Towards Haanex and Beyond

July 26, 2009

The group, after making their own coin of power, realize that being in or near a house with several bodies isn't a good idea. And if they didn't...

"Deekin thinks we should go. Bodies and the watch don't mix," says Deekin in his usual manner.

The group slinks away through alleys and side streets and make their way to the docks, knowing that their ship the Hyperion and Captain Wein would be waiting for them. They set sail and head toward Haanex, where their adventure began.

Shortly after leaving Zoa on the Hyperion, they find themselves sailing close to shore due to the winds making waves out on the bay too choppy. Ember and Jelena, the wood elf sisters, see a wagon that appears to have some trouble. Jelena describes what she sees, an everyone agrees to go investigate. They row to shore on a dingy, setting ashore a distance away.

"Let's not be caught unawares...everyone ready in case there's trouble? Good," says Raizix.

The group approaches cautiously, and see three bodies on the ground near the wagon that they couldn't see from the bay. One, wearing a robe and hat has a pool of blood underneath him, and two armored men share a similar fate. One of he armored men has spikes sticking through their helmet.

Then from the sky they see what attacked the wagon. Two manticores come flying down out of the sky, and fling a dozen spikes between the two of them at the group. Darwin, unprotected by armor and having minimal dodging ability is almost downed by the first volley. He responds ferociously, tapping into his new-found power and unleashes a fireball directly in the path of the lead manticore. Jelena shoots two arrows in quick succession, and then drops to the ground, looking for cover, along with Raizix and Ember.

Darwin soon joins them, but not by his choice. Another volley of spikes comes at him. A few hit home, and he falls to te ground, unconscious. Ember and Deekin rush to his aid, and Raizix takes a forward position, readying himself for the creatures should they fly close enough or land.

Darwin is quickly revived by Deekin's healing spells and conjures another aerial explosion. This one proves lethal to the lead manticore, which plummets to the ground. The other manticore lands, and approaches Raizix threateningly.

Raizix is ready for this, and charges with wild abandon, dealing a mighty blow. It appears that the manticore may fly off, but obviously angered at the death of it's companion and showing more than animal intelligence and emotion, it begins attacking Raizix.

Raizix, however, is up to the task and defends himself well. He counters, and between his sword blows and Jelena's arrows, it is quickly dispatched.

With the creatures dead, the group looks at the humans on the ground.
Inside the wagon, they see a more gruesome sight. A man and a women are inside, half mangled and half eaten, apparently by the manticores.

They check the bodies for any signs of identification, which is lacking, and take the several valuable gemstones from the robed figures pouch.

It doesn't take long for the group to recover on the ship, and they find themsleves sleeping at night. Raizix, sleeping in a cabin with Deekin is awoken by a screech and sudden pain on his chest. He awakes to find an almost ethereal creature hovering over him. He is buffeted again by wings, claws and teeth. Deekin awakes and begins screaming in terror and alarm.

The cries awaken Jelena, Ember, and Darwin, who begin running toward Raizix quarters.

Raizix, who had been sleeping unarmored but with his sword nearby, grabs it and begins cutting into the creature. Even though injured greatly, he hacks into it, killing it just in time for the others to witness it's destruction.

Deekin points out a note pinned to the creature, which he picks up and reads aloud.

"'Give up. You cannot hope to fight my growing power.'"

"Must be from Daresh. She must have meant for me to die," says Raizix. Everyone else nods their heads in agreement.

After that, it doesn't take long for the ship to reach Haanex. The town doesn't look much different from the last time they were there, except blue smoke is billowing from a tower in the center of town, which the group knows to be the home of Veoden the wizard and their original employer.

They enter the tower, and find the source of smoke is a scrying spell being cast by the wizard. Within a nearby mirror, the image suddenly shifts and lunges northward, settling on a castle. Inside the castle, they glimpse an image of Daresh, before the scrying spell is distrupted and ended prematurely.

