8/12/2018

 

23. DDD Out in the Cold, Part 2

The group heads into the ancient dwarven city and meets a copper dragon born woman named Hethress that quickly hides them. She explains how they need to keep a low profile as the other dragon born in the city will mob them as heroes come to save them, like Gerald and Milo did just last year. Seeing the confusion in the group, Hethress insists that they must see someone with the title of the Diviner. Once they see him, all should be made clear.

The Diviner turns out to be a dying dragon born man who had a prophesy of the three musketeers coming to their mountain town. The Diviner's name is Tarhun, and Tarhun foresaw that there was a chance that they could save their people from the fire giant Zelane that lives on the other side of the mountain. Zelane uses red and golden dragon born as enforcers, called "dreadnoughts," to oppress the rest of the people and steal resources from them. The people of Tarhun and Hethress' village could show the adventurers how to get to the other side of the mountain, as Zelane would have many magical artifacts, ones that could send Dave, Meme, and Gallexsy back home.

Before the village can help the musketeers to help them, the gang first has to gain their trust. Dave heals Tarhun and brings him back from death's doorstep. This allows Tarhun to introduce the group to Greethen, the local mushroom farmer. Greethen explains how there is a basilisk in the area that has been killing off the few livestock that the village has left. He thinks if the group is able to kill the monster, that should prove to the village that they can help and guide the group to the other side of the mountain.

The gang sets a trap for the basilisk with one of the few remaining pigs. When the monster arrives the group attacks and kills it, but not before the basilisk kills the pig. Greethen brings the group to the local butcher to take care of the pig as well as the basilisk as quickly as possible. The basilisk's stomach is needed for making a potion that can turn stone back into flesh. When the door is opened to the butcher's home, the group is shocked to see a seven-and-a-half foot tall copper dragon born standing on the other side. The gang's friend Jed is the town's butcher. But this Jed is far younger and skinnier then the last time the group saw him.

 

7/15/2018

22. DDD Out in the Cold

Gallexsy casts her tiny hut spell on the group to get them out of the cold temporarily.  While in the protective dome, the largest wolf the group has ever seen comes to investigate.  Eventually the wolf loses interest and moves on.  After having a rest, the group decides to head north, towards the mountains.  To move quickly, Dave jumps on Gallexsy’s back, and Meme turns in to a duck that Dave carries under his arm.  Gallexsy then takes off and flies through the air with their ponies following.

Eventually the group does find a trail of foot prints that leads to the mountain.  It looks like it’s foot prints from dragonborn.  While following the trail the group is attacked by large winter wolves.  The gang is able to scare them off after doing a considerable amount of damage to the lead wolf.  They also discover that these wolves are smarter than the average wolf, as they can actually speak to one another.

Continuing on the path, the group gets to the entrance of a large abandoned dwarven fortress that has been carved into the mountain.  Inside they get a break from the cold.  Exploring further, the three musketeers travel down into the dark of the mountain.  They encounter a small child, a black dragonborn, that Meme inadvertently scares off.  Running after the little one, the group goes further into the mountain in the masterfully created stone halls.  Gallexsy’s pony, Bacon, trips some sort of trap in the floor, and a stone door slams behind our heroes, preventing them from being able to leave the way they came in.  After a moment, soldiers can be heard coming towards them, and that’s when the little dragonborn says down to the group from a hidden ledge, “I wouldn’t let them catch me, if I were you.”  And then she disappears.  Taking head of the child’s words, the group takes off running down the hall on their ponies.  

They run across a precarious wooden bridge, causing it to crash down behind them and preventing their pursuers from following.  Continuing on and downward into the mountain, the group discovers a huge dwarven city, but the thing that catches their eye immediately is standing before them is a stone statue of Dave’s long time friend and mentor, Gerald.  Gerald, the halfling sorcerer that sacrificed himself to help the group in their fight with the werewolves.

 

7/11/2018

21. Olympus Interlude

This isn't really an interlude story because some things happen! But before those things, the gang finally gets back to Olympus on the Atlanteans' jet plane. They arrive on the top of the mountain, next to the landing zone used for the gryphons. Doc, Ian, and the other musketeers quickly disembark and get to work after being gone for so long. Since the last time Dave, Meme, and Gallexsy were at the musketeers' home base, there have been some changes. Before being able to get into the mountain, the gang is subjected to a number of magical tests meant to screen out anyone that may be a shapeshifter or someone that claims to be someone they're not.

Once inside the mountain, the girls have a hankering for some shopping. At first finding a place to buy some pets is the thing they're most interested in, until they see a shop where they can buy some magic items. Inside the shop they discover, to their disappointment, that Greg, the teenage deputy, has been brought to Olympus by the musketeers and he now runs the magic shop. He gives them an overview of the items that they've recently acquired and gives them a steep discount because of everything that the three musketeers have done. After some unsuccessful haggling, and some unwanted romantic moves by Greg on Gallexsy, the group finishes their purchases and move on to the local inn.

Once at the inn, they are greeted by Varis, the elven sheriff of Westmin, and Greg's former boss. He leads them to their rooms and lets the group know they he will get them in the morning for their next assignment. Meme insists that he comes early to take them to the butcher so she can buy a duck, as a pet.

In the middle of the night, Varis rouses the group and mentions that Doc has an urgent mission for them. Struggling from the comfortable beds, Gallexsy, Dave, and Meme grab their things and follow the tall elf out the door and up to the top of the mountain. Once at the top the group gathers their ponies and makes ready for traveling. This is when Gallexsy catches a glimpse of the figure that was Varis, as it is now a vampire. Before she can say or do anything, the vampire casts a spell, and the group now finds themselves in a frozen snow filled land.

 

6/10/2018

20. The End of the Beginning, Part 8

Eltor proves himself to be much more than what Gallexsy, Meme, and Dave can handle. Before the group can harm a single black scale on Eltor's head, Eltor is able to savagely wound Dave, surround the gang with undead, and sends a horde of kobold's at them. The musketeers are able to weather all of these things, and then Eltor uses his acid breath weapon sending the three musketeers to their eminent deaths.

While the group of three did indeed die, they were brought back by the goddess Mishakal, but only after a few brief moments of interaction with our heroes. Mishakal reveals that she is the one that blessed the group with immunity to fear from dragons. She also reveals that the true enemy is a dark creature named Christopherson. An ancient evil, Christopherson is the one responsible for Eltor being released on the world, as well as all the other terrible creatures wreaking havoc across the planet. Mishakal describes a desolate and terrible world if our heroes are not able to defeat Eltor, if they are not able to defeat the other horrors being unleashed, and if they are not able to go on to defeat the real and final threat: Christopherson. She tells Dave, Meme, and Gallexsy that she is sending them back. This is one additional gift that she is able to give. But she also says that this will be the last time that she will be able to intervene or provide any more help.

