Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Session 18: Skum of the Lake

We left tha cave o' the wolfman n' headed off ta the lake where the skum were. Personally, I was happy ta be done with the bandits, fightin' decent but dumb folk ain't really my cup o' tea, but scatterin' evil fish folk sure is. Now, I ain't never seen no skum before, bein' from the desert n' all, but the stories ain't so kind of their type.

As we approached the lake, a pair o' skum charged us. We charged back at 'em, reckonin' that these two lil fellers had a death wish. Well, turns out that waitin' inside tha lake was some sort o' ooze hydra, who came on chargin' out o' the lake after the skum. It struck an imposin' figure, if ye could call it a figure, but everytime we cut 'im, he split into two smaller figures. Now, that seemed scary at first, but them smaller ooze hydras weren't too hard to kill once they finished splittin' up. Seein' how Mr. Clount is a blade frenzy, we dispatched the feller quickly 'nuff.

Nearby, we found a hole leadin' down to a mud dungeon o' sorts. Was kinda like what I reckon the inside o' an ant hill is like - 'cept instead o' dirt everywhere, there's mud n' water tricklin' all over the place.

The first room we came across there were these big ole' smelly piles o' excrement. These big critters were sittin' in em', some sort o' animals but I ain't never seen em' before. They were slow n' tough, n' they packed one heckuva wallop with that tail o' theirs.

We fought a few o' them skum, they even had a few fellers that were smart 'nuff to be castin' some sort o' spells at us. Ipmerk n' I would wait for them fellers to start castin' spells n' then he'd shoot em' and I'd chuck a bottle o' flamin' love at em'. Spellcastin' dudn't work too well when you're on fire.

Some o' the tunnels were flooded, so a few o' us had to swim ahead, n' then we set up a rope system where we'd help pull the folks who ain't so good at swimmin' along. Most o' them tunnels weren't so long, so the Tin Can man Rayden could just walk along the bottom holdin' his breath 'fore poppin' out the other end o' the tunnel.

We were approachin' a big ole cavern when a bunch o' skum started rushin' us. We could hear the mutterin's o' a caster in the back o' the cavern, but Clount n' Rayden, who ain't much for seein' in darkness, couldn't see her. N' they were up front. So we had a few moments o' tryin' to push our way into the room, thankfully the two o' them fellers are tough as rock, n' I ain't talkin' 'bout that crumbly desert rock, but I mean like the mountain rock they got 'round these parts. In the meanwhile, I was drinkin' down potions n' turnin' inta the big ole' burly mean guy that I turn into when things are a mite bit concernin'.

I shoved my way in finally, n' I see the caster lady n' the back n' she's got a crocodile o' sorts who wants to tangle. Turns out though that my teeth were bigger n' his, n' I ripped his guts out. Meanwhile, the rest o' them were tearing 'bout a dozen skum up, n' makin' short work o' them. Zuzmo n' Tourniquet were just about to chase out into the watery room n' get that caster, but she turned tail n' ran, or swam, or what have you, down an underwater tunnel leadin' elsewhere.

Clount n' Rayden were a bit hurt from the beatin' o' the many Skum, n' Rayden ain't much of a swimmer. Neither are Ipmerk, Zuzmo, nor I. Difference is, I was a ragin' angry Glauko n' that makes me strong 'nuff to be a passable swimmer. So without missin' a beat, suicidal, bloody Clount, myself, n' Tourniquet went swimmin' off after her. I din't realize at the time quite how hurt Clount was, but I would in a moment.

We pop out the other end o' the tunnel, n' the lady caster is complainin' to just bout' the biggest man frog beast I e'er seen. Now, wiser men mighta turned back at this point in time, but Clount ain't so wise, n' truth be told, I ain't so much neither, specially not when I'm two feet taller with claws and tusks the size o' yer skull. I figured takin' down the caster was a priority, so I guzzled down a potion o' invisibility n' moved inta the room.

The giant guy charged Clount n' gave him a really hard thumpin' with that club o' his. Clount was spinnin'. I popped outta nowhere n' gave the lady fish caster such a rendin' that she shrieked n' ran back to cower n' the corner. Clount took 'nother swing at the feller n' straight up passed out on the spot. So, seemingly, it came down to this king fish n' m'self. But ye din't forget bout' Tourniquet didya? Tourniquet loves fish, even if'n they look like giant ogres. That allowed me to surround this big feller. And we were goin' at it. Truth be told, I reckon this feller was tougher n' I was. Other truth be told, fate was on my side. He dipped outta the way o' one claw just to get the other rippin' up his side. With him trapped in my hand, I brought them tusks up across his belly. Smelly fish guts spilt' all over me.

Even so, covered in his own black ichor, this feller wasn't givin up. He gave me a thumpin' so hard I knew that if he clocked me again then Clount n' I might never see the sun rise 'gain, if'n ye catch my meanin'. I was also worried the lady caster would get a hold o' herself n' could maybe heal. Time wasn't 'zactly a friend o' mine, not to mention my friend bleedin' to death on the ground.

Another brutal claw swipe cross his chest. He dropped his club down so hard I'd prolly have turned into pulp if it weren't for that magical hoverin' Shield potion I had taken some o' earlier. The air crackled with the stark electricity o' the force shield. The recoil from the strike was all I needed, I pounced onto the feller n' sunk my tusks deep into his neck. Near took his head right off.

