Griswold Sharma
Handsome young man with scruffy brown hair and a tingly edge.
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Fort of the Manticore Goblins (aka God King Goblins) -
With Brix leading us to greatness, we ranged back to Brix's fortress. Full night's sleep and all that. Then we tried the horn to draw the Manticore Goblins out, but all we got was one high-flying manticore. No joy.
Then Brix tried to hide and, presumably, escape. That's when we tied Brix up. Brix is still a great leader even tied up... or so we tried to impress upon Brix!
After some serious scouting of the Manticore Goblin Fort by Oisin (with support from Barton), we finally settled on opening the front gate (stealthily) to let ourselves in, with the hope that surprise would give us advantage. We were pretty lucky (stealthy) but the advantage was not all that great. First of all, they had a lot of ranged attackers taking potshots at us from range. Second, spellcasting! They had at least one (two?) spellcasters taking us down and buffing them up. And they even had potions! And the goblins, even without healing potions, were buff! So between 2x manticores, 6x bugbears, and over a dozen buff goblins we had our hands full.
Even so, the battle began well enough. Barton laid down a bed of thorns and I believe Oisin followed up with another right after. The thornbed approach is fast turning out to be powerful for not only trapping foot soldiers in deadly terrain for divide and conquer advantage, but also for slowing down their comrades who end up circumnavigating the life sapping obstacle. Then the arrows and... manticores started flying. Tail spikes galore (as usual these days). Most of us were at or near the entrance but only three of us made it in (I believe). Verxatitus and I were outside the wall trying to combat a bugbear.
Things did not go so well inside the wall. Without cover and with few targets, the potshots and manticores were taking their toll on Barton, Dagos, and Oisin. And when the rest of the troops came streaming past the thorns, numbers were not in our favor. Griswold did take out around 10x goblins in two Shatters (with support of a previous shatter from Barton). And that tidied up the field considerably, but 5x on 12x+ is not great odds, when those 12x are very buff including, as we found out to our chagrin, some of the goblins.
At some point, we lost some of our thorns but webbed a few adversaries outside the gate. Little did we know, one of the goblins in the entangle was a Beast (capital B). That entangle ended up helping more than we knew. The fight got hot and heavy. Soon, we started healing maneuvers (goodberries et al.). Then back from dead maneuvers (more goodberries). Then retreat maneuvers. Barton and Griswold retrieved Oisin. Verxatitus tried to disengage.
At that point, Griswold had an epiphany... Fireball scroll! Just as Griswold was going to revive Oisin with a goodberry, he remembered that even though his area of attack spells were dry, he still had the spare Fireball Scroll from the rescue of Princess Nadia. Eureka!
Griswold fired the fireball directly into the battle including the unfortunate manticores flying low for close melee, being careful to use his Sorcerous metamagic skills to exclude party members from the enormous fireball firestorm. The manticores were not so lucky.
Bad news... good news.
First, the fireball did not take out the manticores. Ouch. Good news... the manticores had taken heavy damage and fled. (We notice they grab some young from their quarters on their way out of the fort.)
The ground troops are not so fickle. They press the attack. The captain enters the melee, and the spellcaster and archer keep taking pot shots all over the field.
But the tide of battle has turned.
As we notice the manticores fleeing and with Oisin back on his feet, we return to the offensive. Griswold takes particular interest in the spellcasting goblin. The takedown is not easy. That goblin was beefy.
Ditto the webbed goblin. While barely strong enough to free itself from the web, when it did free itself, it too went on the offensive and was exceptionally hard to take down. More battle ensues.
Ultimately, even the goblins saw the writing on the wall. One bugbear fled. The magician looped out the gate in a fighting retreat. Griswold pursued. Barton pursued. Archer kept taking potshots. Mage doubled back to inflict Fear on Barton and Griswold. Barton succumbed but Griswold rallied to shake it off. Shortly after, Oisin (or Verxatitus?) was able to take down the mage with a well aimed bow shot. Whew! The little guys were some of the toughest opponents.
Griswold failed to take down the escaping bugbear, and that was it. Time to lick our wounds, and inspect the fort.