Veoden congratulates the group on creating their own coin of power, but warns of it's corrupting influence. He wishes them luck and sends them on their way.

Heading northward toward the castle they glimpsed in Veoden's scrying, they soon reach a small, well kept hut. It's sunset, but no smoke rises from the chimney. Several weeds grow outside, which Ember recognizes as belladonna. Jelena recognizes wolf tracks, but doesn't think much of them.

"Perhaps we can take shelter here for the night. Let's see if anyone is home," says Raizix, as he knocks on the door.

There is no response. Jelena listens closely, and hears a slight moan of pain come from inside the hut. "I think someone is in there, and they sound hurt."

They decide to investigate. The door is locked and apparently barred, but they eventually get in. Inside, they see several carved wooden figures around the hut, and a back room that has a hanging cloth instead of a door. They hear another moan from behind the curtain.

"Be careful," warns Ember. "Belladonna is supposed to be a cure for lycanthropy. There might be a werewolf in there, or someone who will soon become one."

Jelena pulls back the curtain, and sees an old man lying in a bed, unconscious. There are more carvings in here as well, more intricate and detailed than in the other room. She looks closer, and checks his skin and body. She finds claw marks across his belly, and feels a fever.

"This man was scratched by a wolf, and took some belladonna, probably as a precaution. It's poisonous, but he'll live."

The man's eyes open suddenly. "Get out! They'll find you here, just like they got me. Werewolves...," he trails off. "Been after me for weeks. They attack at night...left...left... board..."

"Left board!" he screams before collapsing again.

Ember looks around the hut, and finds a loose floor board to the left of the fire place. She finds several thousand coins inside, and also a silver hammer.

Just then the howls of wolves can be heard in the distance. The howls are heard again shortly after, much closer this time. "He's in no shape to protect himself. We have to keep him safe," says Raizix, and everyone else agrees.

They close the door and bar it shut again as best they can. They take up defensive positions inside, preparing for the worst. It doesn't take long for a pack of wolves to come to the door. Unable to open the door or shatter it on their own, they stop their assault.

Just when they thought it was over, two humanoids with wolfish faces and bodies bust through the door and window, but everyone was ready for it. Deekin casts a spell, immobilizing one, while Raizix steps up to prevent them from making any headway into the hut. Jelena attacks with her bow, while Darwin and Ember cast spells amidst the battle. It doesn't take long for the werewolves go fall, and the surviving wolves retreat off into the surrounding land.

Curious as to where the werewolves came from, the group follows their tracks, while Ember remains behind to care for the man in the hut and protect him should the wolves return.

The path of the werewolves eventually leads to a dilapidated farmhouse. In the nearby stable they find two malnourished draft horses, and in the house they find a couple dozen silver coins.

They keep the coins, but give the horses to the man to help pay for repairs to his hut and get himself re-situated.

An unexpected addition

July 5, 2009

"I will come with you to help keep Halaan and the books safe, but I won't do anything that endangers Halaan," says Geolain the wizard.

"Of course. We appreciate your help," says Raizix.

The plan that Raizix, Jelena, Darwin and Ember had come up with was quite simple. Take the books to Seargent Soolie, get Halaan safe, and then take the books back by force.

Upon leaving the city of Zoa, Geolain uses a ring of invisibility to make himself invisible. "If they see me, they will suspect something immediately," he explains.

The group reaches the point they meet with Seargent Sollie the day before, and don't see anything unexpected.

Seargent Sollie is waiting with Halaan, and also with several others, most armed with bows and crossbows. He shouts out, "You, with the books! Bring them to me, alone!"

Raizix walks toward Sollie, with books in tow. He hands the bag with the books over, which Sollie opens. Apparently satisfied, he nods towards one of his men who is holding Halaan, who escorts him toward Raizix. Raizix takes him by the arm and begins losening his bindings.

