FH Campaign

[PoorWandering 1]

Re: FH Campaign

 

This is a great idea for a campaign. Please keep posting.

[paigeoliver]

Re: FH Campaign

 

Man, I would be scared to death to migrate an AD&D campaign world to Hero. The sheer amount of monsters is mind boggling. Over the years there were probably 10 thousand different AD&D monsters published, and that is just in the official TSR stuff (counting Dragon and Dungeon magazines as well).

[teh bunneh]

Re: FH Campaign

 

Man' date=' I would be scared to death to migrate an AD&D campaign world to Hero. The sheer amount of monsters is mind boggling. Over the years there were probably 10 thousand different AD&D monsters published, and that is just in the official TSR stuff (counting Dragon and Dungeon magazines as well).[/quote']

 

I look at it this way: There may be 10,000 monsters, but I've only regularly used maybe 50-75 at most, and the Beastiary covers most of them. I mean, when was the last time you threw a Grell or a Gibbering Mouther at your players? So far in this adventure, my group has run into an owlbear, a bunch of invisible spirits, and a hoard of angry natives -- so I don't miss the AD&D list of monsters much.

 

Second, I never use monsters straight out of the book anyway (too many bad experiences with players who had the Monster Manual memorized!). I'm used to taking the bones of a monster and fleshing it out myself.

 

In fact, it took almost as much work to convert my game to D&D3.0 as it did to convert it to Hero -- so much of my world is homebrew! The really hard part about the conversion is the spell list. Thank god for Killer Shrike's webpage!

 

Bill.

[Old Man]

Re: FH Campaign

 

Man' date=' I would be scared to death to migrate an AD&D campaign world to Hero. The sheer amount of monsters is mind boggling. Over the years there were probably 10 thousand different AD&D monsters published, and that is just in the official TSR stuff (counting Dragon and Dungeon magazines as well).[/quote']

 

The other thing is that a lot of monsters have similar stats, just different specific powers and appearance.

[teh bunneh]

Re: FH Campaign

 

The heroes returned to camp to find it in an uproar. After they had left, a large band of some 40 native warriors attacked the camp. Marina, Slick, Dungeness, Huang-Jin, Ulkjl, Kenbede, and Igdobe were able to drive the attackers away, but not before the enemy kidnapped ten porters.

 

Hathym went out to search for the enemy’s tracks and found them extremely easy to follow. Dungeness refused to allow them to split the party a second time – the first time proved too disastrous – so they couldn’t leave the porters and other non-combatants behind again. The group decided that, exhausted from the night’s exertions as they were, they should rest for 2-3 hours and then begin chasing the enemy. They hoped that the enemy would be as tired as they were and would thus be easy to catch by nightfall.

 

A few hours later, still tired and groggy, they packed their goods on the remaining 8 porters, hid their boats (and the supplies they couldn’t carry) in the jungle, and set off. With Breena in the lead and Hathym and Arialle playing scouts, they made reasonably good time. The trail was easy to follow – a blind Dwarf could track 40 men who were moving quickly and dragging prisoners.

 

At twilight, they came upon an actual paved road, running more-or-less parallel to the river. It was wide enough for two people to walk abreast and paved with huge gray blocks of granite. Hathym got the impression that this was a very, very ancient road that had been recovered from the jungle only recently – within the past few months or so. The men they were chasing had taken the road, heading east, into the hills.

 

Hathym and Breena felt they were getting close, so they told Dungeness and the porters (along with Huang Jin, Ulkjl, Slick, and N’amwei) to slow down. The warriors would take point, about a half-kilometer ahead of the main group, and march without light -- in hopes of surprising the enemy when they caught up.

 

An hour or two after sunset, they came upon the enemy’s camp. There looked to be about two dozen men around a couple of small fires, finishing their dinner and getting ready to bed down for the night. There was no sign of the prisoners – Breena guessed that they had split up, one group camping for the night and the other moving on. There were only three guards on duty – two along the west road (where the heroes were), and one along the east road.

 

The party came up with a plan, hastily whispered in the dark. Breena, Hathym, and Radley would sneak up on the two guards under the cover of a Still Sound spell, knock them out, and drag them back to the main group for questioning. With any luck, no one would notice them missing for at least a couple of hours.

 

It was a good plan; unfortunately, someone somehow attracted the attention of Mekek, god of bad fortune. Breena and Hathym leapt at their chosen foe at the exact moment he decided to turn around. A simple snatch-and-grab turned into a complete cluster-fuck, only ending when Arialle grew impatient and put an arrow through the recalcitrant guard’s skull (some of you may have noticed: that girl’s kinda got an impulse control problem). =

 

But even that was too late; someone in the camp woke up to take a pee and saw what was going on. The alarm was raised as warriors jumped out of their bedrolls and grabbed their weapons. Kishara, thinking quickly, tossed an exploding ball of white light into the midst of the camp, blinding a number of them.

 

She and Radley followed up with an illusion of a pair of huge, scary monsters blocking the natives’ path, which gave them to some pause. Breena and Hathym ran for the cover of the jungle while Arialle continued to plunk arrows into the enemy and Marina added to the confusion by casting a Cacophony spell into the midst of the warriors.

 

After a few moments of this, the warriors decided they had enough, and they all ran away, up the road. Hathym quickly searched their belongings, but found only one thing of interest – these were definitely the same natives they had fought before, since they all had metal weapons.

 

Not every part of the plan failed, though. Radley had managed to KO his guard, so they had a prisoner. Radley began plying the man with alcohol while patching up his wound, innocently asking questions all the while. After two bottles of banana beer, the native (whose name was B’ami) became quite talkative, and Radley learned the following facts:

 

-- B’ami has never before seen “fish-belly white-skin†people. He finds most of you merely odd, but he seems to be frightened of Arialle.

 

-- B’ami’s village is about 2 days’ hard march from this place.

 

-- The village has always been surrounded by enemies with whom they’ve had conflicts, but has only recently begun conquering those peoples nearby.

 

-- These conquests have been made possible by a man named Ilom, who came to the tribe about a year ago and taught the village priests to worship new gods. Ilom is very powerful and knows magic that can make the sun go out and the mountains shake. Even though the heroes’ magic is impressive, it is nothing compared to Ilom’s. Ilom also taught the priests how to make weapons out of iron.

 

-- He believes that his village will soon rival the Ancient One cities in size and power.

 

-- He does not seem to fear the Ancient Ones like the other villagers do.

 

-- Since the village has grown so rapidly, they have needed lots of slaves to work the fields and the mines. Most of the villagers they capture have ended up as slaves. A few of them have ended up as sacrifices to the gods.

 

-- The gods’ representatives on earth are apparently giant snakes. B’ami seems to feel that the white-skinned prisoners they took will eventually end up as snake-chow.

 

After an hour of questioning (and another couple bottles of banana beer), B’ami realized he was being played. He grew angry and started shouting, and then he passed out. Radley doesn’t think that his methods will get any more information out of the man.

 

To be continued!

[teh bunneh]

Re: FH Campaign

 

The heroes, exhausted from the last few nights’ adventures, slept well into the morning. When they got up, they had a decision to make, based on what they learned from B’ami, their captive. After some debate, they decided that they had to seriously scout out the opposition before they made any plans.

 

They set up a camp for the rest of the company, a kilometer or so off the main road, and camouflaged it as well as they could, telling Lord Dungeness and crew to stay hidden. They party would head out; if Dungeness didn’t hear from them in 5 days time, he was to get the expedition out of the jungle as fast as he could. Huang Jin mentioned that she could cast a spell to communicate with them at long distances, but couldn’t hold it up for long at a time, so they decided to have her “call in†at pre-determined times to get the scoop.

 

The heroes set out, paralleling the road, until they came to the city of the Enemy. They then spent the next day and night scouting the place, trying to determine everything they could about it.

