3-4 Gwynyth's Quest (House of the Brothers)
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Background and Summary: Gwynyth, recently back from the
dead, has learned that she has been quested to do something important;
specifically, "to deal appropriately with Erdol and Karzahk,
at the foot of White Goat's Spine". She knows the White Goat's
Spine region, but has no idea who or what are Erdol and Karzahk.
But she does learn that she is not supposed to know in advance who
or what they are; for part of the quest is for her to figure things
out on her own. The Party travels to the eastern wilderness region
of ArDan and deal with Erdol and Karzahk, as well as their houseguest
Ebbldra - 3 Fog Giants.
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Dafan time:
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162 Quellë 08-37 (~October 08 - November 07) |
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Real time:
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2011 September-October (sessions 219-224) |
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Starting members:
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Mei-Peng
(N7), Vishu
(Mk8), Jett (NtC7/F5), Taro
(F7/T7), Karg (WrC7), Elena
(N6/A4), Gwynyth (R6) |
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(Session 219)
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| Quellë 06 |
Prior to the halves of the formerly large
party going their separate ways, Vragg casts Commune and asks
some indirect questions concerning Gwynyth's quest (knowing that direct
questions would run counter to part of the quest, and thus possibly
perverting it). Some minor aspects are learned, most notably (and
puzzling) that the quest serves the needs of Vaprak, a despicable
deity of Trolls and Giants ... not a pleasant concept for a sworn
foe of such beasts. |
| (S220) |
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Muscled recruits are located: Karg rejects
a Cavalier and instead brings a quiet fighter: Eberulf
(F6) joins. Meanwhile, Vishu and Elena recruit the rejected Cavalier:
K'Qnel Stoutheart (Cv6)
joins. Karg and Elena squabble over who's recruit is better; they
end by betting (perhaps out of their earshot) on which one dies first.
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| Quellë 08 |
Party departs Sidheag eastwards by horse
and foot. |
| Quellë 16 |
Leave civilised lands. |
| Quellë 20 |
Travelling along a forest path, nearing
White Goat's Spine, they are ambushed by 8 Ogres. The Ogres have clearly
just come off a too-long rest, and fight pathetically; Party easily
kills them all. Elena and Mei-Peng raise some of the corpses as Zombies. |
| (S221) |
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| Quellë 21 |
Party enters foggy marshland. Zombies are
sent ahead. Party comes to a circle of standing stones (4 standing,
8 fallen over) in a clearing nestled at the foot of small hill; the
Zombies have collapsed in the circle, or just at the edge of it. One
of the fallen stones has a large carving of a clawed hand, likely
a symbol of Vaprak. |
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At the other side of the circle is a large
cave mouth leading into the hill. Most of the Party climbs the hill,
looking for clues as to possible occupants of the cave. They find
an enormous rock, camouflaged, that likely blocks another cave mouth;
footprints in the vicinity are very large, suggesting giants. |
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Meanwhile, Elena and K'Qnel stayed by the
stone circle. Elena stays put for a whole boring 5 minutes, then sneaks
into the large cave mouth and the passageway beyond. A heavy curtain
made of rusty chain mail suits blocks the passageway, which Elena
cautiously crawls under. K'Qnel spots Elena and follows to the curtain;
he cannot get past it quietly, so he reluctantly guards her from there.
Elena explores a large cavern; she hears sounds that might be deep
rumbling voices; she casts Viper's Bite where she thinks the
sounds come from but to no obvious effect (except, as it turned out,
to alert the occupants that trouble was afoot). |
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When the rest of the Party returns, K'Qnel
explains the situation. Taro sneaks in and finds Elena; Elena exits
and reports what she found, then goes back in; Taro comes back out.
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| (S222) |
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Mei-Peng suggests that the stone circle
may have been an Ogre's temple to Vaprak and some giants have moved
in; if so, perhaps Vaprak wants Gwynyth to drive out the giants. If
Ogres are inside as captives or slaves, getting one outside could
be very useful. Some ideas are discussed for how to lure out occupants,
while Karg in particular suggests a simpler approach like charging
in and killing everything they meet. But before anything is decided,
a scream is heard from inside the cave; Elena has found an occupant
the hard way. |
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So in charges the rest of the party, with
Eberulf in the lead. He bursts into a kitchen area and sees Elena
down; an enormous giant of unknown type, 18' tall, surprises him and
drives him back. While Eberulf painfully keeps the giant distracted,
Vishu dodges past in order to rescue Elena; but finds that Elena
is dead. As the rest of the Party streams in, another giant with
three Hell Hounds surprise them from another passageway. One hound
catches Mei-Peng alone; but before it can do much damage to her, Taro
glugs a potion of animal control and (amazingly) commands the hound
(plus another one) to sleep. A third giant then appears at the entranceway,
trapping the party inside. Eberulf takes a pounding and almost dies;
K'Qnel and Gwynyth are fried repeatedly by the remaining hound. The
third giant is swarmed by Taro, Taro's clone, and Karg; it soon tromps
back out and starts to fly; but Taro kills it before it can escape.
