2006

Okay, so we made it to the new year partially intact. Sean is currently sick as a dog, and I've started succumbing to some sort of cold myself. Greg has been out with a combination of holiday time shortages and rampant tiredness. Charlie and Kevin seem to have been 'volunteered' for an assignment, and Matt has a newborn at home. Jen's the only one that seems to have come out unscathed, but perhaps I just haven't talked to her in a few days.

The plan was to start up the game this Wednesday, the 4th. But we'll have to see how that works out. Please send an e-mail with your prognosis. If we have enough people, we'll carry out the assault on the Gith. If not, then we'll all recover for another week, and hope for better health in the following week.

11/23 Holiday

Next week is Thanksgiving, so there will be no game next Wednesday night. This brings up the topic of holiday scheduling. Not only will people have lots of holiday things to do in the upcoming six weeks, but Matt's wife will also be giving birth in about three. So we may be short a few players on several occasions. But I can probably come up with encounters with gith, dragons, vampires, and various other creatures between now and the new year. And if people don't feel like D&Ding, there are beaucoup other games to be played. We'll chat more about it later, I'm sure.

11/16 session recap

The party rested for an evening in a magical house conjured by Rockaneeshoo. Ooglock was still feeling poorly, as were most of the party, so they rested for most of the day as well. During the day, a small group of humans approached the party's house. They wore simple clothes and linen cloaks. Siala, disquised as a halfling, went out to speak with them. They asked if she needed assistance, and she said that no, she was a ranger who was merely reveling in the vast wilderness. They said that they were followers of Taphallam, and were heading back to their monastery in the nearby town. They said that perhaps they would see her when she stopped in for supplies, and that she was welcome to visit their temple.

Urgmob spent the day hunting for food and ignoring Ooglock, and finally came back with a large fox-like creature for dinner. Hrir finally felt well enough, and spoke a holy word of recall to transport the party back to Oriv. Upon arrival, the party asked Enli what he knew of Rhin's condition. Enli said to put him in the temple until he got better in a week or two. When asked about the possibility of Rhin posessing another body, living or dead, Enli said that wouldn't happen unless someone actually wore the phylactery for a significant amount of time. He also speculated that anyone who did such a thing would end up insane. Insane and with the powers of a liche.

The party then geared up again, and headed back to Mugron. The city had an eerie quiet about it, and only an occasional humanoid peeked from doorway or window. Siala noticed that one of the humanoids was gith. The party stopped and sent Ooglock forward to "negotiate" with the gith. Speaking in orc while drawing his axe, Ooglock approached and said that he wanted to speak. The gith in turn drew his sword and spit acid at Ooglock. Ooglock attacked, and the gith telekinetically threw Ooglock all the way back to the party. When they looked again, the gith had disappeared back into the dwelling.

Contacting Skoluk, the party found that he was still alive and holed up in an inn in the common section of town. Rockaneeshoo cast a spell to locate Skoluk more accurately, and Siala snuck in to the place to get them to remove the barricade in front of the door. The orcs let the party in, and Skoluk asked what kind of horror they had unleashed on the city. Apparently several hours after the party had gone into the third noble house, gith had poured out and slaughtered many orcs. A house to house battle had taken shape, and now pockets of orcs were holed up in various places, as were the gith.

Curious as ever, the party went back to the last noble house they had visited. Siala and Urgmob tiptoed in, invisibly, and encountered a gith guard in the corridor. He heard them, and then was able to see them. He spoke briefly with Siala, and when offered an alliance, he said that wasn't possible, and that they must fight. A combat developed and was quickly ended, with the gith dead, and Siala and Urgmob nearly untouched. The party decided to regroup before heading in...

11/9 session recap

The party was faced with a dozen Gith from the astral plane. Rockaneeshoo sized up the situation, found that he had exhausted his high-level magical spells, and fainted dead away. Ooglock didn't wait for instructions and charged into a group of four Gith. Thus the battle began.

Urgmob unleashed his usual barrage of arrows, Hrir buffed himself and readied his axe, and Rhin stepped forward and attempted to magically command the Gith. They appeared unaffected, and Siala cast an entagle spell at their feet.

Four Gith stepped gracefully from the entanglement and tried to beat down Rhin with their swords. The remaining Gith stepped easily aside as well, drew a deep breath, and spat acid upon Hrir and Urgmob. Siala dodged the acid and magically confused an attacker, causing him to babble incoherently for a few seconds. Rhin unleashed unholy energy upon his attackers, wounding most of them horribly, while Hrir hacked at the nearest one, and Urgmob fired more arrows. None of Urgmob's spells seemed to affect their targets, including a grease spell fired at their feet.

Rhin retreated just a bit towards Urgmob, and Hrir stepped in to take his place. A humming sound filled the vicinity as four Gith surrounded Hrir and raised their swords. The blades slashed downward, and Hrir was hit through his armor. More attacked Siala in the same way, and the others breathed acid upon Rhin. The party felled two Gith, but the rest were still attacking. Siala also found that her attackers could see her even when invisible.

Siala finished off one with a flanking attack and a vampiric touch, and Hrir hacked down another one. One of Urgmob's target's collapsed with an arrow through his side, and Siala killed another one. The ones attacking Siala and Rhin in melee realized that they were not doing any damage, and fell back to spit more acid. Siala deftly evaded the spittle, but Rhin was melted on the spot. He crumpled to the ground, a mere pile of goo and equipment.

One of the Gith seized the opportunity and leapt upon Rhin's gear, disappearing as he did so. Most of the bulky items disappeared with him, but smaller items remained behind, including the adamantine bracer. The remaining Gith fought and breathed more acid, nearly melting Hrir into a dwarven puddle. Siala and Urgmob felled their opponents, and Hrir stepped back to heal himself. The lone remaining Gith took a step back and said something in a strange language that only Siala could understand. He then stepped into a a silvery grey portal and disappeared. But instead of winking out of existence, the portal remained hanging in the air.

Ooglock returned badly wounded from his fight, but he had managed to kill all four opponents by himself. As the party gathered equipment, everyone noticed a slight breeze heading into the open portal. Hrir was still winded from his encounter with the vampires, and said that he was unable to return them to Oriv through the power of Tulgus. Urgmob suggested that if the party merely walked due south, they'd come across Oriv in just a few days. No one believed him. So a makeshift camp was set up, and the party settled in for the night.

As a final note : All of Rhin's equipment was put into the rug of holding. The party expects he'll be wanting it all back relatively soon.

11/2 session recap

Rhin protected Ooglock with a spell to ward against further vampiric draining, and the party pressed deeper into the lair. Rockaneeshoo cast a spell to allow him to track vampires, and the party followed them into a chamber filled with mist. After speculating about the nature of the mist, theories were laid to rest when six vampire orcs formed out of the mist, and started attacking. Ooglock and Hrir became weak under the influence of a couple of spells, and Urgmob nearly had his collarbone broken in two places as a vampire pounced upon him.

Urgmob fired arrow after arrow imbued with scorching ray at his target, but wasn't having much effect. Ooglock slammed into one and started hacking on it with his reduced strength. It retaliated by casting a few spells, and it eventually dispelled Ooglock's death ward. Ooglock then took another hit from an enervation ray, dropping him to nearly half of his original vigor. Rockaneeshoo immediately made mirror images of himself, and was quickly hit with magic missiles to reduce that number. One of the vampires responded with his own mirror images and attacked Hrir. Hrir waded back to assist Urgmob, and tripped his foe. The vampire faded into mist upon contact with the ground, however, and merely re-formed on the next round to attack again.

Rockaneeshoo disintegrated one vamp with a green ray, and imprisoned another against the edge of the chamber with a conjured wall of iron. The entire time, Rhin was casting positive energy spells to heal the party and simultaneously hurt the orc vamps. Their skin boiled off, leaving angry, blackish-red meat beneath. But the vampires weren't defeated yet.

Rhin finally went over and cast a Heal spell on a troublesome vamp, turning it instantly into a red mist. Ooglock finished off his opponent, and the one that Hrir kept tripping finally stayed in mist form. The one that Rockaneeshoo had imprisoned freed himself and appeared behind Rockaneeshoo, hissing threats. The threats were hollow, however, as none of the attacks hit, and Rockaneeshoo escaped unharmed. A final beam found it's mark on Rock, however, and he lost a few levels to enervation before the party surrounded and beat down the last vampire.

Standing in a room filled with the mist form of vampires, Rockaneeshoo immediately started casting walls of stone and iron to cover all three entrances. This trapped the vampire mist inside, but also trapped Hrir outside. To remedy this, Rockaneeshoo dimension door'd outside the chamber, grabbed Hrir, and dimension door'd right back into the chamber. As they stepped through the dimensional rip, it grew wider and wider. The room dissolved around the party, immersing them in a silvery grey haze with no gravity and no obvious source of light. The vampire mist slowly started to disperse, and the party noticed a group of Gith skirmishing only about 60 feet away. Fearing the worst, Rockaneeshoo Wished that the party was back on it's home plane. Almost instantly, the party appeared upon a sandy hilltop near sunset. The vampire mists were still there, but almost immediately dissapated in the natural sunlight. The Gith were also still with the party, and they readied their weapons for combat...

10/26 session recap (no xp yet)

Rhin and Urgmob cleaned up the rug of holding, clearing the remains of their late orc follower. The party then teleported to the desert using the teleportation circle. The then flew and rode phantom steeds to the city of Mugron, and contacted Captain Skoluk before they arrived. He met them at the gate and let them into the city. All of the party were disguised as orcs, except for hrir, who just drew angry glares.

Skoluk took the party to an inn and explained that of the nine original orc clans, only eight remained. All of the nobles had retreated from the public eye, except for two families. Skoluk also said that some of the troops he had known before seemed more obedient, more fanatical towards their clans than he'd known them to be before.

The party told Skoluk to gather his troops outside one of the two nobles who had been seen recently. When this happened, the party stormed the roof of the compound using magic flight and dropped down into a courtyard. They slew a few guards on the way to the noble's living quarters, and then decapitated all four of them, including two helpless women. They fought through some more guards until it became clear the nobles had fallen, and then the troops stopped fighting. Ooglock emerged from the compound with two severed heads and said, "All hail Skoluk!"

While the orcs were regrouping, the party assaulted the second noble house. Resistance was tougher, but not enough to keep the nobles safe. All six were slain.

