Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for January 26, 2012, In Search of Adventure campaign, X8: Drums on Fire Mountain adventure; present characters included Dinendel Telemnar (elf swordmaster-conjurer), Meriwen Arnatule (elf swordmaster-conjurer), Nicholae Dragos (cleric vicar), and Theobald Goblinbane (dwarf hero).

After a night of raucous partying, the group dismissed Symeon Xenakis and Wuldric Mineshield from employment and went to visit Castellan Horvath.  The Castellan thanked them for their services and officially bequeathed them a charter for their adventuring party in the Grand Duchy of Karameikos.  The party chose the title of Conquerors of Chaos and were so dubbed.  Next, he gave them a letter and journal entry sent to him by his cousin from Thyatis, Rollo Bargmann.  In the letter, he asked Castellan Horvath to send the adventurers he had written about (the party) to him in Thyatis to help fight off pirates and the ship-bane in the Sea of Dread.  The Conquerors decided to make the two week journey and boarded a river barge.  They floated down to Kelvin where they paid for passage on a river boat to Specularum.  Once in the city, they sought a ship captain at the Drunken Mermaid tavern.  After paying some gold, they learned of a Captain Krill and his ship, the Windsong.

The party booked passage to Thyatis aboard the Windsong in exchange for 90 gold coins and a daily feeding from Legend’s magical wallet of food.  As they discovered, the sailors were delighted to have the mildly bland but nutritious meal as opposed to the slop served daily by the ship cook, Sloppy Joe.  Legend spent part of every day in the galley alongside Sloppy giving out his crunchings and munchings to the crew.  After a week, the group arrived in the city.

After a bit of harassment by a merchant guild bean-counter, the party was escorted to the home of guildsman Rollo Bargmann.  Rollo welcomed them upon seeing their charter and his letter and spelled out the situation.  He had learned more from the kara-kara captive.  He told of a ceremony about to begin on the kara-kara home island and asked the group to go in and kill the new leader, whom the kara-kara had named their god.  Rollo believes this leader has allied with the ship-bane and caused the upswing in raids at sea.  The party agreed on a sizable sum of coin for their services and set out at dawn after their second raucous party in two weeks.

Following nine days at sea, the Conquerors of Chaos debarked onto the shore of Teki-Nura-Ria island on the far side from the kara-kara village.  The crew then cloaked the ship magically to appear as a great rock.  The party set off into the jungle following a crude map and seeking the Trail of the Dead and a secret tunnel that would lead to the pirate leader.  Their progress through the sweltering jungle was slow due to the undergrowth and their wearing of plate armor.  After about an hour of hacking through the dense jungle, they came upon a circular clearing occupied by a massive tree stump.  Around it the ground was flattened, and Legend could make out numerous bare footprints.

The party moved up close and peered into the stump to see an enormous spider within!  The fast moving monstrosity surged forward and sank its fangs into Legend’s chest!  Filled with poison, Legend began to spasm and twitch, appearing to dance violently.  All those looking upon him felt a compulsion to do the same, and many of the party did likewise.  Fortunately, not all succumbed to the spell and were able to viciously attack the spider.  All three elves in the group cast magic missile, and Theobald and his bug-hating spear stepped forward to finish off the monster.

After finding a string of pearls in the stump, the Conquerors moved on with half their number still dancing and thrashing.  After close to an hour, many collapsed in an exhausted heap.  Will they muster the strength to move on?

The above summary is for a game session of Dungeons & Dragons BECMI / RC edition played by the Phoenix Gaming Club.

Game summary for January 19, 2012, In Search of Adventure campaign, Keep on the Borderlands adventure; present characters included Dinendel Telemnar (elf swordmaster-conjurer), Meriwen Arnatule (elf swordmaster-conjurer), and Nicholae Dragos (cleric vicar).

After some discussion, the team decided to reduce their retainer numbers to Borislav Petrovic, Elasha, Ma’Kala, Symeon Xenakis, and Wuldric Mineshield.  The group re-equipped and headed back to the Caves of Chaos intent on destroying the gnolls.  They decided to utilize the secret entrance from the store room in the cultist caves but found the gnolls had discovered the door judging by the sooty black tracks Legend found.  They decided the door may be trapped, and despite hearing gnolls talking on the other side, made their way back around to the main entrance.

The group cast light on a coin that Legend put in his pocket while Ma’Kala carried a stone enchanted with silence 15’ radius.  They tried to sneak into the caves in darkness, with the humans guided by the dwarves and elves who could see in the dark.  Unfortunately, the four gnolls standing in the cave could see them too.  An oddly quiet battle erupted with one gnoll running away and three dying to the party’s blades.

The team moved further in and saw the door to the gnoll chieftain’s room had been replaces with some crudely hung planks.  Meriwen concocted a plan.  They sent Legend, under the cover of invisibility and elven boots, down the hallway with a scroll inscribed with fireball.  The elf peered unseen or heard through between the planks and saw two gnolls, two gnoll skeletons, and a thoul!  He stepped back and recited the scroll, blowing all five inhabitants into flaming bits.  They then stole the loot surviving in a smoking chest.

The party then went deeper into the caves and discovered the last remaining gnolls who put up a stiff resistance.  Several blows were traded, but the gnolls were driven back into a corner and cut down.  At last, the heroes had cleared the evil denizens from the Caves of Chaos!

