Category: Uncategorized

==Roll Call==
Childe Raymonde, Githyanki Paladin (Doty)
Bell, Kenku Cleric (CJ)
Blynce, Human-hybrid Fighter (Eric)
Vaal, Eladrin Rogue (Tim)
Bumi, Goblin Sorcerer (Matt)

To the Sanctuary of Albahith, Jigow Township

Greetings to the Masters of the Pilgrims, and hail to The Luxon:

Mission Report from Childe Raymonde (Part 9)

Our group of adventurers had delivered the envoy from Urzen swamp town safely, and now we found ourselves in Jigow for the Festival of Merit!

Most of us stayed the night at the Sanctuary, but Vaal demanded more luxurious accomodations, in accordance with his self-proclaimed social status.

I did manage to have a talk with Bumi about his experience with The Luxon. I'm not sure how much I learned, but I think I understand a bit more about what it's been like for him to have memories of past lives. "When you get older, you go through 'amanesis' which helps you remember the past lives. As long as you've been through the consecution -- binding your soul to The Luxon -- and die within range of a beacon, you should come back." He also mentioned how this "life" has been harder than previous ones -- poverty and discrimination were his lot growing up.

In the morning, Bumi told of a vivid dream he had about an "angel lady." Also, the augury stones we had retrieved from the swamp were hot! "Something about saving someone, but Bumi not know who to save."

We went to collect Vaal. Bumi flabbergasted me by stating that his and my destinies were entwined -- this was in the context of enlisting my aid in his cheating in the arm-wrestling contest at the festival. I was so rattled that I agreed to do whatever he said.

The town streets were crowded, as usual during the festival. We went to the arm-wrestling. The champion, a female orc of the Aurora Watch, had just dispatched a challenger. Merrill Bronzefang, the champion, would not face Bumi until he'd defeated one of the other arm-wrestlers (there were two Drow of the Aurora Watch fulfilling this function at the moment).

Bumi turned me invisible so I could aid him in arm-wrestling. After defeating a lieutenant, we took on the champion. Bumi -- we? -- won again. The crowd surged towards Bumi to congratulate him, and I slipped away to avoid being bumped into.

The bookmaker said that one other contestant had beaten Merrill today, an ogre named Maggie Keen-eyes, and that he would have to defeat her to get the medal today.

Bumi dropped the invisibility on me and instead used an enchantment on himself. He altered his own density, increasing his strength. He won!

We went to the maze event -- Blynce spoke with a Goblin, who was friends of the same Ogre that Bumi had just defeated. This Ogre told Blynce a strategy to win the maze. With Maggie's help, Blynce succeeded! (Afterwards, Maggie's friend asked Blynce to find his friend Ayo and ask what the plan is after the final ceremony.)

We went to the riddles event. Vaal guessed correctly on the "lock box" riddle and won. Vaal guessed the second one and won! He agreed to attempt the third riddle -- Bumi guessed correctly!

We had prevailed in three of the events during the Festival of Merit!

==Roll Call==
Childe Raymonde, Githyanki Paladin (Doty)
Bell, Kenku Cleric (CJ)
Blynce, Human-hybrid Fighter (Eric)
Vaal, Eladrin Rogue (Tim)
Bumi, Goblin Sorcerer (Matt)
Morgid, Hobgoblin Envoy (NPC)

To the Sanctuary of Albahith, Jigow Township

Greetings to the Masters of the Pilgrims, and hail to The Luxon:

Mission Report from Childe Raymonde (Part 8)

On our way to Jigow town, escorting Morgid as envoy to the Kryn Dynasty government.

We awoke in the Kobold camp, and immediately noticed that they had painted fairly accurate portraits of us on the side of their grounded airship!

The Kobolds encouraged us to go retrieve the airship's control rod from the Goblins and Troll who had stolen it. I was a bit dubious about their story, and wondered if there were a way to peacefully get the rod away from them. Perhaps a trade of some sort? The other party members' reaction was not initially encouraging.

We went in the direction and distance indicated and began scouting. Blynce suddenly came upon a group of Goblins, a Troll, and two bound and gagged Kobolds. Blynce attacked instantly, severely wounding a Goblin. I tried to reach the scene of action, but could not do so immediately.

