FreemanGames Campaign Journal

Issue 4:  Part 2:  The Castle:  Second Excursion:  Day 1:  Kickin’ up the ant-hill 

Having found the tunnel, the group plans it attack.  Rach and Nokie will start the attack, trying to draw the ants across the room, while the rest of the team feather fall’s down thanks to Omac (who is now called Omar by the team).  With the plan set, they tie all the available rope, 50 from Bam Bam, 50 from Q, and 45 from Rach together and to the door.  This will allow them a chance at an escape in a hurry. 

The Feldor take their places and Rach and Nokie start the battle.  Rach moves in and nukes an ant with acid breath, while traversing the ceiling.  Nokie floats in and blasts another ant to smithereens with his eldritch blast.  Rach then moves to the far side of the room, letting out a dragon roar.  Nokie, stay in place, blasting another ant.  Q, in hawk form, flies in and lands near Rach, but on the ground, then shifts to his Tiger form.  The rest of the Feldor begin floating in, only their order was somehow mixed up and Pebbles is first!  He begins playing music.  The ants begin spreading out, and converging, not on Rach, but on Q and towards Pebbles.  Two weaker looking ants disappear down the hole and a flood of big warrior ants come out.  Rach dives from the ceiling flying into the whole, yelling that he plans to bottle neck the ants from coming out.  He disappears from the battle, devouring ants or melting them with his acid breath. 

An ant approaching Pebbles crosses the stone alter next to the statue, which then awakens!!!  It crushes the ant and moves towards more ants.  Q then finds himself surrounded, and takes a bite before his dangerous run back to his allies, but Omac steps up and lays waste to an ant with a scorching ray, but misses on his second attempt.  BamBam, having continues to slaughter ants as they approach her.  Nokie yells warning, “The statue has come alive and is killing ants!”  It was more a warning to Rach than any others.   

The Feldor minus their dragon, regroup near the rope, as the Golem begins running out ants to squash.  Omac and Nokie’s first attempts at magic, eldritch blast and fiery burst, both prove unable to penetrate the monster’s spell resistance.  It approaches, and Q steps up to bite it, but misses.  The Golem pounds the tiger form druid, and some effect attacks his mind, but he fights it off.  He is unable to warn his allies of the effect in this form.  He figures he can handle 3 or 4 more stikes like that at best, but will stick with the fight for a bit longer.  The statue, previously faceless, has a glyph appear on hits face and from it, blood geysers out at Nokie, coating him.  He is able to resist whatever ill effect that would have followed.   

Omac and Pebbles begin trying to translate and study the alter of sacrifice.  Pebbles has Omac use comprehend languages to read it, and then remembers more about the alter.  If you die upon it, it is supposed to bring you back to life with great healing abilities.  He stands on it.  Omac joins him. 

Meanwhile, Q moves to flank the golem, it misses its attack of opportunity.  He succeeds in biting it hard, thanks some to Pebbles inspiring percussion.  Bam Bam misses it on her attack.  The Golem then slams Q hard twice, only this time the magical effect takes hold of him, despite his extreme effort to shake it off.  Q does not look well, barely on his feat.  In fact his mind is foggy and he begins to babble, which as a tiger, sounds like purring, then hissing, then meow, then a shriek and on and on.  Pebbles identifies this as the effect of a confusion spell.  Bam bam is struck by the creature next, confusing her as well, but she still manages to kill the creature.  Then, Q suddenly sees Bam bam before him with her axe all bloody (from ants) and he lunges at her to bite before she can kill him too!  He bites down hard on her.  Nokie, who had been using hit and run tactics from the exit tunnel until the golem fell, announces, “Q, don’t attack her, she’s on our side!”  Pebbles catches him up that Q is confused.  He tells Bam Bam to subdue Q, only she doesn’t try to, she swings to kill, but cannot connect, twice.  Pebbles brings up the healing aura, perhaps he can save the pair, but how if both the warriors are confused??? 

Omac moves to flank Q, trying to put him down with subdual before Bam Bam kills him.  Pebbles moves in to distract Bam Bam, and actually scores a hit with his magical short sword, drawing her confused homicidal rage on him.  Q retaliates on Omac, taking a chunk from his leg.  Bam bam advances on Pebbles but misses, and Nokie finds that he has absolutlely no way to help Pebbles and hovers impotently.  Q and Omac keep exchanging blows, with Omac missing and Q tearing pieces off of his mage friend.  Pebbles is relieved when Bam bam recovers slightly from the spell, he tells her to throw that damn axe away.  Instead, she drops it and runs for the rope, beginning to climb out of the room. 