The group is sent back just moments after their apparent death from Eltor's acid breath. This is when Dave realizes the last gift that Mishakal was able to provide - his mace now glows bright white with newly imbued energy from his goddess. Space and time are slowed, and Eltor is distracted by his last actions. Dave rushes forward and smashes his mace into the side of Eltor's head, releasing all of the pent up energy. The hit blinds the ancient black dragon and critically wounds him. In surprise and terror, Eltor tries to fly away. Gallexsy and Meme throw what spells they can at the dragon, but just when Eltor looks like he's going to get away, he's intercepted by a flying silver jet! The jet opens fire and blue laser bolts rain down on Eltor, tearing through his scales and black wings.

Eltor lands on the ground, on top of the treasure he accumulated at the bottom of castle Xilo, and lies there dead. The jet lands, and Guy and Jed walk out of the jet. They explain how Guy was able to get the blue holo-cube to send a message to the radio that Guy had fixed at the Atlantean soldiers' camp, and Jed had convinced them to come help.

The Atlanteans offer the group a ride back to Westmin, where the group is reunited with the other musketeers and, finally, their ponies. They celebrate their victory over the evil black dragon. They introduce the Atlantean soldiers to the musketeers, and they stay to help with the clean up of Westmin, and helping the refugees that were displaced from Xilo. Eventually the group needs to get back to Mount Olympus, but for now they're helping where they can on the day-to-day work needed in Westmin.

 

5/13/2018

19. The End of the Beginning, Part 7

Gallexsy and Meme get run over by the large steel ball in the trap! But they are able to survive and are able to help Dave and Jed find a secret exit from the trap, despite Gallexy's piggy back hi-jinx. The secret exit led to a slide that caused the group to get separated from Jed. The group decides to keep moving in the hopes that Jed would catch up. He does shortly, and right before the group runs into a group of Kobolds. They hide quickly and are able to surprise the Kobolds and tear them apart rather quickly, and literally for Meme as she sprang out as a bear and cleaved two of the kobolds in two. During this surprise attack on the Kobolds, Dave is surprised himself by being attacked by Jed from behind. Dave is able to survive the initial powerful attacks and returns the attacks in kind with lightening from his legendary mace of Mishakal.

Meme and Gallexsy quickly finish off the rest of the Kobolds, and now seeing himself outnumbered, this evil Jed that attacked Dave turns and runs. Meme in bear form is able to run him down and kills him quickly. She is relieved to see once this Jed is killed, it changes form and reveals that a Doplleganger had taken Jed's place! Soon there after, the real Jed finds the group and they continue on relieved to be reunited.

The gang reaches the heart of the castle and finds a gigantic hole that has been dug out hundreds of feet down, and leads up hundreds of feet to the open night sky. Rain pours down from the dark cloudy sky, and the group decides to climb down as this must be where the ancient black dragon has made its home.

Climbing down, Jed is affected by dragon fear so severe that he is not able to climb down any further. Dave, Meme, and Gallexsy tell him to go back, as there will be nothing he can do in this state. The three musketeers, just like before, seem to be immune to dragon fear and continue on climbing down without their dragonborn friend, Jed.

Once they reach the bottom, their feet touch on mounds and mounds of gold, jewels and other treasure that the kobolds have been throwing down into this gigantic pit. After a few moments, they are greeted by a deep booming voice from behind them, "Well, well, well..."

 

4/22/2018

18. The End of the Beginning, Part 6

Under the cover of night, Dave, Meme, and Gallexsy make there way towards a secret entrance into castle Xilo.  Before entering the group decides to take a rest and recover from their travel across the swamp and lake.  While resting they get a good look at the new inhabitants of the castle - Kobolds had moved in and are actively patrolling the area. 

Without being seen, the musketeers make their way in through the secret entrance by swimming under a hidden door.  On the other side they find a mostly empty room with one boat remaining.  It looks like the residents of the castle had used the other boats and the secret exit to flee the castle away from the ancient black dragon.  Here the group decides is their exit as well, and they decide to leave Guy behind to guard the boat and exit.  Gallexsy leaves Guy with her Rubik’s cube (not sure where she got that) and the glowing blue holo-cube that they originally received from Doc when the group joined the musketeers.  Guy wanted to examine the holo-cube as it seems like he took quite a shine to the Atlantean’s technology since meeting them in the swamp.

Leaving Guy behind, the group goes into the castle.  They reach a room that’s filled with discarded materials, clothes, and broken furniture.  Stopping for a quick look uncovers a zombie that immediately attacks Dave.  Jed, the barbarian dragonborn, cuts off the zombie’s hand before it gets to Dave.  Gallexsy finishes the zombie off by punching it straight in the head, smashing through it’s rotten skull, and destroying its brains with her knuckles.

After a brief argument as to where to go next - with Gallexsy wanting to see her old bedroom, and the rest of the group wanting to get to the treasure room (assuming that is where the dragon has made its lair) - the group heads towards another secret passage that is almost a direct line to the treasure room.  However, forgetting about the traps in that direction, the group accidentally sets one off when the step into a dark 200 foot long hallway.  Blue portals open up at either end, and they see a 12 foot diameter steel ball rolling towards them with no visible way out.

 

4/6/2018

17. The End of the Beginning, Part 5

The Atlantean soldier called Sarge shows the group how to use the blue holocene that they had received from Doc. It plays a message from the leader of Atlantis. The message states that any Atlanteans that encounter the carriers of that message must do their upmost to help them. After seeing that cube and the message, Sarge brings the musketeers back to soldiers camp where Dave is able to heal Jed and get him back on to his feet.

Guy shows an aptitude with technology as he is able to fix one of the soldier's radios. This turns out to be something that not many Atlanteans are able to do. We discover that they are scavengers, going all over the world trying to find remnants of the Ancient's advanced technology. It's this scavenging that brought them to the ruins outside of Westmin and where they encountered Jed. Surprisingly, Jed had a blue holocube as well with a message from the Lord General, and so the soldiers sacrificed most of their group to rescue Jed and get him out of the ruins.

Sarge still insists on the adventurers leaving them be now that they have their friend Jed back, and the group quickly complies. The soldiers give Jed his sword back, and give them all rations to help on their trek. Meme, Gallexsy, Dave, Jed, and Guy all leave on foot and head towards castle Xilo, which can be seen briefly with sheens of gold through the leaves of the swamp.

The group reaches the castle right before sunset. Castle Xilo sits in the middle of a large lake, and when the group arrives they realize how much damage the dragon has done to the castle. It looks like the dragon crashed into the top of the golden structure, and then burrowed its way down through the middle of it. But campfire smoke can be seen coming from inside its walls, even a couple of miles away where the group stands on the shores of the lake. There was once a floating bridge that led to the castle, but that has been scuttled and set ablaze, either by the dragon or the new inhabitants of the castle.