The Goblins began to press the attack against all of us, Blynce especially. We were hampered by trees blocking our view, and the fact that we were spread out in a scout pattern. Bumi was hit by a Goblin arrow, and then cruelly swiped by the Troll!

So much for parlaying. I charged the Troll and slashed it. The combat continued and we quickly dispatched most of the Goblins. The Troll, however, began to heal its wounds. The Troll wounded me terribly, but we fought on. We knocked down the Troll, and the one remaining Goblin ran away. Vaal set the Troll on fire, so that it would not regenerate. Blynce fired an arrow into the fleeing Goblin but did not take it down. Bumi finished it with a flying rock.

We released the Kobolds and retrieved the control rod (which was hidden in some shrubbery).

We returned to the Kobold camp, and there was rejoicing at the return of the captives, and of the return of the control rod.

We partied with the Kobolds and cast off in the restored airship the next morning. The Kobolds christened it "Dragonwing" but Blynce called it "Lollipop." The airship was slow, and would take at least a day to reach Jigow town. We passed herds of mastodon and at least one bemused caravan on the road.

We arrived at Jigow. I was home! The Kobolds bade us goodbye and took off again. Vickik mentioned that they were not welcome in Jigow, having been kicked out previously. I was taken aback by that.

I pointed out the inns, market, and Aurora Watch post, and left my comrades to go check in at the Pilgrimage.

In my absence, Morgid and the others went to the Aurora Watch, where they were paid 250gp each, the amount agreed upon back at Urzen swamp town. We were just in time -- the Festival of Merit starts tomorrow!

==Roll Call==
Childe Raymonde, Githyanki Paladin (Doty)
Bell, Kenku Cleric (CJ)
Blynce, Human-hybrid Fighter (Eric)
Vaal, Eladrin Rogue (Tim)
Bumi, Goblin Sorcerer (Matt)
Morgid, Hobgoblin Envoy (NPC)

To the Sanctuary of Albahith, Jigow Township

Greetings to the Masters of the Pilgrims, and hail to The Luxon:

Mission Report from Childe Raymonde (Part 7)

We were on our way to Jigow town, escorting Morgid as envoy to the Kryn Dynasty government.

Coming out of the dusty wasteland, we saw the beginnings of forest ahead of us. Something was moving towards the south -- we could see dust rising from the ground. A herd of mastodon!

I tucked Bumi under my arm as we sprinted for forest cover. Vaal helped Blync, who had stumbled. We made it without further incident, and found a forest trail.

We were attacked by kobolds! But they were no match for us, and we knocked them unconscious. Reviving them (one, unfortunately was beyond reviving), they asked us to go with them to see a mage of some sort? One "Vikick"? We took them (properly restrained) to some sort of wooden ship, but with wings instead of sails. The ship was laying on the ground, propped up with timbers -- it looked like it had crashed there, and was being used as a dwelling ever since.

Apparently, the kobolds wanted to repair the ship and fly away. We saw Dwendalian Empire markings on the ship (being obliterated by the kobolds). Apparently the Kobold attack was a misguided attempt to "find things" to repair the ship. "Vikick" was the leader of the kobolds.

Vikick told us of a control rod which had been stolen by goblins (who had a troll thug working with them). There was also some insulating fungus that was needed. Also…and Vikick soft-pedaled this…some baslisk blood. Blync picked up on the last item and made sure that's really what she was saying.

We decided to go after the baslisk first. (Why were we doing this?) Anyway, we lured it out of its cave, taking care to avoid eye contact. It actually went down fairly easily from our missile weapons and a frontal attack from Vaal.

Side note: we found statues in front of the basilisk lair. These were apparently the Imperial crew, so we felt no need to try to figure out how to reanimate them.

Moving over to the fungus patch, we were attacked by some kind of globular fungus thing with tentacles! Vaal foolishly ran forward to attack it and was grappled, pummelled, and engulfed immediately. Vaal mercifully lost consciousness.

The rest of us waded into the combat. This thing was way tougher than the basilisk! We hacked and hacked at it, and a final boulder-throw form Bumi took it out. We retrieved the unconscious Vaal in time to save him, and took the fungus back to the kobold encampment. Then we rested (setting careful watch due to not completely trusting our hosts).