"Once we get to everyone else, drop," he whispers to Halaan. Halaan nods and continues walking. A few seconds later, everyone springs to action. Jelena draws an arrow from her quiver and shoots at the nearest bowman in the trees.

All the others return a volley, while the one she shot at tumbles down from the tree, unconscious. Darwin and Geolain both unleash magical energies, with Geolain conjuring a lightning bolt aimed at the watch seargent and Darwin exploding a ball of fire on those closest to him.

It doesn't take long for all of the seargents men to be killed or left for dead, and Halaan is eager to get back to his forge and the unfinished coin. "Do you have the devil's blood?"

"Indeed we do, Halaan, indeed we do." They all return to Zoa, with Geolain taking the books of magic back with him to his tower.

Halaan gets right to work, but not minutes after he begins, there is a knock at the door. Raizix opens the door, sees half a dozen men with weapons, and quickly closes the door again, leaning against it.
"Help!" he yells, as the door opens slightly and then slams back closed again.

Jelena runs up and tries to hold the door as well, while Darwin and Ember assist Halaan.

The door is them busted off of it's hinges as the men outside force it open with a portable ram. Jelena steps back, and shoots one of the men, who quickly falls to the ground. Darwin causes bolts of pure magical force to slam into several of them, also knocking them to the ground, unconscious.

While they are fighting inside the building, Raizix and his kobold companion Deekin are facing more formidable opponents outside.

Two half-orcs with hide armor and double axes, two humans with chainmail and longswords, and two humans with banded mail and swords begin flanking the enterance to Halaan's forge.

Then, two crossbow bolts fly by Raizix's narrowly missing him. Deekin casts a spell, and the lead man is held immobalized. Raizix charges at him wildly, cutting deeply into his neck, causing him to fall. He continues his swing, and gives grevious wounds to the two other humans nearby.

Jelena and Ember quickly dispatch the other three on the ground, and Jelena uses her superior bowmanship to get at the crossbow snipers on the nearby rooftops.

Darwin, the only one still inside the building when Halaan finishes making the coin by using one of the unconscious men on the ground as a sacrafice, takes the finished alchemical item and feels a sudden surge of power, with new arcane pathways opening in his mind.

He steps outside, and sees everyone else outside, and also hears the city watch approaching. "Deekin thinks we should go now. City watch and dead bodies don't mix, methinks."

Raizix glances around and sees that the leader of the latest attackers had a strange glove and intracately crafted short sword. He grabs them before leaving, and their is an audible voice that says, "Ah yes. You will do."

Ennies 2009

I voted. That is all.

The Darkness is Rising no more

July 5th, 2009

Last weekend, the group finished up the second module of the Kingdoms of Kalamar Coin Trilogy, Rising Darkness, by Kenzer and Company.

I thought to mark the occasion that I would let one of the players post the story from his character's point of view. Daniel/Raizix has agreed, so the next post will be from him.

We'll be starting Coin's End on the 26th, and will be finishing up making HackMaster Basic characters and playing the free adventure released for it, "White Palette, Ivory Horns," from Kenzeroco.com on the 31st.

Importing old posts

I'm going to be importing (copying and pasting) some of my journals from rpgmp3.com into this blog as I know not everyone who reads this blog has access to the journals. So, over the next couple of days(weeks, months?) there will be some back dated posts.

Cheers!

Hackmaster Basic character creation

July 3rd, 2009

On Friday, instead of our normal game of Palladium Fantasy or RIFTS,
which we were playing since we finished the Tomb of Horrors in our
ongoing Kingdoms of Kalamar DnD 3.5e game, we started making
characters in HackMaster Basic.

Some people might think that HackMaster isn't a serious game, or is
just an AD&D clone. While the previous edition of HackMaster was
perhaps not very serious, it was definately playable, though I never
did.

The new edition is not constrained by Kenzer & Co.'s license with
Wizards of the Coast, and therefore doesn't need to be a parody or a
throwback. This means it's a brand new game, while keeping the
HackMaster name.

