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[Campaign] The Fearless Monster Hunters

teh bunneh

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teh bunneh Grand Master

teh bunneh

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Re: [Campaign] The Fearless Monster Hunters

 

Good Work Bunny! Hmm. Who would have thunk you were good at this stuff? :D

 

I will be reading...

 

Thanks! :)

 

Love to play in one of your games by the way. What's a house in Fort Collins cost these days?

 

I know where you can get a nice 2-bedroom townhouse for less than $125k. :D

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OddHat Grand Master

OddHat

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Re: [Campaign] The Fearless Monster Hunters

 

Close by? Sweet...

 

I think my mom would kill me if I moved to Colorado but it's tempting to be able to game with the Bunny.

 

If you go, SatinKitty and I will (she already wants to). We can form a HERO Centered Community, with sidekick training in schools and public funds set aside for spandex and dojo dues.

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teh bunneh Grand Master

teh bunneh

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Re: [Campaign] The Fearless Monster Hunters

 

Close by? Sweet...

 

I think my mom would kill me if I moved to Colorado but it's tempting to be able to game with the Bunny.

 

Yeah, you could say that. :)

 

If you go' date=' SatinKitty and I will (she already wants to). We can form a HERO Centered Community, with sidekick training in schools and public funds set aside for spandex and dojo dues.[/quote']

 

:bounce:

 

is there any place for a Macintosh support tech?

 

The place I work just hired a Mac support guy. It'll take me a few days to arrange an "accident" for him, but after that, yeah. ;)

 

Bill.

(Northern Colorado -- 325 sunny days a year. One hour from the best skiing in the world. And last year Money magazine voted Ft. Collins the #1 place to live in the US!) :cheers:

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teh bunneh Grand Master

teh bunneh

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Re: [Campaign] The Fearless Monster Hunters

 

Lacedaemon (LACK-uh-DAY-mon –- not Lacy-Demon!) is the northernmost city of Passion. It guards the northern frontier of the Elvish homelands, and despite its small size is a great military power. It is defended by high walls, and its citizens are noted for their fighting prowess.

 

The city sits in the foothills of the Uruk Mountains. It is situated in roughly the center of a ridge that runs generally east-west, forming a natural barrier against incursions from the north. Much of the ridge has been lined with defensive walls and towers, and legend says that the ridge and the hills that surround it are mined with secret tunnels, enabling defenders of the city to move freely throughout the area, even in the event of a siege.

 

The hills to the south of the city are heavily cultivated. Fruit trees and fields surround the city for miles around. The hills to the north are a bit more sparsely populated, since invasions are more likely to come from that direction.

 

According to Chrissie, the city has a long and glorious history. It has defended Pasion against many invasions from the humans to the north. It stood strong against the Demon's armies, 1000 years ago. The leaders of the city sided with the White Elves in the Kindred Wars, over 2500 years ago.

 

The walls of the city are graceful and tall. They arc up in gentle lines, buttressed by cross-walls and towers. They clay-covered stone is carved with beautiful mosaics and Elvish poetry along the top; lower down many people have added their own decorations in the form of graffiti.

 

There are two ways up to the city. A road leads up to the gates of Lacedaemon from the south. Carts and animals line the road at all times as farmers bring their wares to market and travelers come to visit the city. The road is well-maintained and the slope up to the gates is gradual. The second way into the city is via the northern road. The path to the north gate is narrow and winding. Each side of the road drops off precipitously, making it dangerous to navigate at anything faster than a slow trot. The gates to the north are always shut; the open only when there are people who want to come in, and then only for a little while at a time.

 

The city itself is a little more cramped and crowded than most Elvish cities. The roads are narrower and the buildings crowd together. The city is considerably darker than Arieaen (which is primarily built of white marble). Most of the buildings in Lacedaemon are covered with a façade of dark gray clay over wood or stone. However, the clay is easy to work when it's wet, and many of the builders and craftsmen decorated their buildings with beautiful mosaics carved directly into the clay. Lacedaemon is sometimes known as the City of Poetry, because of all the poems carved into the walls. It is also sometimes known as the City of Graffiti, for much the same reason.

