AD&D Session 11: The Counterkidnapping

 We open the session by resolving Sir Goldborn's Mud Fight to Freedom. We use the Non-Lethal and Weaponless Combat system, which gives options to pummel, grapple, and overbear. This will be a Grappling contest in the mud pit at the Witches' Sorority, where Sir Goldborn is put up against a mason from Borgogazze. Apart from the two, the other captives are Temaukel, Pocco, and a fisher from Trilo. Sir puts his opponent in an hand lock, and the mason frees himself and bear-hugs Sir. Sir answers by freeing himself and putting the mason in a stranglehold, at which point the mason taps out. Sir Goldborn wins and is released!

At the same time, Green Gary uses his previously-memorized Entangle spell to escape, waiting for a moment where a witch freed him from his magic bond to allow him to do something, at which point Gary Entangles her with the strange roots and herbs that are lying around and flees the scene. He and Sir make their way back to Trilo.

On the way, they encounter a previously-unseeen settlement: a Hobbit/Halfling village in the soft rolling hills. It's called Hobbiton. The Hobbit leader speaks the human language and talks to Sir. But Sir and Gary don't make a good impression as they are muddy from the swamp and also, not Hobbits. So they don't get let in and must go on.

There are no other encounters and Sir and Gary arrive in Trilo, where they rest a few days. Then, it is today (Feb 23). Sir meets with Zelda and Kai the druid in the inn. Zelda was able to recruit three mercenary light footwomen (Sheeana, Steffanie, and Sandy) and equips them with basic equipment. They make a plan to kidnap one of the witches and use that as a bargaining chip to release their friends.

The party makes their way to the swamp bringing Sir's Light Horse, stopping by Hobbitville. The hobbits still don't let them in. The party continues and arrives at the swamp in the evening. They traverse the muddy waters and pull themselves up the wooden platform. Sheeana knocks on the door while the rest of the party hides, attached to the wall of the hut. A witch, Milnara, opens the door immediately likes Sheeana, who makes up an excuse for the witch to step out of the hut for a moment.

As soon as she does so, the entire party descends upon the witch. We use the Non-Lethal and Weaponless Combat system to adjudicate what happens. The party got surprise (1-3 on a d6 due to circumstances), but what should this mean with the Non-Lethal system? I rule that this means that the various attemps to grapple and overbear are unopposed, i.e. there are no negative modifiers due to opponent Strength or Dexterity. This makes the fistfight easy to win. One of Zelda's soldiers overbears the witch and knocks her prone. Sir Goldborn grapples the witch and puts her in a headlock. Zelda quickly ties her down with the 5 ropes that Kai brought. They also gag her for good measure, load her on the horse, and get on the way back.

The way back is difficult since it's soon almost dark. The party takes a rest in the nearby forested hills and prepares to spend the night there, rather than forcing another 10 hr march through the night. In they night, they have a friendly encounter with Maraké's Tribesmen. He is there with them, and helps translate. The tribe and the party agree to fight the Orcs in the West together when the time comes.

The second nightly encounter (d12, 1 = normal encounter, 12 = the witches find the party) is not so friendly. The party fight against 9 hungry giant ticks. They suffer severe damage since the ticks are so hard to hit. Several of them attach themselves to the party members and to the witch who was tied to a tree. It's highly unpleasant and may bring disease. But the party is numerous enough to destroy the ones that are still flying and I rule that since the ticks are immobile while attached, whoever spends a round trying to remove them can just kill them.

There are no other encounters in the night or on the way back, and the party hastens back to Trilo. They bring the witch to Giorno, who holds her in his jail and sends a Message Magpie to the swamp to arrange a prisoners exchange with the witches. The exchange should take place in a few days in the neutral grounds of Hobbitville, and the witches should bring a ransom, Giorno taking 10% of it for his heroic deeds.

But the situation for our party is dire. The ticks have a high chance of transmitting a fatal disease, which two party members actually catch. We also rolled a lot of times for diseases/parasites due to crossing the swamp several times. The latter rolls bring no diseases. Sir Goldborn uses his Cure Disease ability to cure Steffanie. But since it won't be available again until next week, Zelda takes the other sick light footwoman and Sir's horse and speeds to Borgogazze to find a clerical healer. The fee is exhorbitant but Zelda takes a loan from a moneylender and gets the cleric to Cure Disease. Crisis averted! They go back to Trilo.

Some days after that, the prisoners exchange actually takes place in Hobbitville. Giorno and his army keep in check the witches with their spells, and the exchange takes place peacefully. Pocco, Temaukel, Soldier #2, and the other two guys are free! The Boy Abduction Department gives up their magic item as ransom, some strange dust that reveals invisible things. It gets immediately sold for 4000 GP and split up (minus 10%) three ways. Now Zelda, Goldborn, and Kai can level up! They will go train to do so.

The events of this session covered 5 days from Feb 23 to Feb 27. Our three adventurers will travel to Borgogazze and begin training on Feb 29. Everyone will have to do extra service time with their trainers to cover for the whole of the training costs. Zelda will be occupied for 13 days (2 days hp recovery, 1 week training, 4 days service). Sir Goldborn will be occupied for 31 days (14 days service and the rest training). Kai will be occupied for 10 days (3 days service).