Reading through the book, it was still a very entertaining read, which
is more than I can say about splat book x from some other companies.

So, we got down to making characters, which went pretty smoothly.
Everyone choose to keep the stats in the order they rolled them in
order to get the extra building points, and to make a more natural
character.

It turned out well, as we got a human cleric of the guardian, an elven
mage, a dwarven fighter, and a human rogue. The most notable thing
about the four characters is that the dwarven fighter has looks and
charisma of three, which meant his honor took a huge hit. He also has
a quick-temper flaw, which will be interesting.

Otherwise, all the classes were represented, though we don't have a
halfling. Since skills and talents haven't been bought yet, this might
change, as I think halfling rogues probably cost fewer points than
human rogues.

Once characters are finished, I'll prbably put up scans of the
character sheets.

I'll be running this in the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting, as it's what
I know the best, and is the official setting for HackMaster anyways.

Hostages and Books

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

The group reached the city of Xaarum with no further issues. They decide that the most important thing is to find the home of the wizard Milead, who supposedly used devils to guard his home.

The five adventurers enter the city and see that it is not as well off as Zoa. The limestone walls are cracked and pitted, and the forest is in places growing right up to them.

They enter the first inn that they see, to both gather information and to celebrate their victory against the orcs and bugbear.

The name of the inn is the Dwarf's Load Inn, and the barkeeper asks what he can do for them. "Two ales, one for your, uh, small friend, then? Here you go...that'll be six copper."

Raizix puts a silver piece on the bar. "I'm sorry, sir, but I can't take this" says the barkeeper. "Xaarum has it's own coinage. You'll have to find a money changer. I'll put the ale on your tab, Master..."

"Raizix, and these are my companions, Darwin, Jelena, Ember, and Deekin."

"Oh, very nice. So, what brings you to Xaarum, since you are obviously new here."

"Well, to be honest, we are looking for the mage Milead."

The barkeeps face changes. "I didn't take you for that sort...I wouldn't get involved with him. He worships some dark, forgotten god they say. Let's not talk about that."

The group goes to the money changers and gets a couple dozen gold coins changed, and get twenty-two Xaarum coins in return. As they do that, Deekin returns. "Deekin found something! Milead has three devils that guard his house. And his house is right over there." Deekin points across the river to the older side of Xaarum at a large house in a clearing.

"Good job, Deekin. Let's go now, maybe we can get back to Zoa quickly."

It doesn't take long for them to travel across the river and to Milead's manor. It looks to easily be the largest house in the city. Raizix pulls on the bell rope, and is shortly greeted by an old, thin man with black livery. "Yes?"

"We are here to see the Wizard Milead about a matter of great importance."

"Your name, good...sir?"

"Raizix."

The man in livery waits, looking at the four others in the group. "I'm Deekin, cleric of the shimmering one!"

The others give their names reluctantly. The liveried man closes the gate and returns to the house. He returns moments later and says, "The master is too busy to see you. Good day."

Qe

"No, but I will relay the information to the master." He leaves once again, returning after a slightly longer wait. "As I said before, the master is too busy to see you."

Raizix pulls Darwin back, and Deekin follows them. "Is there something you can do, make him more friendly, or something?"

"No, I cannot. My gift doesn't work that way."

"Deekin can!" Deekin exclaims. When everyone stares at him, he begins again at a whisper, "Deekin can. It won't be long and he might be angry and it might not work, bit Deekin will try."

Deekin says with authority, "approach," and the man walks toward him quickly. Everyone else runs through the open doorway, gaining entrance to the house.

"Master, the hooligans are in the house! They have weapons and a magic user!"

The group searches through the house, to find a man in robes beside an empty fireplace, standing. Just as Raizix enters the doorway, a monstously huge viper appears between him and the man.

"Leave now. You have bothered me and my chamberlain enough."