Dave is able to find a row boat that seems sturdy enough, and goads the girls into showing their physical prowess by rowing. The decide that approaching the castle under the cover of night is the best plan, and paddle out across the lake. Meme, Gallexsy, Dave, and even Jed take turns at the oars. About a 100 yards away from the shore of the castle's island, water starts to seep on to the boat and it begins to sink. Cold, wet, and tired, the group drags themselves up on to the dark shore directly in front of Castle Xilo.

 

3/25/2018

16. The End of the Beginning, Part 4

We get a flash back to Atlantean soldiers charging into the ancient ruins near Westmin. While down there, they encounter a badly injured Jed, the Dragonborn! Jed pulls a blue cube from his pocket from passing out. But there's something about this cube that causes the Atlanteans to help him. They drag him away, but not before they encounter a dark and evil creature. An undead creature with fangs smiles at them, and the open fire, knowing that most of them won't be leaving there alive.

Back to the swamp, our adventurers stand with guns pointed at them. Before the six Atlantean soldiers that are left have a chance to open fire, three of them stand up straight, mutter "master," and open fire on the other soldiers! Without a chance to react, the group hears a loud roar behind them. An Aboleth lumbers out of the swamp towards our heroes on its amphibious tentacles. The group realizes this is the same creature they had seen chasing Guy through the strange blue portals outside of Guy's home town. Gallexsy realizes the Aboleth is using its psychic powers to control some of the soldiers.

The group engages in combat with the soldiers dividing their attention between themselves and the attacking beast. Gallexsy tries out the spell Fireball for the first time! Meme uses Conjure Animals for the first time, and decides an Allosaurus dinosaur is the best animal to conjure. Dave uses his newly enhanced lightening mace on the Aboleth and contracts a disease that forces him to only breath water for the next couple of hours.

Once the Aboleth is vanquished, the soldiers being mind controlled come back to their senses. But only three of the six soldiers are left standing. Dave drops to his knees unable to breath the air. Gallexsy prods Dave to a nearby pool of water that he can climb into and catch his breath, so to speak, in the water. The girls work with the soldiers to bring their recently departed over to the pool of water that Dave is in, and he's able to bring two of them back to life using the spell Revivify. But Dave is not strong enough to bring back the last soldier.

The soldiers, obviously having a hard day. Ask the group to leave them alone. Dave implores them to let him use his magic to heal them further. They relent and allow Dave to do so, but not before telling them that the Atlanteans want him to heal someone else and take this person with them. The soldiers don't want anything else to do with the people of this world.

Meme goes with the soldiers back to their camp while Gallexsy and a couple of soldiers stay with Dave as he recovers from his water breathing disease. At the soldiers' camp, Meme discovers that they have a jet airplane (although she doesn't know what it is). On the plane is where the soldiers have been camping, but also on there is a barely breathing Jed!  The last time the group saw him is when he sacrificed himself battling three vampires to let Gallexsy, Meme, and Dave escape.

 

2/25/2018

15. The End of the Beginning, Part 3

The fish people cheer for our three heroes for some unknown reason, and then lead them into the underground city of the fish people. Not wanting to upset the 50 armed Kao-Toa, the gang goes along with them, even as the large stone doors shut behind them and seal them into this very secure little town. The fish person with Guy’s pot helmet leads the group through town to a hut and inside is the portly fisherman, Guy! He is very happy to see them as it means he is being rescued.

Guy explains that he was captured by these fish people while he was exploring the ruins of the ancients. They took his stuff and put it in another hut in the town. They’ve allowed him to move around in the town freely, but he hasn’t been able to get his stuff back or to leave the town. The only time he’s seen the doors open is when he was brought in, and when Meme, Gallexsy, and Dave were brought in.

The group does some investigating from a far around the doors and see that they are guarded at all times. They venture to the hut that has Guy’s things, and discover a hut filled with gold, some magical items, and quite a bit of junk. But Guy’s things are there, but everything in the hut appears to be protected by some sort of water creature. The creature is very similar to the sparring creature at Mount Olympus that the Musketeers use for training.

Dave makes a dash for some of the things, and he manages to grab Guy’s armor and gun. Both items were found by Guy in the Ancients’ ruins. Guy and Dave dash out of the hut before the water creature has a chance to attack them further. Gallexsy quickly follows, but Meme lingers behind not wanting to leave empty handed. She dashes and dives around the water creature’s attacks and manages to grab a gold trimmed and jewel encrusted scroll case before barreling out of the hut. Once outside the group heads back to Guy’s hut where they examine what Meme had found. It turns out to be a prayer scroll that is able to imbue a weapon with divine electrical energy. Dave is familiar with such prayers and tries it out on his own already magical Mace of Mishakal. It works, and his mace now can deliver additional lightning damage! He also realizes that a very similar weapon was used by the fish people’s priest to open the doors.

Armed with his new weapon, Dave leads the group out to one of the doors and hits it with his electrified mace! The doors creak open slowly, and as soon as there is a gap large enough in the opening doors, the four adventurers dash through with the guards looking on with slacked jaws. The run hard for a while to put as much distance between them and the fish people as possible. Eventually they do come out from underground and find an opening to the surface. In the sunshine and trees, the group realizes that they have come out in forests that surround the capital Xeloscient. They are almost to Meme and Gallexsy’s home town, and the location of where the ancient black dragon is supposed to be. They also really that the forest has been changed. It’s now more moss covered, wet, and much more like a swamp then the forest that the girls remember. Gallexsy realizes that the land is changing to match the dragon’s preferred landscape. Angered by this, Meme charges forward into the swamp, towards the capital, determined to make the dragon pay for the damage it has caused. This is interrupted as the adventurers come face-to-face with six armed Atlantean soldiers, and they are about to open fire!

 

1/28/2018

14. The End of the Beginning, Part 2

The three musketeers follow the lone Kao-Toa through the caverns right into a larger group of Kao-Toa!  At first they did not seem hostile, until the fish people made gestures towards the group to give up their weapons.  Dave, unwilling to give up his holy mace, accidentally trips a Kao-Toa to the ground.  A fight breaks out and the group struggles to fend off the group of fish folk that outnumbers them almost two-to-one!  But our heroes are triumphant and manage to defeat the Kao-Toa.  A few managed to get away at the end of the fight, and Meme determined to not let them get away dashs after them in the dark alone.  Gallexsy and Dave stay behind to rest and gather themselves.

Meme pursues the last survivors of the Kao-Toa fight through the dark and into an underwater lake.  She transforms herself into a reef shark and does manage to catch them.  But the two of them manage to fend her off before they disappeared into the inky black water.

Dripping from head-to-toe, Meme rejoins the others and they have a short rest as they decide what to do next.  After a brief reprieve, they decide to follow the Kao-Toa as a group, Gallexsy reluctantly.  Dave uses a potion of water breathing that he had found in the treasure stash of Harken the werewolf, Meme changes back into a reef shark, and Gallexsy uses her last spell slot to give herself gills.  The gang dives into the water, and come out on the other side to a dry landing with a large stone door on the other side.

