November 10, 2007

Hook

Fight unknown monsters, retrieve magical treasures, and experience things never seen before, all for a good cause! If interested, seek Even at the Random Encounter Tavern at 12 pm.

Plot Synopsis

The adventurers meet in room 2 to find Even and an old man seated at a table. The old man is Nikola Tesla, who is dying. Before he dies, though, he wants to donate his remaining possessions to various causes. The party’s task is to travel to the world he originates from, find his old place of residence amongst dangerous lands, and retrieve certain items from it to bring back to himself and Even. Their pay will be 500 silver apiece, as well as anything beyond the required items that the party wants from the old residence.

The adventurers set out with a notebook in hand which details some things they party may encounter on this world. They set out through the portal and travel due east. The party splits up a little bit, but after a time a pillar of smoke is seen off to the north, where they can just make out a village. One group begins heading that way, only to be accosted by several flying creatures. After a brief battle, these flying creatures are defeated, with the corpse of one being raised as a servant. The creatures seem to be wearing some sort of insignia as well. During this time, the rest of the party has joined up with these folks, and continues on to the village.

At the village, they find about 100 people watching as the village burns down. Upon questioning, it turns out that these people are not from the village, but that this village had recently begun resisting a local warlord, and these people did not want said warlord taking out his wrath on everyone, so these people destroyed this village. Tachios notices a soft crying sound coming from somewhere in the village, and he, Mahogany, and Cray head into the burning buildings. After some effort, they rescue a young girl named Sarah from her burning home, and after scalding the crowd who had apparently gathered up all the other folks in this village and burned them alive, continued on their quest with Sarah in tow.

Around noon the next day, the party comes across a series of pools in a lightly wooded area. Upon investigation, the pools seem to glow when their surfaces are disturbed, with the light rippling out from the point of disturbance. Other than finding out that a hand raised through necromancy dissolves in the water and that they glow divinely, the party is unable to learn anything about these pools and after some brief messing around continue on.
At the end of the second day, the party stops near some old ruined buildings just before they reached the forest where the residence should be. After some skulking about, nothing is found in the cabins but some old jars of preserved food and a set of old bones on a bedroll. Nikolai takes the head of the bones and several other pieces and chooses to sleep in the cabins, while everyone else sets up camp a little bit away from the cabins. In the middle of the night, Nikolai is wakened by some noises and sees a ghostly figure demanding to know who disturbed its body and making many threats. After some hemming and hawing, Nikolai admits he is a necromancer and this intrigues the ghost, who agrees to let him go if he brings the ghost one of his fresh young companions and places his spirit inside of that body. Nikolai proceeds to the main camp and spills the beans on what he saw and what he agreed to, at which point the ghost pops up out of the ground and attacks him for betrayal. Luckily, the party’s Raite disperses the ghost before Nikolai becomes too drained to continue on. This does annoy Ryuk though, as the spell used to disperse the ghost also disperses his animated zombie companion.


After two days of travel total, and several rivers successfully crossed, the party arrives deep in the forest where Tesla’s old residence should be. They find it after some searching, and cautiously proceed into it. The searching of the residence takes several hours, but eventually all the required items (a small statue of a woman in robes, a pyramid with a gem imprisoned inside, and several books of Tesla’s old research) were found.

Several other interesting trinkets were found and taken, as well as supplies that had been laid in before and many, many books. After spending a night in the house, the party gets everything together and leaves. Mahogany and Tachios take Sarah back to the portal at super-Ra-powered speed, while the rest of the party takes the normal way. After they cross the plains and make camp before the woods with the pools, they are awakened by a series of lights on the horizon. Scurrying out of the path, they get to the woods and watch as a large army of warriors seems to cross the plains behind them. The remaining party decides at this point to high-tail it off this world as quickly as possible.

The required items are given to Even and Tesla, and the party is paid their 500 silver. Other acquired trinkets are tested for magical properties and found lacking. The players are granted 2700 experience, with various roleplaying bonuses.

Noteworthy Postgame Events