Back Doors and Short Cuts

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Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: Back Doors and Short Cuts
GM: Keith
Season: Winter 818 WK
Night: Tuesday
Level: Medium

Party
  • Kerry -Shapeshifter, Dark mage played by Helen Saggers
  • Pierre - Short Illusionist played by Ian Anderson
  • Brigetta - Human Bard played by Jacqui
  • Someone - played by Somebody
  • Someone - played by Somebody
  • Someone - played by Somebody
  • Someone - played by Somebody
Employer
Aqualina
Mission
  • Open a link between Beth Salem and Phile'Delpha (somewhere in North Terra Nova)
  • Set up Rune Portals from Rangiwhero to:
  • Beat up any drow encountered and take their stuff
  • Explore, Report, Co-operate
Pay
Coconuts and salvage (kidding) - Kerry requests half her coconuts be replaced with an equal weight of fish.

Scribe Notes

The Traveling players from Pro Bono reunited.
Brigetta – Human Bard – Party leader, scribe, military scientist
Pierre – Halfling Illusionist
Kerry – Shapechanger Celestial

Chapter One

1 Frost

Aqualina met us in the Guild Meeting Room. She seemed disappointed that they were only three of us. She had three main things she wanted us to do:
1) Check out the island to the far south. See how the people are recovering from the Drow attack.
2) Find the missing portal key and explore the Seventh City of Pacifica – Phila’delpha in Terra Nova
3) In the process of 2) explore the Hidden City of Pacifica – known as Pellucidar
We spent some time discussing how we’d get to the bottom of Alusia. Suggestions included faeries, a certain Willing Prince, and one California Smith who has a flying ship. In order to contact California Smith, we needed to find the current headquarters of the Gentlefolks Exploratory Society – which may be in Novadom or in Pasifika. And strangely enough, we soon concluded that it was quicker (and safer) to go to Pasifika.
We spent that afternoon in preparations and making purchases.
Aqualina gave us 3 x six-pack of waters of healing
Greaters from Aaron Rank 12
Lessers
Restoratives (1 dozen from the trader from Slippery Rock).
Amulets (including Amulets of Jasper 8000sp) at 25% mark-up
2 x Broomsticks – valid target for any flying spell – effects unchanged, except that it is the broom that flies, as if under the effect of Instil Flight at that rank.
Kerry loaned amulets of anti-stunning to Pierre and myself.
Pierre found us a happy halfling party for the evening, with excellent food and drink.

2 Frost

Next morning, we set out for the Bethsalem portal with Aqualina who was going with us as far as Pacifica. (37 mph for 4 hours = 148 miles). We landed outside Tobintown in Brastor and went into town for a fine fish lunch. In the afternoon we flew on to the Sea of Grass and reached the ruined city by sunset. We landed outside the ruins and rode in on illusory mounts, reaching the portal without incident.
We rode on through into the portal and into bright tropical sunlight, in a different set of ruins, with a great pyramid ahead of us. A runner arrived shortly, who appeared somewhat disappointed. Apparently, they were expecting California Smith back from Pellucidar. The runner said we should talk to Lord Wren, at the Society Station. We were led to a large bungalow, where we meet a distinguished gentleman introduced as Lord Christopher Wren. Apparently, they have mislaid seven members, two porters and a cook in Pellucidar, and were keen to employ us to go in and find them. In return, arrangements could be made to borrow their flying ship.
They gave us an excellent dinner, and comfortable beds to sleep in. And then equipped us for an expedition, with pith helmets and canvass tents, rope and hammocks, pots and pans, and something called quinine to stop a disease called malaria. We were permitted to purchase handy haversacks and emerald moss potions from the trading post.