Dave approaches and jokingly says “open sesame!”  And to his surprise the doors creek open noisily.  Even more to his surprise, on the other side of the large stone door is a group of 50 Kao-Toa, all armed with shields and spears. 

 

12/31/2017

 

13. The End of the Beginning

 

The three musketeers finally make it back to Westmin!  The town is decimated after the ancient black dragon attack.  Refugees are pouring into the town from the Elven kingdom of Xeloscient as the black dragon attacked them as well.  Soldiers and knights from the South are in Westmin as well, helping where they can.

 

The group runs into a knight name Wyatt.  Wyatt informs the group that Guy has been missing for the last couple of days, ever since he went back into the ancient ruins looking for supplies to help the town.  Since it doesn’t look like the gang has anything better to do, and since they’ve been to the ruins before, Wyatt thinks it’s the perfect assignment for them.

 

Heading back into the ruins, and having some trepidation since the last time they entered they were transported thousands of miles away, the group quickly finds signs of other people entering the ruins.  Following painted arrows on the ground, the group finds that the room that previously held a frozen vampire is now open.  Inside, instead of a vampire, they find a number of dead bodies, surrounded by strange bronze cylinders.  Continuing to follow the arrows, our heroes reach a door that has a working computer keypad, and they are created by a robotic voice.  The voice describes the door as the entrance to the rapid transport system that will take passengers into the Xeloscient kingdom.  After solving a small puzzle on the keypad, the musketeers gain access to the room and a large silver tube sitting on a rail is visible inside.  The doors to the tube open, revealing windows and seats on the inside.

 

While contemplating if they should get on the train or not, the group is attacked by a group of skeletons that they quickly defeat.  This steels the group’s resolve, and they step on to the strange train.  This train travels very quickly, and in about 20 minutes they are nearly to the Xeloscient kingdom, but are forced to disembark as there is a break in the line, or so the computerized voice tells them.  When they get out of the train, it zips back the way it came, back towards Westmin, leaving the group in the dark.

 

Meme lights the way with her Dancing Lights spell, and the three adventurers head into rocky darkness.  This is when they encounter a Kao-toa, a fish like humanoid creature.  On the creature’s head sits a pot.  And not just any pot, but Guy’s trademark pot helmet.

 

 

12/3/2017

 

12. Teeth and Sand, Part 6

 

Our three heroes charge into the canyons to see if they can finally put an end to the werewolf curse of Meme's.  Blondie gives Gallexsy and Dave a flint lock pistol with a couple of silver slugs.  Meme is able to navigate through the caverns because of her odd connection to the master werewolf.  They enter the final cave and Gerald, Betha, and Blondie stay back to guard the entrance from any additional werewolves.

 

The group then meets Harken, a finely dressed man with a well groomed beard and mustache.  Harken sits in a large leather bound chair, surrounded by stolen finery and treasure piled in the middle of the cave.  Harken greets the group warmly and addresses them as the three musketeers.  He gives them an offer to join his pack or be destroyed.  The group predictably declines.  

 

They are then set upon by a pack of dire wolves the size of horses that Harken refers to as his friends.  Using pack tactics the wolves put up a surprising challenge and Dave is forced to heal the group multiple times throughout the fight.  Finally defeating the wolves, the group moves on to attack Harken.

 

Harken snaps his fingers and is able to force Meme to change into a werewolf.  Gallexsy is able to cast a charm spell on the werewolf Meme again, taking her out of the fight.  Dave and Gallexsy then proceed to pummel Harken with spells and Dave's magical mace.  It's not long before Harken goes down, but at the same time a large explosion is heard from the cave entrance.

 

Dave uses his pistol to put a silver slug in the master werewolf's head, just to be sure, and then they all run to the cave entrance.  At the entrance they find that the opening has caved in.  Blondie and Betha lay there on the ground coughing from the dust in the air.  They are bruised and bloodied from a fight with the were wolves.  We learn that there were so many werewolves trying to get in that Gerald sacrificed himself in a spectacular explosion to take them all out.  The explosion echoed and reverberated for miles from the canyon.

 

Dave, Gallexsy, and Meme dig there way out, and Dave finds Gerald's walking staff still smoking and slightly on fire at the bottom of a large crater.  Dead werewolf bodies litter the ground around the crater.

 

Meme, finally cured of her werewolf curse, goes back to Shadywood with the rest of the group.  They patch up their wounds and say their good byes to Gerald.

 

The next morning they are finally able to fly back to Westmin.  The group touches down almost exactly two weeks from the time they were transported out west.  Westmin is completely decimated but lots of people are working to try and rebuild.  The group notices that there is a large influx of Elven refugees from the north.  Meme spots an elf that she knows and asks what's going on.  The elf replies and tells them that the black dragon that attacked Westmin, went north.  It attacked and destroyed Xeloscient, the elven kingdom to the north, and the home of Meme and Gallexsy.

 

11/12/2017

11. Teeth and Sand, Part 5

The group lands in a farm field outside of the forest that Shadywood is nestled in.  As they make their way into the woods, they see the portly fisherman Guy come screaming out of a magic portal, followed closely by a roaring amphibious monster.  Seconds later they are both swallowed by another magical portal.  The group comments that Guy must have his hands full back in Westmin.

Once entering the forest, they encounter Gerald.  Gerald is the old adventuring Halfling that is both an old friend and mentor of Dave's, and the one they need to see on removing the werewolf curse.  Gerald leads them the way into town, and Gerald tells them stories about how he used to be an adventurer but gave it all up after his partner Milo was killed by a fire giant.

In town the adventurers are greeted by a number of rambunctious children, and one is a little too curious on Gallexsy's magic wand.  Before Gallexsy realizes it has been taken, one of the children accidentally causes an ale wagon to come free of its bindings and it flies down a hill nearly killing the children.  Luckily Meme is able to stop it with some entangling vines. 

Once they reach Gerald's home in the center of town, he does some research on removing the curse, and the gang has some time to kill as he prepares the ritual.  At the local watering hole, called "Roscoe Mom's House" Dave has a run in with an old childhood nemesis, but is able to take the higher road and the rest of the group is able to endear themselves to the bar patrons with some entertaining magic tricks.  After killing a couple of hours, the group goes back to Gerald's house to start up the ritual.

Meme and Gallexsy sit in the middle of the ritual with Gerald and the rest of the group standing around, chanting magical incantations.  The ritual works for Gallexsy, but Meme's curse seems to be stronger.  In the middle of the ritual she turns into a werewolf and escapes into the middle of the night.  The gang agrees to prepare and look for her in the morning once there is daylight.

The next morning Meme wakes up entangled in vines and this is where she meets On.  On, is a very old druid that had spotted her in the night, and decided to intervene.  He was able to sense that she was a druid, and stopped to help.  On leaves Meme, wishes her well, and if they are friends when they meet again he believes he has a few things to teach her.

