GodsQuest pt1&2

DM Charley!!

Charley decided to run a few dungeon delves,

in which we enjoy the genius of his storytelling 

and imagination. 

We generated a new character, 

Robert the Rogue. 

PART ONE

Robert the Rogue is destitute after a terrible failure at a recent robbery so he decides to keep a low profile by using his sneak and mechanism skill sets in a dungeon instead of the town. He hopes to find some treasure, avoid traps and monsters. 

Being cautious Robert searches every nook and cranny for traps before searching it for treasure. Almost immediately he discovers a pit-trap and a chest containing 100 gold coins buried under some manky wolf fur. Top marks for the HeroQuest Treasure Deck coming up with the goods!

Excited at the discovery of this booty which is more than he had expected, tempted onward by his greed at the surprising wealth of this dungeon, Robert creeps around the pit into the room beyond where immediately a giant mutant spider pounces on him. 

Robert attempts to jump backward over the pit but fails and falls into it. The spider crouches in top of the pit, biting down at him with its terrible mandibles. Robert skewers it with his short-sword and pulls it’s twitching body into the pit before he climbs out. 

In the spiders lair is a potion of healing which Robert recognised and drinks, restoring his health. 

There is nothing else of interest in that direction so he returns to the entrance area and heads the other way until he reaches a crossroads. At the crossroads he discovers a gem worth 50 gold coins. 

Choosing one direction at the crossroads, Robert sneaks into a room where two goblins and a hobgoblin immediately see him. 

Robert runs back down the corridor and stabs a goblin as it passes his lurk, chasing him. The other goblin catches up with him and he kills that too.

The hobgoblin is stronger but slower. Robert does not want to fight it but is brave and manages to slay it, taking some injury to himself. 

He searches the big room the monsters used as their lair and discovers a large pit trap in front of a weapon rack. The rack contains a heavy sword which he throws into the pit along with the bodies of the monsters he drags in from the tunnel. 

There were other tunnels leading from the first so he follows them and discovers a room with three treasure chest and a larger pit, this one is not concealed. In the pit is Alf the Elf. 

“Get me out!”

“How much gold do you have?”

“None.”

“Ah, bad luck.”

“You can’t leave me here!”

“Do you have a beautiful sister?”

“What?”

“If I save your life you will owe me a life debt. I will accept the hand in marriage of your beautiful sister. Or daughter. Or mother. Or cousin. Friend. Something. But if you betray me I will kill you and your sister.” 

“You... talk true, I will owe you a life debt. I do happen to have a sister yes and being an Elf of course she is beautiful although I do not know if she will be happy to marry you.”

“I’ll grow on her I’m sure. Elves live for centuries don’t you.”

“Yes.”

“Well I’m human I live only for decades. Marrying me is not a life sentence for her but an exciting adventure which will for most of her life become a memory.”

“I’m sure she will see it that way also.”

“Give me your hand. And then you must help me search these treasure chests. The treasure is all mine by the way. I saw them first.”

The chest searched by Alf contains 10 gold coins which Robert allows him to keep. The other contains 50 gold coins which Robert keeps. The third was trapped but Robert was careful to search the chests for traps before opening them. 

The two adventurers leave the dungeon together. 

PART TWO

On their way to meet Alf the Elf’s gorgeous sister who is promised in marriage to Robert the Rogue, to repay a life debt owed by the elf, they encounter another dungeon. The temptation to explore it is too powerful to ignore. 

After some exploration and avoiding some traps, the characters discover the lair of a Fimir, an Orc and a Goblin. The adventurers defeat them and take their treasure; a hatchet of throwing which returns to its owners hand after inflicting damage at a short range. Alf the Elf likes this weapon a lot and is pleased they explored this particular dungeon. 

Further into the tunnels they accidentally awaken a living statue who slowly follows them as they run in the opposite direction, miss their turning and end up overhearing two very huge giants arguing. The giants explain their predicament during their conversation. 

One of them, Loki, believes they should leave the situation to resolve itself. The other, his brother Thor, believes they should interfere to save the lives of the Human race from utter destruction. 

Apparently in two weeks from now, Mother Nature will wreak havoc on the world because the Humans are getting too cocky. 

The Gods reveal also they have been banished from the Realm of the Gods to the world and cannot do much to petition the other gods such as their father Odin to help save the Humans or at least calm Mother Nature down. 

They mention they would require some hapless Human representative to travel through the Gate of the Underworld to the Realm of Hades to seek his help in the matter. If only they had some hapless Human willing to aid them, the entire species could be saved. 

Robert the Rogue decides he doesn’t give a crap about that issue, he certainly doesn’t want to get entangled with Gods and as far as he is concerned if all the other Humans are wiped out it will simply be more booty for him to loot more easily. 

