vaughnsjournal


 * Vaughn's Journal **

Most campfire groups are Red-Black-Red. One is Brown-Green-Brown and has Hell Hounds. All on the other side of the river are Brown-Black-Brown and one on the main side. That one has 6 Bear-Owls penned up and one weird creature (Hydra?) also penned up. There is also a pen of livestock. 4 legged and 2 legged. Estimate: 30 HG per fire, 25 fires. 30 dwarves on the walls. There are more inside the top of the rock/hill/butte as there are arrow-slits. We make a plan. Euell casts pass without trace on the party. Euell and Noluck will go invisible (I cast the spell) and pour oil inside the 3 siege engines. Euell will then summon a small fire elemental to set them on fire. Oki and Mardove will also go invisible (potions) and smuggle weapons to the captive dwarves and tell them to wait for a distraction (burning siege engines) and flee. Mardove will then summon badgers to harass and annoy the Bear-Owls and Hydra. The rest of the crew will wait East to help the escaping dwarves. Euell and Noluck are completely successful. Oki and Mardove free the dwarves and successfully harass the Bear-Owls, then leave. The dwarves decide to fight gloriously to the end instead of fleeing. They manage to cause great consternation to the hobgoblins before going down. We head back to the cave to sleep. Doug rolls a 6. Figures. Some Hell Hounds managed to find our cave. 6 HH and 30 hobgoblins. We manage to kill all but 1, so it’s time to move on. We subdued 1 and find out they speak orcish, so we question him. There are 10 clans. Each was to bring 300-400 soldiers. Black-Brown-Black – Mountain Grizzlies (control Bear-Owls) – only on North side of island. Red-Black-Red – The Fearless – die before retreat. Brown-Green-Brown – Forest Stalkers - Hell Hounds – specialists in tracking (rangers) Red-White-Red - Skullbreakers – …more to come with DM’s email…
 * April 6, 387 – (continued)** After tracking for awhile, we determine there is no way to follow who did this since it is on the road and tracks are going everywhere. We decide to head toward where there should be a dwarven fort. It is a few miles away. 2 miles away, we find a good lookout spot and notice the fort is surrounded by fires Euell morphs into a vulture to do some recon.

Since our position was compromised, Euell casts his last Pass Without Trace and Glenlevit casts Water Walking and we follow a small creek north then look for a hiding spot.

We manage to dispatch them with minor injuries. We backtrack them to see if they sent any scouts back to report our location. We find no evidence of such. Their colors are Brown-Green-Brown. We continue west. Once we get to the top of the ridge, we notice in the distance there are Hippogriffs with Hobgoblins riding them as air support. Also there are flying lions. We send a note with this information via one of our three remaining pigeons. As a backup, Euell casts Animal Messenger sending a Gull with the same information. Bob notices some BearOwl tracks along with the main force that came a week ago. We follow the river west and come upon a burned out inn. Euell finds Hobgoblin and Hell Hound tracks.
 * April 6, 387 –** Travel in the general direction of the coast. We find a trail that used to be an animal trail, but a week or so ago was used by many booted feet. Probably the hobgoblins marching to attack the dwarves. Kojak warns us 5 seconds before an attack by Hell Hounds and Hobgoblins. Thanks Kojak.


 * April 5, 387 –** Resting on island off the coast of the Dwarven land. Hiding with Euell and Kojak on watch as a hummingbird and hawk. After some discussion we decide to wage the same sort of campaign we did on the orcs. Hang around in the less populated areas and pick off the enemy a little at a time while we size up the situation. Nothing happens during the day. Euell makes 18 goodberries that are good until the evening of April 11. Then under the cover of night, we sail the ship to the eastern side of the bay, land and hide the ship as best we can. Then we take the canoes further north and land again and hide the canoes. We find a place to camp and rest for the night.

Back outside the cave, Kojak, Satan (the bear), Acog, and Bob are beset upon by a group of orcs. We manage to kill all the orcs eventually. At the very end cavern, there is a room with veins of crystal. Probably not very valuable, but extremely beautiful. There is a temple in that room which we desecrate.
 * September 26, 386 –** We get close to the RaidMasters orc clan. It appears their town is burned down. The pixies have attacked. They hold the outside, and the orcs are holed up in the caves. We join the pixies and make a plan. Euell (in cat form) and cat go in first and take out the 2 orc guards. Kojak summons a fire elemental to charge into the cave lighting the way. The rest of the group gets to the entrance and Otavio fireballs where the elemental stopped (it is fighting 3 orcs). The cave Ys. The elemental went down the right corridor. Orcs are coming from both directions. Noluck, Bob, Humulus, Lupulus and Oki head down the left fork. Euell, cat, Juggernaut and Fubar head down the right fork. Otavio sends another fireball down the right fork past the good guys killing several orcs. The stupid orcs create a Stinking Cloud of noxious vapors, causing Euell and cat to retreat. Juggernaut and Fubar advance (having fought off the effects). Glenlivet removes the poison effects from Euell (the cat fought off the effects, but retreated anyway). Euell charges through the cloud, calling the cat to follow. The cat succumbs after getting through, but Euell manages to fight off the effects. Euell follows after Fubar and Juggernaut. It appears the last fireball cleared out the remaining orcs from the immediate vicinity. Down the left corridor, the good guys clear out the orcs and follow down the passage. They come to a room of female and young orcs. (I refuse to call them “women” and “children”) Humulus and Lupulus clear out the vermin.

We head back to town to spend the winter.


