Wanting some wisdom: Campaign Log

[AtanitheRanger]

Hey everyone. Been a long time since I last have been on Giant in the Playground but I have a question to ask. See, I've recently started playing in a friend of mines AD&D 2E game, after our other game sadly had to come to a close. But Don't get me wrong. I'm enjoying it, greatly really and I want to continue to do so. That is why I came here asking some advice on a current situation. Sure it may seem silly that I ask on such a simply thing but I enjoy my character and the character of others, thus I want them to live as long as they can.

We're currently working on dealing with a simply bandit problem in the area. Nothing to major as we're only 2-3 level. We could simply run around the woods trying to find their camp. But knowing the lethality of the combat (when you hit at least) I wanted to play it safe. My idea was to go into the enemy base, once found, dressed as their own men and assess the situation from there. Another was to lure them out and thin the numbers, possibly keeping one alive to learn even more info on the group. And lastly the dwarfs wanted to thin them out and then pretend to go under the ruse that we were looking to join, as their numbers had been thinning lately.

What are your thoughts?

[Digitalelf]

Infiltrating the bandit group is a good idea, but...

For starters, bandits, especially small groups of bandits, don't often have "standard uniforms" (by that I mean, all of their armor and equipment match), they'll wear whatever is available to them, which more often than not, will differ from individual bandit member to individual bandit member (much like a "typical" party of adventurers).

Also, depending upon how large the group of bandits is (and it shouldn't be that large as your party is only 2nd/3rd level), they may well know each other, so a stranger, even "in uniform" (again, provided they even have one), will stand out...

Typically when I run bandit scenarios, I use relatively small groups that wear whatever armor they were able to plunder, so even if they all are wearing leather armor for example, unless all of the suits were made by the same armorer/leatherworker, or were all stolen from the same militia/guards (which is pretty much the same as the suits being made by the same armorer/leatherworker), then no two suits will look the same.

But of course, that's just how I run things...

As for the idea of pretending to join them, unless you wait several weeks to months after your group has thinned their numbers down, I think the bandits would be real suspicious of a band of adventurers coming in at just the right time to help them out...

That being said, there is a way to do it to avoid suspicion...

Wait...

Eventually, they will let it be known they are "recruiting", and then, join them... But that will take patience.

Hope this helps... Good luck!

[Jay R]

You are approaching it correctly - trying to find some way to tilt the odds. You have one idea, but don't stop there. You should try to gather more information. Where have they been robbing? What do they usually go after? What it their water source, and can it be dammed up?

Don't just seek a way to make the first plan work. Seek out information that will help you come up with the best plan.

[AtanitheRanger]

Thanks for your insight guys, I appreciate it greatly. As for the worry of no given uniform the DM has clearly stated that they each wear red bandanna's. A poke at World of Warcraft's Defias brotherhood. So as long as we would have those on we should be fine for pretending to belong. As for where they've been robbing it has been mostly done on a secluded part of a forest road. Off the continents Imperial highways. Mainly a place where merchants from the local villages use. But after clearing out their initial ambush team we haven't seen much of them and are currently trying to recon the forest to see if we can find their hideout.

Information on them is scarce at the moment as they have set up shop in said forest. The village we were in when we learned of them had little to offer. But we do plan on trying to find more, thin the numbers and gather some information from one of the goons. But I will keep in mind where they get their water supply Jay R. It seems like a good way to do a more stable reconnaissance as the number of trips, buckets, people to carry said buckets etc, will help us determine their size.

[LibraryOgre]

Never underestimate the value of Charm person. Get one of them alone, Charm him, and get as much information as you can.

[AtanitheRanger]

Alright, news from the last session. We had gone to the lake in the area that the towns halfling General store owner suggested we go to if we wanted to find a source of water for anyone who would be hiding out in the forest. On the way our ranger botched his track skill and found us a Wyvern cavern to spend the night in. Thankfully we managed to get away and survive the night but not without the loss of a bandit from who knows how far off. He was dropped in front of us some hundred yards where he met his end.