Later that morning, the rest of the group is able to track Meme down from the backs of the flying griffons.  Gerald accompanies the Musketeers and takes a guess the reason Meme took off running is because she was being called.  She was being called by a master werewolf, and killing this master werewolf will be the only way to cure her of her curse.

 

10/15/2017

 

10. Teeth and Sand, Part 4

 

Before they can analyze the journal further of the now dead adventurer, a crash and a scream comes from the first floor.  Our three heroes rush down to find that two werewolves have busted in through one of the windows.  Betha, Meme, Gallexsy, and Dave all immediately go to work in fighting the monsters.

 

After a number of spells and attacks, Betha finally kills one of the werewolves with her musket after filling it with silver coins that Dave had thrown to her.  Meme and Gallexsy take down the second one with their spells.  They all try and catch their breath, especially Betha as she has been cut, clawed, and bitten almost to death.  Looking out through the busted window, Dave notices that 13 more werewolves (the rest of the werewolf pack) has scaled the walls of the keep and are charging in.  Dave defiantly pulls the magic Rod of Dragon Fear from his belt and unleashes its magic, but after seeing two of their pack mates killed, the werewolves are too enraged to be affected by the magic.

 

With the werewolves charging in also comes the dawn; the sun starts to peek up over the horizon.  With this the girls also notice large winged creatures shown in contrast against the light.  The griffins of Olympus have finally come!  Seeing as rescue not far away, the group gathers everyone up and heads for the top floor of the mansion.  On the way up Gallexsy slips and falls through some rotted wood, leaving her hanging between floors.  Before Meme and Dave can pull her up she is bitten by a werewolf and contracts the curse like her cousin, Meme.  Dave, seeing that they griffins won’t make it in time, desperately tries the Rod of Dragon Fear again, and this time it works!  The magic sends all of the were wolves scampering away in fear from the group.

 

Ian lands in the courtyard of the keep with a number of other Musketeers and greets the group warmly.  They trade places and Ian sends the group on to Shadywood on the griffins, now allowing them to get to Dave’s home town in hours rather than in days.

 

 

10/15/2017

 

9. Teeth and Sand, Part 3

 

The group leaves Olympus in a hurry with the Musketeers’ supply wagons.  Blondie, the tinker gnome, is driving the lead wagon with Betha, the human Ranger riding along.  The supply wagons look like old west covered wagons with one notable exception, each has been outfitted by the gnomes with large rubber studded tires that allows all the wagons to travel much faster than their metal and wood counterparts.  The supply wagons roll across the rock and sand with ease, and the first couple of days in the hot desert pass without incident.

 

Blondie takes Meme and Dave out and shows them how to fire a musket.  Meme, being a druid, doesn’t care for the metal and exploding weapons.

 

On the third night, one of the passengers of the wagons is attacked by a wolf.  The gang goes to intervene and when Meme turns into a bear to attack the animal, she unknowingly turns into a wolf.  This, and the actions of Gallexsy and Dave scare the wolf away.  Dave quickly patches up the injured traveler with a prayer to Mishakal.  This is when dozens of wolf eyes are seen out in the dark watching the small caravan of covered wagons.  Betha makes the suggestion for the group to make way for the Wayward Keep.  It’s an old abandoned mansion that the supply wagons use sometimes if they need to stop.  The rest of the group quickly agrees.

 

At the mansion, they find it abandoned just as Betha said, but they find that someone fairly recently had boarded up the windows and there are claw marks on the outside of the building.  The pack of wolves quickly shows up at the wrought iron gate of the keep and Betha calls everyone to get inside.  The group nails up the last remaining doors.  In exploring the keep, Meme and Gallexsy find silver coins and a silver locket discarded throughout the keep.  But Meme has trouble touching any of the Silver.  The silver and her inadvertently changing into a wolf earlier has Meme and Dave concerned that the curse may be already changing her.

 

On the third floor of the mansion the group finds a journal for someone that came through this way recently.  The journal belongs to a local adventurer that was hitching a ride with the supply wagons.  His last entry is short and scrawled hastily:

 

“Not sure if anyone will find this but it may help…

They cornered us in the abandoned mansion…

They seem to toy with us and picked us off one by one…

They won’t touch the silver…

Maybe the kitchen fire…”

 

 

9/27/2017

 

8. Teeth and Sand, Part 2

 

Meme, Gallexsy, and Dave travel down into the depths of Olympus, into the most secure sections of the Musketeers’ base.  Here they find the small brig where the supposed Rusty back from the dead is being kept.  The group begins to question him, and the dwarf that is in the cell looks, sounds, and knows just about everything that Rusty would know.  He however is acting much more hospitable towards the group compared to the last time they encountered him.

 

Just as Meme was about to use her Moonbeam spell on Rusty, to reveal if he is a shape changer or not, Gallexsy notices a strange man quickly and quietly takes something from Dave as Dave’s back is turned.  Dave notices that his pocket has been picked and realizes that it is the Rod of Dragon Fear that has been taken from him.  Gallexsy blasts the man with her burning hands knocking him away from the group.  The man quickly recovers and dashes from the room at break neck speed.  

 

The group gives chase and catches up with the man just as he kills a guard standing outside of the brig.  Another guard lays on the floor with his throat ripped out and laying in a pool of blood.  Dave swings out with his mace but the man is unusually agile.  Gallexsy shoots a web at him, but he dodges that as well.  The strange man then pauses as his body contorts and hair springs out of his skin, claws rip out of his fingers, and a snout of razor sharp teeth protrudes from his face.  A werewolf now stands in front of  the trio!

 

Meme jumps forward in bear form and attacks with her bite and claws.  Dave hits the werewolf with his mace.  And in an unexpected turn, Gallexsy casts Charm on the werewolf that he amazingly is not able to resist.  The werewolf turns back into his human form and we learn that his name is Gregory.  Gallexsy learns from the charmed man that he was sent by his boss to rescue Rusty, and if he was not able to he was to get the Rod of Dragon Fear from the adventurers.  Gallexsy convinces Gregory to trade the Rod of Dragon Fear for her teddy bear, and then asks him to stand in one of the cells for just a moment.  He complies, and the door is quickly shut and latched behind him.

 

Meme casts Moonbeam on Rusty to see if he’s a shape changer, and oddly it doesn’t work.  The group suspects that it was simply a bad attempt (e.g. bad dice rolls) rather than a success actually showing that it is Rusty.  In talking with Rusty and Gregory more in their cells, Gregory convinces Meme to come to the bars so he can tell her a secret about his boss.  This is when Meme is surprised by Gregory’s hairy clawed hand that flashes out and cuts her shoulder.  He then fully turns into a werewolf again and ineffectually slams himself against the bars.  Meme turns back into her Elf form and oddly the shoulder wound from the werewolf hasn’t healed.  Dave gasps with the realization that Meme must have been cursed to become a werewolf with that wound, and the curse must be lifted as soon as possible, otherwise she will slowly but eventually turn into an evil killing machine.

