Post by shroudb on Jan 29, 2015 6:39:49 GMT -7
Total Session XP: 2200 xp
(1 +1/2 session)
Loot: 1500
Session Date: 1/29/2015
GM Shroudb
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JuIMjj1F7SLJNzo4xxcCjM2KZlWKqwSmaj1cyPr01Zw/edit?usp=sharing
Extra Player Loot:
Atis: burned arcane mark on chest,
Ashmock, burned arcane mark on chest
Naya, burned arcane mark on chest, used 3 vitus flasks, used 2 holy waters, used 2 holy balms (1300gp instead of 1500, 1600xp instead of 2200xp due to losing last encounter)
dirk: used antitoxin
Events:
A farmboy entered the plow asking for "warriors" to help him and his village with their problem of their cows dying. After a bit of conversation with the naive and stupid boy, the adventueres gathered that some of the stronger livestock of the village were dying when the villagers took them to rook via the direct road, but were fine if they were going around. The main problem was that in expectation of the War, Rook was gathering supplies, and needed the direct access to the villagopen, so it was willing to pay adventurers to check out the problem.
On their way there, three people of the group heard a little girl singing a lullaby, it felt more like it was in their head, and as the lullaby ended, the child burst in manic laughter and Ashmock and Naya started feeling sick. A few minutes later, the party entered the village square, and went to the inn to get some rest. As time passed, Ashmock and Naya, heard the little girl sing in their heads again and again, and their condition was getting worse each time this repeated.
After the night's rest, their mouth reeked of greenblood oil poisoning, but Atis couldnt find traces of the poison within their system. Asking around, they found that all "strong" people of the village usually persished the same way, even one who claimed to know that they were being poisoned. The party's mind went to fey, but asking around revealing nothing of the sort, just that this thing was going on for a long time now, it has been decades since they stopped using the main road, but with Rook pressing them, they finally decided to open it up again.
A single man told Naya about a stone "thing" on the road to rook, near where the adventurers had heard the child for the first time. As the party headed there, all of them heard the lullaby this time, and after poking around, Atis spotted an evil aura permating the place. Suddenly, a little ghostly child appeared, dancing around them, and as she finished her little circle, she burst out in manic, pure evil, laughter, causing Atis to also succumb to the effects of the poison, and then disappeared. Naya, convinced now that they were dealing with haunts.
A little further in the woods, the party noticed the weird stone formation, but they figured out that it seemed more like a big stone building that had collapsed, even traces of siege weaponry had been found. Atis noticed that the aura of the girl haunt was growing stronger by the minute, almost reaching it's initial levels, but also noticed a second evil aura from the middle of the fallen tower. Atis started to channel towards it, and as Dirk walked to there to start digging, the stones shifted a bit, and the ghost of a raging humaoid appeared, Ashmock and Dirk started to feel liek smashing things up, but the already weakened by the channels emanation collapsed from Atis' divine might.
Summoning an earth elemental, they saw that there was a slight part of the basement still standing, hidden under the debri, and ashmock and dirk strted digging, while atis and naya kept vigilance and kept destroying the girl haunt as it was appearing.
After an hour, with a tiny passage open, Naya climbed down to find part of an old wizards laboratory, a few books on agriculture, geography, military tactics, and arcana in an unusable state, and a few broken vials of material components. But nothing to indicate a location for the haunts' center piece.
Back in the village, asking about the broken building this time, the party found out that this village, during the first orc-empire war was used as a center of communication between the elves, the dwarves, and rook. as it lay straight in the middle of the three great cities. Around a hundred years ago, during the middle of the war, the orc sent an advanced team to tear the place down, and succedded at destrying the village. At that time, there was a wizard living there, who fought back, and even helped rebuilding the village after the orc invasion, despite him having lost his wife and child during the assault. They also learned that the wizard and his family used to live in a small cottage near the tower.
Back there, the party found indeed a trail leading further into the woods, and after an encounter with some burning dogs and a fire that only seemed to burn them but leave the forest intact they reached an almost run down building. As ashmock approached the door, a few loose masks on the wall animated and formed a golem, that procedded to slam one of the masks in Ashmocks face gaining control over him. Thankfully, Dirk was there and blocked ashmock's path as a wall of steel, with ashmock being unable to penetrate his defences. Naya staretd to plan something and Atis assisted from the back, and with Ashmock no longer under his control, the creature was in a tight spot, until a shadow appeared behind Atis from the ground below. Atis run away, only to step on a pile of bones hidden beneath some bushes, skeletal arms tried to grab him but failed. The party finished off the golem and Naya's holy weapons almost killed the shadow which retreated.
Naya stayed behind to stay vigilant if that thing reappeared and the rest of the group marched into the abandoned house. Suddenly, the door closed and magically locked itself behind them, as two shadows appeared from the ground and started pummeling Ashmock. They manage to bring one down before Ashmock had to collapse behind the party, unable to even move with his strength almost gone from the shadow and the fatigue of the combat, Dirk and Atis procedded to try to kill the shadow, and in the end, with most of the party crippled from the strength loss they managed to disperse the undead. As they prepared to leave as fast as they could, they noticed through a hole a basement, and within it a ghost trapped inside a circle. They almost run away, but they noticed that the circle was actually a circle of protection from good.