The next day we traveled on and ran into three more bandits who were searching for the one from last night. They said that he had stolen the bosses magic ring. We ambushed them and now have a level 1 thief in our party. We learned that the group we were seeking is different from the one we actually encountered on the road. And that the two groups are the Specter's and the Bloody Badgers. We have been encountering the bloody badgers mostly. Now we're thinking of dealing with the groups patrols around the lake before heading in under the guise as new recruits with the help of the thief. The only problem now is is that we have another bandit grunt that we have to deal with. We're thinking of heading back to town to drop him off at the local garrison to be imprisoned as it is not within many of our alignments to kill him outright.

Thoughts on how to proceed?

[veti]

Thoughts on how to proceed?

Two gangs? I recommend watching 'A Fistful of Dollars' for inspiration on how to handle that. Long story short: DM willing, it should be possible to get them to fight each other, leaving you with just residual opposition to wipe out.

Alternatively, if there's natural hazards such as wyverns knocking about the place, it should be possible to get them to do the fighting for you. Either trick the bandits into invading its cave, or trick the wyvern into invading their camp...

[AtanitheRanger]

Two gangs? I recommend watching 'A Fistful of Dollars' for inspiration on how to handle that. Long story short: DM willing, it should be possible to get them to fight each other, leaving you with just residual opposition to wipe out.

Alternatively, if there's natural hazards such as wyverns knocking about the place, it should be possible to get them to do the fighting for you. Either trick the bandits into invading its cave, or trick the wyvern into invading their camp...

Not a bad idea. I'm sure if we came up with a little planning we might be able to coax the wyvern to go into the camp and mess things around. After all only us stepping inside it's lair made it angry enough to fly out for the night. Only problem is we've taken up an NPC thief. A young lad who's brother is still in the camp and I promised him I'd try and get him out with little to no harm befalling him.

[AtanitheRanger]

Well I've been discussing idea's with my party members, those that I could get a hold of at the time that is. We know we have to deal with the bandit groups at some point, the problem is we just don't have all the factors. We know for certain that the Bloody Badgers are in fact bandits, robbing, killing and so on. But the other group are still an enigma. For all we know they could be Robin Hood-esque people. Their leader, to me at least, seemed to be pegged as a paladin.

But we were thinking of trying to get both of them to duke it out. Or even better get them to fight the wyvern and maybe even kill it, softening their numbers. We just don't know how to go about doing so.

I thought that we could try and trick them into going into the wyverns cave. Thus making it easier to kill it while still letting him deal with a number of goons. But then it's just how to make that happen. I was thinking of dressing as Badgers and attacking their patrols, letting a few get away with the "knowledge" that we were hiding out in a cave nearby. Also letting it slip that we were specters, which we're not.

Has anyone here dealt with a wyvern before? If so any thoughts on making this a three-way knock out?

[veti]

Plant a rumour in the village (= let someone overhear you discussing) that the reason you came to this dump in the first place was to find a hiding place for a McGuffin. (You might want to get creative about how you came by the McGuffin - you want something that won't immediately brand you as criminals, but also explains why you've kept so quiet about it and why it's so precious. Or you could just leave that unexplained. Just so long as the listener is in no doubt that it's insanely valuable.)

After much fossicking around, and skirmishes with bandits, you found a place: the wyvern cave. (Mention that it's a wyvern cave, because there's a reasonable chance some people already know that - and if they don't, it will help to discourage innocent villagers from stumbling in.) You picked it as a location that should be secure against anything short of a strong armed gang, until you come back later with your boss to retrieve it.

("Your boss" should be some Very Important Person that everyone has heard of, but nobody ever expects to see in some measly dump like this. Think of a duke or prince.)

