The Odd Company
by tjedge1Ok, time to get the latest update posted. The player for Bam Bam didn't make this session so his character has decided to take a vacation with the elves.
The other characters get news on their requested rewards for returning the Eye of Traldar. Filsmorph had received a bag of holding so he was already done. Ragnar was informed that his scimitar is an intelligent sword with many powers, but it has been put to sleep. It can not wake until his character has enough willpower to control it. He wants to wake it anyway, but the Seer tells him its impossible till he's ready and even if he could it would only take control of him, and he would be a slave to it. He grumbles but finally accepts. Leonine gets a new longbow +2, +8 vs Lycanthropes. Seraphim is informed that her request cannot be finished until she locates a rare metal known as Adamant. The seer gives her a small gem that will glow if she comes within 8 miles. She grudgingly takes the gem. After about a month of relaxing with the Seer, a man arrives by the name of Corran. Nikolai tells the characters that he is a Darokin merchant that is married to his niece. He asks the characters for their help in cleaning out a Keep that he recently discovered he had inherited. He tells them his son travelled to the remote location of the keep and discovered it was occupied by people and some birds that shoot sparks from their beaks. They agree to help for a box of misc magic items and the Seer tells them he can have them teleported to the nearest town, Akorros, which is where Corran says his son is waiting for them.
They appear in the market near the docks and quickly make their way to the docks due to the surprised crowd all pointing and staring at their sudden appearance. And strange looks. They meet Corrans young son and get on a trade ship with him. It sails for about a day or 2, until arriving at a seemingly uninhabited stretch of coast with rough hills. They take a small boat ashore and the young Corran leads them to a keep that seems to have been recently repaired. They decide to do some recon work for about 3 days. They watch some people, which Filsmorph uses his metamorph and stalking abilities to get close to and listen to some conversation. He gathers they are unusual humans and they seem to be afraid of someone in charge of the keep. Filsmorph later uses a detect undead spell to discover several undead in the area, including the people and the glowing birds. Nikolai uses a detect magic and says that there is something nearby in the mountain that is draining his spell when he tries to detect too close. He tells them he will remain outside with the Corran boy and his sailors due to the magic problem.
Seraphim decides to get the birds to attack them and stalks close to the keep where she fires and arrow and injures one. They swoop down toward her and the other characters and begin firing sparks at them. Leonine and Seraphim make short work of most of them using arrows and Ragnar swipes a couple that get to close, but he still gets a good shock.
Filsmorph rejoins them after staying out of the bird fight. They approach the keep and Seraphim flies over the wall. She is too weak to lift the wooden bar that holds the gate closed, so Leonine uses her good climbing skills and scales the wall. The two together succeed in lifting the pole and set it aside. Once inside, Ragnar and Filsmorph replace the pole to slow any escape by anyone trying to get away. Ragnar picks the lock on the door to the actual keep and they enter the greeting room filled with old and broken furniture. The "glowing people" try to scare them away and then attack them when it they aren't running away. Ragnar gets shocked pretty good till Filsmorph uses a new spell of Protect from Elemental Damage. This keeps him from being charred to death. They kill 5 of the 6 and Seraphim injures one trying to escape with an arrow that pins him to some old shelves. They interrogate the prisoner and convince him that they only want to secure the keep for it's true owner. They tell the Lightning Zombie they can take care of the one called Lord Kazakk. If they have to kill him. The Lightning Zombie agrees to their plan and runs into the keep to tell the others that the gate fell off it's hinges and that they all need to go out to fix it before Kazakk finds out and gets mad. The trick works and once all the zombies are in the courtyard, they talk to the characters about their living in the keep. (This is not what I had in mind, but my players seem to not be interested in fighting if they don't have to.) The zombies agree to wait in the courtyard till the characters return. They find the secret entrance and avoid the trap that the zombies warned them about. They find a flooded room and as they get near a lighted room, they hear a boy call out to them. They enter the caved library and find Crackle, a Lightning Zombie that appears to be 9 years old. They question him and he tells them about mean Kazakk and where to find him. They tell Crackle they will be right back and then go to the other tunnel in the flooded room and find a big Lightning Zombie who threatens them and then orders all the Lightning Zombies to attack the intruders, but they are in the courtyard so they don't hear him and the characters kill him pretty easily. They grab Crackle and return to the courtyard after finding a shield that is like a mirror. Crackle tells them it is possessed. They take it to Nikolai and the young Corran returns to his ship to get his father.
