Reviewing The Situation

Reviewing The Situation

Meantime...in the Swamp

The team that had been so humiliated in the swamp, had left 2 of their number, unwell with swamp fever, back in the village of Poggollo.

These two had been getting better and had begun to wonder ...

Another band of adventures had been attemping to fumigate an abandoned monastery. This had been proving trickier than it sounds.

 

Straight Outta Deepwheat #3

StraightOuttaDeepwheat3

“Alright lads, team, people” said Silvery Cedric, the Deepwheat Village Priest

“Some of you chaps have been there before, to the The Monastery in the Marsh, St A'Silvidh. But for the rest of you: Enter each room, set alight some incense and say a little prayer. Fumigate the place, re-consecrate it, cast out evil spirits.

And, er,,,,. Come back alive, for goodness sake.”

“I know the afterlife is golden and all that, but there a lifetime of piety and saving sinners for you lot first, before you even think about climbing that staircase to salvation. Screw the nut. Back off from the bad guys.”

Cedric bade them farewell

“Off you go, then, best of luck.” he said and started off back towards Deepwheat village church.

“And be bloody careful” he hollarred out back over his shoulder at them.

Deepwheat3 Fumigate the Monastery of Saint A'Silvdh

Player	Class	Race	Name
Susan	Cleric	Human	OnMeKnees
Susan	Fighter	Elf	PointyEars
John	Cleric	Human	RosoferMonkBothron
John	Fighter	Hobbit	PeregrinPerim
Marc	Cleric	Human	FriarSegal
Marc	Fighter	Human	SirCasper
Sudney	MU	Human	IvorSurv
Sudney	Fighter	Human	Brutus
Sid	MU	Human	Windy
Sid	Pony	Pony	Donkey

The squad had a super plan this time: de-bone the skeletons, in the alcove room.

They'd worked it out on the way.

They pegged out Donkey the pony at his usual spot and he set about finishing the grazing he'd left over from last time.

“Ok, here it is, one more time” said IvorSurv.

“We creep in the doorway, until we trigger the skeletons.

“Then, when they rush at us, the clerics all Turn them with their Holy Symbols.

“Fighters run a screen and cover patterns.

“After we've biffed them, we pour this Holy Water in the alcoves, take the bones outside and burn, burn, burn, burn them to microscopic ash.

“Total. Wholesale. Systematic. De-bleedin-struction”

“Got it” they all echoed.

So, in they went down the stairs, turn south and sneaked up to the start of the Alcove Room, the one with the skeletons. Doddle.

“Everybody ready.....let's go”

And in.

Except when the skeletons started moving, the plan went out the window.

SirCasper provided the screen, but OnMeKnees faced the onrushing boney terror by trusting to cold steel rather than the hunk of wood round her next, even it was infused with religious power.

“You're supposed to use the symbol Turn it, Turn it.”

“Yeah, yeah” said OnMeKnees “in a minute” and she lashed out with her sword.

RosoferMonkBothron and FriarSegal had a bit more faith. They boldly thrust their Holy Symbols out at their undead enemies.

“Begone, scum of evilspawn” called out FriarSegal. And sure enough, the skeleton crumbled neatly to a pile of bleached bones on the ground.

“Yo, Lord” he said to himself, “nice one”

The rest of the team had fanned out to a cover screen for the clerics and they were buying the Friar some valuable time. One of the skeletons fell under the sword. That helped.

He turned to the next one, feeling his religious power surge through his arms and out through his cross: “Away from here, off this world”. Pop. This skeleton too crumbled neatly to a pile of bones on the ground.

And once more, bit trickier this time to get a clear look at it, but the power was with him, infusing through his veins “Lay down, restless one. Your pain is over”

Again, this skeleton crumbled to a pile of bones on the ground.

“Doddle” thought FriarSegal. “Bring on The Vampires”

But his joy was shortlived.

Nobody quite knows what happened to RosoferMonkBothron. But when the dust settled, it didn't look good. He lay in a heap in the melee arena that was the Alcoved Room.

IvorSurv, inspired by the religiosity of the occasion tried pouring Holy Water on RosoferMonkBothron's body and a spark of light seemed to course over him, but no...he was too far gone.

