Campaign Diary:Pre-Adventure #3

With two of our seven characters left to bring into the campaign we ran our final pre-adventure on Tuesday night. Four of our regular players assisted by running “one-off” characters that were there as support (and wound up being VERY entertaining!)

Here is a brief description of our final two members of the campaign:

Jung: a half-orc ranger. She’s a no-nonsense survivor. Part of an orc war tribe until she reached her teen years, she was driven out and has been trying to make her way among the more civilized of the Northern Reach since. She uses her survival skills in the warmer months to earn a living shepherding herd animals into the wilderness for a few of the more affluent farmers of NorthWood. One of her regular fair-weather employers had a mysterious fire occur on his farm, several prized wooly-cattle broke loose in the panic and she’s sent into the wilderness to recover them

Wolrf: pronounced “Vulf” A mysterious human who’s lived in the Northern Reach for as long as he can remember, which is only about 5 years. That’s when he mysteriously came to, naked and in the wilderness. He’s lived his life with the Goliath Barbarian tribes of the barrens until recently. As a coming-of-age rite the barbarians send their young-adults out on a spirit quest. Worlf’s spirit quest: to make his way among the humans and find out who his people are and where he came from.

 

Jung & Wolrf Bumped into each other in the cold icy wilds, Jung with her small group of Wooly-Cattle in tow. The two of them both being proficient survivalists in the icy biome knew that two are better than one in the deadly north so they traveled together for strength and safety. A Saber-Tooth cat attack on one of the cattle set off an avalanche. An avalanche that swept Jung & Wulrf down a mountain side and through a crevasse that dumped them many feet below the ground in a natural tunnel.

They were discovered by 4 dwarvish brothers (run by 4 of our other regular players). These brothers mended their wounds and using branches found in the avalanche material made makeshift litters to carry the unconscious travelers on. These four brothers were separated from a mine they were working by a cave-in. Knowing that they aren’t far from NorthWood they decided to make their way through the underground to the city where they plan on procuring lodging through the cold winter months and then returning home with the spring thaw.

Bandaged, treated, and dragged on their litters Wolrf &Jung awoke a few days later to the four brothers cooking a meal and arguing. Once everyone understood what had happened the group of now 6 continued East towards NorthWood, making their way through the caverns underground.

They soon came across a strange section of tunnel. They have been traveling through natural tunnels, but this new section is perfectly symmetrical, perfectly level, and a very thorough inspection by the dwarves show that no tool has bee used to form this odd section of tunnel… mysterious indeed!

As they progress onward they travel through a few more of these sections, some longer, some shorter. They find two dead Kobolds, both seem to be clinically dissected. Near the two creepy Kobold corpses they find a single arrow, fashioned from metal, a single piece of metal: the arrow head, the shaft, even the fletches are all a single piece of metal.

Later they enter a long section of this strange perfect tunnel, ahead they spy that it opens into a larger room and a small round figure spots them and turns a wheel in the center of the room. The tunnel begins to close behind them, they rush into the room, the odd metallic figure (they have now encountered their first Modron) moves menacingly at them. Jung drops it with a single well placed arrow. They are now in a room that is a 60’x60’x60′ cube, the door they entered through is not merely closed, but all sign of it has disappeared.  Eventually someone spins the wheel, it turns 1/4 turn, the top of the room spins around, the walls and floors begin to glow with a dull green light, and four compartments open, one in each of the corners of the ceiling. 4 Round one-eyed Modrons pop out and combat ensues. They find that if they destroy a Modron it disintegrates, but it’s powdery remains dart through the air to a surviving Modron and it changes before their eyes… to a now more powerful Modron.

Modrons are defeated, the wheel is turned, More (more powerful) Modrons appear, battle ensues again, people are injured, Modrons destroyed, Some Modrons “power-up”. It’s pretty touch and go for many rounds. Wolrf takes a crazy amount of damage for a low-level character in the battle but manages to stay on his feet. One of the brothers is a druid and spiders his way all over the battle-field, one is a barbarian who struggles to hit Modrons… but Modrons DON’T struggle to hit him and instead wail mercilessly on him.

In the end Modron’s are defeated and the wheel is turned one last time, room shifts wildly, a sort of door opens in the ceiling and a ladder descends to the floor (constructing itself as it drops). Once the ladder is on the floor the entire room begins to disassemble itself. The temporary party of 6 battered, stabbed, and bruised make a hasty exit.

The opening leads into some of the lower sewer tunnels of NorthWood and after some searching the party finds a grate that opens into a cellar. The brothers refuse to go first so Jung and Wolrf pop the grate and enter the cellar… There’s a bright arcane flash and our two trespassers find themselves tucked away in a pocket dimension roughly 6′ square for a while. The dwarves are audibly assaulted by an arcane alarm that begins dealing psychic damage, they make a hasty retreat.

Wolrf & Jung shortly pop out of the pocket dimension and find themselves surrounded by city guards and being glared at by a very angry wizard. They find themselves spending more quality time together, in the city jail. Over the next few days the Press-Gangs swing by to line up a pick-up with the magistrate but before they can be conscripted the magistrate releases them. Someone, unknown to them, has posted bail for them (but not paid all their fines). They’ve also left them each a invitation to a New Year’s dinner to discuss some business opportunities.

Meanwhile throughout NorthWood our other five adventurers find that they also have received invitations to a dinner to discuss a business proposition. Who is this benefactor? What’s the business proposition? Tune in next week to find out!