Nikolai examines the shield and discovers Rheddrian. The characters speak to him at length and decide none of them are interested in trading places with him. Filsmorph says that if they don't find anybody on Corran's ship when it returns, then he'll do it. They players hang out in the keep for a week, while the Zombies clean all the debris out of it and work at repairing as much as they can. When Corran returns he is impressed with their carpenter skills asks them to stay and serve him in the keep. They thank him and then Corran gets his wife to organise the zombies into maids and so on. The exchange for the zombies is they get to live in the secret tunnel and pay develop it as they wish. Corran encourages them to find a way to stop the flooding by fixing the well and to dig other tunnels to give them access to other floors of the keep and also an escape route. When Nikolai shows him the shield, he asks his servants that came with him if any would be interested and he offers them extra pay. An old maid agrees and Rheddrian trades places with her. He suddenly vanishes with the shield and the characters are outraged. So is Corran and he tells the characters they must leave in the morning to collect their pay in Akorros. During the night, Rheddrian returns with the old maid free and then leaves the a chest of gold before telling them he will find them again someday, and then vanishes again. The characters wake Corran and tell him the maid has returned. (P.S.-The reason Corran was so helpful with this is that Nikolai and Rheddrian were telling him that the shield appeared to be poisonous to living things and it was the reason the Sprackles and the Lightning Zombies existed. So he wanted it gone.)
The maid tells them of her journey into the clouds and then back to the ground where she passed through many walls until they arrived in a dungeon with a withered old thief who agreed to trade with the maid. He had nothing to live for and welcomed the chance to be free of the uncomfortable life in prison. The characters are awed and confused by the events and decide to go back to sleep.
Nothing happens till they return to Akorros, where the Young Corran gives them a box of magic items which they split up. Mostly odds and ends that aren't worth much.
The session ended here. The players are loving my new combat system so I think I'm done with working that out. Now it's just play time. Hopefully I can get some games going more frequently. I really miss playing, and so have my players.
Here is the latest on the characters so far. I've decided to shorten the descriptions so there is much less than before here. Figured it was taking up too much space.
Character Updates
1) Name: Seraphim (Female)
Race: Avariel from the Mengul Mountains in Wendar
Class: Battle Mage
Level: 4
Hair/Eyes: Platinum/Violet
Hgt/Wgt: 5'6" / 85 lbs
Age: 200 (appears as 21)
Alignment: Lawful
Personality: Moral, Ethical, Principled
Str: 15 (+1)
Agi: 18 (+3)
Qui: 15 (+1)
Con: 15 (+1)
Dis: 14 (+1)
Pre: 17 (+2)
Mem: 17 (+2)
Res: 14 (+1)
Emp: 14 (+1)
Int: 14 (+1)
Strongest Skills: Flying (wings), Archery, Magic, Quick Draw, Pick Pockets, Pick Locks, Stalking & Hiding, Lores, Fletching, Perception