To be honest, I can't remember if I went n' finished off the cowerin' caster or if I stabilized Clount first. I reckon I finished off the caster first n' case she got her courage and had some lucky shot on me, 'cos I was bleedin' pretty badly. In my state, I plum forgot that I had all sorts o' healin' potions on me, n' I tried to get Tourniquet to get Zuzmo. Poor feller din't un'nerstand nothin' I was sayin', so I dropped a fire bomb at our feet ta scare him off. That worked n' after a bit Zuzmo came back on Tourniquet's back. He asked me if'n I ain't got any healin' potions, n' I sheepishly said that I did n' I jus' plum forgot.

We went back to town n' headed to the magistrate's office. He's a needle nos'd feller. One o' them folks that would probably die where I came from but has met with some sort o' success in this kind o' place. I dun like him one bit, but he had information on the Dark Rider, n' that's why we went to do these tasks in the firs' place.

Well I ask'd the feller what was with them bandits sayin' 'bout their burnt down town. I din't even mean anythin' by it, I jes' wanted to know what happened. But he directly said he wasn't gon' answer me about it. N' I told him that if I do work fer him n' I'm askin' him a simple question about the work, then he's a bit remiss in not informin' me o' such. He retorted back with that we did the work for information, n' I remind'd him he ain't even given us our information yet. He asks if I want to know about that or the town. I say the Dark Rider, o' course.

This shit snot. All he does is tell us 'bout a person in another town that has information, n' he gives us some token to talk to her. I tell him that ain't the deal, that he said he had information on the Dark Rider. N' I started to get real angry. I dun like liars none, specially not folks that'll lie to my face. I told him that since he better fess up 'bout the town burnin' or we were gonna have a problem. N' then I see him tuggin' on some sort o' alarm cord on his desk.

So I told him that he'd better start talking, or "I'll fuckin' kill you." Like I said, he made me pretty mad. I could see my party members unclaspin' their scabbards. All hell was about to break loose.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Session 16+17, we'll say, finally caught up

We traveled off ta Wembdel, a decent sized town, lookin' fer history n' work. We found out again that we'd been gone under tha ocean for over a year or so, n' folks din't have much idea nor concern 'bout what had happened in Rosebay. Now, maybe I'm just more curious than' most folks, but I was purty s'prised that most folks din't seem to mind it none. They apparently were rebuildin' n' Rosebay n' we considered headin' down there, but its quite a trip. So instead we decided to ask 'round 'bout the Dark Rider.

My memory ain't so good, either we bumped into a feller named Sorn who took us to the Magistrate first, or we found the Magistrate by rec'mendation n' saw Sorn there, but we met 'im at similar times. The magistrate feller had information on the Dark Rider. Sorn's some sorta oracle, says he's been followin' the Dark Rider for a long time. Tall feller, with tattoos o' them time clocks with sand in 'em. Them tattoos light up when he's castin' spells. Kinda weird at first, but mostly in'neresting.

Anyhow, this magistrate feller said he had some good information for us, but he wanted a favor first. Course. After we grilled him a bit ta somewhat validate he had valuable information n' askin' where he may have heard this information from, we agreed to do his favor. Turns out, he's got this big ole' plot o' land n' there's some bandits in the woods o' it n' there's some skum, evil fish folk, livin' down by his lake.

Now, I ain't one for property. If ye can't carry it on yer back or if it can't come with yer herd o' goats, then it aint worth it. But other folks aint like that.

That reminds me, a story about goats, as I forgot 'bout it in my last journal entry! There was a goat inside them undead caves, I aint got no idea from where, but he had some sorta lamp round his neck. This goat feller followed us 'round them caves the whole time, n' when Rayden nearly died his soul somehow got trapped in that thurr soul lamp. Zuzmo smashed the lamp n' saved the spirits o' Rayden n' the goat. I still ain't got no idea what he was doin' there. End o' side story.

Property. I aint one for it, but this magistrate feller wanted us to clear it out. So we went off.

First, we were in some thick woods, so Zuzmo went scamperin' up a tree to see where we waz in relations to the rest o' the forest n' this magistrate feller's mansion, which he was buildin' off in the distance. Unfortunately, some large spider types had set up camp round this spot. Sorn showed us he was a bit of a marksman, Zuzmo reminded us that he can summon lightning tridents to fight, Clount showed some agile prowess, n' the rest of us tried our best to help though we din't help all that much.

After awhile we found a camp, a big ole' camp, but only one feller was in it. He was a singer o' sorts. Sorn n' I snuck around the perimeter, but there wasn't anyone creepin' out there. The feller in the camp was a pretty smooth liar, sayin' that he was just travelin' through, but his story din't quite add up. When I told him I thought as much, he turned himself invisible with a bardic spell. We started pokin' round the camp n' found that one o' them trees had a big ole ladder disguised in the side of it.

So Zuzmo scampered on up the tree, bout 60 feet or so, n' found there was an openin' in the platform. He said he was comin' up, bein' the nice feller that he is. The three fellers on tha' platform weren't so nice. They shot at Zuzmo, hurtin' him decently. I could tell Zuzmo was considerin' doin' somethin' brave, but he was up there all by his'self, n' I hollered fer him to come down. He's a tough lil' orc, or goblin, or whatever, but he ain't one for battlin' three big fellers with bows when he's already hurt. When he came on down the tree, bleedin' n' hurtin' I got purty upset. I like Zuzmo.

So I hollered up that this was their last chance to give up. I waited, n' no response. So I drank one o' my new tricks - invisibility potion, n' I had Mr. Clount follow me up that tree.