Downtime Results

Soldier Number One has finished his training in B'Gazze with his old commander. He used the occasion to taste-test the three potions he had gained. 

AD&D Session 10: The Witches' Sorority

We started the session by dividing up the treasure from last time. The treasure haul from the teleportation magical college adventure was 5 rings, 5 potions, and a metric ton of gold. To split it up, we implemented a share system: everyone got 3363 shares in the treasure. One share could be spent to buy one gold piece from the treasure. A ring was worth 3000, a potion 400 shares.

Since Oscar the Thief was not here at the table, we stipulated that she opted for the most advantageous piece of the cake: 363 G.P. and one ring. Rings are possibly magical, but must be identified if their true value is to be found. Unidentified magical rings will sell as the least valuable ring in the DMG.

With the XP from their treasure, Kai the Druid and Soldier Number One the Fighter went training on Feb. 3. Costs are as follows.

Kai: 14 days, 3000 GP

SNO: 12 days, 2570 GP

If funds are insufficient, characters can "buy" 215 GP worth of training costs for one extra day of service with their master. This can be stacked as needed. Characters doing this are required however to spend all the gold they can, they cannot "save" more than 215 gold for extra days of service. Service will also sometimes result in mishaps, accidents, or opportunities.

We had quite a bit of downtime from last time. There is now a whole mountain in the sea right next to Ashes Island! Here are some more of the most salient results.

Zelda went exploring the surroundings of Trilo. She discovered a mountain pass, a small walled keep in the forested hills, and a ghastly Swamp with a lone hut on a wooden plank, right in the middle of it.

Sir Goldborn offered his healing services to an adventurer party returning from Ashes Island. The party is now resting in Trilo.

Oscar finished her training. She gained knowledge of a heistable building in B'Gazze: the warehouse of Joe the powerful trader.

Maraké found 4 survivors at the ruined site of his tribal village. He decided to stay there and rebuild the village.

Finally, we come to today's cast: S. Goldborn, Zelda, Green Gary the Druid, Temalkel the freshly Lv. 2 Illusionist along with his assistant Soldier #2, and Pocco the Magic-User. During breakfast at the Inn, they interacted with the aforementioned adventuring party as well as with Giorno's armorer Boudicca, but nothing much came of it. Then, they decide to check out the hut at the swamp, convinced that it's going to be a Witch hut. It is February 14.

Travel to the swamp takes most of the day and goes without incidents. They arrive about 2 hours before sunset, and decide to cross the swamp. While Sir Goldborn mounts his freshly acquired Light Horse, everyone else has to wade through the shallow muddy waters. Disease checks will be made! Finally, they climb the wooden platform and knock on the door. A young witch named Melissa opens the door, and after some squabbling invites them in.

This is the Witches' Sorority House. It's bigger on the inside. The adventurers come into a large dining hall where 11 other young witches much like Melissa are sitting in small groups, drinking cocktails. The adventurers are invited to take a shower and join them for drinks and dinner. Temalkel and his soldier are very skeptical, refusing even the shower. Sir Goldborn (who Detected a lot of Evil in this room...) and Green Gary are more cautios, quizzing the witches for information throughout the evening. Zelda and Pocco seem a bit more trusting and socialize with the witches. The characters learn of the six main extracurricular activities organized by the sorority: the witches' ball, a makeup course, animal training activities, pest control, the B.A.D., and mud wrestling competition organizing.

Pocco makes cocktails for everyone in order to avoid drinking weird witch drinks. He then inquires about the animal training activities. He cannot become an animal trainer with the witches, but they offer him a special item if he gives up his Manticore egg from 6 sessions ago. He accepts and gets a special ornated Mace. Also a jar of Giant Spider Silk since he asked for it. He then asks for the ring he got from last session to be identified. The witches challenge him to a game of Craps: if he wins someone will identify his ring. If he loses, he'll have to stay with the witches for one week as their Resident Wizard Boy. He wins! It is a Ring of Free Action. He then flirts with the witch Melisasha for good measure.

Zelda inquires about the makeup course. The witches are happy to offer her a demonstration. The makeup is based on mud. But wait, it's magical mud! It effervescently vanishes from the skin, leaving it rejuvenated. Zelda is interested in gaining magical capabilities, and the witches teach her how to use the mud and give her a jar of magical mud.

The witches seem to be quite the gift-giving sort! But wait, all items are only granted on exit from the hut. Similarly, the larger weapons like Sir's halberd had to be deposited at the weapons rack by the door.

Green Gary just enjoys the company. His dog whose name I forget sniffs around to detect suspicious smells, but there are so many new and strange smells that he doesn't know what to make of any of it.