You are, of course, worried about the bandits, because in full force you're pretty sure they could take the wyvern. But you plan to distract them by stirring up trouble between them and the Badgers (edit: sorry, I mean "between them and the Robin Hood wannabes", getting my factions confused there), and hope that'll hold their attention until the duke arrives with his full force, which will of course wipe the whole forest clean.

(Of course, this plan is based on the assumption that the bandits have spies in the village who will come to hear of the rumour, but that seems a good bet - I can't imagine how else they'd function. If they don't take the bait... you might have to get more proactive. Maybe entice one of the more morally suspect villagers to take the story to them, in exchange for a cut of the proceeds.)

[AtanitheRanger]

Well I'm happy to inform everyone that the bandits have been dealt with with none of the party members even being hit. After finding one of their caches of stolen goods from the second bandit we kept. We left a note for the leader telling him where to find it if he wanted it back. Which was the wyvern cave. Then we waited for him for a day and a half to show up with himself, a wizard and 11 other bandit goons. At first they were going to circle the area to catch us. As the leader wasn't a fool and knew it was a trap. So, thinking fast the ranger lobbed an arrow into the wyvern cave, angering it so it came out and began attacking the cleric and his men.

Then, unexpectedly, the Specters showed up. A wizard popped in half way through and commanded the wvyern to kill the cleric. Which he did next turn. So here we were with a high level wizard, a wyvern he controls and his commander who is either a high level fighter or paladin, I'm not sure, surrounding us. Thankfully all they wanted was a ring that the bandit leader had stolen. Which was a ring of an Efreeti. Not wanting to get killed we told them they could have it back. As long as we could get the wvyerns gear.

So in the end. We dealt with the bandit leader, didn't even get touched by the wyvern, found out that the Specters are actually a rebel group against the emperor. And a spear +1, longsword +1, chainmail +1, 2 healing potions, a potion of sweet water, and two priest scrolls containing two cure light wounds, remove fear and one containing turn wood. Plus plenty of weapons and armor to sell once we get back to town. The wizard, fighter, cleric and thief we picked up all leveled the poor ranger is 57 exp off of leveling up, wasn't to happy with that. And I am sadly some 500 off of level 4.

I will keep you guys in the loop if anything else comes up that I'd like to ask about. Till then guys!

[AtanitheRanger]

Evening everyone! Time for another 2E game update. I'm hoping you veterans can give me your thoughts on how to handle some situations we're getting into in the coming games. I suppose it's best to give a little bit of a recap for any of those that enjoy hearing tales of other games but I'll try and keep it short as I am prone to prattling on.

After finishing our business with the bandits near Yarm, we were rewarded with loot, exp, a level and some gold from their con-joined gear and the amount the Guard captain gave us. Having dealt with all of the local problems we decided to move on to the next town. A place called Zendar which was the trading hub of the continent, all roads lead to Zendar and what not. Here we were informed of some Gnoll slavers that had been kidnapping people in the area and selling them off. After a conversation with the Dwarven Captain, whom heard our exploits with the goblins of Yarm some weeks back, he gladly offered to pay us 100 gold pieces more on top of the 750 g.p we were getting for the bounty. The party was not so happy with this as I, the Bard, had woven a tail of us taking on over 100 goblins (when in fact it was merely 20 or so). The Dwarf Captain demanded that on our return I tell him the tale, and that is a bridge I'll come to later. For right now we're in the midst of our adventure.

After taking out 8 gnoll's in a hard fought battle. We came across a small group of deceased adventurers, along with two more gnoll's. We learned that they were escorting a lady of faith of St. Cuthbert. Of course being the gentlemen I informed the party that we should try and save her, as we were heading after the gnolls anyway. So now we find ourselves chasing over a score of gnoll's and their hyena pets. There is only 6 of us in total. We've learned that they are heading to an old fort just a few days north and were thinking of trying to get in. As it's easier to fight large creatures in close corridors then be pelted by arrows in the courtyard.
We had also found a battleaxe of gnoll's bane on the paladin of St. Cuthbert (he sadly did not survive the gnoll's attack) and a ring of protection. My personal thoughts are on trying to defeat the Gnoll's leader. Having learned that they, being tribal creatures have a hierarchy. The strongest leads and etc. I'm thinking if we kill their boss, they might fall in line.

