Previously on Orcless Nerdfest, 50
The party made its way to Blackfalls, noting a few troubling signs of fire: scared animals, a persistent smell of smoke, and a tell-tale red glow on the horizon when Niv climbed a tree. They seemed able to outpace it, for now at least, and came at last to the village, which was standoffish but warmed up once the victuals from Baerun’s Watch were distributed. Joan Stout, a middle-aged matron, seemed to be unofficially in charge of things, running a sort of tavern/cafeteria that served villagers from big trestle tables. Illness had run through the place, killing many, and there were various speculations as to what was going on. The party quickly learned that Lord Ranulf, the true ruler of the place, lay ill in his tower and had been weakened and almost out of his wits for at least a year. After speaking to him, they decided to check on the fire, taking a hunter, Arlus, with them as a guide. They fed him with cakes Joan had given them. He left them, and on their return a furious mob accused them of killing him, as he’d disappeared. A search of his house found him, his wife, and their two young children slumped dead over their table…and Joan was suddenly nowhere to be found. A further thread came from Old Maud, accused of witchcraft by the young hot-tempered Selina…but it quickly became apparent that Selina was just trying to stir up trouble for the old woman, after she’d helped Virili, Selina’s rival, with a potion that killed Varek’s desire for Varili…and Maud refused Selina a love potion to capture Varek. Selina had recently moved to the village, saying she’d been sent to help her aunt, but most thought she’d been kicked out of her family home for bad behavior. As the uproar began to die down, the party considered their next move. To the lair they’d been told about? It seemed to lie in the direction of the fire…
Previously on Orcless Nerdfest, 49
Our heroes advanced cautiously into the complex below the surface ruins, noting that the opening was scorched and blackened as if by an explosion; seven skeletons, decades old, were laid carefully next to each other nearby. In the dungeon below, the group saw a mysterious symbol on a door; passing beyond it, they encountered a few dazed-looking bugbears wandering an enormous hall. Beyond them, a beautiful woman explained she had fled to the ruins to conduct her researches, and warned them of “great horror’ below and of her enemy elsewhere in the maze. The group grew suspicious, and she transformed into a huge, hideous monster like a female centaur on the body of a lion. A vicious fight led to her death; the party packed along a heavy chest they found and the creature’s extensive jewelry. Heading north, they encountered bugbears who attempted to flank them; Fath’s fireball wrought hideous destruction among them and, after a failed attempt to parley, the survivors apparently fled. Passing downstairs, they found a floating skull in front of a door; as they approached, it gave a piercing scream that only stopped when they smashed it. Another, down a short passage, screamed again. Passing by the central staircase, they were attacked by a bizarre group of creatures seemingly sewn together out of various parts–human, giant, and animal. They slew them, and as they returned to the staircase, the entire group was webbed and stuck fast…by a short, wizened, brown-skinned bald man festooned with all the paraphernalia of a powerful sorcerer…
Previously on Orcless Nerdfest, 48
The party decided to set out for the ruins Dilys had pointed out, the ones that had produced the sword Lirith–and claimed half of Martus’s men.
Previously on Orcless Nerdfest, 47
A brief but furious fight broke out as the cave troll charged. Drake and Fath closed, while Niv tried to work his way around the edge of the scrum to try for a backstab. With a terrifying roar, the troll snatched Osric up off his feet–and then threw him bodily into the chasm. His despairing wail was cut off abruptly by a distant thud. Undaunted, the party pressed their attack, and flasks of oil came into play. The burning, screaming troll was hacked nearly in half by Fath’s strike with Lirith, the Sword of Mourning, and the party stamped on the charred pieces. And, miracle of miracles, Osric was alive, if badly hurt–he’d taken a 60′ fall onto some kind of ledge, hitting a number of rocks and snags on the way down. He was winched up with the help of Niv.
Too busy with searching the troll’s ambush-nook to keep a guard, the group was unaware of a party of orcs with a kind of red slash device on their shields. A tense exchange followed: it seemed that the orcs did know of Glassleaf and had “given it to the dark temple.” The inevitable fight broke out, and the orcs collapsed quickly, with a few shrieking survivors fleeing further down the tunnel. Pursuing them, the party came on a side passage that led to an enormous cavern with faint blue tracery, some kind of lichen or mineral, glowing on the lofty ceiling. The way forward was blocked by a massive pair of gates made of some kind of black metal, set into a sort of garth with 20′ high palings made of the same material. The floor of the cavern was dotted by freestanding square buildings. The gates stood open…just a crack.