 

It was, as B’ami described it, quite large. At a guess, it was home to 3-5,000 souls. The whole place smelled of smoke and human waste. The smoke smelled strongly like the smoke from a forge and/or an ironworks. It had 3-meter high wooden walls around the entire city, reinforced with earth and stone bulwarks. It had two main gates, one on the east side and one on the west, both of which were kept open during the day but shut just before sundown. It also had a water gate that was open all the time, through which a murky canal flowed, providing water to the city. The jungle had been cut back at least 50 meters on each side of the city. The city was surrounded on the south and the west side by fields, in which the natives seemed to be growing some sort of tuber. Many, many slaves were working the fields, watched over by a score or so guards. The slaves were all women and girls.

 

The canal came from the north, probably connected to the river. The east side was butted up against the hills. On the northeast, a huge stone structure – probably the ruins of the ancient civilization that the natives are so superstitious about – formed the outer wall. There seemed to be a large ziggurat or something similar just inside the stone wall, as well. To the south, a small village of ramshackle huts stood alongside the (by now polluted) canal; the women slaves were herded into the houses at night and left, apparently unguarded.

 

The male slaves were herded each morning into the hills, where they were forced to work in three mines, hauling out ore and loading it onto carts, which were taken back to the city when full. Each evening, the men were herded into the gates of the city; where they were put once inside, no one is sure. There was no sign of white-skinned prisoners.

 

The heroes decided they needed a closer look at the inside of the place, both to determine their opposition and to figure out where they kept the prisoners. Kishara and Hathym volunteered to sneak in at night and scout around.

 

Under cover of darkness and an Invisibility spell, the two snuck up to the gates. Kishara then cast a spell which extinguished all the torches on the wall above them (it’s amazing how she knew to cast that particular spell at that point!) = While the guards were running around trying to re-light the torches, she magically gave Hathym wings (probably purple, but he was invisible so it’s hard to tell), and the two of them flew over the wall and landed on the roof of a nearby building.

 

While in the air, they noticed that this entire quadrant of the city was walled in with stone, and most of the buildings appeared to be made of stone as well. The forge-smoke was definitely coming from this area, so they guessed that all the ironworks and forges had been made of stone to reduce the possibility of fire. They also noticed that the streets were completely empty, except for a small group of men marching purposefully up to the walls.

 

The man in the lead was instantly recognizable – he was the priest who had led the attack on the friendly village downriver, the one who escaped on snake-back. He began shouting orders for the men to relight the torches, and they scrambled to obey. Once everything was back to normal, he stomped away, dragging in tow 2 large, burly bodyguards.

 

Kishara and Hathym decided to follow this guy, and found that he lives in a stone hut just outside the ziggurat. The bodyguards followed him inside and shut the door behind them. There were no other doors to the hut, but there were a couple of windows, all blocked off with grass mats.

 

At this point, Kishara and Hathym heard a noise behind them. They turned and spotted a huge snake, slithering toward them, flicking its tongue as if tasting the night air. Not wanting to deal with such a monster, they wisely retreated to the nearest rooftop and headed for the non-stone portion of the city.

 

Kishara tried a spell to locate the missing porters, but although she could tell that they were nearby somewhere, the city was too large to pinpoint them. The two of them explored the area around the canal and found little of interest. They then headed back to the ziggurat, wanting to know more about its function.

 

Kishara once again gave Hathym wings and they flew over the top of it. The top was hollow, dropping down into pitch blackness, but Kishara spotted something moving down there. Squinting her eyes, she thought she saw something large and slithery deep within… but she’s not entirely sure.

 

She cast the spell again, narrowing her search range to just the area around the ziggurat, and she managed to touch the mind of her own porter! He was alive, and was almost certainly inside the ziggurat!

 

By now exhausted, the two spies snuck back out of the city through the canal and rejoined their friends. Radley suggested that the party sneak down and see what the deal was about the slave village, so a handful of the team headed there (leaving Hathym, Kishara, and Arialle behind).

 

Creeping through the village, someone heard them and opened their door a crack. A woman peered out, spotted them, and whispered for them to come inside quickly. Once inside, the woman recognized them as the warriors who helped her companion many weeks ago – she was apparently one of the women who the heroes spotted by the river, who’s male companion had been wounded and who Radley healed.

 

She was excited by their presence, and wanted to introduce them to a woman who was sort of the slaves’ leader. They snuck out of her hut and into another hut, where a young, hard-looking woman greeted them. She seemed incredulous at their story, but eventually came around. She told them many things about the village and the Enemy.

 

She said that the slaves were all from nearby villages. Some of them have been held for as long as a year; others for as short as a week. Raiding parties frequently bring in new slaves. The women haven't seen the men since they were brought in, though she knows that they are kept in a small village much like this one, inside the city walls.

 

She told them that slaves who are unruly are dragged from the fields; she believes that the priests of the Enemy sacrifice them to old, dark gods and feed their bodies to giant snakes. She also mentioned how giant snakes patrol the jungles at night, and those who have tried to escape are eaten by the snakes. This is why the slave village doesn’t need human guards at night – the snakes are more than enough to keep the women docile.

 

The Enemy easily overpowers other villages due to their superior weapons and tactics. They call their weapons "Snakes' Teeth." Other tribes are rushing to join the Enemy; it's either that or be conquered and enslaved or killed by them. Rumor has it that the enemy uses rocks from the hills to fashion these weapons, though she was not quite sure how. The only ones who know the secrets of working with iron are the priests. The forges and ironworks are in the stone section of the city, near the hills. Warriors guard them, day and night, but the men are not actually allowed onto the streets or into the forges.

 

When the heroes asked about their porters, she denied ever seeing anyone with white skin. She suggested that these strangers are held somewhere in the city; probably to be used as sacrifices. She said that sacrifices are performed under the new moon; the new moon is one day away. Marina became particularly upset at this, since she worships a moon goddess.

 

The heroes asked about the priest they saw. She said that his name is Dakarai. He is cruel and ambitious and is the main reason the Enemy has conquered so many villages – his hunger for conquest and power is second to none. She mentioned that Dakarai recently returned from a war, and has been in a terrible mood since he came back – rumor is that his lover Gamba was killed, and he has sworn revenge on the ones who did it. Some questioning revealed that Gamba was the large, brutal warrior that the heroes killed back at the friendly village… oops!

 

However, Mama went on to say, Dakarai is not the most dangerous. His superior, called Ilom, is even moreso. Where Dakarai is cruel and violent, Ilom is calm and calculating, with much wisdom and foresight. He is the genius who "invented" iron and who taught its secrets to his inner circle of priests. No one really knows where Ilom came from; they say he just showed up one day a year or so ago with strange new ideas and powerful magic. He swayed the Enemy to his way through a combination of charisma and force, and since then, they have grown ever more powerful.

 

Once she told the heroes all these things, she wanted to know what their plan to destroy the Enemy and free the slaves was. The heroes were somewhat taken aback – they were on a mission to get their own people back, not to destroy an entire village of people. But Mama was insistent. To defeat the enemy, she informed them in no uncertain terms, they only need to kill Ilom and his blacksmith-priests. She and the other slaves would help as best as they could, though most of them were weak and hungry so they wouldn’t be much help.

 

This was somewhat disturbing to the heroes. They were definitely not an assassination squad… but on the other hand, they couldn’t leave these people to be enslaved and murdered at the will of some dark god, could they?

[teh bunneh]

Re: FH Campaign

 

Leaving the women’s encampment, the heroes rejoined Hathym, Kishara, and Arialle to discuss what they learned. After some heated discussion, the heroes decided to ambush the mining party at dawn – kill the guards and free the slaves, then see if they could get any information (or better yet, help) out of the newly freed slaves.

 

The ambush went off like clockwork. The guards in the lead were so busy talking to each other that they didn’t even notice when Breena and Marina stepped into the road to challenge them. The first two died before they even had a chance to realize what was happening.

 

Radley turned invisible and slipped up to the line of roped-together slaves to cut them free, then helped Arialle take out a couple of enemies who started running back to the town. Hathym dropped one bad guy, then ran into some trouble when two more ran up to fight him. Breena, having already killed two warriors, took a bad spear-blow to the shoulder, which knocked the wind out of her and left her gasping on the ground. Luckily, Marina was able to take up the slack and killed the man who injured her friend.