Nokie blasts Q down, and Omac stabilizes him, then retreats to the pedestal with Pebbles.  Pebbles quits playing music and gets ready to heal Omac.  Pebbles has rage come over her again, and feels that Nokie is going to shoot her down like he did Q, she drops to the ground and leaps for him with her greatsword, but cannot reach the flying Halfling.  He retaliates with a tanglefoot bag, and she draws her bow, but cannot hit him.  On the pedestal, Omac receives healing from Pebbles, but they draw bow-fire from Bam bam in doing so. 

At this point, Rach has returned, having run out of ant challengers and knowing the bardic music stopped.  Pebbles immediately tells him to “Hide, Bam Bam is confused!”  The tiny dragon instead charges forward and hits her with his cone of slow gas.  She shrugs it off and turns her rage on Rach.  She cannot hit him either.  He advances to do subdual, but cannot strike her while being careful.  Shortly after, the confusion wears off.  The group revives Q, under watchful eye, beak and fist, who is now fine as well.  The group recovers hit points and prepares to discuss the next step.  They fill in Rach, and he tells them of the tunnels he entered, where he killed many ants, and can hear many more, but they did not advance on him.  A thorough search of the room reveals nothing of interest. 

After scouting the chamber of giant ants, we all decided on a plan of action: Using 150′ of rope from BamBam, Q, and Omac; we secured one end of the rope to the nearby door jam and prepared to go down into the hole. Rach and I would fly down first, initiate combat with the ants and the others would follow – carrying the end of the rope with them so as to not alert the ants that they were on their way.

Rach and I stealthily flew into the chamber, I used my force of will to cause chaotic energies to swirl around me – helping deflect ranged attacks and make it hard for creatures (like giant ants) to track me. I also sensed for magic auras and found that a large slab and 12′-tall statue were magical. I whispered this fact to Rach who made a mental note.

We began our assault with Rach climbing on the ceiling and spitting a line of acid at some of the ants. I advanced, hovering near the top of the ceiling and fired an eldritch blast at one of the ants who collapsed. Two of the ants who looked more scrawny than the rest ran and disappeared into a hole in the ground on the opposite-side of the room.

Pebbles was the first to the ground, floating down on the wings of a featherfall spell. He began singing and using his drums. Some of the ants began to advance to the spot on the ground where Pebbles fell. Rach let out a roar to try to distract the ants and I eldritch blasted another close to Pebbles, but it didn’t drop.

BamBam and Omac came down next. BamBam took a mighty swing at the injured giant ant nearest her and sliced it in half (the long way down the middle). Omac cast a spell at some of the ants, I guess it helped. Q came flying down in owl form and landed on the opposite side of the cavern as he turned into a tiger. His changing form ability looks like fun. Rach dove into the hole leading down into more tunnels while yelling something about bottlenecking more ants from coming up.

As more of the ants converged on Q and came towards those that dropped out of the ceiling, one of them walked across the magical slab. As this happened, the giant statue came to life and smashed the ant and moved a little. This didn’t look good. I shouted that the slab is magical and that the statue came to life so all of the companions knew about the slab and so Rach would know about the statue that came to life.

Pebbles and Omac ran over to the slab to get a better look at it. BamBam advanced and got ready to attack in case the giant statue thing tried to come after us. Q escaped from the giant ants surrounding him, turning into an owl and flew over to where BamBam was and also readied to attack in case the giant statue advanced to where Pebbles and Omac were standing.

I studied the statue and wasn’t able to discern much about it. I fired an eldritch blast at it and it the blast dissipated, suggesting that it is immune to my attacks and probably resistant to magic. The statue swatted a couple of other giant ants and then advanced to where BamBam was standing. Q advanced and tried to hit it but failed. The giant statue spewed out a spray of blood that hit me. I felt a little funny but it didn’t seem to affect me.

Pebbles and Omac were continuing to try to discern what the slab was when finally Omac announced out loud that there were some pictograms along the side of it that read, ‘Spill your life to the Blood God. The Blood God repays sacrifice‘. That sounded ominous. Pebbles expanded on this and shouted that this thing is called ‘The Slab of Sacrifice’. Creatures sacrificed on the slab will return to life with a temporary vigor and healing unmatched by mortals.

(The Slab of Sacrifice)

No more giant ants were left in the chamber and Rach was still in the hole. I hope he’s ok. Not wanting to get sprayed on again by the giant statue thing, I flew up into the hole in teh ceiling to be out of harms way. As I flew, I shot another eldritch blast at the statue and this time it seemed to hit him.

