Okay, so now that we are getting to the meat of the adventure, it seems that the fly-bys we did through the initial town and the running off half-cocked after finding a scrap of map and an obviously evil band of adventurers to follow are leaving the narrative a little anemic. So we're going to do what any self-respecting group of geeks would do. We're going to retcon this bitch.
The following is an enhanced retelling of your adventures in Endholme, please read before next session and you should feel a little more comfortable about the reasons for your wanton slaughter and destruction. If you would like to take some more control over your character's backstory, please edit this post and change up the prologue.
Kit, feel free to write yourself into the narrative, or email me separately if you would like some guidance on where you want to jump in.
THE LOST CITY OF BARAKUS
with The Fancy Lads
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| Zak was insistent that I use this graphic. |
PROLOGUE
Drifting ashore after having his ship and crew destroyed by a mysterious white ship, Captain Tanq drags himself into town to begin plotting his revenge.
Growing tired and bored with rooking the local rubes of Freehaven (in the south), BRIAN went after a larger score which went very poorly. Barely escaping the failed heist and unsure of whether the town guards would recognize him, BRIAN escapes and manages to gain passage on The Ursus, captained by Tanq. He is now one of two survivors of the shipwreck, and trying to put as much distance between himself and the guards from Freehaven.
Melting out of the forests due west of Endholme, Grelluk picks his way carefully into town to trade for some basic supplies. Cities make him uncomfotable due to his love of word play and preferring mostly to stay at range from others, bow-ing out of social situations, badgering the local populace......you get the idea. An innately protective dragon, he wants to help the two bedraggled sailors restore their lives.
Merwyn the Serene arrives in Enholme like a muted thunderstorm, quiet, calm, but with power seething below the surface. (ANDY, can you post up your backstory about the hammer and whatnot? I'd like to include it here.)
ACT I : How it Began : The Beginining
After finding themselves in a rather seedy, threadbare inn on the wrong side of the river, the Lads warm to one another enough over a few pints of watered down lager to want to go carousing a bit in town before attempting to sleep without being murdered, robbed, and raped (hopefully in that order) in their rooms at The Puckered Barnacle.
While walking to the better side of town, the gang is accosted and Grelluk is kidnapped. Following the trail into the sewers, the gang leads a bloddy swath through the wererats that live in the tunnels. After vanquishing the leader, a saucy French wererat named Tousice, they find a scrap of map, a cryptic note, and another captive. The note leads the party to believe that Tousice was not acting on his own behalf and had been delivering his victims to "P". The other victim turns out to be the happy-go-lucky son of Lord Falco Kilkarin, one of the town's rich families. Upon his successful return, the family's patriarch (a curmudgeonly old man named Falco), the gang is put up in the best inn in Endholme, The Kings Road, courtesy of the old man. It seems as if the old man might know more than his is letting on about who "P" might be and why his son was kidnapped, but doesn't seem to have much interest in discussing it with a ragtag group of strangers.
Heading over to their new lodgings, the 'Lads set up camp at the bar to relax. Their relaxation is broken by the incessant jabbering of a young bardic gnome named Curly Barnes, who is fascinated with adventuring, but has sadly never left Endholme. The party is welcoming to the little guy, and he tells them a lot of the current events here in Endholme. He identifies another adventuring party staying at The Kings Road. He had tried to get in with them, but they gave him the brush off.
[At this point, we dicked around for a bit and then decided to follow the obviously evil adventuring party out the next day, and it sort of snowballed from there. Here comes the retcon. Brace yourselves.]
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| Wenches! Fighting! Bards! |
When questioned further about them, Curly tells the party that they've been hired by someone in town to investigate the ruins up north, but he's not sure who. He explains some basic Enholme politics, and tells the gang that there are three major families that control everything: The Pulantis, The Kilkarins, and The Kants. The Kants run all the magical affairs of the town, including the academy & healers. The Kilkarins run all the commerce. The Pulantis seem to control "sanitation". He winks slyly when saying "sanitation". Then he elbows Grelluk in the ribs and over enunciates "sanitation". After an awkward pause he flatly explains that they're criminals. None of them have ever shown any obvious interest in the ruins to the north, so he's not sure who may have hired the other party. But once the topic of the ruins have been brought up, Curly gets very animated. This is obviously one of his favorite topics.
He tells the party everything he knows about the ruins to the north. There are many conflicting stories about them, and most sane people steer very clear of them, as there is a dark and malevolent energy about the place. Curly happens to believe that they are the ruins of an ancient city that was destroyed after the citizens all went mad and killed one another. There have been many adventurers and thieves who have set out to plunder them, but rarely do they come back. He mentions that, lately, there have been more and more unsavory types populating the town.
While they are discussing the possibilities a distraught woman strides over to the table and sits down. Curly shrinks back a little bit. She identifies each party member by name and beseeches them to help find her husband, Fenton. He was a promising student at Endholme's wizard academy, and was sent out on errantry to the north ruins by the headmaster, Stylus Kant, and hasn't been seen since. Without waiting for a reply, she leaves the party in stunned silence. Curly waits for her to leave the inn and then tells the party that they had met Penelope, who was a fairly strong psychic. Generally a nice woman, she always gives Curly the willies and ever since Fenton disappeared she's gotten downright creepy.
