Eltern Story Hour

[Eltern]

My players are collectively keeping session journals, so I'll just be posting those up here. Here's the cast of characters:

Maloren Calimonde:

Kaya Dawn Winter:

Calloway Casades:

Cassius Casades:

Golrath:


Saturday, February 25, 2006

The story begins with the brothers, Calloway and Cassius Cassades in their small hometown in south central Normidia.  After being run down by a malicious pack of spirits, Calloway is inflicted with a strange disease which causes periodic spasms of muscle disfigurement.  He and his brother travel to River's Gate in hopes of finding a cure.  The medical practitioner there tells them the only chance of a cure would be to ask the ancient Irennians, as the affliction is reminiscent of their creations. "And unless you can find the lost city of Iquro, I have nothing to help you."  The brothers retire at the local inn, considering what to do next.

Also at the inn are a group of students on an end-of-term trip from the University of Ithell.  Two of these students, Malloren Clarimonde and Kaia Insert-Last-Name-Here are studying quietly in their room when they hear shouts down the hall.  The town's law enforcement is searching the inn for a missing necklace with a red stone in the center, and none of the students are to leave their rooms while they are searched.

Malloren looks down from her book and is surprised to see the described necklace in her bag.  Kaia sees it too.  As the police steadily approach from down the hall, Malloren grabs the necklace, and prepares to jump out the window.  A convenient deus ex machina, a cart full of straw, is parked right under her window.  She jumps into this, and Kaia, not wishing to explain what happened to her missing roommate, follows.   

Golrath, the shocked cart driver, looks up from his map to see two young women behind him.  He informs them that he is driving to Iquro on business, and they can come along if they like.  Calloway and Cassius hear this from their room, and they too jump from their window into the cart.

Following an uneventful yet bicker-full eleven-day-long journey, the five arrive in Iquro, which is located on an island and is the site of an archaeological dig.  Following a tour, the five learn that the dig is financed by a wealthy art-lover, and that beyond art there are obviously many magical relics to be found here, some of them possibly weapons.   That evening, Cassius spots a shadowy figure sneaking into the tunnels, and the three other youths follow to see what this person is up to.   

Cassius and Kaia catch up to him in time to see him pull out a medallion much like the one Malloren found in her bag.  He presses this on three of the five green stones that are located in a hidden alcove in the wall.  He turns to leave the room in a hurry, but runs into Cassius.  The shadowy man manages to get past Cassius, even after he has an arrow shot into his shoulder.  When he comes to Malloren, he pauses and says her name, then runs even faster when Malloren starts sprinting after him.  He gets to the end of the tunnel, fiddles with the medallion, then disappears around the corner.  During this time, three spirits similar to those that attacked Calloway run down the hall, not visibly hurting anyone.

The medallion in Malloren's possession begins ticking as the group convenes in a section of the hall.  Then it explodes, and gears fly out of it.  No one is killed, although Kaia is knocked unconscious.  They bring her back up to the camp site, where the spirits have apparently wreaked its fair share of havoc.   

They explained what happened to the leader of the dig, Ron, who tells them that the green stones likely held prototypes for Morphians, which were developed by the Irennian League (of which Iquro was a part of).  He also tells the group that another tunnel had collapsed under similar circumstances a few weeks ago.  Calloway explains to Ron the nature of his disease, and asks if he knows of any cure.  Ron tells him he knows there were several powerful wizards that were part of the Morphian project over 2,600 years ago. One of them, he knows, ended up in the far southwestern country of Talis.

Cassius and Calloway head outside to see if they can find the shadowy man, but only find a few bloody footprints and at the bottom of the lake, a medallion.  Calloway dives down and picks it up. 

The group decides to travel south together, Calloway and Cassius to Talis, Malloren and Kaia to Ithell to possibly clear their names of thievery charges, and Golrath to Drakell on business.  In the morning, they take the ferry back to Lake Shore, the nearest town to Iquro, to buy supplies for their journey.  There, they see wanted posters for Malloren and Kaia, so the group plans to quietly exit the town.

[Kristian]

Cool! Very exciting with a lot of action right from the start. I'm very much looking forward to reading more.

[Eltern]

March 4, 2006

In the last episode, we left our intrepid adventurers in Lake Shore, following a night of mystery, exploration, and getting blown up.

Malloren and Kaya are prepared to leave town once they notice the "wanted" posters bear their faces, so the group has convened at Golrath's cart on the edge of town, and is preparing to leave when something has to catch their attention.