 * September 25 –** We continue north along the river looking for BearOwl tracks. Acog’s eagle spots something that might be the tracks. We follow and come near the Orc massacre of Sept 21. There are 2 BearOwls eating the dead orcs. They take an aggressive stance when they notice us. They appear to have red glowing eyes. Bob calls the foliage to entangle them, while Mardove and I chant encouraging words. One of them rips free from the foliage and attacks. Battle ensues. Noluck is grappled by one of the BearOwls. While trying to kill the BearOwl, it swings Noluck right in the way and Humulus “accidentally” (I’m not sure he ever liked Noluck) hit’s Noluck. Nobody else was hurt. Euell in cat form and his friend cat jump the other BearOwl and with a little help, tear it to shreds. We head on and sleep on the mountain ridge.


 * September 24 –** Now we decide to go down the cave entrance instead of waiting for them to come out. It goes down at a 10-15% grade. We use ropes to help our descent. The tunnel is very muddy. It opens into a smooth stone corridor. These appear to be the city sewers. At this point it is about 15’ wide (10’ path, 5’ sewer). After following and turning and going and turning (See Fubar for the map) we enter a room. Battle ensues. There are 3 large spiders and one man-spider. We kill the 3, but the man-spider escapes.

We follow the natural passageway (there are 4 exits from the room including the way we came in) Euell and Kojak cast Spike Growth to block the other 2 exits while we explore this one. There is a charred spot on the wall that looks like it was caused by a cone of fire. After 100’, it opens into a cavern. Juggernaut and Noluck each fall into separate pits that were set up as traps. After climbing out, there are men-spiders across a 10’ river. Battle again ensues. It turns out the “river” is a river of goo. After fighting for awhile, they ask in orcish why we are killing them. We parlay and learn they were created by the “Makers” who are Yuenti. The Yuenti also created the Hell Hounds, and brought Lycanthropy to the area. They did not create the Driders, but the Yuenti are helping them since we drove them out of their home. We decide to head back to town and relay all this information.

We travel north along the river and camp.


 * September 23 –** We want to learn about the spider-beings that live in the ruins. Acog sends his bird to scout for cave entrances. He finds 4 possible entrances. We have him lead us to the largest so we can set up a spider-blind and watch what emerges at night. There is a web “fence” outlining the territory of the spiders. On the other side of the web is the territory of the Heck Puppies. Oki scratches a holy symbol on the side of one of the buildings figuring that if the spiders are intelligent the will stop to check it out. Otherwise they will ignore it. Noluck scouts out the cave discovering that it was a natural cave-in, but has been worked. It turns out we picked a horrible night for scouting as there is a terrible rainstorm all night. We decide to try again tomorrow.


 * September 22 –** Heading back to the ruins, we run into spider webs, and are attacked by spiders. Otavio tries out his new power and fireballs some spiders still coming in. All 3 caught in the conflagration are now cinders. After we kill a few more, they think better of the attack and back off. We back out of their area and go around. We make it to the ruins and rest up for the night. Bob checked out the hole to the underworld, and noticed signs that two large (foot and a half in diameter) snakes had come out of the hole and eventually went back into the hole.

The battle actually went according to plan. 45 dead, the rest fled. Shortly after the battle, a squadron of Hippogriffs flew down to scavenge. We left them to it and headed down river to set up camp.
 * September 21 –** While setting up an ambush for the returning orcs, Euell notices tracks of an unusual Bear-Owl creature. We change ambush spots. I make Oki and Mardov invisible so they can hide in a tree right on the path. When the orcs get there, Mardov will cast dancing lights on them and Euell (in Big Cat form) will Entangle them while the rest of us rush to attack. That’s the plan. We’ll see what actually happens.


 * September 20 –** Destroy orc town


 * September 18 –** We head back to the lake and follow the southern river to the southwest. There is another intact bridge across the river just outside the city walls. A quarter mile outside the city walls along the river, we see a 40’ tall stone tower. We can’t till if it is the same stone as the ruins. When we get closer, it is clear that it is the same construction as the ruins. There is a 3’ tall wall enclosing a well tended orchard. There is another 3’ wall around 3 buildings, one of which is the tower. The other two building are wood. We watch from a distance for an hour. We notice Heck Dogs in the compound. Euell turns into a bird to scout. It looks like the Dragon spent the night in the orchard. The orchard is unnaturally productive. The apples are producing like it’s fall, the other fruits are producing like it’s their best season, etc. The HDs live in the barn. We make an attack plan, but when we enter the compound, we are overcome by a peaceful magic that keeps anybody from doing violence. The magic encompasses the entire compound. There is a tunnel in one of the barn stalls. There is some foreign writing on the door to the tower that reads (via Comprehend Languages) “House of Rest”. We enter. There is a kitchen and fireplace on the first floor. There are 2 suites that consist of an outer room and a bedroom on each of the 2nd and 3rd floors. The 3rd floor has a trapdoor up to the roof. There is a basement, so we check it out. It is storage. There are clothes, blankets, bandages, dried food, etc. There is a door leading out of the room. The door opens to a 20’ x 20’ entryway with a door that leads to a 50’ x 60’. There are beds of all sizes, every type of herb known, books about healing and other infirmary supplies. There is also a tunnel of about the same size as the one in the barn. It is heading in the direction of the barn. We check it out. It goes for 40’ and Ts. One branch seems to be heading toward the barn, but we realize that this is outside of the peaceful magic and figure the HDs could (and would) attack us while we couldn’t fight them. We follow the other branch for 30’. There are 2 openings (one on either side) on the 40th foot.section. There is a sign with a symbol of Leviatar (Evil god). The openings are alcoves that each contain a large (10’ tall) being that appears to be a guardian. They don’t immediately attack, but we figure they would if we tried to pass. They look to be of the same type of creature as the Quasit that was working with the Orcs. Now we follow the tunnel back to the barn. It does go to the barn, but just before the barn there is a small skinny side passage. It looks natural, not tunneled. It only goes a short way and dead ends. There are bats living in it. We head back to the tower to spend the night. The night passes uneventfully.