Since things were going so well, the party pushed on to the third compound. They encountered stiff resistance from the guards, and none of them backed down like in the previous compounds. The sleeping quarters of the nobles were unoccupied, and there was nowhere left to search except for a passageway leading deep into the cliff walls. The air turned cool and moist, and mist swirled in the halls. Siala discovered a pit trap and disabled it. Then, as the party split at a T-intersection, they were attacked from both sides. Orcs with large fangs and pale skin attacked without weapons, and Ooglock was battered by their cold, unyielding fists. He cut down a few, and they disintegrated into mist. Hrir was undamaged by his attackers. Tripping them, he then hewed into them with his axe until they too disintegrated into mist. Siala turned into a dragon, blocking the passage somewhat, but Rhin made it foward enough to announce that these were not orcs, but vampires. Ooglock swayed a bit, but said he was alright. The party pushed on deeper into the orc/vampire lair...

Sessions through 10/19, 2005

The last few months of realtime have been somewhat unproductive in terms of game activity, but there are a few things our intrepid heroes have done lately.

Ooglock the orc barbarian minion wandered into town after a several month hiatus from Jiyoomenath's tower. Hearing reports of a goblin army massing to the south, and being ordered to help by Chieftain Keggrok Half-ear, the party flew south and encountered some goblin scouts. After defeating them and capturing one named Finlix, they used their captive to sneak them into the goblin war camp. Successfully inside, the party attacked the goblin leaders, including a few with strange armor. Once the command structure was eliminated, the party mopped up about 300 goblins before both sides retreated. On the way home, the party encountered the southbound hobgoblin army. Rather than turn back, Keggrok ordered his clans forward in the name of Tulgus, Granter of Strength. The party sat back in town, kicking their heels, while they waited for Keggrok to draw within striking distance of Yog Sholtops. They employed Finlix to work with Enli in the bar as an intelligence agent, and found out that the reason the goblins had attacked was because Urgmob had killed the goblin envoy several months ago as a warning.

Keggrok reported in when he was about a day away from the goblin city, and the party flew in to help. They were too late. The ragged remains of Keggrok's army (about 700 out of 2000 originally) limped back north bearing a dying Keggrok on a stretcher. The party healed him, and he admitted that Tulgus was ashamed of him, and that the hobgoblins must become stronger before attempting such an attack again.

Back in town, the orc captain was drinking away his sorrows. The party hadn't helped him in months with the overthrowing of the orc nobility in Mugron, and he despaired of ever being able to accomplish his coup. When the party went to open their rug of holding to bring out Bob the orc, they realized that they had left him in there without food for more than a month. The rotted remains of Bob and his excrement had soiled anything kept in there.

The party sent the orc captain back to Mugron to scope out the situation. He reported that the nobility had already formed ranks around a new leader, but that there was something odd, a division among the nobility that was causing a minor amount of tension in town. The party decided that their next move was to clear that city and loot it.

Everyone gets 3000 xp for the past few mini-sessions.

Urgmob : 140,360 (17th)
Rhin : 129,560 (16th)
Rockaneeshoo : 155,568 (up to 18th)
Oooglock : 113,500 (15th)
Siala : 113,800 (15th)
Hrir : 129,417 (16th)

8/31 session recap and xp

As the party listened to the music, some of them sat down to listen. Urgmob, Siala, and Davinov all became entranced, and began to contemplate the peace to be found in music. Enli spent ten minutes casting a sending at the figure below, asking to parley, for the universe was in peril. The figure below stopped playing for a moment and said that he would parley. Enli flew down and introduced himself. In only a few sentences he outlined how Jiyoomenath and his followers were trying to save the world from complete planar collapse. Enli also mentioned that he, too, was a man of music. The human introduced himself as Melvius, and asked Enli to play along with him. Enli agreed and then promptly fell under the spell. Melvius explained through the music that all of the dire tales of powerful magicians saving the world were really overblown, and that it generally came down to a matter of personal power. In short, he said that there wasn't anything to worry about. Enli contemplated this and gave himself to the music once again.

Above, the rest of the party grew impatient. Rhin cast Silence on a coin, and Siala delivered it at the Melvius' feet, silencing the music. Hris leapt off the support beam and blew a charge on his battle horn. Rockaneeshoo and Rhin followed, with Rock actually catching up and casting a heroism spell on Hrir.

Melvius stopped playing immediately and then Siala stabbed him. Wincing in pain he stepped out of the sphere of silence and roused the giants with a fast battle ditty on his flute. He also did something that caused one of the horns surrounding the courtyard to sound. The three party members down with him were hit with a wall of sound that crashed against their bones. Siala shrugged it off and stabbed Melvius again. Enli tried casting Destruction against the man, but the spell fizzled on some sort of natural resistance. The giant attacked wielding greatswords and gargantuan flails. Enli was bludgeoned by two giants and lost a point of Con. Siala tried to grab the flute away from Melvius, but he was too strong for her. Melvius moved away, drawing yet another stab from Siala. Hrir charged in, but was intercepted by three air elementals, which caused his intended target to be pushed even further away. The giants counterattacked in force, cutting deeply into Hrir with their greatswords. One also cast Chain Lightning, which not only fried Hrir a bit, but also hit Rockaneeshoo and dismantled his mirror images. Enly fled his attackers for a short distance, then turned to deliver a flamestrike that barely burnt his attackers. The responded by chasing him down and crushing his body beneath their flails. Enli went down in a bloody heap, never to stir again.

Melvius blasted the party with yet another horn, causing damage and deafening Siala. Some of the giants on the perimeter had rallied and cast some sort of spell that gave them control over the suddenly growing storm. Lightning flashed several times, striking Rhin and Hrir. Sensing the dire situation, Rockaneeshoo flew down to snatch the flute from Melvius. He was successful, and immediately left with a quickened teleport to the southern coast. Hrir, on the verge of death, flew up out of the reach of the giants and cast Heal on himself. The giants followed him and started to levitate. Melvius cast a spell and disappeared. Siala made a pixie-line for Rhin, who was still floating in the air being struck by the occasional lightning bolt from above. Rhin offered his hand, which Siala took. Hrir flew over to Enli's corpse, grabbed it, and started to fly off. Several giants took swings at him as he flew by, and Hrir came close to death once again. But he made it to Rhin, who flew up out of range of the giants.

As they left, several air elementals came pouring down from above. Instead of attacking Rhin and company, they passed by and attacked the giants! A huge storm developed, and Rhin noticed that the castle was slowly starting to turn. As the winds reached hurricane force he teleported the three of them back home with a Word of Recall. Mere moments after feeling the wash of relief at having escaped, they all realized something : They had left Urgmob and Davinov back at the castle!

Rockaneeshoo sent a sigil message to the party, asking if they were okay. Rhin responded by saying yes, they had escaped, but that Urgmob and Davinov had been left behind. Rockaneeshoo made a limited wish that both of them, and all of their equipment, were in front of him, but not in one piece. Two cloud-forms of Urgmob and Davinov appeared, slightly shaken up. They slowly came back to solid form and told the tale of how, when they realized they'd been left behind, they jumped from the castle, braved the hurricane winds, and barely made the transition to cloud form before hitting the ocean below. They had set out for the shore, not knowing if the spell would hold long enough, when suddenly here they were right next to Rockaneeshoo!

The next morning, Rock made phantom steeds for the three of them, and they rode back to the teleportation circle in Luniel and returned home to Oriv. Rhin used a spell to speak with the dead Enli, who waxed poetic for several minutes. Eventually, however, he said that yes he'd like to come back, but only to be a chef and musician, not an adventurer. Rhin raised him, and Enli gave away most of his adventuring gear, keeping only his combat items and a few trinkets. No one seemed to blame him for this change of heart.

For fighting the remnants of the Blacktongue mercenary company, finding the flying castle, and retrieving what you think is Sky Singer; Enli, Rockaneeshoo, Siala, and Hrir get 5500xp. Urgmob and Rhin get 4750xp.

This brings the xp totals to:
Urgmob : 137,360 (LEVEL UP to 17th)
Rhin : 126,560 (needs 136k)
Rockaneeshoo : 152,568 (needs 153k)
Siala : 110,800 (needs 120k)
Hrir : 126,417 (needs 136k)

Enli would have made 18th level, but instead, the xp goes to Charlie's new character, which will come in at 15th level, with 110,500xp (just below Siala).

8/24 session recap

Rhin retreated into some sort of meditation for a bit, and Hrir returned with rights to 85% of his adamantium. Tranquility was disrupted when fires started breaking out in and around the temple and library. After losing some spellbooks, Rockaneeshoo wished that the books hadn't been burned. His wish came true, but several of his reagents and beakers were destroyed instead. Realizing that the Heart of Fire was responsible, and that they had to take action or risk constant invasion by fire elementals, they started looking for ways to get rid of it. Enli prayed to Ibenaikad, and was told that attuning oneself to the Heart would help as a temporary solution, but that incorporating it into the wheel was the best long-term solution.

A legend lore spell was then cast, revealing that the Heart of Fire is actually the heart of a fire prince. It also revealed that to attune oneself, one must submit to the curse and sacrifice one's most valued possession to the flames. Only then could one harness the powers of the Heart. However the heart of the attuned would be that of the Heart itself, filled with passion and conflagration.

Siala contacted Zana and said that she wanted to get the Wheel back, and could the party come to the secret hideout. Zana said she would see about it. Pelema showed up the next day to discuss things, apparently on Zana's advice.

Pelema admitted that Jiyoomenath's body was under the control of something else, but that she hadn't discovered a weakness in it yet that could be exploited. She did admit that the sigils did not function with the being possessing his body, and that orders could be ignored at this point. However, she said that he was starting to become suspicious now that Calathinius had disappeared, and that by disobeying him in order to bring any of the party back to the hideout would probably mean instant retaliation. She also refused to tell the party much about the location of the hideout, stating that as with all successful guerrilla cells, each cluster should be separate from the others so that if one is compromised, not all of them will be compromised.

She said that she was working on a way to bring the Vlemniir creature down without killing Jiyoomenath, and without setting the party up for suicide. She said that Vlemniir's wheel is essentially the same item that Jiyoomenath was creating, and that allowing it proceed would actually still be in their best interests. She also squashed the idea that adding artifacts to the wheel added special powers to it. Apparently the attack on the party that seemed to use one of the gems in the wheel was merely a Magic Jar spell that used one of the un-filled gems in the wheel, and not an inherent power of the wheel. She also said that she didn't think that the imposter could actually use the sigils at all to tap into their communications.

As a final thought, she said that the horned devils that had been working with Vlemniir seemed to have their own agenda, and that perhaps they could work out a way to make Vlemniir and the devils fight each other so that the party could swoop in at the last minute to finish off the weakened survivor. Or something like that.

