Campaign Notes From Campaign 1

[Reno]

Session 1a: Saturday, May 16, 2009

Konrad crosses the border into Nova Vaasa. When the sun goes down, he stops for the night and makes camp. He is awoken once in the night by some deer, but they run away before he can get close enough to catch one.

The next morning, Konrad dons his armor and resumes his trek through the forest. After some time, he is spotted by another traveler, who approaches him. The other person introduces himself as Zibelthiurdos, or Zibel for short. After taking a quick look at Zibel’s ears to see whether he’s an elf (he’s not), Konrad asks if he knows the way to the nearest town.

Meanwhile, the two of them are being watched by a third person, hidden among the trees. For now, he is curious at the sight of two such dissimilar folk meeting in the woods, and decides to follow them.

Zibel tells Konrad that the nearest town is about a half day’s travel to the southwest. Konrad asks whether Zibel has met a man named Gunnar Halst, whom he describes as a tall, slim human with long blond hair and blue eyes. Zibel has never seen this man., so Konrad hires Zibel to guide him to the nearest town for the price of 20 gold.

They travel for some time, with Zibel telling Konrad about a new land that has appeared to the south of Sithicus. When they’re only an hour or two from town, they hear a howl coming from off the path. Two dog-like creatures with patches of skin missing come out. One heads for Zibel, and the other charges off into the trees.

A moment later, a man comes running from that direction, firing back at the pursuing canine. He continues moving and shooting, and accidentally hits Konrad with two arrows, although only one actually hurts him. Konrad draws his morningstar and attacks, while Zibel spits a cone of fire at the creatures. We eventually kill the two dogs. The guy with the bow introduces himself as Troa, and apologizes for shooting Konrad.

The three of us continue on to Har-Thelen, the nearest town. Konrad pays Zibel his fee, then they start asking around town. Konrad is unwilling to speak to elves, so he finds out nothing. But the others find out that Gunnar Halst did indeed pass through here to the south, which confirms Troa’s sighting of the man. Apparently Gunnar is heading to the new land that recently appeared south of Sithicus. Since that’s the direction Zibel is going anyway, he decides to stick with Konrad for a little longer.

Troa is actually able to find Gunnar’s tracks leaving the south gate of Har-Thelen, and so we are able to follow the tracks south. At one point the road forks. Troa knows that there are wolves nearby, but chooses not to say anything to the others.

We cross the border from Sithicus into the new land south of it, and continue on. During the night there is an another attack from the doglike creatures, but we defeat them again.

Eventually we come near a town. Troa takes a look through his spyglass, and what he sees causes him to recoil in horror. The city has been sacked, and people slaughtered. Konrad says that he must go in and check for survivors. Troa reluctantly goes with the others.

When we get to the outskirts of town, the sight and smell of it causes Konrad to lose his lunch. Troa sees a small childlike creature with a melted face staggering toward him, and is scared enough by it that he shoots and kills it. While he decides to bury the wretched creature, Konrad and Zibel start checking the houses for survivors.

We eventually find a house with a few survivors holed up. Konrad and Zibel fight a couple more of the people with the melted faces. Konrad tries to rebuke one, but discovers that they are not undead. When it bites him, Konrad kills it with his morningstar.

The survivors tell us that the ruler of this land is named Constantine. Apparently he went crazy and attacked the town. The people with the melted faces are survivors who have been driven mad by pain. They no longer recognize friend from foe.

While Konrad tends to the survivors, Troa searches the rest of the town. He finds a few more survivors and some treasure, which he splits up with the rest of us. We stay the night in the house, and barricade it against the creatures still roaming the town. A few of them make an attack on the house during the night, but Troa snipes them.

When the morning comes, we set out. The children are blindfolded to spare them the sight of the ruined town. The villagers tell us that the town was named Sliven. They tell us the capital is west, and there’s a closer town called Varna. We set off in that direction.

As we’re walking down the forest path, a large black-and-red-striped cat (a tiger) leaps out from the trees and pounces one of the children, killing him instantly. We set on the creature with our various tactics, Konrad casting touch spells, Zibel breathing lightning, and Troa firing his bow. Eventually we kill the cat, although Troa hears more in the distance.

XP Awarded: 3,038 + petition

[Reno]

I might've missed a few details here and there, since I got so far behind and had to catch up at the end.

[Reno]

Session 1b: Sunday, May 17, 2009

Some elves come out from the trees, survey the scene, and ask us if we killed a tiger. Troa says that the tiger mauled a little boy. The elves converse among themselves for a moment, then the woman introduces herself as Tamuril, and her husband as Amras. Tamuril says they will take us to the city, and that they’ll explain on the way. Then Tamuril notches two arrows on her bow, and fires them into the trees. Troa can hear that whatever or whoever she was firing at, she hit. Tamuril continues launching arrows, and we notice that her eyes are closed.

They urge us to hurry. Troa asks someone to carry the tiger, so he can skin it and sell the pelt later. When the survivors complain, Konrad does it.

Amras leads us for awhile, then takes us off the path. He calls a rest for some of the survivors, and Troa takes the opportunity to skin the tiger. He also takes its claws and teeth. As he’s finishing up, Troa notices some wolves watching him. He motions to the corpse, and the wolves approach and start devouring the corpse as he walks away. Then the alpha male approaches Amras, who pets it on the head.

Amras remarks that we look like outlanders. Troa tells him that he came from Sithicus, to the north. Amras has never heard of the place, and remarks that the land has been changing somehow.

He tells us that we should not kill the cursed cats, because that attracts the attention of the lord of the land, who seems able to feel when one of them is in pain. Amras says he doesn’t know the nature of the lord’s relationship to the cursed cats, since Amras tries to avoid the man. But he says the lord seems to have a thing for tigers and half-elves.

We travel on until dark, and make camp. Troa’s watch goes uneventfully, but while Zibel is watching, the old man wakes up screaming (which wakes Troa back up). When Zibel investigates, he discovers that a strange-looking plant is entangling the old man and starting to kill him. Since he can’t safely use his flaming breath, Zibel tries to cut him loose with the tip of his spear. The plant retaliates by spitting venom in his eyes, blinding Zibel. Troa joins in the battle, launching arrows into the plant. Eventually they kill it.

Troa recognizes the plant, and knows that it feeds by entangling victims and draining their blood. He also knows that its blinding poison is temporary, but doesn’t know how long it lasts. The old man is alive but wounded and blind. Fortunately, there are no more incidents in the night.

The next day we resume our journey, and reach the town of Varna in early afternoon. Amras tells us to seek out a man named Jolof for information.

Troa takes Zibel’s spear and goes looking for a blacksmith. He exchanges it for a spear of better quality, paying the difference out of his own pocket (for now). He returns, gives the new spear to Zibel, and takes the cost out of Zibel’s pack. Then the two of them head for the inn to ask after Jolof.

Meanwhile, Konrad starts asking around about Gunnar. Someone tells him that a man matching that description was seen around town recently. Contrary to previous accounts, this time the man was not acting pleasant and kind. Konrad interprets this as Gunnar showing his true colors. Supposedly the man hasn’t been seen in a few days, but wasn’t seen leaving town either.

With that info, Konrad joins the others at the inn where Jolof is supposed to be. As he enters, Konrad makes a strange noise. Out from the back room comes charging a loud, obnoxious dwarf. He calls himself Jarl Axe-n-Helm. Konrad convinces him that the sound came from Zibel, then makes the noise behind the dwarf’s back.

Jarl Axe-n-Helm looks all over the inn for the “monster,” while the half-elf server explains that Jarl is the owner, but they usually keep him out of the way so he won’t scare the customers. We learn that Jolof is a man over in the corner, so we head to speak to him.

In response to questions from Zibel, Jolof explains that the cursed cats are called tigers. They changed from orange to red recently, when the lord of the land committed the evil act of butchering an entire town. He tells us about how the lord Constantine has camps full of prisoners scattered throughout the land, and experiments on people.

Jolof says that nobody from this land has been outside the country since that day, because whenever they try to leave they end up re-entering the land from the other side somehow. They do know that the land immediately north seems to be different, but the rest of the country seems to have been surrounded by mist.

Konrad joins the conversation and asks about Gunnar. Jolof says that a man looking like that came recently, and went to the local church of Perun to look in the crypt. He never came out, but the dead seem to have been rising and coming out. The entrance was barricaded, but now the church needs someone to go in there and bring the man out, preferably alive. A reward is offered.

We agree to take on the mission, and Jolof supplies us with holy water. We decide to wait a day or two, in order to make preparations. Troa heads out into the woods to get wood to make some special arrows he’s been planning to craft. He accidentally burns himself with alchemist’s fire in the process, but he eventually makes more than one hundred arrows of different kinds.

Later on, Troa sells the tiger skin for a tidy profit, though he has to sell it quietly and illicitly because of the taboo in this land for doing that.

The day we head into the crypt, Konrad prepares different spells to combat undead. When we enter the crypt, Konrad casts a spell to make the entire group invisible to undead. Since the crypt is pitch dark, Troa passes out everburning torches to the others.

We choose to explore the hallway on our right first. The first room is a storage room for empty coffins. The next is a crematorium, with three zombies inside. They don’t see us. Konrad grabs a bellows from by the oven and continues on.

We go around the corner and find three doors on the right and two on the left. The doors on the right all lead to small crypts full of graves in the walls. The first door on the left seems to be some kind of laboratory. When Zibel opens it up, two undead inside see him despite the spell, but Zibel is able to shut the door in their faces before they can attack.

Zibel holds the door shut for a tense minute or two, before the undead on the inside finally give up trying to get us. Then we continue to the next door, which leads to a long row of cells. Inside are people. We find six still alive, though only two are coherent enough to speak. They beg us to help, and we promise to come back for them.

We ask who did this, and they describe a tall, broad-shouldered man with blond hair. Konrad shows his holy symbol and asks if the man had a similar one, which they confirm. Konrad reassures them that the man is a heretic whom he is going to bring to justice.

We pass through the jail area and continue on. The next room we find is another crematorium. Inside Troa finds a necklace made of silver, which Zibel identifies as a magical item called a Periapt of Health.

The next room is empty, although it appears to have been a storage room before. We round a corner and find ourselves near the entrance again. The next room is a large room with a pile of dirt inside. There’s an open coffin at the top, and two undead inside that are fresher-looking than the others. One spots us, and Zibel is barely able to get the door closed in time. We quickly discuss our options, as the undead actually starts trying to open the doorknob.