==Roll Call==
Childe Raymonde, Githyanki Paladin (Doty)
Bell, Kenku Cleric (CJ)
Blynce, Human-hybrid Fighter (Eric)
Vaal, Eladrin Rogue (Tim)
Bumi, Goblin Sorcerer (Matt)
Morgid, Hobgoblin Envoy (NPC)

To the Sanctuary of Albahith, Jigow Township

Greetings to the Masters of the Pilgrims, and hail to The Luxon:

Mission Report from Childe Raymonde (Part 6)

We were asked by the leader of the swamp village Urzin, Buff-All the 2nd, to escort his aide Morgid, who was being sent to Jigow town as an envoy to the Kryn Dynasty government. Morgid was being sent to give them the information we had found about the Dwendalian Empire's activities at the edge of the Brokenveil Marsh.

We set off east-ward through the desolation that lay between the swamp and Jigow. We noticed a sandstorm heading our way, a bad one. We hurried towards some nearby hills, seeking shelter. It was evening before the sandstorm subsided, and we decided to stay where we were for the night.

There were a couple narrow, small canyons in our vicinity, and we wanted to scout around a little bit before camping down. Blynce volunteered to be levitated to the top of a pinnacle, and he notices some odd stony proturberances in some sandy areas among the canyons, reminiscent of buried shark fins. He fired a test arrow at one of the areas -- a noticable tremor resulted?

We conjectured that there were abominable beasts hidden in the sand and proceeded carefully. Skirting the edge of one of the sandy areas, the goblin sorcerer Bumi lost his footing, rolling into the center of one of the sandy areas. Ant Lion!

The beast erupted from the sand, menacing our goblin friend. It grappled Bumi, hurting him grievously. Twisting free, Bumi climbed out of the shallow cone of sand that was the Ant Lion's lair. The Ant Lion threw a glob of sand at Bumi but missed. From his high vantage, Blynce shot the Ant Lion with an arrow, causing it to stumble in its pursuit of Bumi. Morgid pierced it with a thrown spear.

Vaal slashed it expertly with his rapier and stepped back out of the fray. The Ant Lion was looking ragged. I stepped forward to the attack but stumbled! I was now behind and below the thing, and used my divine smite on it, finishing it.

The remains of a previous victim were found, and we retrieved something that looked like the hilt of a rapier. Elvish writing on the hilt said "Sandstorm." Vaal thought he might be able to activate the thing given some time.

We regained the trail, and groaned to realize we had to pass another one of those Ant Lion lairs. We tried to use a rope to climb past it and only found ourselves next to a very large lair indeed. Avoiding that one, we found a sack laying on the ground, which Blynce retrieved. The sack contained an odd cactus-headed mace? Weird.

In trying to navigate out of the canyons, Blynce stumbled into yet another Ant Lion pit. It attacked! We returned the hostility, but began to hear digging…as if another Ant Lion were attempting to enter the combat area. Our fight raged back and forth … Blynce sometimes appeared to be in two places at once? (I must remember to ask him about this later.) When it was sorely wounded, it attempted to flee, but our Kenku cleric finished it off with the cactus mace. A menace to travelers was eliminated!

We found a chest nearby and grabbed it as we made our escape (other Ant Lions were approaching). We regained the main road once we cleared the canyons. The chest contained a golden cloak, adorned with cactus ornaments, and a thing that looked like a sword hilt made of quartz, with holes on either end….

A Star Trek one-shot RPG scenario using a variation of the Lasers & Feelings system.

"Today is a Good Day..."(PDF)

Cowboys of Cydonia

Based on "Lady Blackbird" by John Harper

The Pilgrims of Albahith lived in a walled compound, walking distance from the main gate of Jigow, but secluded among some barren hills. Outside the walls were fields, beehives, even a pond where fish were raised.

Childe Raymonde walked swiftly to the gate, saluting the adolescents who were on post there, one Human and one Elf. Raymonde could tell they were bursting with curiosity -- they wanted to hear what had happened on his quest.

More...

==Roll Call==
Childe Raymond, Githyanki Paladin (Doty)
Bell, Kenku Cleric (CJ)
Blynce, Human-hybrid Fighter (Eric)
Vaal, Eladrin Rogue (Tim)
Bumi, Goblin Sorcerer (Matt)
Morgid, Hobgoblin Guide (NPC)

To the Sanctuary of Albahith, Jigow Township

Greetings to the Masters of the Pilgrims, and hail to The Luxon:

Mission Report from Childe Raymonde (Part 5)

We had rested on the back of the Mossback Steward (a giant tortoise, big enough to build a small town on), and prepared for the coming battle.