The party agreed to let her have the Heart of Fire, and they wrapped it up in stone and handed it to her. She said she'd be in touch, and teleported back home.

The party then paid a short visit to Calathinius. He re-iterated that the flying castle was probably over the waters between the mainland and the trade nation to the south. He also said that he had a somewhat better idea of where the Court of Lumat was located, but that he only knew that it was a cliff fortress on the edge of the great desert.

The party went to Luniel, and then flew south to a human port. They paid a sailor/merchant for some basic information about the trade nation to the south, and then flew off as clouds for a few hundred miles. After 9 hours over the water, they spotted the flying castle about four thousand feet up. It was surrounded by clouds and rotating winds. The party found it impossible to fly close to the castle in cloud form, and difficult to fly close to it in solid form. Rockaneeshoo made Inky fly up from underneath, but Inky was unable to penetrate the wall of winds from below. Urgmob then flew directly above the castle and then became solid. He plummeted towards it and was buffeted by the strong winds. But he compensated nicely, and activated his wand of levitation at the last second to come in for a soft landing on the main dome. He sent a mental image to Rockaneeshoo, who then teleported everyone to Urgmob's location. Peeking over the edge, everyone could see an open courtyard with about 15 reclining giants encircling a musician playing a flute. The music was soft and sad, but calming. Everyone made a will save, and then the words "to be continued..." floated in on the dulcet tones.

8/17 session recap

One day in Urgmob's bar, a hobgoblin comes in looking for him. He says that he came across a wounded patrol about a day to the east of town. He says that the survivors told him they'd been attacked by armored humans. When asked why he didn't help them back to town, he said that if they were strong, they'd survive, as Tulgus intended.

Urgmob gathered together the party and Rhin activated the undead dragon for flight duty. They collected the hobgoblin and flew off to the east. Siala and Rockaneeshoo caught sight of two prone hobgoblin bodies in a clearing, and they came down for a landing. One of the hobgoblins was still alive, and was revived by Rhin. He said that his patrol of 6 had run into the humans, and that the humans had decimated them. He pointed in the direction from which he'd come, and Urgmob let his onyx dog track their scent to make sure.

Rhin commanded the dragon to follow Inky, and Rockaneeshoo isntructed inky to stay nearby. The image of Inky leading a black dragon on a town raid was an amusing one.

The party continued on foot, and soon encountered four heavily armored warriors. Siala entangled them, making it hard for them to escape, and the rest of the party attacked. The other humans came up to support their comrades, and there were 14 total. One was a leader, and another was a sorceror. The fight was short. Urgmob dropped arrows into them as fast as possible, Siala shanked a few while invisible, and Rhin sucked the life out of one, and paralyzed the rest. The survivors were stripped, questioned, then released. They were a platoon from the Blacktongue mercenary company, out to avenge the death of Mad Dog. The sorceror was his brother, and the commanding officer was a close friend.

Rhin let the survivors go with the provision that they never come back to bother with this particular vendetta again. There were quite a few pieces of magical armor and protective trinkets that the party scooped up and had the dragon carry back to town.

8/10 dragon egg recap

The party talked over a couple of different things concerning the egg. Hrir said he didn't care as long as he got his 1/6 cut of the treasure value. He was then asked, with his mighty Appraise skill, how much he thought it was worth. He said 200,000 gp. No one took him seriously. Rockaneeshoo said he thought it was worth 100 gp, and offered Hrir double that. Someone brought up the possibility of selling it to the goblins, thinking that the goblins would surely be eaten by the baby dragon. Then they remembered (ie the GM told them) that these puny goblins had pushed the humans back for 15 years, and had even taken a fortified city. These puny goblins also manufacture golems. But what tipped it was when the GM said that visiting the goblins would require an adventure session. So they didn't go visit the goblins.

They did visit Berthold in Fovona, however. He had expanded his shop considerably, and said he'd raise the dragon, learn from it, and probably get a ducal appointment as royal dragon handler. In return he offered 20% off of all puchases and exchanges (gold for magical components) as well as first crack at any "good" stuff he got in. He also threw in a scroll of Locate Creature for the heck of it when Rhin asked. When questioned by Siala about his intentions, he made it clear that he was not interested in killing a baby dragon just to study it. Especially when he had so many dragon corpses coming in from the party already. He understood that adult dragons could develop into horrible creatures, as he was a survivor of a dragon raid many years ago. But he also understood that it was the upbringing that mattered the most when it came to intelligent beings.

The party offloaded the two juvie dragon corpses as well as the mom for a couple of thousand gold, and the deal was done.

Since K-Mark was off with his woman, and Chaz was laid out with the chicken pox, we didn't do anything other than play Citadels that evening. Next session Chaz will be in New York, and Mr. Too Frank will be off doing something else as well.

8/3 xp totals

Urgmob : 132,610 (still 16)
Rhin : 121,810 (LEVEL UP to 16)
Rockaneeshoo : 147,368 (still 17)
Enli : 152,462 (still 17)
Siala : 105,300 (LEVEL UP to 15)
Hrir : 120,917 (LEVEL UP to 16)

8/3 session recap and xp awards

The iron doors opened onto a wide hallway that ran about a hundred feet long. Siala started checking for traps, and once again Hrir lost his patience immediately. He strode forward and was nearly instantly crushed by the floor as it rose to meet the ceiling. As it lowered back to floor level, Hrir rolled his battered body off on the other side from the party. Thinking perhaps the trap was triggered on the floor, Enli flew over to assist Hrir. He was also smashed against the ceiling. Siala merely looked at them, and then continued her search of the area. She eventually found the trigger for the trap, and was able to jam it so that the other could pass. Starting at the edge of the wall, she continued her search forward and immediately found spring-loaded spikes in the floor coated with dragon bile. She found two of these on one side of the hallway, and then came to the center section that was flanked by two huge doors. She checked one, and could find no traps, despite Rockaneeshoo's assertion that it was magical. As she checked the other one, Enli came traipsing up the hallway and stepped on a spike trap on the side that Siala hadn't checked yet. He came away limping a little, and the rest of the party avoided the edges of the hallway from that point on.

Siala attempted to pick the lock on the magical door, and the hallway behind her was hit with Dispel Magic. Heroes Feast seemed to be the only casualty for most people. Furthermore, the door was completely fake, only there to trick invaders into dispelling themselves a little.

The second doorway was strongly locked, but Siala jimmied it with her dagger and opened it onto a corridor that bent to the right about 45 feet ahead. Once again, Siala went forward to search for traps, and once again Hrir ran forward ahead of her. He found an ambush of three juvenile dragons.

While he battled the dragons, the rest of the party ran up against a wall of force that had sprung up in the corridor behind Hrir. Rockaneeshoo disintegrated it, and Urgmob started putting arrows into dragonflesh. The dragons commented to each other in draconic that it was a good thing someone had come along because mom had been starving them for a week or more. Rhin and Enli responded by taunting the dragons in their own language, saying that they'd killed their mommy, which put the young drakes into a fury. The fight didn't last long, though. As soon as two of them went down, the third fled through a tunnel in the ceiling. Finding nothing but refuse in the room, and unwilling to pursue their prey through a vertical cave, the party moved back into the main corridor.

Hrir once again sprung a trap. This time it was the twin of the one at the front of the hall. After being smashed against the ceiling, Siala came forward and disabled it deftly. There were two doors at the corners of the hallway. One had a magical ray trap that Siala discovered and disabled. Behind it was a small sleeping chamber with a minor amount of money and a gem. It also had a few low-level spellbooks and history books.

The other doorway led to a hallway with an extremely secure, solid adamantine door. Siala was able to pick it's lock after a few moments, and the party entered a circular hallway while Hrir stayed behind to drool over the block of solid metal. Three doors were found, two facing out from the hallway, and the other facing inward. Being very careful, Siala detected that the handle to the inner doorway was covered with dragon bile. After carefully wiping it down, she picked the lock and opened the door.

Inside was a small pile of treasure with a large red egg on top. The pile radiated heat, and Rockaneeshoo detected magic items imbedded in the pile of silver. Hrir made an appearance, and picked up the egg, revealing a fist-sized glowing red stone. In order to get all of the treasure, someone had to pick up the stone, and Enli decided he'd do it. His hands immediately started to smolder and burn, but his protective spells kept him from harm. For 12 seconds, that is. After that, he started to burn for real. Hrir decided to take the stone from him, and Enli wouldn't let him. Anger flared in Enli, and a scuffle broke out between the half-dragon-dwarf and the halfling-angel. Both had Freedom of Movement, and thus grappling had no effect. Hrir was finally able to disarm Enli, however, and the Iron Bands of Bilarro were applied to Enli. Hrir appeared to have no problems with the stone, and once the rest of the treasure was loaded (and a few items taken out of the rug of holding) he put the stone in and closed it back up.

The party tried dispelling and breaking the enchantment on Enli, but neither worked. Siala checked the rest of the doors and found only traps, no rooms of treasure or monsters. The party retreated and went back to Oriv. Enli was finally freed from his state of irrationality, and all was well with the world.

For retrieving the Heart of Fire, and for defeating some dragon fledglings, everyone gets 3000xp.

7/27 session recap and xp

Rhin returned from his volcano reconnaissance with a report of an old crater with odd fires lingering about it. The party packed up and headed out to investigate. Siala took a closer look as an invisible cloud, and saw what were probably three fire elementals just hanging out on the surface. Enli, Rockaneeshoo, and Hrir (?) went to parley with them. The elementals were agitated, and expressed consternation at the fact that air elementals (aka the party) were bugging them. They threatened to burn the party, but Enli offered to help them. They told a disjointed and short tale of how they had been run off by something, and couldn't get back. Enli convinced them to show the party where they originally came from. It was a tunnel carved into the rock of a neighboring mountain. The party landed, and the fire elementals threatened again to help them NOW, or be burned.

At that point, a robed human came from inside the tunnel, and the fire elementals fled. There was a minor standoff, but introductions were made. He said his name was Pelfrey Godwin, and that he was an adventurer. He had heard that there was an underground hoard of magical treasure and knowledge here, and was exploring the tunnel. When asked why he was alone, he said that there weren't many people as powerful as him, and that the trip was mostly impossible for others. Seeing that the party was relatively powerful themselves, he asked if they could help him. He had disabled one trap, but then been stymied by the second.

