Campaign journal
by RPGPunditToday, Duroc's player wasn't present, so we assume Duroc spent the adventure in a fairly vain effort to single-handedly gain permission to have a dominion in the Cruth mountains in Darokin.
When we left the gang, they were all in Darokin city, after having finished the clearing of Alen's hex in Alfheim.
It was the 1st of Nuwmont, so taxes were due in Darokin. Corwyn and Sir Firearm chose to pay those taxes, but Alen now felt himself more closely tied to Alfheim, and Galafilo has always felt closer to the Shires, so Alen hightails it out of Darokin in a quick act of tax evasion, teleporting Galafilo to the Shires and himself to Alfheim.
In the Shires, its Winterfest, so Galafilo spends the time with his family, in a (relatively quiet) halfling feast, getting some time in with Delune.
Meanwhile, in Alfheim Alendalan pays a donation to the Grunalf clan, and then goes to his hex, trying to find "useful" herbs (which to him is anything he can consume in some form that will result in an altered state of awareness).
Along the way, he runs into an old friend: Hathalon. Hathalon's player had left several months ago, unable to keep playing at the time, but tonight he's come back and may be able to continue in the near future. It turns out that Hathalon has also had a bad year. He spent some time in Alfheim, until news reached him that Captain Marakaz, his old beau, had died in combat on the Isle of Dawn. Deeply depressed from this, he'd gone off to "find himself"; ending up accidentally travelling to another plane of existence (one of my other campaigns), and then back again.
He gained a lot of gold, then spent it.
He gained a lot of XP, but then suffered a level drain.
So by a bizarre coincidence, he now has exactly as much gold and exactly as much experience as when the party last saw him.
Alen learns that Hathalon has spent the better part of the last year in the depths of the Alfheim woods, buggering squirrels. His natural response is to invite Hathalon to "come back to my place"; which Hathalon does.
Some gay elven frolicking ensues.
A couple of days have passed, and Sir Firearm and Corwyn are getting bored. They had expected Alen and Galafilo to come back right away, but three days have passed and there's no sign of either of them. So Firearm and Corwyn decide to travel south to the hills and then the Malpheggi swamp, to see if they can't kill some things and take their stuff.
After their fun and romp in the buff, Alen has to go back to the Grunalf clan hold, and Hathalon wants to see Galafilo, so Alen teleports Hathalon, still half naked, to Sateeka. Hathalon rushes to cast invisibility, but not before an old halfling woman sees him on the roof of the inn with his pants down. She waves her walking stick at him, "you elven pervert! If I was younger, I'd climb up there and give you a kick in the nuts!"
Hathalon finally gets his pants on, and becomes visible again and starts wandering through the streets of Sateeka calling out Galafilo's name. He finds Galafilo, interrupting a romantic encounter Galafilo is having with Delune, and naturally Galafilo is less than pleased to see Hathalon. However, he gets over that fast, and ends up organising a big halfling feast in Hathalon's honour.
Meanwhile, after stocking up on drugs, Alendalan teleports back to Darokin only to find that absolutely no one from the party is there. He goes around the city trying to find the guys but can't.
Meanwhile, Corwyn and Sir Firearm run into a gang of giant bats, which they kill quick, and then some Vampires, which takes a bit more time. Still smarting from the last time he suffered an energy drain, Sir Firearm in particular is very anxious, but they manage to kill the vamps off without incident. Among the treasure, they find a scroll of protection from Undead, which Sir Firearm naturally snatches up.
Alendalan, failing to find anyone, goes off to the Alfheim embassy, and has some more fun and romp with his wife Arlewyn, trying some magic mushrooms along the way (and I don't mean the kind that glow with a detect magic).
Galafilo and Hathalon tire of waiting for Alendalan, and decide to travel the three-day journey to Darokin themselves.
Corwyn and Sir Firearm double back heading to Darokin again, and along the way they run into a group of seven trolls. One Barrier spell, several smashes, and one lit torch later, no more trolls.
Finally, the whole party ends up back in Darokin. Sir Firearm and Corwyn are pleased to see Hathalon, and Corwyn manages to accurately update Hathalon about what's been happening in the known world in this last year (Alendalan had told him previously, but gotten most of the events totally mixed up).
With the whole group reunited, Sir Firearm reminds the gang that he wanted to track down his old chain mail +5 of reflecting. Since Firearm is trying to take the "captain avenger" route, the chain mail would look closer to the "style" he wants (i.e. emulating Captain America).
So Corwyn casts a Find the Path and determines that the chain mail is in Specularum. The whole gang teleports there, find Specularum to be in a pretty prosperous state these days since Karameikos separated from Thyatis, and head to the tavern where the chain mail had been.
They get there, and find that the Chain mail is now in the possession of Lord Flasheart, the dashing but completely insane master-level fighter that always talks very loudly, enjoys the prostitutes, and ultra-violence.
"Holy crap!" says Firearm, "He's the guy who once wiped out half of the Callarii elves in a crazy rampage!" (it wasn't actually half, though the event had been pretty shocking to the PCs way back when they last saw Flasheart, because back then he was already a Master while they were just barely out of their basic levels).
Now, Alendalan is a Callarii elf, and he had no idea that this massacre had occurred (at the time it had happened, he'd been petrified). Being told of this very suddenly, and unaware of Flashheart's incredible power level, he instantly starts verbally and then physically assaulting Flasheart.
He casts Mirror Image first, which gives Flasheart all the excuse he needs. Spellcasting in public is forbidden in Karameikos, and since Flasheart is a Karameikan count now, as well as the Minister for Agriculture and Racial Genocide, he decides to make a "citizen's arrest". He smashes Alen with five attacks in one round, blowing away all four of his mirror images and dropping him.
Corwyn cures him, and the city guard shows up to arrest him. Flasheart, in the meantime, is not at all put out by the Elf's situation, and summons the prostitutes and beer, while chitchatting with Sir Firearm about the chain mail. He tells Firearm he's not interested in selling the chain mail, but he'll gladly trade the chain mail for some other armour with Firearm if Firearm can bring him something of equivalent power.
After the guards are taking Alen away, Alen teleports back into the pub, verbally harangues Firearm and Galafilo for their flippant attitude about the massacre of his people, and then surrenders himself again. After they take Alen away, Corwyn also reams out Firearm and Galafilo, and then goes off to hire Lord Yarlov, the best lawyer in the city.
Yarlov manages to make a brilliant legal argument, convincing the judge to annul the sentence against Alendalan, due to Alen's altered mental state at the time of the assault.
The group decides that they should head back to Darokin, and get into the scroll of shelter for Alendalan to teleport them all back, but Alen holds Corwyn back for a second, gives him the scroll, and then teleports Corwyn away to Darokin by surprise. Clearly, Alendalan is planning to stay in Specularum and seek revenge against Flasheart.
That's it for today's adventure. Its the 10th of Nuwmont of 1007, and the PCs are:
Corwyn, Patriarch of Asterius, lv. 32
Sir Firearm, avenger of Vanya lv. 21
Alendalan, Elf Lord Wizard lv.10
Hathalon, Elf Lord Wizard lv 10
Galafilo, Halfling Sheriff Lv.8