Now, imagine you're one of three fellers, you've all got your bows pointed at n' entrance in yer lil tree fort. Suddenly, a half-orc appears outta nowhere, cause he's shoving yer' friend off a 60' platform to the forest floor below, n' he draws a big ole' greataxe from his back n' comes chargin' you. Now, dontcha reckon that maybe when his friend comes poppin' outta that hole you WERE coverin' until you dropped your bow cause o' that angry orc, that MAYBE you'd drop yer weapons n' beg for mercy? These fellers weren't much in'nerested in that. So two took a trip to the forest floor, n' the other got cut up purty badly. To be fair, they did manage ta sink a few painful arrows n' blows into me, but I think I mostly had the leg up in that exchange.

Turns out these fellers had n' entire tree village up there with ropes connectin' amongst all them platforms. Most o' them had a death wish, but there were three fellers who were wise enough to actually agree to leave. We found out from them that their village was burnt down to make room fer some barracks o' some sort. Now, I ain't think thats right, but I aint livin' in these lands neither. Back in Suuldra, that would never fly with folks, but folks wouldn't live along no public road, neither. So we told these fellers that we felt sorry for 'em, but lootin' n' plunderin' wasn't really the appropriate way to win any kind o' hearts over.

There was some more folks, n' one was this woman 'zerker type who hit pretty hard. I went ta fight her, n' she took me out pretty quickly. Fortunately, by the time I went down, the rest o' my friends had scared off or beat up most o' the other fellers round there, n' were able to save me n' eventually overwhelm. She sure packed a wallop though. I'm still achin' a day later.

Havin' dispersed most o' them bandits, we found 'nother rope ladder headin' down n' spotted a cage to take shelter n' for the night. There was a feller there with some wolves, n' he was some sort o' wild feller who'd been livin' out here for awhile, but he was nice 'nuff, so we talked to him about the land n' about the skum where the lake was. He pointed us in the right direction, n' we were off on our merry way.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Session 14-15ish

So wurr in this cavern n' we hear tha whistlin' n' singin' o' some big dumb feller. We prep ourselves for a fight, n' this big ole' ogre comes barrellin' round the corner with a minin' cart. He wuldn't fixin' fer a fight, so we set ta askin' him where we are. Turns out wurr in some sorta minin' camp. Suprise, suprise.

Well he takes us out them tunnels. I'm speculatin' 'bout why Aurora chose to drop us off here, I 'member we were all asked where we wanted to go "home" to. I reckon none o' us chose a tunnel un'nerneath the earth, so I ain't zactly sure what the confusion was 'bout there.

There's some dwarf feller who runs the camp, n' they got a punch more ogre types helpin' 'em out. I dun remember his name as its been a long time since we were there but he was a nice 'nuff feller. He pegged us fer adventurin' types n' asked us if we wanted to help him wit' a problem. Turns out one o' his humans n' a pair o ogres found some sort o' den of the dead un'ner the earth. The ogres took to callin' em "Unpunchables". One o' em fellers tried to punch a spectre o' sorts, n' it drained the life from him. The second ogre took to runnin', and the human, who you'd 'spect to be smarter than an ogre, took it upon his'self to go 'vestigating the situation. He managed ta' get away, but when we spoke ta him, he wuldn't in any real kind o' shape.

So fer some gold, and for the tin can paladin's conscience, we agreed ta take the work. I set about askin' if these fellers had any kind o' silver bars, and I proceeded to make some holy water vials, which the Tin Can Paladin blessed his'self. That felt like a wise decision, I reckon we'd have a bit o' trouble with an Unpunchable ourselves.

So we go ta this cavern, n' sure enough, this smoky ghostly figure comes flyin' outta the walls. He turnt' Rayden's blood cold n' sucked out a lot o' his strength. Fortunately, we had all sorts o' Holy Water ta throw in the critters face. Zuzmo also learned a new trick, where he summoned a trident spear o' sorts n' set about stabbin' folks with it. Since it was magic, it seemed to do the trick pretty well, n' it sliced through armor like it wuldn't nothin'.

We musta stumbled inta some sort o' burial ground as there were a few more shadowy critters, n' lots o' skeletons. Some o' them skeletons were TOUGH buggers. N' one o' the rooms there was an undead necromancer o' sorts. He had some strange shrine thing, after detectin' it for magic, we decided the right call was to pick it up n' throw it against the wall. So that broke. Other than that, I used my new trick to go invisible n' scout ahead, gettin' the drop on a few critters. We also found a trapped corridor leading to some sort o' ancient tomb, but we culdn't really tell what it was fer. Fer the traps, Ipmerk n' I did our classic "Ipmerk finds em', I take em' apart" maneuver. I ain't much good for findin' traps, but got a good hand for takin' em apart.

After collectin' our bounty n' havin' done our good deed, we waited a few days to rest up n' then departed back to civilization. Turns out, we were somewhere in the Northern part o' Dorius, which is where our adventures started in the first place. Mebe that's what Aurora meant by home...

Friday, March 14, 2014

Session, like, adunno lets call it 11-13

So we're on these big ole' beach shores inside a bubble un'ner the ocean. There's this big ole' stone structure risin' outta the ground that we reckon is some sort o' temple to Aurora. At the entrance is this stone feller who has some answers to questions but he aint to bright or nothin', bein' around for a millenia and not having much of a conception of mortality or what happened. There's also this lil buzzin' fairy that was pretty excited to see us. The stone feller tells us this temple is a challenge, and we aint got nowhere else to go so we head in.