Favourite Spells: Shockbolt (Magic Missile), Wall of Fire, Waterbolt
Motivation: Wants to travel the world and rid as much evil from it as she can
Special Equipment: Bow that summons food/water, Ring of Invisibility, Elven Cloak, Bowl of Commanding Water Elementals, Scroll of Creation, Scroll of Truth, Map to Dragon Mountain, Gem that detects Adamant
2) Name: Ragnar Maximus (Male)
Race: Human Norseman from Whiteheart in the Soderfjord Jarldoms
Class: Barbarian
Level: 3
Hair/Eyes: Brown/Brown
Hgt/Wgt: 6'6" / 260 lbs
Age: 23 (appears as 26)
Alignment: Neutral
Personality: Impatient, Angry
Str: 17 (+2)
Agi: 14 (+1)
Qui: 17 (+2)
Con: 18 (+3)
Dis: 14 (+1)
Pre: 12 (+0)
Mem: 14 (+1)
Res: 13 (+1)
Emp: 14 (+1)
Int: 14 (+1)
Strongest Skills: Dual Weapon Fighting, Frenzy, 1 Hand & 2 Hand Sword Masteries, Weight Lifting, Boxing, Sprinting
Motivation: Searching for his parent's murderers (Iron Ring Slavers)
Special Equipment: Scimitar +2 (a dormant intelligent sword with numerous powers), Short Sword +1, Iron Ring Records & Documents, Intelligent Talking Sword that can find Secret Doors
3) Name: Leonine (Female)
Race: Shiye Elf from the Shiye Lawr, near Alfeish
Class: Ranger (Shapeshifting Elf Sorority)
Level: 3
Hair/Eyes: Dk Brown/Green
Hgt/Wgt: 5'6" / 110 lbs
Age: 200 (appears as 28)
Alignment: Chaotic
Personality: Arrogant
Str: 14 (+1)
Agi: 16 (+2)
Qui: 15 (+1)
Con: 15 (+1)
Dis: 16 (+2)
Pre: 18 (+3)
Mem: 14 (+1)
Res: 14 (+1)
Emp: 14 (+1)
Int: 16 (+2)
Strongest Skills: Shapeshifting, Archery, Seduction, Perception, Survival, Animal Handling, Climbing, Locate Hidden Things
Motivation: Only cares about her personal pleasure and riches
Special Equipment: A piercing that allows her to shapeshift into a Lion (Her secret society sisters will be wanting it back), Wand of Fear, Scroll of Equipment, Ring of Telekinesis
4) Name: Filsmorph (Male)
Race: Morph-Lupin (Mixed breed)
Class: Paladin
Level: 3
Hair/Eyes: Auburn/White
Hgt/Wgt: 5'11" / 195lbs
Age: 28 (appears as 24)
Alignment: Lawful
Personality: Moral & Trustworthy
Str: 16 (+2)
Agi: 14 (+1)
Qui: 14 (+1)
Con: 15 (+1)
Dis: 15 (+1)
Pre: 13 (+1)
Mem: 16 (+2)
Res: 17 (+2)
Emp: 15 (+1)
Int: 17 (+2)
Strongest Skills: Quick Draw, Dual Weapon Fighting, First-Aid, Sword Mastery, Whip Mastery, Perception, Tracking, Rope Mastery, Undead and Religious Lores
Favourite Spells: Repel Undead, Healing, Exorcism, Bless
Motivation: Preserve his religion
Special Equipment: Katana +2, Cat-o-Nine Tails +2, Pendant that casts Shield twice daily (It's in the form of the symbol of his former church, a cross), Leather Breastplate +1, Slate of Identification
5) Name: Nikolai Monescu (Male) - NPC
Race: Human Traladaran
Class: Magician
Level: 6
Hair/Eyes: White/Brown
Hgt/Wgt: 5'4" / 125lbs
Age: 68 (appears as 52)
Alignment: True Neutral
Personality: Witty, Calm
Str: 10 (+0)
Agi: 10 (+0)
Qui: 10 (+0)
Con: 9 (+0)
Dis: 17 (+2)
Pre: 14 (+1)
Mem: 19 (+3)
Res: 19 (+3)
Emp: 14 (+1)
Int: 16 (+2)
Strongest Skills: Various Lore, Alchemy, Science, Influential Skills, Attunement
Favourite Spells: Sleep, Charm, Detect Magic
Motivation: Freedom of his people from the Thyatian oppressors
Special Equipment: Spellbook