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Background and Summary: The Party had found charred documents
in the Orc village on the island indicating some sort of meeting
was to have taken place not far from Uvdal between the Orcs and
somebody. Friends of the Orcs are likely not friends of the local
Humans, so the Party decides to investigate. They find a subterranean
complex in a swamp, filled with Troglodytes who are ruled over by
a Spirit Naga, and kill them all. They do not find any connections
with the Orcs, but consider that to be an picky detail.
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(Session 28)
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Eostre 24
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Party members without training to do and two newcomers decide to scout
out the region described in the charred documents. Riff
(F1) and Shionna (B1) join.
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That evening, they come to a swamp; a few land features match what was
described in the documents, so they figure they have located the way to
the meeting place. Before they can leave, however, they have to defeat
2 Troglodytes that found them.
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| Eostre 25 |
The scouting group returns to Uvdal. Mei-Peng begins to convince
the rest of the Party of the virtues of the Hestian calendar: next month
is locally known as Thri-Milce, Maia in Hestia. |
| Maia 6 (Thri-Milce 6) |
Riff finds a local retired Ranger who would
like to return to adventuring (having advanced to R4 before meeting
too many Wraiths last year); Ballar
the Unlucky (R1) joins. |
| Maia 11 |
All trainees return to Uvdal, and the Party sets
out on the route determined by the scouts. |
| Maia 13 |
Party enters the swamp. 5 Troglodytes jump them, but are handily
defeated. That night, a huge Turtle attacks their camp; Immediately afterwards,
3 Sirges descend upon the Party (attracted by the noise). Trafalgar nearly
dies, but the Party is victorious. |
| (S29) |
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| Maia 14 |
Following the document's directions, the Party comes to a
sunken patch of land encircled by a mud and timber dyke; in the centre is
a hole in the ground, with a staircase leading underground. |
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The Party descends the muddy stairs, many characters slipping
their way to the bottom. Awaiting them are 4 Orcs on guard duty; a battle
ensues, during which 12 unarmoured Orcs charge in (having been awoken by
the racket). The Party handly defeats them all, but finds no loot on them
or in their nearly quarters. |
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Exploring, Jasmine finds some Green Slime in a mud puddle
by falling in. Quick action by Razzle, Kera, and Aknot keeps her skin intact
(although not her armour). |
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After more exploring, and an encounter with a poisonous snake,
the Party meets a Harpy. It proceeds to charm most Party members, who proceed
to advance into a deep mud pit. Only Shionna, Trafalgar, and Ballar remain
uncharmed and finish off the Harpy. Jasmine climbs the walls to bypass the
mud pit and finds some treasure for the Party. |
| (S30) |
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Battered by now, the Party retreats to a mess hall no longer
required by the Orcs they killed, and attempts to rest the night. 5 giant
Rats barge in and attempt to eat them; the Party kills them instead. |
| Maia 15 |
Party explores more. They meet and kill 3 Orcs with reasonable
fighting and sneaking skills. Again, no loot is found on the Orcs or in
their quarters. The Party hasn't bothered to talk with any of the inhabitants,
though, to find out where is all the loot. |
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The Party comes to a large pool containing 3 Crocodiles. Jasmine
takes a mauling, but the Party kills two and drives off the third. |
| (S31) |
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Continuing, A giant WUS (Weasel of Unusual Size) mauls Aknot
before being killed. They then come to a set of rooms with 2 Troglodytes;
Vishu performs a fabulous flip over their heads, only to become surrounded
and taken down when 4 more Trogs arrive through another door; soon after,
the Party handily defeats the Trogs. |
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The Party sacks out in these rooms. That evening, 2 more Troglodytes
barge in and are killed. |
| Maia 16 |
Next morning, they push on and find another set of stairs
going further underground. Here they find themselves in rougher tunnels
and caverns, and battle Spiders, Snakes, human-sized Dinosaurs, and more
Troglodytes with little difficulty. |
| (S32) |
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Party comes to another underground pool. Boating across, the
Party is attacked by an enormous spell-casting, humanish-headed serpent
-- a Spirit Naga. Half the party is put to sleep, but the others attack
it fast enough to stop further spells being cast by it. However, by gaze
it charms Aknot into attacking the rest of the Party; and by bite it poisons
Jasmine. Lacking any normal means to neutralise poison, Kera gambles and
casts a Heal spell from a looted scroll; with at best a 50% chance of success,
she succeeds and revives Jasmine. |
| Maia 17 |
Party returns to the Orc mess hall to rest up. As the day
progresses, it becomes quite obvious that Jasmine and Aknot have taken a
sudden fancy to each other; many Party members are stunned if not revolted
by this mixed-race pairing. |
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(S33)
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Maia 18
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That morning, the Party goes downstairs again, exploring. They find an
hidden cove on the other side of another pool, in which are 2 chests.