While Konrad holds onto the doorknob to hold it closed, the other two check the room across the hall, which connects to the laboratory from the other side. It seems to be a storage room for laboratory supplies. Konrad quickly runs in and joins the others, then closes the door behind him. A quick survey of the room shows nothing but lab supplies, but Konrad grabs some flasks of formaldehyde, thinking that it might confuse creatures that track by scent. From Zibel’s description, Konrad thinks the creature that saw us was a wight, which doesn’t track by scent, though.

We leave the room, and notice that the door to the room where the wight was is now open. Konrad quietly pushes it closed again. We extinguish the torches and let Zibel, who can see in the dark, take the lead. We round the corner and start heading toward the back of the crypt. From beyond the range of Zibel’s darkvision, the wight comes charging in, screaming the entire way. We quickly relight the torches.

The wight strikes Zibel with both fists, and he feels it drain some of his energy in addition to the blunt force of the blow. Troa fires an arrow with a capsule of holy water on it, which shatters all over the wight. The holy water seems to burn it. The wight hits Zibel again, then he is able to back up and blow fire at it.

Konrad steps forward, swings and misses with his morningstar, but blocks the hallway so that the wight can’t get to Zibel without passing him first. Troa steps around Konrad and fires a pair of holy water arrows at the wight, hitting with only one of them.

The wight turns its attention to Konrad, but can’t find a weak point in his armor. Konrad lands a blow with his morningstar, and Troa puts a few more arrows into it. Another couple blasts of fire from Zibel, and the wight is consumed entirely by the flames.

After taking a moment to heal Zibel and bless the party as a whole, Konrad suggests we move on. We open the next door and head through. It seems to be a library. Konrad suggests we only stop to look around if anything is magical. Zibel finds a horn, which he identifies as a horn of blasting.

The next adjoining room is an office, with a leather chair made of human skin. Troa comments that he had been doubting Konrad about how bad this Gunnar was, but no more. Gunnar quickly casts a couple more protective spells on Zibel, then smashes through the next door, with Troa rolling through behind him.

Inside are a couple of zombies, and behind them a woman in a wedding dress. She seems to be made of porcelain, with her joints stitched together. On the far wall is a brick wall, with a hole that’s been cemented over. There’s a hole in it at eye level.

The first zombie comes up and attacks. When it strikes Troa, he feels as though he’s drowning. The porcelain lady’s eyes start pumping out blood, which rapidly covers the floor in most of the room. The third zombie causes the entire room to become extremely cold, which starts to damage all of us.

Konrad moves between the first zombie and Troa, as Troa focuses his attention on the one projecting the cold aura. He mixes a combination of fire arrows and holy water arrows. The first undead starts chasing after Troa, and the porcelain lady uses some sort of ability that weakens our constitution. Konrad resists, so she tries it on Troa.

Between that and the other two undead, Troa passes out but is quickly revived by Konrad. Zibel finishes off the weakened drowny-zombie, and then Troa kills the one generating the cold aura. Zibel uses his fiery breath to boil away some of the blood, creating a temporary path through the pool. Konrad and Zibel make their way up the path, and Zibel uses one of his magic items to enhance his breath weapon.

Troa launches another pair of holy water arrows at the porcelain woman, and as she collapses and the porcelain starts to fall away, we see withered body parts beneath it. The blood pool starts to dissipate.

We cross to the back, and there’s a large chest on the ground that we didn’t see before. Inside is a pile of gold, a few potions, a magical bastard sword, and a sinister-looking black book, which Zibel informs us is a sort of instruction book for creating undead and giving them certain powers.

Konrad looks through the eye hole in the back, but he can’t see anything because it’s pitch black on the other side. Zibel looks through and discovers what looks like a cave tunnel that goes back farther than he can see. We discuss what to do, and decide that freeing the prisoners and clearing out the undead is more important than chasing down Gunnar at the moment. Konrad tears out the felt lining of the treasure chest and plugs up the eyehole, while Troa and Zibel return to the office room and search it.

In the office, the desk drawers are locked. There’s a bookshelf with a couple of books, and a hanging cage with a burned and rotting corpse inside. Troa takes his handaxe and breaks open the desk drawers. Inside is a pen and ink, a ring of keys, and some parchment with writing in a language none of us understand.

The books seem to be a journal. It says that the process started three weeks ago. All results are failed. A replacement was found four days ago, and they’re heading south back to base. Replacement to create super-strength undead and super-intelligent undead. The last entry, in different handwriting (which Konrad thinks might be Gunnar’s), says that the whole process failed and he’s leaving the undead behind, though they’ll check up occasionally.

The key ring is able to open the locks in the jail cells. Only two of them are capable of walking unaided, so we help the rest of them back to the entrance. When we reach the steel door back to the church, we give the code knock and they let us out. We hand over the survivors, and tell them that Zibel was touched by a wight. They summon High Priest Rudolf, who not only cures Zibel from the effects of the wight’s touch, but heals the rest of us as well.

We head back in to exterminate the rest of the undead. First we head for the crematorium. Konrad kicks in the door, and Zibel steps through and unleashes his cone of fire. One steps forward and attacks him, while another causes Zibel to flee in fear. Troa crouches and fires between Konrad’s legs at one of the zombies, while Konrad blocks the door so they can’t get out. Zibel flees back to the entrance to the crypt.

Troa continues firing from behind Konrad. Eventually one falls. Troa tumbles through the doorway to get into flanking position. Konrad takes a couple of painful hits, and slowly backs out into the hallway to keep the edge of the doorway between himself and the enemies. Troa eventually takes the zombies down, while Konrad fends them off with his shield.

We head back to the room where the wight was originally found. The coffin is still open, but the other creature inside seems to have disappeared. Konrad starts climbing the mountain of dirt toward the coffin, and a hand reaches up from the dirt to try and grab his ankle. It misses, but the other wight climbs up out of the dirt. Konrad keeps it at bay with his shield and attacks with his morningstar, while Zibel (who came back after his panic attack ended) breathes fire and Troa fires arrows at it.

We slay the wight, and Zibel detects a magical aura beneath the mountain of dirt. Konrad returns to the crematorium and fetches a few shovels, with which we dig out a small box. Inside are slippers of spider climbing.

We head back to the laboratory, the last room with any undead left in it. Konrad realizes that there are multiple entrances, so we decide to attack from different directions. Konrad goes in through the main door, while Zibel comes in through the prison area and Troa enters through the storage room. But first, Konrad uses his last spell of the day to bless everyone.

Since we can’t coordinate while separated, Konrad waits two minutes for the others to get into position. Then he bursts through the door, making as much noise as possible so the others know to attack. Konrad rebukes the zombies, and much to his surprise all three of them cower before him. The ensuing combat is little more than a turkey shoot, with Zibel and Troa blasting the easy targets with breath and bow, respectively.

We decide that we should make one last sweep of the crypt before leaving, and probably destroy those books in the library depending on what they contain. Konrad wonders aloud how all this could have been going on under the noses of the church without their knowledge. The others seem suspicious of this as well. Also, Konrad discards the vials of formaldehyde, figuring that he won’t need them after all.

XP Awarded: 2,800 + petition

[Kain]

Just want to say a BIG thanks for taking notes John. I really have nothing more to add because yours are so thorough. When the campaign is over I'm totally printing these out and making a binder out of it.

[Reno]

Feel free. I'm always glad when these notes are helpful.

[Reno]

Session 2: Sunday, May 31, 2009

Carlyle the halfling enters the town of Varna. He’s been given information that the people who stole the artifact he’s after were last seen in this town. He decides to ask around. He walks into Lord Ax-n-Helm’s tavern. The half-elf running the place doesn’t see anyone come through the door, and calls out a tentative hello.

Carlyle jumps up onto a stool, causing the half-elf to start. From elsewhere a dwarf shouts out “Oi laddie! Who let a baby in here?” Carlyle tries to explain that he’s not a child. Eventually he stops talking to the dwarf, and asks the half-elf, whose name is Damyan, about the people he’s looking for.

Damyan tells him that two people matching that description were here not long ago, bragging about something they’d sold. They also hired out as mercenaries to some cleric. Damyan says he last saw them heading toward the church of Perun. As for whatever they sold, he suggests that it might have ended up in a couple of other towns. Damyan provides him with a map showing those locations, but suggests he look at the church for the two people first.

When the dwarf calls out something about “Say hello to your mother, little boy!” Carlyle punches the door with his fist in a fit of suppressed rage. The door creaks but doesn’t crack. Carlyle leaves, grumbling about stupid dwarves.

Carlyle heads into the church just as the others are emerging from the crypt. He asks the priest there about the people he’s looking for. Troa, Konrad, and Zibel realize that these might be the people that Gunnar hired as bodyguards.

The priest, Geoffrey, asks for our report. We tell him about the tunnel down there, and scrutinize his responses to see if he knew about what was going on. He doesn’t seem to. We tell him what we want for our rewards, and inform him that we’re going after them down the tunnel.

Geoffrey asks to see the tunnel, so we bring him down there. Carlyle, who has followed with the intention of going with us after Gunnar and his people, tries to look through the hole in the wall blocking the tunnel, but can’t see anything but blackness beyond.

When we leave the church, townspeople thank us for clearing the undead out of the crypt.

Finally, we go to rest for two days it will take for us to get our rewards. Konrad heads to the inn. Carlyle follows him stealthily. Troa and Zibel decide they’d rather sleep in the woods.

Carlyle waits until Konrad goes to sleep, then sneaks into his room, empties Konrad’s backpack, and goes to sleep inside.

In the woods, Zibel awakes to discover a black bear rummaging through his backpack. He tries to hit the sleeping Troa with a rock to quietly wake him up. When that fails, he rolls away, stands up, and runs over toward Troa while shouting out about the bear. The bear claws at Zibel, giving him a painful wound.

Troa wakes up, pushes Zibel out of the way, and tries to convince the bear to leave. It doesn’t exactly work right away, but at least the bear doesn’t attack him. Zibel cautiously backs off, waiting to see what the bear will do. It follows him and continues to attack, so Zibel blasts it with his fiery breath. Realizing that diplomacy is probably no good anymore, Troa joins the fight with his bow, causing the bear to chase after him. He eventually fells the bear, then uses his hand axe to finish it off.

