Eberron
Party Members |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sheaf
Shifter Ranger |
|
|
Flop
Dwarf Cleric DEAD |
Durrak
Dwarf Cleric DEAD |
Calamox
Human Wizard DEAD |
Xander
Human Cleric LEFT |
Salshar
Elf Artificer LEFT |
Anvil
Warforged Warrior LEFT |
Duval
Human Rogue DEAD |
| |
| Abilities
|
Weapons
|
Feats/Monk
Abilities
|
Skills
(above +5)
|
| Strength (18) |
Masterwork Nunchuka +9 |
Combat Reflexes (F) |
Balance (+10) |
| Dexterity (16) |
Flurry of Blows +7 |
Deflect Arrows (F) |
Diplomacy (+5) |
| Constitution (14) |
Stunning Fist +8 |
Stunning Fist (F) |
Jump (+15) |
| Intelligence (12) |
Shurikens +8 |
Improved Grapple (F) |
Listen (+14) |
| Wisdom (16) |
|
Improved Unarmed Strike
(A) |
Move Silently (+9) |
| Charisma (14) |
|
Flurry of Blows (A) |
Sense Motive (+8) |
| |
|
Evasion (A) |
Tumble (+12) |
| |
|
Exotic Weapon Prof. (F) |
Spot (+17) |
| |
|
Still Mind (A) |
|
| |
|
Ki Strike (A) |
|
| |
|
Slow Fall (A) |
|
| |
|
Purity of Body (A) |
|
| |
|
Improved Trip (F) |
|
| |
|
Alertness (F) |
|
Facts
About My Journal and Adventures;
In Case They Survive a Few Ages
During the month of Therendor of 998,
I left the monastry after many boring years of boring monks studying boring
books. The death of my master was a catalyst for my departure. I've spent
so many years in this forest by Lake Brey on the border of Thrane and
Breland. My early childhood was Aruldusk, just across the Brey River
from the Mournlands, back when it was more normal. I've traveled extensively
for the monastry, but I need some air on my own...perhaps Boldrei will
bless my efforts to bring community together, along with some help
from Olladra to throw together some parties as well.
|
Journal
Our Underground Journey
I had some time between arguments and rests to sketch out the map below of what we've explored so far. I may be wrong, but it's as close as I remember.
Finding the Schema...and Other Things!
Before we took on the room that somewhat obviously contains the schema, Sal wanted to infuse something, so we shut the door to wait. Sal's infusion was the Shield of Faith, which he gave to Anvil. He also enabled Cal to give Anvil Resist Energy. The extra magical "armour" makes him the obvious choice for "point". We walked into a room of four fire elementals. We were suucessful with their demise, mostly thanks to Anvil's new magical gifts, and Anvil searched quickly in case there was more fire while he had resistance. A chest was found, and was cool to the touch, so Anvil kicked it open. TWO schemas were in chest, along with other interesting items, including a disk that had something to do with the schemas. Sal found a level to move the ceiling, thus opening it and cooling off the room, which had grown in heat intensity immensely. The ceiling moved to view the outside world and several people were wearing the Emerald Claw uniform. We essentially ran. Tic fell. Sal and I got her to Anvil who held her until she woke.
We went back to Rorsa that our enemies are here. Since we found two schemas, Cal started examining them. Based on Cal's examinations, I suspect that he wants to give or leave one schema, which makes us nervous. Our fear is that they'll be waiting once we get up with the dogs, but they don't seem to be down here. We decided to rest and I took care of the wounded as they slept. Sheaf and I were elected to scout the main entrance for activity. The party and wolves waited in the hall for the All Clear. Sal and Tic join us and we found four zombies. I grappled one who seemed dead, but Sal torched him anyway. We wounded one very badly before a strategic retreat to return with Anvil, Xander and Cal. Upon our return, I killed the one I wounded the last trip. I felt it my duty to finish him off properly. We quickly killed the other two with Sheaf watching our backs, but we heard rumblings of more coming...
Drinking and Adventure
Once Rorsa and the others returned from the cart, we discovered that Falen turned the cart into stone and come back down with them. We went to explore some more, particularly the brown corridors from the first Moving Room that was discovered. It was locked, and Sal picked it eventually. We discovered the motherlode when it turned out to be the wine storeroom! I refilled all my wine bottles, and Sheaf managed to drink himself into a drunken stupor with his goblet he found back at the Rose Quarry. I had quite a bit as well, so we stayed in the room as the other went back to the Moving Room to the second brown corridor. Later, I found out that Xander killed a half orc. We are all very confused as to why the half orc was there, but they apparantly didn't have time to ask since he rushed them without comment. Too bad...perhaps he would have made a good addition to the party in our quest against all these zombies and undead of the Emerald Claw. They found several blue keys and a brown one. That room was apparantly boring since I didn't hear much about it. The conversation mostly stemmed around the crazy half orc.