 

Kishara launched a couple of “heads-down†arrows at one guard to try and keep him out of the melee. Arialle was not paying much attention and let one of the men slip past her. She made up for her failing by chasing him down and pinning him to the ground with an arrow through the stomach. Radley went back to help Hathym by conjuring an illusion of Hathym getting back up to his feet and challenging the guards – “Is that all you got?†Hathym took opportunity of the guard’s distraction to trip him, and Marina charged forward and finished him off with a spear blow to the throat.

 

Kishara cast a Tongues spell on herself and demanded the warriors’ surrender. The two remaining guards, seeing how quickly their comrades dropped, were quick to comply, throwing down their spears and begging for mercy.

 

The heroes freed the slaves. Kishara tried to convince them to come with the heroes, but her timid and retiring manner did not seem to fill them with confidence. Radley then stepped to the plate, launching into a rousing speech about freedom, bravery, and revenge. The men became fired up about this, determined to stop the Enemy from continuing their depredations! They gathered up the guards’ spears, knives, and shields and told the heroes that they would go with.

 

Now, the only thing was to come up with a plan… Several ideas were floated – a sneak attack under cover of darkness, an assault on the gates, a rescue of the women, trying to lure the Enemy’s warriors away from the town, all these were discussed. The only constant was that it had to be done before midnight – the former slaves informed our heroes that the priests performed their sacrifices at that hour.

 

Finally, it was decided that Kishara would use her magic to summon a heavy, vision-obscuring storm. Under cover of this storm, the mining work team would return to the town just before twilight, pretending like nothing was amiss. The heroes would hide inside one of the ore sledges. As soon as everyone was through the gates, the heroes would jump out, surprising and overpowering the guards. The party would then go to the ziggurat with all haste to stop the human sacrifice and kill any priests they encountered while the (ex-)slaves would cause a distraction in the main part of the city, hopefully drawing off any guards. Simultaneously, Lord Dungeness would lead the porters and the rest of the expedition into the slave women’s village and free them, killing the giant snake that guards them.

 

They relayed this information on to Dungeness via “Huang-Jin-phone.†They tied up their captives and left them in the mine, then set off back to town. Kishara sat in the sledge and meditated, trying to summon up the strength and power to cast a spell so large. The spell was more intricate and difficult than anything she had ever before done, and she was certain that if she messed it up, there would be serious consequences. Just before nightfall, she had managed to gather thick, black clouds and ominous thunder, but the only rain that fell was a few hot, heavy drops. As the town came into view, the ex-slaves were growing nervous that the plan wasn’t working.

 

Just then, there was a gigantic, deafening peal of thunder, and the skies opened up…

[teh bunneh]

Re: FH Campaign

 

Rain crashed down, obscuring everyone’s sight and turning the ground into a muddy mess. The heroes, hiding in the iron ore sledge and surrounded by slaves, made it as far as the gate when one of the guards on the wall noticed something was wrong. He shouted a warning and the other guards began firing arrows. Luckily, due to the bad weather their firing was woefully inadequate.

 

Hathym and Arialle returned fire (much more accurately) while Radley, Breena, and Marina rushed the rapidly closing gates. Radley made it in first and waylaid one of the guards pushing the door shut. Marina rushed in and found herself face-to-face with two angry guards. While she dispatched the first, the second went to deal with Breena, who was busy pushing the doors back open (before someone got wise and barred them from the inside!). Breena had little trouble killing the poor fool. Radley was having some trouble, though – turns out he’s allergic to iron spears pushed through his body! The two warrior women sloshed through the mud to help him, and the guard was ended.

 

Outside, the archers and the wizardess were having some trouble. Arialle and Hathym killed three of the men on the walls, but the other one was smart and used the cover of the walls to snipe at them. Kishara, fed up with the ineffectualness of the other two, took matters into her own hands. She braved the arrow fire and ran directly under the wall, then cast a spell which forcibly shot the man (along with part of the wall he was hiding behind) straight up into the air about twenty feet.

 

She dusted her hands off (job-well-done, don’t leave to a fighter what a mage can do herself), but then the guard dropped to the earth and landed right next to her in the soft, muddy ground. He stood up, unharmed by his fall, and stabbed her in the leg with his spear.

 

Kishara screamed in pain and fell down, her leg now useless, and the guard got ready to dispatch her from this world, when Arialle leapt over the cover she had been hiding behind and charged the man. He took a sword blow to the nether-regions, which ended his career – and his life – rather messily.

 

The gate was secure. The recently-freed slaves poured in, anxious for a little payback. The heroes healed themselves as quickly as they could and then headed towards the ziggurat. Speed was of the essence, since they had no idea when the sacrifice was scheduled to begin.

 

They were almost to the ziggurat when they ran into another party of guards who were rushing toward the gates to see what was going on. Breena and Marina stepped up to the challenge while Arialle and Hathym ran around the side of the building to see if they could bushwhack the badguys from behind.

 

It was about then that Marina suddenly went completely blind. Then a giant snake slithered from behind the building. Yes, it appeared that one of the Enemy’s priests was here as well! Thinking quickly, Kishara threw a “stinkbomb†spell at the snake, which blinded it and deadened its sense of smell/taste (it also deadened Marina’s nose, but better a dead nose than a dead priestess of the Trinity!).

 

While Breena single-handedly fought three berserk bodyguards, Hathym tried to take a pot-shot at the evil priest. Unfortunately, all he managed to do was attract the attention of the priest, who returned the favor by firing a bolt of black energy that burned the White Elf’s arm pretty bad. Arialle didn’t have a clean shot at the evil priest, so she dropped one of his bodyguards.

 

Kishara concentrated hard and cast a spell to send the giant serpent back to the snakepit that spawned it and (thanks to Kate rolling considerably better than average damage) succeeded! The snake slowly evaporated into mist. Breena was grievously wounded, but continued to fight on. Radley ran over to help her – even if he was no match for the insane fury of the two berserkers, he could still keep his team’s M1A1 Abrams Tank in the fight!

 

Kishara snuck around the corner to see where all that evil magic was coming from. The wicked priest noticed that almost the entire party was clustered around a single point, so he caused the sky to rain fire on that point (burning his own men in the process, but he didn’t seem to care). Kishara responded with an arc of lightning, hitting the priest at the same time as an arrow from Hathym and another from Arialle. The priest, shocked and poked beyond human endurance, died. His one remaining bodyguard took the better part of valor and tried to flee, but the team’s resident Green Elf archer ran him down and punctured him, leaving him to die in the mud.

 

The party hastily gathered in a nearby hut to patch up their wounds, then continued toward the ziggurat. The walls, though slick with moss and rain, look pretty climbable. Across town, plumes of smoke are rising from where the ex-slaves are attacking the town. No guards are visible atop the walls, but the sound of drums can be heard quite clearly. It looks like our heroes needed to move quickly, lest their porters be made into snake-chow!

 

Bill.

[teh bunneh]

July 3 2004

 

Are people still reading/enjoying these?

 

-----

The heroes stood before the walls of the ziggurat. The walls, though slick with moss and rain, looked climbable. No guards were visible atop the walls, but the sound of drums could be heard quite clearly. Across town, plumes of smoke were rising from where the ex-slaves were attacking the town.

 

Breena and Hathym climbed the wall to check for sentries. None were spotted, so they dropped ropes for everyone else. The party stealthily approached the entrance to the ziggurat. There was some debate as to whether they should go in the front door or down the hole in the top, but no one wanted to drop down into a snake pit, so they decided to hit the heavily defended door. They figured that a two-pronged attack by surprise would give them the best chance of success.

 

The two parties crept slowly around the ziggurat, closer and closer to the door, when Marina stepped on the only dry twig in the area. A guard heard and came to investigate. He came around the corner and Hathym put an arrow into him. He howled in pain and the other guards ran to investigate.

 

A great battle broke out, centered on Hathym, Marina, and Kishara. Breena, Radley, and Arialle were mostly on the wrong side of the ziggurat and contributed only slightly to the fight (to their great disappointment).

