Myth Drannor

August 14, 2007

The group leaves the waypoint (have to check the name of it) and heads to Shadowdale. Once they arrive in Shadowdale, they go to the Old Skull Inn to talk to people. Of course, Marcus immediately starts talking to people and asking for Dove Falconhand. The innkeep says that Dove will be around eventually, if they stay, so they arrange for rooms and get some food and drink.

Dove comes into the Inn and talks to the group. She agrees to get them a letter of introduction to the Knights of Myth Drannor who are currently near Myth Drannor but won't do so until the next morning. The group is fine with that and so stay the night.

The next day, they get their letter, say their good byes, and head out. They decide to take the overland route, including a fair amount of wilderness. Both Deuce and Reece are comfortable outside such that they don't think it will be a problem.

The next couple of days goes pretty well. Cool and crisp in the morning, with fog hanging in the morning air, they make good time up to the forest's edge. As soon as they enter the forest, though, travel slows down. The overgrowth on the ground is pretty thick and they have to stop every couple of hours to clean their horses, and themselves, of brambles and briars.

One night, as Marcus kept watch, he looked up from his brewing to see a raptor (picture one) staring at him. He notices the three others and kicks people awake as they attack. Lisha doesn't even bother to get up, the battle is over so quick. The group is quite nimble and manages to avoid their attacks. Their counterattack is strong and soon they are dead. And as quickly as they appeared, they disappear, obviously being conjured creature. Reece isn't happy with Marcus' job on watch and several in the group stay up after the attack.

As they progress further into Cormanthor, though, the way is hard and it slows them down even more. The group was hoping for a three day trip, but it looks like it will be a few more day just to get to the ruins. At a stop, Deuce notices obvious magic being used to make someone invisible, so draws his bow, notches an arrow and lets fly. The rest of the group is surprised but when it is explained, they agree to chase it. Marcus gets a quick potion to see invisible things, drinks it, and then heads out.

Marcus points out when it is in a tree, and the group blasts the gree with fire and ice storm. However, Marcus says he still sees it and hits it with a web spell from the wand, making it obvious. Notch and Deuce make short work of it once they can see it. It did fire a lightning bolt at them but that was completely avoided. They find several wands, a ring of invisibility, and a dagger on the corpse. When they finally camp, they figure out which is the wand of lightning, figure out the other two wands, summon raptors and fireball, the ring, invisibility, and the dagger. They give out the items and keep going.

The Knights of Myth Drannor greet them when they get close to Myth Drannor. Shelyn turns out to be a very gruff, speak her mind and cuss more than sailors. She says they are foolish to go into the ruins but does give them some advice on what to do if they do. She refuses to go with them or send them with any of her people as it is too dangerous. The group decides to check out some strange happenings involving large globes of darkness in a section of town. Reece isn't happy that the route will mean going through the swamp.

The trip through the swamp, the next morning, is as bad as Reece thought it would be. Deuce isn't much happier, having found several of the deeper areas in the swamp. When they get to the town, they are cautious and see the globe of darkness. Lisha volunteers to go scouting using the ring she gained, so they agree. She isn't gone long before Marcus notices a strange type of moss not far off the path. It looks like it is growing in an old garden, surrounded by low walls of the ruins. He decided to go there but is stopped by the group. Eventually the group decides to all go.

Marcus gets one clipping of the moss. Two. Three. Four. Reece can't believe they are waiting this long. Seven. Eight. As Reece was about to say something, the yellowish brimstone smelling fog starts rising up from the ground. As they try and go back to the road, whirling blades appear, blocking their path. Soon, a pit fiend (picture two) shows up, saying he hasn't tasted halfling in a long time.

The group buffed as much as they could. The demon attacked with whip, sword and tail. The demon missed most of the time. So did the party. The two circle each other for a while, looking for openings, until the demon goes invisible. Marcus throws his fog cloud bead and blankets the area in fog, figuring they can see the swirling fog move from the big demon. That's when a voice yells that they found a halfling for the pit fiend. Deuce, not liking the sound of that, calls the lions and sends them to find Lisha.

When the pit fiend attacks again, they are ready for it, even as it is invisible. It again attacks with sword and whip but only inflicts minimal damage. Notch scores several good hits with the dagger but it isn't enough. Reece hits it with a fear spell, augmented by several effects, and it finally turns and leaves them. They gave more than they received but hadn't managed to banish the demon. Notch was fine with this.

That's when they heard Lisha's scream. Deuce runs and the rest follow him. They come to a bad scene. One of the cats is down and so is Lisha, under two more demons. We ended there.

Notes

• I have always been creeped out by reptiles and JP didn't help. The raptor still creeps me out. So, I used it as a monster!
• Having a lot of fun with the Dork Tower d20 cards. I was allowing players to do stunts, as per Exalted, but it's tough to think of those all of the time. These are a very fun substitute! We all enjoyed them and they got a lot of use!
• I based Shelyn on Calamity Jane from Deadwood. A player commented he had never heard me curse that much before! :) I had a lot of fun with her!
• Myth Drannor, to me, is a very dangerous and tough place. As long as they are careful, any group can survive it, but more experienced groups have better chances. Not sure how smart it was to go after the moss but it was very well played by the player. Very much in character.
• The battle with the pit fiend was tough. It should be, though, and it worked out well. I was rolling horrible, for the NPCs and for it, so there were a lot of misses. And, of course, it is tough enough that only some cold iron arrows and the newly found enchanted dagger did much damage to it.
• I really like how I did the demon this time. The brimstone and the yellowish fog were a cool effect. Even when it was scared off, I liked how it left in a swirl of the fog.
• I have been trying to do voices to differentiate the NPCs. More along the lines of Jim Dale and how well he does Harry Potter. I didn't realize how many lady NPCs I had! So, it's getting tough to get all of them. However, it has been working out well from my perspective.

Pictures

Picture one -

Picture two -