They didn't have any more Holy Water for the consecration of the alcoves. So, they gently and reverently picked RosoferMonkBothron's body up, gathered up the bones of the skeletons and headed out.

They piled up and burned the bones of the skeletons. Someone said a prayer. Then they gathered up the ashes and burned them all again, with a bit of oil. Someone else said a prayer.

And that was it.

With RosoferMonkBothron strapped onto Donkey, they headed back to Deepwheat.

Straight Outta Deepwheat #2

Straight Outta Deepwheat #2

“Right, team” said Silvery Cedric, the Deepwheat Village Priest, “here's the plan.”

“Some of you chaps have been there before, to the The Monastery in the Marsh, St A'Silvidh. But for the rest of you: Enter each room, set alight some incense and say a little prayer. Fumigate the place, re-consecrate it, cast out evil spirits.

And, er,,,,. If you could see your way to bringing out the dead bodies from the last time, then we could give them a decent burial.”

Cedric bade them farewell

“Off you go, then, best of luck.” he said and started off back towards Deepwheat village church.

“And be careful” he hollarred out back over his shoulder at them.

Deepwheat2

Player	Class	Race	Name	GavsName	Status	Further
Susan	Cleric	Human	OnMeKnees	OnMeKnees	Alive	OnMeKnees
Susan	Fighter	Elf	PointyEars	PointyEars	Alive	Rookie
John	Cleric	Human	Rassophorb	Rassophorb	Alive	Rookie
John	Fighter	Elf	SithRan	Sith Ran	Purple Napalm	Rookie
Marc	Cleric	Human	FriarSegal	Friar Segal	Alive	Rookie
Marc	Fighter	Human	SirCasper	SirCasper	Alive	SirCasper
Sudney	MU	Human	IverServe	IverServe	Alive	Rookie
Sudney	Fighter	Dwarf	BigHans	BigHans	Purple Napalm	Rookie
Sid	MU	Human	FriendlyFire	FriendlyFire	Alive	Alive
Sid	Pony	Pony	Donkey	Dobbin	Alive	DoesntLikeUnderground

Donkey, the pony, didn't do underground. So they pegged him out grazing above ground.

They'd borrowed an old cart for the day, to help get their injured home without having to walk. And to help with the ....er....carcasses from last time they were here.

“OK. In. Pick up the bodies. Out” said OnMeKnees, showing his experience.

And so they set in about doing just that.

They had devised a new tactic – the Starburst. To maximise the tactical advantage of their numbers, the would open the door as quickly as they could. Then, they would pour into the room, one would break right, one would break left and two would cover the doorway. Boof.

If they were going to be surprised then they'd all be surprised together.

And in they went.....Room 1, with the two sepulchres ......Boof! Empty.

They expanded into the area like a Jack bursts from its Box.

“Wow! you were fantastic”

They took out their two fallen comrades from their burial place in the sepulchre and removed them upstairs to the pony and cart area.

Back downstairs, through the sepulchre area, into the room with the secret door ... Empty.

“Great timing, mate. Seamless”

They were getting the hang of it

The Gloomy Room next.....Boof! Empty.

“The way you spring left on entry – great”

“Loved the way you covered the door”

This was where they'd had the battles with the Orcs and been ambushed by Giant Rats. It was a bit of a mess in here. And something had been having a go at the bodies. Pretty much just bones left, really.

Still, they cracked on and soon had a couple of sacks of what thet felt were fallen comrades. And if there was the odd bit extra....well Cedric was a patient kinda guy – he'd have an aptitude for fixing those sort of things.

“Right. Lets get them out of here.”

And off they went, back to the previous room, the room with the secret door.

Boof!

But this room wasn't empty.

As they spread to the outside of the door frame, they were shocked to see a huge purple blob 10 foot, 10 foot wide in the middle of the room. Then it got worse – then it lashed out at them, all of them all at once.

Bish Bash Bong Biff.

A couple of blows struck home, but more than that, the thing advanced on the door, expanding its body into the space at the doorway.

