schmee
3rd Level Troll
Posts: 213
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Post by schmee on Mar 21, 2023 14:00:31 GMT -5
DELVE 38.
Wednesday 11th November 2020.
Online, ca. 9.00 pm – 11.30 pm.
Campaign year: Midsummer 503.
GM: Pippy.
Delvers: KANDI (Scally) 3rd level warrior; PATTI (Glyn) 3rd level rogue; BARTON (Savage) 3rd level warrior; GIOVANNI (Schmee) 2nd level healer.
Locations: Dweomer; Violet Ocean; Ringhorn; Dweomer (again).
In Dweomer, the delvers availed themselves of overnight accommodation at PATTI’s rooms in Fulgur college. After an eclectic breakfast they set off on foot towards Ravayne’s Fury to rendezvous with Ferdinand and the crew. (Ferdinand was asleep on board ship, still recuperating after his misadventures in the Blue Forest.) En route they encountered Azafran, a mercurial wizard.
Azafran was in a drunken rage because Talanexor had spent all of his money compensating PATTI after their duel; as-such, a significant debt he owed to Azafran could no longer be settled. The loud and abusive wizard cast a spiteful spell on the delvers and teleported them onto a pirate ship, the Hydra, where they were held in the hold as slaves.
A bystander named GIOVANNI, a healer and former hermit, was accidentally caught by Azafran’s teleportation spell. He too was enslaved on board the Hydra along with the other three delvers. The Hydra was sailing north-west from Smogmaw to Aku across the Violet Ocean when the delvers arrived on board.
Captain Mulberry and his crew kept them bound in ropes in cramped, insanitary conditions below decks alongside scores of other slaves from around the Fabled Lands (including the friendly Pierre, a less-friendly druidess and a family from Akatsurai).
They spent two-and-a-half days on board during which time BARTON and especially GIOVANNI became very sick with dysentery. The delvers untied themselves, along with a number of the other slaves, and used PATTI’s magic to trap and overcome two pirate guards.
Using the pirate’s weapons and with the support of their freed comrades they successfully battled the pirates and took control of the ship.
The delvers, along with the other emancipated slaves, sailed to Ringhorn where the Hydra’s significant spoils (gems, gold and spices) were sold and shared equally. There was much rejoicing! The delvers returned to Dweomer, purchasing passage by boat across the Violet Ocean, although GIOVANNI remained on the mainland.
Delve #38 was a momentous occasion in the campaign where for the first time a different GM took over for the session. This was Pippy (posting on here as TheRealCrenell), who also wrote the excellent delving summary above.
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Post by therealcrenell on Mar 23, 2023 3:25:39 GMT -5
Suggested prog rock accompaniment: Aegean Sea by Aphrodite's Child (666)
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scally
1st Level Troll
Posts: 42
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Post by scally on Mar 23, 2023 13:10:07 GMT -5
Was this the first guest-GM delve? I thought there was Great British Bake Off parody delve… I missed that one but I thought it happened before the slave ship incident (which I was present for).
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schmee
3rd Level Troll
Posts: 213
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Post by schmee on Mar 23, 2023 19:09:29 GMT -5
Was this the first guest-GM delve? I thought there was Great British Bake Off parody delve… I missed that one but I thought it happened before the slave ship incident (which I was present for). Good question, Scal. Without consulting the delve records, I think the Bake-Off came later.
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schmee
3rd Level Troll
Posts: 213
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Post by schmee on Mar 25, 2023 3:39:58 GMT -5
DELVE 39.
Saturday 14th November 2020.
Online, ca. 9.30 pm – 11.00 pm.
Campaign year: Midsummer 503.
GM: Pippy.
Delvers: PATTI (Glyn) 3rd level rogue.
Locations: Dweomer; Dabelfry Manor.
After escaping slavery and returning to Dweomer, PATTI was summoned by her college supervisor, Thymeus, and tasked with an errand in a nearby hamlet.
The attic of Dabelfry Manor, a place with obscure connections to Fulgur College, needed clearing of furnishings, ornaments, books and other trinkets as well as any vermin that had taken up residence. Although there was no fee, PATTI could sell the contents of the attic and keep the proceeds.
However, after arriving in the hamlet and hearing the dark whispers of the locals, PATTI began to suspect Thymeus had not been candid with her. It was said that the attic rooms were once the residence of a countess and her two children, who had all mysteriously disappeared some months earlier. Rumour had it that the countess had been driven insane by potion addiction.