Troa decides to skin the bear and use him for a cloak, and also takes its claws and fangs.

Konrad awakens to discover the halfling sleeping in his bad. Konrad quietly leaves the room, retrieves the poker from the fireplace downstairs, and uses it to hang the backpack out the window before waking him up and demanding an explanation. Carlyle says that he likes small places.

Konrad notices that as they talk, the poker is beginning to bend under the weight of the halfling, his gear, and Konrad’s gear. Konrad makes Carlyle hand over his gear, then drops the poker as Jarl Ax-n-Helm happens by underneath.

Ax-n-Helm sees Carlyle fall and steps out of the way, but Carlyle steals his hammer before heading back into the inn and returning to Konrad’s room. They talk briefly, and then both hear Jarl Ax-n-Helm shouting in the inn below about his hammer. Konrad tells Carlyle to throw the hammer out the window, but Carlyle instead climbs out onto the ledge. Konrad closes and locks the window behind him, then hurries downstairs to check out.

While Carlyle climbs onto the roof, Konrad goes downstairs, where Ax-n-Helm asks if he’s seen the hammer. Konrad says that the little one has it, whom he last saw going out the window for the second time. Ax-n-Helm heads to the roof, while he sends the half-elf looking around in the street.

Returning to town, Troa and Zibel see the halfling running along the roof. Troa shoots a tanglefoot bag at him. Carlyle crawls into a chimney to get it loose, but when he emerges the half-elf spots him. Carlyle drops the hammer down the chimney, then drops down the far side of the building and runs off. As he’s running, he hears Ax-n-Helm threatening to cook him and feed him to dogs if he ever comes back.

Carlyle finds a place to hide, and disguises himself as a dwarf before returning. Troa also heads over to the inn to drink. The half-elf actually sees through the disguise, but plays along. Carlyle asks for some ale. The half-elf gives him a powerful drink called a Gutbuster, then when Carlyle starts to feel lightheaded, picks him up and throws him out the door.

When the drink finally wears off, Carlyle climbs up to the roof, then climbs down the chimney. Troa sees this happen. Carlyle runs out the door.

Meanwhile, Zibel meets up with Konrad after he finishes praying for spells. They head back down to the crypt to supervise the excavation . Except that Geoffrey is still out looking for people to take the wall down without damaging the structure of the building. It’s not until the next day they are able to blow out the wall with explosives. By this time we have received our rewards for clearing out the crypt, including magic weapons for Konrad and Zibel, and a magical haversack for Troa.

Once they blow open the wall, Troa buys some of the extra explosives from the workers. Carlyle tries to steal their money pouch, but fails. Troa sees it happen, but says nothing.

The tunnel is long, dark, and carved out of the rock and earth with wooden support beams. We reason that it’s clearly not new construction. We follow the tunnel for hours before we finally find a branch.

After nine hours of travel, we are tired and have still not reached the end of the tunnel. So we set up camp in the tunnel. Zibel sets up his tent, and Troa decides to start a fire. Konrad suggests they hang the haversack over the fire to catch the smoke so it doesn’t clog the tunnel. This is done.

That night, Carlyle is woken up by a rat biting his toe. He chases it off, but now that he’s awake, decides to paw through Zibel’s belongings. But he accidentally knocks over a timber in the fire, causing smoke to start filling the tunnel. This wakes up Troa, who figures out whose fault it is, and cuts his bag down so that it falls on Carlyle. Between them they start to put out the fire, but not before Zibel wakes up. Troa tells him to use his cold breath to put out the fire. He does so, and goes back to sleep. Carlyle moves down the tunnel then goes back to sleep. Troa waits until he’s sure Carlyle is asleep before drifting off himself.

We travel for most of a second day before we come to a door. Carlyle checks it for traps, finds none, and picks the lock. We head through, and find a ladder up to a trap door. Carlyle tries to push it open, but there seems to be something on top of it. So he climbs down and Konrad pushes it open. Everyone climbs up, and we find ourselves in a storage room.

Konrad opens the door there, and emerges into a laboratory. Two children, identical twins by the look of it, are strapped to gurneys. A man in a white lab coat comes through a door, sees us, and calls for help. Konrad tries to trip him with his whip, but misses. The man flees out the door, and two guards come in and order us to drop our weapons. We don’t. Instead, we kill the guards and run outside.

We seem to be in a town, albeit a strange one. There are some larger buildings nearby, as well as what appears to be a building shaped like a giant iron maiden. Off to one side is a pit, and a cloud of smoke coming from a nearby pit. We see more guards patrolling the area, dressed like the ones we killed. They have a tiger paw insignia on their chest.

We quickly duck back into the building. Konrad and Troa strip the bodies of the dead guards, and change into their armor, then Konrad dumps the bodies down into the tunnel. Zibel and Carlyle free the boys, who keep muttering that everyone’s crazy. One of them says that they’ve been experimenting on twins, and in fact Zibel notices that one of them is blind. Konrad has Troa store his plate, shield, and whip inside his haversack.

At Carlyle’s suggestion, Troa binds the halfling’s hands, disguising him as a prisoner. Zibel we leave to guard the children, and send them back in the tunnels. But first, Carlyle disguises Troa and Konrad so they won’t be recognized if we run across the man in the white coat.

Once we’re prepared, Troa begins looking for the man’s tracks. We head out into the night, and follow the tracks through town. As we pass the pit, we see that it’s full of young tigers like the ones we fought before. We also see a couple of young tigers outside the pit, seemingly on patrol.

As we continue on, we run into another guard, who asks our business. We bluff that he’s a captured boy, and we’re looking for his twin brother that escaped. The guard takes the opportunity to abuse the prisoner a bit, but lets us go on our way.

The tracks lead to a building, then come back out. We follow them to a second building, which is guarded by another guard with a tiger. The tiger sniffs Troa, then sniffs Carlyle and backs away (Konrad doused him in formaldehyde earlier during a dispute). The guard wonders what’s going on, but lets us pass. We enter the building.

Inside is the doctor, with two more guards. We hear screaming, because in the back of the room are two metal structures about ten feet tall. There are tables on each of them, with cranks that are being turned by guards. One crank is a conveyer belt that sends a prisoner into the box, and the other crank spins some blades inside.

Realizing that this is a human butcher shop, Troa pulls out his last two tanglefoot arrows, and smashes them against the door to glue it shut. Realizing the game is up, Carlyle pulls the hidden release on his bonds, and we pull our weapons. Troa fires his last fire arrow at the doctor, who catches on fire and drops to the ground writhing.

Meanwhile, Carlyle and Konrad go after the two guards. Troa starts firing at the one Carlyle is fighting, and accidentally kills one of the people strapped to the grinders. One guard is killed and the other incapacitated, although Konrad stabilizes that one before he bleeds to death. Konrad then frees the living prisoner, then straps the unconscious guard down in his place, intending to extract some information. But before he can do anything else, Carlyle turns the crank and starts grinding the man up.

After grinding the man up, something happens to Carlyle. His muscles seem to bulge, and he feels stronger than before. But a strange series of bumps erupts on his forehead, and his skin takes on a slightly scaly feel.

Meanwhile, Zibel hears someone moving around up in the room. He hears the man say “Where are those boys? It’s my head if they don’t turn up,” or something to that effect. The guy keeps searching around up there, and eventually opens the trapdoor and starts descending. Zibel tells the boys to keep quiet and leads them back down the tunnel. Eventually he sees the man reach the bottom of the ladder, carrying a torch. Thanks to his darkvision, Zibel remains outside the radius of the torch’s light. When the man finds the bodies, Zibel sends the kids alone down the tunnel, and heads over to attack the man.

As soon as the guard comes within range, Zibel fires a blast of electricity from his mouth. The guard charges him, and Zibel uses the reach advantage of his spear to attack as the guard closes with him. The guard’s feeble slash misses, and Zibel finishes him off with more lightning.

Zibel picks up the torch and calls for the boys to come back. He passes the torch over to the boy who’s not blind. Then Zibel takes the man’s armor as a disguise, leaves the boys alone for a minute, and moves the bodies further down the tunnel.

Zibel tells the kids to wait here, and if he’s not back in a day, they should head down the tunnel. He then climbs up the ladder, and goes outside. He looks around, and sees a wandering tiger. Staying away from that, he picks a building and goes inside. He finds himself inside the guards’ mess hall. Zibel grabs a tray, gets some food, and gets some water. The water looks cloudy and possibly dirty, so Zibel takes it back to the children, boils the water with his fire breath to purify it, and gives them the food. He waits until the water is cool enough to drink, then gives it to them. Zibel leaves again and takes another look around. With no idea what else to do, he goes back to the kids and waits.

Around this time, the rest of us leave the grindhouse after getting the disguises back on. We decide to head for the mansion, passing the giant iron maiden building on the way. We find guards outside the mansion, and Troa tells them that the doctor wanted us to show the master this child, because of the strange mutation he’s developed.

The guard doesn’t believe the story, until he takes a closer look at Carlyle’s face. Troa also says that the boy is freakishly strong. Carlyle proves him right by bursting free of his bonds and jumping on Konrad. He is “subdued,” and Konrad subtly heals Carlyle a bit while roughly hauling him to his feet. We march the boy inside, and they lock the doors behind us.

The front hall is empty except for us. We look around for a moment. Troa puts his sword down, draws out the magical bastard sword from his pack, and sunders the longsword. He then puts the bastard sword away, and says we need to find the armory.

We hear voices on the other side of a door. Konrad recognizes one of them as Gunnar Halst. Troa knocks on the door, and asks to talk to the master. They’re surprised to see that someone was let through. Troa feeds the same story to them, and they let us in. As soon as we get inside, Carlyle recognizes the two guys with Gunnar as the people he’s looking for. Gunnar, who is wearing new armor, is talking to what seems to be a general or something.

Carlyle starts growling and pulling at his ropes. They demand to know what our business is, and Troa tells them to take a look at our “prisoner.” He tells them that the prisoner broke loose for a moment, and shows his broken sword as proof. The general steps forward, says something to Carlyle, and the halfling bursts out laughing uncontrollably. The general seems amused, and tells us to leave him here.

Konrad recognizes the laughter spell, and quietly whispers to Troa to stall while he observes to see how long the laughter continues. Konrad notices that Gunnar’s armor is new, and appears to be of dwarven make. Troa talks about how this prisoner killed two guards. The general seems to buy it, but Konrad looks suspicious. He has Gunnar cast some sort of spell, but to no effect.