Shionna suggests that she and Jasmine check both for traps; Jasmine agrees,
but then after finding no traps on hers shepromptly tries to open it,
immediately finding out the hard way that there was indeed a trap. A needle
jabs her finger, and she collapses. As all the herbs and scrolls that
could possibly help against poison were used to revive her last time,
there is nothing the Party can do: Jasmine dies, and Aknot mourns.
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Pushing on, the Party comes to a large room with one Zombie-like occupant.
Aknot chops it in two, but it reassembles itself -- prompting half the
Party to flee in terror. Those who remain chop it down again, whereupon
it stays down. Mei-Peng is very intrigued by this sort of undead ...
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They proceed through a room with an unknown purpose (Mei-Peng later realises
it is likely for creating undead), and then come to a room with an altar
in front of a large statue of the Naga, and two figures which are not
surprised by their arrival. One is a cleric, which the party dispatches
without too much difficulty. The other turns out to be a Wight, which
preys upon Ballar, who lives up to his old nickname of "the Unlucky";
he loses 2 levels and is reduced to a quivering 0th level non-Ranger.
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After the battle and demolishing a wall or two, the Party finds that
there is a secret passageway leaving the back of the room, which leads
to the chamber where they met the Naga.
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The Party finds a prison and releases 2 prisoners: Orlane the merchant,
and Raff, Riff's brother whom he hasn't seen in years. Orlane had been
travelling to Yorvik several weeks ago when his small caravan had been
attacked and captured; all of his compatriots have one by one been killed
and/or eaten by the Troglodytes. Raff had been captured a couple of weeks
ago, having come to this complex in order to hire some ruffians on behalf
of some raiders to the south. Both had been brought before Naga several
times during their stay; the Naga had attempted to do something to their
minds, but apparently had always failed. They are quite relieved at being
rescued, and Raff (F1) joins.
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(S34)
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Maia 19
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The Party continues to explore the underground level. While they do not
find any organised occupants like the Troglodytes, they do have some nasty
encounters with giant Centipedes (Kera is poisoned, but does not die)
and Ghouls (who catch the Party unaware from behind and paralyse 6 people
before being cut down, mostly by Trafalgar). They also find 5 Zombies,
which attend to a bucket-and-pulley device that seems to be continually
bailing out the complex at its lowest chamber; uncertain what would be
the implications of attacking, they Party leaves the Zombies alone.
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The Party comes to a suspicious room with a chest in the middle, looking
like bait. Raff succeeds in setting off a deadly trap from a distance,
no one is seriously injured. They then find two room filled with hundreds
of eggs. The first are all quite small and have snakes in them; the Party
speculates that they are Naga eggs, and destroys them all with oil and
fire. The second are large and turn out to be Troglodyte eggs; the Party
crushes them all.
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Maia 20
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Party leaves the complex.
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Maia 22
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Party arrives at Uvda; stay for 2 days in order to talk with Tostig.
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| Maia 26 |
Party arrives Jorvik. |
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| Training |
Junius 1-21: Vishu, Aknot, Trafalgar, Beqk, and
Kera advance to third level, while Mei-Peng, Razzle, Shionna and Riff advance
to second. Mei-Peng then finds a minor "bouncer" job with Raff,
earns enough XP to advance to the next level, and then trains to third.
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Surviving
members:
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Mei-Peng
(N3), Vishu (Mk3), Aknot
(F3), Trafalgar (WrC3),
Beqk (Cvr3), Razzle
(MU2), Kera (NtC3) |
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New
members:
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Riff
(F2), Shionna (B2), Ballar
(--), Raff (F1) |
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Casualties:
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Jasmine |
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Retirees:
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Ballar |
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Continuing party:
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Mei-Peng,
Vishu, Aknot, Trafalgar, Beqk, Razzle, Kera, Riff, Shionna, Raff |
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