We took a closer look around the camp. We retrieved plenty of stolen goods and even some potions and magical armor. (Later on, we heard what sounded like the death cry of a bugbear... perhaps in the same direction as the fleeing manticores.)
Oh, and we were scouted by some riders (Dori?) of griffons. So they know the(ir?) camp has fallen.
Griswold suspects there are more such camps organized in secret. The spectre of an organized siege of Rennes rears its ugly head again!
In the meantime, our party secured the camp for a night of recovery and is grappling with how to get 3x carts back to Rennes without the horses to pull the carts!
Gorge road secured. Rennes beckons.
On the Road to Rennes — Caravan Duty -
Malo was bustling, and I believe I found the last vial of good voidwater. Apparently, the source which we re-opened is tainted and half-effective. Maybe the vial I found was half-effective too, because when we ran the ritual, the enchantment flamed out. Let me back up.
When I first sold our extra bottles of voidwater on the gray market, I think we got 100GP / bottle for the party. This time I paid 400GP of my personal coin for a go at the enchantment. The good (great) news was that Verxatitus generously offered to do the ritual for me, since I had done so for him. Since as far as we know (magic journal revelations) 1) the ritual can be very dangerous in worst case castings, Verxatitus was generous to the extreme to take on the risk for my trident. I appreciated that greatly since we believe I would have done so at some disadvantage since I had done the ritual before. 2) On the other hand, the ritual did not take. My Trident gained no enchantment, and cost me 400GP voidwater. So my luck ran out with Verxatitus or... I bought half-effective voidwater at an exorbitant price. Now I’m tempted to try the ritual myself, even though the journal says I can only do so at penalties (and therefore additional risk). So be it.
Problem: I need more funds for another voidwater, and I don’t know where to get a safe and solid vial... since that was the last (supposedly) good vial!
The other good news was that Verxatitus is tough. He recovered in one day what took the rest of us near a week of recovery. He’s one tough sumbitch. So we did not stay in Malo for the full week as intended. When our business was done except, I believe, for Barton’s custom lute (which he did not even properly order!), we jumped at the chance to rejoin the hustle.
On the Road to Rennes — Escorting Merchant Caravan
We were lucky enough to find an easy job escorting a caravan to Rennes which was maybe a two day ride. We set out to do it in one (long) day. We also were escorting the merchant whom we had saved from the goblin caves on our first adventure together. So it was a bit of a reunion. And of course, we were serving our lordship (actually, the lordship’s lordship) by helping open or secure the road to Rennes, since caravans had been disappearing of late from... all over. (I wonder if supply lines are being cut off, not just bandit attacks?) In any case, the job got complicated, but nothing the rest of the party couldn’t handle!
God King of Goblins!
I defer to Oisin’s retelling of the tale as he does so in grisly detail and took more than his fair share of the attacks! My one wrinkle would be that Griswold did contribute with his little bit of long range spell attack and even managed to strike the final blow to the first manticore, and that was the blow which sent the remaining manticore and goblin packing. Good riddance.
Well, one other wrinkle. Where was the God King of Goblins? And why didn’t the lieutenant goblin announce them as the God King of Manticore goblins? I wonder how many more goblins (and manticores) there are lurking in that area still? They may not be finished. While we completed the job, our work may not be done.
Rennes Arrival
We did finish escorting the caravan to the very gates of Rennes, but not before spotting some suspicious activity a mile out of Rennes... at the edge of some forest. When we returned the next day, we found our Hobgoblin Chieftainess acquaintance from Gersey Isle: Doricor. Perhaps we should call her Dori as she keeps popping up and is quite conversational! Last time, our arrival indicated an imminent large scale assault on Gersey Isle. This time, given her 5x (and presumably more out of sight) highly trained lieutenants accompanying her, we suspect her appearance foreshadows a large scale assault on Rennes. This will not do, as our Lord would be... disappointed. And Rennes would suffer massive civilian casualties.