Two of our heroes ended up in the room. SithRan the Elf was cut off from the entrance straight away. BigHans might have made it back out but chose to press on into the room. The rest of the group tried to set the thing ablaze and close the door but panic seemed to set in. It took a lot longer than they thought. Although the burning was having an obvious effect.

With the door closed, the purple thing started oozing through the gaps around its edges. But it soon retracted. The roars of pain supported the idea that the thing was burning.

Unfortunately, it was too late for Sithran and BigHans. They fought well, but ultimately, they couldn't burn the thing quick enough. By the time they had it struggling, it had beaten them to death.

And by the time the rest of them felt it was safe enough to open the door, the purple thing had spread across the room as a purple burning jelly and the whole floor was covered with an eerie flame.

There wasn't much left of Sithran and BigHans. Two more for the bag.

They got out and away without too much ado. Back to Deepwheat. This wasn't going too well.

Back On Track

BackOnTrack

With the discipline of their religious leanings they deprived themselves of this adventure and went back upstairs to carry on their re-consecration programme.

So, next off to the south was the Gloomy Room. But on this occasion, it was gloomier than usual.

Opening the door seemed to take an age, so by the time they got in, the orcs were more than ready.

They had stopped eating their meal of roasted rat and readied their weapons.

The orcs weren't particularly big but they defended their little den valiantly.

To a back-scent of herb-roasted rat stuff with aromatic rice, they traded blows.

The Orcs had met their match but the biggest of them was game and felled CameronFodder, the fighter, before eventually succumbing. In fact, the Orc had looked so confident that the rest of the party looked relieved to have felled him.

So elated, in fact, were they that they went on to have an all-in shouting match with each other, granting scarce regard for security and defence.

[insert whinges here: “Oh come on, we were paying atttention”. “Well then who was your guard?”]

Before they knew it, more rats were attacking them.

[Whinge: “how did they get in?” “Well, if you'd posted a guard, he could have told you how they got in]

And just like that, their moment of triumph turned into adversity again.

There were only 4 of them and quite small, too. It must have been the scent of cooking rat that drove them into a frenzy, for soon FeebeeL had been felled by the little rodents.

Whether it was this that made him do it or whether it was because he just felt the strain of dungeoneering, IvorSurve started throwing daggers, over the top of his allies, to try to hit the rats.

And .......BANG! A bullseye took out one of the smallest rats.

Encouraged by this, he took aim again and .....BANG!

But this time it lodged firmly, ever so firmly, into the back of FriarStatham's skull.

Perhaps it was a blessing that he didn't see it coming, he couldn't have suffered, but there was no saving him.

The squad fought on gamely and gradually got the upper hand. The rats lay felled or fled.

Only 3 of them left! What with the rats, the orcs and the friendly fire, they had lost more than half of their number.

Panic set in. They decided to take the shortcut to the way out, through the alcoved room.

But the alcoves housed skeletons.......

And despite panic, hastening their stride, they were caught by the bonemen.

The bonemen were faster than their undead status would suggest.

OnMeKnees and SirCasper fought on, but one of the skeltons got a big hit in with his boney fist. OnMeKnees fell to the floor. SirCasper dragged his fallen friend bag towards the door, parrying wildly as he went. OnMeKnees had a pulse – just – but wouldn't last long alone with these skeletons about.

SirCasper made it backwards to the door and out through it.

IvorSurve grabbed a shield and ran forward, barging through a hail of flailing claw from the skeleton as he sprinted out and away upstairs.

For OnmyKnees and Sir Casper it was a longer journey.

For SirCasper, carrying OnmeKnees, it was a longer journey. He retreated back and re-traced his steps out to the south, east, north and west. IvorSurve had the courage to come back downstairs and they met up in the sepulchre room, where they had buried two of their comrades what seemed like an eternity earlier.

OnmeKnees was indeed still alive, unconcious but not dead yet.

Injured and with their morale slumped, they decided to cut their losses and head back to Deepwheat.

Straight Outta Deepwheat #1

Straight Outta Deepwheat #1

“Right, team” said Silvery Cedric, the Deepwheat Village Priest, “here's the plan. Some chaps from nearby Poggollo have recently cleared out the topmost underground layer of The Monastery in the Marsh, St A'Silvidh.”