Problem is gett'n in the door there's some sort o' frogs eatin' food puzzle. Well after way too long we figure it out n' head inside where we are attacked by these strange fellers who always appear to be healin'. Turns out it's some sort o' illusion, Zuzmo runs over to this big ole mirror and looks through the backside and can tell us which o' the three fellers is real- as the other ones are fake, but they sure hurt like real folk.

Then there was a room with this strange ole' case o' eyeballs that were watchin' us hangin' from the ceiling. The tiles on the floor had letters on 'em n' I recognized n' a second that they spelled out AURORA if you walked across n' a certain pattern. That kept em' creepy eyeballs n' their cases.

Then there was another room where there was this strange chest where you could make a ladder, n' we had to put a certain number o ladders down on the pillars to get out. That was in'nerestin as well.

Then we went inta a room where there was all sorts o' poop n' trash spread out cross the room. Hidin' in em' trash piles were these deformed goblin lookin' fellers with pin-sized heads. They were vicious lil' buggers but pretty weak. Zuzmo wanted to be friends at first, but they hit Tourniquet, das Zuzmo's frog feller, with a sling n' Zuzmo went all wild eyed and started helpin' me skewer these fellers. Meanwhile, the rest o' our party was chasin' these fellers up stairs til they found like, the king snotling who was a pretty tough feller. I snuck up the other way and trapped the king between our group, n' we made short work o' him after that. Roundin' the corner, we saw this big ole' green blob lady thas clearly the mother o' the hive. She seemed kinda defenseless like, so we just decided to let her stay with the three lil runts that were defendin' her.

Behind the snot king there was a big ole door with two keyholes. We had one from the Snot King, but not the other so we backtracked in the temple. We entered this big ol'e oval room, n' the further in it we stepped, the more it looked like some big ole' arena. There were spectators n' everything. We knew it was an illusion o' sorts, but one o' our arena opponents was the Blue Wizard feller that's been showin' up. The feller who's been wakin' the Dark Rider. So we decided that it was 'bout time to have a go at 'im and his crew. After givin' him a right proper stompin', the room turned back into a regular oval room, but we got another one o' them keys.

We took a rest, which was wise, cause the challenge behind the big door was a big ole' doozy.

Inside the room was this epic three story place with waterfalls fallin' n' between the floors. There were undead everywhere and two large blue gargoyles that looked mean n' tough. Cross the room were these fellers that looked zactly like us and everytime we moved, they moved in the direct opposite direction. So, we got this situation where I'd be fightin' skeletons on my side of this big room, n' on the other side there'd be my reflection fightin' either nothin' or other dumb skeletons that came to fight 'im.


Now hoppin' in dem' waterfalls or endin' on the corners n' havin' someone flip a switch would cause you to go upside down. There were big ole' spikes on the floor n' ceilin, so you din't want to fall. In the middle there were these statues, 4 o' em' with holes in their mouths like the keys we had.

We split up. I drank some rage juice n' went on a skeleton murderin' rampage. Zuzmo ran off with Tourniquet to try n' place them keys in the statues mouths. Rayden ran off to challenge one o'em gargoyles. Ipmerk was shootin' all sorts o fellers that came at im', with Clount defendin'.

It was chaos.

I din't have too much trouble, but Rayden was really strugglin' gainst the gargoyle who he culdn't seem to hurt much. Clount was doin' all right but the second gargoyle was throwin' ice spears at im' n' he started to suffer. Zuzmo was mostly runnin' round doin' his business but Tourniquet was body checkin' skeletons off the edge to their deaths. Erry'time Zuzmo stuck one o em' keys in the statues them gargoyles lost some o' their luster.

Rayden, Clount, n' Ipmerk, who had taken the biggest beatin', were just barely holdin' up when I came back down to em'. I had finished off a handful o skeletons n' the rest were chasin' Zuzmo n' Tourniquet around on the bottom somewhere. By the time I circled back ta the group, the Gargoyle's had lost their luster. We tore 'em up, but I gotta admit, it was pretty close for us.

Then, just like that, we woke up in a cave.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Sessions 8 n' then some

A'right well it's been a while n' then some, both in reality and in perspective o' my time. The date on this journal is well o'er a year since my last writin', but to me it ain't felt more than a few weeks.

Maybe I should just go back to the beginnin'.

We were in Rosebay waitin' for the Dragon Festivities. Seertha went n' disappeared in a big ole magic library they had. I wen' in their m'self. Some interestin' stuff but it was a bit too big to be useful, if'n ye catch my drift. It was expensive too, I ain't got any idea how a place like that is capable o' stayin' open, I presume there's sorts o' illegal activities goin' on, but thas just my mind.

Some fellers bumped into our bald headed friendly ragin' barbarian, Mr. Clount, and he said he had some sorta weird feelin' they were there. We gave em' some chase but they disappeared on us, so ain't much else to say bout that. It's been awhile so I'm probably glossin' over sumotha details. But it ain't really matterin' jus' yet.

Well the Dragon Festival occurred, and the first part o' it was pretty interestin', more people in one place then I e'er seen in mah life to say the least. Problem was, some fellers were fixin' on killin'. One o' them parade dragons, fellers in them long dragon-lookin' clothes, threw off their guise and began attackin' random folk. Thing is, they had some little mini dragons wit 'em - lizards that probably were barely bigger than lil' Zuzmo and Ipmerk, but boy could they pack a fiery wallop. We killed them and then ran off to the sounds o' more screams, when we see four o' them running round an ally. We gave chase, and they had run inta a warehouse o' sorts. One o' em was riflin' through papers while we fought the rest o' em.