Breaking the circle, caused the ghost to fly straight to them, and whisper in agony to kill his daughter, pointing out on a pile of papers left in the basement. The party retrieved them and rushed outside, where the ghostly mage was throwing fireballs towards the skeletal hands and the host of skeletal remains that were brutaly murdered in the nearby barn. As the party tried to leave, he touched Atis, Naya, and Ashmock, burning in their flesh a mark. The ghost urge them to rush back to Rook and that he would take care of his daughter's malignant magics that were left behind. He also told them that he could only rest, when his daughter was put to rest, ans that he could feel her growing stronger. As the party apprached the ruins, they saw a ghostly tower rising above them, and the ghostly mage leaving some flowers in a patch of ground nearby. As the three affected party members started to hear the lullaby in their heads again, the mark burned to their chest by the wizard flared up, and suddenly the voice was no more.
After haggling a bit with the villagers, the party rushed to Rook, and away from the haunted woods. Atis read the journal and the papers they found, and saw that most of the books were about the internal politics of Rook, it's military positions and strengths, and arcane knowledge. The journal, clearly the mage's, spoke of his life in the village about a hundred years ago, as the wizard protector of this place. Back in the first war, when the orc party tried to raid the village, the Rook soldiers that were nearby had to withdraw or else suffer countless causualties, and as the wizard was left behind to defend the place, his tower was crushed by the orcs, and his wife buried in the rubble. His daughter left soon therafter, only to return a few years later. He welcomed her into his home, and after talking with her he realized how deep her hatred for Rook run. It was too late though, as he realised he was slowly being poisoned by her, he would confront her. That was the last entry on his journal.
The most disturbing paper though, were rough sketches of a plan to destroy Rook. The plan notes were that:
with a pack of a hundred years old notes that seem awfully similar to what is happening now in Rook but still unceratin if this is the actual plan or coincidence, and if it is true, then without knowning who this "powerful, well liked, beyond suspicion" noble could be, the party decided to keep the notes to themselves for the time being. Maybe discuss it in peace what to do with them.
(1 +1/2 session)
Loot: 1500
Session Date: 1/29/2015
GM Shroudb
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JuIMjj1F7SLJNzo4xxcCjM2KZlWKqwSmaj1cyPr01Zw/edit?usp=sharing
Extra Player Loot:
Atis: burned arcane mark on chest,
Ashmock, burned arcane mark on chest
Naya, burned arcane mark on chest, used 3 vitus flasks, used 2 holy waters, used 2 holy balms (1300gp instead of 1500, 1600xp instead of 2200xp due to losing last encounter)
dirk: used antitoxin
Events:
A farmboy entered the plow asking for "warriors" to help him and his village with their problem of their cows dying. After a bit of conversation with the naive and stupid boy, the adventueres gathered that some of the stronger livestock of the village were dying when the villagers took them to rook via the direct road, but were fine if they were going around. The main problem was that in expectation of the War, Rook was gathering supplies, and needed the direct access to the villagopen, so it was willing to pay adventurers to check out the problem.
On their way there, three people of the group heard a little girl singing a lullaby, it felt more like it was in their head, and as the lullaby ended, the child burst in manic laughter and Ashmock and Naya started feeling sick. A few minutes later, the party entered the village square, and went to the inn to get some rest. As time passed, Ashmock and Naya, heard the little girl sing in their heads again and again, and their condition was getting worse each time this repeated.
After the night's rest, their mouth reeked of greenblood oil poisoning, but Atis couldnt find traces of the poison within their system. Asking around, they found that all "strong" people of the village usually persished the same way, even one who claimed to know that they were being poisoned. The party's mind went to fey, but asking around revealing nothing of the sort, just that this thing was going on for a long time now, it has been decades since they stopped using the main road, but with Rook pressing them, they finally decided to open it up again.
A single man told Naya about a stone "thing" on the road to rook, near where the adventurers had heard the child for the first time. As the party headed there, all of them heard the lullaby this time, and after poking around, Atis spotted an evil aura permating the place. Suddenly, a little ghostly child appeared, dancing around them, and as she finished her little circle, she burst out in manic, pure evil, laughter, causing Atis to also succumb to the effects of the poison, and then disappeared. Naya, convinced now that they were dealing with haunts.
A little further in the woods, the party noticed the weird stone formation, but they figured out that it seemed more like a big stone building that had collapsed, even traces of siege weaponry had been found. Atis noticed that the aura of the girl haunt was growing stronger by the minute, almost reaching it's initial levels, but also noticed a second evil aura from the middle of the fallen tower. Atis started to channel towards it, and as Dirk walked to there to start digging, the stones shifted a bit, and the ghost of a raging humaoid appeared, Ashmock and Dirk started to feel liek smashing things up, but the already weakened by the channels emanation collapsed from Atis' divine might.
Summoning an earth elemental, they saw that there was a slight part of the basement still standing, hidden under the debri, and ashmock and dirk strted digging, while atis and naya kept vigilance and kept destroying the girl haunt as it was appearing.
