Novalia Campaign Session 28

The Body Builders:

Matt

• Huzn Erste, Dwarven Fury 4

• Denis, Crusader of Phanriel 3

• Meinard, Fighter 2

• Gustav, Mage 1

Brooke

• Swanhild of Eldeskhur, Barbarian 3

• Hilda Zorig, Barbarian 1

Andrzej

• Olivier Dufresne, Venturer 2

Panem 21, 1181 EC, 9:30 PM

Last session Huzn had entered a room with three “armoires,” which animated and marched toward him. This session, the armoires turned out to be animated suits of armor. I’m not sure how that happened, but it definitely wasn’t because the DM was an idiot and forgot what an armoire was. No, I’ll probably never live that down.

Anyway, given the sudden change in foe, we re-arranged a bit and didn’t roll surprise for the party, then the battle was on. After a couple of lucky shots, the party charged in, but found the armor suits quite difficult to put down. As the melee dragged on, the party started taking some serious blows, and switched tactics to withdrawing and shooting where possible. Swanhild and Hilda were trapped in the statue room during the withdrawal, and Hilda went down, but Swanhild managed to slip by and escape after some lucky misses.

Finally, after peppering the slow-moving animated armors with arrows, crossbow bolts and javelins, the party managed to finish them off and get through to Hilda. She’d taken a terrible blow to the face and lost several teeth, but was still alive.

The party found themselves at a heavy, locked door which had been guarded by those animated armors for untold years, but they were tired (having been in the dungeon almost 8 hours), badly beaten up and completely out of spells, with a giant ant hill at their back and hours from safety. Not to mention lacking anyone with lockpicks or an axe. So, they turned back toward the library. Huzn grabbed the helmet and gauntlets of one of the armor suits.

Olivier briefly snuck up the stairs to check what was on the next level, and saw a high-ceilinged room with black stone pillars and a strange sigil painted on the floor. He backed up immediately.

As the party went through the library, they heard pursuing footsteps coming down the stairs. Immediately, they spiked the library door and ran. Whatever it was never caught up.

The long, dark journey through the goblin tunnel and shrieking hollow was mercifully uneventful, and the company returned to Priorsford intact, well after midnight.

Panem 22

The next day was spent resting, since the entire party needed to recover from fatigue after the long delve. Denis’ healing magic treated Hilda enough that she would recover.

Panem 23-28

The party took downtime actions while Hilda recovered from her injuries.

• Informed Steward Valdemar of their deeds

• Identified the Potion of Hallucination (growth) and the books

• Sold all the treasure except the Secret Techniques of the Dayeen Assassins

Panem 29

After recovering enough to get back on her feet, Hilda came to Swanhild over mashed potatoes at the Bent Wheel and thanked her for teaching her the ways of an Eldeskhur warrior. She said that she feels ready to strike out and find her own way in the world. She took her pay and left Swanhild’s service.

Treasure:

Secret Techniques of the Dayeen Assassins, a massive 750 page codex written in Classical Auran. (Trainable Skill: Disguise 3. Scope 3, Complexity 4) Value 1775 gp

5 smaller books of Rythan history, 300 gp

Painting of a Rythan nobleman, 80 gp

Head of an animated iron statue, 135 gp

Iron gauntlets, 2 gp

Potion of Hallucination (growth), 500 gp

Enemies defeated:

3 animated iron statues: 135 each

XP total: 3197

640 per PC

320 per henchman

Current XP totals:

Huzn: 10,790 / 19,600 (level 4)

Swanhild: 7,070 / 9,000 (level 3)

Snak: 3,895 / 4,500 (level 2)

Olivier: 3,796 / 6,000 (level 3)

Denis: 5,295 / 6,000 (level 3)

Meinard: 3,367 / 4,000 (level 2)

Gerrit: 1,748 / 2,000 (level 1)

Gustav: 497 / 2,500 (level 1)

Hilda: 1,894 / 2,000 (level 1) (leaves Swanhild’s service)

Novalia Campaign Session 27

 The Body Builders:

Matt

• Huzn Erste, Dwarven Fury 4

• Denis, Crusader of Phanriel 3

• Meinard, Fighter 2

• Gustav, Mage 1

Brooke

• Swanhild of Eldeskhur, Barbarian 3

• Hilda Zorig, Barbarian 1

Andrzej

• Olivier Dufresne, Venturer 2

Panem 21, 1181 EC

Early in the morning, a messenger from Sir Niklaus reported to Huzn at his home. It seemed that the Count’s Delvers had already returned.