Fath cast detect magic and was somewhat unnerved to find that the whole area radiated a faint magic. Creeping forward into the darkness, he saw an oblong magical object about the size of a sword…and about as far from the gates as one might be able to throw it. Outside, a voice spoke in Drake’s head. Free me, it said. Come forth and free me so that I may fulfill my oath. The paladin advanced, just as Fath picked up the sword…and saw boiling shadow-creatures come out of the darkness. He drew the sun blade and whirled it about his head; brilliant daylight flooded the cavern and the shadows fled. “Run!” screamed Fath, grabbing the sword. But Drake saw a pile of what looked like coins just at the edge of the light. He rushed forward and scooped up as many as he could before joining Fath at a dead run.
Back in town, Red Alf said that the coins were trade tokens of a type the Yld used, thousands of years ago, and worth far more than gold. The party rested and prepared for their next move.
Previously on Orcless Nerdfest, 45
A contretemps at the inn revealed that Aluina the serving maid was pregnant…and the father was Taj Corant, a notorious rake who most certainly did not intend to do the right thing. Taking matters into their own hands, the party first Charmed Taj with one of Fath’s spells, and then Drake hastily married him to the blushing bride in one of the Wulfhaar’s nice rooms. Ormus Corant was known to be hot-tempered and very powerful, having grain connections throughout the region, but nothing happened before the party decided to set out after Glassleaf on its last known track. At the old Rhael fortress, they encountered and slew a party of orcs with a dripping white device on their shields, as well as an odd fighter in antique-looking armor, a Kemeri…but the fireball Fath cast did for them all. Going on to the bat-bridge, as the creatures began to rouse the group charged across the chasm–only to be caught flatfooted as a huge figure burst out of nowhere with a roar.
Previously On Orcless Nerdfest (44)
Fath readied a fireball and cast it. The blast incinerated all four ogres. Moving cautiously into the charred courtyard, the group heard low voices from one of the rooms on the far side. Drake kicked in a door to find a group of a half-dozen women cowering within. “You’re safe now,” he said, and the women cautiously came out. Meanwhile, Fath opened another door facing the courtyard, to find a hulking figure resting atop a pile of skins and furs and branches. It was the ogre they’d chased off before, laid up now and barely able to move. He begged for his life, which Drake granted, and then told the party of a chest of gold hidden by magic at the Temple of Silence. He and his fellows had come down from the hills at the witches’ bidding, to help further their plans building the pillars. He said that the women in the villa were there voluntarily…and a shout from Osric, outside, said that they’d slipped away after going behind a wall to answer a call of nature, or so they claimed. They had managed to get away into the forest; the party searched for them as the wounded ogre fled, but did not find them. A quick trip to the Temple of Silence showed that the ogre was as good as his word; an invisible chest full of gold was put in the sack and carried off. That night, camping in the forest, the group was attacked by a huge creature none of them had ever seen before, a squat, muscular horror with dozens of needle fangs. It died and they beheaded it, looking for more decorations for the inn, but upon returning they found that the head had decayed completely, leaving only a cracked fang that Fath had inlaid with gold and made into a chain.
The ogre had drawn a crude map to where he claimed Red Molly had a cave. After regrouping in town, the heroes set out to find it. The witch was not home, and so the group methodically searched the place, recovering two vials of magic liquid and some gold and silver, and then gathered furniture, herbs, simples, plates, the bed, and everything else into a pile which was set on fire. As foul greenish smoke billowed out of the cave, Drake wrote “To Molly: You light my fire” in the dirt at the entrance. As they made their way down the hill, Gorm pointed up: two hundred feet overhead, a black-clad figure floated easily on a broom. Its flaming red hair was easily visible in the twilight. Fath cast his fireball as the figure raised a hand. The elf felt an odd, twisting sensation that passed. Pancake toppled over, and Drake frowned and fell dead. With a roar, the fireball detonated…and seemingly unfazed, Red Molly flew off.
Athelas drew on every reserve of strength, and in a tense ritual, brought the paladin back from the dead. The group rested then as Drake recovered, trying their best to find out what they could about the witch.
