Chapter 2: "Eye of Traldar, part 2"
by tjedge1Character Intros:
1) Name: Cyndaria (Female)
Race: Avariel from the Mengul Mountains in Wendar
Hgt/Wgt: 5'6" / 85 lbs
Class: Battle Mage (pretty much like the OD&D elf class)
Level: 1
Skills: Elemental Magic, Natural Flying (she has wings), Archery
Alignment: Lawful Good
Purpose: Wants to travel the world and rid as much evil from it as she can
2) Name: Ragnar Maximus (Male)
Race: Human Norseman from Whiteheart in the Soderfjord Jarldoms
Hgt/Wgt: 6'6" / 260 lbs
Class: Barbarian/Berserker
Level: 1
Skills: Dual Weapon Fighting, Frenzy, Sword Mastery (1 and 2 handed)
Alignment: Neutral Good
Purpose: Searching for his parents murderer
3) Name: Leonine (Female)
Race: Shiye Elf from the Shiye Lawr, near Alfeish
Hgt/Wgt: 5'6" / 110 lbs
Class: Ranger (Shapeshifting Elf Sorority)
Level: 1
Skills: Shapeshifting into Lions, Archery
Alignment: Neutral Chaotic
Purpose: Only cares about her personal pleasure and riches
4) Name: Guchi Kandahar (Male)
Race: Human from Glantri (unknown exactly where)
Hgt/Wgt: 5'8" / 155 lbs
Class: Necromancer
Level: 5
Skills: Undead Control & Creation, Outdoor Survival, Archery, Swordplay
Alignment: Lawful Chaotic
Purpose: To find a power that can bring his wife back to true life
5) Name: Tzak Rockwall (Male)
Race: Gnoll from Graakhalia
Hgt/Wgt: 6'5" / 270 lbs
Class: Ranger
Level: 3
Skills: Tracking & Hunting, Leather Crafts, Underground Survival, Javelins
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Purpose: To repay his debt to Guchi for saving his life
Redo of History for Leonine:
After fighting with her wealthy parents the young (200 year old) Leonine runs away from home after stealing her fathers savings. She uses this money to pay for boats to get to the Isle of Dawn. She treks across the Alphatian and Thyatian borders undetected by transforming into a lion. She even avoids some hunters who mistake her for a potential trophy and then she boards a boat to Specularum on her way to Darokin, where she has heard that "He who has the money, makes the rules." She has enough money then to pay her way onto a caravan to Luln. She only hopes that her secret Elven Sorority doesn't find out what she has done. They will be looking for her and wanting to take her shapshifting trinket or worse, execute her as a traitor.
And to continue from last adventure:
They rested at the bottom of the ladder and slept. Tzak, Guchi and Leonine took shifts watching for the night. At the time they assumed was first light, they munched on some jerky that Tzak had brought and Ragnar climbed the ladder to inspect the lock. Luckily his limited lock picking skills was enough and he unlocked the trap door in the ceiling without making a lot of noise. They climbed into the prison cell that it opened into. The door to the cell was unlocked so they peeked out and found themselves in a series of dungeon hallways with cells filled with petty criminals, family hostages of fishermen to make sure they return with their goods, four soldiers from Luln and a fat merchant that promised a reward for his rescue. They explored a large cell in a quiet part of the dungeon. Tzak found a strange stone and removed it from the wall. He couldn't see into the hole it left very well, but Cyndaria took a look and found a small ring. Nobody was able to figure out if it had magic or not so Cyndaria tried it on. She immediately became invisible, except for her clothes and gear. She was able to remove the ring without trouble and slipped into her belt pouch.
They continue to explore the prison and question prisoners, which they promise to rescue when they find the keys. Ragnar, Leonine and Cyndaria show little interest, but Guchi and Tzak say they will lead the prisoners back out through the caves. Guchi and Tzak separate from the group while they explore and discuss the need to watch their backs. Guchi tells Tzak about what the others had discussed behind his back. Tzak agrees and then tells Guchi that he spotted some kind of hidden door in the room where they found the key. He thinks it might be an alternate route up to the keep. Guchi tells him to stay quiet about it and they will use it and let the others become a diversion when they march right into the keep from the dungeon.
