Wednesday Night C&C Recaps

[Drance]

Could you be there sometime between 5:30 and 5:45?

[rmckee78]

yes

[Drance]

And we're talking the Lindenwold Patco station, correct?

[zipper]

When we last left our intrepid heroes they were standing in front of the door to the Temple of the Spider God in the city state sewers.  The doorway was constructed to look like a giant spider, with the entrance to the temple through the grotesque carving's gaping maw.  No door, just a pitch black opening.  At the entrance, we decided to give the 24 barbarians that we had just freed from slavery and arena fighting the chance to opt out of risking their lives in the temple.  After a rousing speech from Drance, 11 barbarians remained to help in our exploration of the temple.  In addition to our usual party (minus Struan), our party consisted of Beloc, Jayla, Mustapha, our two new companions, Etheltina and Gwenlen, and Vorath (a wizard who had spontaneously joined us somewhere along the way).

The corridor in front of us was narrow so only 2 could walk abreast.  We got into formation sandwiching our druid and wizard in between fighters and barbarians.  Drance took the lead with Jayla, with Wulfgar and Gwenlen right behind to cover Jayla in the event of trouble.  Moving along with extreme caution we passed several pairs of doors on either side of the hallway labeled with sequential vault numbers approaching our first target, vault 8A7, the Overlord Appreciation exhibit.  Jayla was crawling along up ahead testing for traps while we shimmed each door shut as we passed.  As we approached vault 8A7 through our narrow hallway from the south, we quickened our pace.  The hallway came to a T with a door in front of us.  Before we could get to the door, 3 dinner table sized spiders came at us.  Sefa let loose with her bow, while Jayla fell in line, but not before Jayla was hit and paralyzed by spider toxins.  Sefa stepped up to administer first aid while Drance and Gwenlen battled the first spider to approach the party.  Unfortunately, we had not considered that the spiders could travel on the corridor walls and ceilings.  With the three spiders all around us, Drance and Gwelen defeated 2 while Wulfgar, Sefa, and Vorath battled and defeated one overhead.  Our wounded party made camp in the narrow hall with barbarians and fighters taking watch in shifts.

Once healed and refreshed, one barbarian scout was sent down each side of the T branching off in front of us.  Only one returned.  After waiting and listening, we could hear scurrying behind the door in front of us.  Drance peeked inside to find a large room covered in spider webs, containing a complete scale model of the city state and a gigantic spider laying eggs along with thousands of spiders ranging from tiny to cat-sized. We decided to toss oil flasks into the room.  Sefa and Jayla fired flaming arrows into the room, while others threw torches.  We then closed and shimmed the door until it got good and hot.  Once all was quiet on the other side of the door we unshimmed and opened the door to find the smoldering remains of a gigantic spider, and our missing barbarian scout...  Virtually everything flammable in the room had gone up.  Three magical scroll cases are all we found that had survived.  Vorath identified them as two scrolls of magic missile and one of spider climb.  With no sign of the Eagle's Talon, we headed up the stairs.

On the 7th floor we found a warehouse containing thousands of crates, our wizard detected magic in some.  We all stopped to consider raiding crates when Sefa reminded us how this would be the perfect bait to trap greedy adventurers.  So we proceeded to the 6th floor where we found ourselves facing a trapdoor.  We could clearly hear a voice on the other side of the door but at a loss for what to do, we opted for plan B.  Bursting through the door, we found ourselves in the middle of the Kador exhibit which was decorated with portraits of our old friend Kador and many women.  The room also contained  a large bed and an angry giant, human/spider hybrid who was rather upset at us for roasting his mate on the 8th floor.  We charged as per plan B surrounding and flanking our opponent as quickly as possible.  As we got into position, Vorath let a magic missile loose drawing blood from the creature which burned a hole in the carpet.  Jayla backstabbed the monster causing a spray of gooey blood which got in her eye.  Losing an eye, Jayla flew into a rage and could not be pulled off the battle line for first aid.  Over the course of battle, Beloc lost an arm (Sefa got him out of harm's way and stabilized him), we lost one more barbarian, and all took a beating.  Drance, Gwenlen, Etheltina, and Wulfgar got in some excellent hits while the remaining barbarians assisted.  Vorath let loose punishing salvos of magic missiles and Sefa kept everyone in the fight as long as possible.  Finally, the creature went down.  In this room we found a magic ring and three magical swords, one clearly the Eagle's Talon.  As Kador had told us, we knew it when we saw it!