 * September 17 –** We travel clockwise around the lake. After about a mile, we see what appears to be a water break where boats could harbor. We head toward it for a closer look. When we get closer, we see a ruined stone wall that used to be part of a building. It is a single piece. Otavio theorizes it was Stone Shaped. As we get closer still, we see more of these. Euell talks to the oldest looking tree in the area (which is about 500 years old) It has seen a Dragon only a week ago. It also tells us that two-legs come through here hunting periodically. Also, there are Spider-People living here. They have 2 legs, 2 arms and large spider-like bodies. When they encounter the two-legs, they typically fight. We decide to head on west to see the western shore of Tobian. The town’s stone bridge across the southern river is still standing and structurally sound. We keep heading clockwise around the lake until we get to the river heading to the west. We follow the river to the sea. The rest of the day is uneventful. We find an almost intact building (all four walls are still up) and spend an uneventful night there.


 * September 16 –** Shortly after setting out for the day, we encounter 3 Heck Dogs. We get the jump on them and Euell Entangles them. Battle then ensues. They are unable to escape the hold of the vegetation and we kill 2 of them with missile weapons. The third finally frees itself and flees. We track where they came from by default as the came from the direction we are headed anyway. We lose the trail, but make it to the lake. We make camp and sleep. The night passes uneventfully.


 * September 15 -**  The morning after battle with the Heck Dogs. We decide to head to the Western Lake. Uneventful day of travel. The leaves turning colors provide a beautiful vista.


 * Vaughn's Note:** Somewhere in here I died, but then I got better. Stupid Driders.

At the center of the main island are 3 buildings. A 50’ tower in the middle, with 2 farm houses next to it. The houses seem to be sized for 30’ tall creatures. The tower is surrounded with a glowing ball of shimmering light. A 30’ tall man emerges from a building and walks toward us. I hail him. He returns the greeting. His name is Prometheus. He is a demigod of Seeker. He is also a Titan. He is important in the history of this area. He says he will heal the Duke’s quadriplegic wife if she comes to the island. He also knows who brought lycanthropy to the area but he is charged with remaining neutral. He is charged with seeing that Humans and Dwarves have a chance to survive while the protective barrier remains. The means to remove the barrier are 6 scrolls. Once we bring all 6 scrolls to the tower, we can release the barrier. Prometheus doesn’t know what remains outside the barrier. 400 years ago there was too much powerful evil in the area for Humans and Dwarves to survive. Now, who knows? 400 years ago, a scroll was placed in each of the major 6 islands. One was Groleau’s Grotto. They may or may not remain where they were placed. To cure lycanthropy: He tells a story of the humans A bastard contested the heir of a throne. The heir lost and was offered the opportunity to come to this area to help the Dwarves. That’s how the humans came to be here.
 * July 21 –** We see beneath the boat a HUGE turtle. Euell and Bob let us know that it is not an animal. It follows us for awhile, then leaves. Otavio casts detect magic in the direction of where we believe Star Island to be. There is so much magic in the area, he gets a huge headache. Soon even the fighters can feel that there is magic even w/o a spell. As we get closer, we can sense that there are multiple sources of this magic. We decide to head to the island with the strongest source of magic which turns out to be the central island. Each island has a source.
 * 1) When 1st infected, any remove curse or cure disease will work.
 * 2) After 1st change, remove curse or cure disease from a powerful caster needs to be cast during a full moon, while they are changed, and only if they want to be cured will it work.


 * July 18 –** We decide to head to Star Island. The Duke provides the boat.


 * July 16 –** They all fail.


 * July 15 –** Fubar manages to control it tonight. The others fail.


 * July 14 –** Humulus, Lupulus, Fubar and Otavio turn into werewolves again. They are each in separate locked rooms. Lupulus manages to maintain his self and even changes back to human. The rest are fully under the influence.


 * June 29 – July 5 –** Setting up blacksmithing, etc.

Mass confusion as we can’t see anything. I chant to inspire courage. The Priestess escapes in the confusion. Euell and Noluck rescue a human female sacrifice who was hanging (bleeding) over the altar. Euell heals (cure light) the sacrifice and along with Humulus, carries her out of the temple to meet up with the rest of the group. Bob is firing flaming arrows up to the roof of the cavern attempting to set the copious webs on fire. Noluck desecrates the altar by pouring holy water on it, summoning many Shadows. We flee, taking the sacrifice with us. On the way out, we grab ore and ingots from a blacksmith station where 3 half-orc slaves were creating masterwork rapiers. We order the half-orcs to come with us or die. They aren’t stupid, so they come with us. We get rewarded 200gp for rescuing 2 humans. We use that to train the half-orcs to be our own blacksmith shop.
 * June 28 –** Just after midnight, deep in the caverns of the Driders. Two are now dead. We enter the Drider house to plan and stay hidden. We discover that the main temple with the leader is right next door. We head over to attack. Oki is acting as a slave. Fubar is about to toss Oki to the High Priestess/leader, but suddenly we are in darkness. Noluck grabs the door and sets off a trap, hurting himself but nobody else.


 * June 20 – 27 –** vacation.


 * June 19 –** Arrive at the Faerie dukedom.