After spending a night at the tavern, PATTI made her way to the manor where she was shown to the attic by a guardsman who suspiciously locked the door behind her. The attic was a dusty, foul smelling cavity that had been partitioned into various rooms.
The first PATTI entered was a library. Two tomes stood out as worthy of further study: the Adulteress’ Atlas and the Tome of Bodily Fulfilment. There was also a portrait of a maniacally grinning woman and two children. PATTI then proceeded to what appeared to be the sleeping chambers of two small children. Peculiarly, in addition to the generic accoutrements of a child’s bedroom, there was a badger and wildcat, which upon closer inspection had marks suggestive of cranial surgery.
After she befriended the two creatures, PATTI moved on to the next room in the attic, a laboratory where bubbling alembics made the air thick with a dark, magical miasma. A horrifying site befell her – the animated corpses of the two children from the library portrait. But as if this atrocity were not enough, the arms of the children had been severed and the wings of giant bats grafted in their place.
Nonetheless, PATTI quickly dispatched these profanities against the gods, her mind reeling after noticing that the children also had strange cranial scars. In the laboratory PATTI also found a jar full of peculiar metal shavings, but quickly realized it was smeared with acid as her gauntlets disintegrated before her eyes. Thank the Three Fortunes; her fingers survived!
Beyond a further attic partition lay the place where these necromantic crimes against humanity had been perpetrated. It was makeshift surgery, smeared with congealed blood and reeking of death. Bobbing face-down in a water basin was a severed head that, after being prodded by PATTI, pounced through the air revealing its horrible visage. Dozens of gnashing mouths had been stitched all over the head and they were hungry! Luckily, PATTI’s mask stopped the abomination from gnawing at her face as the scars would have been deep and permanent.
After chopping the Ball of Mouths to pieces PATTI fled that awful place, not knowing that worse horrors were yet to come. PATTI emerged into the upper reaches of the manor’s bell tower. Around the edge of the room ran a narrow wooden ledge and a large bell was suspended above the gloom below. A dark form hung from the bell. Was this the ‘vermin’ to which Thymeus had referred? As PATTI notched an arrow the creature unravelled itself, filling much of the space in the tower.
This was no ordinary dire bat, PATTI realized, but another reanimated blasphemy that had undergone unspeakable bodily modifications. Stitched to the bat’s groinal area was the maniacally grinning head of the countess, which let forth an inhuman scream. The creature lunged at PATTI dealing her a grievous wound. Precariously balanced upon the bell tower rafter, PATTI remembers little of how she survived the battle with the beast. Yet she was triumphant and stumbled, seriously injured into the room beyond the bell.
Fearing not only for her life but for her soul, PATTI found herself in the bed chamber of the countess, a portrait of a man, perhaps her husband the count, hung above the bed. Around the portrait hung several desiccated heads of garlic. There was also a dressing table and a large ornate wardrobe. PATTI tremulously opened the wardrobe out of which burst a swarm of bats to reveal the corpse of the count – cloves of garlic stuffed into his rotting mouth.
Relieved, Patti realized there were no more rooms to find in the attic and began to cart out the possessions and the bodies of the fated Dabelfry family. Her trauma was more than made up for by the small fortune fetched at auction. The badger and the wildcat were reunited with their uncle, the new count of Dabelfry.
Delve #39 was another first, as I wasn't there when it took place. Pippy took Glyn through the solo dungeon "Bats in Dabelfry", and Glyn wrote the harrowing delve summary above.
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Post by therealcrenell on Mar 25, 2023 7:33:20 GMT -5
Keyword: groinal
I think Glyn actually wrote this one
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Post by therealcrenell on Mar 25, 2023 7:38:05 GMT -5
Was this the first guest-GM delve? I thought there was Great British Bake Off parody delve… I missed that one but I thought it happened before the slave ship incident (which I was present for). I remember being a little bit nervous about it. Will they enjoy it? Will I be any good at it? Would it be trite and dull as compared with Schmee's cultured oeuvre? (Anyone else feel this way about first time DMing? I'll search the forum, expect there's a thread or two) Anyway, it wasn't long before they were bickering about the best way to escape their predicament. Fully engaged they were. Pretty sure they enjoyed it!
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schmee
3rd Level Troll
Posts: 213
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Post by schmee on Mar 26, 2023 5:42:34 GMT -5
DELVE 40.
DELVING MISHAP IN FOREST RUIN
Monday 16th November 2020.
Online, ca. 9.30 pm – 12.00 am.
Campaign year: Midsummer 503.