After some deliberation and potential breaking and entering, the gang decides to head out northward.
Adventure is set out on.
ACT II : Filler Caves : Seriously they went on forever
The gang followed the evil adventuring party out to the ruins north of town the following day. Leaving Curly with the horses, they ventured in.
Here are the highlights:
Climbing ropes is discovered to not be the party's forte.
One (1) hungry ogre is slain.
One (1) sleeping ogre bypassed.
A fairly large number of Kobolds were killed, although their leader managed to get away.
One (1) key (magic?) obtained.
A long and arduous battle with an underwater aberration.
Three boxes with key-like depressions in them found above a secret chamber containg a door with three magical locks. Engravings around the door feature two major icons: a horned skull wearing an ornate helmet, and a flaming sword.
An Eldritch Knight almost slays the entire party.
A grouchy gnome with some magical powers is encountered. While not hostile to the party, he's not particularly nice, and seems to know more than he's letting on.
A large black dragon is discovered and wisely left alone.
After all this harrowing adventures, the party finds themselves in a misty oubliette containing a large, oaken door bearing the inscription "Open Thy Mind and Bring With Thee Thy Heart Truest and Kind." The door is locked magically. Once the key is placed inside the lock, it disintegrates and the door flies open. Once the door is open the mist seems to take form and rush past the party into the door. Merwyn can hear mundane muttering in the mist, catching the following phrases in common:
"I don't know, look menacing."
"...did it look like before we killed it?"
"..least they found...key"
"...find that helm before.....powered up"
Unharmed, if a little wary, the party decides to venture forward into the ruins.
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| OoooooOoOOOoOOOOoOO. Mysterious. |
ACT III : The Lost City : Finally made it, what were we doing again?
Heading into the darkness, the party discovers that they are in a hidden passage and leads out through a bookcase into a decrepit, yet once lavishly furnished, bed chamber. Smeared in blood on the wall are various ranting and raving phrases, the common theme being "The Sword Will Save Us" and "The Master Is Mighty".
Upon bursting through the bookcase the gang finds a threadbare goblin wearing a battered copper crown and an ornate silver bracelet named Breggit. Breggit has a few cronies with him and is generally gruff and unwelcoming. But, not particularly wanting to start a fight, he blusters but allows the party to pass through "his realm" while griping about the "other usurper king, Grezzo".
The gang heads north and finds a supply room which, after a cursory glance, contains broken pottery and rotting cheeses, as well as a large sinkhole in the center of the room. The hole contains a Dire Weasel which pops it's head out and chuffs angrily but is calmed by Merwyn's druidic ways.
The party awkwardly passes by Breggit again, who seems to take no notice of them, and heads southwards into what appears to be the remains of a workshop. All manner of strange, intricate tools are lying about all the goblin's refuse, their purpose long forgotten. Six sub-chambers branch off of this main room, but the party leaves these alone for now.
Heading further down, they find 4 gigantic stone heads in a room with a painted diamond on the floor. They eventually rotate the heads to charge up the diamond, and only Tanq has the courage, or blind foolishness, to stand inside of it and is granted +2 to Fort saves for the next three days. Resetting the heads fails to charge the diamond up again.
They head westward into a small chapel that has obviously been profaned by being used as an execution chamber as headless bodies are littering the floor. Tanq finds a shiny, wicked looking axe in the corner which he decides must be his.
Heading back to explore the sub-chambers in the workshop, the gang is ambushed by some goblins wearing tabards bearing an ornate "G". With his first strike using the executioner's axe, Tanq begins to hear the wails and screams of all it's victims. He can't make it stop.
Heading back to the workshop, Merwyn tosses a bone into one of the rooms, only to awaken the proverbial sleeping dog, only this is a Death Dog. Being trapped in the room helps the gang dispatch this evil canine, but Grelluk takes a nasty wound on his arm that begins to fester black.
While examining another room, a trap is accidentally triggered, causing a small cave-in and trapping Tanq and Grelluk under some rubble. The noise brings Breggit and his cronies down to see what's going on.
He comes striding into the room, with a shit-eating grin on his face.
"Having some trouble, lads? I would've warned you about the dog, but, y'know, sleeping dogs and all that."
.....Stay tuned for our next adventure.
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STAT BLOCK
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OBJECTIVE RECAP
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1) Find Fenton for creepy psychic lady
2) Possibly figure out who hired the evil party, and what they might be up to down here
3) Plunder cash monies and awesome magic items
CURRENT XP TOTALS
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(lv. 4 ) Josh: 3135
(lv. 4 ) Brian: 2790
(lv. 4 ) Tim: 2785
(lv. 4 ) Andrew: 2700
(lv. 4 ) Kit: 2700
CURRENT GP
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(add later)