Not to be easily tricked, the party asked if they could place a Quest or Geas on Pelfrey to be sure of his intent. He declined that course of action, as would most people. Enli suggested casting Zone of Truth, which Pelfrey agreed to. He then agreed to a non-aggression pact with the party. Enli detected an enchantment on him, but wasn't sure it was the Zone of Truth. Siala tried to detect his thoughts, but his mind was impenetrable. The party said that they'd help him, but that they had first dibs on treasure, and required the fist-sized stone called the Heart of Fire. He agreed to that, and the party moved inside the tunnel.

Siala took the point, and discovered several traps, all of which were quite tricky to detect and disarm. She exercised her skill to it's utmost, and had disabled a few traps when the party suddenly became impatient with her. Hrir decided to simply trigger the traps himself, and let her disable them later. Several fireballs, lightning bolts, and a cone of cold later, the party had come to a wide cave-like chamber with large iron doors on the opposite side. The party fanned out to explore, Siala started examining the door, and Enli cast Daylight on several walls.

At this point, Pelfrey laughed from behind them, and said that the party was stronger than he had anticipated. His laughter grew deeper and more sinister as he suddenly transformed into a gargantuan red dragon, blocking the exit passage with his massive body. Rhin made a run for it, dodging underneath his legs, but the dragon stomped upon him, pinning him to the ground, and cracking some of Rhin's bones. Rockaneeshoo saved Rhin with a timely Reverse Gravity, which released Rhin and hurled both Rhin and the dragon to the ceiling. Urgmob launched a barrage of arrows at the dragon, striking true several times. Siala found no mundane traps on the iron doors, but the magical aura persisted on it. She then started to unlock them. Enli and Hrir were busy casting buff spells for a few seconds, and then the dragon breathed fire on at least half the party. Urgmob and Rockaneeshoo took the brunt of the assault, and Enli was scorched a fair amount. Rhin was nearly destroyed from his tangle with the dragon, but was still making his way towards the exit.

Enli fired off a few massive healing spells and Hrir finally launched his melee assault. Rhin repaired himself with a Harm spell, and Urgmob kept up the archery attacks. Davinov, faced with yet another dragon backed up and "protected" Siala as she finally disabled the most intricate lock she'd ever encountered. Another breath of fire caught a majority of the party, but they were able to dodge a bit better this time, suffering only a minor scorching. Dragon blood flew everywhere once Hrir got into his stride, and when the dragon wavered just a bit, Rhin stepped in and magically drained the last life force from the massive beast. It fell, dead and messy.

Davinov stepped in to help Siala push the massively heavy doors open, and they swung open to reveal a darkness with the words "To Be Continued..."

For defeating the dragon, the party gets 2550xp.

This brings the totals (including magic item creation) to :
Urgmob = 129,610 (16th)
Rhin = 118,810 (15th)
Rockaneeshoo = 144,368 (17th)
Enli = 149,462 (17th)
Siala = 102,300 (14th)
Hrir = 117,917 (15th)

7/20 session recap

6 weeks were taken for item creation and research into various quests.

Enli improved upon his belt, his cloak, and his gloves. The gloves, especially, were interesting because part of Grim seems to have been incorporated into them. Enli tends to pick his nose and scratch his butt (sometimes in quick succession!) if he's not paying attention. Grim never had fingers this slim and dextrous in life...

Rockaneeshoo made a few items for other people, including a Ring of Vampiric touch (8d6) and a Helm of Only Comprehend Languages for Siala.

Someone's armor was probably upgraded too.

While that was happening, Urgmob was busy running his tavern and possibly practicing his spell archery. Rhin was out flying around, checking out the dozen known active volcanoes, hoping to figure out the location of the Heart of Fire.

Calathinius was back at Dilithen's Garden, researching the location of The Court of Lumat in order to track down the dragonstone. He was also tasked with looking up volcano information too.

The party had a discussion at some point during this time, and a vote was taken as to which quest to pursue. The volcano emerged as the number one choice. Rhin may have discovered something worth sharing on that account, but we'll have to wait until the next session for him to reveal what he knows...

Back from Hiatus

We'll be playing again on July 20th now that I'm back from vacation. Let the slaughter begin!

6/29 session recap

After Siala and Rhin 'ported out, the rest of the party was left with three chests and a couple of piles of armor. Hrir immediately cast Detect Magic, and realized that one piece of armor in the pile was magical. At about the same time, the walls of the cave started glowing green. Rockaneeshoo recognized it as the Dimensional Lock effect, meaning that the party couldn't teleport out anymore. Unperturbed, Hrir dug out a set of leather armor studded with sapphires and put it in the rug of holding.

Of the two chests, two were quite large, and probably weighed a lot. Hrir tested one, and it was about 500 pounds. He set it down and smashed the lock with his adamantite axe. A cloud of burning phosphorus and smoke smothered the immediate area, but Hrir wasn't harmed, and Urgmob got out of the way. Hrir felt in the chest and encountered lots of coins, but he couldn't see their color because of the smoke. He tasted one, and got no taste. He then noticed that there was something burning in the chest, and he breathed a cold breath on the chest to quell the firey cloud. This served to extinguish the leather bag that was on fire, and when Hrir picked it up, it spilled out gems. Also, with the flame cleared, he could see that the chest was filled with gold pieces.

Enli was busy trying to Legend Lore the dragon during the time, and Rockaneeshoo was scheming. Hrir finally took the large chest, and dumped it into the rug of holding. Urgmob picked up the small chest to throw it in, and Evards Black Tentacles sprung up from the ground surrounding the chest. Still warded with Freedom of Movement, no one was really hindered. Urgmob then went to push the remaining large chest into the rug, but as he moved it, he and the chest fell upwards to smash against the ceiling. Urgmob was then hit by the chest on the way back down, where he took more damage from the floor. That trap sprung, the party managed to get the chest into the rug.

The green glow on the walls went away, and the party heard infernal voices back near the entrance shaft. As they dithered about what to do, a horned devil flew into sight and called out for his companions. Hrir uttered the Word of Recall, and got everyone but Rockaneeshoo out. Rock then turned into a Margoyle, and swam to the submerged corpse of the dragon. He then teleported himself and the hunk of meat to the desert. He then summoned a large elemental, enlarged it, strengthened it, and told it to carry the dragon onto the teleportation circle that he had just activated. Thus another dragon carcass found its way into Oriv.

A morning was spent counting money and tallying magic items. The following day, Rock identified the goods. During this time, Enli received a sending from an unknown elf that said that Dilithen requested to see him and his companions at his garden. After some discussion where Rhin claimed it was a trap, the party agreed to visit in one week.

The treasure contained approximately 58,000 gold pieces, 27,125 gold pieces worth of assorted gems (including diamonds), and several magic items.

• +3 Studded Leather Armor of Cold Resistance 10 (with sapphire studs)
• A square pottery vial with a label depicting an orc, an arrow, and a larger orc (of Enlarge Orc)
• A glass bulb with a wax seal containing a clear liquid that when swirled turns briefly blue (Darkvision)
• A smooth platinum band of Sonic Energy Resistance 10
• A steel ring with two small onyx set in a band of jade - It confers X-ray vision out to 20 feet when the wearer holds to the ring (on their finger) up to their forehead and concentrates. After 10 minutes per day, further use will tire the wearer, causing 1 point of Con damage per extra minute.
• The Watchsword, a +2 ghost touch bastard sword with ivory handle - This sword seems aware of it's surroundings, and can glow blue when it sees undead, especially incorporeal undead.
• An ash staff of Healing with 45 charges that gives clerics lesser restoration, cure serious wounds, remove blindness/deafness, and remove disease.
• Winged boots that are activated with a little tap dance - Wearer can fly for 5 minutes, 3 times a day.
• A Scintilating Robe that dazzles anyone within 30' who looks at it, and grants the wearer concealment - works for 10 rounds per day.

Enli, Rockaneeshoo, Rhin, and Davinov went to visit Dilithen in his antimagic garden, and Rhin was asked to remain outside for his own safety. When led into the house, the party saw Dilithen and Calathinius sitting at a table. While the rest of the party conversed with Calathinius, Dilithen went out and spoke with Rhin.

Calathinius explained that Vlemniir had returned somehow and possessed Jiyoomenath's body. Calathinius' sigil was active again, and he was ordered to find Sky Singer, one of the artifacts. In his search, he found Dilithen's garden, and found that his sigil was not active there. Rockaneeshoo and Enli then immediately stabbed and punched each other to make sure it was true, and sure enough, there was no repercussive effect. Calathinius said that he had generally located the cloud castle where Sky Singer was reported to be held, and gave that information to the party. He also gave them all the information he had about the devils, which was mostly what the party already knew. He agreed to look up more information about the dragonstone, it's uses, and it's location, while at Dilithen's. He also declared that he was on the side of the party.

The party asked if he could share what he knew of sigil removal, and he said that he might be willing to share that information, but that such a negotiation would be best left to later.

Meanwhile, Dilithen explained to Rhin that the reason he didn't give any more information about other liches was because he didn't want to influence Rhin's choices. He felt that Rhin's philosophy was one that he could accept at the moment, but he feared that too much knowledge of those who had gone before would throw Rhin off his current track, onto something that Dilithen wouldn't be able to accept. He also shared the legend of how the dragons were created by either Assuboz or another young deity, and how they had gone amok and unbalanced the world for the other races. Other gods had fashioned the dragonstone as a way of regulating the dragons, binding them to a seasonal cycle, and thus preserving the balance.

After a few divinations by Rhin and Enli, they found that the dragonstone was held on the eastern cliffs, in the old court of Lumat, god of war. They're not sure where that is exactly, but they asked Calathinius to look for it's location. As they left the anti-magic field, Rockaneeshoo and Enli suddenly felt the effects of their previous scuffle, proving that karma exists even where magic does not.

The party returned to Oriv and made some deals with the captured orc captain, Skoluk. Skoluk said that if he could return, he could organize some troops into a coup, and with the party taking on the major house sorcerors and the trolls, transfer of power in Mugron could be completed. He agreed that for the party's help in this, the orcs would ally themselves with the party for future conquests or holding of territory, and that that the party would receive a 10% tribute from revenues gained by the new regime. Skoluk was insistent that all of the sorcerors would have to die in the coup, but that priests of Lumat should be spared. Skoluk also agreed to buy back the looted orc armor at a 75% base price once the city was retaken, since he would then sell the armor back to his own troops, making a profit.

The Habergeon of Conquering Might was analyzed, and it's various functions discovered. In addition to awesome combat bonuses, the wearer is cursed so that they cannot take it off, and the armor must feed on at least one soul a day or it will eat the soul of the wearer instead. Hrir liked the benefits so much that he started trying to figure out how to obtain daily sacrifices. But no one has put it on.