After an hour, with a tiny passage open, Naya climbed down to find part of an old wizards laboratory, a few books on agriculture, geography, military tactics, and arcana in an unusable state, and a few broken vials of material components. But nothing to indicate a location for the haunts' center piece.
Back in the village, asking about the broken building this time, the party found out that this village, during the first orc-empire war was used as a center of communication between the elves, the dwarves, and rook. as it lay straight in the middle of the three great cities. Around a hundred years ago, during the middle of the war, the orc sent an advanced team to tear the place down, and succedded at destrying the village. At that time, there was a wizard living there, who fought back, and even helped rebuilding the village after the orc invasion, despite him having lost his wife and child during the assault. They also learned that the wizard and his family used to live in a small cottage near the tower.
Back there, the party found indeed a trail leading further into the woods, and after an encounter with some burning dogs and a fire that only seemed to burn them but leave the forest intact they reached an almost run down building. As ashmock approached the door, a few loose masks on the wall animated and formed a golem, that procedded to slam one of the masks in Ashmocks face gaining control over him. Thankfully, Dirk was there and blocked ashmock's path as a wall of steel, with ashmock being unable to penetrate his defences. Naya staretd to plan something and Atis assisted from the back, and with Ashmock no longer under his control, the creature was in a tight spot, until a shadow appeared behind Atis from the ground below. Atis run away, only to step on a pile of bones hidden beneath some bushes, skeletal arms tried to grab him but failed. The party finished off the golem and Naya's holy weapons almost killed the shadow which retreated.
Naya stayed behind to stay vigilant if that thing reappeared and the rest of the group marched into the abandoned house. Suddenly, the door closed and magically locked itself behind them, as two shadows appeared from the ground and started pummeling Ashmock. They manage to bring one down before Ashmock had to collapse behind the party, unable to even move with his strength almost gone from the shadow and the fatigue of the combat, Dirk and Atis procedded to try to kill the shadow, and in the end, with most of the party crippled from the strength loss they managed to disperse the undead. As they prepared to leave as fast as they could, they noticed through a hole a basement, and within it a ghost trapped inside a circle. They almost run away, but they noticed that the circle was actually a circle of protection from good.
Breaking the circle, caused the ghost to fly straight to them, and whisper in agony to kill his daughter, pointing out on a pile of papers left in the basement. The party retrieved them and rushed outside, where the ghostly mage was throwing fireballs towards the skeletal hands and the host of skeletal remains that were brutaly murdered in the nearby barn. As the party tried to leave, he touched Atis, Naya, and Ashmock, burning in their flesh a mark. The ghost urge them to rush back to Rook and that he would take care of his daughter's malignant magics that were left behind. He also told them that he could only rest, when his daughter was put to rest, ans that he could feel her growing stronger. As the party apprached the ruins, they saw a ghostly tower rising above them, and the ghostly mage leaving some flowers in a patch of ground nearby. As the three affected party members started to hear the lullaby in their heads again, the mark burned to their chest by the wizard flared up, and suddenly the voice was no more.
After haggling a bit with the villagers, the party rushed to Rook, and away from the haunted woods. Atis read the journal and the papers they found, and saw that most of the books were about the internal politics of Rook, it's military positions and strengths, and arcane knowledge. The journal, clearly the mage's, spoke of his life in the village about a hundred years ago, as the wizard protector of this place. Back in the first war, when the orc party tried to raid the village, the Rook soldiers that were nearby had to withdraw or else suffer countless causualties, and as the wizard was left behind to defend the place, his tower was crushed by the orcs, and his wife buried in the rubble. His daughter left soon therafter, only to return a few years later. He welcomed her into his home, and after talking with her he realized how deep her hatred for Rook run. It was too late though, as he realised he was slowly being poisoned by her, he would confront her. That was the last entry on his journal.
The most disturbing paper though, were rough sketches of a plan to destroy Rook. The plan notes were that:
- the inner/outer council as well as the stability that the guards provided, made it almost impossible for a plan to succeed. But still, if one was to create a powerful force of intimidation (possibly assasinating people?), then shame the guards enough that the general populace started to having doubts about their capabilities would put a wedge, big enough for outsider forces to intervene
- With guards losing their footing, adventurers and mercenaries could start thriving in the city, becoming more and more accepted. And later on, even a major mercenary force enough to make a differance would be accepted.
- The intimidating force would have to be crushed by the mercenaries, making the guards look even more incompetant, and the mercenaries establishing a hold within the hearts of the civilians. this would lead to disputes within the outer council
- using those disputes, and utilizing a strong, beyond suspicion, well liked, noble, claim one seat in the outer council.
- use intimidation and blackmail versus the weakened outer council so that the planted noble can seize control.
- when the time is right, use that control, to throw rook against forces strong enough to destroy it, like the orcs or the imperials.
with a pack of a hundred years old notes that seem awfully similar to what is happening now in Rook but still unceratin if this is the actual plan or coincidence, and if it is true, then without knowning who this "powerful, well liked, beyond suspicion" noble could be, the party decided to keep the notes to themselves for the time being. Maybe discuss it in peace what to do with them.