Carlyle stops laughing. Having counted the seconds of the laughter spell, Konrad reasons that this wizard isn’t that powerful, and flashes a thumbs-up to Troa. Troa motions the general over to see a mark on Carlyle’s neck, then when he gets closer Troa shouts out “now!” Carlyle grabs the axe off of Troa’s belt and sneak attacks the general with the flat side.

Troa pulls out his bow, leaps onto a nearby table, and fires at the general. Konrad gives Carlyle some more healing. Carlyle slashes the general across the belly, felling him, and then when he drops to his knees, the halfling beheads him.

A circle of blackness emanates from Gunnar, shrouding most of the room in darkness. Recognizing the spell, Konrad takes advantage of the distraction to strengthen his own defenses, then starts edging around the guard toward Gunnar. Troa, who is not inside the dark radius, starts taking the chairs and blocking the door into the room. Carlyle hides, sneaks behind one of the guards, and attacks.

Gunnar jumps out the window, and the shroud of darkness follows him. Konrad chases after, leaping out the window after him. But when he hits the ground and looks around, he sees neither Gunnar nor the globe of darkness.

Troa sees Konrad leap out the window, and runs to the window but doesn’t see anything but Konrad outside. While Carlyle keeps fighting one of the guards, Konrad starts looking around outside. Troa turns his attention to the other guard and fires at him.

Carlyle hits so hard with the handaxe that he pierces the guard’s chainmail, hurting the man bad enough to take him out of the fight. Outside, Konrad runs to the front of the building and shouts to the guards that Gunnar has murdered the general. They don’t seem to believe him though.

Carlyle tries to tackle the other guard, but fails and is himself knocked down. Troa uses the distraction to get some distance. The guard attacks the prone halfling, wounding him badly. Carlyle chops the man’s foot with the handaxe, then when the man falls over, he climbs on top of him and demands the location of the artifact. But the guard is too badly wounded to respond.

Troa and Carlyle search the bodies and the room, finding some gold, a ring, and the general’s spellbook.

XP Awarded: 2,000 + petition

[Reno]

Session 3: Sunday, June 14, 2009

Carlyle inspects the downed guard, and determines that he’s not in danger of bleeding to death. The halfling is unable to bring him around, though, so he drags the man over to the window and jumps out with him. He disguises himself as a guard, but because of his size it doesn’t fool anyone. The guards sound the alarm.

Konrad, who is around in front of the building, hears this and berates the guard there for not doing his job.

Still inside, Troa continues stacking furniture in front of the door. Then he rips down the drapes, soaks them in alcohol, and starts the pile on fire before jumping out the window himself.

Around this time, someone opens the iron maiden. Troa and Carlyle hear the noise, and someone

Carlyle heads back to the passage by which we came into the area. There he finds the guard that Zibel killed, and Zibel shows up and explains the situation. Zibel asks where the others are, and Carlyle says they’re scattered.

Since all the surviving soldiers seem to be rushing toward the iron maiden, Zibel (who is still in disguise) decides to see what’s going on. He discovers that the camp is in total panic because of the vacuum in leadership. Some guards are fleeing, some are killing themselves to avoid punishment for running away, and others are just running around in panic. Even the tigers, free of their handlers, are basically running around uncontrolled.

A hulking undead comes out of the iron maiden. It’s larger than us, but not as large as the building itself. Two of the guards stay to fight it, but everyone else runs away. As we move up to engage it, Konrad casts a blessing to boost everyone’s morale. It doesn’t help one of the guards, though, who is killed with the monster’s axe.

We fight the undead, but most of our attacks bounce off its thick hide. Carlyle hears the sounds of battle and comes running to join in. Finally, Konrad rebukes the creature, and it cowers before him while we all gang up on it and destroy it. It crumbles into pieces.

While Konrad and Carlyle head into the iron maiden to look around, Troa and Zibel spread out to look for survivors, particularly innocents. Troa insists that this place of evil must be destroyed.

Inside the iron maiden, Konrad finds the place where the monster was secured to the wall. It looks like acid was used to burn through the straps enough for the monster to break free. Nearby he also sees a weapon rack, which Carlyle heads over to inspect. He takes any weapons that look particularly well crafted.

On the way out, Konrad checks the body of the fallen guard. He finds a particularly nice longbow, which he hands over to Carlyle to appraise. Carlyle says it’s worth at least 5,000 gold.

Meanwhile, Troa and Zibel find the prison block, with about thirty-five survivors inside, in various degrees of health. They look around but can’t find a key to the cells, so Troa pulls out the magical bastard sword in his bag and hacks through the doors with them. The terrified prisoners shrink to the back of their cells until he orders them out.

Carlyle heads over to Troa to negotiate a trade for the bow. He ends up trading it for some gems. While this is going on, Konrad starts stopping random survivors and asking them about Gunnar. When one denies knowing who Gunnar is, Konrad breaks one of the man’s fingers. After he stops screaming, Konrad asks again. He says that he saw Gunnar leaving the camp, but he wasn’t leaving any tracks. Konrad breaks one more of the man’s fingers and lets him go.

He keeps searching and finds one more man. This man says he doesn’t know where Gunnar is, but Konrad doesn’t believe him. He drags him inside the giant iron maiden and throws him against the weapons rack, then draws his whip and demands the truth. Finally the man admits that Konrad is something other than human: he has magical powers (not of the priestly nature), leaves no tracks, and his eyes seem capable of looking right into one’s soul. When Konrad is satisfied that the man is telling all he knows, he punches the man in the face for holding out on him, then leaves.

Carlyle comes running up to Konrad, and asks him for help in interrogating his prisoner. Since this guy is one of Gunnar’s bodyguards, Konrad agrees. Meanwhile, Troa comes down into the tunnel and leads the two kids away so they don’t see. Zibel, who is still starting fires in the camp, is the last one back into the tunnel.

For the interrogation, Konrad suggests we walk and talk. He wraps his whip around the man’s good leg and drags him, while Carlyle sits on the guy’s chest and gets right up in his face. Carlyle demands to know where “the artifact” is. The man denies knowledge, but we know he’s lying. Carlyle threatens to rip out the man’s eye if he doesn’t talk. He doesn’t, so Carlyle makes good on his threat.

When the man starts screaming, Konrad stops and tells him to quiet down because there are children present. Carlyle continues shouting at the man, and learns that the artifact is a dagger. Supposedly it makes people think evil thoughts. He says that the dagger is in the possession of a man named Lazar, who is in the capital city Sofia.

When Carlyle decides he has gotten enough information for the moment, he cracks the man’s kneecap with his mace, and offers to trade places with Konrad so he can interrogate the man himself. But Konrad decides to let the man stew for awhile before proceeding with his own questioning.

At the conclusion of the questioning, Carlyle’s dark transformation continues. He grows a bit larger, and the vestigial horns protruding from his skull grow larger and start to curve upward. He also starts to get a craving for raw meat and organs. His skin starts to take on a reddish hue, as if sunburned.

We make camp in the tunnels that night. When morning comes, Konrad casts a spell to cure the child’s blindness before we set off again. As we start to walk, Konrad casts a zone of truth so the prisoner can’t lie to him, then interrogates him about Gunnar. He learns that the man was hired on as a bodyguard in Varna. He says that when Gunnar fled the camp, he probably either went to the capital or to the royal palace. He also confirms what Konrad has heard about Gunnar’s strange eyes, and says he can also change shape.

When Konrad determines that the man has no more useful information, he turns him over to Carlyle. The halfling decides to end the man’s life, first putting out his other eye. He then stabs him in the throat. Konrad checks the guard, and learns that he’s still alive and not bleeding out. He says as much to Carlyle, and the halfling kills him.

As Konrad starts walking back to the others, Carlyle gives into his craving for raw meat, and starts to eat the corpse. Unseen by the others, Carlyle’s physical transformation continues. He grows even larger, surpassing human size. His horns grow to full size, and he begins looking like a demon.

When he’s finished, Carlyle comes up the tunnel toward the others. As soon as he sees the creature which is no longer recognizable as a halfling, Troa fires an arrow at him. This sends the creature into a berserker rage, and it attacks Troa. It knocks him out, then turns its attention on Zibel, who fires his fiery breath at it. Konrad revives Troa, just as the Carlyle-demon charges Zibel and gets stabbed by his spear.

Troa prepares to kill it, but Konrad stops him and says that it’s the halfling, who was probably not in control of his actions. Troa relents, but says that if it attacks again he will kill it, then kill Konrad. Konrad dares him to try.

When the tension slowly ebbs away, we catch up to the kids and continue on. They ask what the creature is that we’re dragging along, and we say it’s a creature that followed us from the camp. They ask what happened to the short guy, and we tell them the beast consumed him.

Eventually we get back to the church we left from. They’re terrified of the unconscious fiend, but Konrad tells them he believes it’s a demonically possessed halfling. He convinces them that the process might be reversible, and they agree to help with the process.

In the meantime, Troa takes the two children, whose names are Dante and Virgil, to Jarl Ax-N-Helm’s tavern and persuades the dwarf to take them on as assistants. Troa gives the dwarf some money to give the kids when they grow up.

Konrad orders the church’s high priest to get some chains from the blacksmith. He does so, and returns an hour later. We secure the chains to the wall and lock up Carlyle with it. Once he’s secured, Konrad revives him. He shows Carlyle what he looks like now with a mirror, then tries to convince him that he must repent of his actions, and that only by converting to the Lawgiver’s worship can he find the self control to overcome what’s happened to him. In Carlyle’s mind, he combines the Lawgiver with Sephiroth (his current made-up deity).

With that, Konrad leaves. Carlyle asks him to get raw meat. Konrad says he will see what he can do. He gets beef from a local butcher, has it cooked by one of the priests, and gives it to the demon. Carlyle demands raw meat. Konrad says that he cannot be given raw meat. The ex-halfling flies into a rage and starts straining against his chains.

Konrad calmly leaves the room and locks the door, even as Carlyle breaks one chain after another, until only one chain remains. With his rage finally spent, he resigns himself to eating the meat.

Meanwhile, the head priest refuses to have anything else to do with this affair, and storms out of the church. The other priests follow.

When he finishes eating, Carlyle breaks the last chain, then scoops up some of the chains and tries to smash the door with them. He’s not able to break the door down, so he rethinks it for now and tries to pray again.