GM: Schmee.
Delvers: KANDI (Scally) 3rd level warrior; PATTI (Glyn) 3rd level rogue; FERDINAND (Pippy) 2nd level warrior.
Locations: Dweomer; skies over Sokara; Velis Corin; Caran Baru; Forest of Larun; Tomb of the Wizard-king.
The delvers set sail from Dweomer and headed south to Copper Island. En route, a winged horse alighted on their deck; its rider, a man from Atticala was flying to Sky Mountain "to meet the gods". The delvers agreed to go with him, and rode though the sky on the winged horse. They instructed Mr Miller to sail the ship to Copper Island and await them there.
Flying high over Sokara, the winged horse reared unexpectedly and cast the delvers off. Falling into a clump of trees they were badly injured. They found themselves in the north of Sokara, near Velis Corin. They entered the citadel & spoke to Captain Vorkung, and rested until they were well enough to travel. Vorkung told them that either a pitched battle in the wilds of northern Sokara or a protracted siege of Caran Baru was forthcoming.
Commentary: Capt. Vorkung is the new commander of Velis Corin, since the delvers helped to capture it for the forces of the King.
The delvers journeyed south on the road to Caran Baru, now deserted after the fall of the citadel. They diverted their route west to approach the city from the mines. There they prepared for a journey into the Forest of Larun. There was much disturbance in the northern forest, following the breakdown of law-and-order; it was now haunted by monsters.
They fought first with a pair of coffin creeps, then with a band of horrid lepers (FERDINAND was infected by their disease). They then made it to the clearing of the tomb of Astrallus, the Wizard-king.
Opening the demon-door with the correct password, the delvers entered the chamber within. There they saw a tomb protected by magic symbols. Crossing the silver pentagram, PATTI sprung a trap - the lid of the tomb exploded and a smoke demon emerged, instantly filling the room with darkness.
Their weapons were of no use against the guardian of the tomb; they fled, but KANDI slipped and was buffeted horribly before PATTI dragged her to safety, smashing a magic "glee-globe" (found among the lepers) to briefly daunt the smoke demon. The delvers collapsed in the glade outside the tomb, as the demon-door grated back shut behind them.
Commentary: A glee globe is a magical item we got from the Monster Horrorshow RPG by J.H. Brennan; when shattered it releases a gas that makes those who inhale relaxed & giggly. It didn't have much of an effect on the smoke demon, though.
Normal GM-ing service was resumed for delve #40, a relatively unsuccessful trip to the dreaded Tomb of the Wizard King.
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schmee
3rd Level Troll
Posts: 213
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Post by schmee on Mar 28, 2023 12:36:45 GMT -5
DELVE 41.
QUOTIDIAN VOYAGE A COMPLETE SUCCESS
Tuesday 17th November 2020.
Campaign year: Midsummer 503.
Cambridge ca. 12.00 pm – 12.30 pm.
GM: Schmee.
Delvers: None.
Locations: Violet Ocean; Copper Isle; Brazen.
MR MILLER (the first mate), in temporary command of the brigantine Ravayne’s Fury, attempted to sail to the port of Brazen on Copper Island. He guided the ship east through a bank of thick mist, and docked at the port of Brazen. There, he refitted the ship & sent carrier pigeons to Fulgur college on Dweomer, Castle Ravayne in Golnir, and Velis Corin in northern Sokara; informing the delvers of his safe arrival.
Delve #41 was highly unusual indeed, with no actual delvers present! A phenomenon yet-to-be-repeated in the Fantastical Realms.
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scally
1st Level Troll
Posts: 42
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Post by scally on Mar 28, 2023 13:25:23 GMT -5
I hope you rolled for sea encounters on that solo delve, Schmee😁
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schmee
3rd Level Troll
Posts: 213
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Post by schmee on Mar 29, 2023 3:26:55 GMT -5
I hope you rolled for sea encounters on that solo delve, Schmee😁 Certainly did !
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schmee
3rd Level Troll
Posts: 213
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Post by schmee on Mar 30, 2023 11:26:23 GMT -5
DELVE 42.
TELEPORT ERROR, ACIDIC BLOBS & A WATER-SPOUT
Wednesday 18th November 2020.
Online, ca. 9.00 pm – 12.30 am.
Campaign year: Midsummer 503.
GM: Schmee.
Delvers: KANDI (Scally) 3rd level warrior; PATTI (Glyn) 3rd level rogue; FERDINAND (Pippy) 3rd level warrior; BARTON (Savage) 3rd level warrior.