He picked up some sheets of parchment off his desk in front of them. Dramatically, he waved them at the group assembled before him in the preparatory room.

“These drawings you did of that map for your graduation exercise will come in handy” he said “they're of the Monastery. Use them to find your way about in the dark. Enter each room, set alight some incense and say a little prayer. Fumigate the place, re-consecrate it, cast out evil spirits.”

“You're a good bunch. This should be an easy start for you all in service to the Religion of the Four Points, on your road ahead to perpetual salvation.”

Cedric took them as far as the turnoff from the main road, pointed them to the cobbled causeway that led to the monastery and holding back a tear he bade them farewell

“Off you go, then, best of luck.” he said and started off back towards Deepwheat, before he broke down emotionally. It was tough for him, setting forth his proteges into the big, bad world.

So off they trotted, the team, eager to please on their first adventure:

Deepwheat1

 

Player	Class	Race	Name
Susan	Cleric	Human	OnmeKnees
Susan	Scout	Human	Snatchit
John	Cleric	Human	Rev Hire-a-monk
John	Fighter	Human	CameronFodder
Marc	Cleric	Human	FriorStatham
Marc	Fighter	Human	SirCasperVonDim
Sid	MU	Human	IvorSurve
Sid	MU	Human	FeebeeL
Sid	Pony	Pony	Donkey

They thought they'd start with the church itself, on the ground level, ruined as it was. This wasn't a bad idea, as it gave them the gist of what they needed to do and how long it would take. Even if they didn't give it as much reverence as they could have done:

“....oh come on, there's four of us....what's the hold-up ....half an hour tops....”

It was as if the pub next to the Bishop's House was about to open, they were in so much of a hurry.

Donkey didn't fancy going underground. Not his thing, apparently.

So they pegged him out to graze and got a plan without him.

OnmeKnees, called it out -

“Right. Here we go: In, north, First room with the rubble and the 2 graves. Fumigate/consecrate”

“Then south from there and back to the entrance in a loop”

“Doddle” they all agreed.

So they carefully inched down the wide stairway, to the crossroads, an eerie whistling sound just audible in the black stillness ahead.

“We go north” reminded Rev Hire-a-monk

And so they did, taking the next right, to the east.

A quick listen at the door .....nothing .....and they were in.

“Rats” called out Snatchit, who had somehow found himself at the front, despite his lack of armour. He didn't have to worry about it much, though as the lead rat sank it's its incisors deep into his neck.

Snatchit sank like an anchor.

Next to go was the RevHeiromonkAbraxus and it wasn't pretty for him either

But the tide turned. The religious fanatics got hold of themselves and soon a Sleep spell and valiant action, five out of six of the long-tailed hellspawn lay dead. The other was lucky to get away to warn his rodent chums.

The thought of its return spurred on the rest of them. They posted guards, burned some incense to help exorcise the evil and performed their ritual.

They piled their two fallen comrades into the non-occupied of the 2 sepulchres, said a burial orison and moved off down the south corridor.

There would be time for sadness later. Now was the time to complete their mission.

To the south lay a 30 by 40 foot room. But someone noticed that there was a secret door marked on the map to the east. So they set about trying to find it. This proved easy enough and with a professional routine worthy of their combined clerical wisdom they figured out how to open the door, spot the trap mechanism, disable it and go through the portal.

Result.

The passageway went due east. A loud roar of water grew to deafening by the time they reached a set of stairs leading down to a ledge. They surveyed the scene. Beyond the ledge was a huge and powerful waterfall, with a plunge pool beneath. Beyond the waterfall was a wall of rock, but at the plunge-pool level the far side led off into the distance.

On the near side, the path went both north and south.

It all looked very interesting.

Goldfish

Goldfish

After a while they reached the edge of the swamp. But which way to go next?

“Why don't we head for half a day in one direction and if we don't find the ring of birch trees, we double back and go the other way” said SirBaltimore, demonstrating his backwoodsman's skill.

