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Post by Hussar on Sept 25, 2003 2:52:19 GMT -5
By Elias, the Bard
*singing*
We set sail on yester mourn' and swept across the harbor set up to do with some...corn we travel in our horses some more!
Many days we traveled and met not a soul then out a giant poped seeking to put our horses in his bowl!
Sweeping Grimmnor from his feet he charged toward we it looked like our defeat but we laughed at he!
Arrow after arrow fly and struck the monster in the eye down he fell to feaster!
Quickly I rushed to it to deal the final blow but up swept it do deal a mighty blow!
Ouch! I yelled we need to build a bonfire! and so we tossed it to the fire!
--New Song--
Grimnoor the Chief?
Along we strolled on that peaceful day when we were stoped with some delay
A Chief of Orcs blocked our way and Grim's said in Orc get out of your way!
The Orc laughed so cruel and Grimnoor got mad he challenged him to a duel to be the chief, is he mad?
Grimnoor fought fast and defeated the Chief with time barely past he became thier leader, their chief!
So brings us to the end were we plot our mad attack ready are we to fend the pirates are to be beaten back!
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Post by Hussar on Sept 25, 2003 2:52:53 GMT -5
By Grimnoor, Monk
From the red sea to the plains The giant slain and charred All bow down to chief Grimnoor
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Post by Hussar on Sept 25, 2003 2:53:36 GMT -5
Kelly, Priest of Corean
The attack on the pirate camp went as planned. Shadowdragon, Mylo, Elias and myself took out the guards in the officer's building. Then we quickly searched the building and located some valuable information on the pirates and informants as well as some monetary swag which we took with us. I then snuck back to the orcs who were being lead by Grimnor while the rest of the party watched the mouth of the cave.
Grimnor and I lead the orcs in a charge on the barracks, each group of 5 orcs entering one of the 4 doors of the barracks simultaneously. The orcs killed all the human pirates and begin a bloodfest. During their looting of the premises and gorging themselves on blood and human flesh, the orcs got into the alcohol stored there. Soon they were drunk and burned the building to the ground. They also set fire to the officer's quarters, and burned it to the ground over our objections. They are out of control. We fear this will alert and bring more pirates down on our heads.
Grimnor finally convinced the blood-maddened orcs to go down to the beach and continue their celebration by placing the heads of the dead men on pikes on the beach and to continue drinking. The rest of the party decided to check out the cave while the orcs were busy. During the process of investigating the cave, we heard loud noises coming from the outside. Looking out, we saw a large ship bombarding the beach with catapults and scattering the orcs into the woods. We estimate that this ship could carry as many as 200 marines as well as its normal crew.
We have decided to seek cover in the cave and to quickly continue our investigation. To me it feels like a "dead-end" trap, with the emphasis on "dead." In the cave, we have encountered a pit trap, purple ooze, and a multitude of pirate zombies. We are currently trapped in a store room full of stolen goods and we have apparently been able to kill the ooze that was attacking us. However, the party has been weakened by these attacks, our spells are low, and we are facing the onslaught of more zombies.
Furthermore, this cave complex appears to be a dead end, however we have a row boat and we might be able to find a way out by water in the southern most part of the cave. That is assuming we survive long enough to look. If not, then we must either sneak or fight our way out of the cave and into the woods. Not a palatable proposition by any means with the likelihood of pirates/marines swarming this location. Our best chance for such an escape is that the bulk of the marines might be chasing the fleeing orcs.
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Post by Hussar on Sept 25, 2003 2:54:08 GMT -5
Grimnoor, Monk
Night of blood, night of dark flame The shadows hide death Dead hands disturb still waters
A Prologue to your Adventure
The winter has passed once again and the blood rains have ended. Life is returning to normal in the City of Mithril. You have gone almost daily to the dry dock to observe the work on your ship. The damage has been repaired and you are very pleased with what you see. Also pleasing is your new crew. Word of your deeds has spread and sailors have flocked to your banner. And, best of all, Chel Azatlan has word for you. You make your way to his shop to talk with the old man.
Ah, welcome sirs, he says. It has been a sore trial ferreting out the information that you seek. I could regale you with stories of conferences and correspondence, but, I can see from your faces, ahem, you may not be interested in that. To the point then.
The scrap of paper and the map both come from the same source. About three centuries ago, before the Titanswar, a Veshian captain by the name of Roran Breezewater embarked on a daring journey. From what I can gather, he somehow discovered the location of an island about six weeks south east of Mithril. How he came by this knowledge is unclear. Port records show that he provisioned his ship, hired a full crew and set out. Nothing was heard from him again until nearly two years later. He somehow made his way back to Vesh with a skeleton crew and a badly damaged ship. He foreswore the sea and apparently spent the rest of his days in the capital city of Lave. Scholars of the time made note that he wrote a fairly detailed account of his journey, but no copies survived the Titanswar. My guess is that your piece of paper is some of his original notes. I am assured that the map is genuine. The age of the parchment and the inks seems to be in order as is the style in which the map is made. All proper for the time. If these are forgeries, they are extremely good ones.