We cut the fellers down, n' I wanted to find out what, zactly, was worth causin' such a commupin o'er. Fellers that are willin' ta kill fer paper got somethin' pretty dark on their minds.

Well, knowin' that Zuzmo n' Rayden ain't got much o' a stomach for question askin' of fellers o' this sort, I let them off to see if there was'n any more trouble to be found. But I knew I already found the trouble. Mr. Clount stayed with me n' we woke one o' em fellers up. At first, he said he was just a mercenary o' sorts. I tried to scare the livin' daylights outta him with Clount's help, and so help me, if this feller were any sane man I think he woulda dropped a load in his pants on the spot.

Problem was, he wuldn't no mercenary, an' he wuldn't no ordinary man. He started ramblin' some crazy stuff about how death is comin'. Meanwhile, we're lookin' through them papers and we can't find nothin' of even partial relevance to what these unstable fellers mighta been lookin' for. We did find a meeting place and time on one o' them though. So at the least we had a lead.

Well, these fellers were fixin' on killin' so I did what I thought was best. Kill't them on the spot. I di'nt take no joy in it, but fellers like that just aren't fit to walk the streets o' pleasant folks. 'Course fate be'in the way it is n' all, Zuzmo n' Rayden came walkin' back in right 'bout that time. We had some words about it n' all, but there wuldn't no calmin' them. We ain't got no problem killin' em' and leavin' em' to die in the streets, but now that they were incapacitated they wanted to take 'em into the authorities o' somethin'. Right. Same folks who culdn't stop them poor spectatin' folks from bein' killed. When a camel has Desert Madness, ye ain't gonna dawdle around it, ye gotta put 'im down. Thas just how I reckon it should be. But what was done was done, and there ain't no changin' it. Jus' thinkin' ta mahself 'bout if'n it's gonna be a problem in the future. Ye don't get a second chance when you're evil to the bone. Not in m'book.

Well we still had a meetin' place that was hinted to.

Bein' the mos' regular lookin' feller, we had Clount go in to this lil' shop. I dun exactly remember if there was a password o' something, but somethin' told the feller that we were the bad sort, n' he pointed us to a door round the corner o' the street.

Bein' the meanest lookin' feller, I strolled into the compound. There was a big metal door o' sorts n' there were arrow slits facin' out inta the compound. The feller inside the door jus' wanted the paper that these folks were lookin' for. I offered him a piece o' regular paper n' when he reached out o' the slits in the door, I made a grab fer his arm. It was a good idea, but I was a bit too hasty in tryna grab him n' he pulled his arm back and started hollerin' to his friends that it was a fake.

That upset me. So I took to drinkin' down mah Rage Juice. Meanwhile, the rest o' the crew started fillin' into the courtyard - Ipmerk even got a shot off straight through one o' them arrow slits! I was a bit focused to notice though, there was a door in the way. I grabbed it by the edges and ripped the whole thing right outta the wall. The fellers inside di'nt 'spect that none, so we gave em' poor fellers a solid beatin' for forgettin' that walls can't keep you safe from me when I'm perturb'd.

This buildin' led to an alley where we had to cross the street over ta another buildin' with a door on the second floor n' a ladder on the roof. Ipmerk crept across n' opened the door, n' we came crashin' in by jumpin' cross the way. They had some little kids that were caged up in there, they ain't had much to say n' were pretty scared o' just bout everything. I insisted on pushin' on, just in case any fellers were escapin' out the back. Turns out instead there was a feller in an office. Well, not a feller exactly. He had four arms, 'parrently some sort o' ganglord outta the place where Clount's from.

Well he encased me in some sorta magic bubble n' asked Clount to come sit by him. Rayden charged him, but he took Rayden down with some giant two handed weapon. So he was a fighter n' addition to bein' some kind o' powerful spellcaster. After stabilizin' Rayden, him n' Clount had some sort o' civil conversation. I di'nt like that much, like I said, when yer evil to the bone there's a problem with yah in m'book. Fellers who keep caged children fall into that category. After him n' Clount talked some, he just teleported out. I think he told me I wuldn't welcome in his city, but I ain't much for lissenin' to four-armed fellers.

Well, if things culdn't be much worse, shit wes jus' about to come flyin' outta the camel's ass. The weather turned for th' worse and this big ole' maelstrom was comin' straight for the city. Inside that maelstrom was some sort o' Leviathan, they called it. It came crashin' into the city and appeared to do on the shores. One o' its huge necks landed near us. All it's scales started movin, and turns out them scales were some sorta strange bug creatures that wanted to kill us. So we were movin' into a tactical retreat cuz there's bout a million o' these lil' sucker. Then one o' em was comin' up behind us, but this lil' feller was white instead o' the darker color o these others. N' they hated each other.

We were runnin' through the streets tryna escape when we bumped into a whole cadre o' them white ones and some strange tall white woman, who was made outta all sortsa weird shapes n' angles. She created some sorta bubble that kept the bad buggers at bay, n' was 'splainin to us that she could get us outta there. Somethin' bout Aurora bein' trapped under the ocean, but she di'nt have much else to say that wuldn't bout as cryptic as they come.

She offered us the chance to make it out by boat or by magical orb. I was a bit panicked, n' I di'nt quite catch that last part. I thought she wanted us to take this magical orb with us out onto the boat. Turns out I wuldn't one for lissenin' very much that day at all.