“They found a strong iron door at the bottom of the stairs, and were unable to pass it. The lock is now jammed.”

This led to an involved discussion among the Body Builders as to their next move. They strongly considered having a go at bypassing the iron door themselves, but ultimately decided on an expedition to the temple outside Wereqat Al Manzil, where they had recently fought the lizardmen.

The party immediately began stocking up for the expedition, purchasing several mules and related supplies.

Huzn went to the local Physicker Franz Ahler and was fitted for a prosthetic arm. He ended up buying a handsome silver-plated model and commissioning a gold-plated one.

Just before noon the unexpected struck - the ground shook, and the party heard screams and the crashing of tumbling bricks filling the town. It was an earthquake - something unheard of in the middle plains. The party scrambled back to the western square. Huzn’s house seemed to be intact, but Riele Horn’s house had suffered the complete collapse of its tower.

Immediately suspecting that the earthquake was caused by Riele, the party rushed to check on the Priory. With most of the brothers in town aiding the wounded, the Priory was quiet, apart from Isaac the porter. Down below the cellar, the party found that the wards against evil and the stone wall were intact.

Next they checked the secret stair beneath the Bent Wheel, but again turned back. The dwarven stone door to Adan’s Landing was impossible to open as the door frame had cracked and sagged onto the door.

Still, the party remained determined to get underground quickly and look for evidence of Riele’s activity. They gathered the supplies they had prepared for their expedition and set off for the nearby Shrieking Hollow instead.

The sinkhole entrance to the Hollow appeared undisturbed, but the party proceeded with great caution. The extra caution paid off almost immediately as they heard footsteps shortly after descending. They managed to get the drop on a wandering group of lizardmen and wiped them out efficiently.

On the second level of the cave they ran into four giant luminous beetles. Hilda briefly went down in the fight, but after Denis called down the healing light of Phanriel upon her, she laughed at the scar that a moment ago had been a near-severed hand.

Finally, about 3 hours after the earthquake, the party found themselves at the spot where they had last seen Riele’s assumed companion, Adan. The site of the battle was abandoned, the goblin bodies dragged away and the fires long burned out.

Beyond, they came again to the large room they’d found months ago - a vault with marble pillars, skeletal statues, two floating illumination spells, and a marble door marked with an angel battling a demon. As before they saw that the carved demon appeared to have the upper hand. Denis suspected that the place belonged to a demonic cult of some kind.

When they had last come here, being afraid to enter, Huzn had dragged the body of a man out of the room with a grappling hook.

Now entering, they noticed several details that hadn’t been there before. A roughly dug tunnel in the north wall, and signs of an abandoned campsite. There had been some sort of markings and writing on the floor, but it was smudged and wiped away. There were signs of campfires and a tent, but it was gone.

The party closely inspected the door, but it was baffling. No cracks around the edges, no handles or opening mechanism, no visible hinges, and it didn’t sound hollow.

They went down the crudely dug path. Huzn identified it as goblin work. After two hours of meticulous progress, they abandoned checking for traps and marched down the tunnel as fast as possible. It took them three miles back toward Priorsford, before emptying into an older stone corridor. They figured this had to be beneath the town somewhere.

Behind a wooden door they found an ancient, circular wood-paneled chamber which looked like an abandoned library.  They spent some time searching this room, and uncovered a hidden compartment with an unidentified potion.

Upstairs from the library, beyond another room piled with dirt, they found a foyer with three armoires, a fourth having been destroyed. Despite expecting them to come to life immediately, Huzn entered the room, and they did exactly that.

