Prologue...
Well. Kinda don't need to link this cause its the next post. But meh again!!!
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We started off with four of our adventurers, having met at a Highway House a few miles back.
The Magi had been separately trailing a weird magical taint that had been found at many sites of gruesome harvests of parts of different races. Kobolds found stripped of all their scales and their tails lopped off those that were found huddled in a corner of their cave in fear. Hobgoblins found strung from Tree brances by their entrails, their Snouts cut clean off. Even the more civilized races were not spared, a small village of Elves were found with their Ears removed and Rosewood Daggers embedded in their Grove's trees who's sap had been drained dry...
During a Reststop in their travels they had more or less bumped into one another after discovering that the other was also trailing the Taint from the other direction, swapping their findings but not their reasons. Their talk had unconsciously attracted the attention of a Gnomish Bard, who at once thought to be a pestering child until his facial hair and the Half Elf was notice. According to the Half Elf, the Gnome had caused him to become indebted to the Gnome in some way, Honour or such...
The Four ended up agreeing to journey together, well more the Magi did and the Gnome tailed them until they agreed, Half Elf in tow...
The Taints Trail ended in a small village outside a Mousaliam of an Old Family. Foreboding I know. Whats more, the village itself was a Ghost Town, but it had shown signs of recent activity. The Group moved to the Mousaliam and found that is where the Trail stopped. After examining the graves out front both the Ranger and Summoner were shocked still, the Door to the Domed building had open on its own accord or something had opened it...
They entered and discovered what appeared to be a mural that encompassed the whole interior of the dome itself, sweeping from the center to the left a Warrior is shown separating from a Mage to expand out into what looked to be a tale of his deeds and such, while to the right it was the Mage who was show with her achievements. Sitting looking out towards the doorway was statutes of the two people in the artwork. Either side of the dome were doorways to even more of the above ground display of this Families Wealth, though what they found was the remnants of it. Tapestries and displays had long been looted or damaged beyond repair. Though the Bard discovered what looked to be a running story that could be translated from the artwork. +1 Story for the Bard's Performances...
While the Mage's Room had a stairwell like that of the Warriors, only the Warrior path was accessible. But in the end the choice was more of a distraction as both met at the next level. Here they found another Stairwell blocked by what appeared to be rubble from perhaps an earthquake or such, none knew anything of the like, so that was their final assumption. But on both sides the Warrior/Mage paths seemed to continue, two stone doors greeted them. One one was a carved image of Two Swords crossed behind a Sheild, the other a Staff over a Scroll. As the Half Elf reached out to touch the Sword and Shield door he was tackled by the Drow. A Sealing spell had been sensed and in caution the Drow took an abrupt course of action, but perhaps all was for naught...
"Lets go this way..."
Came the voice of the Gnome as he pushed through that of the Scroll and Staff door...
With a curse from all three they moved over and pushed the door ajar, seeing nothing on the otherside but a corner the Drow said he would get the Gnome. But the moment he slipped between the gap the door closed behind him. For him alone. To the others on the otherside, the Drow seemed to disappear moments after passing through. With nothing to clasp hold to on this side he turned to find the Gnome gazing at another door slightly confused. Why? Cause he couldn't push this one open...
With another curse and a few futile attempts at calling for both the Drow and Gnome, both of the Half Elves agreed to continue though the door. Moments after, they found their lost adventurers with the Gnome falling face first though the now opening door he had been pressing on. Inside this pathway they found a crypt and a riddle. Their only way out of this new room was to solve it. Flanking the Door was two large satutes of a man and a woman, the man stood to the left wearing what appeared to be a tunic with small cup (goblet) shapes over it and the woman wore a robe with Hearts over Roses all over it. Scribed over the doorway between were the words...
"We are Twenty, Only that which is Greater will pass..."
Confused at first, they finally noticed that of a small receptacle which had two indents in it. One in the shape of a Heart/Rose and that of a Cup (Goblet). Around the room they also discovered more receptacles containing small statutes.
A Numeral 1 in common.
A Twin Moon Axe.
A Small Statue of 3 Sheep.
A Herb with Four Leaves
A Grouping of Five Rings
A Shield with Six Cups (Goblets)
A Ladle
A Infinity Symbol
A Disc with Nine Heart/Roses
A X
Found two receptacles missing a Statue completely.
And a Crown...
Each of these statues had either a Cup (Goblet) or Heart/Rose shaped bump as under the base that they sat on, perhaps they were to be placed in the ones before the door...
They took some time with this. The Eidolon got impatient and slammed in two of the items into the slots only to find himself being shocked by a pulse of electricity moments before both he and the statues were thrown backwards. With this new found knowledge, they tried some risky maneuvers in placing random items into it via dropping it and jumping away when the electricity pulsed. It took a while as they did so at random, no true puzzling done here. Even attempting to place two statutes of the same kind into the slots despite the slots being one of each kind. Heart/Rose and a Cup (Goblet). One attempt resulted with the Numeral 1 remaining in the Heart/Rose slot. Almost unnoticed by the others. Finally the Crown was haphazardly placed within the Cup (Goblet) slot and the door slid open, it was by pure chance and elimination they solved this puzzle, not by using their minds...