 

Dave knows of someone back in his home town that can lift the curse, and his village is on the way back East, so the group decides to leave as quickly as they can on the caravan.  Before they leave Doc begs for a precious few minutes of their time.  She leads them back to her office where she reveals that the Musketeers have the ability to listen in on the Atlantians’ communications.  And that when the group went into the ancient ruins by Westmin and activated the platform that transported them here, that sent a signal to the Atlantians.  Doc tells them that the Atlantians are scavengers, going all over the world picking off what’s left of the Ancient’s technology and magic.  While in the ruins, the Atlantians found a dying Dragonborn, which Doc can only assume is Jed.  Surprisingly the Atlantians helped Jed rather than letting him die.

 

Doc pulls a glowing blue cube out of her pocket and gives it to the group.  “I want you to have this.” She says.  While the group has this in their possession, they will be safe from any Atlantian troops they come across.  And in addition, the soldiers will have to protect them if they are in danger.  Doc called it a holocube, and it is a message of sorts from the very highest in command of the island of Atlantis.  This is why it provides so much benefit and protection from the Atlantean troops.  However, as impossible as it may seem, Jed had a holocube on him, and that’s why he was saved.  Doc has no idea how that is possible.

 

 

9/10/2017

 

7. Teeth and Sand

 

The group makes their way back to the ancient ruins to see if they can get the platform working again that transported them thousands of miles away from Westmin.  Inspecting the platform doesn’t give any answers, so they decide to delve deeper.  They trace their steps back into the room where the fought the gibbering mouther, and break down the locked door that they left last time.

 

On the other side the find a couple of black oozes and struggle on how to kill the unconventional creatures.  Exploring further, they come across traps, other oozes, and some giant spiders.  Gallexsy uses some newly acquired spells and Meme learns to talk to animals.

 

Reaching the end of the ruins, they fight another gibbering mouther and find that the oozes and monsters in these ruins had damaged the platform’s machinery beyond repair or function.  In this room they also find a treasure chest that momentarily caused Meme to forget about helping the rest of the group with fighting the gibbering mouther.  Inside the chest they find a number of items, including some magical items.

 

Having exhausted their options at the ruins, the group decides to return to Olympus to see if the gryphons had returned yet to fly them home.  Once they arrive, Dave summons up enough courage, or curiosity, to finally try the Musketlator built by Snap, Gringle, and Pop, the triplet gnome brothers.  After Dave successfully makes it to the summit of Olympus, both Meme and Gallexsy decide to try the Musketalor.  They both make it to the top successfully but Gallexsy embarrassingly wets her pants on the way up.

 

Betha greets them but is surprised by their return and the way that they returned to the base.  She remembers to tell them that someone showed up while they were at the ruins.  Rusty, the dwarven rogue Musketeer that died at the ruins, suddenly turned up at Olympus, and he’s very much alive.  He was immediately thrown into the base’s jail as the Musketeers figure out who he really is and what to do with him.

 

 

8/26/2017

 

6. Olympus Interlude

 

Following Ian and the rest of the Musketeers, the group makes it to the base of Olympus, the home base of the Musketeers.  Meme, Gallexsy, and Dave see that Olympus is literally a mountain, and the base sits at the very top.  The gang meet Snap, Grinkle, and Pop, a set of triplet gnome brothers that are working on contraptions that they have named “Muskelators”.  The machines are designed to get folks to the top of the base as quickly as possible.  Dave declines to test out the machine after seeing it work, and is quickly rewarded for that decision when a “muskelator” violently slams a test rock into the mountain.

 

On the way up, Gallexsy discovers that their chaperone Ranger, Betha, is a huge fan of snacks, and has the sought after chips that Gallexsy has been pining for.

 

Reaching the top of Olympus the group sees that the base is rather large, with a good portion of it buried deep down into the middle of the mountain.  There is a wizards tower, training pool, gryphon stables, pony stables, and other amenities down below.

 

While exploring Dave decides to try out the training pool where he goes toe-to-toe with a large summoned water creature.  The girls offer little help and they quickly move on.  Realizing that the ponies are probably kept as food for the gryphons, Meme sets out to buy one.  Paying 50 gold to the stable master she now has an unstoppable, unkillable, and will live forever (as the stable master exclaims) pony that Meme names Tiny Ginger.  Gallexsy pledges that once she gets 50 gold she will get a pony of her own and name it Bacon.

 

Ian tracks the group back down and leads them down to meet his commanding officer, Doc.  The leader of the Musketeers is called Doc because she is actually a doctor and the group learns that both Doc and Ian are natives of Atlantis.  They formed the Musketeers after being banished from Atlantis for an undisclosed reason.  Before leaving Atlantis they did learn that there were terrible, powerful evil creatures being summoned all around the world, and Doc and Ian set out to do something about it.  Using their skills and knowledge they pieced together the Musketeers and were able to make a convincing case to get some support from the major Dwarf, Elven, and Human kingdoms near by.

 

Doc makes the group an offer.  She will do everything that she can to get them back home to help their friends and deal with the black dragon in Westmin, if they agree to come back and work for the Musketeers.  Ian made a case on their behalf that they would be welcome additions to the Musketeers and if they were serious about fighting these evil magic creatures, they better start recruiting more folks that know how to use magic.  The group agrees and decide on their next steps.

 

With the gryphons all out scouting and traveling there is no quick path back to Westmin for the team.  They decide to venture back to the old stone ruins where they first met Ian and see if they can get the transporting platform to work again.  Failing that, they can always come back to Olympus and see if enough gryphons have returned to fly home.  In the event that not enough gryphons return, they can always hitch a ride on the supply wagons heading East, and gryphons can be sent for them when they are available.

 

Before heading out to the ruins, Doc greets them warmly.  “Welcome, to the Musketeers!”

 

 

7/27/2017

 

5. In the Beginning...

 

The 30 armed soldiers draw their weapons around our heroes.  They stand on the platform in the middle of a new room that is exposed to the outside and has sunlight pouring in.  The head of the vampire the group had killed bursts into flames.  Ian, the oddly dressed and armored leader of the soldiers, steps forward and questions the group and how they got there.  Noticing that Dave is a cleric of Mishakal and carries one of the 30 famed maces, Ian orders his men to stand down.  The combustion of the vampire’s head also reinforces for Ian that Meme, Gallexsy, and Dave are telling the truth and not summoned evil creatures set to destroy them.

 

Rusty, a dour looking dwarf and one of Ian’s soldiers, takes the group into another room of the ruins away from the rest of the soldiers where Ian begins to question them.  In this questioning that takes hours, the gang tells Ian everything.  From when Gallexsy and Meme first met up with Dave battling the Kobolds outside of Westmin, to finding the magical dragon tooth, to Jed sacrificing himself so that they could get away, and everything else in between.  Ian is left stunned and saddened as he realizes that the group does not know that they are now thousands of miles away from their Dragonborn friend Jed, and the town of Westmin currently under attack from an ancient black dragon.  They all sit in ruins recently discovered by Ian’s group, deep in the mountains of the Red Forge Kingdom thousands of miles west of Westmin.  

