Scarred Lands - To The Ratcave!

Game Date: 6/26/2010
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Alek Corman (Ted) - Half-Elf Paladin
Aria Thatcher (Matt) - Half-Elf Bard
Blast (Nick) - Gnome Warlock
Gorn (Jesse) - Half-Orc Ranger

Notes:
Dornn has left the group. Gorn - who had changed his name Kobaka to prevent confusion - is now known as Gorn again. So no more Kielbasa jokes. We're handling things okay, but we are looking for a fifth player. If the new player names his character anything that ends with "-orn", we'll lynch him.

Previously, on the Scarred Lands:
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na Ratman!
A suspicious well? A secret passage? A dungeon full of Ratmen? A temple to the Titans? A Ratman guide? Some unexplored hallways? An annoying recap? Our adventure continues!

Tonight's Episode:
We continued our rat-ridden dungeon crawl. The next room we found was a sleeping room, where we satisfyingly slaughtered several sleeping scumbags.

We took an extended rest back at the previously-explored temple room, and upon waking we found that some traps had been set up in the halls. Next we found a tiny room containing only a snakelike metal guardian. It was here we found our perfect single-file marching order. Alek in front, since he can take the most melee damage. Then Gorn, because he can do melee from one square away. Then Blast and Aria, who are completely ranged. After killing the guardian we discovered a secret door leading to a room with a magic mirror in it.

Upon gazing into the mirror, I saw my long-dead parents, and my reflection was holding the Quiddich cup. No, wait, wrong campaign. Actually, this mirror turned out to be a portal leading to a Dwarven kingdom. We went through and met some dwarves, who were surprised by our sudden appearance.

We had dinner with a Dwarven Runepriest named Duvall. They allowed us to rest and sell our loot, and they asked us to be their liaison to the impoverished town above the rat dungeon. We agreed, but we decided to finish clearing out the dungeon first. Back through the looking glass.

A couple of dwarves came with us, but only to guard the mirror. We fought through one difficult encounter, made either harder or easier by the fact we were stuck single file in a tunnel the entire time. Our perfect marching order wasn't quite as effective, especially since one of the baddies had a ranged At-Will that could stun. But the melee enemies were bad off because only one of them could reach us at a time. Two enemies fled, but we caught up to them later.

Our next encounter was a large cavern with only four ratties (two were from the previous encounter), but we went into it low on health. There was a river cutting through the middle of the room, and in the process of trying to cross it, our paladin fell down into the river. Much like the guy in Unbreakable, our Alek seems to have a supernatural weakness for water. He tried climbing back up, but fell back in, and was swept further down the river. It was there he discovered the secret fifth baddie, a giant glowing Cave Squid.


Aria, who couldn't roll a high number all session, also fell into the river while trying to jump across. It was a DC 10 and she has an Athletics of 5... seriously, who can't do that? Apparently, Aria can't. But at least she managed to crawl back out. The rest of us finished off the ratguys, then went about trying to save the now-dying Paladin. We couldn't quite get a rope out there to reach him, and we were about to write of his character as seafood. Luckily (and by "luckily" I mean the DM felt sorry for us), the squid only took a bite and swam off. We retrieved Alek and took a much-needed rest.

Later we found a room full of drakes, who we killed rather effectively. They were guarding a trapped treasure room, where we finally got our hands on a little bit of phat lewt. There appears to be only one more room in the dungeon. At the end of a trap-filled hallway (now disarmed by Gorn), there is a door. From within, we heard someone whispering about how this is their last stand. We broke session there, standing outside the door, ready to kick it in and waste some ratdudes.

Reminders:
Some of us are still diseased.
We need to tell the townsfolk about the dwarves.
We now have some spending cash, and a place to spend it, which is good because we all need some upgrades.
After we've exterminated the dungeon, we need to search for any missing children. If we can't find any alive, we may just have to dress up the gnome as a child again. I mean, we have to give those townspeople something.

Rewards:
XP: 120+60+345+150+150=825 each.
Gold: 258+50+185=493
Misc: Ironskin Belt (Alek), Amulet of Health (Aria), a rod (Blast), and a few healing potions.

Scarred Lands - Rats!

Game Date: 6/12/2010
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Alek Corman (Ted) - Half-Elf Paladin
Aria Thatcher (Matt) - Half-Elf Bard
Blast (Nick) - Gnome Warlock
Dornn (Adam) - Minotaur Cleric
Kobaka (Jesse) - Half-Orc Ranger

Notes:
Due to the addition of a Paladin and a Cleric, I rebuilt Aria so that she isn't so focused on healing. She is now more of a versatile dabbler type.

In order to prevent confusion with Dornn, Gorn has been renamed Kobaka. I think he was actually called "Kobaka" correctly maybe once during the session. Popular nicknames included Kabbalah, Kielbasa, Kasaba, Baklava, Baraka, Chewbacca, Carrabba, and "The Half-Orc."