We told her she needed to depart. We negotiatated, but she wanted something in return for leaving. I don’t think she really intended to leave the area, just the edge of forest. When push came to shove, she offered a one-on-one battle to “win” the occupation argument. Griswold offered (David vs. Goliath) but no one took him seriously (until much later). Frankly, the fight would have been interesting, but if/when Dori managed to immobilize Griswold, the fight would have been over. So the question is... did Dori have effective ranged skills or magic, or would Griswold have stood a chance? Like I said... interesting. Only the gods know for sure.
In any case, we agreed to go our separate ways, but realistically speaking, the result was that we were able to return to Rennes safely and warn the city of the likelihood of an impending assault. And Dori is out there somewhere with her 5x lieutenants and some unknown number of highly trained troops (we suspect).
Again, I wonder if the merchant troubles are by larger (military) design, rather than merely some uppity goblins and (possibly) bandits? And will we be able to find (and survive) Dori next time we cross paths? Both parties have promised consequences to the other, so the next meeting should be interesting.
Fingers crossed Rennes survives to live another day!
The Valley of Orcs -
30th of April Y525
We took on the Isle of Gersey and won. Well, we rescued the Princess Nadia, and the armada took on the spire, and won. We took the opportunity to interrogate orc Mega to no avail. We also searched for the book Mega stole... to no avail. Then we learned from Princess Nadia that she had seen the book, but eavesdropped a conversation which suggested the book had been taken somewhere else. Unfortunately, that's where the trail runs cold. Perhaps the savvy orc Chieftain took it with her?
We spent the night at the spire recouping spells and hit points. Early in the AM, we set out to see if we could recover anything from an airship wreck we found on the way in... through the swamp.
On the way there, we figured we would be safe since the armada had arrived. Nah! The armada was really only dealing with the Spire. The island was still orc island.
We ran into a couple of guard posts neighboring each other. No problem!?
Yikes! Instead of us assaulting two separate guard posts, we were swarmed by dozens of orcs and a wolf! Since we were stealthing up to the guard posts except for Dagos and Verxatitus (in the wide open), we were caught off guard when orcs swarmed from around a hill, and even the posted guards came running for us. Plus, the orcs were aggressive... they ran like 60 feet to join battle while swinging to take our heads off. These orcs were ready and hungry for battle. That persisted the whole time. And they were skilled (or very lucky!).
We were on our heels multiple times, depending on healing to rescue various party members multiple times during the epic battle.
Oisin also demonstrated the power of thorns. He laid down a huge thicket of thorns which the orcs were forced to circumnavigate (long word for the day). Plus, it trapped some orcs (and Dagos) in the thicket. That thicket turned into a lifesaver as it bought us time, protected Dagos from attack when he recovered (Oisin? Barton? healed him remotely) and generally kept the orcs at bay from the group by forcing them to climb around the thicket.
So, we were divided but not conquered. The orcs were divided and... eventually... conquered, but it was a battle for the ages. At key points, each member (except Griswold who tried to stay in cover) was surrounded, and even Griswold was forced to melee at one point. And each member both took care of themselves and rescued others. So, even though we were conspicuously separate, we came together as a team to overcame wave after wave of orcs.
Quite the battle. Whew!
We took another full rest without incident.
In the morning, we found our airship in its swampy resting place. Before we could investigate it closely, an animated suit of armor attacked us. All movement in the swamp was slow, including the mysterious armor. Then another animated suit of armor. And again and again. After the suits kept coming, Oisin deployed the wicked thicket again. By this time, we had ascertained that the suits had no brains (no IQ). The battle was pitched but, once someone (Barton? Oisin? Dagos? Verxatitus?) noticed their weak/MIA IQ, we lured them back and forth through the thicket to their... demise. The pitched battle became a battle of wits (or no wits against thicket damage).
Once the battle was over, we gave the airship a thorough search, but we found nothing. Apparently the animated armor we destroyed was the treasure of the airship, and so we left empty handed but a little wiser. Wicked thickets are lethal against witless adversaries.
The Méloir-des-Ondes Crypt Flesh Golem
After seven refreshing days exploring Malo at some leisure and at Malo town expense (courtesy Townmaster Galerius), we set out for Méloir-des-Ondes.