 * June 18 –** head to the Faerie dukedom.


 * June 17 –** No change. Full moon is over. Coincidence? We think not!


 * June 16 –** They change yet again. We try all manner of spells. The only spells with with any effect are Calm Emotions and Command.


 * June 15 –** Otavio, Humulus, Lupulus, and Fubar change again but are in separate cages. They remember nothing the next morning.


 * June 14 –** During the night, Otavio, Humulus, Lupulus, and Fubar change into wolves. Euell tries Remove Disease but there is no effect. Humulus and Lupulus are in the same cell and fight each other dropping each other at the same time. The guards enter after the fight is finished, and heal them.


 * June 12, 13 –** Quarantined by the Meilikki priests every night to make sure we don’t turn into werewolves. This is a GREAT idea. I room with Oki.


 * June 11 –** We reach FV, FV.


 * June 10 –** Uneventful day.


 * June 9 –** Uneventful day.


 * June 8 –** Still heading back. About noon, we see about a dozen orcs coming our way. We attempt to set an ambush, but the see us and the battle is joined. We kill them all with no casualties.


 * June 7 –** Heading back to Fertile Valley capital with a captured Orc Werewolf. We run across a train of giant ants. We try to avoid them, but Noluck Fatfingers attacked one. The rest of us avoided them with the help of a spikestone that Kojak cast.


 * Early June(?) - Fubar update:**

Seek a cure. Investigate ruins to the south.

The group decides to see if the Sphinx duke has any suggestions on a cure for the "lie-can-throw-pee". Also, the Duke and clerics of MH and FV have asked for assistance from the home islands as well. Party gets to Misty Isle lake of the pixies but only the pixie cleric is there and has no help. I, Fubar, say "Fahhh", I have overcome worse and if need be will control this affliction to my advantage if no cure is found.

Time for adventure, we head to the abandoned dwarf colony to the south. Legend tells of one survivor who swam away, he was crazy with fear and went on about the attack from inside. Stories of other groups that never came back. We hire a boat and come up from the south. Acog's eagle does a fly-over and reports of an orc village within half-mile of dwarf fort but the fort is empty. Eagle felt nervous as he flew over the fort. Group sneaks in for a closer look and it is noticed the draw bridge is lifted from the "outside" of the moat ie backwards, like to keep something inside the fort/moat area. Oki wants to go on a sneak and both Kojak and the new team member, the cleric, cast illusion spells to hide her from various creatures. She sees nothing as she scans from the open main castle doors. All inside is run down except main keep/tower door. She sneaks back but not as well as a slave seems to notice a spalsh in the moat. Kojak casts speak with trees on a big old oak, it talks of spiders and other smelly nasties that killed all the dwarves. Group stakes out to watch, late evening a party of orcs lead up a female prisoner and push her over the drawbridge and leave her on the other side. Otavio "sleeps" the one orc guard and Oki helps rescue her. She says whatever prisoner is left on the island is killed/eaten.

Later we do see undead, thought by the druids to be ghouls, about 20+, looking for thier "meal" and very agitated at not finding one. The orc wakes up and heads back to orc-town, we see all the orcs are inside and a ring of symbols surround the village. Next night an orc, from another tribe, is lead over the drawbridge, he picks up a club and heads into the fort. The orc patrol heads back. Somebody(Mardove? or Otavio?) in the party gets the idea of dropping the drawbridge to let out the ghouls. Some ghouls immediately take off down to orc-town after some time a orc patrol with a cleric come back to close the drawbridge, the remaining ghouls rush them but the orcs fight them off as we ambush the orc patrol. With all the ghouls gone or still harassing the orc-town, we head to check out the dwarf fort. We all leave our animals behind to guard and warn us of any more ghouls or orcs. The main tower was empty, but a path lead to a corner tower where a hidden trap door was found. Underneath was turned out to be several mile passage, to find a forge run by 3 half-orcs making armor/weapons, Mardove cast some "friend" on two but Fubar convinced the 3rd half-orc to reveal that about 10 driders are in control and live farther down another passage, he names the "Mistress" being at the temple. Oki wants to kick some butt and devises a plan to act as a captured slave while, I, Fubar bluffs my way in, the plan is to ambush any driders. Plan works at stone house, we kill two driders who cast stinking cloud, web among other spells, I transform to wolf man which scared the drider into the reach of Juggernaut and Lupe who bash it good. Oki tackles 2nd drider and it gets killed as well. A slave has told myself and Oki the "Mistress" is at the temple down the cave hall. However, slaves have seen us fighting in the tunnel and killing their drider masters. What will they do?

< >


 * Late May(?) - Fubar update:**

Mission: Investigate missing Fairie folk in northern Tobian Island.

As a favor to the new Duchy of the Fairie, travel north via Fertile Valley. Evidently, a larger than expected number of fairie folk do not come back from those lands. Upon crossing last northern mountains, see normal amount of orc trails. During a scouting day, Acog's eagle indicated the party was being tracked, Kojak spoke with the eagle to learn 3 wolves are trailing back trail. Acog, Noluk, Bob circled off trail to come up behind in case orcs were trailing. When the wolves saw them, one attacked while two stayed put like they were watching. Acog, using a magic bow, put an arrow into the charging wolf. It yelped and took off with the other two. The party tracked the blood trail to the wolf tracks became orc tracks and found a bloody arrow on some rocks. The orc tracks became wolf tracks, only legends talked of such creatures from the Druid's lore. Acog's eagle spotted another threat and flew down. It told Acog about 20 wolves were on the parties back trail. It was decided to try and throw them off by walking upstream for a few miles, then Kojak would cast "Pass without Trace" on the party and we would circle around more west to try and come in from the south to the main local river headwaters. Two nights later, a howling of wolves indicated they were still looking and found the party. Before the eyes of the group a party of about 30 wolves, turned into wolf men and attacked. After a fierce battle where it was discovered only magic weapons or heavy damage could hurt them. The wolf leader was hurt badly, thanks to some effective magic missile from Otavio, and the leader ran. Those of the wolfmen who could run did so, leaving behind several dead and entangeld wolfmen.