So, that concludes our City State of the Invincible overlord campaign except for when you visit Rich!  Thanks for a great campaign!  You did an excellent job keeping us guessing and bringing all of the NPC's and enemies to life.  We look forward to having you back periodically for guest sessions.  You'll definitely be missed, both as a CK and as a player.  Now, onward to our new Forgotten Realms campaign!  It will be great to continue on with the rest of our group.  Keep in touch Rich!  Best Wishes!

[rmckee78]

Thanks, these recaps are great. Hopefully I will get a chance to see you guys next week

[Drance]

Bill, great stuff! Thanks, it really brought back good memories of a great session! I do indeed hope we can revisit these characters and this campaign again in the future. My conviction is that great campaigns don't end, they just wait for you to return someday. That's why I always say campaigns that aren't officially ended by a GM are on hiatus. You never know when things will align properly to allow a campaign to have another session...

Rich, if you can make it for another session before the end of the month, we will welcome Sir Grant happily! He can be a Purple Dragon Knight visiting from Cormyr, if you wish...or if you have another thought as to where he would be from, you're of course welcome to create an origin for him.

[Sir_Hamelot]

Incredible recap, Bill!! Fantastic to read.  Again Im sorry I missed the adventure but Im glad everyone got a chance to play through a memorable quest.  Especially since it took us to the Temple of the Spider God finally 

Rich Im merely echoing everyone's thoughts, but it was terrific to have you as a CK.  You really did bring the story to life and allowed everyone to have a great time.  I hope this will not be the last romp through the City State.

Best of luck campaigning, guys!  Trollzah.

[zipper]

Sorry all that this recap took so long.  We've been wanting to write this one, but had some trouble finding the time.  First off, we started with a little background material and house rules.  Oisin and Vorath come from the Village of Amphil, 3 days north of Waterdeep.  Oisin came to Waterdeep in order to serve as a priest of Lathander the god of the sun.  Priests of Lathander are called Dawnbringers.  Kale is a ranger with a nomadic group of elves in the high forest known as the Daughters of Melikki.  The elves live in temporary settlements known as voans. 

As for house rules:  Clerics may choose one spell per level per day that can be spontaneously cast in place of a memorized spell of the same level.  Wizards may sacrifice 1 hit point per level in order to cast extra spells beyond their daily allotment of memorized spells (level 0 spells also cost 1 hit point to cast as an extra spell).  Characters heal at a rate of 1hp per day + Constitution bonus.

Our adventure began with Kale being sent by Elaya, her Voanteer (head of a voan) to the Temple of Lathander in Waterdeep in order to seek help from the clergy.  Apparently, the undead began to appear in the high forest.  Oisin and a newer member of the clergy named Leela were summoned into a room in the temple where Kale was meeting with a higher ranking member of the order named Ruric.  Ruric is comfortable with his routine duties at the church and seems to enjoy bureaucracy.  Oisin and Leela make a case that the temple should help the elves, but Ruric says that he wants to further consider the idea with the higher level clergy.

While the higher level clergy debated giving aid to the elves, Oisin and Leela took Kale to get some food seeing as she had a long journey to Waterdeep.  Leela took everyone to the Singing Sword Tavern, an establishment she used to frequent prior to joining the temple.  At the tavern we ran into an old friend of Leela's named Nestor.  People were talking about some strange deaths in Waterdeep involving the victims bursting into flames.  We decided to leave the tavern and check out the site where the last victim had been found (a trader's wife).  We searched the alley where she had been found, finding scorch marks and a large scale of some kind.  While searching we were approached by several unsavory characters that Nestor apparently owned a gambling debt to.  Oisin paid Nestor's debt in return for his service to the temple.

Upon returning to the temple, we met with an agitated Ruric who informed us that Leela and Oisin were to go back with Kale to her homeland in order to investigate the undead.  Kale's homeland was not particularly close, however Nestor had a plan to get us there faster if Oisin would release him from service.  We agreed to Nestor's terms and made arrangements to meet him the next day.