The first giant, heavily damaged by Eberulf and engulfed in darkness
by Mei-Peng, turns to flee further into the complex; but Vishu and
a summoned warrior from Karg catch and kill it. The remaining giant
somehow changes into a normal-sized hawk and flies out; it takes a
lot of damage on the way out, but flutters up and away into the mist.
Taro, Mei-Peng, Gwynyth, and the summoned warrior try to follow it;
Gwynyth finds a blood trail, but it stops where big foot prints start
runnning - the giant returned to normal shape. The tracks circle around
and before the trackers can catch up, the giant has killed one of
the Party's horses. But then Taro and Gwynyth's archery skills slow
the giant down to a stagger, and the summoned warrior finishes it
off. The summoned warrior returns to Karg and proudly asks "Now
what?", having just delivered the killing blows to two giants. |
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Having defeated all the giants and hounds,
Vishu returns to the kitchen area, where she had noticed some paralysed
Goblins (the last act of Elena). She kills two and brings one out
as a captive. Mei-Peng charms and questions it and the learn that
the three Goblins were bait -- the giants knew someone was sneaking
about, and Elena went for them and was caught by a giant just waiting
for her. They also learn that two of the giants were brothers named
Erdol and Karzahk; the third was a houseguest named Ebbldra. Gwynyth
concludes that she has dealt appropriately with them, and thus their
mission is likely already over. As for what they were, she is puzzled;
she has never seen giants with pale white skin and white hair that
capable of good battle tactics. The rest of the party is far more
interested in looting them of their extremely well made dragon(?)
hide armour (red, black, and white), weapons, and other goodies. |
| (S223) |
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| Quellë 22 |
After resting the night in the cozy kitchen,
the Party explores. Lots of booty is found on display as trophies
- presumably from defeated foes of the giants. Mei-Peng's charmed
Goblin warns them of a giant tiger, but it still manages to surprise
them. Before it can be slaughtered, Mei-Peng charms it as well. But
during the brief combat with the cat, a more serious foe is encountered:
a moving, speech-spouting, Hestian statue. The Stone Golem doesn't
do much damage to the Party before they knock it to pieces. |
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5 locked and trapped chests are found. Taro
manages to open 3 without taking to much damage before the trap on
the 4th one pin-cusheons him with a barrage of large darts: Taro
dies. |
| (S224) |
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Mei-Peng decides to release her entourage:
the tiger is given instructions via Jett to not eat any humanoids
unless they are bigger than it. The Goblins are told to go home (likely
a few weeks' walk north), with severance pay; impressed with her treatment
of them, they intend to report their release from certain death at
the hands of the Giants as "the great Mei-Peng set us free". |
| Quellë 23 |
Booty rounded up, the Party leaves the cave
complex. Outside, they notice that 2 of the fallen stones of the circle
are now standing - some Trolls were busy last night. A few minutes
travel later, a dead Orc is tossed in front of them from a great distance,
with a note attached: in crude Common letters it reads "Tan Kyu".
The Party decides to accept the thanks, but not the corpse, and move
on quickly. |
| Quellë 28 |
The Party arrives at a town large enough
to support powerful clerics. Raises are bought: Elena and Taro
are revived. |
| Quellë 37 |
Party arrives at Sidheag. Looking for a
bit of cash so as to pay off her raise, Elena checks in with the Long
Knife (the Assassin's Guild) and looks for work. During said work,
however, Elena abruptly finds that she has come back to life with
a strange and very inconvenient growth: morals. This severely compromises
her ability to work in that profession (and that of Necromancy), so
she has to re-evaluate her life ... |
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Karg trains to WrC8. |
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Surviving members:
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Mei-Peng
(N7), Vishu
(Mk8), Jett (NtC7/F5), Taro
(F7/T7), Karg (WrC8), Elena
(N6/A4), Gwynyth (R6),
K'Qnel (Cv6), Eberulf
(Cv6) |
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New members:
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K'Qnel Stoutheart, Eberulf
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Returning members:
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Casualties:
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Elena (revived), Taro (revived) |
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Retirees:
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??? |
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Continuing party:
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???
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