As Guchi and Tzak talk, Ragnar pulls a rookie move and barges through a door that doesn't have a barred window and is ambushed by four skeletons. He uses his reverse swing to get an extra attack in, but isn't very accurate and barely scratches one skeleton. Guchi and Tzak hear the ruckus and Guchi runs to aid them and Tzak stands at the nearest crossing of halls to make sure nobody comes to investigate. Cyndaria and Leonine begin firing arrows at the skeletons furthest from Ragnar. They both hit directly and the poorly built one is taken down by Leonine. The three remaining skeletons swing their swords at Ragnar. They all connect and one of the hits causes Ragnar to fall and luckily avoids a critical that would have disembowelled him, but when he gets to his feet, he is facing the wrong way. Leonine gets a chuckle when her next arrow lodges into the ribs of one skeleton. Ragnar goes into a frenzy as the three skeletons continue to swing at him. Luckily he is only scratched this round. Guchi arrives and casts a spell to take control of the skeleton that is right on top of Ragnar and commands it to back away. Cyndaria plants an arrow in the skull of one skeleton and it collapses. Guchi's skeleton tries to attack the next closest skeleton to Ragnar. Ragnar swings wildly and trips over his own feet, and nearly falls again. He sustains another serious hit from the skeleton in front of him, slashing his forearm badly, and Leonine strikes it with an arrow that breaks through the knee and it collapses. Guchi unanimates the remaining skeleton and Ragnar takes a few healing potions from Tzak and his own supply. He is still seriously injured though and in need of rest, so he takes up the rear of the group and Tzak leads on.
They find more cells and finally find their way to a heavy iron bound door. They crack the door and see four men sitting at a table, another by the door on the far side of the room and a large man wearing chain mail standing with his back to the door. Tzak barges in and flips the table over and into the door to prevent any escape. The five soldiers duck and scatter to arm themselves. As the rest of the party run into the room, the man in chain mail stabs with his sword which was already drawn and puts the blade through Tzak's brain with a major critical and kills him instantly.
The rest of the party is shocked but not delayed and Cyndaria strike an immediate critical on the man in chain mail as Tzak hits the floor. Her arrow pierces his heart, sticks out of his chain mail in his back and falls beside Tzak. Ragnar goes into a frenzy again, and Leonine successfully transforms into her lion form. The other men finally arm themselves and attack. Cyndaria injures another with an arrow; Leonine swipes the nearest one to her with her claws and cuts a major artery. He begins to bleeds heavily. Guchi begins to animate the dead chain mail guy into a zombie. The two nearest soldier freak out as their sergeant gets up off the floor with a bloody arrow sticking out of his back and his eyes rolled up in his head. They scream and attack the newly created zombie. Ragnar charges into the nearest soldier and connects with a serious belly button wound which forces the soldier to the floor in immense pain and holding his cut open stomach. The other soldier swings at Ragnar and gives him a little scratch. Cyndaria's next arrow hits one of the soldiers attacking the zombie. Leonine finishes off the soldier se is attacking and turns her eyes on the two attacking the zombie which is now missing his sword arm. Ragnar severely cuts the other soldier on him in the chest as the stomach wounded one gets up. Cyndaria strikes another with an arrow and takes him down. Guchi animates Leonines first victim to join the fight. Ragnar slashes the chest a second time and kills the soldier as the one with the stomach injury lands a solid hit on his chest and breaks a rib. Guchi commands the two zombies to tackle the other soldier left as Leonine turns and grapples the stomach guy and breaks his neck and opens it. The soldier lets out a blood gurgling scream and Ragnar stabs him in the forehead to shut him up. Yuk.
The remaining guy begins to cry as the zombies hold him down. They question him and he tells them about the Torturer and the slop room that is occupied by a Carrion Crawler. The players decide that it was good they didn't go that way. He mentions that there was an ogre caught in the hills nearby that was brought down, but he's not sure where they put it. He tells them about the five orc jailers that probably was too busy bickering in the main jail room to notice intruders. That room is next door to the poolroom where prisoners are interrogated and dunked in sickly slimy water that can make you real sick for a while. They drag the soldier into a prison cell and lock him up.
Guchi brings the two zombies to the orcs jail room and convinces them that he needs their assistance. He claims he's the new commander to the prisons. The fact that one of the zombies was the guy in charge, the orcs immediately obey him. After they remove the prisoners from the cell, Guchi slams the door and locks it, leaving the zombies in with them. He says if they make a sound, the zombies will attack and eat them. The orcs growl and attack the zombies, but are unarmed and only two survive, but too weak to shout for help, which they feel is useless anyway and sit and wait.
Ragnar gets ready to sleep in the room that is the gateway to the keep. Cyndaria and Leonine watch over the room, and at the same time Leonine begins stripping the remaining guards and tries to put together two sets of uniforms that aren't bloodied before they sleep. Cyndaria wraps Ragnar's ribs to help keep the broken rib in place and then helps Leonine. Theses three decide to wait till Guchi returns the following day. They don't believe he will. Before Guchi left, he animated Tzak and used him to help assist the prisoners away. They will continue with or without Guchi as soon as Ragnar has healed enough to go on.
The next instalment could be by next week. For now the 2 recently formed NPC's (Guchi and Tzak) will be out of the picture. Not quite what I was planning, but sometimes the dice decide something you don't plan, like the death of Tzak. Standing toe to toe, that guy would have been crushed by Tzak, but he got one lucky shot and put him down like a wimp.