Now Konrad piles furniture in front of the door. When Carlyle goes to sleep, Konrad looks in on him, then leaves for a few hours.

Meanwhile, Troa and Zibel discuss the situation. They both think that Konrad has gone insane. Troa suggests that Carlyle may not even be worth saving. Jarl overhears them and asks about it. They say there’s a demon inside the church. Jarl says he’ll be right back, and he leaves the inn.

Jarl goes to the church, and somehow Konrad actually doesn’t hear him come in. However, he awakens Carlyle, who grabs a bolt from one of the broken chains and uses it to pick the lock. When he opens the door he comes face to face with Jarl, who surprisingly recognizes him. They talk and Jarl leaves to return to the inn.

Konrad emerges from the next room over and has Carlyle hand him the lock pick. Carlyle goes back to sleep and Konrad locks the door behind him and re-barricades it.

XP Awarded: 938 + petition

[Reno]

Session 4: Sunday, June 28, 2009

Jarl returns to the inn, shouting about how he’s never seen anything like that crazy six foot tall horned demon thing. He walks right past Troa and Zibel and goes upstairs.

The next morning, Troa and Zibel are woken up by the sounds of weaponry and such clanging together downstairs and outside. Troa goes downstairs and sees people putting their weapons away. They seem to be massing in preparation for an attack on something.

So Troa asks one of them if they’re preparing for a witch hunt or something. They say it’s something like that. Troa tells them he’s a demon hunter, so they ask him for help. They tell him there’s a demon in the church and they’re going to go and kill it.

Zibel comes downstairs as well and learns this same thing. He and Troa realize that Jarl must have told somebody what he saw last night. Troa thinks that the mob will get slaughtered by Carlyle if he doesn’t do something. So he tries to infiltrate the church. Zibel decides to try and get the authorities to intervene.

Troa sneaks around to the back of the Church, but finds the door locked because Konrad locked all the doors to the Church last night. He realizes that he can’t pick the lock, so he tries to smash it with his bastard sword. After a few tries, he breaks it open and searches the church. He finds a room with a closed door and knocks.

Konrad answers the door, morningstar at the ready. Troa tells him about the angry mob forming, and says that he’s got maybe twenty minutes until they arrive. Konrad asks where he stands in all this. Troa says he’s warning Konrad because he owes him that much, but otherwise he’s going to let the mob do what they do.

Zibel heads to the local constables, and discovers that they’re already on high alert. When he says that he’s asking them to stop the mob, they take him inside and talk. They question him about what he sees. The local sheriff or whatever says they’ve got only a few guards, but they’re going to try and calm the people. In the meantime, they’re going to send for reinforcements. They thank Zibel for his information.

Zibel heads back to the square, and sees the guards trying to hold back the mob unsuccessfully. He sneaks past them, finds the open back door to the church. He goes inside, looks around, and finds a now armored Konrad removing the barricade in front of Carlyle’s room. He informs Konrad of what he’s seen outside, including that the mob is about fifteen people right now.

Inside the locked room, Carlyle hears the commotion and tries to push the door open. Konrad tells him to stand back and he does.

Meanwhile, the mob has gotten close enough that Troa (who is on the roof), Zibel, and even Carlyle can hear it. The guards are still trying to calm them but it’s basically a lost cause by this time.

Konrad tells Carlyle to head down into the catacombs and wait for him there. Then Konrad goes to the second story window to watch the mob while Zibel looks around the church for anything useful to us before we leave. He finds a fancy shortsword that he identifies as magical, some holy water, and holy symbols made of gold and silver.

Konrad arrives at the window just in time to see the last guard running for his life. The crowd has a portable ram, and they’ve used it to crush another guard against the church door. They continue battering the door.

On the roof, Troa decides it’s time to head downstairs. But as he’s going, he spots authorities coming, with some tigers. One of them is massive, big enough that somebody is riding it. He decides to take a shot at the big tiger. At that distance he can’t tell if he hit or not, so he quickly goes inside.

Troa catches up to Konrad and tells him about the tigers. Konrad says they’re leaving by the tunnels, and Troa can come with if he likes. He decides it’s better to leave than wait around for the tigers to show up.

On the way down to the catacombs, Konrad sprinkles some formaldehyde to try and disguise our scent. When we reach the tunnel, the others are already there. We set off down the tunnel, with Konrad marching Carlyle in front of him, and Zibel and Troa watching the rear.

We travel for about six hours that way. Suddenly, out of the darkness a tiger pounces on Zibel. Troa recognizes it as a young tiger rather than full-grown, but he shoots it anyway. Carlyle hears the tiger, and Troa’s scream, and turns around to join in the fight. He jumps on the tiger and pulls it off Zibel, wrestling it away. Konrad bashes the tiger on the head, and Troa continues shooting it.

Finally, the tiger dies. Troa stuffs the entire thing into his bag, and we set off again. After another six hours of walking, we stop to rest. Troa takes the first watch, which is uneventful. He wakes Zibel, and together they wake Carlyle to help with the watch. Carlyle decides he’d rather eat, so he finds some rats, cooks them in a fire, and eats them. But he grudgingly watches as well.

After some time they see something coming up the tunnel toward us. It’s some kind of big, undead-looking creature with burning eyes, so the two of them fight it off. Using its big fist, it smashes Carlyle down to the ground, knocking him out.

Realizing that he is not going to be able to handle this by himself, Zibel shouts to wake up the others. Troa and Konrad join in the fight. Troa fires holy water arrows at the creature, which proceeds to knock out Zibel as well. Konrad tries to rebuke it but with no success. It brushes past Konrad to Troa, and knocks him out.

Konrad smashes the creature on the back of the head with his morningstar, and it collapses. He quickly heals his fallen party members. We discuss our options, and decide that it’s best to move on right now, especially since Konrad thinks this creature, a type of wight, was sent after us by the people with the tigers.

We continue on and travel for most of a day. When we reach the fork, Troa fires a formaldehyde arrow down the other fork, the one that leads to the camp we’ve burned down. We then head down the new fork, and travel until we’re tired again. Troa estimates that by the time we stop, we’re only a few hours from the end of the tunnel, assuming it ends at the town of Blagovgrad.

Carlyle wants to press on, but Konrad convinces him that he can’t go by himself. We rest overnight and get going the next day. After only four hours we come to a door. Carlyle gets his thieves’ tools from Troa and picks the lock. He finds himself in a crypt, so he searches around and finds some gold necklaces in a sarcophagus. Carlyle then heads out the door and finds himself in a cemetery. The rest of us follow.

Suddenly Carlyle runs across the graveyard at top speed, startling a mother and child that were visiting a grave. Carlyle hops the fence and runs into an alley. He “scrummages” through a dumpster looking for old clothing, and finds a woman’s dress and babushka. He then grips his demonic horns and, with a grunt of effort, snaps them off. He finds a strip of black cloth to cover the bloody stumps, then puts on the dress and babushka.

Konrad gets to the alley and sees what looks like an old woman come out of the alley. He hails the old woman and asks if she’s seen a demon. Carlyle reveals that he’s in disguise. He then walks off.

Carlyle goes into a shop and buys some stuff. Then he hides inside the shop. Konrad comes in and asks after the woman. He says that the woman is old and her memory is bad, so if she comes back then the shopkeeper should keep her there.

Konrad then leaves to look around the town. Troa and Zibel buy some stuff from the shopkeeper as well, although he subcontracts the magical orders to someone else. Troa decides to follow the shopkeeper and discovers that he goes to an old man for magical orders. He follows the shopkeeper back.

When the shopkeeper returns, Carlyle pops from hiding and tells him that he undercharged Troa for one of his items.

Meanwhile, Troa returns to the graveyard, finds Carlyle’s tracks, and follows them. He tracks them to the shop, and discovers that Carlyle never came out. Konrad joins him there, and we decide we have to smoke out the demon.

Troa uses his smokesticks to make it look like the shop is on fire. Konrad yells out “fire!” and then walks away from the building. The shopkeeper comes out, and guards come in response to the call of fire.

Troa explains that he lit the smokesticks to smoke out the demon. The shopkeeper doesn’t believe that Carlyle was a demon, or even that demons are real. In response to that, Troa brings Zibel and tries to convince him to spit fire. But Zibel won’t do it.

Meanwhile, Carlyle sneaks out the back door and hides.

While Konrad tries to force the shopkeeper to admit that he’s been harboring Carlyle, Troa draws off the guards by slapping one, and then running off. Konrad takes the opportunity to smack the shopkeeper around a little bit to force an admission. The shopkeeper admits that Carlyle was there but doesn’t believe he’s a demon.

Konrad decides to stay around until Carlyle returns. Having nowhere else to go, Zibel sticks around too.

Once Troa gets outside of town, he loses the guards and sets a snare trap with some meat, hoping to lure Carlyle.

Some hours later, the shopkeeper wants to close up for the night and go home. Konrad and Zibel follow him outside. As the shopkeeper walks around to lock the back door, Carlyle (who has been hiding on the roof) gets his attention. He convinces the shopkeeper to leave his weapon and armor behind on the ground. The shopkeeper does so, then slips back into his shop and locks the door.

Konrad, who heard this exchange, comes around and leans up against the wall, waiting for Carlyle to come down. Carlyle jumps down, grabs his stuff, and tries to run off. Konrad tries to trip him up with his whip, but it slips free of his grasp and Konrad takes it with as he runs away.

Zibel hears guards come in and speak to the shopkeeper. They’re looking for the people that were traveling with the man who slapped a guard (Troa). Zibel relays this to Konrad and they slip away before the guards find them. Out on the street, they meet up with Troa. Konrad explains what happened with Carlyle, and Troa follows the tracks.

Carlyle does his best to hide his trail as he runs away, going onto rooftops and treading on harder ground that doesn’t hold footprints. Carlyle makes his way back into the crypt.

The man on the huge tiger goes into the crypt as well. He introduces himself to Carlyle as Constantine. He asks Carlyle to join his forces. Carlyle agrees to do so on the condition that Constantine help him get back the dagger he’s been seeking. Although he doesn’t fully trust Constantine, he agrees to the alliance.

Troa sees the two of them go into the crypt, and sees two tigers left outside to guard it, plus the huge one that was being ridden. When Konrad and Zibel finally catch up, Troa tells them what he saw.