From Malo to Méloir-des-Ondes
Méloir-des-Ondes has a Void Water mine which has mysteriously shut down due to... accidents. I have been carefully (and once not so successfully) transporting Void Water for my entire adult life for my ex-Master. So I am plenty familiar with Void Water fragility and the business. But I don't know where it comes from, nor why it's so darned expensive. I know the sausage, but not how the sausage is made. In Méloir-des-Ondes, I should get to see how the sausage is made!
But not quite yet.
Méloir-des-Ondes has a Townmaster (Minemaster) named Terris. He is very friendly but dejected that the mine is down, and the town is rapidly shrinking. No pay, no stay. So he is desperate to get the mine running again. The job to investigate the mine may not be so easy. First of all, a half a dozen or so of townies have disappeared into the mine. Second, Terris sent a crew into the mine to rescue them, and the crew did not return. Third, that was three weeks ago, so missing persons is likely dead persons. Fourth, there's no sure money in it. Terris refers us back to Galarius for getting paid (but Galerius referred us to Méloir-des-Ondes to get paid). Galerius seems like good people, but you never know for sure. So this job is risky all around.
Nevertheless, we are bonding as a group, so I think the job will help tune us as a force to be reckoned with. Plus we all feel like we are advancing or growing fast individually at this point. After glancing at Hammod's tomes, I feel like I have a new understanding of my spells. I feel refreshed and challenged, and I look forward to testing new wrinkles to my existing sorceries. How hard can a rescue from a small mine be anyway?
The Temple of Apollo and the Crypt of Hades
At the local and only drinking hole, 'Falling Rod Tavern', we met Terris, our contact. Immediately, we were set upon by some cultists. We (well, actually, the rest of the party!) subdued them and we discovered... their eyes. They were bloodshot with black veins. They were not themselves, possessed with some sort of spell as though to defend the mine from even the thought of intrusion. Is there a cult to close the mine?
They were led and incited into attacking us by the local cleric, Aleith. Méloir-des-Ondes has a temple of Apollo and Aleith is the head cleric, who rants and raves against the risks, dangers, and recent disasters of the Void Water mine of Méloir-des-Ondes.
But after Oisin looked in on him (at his sanctuary), we found a secret stairway to a crypt. And that was like a passageway to Hell. We were assaulted by more of the cultists (I guess we were trespassing). But we were also assaulted by a Crypt Golem, a huge fleshy beast with huge rangy and powerful arms. Two golem hits could take down one of our most powerful fighters and... the Crypt Golem was attacking at double speed!
Our front line and the cleric had their hands full from the beginning of this battle. I was coming up from behind, so I could not see all the action but, I gather, the cleric was Command'ing our front line attackers to Flee! A few times it worked. Several times it failed. The cleric was wielding powerful arcane and nasty spells to control our mightiest warriers. So, I tried to stay out of the cleric's sight, and take shots at the most opportune targets, while positioning myself for my strongest attack:
Tasha's Caustic Brew (I don't know the origin of that name nor who named it, but I am very grateful to Tasha for the spell)
After a few pot shots and realizing the party's survival could hinge on powerful magic from at least one of us, I resolved to find a way to pull a Tasha's like I did the first time I used it. So I weaved magic armor around myself and purposely positioned myself in the open, perhaps at (low?) risk of being singled out by Aleith since I had been ineffective, but in position to take part in the front line (as necessary for a correct line of attack). Again, I was unable to hurt Aleith at range. So I decided to advance forward, and attack with full Tasha's on the Crypt Golem and Aleith. Again, my attack failed on Aleith. But, oh, how it took effect on the Crypt Golem. But not before I retreated and one of the burly cultists and the Crypt Golem took free swings at me.
My sorceries protected me! It was worth it. When I cast the spell, I had redoubled my efforts on this spell, and the acid splash responded. The Crypt Golem flesh was smoking from the moment I cast the spell. Great risk with great returns.
My sole goal from that point forward was to maintain my Tasha's concentration. (So I ducked behind protection from then on.)