Urgmob spent two weeks training, and can now suck the life out of a squirrel from 200 feet with his vampiric touch arrows. He is also more capable of penetrating spell resistance now. The rest of the party has decided to take a month off for item creation.

Everyone but Siala gets 100xp for this session. I will be on my camping trip for the next two weeks, so we'll start back up on July 20th. See you guys!

6/22 recap and 6/15 - 6/22 xp awards

The next step, the party decided, was to rest up and return to the dragon's lair, hopefully to find Hrir's armor. They geared up, used the teleport circle to get to the desert at dusk, and then teleported back to the room where they'd had their last encounter with the orcs. A quick search indicated that any remaining orcs had packed up quickly and left. All that remained were a few loose pieces of change and a piece of orc sketch-porn.

Heading further down the shaft, the party came across another passageway. Siala investigated a bit, and found two locked doors at the end. Deftly picking one of the locks, she discovered a tall room that was otherwise unremarkable. The rest of the party summoned her back before she could continue, however, and they headed further down the shaft to the bottom. Hrir created a spiral wall of stone to complete the ramp's descent.

At the bottom was a large cave filled with water and a central sandbar. In the gloom, no one could see out very far over the water. Enli and Siala flew out to investigate how far the cave went, and discovered a ledge that had three sleeping blue dragons on it! Enli immediately cast True Sight on himself, and was therefore able to see that only one of the dragons was real. In response to the scrutiny, the real dragon breathed a line of lightning at the two of them.

Combat ensued. The dragon's tactics seemed to be mostly flyby attacks with the occasional wing buffet or bite. It breathed every few rounds, and cast a few spells, but was somewhat hampered by the close quarters. It was dimensionally anchored pretty early on, keeping it from teleporting away. The entire party had prepared themselves with Freedom of Movement, and so none were able to be grappled. Enli unleashed Destruction on the dragon twice, burning and shriveling scales each time, but failing to utterly destroy it. Several Flamstrikes hit it, but most glanced harmlessly aside. The dragon was having some difficulty picking targets, for the ones that were doing the most damage were either protected by mirror images, or were unable to be grappled.

Siala transformed into a dragon herself, and picked up Urgmob and Davinov, in an attempt to ferry them around. Davniov nearly lost bladder control, seeing a dragon swoop down on him like that, but he managed to contain himself. Rockaneeshoo sealed the exit shaft with a Wall of Force at about this point too.

After a few more breath attacks, the dragon flew to the far dark side of the lake, out of sight of the party. After a few rounds of quiet, the dragon reared out of the water, blasting the party with more lightning. It was no longer glowing green. Rockaneeshoo responded by summoning a Solid Fog around it. The casters heard the dragon cast Teleport. Hrir charged into the cloud, and smacked into a beholder just opening it's main eye. Hrir dropped out of the air, and the rest of the party blasted the floating eye into char quickly.

Not knowing where the dragon was, Rhin and Siala started searching the treasure for the armor (which Rhin had located using Discern Location). There were a couple of piles of stuff under tarps, and a few chests. Rhin pointed to one of the tarp piles, and Siala tore into it with her dragon claws. Soon the armor was uncovered. As soon as it was in hand, Rhin cast Word of Recall, teleporting himself and Siala back to Oriv.

The dragon raised up out of the water again to breathe lightning on the party, and was met with another dimensional anchor and another solid fog. Hrir charged in again, and was this time able to strike true. The dragon fell, slain after only a round or two of concerted damage from the party.

We leave the party separated at the end of the session, with Siala and Rhin in Oriv with a bit of treasure, and the rest of the party in the pit, with a lot more treasure and a dead dragon.

Everyone receives 750xp for the encounter two weeks ago, including negotiations with the devils and the capture of one of the remaining orcs. For this past session, everyone gets 1700 xp for defeating the dragon. This brings the totals to:

Urgmob : 126,960 (16th)
Rhin : 116,160 (15th)
Rockaneeshoo : 143,136 (17th)
Enli : 148,050 (17th)
Siala : 99,650 (14th)
Hrir : 116,107 (15th)

6/15 recap

Hrir grabbed the energy axe from the shriveled orc leader's hand with a dwarven/dragon chuckle of greed, only to watch the blade disappear. He then started stripping the armor from the deceased. Enli took this opportunity to start praying to Ibenaikad for divine guidance. Urgmob and Siala explored the two doors leading out of the room, and discovered that they were merely illusions. Going just a bit further, they saw that some remaining orcs were holding a cautious discussion of their own in a back passageway.

A devil's voice called out from the shaft, calling for the party to relinquish the Wheel. The party hid in the corners of the room, out of sight, except for Siala who invisibly watched the corridor. A single cornugon stood at the entrance, blocking it, while another kept peeking around the corner. The party tried very hard to enrage the devils into coming into the room to attack, but the devils were having no part of that. They claimed that they would give the party knowledge of the dragonstone in return for the Wheel. When accused of trying to destroy the world, they said that they didn't share Vlemniir's desires, and that they merely wanted it for travel purposes. Rhin asked if the party could merely use the Wheel to send them wherever they wanted to go, but the devil said that they needed the wheel in general.

A standoff was held for about 5 minutes, and then the devils were flew off. A much larger creature flew up, however, and landed on the ledge of the corridor, out in the shaft. It was a blue dragon, and it started clawing through the stone, making the corridor large enough for it to enter. The party then decided to attack it. Rockaneeshoo fired spells at it, and in return it fired a black beam that struck him in the head. Rock lost 8 levels due to enervation, and staggered backwards. Enli decided to give up his divination, and moved forward to cast a flame strike. The dragon responded by hitting Enli with another black beam, which stripped Enli of 4 levels. Urgmob fired some arrows into the dragon, hitting true, but the dragon responded by putting up a wall of wind between them. It also breathed lightning down the passageway, scorching several party members.

After taking some damage, the dragon flew up the shaft, and out of sight. The party gave chase to the stairway, and was met by another blast of lightning from the dragon above. It then flew out into the desert, and away from sight again.

Rather than face it in the open, the party moved back to engage the remaining orcs. Siala snuck up invisibly, and started viciously stabbing her target. The others joined in, and soon there were two orcs on the ground. One was still alive, and Rhin stabilized him. Pressing through the doorway, the party faced only two more orcs, apparently spellcasters. Once managed to put up a blade barrier, but Hrir rushed through it anyways to attack him. That one dropped, and the other was commanded to drop his weapon and surrender. He did, and Urgmob put an arrow into him anyways. A warning was shouted again at the orc to lie down, so he did. And then Hrir fatally tenderized him with his axe.

A quick decision was made to leave the area quickly, but Hrir wasn't about to leave the scene without the armor. So he ran back through the blade barrier to the entry room, and across to the dead orc and his armor. On the way, a blast of electricity fried him, but he managed to keep going. He dragged the orc back with him to the party (not crossing the room again), and the Rhin uttered the Word of Recall to transport them all back to Oriv.

The orc was revived and questioned. He was merely a fighter, but he kept his wits pretty well. He said that the orc that had worn the Habergeon was the chieftain of Mugron, that the orcs and Devils had a pact, and that the Devils and dragon had a pact, but that the dragon didn't have any such pact with the orcs. The party made some comments about finishing off the orc leadership at some point. Later, they asked the captive why they should keep him alive. He said that if there were to be a violent change in the governing of Mugron, that he could probably make sure that the new people in charge would be amenable to an alliance with the party. Especially if he himself were the liason between them. The party turned him over to Keggrok for safekeeping, and explained the situation to him.

Siala explored the Green Dragon Inn, and stared down a group of unruly hobgoblins. They even bought her a round of ale, which wasn't too bad. Rockaneeshoo collapsed on his bunk, exhausted. Allison showed off her magic missile mastery before he fell asleep.

6/8 xp awards

Each of the characters gets 1700 xp for last session. This bring the totals to :
Urgmob 124,510
Rhin 113,710
Rockaneeshoo 140,686
Enli 145,600
Siala 97,200
Hrir 113,657

We left the party last time with several dead orcs. One of them is wearing the Habergeon of Conquering Might and has an energy axe still glowing in his shriveled fist. There is a blade barrier across the exit. See you guys tonight!

6/8 session recap

The air above the pit was filled with the not-so-whispered deliberations of the party. Some sort of concensus was reached, and Enli conjured two celestial monkeys to go down the spiral stairway as scouts. The monkeys came back very shortly, and said (in celestial) that there was a side passage. The party proceeded down the stairs, and saw a 10' wide corridor stretch 30' to a door. Enli instructed the monkeys to open the door and check inside. They fumbled with the latch a bit, then slipped inside. There were monkey screams and orc grunts, and then silence.

The party whispered some more, and then Hrir kicked in the door. Five orcs stood waiting, including one that was wearing ornate, black spiked armor. That one also carried an axe with a head of pure energy. Combat ensued. Every time that the lead orc was injured, he seemed to grow stronger and more dense. Hrir was hit and stunned. Spikes then shot from the lead orc's armor on chains, but everyone dodged somehow. After a couple of viscious backstabs from Siala, the leader grew to be ten feet tall. An invisible, beardless dwarf attacked, becoming visible. Urgmob fired several arrows at him, but the should pads on the dwarf's armor deflected the first, and he caught another scant inches from his face. Hrir recovered, and landed a few blows on the leader, but was then stunned again, as was Davinov. Siala delivered a couple of extra sneak attacks, which caused leathery wings to sprout from the orc's back. He resembled a cross between a devil and an orc. The orc then summoned a retriever, normally a demonic construct, and it attacked the party with it's eye rays. Urgmob had donned his spider climb slippers, and was perched high on the wall, firing arrows into the retriever. The retriever responded by turning Urgmob to stone with a ray. After taking massive damage, the beardless dwarf clicked his heels and teleported away.

During the melee, spells continued to rain down upon the party, seemingly from nowhere, or near the vicinity of the walls. Eventually the party figured out that there were casters in there, and passed through the illusions to attack them. Before either of the sorcerors could be killed, however, they teleported away. Rhin broke the enchantment on Urgmob, who resumed firing arrow after arrow into enemies.

Spikes shot forth from the armor again, impaling Davinov and Bob the Orc. They were then dragged foward, and lifeforce seemed to drain from them. Bob the Orc expired, but Davninov ripped himself from the spike with a cry of pain. He then fell to the ground, unmoving. Hrir was looking extremely bad too. Enli and Rhin stepped in with healing spells, reviving them and closing their wounds. Hrir shed his tower shield, put away his axe, and then drew the demon axe. Davinov recovered, and dealt the final blow to the lead orc before Hrir could even swing the artifact, however. As the lead orc fell, he cried out "No! I won't go! No, don't take me!" And then his body shriveled in on itself, shedding all of the features of a devil.