The group captured/subdued one wolfmen and killed the others, who did not resist. The captive orc/wolfman hysterically begged in orcish to Fubar to kill him. The group had to constantly knock him out to keep him quiet. Kojak again cast pass without trace on the party and the group pushed hard to the south to get to the mountains and into the Valley of the Bugs. Just as the group got to the pass, Acog's eagle reported that a few wolves were trailing the group but after a few more miles they broke off.

The Valley of the Bugs is most dangerous for its large wasps, big enough to grab lifestock and dangerous to all. Group kept to the higher elevations as the wasps were more noted to set up nests in the swampy valley. Two harpies tried to "charm" the group with some limited effect but enough arrows and spells caused them to flee. Next day, the group had to cross the path of a minor ant trail, only these ants were big as dogs. A couple of ants were killed as the group mostly decided best to avoid them. Two days later, saw the group safely back at Fertile Valley and handed over the orc/wolfman to the Duke and his cleric/advisors. The cleric/advisors suggested the group be quarantined as not sure if this "lie-can-throw-pee" is a curse or disease. Many years ago, a scout party returned with only two survivors who became wolves and had to be killed. Two nights later in a secluded western Fertile Valley town, Fubar, Otavio, Lupulus, Humulus all transformed into raging wolves. Lupulus and Humulus were in same room and attacked each other until they both nearly killed themselves. Fubar and Otavio were subdued by other group members from hurting anyone. The next night the 4 again were isolated and they again transformed into wolves. However, two of them felt somehow the moon was a trigger. Two nights later when no longer a full moon, none of the 4 transformed.


 * May 17 –** Travel to the main orc temple with Isaak (6th level protector cleric) to Desecrate it. We spend the night to get all spells back, and make sure the desecration is finished before nightfall.

We get into position with all our buffs. Noluck pours holy water on the altar. It starts glowing, and everybody is struck with disease. Mardove is blinded, I am struck with weakness, Euell is blinded and slimy doomed, Otavio and his rat are blinded. The rest fought off the effects. The Laviatar Pillar summons a Drider (we’ve never seen this before, so the name was added later). The Surma Pillar summons 5 fire elementals. The Gruumsh Pillar animates the Gruumsh statue and Surma statue. Lupulus is hiding behind the Surma statue, causing Kojak to get flanking. Kojak damages the Surma statue. Euell removes the diseases from himself, while his Puma damages the Gruumsh statue.

Eventually we kill everything but the Drider who surrenders. I cast Tongues and speek with the Drider. His name is Blood Drinking Baby Slayer (BDBS) It turns out a few were trapped 400 yrs ago, and he is a descendant. He says there are 14 of them and they live on the west side of Tobian. After some discussion, we decide to take him to the Duke for questioning.


 * May 15-16 – Guest Journalist Fubar -**Fubar reporting in place of Vaughn on groups latest expidition. Half the party is down with sickness, Vaughn, Bob, Lupulus, Noluc, Otavio, and Euell all stricken with Real-Life fever. The remainder of the party left them behind at the new fort. Hopefully the fever is not too contagious but we cant wait for them to recover. There are orcs needing hunted down and killed, bounty to be collected.

With myself leading the way, the group heads to the Destroyers village we attacked just two days before. We plan to make sure all the orc scum there have left or going to be dying wishing they had. On the way, a group of about 15 Destroyer old warriors tried to ambush us. Looks like they were on a suicide fire raid as they had a big collection of oil, probably trying to head to the fort. Well, they died trying. At the Destroyer village, two pixie's joined the group. They and the eagle pet of Acog scout the place. No orcs in sight. I scout around and quickly find a big trail where the tribe survivors have taken off to the north from the previous night, about 150 orcs rough guess on width of trail and footprints. The pixie scouts state another orc village lies in that direction, a short two days travel. The group checks the stinky orc cave warren for any orcs behind or usefull stuff. We find another foul orc temple behind a cave-in. We leave that for later desecration, I convince the party we got gold running away and treasure to capture back, if we hurry. The group agrees and we trail after the dying orc tribe. After several hours run, we have caught up to small straggler groups, who give up with no struggle as thier miserable lifes are ended. Bounty collected.

Dammit, Mardove is whining again, her feet hurt and about to slow us down. Good thing Kojak has some of those "magic" berries they seem to help for a bit before her whining starts up again and distracts me from an orc ambush. A hunting party jumps us, about a dozen younger orcs. Acog and McCallum do some good bow work picking off orcs trying to flank us. Kojak's bear, Satan, is a killer. Ripped one orc in half. However, the fight slows us down even more and tires the group. We can't catch the main group now and we are close to the next orc village, its short on fighters lost from the big attack on the fort but they still got enough to have numbers to swarm us down. We decide to turn back and get off the trail to rest. Good thing, on 2nd watch Humulus sees a 40-50 orc war-party back tracking the trail and he keeps the watch hidden and quiet. Good thing Juggernaut was asleep, otherwise that noob mad dwarf would probably gone off and attack them by himself. I swear his daddy hit him in the head once to often with his blacksmith hammer.