Sir Goldborn and Temalkel have a slightly more adversarial plan in mind. They go to the kitchen and Sir starts to talk to the cook Melisandra, who is working a large cauldron. He tries to extract information and/or trick Melisandra into visiting the Blue Mountain by Trilo. Then the plan takes place: Temalkel casts Hypnosis! The witch is distracted by Sir so couldn't react to the casting, but for the spell itself, she makes her saving throw. Temalkel formulates his Suggestion: that Melisandra's friends are secretly against her so she should put something in the soup that causes high stomach pain! Unfortunatly, the saving throw means that Melisandra sees through it. She puts Temalkel to sleep with a witchy spell, and tells his soldier to bring him to the guest rooms to rest. Sir instead orders the soldier to bring Temalkel outside. They make it outside, but only talking their way out of the door.

At this point, dinner is served. Nobody is poisoned, it's just a pleasant soup. But then our heroes are offered to stay the night. Zelda has a bad feeling, thinks it would be better to book it. But group consensus seems to be that the party should stay the night. Even Temalkel comes back inside and joins the party to the guest rooms.

In the morning, Zelda and Pocco wake up and goes to the breakfast table. A witch informs them that their companions are now being held by the sisters at the B.A.D., the Boy Abduction Department. Pocco (who actually spent the night with Melisasha) was able to avoid this because he made his saving throw. The others are held by invisible magical chains and are required to do various tasks like cleaning, housekeeping, and participating in Mud Wrestling contests. Romantic entanglements, although encouraged, are strictly voluntary, unlike cleaning and so on.

Zelda is mildly horrified by this and resolves to go back to Trilo and gather a force of female warriors to liberate her friends! She is let go freely by the witches, gathers her jar of mud and receives Pocco's ring from him. She makes it back to Trilo on Sir Goldborn's horse.

Pocco decides to stay with the witches after all, as the Resident Wizard. He doesn't think the witches harmful, and hopes to get some advantage from associating with them. He did give his ring to Zelda in case the witches do something horrible to him.

We now come to everyone elses's plan to break free. Sir Goldborn's plan is Mud Wrestle to Freedom. He also wants to get to know the two other captives of the B.A.D. Temalkel wants to bribe his way to freedom. Unfortunately he can only offer wealth that he doesn't yet have (5000 GP), but he does so anyway. Green Gary has still his Entangle spell memorized, he will try to use it in an opportune moment to break free. Soldies #2 doesn't have a plan because he's an NPC.

And that was all! I'll post the results of the downtime orders here below when I've evaluated them. Thanks to the players for an exciting social adventure!

Downtime Results

Zelda finds 10 light footwomen who would be interested in being recruited. Cost is 1 g.p. per month plus 1 g.p. per expedition day. Also all equipment must be bought by the employer.

Pocco is unfortunately imprisoned by the witches much like his friends earlier (bad reaction roll, bad saving throw).

Sir Goldborn has a chance to free himself, we'll resolve it next session.

Green Gary succeeded in freeing himself, we'll see next session whether he uses this to do anything useful. By default he'll just go back to Trilo.

AD&D Session 9: The Missing Mountain – Part 2

Continuing from Part 1 – like part 1, this session was DM'd by Sir Goldborn's player.

The Missing Mountain – Part 2

The group arrives at the huge structure at the center of the base of the missing mountain. Two huge walls stretch diagonally in front of them, and from a gap in the middle a path seems to lead inside to a big building. However, before anything, they notice someone sitting by walls. This person is the cleric Godrick, who seems to also have been teleported there by mysterious reasons from the region of Longuria. He had been on that spot praying for 5 hours to his god of Light to bring him some help. Now that the search party has arrived, Godrick joins our group of adventurers. With him is also his assistant Charles, a sort of hired bodyguard.

The group decides to go inside the compound. They don’t have much choice after all, since it appears this is the place that will hold the answers to all the weird happenings this day has offered them so far. As they enter the walls, their bodies feel as if they they have just crossed some sort of invisible barrier. Indeed, it seems they have. A ball of blue light, similar to the one they had seen at the gate, is now forming in front of them. It then forms into a creature with a snake like lower body and a female upper body with huge green braided hair, eyes gliming with blue light. It appears to be missing one arm, however, and struggling to stand. Before anyone has anytime to react, it shoots two green laser beams at Oscar and Poco, whose bodies immediately turn to stone. The creature then fades into blue smoke. The survivors must now also find a way to unpetrify their two companions.

They move on. The compound looks like a campus, with buildings that are very well ornamented in colors of blue, white and black. Connecting the buildings there are a few paths surrounded by grass, trees and other beautiful vegetation, flourishing with life. It definitely looks like someone has been taking well care of the garden. Some of the structure seems misplaced, though. Immediatly on the right they see a huge tower. It is not standing straight, however, as most towers like to be. This one is laying down, blocking the path to the right. On the left there is a circle of rock whose size seems to match the size of the base of this tower. On the right, another smaller circle of rock that looks like it matches the size of the smaller tower the group had found on their way from Feirun.