Well we did some crazy warpin' effect, n' we woke up on some beach somewhere. Well, 'cept we were also in some sorta big dome. We kinda reckoned after awhile that we were in a bubble under the ocean, which actually makes sense as we'd been told Aurora sleeps under the ocean. And I guess the next part, well thats' for next entry. 

Monday, October 28, 2013

Session 5, 6, 7

Now, it's been awhile since I wrote anythin', but thas coz writin' while on a boat is bad luck. We arrived in Seahaven in the country o' Southcoast. Southcoast is, well, is jus' South of Suuldra, where I'm from, so I heard a bit about it. They're mostly tradin' types.

Well we met up with Cap'n fancy pants, I can't zactly rem'mber his name or nothin', but he's some sort o' legal pirate. He had a scorpion in his boots over this other pirate feller known as the Hanged Man. Turns out that feller had stolen a valuable tapestry, so importnt that Cap'n fancy pants was willin' to pay us 100 gold fer its return. Turns out the Cap'n was also tasked with takin' a fight to the Full Moon Bay Pirates, who all happ'n to have a fortress on the same pirate island as these Hanged Men.

So we were dropped off on this small lil' pirate island and made our way through the Jungle. Let me tell you, the goin' was slow. We were attacked by various native critters that din't like us intruding too much, but the mos' interesting was one o' them big black jungle cats who could talk! Now this feller, going by the name Mumbuntu or somethin' similar, he was bigger n' any jungle cat I e'er seen and his eyes glowed somethin' fierce. All that bein' said, he was a reasonable nuff' critter. Mumbuntu wanted tribute o' sorts fer passing through. Most everyone had somethin' to offer up, but Seertha din't take too kindly to that and she gave 'im a piece o' her mind, so a panther comes leapin' outta the jungle and rends her pretty badly. Mumbuntu then says she paid the tribute in blood. I wasn't much interested in no blood tribute, so I just asked 'im if he was a'ight with me passin' through his territory. Turns out if'n ye ask nicely enough he ain't even want you to give him nothin'.

We arrived at a cliff face the next day and there was some sort o' riddle that implied we were supposed to put a noose round our necks. That let us pass through some thick jungle growth in some sort o' magical entrance that led into an entire lil' village. Problem was, this village wudn't quite right.

There was a feller who was almost impossibly drunk n' the tavern all by hisself. Then there was a room filled with big ole' rats that had some sort o shimmering rock skin. This vicious buggers din't hurt too much, but we couldn't hurt em back none so we locked 'em in there. There was another abandoned building filled with hundr'ds o lil' monkey fellers who got real mad if'n ye got to close to their ale. Then there was a room full of hanged bodies, tons o' em just hang'n from the ceiling. Was worth losin' yer lunch over, but Seertha just wandered on in there and was pokin' round.

We continued on, n' there was a more elaborate fortress o' sorts. We saw some fellers in a courtyard who weren't in much o' a talkin mood, so we had to fight 'em. Difficulty was, after killin' these fellers, they rose as the dead! From our trip into that crypt several weeks ago, Seertha had a wand o' controllin' undead and she stopped all them fellers from attackin'. Now, I thought when we talk'd bout this wand prior we agreed that we'd just be destroyin' undead with it, but 'parently I just had this conversation in my own head or sumthin', since everyone seemed content to use these dead fellers as personal soldiers. I made it clear I was none too happy bout it and made sure to keep a large distance from em' dead fellers.

We wandered into a room with a pool o' sorts and there was a magical lil' blue feller. Ipmerk, for some reason, was laden with more meat and offered it up the lil feller, who then was happy to ignore us. They all started continuin' on, but ignored a door, so I took a look in. Wave o' nausea, as it was another room full o' dead fellers. I closed the door but Seertha asked me what I saw. I ain't one for lyin, so I told her n' went to continue on. Bein' all creepy, she went in, and sure 'nuff, there was a pair o' big old caterpillars n' there that tried to eat her. I ran over and slammed the door shut, but them critters were BIG and smashed down the door. Several o Seertha's zombies died while we battled these two critters, kill'n one and fleein' from another.

Deeper in there was a pretty strange sight, we opened a door n' suddenly we were inside a ship o' sorts. We were in the back cabin, so we went onto the main deck where a bunch o' zombies were. Fightin' was close quarters, so it was tough for us to get at all o' them, and mid combat I felt the cold flesh o' Seertha's zombie tryna get past me. So when we won the fight, I turned 'round and cut that zombie's head off too. Seertha din't like that none, but I dun care as if'n a person wants to interact with an abomination o' life, then I don't want no part in it. Havin' that feller walk into me was 'bout is a sign o' disrespect, and I ain't gon' tolerate that.

The rest o' the group din't really want to interact with my anger none so they went to explore the aft o' the ship. Seertha was stewin' so she wandered off alone to the front while I collected m'self on the main part o' the ship. Course, some giant crab critters were waitin' to ambush Seertha on the front o' the ship. One o' em had 60 feet long sticky limbs and was pull'n her up to the ceilin! Clount and I turned the other one into a fresh lobster dinner while the others were shootin' at the critter on the ceilin. At some point, the ceilin' critter decided it was best to jus' run away, n he decided to drop Seertha from bout 30 or 40 feet in the air. I reacted fast enough to pull out some o' mah impact foam, a neat lil' alchemical component that turns into a mattress o' sorts on impact with a hard surface. Ev'n with that, she was pretty dazed from the fall.