 

One of the guards, a huge bruiser foaming at the mouth, charged Hathym, who had already managed to put down two other guards. This maniac buried his spear deep into Hathym’s stomach, dropping the White Elf like Jennifer Lopez drops her beau-of-the-week. =

 

Most of the guards were easy to dispatch, but this big bruiser was hard as nails. He danced with both Marina and Kishara while Arialle plunked him with arrows (a little reluctantly, as she likes both Marina and Kishara and didn’t want to accidentally hit either of them). When he finally went down, Marina rushed to help Hathym.

 

The Elf was on his last legs, hurt badly and dying. She prayed to Cynthea to give her the strength to heal her friend, and the goddess responded. Hathym slowly regained consciousness, not remembering much of what just happened. Arialle, in a rare show of concern, offered him a handful of mirenna berries (which are sacred to the Elves and are used to relieve pain and speed healing).

 

While they were taking care of Hathym, Breena and Radley went to check out the drums. Oddly, they found no one, though the sound of drumming was quite clear. "Spirits," Breena said. "Or magic," Radley agreed.

 

Once the ranger was back on his feet, the team headed into the ziggurat. They followed a short passageway and came into a large room, where they saw their porters, tied up and threatened by guards with spears. A big beefy guy was standing near the door – obviously supposed to be guarding but not paying much attention (dratted perception rolls!). In the center of the room was a pit from whence the sound of hissing and slithering was coming, and standing over the pit was a very tall, very dark-skinned man chanting a prayer to his dark gods. One porter was being held over the pit by another guard. Worst of all, the high priest was wrapped, head-to-toe, in a living, giant snake.

 

The heroes wasted no time. Breena charged the high priest. Radley vanished from sight and ran to help the porters. Marina moved up to engage the big beefy guy, while everyone else hung back to see where their skills could be best used.

 

Breena was intercepted by the big guy, but this freed Marina to go after the priest and his pet snake. Kishara tried to dispel the snake like she did with the other one, but failed. Arialle and Hathym fired through the swirling melee to try to pick off guards before they pushed any more porters into the snake pit.

 

Breena was hurt badly by the berserker guard, but Marina managed to kill the giant snake. She then turned her attentions on to the evil high priest. She

put her spear through his innards, the force of the blow pushing him backwards. He dropped with a scream into the snakepit below.

 

The heroes killed the last of the guards, then freed the porters from their bonds. The porters were understandably grateful, but the heroes wanted to get out of the city quickly, so thanks were delayed.

 

Thanks to the chaos elsewhere in the town, the heroes managed to make it over the walls and away from the city without further problems. They used the cover of darkness to make it back to the road, where they met up with Lord Dungeness' team and the women they had rescued.

 

Apparently, Dungeness and crew had met up with a giant snake and managed to slay it without casualties. The team also ran into the men they had rescued – there had been quite a few casualties among them, and only

about half the group that had gone in with the heroes had managed to get out alive.

 

Nonetheless, Lord Dungeness considered their mission a success – they had killed both priests, freed all but two of the porters, rescued the women, and got most of the men out. The chaos they caused in the city would make the Enemy think twice about further raids, and the villagers were now free to return back downriver to restart their lives.

 

The group traveled through the night to get some distance between them and the city; the next morning they made it back to the river where they found their campsite as they had left it.

 

To be continued!

[teh bunneh]

Cut Scene 1

 

The drums had long ceased their pounding. The torches had been extinguished. The sun was rising over the jungle. A sliver of light crept down the temple wall and illuminated the pit. Ilom painfully opened one eye. He felt the cool, comforting smoothness of the snakes writhing around him. They felt more real than the warm stickiness and dull pain in his stomach.

 

Slowly, he raised one hand to his wound and winced. He mumbled a prayer to his gods and felt the pain drain away. He sat up slowly. He knew what had happened – the village raided, the ritual ruined, his bodyguards slain, Dakarai almost certainly dead. Ilom's reputation here was finished; he would no longer be able to command these people with any authority – from now on, they would always doubt him.

 

It couldn't be helped, he thought to himself. The priest stood, carefully avoiding stepping on the serpents that slithered around him. Who were those white-skinned devils? He knew that he had grossly underestimated them – he had assumed Dakarai was exaggerating when he had told the story of his defeat.

 

Ilom lovingly caressed the head of one of his snakes. "They possess weapons and armor far superior to that which I brought to this village," he said out loud, as if the snake could understand him. "And their training and tactical sense was much better than these primitives who I've allied myself with. Their magical powers were advanced, as well.

 

"If only I knew who they were, and who sent them," he said, beginning the long climb out of the snake pit. "But there will be time to learn that later. For now, I have another job to do; I have to clean up this mess they left me with. And when that is finished, I must return home and report on what I've learned. The master will be most intrigued."

 

A few hours later, Ilom left the city burning behind him. The scent of blood and death still clung to his skin. Vaguely, he regretted having had to destroy the city, but it couldn't be helped.

 

Fade to black...

[teh bunneh]

Cut Scene 2

 

The night after the successful raid, back at the campsite near the river...

 

"The White Elf survived?" the shadowy figure thought, keeping an eye on the others. "But only thanks to the priestess' intervention. Looks like what they told me was true – he has a habit of biting off more than he can chew."

 

The heroes, gathered around the campfire, were still discussing the previous day's fights – what they did right, what they could have done better. The shadowy figure watched and listened closely, not contributing much to the conversation. "It looks like I'm going to have to start taking a more active roll in his demise. After all, here deep in the jungle, so far away from civilization, accidents are bound to happen."

 

Fade to black...

[James Gillen]

Re: July 3 2004

 

Are people still reading/enjoying these?

 

-----

 

[raise hand]

 

JG

[teh bunneh]

July 18 2004

 

The Expeditionary Company made it back to the river and collapsed from exhaustion. The next morning, Lord Dungeness ordered every able-bodied man and woman to construct a temporary stockade, to protect the camp from any reprisals that the Enemy might make. From the extent of the injuries (particularly Hathym and Breena), he decided that the company had to stay put for at least a few days so they could heal properly.

 

The next week was tense, as everyone was expecting an attack from the Enemy; however, when none came people started to relax a bit. The healers of the group determined that Hathym and Breena would need at least a couple of weeks to recover from their wounds, so the company settled in for a long stay.

 

After three weeks pent up in the little stockade, everyone was about ready to start climbing the walls. Radley and Marina decided that the injured people were ready to travel, so Dungeness called a group meeting. "We've suffered a setback," he told the team. "But I don't think it's a fatal one. Though we lost some of our team, a handful of the natives we rescued have volunteered to come along with us to act as porters and guides. We still have more than a month before we have to turn back to catch our ship, and everything that we've seen so far has merely whetted my appetite to continue. The ruins we've seen so far indicate that the stories of an ancient lost civilization are true, and I'd like to follow up on that. Also, now that we've entered the hills, I feel that we may be close to the source of the Black Blood River.

 

"But I know that we've been through a lot so far, and if there was ever a time to turn back, this may be it. So I'd like to take the temperature of the team, so to speak. What are your thoughts? Should we continue, or turn back?"

 

Radley cynically wondered how many more people would have to die just to satisfy Lord High-Pocket's wanderlust, but he didn't say anything out loud because he didn't figure that his opinion would matter much.

 

N'Amwei was not so shy, and said that the company had run into too much trouble already. "No need to tempt fate no more," he said. "There is much bad juju in these jungles. We should get out while the getting is good."

 

Huang-Jin was also for leaving. "We have mapped the river thus far, and we've taken a great number of samples. We've met the people and learned much about their language and culture. Now may be the time to return home to catalog our finds."

 

Breena, ever eager to test her skills, said that the company should continue on. "We shouldn't leave the job half-finished." Hathym and Marina agreed with her. Kishara was very excited about continuing. "We've already killed off the opposition," she proclaimed. "What else could possibly stop us?" (Most of the party groaned when they heard these dangerous words...)

 

Slick was pretty insistent that the company continue. "I came this far for a share of the treasure, but we haven't found any so far. I'm no good at math, but I'm pretty sure that 2% of zero is zero. I say we find this lost civilization that His Lordship is talking about - they're bound to have some loot!"

 

Arialle disappeared sometime during the discussion, so no one is certain what her opinion on the matter was.

 

Dungeness took all of this into account (or he didn't, if you ask Radley), and decided that the company should continue upriver. The rest of the day was spent packing the canoes, and the next day the expedition continued.