As a side note, the four other orcs were slain during the course of the combat.

June 8 Session

We're back after a one week break, and the June 8 session will be held as usual.
6:30-7pm, Sean's place.

The party is poised at the edge of a pit in the desert, Hrir's armor somewhere below. It's also possible that there is a real dragon and the Habergon of Conquering Might down there too. Tune in tomorrow to find out!

5/25 session recap and xp awards

After healing Urgmob, the party returned to their previous campsite. Hrir's armor was not there, and dragon prints were visible on the ground. A single elemental was there, and it attempted to leave. It was held by a spell, and the party beat it down with a combination of attacks and spells. The party then rested again as night fell.

Enli divined the location of the dragon's lair, and the party set out via wind walk and phantom steed. They spotted the camp at around mid-day. It appeared to be several low stone structures and a sleeping blue dragon. The party landed about a mile away and prepared for combat.

Most of the party readied actions, and Rockaneeshoo teleported them next to the dragon. Hrir attempted a power attack, but merely drove his axe through the illusion of the dragon, and into the sand. Spells started flying, and the party cast a few dispel magics. Enli cast True Seeing on himself and announced that they were surrounded by orcs. Rhin cast Locate Object (as did Rockaneeshoo) and learned that Hrir's armor was somewhere below the party, off to one side. Some of the stone structures disappeared when dispelled, revealing orcs. A central pit was also revealed. Urgmob was foiled in most of his attempts to shoot at the enemy, for several of the casters had put up wind walls. Rockaneeshoo sealed off the pit with a wall of force, just to make sure that no one came up out of it. And then the party began to give the orcs hell.

After the casters were finished off, the party mopped up the remaining orcs. They even managed to capture one of the orc clerics with a well-placed Reverse Gravity spell.

Everyone gets 1000xp for this session, except for Siala, who was on the sidelines.

Urgmob Lives!

Urgmob gives a single cough, which dislodges a wad of blood and sand from his lungs, and then he takes a ragged breath. When his pulse is checked, it's weak, but he's alive. Urgmob is at -9 hp, but has stabilized due to the clotting power of fine sand particles and the cauterizing effect of high-temperature lightning.

(Mike made a mistake. A dragon taking a move action and a standard action would not be able to bite, breath, and fly all in the same round. Therefore Urgmob was really only breathed on, and not bitten. And Mike is taking GM's perogative in saying that Urgmob is still alive. Numbers be damned.)

5/18 session recap and xp awards

Having finally captured an orc prisoner, the party interrogated him. Inky plucked out one of his eyes, and then the questions started. He said that they were heading north to the secret location, where it wsa rumored the devils were. The nobles apparently are the only ones allowed to be officers, and they are also the spellcasters. They tend to carry the rods that control sand elementals. He didn't know exactly where the secret location was. He was able to identify the troll and officer in the room that Rockaneeshoo barely escaped. When asked why they should keep him alive, he didn't have a good answer, but tried to say that he'd speak for them when they got close. The party didn't think that was a good idea. Rather than simply execute him, they let him free, allowed him to arm himself again, and then duel Hrir.

After slaying the orc, the party set off searching for the hidden location again. Enli prayed to Ibenaikad for guidance, and found out that the troll was back in the city of Mugron, to the south. The rest of the party confirmed this information by asking their orc henchman in the rug of holding. The party also humiliated the orc further by making him answer to various names such as Poindexter and Mary. Matt also was trying to provoke the GM into revoking his breathing privileges.

Enli used Speak with Dead on the latest orc spellcaster, and learned very little about the secret camp in the desert, only that the party was nearing it's location, it was guarded by about 60 orcs, and that the Habergeon of Conquering Might was located there.

The party searched again, using Locate Object to help speed things. But they were unable to see the secret location from the air. They camped for the day in Leomund's Tiny Hut, and Siala disguised it again as a sand dune. During the late afternoon/evening, Rhin noticed something that looked like a bird on the horizon. But then he noticed that the encampment was now surrounded by 4 large hills of sand that had just risen on their own. He spent several rounds waking up the party, yet the hills didn't move any more.

All of a sudden, a blue dragon appeared in the air near the hut, and homing in on the area bracketed by the sand elementals, cast Evard's Black Tentacles almost directly in the middle of the encampment. Davinov was the first to scramble free of the spell, but was then immediately picked up by the dragon and carried off. Fearing the worst, Rockaneeshoo teleported on top of the dragon and cast Otto's Irresistable Dance on it. The dragon immediately grounded himself and performed a tap dance, crushing and breaking Davinov's body in the process.

Rockaneeshoo regrouped with the party after disintegrating a hole in the dragon's wing, and as it swooped back for another pass, he teleported the entire party just above the swooping dragon. As it rapidly swept by them, several things happened. Hrir attempted to catch hold as it flew rapidly underneath him, but failed and tumbled to the ground, getting a serious mouthful of sand. Rhin floated gracefully down (featherfall) and cast a Flamestrike that failed to affect the dragon. Urgmob deftly grabbed hold, stored his bow, drew his dagger, and made a stab that skittered off the dragon's scales. Enli, Rockaneeshoo, and Siala were all able to keep their positions in the air.

The dragon was not amused by this tactic, and decided to dislodge its remaining attacker. Craning its neck around, it bit Urgmob and breathed a blast of lightning into his face. Urgmob's lifeless and scorched body tumbled from its back and plowed into the sand below.

Rockaneeshoo cast Solid Fog to hide them from the dragon as it flew away, and then put up a Wall of Force to keep the dragon from simply swooping through the fog. As the dragon circled for a better angle, the party regrouped, gathered their fallen comrades, and collected the dropped weaponry of the slain. Hrir called for a general retreat, and Rockaneeshoo teleported the entire party back closer to Mugron.

Will Urgmob and Davinov be returned to life? Will the party find the secret base in the desert? Tune in next time to find out!

Everyone receives 1500 xp for encounters and roleplaying, and Urgmob (should he be raised) will receive an extra 100xp for being the first to say how the dragon was able to find the party.

5/11 xp awards (finally)

After crunching numbers for hours on end, it turns out that everyone gets 1500xp for the 5/11 session.

5/11 session recap (no awards yet)

The party packed up their things (after yet another Hero's Feast) and headed north as clouds, hoping to pick up the trail of some more orcs. After several hours of flight, they came upon the trail of yet another platoon. Realizing that they hadn't gathered much intelligence about *where* the orcs were heading up north, the party decided on another parley attempt. They grounded and started following the orcs until they got within about a half mile. Eventually the orcs noticed, and sent two warriors back to check out the party.

Seeing only a rag-tag group consisting of a mute orc, a half-dwarf, a half-orc, and a talkative goblin, they opted for their standard bullying conversational tactics. Siala was invisible and detecting thoughts on the orc spokesperson while Enli spoke for the party. The orcs asked what the party was doing, and Enli said they were following them, that they were lost. The orc laughed and said to stop following them. Enli said they were out of food and water, could the orcs help them. The orcs said it wasn't their problem. When Enli accepted defeat so easily, they pushed their advantage, and declared that they'd take Enli as a slave. With the entire party in agreement, Enli said sure he'd go with them. Siala detected that the orcs might want to simply eat the goblin, since they hadn't had fresh food in a while. The orcs gestured, and a sand elemental picked up Enli and carried him back to the main body of orcs.

The leader of the orcs seemed somewhat impatient at the turn of events, and attempted to cast a spell on Enli. Enli shrugged it off, wriggled free of the elemental's grip (using Freedom of Movement), and then realized what shit he was in. Enli bolted for it, but was hit from behind by a Flesh to Stone spell. As the rest of the party watched in horror mixed with glee, the leader commanded the sand elemental to bury Enli's statue.

The party decided they had to attack after this affront. After some preparation and random running around, the entire group was teleported by Rockaneeshoo into the middle of the orcs. Rockaneeshoo summoned an earth elemental to "find Enli". Spells were cast, and weapons were swung. Urgmob and Rockaneeshoo nearly took out the enemy spellcaster with a combination of arrows and magic missiles, but before they could finish him off, he teleported away. Afraid that the spellcaster's rod was the only way to get Enli back, Rockaneeshoo made a Wish. He wished he was behind the spellcaster that just teleported away. [-5000 xp]

Meanwhile, the rest of the party mopped up the orcs. One was taken prisoner in the Bands of Bilarro. One of the enemy clerics put up a good fight, summoning a Blade Barrier and Wind Wall to protect himself from Siala's onslaught of sneak attacks. In the end he succumbed to Rhin's death magic.

Rockaneeshoo found himself behind the spellcaster, and immediately killed him with a quickened set of Magic Missiles. The orc's blood sprayed all over the other orc he was speaking to, and before his body could hit the floor, Rockaneeshoo had bent down to pick up the rod of Sand Elemental Control. Unfortunately, the armored troll in the room was alert to the disruption, and attacked immediately. Rockaneeshoo was clawed three times, rent nearly in twain, and then grappled and impaled upon the armor spikes of the troll. Just as the troll was about to bite his head off, Rockaneeshoo uttered the words to the Teleport spell, and escaped back to Inky.

The earth elemental came up to Rockaneeshoo and said, "found him". Rockaneeshoo them made his way into the middle of the battle site and used the rod of control to summon the sand elemental. He commanded it to bring him the statue of Enli. 30 seconds later, Enli was deposited upon the sand in front of the party. Rhin broke the enchantment, and Enli shot forward, still running. Once he realized that the battle was over, he rejoined the group to loot and interrogate.

xp awards - to be continued...

5/4 session recap and awards

The party was about ready to head into the desert when Rhin received a sigil message from Siala (cee-ah-la) saying she was at the desert teleportation circle waiting to join them. Rhin and Rockaneeshoo teleported without mishap to the circle, and proceeded to question the poor pixie a little. They also fired a magic missile into her, just to make sure that she was a real minion.

She said that Zana, Jiyoomenath's spy master, had sent her. Apparently Zana thinks that Jiyoomenath is acting somewhat oddly since his return. Also, Calathinius was given a full pardon and was now out on his own. No one knows where he is at the moment.