The next morning we went back into the third Moving Room to tackle the hot door that is in orange's corridor. As Cal put in the key to orange, The Moving Room tipped Anvil, Cal, and Xander into water after a nice fast flip of the Moving Room. Sheaf and I managed to hold on within the Moving Room. I started unsashing my clothes to help them climb up (please note that I did not completely strip). I pulled up Cal since he was treading water, and others remained to be seen. Xander finally surfaced and I yelled for him to grab it with success. There was still no sign of Anvil, but he doesn't need to breathe, so I wasn't hugely concerned. He finally returned to say he found Xander's armour, etc. that was shed in order to avoid drowning, and was retrieving it. Eventually, everybody and everything was retrieved, and the Moving Room was righted. Our wizard deduced that the red key was actually a control device since he had used it previously before going to orange, and we didn't have this reaction. We returned, inserted the red key, then inserted the orange key with much better success.
Once we got to orange's door, Sal picked the lock. It didn't work. He re-picked the lock. It worked. Hmmmm. I'll try and reserve judgement.
Opening the door showed the same room that Xander and Sal described in the other orange hall. It would seem that our "adventure" with this room is inevitable.
Another Moving Room
We decided to leave the dogs in the kennels until we were done exploring. Our intent was to leave together, and it would be easy to get separated. We continued to explore the green area, and yes, we found yet another Moving Room. This family was very much into mechanics and intrigue, it seems. We have a red key, but couldn't find a keyhole until we found this Moving Room. Cal tried to use it, but it did nothing. The other two keyholes were for purple, yellow, and orange. We had the orange key, but upon opening it, we saw a "hot" door at the end of the hall. Our last escapade with a "hot" door led to a close encounter, so we decided to return to the second Moving Room we found and finish investigating the orange hall there.
The door seemed safe there, so we went through. A light started descending, and Xander opened the door on the other side of the room. After that door was opened, Xander went into that room, and opened yet another door. Lots of doors around here. Meanwhile Anvil got the bright idea to "attack" the light. Unbelieveably, the light was trying to hurt us. This went against all my knowledge in science. The light moved toward me, and knocked me down. My reaction was pitiful, but was I supposed to lob a shuriken through it or something??? Tic and Cal went down next, and Sal managed to destroy through means not familiar to me. These adventurers seem to have a lot of knowledge between all of them. Next thing I knew, I was being pushed by Sal and Xander out to the hallway to explain a scary fiery room that possibly held the schema. The magic brains of the party suspected a trap or illusion of some sort. I was still dazed a bit to even think straight.
Nobody knew quite what to do, so some of us ended up taking Rorsa up to the cart and introducing her to Falen. When in doubt, take a dog for a walk!
The Wolves
Sal, Cal, Tic and Anvil went to seach the other, and last, passage. It's quite impossible to get us all in the Moving Room, so we have to go in groups. The Moving Door returned to pick Sheaf, Xander and me up...only to meet two large wolves that spoke very clear Common. Rorsa was very courteous, and seemed relieved with our civility of not killing them on sight. Apparantly these wolves were subject to laboratory testing, but could not escape even after the human's deaths because of a Stone Plated Wolf that is keeping Rorsa and the other wolves hostage. She offered her help and the use of another coloured key if we could help them escape. Once the party finished looting the end room, and two other rooms (toilet room and bedroom), we headed to the Stone Wolf.
There was a huge uproar as to the strategy of attack. Should the more stealthy, yet weaker warriors go in first to get into position, or the strong warrior go crashing in and have us (stealthy fighters) follow-up? I was definitely not a front-line person, but could sneak around quite well, so based on the decision that the sneakier people should get into position first, I found myself on the first ride over to the Stone Wolf's passageway. There was no problem getting into position, and once the whole party was in position, we attacked with success. The Stone Wolf was extremely powerful, and even gassed a few of the party members, but Anvil finished it's stalking with a sword through the heart.
Long Story Short
So much has occurred during these past couple of days that it's difficult to put on paper in much detail; however, I will scribe the highlights of our "catacomb discovery". We started searching the mine inside entrance and come across a passage of stairs. There were many passages, and once those were scouted with no major impact, we proceeded down the stairs. Another split of passages was at the bottom of the stairs with an usual hatch at the end of one passage. Apparantly (I didn't visit them), the end of the passages upstairs had the same hatches, but Salshar determined that these were fake hatches. The final passage at the base of the stairs showed a locked door that was not fake. Cal opened it with some sort of rod that he had acquired over our journey. The other side of the door was pure darkness, but we discovered a room that flips from tunnel to tunnel if Cal's key was used properly. There are other tunnels seemingly available based on the colours that we see, but we do not have all of the keys. One passage end showed a library with a lady's corpse. She looked as though she recently died, but that was a phenomena that was common among the Mournlands. There wasn't any certain way we could determine the time of death. We went back into the Moving Room to the opposite side only to discover a wash room and linens that were stacking themselves. I found that particularly weird, so I moved back into the passageway.