We looked out the front o' the boat and saw that this boat was somehow lodged into the cliff face some hundred or more feet above the water line! Now that ain't make much sense at the time, but eventual it will.

We wandered down a hallway and came across some livin' fellers, actual Hanged Noose pirates who weren't hanged. They were posturin' a little, but they were clearly frightened, so I hollered at 'em a lil' til they stepped down n' fetched the First Mate. Then Zuzmo went into that sort o' friendly questionin' mode he has about him. The Mate 'splained to us that the Cap'n had taken on a passenger in blue robes who wanted to go to the middle o' the ocean. They sailed to the middle o' the ocean, the passenger feller jumped in the water, and several hours showed back up again, drippin' wet. They went to leave and suddenly there was some sort o' crazy storm that resulted in smashin' their ship into the side o' their own fortress! The blue robed feller disappeared, but then the Cap'n went mad and started slaughterin' his own men. Some o' the others went mad as well. The First Mate gave us a key to that part o' the fortress and we went to investigate some.

Sure 'nuff, first thing we found were some fellers who were talkin' bout havin' salt for blood n referncin' us as walking meat puppets. We had to fight them fellers. At this point, we were gettin' pretty spent from a day full o' fightin, but we ain't really had anywhere else to go.

There was a room with two demonic sorts, we struggled n' fightin' em, but the righteous arm o' Rayden with some help from Zuzmo was 'nuff to send those 'bominations back to their terrible place o 'xistance. We found a pair o' large fellers guardin' a treasure room o' sorts who actually seemed to be o' sound mind, but still 'gressive and not helpful or nothin'. There was a lot o' treasure in that room, but we still couldn't find the tapestry, so we decided we'd come back by before headin' out. I had also taken my mutagen at the time, so I was kinda in that forceful haze I get to push forward.

We entered a final room that had all sorts o' nooses and ropes hangin' on the ceilin', so thick we can't even see up there. I was magically compelled to go sit down on some benches in front o' a theater of sorts. Then some large wooden marionettes dropped down on ropes and were performin' some sort o' 4 act play fer us! Was just bout' the strangest thing I e'er seen in a place like this. The play even had wooden boards that would drop from tha ceilin' with the label for the act! Also, some magical seawater came from behind the curtain durin' the shipwreck scene.

The play was about a Fool and the Hanged Man, who I later reckoned were the same feller conversing with hisself, and they met with a Dark Rider and a Blue Robed Wizard, who I couldn't quite figure out of they were supposed to be the same person o' not. The story they told was very similar to what the First Mate had told us earlier: the Dark Rider came n' offered the Cap'n some money for the trip. At the end, the Hanged Man was bemoanin' the fact that he had accepted all this greedy money and talked about it cursin' him. The Wizard said he wudn't concerned bout their mortal worries. We also managed to figure out the timeline after, it coincided with that quake o' the earth we felt a few weeks prior, which is just 'bout as unsettlin' to me as a thing can get. I ain't a believer in coincidences.

Well then I went up to the stage n' the tapestry was back there. Course, when I took it, them 4 marionettes and a handful more dropped out o' the ceilin' to attack us. The Hanged Man finally had the gall to show his face, but o' course he was hidin' behind a bunch o his marionettes. I was surrounded by them four initial marionettes, so I was tearin' em to pieces as I was still with claws and teeth thanks to mah feral mutagen. The Hanged Man pulled some trickery and a noose came from the ceilin n' fastened round Rayden's neck, draggin' him up and chokin' him. He kept on swingin', but he passed out soon 'nuff.

Zuzmo was a goddamned hero though. He's a lil feller, as lil as they come, but he hopped up n' grabbed onto Rayden's danglin' feet. Spear in one hand, he climbed up the side o' Rayden with just one other hand! I ain't never seen noone climb so fast, so I reckon he wuldn't jokin' when he said he was a goblin o' the trees! He cut Rayden down n' saved his life 'fore he died from chokin'. Meanwhile, I had made my way up to The Hanged Man, who hit me pretty hard. I hit him back a little, but I could tell he was gonna outfight me right quick. Clount was finishing up the smaller marionette fellers, but he was pretty hurt as well.

Ipmerk then took tha opportunity to sacrifice hisself fer my benefit. He jumped up to shove a potion down mah throat, but the Hanged Man reached out n' grabbed him with his off hand, chokin' him to death. Now, let me tell you, I like Ipmerk lots, but he's a sort o' selfish feller, to see him put hisself in harms way to keep me up was a pretty hefty shock. And when that Hanged Man was chokin' him, I got mad. The Hanged Man swiped at me again, nearly fellin' me, and he certainly woulda had Ipmerk not shoved that potion into mah mouth.

I tore him to pieces.

Like I said, I was angry. One clawed hand grabbed his head, the other one grabbed onto his shoulder, I sunk my goring teeth into his belly for leverage, liftin' him up, n' I twisted 'til his head came off (2 critical hits and a regular hit with a 21 strength and power attack resulting in 68 damage).

After, I asked the group if'n they thought the gold was cursed. Ipmerk responded with a definitive "No." That made me laugh some, but we figured he was right, as the play seemed to mostly be a metaphorical version o' the facts.