I flew back down, fired again (the blast seemed to work again), and flew back up. As I was flying down, Q was on the opposite side of the statue,BamBam was on the near side, and Pebbled was standing on the slab.

One more I flew down and the statue was gone in a crumble of rocks. I guess BamBam killed it. I moved more into the chamber. I also saw Q attacking BamBam. I shouted, ‘No Q! BamBam is on our side!‘.

Things got really weird. Q and BamBam were attacking each other. Pebbles shouted that they were under the influence of a confusion spell. This made more sense. Pebbles hit BamBam with his sword and Omac ran around behind Q to try to subdue him. BamBam is pretty powerful so I don’t think that things are going to be good for Q! I felt as if there should be something I can do to help, but couldn’t think of it. Pebbles requested assistance to aid his defense, but I don’t have any melee capabilities, so I just floated down to be 10′ above Pebbles standing on the slab and fired aneldritch blast at Q. Next he moved and collapsed. I didn’t want to harm my friend but we knew that he was confused and we had to disable him.

BamBam appeared to come to her senses. Pebbled shouted for her to drop the axe and run away. BamBam dropped the axe, ran to the rope and began to climb. Omac was tending to Q’s wounds so Q wouldn’t bleed to death. I ascended to hover about ten feet away from the rope, 25′ above the ground.

BamBam let out a growl, dropped from the rope and tried to jump up at me with her sword but missed. She must be confused again. I finally remember that I had tanglefoot bags and could help the situation. I retrieved a tanglefoot bag and threw it at BamBam. It didn’t seem to root her in place, but it did look as if she would be hindered in her movements.

BamBam then drew her bow and fired at me but missed. I crouched (in the air) in a defensive position. Rach emerged from the hole, shouted something about the tanglefoot bag being a good idea and flew towards BamBam, letting lose a cloud of gas that was supposed to slow her but it didn’t seem to do anything.

With this new threat, BamBam turned her attention to Rach and fired the bow but missed. Rach bit her to try to subdue her and she attacked him but missed again. Finally BamBam came to her senses and didn’t appear to be confused anymore.

We tended to the wounded and revived Q. He was also fine. What a tough battle!

Expedition to Castle Ravenloft 

Issue 4:  Part 1:  Re-Enter the Feldor or Arcanists, Tigers, and Dragons, Oh My! The Prince of Delorian receives yet another mysterious letter from Barovia.  This time from the Burgomeister himself, requesting aid for his son.  Smelling a trap, he composes a letter to the lovely Irena, and summons four quite capable though oddly matched Feldor.  In all honesty, they were the ones available, as he saw fit to leave a more rounded squad in Brindinford in the wake of the Hellmouth incident.   

In this group he has sent:

•  Nokie Quickbolt, warlock and master of the dark arts
• Omac, fire sorcerer descended from a fiendish red dragon
•  Q (Quarion Sionnodel) – Druid who shifts to tiger or hawk form to do battle
• Rach- Wyrmling copper dragon and leader of the group. 

He has grown up as a Feldor, in the care of the prince to start out. These four make their way through the dark forest path, with Nokie riding atop Q’s tiger form, they make better than expected speed.  At the magical gate, Nokie determines that the hinges are very powerful magic, as they confirm once it closes behind them barring exit from Barovia.  This also confirms the chances that the first letter was a trap. 

Meanwhile, Pebbles and Bam Bam, after three days of recovery, begin to deal with the spy in town.  The merchant who was recorded in the ledger as a servant of Strahd is apprehended without conflict.   Upon reaching town, Rach and Q take to the air to scout out the town.  They find the town is desolate.  The only life is in the town square, where baracades look at the ready.  The rest of the town is boarded up and somewhat trashed. 

The heroes enter town, down the main street heading for The Blood On the Vine Inn.  Upon entering, they are largely ignored, other than the interim Burgomeister.  He turns out to be the son of the man who sent the letter, and that his father was dead before the letter was sent.  He takes the heroes to his house, where he says the Feldor are staying with his sister,  This, of course, is the manor sized house on the end of the town. Once there, they meet and reunite with Pebbles and Bam Bam, though they quickly learn that Lex and Kenobi did not make it.  Nor did their allies from Brindinford, the Halfling avengers, Lidda and Nokie Quickfingers.  This deadly land also claimed the lives of two Lightbringers of Pelor who had joined them.  The rest of the story is told, catching up the newcomers to Strahd, and the fortune telling them what they are expected to do.  Irena decides to stay behind, being far outmatched within the castle. 