Continuing with their current mission, the party decided to track the next northward-bound orc patrol in order to find out what's so interesting to the orcs up there. They endured a hot day in the scorching desert by using the extradimensional rug as a lean-to tent, and Rhin buried himself in sand. The heat was still intense, so Enli called upon Ibenaikad to gift them with drizzling rain. Eventually, during the night, they party spotted an orc band heading north. They followed about a mile or so behind for the rest of the night, making about 10 miles progress northward.

Along about daybreak, the orcs seemed to have stopped to camp. Siala scouted ahead, flying high and invisibly. The camp seemed composed of about a dozen orcs, including at least one caster. They were all lounging, and no one seemed to be on watch. As she flew over the camp, however, some sort of spell shot up from below, barely missing her. She dodged two lightning bolts as well, and fled. The rest of the party was alerted by the faint crack of thunder, and jumped up to attack the camp.

As the party slowly approached, one orc looked up and smiled, beckoning them closer. Rather than fall for the same ruse twice, the party charged into combat. Rockaneeshoo conjured up an earth elemental, but it was intercepted by another sand elemental. It was hard for the party to engage their foes initially, for the entire camp seemed to be an illusion. Davinov bellowed for someone to dispel the illusion, which Rockaneeshoo obliged him by doing. The fight lasted longer than it might have otherwise, but once the three casters had been slain, the rest was mop-up work.

After the fight, Rhin mentioned that they might as well just fly northwards, since they were a good 290 miles south from where he saw the first orc party. It was deduced that following new packs of orcs would take weeks of overland travel in a hot desert, which no one really wanted to do.

For a good session of roleplaying and teamwork, everyone gets 1500 xp.

4/21 session recap and awards

After stripping the bodies of the dead orcs, the party was confronted by the sand elemental. It pulled itself from the ground towards Rockaneeshoo, who flew into the air quickly to escape it's stony grasp. It grumbled in terran, "I would speak to him who freed me." Rockaneeshoo landed and the elemental offered it's thanks. Enli attempted to turn the creature, but it made it's save, and Rockaneeshoo simply declined any further favors from the elemental and sent it home.

Enli and Urgmob disguised themselves as orcs and went with Davinov to infiltrate the city and gain information about the Habergeon of Conquering Might. They paid 5 gold pieces each to get into the city, and Enli's fake name (Scrog Stonefist) was laughed at by the toll collector. Once inside, they sought a drinking establishment. They paid 2 copper each for a leather mug of beer with a relatively high urine content. Enli then started up a conversation with some orcs in the bar, which ended up with him unintentionally insulting someone's clan. After being punched in the nose, Enli and crew left to the jeering of the crowd.

They discovered that if you were clanless in the town, the only place for you was as a grunt in the army. They went to the barracks and signed up. They had to pay 100 gold for their standard issue armor and shield (and would have had to pay more for a weapon, if they hadn't had theirs) and were told that the cost would be taken automatically from their wages of 5 silver a week. In return they'd be given a place to sleep and something to eat each day. Not to mention they'd get to fight for the glory of Lumat, the god of War. They had to pay 5 copper for a scribe to write down their names, and Enli was laughed at again. In the barracks they overheard that the devils from the past war were the reason this city was so prosperous.

Eventually they were assigned to a platoon of newbies, and sent on a daytime (anathema to orcs) patrol into the desert. After being informed of this, the rest of the party arranged to intercept them and send summoned creatures after the patrol. Two djinnis were summoned, and they killed two orcs before being dispatched. A roc was summoned to pick up a single orc and drop him back with the rest of the party. Two orcs died during the hot march in the sun, but Urgmob picked up their rations and water on the way.

Rhin paralyzed the captured orc, and Inky had a feast of one of his eyeballs. They healed it up, just to stop the bleeding, and then interrogated him. They found out most of what the infiltrators had already discovered, and so Rockaneeshoo summoned his mansion again, and let the orc have a good time with the servants.

When the three infiltrators returned to town, they were put together with other survivors to form a real platoon, complete with two spellcasters. They found out that the orc leaders lived in one section of town, and Urgmob scouted that section briefly while invisible. they also heard rumors that some of the high-powered platoons had left the city to head north, and that whatever was up there must have been an attractive prospect and/or sanctioned by the city leadership.

When the infiltrators went on their next patrol, Hrir was standing in their way out in the desert, and a combat ensued. Hrir took some spell damage early on, and then the party destroyed the newbie orc platoon quickly.

For two adventures of good roleplaying and a little bit of combat, each player gets 1,500 xp.

4/13 session recap

The party finished making its magic items, including Five Good Reasons and Enli's Cauldron of Culinary Catharsis (aka magic pot). Rockaneeshoo cranked out a couple of pairs of goggles too. Urgmob hired the local brewer and his cousin to run his bar while he's away. Cousin Skorvalk haggled for 18% of the profits and got it.

Finally, the party got underway, and teleported to the desert. They marched for about 5 hours through blistering heat, driven sand, and chafing armor. A Sandstorm came up, and Rockaneeshoo conjured himself a phantom steed to carry him above the storm. Enli called upon the power of knowledge to divert the winds and create a pocket of calm amidst the raging winds. This lasted for about two hours, then the winds came back. The party eventually consented to accepting a Wind Walk from Rhin, and they flew above the streaming sand for another two hours.

The sandstorm let up around nightfall, and it was at this point that someone mentioned that the party had seriously overshot the last known position of the desert patrol. Undaunted, the party flew on into the night until the desert city became visible. The party landed and Rockaneeshoo conjured a door leading into a magnificent mansion. Enli created a feast for everyone, and Rockaneeshoo introduced their "servants", including a vampiress, an odd dragon/elf/dwarf with four arms , a shaved hobgoblin female, and a mandril (the ape). After an all-day rest, the party packed up and started marching again.

A few hours into the trip, Urgmob spotted some movement ahead. Much later, he saw that it was a patrol of orcs. The party made a campfire and waited for them. Hrir, Rockaneeshoo, and Davinov were under the cover of an invisbility spell. Urgmob was on top of a nearby rock, also invisible. Rhin and Enli were the only ones visible as the orcs approached in a spread out and enveloping formation. As they drew close, Hrir shouted out to Tulgus to give him strength, and there was a sound of a hammer striking metal. This prompted the rearmost orcs to quickly cast defensive spells. The situation immediately devolved into combat.

Rockaneeshoo teleported himself and Davinov directly behind the non-armored spellcaster. Orcs immediately converged upon them, and the caster tried to turn Rockaneeshoo to stone. Davinov slew the caster in one round while the rest of the party started dealing damage to the other orcs. Rockaneeshoo dropped an Acid Fog on the orcs surrounding him and Davniov, and then re-positioned behind the armored caster. The caster caused Davinov's sword to fall from his grasp, and Rock was suddenly siezed from behind by strong arms of rock and sand. A huge earth elemental had partially emerged in order to grapple him. Rock teleported away to help with the portion of the battle closer to the campfire. Meanwhile Urgmob was dropping lethal shafts from his bow into the orcs. One climbed up to confront him, but he threw the bands of Bilarro at him, immobilizing the would-be attacker. Rhin was involved in a lengthy grappling battle with an orc while Enli fought another. Hrir buffed himself for a few rounds, and then commenced pounding on the hapless orcs. Enli conjured an earth elemental, which then smashed the orc attacking him.

Eventually, all of the orcs were slain or routed, but the sand elemental had traveled underground to pursue Rockaneeshoo and grapple him again. Using his last teleport, Rock escaped and slew the fleeing orcs with a few well-placed fireballs. Enli ordered his earth elemental to pursue the other elemental.

(to be continued...)

4/6 session recap and xp awards

Pelema stepped through the teleport circle into Oriv, and found the party. She said that Jiyoomenath was returned, though he seemed tired from his journey. He had told her to relay his orders, that the party was to continue to find the artifacts, and to then bring them and the wheel to him. He withdrew all other minions to the safety of Pelema's secret stronghold. He also send Pelema to retrieve Calathinius from the party's care.

Rockaneeshoo balked at this, asking how they could trust it was Jiyoomenath and not an imposter? Why hadn't he used the sigils to issue his orders? Pelema said that he seemed concerned that his enemies had figured out a way to listen in on the sigil communications. Rockaneeshoo initially refused to give up Calathinius, but Pelema said that since she had been given a direct order, she didn't intend to disobey it. She seemed prepared to stay around as long as it took to get Calathinius.

Enli asked Ibenaikad if Pelema was really who she seemed to be, and could she be trusted. The answer was yes. Rhin was brought into the conversation, and he suggested that they merely ask Calathinius if he would consent to going back with her. Everyone seemed to be in agreement with this plan, so they unearthed Calathinius from under the temple, and woke him from his stasis. He agreed to go back with Pelema.

Pelema also gave some basic information about the remaining four artifacts. Sky Singer was last reported to be in the keeping of Cloud and Storm giants in a flying castle or city. It's location was not known, however. The Habergeon of Conquering Might (aka devil armor) was supposedly a gift from the devil armies to their orc minions back during the war. Those orcs inhabit the deserts and dry hills of the far east. The Heart of Fire was reportedly thrown into a volcano to destroy it's evil, but those legends seem too simplistic. Even if they were true, there are several volcanoes that it could have been thrown into. The Ring of Infinite Images that they had aquired turned out to be one of many (but not infinite) copies, and not the real thing. The real one is probably somewhere in the Heartlands, the human kingdom in the center of the continent. Sir Dominic (the lycanthrope) has been there acting as a negotiator for a border dispute, and eventually he will be imbedded far enough into the kingdom to provide more information on the whereabouts of the ring.

Rhin and Urgmob decided to scout while the others made magic items. Rhin cast wind walk on both of them, but Rhin took the teleport circle to the far desert, and Urgmob headed north to search for sky castles.

Urgmob's adventure lasted a day, and as the sun started to set, he flew south again. He had somehow lost his way, however, and landed in the woods about a day east of Oriv. He camped and trekked his way back, however, with the help of his magical dog, Tybalt.

Rhin found what appeared to be a small band of orcs in the desert, and tracks that led towards the south. Following the tracks a few hundred miles south, Rhin came across a stone fortress and city amidst a dry rocky area. He used Word of Recall to return to Oriv.

Since the others were still making items, only Rhin, Urgmob, and Davinov ventured forth to deal with the band of desert orcs. They found what appeared to be a group of 3 orcs around a campfire in the early morning, out in the desert. They flew down, and the orc didn't seem too terribly upset. He motioned for them to come closer, and with Davinov translating, told them to put their gear over next to the fire. The orc smiled as he said this. The request was repeated again, and the party started to shuffle a bit. Then suddenly the illusion dropped, and the party was surrounded by about 10 orcs and a huge sand elemental.