 

Radley's porter Seamus was particularly upbeat. "There's good luck in the air, Mr. Radley!" he said. "I can feel a change coming, you'll see."

 

A few days later, the change was evident as the river narrowed and quickened. Before long, the expedition came to a tall waterfall - the first cateract. The river was no longer navigable, so the expedition packed the canoes and marched up the hills, following the river as best as they could so they could get back on when they passed the rapids.

 

Above the waterfall, they got back on the river. About a day and a half later, they came to another waterfall and once again headed upriver on foot. Halfway up the hill, Kishara noted something in the underbrush - what seemed to everyone else as a simple stream flowing through the path was apparent to her as something man-made.

 

Dungeness ordered a halt to the march, and the porters cleared away the undergrowth and mud, revealing a beautiful, ancient fountain. Ulkiel sketched it in his book and made some notes while Breena and Hathym explored the surrounding forest. Before long, they came back and said that they found an old road, heading up into the hills.

 

After some deliberation, Dungeness decided not to follow the road, but to continue up the river. "We can always explore the road on our way back down the river, if we have time."

 

At the top of the waterfall, the company got back on the river and spent two days working against the current. On the third day, right past a particularly difficult stretch of river, they came to a large, still, glassy, green lake.

 

Stretched out across the banks of the lake was a sight that amazed the entire company - a huge, ancient, ruined stone city, covered in vines and overgrown with trees, but still somehow magnificent.

 

"That ancient civilization you're looking for, boss?" Hathym asked. "I think we've found it."

[mangahunterd]

Re: FH Campaign

 

Dude, this stuff is great... Keep it up!

[teh bunneh]

July 24, 2004

 

The city sat on the banks of a mighty lake. From a guess, the lake looked like it was at least 15 km across. The far end could not be seen. The water, especially the water away from the mouth of the river, was very calm, very still, very quiet, and very, very green (almost luminescent). It got darker the further away from shore you paddle.

 

A light mist clung to the surface of the water, which was occasionally rippled by fish leaping to catch insects or birds swooping to scoop up fish. The jungle, as thick as ever, crept right up to the banks; there were no real beaches to be seen anywhere. Along one bank, the party saw a small herd of jungle deer emerge from the foliage and pause to take a drink. Overall, the group's impression was one of great peace and natural tranquility.

 

On the left (north) side of the lake was the city.

 

Even from this distance, and even overgrown as it was, the heroes could not help but be impressed with the sheer size and scope of this ancient place. The weathered remains of stone jetties poked out into the lake. Behind them, covered with vines and partially obscured by trees, were the shapes of great stone walls and buildings.

 

As the Company paddled closer, Marina noticed the tumbled remains of collapsed buildings beneath the boats, the squared stones now covered with thick green algae and blackish mud.

 

Dungeness ordered a slow advance on the city and warned everyone to keep their eyes open. Ulkiel recovered his sketchbook and was furiously drawing what he saw. Arialle, shaken gently awake by one of her companions, simply sat and stared. Slick rubbed his hands together. "Now this was more like it!" he said, his voice shockingly loud in the silence.

 

Kishara saw a spotted jungle cat lounging in the shoulder of a tall, twisted tree. Its tail twitched and one eye opened to watch as the Company paddle past it, but otherwise it didn't seem to take much heed of their passage. Other than that, no one saw any living creatures larger than a fishing bird.

 

Finally, the canoes reached the tumbled remains of what were once the docks. "Mr. Veddol, Scout Breena, Ms. Darkleafe," Dungeness said. "Please spread out and make sure the area was safe. The rest of you, stay near the docks."

 

The company disembarked as the scouts fanned out. Hathym and Breena stayed together, but Arialle headed in another direction and vanished from sight.

 

The two rangers pushed through the undergrowth, stepping over the rocks and roots that tried to trip them up. Trees pushed up out of the rubble, all but obscuring that there was ever a city here. The limbs formed a cathedral-like ceiling above them; the light that filtered through their thick foliage made the world look mysterious and green, as though they were underwater.

 

They determined that they were on a main boulevard heading away from the docks; the street seemed like it was once wide, straight, and smooth. The buildings on either side were all but rubble, piles of rock that, in another century, would look like nothing more than small hillocks of stone.

 

Then Breena got a prickly feeling on the back of her neck. She had the strangest sensation that someone – or something – was watching her. The two rangers silently split up, Hathym heading back about a hundred yards while Breena tried to circle around the interloper. Then, behind Breena, she heard a snap – like a twig breaking in the remains of a nearby building. Hathym was too far away to signal, so she cautiously advanced on the spot. As she rounded a large tree, hoping to flank whatever – or whoever – it was that she heard, suddenly there was a shriek, a loud, frightening squeal, and something large and black leaped over a fallen log, right at her!

 

Breena managed to get the thing off of her and jump to her feet, pulling out her axe. The thing – it turned out to be a large wild boar – ran into the woods and disappeared.

 

Meanwhile, the more curious party members started to search around a little, never straying far from the boats. The area around the docks was clear of buildings and rubble for about 40 paces. The jungle had grown up thickly here, trees both great and small vying for sunlight and root space. It appeared that this area was once paved with great blocks of stone; broken fragments of these cobbles could still be seen through the grass, or bunched up around the trunk of a tree where it broke through.

 

As Marina searched around, she found an area, no more than 5 or 6 paces across, where there were no trees. Vines and creepers covered the ground, but beneath them she saw a large patch of pavement, cracked and rippled but still largely intact. She cleared away some of the vines and saw not only the still-whole blocks of stone, but also the faded remnants of some sort of bas relief carving on the stone.

 

She immediately called Lord Dungeness over. When he saw what she had found, he ordered some men to clear away the vines, revealing what appeared to be a man's scowling face, wearing a hood or a hat. The rocks were eroded and pockmarked with age, and were cracked and uplifted by the roots beneath them, so more than that was impossible to tell.

 

By this time, the three scouts returned. None of them spotted anything out of the ordinary (except, perhaps, tomorrow's dinner). They found three main thoroughfares out of the square. One was blocked by rubble from a collapsed building (a huge tree was growing out from where the building once stood). The other two were navigable but heavily overgrown. The buildings near this area were collapsed and empty, but there looked to be more intact buildings further from the lake.

 

Now that the area was secure, Lord Dungeness ordered the team to set up camp here at the edge of the lake. The men busied themselves clearing an area while the Lord consulted with N'Amwei, Ulkiel, Huang-Jin, Marina, and Kishara (who was much too delicate for hard physical labor). Dungeness was eager to begin exploration, mapping the city and clearing out any particularly interesting-looking ruins.

 

Marina suggested that the first few days should be spent getting the lay of the land, and Ulkiel suggested that the group should split up into teams – not doing anything exciting, just making note of interesting areas for later detailed exploration. Dungeness was quite clearly thrilled, and said that a place like this could take years to fully explore – if they found anything truly interesting, the RES could fully fund a much larger expedition to delve into the city's secrets!

 

The night passed without interest, and the next day Dungeness ordered Marina to split everyone up into three teams (the only stipulation being that he, Ulkiel, and Huang-Jin must each be on separate teams, since they were the expedition's mapmakers).

 

That day, the teams broke off to hunt around and see what there was to see. Everyone was told to be on high alert, just in case something was lurking in these ruins/jungles. Marina's team climbed a steep hill and came to a large complex that was very much intact, though heavily overgrown. It appeared to be a walled palace of some sort. They climbed over the wall and found the entire interior was overgrown with some kind of thick, persistent kudzu-type vine. They didn't see anything of interest, but they decided it looked like a promising place to begin exploration tomorrow.

 

Meanwhile, Ulkiel's team spent the entire day poking around an old fallen building that had the remains of some interesting carvings that he wanted to sketch. Breena, in the third team, once again got the feeling that they were being watched... but no watcher was visible.

 

When the parties met back together that night, Dungeness decided that they would spend a big chunk of time excavating the palace, since that seemed most interesting and promising. The next day, they cleared a trail from the docks to the palace, then they spent nearly a full day excavating around the base of the large palace-like building when they discover something – some sort of seal.