Zibel decides he doesn’t want to go anywhere near the tigers so he goes back to town. Troa continues following Carlyle’s path into the cemetery. Konrad doesn’t want to spoil the attempt at stealth, so he waits by the gate for Troa to signal him. Troa gets to within fifty feet of the crypt.

Inside, Constantine says that Carlyle can either come with him or stay here. He decides to go with him. They leave the crypt together. Konrad starts buffing himself with spells while Troa sneaks closer. He then fires a thunderstone arrow at Carlyle. The deafening boom echoes, deafening some of the tigers.

On the way back to town, Zibel hears the boom and decides he’d better come back to investigate. He turns around and heads back toward the cemetery.

Having been struck, Carlyle flies into a blood rage. He runs off in the direction that the arrow came from. Troa is still hidden, though. He looks around, but doesn’t see anything. Troa shoots him again from cover. This time, Carlyle spots him. Konrad pushes open the cemetery gate, realizing he’s going to have to join in.

Constantine stands back, content to watch events unfold. Carlyle charges up to Troa and takes a mighty swing with his new axe. Troa is hurt and runs back. Konrad steps in front of him and tries to calm Carlyle’s rage with a spell, but it fails. Carlyle runs right past Konrad and cuts down Troa, despite being struck by Konrad’s morningstar.

Zibel arrives on the scene and tries to help Konrad take Carlyle down before he kills Troa, but we aren’t fast enough. Carlyle cuts through Troa and continues attacking the corpse.

One of Constantine’s tigers comes up and knocks out Carlyle after he ignores Constantine’s command to stop. Constantine strolls up, looks at Carlyle and Troa, and apologizes to Konrad for the death of his friend. He says he will take care of Carlyle. Konrad reaches down, touches Carlyle, and infuses him with negative energy, killing the once-halfling. He then tells Constantine not to bother, and retrieves his whip.

XP Awarded: 2,250 + petition

[Kain]

More for my knowing for next session, but when we finished Session 4 it was roughly 6 PM in game.

[Reno]

Session 5: Sunday, July 12, 2009

Konrad and Zibel find the gravedigger’s house in the cemetery and knock on the door. There is no response, but Zibel spots lit candles inside. So we go around back and find an open door. No one is inside, so we sit down to wait.

After awhile, the filthiest, smelliest dwarf we’ve ever seen comes in and demands to know what we’re doing. Konrad negotiates for him to bury Troa’s remains, then he and Zibel return to town.

Meanwhile, Olgun and Seth come into town well after midnight, looking for an inn to stay at. They find a place called the Sleeping Crossroads. Olgun decides to walk on his hands. The elven girl inside gives him a funny look for that. A drunken man takes a disturbing interest in Olgun, so he looks to Seth to help him out.

The man passes out before Seth can do much, so the innkeeper asks them to carry the man to his room. Seth lifts him up with one hand and carries the man to his room. He reawakens when they get there and says he forgot the key, so Seth forces the door, puts him inside, and tells the guy to leave him alone.

Seth comes downstairs and tells Olgun that he accepted mercenary work for them. They’re going to track down a valuable dagger so they can sell it. Olgun isn’t happy about it, but Zibel happens to overhear that they’re going to Sofia, which is where Gunnar was supposedly headed. He tells them as much, and describes Gunnar.

When Olgun and Seth learn that Konrad and Zibel are working against the government, they are eager to join up with us in traveling there. We agree to travel with them the following day.

The next morning, Konrad goes over to the magic shop and hands over his, Troa’s, and Zibel’s claim tickets. The shopkeeper quickly gives him the items and shoos him out the door. Meanwhile, Zibel returns to the graveyard to make sure the digger buried Troa, which he did.

When we get back to the inn, Seth has hired us a carriage to take us part of the way to Sofia. The most direct route to Sofia would be through the Black Woods, but we are told that place is dangerous, and that those who go in don’t come out. Supposedly, a witch lives in there. Seth dismisses the idea of witches, but nonetheless we decide to go around the Black Woods.

Unfortunately, that means traveling through the Forgotten Woods. We pile into the carriage (except for Olgun, who jumps up on top). After a day’s ride, we get to the border of the Forgotten Woods. We stop for camp for the night, and set up watches.

During the third watch, we are attacked by three man-shaped creatures made of mud. When we kill them, we find skeletons inside the mud. Seth decapitates them, just to be safe, and we wake the driver and continue on. Eventually we pay him for his trouble and continue on foot.

We try to tread the narrow patch of land between the two forests. We notice that although we can hear normal woodland sounds coming from the Forgotten Woods, there is no sound at all coming from the Black Woods. When we stop for the second night, Seth explores the Black Forest to see what he can see. He comes upon an animal walking backwards, and at one point it stops and seems to un-eat some grass. Seth decides this is too weird for him and turns to come back to the camp. He has trouble finding it, but eventually emerges into the clearing.

As Seth leaves the Black Woods, he hears a cackling sound coming from the woods. He’s weirded out.

We eventually reach the river, and follow it along the edge of the Forgotten Woods toward the bridge where the road emerges from the woods. When we stop again, we find a gypsy camp not far away, with music and dancing and bonfires. Olgun goes over there and parties with them, but the rest of us stay in our own camp.

Seth’s watch goes uneventful, but during Zibel’s watch he sees some animals and figures heading into the gypsy camp. In the Vistani camp, the old woman in charge wakes up Olgun and tells him to take her granddaughter Melina and get out of the camp. Melina must get back to Barovia (a place that Olgun has never heard of).

As Olgun escorts Melina out of the camp, flaming arrows start hitting the tents and wagons, and some tigers come into the camp. Olgun resists the temptation to turn and fight, and runs with Melina over to our camp.

Zibel sees him coming, and they quickly wake Seth and Konrad. Seth decides to check out what’s happening at the Vistani camp while Zibel and Olgun help Konrad into his full plate. When Konrad is ready, Zibel and Olgun sneak toward the camp while Konrad gives Troa’s bow to Melina and asks her if she can use it. She says she can.

Up at the camp, the group sees Constantine stride in, with Carlyle at his side. Although Seth once met Carlyle, he obviously no longer recognizes the halfling because of his demonic form. However, Zibel recognizes him easily.

Constantine demands to know who they think they are for coming into his land and killing his creatures. As his people start killing the Vistani, they curse those who are killing them. Melina smiles at that, and explains to Konrad what they are doing. Carlyle starts sniffing the air, as if he smells something familiar. He starts looking around for whatever it is he smells.

Seth charges into the camp and attacks a guard, wounding him badly. The guard stumbles and starts to run away. Konrad starts casting defensive spells on himself. Seth pursues the soldier and kills him, then tells Constantine to leave the Vistani alone. Constantine tells him to get lost.

As Carlyle gets closer to the invisible Zibel, Konrad casts a blinding spell on him, but it doesn’t work. Up this close, Zibel sees that Carlyle now has hoofed feet and vestigial wings. Thinking that Carlyle is coming toward him, Olgun bursts from hiding and charges at the demon, just as Zibel lets loose with freezing breath.

Carlyle flies into his berserker rage, with his focus on Olgun, who hit him first. Konrad comes clanking into combat, casting a shielding spell on Olgun as he closes in.

Constantine gets fed up with Seth refusing to leave, so he attacks, even though he is unarmed. He hits Seth, dodges the counterattack, and then hits Seth again, dropping him. As soon as Seth hits the ground, Constantine pays him no more attention and starts issuing more orders to his men in the camp.

Carlyle and Olgun continue fighting, and Konrad joins in the fight. Konrad delivers the final blow, cracking the former halfling in the head with his morningstar and dropping him. Olgun immediately runs over to Seth to check on him. The others follow.

Konrad revives Seth, and Seth heals himself a little. He then asks for someone to hurt him a bit, so Konrad gives him a small burst of negative energy. Konrad then suggests we leave because we have lost this fight, and the Vistani casualties are almost 100% at this point. Olgun agrees, but Seth charges right after Constantine again, landing a powerful blow with his sword.

Olgun now decides that he can’t let Seth die, so he charges after as well. He gets one good slash in, then Constantine turns and punches him out. He throws a flurry of strikes at Olgun as well, but only hits once. Olgun has wreathed himself in flame, so Constantine is burning himself. Konrad revives Seth again, and backs off. Zibel is already retreating.

Constantine continues attacking them, almost dropping Seth again. Konrad’s protection spell allows him to take half the wounds that Olgun would be taking, so Olgun is able to stand pat while Constantine hits him again. Seth finally listens to reason and runs for it. Olgun makes a fighting retreat, throwing one last blast of flame behind him at Constantine. Konrad stands shoulder to shoulder with Olgun while they back away.

Instead of pursuing, Constantine pulls out a potion and drinks it. As Konrad and Olgun continue retreating, they pass the body of Carlyle, and blast him with searing light and fire as they pass. A tiger the size of an elephant comes up to Constantine as we leave.

Once we get to the safety of our own camp, Melina climbs down from her tree. We continue watching the camp while waiting for Seth (who ran off in a different direction) to find his way back to us. As we watch, the rest of the Vistani camp is burned down. Some bodies are incinerated, others carted off.

After about twenty minutes, Seth makes it back to our camp. Melina reveals that she has sorcerous powers, and turns us invisible so we can run. We make for the bridge and get across. We keep on for a few hours, until the sun rises. We then move off the road, where everyone goes to sleep except Konrad, who keeps watch. Melina curls up next to Olgun. After four hours or so, Konrad wakes up Zibel and asks him to watch for two more hours so he can take a quick nap.

Once everyone is refreshed, we head back to the road. At first, Melina doesn’t remember the events of the previous night, until we remind her. Olgun remarks that this is the second time this has happened to him and Seth. Konrad asks for an explanation.

Olgun says that he and Seth used to belong to a resistance group against Constantine’s government. In order to move about more freely, they disguised themselves as a traveling circus. This allowed Olgun to practice his fire-wielding abilities in the open, and allowed Seth to pose as a circus strongman. A few days before they met Konrad and Zibel, the circus was attacked in much the same way as the Vistani camp. As far as they know, they are the only ones who escaped.

Zibel and Konrad relate the story of their finding a concentration camp and burning it down. They also talk about how the halfling slowly turned into a demonic creature, betrayed them, and killed Troa.

Seth mentions that he met Carlyle once, a few months back. He saved the halfling from someone that was pursuing him, and says that Carlyle acted as if he were a god or something.