The pixie scouts next morning invites the group to visit thier main "village" though its not quite the word used, Kojak and Mardove agree it was more like a description for a commune. Us rangers and the druid have no idea such a place exists. We are taken to the big main lake in the valley, and on two boats we are transported into this fog, to an island in the middle of the lake. And on this island was 4 of the biggest oak trees I ever saw, standing above all the other trees. We got to shore and Crimeny, bunches and bunches of pixies, sylphs, satyrs, griggs and some flying lizard that Kojak states is a psuedo dragon are all over the place, a couple other creature types not sure of. I was feeling real uneasy about them, zipping around and then looking and staring. And no place for me to do a slow fade into the background. Oki didn't like it either, she was spooked and a bit jumpy as well, like something was not right to her, where was the order, who was in charge. Other than killing orcs, probably first thing we could agree on. Kojak was just loving it and passing out his candy treats. McCallum took off trying to catch one of those psuedo dragons, not sure if wanted it for a pet or to eat it. We eventually got escorted to another smaller island. Most of the party went up another huge oak tree to the pixie's Mielikki temple. I stayed below at the base of the tree, hanging out in some dark shade. Later, I found out from Acog and Kojak and Mardove, the pixie cleric in the temple is not the leader, but that pixie said our party was brought here to show appreciation for the groups efforts against the orcs and to show our group a bit of the fairy culture. The cleric said thier leader realized they need to start opening up more and get better understanding from the humans and dwarves leadership about the fairy folk. Our group was chosen and allowed to take back information of what the party had seen and share that information but the pixie leader would possibly meet the group at a later date.

Me, well, I got some thinking to do about what I saw. May Kullervo guide me.


 * May 14 –** I make Fubar invisible. He is to go to the slave pens to let them out. A brownie will create a wall of fire (illusion) to cover the slaves’ escape. Euell, Otavio, Mardov and I start rolling the barrels of oil. Euell casts Flaming Sphere to start lighting some of the oil. Fubar assassinates the orc guard who is guarding the slaves. Oki climbs to the top of the palisade to help the slaves’ climb over to freedom. We manage to set many of the buildings on fire and successfully free all the slaves. Most of the orcs stay huddled in the caves. We leave them with a warning that we will be back in 2 days to kill the rest. We make it back to the Fort. They are so happy about the rescued slaves that they give us 5 healing potions, 3 holy waters and a promise to send a Top Cleric to help with the desecration of the main orc Temple.


 * May 13 –** Travelling to the Destroyers’ home, we run into another group of pixies who join us. We are now accompanied by 10 pixies. Once we get to the cliff top, Euell and Kojak magically shape wood ramps to roll the barrels of oil down into the orc town. We notice there are 20-25 human slaves in the town. The night is uneventful.


 * May 12 –** Head to Gruumsh Temple (the Valley temple, not the main one) and Desecrate it. The 2 statues came to life, smoke filled the valley. We destroy them. After the battle, 2 pixies show up and ask us to help them scare off the remnants of the Destroyers tribe. The plan is to toss flaming oil from the top of the cliff down onto the town causing destruction and panic.

We head to the Fort to rest up and resupply before this foray.


 * May 9 thru 11 –** Head back to town to heal up.


 * May 8 –** Head to the Wolfmen home. We send Vaughn, Acog, Fubar, Mardove, McCallen, Mardove to scout. They find nobody, so the rest of the group climbs down into the “town”. Nothing happens so the scout group follows. We search the town. It appears deserted, although the firepits have been used recently. We search the cave complex. It looks like quarters for the elite and the leader. It is currently empty of inhabitants. There is a secret exit in the leader’s quarters. It leads to the temple complex. There is a magic protection on the door into the temple complex. Oki dispells it and stands still so the rest of the party can go by. There are ~30 orcs waiting for us. We slaughter them all (including the Shaman).

The women and children flee. The have skeletons collapse the exit tunnel (it was set up to collapse as a trap). We search the rest of the temple complex. The dwarves estimate this temple to be more than 500yrs old.


 * May 7 –** Meet with Duke. Decide to head back to the Wolfmen home as they are all in the temple waiting for us.


 * May 6 -** We fought our way out of the complex killing the Chief Orc in the process. Fled the rest of the 100 or so orcs and ran back to town.


 * May 5 –** Search the rest of the complex.


 * May 4 –** Day of rest to recover lost Strength from Shadow battle. We decide to stay in the complex as there are a large group of orcs searching for us just outside. Euell cares for the wounded and casts lesser restoration to help bring Oki back from the brink. I cast Tongues to read the old book we found. It is a journal of Oberon’s apprentice, Lacknor.


 * April 30 thru ? –** Journal is sketchy here. I spent too much time paying attention to Oki to bother writing anything down. So sue me. (no computer this weekend). Oki did manage to dispell a magical trap on a door that would have alerted the orcs to our presence.


 * April 29 –** At the Faerie’s suggestion, we head to the Wolfmen area to scout a hidden valley. The valley contains an orc temple (such as it is)


 * April 24-28 –** R&R. Euell finds another kitty pet.


 * April 23 –** We head to MH and meet with the Duke. I introduce the party (32 perform). We introduce the Faerie’s proposal. The Duke agrees to meet with them. We take 4 days off for R&R.