 

It appeared to be a wide, low doorway, about 2½ meters wide and about 1½ meters high. The doorway was sealed with a large white clay symbol. The symbol was cracked, faded, and decayed, so no one could tell what it once might have represented. The doorway, once covered with dirt and vegetation, was also pretty weather-worn. It was made from the same reddish-brown stone that the rest of the palace seemed to be made from.

 

The seal was not hard to break, and the doorway was not hard to open. Cool, moist, stale air that smelled like jungle loam rushed out when the door was opened. The whole company stood around in a circle looking in, until Dungeness ordered them all back to work. "Marina," Dungeness said. "Get your people ready to go in."

 

Marina assembled her team. It consisted of the PCs (of course), Ulkiel (who was eager to explore!), and Slick (who was hired for this very sort of thing). Arialle declined an invitation – she wasn't big on caves. Instead, she sat at the top of the palace keeping watch on the surrounding jungle (and probably napping).

 

Breena suggested that the team go in for only a few hours at a time, or until they found something interesting, then come out and rest, take meals, etc., then go back in, back and forth. This way, they could keep Dungeness constantly updated on their progress, and they can make sure no one got hurt or killed.

 

The ceilings were unusually low, and the taller party members (Hathym and Breena in particular) had to stoop to keep from scraping their heads against the ceiling. The air inside the palace was cool and moist and smelled of decaying vegetation and jungle loam. Trickles of water dribbled down the walls and dripped from the ceiling, and the floor was wet but not covered in water. Underneath the thin black silt that covered it, the floors were very smooth. The halls were wide, and everything seemed to be made from reddish sandstone.

 

Slick in the lead, they cautiously entered the ancient edifice. About halfway down the corridor, suddenly the floor gave way under him, Ulkiel, and Breena! All three were able to (barely) grab the edges of the pit, and were hauled up by their friends. "Nice Find Traps roll, Slick," Radley joked. Slick replied with a rude gesture.

 

The team went back outside and asked Dungeness to order the men to cut down some trees so they could cover the pit with logs, rendering it harmless (especially if they had to beat a hasty retreat). The porters did so, and soon the pit was safe. The party continued up the corridor until they came to another door, once again sealed with white clay. This time the seal was not much weathered, so it was easy to make out – it was a stylized face wearing a hood, just like the one they had seen at the docks. Ulkiel sketched the face, then Breena and Hathym cracked the seal. The door opened, revealing a long hallway, running perpendicular to the first corridor.

 

Shining their dim lights around, they saw that the corridor had several stone doors, all sealed with smaller but similar seals. Slick went to check one of the doors and Ulkiel noticed that there was a statue filling up one end of the corridor. He immediately had to go over and check, and Radley (also a little curious, perhaps?) went with him. The statue appeared to be a serpentine dragon of some sort – a long, sinuous body with human-looking arms and upper torso and a strange, almost simian head. Ulkiel wanted to get a good look at the statue's face but was too short to see, so Radley boosted him up to check it out.

 

And that's when the trouble started.

 

The statue suddenly came to life, moving sluggishly but with purpose. Radley grabbed Ulkiel off the thing's head and ran back up the corridor. Slick threw a knife at it, but the blade just bounced off its stone hide. Breena unlimbered her axe and charged, dealing it a vicious blow, right in the face. A chunk of the head broke off, but otherwise the statue appeared mostly unharmed.

 

Kishara attempted to shock it with a lightning bolt, but the wet floor, ceiling, and walls seemed to ground out her stroke before it hit the beast. Marina prayed to her goddess to reveal the monster's weaknesses to her, and she was made aware that it was weakest in the spot that Breena had just hit it.

 

The statue swung its mighty arms and hit Breena, square in the chest. It knocked the breath out of her and she lost her footing, falling to the ground. Radley, seeing the paladin in trouble, rushed to help, swinging his quarterstaff and breaking a chunk off the thing. Marina charged forward, armed with knowledge of exactly where and how to hit the thing... and missed.

 

Breena leapt back to her feet and hit the statue with her axe, breaking off most of its arm. It was weakening, large cracks growing across its body, and Radley hit it across the chest as hard as he could. With that, the statue froze in place and slowly crumbled into rubble.

 

Ulkiel poked around in the rubble and came up with the thing's head (well... most of it, at least), which he kept as a souvenir. Meanwhile, Slick resumed checking the door and declared it safe, "But I ain't going to be first in."

 

The door opened to reveal a room about 10 paces to a side. The walls had short stone benches, and there was the remains of a huge copper or brass kettle, now green with age and decay. Around the kettle were piles of bones. Breena, Slick, and Ulkiel entered, followed by Radley and Marina. Kishara and Hathym stayed in the hall to make sure nothing snuck up behind the party.

 

Ulkiel wandered over and picked up one of the bones, and all of a sudden all of the piles of bones began to tremble, move, and eventually reform into walking skeletons! "Stop touching things!" Radley shouted at Ulkiel, who was even then running away from the boney creature that rose up before him. The skeletons were oddly deformed – though apparently human, a couple of them had the skeletal heads of some sort of reptile, another had no legs but rather copper rods, still another had 4 arms.

 

Marina, whose hatred of the Undead knows no bounds, stepped forward, presented the symbol of her goddess, and commanded the horrible things to go back to the darkness. Two of them spontaneously crumbled into piles of now-innocent bones. The rest backed away from the priestess.

 

Then Radley stepped up. "If there's one thing that Comme doesn't find funny," he growled, "It's Undead." He held up his holy symbol and cursed the monsters, causing another one to fall apart. Breena then charged, swinging her axe and shattering one of the creatures. Marina once again commanded the Undead to return to their rest, and two more obliged her. Not to be upstaged, Radley did likewise, and the last of the skeletons dropped harmlessly to the ground.

 

After everyone gave Ulkiel the obligatory dirty look, the team moved back into the hallway...

[SirWilliam]

Re: FH Campaign

 

Thanks for writing this up. It's cool to see what other GM's are doing.

[teh bunneh]

July 31 2004

 

Props to James Gillen, who's own "Trogdor" inspired me in some ways...

 

-----

The party moved across the hall and opened the second door. Inside this room was a large, corroded brass statue that looked like a bull with a big copper bowl on its back. No one wanted to go inside and touch the statue, but finally Ulkiel prevailed on someone tall to lift him up to see what was in the bowl. He saw nothing but slimy water, so the team decided to leave this room untouched.

 

They opened another door and found a room filled with leaves, soil, and other detritus. They could see a little bit of sunlight filtered in from a crack in the ceiling. They decided to check it out – maybe there was something buried under the dirt. Breena, Ulkiel, and Kishara were looking around when Breena saw something move. She shouted a warning to Kishara, but it was too late – a large, colorfully-banded snake sprang out of a pile of leaves and bit the mage on the leg. Breena flung her axe at the snake and cut it in half, but the damage was done. The wound on Kishara's leg was already starting to turn purple.

 

Marina rushed into the room and cast a spell to prevent the poison from spreading through Kishara's system. Radley and Breena picked Kishara up and carried her outside, where Dungeness and the others were still waiting to hear news. Radley tried to help the stricken wizard, but he had no experience with poisons. Kishara, who knows at least a little about poison, was already growing delirious and woozy.

 

Dungeness called out to see if anyone in the expedition had any knowledge of snakebite, and Slick stepped forward. Deftly, he cut her wound with his knife, then sucked the poison out. He then took some of Kishara’s herbs, crushed them, brewed them, and applied them to the wound. At this point, he told Marina to let her spell down. "If I did it right," he said, "she should be OK. If not... well..." He left the last part unsaid.

 

Though the day was over, Hathym and Arialle volunteered to stay at the palace to make sure that nothing came out, and that nothing went in. Kishara was carried back to the camp. That night, she thrashed and sweated under her blanket, and had bad dreams of snakes. In the morning, though, she felt much better. The swelling in her leg went down and she was able to walk again (though it still smarted quite a bit). Radley cast a healing spell on it, which reduced the pain and brought the swelling down even more.