 

Ian offers the group to camp with them until they can figure out what to do next.  Ian and the rest of the soldiers are a small reconnaissance group checking out these ruins for magical and technological relics of the ancients.  The soldiers call themselves the Musketeers, due to many of them being armed with muskets that were created by the tinker gnomes from the southern part of the Red Forge Kingdom.  The Dwarven King Ellick Fireforge has given the Musketeers some space to call home in the mountains, as well as given them permission to search them for ruins such as these.  The Musketeers have a simple mission to find and destroy evil creatures in the world, and they believe the world is currently, and unusually, being filled with powerfully summoned evil creatures.  The group quickly agrees and is excited by the prospects of tacos, ale, and Dave to be able to give sermons to some of the soldiers that are followers of his faith.  The group is also assigned a chaperone of sorts named Betha Stormwind.  Betha, a laid back ranger from the coast introduces the group to a number of different folks in the company, including Blondie, the tinker gnome that is currently working on new designs for muskets.

 

After the first night with the Musketeers, Rusty, the dwarf, wakes everyone up proclaiming that something was stolen from him and he accuses Dave and the group of taking it.  After searching Dave’s bag, Ian does reveal that the dagger is in there.  Rather than arrest the group, Ian still has great faith in Dave being a cleric of Mishakal and dismisses the incident as something to get to the bottom of, but not a crime committed by the group.  Later that day, Ian sends in the first couple of groups from the troop to start searching nearby ares of the ruins.  The group quickly discover Rusty has been killed by the back of his head being smashed in.  The Musketeers become uneasy about the ruins, as well as the three new people within their company.

 

The second night, Meme, Gallexsy, and Dave decide to post their own watch, and Meme sees someone sneaking about.  The alarm is raised quickly and the three heroes, Ian, and a number of Musketeers charge into the ruins after the person.  Instead of the person they encounter a horrifying creature, a creature of flesh, blood, and hundreds mouths lined with razor sharp teeth.  The mouths open and scream, yell, laugh, cry, and moan in a cacophony of sound that paralyzes Ian and the rest of the Musketeers, but oddly not Meme, Gallexsy, or Dave.  Gallexsy jumps forward and lights the creature on fire with her burning hands.  Meme leaps and changes into a grizzly bear, cleaving large chunks of meat off of the creature.  And Dave slams his mace into the mass of flesh.  Working together they all make short work of the creature.

 

Eventually Ian and the other Musketeers come out of the trance they were in from the creature.  Ian then makes the decision to leave the ruins but wants the elf maidens and the halfling to join them back to their home base of Olympus where he’s sure they can figure something out to get them home.  But for now, he wants to leave this cursed place as quickly as possible.  And the Musketeers with Dave, Meme, and Gallexsy with them, pack up their gear and trek out into the night.

 

Elsewhere, we see the island of Atlantis, off the coast of the capital city of the human kingdom the Commonwealth.   The island is dotted with polished and shiny towers that sparkle in the distance.  Most people and most things know to keep their distance from these towers and this island.  But a pride of hungry gryphons fly too close looking for game.  The towers fold out gigantic machine guns that open fire and hurl blue energy bolts at the gryphons ripping them to bloody pieces.  The machine guns fold their smoking barrels back into the towers before the chunks of meat hit the salty water below.

 

 

7/13/2017

 

4. In the Beginning...

 

Dragon fear pours over the townsfolk of Westmin as a dragon swoops in, causing the people to scream and run in a blind panic.  The gang helps get them to the near by ancient ruins that the town uses as shelters.  Once there they get a glimpse of the large, ancient black dragon as it destroys the Frowning Jester, the business and home of Helm and Miri Buckman with its powerful acid breath.

 

Rather than risk the lives of the villagers by going back out into the town still under attack, Gallexsy, Meme, Dave, and Jed look for another way out of the ruins.  The chubby fisherman Guy stays behind to guard the folks as best he can with his metal pot helmet and his trusty boat oar.

 

Exploring further, the gang finds tunnels that lead to even older ruins.  Leading to these ruins is a huge stone door.  In the middle of the door is a slot perfectly shaped to Dave’s magic mace.  There are only 30 of these maces in the world and they are carried exclusively by the priests of Mishakal.  So whomever made this door was either a priest, or the doors and ruins are much older than anyone could imagine.  After opening the door with Dave’s mace both Gallexsy and Meme find a magical item on a couple of ancient and dusty skeletons.

 

Jed confides in the group and tells them about how he was meant to find them to help them.  Where he comes from, which is far away on the other side of the ocean, his people, the Dragonborn, have prophecies about the three of them.  They are destined to save the world, or destroy it, unless Jed is able to help.  He describes them eventually becoming the most powerful creatures in the world.

 

Further still into these old ruins the landscape changes to something very different.  Instead of stonework, the tunnels turn to metal, and there are doors with glass, and electronic key pads.  In these metal tunnels the group encounters a couple of animated skeletons brandishing odd looking spears.  They also find an ancient vampire that appears to be frozen in time in another room.  Using her spell of Comprehend Languages, Gallexsy is able to find the location of what might be an exit.

 

In the room with the exit, the heroes encounter another vampire that is not frozen.  After a hard won battle with the undead creature, some machinery in this room becomes activated when the severed head of the vampire hits a platform in the middle of the floor.  This platform then lights up and rises from the ground.  This is also when three more vampires appear at the entrance of the room, and with no other way out, Jed orders the others to get on to the platform, leaving him behind.  Jed slashes out at the vampires and this is the last that the trio sees before being blinded by a flash of white light.

 

The group then appear in another room all together.  This room appears to be much older.  The metal is almost completely gone to rust, and stone and sunlight can be seen through the ceiling where it has caved in.  More urgently however, is the group now standing the middle of 30 armed soldiers that were startled by their appearance.  Not knowing who they are or what their intent, the soldiers aim their weapons at the three heroes.

 

 

6/30/2017

 

3. In The Beginning...

 

The gang lures out a goblin from the cave they tracked the mysterious stranger to. They dispatch it quickly and then draw out the rest of the goblin gang led by a large goblin named Bwerf. Bwerf is killed first, then four more goblins fall to our adventurers. Close to running out of steam from the fight, the group is surprised by Jed bursting from the forest and he quickly dispatches the last goblin. 

 

On the goblins Meme finds a teddy bear. This reminds everyone that before they had left Westminster, Greg had mentioned that Varis was out organizing a search party for the mayor’s missing kids. 