The group have a heated conversation with Milead, telling him of the wizard Daresh and the coin of power grafted to her skin, and their attempts at creating another one to fight back against her.

"So, we need the blood of a devil," finishes Raizix.

"Then you have come for naught, and as I told you, wasted all of our time. Leave, before I summon the watch to remove you by force."

The group leaves dejected. But it doesn't take long for them to decide to get what they need anyways.

"Looks like we need a place to keep our stuff if we are going to be fighting devils in the city," says Darwin. They return to the Dwarf's Load Inn and get two rooms to put equipment in, and begin to look around the city for any other information about Milead.

It doesn't take them long to confirm that something supernatural guards the house at night. They also find something unexpected.

There is a bard, singing on a street corner who chants while playing out "What do you get when you cross a half-orc and a pig?
Nothing, there's just some things you can't get a pig to do."

While he did get a few laughs from those nearby, the half-orc across the street obviously took offense. "What did you say?" he says. while quickly approaching the bard, then snatching the lute from his hands and grabbing his shirt collar.

Raizix and Darwin also begin approaching the burly half-Orc and pudgy human bard. "I'm going to give you two seconds to give me a good reason why I shouldn't shove this..."

"No, no, I didn't mean it. I'm sorry," sobs the bard, almost incoherently.

"See, he's obviously sorry and we wouldn't want any trouble, would we?" says Raizix while putting hand to hilt. The half-orc backs up and away, and grunts.

"Your lucky, myoozishuhn. They won't always be here, and next time I see you, I'll tune you up real good," says the half-orc as he walks away.

"Good sir, would you like a job?" says Raizix to the bard.

"Why, um, yes. Yes I would. Thank you, and thank you for rescuing me from that ruffian. No sense of humor..."says the bard, apparently trying to be jovial but still trembling.

"Very good! We'll need your abilities at the Lord Milead's Manorhouse tonight at midnight. If you could meet us there? And here's a deposit for your trouble, " says Raizix as he hands the bard ten gold. "Your name, good sir?"

"Gonaathan the bard."

"Ah, excellent. I'm Raizix. We'll see you then."

The group then goes there separate ways, selling some of their equipment and purchasing necessary items while trade is still going on. They meet back at the Dwarf's Load Inn, and see a female dwarf performing music on stage in front of a large crowd. They go to their rooms and retire early, knowing that they will be up later and may need to leave the city.

Near midnight, they go to the manor house and a few minutes later, Gonaathan arrives. "I, uh, don't see much happening here, or a stage. Who did you want me to perform for?"

"Well, see, we needed your services to simply use this knife to stab one of Milead's guards."

"One of Milead's guards? But he doesn't have guards, he has...oh, oh no. You'll have to give me a bit more than you already did if you want me to do that. And I ain't fighting nothing. I'll stab it, if you hold it, or kill it or something. One hundred gold. No less."

"Very well. You'll get it when you do it."

After their discussion, Jelana approaches the gates of the manor, and contemplates hoping the fence. However, she had already gotten something attention that appears about thirty feet away from her. It appears like a ephemeral lion, glowing slightly, and going invisible in the torch light. She draws her bow, and shoots.

The arrow lodges into the form, which growls ferociously, and runs toward the fence. It jumps, and almost clears it in a single bound, but just misses the top and begins pulling itself up and over, far more intelligent than a simple animal.

"Get ready for it, I'll be guarding all of you, so don't worry about getting hurt," says Raizix over his shoulder to everyone, but mainly to Gonaathan. He runs forward, ready to engage the creature once it drops from the fence"

Jelena takes aim again, waiting for it to land. Darwin and Ember begin casting spells in preparation, and Deekin casts a spell on Raizix, who appears much stronger.

The creatures lands, and charges towards Jelena. Raizix smashes into it with his sword, and it turns it's attention toward him. Jelena shoots her bow as it is turning, and gets it in the side of the eye, doing some obvious damage. It begins trying to claw in to Raizix, but his armor protects him for the most part.