Thoughts?

[veti]

Well, if you get to the fort before they do...

... then a lot depends on whether it's unoccupied, or whether there are more gnolls (or something else) already in residence.

In the former case, you're made - you can waltz in and set up an ambush for the gnolls when they arrive. Assuming you've got at least one magic-user (or illusionist) in the party, you should be able to take on odds of 3:1 easily with that much tactical advantage.

In the latter case, things would be a little more difficult. Possibly a lot more difficult. But still not as difficult as they would be if you waited for the gnolls to get back and the two forces could combine. An ideal way of handling this situation might be to trick the tower-resident gnolls (or whatever) into fighting the incoming gnolls for you, but I can't immediately think of any likely way to do that.

Alternatively, if the tower is occupied, you could try to ambush the travelling gnolls before they get there. Hit-and-run sneak attack on their camp, kill a few of them, run away before they can regroup. Poison or drug the hyenas. Obviously, you also want to give them a false impression about who's doing this to them.

[AtanitheRanger]

A hit and run tactic may be a good idea but the majority of the party is wearing chain mail and shields. The two exceptions are the wizard and thief. Meaning if we tried to hit their camp and take a few out, we'd easily be out ran. The area around us also does not bode well for that tactic either. The majority of it is open plains with sparse tree coverage at best. They would see us coming long before we could even get close. Getting to the fortress before them would be the best idea but the Gnoll's do have a day or two ahead of us and even if we rode our horses ragged we think they most likely would get there before we would. Our Wizard sadly is a Necromancer so the illusion spells are forbidden to him. However, if we were to get to the fort before the Gnolls we doubt there would be many Gnolls there if at all as the party of Gnolls we are following are at least 30+. If there are any there they would be minimal, watching and keeping post. Or, there is the possibility that it's an old fort that they stumbled upon in their travels and use from time to time. Packing up the whole pack when they leave and going to and from as they please. So far the best plan we have is still to try and find a way in and deal with the problem bit by bit. The less space the Gnolls have to use the better for us.

Update: We've learned that the fortress is indeed a stone fortress from centuries ago. Most of the walls and Ramparts have crumbled but there is an intricate sub system beneath it. The area around has sparse tree's like the plains and there isn't much we can use for cover. The Gnoll's also have slaves of which we don't want to poison but we were thinking of trying to use a concoction that would temporarily paralyze or put to sleep the Gnoll's so we could go in.

[AtanitheRanger]

Well, though I can't say for certain that spiking the Gnoll's water source is our exact plan. It seems to be the best one presented to us from where we stand. Now if we were to go about doing so we'd have to find either something near by or trek all the way back to the nearest town. It's not to much of a problem on horse back but our main concern is the Gnoll's themselves. This old fortress doesn't seem to be their main lair, more or less a stopping point on their journey. We fear if we head off to go grab poison we'll lose track of them and then we'll be boned. A form of action would be to leave behind some players to watch their position. But this brings up the age old problem of "Never split the party." So we're kind of drawing blanks on how exactly to proceed.

[veti]

Didn't the gnolls have prisoners? So the spiking would have to be with something nonlethal. Bearing in mind that "nonlethal" to a prisoner, who may be elderly and/or not very healthy to start with, might be pretty much unnoticeable to a gnoll.

You could try something really simple, like large quantities of vodka or equivalent, which won't do much directly to the gnolls, but will make them sleep soundly. Also has the advantage that you won't get (particularly) suspicious looks for finding/buying it.

Also keep in mind that spiking the only water source for miles around is often Not The Brightest Idea in the wilderness. Make sure you've got an alternative supply of water for yourselves and any prisoners you might rescue, and for that matter any gnoll captives you might end up with.