The adventurers decide to move on to explore the central building. It looks like a small square castle, with 4 small towers on each corner, and another bigger tower at the center. They find that the huge door has been left open. Going in, they are now in a big and well decorated hall, with a very tall ceiling. There are 3 doors, leading front, left and right. On the center, spiral stairs leading up. However, these stairs are not connected to the ground. The part of them that connects them to the floor seems to be missing. The group starts to hear a sound, a voice of someone singing. Well, if you could call that singing, as it sounds more like gibberish. They notice that it is coming from the center of the hall, from a young man wearing a robe that is just there sitting on the floor. Carefully, they approach him, and decide to call him.

“Oh, Loretta, you are back, finally!!!” His voice doesn’t sound normal, or his expressions. “Wait, you are not Loretta. Who are you? Have you seen Loretta?” It feels to the group like the young boy must be retarded or something. “La la la la la” he keeps going on. When inquired about who is Loretta, he says, in his retarded/drunken voice “Hum… Loretta. She is beautiful. The most beautiful girl I have ever seen. Not like your mother, eheheheh”. He also says “The stairs, hum…. stairs go the master’s chambers. What do you mean? They are right here, you stupid. Oh, wait they are not. Eheheheh, maybe they ran away when they saw your face. Also, I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine…. Oh and don’t tell master anything, ok? I am good boy. Astel good.” The group concludes that it will be almost useless to try and get information about this person, at least in the state that he is in right now. The only other information they are able to get from him comes in the form of “Me? Astel. Yes, that is my name. Astel. With an ‘A’. A big ‘A’, ok? I am a magic-user of course. Eheheh. Level 2 baby!!! Yeah!” The other unusual thing about him is that he is holding in his arms a scroll. It looks like a spell scroll, but it is clearly empty. Cai uses Detect Magic on it and concludes that it’s completely deprived of magic.

The party decides to ignore the crazy guy for now, and goes on to explore what is inside of the door in the front side of the hall. They easily open it and find themselves on a huge auditorium. Well, more like a huge lecture hall, with a lot of seats and a central stand, with a blackboard. On the walls there are 3 large paintings of men with great long beards, all dressed in blue robes. There is also a number of shelves containing empty vials and books, similar to the ones they had found in the small tower. Godrick grabs 5 of the books. He also writes on the blackboard the slogan of his deity, but is causes nothing to happen. Feeling there is nothing more in the room, the group decides to leave, but approaching the door they notice that it is now blocked by some kind of blue magic barrier. From it starts to form a ball of blue light, which then shapes into 12 stirges. These are small monsters with bat wings, long beaks and 4 small legs. A fight follows, in which the monsters are defeated without much issues. Giorno Giovanna deals quite a lot of damage during the fight, but also takes some, so at the end he very unpolitely demands that he be healed by Godrick. The cleric complies, casting Heal Wounds on Giorno.

They are now able to go back to the main all, checking that the other 2 doors lead to similar lecture halls. This time they also notice that floating in the center of the hall is a smooth cristal ball, on which they can see their reflections. The crazy Astel remains unhelpful as ever in giving them any useful information about the cristal ball, about the campus or any of the other mysteries. “I want to go see the sunset with Loretta. And hey, I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine…..” seems to be the only thing in his mind right now.

The adventurers move outside to this time explore a building that they had seen on the left of the lecture building. After getting close to it, they realize that it appears to be covered from the inside in a familiar blue barrier. Peeking at the window the see that it looks like a huge dinning hall. Sitting on one of the chairs is a man in a blue robe. They knock on the door to get his attention, which they get. The man approaches on the other side of the door. Fortunately, unlike Astel, this one seems to be normal and more helpful. The man, whose name appears to be Sting, informs them that he is trapped inside by the barrier, which he suspects is caused by the building’s defense mechanism system. He is also very very confused at why it is daytime. The party informs him of all the weird things that happened to them during the day, leaving him even more confused. “I can’t believe it.” He says. “I guess our academy has been transported to this place by something or someone. Oh no, the master is going the be so angry! Hey, it seems like you need my help, and I need yours. Help me get out of here and then we can keep talking!” To try to avoid another fight, they tell Jenny, Carla and Josh to climb the building and to try to pull Sting from the chimney with a rope. Carla and Josh slip miserably, but Jenny manages to climb and to then bring Sting outside without any problems.

Sting can’t believe that it’s 3pm, as he is saying that 5 hours ago it was night time for him. He informs our adventurers that they are in the campus of the biggest and most famous magic academy of the Mystic Lands. It appears to have been teleported there from the other side of the world. This event is also what probably caused the Everblue to go away. He says that most of the professors and students that day were away when this happened, as they had gone to the Anual Great Magic Conference of the Mystic Lands, but that all the younger students were left in campus. He is surprised when he hears that Astel is so crazy and uncomunicative. “Ah, you have met Astel.” says Sting. “Yes, sure, he is our receptionist. He has been at the academy for 10 years and, well, he struggles a lot with learning spells, but come on, he is still level 2. Are you sure you met him? Because I have never seen him acting the way you described. Also, no I have never heard of any woman called Loretta. In fact, we only have men at the academy and we don’t go out that often, so you can imagine we don’t get to meet many women. Anyway, here is what I suggest. First we should look for the rest of the students that were left at the academy. It’s quite weird actually that you still haven’t found any of them. Then we should deactivate this dangerous defense mechanism, which seems to be on due to the unexpected teleportation. To deactivate it we must go the the chambers of our great master. Also, there we will be able to talk with a projection of his, who will surely be able to help all of us. I am scared that he will be furious, but we have no choice. The chamber is located at the top of the main lecture hall. Let’s go, and don’t try anything funny because, remember well, you need me and you need our master.”