Recap:
When we last left our heroes, they were on a ledge in a well, having defeated a group of Ratmen.

The Session:
After a short rest, we rest found a secret passage that led into a series of tunnels. Kobaka disabled a trap or two, and then we found a door. We managed to surprise a room full of Ratmen, and made short work of them.

We continued to explore, passing up one door in favor of a larger set of doors. In the main hall, we fought a huge group of Ratmen. It was a long battle, which left us in a very bad state. We took an extended rest in this room. There were three additional exits from this room, two of which were hidden. We took the non-hidden one, a hallway which led us into a fight with four rat swarms. The hallway was a dead end, with no treasure or other points of interest.

We left that hallway and did some more exploring, and eventually found ourselves in a room with a collapsing ceiling. At first we exited the trap in two different directions. Kobaka and Aria found a passage that looped around to one of the areas we'd already explored. Once we regrouped, we continued deeper into the dungeon until we reached a trident-shaped set of hallways. The left and middle passages led to doors, while the right passage stretched on much farther, with a few visible doors in the distance.

We took the left passage and found a worship room, complete with statues of the Titans. We fought another group of Ratmen, leaving the final minion alive so he could lead us to treasure. We took a short rest in the worship room, and ended the session.


Reminders:
From the trident-shaped hallways, we haven't yet explored the middle or right passages. There was also at least one door we haven't explored in the earlier areas. Some of us are still suffering from diseases contracted from our enemies.

XP Rewards:
500+100+175=775 each. Dornn and Corman reached level 2.

Scarred Lands - Well, Well, Well...

Game Date: 6/5/2010
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Alek Corman (Ted) - Half-Elf Paladin
Aria Thatcher (Matt) - Half-Elf Bard
Blast (Nick) - Gnome Warlock
Dornn (Adam) - Minotaur Battle Cleric
Gorn (Jesse) - Half-Orc Ranger

We lost one party member (Paige), and gained two new ones (Alek and Dornn).

Recap: Last session, we were given the quest to carry the Amphora to Vesh. After traveling for a while, we fought some kobolds at the bottom of a gorge, then sought shelter.

As the party explored the area, Aria failed a spot check and fell into a pit. (Holes: 1, for those keeping score.) In the pit was a large Minotaur, chained to the wall. Aria befriended him and he joined the party.

Soon we found ourselves in a battle involving crazed cultists, some giant ants, and some sort of Fell Taint chaos beast thing. It was in this encounter that we first met Alek, who was tied up in a burlap sack. During the fight he failed many times to extract himself from the bag, and got himself pulled into an ant pit. (Holes: 2)

We spent a couple of days building a cart, a process which involved many skill checks. Once it was up and running, we continued our course to Vesh. We were then attacked by bandits. We left the final one alive. If we ever see him again, Elmore the bandit owes us a favor.

We rode into a tiny settlement, hoping to sell our loot. Unfortunately this town had very little money and no interest in our items. They did, however, need help. Recently there had been a lot of livestock disappearances, and now even children were starting to go missing. One child had been abducted from his own bed, while sleeping between his parents.

We explored the settlement, asked lots of questions, and became suspicious of a well in the center of town. Blast and Alek lowered themselves into the well to look around. They found a ledge, but nothing else of interest. Alek went the extra mile - he tied a rope around his waist and had us lower him deep into the water, in hopes of finding an underwater passage. When we ran out of rope, he cut the line and swam even further downwards. Eventually he saw a magical portal, which was linked to the Elemental Plane of Water. At this point he decided he'd seen all he could safely see, and started swimming back up.

It was a long swim, taking many Endurance and Athletics checks. When he finally surfaced, he had used up all his healing surges and was in dire need of an extended rest. (Holes: 3)

Next we decided to disguise Blast as a child, and see if he could get kidnapped. While Alek and Aria slept, Blast tried playing out in the middle of town for a while, but nothing took the bait. Then Gorn, Dornn, and Blast went to bed, while Aria and Alek took the next watch. Walking around outside, Aria was the first to notice some movement over by the well. She tried to get Alek's attention, but he didn't see her. She tried to sneak over to him, but failed her stealth check and was attacked.

Alek and Aria soon found themselves in battle against some Ratmen from the well. Aria started her turn by making some noise, and in a few rounds the rest of the party was awake and present. These Ratmen had some nasty poison attacks.

The final Ratman tried to escape back into the well, but the party followed him. (Holes: 4) We finally defeated him on the ledge deep within the well, but kept him alive in the hopes that he can lead us to their lair. We then decided to rest there, on the ledge in the well, and ended the session.

XP Rewards: 120+75+121=316 for the session. Aria, Gorn, and Blast reached level 2.