We asked 'em pirates that were stuck in this fortress if'n they wanted out, so we took em' with us and told the Cap'n Fancy Pants, who was ecstatic ta have his tapestry back, that he needed to take em with us. Turns out to be mutually beneficial as some o' the Cap'n Fancy Pants sailors died fightin 'em other pirates. Thing is, his legal piracy was s'posed to be on the pretenses that ships been disappearing from the ocean for no good reason. People reckon pirates, but after this trip, I reckon it's cause there's somethin' in the ocean swallowin' em up. Whatever it is, there ain't no good to be had from bein' on the water. The Cap'n informed us a big ole' storm was coming, so to avoid it we're headed to Rose Bay.

We just landed, and I just captured my thoughts n' all. I reckon I forgot some o' the details, but I'm pullin all this from weeks o' memory, so I did mah best. From here, I wanna try n' find somethin' out 'bout this blue robed feller n' the natural things occurin' that are strikin' me as mighty suspicious. The Dragon Festival is soon, the celebration of Ashta's defeat over the Volcano King and the castin' o' him into the earth. Like I said earlier, I ain't one for believin' in coincidences. I think it's time for me to get brewin'...

Monday, September 23, 2013

Session 4

Nah, I ain't got much time, but I reckon I can record most a the recent days.

We were at Rayden's big ole' mansion. Ipmerk wenting huntin' with Rayden's grandpappy while his grandmammy was prayin' her heart away. I didn't see nothin' happen with tha prayin' but that huntin' got us some tasty birds they were callin' "kwayle." His grandpappy suggested there were some mines we could go n' clear out if we were fixin' on d'venturin' some more, but he also said that we could head south to where some pirates be and that he knew there was work down there.

Ipmerk n' a few others din't want to be underground more, but I din't wanna be on the ocean none. I 'splained to all of them that there's three rules for travelin' by sea:
1. You don't travel if there's red sun in the morning
2. You don't travel if ennyone's missin' their big toe nail
3. You don't travel if your ears are clogged tha mornin' of travel
After some discussion, I decided to akwiesk to the desires o' these fine folks, but made it real clear I ain't travelin' under none o' the above conditions. Them's just rules I heard from travelers I met back in Suldra, and I reckon I ain't one for testin' that theory.

Rayden's grandfolks fixed us  up with a nice cart n' wagon situation, just out o' the richness o' their household n' hearts. S'pose if I had that many things I'd just be handin' stuff out m'self as well. Broderick, the lil kid who works in the stables, came to see us out. He gave Zuzmo a bag o' bugs for Tourniquet, and I told that boy to keep his chin up. I reckon he'll turn into a proper man.

Travelin' was mostly safe, I spent the evenin's workin' on potions for our lil band. Seein' as how we don't have a proper holy man, I jez mostly made lots o' potions o' healin.

One evenin' durin' watch, Zuzmo jez up n' passes out. I wake him up, n' I hear some sounds from our cart. Two little albino buggers  come poppin' out and I start hootin' and hollerin' for our band to get up. The little feller tore off into the swamp without any difficulty, but we caught the bigger 'un pretty quickly. Only Zuzmo could speak to 'im, and he was a disresspecful lil bugger, lyin' bout what happened straight to our faces.

Seertha din't like that much and stuck her spear through the feller's throat. That sparked a big ole' discussion amongst Zuzmo, Rayden, Mr. Clount, and m'self. Ipmerk and Seertha more or less disregarded the moral conundrum we were discussin' for some fair time. See, where I come from, if someone steals yer tribe's goats, that there is an invitation for attack. Sometimes, tribes even execute thieves in their own group as a mean o' 'pologizing and avoidin' war. Now, I agree the nature of the feller's death was a bit unsubstantiated an' we didn't give it much chance to figure out things. Mr. Clount also wasn't feelin' too ill bout the situation as he feels that it's important to send a message out to the world that it ain't alright to take from us and then lie to us when we catch you fair n' square.

Zuzmo n' Rayden were none too happy bout it though. I tried figurin' out what they woulda preferred doin', but they weren't really puttin' a firm foot down on how ta go 'bout it. I think it kinda goes without sayin' that we just won't be lettin' Seertha near prisoners anytime in the future.

Next mornin' I look n' our party stash, n' that little bugger managed to make off with 300 of our 380 gold, right under ma nose! We track'd them lil buggers and found a big ole' ruin risin' up outta the swamp. We went in through some rubble on the side and saw some more o' the lil bastards, with their white, albino skin and their pointy razor sharp teeth. These fellers were just as disrespecful to Zuzmo as the other bugger. Zuzmo made his best case o' just gettin' our goods back - but then they draw on us. Now to make clear 'gain, they draw on us first. So we chopped most of em' and their lil muck dwellers into bits. I took a big ole' bite out o' one of em muck dwellers an' I gotta say, they ain't taste so bad!

We delved into them big ole' ruins, and headed down into the basement. Whole place is a structural disaster, if ye askin me, and I've lived in tents mah whole life! The swamp was just pouring inta the basement rooms, but I reckon maybe it was by intentions o' sorts as there were a bunch o fish-headed statues downstairs. Also some sorta metal pipe stickin' outta the ground that went far down.

Continuin' on we found some more o' the albinos with them teeth, includin' the tiny feller who made off with our goods! They jumped ta attack us immediately, so we din't have to deal with the motions o' askin' 'em kindly for our goods back. The lil feller jes' up and projectile vomits on me! Good thing I was fleet o' foot. We pummeled em pretty good, tryna stabilize the ones who din't die too hard, and found our gold. We reckoned that we weren't much interested in slaughterin' a bunch o' these creepy fellers, so we left.

We'll jes' have to keep a better eye on our things from now on. Alright. G'night.