[Trodon]

Hi, ranger for the game here. The problems I saw with spiking the water souce with whatever alcohol we could get are A; the price, enough alcohol to get 30+ large creatures all drunk with their standard drinking habits would cost a fortune, and we don't have that and B; transportation, even if we did buy all of that it would probably take a few trips with our cart to get it all there, that's a lot of booze.

But that's just my two coppers, take it as you will.

[Lord Torath]

And C, you'd probably do better just offering to trade the booze for the prisoners rather than drugging their water supply.

[Herabec]

I think the Gnolls would be more likely to trade a few dozen arrows for the booze.

[AtanitheRanger]

We've no need for arrows. The price of the alcohol would be far greater then that of the arrows we'd get in return. As for the Gnolls we've solved at least one problem. Instead of going head first into the keep (like fools might do at our level) we decided to try and find an alternate way in. Well, thre just so happened to be a sink hole a few miles away from the keep. After climbing down and walking some ways we came across a cavern branching off into two paths. One led to an egg chamber (which we promptly left) and the other brought us to a horde of gold and other treasures. This tipped our warning radars, not wanting to die we decided to leave before whatever lived here came back. Unfortunately, or conveniently depending on how it went. As we turned to leave, we heard the unwelcomed sound of sniffing and scratching. Whatever lived here had in fact returned. Not wanting to meet it we decided to run back into the chamber and attempt to find a path out. After scrounging we managed to find a stuck stone trigger, shoving the rangers shoulder against it we knocked it loose and it activated. Thus opening the hidden passage that led us away from the dragon, who was now entering the cavern itself. Needless to say, we fled and fled hard. Our efforts were rewarded though as after some further searching, the secret passage way led us to the keeps own dungeon! Which we are now waiting for the next session to charge in and kill the Gnoll prison guard to see what kind of captives they have.

My question for this week is as follows: What to do while in enemy territory when the cleric is out of heals? As it says our parties cleric is out of his spells for today and we're right in the middle of the hot spot. We can't really rest because eventually we'd get found out. We also can't just charge in and attempt to kill 30+ Gnolls and not expect to get hurt now and then. We still have a few healing pots and the cleric does have a scroll of a few cure light wounds but what do you think we should do? Hide back out in the cavern tunnels for a day or press on?

[Chambers]

Unless there's a time emergency I wouldn't rush in. Low on resources is not a good way to start a battle where you're outnumbered 5 to 1.

What do you think your chances are of parlaying with the dragon? Perhaps the dragon doesn't appreciate having a warband of gnolls this close to his cave. Maybe he doesn't know about the secret passageway that leads from the keep to his horde. That would probably get his attention. If you think it's possible, I'd try and broker a deal with the dragon: the dragon aids you (in some manner) in taking out the gnolls. You all do most of the grunt work and he gets rid of this gnoll problem.

[AtanitheRanger]

I don't think there's any real chance of us bargaining with this dragon. He didn't seem to happy to see us and the acidic breath weapon really helped us determine that it was probably a Green Dragon of some kind. He didn't appear to have any means of speech so talking to him sounds fruitless. Plus the only way back would be through the cavern and secret passage, which is covered floor to ceiling with acidic residue. Even if we could talk to it, there isn't any reason for it to really care about the Gnolls. If this is their base of operations then they've been there a lot less longer then the Dragon who's been living underneath them. They haven't affected him and even if they tried they would most likely be destroyed which granted would be great, but I don't see any real way of getting them to fall for going into the Dragons lair.

[veti]

Hi, ranger for the game here. The problems I saw with spiking the water souce with whatever alcohol we could get are A; the price, enough alcohol to get 30+ large creatures all drunk with their standard drinking habits would cost a fortune, and we don't have that and B; transportation, even if we did buy all of that it would probably take a few trips with our cart to get it all there, that's a lot of booze.