 

A new crisis had come up in that time. During suppertime, Radley's porter Seamus asked if anyone had seen another porter, McBride. No one had. McBride hadn’t been seen since that afternoon. Radley asked Breena to accompany him back up the hill to the worksite to look for the wayward porter. Ulkiel volunteered to come, as well. Priest and paladin, ranger and archer, bard and porter all searched the immediate area, but couldn’t find the man. They decided that they should try again in the morning, when the sun came up. They left Ulkiel and Radley behind to guard the site.

 

The next morning, Lord Dungeness was informed of the missing porter. He ordered the three woodsmen to find him, so Breena, Hathym, and Arialle headed into the woods. McBride's trail wasn’t hard to find. He wandered into the woods about 50 yards... and then his trail vanished. Breena couldn’t find hide nor hair.

 

Hathym looked up in a nearby tree and found the trail – something pulled McBride off the ground and carried him through the treetops! Hathym clambered up the tree to follow the trail... and fell. He scrambled up a second time... and fell again. He tried a third time...and fell. Arialle was greatly amused by his plight, and mocked his bad case of "White Elfism." =

 

Meanwhile, back at camp, Radley cast a spell that would seek the missing porter out and find him, no matter where he was (so long as he was within 15 km or so of camp). Radley was certain his spell would work, but he didn’t find any trace of the porter. He had to admit that either McBride got further than 15 km away (a nearly impossible task, given how thick the jungle around there was), or he was dead.

 

Back in the woods, Hathym finally managed to get up into the tree and stay there. The three heroes followed McBride's trail about 20 more yards, and then Hathym spotted blood in the tree. It would seem that McBride was no more. Still, they had to find his body – not to mention whatever took him.

 

They stalked their prey until they came to a large tree. The blood on the tree indicated to Breena that whatever had killed McBride stashed him between two large limbs, but the body had been pulled down recently. Large, semi-webbed tracks led to the tree, and then away. Then, Hathym heard something – like heavy footsteps, and something being dragged behind. The three trackers peered around some bushes and saw a large, strange-looking creature dragging a bloody mess behind it. The beast had green, scaly skin and a huge, crocodilian-face – but it walked on two legs like a man. Breena started to wonder if this creature had actually killed McBride, or had only found his body. On her advice, Hathym asked Arialle to shoot the creature – but only to wing it.

 

She did so. The creature screamed in pain and tried to run, but the arrow in its backside slowed it down enough for Breena and Hathym to tackle it. They wrestled it to the ground and tied its hands and legs together. The thing whined piteously. Arialle wrapped McBride's remains in a blanket and dragged it behind her while Hathym and Breena strung their strange captive up on a pole and carried it back to the worksite.

 

When Radley saw what it was, he recognized it – sort of. Back in his home city, he had seen creatures like this. They were called "Saurians" – kind of a cross between lizard and man. Kishara asked if they were intelligent, and he said that they were smart enough to be used as bodyguards and legbreakers back home. He cast a spell to see if he could communicate with it. Sure enough, he could. The creature whined pitifully and begged to be released. It was hurt and frightened and wanted to go home. Try as he might, though, Radley couldn't get it to say more than this.

 

Then Kishara came over to see what the fuss was all about. When she saw the poor big thing, her heart went out to it. She cast a Charm spell to make it think she was its friend, then spoke to it in soothing tones. "Old friend who's name I don’t know," it begged, "Please let me go! I’m sorry that I stole your meat, I didn’t know it was yours. Please don't shoot me anymore!"

 

After calming it down, she learned that its name was Trogdor. It came to this area only recently with its people. Actually, it came out that Trogdor and his tribe were brought to this area by their masters, who Trogdor refused to talk about except to say that they would punish him if he didn't return. Trogdor had run away, and had found the dead porter in the tree.

 

Thinking it was some jungle animal's game, he took it because he was hungry. He didn't know that it was a sentient being (he had apparently never seen a human before). Kishara couldn't get much more out of Trogdor – he wasn’t very bright, and was pretty frightened (not only of its masters, but also of Arialle, Hathym, and Breena). Though Kishara tried to convince him to stay, all he wanted was to go back to his tribe.

 

Trogdor also told Kishara that his masters claimed this area as their home, even though they had not lived here for a long time, and they would not be happy to find strangers poking around.

 

Kishara and Breena brought this info back to Lord Dungeness. He thought about it for a while, and decided that the expedition was faced with three challenges: the first was to finish exploring the temple. However, in light of the new challenges, that had to wait. The second problem was that whatever killed McBride was still out there. The third problem was this group who claimed the area as their own and didn't want strangers around.

 

Dungeness decided to let Trogdor go, and have Breena follow him back to his base. That way, the company would know where their potential rivals were. Kishara complained loudly – "Trogdor wants to stay with us, he just doesn't know it yet!" she cried. "You can't send him back, they'll punish him and he'll be a slave again!"

 

Radley tried to explain that some races were just meant to be slaves, and they didn't know any other way. Kishara wasn’t buying any of it. She demanded that Dungeness remand Trogdor to her custody. Dungeness ignored her and told Breena to report back as soon as she found anything. Kishara sulked.

 

Dungeness asked Radley, Marina, and Kishara to set up a field clinic, in case more people got injured. Radley and Marina got to work, but Kishara was too busy sulking to help. He assigned Slick to set up alarms outside the perimeter of camp. The rest of the porters and characters were assigned to move the camp away from the river and up to the palace.

 

Breena took a handful of porters and Huang Jin and brought Trogdor back to the place where they had first found him. The paladin hid in the woods while Huang Jin and her guards went back to camp. Trogdor sniffed around the area for a while, then headed off, away from the river. Breena followed his meandering path for the rest of the day and into the evening, until they finally came to a heavily overgrown ziggurat. Trogdor crept around the ziggurat cautiously, as if deciding whether to approach it or not.

 

Then, Breena heard a noise, like boulders scraping together. A door which she hadn't seen before slid open on the ziggarut. Several saurians came out, some of them carrying torches, others manhandling a huge (3 meters long) stone box. Upon seeing them, Trogdor disappeared into the jungle. Then a man came out of the ziggurat, but something was odd about the way he moved. The lizardmen put the box down, and he moved out into the open. That's when she realized what was wrong – he didn’t have legs, he had the lower body and tail of a gargantuan snake!

 

The horrible snake-man slithered over to the box and said a few words that Breena couldn’t make out. The box's lid slowly slid open. The saurians ran back inside the ziggurat, and the snake-man followed at a more leisurely pace. As the door closed behind him, he turned to look back, and Breena was afraid that he may have seen her. Then, she saw something moving inside the box...

 

TBC!

 

Quote of the Week:

Radley: "You know, my god is a joke god."

Kishara: "Well, maybe you should worship a real god, then."

[James Gillen]

Re: FH Campaign

 

Maybe "Trogdor" is the reptilian version of "Smith"....

 

JG

[teh bunneh]

Re: FH Campaign

 

Maybe "Trogdor" is the reptilian version of "Smith"....

 

I dunno about that, but I do know that that Trogdor was a man.

 

Er... he was a lizard-man.

 

Well, he was a lizard.

 

But he was still TROGDOR!!!!

 

So Kishara's player casts a "Charm" spell on him, and the first thing she asks is what's his name. The thing that instantly popped into my head was "Trogdor." Thanks, man.

 

Bill.

(Burninating all the people!)

[tancred]

Re: FH Campaign

 

If there's anything I've learned in 2 decades of GM'ing HERO, it's that the players will ALWAYS ask the name of any NPC you haven't named.

The Treasury of Archaic Names is my friend.

(I'm also working on writing a name generation program, for emergencies.)

 

This is a really good read, better than any of my FH games to date.

Keep up the good work! I'm looking forward to more installments.

[teh bunneh]

Re: FH Campaign

 

This Treasury of Archaic Names you mention... is it a published book for sale somewhere, or something on the net? I may have to pick this up...

 

And thanks for the nice compliments. The game's been a real blast, I'm glad y'all are enjoying the write-ups.

 

Bill.

[tancred]

Re: FH Campaign

 

The Treasury of Archaic Names is an ancient ('70s-vintage) Judges Guild supplement.

