It was brought to my attention that part of my notes from last session were in error. Although Unser did lose six of his front teeth, Ammonar blessed his treatment, and he needed no recovery time. So the party's situation in the bandit's camp was perhaps not as dire as it might have been.
Session IV
The cast:
- “Poor Unser” Unser, Elvish Spellsword
- “Gaz” “Gazebo” Gazorpazorpfield
- Sinbad, Venturer
- Audarius, his henchman, a former Legionary
- Borgnar, Mystic
- Gnarrr, Thrassian Gladiator
- Aladdin, Elvish Nightblade
Drusus leered at the wounded adventurers. Their hope was to rest the night in the bandit's camp before returning to civilization. The brigand king swiftly made it apparent that their safety would cost great tribute. Understandably concerned, the adventurers ended up offering him every last coin they had on their persons, nearly half a thousand gold pieces in total. When this was not enough for the rapacious Drusus, Unser handed over his most precious possession, the potion of dragon control he had found near the kobold king's lair. Doing so nearly brought him to tears. Still the bandit king was not satisfied. He suggested that perhaps the adventurers might donate their armor to his cause, but the savvy Sinbad was just able to persuade him to relent on this demand. Satiated but not content, Drusus made it clear he would expect more the next time he saw the party. The party made ready to rest for the night. During Borgnar's watch, a few drunken bandits tried to make some trouble with the mystic, but his inner calm came to the fore and a fight was avoided.
Now the adventurers had only to escape the forest. Wounded and burdened as they were, it would take them three days of travel to reach its edges. The first day passed without event. Yet tragedy struck on the second. Entering a clearing, the adventurers came across a small meadow pool. Drinking at this pool was a monstrous yet wretched creature: a dire wolf that appeared to have undergone some sort of bizarre mutation. Its eyes gleamed with fell sorcery, and spiked bones poked through its fur. Baying in pain, it charged the adventurers. Borgnar dealt it a mighty blow with his elephant trunk blade, but that only angered it further, and it brutally clawed his face and mangled his eye. Next Sinbad stepped up, yet the creature casually ripped off one of his hands with its teeth. Knowing that the party's fate lay in their hands, Gaz and Unser carefully fought against the creature, and eventually they slew it. With two more of their number wounded, it was Calefa's grace alone that let them reach Türos Tem without further incident.
The next obstacle that needed surmounting was basic survival. The party needed two weeks of rest at the keep before they would be ready to travel to Cyfaraun. And the only money they had was 49 copper pieces Sinbad had kept from the bandits. “You don't want to know where I hid these”, he muttered. Luckily, the party discovered that they still had in their possession an abandoned morningstar. It had belonged to Chalupa Batman what seemed like a lifetime ago. Since he had not needed it for months, it was quickly pawned.
In Cyfaraun, Sinbad negotiated intensely with the local temple of Ammonar. He was successful, and in exchange for nearly 5000 gold pieces of “temple spellcasting credit”, the priests took the bundle of ancient Zaharan mint the party had discovered in the buried temple. With this money, the adventurers threw themselves upon the mercy of the gods and had restore life and limb cast on their maimed members. Gnarrr went first. His leg was healed, but, somehow, his lizard-man scales grew hair at an astonishing rate. Then went Aladdin. His legs too were restored, but he felt that his hand might harbor within it a malevolent spirit, and he counseled his friends to stay away from him in subsequent melees. Then came Sinbad.
The Sad Story of Sinbad
First Sinbad's hand was restored. In exchange, the gods made horses frightened of him. The experience left him feeling lucky, and he went back for a second round. This time he hoped to heal his wounded knee. And here Fate abandoned him. Although his knee was healed, an extraplanar mark of calling was placed on him. Walking through the market a few days later, an invisible demon crept up to him and slew him with a single blow. Its mission accomplished, the demon departed. The newly dead venturer was rushed back to the temple. He was restored to life, miraculously with no side effects. The adventurers could but hope that the invisible demon would not return.
A full month was needed for everyone to fully recover. During this time, Gnarrr spent fifty gold pieces to have “curved swords” carved on both of his curved swords, and Sinbad brought a crusty former legionary named Audarius into his employ. The adventurers also heard a peculiar piece of local folklore about the nearby Black Mire: Locals venturing into this mire always buried at least ten gold pieces in it before departing. Not doing so would leave them vulnerable to the curses of the dead and forgotten gods of the mire, ancient statues of which were scattered throughout the region. Sinbad's first thought was to buy a shovel and go hunting for buried treasure. His friends were able to dissuade him from this plan, at least for the moment.