We asked the tortoise to divine a secret entrance to the outpost. The answer was vague but pretty negative-sounding.

We took a short trek back to the scene of the battle against the Imperial guards, thinking to take enough of their uniforms and equipments to create a disguise or two.

Sneaking back to the outpost, we saw nobody? No guards in the towers, no guards in the gate, which stood open. The storm -- the atmospheric disturbance we saw over the place before -- was gone. What had happened? Were we too late to save Bolbarra?

Vaal, figuring "well, they left the door open" walked right in, the rest of us behind him. We found eight guards … dead. Blync confirmed their dead-ness by shooting one with his bow.

We saw four iron-barred cages, one of which had an occupant. Bumi investigated, while Blync looked inside a large tent. We found two more dead Imperial guards.

Inside the cage: a bruised, semi-catatonic Human, muttering to himself. I healed him and he became lucid. He was startled and suspicious, and I tried to allay his fears, telling him that we were friendly and our intent was to release him from captivity. Bell realized from his gray skin and pale eyes that this man was a "Hollow One" -- a necromantically-resurrected corpse, quasi-undead. Bell took a step back, startled, and told us what he was. Vaal took the news in stride and advocated a tolerant attitude. I did not know what to think!

The "Hollow One" again questioned who we were, and I again proclaimed our good intentions, advising him to take the opportunity to exit his cage. Vaal asked him, "What happened here?" "They're all dead," he replied. A goblin spell-caster killed them all, making them fight one another. They had tortured her for days (as they did himself). At the end of the third day, screams were heard again, but they were not her voice. The goblin lady emerged from the keep, where the torture chamber was, and the slaughter began. All the guards fought each other, and the goblin lady joined in the killing. When all were dead, she simply walked out the gate. (He also mentioned that the lead torturer's name was "Pelanos.") This all happened last night.

Bumi found a black-bladed scimitar -- the "Hollow One" claimed it was his, with sincerity in his voice. Bumi after much delay and poor attitude gave it to him.

Investigating some more, a guard was found that appears to have died of a heart attack or something similar. We also found the quartermaster's supply room and an armory. We found in one tent something looking like a commander's office, complete with a map of the surrounding territories. There was a locked chest here, which had a poison needle trap that hurt Vaal, our rogue, but not seriously. The chest contained silver, a magnifying glass, a potion of mind reading, an ornate dagger, and a strange book about mutants.

We entered the main keep: in a small side chamber we found more bodies -- apparently officers, in what appeared to be a sanctuary or chapel. We expected to find a torture chamber from what the Hollow One said, but from the chains upon the altar, this room may have served that purpose. Vaal noted that the manacles were broken -- evidence of the escape of Bollbarra.

We began to track Bollbarra. A couple miles in the swamp, we ran across the Mossback Steward again. He questioned us about Bollbarra. He was quite distrait when we described the slaughter she presumably performed. The tortoise advised us to subdue her -- perhaps the "patron" would be convinced to let her go. Her further supposed that the "patron" would have been forced to serve her, and, having control of her, would seek revenge on the swamp town. He told us to go quickly!

We chased Bollbarra and ran across another Imperial patrol -- they were all dead, the same as the guards in the outpost. Bumi tried to understand the arcane power used for this -- it was an enchantment, some sort of confusion. It seemed unlikely we would be able to protect ourselves from the power.

We found a goblin female trudging through the swamp. Presumably, this was Bollbarra. Fortunately, we were able to catch up to her, since she was slowed by the deep sludge. We closed in on her. Her normally red goblin eyes were pure black -- she had an air of pure evil, and she looked upon us with what appeared to be a hungry glee? This did not bode well.

She gestured, and disappeared from sight! We attempted to track her by the splashes of her foot-falls. With my paladin senses, I could pinpoint her location, but I kept that information to myself, so as not to alert her that she had been discovered.