 

The road was not too crowded as the heroes approached the city. The rain and the gloom had kept people indoors for the last few days. The guards at the gate stopped the heroes and demanded they identify themselves and state their business in the city. The FMH pushed Adora to the front of the group, where she explained who she was and why she was here. The guards took her aside, away from the party, to question her further. They watched the heroes with a skeptical eye until she finally convinced them that they were who they said they were. Only then did the guards open the gates to let the heroes through.

 

So why were the guards so suspicious? Well, apparently just yesterday a patrol came across a group of people -– adventurers, much like the FMH -– dead in the woods not far from here. Because of that, they were stopping and questioning everyone who wanted entry into the city.

 

There had been a fight, and the entire group of them had all been massacred. The guards don't know much else; just that the bodies had been taken to the Citadel for examination and identification.

 

Inside, Adora lead the heroes to the great temple (since space is a premium in Lacedaemon, there is only one large temple here. Smaller shrines and temples are attached to the main temple and/or share its roof). Illy and Castilla elected to remain outside while the others escorted the priestess in. There was little fanfare as they entered. Adora conferred privately with the head Priest (Kyros) while the rest of the team enjoyed some light refreshments brought by the temple servants.

 

Meanwhile, outside, Illy thought she saw a familiar face watching her from just inside the temple. She wasn't sure, but it looked just like her sister! Telling Castilla to wait here, Illy teleported over to where she thought she had seen the girl. It was indeed who she thought it was -– her older sister Crystal! The two of them embraced, and Illy asked what her sister was doing here.

 

"I live here in the city," she said. "I've been a follower of Enagonios the Swift-Footed for many years now, and I make my home here in the temple." Crystal asked if Illy had come with their two older sisters (Arrian and Camelia), which Illy had not. This surprised and frightened Crystal, who seemed very distant and worried.

 

Meanwhile, back in the temple, Kyros the head priest beckoned the heroes over. He seemed stern and not at all happy. "Priestess Adora has told me what happened on her pilgrimage," he said. "I understand that you were attacked numerous times? Mauled by owlbears? Swarmed by giant wasps? Ambushed again and again?"

 

The heroes could not deny these facts. "It's all true," they admitted.

 

Kyros nodded. "You have shown great courage. Adora has told me that you put her comfort and safety above your own. For this, you have the gratitude of this temple. Ask a boon, and if it is within my purview you shall have it."

 

The heroes did not want to ask anything of the priest, since they were merely doing the job that they had agreed to. The priest nodded again. "Should you require our help in the future," he told them, "You have but to ask."

 

He then presented them with a small bundle, as payment for their services. Justin looked inside the bundle and found three small phials of liquid. Chrissie translated the writing on the bottles. They were essences of healing -– liquors which would relieve pain, prevent shock, slow bleeding, and quicken healing. The priest also told them that they could keep the trade stones that Dulcinea gave them (about 400 silver dracs in value). Kyros gave them the Far-Shooter's blessings, and told them that they were relieved of their obligations.

 

Meanwhile, Castilla had grown bored of waiting for the others and had slipped into a small open-air wine bar to have a drink. Or two. Or three. Or... well, she lost track after a while. Yummy, yummy wine. =;)

 

At another part of the temple, Illy was still talking with her sister. It seems that Crystal recently got a message from two of their other sisters that someone was after them. The two of them were meant to be coming to Lacedaemon along with the group they normally traveled with, but had never arrived.

 

Crystal feared that something has happened to them. More than that, she thinks that whoever was after them is now after her! For the past two or three days, she's been seeing people, dressed in dark cloaks and hoods, following her. She's been afraid to leave the temple (where she feels safe).

 

Meanwhile, the main group of the FMH turned to leave the temple –- satisfied with a job well done. But before they could leave, Adora ran over to Trouble and thanked him for being so brave and for keeping her safe. She gave him a kiss on the nose before running back to the temple. The rest of the party had never seen a lizard-man blush before!