Here we paused. 9:30 PM on Panem 21, 1181 EC.

Treasure: None

Enemies defeated: 6 lizardmen, 4 giant luminous beetles

XP:

54 per PC

27 per henchman

Current XP totals:

Huzn: 10,150 / 19,600 (level 4)

Swanhild: 6,430 / 9,000 (level 3)

Snak: 3,895 / 4,500 (level 2)

Olivier: 3,156 / 6,000 (level 3)

Denis: 4,975 / 6,000 (level 3)

Meinard:         3,047 / 4,000 (level 2)

Gerrit: 1,748 / 2,000 (level 1)

Gustav:         177 / 2,500 (level 1)

Hilda: 1,574 / 2,000 (level 1)

Novalia Campaign Session 26

The Body Builders:

Matt

• Huzn Erste, Dwarven Fury 4

• Denis, Crusader of Phanriel 3

• Meinard, Fighter 2

• Gustav, Mage 1

Brooke

• Swanhild of Eldeskhur, Barbarian 3

• Hilda Zorig, Barbarian 1

Mike

• Snak, Barbarian 2

• Gerrit, Fighter 1

Andrzej

• Olivier Dufresne, Venturer 2

Panem 18, 1181 EC

The day before the witch moon, several of the party toured the defenses of Priorsford, led by Huzn. They assisted in gathering water stockpiles and piling the bonfires which were prepared at intervals all around the town.

 

Swanhild set about questioning key people in town regarding the new information she had from Ehsan about Adan Rosul. She questioned the brothers at the priory and found that the prior is normally able to remove curses, but he had been unable to break the connection between Adan and the sword. Searlus likewise confirmed that Adan had come to him, and said that he wished he could have taken the sword and made a pretty penny. Swanhild asked how, but he insisted that this was a professional secret.

Uwe, the keeper of the Bent Wheel, confirmed that Adan had always worn that sword since he arrived in Priorsford six years earlier. He described it as “with a black hilt carved with fantastic beasts,” and questioned whether it had Cthonic or Draconic origins.

While she was at the Wheel, Uwe pointed out a notice on fine parchment pinned to the door.

In a fine hand:

“His Royal Highness King Aldric of Sudet and his Numinous Brightness High Patriarch Nikolaus of Tugenheim call for a crusade to fully liberate the land of Berra from the accursed scourge of the Qadim.”

Beneath, in a different but equally skilled hand.

“Prince Reeve has ordered all noblemen of valor to gather their armies.”

Panem 19, daytime

Meinard introduced Huzn to a Master Builder who was willing to begin Huzn’s house construction project, as soon as the witch moon was past and suitable guarantees of safety at the site were made. He was qualified to build everything except the basement entrance into the sinkhole, which would require an Engineer’s oversight.

Most of the party visited the County offices and met with the Count’s steward, Valdemar. They related the full story of their expedition. Huzn asked about developments relating to Riele Horn, and found out that the Count’s Delvers were scheduled to descend the hidden staircase on the 20th.

Olivier and Snak visited Sasha Waltz to have her appraise the curious glowing crystal. Sasha was able to identify it in her makeshift laboratory as Moonglow Crystal - an extremely rare universal enchanting agent. With Olivier’s skilled negotiating, she agreed to a price of 12100 gp on behalf of the House of the Eyeless.

Huzn inspected his house, and left Meinard and Gustav on guard there with his four mercenary guards.

Everyone except Meinard and Gustav went to Blessed Anthony’s Priory to shelter during the Witch Moon. Those characters who were devout followers of the Compact spent the night in prayer with the brothers. Swanhild and Snak went up to the bell tower to watch over the town.

Panem 19, after dusk

Swanhild and Snak witnessed a guard drop his weapons and run toward the forest, only to be tackled and dragged back kicking and screaming to the formation of guardsmen on watch.

Meinard and Gustav heard heavy footsteps and goblinoid voices outside. They peeked out the windows to see massive black humanoid figures lurking in the shadow of the building. However, the building’s perimeter was not disturbed.