They check on Astel, Sting confirming that he has never seen him in this unusual, crazy and retarded state. He also explains that the floating crystal ball is like a security camera. Given that the stairs to the master’s chambers are gone, they must go outside and go through a bridge that connects it to a neighboring classroom building. When further exploring the campus, they notice that some buildings are cut in half. It appears that the weird teleportation event only caused a small portion of the academy to be teleported. They don’t see anyone around, so the group just moves on to the classroom building, climbing the stairs to the top floor.

They are now standing in front of the door leading to the bridge they must cross to reach the master’s chamber. The door is covered is a blue fog-like barrier*. The party has no choice but to cross it and face the inevitable boss battle to come. Indeed, as they cross it, boss music starts to play. A ball of blue light is in front of them and is starting to take the shape of some weird creature. Fortunately, they shoot it with arrows and kill it before it takes form. Right after, two other monsters start to form. One right behind them, a Giant Snake like creature, but with only half of its body, and another one at the far end of the bridge, a stone Gargoyle**. The Gargoyle will take some time to reach them, so they focus on the Snake and, although not easily, manage to bring it down. Gordon, Josh and the euphoric Feirun soldier are left unconscious in the process. Then they go for the Gargoyle, shooting it from afar and eventually finishing it off with melee blows. The path is now clear and everyone is alive.

Sting brings the group to the chambers of the academy’s master. It is wide and full of top magic equipment. On the wall they can see a display of spell scrolls, where one of them seems to be missing. A magic projection of an old man with a great gray beard, dressed in fancy blue robes, appears at the center of the chamber. “Ah, Sting it is you!” says the projection of the master. “Can you explain to me what you are doing in my chambers? And who are those people? You just had to interrupt me right at the middle of the Great Conference Social Dinner, didn’t you….” The situation is then explained to him. Fortunately, he doesn’t seem too angry. “Ah, I am sure there is a way to fix this” he says. ”I, Astifald the Great, have seen much worse back in my adventure days. How do do you think I managed to reach level 25, eh?”. Then he explains. “So, part of the academy was teleported. But the spell missing from the wall seems the me that it was actually a Repulsion spell. In fact we don’t keep any Teleportation scrolls in the academy. Anyway, I guess it is clear to me who caused this to happen. Who? Oh, come on guys? It’s easy. Astel. Yes Astel. Crazy? You say he is crazy? I am actually starting to think he must be a genius instead!! But well, now I would really like to go back to my delicious lobster. As a reward for your efforts I offer you the chest I have under my desk. Just don’t you dare take anything else from the academy, ok?”. *

Sting uses some academy potions to heal the people who were unconscious and also prepares two unpetrification concoctions. They head back to Astel (yes, they just left him sitting there alone in the middle of the conference hall). On the way, they notice something happening to Giorno. He starts to twitch uncontrollably and then starts floating in the air with his eyes glowing red. He starts speaking in a female voice that everyone recognizes, except Godrick, Charles and Sting. “So, is it your hobby to go around assaulting and robbing beautiful women? I am surprised. It has been a few years since someone took something from me. I guess you guys are indeed less boring than I thought. Ahah. Don’t worry, I too like to steal things from time to time. However, I am afraid I absolutely can’t let you go without getting back what is mine. I will be waiting at the bar in Feirun. Bring me my horns by the end of the day and I will forgive your insolence. DO NOT make me show you what happens if you don’t. See you my dears.” Giorno goes back to his usual state, not realizing at all what just happened.

Our adventurers grab Astel and they all head back to Feirun, including the Sting and the now unpetrified Oscar and Poco. They must return the horns to the woman, find out what is wrong with Astel and teleport over 100 people back to Longuria. Arrived at the village, they go to the main bar, where they see the blonde mysterious woman in her purple dress sitting at the counter. She is still holding her bag with something shinning from inside. “Ahh, you have arrived.” She says. “Wonderful that you decided to bring back what is mine. Just wait a bit.” Astel, who is still acting weirdly, is happy to see her. “Loretta, Loretta, there you are. I knew you couldn’t have gone far. We have to go see the sunset.” he says. ‘Loretta’ tells him to wait outside and Astel complies. She then goes back to a man she was talking to at the counter. It seems they had made some kind of bet over who can drink their beer faster. They start drinking and the guy clearly finishes it way faster. He puts his empty glass down, boosting of his easy victory, but as he looks back at it the glass is now full, while ‘Loretta’’s is empty. “Seems like I won.” she says in a tricky smile. “Do you remember what you said you would do if you lost? Oh yes, you said you would kiss a goat”. “NO NO NO” screams the man, but before he can find any excuses he suddenly realizes that Jolly is now sitting on his lap and is already starting to lick his mouth. The man runs out of the bar, runs away from Feirun and no one ever saw him again.