Chapter Two

3 Frost

The pith helmets proved to have a little shuttered magic lantern on them for use in the dark. They also have spyglasses. And camping stoves. And a water-purifier in the form of an alchemical sponge (works on 25 pints). And hot-weather outfits. And pocket-watches.
Daily prep: Witchsight, Dance of Swords, Mind Cloak, Coordination, Long-strider
Other buffs: Invisibility, inspirational song. Tea.
Trader: The pith-helmet is traditional, don’t you know?
Brigetta: Your tradition, not mine.
Christopher Wren: There’s a sign saying ‘Danger beyond this point’….
Brigetta: When did that ever stop Guild adventurers?
By lunchtime we were packed and ready to go. We decided to go through invisible, because it couldn’t hurt and might help. There was no difference, except the person who went through to Bethsalem first noted there was a brief person-shaped flash as the next person came through. They gave us a key to open the gate around the Pellucidar portal.
Finally, we stepped through the portal to Pellucidar. It was hot and humid. We were in an ancient city, the stones covered with creepers and vines. Some huge flowers. And among them were zombies, shambling towards us. Some kind of weird plant zombies. They appeared to be under some kind of control, giving us little choice but to fight them…. They sprayed poisonous pollen at us when they died, to little effect. They proved to be “yellow musk zombies”. As we looked around we saw more plant creatures, some of them obviously semi-sessile, others moving more rapidly towards us. The semi-sessile ones appeared to be the controlling ones. But then they stopped and did not continue to press the attack. We took advantage of their hesitation, and I cast a locate on the missing Mister Smith, while Kerry cast wings and we took to the air. Fortunately, the jungle did not penetrate the circle of portals leaving a cleared area we could launch from.
It soon became evident that we were in fact inside a huge cavern. We flew over the jungle. We could see the sea, but Pierre did not want to fly over the sea, in case there were giant jumping pike in there. Luckily, my arrow was pointing along the coast. Then, in the distance we saw what looked like a human being chased by a pterosaur. Until Kerry cast a web at the pterosaur. Which failed to resist and crash-dived. We landed and spoke to the young woman. She explained that her name was Diana and she was with the Gentlefolks exploratory society. Apparently the Morlocks have captured their party and taken their stuff. She managed to sneak out past the mushroom people and was planning to return to Pasifika for help.

Chapter Three

We walked back to the beach and without difficulty caught a brace of what a previous party had called “lunchus valiumus” and proceeded to grill them for lunch. They were indeed tasty. Various creatures arrived to snack on the deceased pterosaur. Diana was concerned for her companions whom she believed were soon to be sacrificed to the Morlock’s god. We learned that Morlocks were degenerate humans with pale skins and large eyes who dwelt underground and avoided the light.
We decided to fly. There was an issue with finding a place to land until we spotted a clearing by a waterfall. We landed and began discussing our next move. And that’s when the little Deinonychus turned up. I sang the soothing song, and it sat in my lap. Mummy and daddy dinosaur weren’t so keen though and eventually called baby back to the herd.
We walked on through the jungle, the longstrider spell making it far less tiring. The vines weren’t helping… And as we stopped for a moment, the vines grabbed at Kerry and lifted her off the ground. Then we saw the blobby creature, some forty feet up the tree, the vines extending down like the arms of a giant squid. It and its fellow did not survive long under the onslaught of magic, javelins and a whomping rubber tree!
Next, it was giant wasps coming at us through the jungle. We cast spells at them. They kept coming, except the one that got stuck in the web that Kerry had cast. One fell to my flurry of blows, and Pierre had almost dispatched his when I kicked it. The one in the web flew off in pain. I was covered in ichor. Later but rather sooner than expected, the artificial sun flickered, then flickered more rapidly and dimmed to the intensity of moonlight. Next, the stars turned on. Pierre created a sleeping platform up in a tree, and we pitched out tent on it. We set mosquito nets and Pierre cooked dinner.
Watch order: Brigetta, Kerry, Diana, Pierre (plus guardian spirits)

4 Frost

There were jungle noises in the night… and spiders trying to climb on the platform getting swatted by adventurers. Looking around there was plenty of evidence that it had been a wise decision to sleep somewhere other than the jungle floor. There was evidence of a dead plant – a dead triffid (according to Kerry) that had been having a fight with a spider. I attempted a ritual of recitation in an attempt to learn more about the place, but to no avail.
After breakfast, we got down from the platform and marched on, and out of the jungle into grassland. There were things there too, plant creatures hiding behind the tussock, making odd drumming sounds. It was language of sorts, and they were speaking of “food”. Evidently, we were their idea of lunch, as they proceeded to spray acid at us. Which temporarily blinded Pierre, but thankfully the rest of us resisted.
Kerry: We’re going to turn them (plant monsters) into coleslaw!
I kicked one of them right in the onions. It rattled back at me. Kerry chopped away at the other one. They whipped at us, but missed… and we shredded them into bits.
Ahead were the cliffs. We could see the cave entrance, guarded by a pair of mushroom folk. Between them stood a fungal guardian, which Diana said would scream and set out a cloud of soporific gas (which is what got their party into trouble).