Previously on Orcless Nerdfest (43)
Drake’s inspired idea is to dig on the spot the apples keep returning to…and about two feet down he strikes what proves to be the edge of a rib cage. The skeleton he and Fath unearth has been buried for a while, bound in a fetal position. The rattle when Fath picks up the skull turns out to be an odd leaden lozenge or bullet with strange scratches on it. Trantoro the sage didn’t like the feel of the thing, suggesting it reminded him of some old wards of an unsavory kind, though he didn’t recognize it in particular. Fath’s dispel magic seemed to turn it into an ordinary lump of lead.
Meanwhile at the Wulfhaar, an evasive Tomar finally broke down and showed his masters a half-feral boy, Pem, from one of the little villages deeper in the Old Forest. Pem told a curious tale of his sister meeting with a beautiful red-haired woman, shadowed by some hulking figure behind them, before she disappeared…the latest in a string of missing young women in Bristheach. He knew of tales of ogres in the hills, and found that the Raven seemed unwilling to help–though he did recommend the party. The group set out the next day, traveling north of Crowhame into a range of forbidding old hills. In a ruined Thaarn villa, an invisible Niv heard four ogres talking around a fire set in the ruins of the villa courtyard. He reported back and the group pondered what to do next.
Previously On Orcless Nerdfest (42)
After returning home, Fath deciphered the captured spell books, finding some wizard spells and what looked to be clerical prayers written in Thaarn, maybe of interest to a Thaarn reader. After buying new horses from the newly-arrived farrier, Drake asks about the pillar of bodies. Athelas wasn’t sure about it, but suspected more purification might be necessary. Fath gets a letter from Elinith, saying that Elinith has decided to wander after hearing Fath’s tale about the old tomb and Dominio. He advises Fath that an elf’s path must be an elf’s. Meanwhile, Morgan has reported strange doings in the inn cellar. After investigating and hearing various thumps, the group fetches an exorcist. A tremendous racket ensues…only for the noises to begin again the next night. Brother Silvius advises that this isn’t something for an exorcism, uncannily; it requires communication and discovery. A series of apple games ensues, with apples rolling to a point on the floor, bumping up and down, and even forming a pile–but the baffled PCs retreat, no wiser as to what’s going on.
Previously on Orcless Nerdfest (41)
The party immediately set out after the wounded ogre, an easy thing despite his head start. As they approached the ruins of the temple, they noticed a hooded figure astride a stick, lazily describing slow circles over the place from some forty feet up. At the very edge of the wood, Drake gave a signal: bows snapped as one and the figure tumbled from the sky with a despairing shriek. Silence descended–only to be broken as eight huge ogres, moving with unnatural speed, charged full-tilt down the hill. The party slew them, but their enemies’ speed took its toll. Looking up to ascend the hill, the group saw two more figures rise in the air and speed off in different directions.
A search of the upper ruins discovered a crude camp, a letter written to someone named ‘Mirulina’, and a battered black spell book. The letter seemed to hint at some kind of treasure in the temple below, and so the party descended–only to be caught in another terrible battle on the stair, as more ogres rushed forward out of the darkness at unnatural speed. Afterwards, Fath slipped on the curious black ring, winked out of sight, and crept up the long central hall to a glimmering torch. He charmed the woman he saw standing there and then shot dead the badly wounded ogre next to her from the shadows. The witch was a little suspicious, and more so when Drake showed, but she believed the tale they spun of being brigands and murderers (Drake: “Oh, I’m a very bad boy”) and immediately believed she had been betrayed, or abandoned, by her comrades above. Using a rock of darkness, she opened the heretofore-unsuspected secret door behind the little idol in its niche, revealing a pile of treasure, just as Niv’s arrow transfixed her throat. Wasting no time, the party scooped up everything within, and limped clinkingly away and then home.
Previously on Orcless Nerdfest (40)
On their way out to the monastery to track down Dominio’s journal, the party stopped to talk to two men, well-dressed Southerners on their way north into the forest. They took an especial interest in news of dwarves passing through the area, but were otherwise close-mouthed. A brief brouhaha regarding missing Stone Wulfhaar pies erupted–it developed that young Cor had sent them all to the Mermaid, while ordering at least a half-dozen from the Mermaid to be sent to the Stone Wulfhaar. Naturally, both orders were intercepted en route by an unrepentant Cor. He did pass along a scrap of information–that he’d seen birds, large crows or ravens, gathered near Fath’s house as if watching it.