 

Illy brought her sister over and introduced her to the rest of the party. She told Crystal that the FMH would protect her, and that she need not fear her safety any longer. Once they found Castilla, they set off to find a B&B that one of the temple servants had recommended for them -– the Blue Rabbit Inn.

 

The Blue Rabbit was a nice enough place. There was a poem about a rabbit carved on the wall outside, which is how the heroes knew they had found the right place. It wasn't the Ritz, but it was warm and dry and clean. Once the heroes were settled, they sat down with Crystal to hear her story, which went something like this:

 

The great heroine Plisianna of the Fearless Monster Hunters was blessed with six strong daughters. The eldest, Furiel, was a holy warrior like her mother. She inherited Plisianna's sword and set out to right the world's wrongs. According to what Crystal knows, Furiel was hunting a dark cult which worshipped an evil god. About 3 years ago Furiel disappeared, and she hasn't been heard from since.

 

The rest of the sisters all set out to find their own destinies. Styggiad joined the Borderguards, who answer to the Lord of Pasion and whose job is to patrol the borders of the Elvish homelands (the closest thing Pasion has to a standing army). Arrian and Camelia, both skilled warriors, joined a group of like-minded adventurers and set off to explore the world. She (Crystal) became a priestess of the god of tradesmen and messengers; eventually she settled here in the city.

 

About six months ago, Crystal got a letter from Styggiad, saying that she heard a rumor that Furiel was in Kalon. She quit her post to go search for their missing sister. She has not been heard from since.

 

Then, about a month ago, Crystal got another letter from their other two sisters. They were on their way to Lacedaemon, worried that someone was following them. They should have arrived days ago, but she hasn't heard anything.

 

Castilla started thinking about what the heroes had heard earlier, about a group of adventurers being found dead in the woods that morning, so she excused herself from the group and went out to try and find more information. She hooked up with an officer of the guard and convinced him that autopsies turn her on, so he took her to the city's morgue.

 

There were six corpses there. She watched the high priest Kyros perform his autopsy. Among the bodies were four Elves, one human, and a Hobbit. One of the Elves and the human were obviously warriors; the others were wearing light armor or no armor at all. Castilla noticed a particular symbol that most of the deceased were wearing –- a symbol that looked like three intertwining leaves. After the autopsies were complete, Kyros declared that all of them were killed by a very deadly type of poison -– the venom of a particularly dangerous spider.

 

When Castilla returned, she told the others all about what she had seen. None of the dead looked like Illy or her sister, but Crystal recognized the description of the symbol –- that was the symbol of Arrian and Carmelia's adventuring party!

 

The next day, the heroes set out to see if they could learn more about what had happened to Illy's sisters -- and who was following Crystal. Trouble and Kaira learned from some of the town's children that some strangers wearing dark cloaks had been spotted hanging around the temple. The children were wise enough to stay away from these creepy individuals, so they couldn't say much more than that.

 

Illy went to the morgue to see if she could learn anything more, but the priest on duty there was watching her with a suspicious eye so she couldn't cast a(n obvious) necromantic spell as she desired. Instead, she tried to see the past through the eyes of one of the victims. All she could tell was that it was dark and raining. Arrows came out of the woods, and then men dressed in black jumped them. That was the last thing that this person saw before his life was cut short.

 

Leth and Justin went to question the guards at the front gates, to find out where the bodies had been discovered. They got a pretty good description of the area, and learned that the city's trackers couldn't find any signs of a struggle, so they assumed the battle took place elsewhere and the bodies were dragged here. The bodies had been robbed -– probably in an effort to make the fight look like a bandit ambush –- but it was pretty apparent that this wasn't the work of ordinary bandits.

 

Not finding much else to go on, the heroes decided to go out into the woods and search the area where the bodies were found. Maybe the Elvish trackers had missed something important.

 

The heroes found the spot without much trouble. Leth and Kaira searched for tracks, but found nothing out of the ordinary. While they were looking around, they heard movement in the trees. Leth ordered everyone to get into a circle around the "squishy members" of the party just as a volley of arrows shot out of the trees (miraculously missing the heroes!).