Chapter Four

Pierre: They’re mushrooms, they can be sautéed….
Kerry: With butter, in a sortie.
Pierre made us invisible and we approached stealthily. We soon saw that two triffids stood a little to the flank of both mushroom folk. I softly cast a shell of silence around the fungus, so that any screams it made would not be heard, as Pierre and Kerry went in on the attack. Then I cast energy spray at all the targets, as Pierre, Kerry and unexpectedly, Diana, started slicing mushrooms. When the shrieker was the only creature left, I fell to shooting it with arrows until it expired.
We crept into the caves. There were more mushroom men. It was a case of one each. I soon discovered that the only weapons that were really effective were those that did slashing damage and even them their integument was tough to get through.
In the next cavern there was a spiky thing in the middle of the floor, surrounded by other spiky things… we sneaked past it very carefully. I vowed to drop a thunderclap on it if we came back this way. Kerry said that it had an aura, it was a living sentient creature called a roper.
In the next cavern we saw two giant bugs… cave fishers. But as we were sneaking past, I slipped on a patch of fungal goop. The bug immediately shot a sticky thread at me, which I severed with my battleaxe. That seemed to be its tactic, fire sticky ropes at potential prey and try to reel it in. Kerry webbed them with light. This attracted the giant bats. Which ate one of the cave fishers, while Pierre cast an illusory rock around the other one. The bats moaned and we were afraid. Then they attacked. And we fought back. Kerry stuck one to the ceiling with a web, while the other attacked me, and I pummelled it to death, assisted by Pierre. Then Pierre knocked the other one out of the air with one wing. We took the skins thinking they might make some kind of magical cloak.

Chapter Five

We carried on sneaking through the tunnels until we came upon an intersection that was, according to Kerry, magically trapped with something that would cause confusion. We acrobatically leapt or flew across the trapped area, and found ourselves in a small chamber which stretched out to a cave full of random rubbish to our left and a passage to the right. From the right-hand passage there came the sound of many bodies shuffling and murmuring, and over them a strident voice haranguing them. What they intended we would never know, because as Pierre carefully sneaked forwards, one of them, unusually alert, must have heard something, and sounded the alarm.
They came out, at the charge, spoiling for a fight. Fortunately, the passage was narrow and they could only approach two at a time, so they could not surround us, but it was very much hand to hand combat. It did not help when the creature from the rubbish heap joined in from our rear, flailing its tentacles, or that the Morlock shaman kept trying to mess with our heads, eventually succeeding in convincing Pierre that he was some kind of small lizard (fortunately, I was able to rally him and convince him otherwise). But we vanquished the Morlocks, and whatever plans they had for world domination came to naught.
“He’ll be singing soprano in the choir invisible,” as Brigetta the Bard slew a Morlock with a solid kick to the groin.
We found various magical potions and fetishes on their bodies, and not far away a cave where the female Morlocks hid with the children. We told them we were not here to hurt them and persuaded them to find a new female leader along with a new and more positive direction for their people. Further on, we found another chamber where the Gentlefolk Explorers were incarcerated. We freed them along with a lizardfolk woman whom we returned to her village. There we enjoyed a fine feast and finally got to rest the night.