Blync did figure out where she was independently, by spotting the splashing of her feet, and fired his bow ineffectively. Vaal closed on her location and attacked to subdue. She became visible and attempted an enchantment. I shrugged it off. The fight continued, and her next enchantment did befuddle me for a short while. Bumi knocked her cold; Vaal made sure she didn't drown in the mire.

We heard in our minds a primal scream of rage -- pure fury. We get the feeling we made an enemy today. We could barely detect something like a black mist rising away from her. Her eyes regained their normal appearance. Regaining consciousness, she expressed contrition at her deeds. She confirmed that it was her "patron" that was controlling her. She asked us to return her to the swamp village.

We took her back to Buffall the 2nd, mayor of the town, who was overjoyed. We were paid 250gp each!

For our next task, we were asked to go to Jigow, escorting Morgid, who is delivering intelligence to the Aurora Watch. Again, 250gp each was to be our payment. We should be there in time for the Festival of Merit!

[We advance to 3rd level!]

==Roll Call==
Childe Raymond, Githyanki Paladin (Doty)
Bell, Kenku Cleric (CJ)
Blynce, Human-hybrid Fighter (Eric)
Vaal, Eladrin Rogue (Tim)
Bumi, Goblin Sorcerer (Matt)
Morgid, Hobgoblin Guide (NPC)

To the Sanctuary of Albahith, Jigow Township

Greetings to the Masters of the Pilgrims, and hail to The Luxon:

Mission Report from Childe Raymonde (Part 4)

After our fight with the spiders, we rested in the ruined tower. The next morning, we had a brief religious discussion, but I'm not sure we really got anywhere with it.

We decided to head towards a place marked on the map that looked like a mushroom field. Arriving, we found a cave entrance set in a hill, surrounded by mushrooms and slime. The cave did not appear to be a mausoleum -- it appeared natural, at least as far as we could tell. None of us knew enough about fungus to identify the mushrooms, either.

Blynce investigated the cave entrance, and noticed a frog-like humanoid. The other didn't notice Blynce, so Blynce backed out of the cave and rejoined us. From the description, Morgid supposed this might have been a Bullywug, who were known to be present in the swamp.

Bumi cast a spell to understand the Bullywug, with the idea of perhaps getting it to tell us information about Bollbarra the goblin-witch. Upon advancing, Bumi said that we should back up, although I couldn't see what he was reacting to. Lanterns began to be lit from within the cavern! There were five Bullywugs and two large amphibioid beasts of some sort.

They apparently hadn't heard of Bollbarra, but asked for treasure in return for letting us live. We were not impressed by their threats, and combat began. We pulled back to the cave entrance, not feeling much cause to engage in a deadly fight. Our spellcasters did minor damage, and we continued to retreat in fighting formation. Bumi magically threw rocks at one of the big toads, and called upon Vaal to play his magic flute. Our enemies closed in but did not quite get within reach. Vaal played an obscure ditty on the pipes -- some of our opponents trembled in fear! We exited the cave -- they did not pursue. Bumi expressed some regret at our retreat, and in my heart I felt the same.

We continued on to the next marked place on our map -- something like a monolith. At dusk, we found a mossy knoll, with a huge crystalline shard, three feet across and about eight feet tall, shimmering and glowing. After a brief argument as to whether to investigate this place or find a camp, Bumi began to magically evaluate the crystal.

We also found traces of footprints, and an indication of something being dragged away. Perhaps Bollbarra was captured here? This knoll is apparently a place where darkly arcane rituals can be performed. The party, over my objections, made camp at the knoll. Bumi learned that this crystal could be used to cast the "commune" spell. Vaal learned that some glowing gems could be removed from the crystal (and did so) -- the gems could be used to cast some divination magic.

Bumi cast Commune - "Is Bollbarra at the outpost?" "Yes." "Is Bollbarra alive?" "Yes and no." "Will Bollbarra leave with us if we go get her?" "Maybe." We were a bit perplexed by that, but decided to proceed to the Imperial outpost.

Along the way, we sensed movement ahead of us in the marsh. Imperial soldiers! They commanded us halt in the name of the Empire. Vaal made a friendly greeting, which Bell amplified. The soldiers advanced a bit, but not into combat range. They did not appear to be immediately hostile. Their leader demanded that we hand over all goblinoids (having got a glimpse of Bumi concealing himself in my backpack). Bumi hopped down and brandished the Imperial shield we had found earlier, claiming that he was "one of them."

