Losses and Gains

July 17, 2014

(We start out the session with the player who missed being able to "dance with fate" i.e. draw from the Deck of Many Things.  He did not get a single good card.  The only good thing was that none of the bad cards he drew were instant death, which might have preferably.  Part of the bad was losing 10k xp and going back to first level.  We dealt with all of the consequences with that, including getting new character sheets printed out.)  

Trogdor realizes he lost his items but Jack and Volgash hand him some extra things.  Jack suddenly says he has to go and in a puff of snow, is gone.  Adrasteia says that the gate is close to opening and now that the goblin party was taken care of by Fain.  They keep going and Fain scouts ahead to find a group of goblins and orcs.  He hides as the orcs tell the goblins to get sacrifices and sends them off.  They all run past his hiding place, none the wiser that he was there.  The orcs do keep some goblins as hostages and head back.  Fain heads back to see the others.  

The group attacks the goblins but realize something was happening when gates open and the other goblins and orcs Fain saw come out with a hill giant and attack! Trogdor realized something was wrong when the goblins seemed to be hitting just a little harder and the orcs were hitting a LOT harder than he remembered.  He used to get out of the way and dodge them faster but now the hits were tough.  He is knocked down but Adrasteia manages to heal him and Volgash and keep them in the fight.  The hill giant clubs them hard but Volgash is able to keep going and soon the goblins, orcs and giant are down.  The group heals up and keeps going.  

The blessing conferred by Mab is still there as they come to the clearing and see more orcs and ogres, sacrificing goblins on another stone altar.  After a quick conferral, Shar distracts half the group with an illusion on the far side and the rest attack before a portal can fully open.  They again manage to take out many and again Trogdor is surprised at how quickly the wounds add up and he is knocked down until Adrasteia can come and heal him.  Again the group is victorious and the monsters are defeated.  They loot the bodies, this time taking all of the weapons that the orcs have to sell or trade them in a town.  Adrasteia says they have three months before the next gate but it will open in the town of Ilsurian, so the group heads there for the winter.  

They make the journey to Ilsurian with some cold weather and are cold but no lasting effects.  Fain, Adrasteia and Shar are happy for an Inn but Trogdor and Volgash opt to sleep outside of town.  The Innkeeper, Zoska, opens up for Fain when he knocks so late and even moves people around so they can have rooms next to each other and warms some of yesterday's stew for the three of them.  It takes Fain a bit to adjust being back to town and having people trying to earn every copper they can from him!  Soon they are settled in their rooms.  They all sleep well but Trogdor and Volgash wake up to six inches of snow on their tent!  It held up, though, so it's just cold, not cold and wet.  The next morning, they know they can't keep paying an Inn rates for a room, so find that the local tailor, a Varisian named Kresnar, has an apartment above his shop.  And Fain is again reminded of the greed of people when change is not coming after they agree to a price and he pays more!  He is not happy and tries to get some concessions out of Kresnar, who says a lot but promises little.  There are mutterings but they soon settle into the apartment.  It has two bedrooms and a common room with a fireplace in each area, so it's warm if a bit drafty during really windy nights.  

Adrasteia's plan was to do her usual begging and figure out where the portal was going to open in the town.  She begs for one day, and gets a few copper, but the next day, an elder of the town council, Rajko Kaslov, comes to tell her to stop.  When asked why, Rajko says that when she was on her own, it was one thing but now that she is with others, who paid for rooms for three months in advance he hears, and are carting around a lot of extra arms and armor, he suggest she sell those if she needs coin.  She's miffed but leaves rather than explain herself.  

The group takes the next week to train, get weapons sharpened, armor mended and loot sold.  It takes them a while but eventually, instead of using Kresnar's store, not happy about how he treated them but also not sure he would be interested in twenty orc weapons, Fain finds Pita, the daughter of the Rogue's Guild in the area.  Pita tells Adrasteia not to beg in the Guild's area, which is all of the lake towns and more.  Again, Adrasteia is not happy, it's a habit now than needed, but agrees.  They trade the arms and armor they took from the orcs for healing potions and all, including and especially Adrasteia, are happy to have some.  Volgash then bargains with Pita about magic and Pita says she can get some items.  Some will take a week or two, others she can have faster.  When Volgash produces two very expensive gems, Pita is glad to bargain.  They end up trading them for a lot of items and splitting them up across the group.  

During their training and selling, they find out that a Count and his wife have moved into a large manor house just outside of town.  While they have been pleasant enough, and hired local help to move all new furniture and other furnishings to the manor, as they are Chelaxan, the locals aren't too happy with the development.  In the first weeks when the party arrives, a few more ships arrived carrying even more furniture and servants.  This late in the season, market days are far between, so the speculation about what Count Thambeos will do is running like a prairie fire around town.  

GM Notes

• I mentioned more NPCs that the group, and usually Fain, knew but as they didn't really appear in this session, I will hold off adding them, even as notes.  
• I had several problems trying to get my printer working and it really irked me.  First World Problems.  Once it's connected and stable, it lasts months with no problems.  But it seems to take a lot of effort to get my computers hooked to it again.  
• I really wanted to change the results of the Deck of Many Things as it happened to Justin, who is new to role playing games.  Further, he didn't get to see the good results during last week's session, only his own bad results.  However, the results weren't death and this will be a lot more memorable for him as a player than if I reversed it.  He did lose 10k xp and go back to first level but the group gained nearly 8k in xp for the night, so he's almost back to where he was.  The rest of the group is not that far in front of him and he was still quite helpful in combat.  
• Speaking of combat, fireball has made an appearance!  The sign that the party is ready for bigger things!  It was also memorable because it closed a gate by using it's energies to be even bigger!  Volgash wasn't happy about the damage done to the forest, although it may have been more the damage done to him he didn't like.  Fireball also announced their arrival at the altar and it was again used to hit the whole group, take out a few, damage the rest.  Between that and the illusions of extra attackers, Shar is definitely showing us how casters change things!
• I created my own races, one of which is a character who is an Air Elemental but in human form.  No, I'm not sure how that works as I haven't figured out every little detail.  In any case, Adrasteia has some powers from that and they are working quite well for her!  She's now able to defend herself a bit better.  
• Adrasteia is an Oracle class and cannot speak to the group during combat due to a curse.  With her new elemental powers, though, she is able to fend for herself and still help the others.  The party is really showing some good cohesion, as two of the group learned the only language Adrasteia can speak while in combat, so it's working out well.  
• We didn't have a rogue last game, although we did have a character with high INT, and Fain's player doesn't always know what to do with all of the points!  I'm sure he will figure it out and it's fun to watch as well.   
• We still aren't done with part one, yet, which is good as I need to setup parts two and three before we do!  But I'm happy with how things are going so far.   

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