 

The group finally steps into the cave with Jed and Dave leading the way with torches as Meme and Gallexsy are able to see with their Elven night-vision. After going deep down into the cave the group finds a rope bridge that allows someone to go left, right, or access a mechanical lever. Meme climbs up and right before she pulls the lever Gallexsy uses her favorite spell Mage Hand to pull the lever instead. The lever causes a large boulder to drop down in the path right below the rope bridge. Gallexsy is able to climb up the wall and on to the bridge. Right behind her Jed climbs with Dave in his arms, all of them narrowly avoiding the boulder trap. 

 

The gang then discovers a jail cell with the children locked inside. They quickly release them and find in the caves much of the items and gold that was stolen from the town. The group brings the gold and the children back to Westmin where they are happily greeted and rewarded with a town wide celebration with food, drink, and dancing. Just when the teenage deputy Greg tries to dance with Gallexsy a roar of gigantic proportions rings out into the night. A huge object passes overhead, blocking out the stars. Someone in the town screams out, “DRAGON!” Everyone runs in fear except for our heroes. 

 

 

6/13/2017

 

2. DDD In The Beginning...

 

Meme, Gallexsy, and Dave arrive at Varis’ sheriff’s office where they meet the teenager deputy Greg.  Varis leaves the group with Greg as he attends to other matters.  In talking with the gang, Greg reveals that he has a pet gerbil named Steve.  Not long after Varis leaves, Greg also leaves to take care of some personal affairs, and that’s when the group tries interacting with the sheriff’s office last occupant, Pandjed or “Jed” for short.  Jed is a hulking copper dragonborn, standing at roughly seven and a half feet tall.  The group discovers that Jed was arrested for disturbing the peace with his tales of an impending doom and prophecy, but also because he was drunk and broke a wagon cart. 

 

In talking with Jed, Jed asks them a number of questions about how if they are afraid of him and his dragon appearance.  He also makes comments that the three of them should keep their eyes out for magical items as they will come in handy.

 

Feeling that Jed was imprisoned unjustly, Meme starts to rifle through Varis’ desk and finds the cell keys.  Greg comes back and catches her in the act.  They reach an agreement that Greg won’t tell anyone that Meme was about to let the prisoner go if the gang agrees not to tell anyone that Greg left the keys in the desk where anyone could get them. 

 

Varis returns after a couple of hours, briefly whispers in Greg’s ear, and then tells the adventurers that they are free to go.  Varis then grabs some equipment and rushes out the door.  Greg explains that another robbery happened in the night, and since the girls were with Greg at the sheriff’s office the entire time, they are no longer suspects.  Greg also tells them that Varis had to leave to organize a search party for the mayor’s children, Ash and Hayley.

 

Still troubled about Jed remaining in jail, Meme, Gallexsy, and Dave broker a deal to track down where the kobolds are, in exchange for Jed being released.  Although both Greg and Jed make it perfectly clear that Jed will be released in the morning, Meme still agrees to track down the kobolds to ensure Jed’s freedom.  The group leaves right before sunrise to the northwest, where the kobolds were last reported to be seen going.

 

On the road the gang meets a tubby fisherman named Guy, who fought off a fish/man creature with an oar and a worm bucket on his head.

 

Later on they encounter a mysterious man that they recall seeing in Westmin, but failed to make introductions.  The group quickly deduced that he was involved in the robberies at Westmin by the contents of the cart the man rides on.  They stop the cart and Meme lassos the man so they can question him.  The man asks questions of his own, and the questions are very similar to the questions that Jed was asking back in the jail cell.  The man also reveals that he has a magical Rod of Dragon Fear, that appears to have no effect on the three adventurers.  When the man grows tired of the questions, he cuts himself lose, and turns invisible.  Gallexsy is able to knock the magical rod from the man’s hand using the spell mage hand, and Dave is able to quickly snatch it up.  Dave then uses the rod to cause the invisible man to flee in fear.  However, Dave is able to track the man on the road and through the woods to a mysterious gave that appears to have a lot of kobold tracks coming in and out, as well as what appear to be goblin tracks!

 

 

6/6/2017

 

1. DDD In The Beginning...

 

Samantha plays the elven druid Meme Moonwhisper and Birdie plays the elven wizard Gallexsy Moonwhisper.  They are cousins to King Goldpetal, the current ruler of the Goldpetal elven kingdom.  While they are not princesses, they are still royalty.  

 

Gallexsy recently passed the wizard trials and became a full fledged wizard.  In celebration of her accomplishment, Gallexsy and Meme decide to do some traveling and adventuring with their old halfling friend Dave.  In this episode Dave is played by Matt Lane.  Dave recently obtained the level of a cleric in his order that worships the Goddess Mishakal.  The group decides to meet back up in Westmin where they first met and adventured together five years ago.  Specifically, they are to meet up at the Frowning Jester, the most popular tavern in Westmin.  Westmin has a rare distinction in that half of the town resides in the large trees that dots the town.  The Frowning Jester is one of these large tree houses near the center of town.  Westmin is also unique in that it is nestled on the southern border of the Elven Goldpetal Kingdom, the northern border of the human kingdom known as the Commonwealth, and the eastern border of the Hill Dwarves kingdom, Charpra.  Beyond Charpra, lies the midlands where most halflings come from, and this is where Dave will be traveling from.

 

On the way to Westmin and the Frowning Jester, the girls encounter a group of six kobolds, small dragon like creatures, that appear to have just completed some sort of robbery or pillage.  The girls confront them and defeat five of the kobolds before Meme takes a mortal blow from one of the kobolds’ daggers.  Lucky for them Dave happened to be near by and was able to spring from the woods to kill the last kobold, and was able to heal the badly wounded Meme and bruised Gallexsy.

 

In searching the immediate area, the group finds some gold and a silver and diamond necklace.  Happy to be reunited, the three decide to continue on with their original plan and travel on to the Frowning Jester.

 

At the Frowning Jester the group encounters Helm Buckman, the ugliest man in Westmin, and his daughter Miri Buckman.  Meme orders some whiskey from Helm to drink, and to savor for later.  Gallaxsy remembers that despite his looks, Helm is a fantastic dancer and begins to sing for him to see if she can get a smile from him.  Gallexsy is able to give the singing performance of her life, and Helm grabs his daughter Miri for a dancing performance that leaves him sweaty and breathing hard.  Having enjoyed the fantastic elven song so much, Helm offers the group free food and drink for the evening.  Through discussion with Helm and Miri, the group discovers that the silver diamond necklace that they found with the kobolds was stolen from Miri in the middle of the night.  There were also a number of other robberies in the town over the last couple of nights.  The necklace was part of a jewelry set that was given to Miri from her mother.  Miri is very grateful and hugs Meme for returning her necklace.

 

Before the group can take advantage of the Frowning Jester's hospitality, Varis, the very tall elven sheriff of Westmin, interrupts.  He suspects that the group may not be as good and heroic as they seem, and that they may have had something to do with the robberies in the first place.  Varis asks for the group to come in for questioning.  With nothing to hide, the group quickly agrees to go with Varis to give what answers they can.

 

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