Godrick, who is now holding ‘Loretta’’s bag, gives it back to her. Fortunately she doesn’t seem angry that they used one of her potions, claiming that it was actually smart and that she would have done the same. “Now if you will excuse me, I have a sunset to watch.” she says, heading outside to where Astel is, grabbing him by the arm and heading off with him to the west edge of the Great Plateau. It seems that at that moment Astel was actually the most interesting person in the village for the mysterious woman. The members of the group, either because they where confused, tired or scared of the woman, forget to also go to the edge of the plateau, therefore wasting a unique chance to witness the most beautiful sunset in the world.

When ‘Loretta’ and Astel come back, Astel now appears to be in a more normal and non-intoxicated state. He remembers all that happened during the day, but he doesn’t know how he performed the teleportation. He recalls that, at the moment it happened, he simply wanted to take ‘Loretta’ to see a beautiful sunset. Also, in the state he was in he actually thought the scroll of Repulsion was a scroll of Teleportation. Our adventurers are confused, but they must find a way to go back to Longuria. What they know for now is that clearly Astel had been drinking the pink liquid from the woman’s bag, so they try to investigate that. Obviously, they start with the less obvious approaches first. Godrick drinks a bit of the liquid, hoping that it will magically give him the ability to teleport. Nothing happens. All he realizes is that it tastes of alcohol and strawberries. The mysterious woman tells them that it is simply strawberry liquor, one of her specialties in fact.

At this point a middle aged woman, a local from the village, approaches the group. She becomes very emotional when she sees Astel. “Astel, oh Astel. It is you, I know it is you. My son, you are back!!!” They hug each other for a long long beautiful moment. After that she thanks the group for bringing him back and explains what she knows. Astel is indeed her son. He had mysteriously vanished from the village 10 years ago. He had disappeared on a day he was helping her harvesting strawberries.  

The group gathers everyone that had been teleported from Longuria at the village’s central plaza, determined to finally bring them back. They feed some strawberries to Astel, but it doesn’t seem to have any effect. Godrick bravely tries to ask the mysterious woman for her horns, but immediately regrets it. She is furious at him and, had Godrick insisted even a tiny bit more, he would have suffered terrible, but maybe funny, consequences. She does provide him, however, with the remainder of her strawberry liquor.

They believe making Astel drink it will be the final missing piece, so before doing it they receive their reward from the Mayor and they split the treasure they got from Astifald the Great. They ask Astel to drink the liquor and to focus hard on sending everyone back to where they came from. Indeed, as he drinks it, glyphs of blue light start forming around our adventurers. The mysterious woman, ‘Loretta’ acording to Astel, waves and winks at them saying “It was really an interesting day. I will be keeping an eye on you!” Then, suddenly, the group realizes they are not at Feirun anymore. As the blue light starts to fade, they see they are back at the inn where the day had started. The people sitting at the tables enjoying their night beers are astonished at these people appearing out of nowhere. The adventurers head outside of the inn to confirm they are really in Trilo. They are, indeed, in Trilo, and in the middle of the sea, standing tall next to Ashen Island, is also, indeed, a huge mountain with its top covered in blue snow.

*This is a Dark Souls reference by the DM. Made unconsciously, but still, a Dark Souls reference.

**Yes, another Dark Souls reference.

***Here the DM forgot to mention that there was actually another scroll missing from the wall: a shinning scroll of Time Stop.

Timekeeper's Note

Next session will be on Feb. 14 and two weeks will have passed. At this point, everyone will be finished with their training!

AD&D Session 8: The Missing Mountain – Part 1

On the 1st of February, the day started with the adventurers Oscar, Poco, Caicai (with one of his soldiers - with a sword this time) and Soldier Number One meeting at the inn in Trilo for breakfast. Those who haven’t yet met start bonding over the fact that they all know Sir Goldborn, who unfortunately missed breakfast for some unknown reason. After a bit they decide to go explore Ashen Island for treasure, but not before Oscar goes over with the goat Jolly to try and pickpocket Trilo’s magic translator, who is sitting alone studying at the inn.

As Oscar stands up, out of nowhere a magical glyph of blue light starts forming around the table. It begins to glow extremely bright and when it finally dims down our adventurers realize that they are not at the inn anymore. They are now standing in what appears to be the central park of a countryside and simple village. Around them they notice that quite a high number of people are also standing with glyphs of blue light fading around them. Perhaps 100 people. There are also a bunch of people that are not surrounded by any lights. These all have a look of extreme shock in their faces. Some are looking mesmerized at the strangers who just teleported to their village, others at an area in the sky above the houses. The party recognizes one of the people that was teleported as being Giorno Giovanna, the commander of Trillo’s troops. He appears to have been caught by surprise with his pants down when he was in the toilet. Soldier Number One takes note of a heart shaped tattoo on Giorno’s bottom.

