August 01, 2009

Game Start Date
01/03/10056
Game Master
Steve Ames
Adventurers
Vem-Dena Silverwing (Mage, Necromancer, Bladedancer, Spelldancer, Smith, Nomad, Evil Super Genius. Also grew 3 islands of her own and makes the most delicious pies ever to exist in the multiverse. Now a )
Rachael
Assana (Angry lil black haired bludgen lady)
Tanis (Barrister Extraordinaire)
Erica Wiren (Chitter, Chitter)
Angela
Actors
Gill

Hook

Group needed for a super secret kidnapping type mission.

Plot Synopsis

The group assembles at the Pregada recruiting office for Gill's adventuring academy. Gil gives everyone the once over and then goes asks everyone to have a seat in front of the big window. He tells them about this mission to kidnap a member of the opposition. Once the details are agreed upon he lets the party leave, suggesting that maybe Erica should go first since she can be immaterial. Tanis leaves first instead and gets hit with an assassin's arrow (which bizarrely causes Erica as much pain as it does Tanis). The party responds quickly but by the time they get outside two of Gill's men already have the assassin in custody. Gil gives them the nod and ushers the party back inside. Once inside he activates some sort of secrecy magic and says "now we can discuss the real mission".

Gil says that he has been hired to transport a "monster" from one world to the home world of the enemy. He doesn't have a lot of details about the monster only that this mission is necessary. The monsters existence, presence and potential use for this purpose were all revealed by the Oracle. The party's mission is to go to the world the Oracle has specced out, find this monster and transport it to the enemy home world and, there, unleash it. This mission is something that can't be talked about afterward. For their services, and silence, they are each offered a single Favor from the Lordship. The party readily agrees. Gil provides them with instructions for going to an off-world site and hands them a red and black disc which he tells them will Open a portal to the enemy home world and then another portal back to Jaern (red). Gil then drops the secrecy spell and the party departs.

They go to the CGoW and then to the beta site. They take Portal 42 to the offsite world recommended. There they meet up with a Guild mage. The mage seems friendly if inexperienced. He opens a one way portal to the Monster world and the party steps through (Erica first this time).

The party finds themselves in a seaside village near some docks and a rocky beack. There are no boats. The entire village looks to have maybe 200 people. The party starts to look around the village for signs of a monster. They hang at the bar, get a bite to eat, etc... The main income for the village is fishing and a sizeable percentage of the population is currently out fishing. There is one road out of town. At one point Erica over hears a boy talking about a monster. She queries him further and he says he saw it in Farmer Jonas' orchard. Erica and Tanis go to check it out.

They walk out of town on the road maybe three miles before seeing a farmhouse and a nearby barn. They start to look around and a man comes out to talk to them. They ask if he's seen anything unusual and he says he hasn't. They start to mention a couple of kids and Jonas says he saw some kids pilfering apples and threw a couple at them to scare them off. Erica and Tanis head back town.

Meanwhile the rest of the party was having a drink in the local watering hole. A young boy runs in and says the mayor's boat has returned. Their are mutterings of "must have been a good day" and such when the kid elaborates "there's no one on it". The old men at the bar instantly get up and head outside.

At the docks a fishing boat can be seen. The party tries to get close but its tricky through the growing crown. The first man on the boat says there are bodies. Another man claiming to be a doctor orders everyone off the boat until he has a chance to see what's going on and if they need help. He quickly discovers three dead bodies: the mayor and two of his sons. The party manages to get a look flying over the crowd and such. When the doctor says its safe a couple of them land and search the boat. They find only the bodies and in the hold a basket of rotting fish, some tackle and a crate that is filled with dirt. They dump the dirt while searching through it and find nothing.

The bodies are removed to the meeting hall so people can pay their respects. There is some suspicious glancing at the party. The mayor's (very) young wife lives in the room attached to the meeting hall. People visit the bodies well into the dark. One of the party goes to check on the boat again and finds the crate and the dirt it held both missing. Another sneaks into the meeting hall after everyone has gone and looks the bodies over carefully. They are found to be quite dead but warmer than room temperature. The party decides to call it a night.

In the morning it is a very quiet day. A number of people stay at home claiming sick relatives. The party quickly learns that the crate is in farmer Jonas' barn by Erica teleporting to the crate. Tanis gets a fix on Erica's location just before she disappears completely. Assana and Tanis go to retrieve it. They knock at the farmhouse door and Jonas answers. They tell the story of an evil crate in their barn that needs to be removed. Jonas laughs at them for trying to pass of tales like Bartleby the Brave. He winks at them and asks how much its going to cost him to have these brave adventurers free him of the curse of the evil crate of dirt. He offers 2 crates of apples. Erica and Tanis accept and remove the evil crate of dirt and the 2 crates of apples. Erica is no where to be found.

The bar is more or less closed for the day but the adventurers help themselves. They don't find anything in the crate (again) but attach spirit guardians to it anyway to make it easier to find. The mayor's body and those of his two sons have come up missing. The rest of the day passes pretty uneventfully. When nightime comes the mayor and his sons put in an appearance. The mayor goes to the boat and gets the crate and heads off down the road. His sons and another 20 villagers start randomly entering houses. The party watches this and see that they lean over sleeping victims and a stinger like object protrudes from their mouths and they sting the sleaping victim. After a brief struggle the victim seems to sleep. The party stays clear and gathers intel. They follow the crate back to Jonas barn where it is placed on the ground. Then the mayor uses his claws to dig a hole and crawls into it... just before dawn.

In the morning the party searches the village for other signs of hole digging and finds a lot. By this point half the village is "sick" and the villager are no longer friendly to a group of healthy people who show up just when this evil strikes their village. And now the party is clearly stealing bodies. They party keeps a low profile. Erica returns, not overly clear where she had gone. That night the towns people attempt to burn down the building the party is sleeping in. The party blue fields the whole lot of them. When the dead wake and start looking for victims they turn a couple of them to rock and put them in a bag and destroy the rest. They grab the crate and bring it back to the boat and then sail out into the water a bit. There is a small skirmish aboard the boat where Tanis is possessed. Small white worms seem to come from the infected people and attack the party. most are easily destroyed. A couple are turned to stone for later examination.

The party activates the black disc and a portal appears. They go through it with the crate and find themselves in a small park in the middle of a very large city. They leave the crate and find a dark place to put the villagers that they had turned to stone and release the spell. Tanis asks Erika if she thinks this city is bigger than the cities on their world and Erika says it is. At that point Tanis nods and becomes unpossessed. The party calls it mission accomplished and prepare to head home. Rachael takes a small side trip to the governor's mansion where she attempts to get inside. She is thwarted by his guards. She lets one of the rocked worms lose near the guards who quickly kill it. She then pulls out a black whip (from a rose) and slays one of the guards, taking all of his stuff (which was clearly magical).

Then the party uses the red disc where they are ported to a quarantine room, cleared and ported to the CGoW. They have the items identified and relay their story to Gil so he can report back.

Noteworthy Postgame Events