The group found a keg of ale which they took back to Castellan’s Keep and used for a celebration.  Nicholae set off to find someone willing to sell him a farm while the others sold the loot, made deposits at the bank, and settled in.  The next day, they received a summons from the Castellan.  What new adventures await?

Thus concluded 19 game sessions to complete B2: Keep on the Borderlands using BECMI / RC Dungeons & Dragons rules.  Next up, X8: Drums on Fire Mountain.

The above summary is for a game session of Dungeons & Dragons BECMI / RC edition played by the Phoenix Gaming Club.

Game summary for January 12, 2012, In Search of Adventure campaign, Keep on the Borderlands adventure; present characters included Dinendel Telemnar (elf swordmaster-conjurer), Nicholae Dragos (cleric vicar), and Theobald Goblinbane (dwarf swordmaster).

After 24 hours of preparatory madness, the Castellan mustered half his forces, 76 fighting men, and sent them to battle the orcs and undead.  The team worked hard to inspire the troops, discuss tactics, and get ready for the fight to come.  The troops marched to the Caves of Chaos and engaged the massed orcs, skeletons, and zombies!  The fighting was brutal and went on for three days before the army of men proved victorious!  As the sun went down, only the evil priests of Chaos remained and engaged the party in melee.

The high priest coiled his snake staff around Legend trapping him!  The adepts pounded maces against shield and plate but found the party’s defenses solid.  A few blows landed, but the team proved more deadly.  In moments, one adept lay dead but Legend and Nicholae were both badly injured.  Theobald impaled the high priest with a spear-led charge, changing the course of the battle!  Legend got loose of the snake and struck down another adept while Nicholae hammered down the third.

Cheers erupted from the army of men as the last agent of Chaos collapsed on the ground!  The forces of men collected their dead and wounded while the team moved through the now empty orc and cultist caves searching for treasure.  They emerged with thousands of coins worth of gold and magic.

After discussing their knowledge of the caves of Chaos, they deduced only the gnoll tribe remains.  They decided they would eliminate the gnolls before moving on so that the caves would be completely cleared and conquered!

The above summary is for a game session of Dungeons & Dragons BECMI / RC edition played by the Phoenix Gaming Club.

Game summary for January 5, 2012, In Search of Adventure campaign, Keep on the Borderlands adventure; present characters included Dinendel Telemnar (elf swordmaster-conjurer), Meriwen Arnatule (elf swordmaster-conjurer), Nicholae Dragos (cleric priest), and Theobald Goblinbane (dwarf swordmaster).

After leaving their allies in the clutches of the orcs and wicked high priests, the team regrouped with Dinendel “Legend” Telemnar and tracked down Meriwen.  She agreed to accompany them back to the keep where she kept trying to get a few minutes alone.  Paranoid Nicholae wouldn’t allow it, and finally the elf broke into a rush down the street.  The party ran after her, with Legend cloaking himself in invisibility, Theobald diving into the dirt trying to catch her, and Nicholae shouting for assistance from the watch.  Meriwen put some distance between them and slipped away under the cover of her own invisibility spell.

The group was unsure what to do but sent their tracker, Legend, after the elf using his folding horse, Myth.  Myth and Legend came upon Meriwen heading for the river, and Legend tried to coax his fellow elf back to the keep.  When that failed, he snared her with a lasso and tied her up.

Once back at the keep, Nicholae and Theobald tried to pry the helm off Meriwen’s head, but it wouldn’t come off.  In fact, they caused her some damage in their efforts.  Legend uttered “munchings and crunchings” to activate his magical wallet of healing food and repaired the harm.  The group then decided to seek out some divine assistance.

The team asked around and discovered a visiting priest of Nicholae’s faith, a cleric of the church of Traladara named Silvestru Ristani.  Nicholae talked to the three men, one of whom sneezed several times which seemed to bother him.  Nicholae grew uneasy around the mean and noticed their robes and symbols were not properly arranged and oriented.  He talked his way out of the room and bolted, much to their surprise.  Not trusting them, he gathered up the party and sought out Didymus Mavroudis, cleric of the church of Karameikos.

Didymus was able to determine Meriwen’s helm was cursed, and for a small (substantial) donation in gold agreed to remove it.  Once the curse was broken, Nicholae and Theobald smashed the helm to pieces.  Unfortunately, this did not seem to break the compulsion affecting the elf.  Further investigation revealed a demonic spell had possessed Meriwen and was drawing her back to the cult of chaos!  After many more rituals, that had only a chance of success, Didymus freed Meriwen of this evil spell as well.

Afterward, they agreed to destroy the relics that had caused Meriwen’s possession.  However, they realize doing so puts the lives of all their retainers at risk.  After talking to Didymus about the scores of undead as well as dozens of orcs massing in the caves, the priest agreed to get them an audience with the castellan.

Now, the soldiers of the keep are assembling and preparing to eradicate the scourge of evil from the caves.  Once again, the party will stand in the ravine of the caves in the melee of war!  Who will survive, and what will be left of them?

The above summary is for a game session of Dungeons & Dragons BECMI / RC edition played by the Phoenix Gaming Club.