We finally reach the road and set off for Sofia. A little after sunset we reach the mansion district outside the city. Seth tells us that Lazar, the one who has the weapon he’s looking for, is probably in one of the mansions, probably the one that’s largest and most heavily guarded. Seth asks Melina to make him invisible so he can go in and scout around. She does so, but warns him that the spell doesn’t last long.

Seth runs in and leaps the wall, then looks around. He returns and tells us that the front is heavily guarded, with guards on the balconies on the sides of the building and guards walking along the sides. At his estimation, it takes them between three to five minutes to make a circuit. He believes there is an easy way in through a second floor balcony if the guard there can be dealt with. We come up with a plan, and Melina chimes in that she can make someone able to climb like a spider.

Seth runs back to scout the place one more time before coming back. Melina magically disguises Seth and Konrad to look like officers, and Zibel turns himself invisible and follows them. Konrad tries to bluff his way through the front gates. It doesn’t work until Seth pulls out a scroll which he claims to be orders from Constantine. The officer in charge at the gate looks it over and lets us through. Konrad threatens to put the officer up on report.

Unfortunately, the gate is closed behind them before Zibel can get in, but his presence is not detected. Meanwhile, Olgun sneaks over to the wall and climbs over. He silently runs over to the balcony that Seth described, leaps and catches the edge, and pulls himself up.

Zibel returns to Melina and explains the problem. She asks if he can climb, and he says he can’t. She casts her spider climbing spell on him, and says she’s going to create a diversion to draw attention away while he climbs in. While she goes off to a corner of the wall and creates a bank of fog, Zibel turns invisible, climbs over the wall, and makes his way to the lightly guarded back of the ground. On the way, he spots Olgun climbing onto the balcony.

Seth and Konrad are stopped again at the inner gate. Konrad tells the guards there that they have business inside and have already presented their credentials at the front gate. They are let in.

Olgun grabs onto the balcony with his legs, grabs the guard on the balcony with his hands, and yanks him off. Olgun holds onto his balance, but the guard falls to the ground. The guard stands up, rubbing his head, and shouts out “You there!”

Olgun shoots a ball of flame at the guard. Zibel pops from invisibility and breathes lightning at the man as well. The guard calls for help.

The balcony opens into a library, where two men are reading. They hear the commotion and start to get up to investigate. Olgun drops to the ground and attacks the guard but misses. Zibel breathes lightning again at the guard.

The two guys inside rush to the balcony and yell for Olgun to drop his weapon. He does so. The guard on the ground collapses. Olgun calls out to the men on the balcony “Now what?” They tell him not to move, and he says that’s boring. Olgun conjures a whip of flame and cracks it at them, but misses.

One guard keeps an eye on Olgun while the other runs back into the library and comes back with a shortbow. A blast of air from the other guard hits Olgun in the chest, doing a bit of damage to him.

Olgun runs, jumps, and climbs up onto the balcony. Zibel turns invisible and spider climbs up. They kill one of the two remaining guards up there. The other one turns invisible… not knowing that Zibel can still see him. The invisible guard climbs down off the balcony, jumps to the ground, and calls for help again.

Olgun swings at the empty air where the guard was. Zibel runs to the edge of the balcony and fires his lightning breath at the invisible guard, knocking him out. His body reappears. Finally, another guard comes running from around the corner in response to the alarm. He looks around, but doesn’t think to look up to the balcony.

Olgun and Zibel head into the library as the guard outside raises the alarm. They take a quick search around, and they find a magical ring, bracers, and some spellbooks, which they take.

Meanwhile, Konrad asks Seth in a low voice what was on that sheet of paper he showed to the guards. Seth shows it to him, but Konrad can’t read the Draghanian language so he asks for a translation. It turns out to be an order from Constantine to one of his officers, to retrieve the dagger from Lazar and bring it to him.

Seth believes that the dagger will be in Lazar’s office on the third floor, but he asks Konrad to rendezvous with the others at the library. Konrad tells him to be careful.

Konrad gets to the library and knocks. Olgun cautiously lets him in. Konrad asks if they had trouble getting in, and they say they didn’t.

As Seth heads up the stairs, some guards rush past him, shouting that the mansion is under attack. Seth tells them to secure the gates so nobody can get out, and he will pass the word to Lazar. They obey.

Seth continues on to Lazar’s office, and presents the document. Lazar refuses to hand over the dagger, although he tries to convince Seth that he will personally give the dagger to Constantine later. Seth explains that he cannot leave without the dagger, and will take it by force if necessary. Realizing that it’s going to have to be a fight, Seth draws his sword. Lazar draws his falchion, and his two guards close the doors to the office and transform into wolf-hybrids.

Hearing the noise upstairs, Konrad tells the others that’s where Seth is, and suggests they move to help him. Olgun starts the library on fire, and then we rush for the stairs. Olgun blasts the doors with flame and tumbles through. He sees two werewolves surrounding Seth, and Lazar brandishing a falchion.

Seth cuts Lazar, wounding him badly, but Lazar retaliates and Seth goes down. Zibel runs into the room behind Olgun and fires his breath weapon. Konrad charges in and swings his morningstar at one of the werewolves, but the wolf bites him on the arm as well.

Olgun charges straight at Lazar, leaps up onto his desk, and attacks him, but Lazar gets out of the way. Lazar swings at him twice, missing once but hitting the second time. Olgun then strikes a decisive blow on him, and Lazar falls down and stops moving.

After that, we defeat the two werewolf guards. Konrad breaks the neck of the one that bit him, just to make sure he’s dead. He then revives Seth and sees to everyone’s wounds while Zibel searches the room for treasure. Seth finds the dagger he’s looking for in the desk, so he takes it. We also take Lazar’s armor, his sword, and some gold.

When Seth touches the dagger, he hears a voice speaking to him in his head. It seems to want blood. He resists the urge to just stab something with it.

XP Awarded: 2,475 + petition

[Reno]

Session 6: Saturday, July 25, 2009

As we get ready to leave the building, Olgun decides to start setting the rooms on fire. Some guards come rushing in, trying to find out what was burning. Olgun and Konrad decide to attack them.

Seth uses his new dagger in battle, but when he stabs one of the guards, he feels as if he was the one that got stabbed. When the fight ends after Zibel downs both of the guards with his lightning breath, Seth runs out of the room, screaming in rage. He attacks other guards, causing them to come after him. We are able to leave without further interference.

We head into the city, since that’s where Gunnar is supposed to be. Since it’s pretty late by this time, we stop at an inn, named the Bloody Ale. A sign proclaims that there is a contest inside, to see who can drink a Bloody Ale the fastest. The winner gets a free room for the night and free drinks. Olgun wants to join the contest, but Konrad and Zibel aren’t interested. Melina volunteers to join the contest.

The inn’s proprietor is a hyperactive halfling who speaks in a high voice at incredibly fast speeds. He gets Olgun and Melina into the contest, which is being conducted by a cleric of a local god. Konrad doesn’t recognize the cleric’s holy symbol, which is two hands clasped as if being rubbed together. But the man registers as chaotic to Konrad’s detection, so Konrad automatically distrusts him.

Konrad finds out from one of the waiters that the Bloody Ale has a small amount of the halfling’s blood in it, but the rest is just tomato juice and rum. Olgun wins the contest, with Melina coming in second. Olgun gets some of the halfling’s weed and gets high while he continues drinking.

Konrad and Zibel get rooms and go to bed. Olgun decides to show off some tricks with his fire ability, frightening some of the inn’s patrons. At one point a guard comes in to see what the trouble is. He seems to expect the halfling to be behind it, although the halfling protests his innocence.

The next morning, Konrad looks out the window to see that the lower district of the city (which is actually physically lower than the higher district where we are) is on fire. People are fleeing from that area. Konrad double checks that Olgun is still here in the inn (he is). Seth is still nowhere to be seen. Konrad notices that the guards don’t seem to be going near the area; in fact, they seem totally unconcerned about it.

Konrad comes down the stairs and points these things out to Olgun and Zibel. He then heads outside and questions a nearby guard. The guard says that it was caused by a summoner losing control over whatever he conjured. The guards have been ordered not to interfere.

Konrad asks Zibel and Olgun if we should go and intervene. Olgun says that while he likes fire, he doesn’t like it when it’s harming innocent people. Zibel agrees (about the innocent people thing), and we head over there.

When we arrive, we see what appears to be a huge column of blue fire, spinning like a tornado. It seems to have caught some bones up in its whirlwind. Olgun charges forward to attack. Zibel moves into position and fires his breath weapon. Konrad casts a spell making himself immune to fire, and then moves in as well. The column of flame attacks Olgun, and eventually Konrad as well.

Konrad and Olgun flank the monster, until Olgun is wounded badly enough that he has to tumble beyond its reach to safety. A man comes running up, apologizing for causing this, and hands over a belt to Zibel to help him fight the monster.

Konrad heals himself several times, managing to stay conscious despite the beating he’s taking from the column of flame. He heals Olgun, telling him to make it count. Olgun takes a leaping slash at the monster, killing it.

We then question the man who gave the belt to Zibel, beating him for answers and healing him enough to keep him conscious. He tells us that his name is Lodi. Lodi was the one who summoned this flame monster. He had been tasked by the government to assassinate an officer of the resistance. Lodi lost control of the fire creature, but it did kill the officer. We question him about Gunnar but he doesn’t know exactly where Gunnar is. He says probably in the mansion at the top of the city, but exactly where in there, Lodi doesn’t know.

As punishment for endangering and killing innocent people, Olgun sets him on fire. Konrad does not heal Lodi’s burns. Furthermore, Olgun cuts off Lodi’s hands, and slaps him with one. Konrad heals the stumps to stop the bleeding, and we let him crawl away. He eventually gets to his feet and runs off.

We examine the nearby house where the officer was living. The building is made of brick, so it’s still standing, but it’s a burned out shell with a collapsed roof. There is a burnt corpse inside. Konrad says a brief funeral prayer for the man, and for the bones that were caught up in the whirlwind of the fire creature.

The townspeople, who have slowly been gathering after the danger was past, thank us for what we’ve done. They scrape up a decent amount of gold to reward us, and one family who is moving out of town actually gives us the deed to their house. We meet up with Melina, who asks what we’ve been up to. We tell her, and decide to check out the house.

The house is in the middle section of the city, where the middle class lives. The family is still in the process of moving out, but they’re leaving most of the furniture and anything that’s too bulky to carry.

