SOTDL CAMPAIGN DIARY – BORN TO DIE - NOVICE LEVEL 1 – PT 2 - 2.21.2017

The Heroes:

Ecna Lubma: Dwarf priest of the Honored Dead
Gruntbelly: Dwarf magician
Kane: Human warrior
Mathias: Jotun jotun

Our heroes have just landed on a fairy island in the Dark Waters lake in search of the kidnapped daughter of city councilman Master Dreen, who was taken by a gang that calls themselves the Rude Boys.  The heroes saw the camp fire of the larger group of Rude Boys further inland and Kane decided to do some recon, being careful since his sword was still vibrating, alerting him of the presence of a demon nearby.  He snuck up the trail that leads from the beach to the camp and saw several tents, a handful of the gang members, and a young woman bound and gagged sitting by the fire, but no sign of a demon.

Kane returned to the beach, informed the rest of the group and they decided to try and lure the gang to the beach a few at a time so that they can take them out more easily.  But when Kane went to play his instrument to draw the Rude Boys to the beach, it was missing.  The group then heard snickering laughter coming from the nearby bushes and Mathias went to investigate.  Peering into a bush, he is sprayed in the face with urine, followed by more laughter.  At the same time, one of the gang members was heard coming down the path, so the group take hidden positions in the foliage around the path to await the person.  Mathias started towards the trail when a branch from the bushes stuck out between his legs and nearly tripped him.  The figure on the trail noticed the large figure of the jotun heading towards him and as Mathias attacked, so did Kane with his bow.  The dwarfs entered the fray but the Rude Boy managed to flee the area back towards the camp and alerted the other Rude Boys.

The heroes pursued the gang member and struck him down, but not before being seen by the other gangers.  The leader ordered an attack and eight gang members made their way into the fray.  During the battle, strange things were happening to members of both sides, like the branch with Mathias.  Kane found his box of cigars and some arrows missing.  Something was messing with them and that something wasn't the Rude Boys!  The Rude Boys pressed the fight, but found themselves outmatched by the heroes (although Ecna was having a bit of a hard time and could almost hear the Honored Dead's disappointment in him).  Eventually, the heroes either killed or drove away the gang, with the exception of one, who gave up.  However, the jotun decided to honor his agreement with Master Dreen and he murdered the ganger who had surrendered, his soul withering a bit with the act.

The group scour the area collecting the Rude Boys' belongings and Kane moves to free the female from her bonds.  In doing so, he briefly sees a tattoo on the back of her neck that looked very similar to the demon head symbol they spotted on the robes recovered from the Moore House.  The woman seemed very grateful for the rescue, though was acting a bit haughty and was going out of her way to try and make eye contact with Mathias, who didn't notice or care.

As they prepared to leave, Ecna smelled cigar smoke and saw it coming from a nearby bush.  Kane moved to where he could see the bush and fired an arrow into it.  Something screamed out in pain, and a moment later a short human-shaped figure emerged from the bush, cigar in mouth, dragging an equally small dead body behind him.  The small creature began to curse and shout obscenities at the heroes and the heroes came down and killed the creature.

The group took the young woman off the island, returned her to her father's manor in the Purse district, and was thanked by the appreciative councilman, who told them to keep the ransom money and that he owed them a debt.  As he took his daughter into the house, bidding the group farewell, the daughter's eyes turned completely black and she bore a wicked, evil smile on her face as the door shut behind them...

SOTDL CAMPAIGN DIARY – BORN TO DIE - NOVICE LEVEL 1 – PT 1 - 2.7.2017

The Cast:

-          Mathias: Jotun/Jotun

-          Kane Arroway: Human/Warrior

-          Gruntbelly: Dwarf/Magician

-          Ecna Lubma: Dwarf/Priest

The day following the hero’s encounter with the Organ Filch in the Moore House, one of them had to do some work for the family business, which took Kane out of town for four days.  During that time, the following occurred with the other three heroes:

Day 1: The heroes followed up with Sgt Alyse of the Brown Cloaks, who was caring for the injured Father Gregory; victim of the Organ Filch.  Alyse said that the father’s mind was broken and he needed both physical and mental care, so they took him to the Mercy Hill Asylum and had him committed.  Later, the group went by the Moore House ruins to see if they could explore the hole in the cellar more, but since it had burned down the day before, the remains were still hot and smoldering.  The group retires.

Day 2: The heroes take stock of their loot obtained from the Moore House, sell the items they don’t need and go shopping for items they do need, such as weapons and armor.  Mathias custom orders a large shield for himself with a blacksmith known to Ecna.

Day 3: The heroes return to the Moore House and explore the cellar, crawling through the tunnel to come out of a nearby abandoned building, where they find a corpse. 

Day 4: Kane returns from his out of town job.  Mathias meets with Master Dreen, a member of the city council who represents the merchants of Crossings.  Dreen wants to hire Mathias to find his daughter, who had been kidnapped the night before by members of the Rude Boyz.  Dreen agrees to let the heroes keep the ransom if they return his daughter alive and kill the Rude Boyz.  Mathias agrees, takes the job to the other heroes and the four of them prepare to meet Dreen by the Old Fishery brothel near where the ransom drop is to be completed.  They plan it out and when the time comes, Dreen drops off the money and a while later a strange clockwork man stumbles into the alley, takes the ransom and leaves the ally headed towards the docks.  The heroes follow, see the clockwork man meeting with two men at the end of the dock and proceed to attack the men.  They kill one and overpower the other, forcing the youth to take them to where Dreen’s daughter is being held.  The youth is persuaded to row them to the island where Dreen’s daughter is being held.  Mathias swims along behind the boat, the two dwarves hunker down in the boat and Kane rides with the young gang member, hood drawn.  As they approach the island, the youth lights the signal lantern and rows ashore.  The gang member on the shore is quickly taken out by an expertly fired arrow from Kane which hit the man on the beach across the throat, preventing him from calling out to any of the other gang-bangers, so the rest of the gang that is camped deeper towards the center of the island is apparently unaware of the deception.  The heroes prepare to go find Candace Dreen when the Green Sword that Kane has in his possession begins to vibrate, signaling the presence of a demon within 100 yards…

http://dndmw.blogspot.com/2017/02/sotdl-campaign-diary-born-to-die-novice_22.html

