[big teej]

A Gideon snippet I promised.

and a Gideon snippet you shall have!

"to rescue a prince" (or "to scare a party member")

Spoiler

Gideon Snippet II

“Well…. This has been a busy day” I think to myself as my companions and I trudge away from the abandoned manor house.

We’d arrived at the city of Andor
We’d discovered that the dwarven population is in uproar over new policies initiated by the king. In fact, riots were still un-quelled upon our arrival.
The head treasurer, the prince, and his companion all went missing.
…
Guess who got to find them?

Well, thankfully, we did. An encounter that involved the slaying of some sort of semi-sentient goop, as well as several humans magically disguised as dwarves.

And the man in the mask.

The mere thought of that iron visage is enough to rouse my ire. I feel my face flush and unconsciously grip the haft of my axe tighter. He escaped me again. Marshaling my thoughts away from this, I look up and around us, wary of further attack.

There are those who would see our charges dead.

As I scan the area I do a double take. A few score yards ahead of us, at the edge of the swamp, are two huge…. Things.

They appear to be giant fat blue caterpillars. A rock sails past me and connects with the Half-Orc’s skull.

Giant fat blue /angry/ caterpillars.

I clap down my visor and prepare for battle.

My compatriots surge forth to do combat, much quicker than I –weighed down by my armor as I am-

Trig, the gnome Alchemist, lobs a flask filled with an orange substance at one of the slug/worms it shatters against its hide and begins to burn. It growls in pain but advances undeterred.

I’ll just have to fix that.

I step forward and raise my arms to the sky, altering my voice into one that echoes across battlefields, heard over the sound of metal crunching bone and metal sharpening metal. “Halt, and surrender yourselves! And ye shall not be harmed, surrender ye not, and you’re lives be forfeit! For I am Gideon! Knight of The Hammer!”

A rock clunks off my shield.

Well, so much for that.

I turn and level my axe towards the slug/worm on my right. I announce to my compatriots “this one is mine. Deal with the other one.”
I feel a rush of power so great it almost makes me giddy. This rush, while familiar, never grows old. It is the rush of energy I get for putting my reputation and honor on the line. This creature will fall by my hand.

As my compatriots scramble out of my way to deal with the 2nd slug/worm, the prince stops as he passes me “do you need help with this?” he asks.
‘Obviously too young to recognize a knight at work. This boy is in need of an education’

“I have the situation well in hand” I inform him as I advance upon the slug, who has equipped itself with a spear and a dagger.

I lose track of my companions, my world begins to shrink, and nothing exists except me, the slug/worm, and this fight. Time speeds up and at the same time becomes slower than molasses. I feel the strength flood my limbs at the thought of slaying this creature on my own. I thrill with the delight of battle!

I swing my axe at the slug, opening up a gash in its chest that oozes forth a green ichor. In response to my blow, the worm hammers away at my defenses with spear and dagger, eventually burying his spear in my side.

He’ll have to do better than that.

Back and forth the slug/worm and I trade blows, I open up another 3 cuts along its chest and body with my axe, he works his dagger through my armor, I can tell it’s a telling blow from the amount of blood leaking out of my armor, but that does not matter! I will see this thing dead!

When suddenly, hurtling into my world again, is Ugh, the Half-Orc barbarian our little band picked up in a village en route to andor. Ugh is foaming at the mouth and smites the worm with his Double bladed axe. Just as Ugh enters the fray, I see sikes the cleric wade in from the creature’s right, stabbing it in the side and slaying it.

Well….
That was anti-climatic.


The rest of our journey back to the city is rather uneventful, returning the prince and his compatriots without further ruckus.

To show his gratitude for returning the heir (mostly) unharmed (physically at least, his ego took a rather consistent beat down the whole trip back.) he has offered to pay for our lodgings in one of the finest inns in the city.

Having spent the day in matters of daring do, we retire to our rooms for the night.

The next morning however; we find two wonderful little gifts left for us by some unknown person. A severed head (fresh thankfully) and a note that was short and to the point.

LEAVE
NOW

Well I can’t stand for that now can I? Knowing the orchestrator’s of this conspiracy likely have magical eyes upon us. (I neglected to inquire about the Inn’s security measures, which I shall do post-haste) I grab a nearby quill and scribble on the note.

“What are you doing?” Trig asks me.

“Informing our enemies of my opinion of the matter, it seems polite to inform them of these things.” I reply

I set the quill to the paper and write an equally simple message for our unseen observers.


“Stuff it.”

on a completely unrelated note, I looked back over some other things I've done, and I've learned something...

"writing for myself is great, chronicling as a DM is not"

for example, everything I've posted so far (except for the death of Valek) has been me recording events as a player, and how my character interacts with them.
this here (spoilered below) is me tryin to do the same thing as a DM for the whole party.

and I think it's crap
but I find the contrast intriguing... and I need to learn how to write this better.

so in the hope that I didn't post this back at the begining of the thread and forget about it, for contrast purposes, I give you "adventure 1, rescue the Unicorn"

Spoiler

Adventure one: rescue the Unicorn!

A friendly unicorn named Alabern lives in the woods surrounding the party’s town. With a touch of its horn, Alabern heals wounded people who come to it for help. Now a woodcutter has come to town with terrible news. a band of goblins have captured the unicorn and carried him off!
Several individuals from the village have volunteered for this task, their mission is clear. They must find these creatures and rescue Alabern!

