Party:
Arc Sol - Human Cleric of Pelor, the god of the sun (297 points)
Aurum Red-Brand - Human Wizard (291 points)
Zaxod - Half-Orc Knight (283 points)
Player Absent:
Mor'ath Enanqua - Elven Swashbuckler/Thief (276 points)
Day 10 (Cont.)
Arc cast Suspend Animation on Aurum to keep him from bleeding out, while Zaxod cleared all the corpses in the room to one side. Mor'ath took a look around and found a large maul, with a gold and silver inlay of a flaming hammer. Zaxod took a look and confirmed that it was worth some money, so they chucked it and Aurum on the levitating disc, which they set to following Arc.
Arc took his blanket and wrapped up the lizardman wizard's tunic of darkness, to be destroyed later, and after a quick look around the room noticed that the altar was cursed and dedicated to the demon lord Orcus. Zaxod and Mor'ath stood guard while Arc successfully Exorcised the altar, during which time Zaxod felt some magic effect start rotting him from the inside.
The party headed back up to the surface, this time without anybody trained in Navigation or Cartography, but made it just fine. Along the way, Zaxod's right hand started to rot but was stopped by the Blessing he still had active. Eventually, they made it back to Foreman Odwen's shack, where Zaxod unintentionally scared him by knocking on his door loudly and yelling "We killed them all!". Arc asked if they could stay the night, but was refused, so Zaxod Intimidated the dwarf into letting them stay. Arc cast Stop Bleeding followed by Remove Curse on Zaxod, to get him to full health and keep him from rotting from the inside out.
Day 11
Weather: Windy
Arc started the day with a bevy of healing spells on Aurum, cast Awaken to get him moving, and then the party headed back over the river, and through the south gate into Carda, taking a little more time than usual due to the heavy winds. They sold some loot and resupplied, Aurum insulted the only enchanter/alchemist in town and then left a valuable magic item with him to be identified, and Arc ritually burned the tunic of darkness with his church.
With their coinpurses full, the party returned to the Jovial Unicorn, where they were handed a sealed letter from the same messenger they had sold the wyvern head to, who quickly left to go handle some other errand for the duke.
Zaxod read the letter aloud and discovered it was a summons to meet the duke the next day, and the proof they'd need to gain access to the ducal palace. After being nagged by the innkeeper about the ungodly racket, Zaxod went out to the barn to work on modifying his greataxe, while Aurum outlined the basics of a spell to turn earth into gold, and Arc started brewing some potions using the valuable organs they had acquired. A while later, Aurum went to go retrieve his wand from Bruno and was informed that it was a Wand of Lightning, but required the user to be able to speak the ancient dwarven runes carved into it before using it.
Day 12
Weather: Good
The party woke early and walked to the ducal district, past the 4 large churches to Avandra, Erathis, Melora, and Pelor and the many people there for morning prayer, and up the hill towards the ducal palace. At the top, they were halted and debated about what to call themselves (The Sabretooths was turned down for being too "animal-y" and The Sons of The First Spell was turned down for being too "wizard-y") while more guards, as well as a paladin of Erathis, were gathered to escort them.
They continued on to the entrance to the main hall, were relieved of their weapons, and entered the hall. A herald introduced them as "Adventuring Company, here to see Arthund Vynce, Duke of Carda and Baron of Vynce", and they walked to the base of the elevated seat of the duke. To the left of the duke was a fat man with a large moustache, in a cloak apparently made of spun gold.
The duke gestured to the wall behind him, which was full of wonderful trophies from various animals, and explained that the wyvern head they had sold him (which was badly scorched, and missing both eyes and all the teeth) was clearly not up to snuff. He explained that he would appreciate it if they would be willing to repay him half of the $1000 they had been given, for restoration of the trophy.
Aurum was against it, but Arc didn't care, and Zaxod eventually grew impatient and gave a servant 5 of the hexagonal gold pieces from the lockbox in the dwarven ruins. Aurum then attempted to sell the duke the Nexus of Creation. When asked what it did, Aurum claimed "it can create the universe!", and despite this obvious lie, the duke made an offer of $40,000 after conferring with the fat man.
Though it was tempting, Aurum turned this down, believing the artifact to be worth far more. The party left the palace, was given their weapons, remembered to grab their payment from the Adventurer's Guild, and returned to the Jovial Unicorn. Arc left partway through the day to go create food and water for the poor.