Rach suggests they revisit Madame Eva, to find the new location of the Sunsword, and perhaps even the Icon of Ravenkind.  The group agrees and sets out the next morning for the Gypsy camp. Madame Eva welcomes them back, and tells them that the Sunsword now lies with the mother of Strahd. 

Issue 4:  Part 2:  The Castle:  Second Excursion:  Day 1  

The Feldor then head back to Castle Ravenloft.  Once inside, they head to the spider-webby hall that Lidda had them avoid previously.  Once Bam-Bam, Q and Rach batter the door open, Rach checks the hallway, finding something large at the end of it.  So Omac opens up with a fireball, to be followed by a Web spell from the creature, and a netlike web on Rach by a hidden Ettercap.  Q and Bam Bam struggle with the webs to enter the fray.  Pebbles does his bardic stuff while Rach struggles to get free.  Omac keeps blasting with Fiery Burst and magic missile only to determine that the creature is a Golem immune to magic.  Q’s flaming sphere struggles to clear paths, but the golem uses its web ability.  Eventually, the heroes get free when Omac lights them on fire with a burst.  By that time, Bam Bam has engaged the Golem and hurt it severly.  Rach finishes it off with his acid breath. The hall turns out to be a dead end, and beyond the initial hallway is only stairs down.  The group then heads off to the ant tunnel off of sublevel 1.  Rach scouts it, and finds a half dozen ants in some kind of crude temple or ceremonial chamber.  The group then starts planning an assault upon it.

A week ago me and a few other Feldors (short for the Fellowship of Delorian) were sent out to warn another group of Feldors that they were in danger. It turns out this previous group or Feldors, led by a bard named Pebbles, were sent into the lands of Barovia on a mission to rescue a princess via a letter. Their mission was initiated under false pretenses and the letter they had was a forgery.

We got wind of this and set out warn them. We first went to Brindinford and then onto Barovia, following the trail of our guild-mates. With me are three other Feldors:

• Q – Elven Druid
• Omac – Human Sorcerer
• Rach – Copper Dragon

Even though he is a druid, I’ve come to rely on Q for his healing abilities and way with nature. I hate to say it but I’ve also come to respect him. I dislike Omac, manly because he is a sorcerer and has to cast spells. It’s so unnatural to see arcane spells being cast when I can use magic at will. I have no use for wizards and sorcerers. But a job’s a job, and were together in this job so I’ll do what it takes to get the payout. Rach is an odd one. I’ve not adventured much with a dragon before and it unnerves me a little. He’s also so small that I often lose track of him. His acid breath comes in handy and I like having another guild-mate along who can fly (like Q can!). Rach is also the most senior member of this troupe so he’s our leader and does a good job with it.

We made it into Barovia and the odd gates swung shut behind us locking us in. I should have figured as much since the hinges were quite magical. Once we reached the town,Rach and Q scouted from the air while I remained with the worthless sorcerer.

After getting the all-clear, we headed into town and went to the inn near the town center. We were directed to another house where the other Feldors were.

We met up with only two of them:

• Pebbles – Halfling Bardic Dragon Shaman
• BamBam – Barbarian Warrior

Pebbles is another halfling like me, but a bit of a know-it-all. BamBam looks like she can handle herself in a fight. I need to make sure she stays at the front-line to keep enemies away from me!

As with Pebbles and Pebbles explained everything that happened. There were originally four Feldors that came before us. The two other Feldors (Lex and Ben Kenobi) died inside the castle which happens to be infested with lots of undead and a powerful vampire named Strahd.

We also found that that linked up with two halfling adventurers in Brindinford. One was an infamous rogue named Lidda and the other was my half-brother Nokie Quickfingers. What a small world! I had no idea that Nokie was in this region. Sadly, Nokie got killed by an evil cleric in town and Lidda got killed just recently in the castle. This place doesn’t suit me. There are too many capable adventurers dying. The group also had (and lost) two clerics. One simply disappeared and the other got killed in the same battle as Lidda.

With this big castle full of powerful undead and vampires, I can’t believe that we don’t have a cleric with us. I also understand that there are a lot of nasty traps and we don’t have a rogue either! This is a disaster waiting to happen. Good thing I brought along this wand of invisibility to help make a quick getaway if things go bad. I’m on this mission in part because it’s my duty to the Feldors, but I’m also seeking power and treasure.

Long story short, we made our introductions and headed into the castle. Pebbles had a map and they covered a lot of ground already. We were still trying to explore some rooms below the main level. One of which was full of spiderwebs. As soon as we went into the room the human caster Omac had to show off and created a fireball. This seemed to backfire as some spider-like creature was throwing webs and getting us all stuck. Q sent along a flaming sphere to help clear away some of the webs. Good going Q! By the time I made it into the room (I like to hang back and throw eldritch blasts from a safe distance away), the only thing left was some construct thing that was immune to magic! Bah! My one weakness is golems. I high-tailed it out of the room until BamBam could finish off the golem. She’s quite the fighter!