They accused Bumi of killing a soldier, which Bumi denied. The soldiers indicated there was a bounty on goblinoid. Bell denied meeting any soldiers before. The soldiers re-iterated their demand to hand over the goblinoid. A 25gp bounty per head! Vaal and Bumi both claimed that Bumi was worth far more than that! But then, the leader spotted our guide Morgid hiding behind a tree. "Another one!" the leader exclaimed angrily, drawing his weapon.

Bumi said, "You want shield? You can have it!" … and launched it magically at the leader, injuring him gravely. Vaal played on his pipes, causing fear in the majority of our foes! Melee ensued, and the soldiers were clearly over-matched. Morgid, furious at the bigoted soldiers, charged to the attack, a marked change from his previous holding-back. The last remaining soldier fled and we gave chase. The soldier didn't get far, and fell dead.

The party's comradeship increased quite a bit as a result of this fight. We stood together against the bigotry of the Empire, even though they tempted us with gold. I was troubled in spirit, however. I enjoyed that fight immensely, and I worry that my ancestral Githyanki bloodthirstiness is beginning to grow strong.

We found the escarpment at the edge of the marsh, and came across the seeming carcass of one of those gigantic tortoises. Morgid said "Mossback steward!" and knelt in respect and prayer. It was no carcass! It spoke to us, welcoming us. We told it that we sought Bollbarra, and it confirmed that she had been taken by the Empire to their outpost. It offered to cast divination magic for us.

We decided to reconnoiter the outpost before asking our divination question. The outpost had a persistent dark cloud above it -- some kind of magical storm! We went back to the Steward and camped on its back, thinking that we could try to penetrate the outpost at night. We ask the Steward to divine whether or not Bollbarra was currently alive -- the answer was "Bollbarra lives. Bollbarra dies. Bollbarra lives again, over many nights, but soon, Bollbarra will no longer be Bollbarra." Chilling!

We took a long rest. Bumi noticed that the gems taken from the large crystal were a bit dimmer….

==Roll Call==
Childe Raymond, Githyanki Paladin (Doty)
Bell, Kenku Cleric (CJ)
Blynce, Human-hybrid Fighter (Eric)
Vaal, Eladrin Rogue (Tim)
Bumi, Goblin Sorcerer (Matt)
Morgid, Hobgoblin Guide (NPC)

To the Sanctuary of Albahith, Jigow Township

Greetings to the Masters of the Pilgrims, and hail to The Luxon:

Mission Report from Childe Raymonde (Part 3)

We rested after our encounter with the unreasonably hostile Lizardfolk, still surrounded by the stacked bones they had assembled.

We headed towards a vague tree-shape marked on Morgid's map -- perhaps a tower? We had no real reason to do so, except that we wanted to check likely places where a wizard might find spell components, and thought something marked on the map might well be significant.

We reached the place marked on the map and saw nothing. Puzzled, we used the wand we found earlier to detect magic and found nothing. Perhaps we were in the wrong place?

Bell climbed a tree to see if he (it?) could catch a helpful glimpse. He couldn't climb very high, though, so I climbed instead. I saw off to the west something that might be a tower a few miles away. Obviously, we meandered from the straight course a little bit.

We found a crumbling, overgrown, forboding tower, starting to submerge into the swamp but still standing. We tried throwing small rocks into a 2nd story window but couldn't manage it, so we simply approached.

On the mucky first floor, I found a chest stuck in the mud. I brought it over to the Rogue, who opened it. Inside was a musical instrument - a set of pipes (looking like a Greek flute with two pipes) (later revealed as Pipes of Haunting). Vaal, in playing the pipes, caused Blynce to suddenly be mortally afraid!

We went up the stairs. On the third floor were giant spiders! A fight began. They attacked with venomous bites and sticky webs. My comrades and I defended ourselves with all the might we could muster, and The Luxon decreed that we should not meet our destiny this day. We found two previous victims of the spiders wrapped up in webs -- quite dead. The bodies had a suit of elven chainmail and a silver ring. Neither of the bodies was the Goblin-witch we've been looking for. Apparently, in clearing out the spiders we eliminated a plague-spot in the swamp, so we congratulated ourselves and prepared to rest for the night.