The third passage via the Moving Room showed us a glowing door at the end and bones throughout the passageway. We backed up and Sal arrowed the door to see if it bounced, which it did. Anvil walked up the side, and to his right there was an unlocked room that had some water and other items. I was in the Moving Room, when suddenly we rotated away. Cal must have started it since he has the key. I feared for my companions during our absence, but upon our return, we saw a melting goo of fire and Sheaf reciting a poem about his prowess with fire. We were quickly filled in as to their battle with a fire elemental of some sort. It would seem that Sheaf did an excellent Fire Dance as the party watered it down. Xander was particularly angry about our disappearance. I had to explain that I did not realise that we were going to rotate. Peace finally came...
The Mournlands
Although I was born across the river from the gruesome Mournlands, it was obviously not a play area. I have visited on occasion to never find it particularly inviting. The second watch of the first night introduced us to a Carcass Crab. This large creature has eight legs with corpses all over it. As I said: gruesome country. Sheaf and I took over the third watch and the searching of multiple bodies. These was quite a bit of loot to split.
We moved on to have a vulture start following us. I didn't fully realise what it was doing until I was bombshelled by it. Fortunately, it didn't take long to kill, but it didn't endear me to this place. We finally arrived at the White Hearth ruins, but decided to rest until going into the mines so that Xander and Cal could prepare their spells.
Getting Away and Underway
During my flight from the final fight at Rose Quarry, I heard a rumbling of our travel cart. It would seem that Sal retrieved the wagon to rescue us. I spent a few minutes wishing that the cart would have been there only a few minutes prior to rescue Durrock and Flop, but realised that wishing was wasted since they wouldn't have left anyway.
Cal informed us that there were five destinations that the map room indicated, and the White Hearth was the location of the second schema. The five locations were scattered across Khorvaire in Karrnath, Talenta Plains, Valenar and Mournland (two in Mournland). White Hearth was in Mournland...the question at hand was whether we should go straight to White Hearth, or rest somewhere first, and try to get the vampire off of our trail since it was clear he did not know which destination was correct. I suggested us to rest at my monastary since it was in Thrane, the neighbor to Mournland, but they finally decided to head straight there after a quick "hole-up and heal-up".
It took us a few days to get to our rest area, where we met a human cleric named Xander. A connection was quickly made when the cleric greated us in the name of Rumtar. How many times did we have to hear about Rumtar from the Dwarves? He seemed quite interested in our quest and decided to join us. We decided to meet Xander in town so he could stable his horse since we travelled by the cart.
...at last, on our way to the second schema and the Mournlands...
Memories
I was sad for Durrock when his beetle died (it seems that there was an issue of having to take care of the beetle), but even more sad when both Durrock and Flop went up in flames. A most glorious death, in the minds of crazy Dwarves, but still death, all the same.
It all started with the the continued battle with the undead Dwarven slaves. Durrock or Flop (they're both quite capable) cast obscuring mist, which made me wish I had taken up blind fighting training at the monastary...but then, who would think it would be needed? Nobody can take into account the actions of these Dwarves. Durrock later proclaimed the need for the entire place to be destroyed, and went off with Flop to do just that. Nobody seemed inclined to follow. Salshar and Sheaf discovered the map room, and some unsavory individuals, apparantly, since they came tearing back. Later, it was left clear, and Tic/Cal/Sal took a great interest in the realm of multiple hours in the map room. I heard mutterings of needing to visit Mournland for our next destination, which wasn't very good given the desolate and wicked country of Mournland.
Sheaf and I decided to search the church across the path, where Sheaf found an excellent chalice. I believe he intends to convert it into a wine goblet.
The big danger arose after the Squabbling Three (Tic/Cal/Sal) had determined where our next destination was, and took the statues that gave the hints as to the location. Garron, a vampire of clear power, stepped from the shadows with Kaela, a figher woman, and Keltis, the first fellow that Sal/Sheaf discovered during the first visit to the map room. We discovered these names during a rather tense introduction.
Cal used Obscuring Mist to escape when Garron started to demand what we knew of the schema's location; subsequently everyone ran. It seemed wise given the huge amount of power that involved with Garron and his friends. The vampire ran past me invisibly and sarcasticly said, "run along, little one." I stopped, said I wasn't little, was going to my friends, and that I knew nothing of what he wanted. I was definitely insulted. I've drunk with enough powerful people to not be intimidated by demeaning sarcasm. I finished running to a fire, which turned out to be Durrock and Flop's fire.
Of course, the Dwarves charged when the apparant enemies appeared. While I should expect nothing less, I always remain amazed. Fighting the vampire is not so brave, as just silly. He finally "disappeared," leaving us to fight us still powerful underlings. One by one, party members slithered away, leaving the Dwarves and me. I wanted them to run, but they refused, regardless of the 5-1 odds. Finally, I sustained enough injury where it was futile for me to continue fighting. The vampire, still invisible, whispered in my ear if I was willing to run now, and I had to leave the Dwarves to their demise. I feel partially guilty, but they were determined. It seems that Flop lit the alchemist fire and combined it with Durrock's, who had fallen at this point.
They were such great Dwarves with such great stories and ale. I will miss them.
Bad Journalling
A goodly part of my purpose in adventuring is to journal the experiences, and here I have laxed in journalling for several days. I must be more diligent in my goals. My discipline has weakened since I left the monastary.
|
|
|
|