You wouldn't have to get them drunk, or even tipsy. There's a level of intoxication well below that, which is barely noticeable (particularly if you're not expecting it 'cuz you couldn't taste the alcohol), which just makes you a bit drowsy and inattentive. But even so, you're probably right that it's not a very practical scheme.

We've no need for arrows.

I think Herabec was suggesting that the gnolls would be more likely to offer the arrows - point-first, if you get my meaning.

I'm not too clear about this latest development. There's a tunnel that, for some weird reason, connects the gnolls' tower, a dragon's cave, and a convenient sink hole? Or is the sink hole also the way the dragon comes and goes? Anyway, my first instinct is to get the gnolls to rob the dragon, which you could do as follows:
1. Wait for the dragon to not be paying too much attention. Sooner or later it will either wander off out of its cave again, or go to sleep.
2. Send the party thief back into its hoard, with instructions to filch something large, gaudy and stupidly valuable. The rest of the party hides in some convenient side tunnel. (There's always one.)[1]
3. Thief "escapes" down the tunnel and "blunders" straight into the gnolls' camp, where he is instantly captured. In bargaining for his life, he offers (with slight show of reluctance) to show them where he came by this valuable object, and warns them about the dragon.
4. Gnolls lock up the thief and head out (either down the tunnel or overland, or both) to loot the cave.[2]
5. While they're busy with that, the rest of the party liberates the tower, frees the captives and runs like hell. After that, you don't really care what happens between the gnolls and the dragon. Just be sure to leave the trinket behind in the tower (you can take whatever other loot the gnolls have).

[1] If possible, the thief should have secreted a lockpick about his person somewhere - secretive. It'll make the later escape a bit easier.
[2] Make sure plenty of gnoll grunts see you with the treasure, and overhear your story of how you came by it. Gnolls are not highly disciplined, and even if their leader decides it's too risky, chances are excellent that some of them will decide to risk it anyway.

Obviously this is a high-risk plan for the thief - but hey, all thieves are rubbish at risk assessment, that's why they're thieves... Something depends on your thief's Charisma and how your system handles bluff checks.

Worst case is that the gnolls would simply kill the thief, or "sacrifice" him to the dragon. I can't put a positive spin on that, so you might want to refine the base plan outlined above. Another risk is that the dragon would be so annoyed that it attacks the tower, endangering the prisoners. But that's not as bad as it sounds, because the whole point of this plan is that it puts the gnolls between you and the dragon, so all you have to do is bust the prisoners out quickly and then hoof it down the tunnel while the gnolls and dragon are busy with each other.

[AtanitheRanger]

Well we managed to get through the majority of the old keep. Took down over 20 Gnolls without even spending so much as a healing potion until we hit the poison trap. We've been out of cleric spells pretty much from the get-go and now we've reached some closed double doors. It is a bit of meta-gaming but the DM gave us a glimpse of the room ahead before we ended the session and it looks pretty boss room-y. So I hope to be back later to tell you how we pulled it off, if we pull it off. Otherwise my next post might be about asking what class I should play next :P till then guys!

P.S sorry about not replying in a long time, been busy. What with the Christmas season and all.

[AtanitheRanger]

Hey everyone, long time no see! Sorry about being quiet for so long. The holiday's brought the game time to a halt for a bit and after that I decided to not really post anything until something worth posting occurred. And boy, do I got a diddly for you all today.

We defeated the Gnoll's at the keep. Got ourselves some scrolls, potions and a magical hammer. Saved a girl and some other poor people who were going to be enslaved and shipped off for money. So we free them and head back to Zendar, the trading town. And lo what doth we see? But Gallows getting made in the town square. After getting some info off of the Guard captain we learn that There were some Bloody Badgers who were caught and are going to be hung for their crimes. All and all good right? Well theres a slight problem. Our NPC thief was once apart of the Badgers, and so was his brother. We got him to join up with us because we needed a trap monkey, but that doesn't mean we can't treat him like a party member. So I made him a promise that if he'd help us we'd try and get his brother out of the badgers as well. We hadn't seen hide nor hair of him since we took down their leader some weeks back. We felt that there was a good chance that he'd probably be here. So I went with him to the Guard captain to at least plead with him so that Verk (the thief) could say goodbye to his brother. Wouldn't have any of it. Thus there was little we could do but return to the tavern and try and convey some kind of plan.