It has tables for random generation of first and last names, places, taverns, etc. LOTS of good material; I use it for all character names when I don't have an idea for one. But then, of course, there was the time the character's name rolled up as "Axel Twitman."

 

Of course, Judges Guild is long out of business, so all of their stuff is out of print.

With any luck, you could find a copy on EBay.

 

Sorry, I know it's a tease.

[teh bunneh]

August 2004

 

A creature that looked like a cross between a serpent and a spider (long, reptilian body, 8 long spindly legs) came out of the box. It immediately sensed Breena's presence and tried to lure her near by whispering temptations in her head. When she finally shook her head to clear her mind, she realized that the creature had crept closer and was almost right on top of her. She very wisely decided to run. The creature chased her all over the jungle; sometimes she thought she lost it, other times it was hot on her tail. Finally, she reached the old camp site of the Company. She was too exhausted and hurt to fight it, but she wanted to make sure the beast remembered her, so she turned to face it.

 

The creature was about ready to kill her just as it had killed the luckless McBride, but then the sun came up over the horizon. The horrible beast turned and ran, leaving an exhausted Breena slumped over in the mud beside the great lake. With the last of her strength, she pulled out her signal whistle and blew.

 

Meanwhile, back at the camp, the rest of the party were growing worried when Breena never returned from her scouting mission. Several of the heroes were getting their gear ready to go look for her when someone heard the distant sound of a signal whistle. Immediately, they all headed for the lake. They found Breena, barely conscious, on the shore. The healers rushed to her side while the warriors fanned out to cover the clearing and search for hostiles. Breena was OK, so they put together a makeshift stretcher and brought her back to camp. The other scouts found some odd tracks and tried to follow them, but were unable to get very far -- the tracks just seemed to disappear.

 

When Breena came to later that day, she told them what had happened. Lord Dungeness ordered the heroes to find and kill this creature, before it threatened the Company any further. They headed out into the woods to set a trap for the thing (none of them wanted to meet it in a "fair fight"). They found a good spot for an ambush, not far from the ziggurat, and waited until nightfall.

 

After a while, Radley got the strangest feeling that he had to go into the woods to make sure the monster wasn't sneaking up behind him. Hathym saw the priest emerge from his hiding spot, and jumped up to grab him. "Where are you going?" Hathym demanded. "I just have to check something," Radley said. "I'll be right back."

 

"Oh no you don't!" Hathym said, holding Radley's arm tightly. He signaled the others that something was going on, and they all grew even more alert. Radley continued to insist that he had to go into the woods, and eventually Marina came over to see what the fuss was about. At that instant, the snake-spider thing leapt from a nearby tree and latched on to Breena! The heroes rushed to support their paladin, while the incredibly fast creature leapt from tree to tree, from hero to hero, tearing at them with its claws and clouding their minds with strange thoughts (Arialle, for example, was left useless throughout the fight because the voice in her head kept telling her "Don't take the shot, don't take the shot...").

 

Finally, they got the creature on its last legs. It tried to flee, but was shot down in mid-air by Hathym. Marina and Breena ran to its body and hacked it's head off, just to make sure it was dead. Once everyone was back on their feet, they bundled the creature up in a blanket and brought it back to camp. The figured that Lord Dungeness might want to take it back to civilization and put it on display in a museum.

 

But when they returned, they found the place in an uproar! While they were gone, a large group of lizardmen, giant snakes, and snake-men had attacked the undefended camp! Lord Dungeness was sorely wounded, Slick was laid-up with a broken arm, and Huang-Jin had been bitten by one of the giant snakes and was even now on death's door!

 

The healers immediately rushed to aid the injured (especially Huang-Jin, who was in bad shape). The others began questioning Slick. "A few hours after sunset," he told them, "out of nowhere about two dozen of those Saurians rushed into the camp. They were backed-up by 2 giant snakes, like the ones you guys fought back in that village, except these ones were brightly colored and poisonous! They beat down anyone who resisted (I got a busted arm for my troubles!). Lord Dungeness went down fighting -- four or five lizardmen beat the holy tar out of him with clubs. Huang-Jin tried to use her magic, but one of the snakes bit her on the leg and she went down instantly. I tried to help her, but she's in bad shape."

 

The heroes asked Slick what the lizard men were after. He shrugged. "All I can tell you is what I saw," he said. "After the lizard men beat down the resistance, four half-men, half-snakes came into the camp. They immediately grabbed 4 porters and dragged them into the old palace. We didn't see anything of them for about an hour, and then the four snake-men came out -- this time, without the porters. They didn't say anything, but they looked mad as hell. They slithered back into the jungle, and about 10 minutes after that, the lizard men and the snakes left, too."

 

"Has anyone gone into the palace to check what happened to the porters?" Hathym asked. Slick shook his head. "No one's been brave enough to go," he said. "While the healers are busy trying to save lives," the White Elf said, "The rest of us should see what those snakes were so interested in."

 

As they prepared to enter the dark passageway, a thought occurred to Breena. "Has anyone seen Ulkiel around since the attack?" Slick thought about it for a minute, then shook his head. "I saw him at dinnertime," he said. "But not since then."

 

Hathym, Arialle, Slick, and Breena lit torches and once more headed down into the palace...

 

To be continued!

[teh bunneh]

Re: FH Campaign

 

OK, forgot to do a writeup of the next game. In a nutshell: The heroes headed down into the palace and found a note from Ulkiel that said he was going to follow the snake-men back to their home and report back what he found. ("Foolhardy Hobbit!" they all muttered). They then proceded into an open doorway, where they found one of the porters dead from spikes that came out of the wall. The snake-men apparently used the porters as trapspringers.

 

The heroes found a large room, apparently a temple. There were two large stone buckets filled with gold jewelry. Two porters lay dead beside them, poisoned by the traps that sprung when the buckets were opened. There was a large stone altar, also with a dead porter -- burned to death by a magical trap when he touched the altar.

 

The heroes searched and found a secret door underneath the altar. They discovered a secret chamber beneath the altar that was filled with large stone barrels (the snake-men interred their dead in them). They also found a big gold idol (about 2' tall). When they touched the idol, the dead snake-men slithered to a semblance of life. It took some doing, but the heroes got the idol out of the room and sealed it behind them, trapping the undead monsters (hopefully) forever.

 

They then hid the idol in another room, figuring that this is what the snake-men were looking for. Since they were planning to raid the snake-men's home, they didn't want to bring the idol to them (in case their mission failed).

 

The next day, when the heroes were mostly recovered from their ordeals, they set out towards the ziggurat where Breena had her encounter with the gigantic snake-insect thing...

 

Bill.

[teh bunneh]

September 11, 2004

 

Short game, since I was totally unprepared I just ended up throwing a fight at them...

 

-----

Radley volunteered to go check out the second level of the ziggurat to see if he could get through whatever illusion was disguising it. The rest of the team insisted that Breena go with him, just in case he got into trouble.

 

Unfortunately, the two of them got separated and (since they were both invisible), couldn't find one another. Radley used a spell to find out where the illusion was centered, and eventually found an opening in the side of the ziggurat. Stepping through what appeared to be a solid wall of vines, he emerged in a dark tunnel. He went to find Breena to show her what he discovered, then went back for the others.

 

Inside, they lit a lantern and went to explore. The tunnel branched left and right, and they opted to go right. They wandered up the tunnel and realized that this branch was unused – filled with bat droppings, fallen stones, and mud.

 

They headed up the left-hand path, passed a branch, and eventually made a right-hand turn. At that point, Hathym heard something approaching from the darkness ahead. Simultaneously, Marina heard something stealthily approaching from the back. Kishara cast a Light spell and they saw that they were surrounded by Lizard-Folk – two in the front, two behind.

 

The fight was short but bloody, and in the midst of it our heroes realized that there was an unseen spellcaster harassing them as they fought – acid, invisible bonds, and a hoard of biting rats wore the party down slowly.

 

But once the Lizardmen were dead, the heroes had an easier time tracking down and slaying the cowardly spellcaster – one of the Snake-Men!

 

The heroes were sorely injured and exhausted. Now they had to determine whether they would continue exploring the temple, or leave and come back another day...

 

TBC!