A town crier announces that a dead body has washed up on the shore.  The group, suspecting that it is the dark-clothed man who they met in the tunnels of Iquro, goes to investigate the scene.  There they find that same man, sans calves and with an arrow sticking out of his back.  Besides a guard, there are only a handful of people gathered to look.  While searching the body, the guard pulls out, among other things, a black amulet that catches the eyes of said intrepid travelers.  With all the madness that amulets can do, is this one somehow significant to the antique disease that is inflicting Calloway?

Miserably failing at enacting any sort of plan to distract the guard and steal the amulet, Calloway and Cassius only end up irritating the guard to the point where he strongly suggests that they leave.  The group leaves town, none the wiser on the mystery, and just a wee bit more annoyed with each other than they were before.

They travel to Strathon, which will be the last stop before the long trudge to Ithell.  This means that it is time to go shopping for horses, food, herbs, and such, and Calloway wants no part of it.  He goes to the local tavern and drinks himself into oblivion.

Meanwhile, Kaya and Malloren are spotted by the guards, chased through town, and escape by losing the guards in a garden. The group, minus Calloway, reconvenes at the inn.

Calloway awakes in the middle of the street, head pounding, only to discover that all he has to call his own are his pants.  He returns to the inn, and where his companions inquire about his plight.

The next morning, while everyone else impatiently waits, particularly Malloren and Kaya who are wanted by the law, Calloway runs around trying to procure new supplies.  He buys a new sword and new clothes.  The owner of the inn, who can't stand listen to the warrior whine, offers his old hunting boots free of charge.  The group sets out for Ithell.

The first few days are easy going, but soon a long stretch of rainy weather drenches the heroes and floods the road.  While in the midst of fording the road, four heavily armed ogres come up behind them suggest they stop.  From the other side, eighteen lizardcreaturesthatashleighforgetsthenameof (LCTAFTNOs; as a side note, screaming out the unabbreviated name when surrounded by eighteen of them is a good way to end your life on a presposition) - anyway eighteen of them agree with the ogres and add that dropping their weapons and valuables is an even better way to please them.  Thirty more ogreq coming over the hill behind the first four, don't even need to say anything to get the message across.  After a witless attempt at bravado from the brothers Cassades that only accomplishes a nice collection of arrows to be stuck through Calloway's arm, the group hands over their food, four horses, their money, and their unconcealed weapons.

(DM's Note: the LCTAFTNOs are Saurians. The player forgot the name)

The next few days is a test of these intrepid heroes' survival skills.  In other words, they nearly starve to death.  I say nearly because they did not, in fact die, because as providence would have it, a band of traveling grumm merchants meet them in the road.  On the fly, Kaya learns Grummish, explains their plight, and Malloren gives them a golden bracelet in exchange for a few crates of food.

They make it to Ithell with little other to-do.  After stabling the horses, they go to the house of Kaya's parents.  Her parents are tickled pink at the explanation of her absence, which is to say she had decided to expand upon her studies and took it upon herself to visit the archaeological excavation of Iquro.  She tells them that she is going to continue to study the ruins of the continent, and her parents happily agree to fund these exploits.  Everyone, in much better spirits at the mention of "funding" scurries off to the libraries to research the pesky pendant and the disease that had started this whole mess. 

[Lance]

Hmmm it seems your missing a little content in this last entry.

[Eltern]

Edited in the most recent session. Also, I've begun keeping another copy of the story hour at ENWorld, a very large d20 system-related message board.

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=2990634#post2990634

I strongly suggest anyone interested in roleplaying check out the site, as it's a very great community. www.enworld.org
If you happen to post on the ENWorld story thread, I just ask that you not "give away" any of the brainstorming I'll be doing on this website (The ENWorld story hour is for my players' reference).

[Eltern]

Sunday, March 26

While Kaya researches in the Lore Masters Library and Calloway and Cassius research in the Ithell University Library, Malloren is accosted by a dark figure in an alleyway.  He asks for the whereabouts of the amulet, which of course, is way back in the Trackless Mire.  She is released, and the group reconvenes at Kaya's house.

The three have found nothing of note in their research.  Professor Winters, Kaya's father, asks for details of their proposed journey, which he is considering financing through the university.  During this conversation, a dark figure in leather armor is spied spying outside the window.

Kaya, Malloren, and the Brothers Cassades run outside to apprehend this shadowy figure.  Oh, and I suppose Golrath was there too.  Anyway, following a chase on rooftop and by horse on the ground, Prof. Winters shoots the shadowy figure mid-leap, and she tumbles through the second story window of a neighbor's house.

Kaya and Calloway enter the house through the main house, while Malloren climbs in through the second story window.  She enters a master bedroom, where blood is smattered all over the sheets.  She then enters the bathroom and is promptly knocked unconscious.

Calloway and Kaya make their way upstairs to the bathroom.  There, two figures are spotted.  A battered woman huddled scared in the corner, and a leather-clad figure sailing through the window.  Kaya heals the woman in the corner, and Calloway shoots a fireball at the figure flying out the window, while Cassius simultaneously lassos it.