The orcs are in position at 11:00pm. We decide to harry the back of the army(s) from behind. We run into the Faerie (Satyrs, etc.) who are also planning on harrying the back of the orc army. We work together.
 * April 22** – In the morning we send a pigeon to the Duke telling him about the 150 orcs. This is the big one! Oki, Bob and Euell scout with the rest staying back at camp. Oki, Bob and Euell find a trail of a LOT of orcs heading to WFoMH. They run back to us and we send off the remaining pigeons, then hightail it to WFoMH to see if we can warn them. We don’t beat the orcs. We discuss what to do. Attack/harry the back of the army during the attack, attack/scout the Destroyers’ home.

We go after group 3 (of 7) which are the Destroyers. We encounter 1 shaman and 5 regulars. We kill them all with no casualties and stick the Shaman’s head on a spear and blow his horn to get the attention of the attacking orcs. We are hoping to hurt their morale.

The sprites come with news of group 4. They are about 50 with wolves and are patrolling. We decide to go after group 2. It turns out they are the remaining warriors of the Blooddrinker clan. There are 30 including 2 leaders (maybe shamen) along with 6 wolves. One of the leaders is a Shaman, the other a Warrior. We kill all but the Shaman, who escapes by turning invisible and running (just like an orc to run).

We go to the edge of the clearing to see how the main battle is going. The Destroyers have breached the wall and are inside the fort. The group closest to the river is falling back. We decide to charge that group to finish them off. We manage to kill most of them including the cleric. Some manage to flee. We head into the fort and see that the Destroyers were slaughtered once they got inside the fort. At the end of the battle, Destroyers – all gone. Blooddrinkers – all gone except the cowardly shaman. Bloodlust – all gone. FireEaters – no casualties. WarBears – down 50% Wolfmen – no casualties. Raidmasters – down 60-70% The Faerie want us to be their heralds to the Duke. They want help clearing an area for them between the mountain ranges. We sleep the rest of the night and into the morning.


 * April 21** – We head to WFoMH to warn them, confiscate some booze (so they won’t be drunk when the orcs attack) and move on to scout the Destroyers. The commander happily donates the booze since we’ve done such a good job for them. About an hour outside the fort, an Ankheg attacks Euell. 3 more also attack. We manage to kill all 4 with no casualties. During the early night, a group of orcs (possibly 150) march toward the Destroyers. It looks like they are coming from the Wolfman area.


 * April 20** – We scout the palisade. There are only 5 orcs and several human slaves. Some are building the palisade while others are cutting logs. We split up to attack, taking precautions to make sure none can escape to the orc town. We kill them and free the human slaves. We head back to Maple Hills and take the freed slaves to the Duke. They know that the orc attack is coming within the next few days. We decide to scout the Destroyers so we can give advance warning with homing pigeons of the attack.


 * April 19** – In the morning as we leave the cave, we are beset by Stirges. Bob leads the way getting attacked and hit by 2. They sap con. We manage to kill all 10, but some of us are down some con. We decide to rest in the cave. Euell treats the wounded for the day, and everyone is healed in the morning.


 * April 18** – We decide to go back to the Wolfman clan and patrol on the side away from Maple Hills. Nothing happens by dark, so Euell finds a nice unoccupied cave and we settle down for the night.


 * April 17** – We follow their trail for a while until it turns toward the Destroyers. We follow the river back to the West Fort of Maple Hills (WFoMH).


 * April 16** - We continue toward the river, and see 4 orcs hunting on the river. We let them go so we can track them later and look for a spot to spend the night.


 * April 15** – We try our plan again and head around the north side of the Blooddrinkers. We make it all day with no encounters. Euell finds a cave for us to spend the night.


 * April 14** - Full day of rest. Euell does medical care for the injured. That combined with healing spells put us back at full strength by the next morning.

They are Blooddrinkers that were laying a trap for us and we almost walk right into it. The formed 3 groups of 16, 2 of them flanking us, 1 coming straight at us. Euell caused the forest itself to rise up in anger and hold the center group. Only 4 escaped. One that escaped was their Shaman! Kojak causes the forest on our right to rise up and hold the left group (so named from the orcs’ perspective) Partway through the battle, I decide to rest and play dead again (missed a save vs hold person). Euell’s kitty and Fubar’s dog give the ultimate sacrifice to save Fubar from almost certain death. We kill all but 1 (letting him escape). We go back to our cave to rest. Euell buries kitty.
 * April 13 -** (Friday) We decide to travel North around the orc town (Blooddrinkers) and circle around the Destroyer clan until we hit the river, then head back to NFoMH. Just north of the orc town, we cross the path of a lot of orcs, heading towards the Destroyer clan. We decide to follow and see how many we can kill.


 * April 12** - We head back to the mountain to try find the creature (orc) again. Our plan is to start killing orcs until it shows up. 2 miles out of town, it appears. It still doesn't trust us, but tells us the largest orc town is on the mountain. 400 orcs plus 100 from another tribe (from the northwest). There are negotiations for 100 more on their way from the northeast.We set up a drop point where we can leave info for the "orc" to find and vice-versa. A tree 2 miles west of the north fort of Maple Hills. The 100 orcs would be coming from an orc town 4 miles west, 4 miles north of NFoMH. We go to intercept. The plan is that while the large city is waiting for the reinforcements that will never arrive, we can then raid the other orc towns so they won't be willing to send any more reinforcements.

We run into a small Silver Dragon. Euell successfully disbelieves the illusion. It's another of the forest creatures that appeared as an orc before. It points us to the orc town and leaves. We reach the town and start scouting. A group of 22 orcs emerges from the gate to the town, heading right at Oki. She gets back to the group unseen. We set up an ambush. Euell catches the back half of the group in an entangle and battle is engaged. I decide to take a 1 round rest when 2 of them charge me. This fools them into thinking I'm dead and they move elsewhere. We kill them all with no casualties. We head straight east to the coast to rest.