Alf the Elf suggests there might be something worth more than that in it for him if he reconsiders. 

Robert approaches the Gods and tells them he will help them if they pay him. 

The Gods debate this and decide if glory and fame are irrelevant to him perhaps some Coins of the Gods might be of interest. This sounds good to Robert who happily accepts the treasure, fully expecting to ditch the quest as soon as he leaves this dungeon. 

The Gods warn him they will occasionally be looking through his eyes to check up on him and if he isn’t doing what he has promised they will seek him out and make him suffer immeasurably. 

Robert decides hiding from them will probably be easy since they’re banished from the Realm of the Gods themselves they’re probably idiots. But he doesn’t mention this opinion, instead he accepts the heavenly treasure. Both he and Alf the Elf receive 2 coins of the Gods each.

Meanwhile the living gargoyle is still slowly making its way up the passage somewhere behind them. 

TBC... 

Ghost of the Necromancer

The magic users scraped through the rituals of experimental magic system to see how clunky system mechanic handles pooling their magic to perform a spell they each know half of. It worked because we wanted it to work for the sake of the story.

The spirit of Agorax the necromancer was summoned and in a raspy voice asked wtf the group wanted from him, having recently slain him.

They explained how they wanted his help to bring their dead friend back to life, whose body is currently preserved in a barrel of hooch vodka. The necromancer as expected requested a body of his own and explained they would have to retrieve his evil spell book from a chamber in the crypt, which contained a particular spell component they will have to learn. The spellcasters rested to restore their Magic Points at a rate of 1 per hour of sleep.

On the way into the tomb the group had experienced a foreboding flock of crows necessary to bring atmosphere. The Druid decided to summon one of them over to him, which worked, it landed on his arm and withoin minutes had been stuffed squarking into the tomb where the necromancers broken body lay finally to rest and rotting terribly now as hundreds of years of magically extended unlife caught up with it.

The body of a crow was not what the spirit of Agorax had expected although it suffices for the time being to return the evil one into the world of the living.

Thankfully as crows can in real life be trained to talk this one with a cracked voice somewhere between Yoda and Terry Jones as Brian Cohen’s mum in Life of Brian, thanked them and encouraged them to perform the ritual of summoning and binding their friends spirit into his alcohol pickled body.

The ritual was a great success. Their friend, now brain damaged and with skin hardened to leather, threw up all over the place and complained of being drunk out of his mind, feeling the worst he has ever experienced.

Ye that’s natural, explained the crow.

The Druid who has traditionally been a part of a Life cult begins to doubt himself having been involved in these dastardly dealings involving Death magic.

The Crow decides to stay with the party pretending to be the Wizards familiar for awhile and on discovering the flock of crows outside his tomb, are semi-telepathic with each other. The flock flies in circles around him out of respect and he sends eight of them off in compass directions to do some dark deeds, now he is back in the world and able to return to his business once again.

The party return to the inn which the seasoned adventure now returned from the dead with tales of having his every need attended by promiscuous barbarian chicks in some blissful version of the afterlife finds himself once again back here with this bunch of dirty scoundrels and a hangover from hell. Worse, the inn he invested his life’s savings as an adventurer into purchasing is now officially owned by his sister who has quickly secured the deeds after hearing of her brothers death. Worse, she’s rearranged the furniture and cleaned the place up.

Every adventurer in the realm attends the celebration despite which the adventure refuses to drink ever again because his body is still saturated with so much bandit brew it’s unlikely he will ever be sober again.

The adventurers decide to form a guild where everyone pays a small fee on a regular basis and the guild work collaboratively to mend weapons, armour, horseshoes, purchase necessary equipment and generally kit every guild member out properly so all adventurers are able to more efficiently pursue their missions.

They also discuss how they are the ones holding the kingdom together by defeating dragons necromancers bandits goblins and so forth while the kings guard do very little apart from collect taxes from the peasants and protect the king in his castle who is nevertheless the main employer of most of the adventurers in the realm.

That’s all we had time for this session.

Beneath the Inn

The group got quite drunk and sometime during the nights celebrations decided to ask the resurrected seasoned adventurer for a tale, and how did he come to own this place anyway (before his sister claimed the deeds as soon as he’d technically died). He told them he followed an old map (which she has tidied up someplace irretrievable ie: lost) of catacombs below the inn building.

Most of the adventurers guild are by now too drunk and sleepy to join the group which immediately forms to rip open the trapdoor in the kitchen and explore it in a drunken fit of excitement.

A rope is lowered. An adventurer woman, and the gravediggers daughter, and strong man, and resurrected seasoned adventurer, and one of the knights, and the wizard, and the bandit queen, clamber down and land upon the rotten remains of a centuries old wooden steps which crumbled underfoot when the owner had last attempted to explore down here and hadn’t gotten around to fixing it because running a thriving inn had taken over his life before he joined the main player party.

