Sunday , Aug.23rd 2015 George - Feng, Half-orc Barbarian Dick - Latch, Warforged Bard Mahewa - Strom , Human Cleric (Air) Galen - Loper , Athasian elf Ranger (+ Hawk) general campaign background, logistics, Loper intro Loper - both Lo and Mahewa are from Athas and Mahewa spent some time running with Lo's tribe (stuck with the kids since he's slooooow). they kept in touch after the Eberras shift and went to scout their new home. after running into him in Rotting Blade he joins up. starting location continent - Demon Wastes , city - Rotting Blade background info - Athasian elf tribes on the Demon Wastes were mostly concentrated running a seasonal circuit from the Vanishing Lake in the winter to the Salt Flats in the summer. since the Eberras shift the altered geography and new threats (demons , Festering Hole, surprisingly tough orcs, etc.) have led to a shift in migration patterns - the demon wastes are littlered with what looks like discarded godzilla sized equipment that is left over from the demon incursion. notably a 1 km tall sword blade around Rotting Blade, a 1 km long broadsword sticking in the ground at Kashakant, a gigantic sword that is cleaved into the mountain at Burning Keep and a 2.5 km tall towershield stuck in the ground at Friendfell. - the town of Rotting Blade pays tribute to Varia, a night hag that controlls Burning Keep and used to have controll of Blood Crescent. she is loosely associated with the 3 sister hags of Droaam and required to provide them with assistance and resources. word on the street is that Blood Crescent wants to join up with Varia and seceede from Droaam. her regular source of minions (troops, fodder) is forcibly recruited from the human carrion tribes wandering the southern edge of the Salt Flats close to the mountain ranges. her advanced troops include ogres riding wyverns, she herself rides a pimped out roc that can often be seen perching over the Burning Keep. - though the more impressive demons are (somewhat) safely contained within Ashtakala there are plenty of 3 HD and less demons running the salt flats and causing havoc whenever they get the chance. occasional demon incursions BTVS style are not unheard of. a demon will posess a human, gather power and take over a roaming tribe or two until it gets obvius enough that someone with the required amount of oompf steps on them. - falconry and trained birds are a big deal in and around Rotting Blade. one way to advance in standing or get enough clout to be able to get noticed is to have a sufficiently trained or exotic bird game (play by play) the mad falconer is currently being questioned by RBPD in regards to the giant hole blasted through Johnny the Vulture's chest and a possible purple moss drug connection. the party quietly exits stage left and shortly thereafter rns into Loper who decides joining up with those fools sounds sounds dope. fo' shozzle mah ozzle. low charisma + athas + elf = suburban wigger accent. contemplating their next move it is decided that going to check out the source of the moss around Kashakant sounds like a great idea. one 50 mile hike and a quiet overnight camp later we arrive within view of Kashakant. Loper tracks a fairly well used path to an abandoned gift shop outside the fortress itself. it seems that the entrance to the caves that the moss is supposed to grow in is accessible through the well outside the giftshop. inside the shop we find the corpse of a recently deceased carrion tribesman with ropeburns around his neck (maybe a collar ?). he's been there about a day. our intrepid elf scout goes to scout our way into the well and promptly fails & flails. three cheers for featherfall and an aircleric with a hair trigger. the well itself is about 200ft deep. everyone donates their rope and the rest of the pary gets to descend safely. bottom of the well: one side has been expertly walled off. quality masonry, definately on purpose. could theoretically be destroyed to flood the cave system. following the tunnel about 100 yards we get to the first cave. 20 ft ceiling, two exits, one approximately 70-90 ft down the right side. the party notices regular depressions in the floor of the cave, tracks made by stilts leading to the exit on the right. Loper tests for immediate danger by throwing his hunting trap. no reaction. then fashion improvised stilts from torches, botches his dex check and takes a header straight into his own trap. [this is the second game in a row that we have used a hunting trap and a partymember was the one to get caught in it. the only thing we are really good at catching us ourselves.] all this commotion has cause a couple of fuzzy grey "rocks" to plop from the ceiling and land close to both Loper and Skrillex who came to assist him in getting his foot and/or face out of the trap. turns out the rocks are alive, but slow once they land. Skrillex manages to get Loper's foot out of the trap. Feng attempts a spiderman style climb along the walls and fails that one as well, at which point everyone sais "fuck it" and makes a run for the exit to the right. and everyone except Mahewa makes it, dodging falling grey oozes along the way. Mahewa takes one straigth to the head and has to be dragged out unconcious, then have the thing carved off of his head & neck. Feng collects the ooze in a bag. waste not, want not. Loper scouts ahead down the tunnel and literally runs into one of the wannabe gangsters from RB aka "The Vultures" . Mahewa disables him via Command/Grovel, Feng grabs the sack o' moss he was lugging around and Skrillex questions him. Timmy cooperates fully with our lack of authority. we learn that there are 4 more Vultures down here and that one of them is their fearless leader "Snake" who used to be the Mad Falconer's apprentice. they are specifically there to harvest moss, Snake has been wearing a weird amulet for the last 2 weeks and they had lost track of Johnny for the last week and definately did not order him to go stab anyone. also Johnny showing up at the magic shop wearing just one shoe was weird as hell. that kid never goes barefoot. Timmy has no idea where the amulets come from. as far as he knows he's been taking orders from Snake this entire time. Timmy gets clued in on the background and told to GTFO back to RB. further down the hallway we get metaphorically jumped by 3 vultures. birds. Feng gets tagged for STR damage on the first flyby, Loper retaliates with a Hail of Thorns + successful attack on the middle bird, which pretty much shreds them. Next round long range attacks and some stabbing later the birds are dealt with. next cave: we encounter Snake + his henchmen. standard trashtalking commences "lay down your weapons or we shall be forced to turn you into handpuppets" , "yo momma so fat she absorbs gelatinous cubes", etc etc. Snake is easily identified by being a) the guy who speaks up and b) the guy wearing the amulet. Loper sends his hawk to snatch the amulet and succeeds epically. the now not-posessed Snake is hella confused. while Lo's hawk gets high fives all around. explantions, intimidations, and persuasions follow resulting in the vultures now being in our employ. Snake doesn't remember the last 2 weeks and wouldn't have thought of ditching the Mad Falconer by himself. also he doesn't know how to cook the purple moss so dealing with the pirates by himself would have been problematic to begin with. they are told to keep on harvesting in the caves while the PCs head back to RB to deal with the Mad Falconer and set up shop. Little Timmy repaid our kindness by pulling up the rope from the well, but Feng manages the climb up and the rest of the group ascends. We get ambushed by three apparent carrion tribesmen that are lugging the dead body out of the gif shop. they charge and get cut down posthaste. their leather armor bears the insignia of Varia the hag, and it looks like Kashakant has been converted into a Varia outpost. all four corpses get dropped down the well, tracks leading to the well and signs of the battle are removed and we head back to Rotting Blade to deal with the Mad Falconer. end of session , characters advance to level 3 next scheduled game: Aug. 30th , 6.30 am PST if i got anything wrong or you have something to add please post a comment below