Looking to find out what the hell is going on, the team approaches an old lady that was teleported along with her 2 grandchildren. She, scared, tells them that she was in Ristoro A before the event, but has no idea of what just happened. In the midst of the confusion, Oscar pickpockets all that the old lady is carrying in her apron: a spatula, proceeding to then put it back. The party then approaches a local woman, who is in extreme shock and is more worried about asking questions than answering any. In extreme panic, she faints. They then go ask information to a man, whose look of surprise is directed at the sky.

“What am I looking at, you say? Don’t you see it? Well, actually, ‘not see it’ would be the correct term in this case. The mountain!!! Our mountain is GONE. Also, what the hell is happening? Where did you and these people come from?” he says. After calming him down, he is able to tell them: “You are on the village of Feirun, sitting on the west edge of the Great Plateau. We are quite a calm and uneventful (well, apart from today) village of farmers and the sort. The mountain that is there, erhm, sorry, not there, is… was Everblue mountain. Beautiful blue snow it had. I have no idea where it went now”. “Ah, Longuria? Hum…. yes yes I have heard about it. Wow you have come from really far away. Isn’t that 1000 miles to the south?”.

The group then talks to Giorno, who fortunately has also heard about them. They inquire him about exploring the site of the missing mountain, but, while he seems interested in figuring out why the hell he was teleported, right now he is more worried about getting local information and, of course, going to the toilet. They then head to the town hall, looking for the mayor. He seems to be out calming the crowd, so they head next door to the local guard barracks. They find out that Feirun seems to be a place that strives also on agritourism, welcoming many people that are captivated by it’s peace, the Everblue and the astonishing views from the top of the Plateau. Still, it appears Feirun’s most beautiful and famous attraction are the sunsets!

A while later they attend a public announcement from the mayor, who is in a hurry to organize a search party to go look for answers at Everblue’s location. Interested people are meant to gather at the local pub. Our adventures are, of course, interested. At the pub they meet a couple who was teleported from Borgogazze and a gigachad guard from Ankh-Mar.  A quiet young lady in a robe also seems to be there, as well as Giorno and 2 of his soldiers that were teleported with him. When the mayor arrives, he is happy to find these interested members and offers each 96 pieces of gold if they go and manage to come back with useful information. Worried about local security tough, he offers only one of his local soldiers. Caicai then exchanges his soldier for an additional local one. Thus a party of 14 is gathered in search of the missing Everblue: Oscar (and the goat Jolly), Poco, Caicai, Soldier Number 1, Giorno Giovanna and his 2 soldiers, Gordon the fighter, Jenny the monk, the thief Carla and her boyfriend Josh, also a thief, and the 2 local soldiers.  

They start their short journey to the base of the mountain, 2.5 miles north. The path goes through a forest and already something they do not expect happens at the midpoint. Coming from the direction of the mountain, a woman in a purple dress is approaching them. She is blonde, elegant and seems to be extremely beautiful. She also seems to be carrying two bags around her and one of them is clearly emitting a yellow light from inside. The party is confused. The 3 thieves hide in the bushes (well, Josh at least tries to), while Feirun’s soldiers draw their swords. Giorno, on the other hand, is running forward, already in love with the woman. Unintimidated, she just keeps walking with a flirty smile on her face, now with her hand on the glowing bag. She says some words and…. ZAP, she is not there anymore.

Soldier Number One, who was at the back of the group, is the first to notice that the woman has just instantly appeared in front of him. One of Feirun’s soldiers is now laying on the ground unconscious.

“Hi! Tell me, do I look that scary?” she says. “Are your friends always like this, drawing their swords whenever they see a beautiful girl? Or is there something wrong with my face?”

SNO, unfazed by her powers or her beauty, replies “What do you want me to say? They are not really my friends, I don’t know what is wrong with them. Do you come from the mountain?”

“Mountain? You could be more specific, you know. Ah, and by the way, this guy here on the ground, well…. I didn’t like his look. But it’s fine. Really, don’t mind it. You should be able to wake him up in one day.”

“The mountain is just over that direction. Or well, used to be.” SNO appears to not want to talk about the soldier.

“What do you mean used to be?”

“There used to be a mountain. There. But now it’s gone.”

“Oh, a mountain is gone?” She laughs. ”Now you could say that is some really interesting stuff, couldn’t you? Ahah this day keeps getting better and better”. At this point the others start to realize she is there talking to SNO, but are too shocked to react.

“So tell me dear, have you ever seen this mountain?” she keeps asking.

“No.” says SNO, “But the people from the village told us so.”

“Oh, so you are saying there is a village back there? Ahah, wonderful. Seems perfect to me. You come from there, but you have never seen the mountain?”

“Well, we are not from there. We seem to just have appeared here.”

“So, a mountain is gone, and you also say you just appeared here from nowhere….” She laughs joyfully. “I am sure we can agree that that is something really amazing, right? You don’t see that everyday! Interesting, interesting!!! Really interesting this day has been! Ah, you were really useful. Please excuse me as I will now make my way to the village you are talking about. Bye bye.” She starts going and waving goodbye happily, but SNO still has some questions.