At the bottom of the pit is an ornate door leading to a long passage which feels like it should have rats in it but hasn’t.

Their movement is slowed. The only light source is a glow from the wizards staff and a distant muted echo of that, the brainier characters establish is a dusty mirror at the far end of the very long tunnel.

They are all disoriented from climbing down a rope into darkness and from being drunk so they argue about which way north east south west is, unsure where else in the town the tunnel might lead them to.

The adventurer woman relates a story about a different and legendary group of adventurers she heard of once who encountered a spell which made mirror images of themselves who they had to battle. After the fight there was one of each person remaining but nobody could tell if they were the originals or the mirror versions.

The party is jumped by a giant tunnel crab which lands exactly half way between the faster and slower clusters of characters, several movement turns into the tunnel.

The gravediggers daughter is shocked, screams and hits it in the face with her shovel, doing a surprising amount of damage. The crab screams - with exactly the same scream as the girl had made!

Spooked, the group turn to attack. The crab grabs the knights sword. Strongman wedges his spear between the crabs chitin and it gets stuck there. Wizard levitates the crab to the tunnel ceiling, disabling it from attacking or moving so easily, planning to drop it down onto the flagstone floor in attempt to crack its shell. 

The crab clatters it’s pincers at the group. Gravediggers daughter swings her shovel at it again and sends it flying a surprisingly far distance to the tunnel entrance where it clatters stunned to the ground. Adventurer woman plunges her broadsword into its face and strongman rushes over to retrieve his spear and jab it in again for good measure to make sure the thing is dead.

Wizard and knight explore the large oval mirror which is old bronze and dusty from centuries. There are candles and small bottles on a ledge in front of it and strong but old wooden doors either side, to the left and right. The group decide to return to the inn and cook everyone crab for breakfast, they can explore the doors and the mirror and potions some other time.

Druids Gate

Next mid-morning the Adventurers Guild are woken by a banging on the door of the inn. The Kings Herald pins a new notice on the Inn notice-board. A troupe of Chaos Warriors has been seen marauding through the area. Straight away, the usual team of adventurers led by Charley decide to seek them out and rid the land of a hideous enemy. 

At the crossroads in the forest, tracks left by the Chaos Warriors show which way they went. Shortly after, the party bump into a Barbarian who is immediately recognized by Charley as his dad! 

He tells them he saw six Chaos Warriors including a Chaos Knight heading through a less used path into the forest which leads out of the forest to the rocky hills. 

While Charley’s Dad gives his son “your grandfathers moonstone pendant” which will help him take his werewolf powers, thus revealing the mysterious source of Charleys lycanthropy is it runs in his family bloodline, the party Druid does some calculations and explains to the group there is a Sacred Site in the direction the Chaos Warriors are travelling, an ancient shrine known by the Druids. 

 Indeed the locals call it Druids Gate because the Druidic brethren keep a watchful eye on it, although they did not build it themselves, they have taken it upon themselves to guard the world from whatever might come through it. 

In times of old the Ancient Druids once had the knowledge to activate the Gate themselves, but because traditionally the Druids main hobby is arguing with each other, much of their wisdom has been lost over time due to simple bloody-mindedness and lack of focus. 

The Druid says there is a short-cut to get to Druids Gate more quickly than the Chaos Warriors, if that is where they are indeed going. If he is wrong about this, they will lose the war-band but if he is correct, he must warn his Brothers about what is coming their way! 

The party make the decision to trust the Druids intuition and they take the shortcut, arriving at the rocky hillside overlooking Druids Gate shortly before the arrival of the Chaos Warriors. Half a dozen Druids are out-posted there, arguing as usual and being mediated by two Elves and a tree Dryad who lives on top of the watch-point overlooking the gigantic organic structure of the Gate. 

The party's Druid, previously known to them as the kings Druid for he was sent to keep an eye on the King and advise him where necessary to prevent him screwing everything up entirely, is recognized at once by the Druids at Druids Gate. 

Night falls. 

The Chaos Warriors arrive, as expected. Intuitive Druid was right.

They gather in a semi-circle in front of the Gate and discuss the necessity of the gathering of the Twelve before they can summon the Thirteenth. Overhearing this, the adventurers realize there is another Chaos Warrior warband on its way!

The Chaos Warriors begin chanting in nightmare tones. It is as if they have gone into a trance. As they chant the air within the portal begins to shimmer. 

Then, their chant is chorused by another group of Chaos Warriors on the other side of the portal, not in this place but from another world or another part of the world. They are not dressed in the usual black armor of Chaos Warriors but in white, as if they are in a mirror universe.