Day 13
Weather: Good
As the party ate breakfast in the Jovial Unicorn, they were approached by Gylium, the dwarven spice trader who had originally hired them as guards, who informed them that after some delays, he would be ready to leave the next morning, and would pay them the same fee ($2,000) as before to escort him on the same route (Carda->Kral Narthis->Cosium->Adusia). The party agreed, and spent the rest of the day theorising, crafting, Blessing those who had used theirs, and purchasing some more supplies.
Day 14
Weather: Good
Gylium and the party loaded up and set out early in the morning, with Arc, Mor'ath, and Zaxod on foot, and Aurum riding on the disc behind Arc. Around noon, they came across the mercenary group the Dragons of Carda, in the same spot as last time. Their leader, Luccio, allowed the party passage, as they had already proven themselves worthy of respect. As the party left, one of Luccio's lieutenants, a goliath, argued with him over whether he should keep letting people go.
As the sun became low in the sky, it became clear that they wouldn't quite make it to Kral Narthis that day, and decided to make camp slightly off the road. Everyone had tents except for Zaxod, who ate the 1FP for sleeping without shelter.
Day 15
Weather: Good
Around noon, the party arrived in dwarven town of Kral Narthis, where they decided to spend the night in the Silver Axe tavern. Aurum was challenged to dice games by Lucky Vismar, a dwarf who recognised him from his last stay, and won $100 over several hours while an elven troubadour sang dwarven folk-songs.
Day 16
Weather: Good
The party made better time on the well-maintained roads and arrived at Cosium several hours before nightfall. Zaxod noticed that the palisade wall had grown by about 2 feet in height since they had last been here. Gylium went to look after the horses while the rest of the party headed to the Wench and Flail inn to rest for the evening. Inside, however, was a confrontation between the halfling guard they had passed on their way through town last time and a drunk farmer.
The halfling claimed the farmer had been "lookin' at him funny", while the farmer yelled nigh-incomprehensibly. Zaxod took up a defensive position in case the halfling drew one of the morningstars on his belt while Mor'ath moved away from the crowd to a corner to brood. After the halfling (apparently named Trugal) failed to be calmed by his friends, who were holding him back from tearing the farmer in half, Arc moved in and managed to persuade him to back down.
This worked, right up until the farmer called Trugal a little bitch, to which the halfling replied "Nobody calls me SHORT!", at which point he lunged at the farmer and grabbed him by the skull. Zaxod moved to push Trugal off the farmer but the halfling kept his grip, while Arc tried to back off and Aurum debated helping.
Trugal slammed the farmer's head into the bar repeatedly, then tossed him over the bar, while Zaxod managed to grab hold of him and hold him over his head. Arc was struck by another drunk farmer, and returned a blow, stunning the man.
Zaxod then threw Trugal into a nearby table to "calm" him, but the halfling landed nimbly and only managed to break the table. Arc knocked out one of the farmers, while the other took a long swinging kick at Zaxod's groin, but luckily missed.
Trugal rushed Zaxod, but was turned aside, and then Zaxod overextended himself on a grab and was flung over the halfling and landed prone, while Arc took out the other drunkard and Aurum laughed. Trugal jumped on Zaxod and tried punching him in the face but was parried, at which point the swordswoman tried to grab the halfling, but was also flipped, and landed partly on top of Zaxod.
After some more ground fighting, Zaxod finally managed to grab Trugal and throw him into a wall, knocking him out. He then got up, dusted himself off, and paid the barkeep a gold piece for the table.
Notes:
Surprised Aurum didn't sell the Nexus. Apparently he wants "quintillions". Zaxod pointed out that for somebody who supposedly hates merchants, he's doing a lot of merchant-y things.
Arc has a bunch of spare time saved, but doesn't want to spend the 1k on a Backpack Alchemy Lab, so that might be wasted time.
Players who don't make it have two options. Mor'ath chose the former.
1) Your character is played by me, their skills can be used by the party, they get a share of loot, but they are in danger
Or
2) Your character mysteriously disappears to the Nega-Zone! They are completely invulnerable, but cannot be used in any way and don't get a share of the loot.
Random Encounter and Weather rolls were pretty good to them; only bad weather one day with a very short trip.
XP:
2 for success
1 for roleplaying
0 for the hardest fight
0 for loot (not enough to qualify for the bonus)
1 for quest completion
MVP went to Zaxod for successfully beating the Mad Halfling
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