For it was time to put an end to the reign of Drusus. Fully aware that it was perhaps not the smartest course of action, the party nonetheless committed fully to this goal. Their hope lay in Unser. If he could get a sleep spell off, then the brigands' numerical advantage would be neutralized. Drusus and his favorite bands normally stayed in a room separated from the bandit's main camp by a passageway. Attacking Drusus would doubtlessly bring reinforcements from across the camp. But if the adventurers could remain in the passageway, they might minimize the potency of any flanking maneuvers.
And so they ventured to the bandit's camp. Drunk on their newfound power, Drusus and his bandits were caught by complete surprise when Unser began his arcane incantations. The adventurers breathed sighs of relief; finally Fate was supporting them. Unser completed his spell.
And two bandits dropped to the ground. The thirteen remaining bandits and their enraged leader charged the adventurers. This would not be easy.
A long and bloody melee ensued. In the north end of the passageway, Drusus and his enchanted blade laid waste to Borgnar, Gaz, and Gnarrr. After less than a minute, only the lizard-man remained standing. In the south, Audarius, Aladdin, and Unser held the line against a seemingly endless line of reinforcements. Unser quickly fell to a concerted bandit attack. Aladdin bravely fought back whilst standing atop his friend's body. But in the end he could not stem the tide, and darkness took him. Audarius took several cuts but proved remarkably adept at not dying. He otherwise accomplished little. Sinbad took shots with his crossbow whenever he could. Yet when his friends fell, he bravely stepped forward to hold the line with Gnarrr. A minor blessing was had when two bandits, aiming at Sinbad, instead hit one of their fellows and killed him instantly.
Both Gnarrr and Sinbad both came within a hair's breadth of death. But somehow they were able to triumph, and finally Gnarrr's curved blade cut deeply into Drusus' stomach. The bandit king's enchanted sword was quickly appropriated. The remaining bandits did not immediately stop fighting with their leader's death. But it was clear that the fight was over, and they shortly threw down their arms and fled. Gripping onto his new sword, Gnarrr hacked off Drusus' head and held it aloft.
Sinbad, Gnarrr, and Audarius tended to their fallen comrades. Unfortunately, none of them was learned in the art of healing. So although Borgnar, Gaz, Aladdin, and Unser's wounds were bandaged and wrapped as best as could be done, Death's inexorable claws had latched onto of all of them. Grimly, Gnarrr put his friends out of their misery.
What treasure could be taken from the bandit's camp was, and those things too heavy to move were destroyed. Gnarrr admired the ancient Zaharan fresco on the northern wall of the throne room. He became rather less interested in it when he learned that a fresco was not something he could wear as a cape. And although Sinbad and Gnarrr searched intently for the potion of dragon control that Drusus had taken from them earlier, it was nowhere to be found.
The three survivors dragged their friends' bodies back first to Türos Tem and then to Cyfaraun. In Türos Tem, the legate gladly turned over the 750 gold piece bounty on Drusus. He offered to hold an imperial feast for the heroes, but Sinbad requested that such a celebration be delayed until his friends were restored to life. In Cyfaraun, yet another trip to the temple of Ammonar was made. First Borgnar was restored. He awakened still missing the eye Drusus had cut out, and gifted too with a newfound bottomless hunger. It took two castings to restore Gaz, but he was restored with no negative effects. When Drusus had cut him down, though, he had fell hard and bitten off his tongue, yet this was not as positive as it could have been. Aladdin had received some gruesome scarring from the bandits, but much of it was covered up by his sudden outgrowths of hair. And so only Unser remained to be restored. The bandits had severed both of his legs, so the adventurers knew that his restoration would be a risky process. Yet still they were unprepared for its outcome. For the spellsword's soul was cursed to wander for all time through the eternal darkness.
Mortal Wounds Count:
- Borgnar, eye damaged by mutated wolf
- Sinbad, hand eaten by mutated wolf (later restored)
- Borgnar, eye destroyed by Drusus
- Aladdin, gruesome scarring by bandits
- Unser, legs severed by bandits
- Gaz, tongue severed by Drusus
Death Count:
- Borgnar, Drusus (later restored)
- Gaz, Drusus (later restored)
- Aladdin, bandits (later restored)
- Unser, bandits
Tampering with Mortality Count:
- Gnarrr, hairiness
- Aladdin, possessed hand
- Sinbad, invisible stalker
- Borgnar, bottomless hunger
- Aladdin: hairiness
- Unser: soul cursed to wander for all time through eternal darkness