Laura Coyle's Synopsis on
'New Recruits'.
written by: Mike Linnemann
(gamed played on Saturday, November 10, 2001)
The exercise in the new recruits
I've been
waiting for
a long time and finally got around to adventuring again. Knowing one of
the "Pras'" everyone so knows I gathered Omar, and Clepto Swiftfinger.
But we needed some new adventurers to teach them the ropes a little
bit.
Our group managed to find a young cleric named Jona Jones, Thorn
Xiloscient
a warrior, Kahlen a mage, and a fighter with a name of "Cool Kid
Kickhead."
(Nice huh?)
After some laughs
at
the absurdity of our party, we all decided to descend to Dogrum's Keep.
Most of us only went there once if at all. So we left the next morning.
At about midday we
were
surprised. Three ankhegs came from beneath the ground and Kickhead,
Xiloscient
and myself flew from our horses. Well, donkey for Kickhead. Our group
decided
not to follow them down. Probably wouldn't be a good idea.
We were slowed
because
our horses had to double up on riders. So the night we decided to camp.
During my shift with Kahlen, we heard noise in the brush. Turned out to
be 21 orcs. Easily slaughtered. But, why such a large party? Lair. So
we
all searched. Of course, Clepto found it first. And did we find one. In
a pine tree was 3 bags of gems on the ground. The rest were in the
tree,
with Clepto go figure. So we "retrieved" him and gathered up all the
gems
and all the electrum we found on the orcs. Turned out to be 52 electrum
and 35(!) gems.
The next day we
headed
into Lassic. Clerics needed to rest up because of the healing they
administered
to us. So we did.
The following day
we
rode into Dogrum's at the end of the day. What we noticed were tons of
bones outside the door and an odd sound inside. We finally found out
that
the slurping sound was a spider behind the door eating. (until we
torched
him)
Something else
happened.
The floor panels were checkered in black, white and red. We walked on
the
floor and nothing happened. But we ran into things as we walked when
nothing
was there before. Quite odd actually.
Searching quickly
we
heard noises outside of us. Rocks were being slid into the doors to
seal
us in. The main doors were sealed, so we ran to the back stable doors.
We almost got out. But we realized giants are out there. Maybe we'd be
better inside.
So we were heading
to
an office room to sleep when we encountered 2 manticores. Unhappy ones.
That didn't seem too much a task so we continued on to find 2 more
manticores.
We found the females and they went into a rage finding dead male
manticores
laying next to us. They perished swiftly.
We went to main
hallway
to get to the office room when the main doors' rock was heaved away. We
saw giant legs waiting for us. Found out, that a storm giant blocked us
in to kill the manticores. We did and he stopped his storm and
lightning
to fly back to his castle in the sky.
Three members of
the
party saw a human leg escape around the corner, so naturally we
followed.
The rain stopped but the ground was still soft, footprints were left
behind.
We tracked them into some small brush and a young human male came out
yelling
for his life. He said he was lost and got a huge scratch on his back.
We
obviously didn't trust him. Not here. So we let him spend the night
with
us for protection then leave him in the morning. During the night we
heard
scratching sounds, we learned later that the manticores were dragged
out
of the dungeon. But "Josh" our lost traveler was given some food and a
dagger and he left.
We know of a magic
room
here so we debate whether it's through the dead bodies room or in the
obvious
stairs coming near the main hall. We checked the great hall where the
corpses
are. The bodies were gone! So was the ceiling. I thought that odd, so I
threw one of my continual light coated stones against the ground. It
never
touched the ground, it rested a foot off the ground. Illusion. We all
saw
it over time except for Clepto, he's a little slow.
A large discussion
came
out of this whether the secret room was through the carcass filled room
or in the main stairway by the entrance. So we decided to check that
out
first. It appeared to us as a stairway heading up. Illusion. So we
walked
down and saw the huge crate room with crates everywhere and no path. I
thought maybe we should make our own. The first box I smash makes the
entire
room empty as it is. Bad idea. There's a small black dragon waiting in
the middle of the room. I charge and sweep at air as I slice. Another
illusion.
We know there's a
secret
room here so we find it and find 10 bags inside. The last time we were
here there were only 4. Not good. So the party starts opening the bags
up. Well, after some time, we found out that there were only 4 bags
with
gold in them. 1000 gp each. The other 8 bags were trapped. Almost every
character took a little explosion damage.
We come back out of
the
secret room and the same dragon is sitting there looking at us. This
time
we just ignore it as we walk to the dumbwaiter. Kahlen, being strong,
decides
to walk in first. It drops. He falls a good 15 feet if not more. We all
laugh and we help him control the ropes to bring the thing up. Doesn't
work, go figure.
Out jumps the group
to
the "Boxed" room. Same dragon again! We run by it to the stairs, which
are fake to look the opposite direction.
We run up to go to
the
stables to get outside to get inside to the other secret area. The
party
sees Josh outside. He evidently caught a deer with a dagger. Odd for a
human to be capable of that but he has nothing to do with us so, oh
well.
Inside the stables
are
13 kobolds. Which are fake. But the wizard at the end of the stables
isn't.
He demands why we're here and I try to leave and am frozen in place. He
holds someone else but I was unable to see them. He laughs and releases
us. He was wearing blue but changes to red. Even his face. I throw a
dagger
and bury it to the hilt. Nice. He goes invisible and the ceiling is
crumbling.
We evade only to find ourselves in a fireball. Clepto and Thorn died. I
went unconscious but I heard that Omar commanded magically for the
magic
user to freeze while Kahlen sent some magic at him. They killed him. I
was healed and during that, they found two excellent gems on him.
We try to go back
outside
but realize, we can't solve the puzzles. We need wax, typical to forget
this sort of thing.
As the party we
leave.
But this time we take the shorter route through Clir. So we ride to
Clir
with our two dead bodies. We exchange our gems and resurrect Clepto,
Thorn
wasn't spared. Sorry about that. During the night, evidently there was
a full moon, a wererat had sneaked into Omar's room and was rummaging
around
in his stuff. He took a potion and left when Omar yelled for help.
We arrived home to
find
ourselves a little richer, (29,672 gp total) and a little more
experienced.
All in all, success granted again.
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