Locations: Dweomer; Forest of Larun; Velis Corin; Bronze Hills; Caran Baru; Trefoille; Dweomer; Copper Isle; Brazen; Violet Ocean; Smogmaw.
BARTON was in PATTI’s rooms at Fulgur college. The warden came to turf him out. A letter from Mr Miller arrived (cc Velis Corin & Castle Ravayne). BARTON was called to speak to the Master of the college. In the Master’s office, we was asked to leave the college grounds, but the Master offered him the use of magic to join his friends. Climbing through the Master’s fireplace, he reached the back of the chimney, and was transported by magic back to Sokara. Something went wrong with the spell, and he appeared without his gear, semi-clothed and 100s of feet up in the air.
KANDI, PATTI & FERDINAND had emerged from the Forest of Larun. They spotted BARTON falling from the sky and caught him in a net. The travelled to Velis Corin to be healed; there the court wizard cured FERDINAND’s leprosy. The spoke to Captain Vorkung about the war in the north.
They then left the citadel and headed south, fighting with some acidic blobs; BARTON dismayed them with a scoop of caustic chalk-water. Continuing on (via the Bronze Hills) to Caran Baru, they travelled by road to Trefoille.
Commentary: The water was found a nearby chalk-stream (LK Saving Roll); scooped up in the back of a shield (ST Saving Roll) and lobbed over the blobs (DEX Saving Roll).
There they met with Oliphaunt who was considering retiring to Dweomer. He locked the door to his cellar from the inside and they all travelled by portal to the Sorcerer’s Isle. BARTON recovered his gear from the college rooms.
They then paid for passage on a ship to Brazen, where they met with their own vessel, brought here by Mr Miller & bought a cargo-load of minerals.
They then sailed back south, and the ship was caught in a great water-spout and lifted into the upper airs. PATTI rescued the ship by swimming to the sea-bed and closing the great vent that was the source of the spout. Sailing on to Smogmaw they sold the minerals & bought spices. Oliphaunt retired to his lodgings and gifted them the key to the remains of his tower.
Delve #42: quite a lot happened this time. The highlight was probably PATTI's deep sea diving or BARTON's acid/alkali chemistry experiment. P.S. Smogmaw is the lawless depot town on the northern edge of the great southern continent, Ankon-konu.
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scally
1st Level Troll
Posts: 42
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Post by scally on Mar 31, 2023 6:08:45 GMT -5
ANKON-KONUUUUU…
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schmee
3rd Level Troll
Posts: 213
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Post by schmee on Apr 2, 2023 4:24:42 GMT -5
DELVE 43.
BAKE-OFF
Saturday 21st November 2020.
Online, ca. 9.30 pm – 11.30 pm.
Campaign year: Midsummer 503.
GM: Glyn & Jo.
Delvers: FERDINAND (Pippy) 3rd level warrior; GIOVANNI (Schmee) 2nd level healer.
Locations: Stringwater.
Following an unscheduled trip to another realm, FERDINAND and his new friend GIOVANNI took part in the Contest at Stringwater, to bake a dish for the king. They visited an enchanted treehouse, and explored a spidery wood before leaving the contest area along a river. Despite collecting ingredients including squirrels, blackbirds, mushrooms & some seasonings, they were not successful in their quest, and returned to the Fantastical Realms.
For delve #43 Glyn & Jo presented the solo adventure "Banquet at Stringwater" for me and Pippy (temporarily transported to a different realm).
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schmee
3rd Level Troll
Posts: 213
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Post by schmee on Apr 3, 2023 16:35:42 GMT -5
DELVE 44.
ARENA OF KHAZAN
Saturday 21st November 2020.
Online, ca. 11.30 pm – 3.00 am.
Campaign year: Midsummer 503.
GM: Schmee.
Delvers: FERDINAND (Pippy) 3rd level warrior; PATTI (Glyn) 3rd level rogue.
Locations: Khazan.
FERDINAND and PATTI made another journey beyond the fantastical realms, to compete in the Arena of Khazan. There, they fought and defeated trolls, orcs, gremlins, lions and a sorceress; but were both horribly slain by a MR 1,000 shoggoth.
Delve #44 took place later the same night as Delve #43. Perhaps FERDINAND and PATTI's courage was boosted by a geuze boon or two? We will never know. What we do know is that this was the last time we used solo dungeons as part of a delve (so far, at least). I'll post up the two late delvers' delving cards hopefully tomorrow!
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