The following people have volunteered for this task;

Constain

Bartholomew

Kaye

John

Leuesse`

Tarik

The party has worked its way through the woods until they come to a clearing next to a cliff face, there is a door set into the face of the cliff. Extending out over the door is a shoddily put together awning. Under the awning are 5 sleeping goblins, around a perimeter surrounding the sleeping goblins are 5 more goblins. Since no one would dare the haunted woods, or come against such numbers, they are at ease, dozing off, and not really paying attention. … unfortunately for them, our intrepid heros have come to destroy them.

Bartolomew notices that none of the goblin sentries have a line of sight on each other, and are spaced very far apart. He suggests that the party move to the extreme left edge of the perimieter and pick off the sentries one by one before taking on the main group.

The group moves into position to ambush the first sentry. Bartolomew strings an arrow across his long bow as Leuesse readies a stone in her sling. Bartolomew gives the command “fire” and looses his arrow as Leuesse hurls her stone at the goblin. Bartolomew’s arrow takes the goblin through the throat, felling it instantly, whilst Luesses projectile flies through the air formerly occupied by the goblin’s head.

Moving quickly and quietly, (and impatiently by tarik, who is eager to get to grips with the grobi) the party moves to the next sentry, who is again quickly dispatched by an arrow from Bartholomew, who gets his shot off before Leuesse can release her bullet. The party then moves to the 3rd sentry, Bartholomew racks up another kill, catching the unsuspecting goblin in the eye with an arrow, unfortunately, Leuesse’s sling snaps as she releases her stone, sending it careening off into the bush. The damage is irrepairable at the moment, but should be easily fixed back in town.

The party takes down the remaining two sentries in a similar fashion, at this point, Tarik’s axe is getting thisrty, and Tarik wishes to test its edge in the goblin’s flesh. The party advance to the edge of the clearing, still taking cover within the trees and undergrowth. Tarik, John, and Constain charge ahead of the group at the sleeping goblins, while Bartholomew looses an arrow into the sleeping group, Leuesse also advances, but far more slowly than the others, kaye also draws her longbow and takes aim, but doesn’t fire yet, taking care not to hit one of her fellows.

As Tarik, john and constain charge valiantly into battle, John is so focused on his foe and his impending doom that he fails to notice a stone sticking out of the ground… tripping on it and landing prone at his opponents feet! Constain reaches his chosen enemy and takes a mighty swing! Unfortunately, the goblin ducks under the blade and swipes at constain with it’s Morningstar. Tarik has much better luck, taking his enemy in the chest with his axe, taking him to the ground. 2 of the remaining goblins advance on tarik, their hatred of all stunties clear in their eyes. While the third one advances to brain John while he lies dazed upon the ground.

Seeing that this will be her only chance at a clear shot, kaye looses her arrow at the goblin advancing on John, missing, but delaying it slightly. Bartholomew sees that with all of his friends engaged in melee combat, he can’t risk firing any more arrows, he draws his shortsword and advances on the goblin preparing to brain John…

The goblin brings its Morningstar down in a lethal arc, but John manages to roll out of the way, taking only a glancing blow across the back. Constain and tarik continue to trade blows with their respective enemies, neither side able to gain an advantage and land a blow. Meanwhile, Leuesse, Kaye, and Bartholomew come to John’s aid; Kaye, distracting the goblin by attempting to stab it in the back, misses, the goblin’s return blow is a punishing strike across the chest, throwing Kaye to the ground and into oblivion. Filled with rage over her fallen comrade, Leuesse takes a wild swing at the goblin, but in her rage fails to connect. John, still dazed from his sudden meeting with the earth, also misses, however, their blows distract the goblin enough for Bartholomew to get in a killing blow, running the goblin through with his shortsword. As they go to Kaye’s aid Constain and Tarik finally manage to fell their opponents in a rapid exchange of blows.

The companions trickle both of Kaye’s health potion’s down her throat, helping her to regain consciousness, but still the worse for wear. Constain volunteers one of his potions to help get her back on her feet. The party searches the bodies and finds a combined total of 42 gold coins amongst the dead. “who have these creatures been raiding” the party wonders. The party turns to the door, now completely undefended, and advances.

Tarik and kaye/john both listen closely to the door and hear goblins talkin on the other side of the door, but are unable to deterimine how many there are. The dwarf prepares to kick down the door, while Bartholomew prepares to launch an arrow into the room after him. Tarik lifts his leg and kicks the door. The door shudders in its frame and makes a booming noise like unto a drum of doom, but is otherwise unharmed. Incensed, Tarik raises his foot again and kicks the door with all his might, throwing the door down onto the floor within the cave! Bartholomew looses his arrow into the confines of the room, striking down yet another goblin in the process. John dives into the room after the arrow and is struck down by blows from all sides of the door by the goblins lying in wait. He crumples to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut. Tarik and Constain quickly enter the room to protect their fallen comrade, whilst Kaye, Luesse and Bartholomew look on from outside, knowing there isn’t enough room within the cave for them to aid their friends.

Having slain the goblins, and waking the unicorn (And reviving John with more health potions). The party finds another 10 gold on each goblin.

They enter the 2nd room which is empty (and dark) except for a treasure chest. Bartholomew offers to open the chest and pries it open releaseing a burst of magic! Bartholomew feels overcome with a desire to fall asleep, but shakes it off. Within the chest are several gold coins.

kinda surprised I haven't posted that already....

maybe I have