“No, no, no” said Windy the MU. “Lets go one way and keep going. That's the way to do it”

And so they set off, West, for a day's travel. After another day travelling, the forest-swamp edge wound round to the north. After another day they were giving up and ready to try to cross the swamp.

Conditions around the swamp were so misty, that they couldn't see anything in the way of landmarks, even after climbing a tree. They didn't know how far they had to go through the swamp either. They ventured in, but after 30m they realised that this was a bad idea. They had no chance.

They carried on, pretty much going north by now. Toward the end of the day, they were hampered for further progress by a creek, ahead of them. They camped out.

The next day, they followed the creek to the east. Eventually, they ended up back at the big clearing, where the Caverns of the Lost City were. At least they weren't lost anymore.

They edged around the cleared, anticlockwise to find the wide tree with red bark. Then due south.

Dehydrated, half-starved and exhausted tehhy stumpled upon the ring of birch trees.

Handily, Hywyl the Green the elf woodsman was around and tended to their problems. He got a fire going, gave them water, made up some food for them and fashioned some better natural clothes than they had managed to make for themselves.

After a nights sleep and more hearty nursing from the elf woodsman, the party figured they had a choice: they could head back to the Caverns, naked, armourless, weaponless. Some of the party decided this would be a good idea. They could beg to join the gnolls and live a life of servitude to whatever cause they followed.

Or they could head have Hywyl lead them back across the swamp to the village, stay in a comfy bed, have some nice food, re-arm and regroup.

It was a tough call

Journey To Thraxia

Log, 10^th November, 2015

Journey To Thraxia

Situation

A band of adventures (the Naked Party) has cleared out the first layer down of a ruined monastery.

Now, they have decided to focus their treasure-seeking efforts on The Lost City of Thraxia.

This Lost City was in the Caverns hidden in the forest at the far side of a swamp nearby their base in Poggollo.

So, they figured out how to get there and prepared to set off.

They had left 2 of their number, unwell with swamp fever, back in the village of Poggollo.

Norm. one of their number, an MU, had been ill with swamp fever for a while now.

LeggyAss had also gone down with swamp fever more recently.

Meantime, another band of adventures had been attemping to fumigate an abandoned monastery. This had been proving trickier than it sounds.

Prologue

With Norm and LeggyAss in the local inn, receiving medical help, the rest of the adventurers set off

They had arranged for a local elf guide, Hywyl the Green to take them through the forest.

So they set off with Hywyl, who led them thru a labyrinth of tracks in the swamp to a forest at the other side.

Through the Marsh Maze

Player	Class	Race	Name
Marc	Fighter	Human	SirBaltimore
Jon	Fighter	Dwarf	Thrilly
Susan	Scout	Human	Locke
Sid	MU	Human	Windy
Sid	Cleric	Human	HermanHink

The instructions were quite clear from Hywyl:

“Head through the forest due north for about an hour, till you come to a wide tree with red bark” he said “The clearing for the Lost City is nearby”

He went on.

“This ring of birch trees here is our meeting point” he said. “Meet me here at our appointed time and I'll take you back through the swamp. Miss that rendezvous and I'll be here the next day's evening too. Miss that and you take your chances with me being here”

They settled on meeting up in three nights hence – that would give them time to clear out the dungeon and get their booty across the forest.

They set off, due north.

The first part was easy

Soon enough, they saw a wide tree with red bark and gently approached a clearing ahead.

They peered into the clearing. They could see a low pedastal about 100 feet into the clearing, partially obscured by trees.

In Indian file they edged into the clearing and towards the building.

They were just getting the lie of the land when of a sudden they were under attack.

Out from an opening in the low structure poured a group of Gnolls. Behind them a man-like creature waved his arms, as if casting a spell, At the same time, behind them, more Gnolls dropped from the trees.

Before they knew it, a spell went off and washed over them.

It must have been a powerful sleep spell as it affected them all. Bang. All 5 of them asleep.

Next thing they knew they all woke up in a small clearing in a forest, stark naked.

They had been captured, stripped and abandoned someplace in some forest.

Bewildered, they pieced together some rudimentary clothes and headed south.