. They eat just about everything in sight. However, of the six there are five who are
rude, obnoxious, and haughty and one who sets himself apart from the rest. The others taunt and tease this loner in
subtle but cruel ways at every opportunity.
“Accidentaly” tripping him, throwing carrots at him at dinner, and
stealing his clean underwear at every opportunity. Angus plays a joke on the five cruel halflings in order to steal
their cupcakes and iced pastries, which started a series of practical jokes and
illusionist tricks that caused the halflings to suffer stained surcoats,
problems sitting, long bouts of diarehhea, and severe beatings at the hands of
Sarissa Lin.
In the night, Kronin is
visited by a quiet stranger in ceremonial battle armor that bears the insignia
of Bor. The quiet stranger defeats
Kronin, but rather than let him die he instead awakes Sarissa and vanishes
without a trace just as he had arrived.
Kronin is restored to full health by Mother Gleeza in the middle of the
night.
The party rests for a day
before entering the old wood.
The heroes leave for the old wood, but just as they set foot
inside the forest they are stopped by the druid of Heathton. She gives herself up in order to keep the
heroes from entering the wood. Her
reasoning is that the druids of the wood have prepared traps and ambushes that
they cannot defeat and she needs the heroes to look after “her people” who
settled in Blacksword from Heathton.
The druid is taken into custody by the six halflings.
Later that evening, Angus
frees the druid by giving the druid some potions of invisibility, distracting
the halflings with a giant cupcake illusion, and ushering the druid of Heathton
to safety. The halflings are reprimanded
by Mother Gleeza in front of the heroes for their incompitence.
Sau 18 – Sau 23
The heroes grow tired of
Mother Superior Gleeza’s constant attempts to coerce them to drive the druids
from the forest. After all, one of
these druids helped to save their life in Heathton once and they don’t have
anything personal against them. The
heroes demand more gold for the work of clearing out these heathens. Kronin meets with the druid several times,
trying to arrange a way to get the druidic members of the Happy Green Clan to
safety before Mother Gleeza burns the entire forest to the ground. After a time, the druid does not return.
The heroes are given their
gold, “in advance” of going into the forest as they demanded. Just inside the forest, the heroes
understand why the druid of Heathton did not return. Her body is found nailed to a tree. Apparently, the Green Happy Clan not only thought that they could
crush the heroes, but they took the Heathton druid’s messages as a sign the
heroes of Blacksword were weak. The
adventureres pressed on.
The first ambush the
adventurers reached only gave a token resistance. The heroes chopped down a most unique tree, and as the timber
fell to the ground the sky began to darken with clouds and rain began to
threaten. Several elves were captured
from this ambush and were taken back to Blacksword to be held for trial from
Bor’s inquisition.
The second ambush was more
organized, and gave the heroes much more trouble. An entangle spell, as well as a chlorine gas arrow managed to
either blind or immobilize much of the party, with the notable exception of
Sarissa Lin. Sarissa looked like a
whirlwind of fists and kicks as she wailed the tar from most of the elves in
the area. Many of the elves escaped,
including the sorcerer and the low druid, but the high druid and her black
dryad companion were made to suffer at the hands of Kronin’s bow and Angus’
magic missiles.
The third ambush was very
odd. Instead of waiting for the heroes,
the elves seemed to rush past them. As
a matter of fact, they seemed not to worry much at all about the heroes cutting
thick swaths through these people who had just gotten the better of the heroes
not 20 minutes before. It was only
after hearing timbers snap and more chlorine gas that the heroes understood
what was going on. Apparently, the
elves had invaded a green dragon’s lair in order to get the chlorine gas in
order to make their blinding arrows.
In retaliation for tresspassing, the green dragon was giving them more
of it. Elves were liquidated by the
dragon’s acid breath weapon and the characters beat feet as fast as they could
to avoid the dragon. Many of the
halfling fighters were killed by the fierce dragon in their attempt to flee.
The situation grows more
grim within the wood. The few refugees
who have managed to escape their home say that the dragon is terrorizing the
entire wood. The elves now welcome any
sort of help they can get from the minions of Bor in order to help reclaim
their homeland. The heroes have sent
word to Sir Rannos to aid them in the dragon slaying, and they await Master
Whitefire’s return eagerly.