Panem 20

Regrouping at the Bent Wheel, the party exchanged stories. The patrons of the Wheel described a swarm of insects covering windows, but none could tell whether they were merely drunken tales.

Exhausted from keeping vigil through the night, the Body Builders slept through the day, along with most of Priorsford.

Treasure: None

Enemies defeated: None

XP: 200 campaign XP per PC

100 campaign XP per Henchman

Note: Campaign XP is reduced by each character’s campaign XP threshold.

Current XP totals:

Huzn: 10,096 / 19,600 (level 4)

Swanhild: 6,376 / 9,000 (level 3)

Snak: 3,841 / 4,500 (level 2)

Olivier: 3,102 / 3,000 (advances to level 3)

Denis: 4,948 / 6,000 (level 3)

Meinard:         3,020 / 4,000 (level 2)

Gerrit: 1,721 / 2,000 (level 1)

Gustav:         150 / 2,500 (level 1)

Hilda: 1,547 / 2,000 (level 1)

Middle Plains Campaign Session 25

 Andrzej

• Olivier Dufresne, Venturer 2 (replacing the retired character Charr)

Brooke

• Swanhild of Eldeskhur, Barbarian 2
• Hilda Zorig, Barbarian 1

Matt

• Huzn Erste, Dwarven Fury 3
• Denis, Crusader of Phanriel 3

Mike

• Snak, Barbarian 1
• Gerrit, Fighter 1

Panem 14, 1181 EC, about 3:30 pm

The Body Builders had just returned from the ruined temple beneath the Truber Forest, lugging a huge bronze bell. In the relative peace of the forest, Denis read the bell’s inscription: “The Song of Mityara,” and explained to the party that Mityara was the Empyrean goddess of community and civic virtue. This temple then logically must have belonged to the era when the First Auran Empire had extended across the Middle Plains, over 17 centuries ago.

The party’s attention then turned to planning their next destination, given the approach of the Witch Moon, five days away. Huzn favored returning to Priorsford immediately, in case of another attack on the town by Riele and Adan. Swanhild argued for staying with Ehsan and continuing to delve the temple immediately after the Witch Moon. Eventually they decided to seek shelter with Ehsan for the moment and postpone the decision.

Olivier asked the old Wizard for his hospitality, and he agreed to give them a hayloft until the Witch Moon, but no longer.

Panem 15

The next day, after further debate, Swanhild was convinced to return to Priorsford with the promise of another expedition into the forest soon. After a failed attempt to sell the bell and to acquire a horse, the party set out.

The two days' journey back to Priorsford were uneventful aside from a small moment of excitement caused by a screaming goat.

(Out of character note: upon returning to Priorsford, the party members other than Olivier received a large amount of treasure XP, but didn’t know why. Astute readers may notice a treasure that the party has completely forgotten about!

Another note while I’m in out-of-character mode. This campaign uses a rule taken from Rick Stump’s AD&D campaign to modify ACKS II’s experience rules. Experience for valuable treasures such as magic items and giant bronze bells is scored immediately upon returning to civilization, not upon sale of the goods. Magic item XP is half the base value.)

Panem 17

Huzn and Olivier set about selling the bronze bell. The brothers at the priory were interested in its historic significance, but would pay little. However, Oliviere managed to find a buyer: Horst Winkler, a merchant interested in trade with the Eastern (Aeonic) Auran Empire.

Oliviere also managed to establish friendly relations with the religious scholars of the priory, and with Sascha Waltz, the head of the local House of the Eyeless, sharing with them his interest in arcane artifacts.

Swanhild spent the day thoroughly searching her father’s old room at the Bent Wheel Inn, but the effort proved fruitless.

Snak and Gerrit returned to their fishermen militia and resumed their training regimen.

The party planned out downtime for the next few days and looked forward to the Witch Moon.

Treasure: Nothing new (treasure from the past two sessions was brought home)

Enemies defeated: None

XP: 11000 for the party aside from Olivier, 500 for the full party.