 * April 11** - We rest in town and heal up.


 * April 10** - We decide to scout out north now (from the new fort) to the nearest mountain peak and let the orcs to the south decide what to do after the "enemy orc" raid. We get about halfway up the mountain when we encounter a group of about 25 orcs. Battle ensues! Euell convinces the forest to entangle the orcs. Lupulus finally got bored as not enough orcs were getting free, so he broke ranks. Shortly thereafter, Humulus, who was chastizing Lupulus for breaking ranks, got bored and broke ranks as well. Then several orcs broke free and crowded around Lupulus, dealing 17pts damage. That'll learn him to break ranks! (editorial note :-) ) Evidently, the damage pissed Lupulus off, and he cleaved through 2 of the orcs, killing both. After a while, we manage to kill them all with no escapees. We follow their trail (Euell tracking). It looks like they're a defensive patrol. We encounter a lone orc who talks in broken common saying he gives us money, we go home. We talk for awhile. It tells us the orcs to the north are the Destroyer clan, and the ones to the south are the Wolfman clan. Vaughn tries to hypnotize it, but it ignores him. Otavio's rat smells creatures among us that aren't orcs or Quasits. As we start discussing this, the orc faded away, laughing. The rat smelled that the other creatures moved away. We decide to look for a defensive spot to spend the night. The orc appeared in front of Mardove in the middle of the night. Mardove instantly shot an arrow, but it went right through the orc/illusion. It said, "I am not your enemy, they are my enemy, but I don't trust you. There are about 50 of them and you should flee". Mardove then cast dancing lights to buy us some time and the orc supplemented it with more lights and sound. We marched all night and reached the north fort of Maple Hills.


 * April 9** – We sail to a spot 2 miles from the orcfort, loaded with orc weapons. We head for the orcfort, roll a 6, and run into 4 orcs a mile in. We dispatched them (one ran but Oki managed to outrun and stun him, then Noluck and Bob killed him. We made it look like orcs killed them by scalping them and leaving a broken orc axe and javelin behind. We continue and reach the ridge above the orcfort. We cast PWOT 20 minutes away.

We send the cat in to kill a sheep drawing the 3 shepherds close. Vaughn then sleeps 2 of them, and Mardove hypnotized the other. We slaughtered the goats in 2 rounds, but another orc happens by and shouts. We kill him in 1 round, re-cast PWOT and flee before anybody else sees us. A successful raid! We get back to the boats and return to town.

There is new information on the OC (Quasit):

Mostly has divination spells (contact other plane, augury)

fly, invisibility at will, polymorph - usually only into 2 forms. This quasit can be a bat or an orc.

Orc Info:

They live in small towns of 100-300 pop.

They have identifying marks for each tribe.

3 tribes that raid humans commonly

3 other tribes that occasionally raid humans


 * April 8** – We decide to follow the trail of the 75 orcs (so they won’t notice our tracks) to get a look at the orcfort. We found the fort. It is on the stream from the April 2nd trail. We Pass Without Trace to get on top of the ridge on the north side of the river. Akog and Fubar climb trees to scout the orcfort having the best hide and spot abilities. Kojak’s great idea to supplement their abilities with a Guidance (+1 on one roll) allowed them to hide successfully from the orcs (orc roll – 9. Akog’s roll – 10). There are 2 areas ¼ mile apart, but they are obscured by treecover so we don’t know if they are forts, towns, or what. They have herd animals (goats). One of them is up against the cliff so we suspect they have underground tunnels/lair.

We pass without trace again and cross to the other side of the river to see if there are any other areas. It seems to us the 2 areas aren’t enough to support the number of orcs. Crossing, we get close enough to the other of the 2 areas to see that it is a new palisade going up. Only a week old. We also find a new area which is a pasture/glade for the goats.

We decide to report back to the duke and suggest a raid from the sea (2 miles from the orcfort)

The OC has been identified. It is a Quasit. It is a gift given for services rendered.

The Duke okays our plan of approaching from the sea, using PWOT (pass w/o trace) when we get within ½ hour of the orcfort, then doing our best to destroy their food supply (kill the goats) then leaving.


 * April 7** – Follow new trail from ambush spot back to ???. Run into 5 skeletons guarding the trail. Make quick work of them, but 2 orcs saw and ran off back towards their camp. Followed trail (1/4 mile away from trail) until 3pm. Made camp. During the middle of the night (1-2am) a column of ~75 orcs marched toward our camp seeming to heading to the orcfort. We hunkered down to stay hidden but prepare to run. They pass by us without incident. (whew!)


 * April 6** - We head back to the outpost for further orders.


 * April 5** – Set up ambush – defeat leader (Otherplanar Creature)

After lunch, escorting caravan back to town. Hoping to get Otherplanar Creature identified. Around 3pm, attacked by 2 Griffins. Mardove’s summoned badger dealt the knockout blow as it attempted to flee. Kojak later resuscitated it, only to have Oki slay it with her sling (having taken the brunt of its attack). The other one managed to flee.

After reaching town, there was nobody there who could identify the OC, (we rolled poorly) so it is being sent by boat to the capitol. We rest up for the night. I do a decent job entertaining the locals in the common inn, leaving the more upscale inn to some pretentious floutist.


 * April 4** – 2nd trip to outpost.


 * April 3** – Rest at Town


 * April 2** – Followed trails from outpost back


 * April 1** – Escorted caravan to outpost for our 1st job ever as a group.