Moving deeper into the Crypt the noted that there was a path way coming from the other direction, the confirmed thought was that of once again the split returned to one path after finding another doorway with no possible method of opening. After descending deeper they encountered their first form of resistance other then Doors...
People stood transfixed and silent as they stared at nothing in particular. It was only after one caused a noise to echo through the lower crypt that they turned towards our Heroes. They moved slow, were unarmed and only truly became a threat after they piled onto the Drow, having being left at the foot of the stairs by the others. After pulling the Drow out of the dog pile they quickly made short work of their attackers, who only responded to the sound of their attacks and communication. It was only when the Summoner speared through one of the people that it got stuck and left him to push their victim off with his foot, this unfortunately cause a chain reaction. The force caused him to tilt backwards, falling down the stairs he had retreated to for height advantage. He fell towards his Eidolon who turned to catch him. But the creature was too slow in its movements, turning more to backslap his Summoner who fell now towards the Ranger. How funnily enough stepped out of the way of the Flailing Fool. All this caused the Gnome to drop to the seat of his pants to stable himself as he laughed himself silly. Pulling out a bit of parchment to scribble something down for later...
After finishing off the last, the realsed what they had been fighting. They appeared to be some of the Villagers from above, but they looked reasonably healthy disregarding the damage they had done to them, but their actions and aggressive attitude to their intrusion confused them. Contemplating this as they moved on they were interrupted by two arrows hitting their chest as they opened the next set of doors. Skeletial Archers stood ready for them as they took note of the situations, four more were advancing from both sides wielding blades damaged by time...
After a short bout by utilizing the chokepoint the door permited they cut down the last of the skeletons to find the last doorway and the final piece of their journey. The Magi had noted that throughout the crypt the dark taint had been found leaving footprints that traveled down and deeper into the construct, dust long undisturbed also showed a combination of many feet and a more notable set of smallish ones entering but only the tainted footprints ever leaving again...
Within this last room they discovered something alarming, on either side of this large chamber small rooms had been refitted to be cells, each chocked full with the fearful peasants of the village above. But what alarmed them more was the figure of a man standing between them and a dais, who bound to the columns on it were a Dwarf and a Half Orc, both heavily battered, bruised and bloodied. The Man was covered in what looked like a liquid black sludge that seemed to ripple and bubble with his movements, his eyes glowed lifelessly and his mouth bellowed in small wisps of dark visible air as he spoke the words...
"Master, their here...."
Before drawing from his sides two shortswords they seemed to shimmer in the light. The group acted immediately, the Drow and Eidolon moved in and flanked the creature, the Bard began a song that empowered his colleagues as he and the ranger began firing their crossbow and bow respectively. The Summoner supplying them aid by bestowing Guidance on their shots. The Creatures blades swept around in grand arcs of skill and grace, one amazingly absorbed a Poison Ball cast by the Magus before releasing it against the Eidolon, the other left burn marks along with its bite against the Drow, but soon the creature fell to its knees with a Crossbow Bolt embedded between its eyes. As it fell, the Black Sludge melted from the Man revealing him to be a Half Elf. Clapping slowly echoed through the chamber, but it wasn't from the prisoners...
"Well done, Well done.... You know, I could never pry those from him, but you, you helped me do that..."
The voice came from that of a Gnome dressed in a flowing robe, his hair was of extravagant colours and his grin was both mirthful and grimful as he looked between the combatants. Now standing stock still in their last moments the moment the now deceased Half Elf hit the ground. The two blades once held by his past servent lifted from the ground as if taking to flight themselves before floating past the Gnome on the dais, twiddling his fingers at them as they were placed into a bubbling cauldron...
"They and this were they last of the need ingredients..."
The Gnome continued as he moved to the Half Orc, slitting its throat and collecting the spilt blood into a small bowl, which when filled disappeared to the cauldron as well. Turning back towards the Adventurers he lifted his hand beside him, and with a click of his fingers, both the Half Orc and the Dwarf seemed to disintegrate...
"They are no longer needed, but you, you all will be my witnesses, as I, Roloninog THE Awesome, Sorcerer Extraordinaire will now accend to a greater level..."
The Bard now finding his tongue still worked quickly opened his mouth, in an attempt to distract his apparent captor...
"HEY! YOUR NAME, SPELL IT!!!"
He bellowed. To a spluttering of feigned pain and frustration the Sorcerer began to spell his name. This was an insult to him, that he was not even known by this fool... But the Bard had tricked him...
"Nuh Ah... I. T. Thats how you spell "IT"..."
The Laughter erupted throughout the chamber from that of the cells and of the adventurers. But within moments the scruff of the Bard's tunic scrunched up into a ball and the was pulled towards the Sorcerer...
"Oh, clever... Quite Clever...."