1268 for Henchmen

2535 for PCs aside from Olivier

91 for Olivier

Current XP totals:

Huzn: 10096/9800 (advances to level 4)

Swanhild: 6326/4500 (advances to level 3)

Snak: 3356/2250 (advances to level 2)

Olivier: 2977/3000 (level 2)

Denis: 4948/6000 (level 3)

Meinard: 3020/4000 (level 2)

Gerrit: 1646/2000 (level 1)

Gustav: 150/2500 (level 1)

Hilda: 1472/2000 (level 1)

Middle Plains Campaign Session 24

Andrzej

• Olivier Dufresne, Venturer 2 (replacing the retired character Charr)

Brooke

• Swanhild of Eldeskhur, Barbarian 2
• Hilda Zorig, Barbarian 1

Matt

• Huzn Erste, Dwarven Fury 3
• Denis, Crusader of Phanriel 3

Mike

• Snak, Barbarian 1
• Gerrit, Fighter 1

Panem (August) 14, 1181 EC, about 2 pm

Play resumed with Swanhild and Snak with their henchmen at table with Ehsan the Wizard. They pressed him for further information, and offered some of their own stories about the Black Knight in return.

Ehsan confirmed that the knight was likely his old friend Adan Rosul, based on their description. Adan had used a set of black plate armor with a closed helm, and his cursed sword had the ability to burst into flames. Ehsan also offered them an additional piece of information - when Adan visited Ehsan’s compound, he always left through a mysterious stair in the woods. Ehsan guessed that he used a branch of the underground river to travel back to Priorsford.

When Swanhild and Snak began making plans to check out the staircase, Ehsan introduced them to a guide - Olivier Dufresne, an escaped Teppish slave. The diminutive man didn’t look like much, but he promised to show them the way.

With this they said goodbye to Ehsan, met up with Huzn and Denis who had stayed outside, and followed Olivier into the woods. As promised, in little more than an hour they came to a small clearing with the remnant of ruined walls and a spiral stairway running down into the earth. Huzn determined that it was of human construction, old, but not nearly as ancient as the Etheri statue.

About 100 ft. down the stair ended in an arched doorway into what appeared to be a large flagstone courtyard. A fountain stood in the center and the flagstones angled downward away from them. The courtyard was flooded about 10 feet ahead.

As Snak ducked through the doorway, he spotted a group of lizardmen skulking behind the fountain. After an exchange of javelins and arrows, The lizardmen charged the party, but the barbarians held their ground and cut them down.

Crossing the flooded court, they came to the facade of a church. In the Narthex they found two statues, a male and a female, both beheaded and defaced.

In the northern tower they found a huge bronze bell inscribed with Classical Auran writing, but they didn’t read it immediately. Instead Huzn tried to detach and lower it, but tragically botched the attempt, dropping the bell, breaking the wooden loft floor and sending the bell 50 ft down with a resounding crash.

This crash drew another gang of lizardmen who stormed into the narthex lead by a burly lizardman champion. Wisely, Swanhild, Hilda and Denis had prepared themselves at the doors, and the lizardmen were again dispatched without losses.

The party peered through the doors and saw that the nave of the church was split in half, with the underground river running through the middle of it. About 90 feet away, across the river, a slim, white-robed, hooded figure stood at a black altar with 4 strangely thin humanoid figures. More lizardmen also lurked about in the temple sanctuary. Olivier identified the humanoids as Flay Fiends, which he had seen during his time as a slave in the Blackhand Dominion.

With Snak and Gerrit wounded and Denis out of healing, the party decided to back off, but not without their hard-earned bell! With the prodigious muscles of Snak and Huzn they laboriously hauled it back up the stairs to the surface.