It doesn't take long for them to kill the thing, while Gonaathan stands transfixed in horror. "Now here we go, Gonaathan. Just take this longsword and cut it, anywhere you like. You just need to draw blood," says Raizix.

"I, um, uh....," stutters Gonaathan.

"Come on man, stick it, before I stick you!" shouts Raizix.

Gonaathan grabs the sword from Raizix and slashes at the devil on the ground, and quickly walks away and begins to vomit on the ground. Raizix grabs a glass vial from his pocket and collects the blood dripping from the wound.

He then walks over to Gonaathan, holding the vial and a knife in one hand, and a pouch of gold in the other. "Here's the hundred gold you asked for. You earned it."

Just after Gonaathan takes the bag, Raizix grabs Gonaathan's hand with his now free hand and nicks it with the dagger, allowing some of the blood to drip into the dagger with the devil's blood. It begins to bubble and smoke slightly, and he puts a stopper on it. "Yes, you definitely earned it."

"Your crazy, all of you," exclaims Gonaathan as he runs away, with gold in hand.

As the group gathers their things, they leave quickly, and come across a guard patrol. "Halt. Identify yourselves," says one of the guardsman.

"My name is Raizix, and these are my companions Ember, Jelena, Darwin, and Deekin. We were playing cards, when we heard a disturbance near that manor house. thought we would investigate. Adventurers and all, you know."

"Best leave that sort of thing to the watch. Get on back inside, and be safe."

"Will do." And the group returns to the inn and goes to sleep. Early in the morning, they pack their belonging and leave the city, fearing possible retribution from Milead.

Luckily, after three days in travel back to Zoa, they aren't accosted by Milead or by anything else for that matter. When they return to Halaan's forge to deliver the devil's blood, however, they see a sign on the door.

By issue of the

GREAT COUNCIL of ZOA

NO TRESPASSING

This land has been seized by the

City pending trial for the seditious

acts performed by the occupant

KEEP OUT

Just as they finish reading the sign, they hear footfalls behind them, and then see a dozen men, some with crossbows, aiming at five of them. "Come with us."

"Where are you taking us?"

"To see Sargeant Sooloe, of the watch," says the lead thug.

"Well, okay," says Raizix, thinking that he could possibly survive a crossbow bolt due to his armor, but Darwin would probably not fare as well, and wouldn't want to be responsible for the elf's death. The dozen men escort them from the forge, towards the city gates, and back north towards Xaarum. About half an hour outside the city, they meet four more people.

"Good, you brought them. I am Sergeant Sooloe," says one of the men, wearing chainmail and a longsword on his belt.

"If your a sergeant of the city watch, then why are we meeting you out here and not back in the city?" asks Raizix.

"Let's just say that I'm representing a different interested party today. Your friends of Halaan. If you want him back, you'll have to return some books that were taken from me that I believe to be in wizard Geolain's possession. Of course, we know you know both Halaan and Geolain, so don't pretend otherwise."

"There just casual acquaintances, really," quips Darwin. He sombers when he gets scowls from both Raizix and Sooloe.

The group reluctantly agrees to get the books in return for Halaan's release, but not before seeing that Halaan is alive. Sooloe agrees, and has Darwin bound, gagged and blindfolded and escorted by one of his men to see Halaan. Darwin returns, and when ungagged, says, "Halaan is alive, and is about five minutes away."

When he says that, all the crossbows turn toward him, and Sooloe begins to draw his sword. "That was foolish, very foolish of you, elf," begins Sooloe. "What is to say that he has not already been moved, or that you went in a, how do you say it, circular direction? You do not truly know where he is. Or perhaps you try to find him, and die trying, or he dies in you trying. Will you risk that, eh?"

"No, we won't," says Raizix. And he then turns to leave. "We'll have to books for you tomorrow, at noon."

The group then leaves, contemplating their next move.