Sunday , Sept. 13th 2015 George - Half-orc Barbarian Loper - Elf Ranger + his trusty feathered sidekick Mahewa - Human Cleric (Air) general campaign background, logistics starting location continent - Demon Wastes , city of Rotting Blade background info The Devourer - diety, in charge of horrible things, calamities, storms, natural disasters. worshippers throw offerings and prayers at it to bribe it into not focusing any wrath their way the giant sword which Rotting Blade is built into - made out of a bonelike material it resembles really tough ivory. the city is carved into and out of the sword, the higher up on the blade you are the better your accomodations (the locals started at the bottom and got more practice dealing with the material as they got higher up) and social standing. only rich folks can afford the penthouse suite. game (play by play) we start the game out by doing some cleanup. Feng , Mahewa & Loper head back out of town along the river, taking a vial with a goop sample and burninate any purple goop clusters we run across. SkrilleX stay's back in RB to prep for the concert / PSA. we get back in time to catch the set. it's a solid affair that also includes representatives of the opposing churches in a rap battle (Dwight "DJ Devour" vs. "MC Keeper") , testimonials from the un-gooped fisherman and SkrilleX delivering the standard "Only loosers use goop." message. during performance at Goopalooza Mahewa and Loper notice a determined Bebe (Willard's wife) holding a knife making her way towards the stage. Loper's hawk does a solid disarm on the knife and she gets pulled in the alley out back before there's much attention. a quick WTF later she spills the (figurative) beans. the two of them made it about 1/3 the way to Blood crescend before Willard voilently killed himself. Knife to the face (repeatedly) cut out his own tongue before swallowing it , bled out right there at the dinner table. after the suggestion by SkrilleX that caused them to leave town in the first place wears off she connects the dots and holds us responsible for his death. if not directly, then at least morally. She's back and out for justice. We agree to take this entire thing in front of the Sheriff ... she was heading there anyway after the failed attempt on SkrilleX's life. Loper's statement of "We're taking this to the BIRDS !" ends in an official challenge. Grant will officiate the challenge the next morning at the docks, both parties get chaperones to prevent anyone skipping town or renegging on the deal. if she wins there will be an official inquiry and a trial, if Loper wins she backs down and lets the Sheriff do an investigation into other suspects. guardsman Ike watches over her, Mike tags along with us as we head back to crash for the night. on the way back to the inn we notice the shadows getting darker around is. Mahewa's street urchin background comes in handy as he notices the paths and shortcuts he uses to lead us through the city changing around us. we lose sight of Mike and get attacked shortly thereafter. beartraps and chains made of shadow come at us and a warforged appears doing the standard villain monologue. apparently that guy has control over shadows, on successful attacks they sap Strength. Mahewa gets beartrapped and casts Bless and attacks with Spiritual Weapon (bladed fan, very stylish), Loper uses the globe of light on his hawk, puts Hail of Thorns on the warforged and starts turning him into a pincussion, Feng rushes in with "primal concrete sledge" and starts swinging. shadows keep at us taking more and more strength, but we score enough hits (and carve off enough gears) on this guy that he starts retreating (eventually bouncing out through something that looks like a shadow portal on the floor)... the monologuing continued throughout. cliff's notes are "you are in over your head/ you are meddling with powers beyond your understanding / you need to get out of town" . after all is said and done with pick ourselves up (barely) , find Mike facedown comatose in a barrel down the road and beat feet back to the inn. the rest of the night ends up being quiet enough for us to rest up. detect magic reveals no active dweomers on us causing the Str damage or tracking spells. the morning after greets us with restored strength and no sign from SkrilleX. we make it to pier 14 in time for the bird challenge. we're third in line. first up is a "who's your daddy" paternity challenge, second is ______ . we use up our favor with Sheriff Grant to even the odds. what Bebe requested to be a straight up dexterity based obstacle course with sharp turns etc. gets modified into a style challenge over a 50 ft stretch up and down the pier. Bebe's hummingbird would have an unfair advantage in the challenge she proposed , but the challenged gets to pick the type. grant modifies it after we convince him that not wasting resources on an faulty line of questioning and giving us a chance to investigate and clear our name is a good idea. both parties end up rolling nat 20s in one of the three run. Loper's falcon is bathed in illusionary fire and looking pretty impressive. it comes down to a chicken run challenge and the falcon dominates that one. we're in the clear with Grant and Bebe is less pissed at us since the gods are obviously taking out side on this one. when recounting last night's events bthe the Sheriff and Bebe ID the warforged we curbstomped. his name is Havoc, he is one of Varias' specialists and used as an investigator/bountyhunter. he uses str damage to knock out and retrieve people for her. he has not checked in with the Sheriff or requested help to deal with us, though if he does Grant is obligated to assist him. further questioning of Bebe causes her to remember Willard wearing a new necklace when he killed himself. though not officially attached to the investigation we get permission to accompany Bebe into the castle and investigate the cart the two of them were travelling on. while Loper and Mahewa do a CSI routine on the cart Feng tags along with Grant to the scene of the crime. Mahewa finds the necklace and is not surprised at all to see that it matches the cursed pendant pattern. engraved on it is the rune for 'Death' in athasian dwarven. afterwards hey haul ass down the road to catch up with Grant & Feng and travel to the crimescene. at the scene Loper finds tracks. short, stubby, muggly tracks that leave defiled footprints. nothing's going to grow in those footprints ever again. further tracking checks reveal them to slowly fade out heading north seemingly towards the mountains. since that's all there is to be found by us we head back to RB. back in town we're immediately greeted by a priest of The Devourer. the mad falconer apparently had a deal going on with the local clergy providing them with spirit sight potions. the things they saw peering over the edge of the continent were beyond disconcerning and the local clergy is thinking that further glimpses in the abyss may help them to ward off threats before they become calamities. rumor had it we may be able to provide them with either potions or the recipe. a meeting is set up for further negotiations. the priests still have no idea WTF Mahewa worships. the concept of him being a cleric of air is as alien to them as their attachment to a specific diety that apparently has followers across the entire continent. Loper is interested in staking a claim on all the now unoccupied yak farms left in the wake of the goopyheaded freak murderspree. long term goal besides having a foothold in the local economyand steady source of resources is providing meat for his bird . ... which with increased size and levels will develop an appetite. i think about a dozen or so were up for grabs and three separate (yet equal) parties are also in the running. 1. a messenger/representative of Varias is interested in the whole lot because she and her army has quite a few large animals/birds attached to it and needs a steady source of grub. 2. a small commune that already owns and operates 15 ranches & 10 farms wants to expand by 5 farms 3. the surviving kids that we ran into initially want to get the family's ranch back. challenges will be settled by bird, one match every 3 days. end of session , characters are about halfway to level 5 next scheduled game : Sept. 20th -------------------------------------