The next day, we met with Nestor to find that his plan involved using a teleportation portal that an apprentice of the powerful wizard, Kelbin Blackstaff, had discovered in his fiance's basement.  In order to use the portal we would have to sneak into her parents' house while everyone was home that morning.  Kale refused to travel without her trusty horse, so we decided to take two of our four horses through the portal (including Kale's).  The apprentice wanted payment for travel through the portal, so we traded him the scale that we had found at the crime scene the night before.  With the help of the apprentice's finance, we slipped into the house.  With some tense moments, we got the pack horse through the back door and quickly through the portal then the rest of us went, along with Kale's horse while the fiance's parents kept calling her and asking what was going on.

We found ourselves in a cave with little light and our pack horse was nowhere to be found.  We made our way toward the entrance to the outside, when Kale's sharp senses picked up a creature moving around by the cave entrance.  We then noticed the pack horse's (not Kale's horse's) carcass at the cave entrance just in time to prepare to be attacked by an owlbear.  Kale let fly with her bow while Nestor threw daggers.  The enraged owlbear charged after taking damage!  Kale, Oisin, and Leela engaged the bear in melee until Leela got hurt and had to fall back to provide first aid.  After a pitched battle, we defeated the owlbear. We emerged from the cave to find ourselves on a mountainside in a thick fog.  With Kale in the lead, we carefully made our way following a narrow path.  After several hours of travel, we were alerted by the sound of horse hooves, only to find ourselves facing centaurs with bows drawn...

Thanks Anthony, for a great session.  Can't wait for game night this week!  Hope everyone can make it!

[Drance]

Bill and Pam, thanks as always for doing these recaps! You don't know how much I appreciate it! See you guys tomorrow night! Glenn, can you make it? Wes...COME BACK!!! ;-)

[simplyceltic]

Man, this sucks!  I had every intention on being there tonight and couldn't wait as I missed the last two weeks.  My wife has a part time job over the summer due to her being a teacher and the jobs just started last week.  Anyway, she had a job this morning and was supposed to be finished by 1pm.  She just texted me and told me she has to stay until 7:30 tonight so I will not be able to make it...yet again.  Sorry for the inconvenience guys.  If you just want to cut me loose, I would totally understand.  Life just takes over, you know?

Have fun and hope to be able to hook up next week.

Glenn

[Sir_Hamelot]

Hey, all!

Fantastic recaps, Bill-n-Pam!  I always appreciate hearing about the action.  Especially the nice visuals of trying to shove horses through portals while parents try to ascertain whats going on 

And great job with the Owlbear, everyone!  Ive had rather unsavory interactions with them in the past.  Glad to hear that you guys came through. 

Im still gunnin for August 31st as a return date so keep a seat warm for me.  I can't wait to roll with the group again.  Trollzah!

[Drance]

Sorry to hear you can't make it tonight, Glenn...UNLESS Bill and Pam want to talk to you again about potentially picking you up, but of course that's up to them if they can swing that or not. Do you want to give them a call? Bill/Pam, what's your thought?

Bottom line, Glenn, if you can't make it tonight, then come when you can and jump back into the action. No need to "cut you loose" or anything like that. Reality comes first.

Wes, glad to hear that the 31st may in fact be your triumphant return! That would be awesome-sauce!

[simplyceltic]

Yeah, I couldn't get Bill and Pam to pick me up, because I had our car and had to go and pick up the wife from the job that got extended into 12 hours.  By the time I could have gotten there, it would have been like 8:30 or later.  Will try again next week as long as it isn't the 13th!  I have a memorial service for one friend tonight and then another for the 13th.  Having two friends die in the same weeks is not fun.  Thankfully, I am still her.  It could have been three people.

Anyway, hope you all had fun last night.  Itching to get back into the game.

Glenn

[Drance]

No harm done, Glenn, make it back to the game when you can. We will be here. You are welcome to return any time you can make it! We will have a seat saved for you!