With a flick of his wrist the Sorcerer sent the Bard soaring towards the cells, his head connecting with one of the bars heavily. With a heavy huff the Gnome turned his back towards the others, and with dramatic flare and exaggerated movements he lifted the cauldron by some sort of magic, the bubbling brew began its trip towards the Dias. Adjusting his position to be within what was a Magical Circle drawn onto the stonework, the cauldron over head the Gnome turned around once more, and with a deep bow he was engulfed in the mixture as it was pour down on top of him. A magical wind blew through the chamber as it emanated from that of the circle, the mixture swirling around the Gnome like a tornado of liquid. Far behind him in a small extention, a bight light flashed before dieing down just as aburbtly as it appeared, moments before the Gnome reappeared from the now finished transformation. His body brimmed with magics, his eyes glowed a brighter colour and his body seemed to float now inchs from the ground when before he remained solid on terrafirma...
"Interesting"
Was all he muttered before looking once again towards the adventurers, looking for surprise or such from them, But in response he saw them not where he had frozen them, they had moved, no longer locked by the Hold Spell he had placed over them. The Villagers long captured and sealed within their new prison were also moving, out of the Chamber. His Guest had broken them out or such, they scrambled out through the doorway like water draining from a bucket...
"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOUR GOING!!!"
He bellowed at them, lifting his hand. But nothing happened, they continued to move, they were not spos to continue to move. Turning around he found the Drow poking around the table where he had moment ago had been working, on the table lay the leftover ingrediants of Elf Ears, Kobold Scales and countless other gruesome items, but no Book. Where was his book, In fact he announced it. His Voice boomed louder then ever before as he screamed at the Drow. Who like him didn't know. It had disappeared...
Lashing out he attacked the Drow only to find that his robe had been pinned to the ground by the Ranger and Bard. Their weapons lifted to greet him as he turned. His hand flung out and the air seemed to ripple in doing so. But it didn't take long for the Eidolon to appear and take to rendering him with a large amount of pain. The Eidolon had taken hold of the Gnome, lifting him in its grip, clutched its head then pulled. With a Sicking pop, the Gnome was killed, but blood didn't come from him, nothing did. His body seemed to dissolve into nothing...
With that the adventurers were left in an empty chamber, a girl had remained in one of the cells, and on approaching her they found her body had become frail and her pulse gone. Within her hand she clutched a Holy Symbol of her deity. The girl had given her life force for these adventurers so they could defeat the newly turned Lich. Though the Drow knew none of this, he had returned to the table in search of something, when asked, he revealed he was searching for what was a Phylactery, the container of which the Soul of the Lich Gnome had been transferred to, he explained his discovery with the others. It had disappeared. Somehow teleporting itself away from the area...
But all matters were soon removed from their thoughts, the Drow was ignored by the others even as he explained the need of finding it in favour of being greeted by one of the ex prisoners. He was a Merchant as was already requesting their aid. Help him get back home with his goods and he would pay them. Of which, without much thought, the other three agreed. The Drow dragged along moment after his attempt at copying down the text used to write the magic circle on the dais. No one ever thought to ask the Drow of his findings, so he kept it to himself as they left the crypt and joined the Merchant. Again they kept their conversations limited to destination and such. Only then did they find out truly where they were going...
Baldur's Gate...
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PHEW, that got a bit long, actually had to cut it shorter there at the end. There was a lot of fluffing about with a few problems with internet and timeframes that cut many things short. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the Prologue, I actually start the Campaign next. I have a habit of creating a single use dungeon or event that brings the characters together and make them a true party because to me the "Met in a Bar" cliche is too dry and even though we used it it was used to explain why they got together for the single map game...
In fact annoyingly no one really asked much questions other thing the basics, so their loss. Had a nice tale to go along with it. But they were not interested. Also meant no bonuses I was willing to give them if they became friends with the Merchant. Baldur's Gate is a large city, and contacts are important. I may give a second chance to reinvest a contact with this Throw away NPC but hey I might just do that, Throw him away. He isn't necessary to anything...
The Puzzle was in fact a semi Meta one, each item represented a number, but even futher they represented numbers of playing cards in a way, I attempted to copy another version of this which is set in modern times so the characters from that story easily put two and two together there. The answer was Blackjack. the 1 and the Crown represented the Ace and the King which when put together was 21, which beat the twenty that the Jack (Man) and Queen (Woman) represented, the Heart/Rose was to clue in to the heart symbol on the cards and the Cup was that of an earlier symbol used for Clubs. But Everyone was tired and the internet was being annoying for them, two knew they needed 21 but just could not figure it out. I guess that we are not ready to do riddles in DnD yet...
Oh yeah. This Lich? Yeah, going to use him in between campaigns, as there is a lot of things happening, and the second part had recently released, so he will be coming back to bring the characters to the next one later. How? I have a general idea but that will be a while...
Oh double yeah...
Our Drow kept going on about how the Flaming Fist and Baldur's Gate in general do not like Drow. I do not remember this from any lore. Someone remind me, and also inform me on how I can mess with him. Atm, we are having him roll disguise of evade rolls to go unnoticed by the Fist, but cause I don't really know the cause and effect of the sighting of a Drow in the City, I have been teasing him with "Oooo close one..." stabs every now and then...
Next Episode...
Baldur's Gate - The Founders Festival.
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Topic: DnD: The Tale as it happens. :- Murder in Baldur's Gate. -: (Read 1548 times)