SOTDL CAMPAIGN DIARY - HARVESTER OF SORROWS - PT 2 - 1.31.17

We began this session bringing the character Kane up to speed.  His player had been out for the first session, so I had emailed him that his character Kane was gone because he had been working on the issue of finding the collector known as Nareesh, who the Jotun Mathias was searching for.  Nareesh had been responsible for the theft of a Jotun relic called the Fang of Ages and that is what brought Mathias to the Northern Reach a year ago.  Mathias asked Kane to help him find the man responsible, since Kane is a wilderness guide and knows the area well and has many contacts in and around the city.  Kane reached out to some of his contacts and one in particular, a caravan driver, responded that he had information for him, but would only deliver it in person and at a designated meeting place.  Kane agreed and the following day he went to the lawn outside of Mercy Hill in the Grievings district to meet his contact.  The meeting time came and went and the contact never showed.  Just as Kane was getting ready to leave, a figure came walking up the largely deserted street.  The figure was cloaked and his face obscured by a hood until he came within a few yards of Kane, at which point he threw his hood back revealing his horrific face – a patchwork face that appeared to have been stitched together from various bodies!  This sight frightened and unhinged Kane somewhat and the figure move up to attack as Kane attempted to get away.  Strangely armed with a scalpel, the stranger attacked Kane, who attempted to defend himself, getting in a couple of blows before the stranger knocked him out.

As this was occurring, Mathias, Gruntbelly and Ecna were in the process of scouting out the Moore House, confronting the Rude Boyz gang out front, chasing them off and exploring the house.  They had entered the cellar and found a pile of dead bodies and a strange creature hiding in the dark.  The bald, pointy-eared creature had a large mouth with a distended jaw that was dripping a gruesome saliva.  Mathias and Ecna moved in to attack the creature while Gruntbelly cast his magic from the other end of the cellar, but the creature was fast and wiley and evaded some of those blows, managing to latch on to Ecna with its teeth and claws, drink some of his blood, enough to make the dwarf pass out.  The creature attempted to escape but was struck down by Mathias before he could get away.

The heroes then entered the back part of the cellar and found a tunnel that had been dug out of the cellar, but they couldn’t tell where it led.  They also found a large stone door that had mystical symbols etched into it, but the door was ajar and a moaning sound was coming from the room beyond. They entered the room to find Father Gregory, or what was left of him, huddled in the corner moaning.  His mind was apparently broken as was his body, which was missing an arm, a leg and his tongue.  As the heroes attempted to help, Father Gregory reacted in fear and panic, trying to get away.  Mathias managed to pick up the priest and take him out of the room with Ecna to examine the priest’s wounds, while Gruntbelly checked out the rest of the room.  Within a broken sarcophagus Gruntbelly found some folded up robes with a demonic horned head stitched into them.  Along with those, a dark skull with arcane symbols etched into the bone, a sword made of green metal, and some stained but empty bottles.  Also in the room is a book pedestal (no book) and scattered papers on the ground.  Though rotted and smeared, Gruntbelly could make out the name “Moore” and parts of what appear to be a summoning ritual that took place in this chamber.

Gruntbelly rejoined Mathias and the unconscious Ecna and the two heard someone upstairs enter the house dragging something heavy.  The two try to quietly climb back up the stairs to the first level and they find a small trail of blood leading to the stairs going up to the 2^nd floor.  They go up the stairs and find the state of the 2^nd level worse than the first, with much rotting of floorboards and destroyed furniture.  They attempt to go into the next room but Mathias’ weight is too much for the rotted floor and he falls through.  Gruntbelly continues onward as Mathias climbs back up the stairs and the two are attacked from the shadows by a cloaked stranger bearing a scalpel.  Mathias takes the lead, fighting the stranger over a pile of rotted furniture, but he falls as the stranger’s scalpel cuts draw too much blood and makes him fall down, stunned.  Gruntbelly comes back up the steps and fires off his spells at the stranger, taking him in the face and causing him to fall through the rotted floor to the next level below.  When he lands, he does not get back up.

Mathias & Gruntbelly regroup and find Kane hiding in one of the rooms on the 2^nd level.  By this time, Ecna wakes up and the group search the house for anything of interest.  They find a few interesting items, but nothing more to explain what the creature was.  They leave the house, taking Father Gregory with them, and decide to go to Kane’s home until they decide what to do with the old priest.  They all rest overnight and the next day Mathias goes to find Sgt Alyse to help with the Father Gregory situation.  She reluctantly agrees to take him until they can figure out how best to aid him without alerting those who were trying to “discourage” anyone from finding him.  Afterwards, the heroes go their own ways as Kane had to go do some work for his father.  Mathias and the dwarves head over to the Honored Dead Shrine  and Brewery for a drink and to figure out what to do with the priest when they overhear other patrons saying that the Moore House is burning down over in Grievings.

End of session.