 

Black-clad figures leapt out of the darkness and attacked. They fought well and ferociously, but in the end were no match for the heroes. Throughout the fight, the heroes saw a tall, shadowy figure with a large sword watching the battle. Illy, figuring that person must be the leader, sent an elemental of fire to chase her down. At this, the leader (a woman) barked an order in an unknown tongue, and the surviving attackers broke off and fled into the woods. Illy captured one of them in a web of magical sticky strands before he could disappear into the forest, but by the time Trouble and Leth went over to check on him, he was already dead –- he had apparently swallowed poison rather than let himself be captured!

 

The heroes searched the bodies. On one of them, they found a sheaf of papers, written in an unknown script. They found phials of a thick, gummy, greenish liquid on most of them, which they assumed to be poison. They also found that each of the deceased had a broach shaped like a small black spider on their cloaks. Chrissie immediately knew what it was –- the symbol of Trimorphos Lolthe, a demonic goddess who knows only hunger.

 

Luckily for the heroes, one of the "dead" attackers turned out to be merely unconscious (Trouble could show restraint… who knew?). The heroes stripped him and bound him so he couldn't take poison, and then settled down to question him...

 

To be continued!

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teh bunneh Grand Master

teh bunneh

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Re: [Campaign] The Fearless Monster Hunters

 

With Kaira maintaining a spell so the cultist's suicide pill wouldn't work, the heroes began questioning him. Knowing he wouldn't divulge information willingly, Illy used her magic to look inside his mind while Leth and Justin asked him who he was, what his goals were, and who he worked for.

 

Unfortunately, he was little more than a grunt, so he didn't know much. He worked for a person who he called "The Lady in Black" -- a mysterious figure, a warrior without peer who became their leader about a year ago. Her direct superior is someone named "Fannon," whom the cultist has never met and knows little about. Their assignment was to capture the two Elf sisters (Arrian and Camelia), and if possible to capture the third (Crystal) as well. He didn't have any orders regarding Illy. The final thing the heroes learned was the location of the cultists' camping ground, not far from their present location.

 

While they were doing this, Kaira and Chrissie looked over a sheaf of papers that the heroes had found on one of the bodies. One of them was a letter, written in Elvish, from Styggiad (sister #2) to Arrian and Camelia (sisters #3 & 4), telling them that she had learned where Furiel (sister #1) had gone. Styggiad was on her way to the city of Aigialeia (known to humans as Treehome), where she was going to catch a ship to the island of Kalon. She urged her sisters to join her. The letter was dated a little over a month ago.

 

There were other papers as well, written in a strange script. Luckily, Kaira could read it -- it was written in the secret language of the Druids. It was written by someone named Fannon, and was an order to capture Arrian and Camelia, and to bring them to him. Another note amended the first, telling the bearer (in light of new information) to follow the two of them to Lacedaemon and to capture Crystal as well. Once the three sisters were in custody, the cultists were to take them by ship to the city of Port.

 

Unwilling to let the cultist die, the heroes carried him (Kaira still maintaining her spell) all the way back to the temple, where they asked Kyros the high priest to heal him. While the heroes rested, the priest did so. When the cultist's life had been saved, Kyros then demanded an explanation.

 

Justin told him what had happened, and realizing the severity of this situation, the priest offered them the assistance of the temple guard in tracking down these spider-worshippers. The heroes gladly accepted, then went back to the Blue Rabbit Inn to get a few hours' sleep before setting off again.

 

They awoke to the sound of the innkeeper nervously knocking on their door. A group of armed soldiers had shown up and was asking after them. "Yes, they're here for us," Justin calmly told the innkeeper. After a brief argument (probably due to lack of sleep), the heroes went downstairs to greet the soldiers. There were five men and one women, all dressed in leather armor and armed with bows. The leader was named Diana, a veteran of many years' service to the temple and an expert at woodcraft. She was impatient to get on the road, so the heroes set out.