I have something here that might interest you. However, it was very difficult to procure and it will cost you a little extra. I have a part of Breezewaterfs navigational log entries. It gives a fairly direct route to this island he speaks of. The log will cost you an extra 500 gold. As I said, it was very difficult to get.
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Post by CosmicHorror on Oct 16, 2003 1:13:21 GMT -5
Well, it looks like I'll be with this group for a while yet. Who knows, maybe we'll end up doing something heroic. That's why I'm writing this journal. Maybe it'll be worth something some day. Or not, we might all die in the wilderness and this book might be found centuries late and wonder who the auther of this journal is. It's quite late right now, just stopped for the night and I have some time before I have to rest, may as well start this.
Alright, first off, the half-orc questioned some crewman named Knuckles or some such. This character was recruted to guard our water supplies, and then the half-orc had a halfling spy on him. I was later introduced to this half-orc. Turns out he's a monk. He also gave his name, Grimnoor I think it was. I was also introduced to our navigator on this trip. A human by the name of Turjan if I remember correctly. Shortly after this little round of introductions a fight started at the other end of the ship. Two sailors were going to fight, aperantly one of them thought the other was cheating and wanted to kill him. Half-orc stopped the fight by interposing himself between the two. Also it seems our friend Turjan is a bit jumpy. I caught him glancing over at the other half of the deck. It's a good thing I looked over there too. Saw a flying object. Couldn't make it out very well though. Half-orc climbed up to the crowsnest to try to get a closer look at it, but when he approched, it disapeared. And that's where we're at right now. Perhaps I should introduce myself to whoever reads this.
My name is Endil. Just Endil. I forsake my family many years ago. I have grown weary of the deads my race were commiting. The way I see it, everything is fated to die off eventually. We elves have been around for a long time. Now, it looks our time is up. The rest of my race seems to want to fight that fact by crossbreeding with the humans. That is a sensitive issue for me and perhaps I'll elaborate later. Suffice to say, I left the elves to their devices and traveled to the city of Mithril. There I found a transport ship willing to take me on. While aboard, I found an aptitude for charting and aided the ships navigator who also taught me more about navigation. As much as I enjoyed navigating, I found my calling in piloting. When the current helmsman was unable to pilot, I took over. Eventually, him and I got in a little fight. From what I could gather, he thought I was trying to take his posistion. But that doesn't matter. The next time we put to land, he tried to kill me. Like most humans I've encountered, he was far too slow and clumsy to be useful in a fight. I was able to hold him off untill the captain came upon the fight. The human managed to blame the fight on me and had me driven from the crew. The next day I spent my savings on a silver dagger and the next time I saw him, 3 years later in the same city at a market stall arguing with some vender over something, I called to him and drew him into a nearby ally. Aperantly he didn't rememeber me, which gave me the advantage. I managed to fool him into thinking i was a rival of the vender he was fighting with and when he was digging in his purse for coin, I put the dagger through his heart. A little retribution. I took his dagger and made it look as though he fought with another human and was knifed durring a mugging. I then took the human's purse and was astonished to see that he was in leage with the Titanspwan. He had a note that outlined an attack on a small farmstead outside the city. I returned the note to his person and slipped away. I did some other odd jobs here and there untill I got wind that a ship was hireing. I had a fair sized savings and managed to win an amazing rapier from some poor sod in a game of chance. Wanting to be back on the open sea again I signed up for this posistion and set out.
Well, shouldn't be too long till the sun comes up, should be resting now. I'll add more tomorrow.
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aaronp
Peasant
I sense mischief and must blast it with my magic!
Posts: 39
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Post by aaronp on Oct 16, 2003 13:01:03 GMT -5
By Turjan, Ships navigator and wizard
Today was my first day of event as navigator of our fine vessel. After 20 days at sea the crew begin to panic, a true dissapointment. The sailors of my homelands are much sturdier of mind and heart than the crew we have hired.
At least 3 crew men began to panic and we restrained at least one. Kelly, our noble chaplain, called upon his god to break an enchantment, and low and behold there was an enchantment upon the man. Something evil is trying to stop this ship, I have had many dealings with magic, and I can feel when something is amiss. Over the next 10 days I searched the boat looking for evidence of scrying but coukd not find anything, even with detect magic spells.