Chapter 6

6 Frost

In the morning, we headed back to the overgrown city, ready to search for the missing portal keys. We pressed on through the jungle, avoiding giant ambulatory plants and over-sized insects. Thankfully the plants didn’t move very fast.
Kerry: “Where’s the flame-thrower?”
Brigetta: “We didn’t bring a fire mage…”
Following the arrow of my locate on the portal stone, we saw a steep-sided square pyramid ahead of us. There appeared to be a hole in one side, obscured by veins. Blocking the way were swarms of insects. I suggested clearing them out with a thunderclap, but Pierre proposed a more subtle approach, smoking them out. We found that the area had a variety of familiar plants which suggested it must have been cultivated – including tobacco and a certain daisy that I knew was good for repelling insects. We dried the tobacco leaves and daisy heads over the fire as we made lunch, and then fashioned torches and simple smoke bombs. When we threw these at the insects they moved rapidly, swarming away from the hole, but away from our torches.
Inside were ruined corridors. The ceiling glowed faintly blue with the lights of failing ancient magic. We could hear something stomping in the far distance, further in.
Brigetta: “I wasn’t planning on wandering around aimlessly. I have a direction, you see.”
Still following the arrow as best we could, we came to a large room where caryatid columns supported the ceiling. Pierre entered, and their eyes seemed to follow him around the room. He found a door, which led to a closet in which there where four sets of greenish-brown robes, one set smaller than the others. They smelt faintly of mothballs and had some kind of protection magic on them. When we moved towards the other door, in the far wall, the statues moved to block our way. Until we put the robes on.
Down the next corridor we came upon a golem with a broom, endlessly sweeping the floor. Fortunately the ceiling space was high enough for us to conceal ourselves above its head while it trundled past. Then the arrow turned, so we back-tracked and found a concealed side tunnel. Down the tunnel we came to a room with a dais on which sat several portal keys including the Philadelphia key we were looking for. Two more statues stood, flanking the door. Pierre sprang on top of the altar and started lifting the portal keys while Kerry and I each waited by one of the statues. Predictably, the statues animated. Mine was soon smashed to bit, and I joined Kerry in beating on hers, which was soon also in fragments. We took their swords and beat a retreat, as more statues animated and followed us. Looting could wait. We got to the big room, and they stopped. But we kept going, making a hasty exit. As we ran out we heard voices crying, “Beware the madness…"
We returned to Pasifika where we had the things we had found divined. The swords were repositories for diamond weapon spells. The cloak conferred strength of stone on endurance and trollskin on the wearer. We saw Aqualina who babbled on about a strange nightmare she had, something about the sceptre of order. The ship was not yet ready to take us south so we would go to Philadelphia, where we should meet with someone called Iolaus.



Winter

Moonday Duesday W'ansday Th'rsday Frysday Reapsday Sunday
Samhain
Frost (7)
  1 Guild Meeting 2   3   4   5   6  
7   8   9   10   11   12   13  
14   15   16   17   18   19   20  
21   22   23   24   25   26   27  
28   29   30    
Snow (8)
  1   2   3   4  
5   6   7   8   9   10   11  
12   13   14   15 Solstice 16   17 The Duke of Carzala's Winter Ball 18 Yuletide
19 Days of Chaos 20 DoC 2 21 DoC 3 22 DoC 4 23 DoC 5 24 DoC 6 25 DoC 7
26 DoC 8 27 DoC 9 28 DoC 10 29 DoC 11 30 Twelfth Night  
Ice (9)
  1   2  
3   4   5   6 First Plough 7   8   9  
10   11   12   13   14   15   16  
17   18   19   20   21   22   23  
24   25   26   27   28   29   30  

Mil Sci

Daily Pattern

  • Sleep/Camp 10 Hours
  • Travel 10 Hours
  • Meals 2 Hours / 2 Hot meals + 1 tea
  • Rituals 2 Hours

Sleep gives 3/hr 6 hours sleep = 18ft

Travel Magics

Star Wings Rank 7
37 mph for 240 min
Cast by Kerry.

Shadow Wings Rank 7
37 mph for 240 min
Cast by Kerry.

Watch Order

Marching Order

Main body front:
Main body rear:
Tail Guard:

Formations
Single file:
Open area:

Buffs

Buffs listed in the table don't need to be detailed, other buffs not on the table must be mentioned at the time they are cast.
Y means always on, N/- means never on, 'Sit.' means when the party has time for buffs before a fight.
Weapon Spells which weapon/s it is going on normally should be noted also.

General notes.


Long Duration Buffs

Magic Rk Effects Dur Ft / cast KER ELD BRI
Shadow Form 12 26 range/melee defense - 13 in close 390 mins 2 Ft Y
Coruscade 12 26 range/melee defense - 13 in close 390 mins 2 Ft sit
Name ## Does stuff ?? hrs ?? Ft

Short Duration Buffs

Magic Rk Effects Dur Ft / Cast KER ELD BRI
Witchsight 10 See invis/in the dark 330mins 1 Ft Sit Sit Sit
Light sword 6 +7 Strike Chance, +3 dam 11 mins 2 Ft Sit Sit Sit
Dark sword 6 +7 Strike Chance, +3 dam 11 mins 2 Ft Sit Sit Sit
Strenght of darkness 9 +6 strenght 100 mins 1 Ft Sit Sit Sit
Name ## Does stuff ? mins ? Ft Sit Sit Sit