[zipper]

Here is the recap for 8/3/2011.  So, Kale, Oisin, Leela, and Nestor were making their way along a narrow mountain path in the fog when they found themselves facing a a female centaur and her companions with bows drawn.  The female centaur called out, I've found them!  As it turns out, Kale recognized the centaurs as being from the White Owl tribe, a tribe which her elven clan (the Spring Dawn clan) is not allied with.  Even though relations are shaky between Kale and the White Owl clan, our party mentioned that we were hunting undead which caught the centaurs' interest.  The female centaur introduced herself as Floen.  Floen then asked/commanded that our party follow her.  Reluctantly, the party followed the centaurs into a path plunging into a narrow crevasse in the steep, rocky face of the mountains.  We contemplated attacking the centaurs because they appeared to have trouble navigating the steep terrain, so that we could make a hasty retreat, but ultimately curiosity on where they were taking us won out.

Inside the crevasse was a centaur camp.  Many of the White Owl tribe had been driven from the lower elevations by bands of undead humanoids.  Apparently, the undead would not venture into these parts of the mountains.  In order to gain the centaurs' trust our party agreed to help them fight and find the source of the undead.  Among the tribe, we discovered a Sun Elf named Tinara staying with them in their mountain camp.  Tinara explained that she had come to this part of the world in search of an ancient tower built by the elves.  The tower had been built by the elven wizard, Kurthrad.  The wizard had been known to have made several artifacts.  Tinara believes that the tower is located somewhere very close to their camp and asked our party to remain and help her to search for it.  She also told our party that some of the centaurs had been attacked by some sort of magical force which caused them to lose some of their memories and cause them not to recognize each other.  Even though we loved the idea of searching the mountains for an ancient tower filled with magical artifacts, our prior commitment to the centaurs won out.

The White Owl centaurs explained that they believed the source of the undead to be a black, stone structure that they had found protruding from the earth at the lower elevations.  The following day, we departed for the lower elevations with the centaurs.  The trek with the White Owl tribe to the lower elevations was uneventful until we made camp that night.  Our party posted its own watch that night.  Kale was on watch when she noticed humanoid figures shambling toward our camp in the darkness.  She awoke the rest of the party and we found ourselves under attack by a mix of 12 undead orcs and goblins.  Oisin was able to turn almost all of the undead while Kale, Leela, and the centaurs finished them off.  We noticed that some of the undead had open sores on them.  Our party instructed the centaurs not directly touch the bodies.

After resting and dawn prayers our party set out with the White Owls to the black stone structure.  We then traveled to the site of the black stone structure.  The structure radiated an uneasy sensation of evil.  It looked as if it had sunken into the ground long ago.  Suddenly, 5 undead orcs, 2 undead goblins, and  2 undead knolls charged from the entrance of the structure.  After dispatching the undead a voice from inside challenged us declaring itself as Gritsnak.  Floen and the band of centaurs were reluctant to follow us into the structure (they must have heard about our reputation with NPC's).  Two of the centaurs finally decided to accompany us after some coaxing.  We entered the structure to find a large chamber containing a statue of the ancient god of the dead, Myrtyl.  Carefully, we explored a hallway from the main chamber.  We proceeded down the hallway and shimmed a door off of one side and came to another door, behind this door we could hear the sounds of undead shambling along.  We shimmed the door shut and the undead started battering the door.  We retreated down the hallway to hear a stone door sealing off our escape route.  We unshimmed the door off of the side of the hall and found ourselves in some sort of bed chamber.  With the two centaurs covering the door, the rest of the went inside.

Oisin cast detect magic and found a spear on the wall to be magical and some sort of magic under the bed.  As soon as Oisin announced his discoveries, Nestor went to see what magic lie under the bed to have a giant guardian spider crash through the floor and bed mattress to attack the party.  Kale let fly with her bow, while Leela stuck the spider with the magic spear.  Nestor scrambled out of the way defending himself with daggers.  Oisin covered Nestor and Kale while attacking with his morningstar.  A vicious battle ensued, with everyone attacking the spider while Oisin and Kale drew its attacks.  Oisin got bitten by the spider.  Everyone stayed in the fight for another round when Oisin discovered his muscles getting stiff.  Realizing he didn't have long before the spider's poison took hold, Oisin cast “Shield of Faith” on Kale.  With the aid of the “Shield of Faith” Kale was able to withstand a final desperate onslaught by the spider before finishing it with her sword.  She and Leela turned to the sound of Oisin's morningstar hitting the ground as he collapsed on the ground beside it...