On the next day, we were attacked by a Wind Rider, an evil element of the air. Its hideous laughter forced many of the crew to hide in terror, but the captain, the elven helmsman, the cleric Kelly and I joined together and defeated it. The evil thing proved a difficult fight for us, and even the deadly bow of the elven helsman proved ineffectual. None of my spells prepared me for this airborne opponent! Grimnoor and Kelly acted quickly to try to bring the foul being down with a net, but it was to no avail. Luckily crossbow had been given a blessing by Kelly, and the bolt hit home one time and I felt glad I could do my share to help the party since my spell choice of the evening before had been foolish. A flaming sphere, on a boat I laugh at myself!
Kelly slipped while trying to net the Wind Rider, I rushed to help him and I gave my crossbow to the elven helmsman. This elf, Endil took aim and with his next shot sent the evil air servant writhing to his death in the ocean. Bless the elves and their fabulous eye sight; the creature was quite far, and I never could have hit it.
After another 10 days, we found land and the crew's spirits picked up immediately. They are quite foolish and eager to drink. Luckily the monk and the elf have far more sense. Now, we search the shores and our map for a place to land our shore boat.
I am worried, I do not know what evil lurks on this land. But I know what seeks to stop us can cast enchantments from afar and maybe summon potnet elements of the air.
-Turjan of the Red Swamiis, wizard of good repute and divination most excellent.
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aaronp
Peasant
I sense mischief and must blast it with my magic!
Posts: 39
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Post by aaronp on Oct 16, 2003 13:18:29 GMT -5
by Mylo the halfling,
Now I know we halflings are not suited for life on boats!! But we halflings are clever and never discouraged and of course always resourceful especailly with food. You should have seen what old grandmother Briaredge could do with some potatoes, pig intenstines and some wild spices-inbelievable!!
Anyway you'll never believe what happended! Guess what happened!! Listen to this, the captain, lovely for a half orc, made me guard our water supply secretly after someone tried to throw all the water away. I always say humans have no common sense, especially if they spend their lives on boats. Grimnoor set a man to watch over the water supply.
After a day, I decided the best thing was to keep this man distracted- so I engaged in conversation. Too my great suprise this man loved games of chance!!! We immediatley began to play, after I gave hime back his purse-which I had decided to investigate before hand.
The man, named knuckles, showed magnificient skill with the dice!!! He won many games-then the ship rocked, and there was quite a row upstairs. But as every one knows, Im not one to shirk my duties! I stayed in the hold! We continued to play, but his luck had changed. In an hour he had lost everything and I had all his money plus his gold teeth. What a smile he had!!!
He was broke, and we together we came upon a new idea so that we could better watch the water supply. We invited the other sailors to play-after all 6, 8 or 10 eyes are all better than 4 right!!! I bankrolled knuckles and we won a ton!! After day 3 we had hired two sailors as bodyguards and are protection of the water improved!!
We also hired the harpoon maker to smolt down the gold and silver teeth we had won.
Oh we ve reached land, time to go!!! New places to explore, I love it, but i will miss my little water hold!!
-Mylo
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Post by CosmicHorror on Oct 16, 2003 13:54:09 GMT -5
Well, looks like I'll have my work cut out for me in the comming days. We've reached land, which means that I have to do some careful sailing, from the map we have there are some reefs to look out for.
This entry won't be a very long one, I've stopped the boat at a small islet near the large island for the night. I'm going to go explore it after most of the crew drinks themselves to sleep.
Perhaps I should explain why the crew is drinking and partying. Some wind being attacked the ship. Most of our attacks were useless but the cleric cast a spell on some bolts and those worked well. The half-orc and the cleric tried to drop a net on the thing from the crowsnest but it didn't work and the cleric was blown from the top. The wizard handed me his crossbow with the magic bolt and ran to the cleric while I shot at the flying thing. I hit but didn't take it out. The next bolt was much more well aimed, even though it was farther away. The last bolt took it out, I think, though when something crashes into the water and then turns to foam and steam, it's usually dead.
Well, I'll update this journal after I get back from the island.
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Post by CosmicHorror on Oct 22, 2003 23:03:05 GMT -5
Well, the last few days have been uneventfull, we landed and were greeted by some dwarves in boats. The bard cast a spell that let him speak their language and we were invited to talk with the chieftan.
But before I get ahead of my self. The half-orc and I scouted the small islet. We found a buzzing mound and he said we should leave it alone. I asked him about it, but didn't get a very adaquate response. There was nothing else of interest there.
Most of today was spent talking to the chieftan and the shaman of these dwarves. I wasn't paying much attention but the bard aperantly was able to not offend the dwarves. The shaman talked some with the cleric and drew some additions to our map. More on that later. Anyway, there's a feast starting and it'll look somewhat suspicious if I don't make a token aperance.