After the battle we searched the room and headed on. We found a slightly-concealed hole in the floor in one room that was really a very long & narrow tunnel descending far down below. Rach and I proceeded down and saw a chamber full of giant ants.

It is a quiet night Uldin has just finished preparing his spells for the day. The night has been uneventful. It’s a well needed rest for the previous nights events were most harrowing. Flinn and Uldin are on the night’s third watch. Flinn tells Uldin, “I wish to take a look at some of my notes, I will be return shortly.” Uldin nods as Flinn walks around the stall out of his sight.
Uldin hears a sudden scuffle and the light coming from the stalls is gone. Only a strange and evil darkness pours out from whence the light came. Screams of pain are heard from within the darkness. Uldin hears Pebble yelling out to stop Flinn. Bam Bam yells out that Flinn was the cause of this dark magic. Uldin, surprised by the events watches for any movement from the darkness. After a few more screams from the darkness, Uldin Stops a body moving out of the darkness. It is Flinn. Uldin not wishing to hurt his friend attempts to grapple with him. To Uldin’s surprise, Flinn tries to strikes at him. This doesn’t stop Uldin as he slams Flinn to the ground.
More screams come from the darkness as it starts to move out of the stalls. Uldin Soon finds himself and Flinn engulfed by the darkness. He pins Flinn down and can do nothing but ponder how this has come to pass. Suddenly he is stricken with pain. Could this have been the work of Flinn? Or is there another? He pleads with Flinn as to why he was doing all of this. Flinn only replies,” I just want to examine the Amulet.” Soon after Uldin hears a Smack, as if someone was attacking Flinn as he was pinned. It was Lidda, she seemed to see perfectly fine in the darkness. Flinn Struggles trying to free himself but Uldin does not allow it.
As this is going on Lex yells out that the darkness is moving and that it must be on something on someone’s person. Pebbles yells out that he doesn’t notice anything new on his person. With another scream of pain from Pebbles, Uldin and Lidda. Lex asks Pebbles to take a five foot step. As Pebbles does Lex yells out that is must be on Pebbles because the darkness moved as he did. In the meantime Lidda is able to knock Flinn unconscious , as Uldin feels Flinn’s body stop struggling and go limp. Uldin feels Flinn’s body shutter slightly. Lida yells out that a Demon was leaving Flinn’s body. The Demon retreats passed Pebbles, who can do nothing in his current condition to stop it. Lidda then leaves Uldin and Flinn who are now out of the darkness. Lidda helps heal Pebbles as he starts to remove items from his body. Uldin asks if anyone has rope to secure Flinn. Bam Bam, with her large great axe in hand ready to strike down Flinn, brings her rope to Uldin and helps Lex tie Flinn securely.
Pebbles continues to remove clothing as Lidda covers each piece with a blanket. Eventually the darkness is covered by the blanket and Pebbles is left half naked with only the armor he had on under his clothing. Pebbles was able to figure out what was cast upon him and knew that in about 9 minutes the spell should expire.
Once everything settles down, everyone goes about healing those who needs it. Flinn eventually regains consciousness and tell everyone that he had seen everything that was happening but had no control. It seems that the demon possessed him as the Paladin the group fought the night before fell. Uldin was relieved that it truly was not Flinn working against them. The group complete their rest and allowed Flinn to sleep and study his spells before they return to the Castle.
The Group try a door to the south, Lidda searches the area and as she enters she notices the room was similar to another room on this level. This one was full of Spider webs and a Large spider creature appears at the end of the room. It casts a web cover all around Lidda. Her nimble form does not get entangled in this trap and she quickly exits and closes the door. The group decides to leave this room for not and return if needed.
The Head down a set of stairs leading to a hallway Flooded with a dirty murky water. Little notices something suspicious in the water and enters alone to investigate. She believes them to be a trap of some kind. She avoids them at first to searches the rest of the hallway. She finds two sets of stair going down, each with a pair of doors. She finds that the water gets deeper if you go down to the doors. She also finds a pair of doors at the end of the hallway. She decides to try an disable the traps. She spends some trying to locate and identify the traps. After a time she disables them. She leads Uldin, Flinn and Lex to the doors at the end of the hallway, while Pebbles and Bam Bam stay with (the Vampire Bitch) Irena on the stairs. As Lidda opens the door. . .