It was here that, after tailoring a tale to the crowd of our exploits, we were met with none other then Ser Arlen Griswold of the Specters. A knight of renown now fighting against the Tyranny of the king. He informs us to "leave town" otherwise he cannot guarantee our safety tomorrow. We informed him that we could not until our business was finished. We still needed to find Verk's brother, and get our fighter his +1 splint-mail that we got off of the Gnoll Shaman. He then nodded understandable and left. On the morrow I asked one last time if Verk could see his brother, it was to no avail though as Captain Granitehammer said that if the family member wanted to see him then it should be the family member asking. And at this time Verk had disappeared. So I and the rest of the party retired to the inn's balcony to watch the fireworks. Sure enough the Specters attacked during the hangings, Verk's brother was there (and the ranger was able to cut his rope with an arrow, allowing him to flea into the dispersing crowd.) But we couldn't stand by and do nothing. I felt these were decent folk trying to do good, at least so far even if it is by underhanded measures. Therefore didn't want to harm them (not that I could with my rolls that week. Didn't get above a 7 ) We fought, they fought, the town guard fought. A mash pit of clashing steel. Then we had Griswold to face. Now for the more experienced 2E players, Griswold was in fact a knight. Not just in title as you have to be a certain level to attain that in 2E don't you? Meaning this guy was 9th level. The highest level character in the party at this time is me at level 4. Yet we somehow manage to take this guy down. Thanks to the wizards magic missile scrolls. But now the real **** storm happens. After he goes down into an unconscious state, I myself being in one from trying to clash swords with him moments ago. (Of which he was kind enough to spare my life) The ranger decides that there needs to be a warning set here this day and thus comes up and coup d'tat's the unconscious Griswold. The very man whom gave us fair warning. Whom asked us to leave and whom was kind enough not to kill me. Kills him out right. Right in front of his boss. A wizard. And since the wizard is his boss. That means he's at least equal in level if not higher. I don't think I need to go into greater detail on what happened next. One word, two syllables: Fireball.

Down goes the ranger, down goes the cleric. The fighter though stands at 1 hp after taking half damage. Now instead of being mutual in understanding. We've made a terrible enemy. The wizard after killing two of our members takes Griswolds body and the clerics and leaves, teleports. Now we're down two members, lost the magical hammer we gave the cleric as a "Good job being our healer and keeping us alive, here, hit **** better" and have made enemys of a wizard. All and all a typical way to get an adventuring party going right?

So we ended the session with that. The two players are making their new characters a fighter/mage and fighter/cleric. Next session is tonight we plan to drop the girl off in the next town and head to Blackhollow where we were summoned by, what I assume is a noble wanting our help with a job. Who is also willing to pay us 1,500 gold pieces to do so. I hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you all in the next chapter.

[LibraryOgre]

Good luck! Sounds like a lot of fun, and one of the many ways adventures can go down the crapper.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions" and all that.

[AtanitheRanger]

Hey everyone, sorry for the long few weeks of silence. Internet was down for two and we had the game cancelled on the first anyways. But I'm back now and we've had another session which I wish to share before tomorrows came comes a kicking around.