Treasure (not returned): A 400 lb bronze bell, inscribed with the name “The Song of Mityara” (badly dented)

Enemies defeated: 9 lizardmen, 1 lizardman champion

XP: 380

95 per PC

48 per henchman

Current XP totals:

Huzn: 7561/12400 (level 3)

Swanhild: 3791/5200 (level 2)

Snak: 821/2600 (level 1)

Olivier: 2886/3000 (level 2)

Denis: 3680/6000 (level 3)

Meinard: 3020/4000 (level 2)

Gerrit: 378/2000 (level 1)

Gustav: 150/2500 (level 1)

Hilda: 204/2000 (level 1)

Middle Plains Campaign Session 23

 New party

Andrzej

• Aihsz th’Baigh, Explorer 1 (Mariner template)

Brooke

• Arvellas, Elven Spellsword 1 (Swordmage template)

Matt

• Mando Kant, Mendicant 1 (Custom class)

Panem (Aug) 15, 1181 EC

Outside the town of Briarglen, an old farmer by the name of Wilhelm Franke has been desperately asking around town for brave volunteers to delve into a mystery: a spiral stone staircase in the middle of his field. He swears it was never there before, and he's terrified of what may come up. He can't offer any reward aside from the right to keep anything found down there, so he hasn't found anyone willing to help - except for three misfits who are just desperate (or in Mando’s case, pious) enough to give it a try.

Our three unlikely characters received a hero’s welcome from farmer Wilhelm, despite not having done anything. The mendicant accepted this praise with humility, the jaded explorer met it with indifference, and the cocky spellsword demanded an even deeper bow as the bare minimum due to her esteemed personage.

With the party’s pecking order established, they approached the steps. Finding them as the farmer had said, they descended without much further ado. Three storeys below the earth they debouched into a large room decorated in the style of a hunter’s hall, with a floor covered in heavy pelts (ancient and rotten) and a fireplace with a proud set of antlers above it. At the far end there was a stone pool with a central statue of a man wearing an ornate crown. Clear water ran from the man’s hands, but the pool was stained with blood. Arvellas identified the subject of the statue as the Arch-Warlock Ix, conqueror of the Old Auran Empire and founder of the evil Cthonic religion.

As they inspected one of the doors out of this room, another opened and admitted three gnomes, nervously skulking with arrows nocked. Both parties were shocked at the other’s appearance, but Mando seized the opportunity to parlay and immediately put the gnomes at ease (seriously, this was a natural 12 with a +2 on the reaction roll). Before long they had struck a deal with the gnomes to loot the place and split the treasure.

Zilzu, the lead gnome, then explained that they were a small group of explorers from the gnomish town of Grindledeep, who happened across this area while tunneling. They suspected it of being a Cthonic temple of some sort due to the prominent statue of Ix. He said they’d fought some Kobolds but couldn’t get further into the complex due to locked and stuck doors.

The gnomes proceeded to show the party a section of the area which they had explored. Behind a set of iron bars, animated skeletons were manacled to the wall. Down a certain passage they warned of giant bats. And behind a secret door they showed a room with what appeared to be tree roots hanging from the ceiling and among them a bag of coins hanging from a string.

“Don’t touch that, it’s just too obvious a trap,” said Zilzu. So of course the players immediately made a plan to touch it.

Mando reached out with his shepherd crook from the edge of the room and pulled on the bag, hoping to be out of range of whatever trap was there. But he wasn’t. The room filled with paralyzing spores and the mendicant collapsed. Aihsz managed to drag him out by the feet, leaving the coins scattered on the floor, and they retreated to the gnome campsite to let Mando recover.

It took about 40 minutes for Mando to recover enough to set out exploring again. The party headed east, to a doorway the gnomes hadn’t explored. An inscription on the door in classical Auran read “Armory.” Arvellas opened the door and found skeletons waiting. After a quick fight where the party took down the first skeleton, the gnomes cast an illusory wall across the doorway, fooling the skeletons into returning to their posts.

Mando disguised himself as an undead wizard using the newly acquired skull, and entered the Armory. Inside he noticed more marked doors: “Nave” and “Vault.” He commanded the skeletons to leave the room, and they broke down the Nave door to do so.

Time: 10:30 am

Enemies defeated: 1 skeleton

Treasure: none

XP: 13 (split with 3 gnomes)

3 per PC

Current XP totals:

Aihsz 3 / 2000, level 1

Arvellas 3 / 4000, level 1

Mando 3 / 1250, level 1