 

As the group neared their destination, the Elves fanned out on either side to avoid an ambush. Castilla and Leth crept forward to scout out the area, and saw about a dozen men and women packing up a camp. Leth spotted what looked like two bodies wrapped in a tarp being loaded into a cart (but he also thought he saw one of the bodies move -- indicating that at least one was still alive). They also saw the cultists' leader -- the Lady in Black, supervising the camp tear-down.

 

Hoping to strike the camp from several angles, the heroes began moving around the perimeter as stealthily as possible. Illy turned herself and Leth invisible and teleported close to the cart. Unfortunately, Trouble got a little over-eager and made some noise. The Lady in Black immediately realized what was going on, and ordered her men to form a circle and begin firing into the woods.

 

Trouble and Justin charged out of the forest. Illy grabbed the two bundles and teleported back out into the woods. Leth, still invisible, ran towards the Lady in Black. Kaira joined the Elves in firing at the evil cultists. Leth (despite being invisible) managed to disarm himself, so Trouble rushed to his aid. The Saurian warrior got a few good licks in on the woman, battering her mercilessly with his quarterstaff, but soon the tide turned and the woman managed to drop the big lizardman.

 

However, her troops weren't faring so well. Only one or two remained alive, so she sheathed her sword, made a strange arcane gesture, and vanished in a flash of golden light. Kaira realized that the woman had used some form of Druidic magic, but wasn't sure what, exactly, she had done.

 

Illy and Crystal were delighted that their sisters were still alive, though drugged and unconscious. Without wasting a moment, they hurried back to the city in the hopes that high priest Kyros would revive them. The rest of the team stayed behind to search the campsite. Unfortunately, they found little of value to their quest.

 

Castilla discovered one of the cultists still alive, and asked Justin what to do with him. Justin said to secure him. In a fit of bloodlust, Castilla pinned the unfortunate man to a tree with her daggers. When Justin saw what she was doing, he was enraged. Unfortunately, the cultist succumbed to his wounds before Justin could take him down. Justin didn't talk to Castilla on the entire trip back to town.

 

Back in Lacedaemon, the heroes talked about what to do next. Illy wanted to go to Treehome to try and find her sister Styggiad. The heroes also thought that they might have to get to the city of Port, since that's where the cultists were ultimately heading. Above all, they wanted to do all this as quickly as they could. Time was of the essence, and Illy had a disturbing theory about the identity of the masked and cloaked "Lady in Black."

Doing some quick geography, the heroes figured that the quickest way to Treehome is to go back to Areian and then take a ship to Treehome.

 

The Fearless Monster Hunters, with Crystal in tow, headed south, back to Areian. Now the heroes only need to find a ship. But where can they get one of those...?

 

Chrissie says:

"Port lies on the Sylvan Gulf, right on the edge of the Rocky Coast on the northeastern part of the island. It is an important port town and is a welcome sight for those sailors who have braved the rocks and shoals of the surrounding seas. Port is a small city nestled between two rocky peaks, in a rugged valley. It is a big city with a population of approximately 15,000."

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Enforcer84 Grand Master

Enforcer84

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Re: [Campaign] The Fearless Monster Hunters

 

Awesome Bits snipped for Brevity

 

 

Chrissie says:

"Port lies on the Sylvan Gulf, right on the edge of the Rocky Coast on the northeastern part of the island. It is an important port town and is a welcome sight for those sailors who have braved the rocks and shoals of the surrounding seas. Port is a small city nestled between two rocky peaks, in a rugged valley. It is a big city with a population of approximately 15,000."

 

Yay They're back!

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Enforcer84 Grand Master

Enforcer84

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Re: [Campaign] The Fearless Monster Hunters

 

There won't be another update on the FMH for a while. Next weekend' date=' we're going to be packing. The weekend after that, we're going to be unpacking. So hopefully y'all will be able to survive without the Fearless Monster Hunters for a couple of weeks! :o[/quote']

Get the rope.

 

 

 

 

 

 

No Bunny Thunder for you! :tsk:

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