Charley leaps mightily from his hiding place on top of the Gate, rolling as he lands. The Chaos Knight, boss of the troupe of Chaos Warriors, stops chanting and strides over toward him. Charley slashes the Chaos Knight and with one amazing blow, kills him crumpled to the floor. 

The rest of Charley's team run in to attack the other Chaos Warriors, even before their trance ends. 

The chanting from the other side of the portal stops. There is a huge explosion of wind outward from the gate, knocking everyone to the ground several feet from where they had been standing, including the semi-circle of Chaos Warriors as they come out of their trance-chant.

Standing directly in the center of the Gate, is a Giant Chaos Warrior! 

The heroic Knight, one of Charley's allies, climbs down the other side of the Gate and stabs at the Giant Chaos Warrior from behind by leaping into it. His sword passes through the Giant Chaos Warriors body, followed quickly by his own body, landing on the ground where the Chaos Knight had fallen before being blown several feet further toward the hill which even now the Druids are racing down and standing on to cast their elemental magic into the fray. 

Charley's Dad, the Barbarian comes running around from beside the towering stone of Gate to one-hit-kill the nearest Chaos Warrior.

The Elf lets loose a shot from his vantage on the hill, toward another Chaos Warrior and misses entirely. Next to him one of the Druids begins chanting arcane words, hands raised to the skies, eyes toward the clouds. He alone witnesses the air condensing into a thin mist high above their heads.

Charley starts stressing out because this was supposed to be a stealth mission and now his allies are wading in swords swinging, bows blazing, without any concern for the concept of stealth. Apparently the moonstone pendant from Charleys Grandfather is converting his usual werewolf-blood rage into anxiety instead of the bestial anger usually associated with his shape-shift. In his stress he cuts down another Chaos Warrior.

The Seasoned Adventurer comes charging down from the hillside and engages in a battle with a Chaos Warrior, who has been standing watching his comrades fall.

The other Elf comes charging down from the hillside and engages in battle with a Chaos Warrior stood next to the first, and is slain in one hit. The first fatality on the side of the heroes. 

Charley runs over and skewers the Chaos Warrior who killed the Elf.

The Giant Chaos Warrior steps through the portal, entering the world and in doing so takes on physical form. He holds his arms in the air as far ass his armor permits and yells an evil Rar! The Strongman sneaks up behind the Giant Chaos Warrior and stabs him in the back, doing only a little damage. The Elf archer fires another arrow which thuds into the Giants armor, doing only a little damage. The Giant continues yelling fiercely. 

The Seasoned Adventurer finishes off the Chaos Warrior with whom he has been battling. The Knight charges the final remaining of the original troupe of Chaos Warriors and slays him. 

The Strongman does a running slide and pushes his spear up into the Giant Chaos Warriors groin with all the might he can muster. The piece of armor covering that part of the Giant Chaos Warriors body gets caught on the spear and ripped free of the main body as the Strongman slides, ending up several feet away from the Giant but with his codpiece stuck to the end of his spear, magnetically pulling back toward the rest of the enchanted plate metal. Chaos Warrior Armour is made from Eldritch Black Iron, with evil purple smoky sigils moving over its surface. 

The Wizard fires off a huge firebolt from his position on the hillside which explodes into the Giant. The fire is sucked into the evil purple smoky sigils, causing the Giant Chaos Warrior to grow even larger! Charley shouts to the Wizard that he is supposed to be on their team and he is supposed to be a mighty wizard capable of defeating such foes. The Wizard pathetically explains he didn't know that was going to happen! Next to him the Kings Druids hands are glowing with green energy, his Healing Hands spell in case his friends need their wounds mended. So far apart form a dead Elf they are all getting by with only light scratches. 

At that moment six Chaos Warriors including another Knight run out of the Portal, taking on the same black iron color as their fallen counterparts now they have entered this world. They run either side of the Giant and immediately attack the Barbarian, the Knight and Charley at exactly the same time. Amazingly all three strikes are deflected. Everybody pauses for a moment to look at that situation and wonder what the chances of that happening could be.

The Druid finally finishes casting his spell. A powerful bolt of lightning streams directly down from the cloud he has summoned and strikes the Giant Chaos Warrior, electrifying it. The Giant falls backward, landing on the Chaos Knight and one of the Chaos Warriors. 

Systematically the Seasoned Adventurer, Barbarian, Knight and Charley take out he last of the Chaos Warriors. The portal closes behind them. The scene falls quiet. 

 

 

The Elf laments the death of his friend and immediately sets off with his body to compost it beneath a soul tree in the Elven Grove of Remembrance, where in future years those who eat the fruit of his tree shall remember him.

The Druids explain once again how their purpose here is to protect the world by defeating any monstrosities which come through the Gate. They are grateful for the help of the adventurers this night, who have now seen for themselves the sort of thing the Druids have to deal with.