A bullet pops out of the newly healed flesh of the woman.  She punches Kaya in the face, then jumps out the window herself.  On the ground, it is quickly ascertained that the fireballed, lassoed figure on the ground is not the person that was spying on them, but rather Malloren in armor.  Cassius promptly chases after the de-armored enemy on horseback (yes they leave Malloren there, even though she was clubbed over the head, thrown out a window, and fireballed), his dagger infused with fire thanks to his brother.  He throws it into the spy, the spy throws it back, then Cassius throws it back yet again.  Then Prof. Winters shoots the bitch again.

The spy makes her way to a well and jumps down there.  They decide they might need Malloren to climb there since she's the most adept at those sorts of things, so they revive her.  After swimming in the well for twenty minutes, she conclusively finds no trace of the spy.

Without any more leads on this spy, the adventurers split into two groups: one group goes back to the libraries, to do more researching, while the other group buys tickets to the barge that will carry them to Drakkel.  Yes, they are indeed brave, daring, and exciting folks.

The next morning, the group heads out early to catch their boat.  Calloway has one of his transfiguration attacks and manages to catch in his tentacled arm a crossbow bolt intended for Malloren's head.  Staying where they are in the middle of the street where there was an assassination attempt on one of their members, the wise brothers Cassades loudly berate Malloren for having things shot at her, and demand that she tell them all her secrets.  She refuses.  Another crossbow bolt is fired at her head, and again Calloway transforms and catches it with his tentacle.  This time his transformation doesn't stop, and his body is deformed in gruesome seizures.  His allies decide now is a good time to leave the crowded street where onlookers are gawking and would-be assassins have plenty of opportunity to take aim.

They take Calloway to the Lore Masters Library, where the head lore master there gives Calloway some hunter's herb, a preservative, which calms his attack.  The lore master informs Calloway that the effects of the herb are temporary, and if he wants a permanent solution he might try an old woman that resides in the Trackless Mire.  The same Trackless Mire where the group was robbed.

So to Drakkel, to follow the leads on the mystery of the amulet?  Or to the Trackless Mire, to find a cure for Calloway?  Tune in to the next installment for these answers and more!

[Eltern]

Friday, March 31



And so the group decides to board the barge and head off to Drakkel.  The trip is uneventful, with only two stops: one in Barter and one in Price.  There the group goes shopping in book stores and ends up picking up a book on teleportation for Kaya and explosions for Calloway.

When they arrive in Drakkel, Calloway and Cassius head to the Guild House to research on their lead in Drakkel, Sorov Zolode, a war mage of the Irennian League who lived 2500 years ago.  By perusing the guild families' records, the brothers discover that Zolode married into the Bresslar family.  Furthermore, Zolode left his possessions .  They get the address of the family's manor.

Golrath buys a cart and some horses.  Golrath, you crazy son of a bitch.

Malloren and Kaya stop at Malloren's mother's flat.  While entering the apartment, they notice an ogre watching them.  Malloren's mother is definitively not home, so the pair exit the apartment.  The ogre is standing across the street, trying to look nonchalant.  Malloren crosses the street and begins to question the ogre and his motives.  Once he lets slip that he does in fact know her name, he bolts down an alley.  Malloren throws a shuriken into his leg.  He begs to have the shuriken removes, and tells Malloren that he was hired by the Company.  Malloren leads the ogre to the conclusion that Kaya is the one who can transform.  Kaya heals the ogre, and he runs away.

The group meets up at the docks, relates their respective adventures, then separates into two groups.  Golrath leaves to meet up with his client, William Ramsey.  There, Mr. Ramsey expresses dismay that the artifacts from Iquro were lost in the Trackless Mire.  He pays Golrath, then offers him another chance to go retrieve the artifacts.

Meanwhile, the other four head to the Bresslar's house.  There, they meet with a butler, a son, and the father, the head of the house.  All of them are a bit off kilter.  The father is willing to let the four see the artifacts, except that his youngest son has eloped with his bodyguard to Asylum, taking those particular artifacts with him.  The group makes a deal with the head of the Bresslar family that if they protect and possibly persuade the son to return home, they will be allowed to keep the artifacts.

The group meets up again at the inn, a ship anchored at the dock.  Everyone relays their respective information.  When Golrath relays his bit about William Ramsey, Malloren tells everyone that she heard a rumor he was dead.  Kaya scries for Mr. Ramsey, and the person that Golrath talked to was in fact he.

The group then decides to go to Asylum, a week-long journey.  They enter the town.

[Kristian]

This is exciting stuff. Keep on bringing these logs.