At the monastery, the new librarian managed to produce the journal after a few days of searching. It proved to be interesting, if the work of an apparent madman–tiny writing, much of it in shorthand and heavily annotated, going on for hundreds of pages. Fath spent a week puzzling over it, managing to come up with a few clues, but got the feeling that more was within. It seemed the right answer was to go back to the temple; on the way, the Raven said he’d gotten a message from a place called Blackfalls asking for his protection. He was loath to give it, as they were distant and not up on the ways of blood-gift, but he’d think on it, he said. Venturing north, the party was threatened by an ogre who demanded their gear and weapons; they charged him, only to be ambushed by a cunning trap involving huge spiders, a hideous red-capped creature, and web nooses that nearly strangled them. A terrible battle broke out; two of the horses died hideously, coughing blood and green froth, and Drake was nearly killed by a spider poison only countered by a dose of the mysterious “Sovereign” in the little stone bottle. Mortally wounded, the ogre fled, and the spider-creature died with its minions. We open a minute or two after the battle has ended…
Previously On Orcless Nerdfest (39)
Our scene opened on Drake poised to defend the winding spiral staircase against an increasing horde of skeletons. He smashed them one at a time as they blundered forward into his blade. Meanwhile, Fath threw flasks of oil at the entrance to the stair-chamber, cackling as the mindless undead wandered through the pools, burst into flame, and collapsed. The fires burned bright, and he remembered and then drank his Potion of Control Undead. As the fell presence of some long-dead Rhael lord filled his mind, he sent his newfound skeleton minions against their brethren.
The flames died down at last, leaving heaps of charred bones–scores of skeletons at least. Passing beyond the formerly chained door, the group discovered a seemingly-endless series of catacombs filled with shrouded bodies. They smashed skulls as they went, only to be met by a group of slavering creatures like the ones they’d faced before. A tense negotiation followed, and the party decided to take the creatures’ offer of treasure and flee. Shoveling heaps of coin into every bag, pouch, and sack they had, they lumbered away, jingling at every step, only to hear the weird ululating twitters of the ghouls growing behind them. A desperate race ensued, out of the catacombs and up a 100’ staircase. They jammed the doors shut with worn bronze skeleton-swords and fled for the saner world above.
That night, a mile or two away, Drake was startled a little after midnight to see a black crow land by the fire, appraise him with head cocked, and give a loud “SCRAWK!” before flying away. A confused bird? Or something more?
A brief and uneventful journey home from Oakwell led to rest, recuperation, and a desire to visit Trantoro, a sage or scholar newly arrived in Baerun’s Watch. The pleasant and urbane man offered to identify magical goods, perhaps to buy various Thaarn relics the party might bring him, and to teach Fath a knack or two, including identify. He advised them that he knew much of magic, especially its workings and practice, astrology and divination, and a bit about the local area. He’d be happy to consult in these areas, though it might not be cheap.
That night, an eery white dog summoned the PCs to the Barrow Hill shee, where an enraged Queen Lilianthe demanded compensation for the insult Arbogast had visited upon it. She appeared to cast some kind of spell on them before banishing them back to the fields we know. An aggrieved Fath swore vengeance. The next morning the party decided to head west into the Old Forest to seek Dilys; a message from Crowhame arrived, asking them to visit the Raven on a matter of grave importance. A hunter there, missing for days, had turned up outside the gates demanding fealty to “his lord,” Avoronax, and laughed when the guards filled him with arrows. The party tracked him north, back to the temple beneath the wyvern nest. A fireball cleared out some kind of honor guard of undead, and the party descended to find Avoronax, a long-dead lord, demanding obedience and the return of his stolen lands. In the event, fire told the tale, but the group faced increasing waves of skeletons and zombies and so retreated to the spiral staircase at the entrance, there to make a noble stand…
Previously On Orcless Nerdfest (37)
The party traveled to the Court of the Silver Twilight at first light, journeying nearly a week through idyllic late summer days. It turned out that the chain, “Moonlight’s Durance,” had actually been forged by King Ithilias in his youth nearly 1,000 years ago–the maker’s mark was his, though long-abandoned–and given to the Marchwardens around T.R. 250. The king was particularly interested in King Conor Kenrick, especially his temperament and mien, although he counseled Fath “not to live a life not his own.” This applied as well to news of the temple: Ithilias suggested it be brought to the attention of the humans of Baerun’s Watch, as it didn’t directly concern the Elves. Finally, Elinithil, seeming somewhat subdued and distracted, told of his travels a few centuries before with Dominio, a priest of St Marten who was convinced that the temple-site needed cleansing, and the two of them entered it to find a scene of horror, but no apparent danger. Nevertheless, the elf watched as the priest sealed the doors and prayed many prayers over them. They parted ways soon after; Elinithil saw his friend buried three decades later, and thought that the priest’s journal of the trip had been left to the monastery. On their return journey, a briefly-lost party came across an abandoned barrow mound. They dispatched the hideous creature within and took its grave-goods back to town.