“So you are not from here? Where did you come from?”

She now looks back at him with a disappointed look. “Oh please, don’t be boring asking all those questions. If I told you all of that what would be the fun of it? Gotta leave room in life for surprise and excitement, right?”

SNO’s brain has by now processed the fact that she left a soldier unconscious in the blink of an eye, so he shuts up and lets her go. However, as she starts walking back, she is caught distracted for a moment by the thieves Oscar and Carla, who quickly decide to jump out of the bushes and grapple the woman. In an instant they put her on the ground under them.

“Ahahaha!” The woman just laughs, as the thieves are surprised at what they actually managed to do. “This day really keeps getting better and better!” She then pronounces another strange words and…. ZAP. She is not there anymore. Oscar and Carla’s faces are now on the dirt and the woman is standing in front of them.

“I hope this time you actually wouldn’t mind me going. Bye”. The woman leaves, walking gracefully.

Oscar gets up from the ground, relieved perhaps. After calming down for a bit, he/she realizes that, by accident (or thief instinct), he/she has stolen one of the mysterious woman’s bags. Not the shiny one though. The party, who also calms down, is too afraid to keep following the woman. Inspecting the downed soldier they also understand that they indeed won’t be able to wake him up any time soon. Interested in inspecting the bag, Oscar tries to detect traps and doesn’t find any, while Poco uses Detect Magic on it. He detects traces of common magic, but also strange magic of some really unknown origin to him. Everyone feels suspicious and scared, except Giorno, who besides all of what happened is still in love with the woman. He is the one that opens the bag, happy with the fact that it smells really really good. Inside there are some common herbs and some potions in small flasks, but other strange things as well. The bag also contains a pair of horns and a larger flask with an unusual pink liquid inside. They also notice that there was some empty space left inside the bag.

Jenny identifies one of the potions as having the effect of keeping one awake for an entire night straight. In a stroke of genius, the group takes the potion and forces it down the throat of the unconscious soldier. Amazingly, this works. The soldier is now awake. In fact, more awake than he ever has. The party decides to keep moving on. The woman’s bag will be carried by Giorno. He really likes its smell.

Few time passes until our adventures comes across something mysterious again. Not a beautiful woman this time, but a gate. A huge huge black gate stands in the middle of the road. Just a gate, well ornamented and with no hinges or keyholes. On it there is only a sign that says “THERE IS NO INTELLIGENCE WITHOUT WISDOM”. The party members are confused. They try to push it from all sides possible, but nothing seems to happen. However, when they decide to push it all together, the letters in the sign change to “STRENGTH IS NOT THE ANSWER”. The letters starts to morph into blue light energy, which then transforms into terrible monsters. Just kidding, they were not so terrible, they were simply 6 giant rats, with eyes glimmering with blue light. A quick battle happens. In 6 seconds the rats are disposed of without any trouble and the letters on the gate return to their original form. Without much more to do here, the group goes on.

They now reach the end of the forest path. Ahead they can see the base of what used to be a huge mountain 2 miles tall. Before they proceed they notice something else of remark. Standing beside the road is a tower. It’s not to tall and it’s leaning a little bit, as a part of its base seems to be buried in the ground. It’s well ornamented with colors of black, white and blue and seems to have two floors. The door is open, so our adventurers, although cautious, go inside to explore. The tower looks as if it had been shaken up; furniture and books are scattered around. There is a bed, a fire place and clothes that all seem to belong to men. The books there seem to talk about magic, although they don’t contain spells. Poco grabs “100 ways you should not use magic”. On the bottom floor there are also a desk and chair standing directly in front of one of the windows. On the desk there seems to be pages recording names of people and times. They also see an empty and a broken flask that seem to have vestiges of pink liquid.  

Moving on another mile they reach what used to be the base of the mountain. It’s a big stretch of gray rock. Climbing it they are faced with a huge and cleanly flat rocky ground. It spreads around what used to be the 1,5 mile radius base of Everblue. It’s so flat it looks like it was cut with a giant sword. After walking for a bit they notice there is something standing in the middle of it. It seems to be some structure. They approach it without any problems and realize that it must be some kind of castle. Looking at it from the front they see two giant walls, in black, white and blue, stretching diagonally northwest and northeast. Between them there is a huge gap. On the left wall there also seems to be a hole and from the right wall there is what looks like the roof of a tower protruding from it. The adventurers approach, eager to find clues about what teleported them to this region and…..

Today’s episode ends. Some more details were given about the structure, but they will be repeated at the beginning of next session, which will resume exactly at the same point, without any time having passed. So, will they be able to find some answers about what brought them to the Great Plateau, about the missing Everblue, or about the mysterious woman??? And will they find a way to go back to Longuria??? Stay tuned for the next adventure ;)

Timekeeper's Note

The next adventure will be a continuation of this one, still taking place on Feb 1. After that, the game calendar will catch up to the real world calendar. The Timekeeper recommends ending next session at a safe place as usual.