Rhin made as if he was going to touch the orc who had spoken, and was immediately attacked by three spell casters from the back of the orc group, as well as by at least three nearby orc warriors. Rhin touched his target, paralyzing him. The elemental grappled Urgmob and pinned him easily. Davinov stepped up to engage the orcs, and Rhin was again subjected to a round of incoming spells, including Flesh to Stone, Slay Living, and Blindness. Realizing that the party was somewhat outnumbered and outgunned, Rhin touched his two companions and used Word of Recall to escape. They regrouped and decided to come up with a different plan.

At the end, Enli prayed to Ibenaikad, asking who the closest person was that could direct them to the flying castle and the storm giants....

Everyone gets 1000xp for general roleplaying. I think Enli and Rock spent some xp on items, but that has not been factored in. Without any item expenditures, the totals are :
Urgmob : 15,710 (15th)
Rhin : 105,010 (15th)
Rockaneeshoo : 136,986 (17th)
Enli : 138,615 (17th)
Minebeard : 104,957 (14th)

3/30 session recap and awards (for real)

The party was under siege by an enraged green dragon that was periodically wiping out patrols of hobgoblins on the edge of Oriv. On the last of these attacks, the dragon demanded that a pile of loot be brought to a clearing 3 miles to the east at noon the following day, or else he'd destroy the entire town and everyone in it.

The party complied, digging up a bunch of copper from their storage under the pan-deific temple. Urgmob purchased burlap sacks for a gold piece, and a cart for five pieces. Then Urgmob selected wands from his stash, and handed them over to Rhin, who memorized which ones they were so he could scry upon them later.

The party ate their Hero's Feast in the morning, and told their two best "elite" hobgoblins (the ones with Gith swords and armor) to pull the cart for them. They trekked two hours into the woods to the designated clearing, and unloaded the bags of loot so that they were scattered in odd places. The guards were told to wait back in the cover of the trees with the wagon. The party thought they had laid a good ambush for the dragon.

15 minutes before noon, Enli took the time to ask for guidance from Ibenaikad. He asked if the dragon was really tricking them, and would the dragon really just try to sack the town while they were distracted out in the woods. Ibenaikad said, "Your wisdom serves you well."

Rhin contacted Allison through the armband, and told her to contact them as soon as a dragon showed up. About 2 minutes later she frantically called for help, saying that the dragon had landed on the roof of the library and was breaking through it. Rhin gathered everyone together and did his Word of Recall to just outside the temple. Sure enough, the dragon was there. Upon seeing the party he said, "I didn't expect to see you so soon!"

Enli buffed the entire party with a Holy Aura, and Hrir had already protected everyone from acid. Urgmob hid behind a building, and Rhin ran into the open like a scared bird. The dragon pounced down beside Hrir and picked him up. Hrir's arms were pinned to his side, and he was unable to do anything. Rhin dropped a Flamestrike on the back of the dragon, hurting it some. Davinov attacked and was able to land a few good blows on the dragon. Enli cast Destruction at it (no, for real! I mean it this time!) and it made it's save. Scales and skin sloughed off, but the dragon still lived. It took to the sky, Hrir clutched in it's claw. Urgmob stepped out and unleashed some arrows at it, including a Ghoul Touch arrow that did nothing to it. Davinov dropped his sword, pulled out Urgmob's old bow, and missed his shot entirely, breaking the fletching off the arrow in the process. Enli dropped a Flamestrike on it too, hitting Hrir in the process. It's possible that at least one other spell was unleashed at it too. The dragon, having attained at height of 200 feet, dropped Hrir, hoping to dash him senseless upon the ground. But the GM forgot that the first round of falling was only 150 feet, and Hrir was able to concentrate enough to cast an Air Walk spell before he hit the ground. Urgmob launched three more arrows, and connected with all of them. One was a critical, and the dragon fell spinning wildly to it's death in the forest on the outskirts of town.

The party laid claim to the corpse, and it was determined that Rhin was indeed capable of animating the dragon if he so desired. The party talked about making it an animated mascot for their new bar, and several names were discussed, though no conclusion was made. Urgmob was named Dragonkiller by Keggrok Half-ear, and the entire party was thanked.

The party then tracked down the dragon's lair (through an oddly lucid divination) and found a somewhat disappointing hoard. A few thousand gold pieces, several pieces of art and jewelry, and a few magic items were all that they found in a cave 17 miles to the west-northwest of Oriv. It wasn't a bad hoard, but it wasn't enough to swim in, as Hrir had hoped. Enli performed a Legend Lore upon the corpse and after 40 minutes of concentration said, "Lurvolloc the Green terrorized the lands at the base of the dragonspine mountains these 200 years past." The snippet of prose seems itself to have been at least a hundred years old.

The party receives 1450 xp total (Rhin, Urgmob, Hrir, and Enli). This doesn't put anyone up a level.

3/30 session recap and awards (sorta)

(from the players' retelling of the events)
The party was under siege by an enraged green dragon that was periodically wiping out patrols of hobgoblins on the edge of Oriv. On the last of these attacks, the dragon demanded that a pile of loot be brought to a clearing 3 miles to the east at noon the following day, or else he'd destroy the entire town and everyone in it.

Enli was the first to figure it out. Ibenaikad spoke to him unbidden, saying "Lo, the dragon seeks to trick thee, and thou shouldst lay an ambush for him here in town." So rather than packing up tons of cash and spare magic items into makeshift sacks, and hauling the loot out to the designated spot, the party instead prepared a surprise for their enemy.

Noon came, and all was ready. As Enli had predicted, the dragon swooped down into the town, believing that the party would be gullible enough to fall for it's simple trick. It landed on the roof of the library once again and started smashing in the third floor. Allison screamed in fear, but the party held itself in readiness, lulling the dragon into thinking it was succeeding. Then suddenly they sprang into action!

Enli buffed the entire party with a Holy Aura, and Hrir protected everyone from acid. Rhin drew the dragon's attention for two full rounds by firing scorching beams of light at it while taunting it in the open. The dragon, befuddled and in pain, swooped down only to have Rhin nimbly step out of its way. At this point, Hrir leaped from the ground onto the dragon's back and started hewing away with his axe at the scales and sinews of the neck. Startled and in fear for its life, it took to the skies, with Hrir still clinging on. Urgmob stepped from invisbility and poured an unending rain of arrows at the scaly belly of the rising dragon. Most of the arrows struck true, but it wasn't enough to get through the thick armor. Enli solved this problem by pointing a Destruction spell at the dragon. Scales and skin withered and fell off, revealing the a soft, defenseless target. Urgmob's very next arrow went true. It blew clean through the dragon, rupturing it's heart and exploding out the back, narrowly missing Hrir and covering him with dragon blood. As the dragon fell from the sky, Hrir drove his axed deep into the back of the dragon's skull, and used it as a joystick to fly the dragon down. The dragon crashed headfirst into a stone wall on the outskirts of Oriv, and Hrir somersaulted effortlessly over it to land in a crouch on the far side.

Deciding that this was an excellent spot to build their bar, the party reconstructed the building around the dragon head, and Rhin animated the dragon enough for it to become the inn's mascot. Urgmob was named Urgmob Dragonkiller by Chief Keggrok Half-ear, and the rest of the party granted chieftain status. Nubile virgins of appropriate racial preference appeared as if by magic, and a party of legendary size commenced.

The party then tracked down the dragon's lair and found over 2 million platinum pieces, several vorpal weapons, and two of the artifacts that Jiyoomenath has been looking for.

Everyone in the party expects to get 14,275 xp from this encounter.

3/23 session recap and awards

It was a normal day in Oriv for the party. Rockaneeshoo had teleported to Fovona to pick up some supplies. Rhin was in his temple. Enli was in the library. Urgmob and Hrir were walking around town, trying to figure wherethey wanted to build a pub. Davinov was off patrolling outside of town.

The peace and quiet of the midmorning were shattered when a green dragon landed on the roof of the tallest building, the library. He bellowed for someone to come out and play, and hobgoblins scattered. He craned his head to look into the library, and started up a conversation with Enli. He said that he had heard there was some treasure here, and did Enli know anything about it. Enli said that there was an artifact hammer being held by an earth elemental north of town. Minebeard, fearless, approached and was confronted by the dragon. The dragon asked if the mutant knew where any treasure was? While this was happening, Urgmob was hiding, invisible, 100yards away.

Unsurprisingly, Hrir breathed on the dragon and was breathed on in response. Enli, who had moved into the open, attracted the dragon's attention by summoning an earth elemental. Urgmob fired a lightning bolt into the dragon. The dragon spun around, smashing Hrir with his tail, and leaped upon Enli. Enli rolled out of the way, but the dragon still demolished the hobgoblin shack nearby as it flapped downward with it's massive wings. Urgmob fired several potent warning shots at the dragon. Enli's earth elemental attacked as well, and Hrir made another charge attack that was countered with a bite to the shoulder. Enli tried to cast another spell, and was bitten by the dragon, abruptly ending the plea to Ibenaikad. The dragon then took flight, swooping low near where Urgmob crouched behind a shack. The shack was demolished by the dragon flying by, and Urgmob wasscratched by flying debris.

The dragon didn't return immediately, but Enli determined through divinations that the dragon would attack again today. Sure enough, in the mid-afternoon, the dragon dropped a boulder on the library while calling out, "Liar!" Hrir summoned a blade barrier in front of the dragon, but it was able to avoid it with some extreme evasive maneuvers. Everything was silent again until close to dusk. Urgmob had taken position on the roof of the damaged library with his onyx dog, Tybalt, when the dog barked a warning. Urgmob and dog rolled out of the way just in time as another boulder smashed into the library from directly overhead. It was followed closely by a diving dragon. It spread it's wings at the last moment and breathed upon the roof of the building before landing heavily, cracking the stone walls of the upper floor. Urgmob dove to the street in a bruised and burned heap with his dog, and Hrir ran up to deliver another icy breath. The dragon took flight again, calling out, "I'll be back!"

The party contacted Pelema, but their tone was not that of panic, and she said that she didn't have the people to spare at the moment. Moreover, they already had her most powerful dwarf in their service. Keggrok Halfear, the hobgoblin King, offered his might in battle, for he was no coward. But he said he didn't think his help would amount to much. Rockaneeshoo was contacted by sigil, and perhaps will deign to return before the dragonattacks again. Or before the party goes on a hunt for it.

Hrir, Urgmob, Enli, and Rhin all receive 250xp for this session.