On their return, Tormas informed the group that a wizard of some type had moved into an old villa near the Watch. Scarcely pausing to rest and regroup, the party headed out again, this time to the cellar of Arbogast’s castle. Fath discovered that a new knight dressed in sea-blue armor blocked the tunnel; the tunnel to the cellar was clear, the barrel of coins gone, and the secret door wide open. A fireball and some quick sword-work took care of the knight, even as a magical voice shouted “THIEF! YOU HAVE ENTERED MY CASTLE TO YOUR DOOM!” Fath left post-haste, rejoining his friends and heading to Oakwell to spend the night. There was discussion of seeking the sword Glassleaf, last seen deep under the earth at the old Rhael fortress.
Previously On Orcless Nerdfest (36)
The hideous undead offered to give gold in exchange for opening the door to the lower levels of the temple–they were hungry, they said, and wished to feast on what was below. Stalling just long enough to get some oil out of the paralyzed Drake’s pack, Fath led the remaining party members in a surprise attack. A pair of flasks sailed out, Niv lit them with a perfectly-thrown torch, and the undead went up in an eruption of flame. One lunged out, burning,and paralyzed Gorm. The room the creatures had come from had been some kind of rich bedchamber centuries ago; it contained a secret wall panel full of bright Thaarn coins, although opening it released a spring-loaded bolt that staggered Fath in his tracks. The group emerged from the undertemple an hour or so later, Drake and Gorm now recovered, and watched a wyvern performing a strange sort of dance before it dropped a human body in front of another, larger wyvern. Both wyverns were quickly slain. Nobody recognized the body; it had a bandit look about it though.
Back at Crowhame, Fath returned the Thaarn greatbow to Maeve, but said he wished to investigate the matter of the elven chain among his people. The group prepared to ride for the Court of the Silver Twilight back at the Wulfhaar, discussing the dark dreams they’d had over the past few nights: strange encounters with Uther and the manteion for Drake, a weird self-out-of-self melange for Fath that ended with the vision of a burning plain heaped with webbed corpses. Tomar popped in and volunteered, for the price of a pie for himself and his self-described “colleague,” Cor, that he’d seen a heavily-armed group, loaded with supplies for an extensive sojourn somewhere and in possession of what he thought was some kind of map, head north into the Old Forest after buying up even more food from the Wulfhaar.
Previously On Orcless Nerdfest (35)
March 27, 2023
Heading deeper into the tangled forest of the hills north of Crowhame, the party encountered an enraged bear who attacked without warning. Aoife the ranger was disturbed by its behavior, although she didn’t believe it was mad. Further on, the party found another dead bear, even larger, that had been torn in half. Its bones seemed pitted and burned like those of the sheep.
As they approached a large ruin, they stumbled across the bodies of Aoife’s comrade Marchwardens, right as a huge wyvern attacked. They slew the beast and discovered both Tarunas and some lost gear, including a legendary suit of elven-made chain and a Thaarn greatbow. She also said that she identified the tracks of at least two other wyverns, and they were fresh.
The group entered some kind of temple or dungeon beneath the upper ruins; Drake turned a group of skeletons, and when they were slain Fath discovered a torn journal page on one of the bodies. They also found a secret door with a disturbing statue–a smaller copy of the one presiding over a deep well in the main nave, except its head was a single gaping mouth. A chained door behind the statue had a scroll leaning against it, with an elaborate warning about breaking the seal. Continuing to explore on the level they were on, they encountered some hideous creatures who stank of the grave. Drake sent one flying with the sign of the Hammer, and they slew three more; but one lunged ahead and struck the paladin into total paralysis. As they edged forward after the creature that had run, they saw a massively fat man, bloated and leering, step into the edge of their circle of light…flanked by perhaps a half-dozen more.