We rest for the day, and the next day we decide to infiltrate the mansion. Zibel and Olgun are turned invisible, and Melina disguises Konrad as a guard again. Melina then turns herself invisible.

Konrad marches right up to the gates, and tells the guard there that he has a private message that can be delivered only to Gunnar. Surprisingly, the guard lets him through. Whether he believes that or figures that Gunnar is powerful enough to defend himself is anybody’s guess. As Konrad walks through, the invisible Zibel and Olgun sneak in behind him. As for where Melina has gotten off to, we have no idea.

A quick search of the mansion’s first floor reveals an armory, a lounge, and a room with beds in it. Zibel finds some magical weapons in the armory, and takes them. We move on to the second floor, where we find an interrogation room and a cell holding Lodi, whose eyes have been gouged out. He’s unconscious at the moment, so we leave him alone.

We continue on to the third floor, where we find two doors. Zibel detects magical auras behind both, so we listen at the doors. Behind one door we hear breathing, and behind the other conversation. We are unable to make out what is being said or identify the voices.

Simultaneously, we throw open both doors. Behind the door where we heard breathing, Konrad finds Carlyle, who has apparently been resurrected yet again. Fortunately, he’s asleep so Konrad closes the door.

Inside the other room, Gunnar is talking to two guards. Olgun and Zibel charge in and attack. Konrad joins in the fight, but for whatever reason he’s unable to do anything useful, including hitting anybody. Melina reveals herself, casting a magic missile spell.

One of the guards is killed, and the other one nearly so. Finally fed up with being unable to hurt Gunnar inside his mountain plate armor, Konrad steps back and fires searing light at him. Surprisingly, Gunnar goes down.

While the others deal with the remaining guard, Konrad takes off Gunnar’s helmet and discovers that he’s a vampire. So Konrad smashes Gunnar’s fangs with his morningstar, then removes Gunnar’s armor and stows it along with his weapon in his bag. He also breaks off a chair leg and stakes the vampire with it.

With that done, Konrad heals everyone, then casts a few spells before we go back to the other room and kill the sleeping Carlyle again, who was undead this time. Konrad throws one of Carlyle’s bones out the window, while Olgun and Zibel use fire to turn the rest of the remains to ash.

XP Awarded: 2,700 + petition

[Reno]

Session 7: Sunday, August 09, 2009

A quick search around Carlyle’s room reveals some treasure, which we take. Gunnar’s body is stuffed into Olgun’s haversack, and then we leave the building, which is on fire by this time.

Outside, one of the guards demands to know what’s going on. Konrad, still in disguise as an officer, orders the man back to his post, telling him the proper authorities will take care of it. It takes some arguing and browbeating, but the soldier goes back to his post at the gate.

Seth happens by at this time, and sees the burning mansion. He decides to cast an ice spell to fight the fire. Chunks of ice appear and fall on the fire, but over too small an area to make much difference. But Olgun sees the ice raining from the sky and recognizes it as Seth. We head over there and meet up with him.

Seth can’t remember where he’s been since he left us. Since the building is still on fire, we decide it’s best to get the heck out of the area. We leave Sofia entirely, and take the road north toward the border of the land.

As we’re traveling, suddenly Konrad starts transforming into a werewolf. His armor plates pop off as the straps holding them together burst, and he turns into a hybrid wolf. The others, being totally surprised, draw their weapons and back away, except for Seth.

The dagger speaks to Seth in his mind, saying it wants the werewolf’s blood. He comes forward with his dagger, and the werewolf attacks him. Seth is clawed and bitten, but he sticks the dagger into the werewolf’s shoulder. The dagger is contented, but Seth leaves it in the wound and retreats. The werewolf pursues him.

Olgun stays away from the battle, but Zibel fires his lightning breath at the werewolf to try and incapacitate it. The wolf breaks off attacking Seth and goes after Zibel, who tries to fend it off with his spear.

Finally Olgun decides to act. He tells the others to step back, then when the werewolf lunches away from Seth toward Zibel, he summons a giant fiery serpent, which encircles the werewolf. Seth draws his sword and leaps over the flames to attack the werewolf, bearing it to the ground. But that doesn’t stop the werewolf from biting him again. Seth falls to the ground thanks to his many wounds.

At Olgun’s command, the fiery snake forces its way in between Seth and the werewolf, and keeps winding around the werewolf until it finally dissipates. The wounded wolf runs off into the forest, where it hunts down some game, kills it, and feeds. Other wolves come by, but they don’t bother him.

Zibel and Olgun trade off keeping a nervous watch. When Olgun goes to sleep, he pulls his new fiery cloak over himself, appearing to be a campfire. Eventually Seth awakens and heals himself a bit.

When morning comes, Konrad finds himself lying naked in the forest, covered in blood. Although he doesn’t remember the events of the previous night, Konrad is unwilling to believe the evidence in front of his eyes and deduces that the others must have played a cruel joke on him. He decides to pray before seeking them out.

The others hear a human voice a short distance away in the woods. They follow the sound and find Konrad, kneeling next to a tree, still covered in blood and wounds, completely naked. Seth puts his sword to Konrad’s throat, but Olgun puts his own sword to Seth, reminding him that this is their ally and traveling companion.

Konrad ignores them and continues to pray. When he is finished, he opens his eyes and asks them for his clothes back. They try to convince him that he transformed into a werewolf last night, but Konrad refuses to believe it, insisting on believing that they splashed him with pig’s blood, stripped off his clothes, and moved the campsite on him.

Seth helpfully fixes the broken straps on Konrad’s plate mail, and we continue on. Eventually we find ourselves entering a mountain range. Seth consults our map and we discover that there should be no mountains here, since the only mountains in Draghania are in the south of the country. Konrad comments that this map must be outdated or incomplete. We double check that we are indeed headed north, and continue on.

Some time later, we become aware that something is headed toward us. Zibel and Melina turn invisible, while Konrad and Olgun hide. Up the path comes Constantine, riding on a giant tiger and accompanied by another tiger. Seeing Seth, he comments on how much trouble he and his friends have caused.

One by one, we appear from hiding (except for Melina, who is invisible). Constantine demands Gunnar’s body back, at which point Konrad steps out from hiding and says he can’t allow that. We enter battle.

The large tiger comes after Zibel, while the smaller one goes after Seth. Olgun attacks Constantine, but his attacks are repelled. Konrad helps Zibel with the large tiger. A shining figure comes into view from the direction Constantine came from. Constantine asks where he came from.

Constantine approaches the glowing figure, and they stare at each other for a moment before Constantine backs down. The other man stands there and watches the battle.

One by one, we kill the two tigers. Zibel and Seth are wounded fairly badly. Constantine, fighting unarmed, wounds all of us at one time or another, but is outnumbered. Eventually we overwhelm him, and one mighty swing from Seth’s sword connects with Constantine’s head, on the side of the blade, and knocks him out.

Konrad immediately sets about healing the others, while Olgun and Seth make sure Constantine is dead by stabbing him some more. The figure in the shining armor approaches us and introduces himself as Zlatomir, a cleric of Svarog Rod. Zlatomir informs us that he is the head of the Resistance in this land.

Seth chooses this moment to tell us a bit about his own history. He was experimented on by Constantine, and while most died from this experimentation, he actually survived it. This is where his magical powers, his ability to wield a giant sword, and a few other things come from. Seth tells us that he was a lieutenant of Constantine’s until he met Olgun.

The subject of Konrad’s alleged werewolfism is brought up, although Konrad hotly denies it. Zlatomir says that he can cure Konrad of his affliction, but Konrad tells him that isn’t necessary. Olgun and Zibel try to convince Konrad to undergo the treatment anyway, although surprisingly Seth starts speaking up for Konrad that if he doesn’t want the treatment, he doesn’t need it.

Eventually, Konrad offers to go along with Zlatomir for just one night to prove that he isn’t a werewolf. But first, he asks Zlatomir why there are mountains here when the map shows that there should not be. Zlatomir explains that we are actually on the southern edge of Draghania, in the mountain range down there. Konrad tries to argue that this isn’t possible, until he remembers scattered tales of people being snatched up by the Mists and ending up far away from where they thought they were. He had never believed such stories before, but now wonders if they might have been true.

Zlatomir leads us to his monastery, where we take rooms. When Konrad sees that his room has a steel door, he hesitates on going inside. After some more arguing, Zlatomir convinces Konrad to go in, but Konrad leaves the door open. While he and Seth are talking inside, Olgun shuts the door on them because the night is approaching.

The closed door goes unnoticed at first, but Olgun starts welding the door closed. Seth draws his sword and smashes the door down. A monk comes by and asks us not to destroy the room. A guard is posted outside the room, since they can no longer lock the door.

When the full moon rises, both Konrad and Seth transform, and they witness it happening to each other. This time, Konrad retains his awareness, and he sits still while Seth runs around the room freaking out. Konrad still refuses to admit that what’s happening is real, and he closes his eyes and tries to make everything go back to normal by sheer force of will.

Zlatomir comes in and starts casting the series of spells it takes to free Konrad of his lycanthropy. Konrad, for his part, ignores the other cleric and continues concentrating on making things return to normal. At last, the spells are completed and Konrad returns to normal. Zlatomir then starts working on curing Seth, who actively resists but is eventually cured as well.

Konrad leaves the room, spending the night in silent vigil outside in the hallway. When the morning comes, Zlatomir extends the offer to all of us to join the Resistance. Olgun seems interested, but he has vowed to see Melina safely to Barovia first.

So we all set off, leaving Melina with the rest of her tribe in Barovia. Konrad returns to Nova Vaasa, where Gunnar is retrieved from Olgun’s haversack and handed over. Gunnar is condemned and burned at the stake.

Konrad gets Seth a job with the church of the Lawgiver as a torturer. Olgun and Zibel return to Draghania, to join the Resistance.

XP Awarded: 6,563 + enough to get us to 28,000

[Kain]

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for playing in the sesions. I hope they were fun and everyone enjoyed the campaign. Maybe we'll continue this in the future sometime.

[Reno]

I enjoyed Konrad quite a bit. I would have liked to play with the werewolf thing a bit longer, and I never did get the opportunity for him to see the Lawgiver's church for what it is and leave for a better god. But we only had so much time to game, so that's what I get for progressing that too slowly.

It's cool. I wouldn't mind playing him again sometime though.