So From where we left off we managed to save a young girl from Gnolls whom we found out has been born with infernal magics and has numerous carvings around her body to show case that fact. We decided the best thing to do was complete the paladins mission and bring her to Kaloth, a city of magic. A good place for such a troubled girl to go for help right? Well the only thing we could figure out to do was attempt to exorcise her which the cleric said might kill her. While we were discussing whether or not this is the right as its playing with someones life. (Yes, our party has an actual sense of morality which sometimes shocks our DM, really funny to watch actually.) But the Former ranger's new fighter/mage decides to act on his own and goes off telling the poor girl that the clerics intend on killing her. Well what would any teenager do when they'd receive news like that? She ran. Now we were scouring the city trying to find her, found out she ended up in an abandon crythium mine (probably spelled that wrong.) So we entered to look for her. We fought ghouls, a wight which thankfully we killed before he could really harm us. A Minotaur, wererats and then an evil adventuring party who's boss, another wizard, had somehow put the infernal girl (who's name is Melody, I probably told you all this but I forgot myself. ) under a trance. he was making her identify the crythium or something and when we barged in we didn't exactly make them happy. The new fighter/cleric had run in and swung at the first guy, even though we had all agreed on saying we'd try and talk things out before fighting. He apologized as he felt bad for initiating combat accidentally.

But now the gloves are off people! The fight begins. On the players side: A mage, a bard, a fighter and two multiclass characters. Fighter/cleric and fighter/mage. The odds seem ok. On the evil parties side: Two fighters, a cleric, a thief and a wizard. First round comes around, Our mage pops a magic missile onto the enemy wizard. He is displeased but thankfully he was using a magic item to teleport out of the fight.

Our fighter engages theirs whom is using a two-handed sword while our cleric fights another fighter. Their thief keeps shooting me with arrows, but thankfully misses as I attempt to disrupt the enemy clerics spell channeling...I miss. Damn Bard THAC0. He blesses the enemy party. Thief still cant hit. Our fighter is holding his own ground with the help of the fighter/mage. Enemy cleric hold persons our cleric, allowing the fighter he was engaging to come over and two v. two the fighter/mage and fighter. Enemy two-handed sword fighter breaks through and drops our mage. Then, the other fighter fighter drops our fighter/mage. But not before I crit and do enough damage to drop the enemy cleric who has joined the fray. Now our fighter is 1 v 2ing their fighters while I rush to go and stop the enemy thief from Coup de 'gracing our cleric. It is an epic Roguish dual. Would have been better if our dwarf cleric/fighter could roll to save on his paralyze state. He can't. Finally Our fighter drops their two-handed sword fighter. Enraging the other who then drops him with two attacks. I finish off the thief as he and the last fighter attempt to flee. Leaving our party victorious and barely alive as I'm sure the last fighter (whom the DM had Named Goffrey now that I recollect. ) will be out for vengeance.

After healing up and identifying a new pick for the cleric and robes for the wizard we head off to Blackhollow, which we overheard the teleporting wizard tell the big fighter with the two-handed sword to meet him up. Our ride brought us close to the swamp lands where Zane, our Wizard grew up. And apparently within its borders is a strange creature that sucks the magic out of spell using persons. After he drained Zane, myself and the fighter/mage of 10 int and con. Our party decided it was best to leave the tents, grab our backpacks and bolt out of the swamp as fast as our horses could ride. We did not stop until we reached Last light, Zanes home town. Where his uncle/teacher resides. And the session ended with Zane spouting off how he was going to chew his uncle out for never telling him about the beast that drained magic and only lived 20 miles from home.

Well I hope you all enjoyed my latest rendition of our shenanigans in D&D 2E. I know I have and I will see you guys all, in the next chapter. Til then.

[LibraryOgre]

Sounds like fun!

[veti]

Did you succeed in retrieving the girl? How's she doing?

If you have got her, then what the blazes are you doing pursuing these two recreants with that albatross still wrapped around your throat? Surely get rid of her, palm her off on someone you trust to look after her, before you head purposely toward more trouble.

[Herabec]

DM here.

No, they unfortunately failed to save the girl. When the mage managed to activate his ring of teleportation, he took her with him as both hostage and prize. The reason the group is heading up through the swamp is to try and get to her since he so helpfully dropped an exposition-y line. "When they're dead, meet me in Y city!"

You know how it goes.