While I was uable to hurt Aleith, I believe Barton and Oison were able to take the cleric down. Meanwhile, the golem was devastating our front line, but the clock was running out for the golem as it took serious damage the longer the battle continued and Tasha took her toll! And a good thing too as we were losing our front line offense (and defense). We lost half our front line before the golem went down. So, timing was everything.
We won the battle with one major casualty of the front line, brought back by the cleric. And Tasha's redeemed my ability to battle at our party's ever-increasing effectiveness.
Notes and Tomes of Evil Concoctions (the Aleith Notebook)
The elf is more uppity than I thought. We had such a warm friendship on the sail to Malo, but he has an edge to him which I missed in our travel together. He fully embraces nature, but also totally rejects anything he considers horrific and unnatural. But what is unnatural? He does not trust Void Water. But Void Water is clearly natural if it comes from a mine. He seems to draw a hard line at the scribblings in Aleith's notebook. Granted, the recipes (rituals?) are horrific, but the knowledge could prove invaluable. His religious zealot-like (Oisin calls it philosophy!) rejection of the Aleith's notes runs counter to our usual friendly banter and fast friendship. Fortunately, I have been able to evaluate the lessons and commit them to memory.
Notebook Censorship by Oisin
I believe Oisin is going to force me to destroy certain parts (Crypt Golem recipe?) of the Aleith Notebook. I do now question precisely what my ex-master was using Void Water for? However, Oisin would ban the contents of the Notebook by destroying it. But destroying the notebook is not just burning pages, it's... destroying knowledge. Arcane knowledge (much less on Void Water) is so rare, I just know such destruction could be dangerously short-sighted... perhaps losing key threads of knowledge we need to understand Void Water, its dangers as well as its strengths. In some ways, Oisin is right. But I/we need to understand how Void Water works, lest we fall prey to it ourselves due to lack of understanding. I need to understand it for my... own well-being and peace of mind.
I feel Oisin and I shall weather this storm, but it will take a lot of drink!
Huzzah to a successful mission and, with luck, we shall visit the mine before we leave Méloir-des-Ondes.
Inside Hammod's Tower (Malo) aka Orcs Attack!
April 24th, 525 CE
The road to Malo was smooth sailing, but when we arrived at my old haunts, Malo was under attack.
Orcs Attack!
When we ran down the sounds of fighting, we first ran across the bodies of a few dead orcs. Then we ran into some live orcs guarding (and raiding) Hammod's Tower. When we made it past the first line orcs and ventured inside Hammod's Tower, we encountered another line of orcs as well as Hammod kneeling at the mercy of a very bold orc (we later learned of the Odzedoz Orcs tribe of Gersey Isle). As I entered, I heard them arguing:
"You can't kill me!" the gray-haired man pleads. "We had a deal. You and your men would attack the town and kill the other Oracles and I would get the book to Hulay."
The large, mohawked orc snorts. "The deal has changed. As big a risk as you are taking, weak-sack, I imagine that book is worth more than what you paid me. I'm thinking much more."
"You will anger Hulay!" says the old man.
"Then I will anger Hulay," says the orc.
The orc chief won the argument by beheading Hammod. Blood everywhere, and the chieftan ran further inside the tower. The orc took the book with him. Unfortunately, I guessed the chieftan was running for a window on my side of the building, so I ran to intercept him. But I lost him as I was covering first floor windows, and apparently he made his escape by Giant Vulture. I wish I had been there to catch him. Unfortunately, I got run down and attacked by another orc which attacked me on its way to the ships. I survived when the orc could no longer reach me, and took off for its ships.
Poor Hammod, but... we found bodies inside. So, he wasn't kidding about arranging with the Orc(s) to kill his fellow Oracles. I did business with him on many occasions. Makes me wonder what business he is really in, and what business my former boss was doing with him. This is a dark side to Hammod I could hardly have imagined.
I did find some void water vials (6) before we were interrupted in our informal investigation. (These were worth 50GP / party member.) I have one spare in case it becomes useful.
As a new party under Titus, this whole situation leaves us with more loose ends!
For Titus, we are trying to track the lead of the letter stamped with a rose, and identify the captain who organized the deadly assault on Titus.
