Campaign Log of Autec the Landbound, Day 1
I appear to have climbed onto the shores of Kenabres on a
fortuitous day, for today is the start of the local Armasse Festival. From speaking to locals, I've learned that
primarily human celebration hosts many tests of arms and I have enrolled myself in
the jousting tournament which starts tomorrow. Hopefully these softskins will
not be too frightened at the sight of Paxaea in her full glory.
Following the orders of our seers, I will attempt to contact
the leadership of the crusaders here in Kenabres to offer my services as soon
as possible. Paxaea tells me that the people here are nervous at our collective
appearance, but I have a hard time reading their expressions, so who knows. If
they are nervous, they haven't been nervous enough not to take some of the
scant coin provided to me for lodgings. The induction/recruitment ceremony
starts early tomorrow, so tonight I will take in the sights of the city,
perhaps I will attend the opening ceremony presided over by Lord Hulrun – word is it will be quite a show.
Campaign Log of Autec the Landbound, Day 2
While I may have scoffed at our provisioners for
overburdening Paxaea, I couldn't be more happy now. Disaster has befallen
Kenabres. The fortress of Kite has fallen, along with its wardstone. Demons are
among us. During the opening ceremony of the festival the demon lord
Khorramzadeh smote the fortress with a giant pillar of lightning and fire and
engaged a magnificent silver dragon which emerged from the crowd — I guess it
was in disguise? As the plaza collapsed around our earholes the dragon found the
time to save our lives, as well as the lives of a number of weirdos around me,
before we all fell to our deaths. My last sight was of the dragon being
beheaded. Seems bad, glad I'm down here.
The plaza has collapsed into
some sort of underground cavern system and I, and 9 other strangers, seemed to
have survived relatively unscathed. I say relatively, because one of us is now
short two eyes, another has a broken leg, and another is grotesquely fat and
obnoxious. I'm not sure that last one was because of the demon attack, but who
knows.
The one with the burned face is an elf by the name of
Aravashnial, a mage of some knowledge and occupant (previous occupant more
likely) of Kenabres. He seems the sort to see the fronds from the seagrass, to
look forward into the bright future, to lead us all by his great sight and
wisdom. I let him direct us as he seems inclined, the more the merrier after
all, eh Pax? The woman with the broken leg is Anevia, a scout crusader, she
seems to be responding well to this catastrophe and I'm glad to offer her Pax's
assistance in moving around. The others in our survivors group introduce
ourselves, I sense an aura of power amongst these individuals, almost like they
are far more important than the ones I spoke of above.
First is Fred, a woman with bright, shiny red hair and fiery
eyes (Pax told me later she thinks the lady might have a bit of divine blood in
her) that I quickly found out loses all communicative abilities in times of
stress. I'm sure that won't be a problem.
The next is Katsa, an oddly proportioned woman with an
elongated head. I sense magic about her, but she is otherwise inscrutable.
The next introduces himself as Ralan, a human paladin in
training/cum altar sweep of Iomedae. His armor is oddly shiny.
Some sort of fuzzy man introduces himself as Kesh, a ranger
hoping to enlist in the crusades. He wields a bow with admirable skills, but
smells very strange.
A heavily cloaked and robed individual introduces itself as
Sitzva, a priest of Pharasma. Something doesn't smell quite right about this
one either, but Pax says 1. It is a she. and 2. She is okay. So we're fine for
now.
There is also some blue lady, but I can't seem to remember
anything about her, perhaps I'll update this entry later.
After introductions, we start to move out across the cavern,
but are quickly stopped by a shriek of "spider!" and stop to slay the
rather large specimen with no casualties. Some scales of the slain silver
dragon apparently landed in its web during the collapse and we quickly scoop up one apiece
for the important folk. Fred attempts to convince Aravashnial, Anevia, and
Horgus Gwerm to continue accompanying us through the dangerous underground and
while the first two seem amenable, Fats McDumb disappears shortly later in a
huff. Pax claims his departure will be a net loss as could've fed 'em to some
beastie chasing us, but I value my regained peace of mind much higher.
Moving onward into the caverns we spot a backpack likely
lost during the collapse near the ceiling of a room. Kesh scrambles nimbly up
the slick walls and fetches it down for us. That's a good kitty! It has some
healing potions and other useful sundries. We move on.
Into a world of hurt. Well, the whirling cloud of fiery cockroach fury looked painful to everyone else anyway. I stayed out of
it. While I admire the zeal of my fellow crusader hopefuls, I wonder if perhaps
this fight could not have been avoided by walking away. I guess that tactic
will be unlikely to work against our demonic foes, but resources and morale are
low for now...
Fortunately, the others manage to disperse the swarm by
throwing oil on it and lightning the whole mess up. We find a non-magical
pretty little brooch in the remains of a camp and head into the next tunnel.
The next area had sustained some significant structural
damage during the collapse, as the poor, partially crushed snake that greets us
could've attested to...had Kesh not failed at wooing it with his snakelike
ways. It strikes and Pax rips it to shreds. We press on.
A crossroads ahead, and we choose the path presumably less
traveled into a funny green glow. Looks exciting. We find a small stone
structure with a warhammer motif on the walls, seemingly abandoned in a small
cavern. Our more studious party members identify it as a shrine of Torag, some
dwarf god that made the universe or whatever. I humor their beliefs, though Pax
and I both know the universe was formed by Eadro in his great majesty.
After forcing our way into the structure, Ralan's evil
senses go off and we quickly realize the mouldering pile of dwarf we find
inside is now possessed of a violent unlife. We dispatch what appears to have
been the keeper of the shrine, but not before he rips Pax off this plane. See
you soon, buddy! Ralan fires his radar around a bit more and we determine the
area is secure for now. A few of the religious folk spend some time
reconsecrating the shrine while I scout around with some summoned beasties.
Nothing turns up and we spend a quiet night in the creepy dwarf shrine all cozy
like.
Campaign Log of Autec the Landbound, Day 3
Pax had a restful night as well and rejoins us the next
morning, or what passes for morning in this lightless pit. Moving on. We enter
a large chamber with some martially accoutered statues carved into the walls,
all wearing somber expressions. Upon hearing of this, Aravashnial tells us of a
long disbelieved legend that the demonically tainted children of the first
crusader may have carved themselves a kingdom below Kenabres. Seems possible.
We spot some beasties lurking on the ceiling and get a
treatise on the weird things from our party bookworms. While the info that they
could summon magical darkness and can fiercely grapple a man's face to death
was useful, I could've gone the rest of my life without knowing darkmantle mating
habits or the particular magical applications of their droppings. We slay them
in a hail of ranged weaponry while they inconvenience us slightly. Pax grabs
one of their corpses, still projecting darkness, and totes it along. Might be
useful.
Sadly, this does not prove out as we next encounter a
thoroughly insane, dirty little dwarf mage that threatens the crusade before
plinking Ralan with some magic missles. Tired and angry, we teach him the error
of his ways over the next 15 minutes with a rather comical chase up a shaft
carved into the rock involving lots of levitation, invisibility and pointed
sniffing. We retreat to the freshened up shrine of Torag and recover. Tomorrow we'll climb the shaft and try to find a way out.
Campaign Log of Autec the Landbound, Day 3.5
I woke up last night with Aravashnial's voice echoing in my ears "You're level two now." What a weird dream.