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Azzkigar
Peasant
Your death shall taste like cold-flat steel, as I grind thy face to meal...
Posts: 17
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Post by Azzkigar on Oct 22, 2003 23:24:56 GMT -5
Grimnoor's journal...
The long and perilous voyage has come to an end. Together with my comrades we battled and defeated two creatures of the red sea that attacked our craft as it sailed to the island where the treasure is said to lie.
A "Keel Crusher" and a "Wind Rider" were dispatched by the weaponry and skill of those aboard. 2 unkown sailors that we hired on in Mithril City proved their worth and skill in combat.
Turjan the navigator and Endil, just Endil, who appears to be a deciple of the way of the shadow. Only minor injuries were sustained while defending the Tallywacker against her foes. I thought it wise to remove two of the more troublesome crew from their duties, the stuborn Halfling Mylo and the Gambler Knuckles. I can only hope they will serve a dual purpose of drawing trouble away from the deck and protecting the drinking water.
At first site of the island we droped anchor and rested that first night by the shore of a small volcanic island not far from the larger one where out quest lies. Me and Endil scouted this rock for danger, finding only signs of sea birds on the beach. At the summit of the volcanic rock we descovered a green valley, quite peacful if not for a curious mound at its center. We spotted movement and the noise of buzzing insect wings. Rather than intrude upon the nest of fey creatures, Abels, or worse we decided simply to return to the Tallywacker.
A hand full of days have passed since anything of importance has occured. We have made contact with the natives. They are dwarves, but not like any dwarves recorded in the monastary lybraries. Calling themselves Tiger dwarves they seem to lead a peacable existance with nature, sailing their small craft and hunting in their jungle home. Thier villages seem to be advanced far beyond what one would expect of a race separated from the outside world, but as I was taught, there is always often more than meets the eye. I will record more of their culture at a later time, for now we are being summoned before their elders and it looks as though festivities are in the works...
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Post by Kelly on Oct 23, 2003 10:13:41 GMT -5
We have made landfall and are currently at the end of an island in a village of dwarven cat-like creatures. So far, they seem friendly and cooperative. The locals have even built us a nice bamboo hut, and it appears that we will be here for approximately one month repairing the ship and gathering food. We have been wined and dined and participated in a contest (which by the way we somehow won).
The trade possibilities here appear to be very positive, and the natives appear to want about everything with an emphasis on metals and metal tools. There are other similar clans located on the island and there has been talk that these clans will come to us in the village to discuss trade as well.
Our immediate plans include pursuing the trade mission, diving for pearls locally using waterbreathing spells, gathering food including catching and salting down fish, as well as some exploration.
I have established a relationship with the shaman of the clan and have presented her with a gift of a torch with continual flame cast on it. In exchange, she shared much valuable information with me about the island. She identified on our map various other cultures, including ant builders, lion tribes, the mound inhabited by snakes with legs, and talking frogs. Apparently, each of these races is intelligent and can communicate. There also appears to be a race of unintelligent large lizards.
It does not appear that there may be many precious minerals or metals on the island. The shaman did identify a vein of quartz and hemitite, but that appears to be it. Trade and pearl diving appear to be the biggest ways to make money besides possible exploration. With the combination of trading for pearls and diving for them, we may be able to gather quite a nice supply of pearls to take back and sell.
For now, I would like to concentrate on getting the ship seaworthy for one never knows how the "tide" (pun intended) may turn. It is always best to have an escape plan should things change. Exploration appears to be a little risky since the dwarves are in conflict with most of the other island inhabitants.
Tommorrow promises to be a big day, but for now it is time to rest and recuperate from our day of celebration. Much of the crew (including myself) appear to be glad to be on land for a while.
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Post by Hussar on Oct 24, 2003 9:45:16 GMT -5
The beach where the Tiger dwarves greeted you:
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Post by Hussar on Oct 24, 2003 9:47:29 GMT -5
Chief {Sand Pebble}, clan chief of the {Walks through trees} clan.
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Post by Hussar on Oct 24, 2003 9:50:57 GMT -5
gMy name is {Swims with Snakes} and I am the {Walks through Trees} {Shaman}. Why have you come here from the lands of {Windy Water}?h The {Walks through Trees} clan shaman.
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Post by Melegaunt on Oct 24, 2003 15:45:18 GMT -5
Captain's Log
We have skimmed the coast line to the location of the closest of the marked villages. The inhabitants received us happily and the crew is getting a much needed break. We are also making repairs on the ship. We have a watch schedule divided into days on the boat providing a skeleton crew at all times.
Trade negotiations are going well. I expect our employer will be very satisfied with the return on the routes we are creating here.
Captain Elias
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