For Malo, what book did the Chief orc steal for and then from Hammod? And what was Hammod up to? Who is Hulay? Who is behind the orcs?
And, according to Galerius, we could investigate the local void water (!) mine which is shutdown due to... accidents. Something does not add up, so I think we are going to investigate. Plus, there's a void water connection to Hammod, so perhaps some of these pieces tie together.
On a positive note, Galerius let us visit the tower again. I was able to look through Hammod's library, and I think I even have a few new spells to practice! We had a good chance to look for more evidence. I tried to memorize as much as I could from the last visit. I did not understand everything we saw, but I'm keeping my mind open that some of it may become useful and inform our new vocation as Titus's Adventurers.
I have restored some of my connections in Malo, though my reputation still seems tarnished by my 'void water' accident. And as a party, we have some new roots in Malo. Galerius was very generous with an award for our hand in defending Malo. And he seemed generous with information on the mining operation, like he wants us to investigate.
The Goblin Moshcave and... suspicious letter?
Our story begins with an inebriated ranger. In between belches, he did a good job backtracking the (dead) goblins to their lair. Which we found. Defended.
Our first attack revealed goblins, a bugbear, and wolves. Oh, and we forgot to rest so our spells were depleted... leading to a long rest and return. We did try to cover our tracks by dragging away corpses and did a pretty good job of it (none seemed discovered when we returned), but to no avail.
On our second visit, the lair was awaiting our return had organized a trap at the Moshcave Mouth. We were immediately outnumbered but the warriors created a very successful kill pocket. The goblins were literally mobbing to reach us. So I took advantage of the overcrowding and launched what I though was a waterblast I had picked up. However, as I inhaled for my voluminous incantation, I nearly choked on toxic fumes. I did everything I could to keep my composure, concentration, and sorcery under control, but I can only guess I stepped into the wage of Dagos’ intoxicating breath. In any case, my saltwater blast came out more like an acid bath and, while many of the buggers ducked and gibed, I hit one square in the chest taking it down after a short time. I have now committed that caustic variant to memory (even if I have forgotten the saltwater original!).
Unfortunately (for us), some hobgoblin commander (?) showed up to re-organize the goblin mosh troops into a more sensible and effective force. The moshmob turned into more of a security force. And the easy targets disappeared into cave crevices and hideouts. Fortunately, our bard, Barton, stepped deep into danger and pulled a stunning (and deafening) thunderclap out of his arsenal, and the goblins went flying. Barton: 1, goblins: -3. Then (I gather) the hobgoblin commander stepped out of the shadows and took down Barton.
Ultimately, we rallied to divide and conquer the lair inhabitants, including the commander. The lair seemed vaguely familiar, almost like I’d been there before. But when we cleared it, we found a merchant prisoner. And a letter which seems to explain the unusual (?) organization of goblins and hobgoblins, not just at the lair but perhaps to explain the suspiciously organized attack on the young Noble, Titus.
If we can source the letter, we may very well find who is behind the mortal threat to Titus or, at least, his seat of power.
Brush with Goblins, Tight with Titus (and Versatitus)! --
Hello Titus Caleti of Bruie! (Goodbye, Fatus Titi of Edinburgh.) And...
Well met, Oisin Bandersnatch! I've lived all my years without meeting a friendly elf and yet, the moment I lose my job and am ejected from my home, I find a friendly elf. Life is full of surprises.
Like our startling encounter today. An organized (?) assault on a noble and his escorts. What a party! Goblins vs. nobles. They were lucky we arrived, and Oisin and I were lucky we were not the only ones to arrive. There were goblins on bluffs, goblins on the road, and goblins offroad as backup. In retrospect, this seemed more like a perfect storm of goblins than a chance meeting. Well met, Titus of Bruie.
And now, I seem to have a new boss. The child noble, Titus, seems to have saved us from a brigand's sentence, while indenturing us to a... beefy gladiator, Versatitus (?). (Yes, another titus!) I hope he's more trusting and faithful than my old, odd Fatus.
When the clouds part, the sun shines. I feel like the sun shines on me.
Well met, all! What do we call ourselves?
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