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AAR: A Book Worth Reading is Worth Buying

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 5:57 am
by etherial
Mission: A Book Worth Reading is Worth Buying
GM: etherial
Date: 2018-03-02
Difficulty and circle rating: Circle 2 Hard

Player Rewards:
Dubhan: 4 TIPs, 1200 Legend., 145 silver, Flame Flash (1st,25sp), Seeking Sight(2nd,50sp), Dodge Boost(2nd,50sp), Wizard Mark(3rd,75sp)
Durgin Trotter: 4 TIPs, 1200 Legend, 345 Silver
Fliver: 4 TIPs, 1200 Legend, 170 Silver, Mind Fog, Innocent Activity, Unseen Voices, Best Face, disaster spell formulas
Osahar: 4 TIPs, 1200 Legend, 345 Silver
Robert: 4 TIPs, 1200 Legend, 120sp, circle 2 training, Air armor, heat food, crunch climb, shelter, purify water

Downtime Actions Available:
Dubhan: Alchemy 7 (Rank 3, Per 7, Kit -3) : Booster Potion
Dubhan: Research 15 ( Rank 2, Per 7, Speed Read +6)
Fliver: Research (Rank 3, Step 10)
Robert: Research 13
Researchers may spend 20/2 Silver for +3 Steps

Further Information:
Hjolthrum now has a copy of "The Endless Realms", a tome on the known Depths of Astral Space.

Re: AAR: A Book Worth Reading is Worth Buying

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 6:29 am
by ender3rd
So Wizard Hjolthrum hired us to retrieve the book "The Endless Realms" for him from a Clem, elven farmer. We went to Burgans rest, got directions and headed to the farmstead (NE of town). In town we'd heard that Clem was farming birds which lay very large eggs. Upon arrival at his homestead we found that his birds had been driven out by a group of cave crickets, whose sound was unbearable to the birds. We found the lair of the crickets but their sound was maddening. My knowledge of legends gave us some forewarning but we were unable to stop the sound from disorienting us badly for all of the fight I saw. Feeling that they had no way out the crickets fought to the last and very nearly killed us all. I was so badly wounded that everyone thought I was dead (OOG: in roll20 I hadn't added my durability to my DR) and most of us were unconscious or nearly so. Only our windling was mostly unhurt. I "died" when I moved to try to defend a team mate who had moved too far forward and exposed himself to being surrounded. This caused the crickets to leave him for me, to my great pain. Only partially recovered from the damage of the first fight we went looking for Clem's birds, with the farmer in tow. We found them, tried to peacefully herd the birds in but as Clem approached the one he thought was the leader (who knows) his arm was badly mangled. Clem left expeditiously and the fight began. After wounding or otherwise driving off most of the birds the one left (the "leader", which had been 'blinded') we re-established Clem's farm, albeit with fewer of the dangerous birds. We then recovered the book agreed to and returned to a successful conclusion.

The book itself explores the being of the astral space which are not horrors. Things like ghost masters, the invae, and many things in between. Hopefully this knowledge will not be misused. Just in case any and all Names in the book were recorded along with a brief description of the being in question. We made a powerful ally; hopefully at an acceptable price.

Re: AAR: A Book Worth Reading is Worth Buying

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 6:48 am
by ottdmk
I was hired along with four companions by the Wizard Hjolthrum to approach an Elven farmer by name of Clem regarding a family heirloom of the Elf's. This heirloom is a book of ancient lineage that Hjolthrum wished to acquire.

Clem was easily located. He is of simple demeanor and not much interested in the world beyond his farm. He was not impressed with our employer, believing that Hjolthrum looked down on him. He was, however, having difficulties. Some monstrous crickets had driven off his livestock. We struck a bargain with the farmer: our aid in exchange for the book.

The following day we set off in search of the crickets and soon enough found their den. Robert had heard stories of such beasts, and on his advice we blocked our ears.

It was almost not enough. The noise the creatures created drove us to distraction. Durgin, the only one of us with close combat skill was swarmed and quickly knocked unconscious. Robert was almost killed. I was knocked unconscious as well. It fell to Fliver the Illusionist and Osahar the Archer to finish the last beast. After Durgin and I revived we had to take Robert to town to save him with a last chance salve.

After spending the night in town we returned to Clem's. Alas, his livestock, large flightless birds, had not returned. We decided to start the search in the morning. Clem did let us examine the book, however. I was able to use my magics to quickly read it and commit it to memory. An interesting time. More in the Nethermancy line then Wizardry, but worth looking into.

After spending the night in the woods due to some wrong turns we were able to convince a group of the vicious birds to return home to Clem's. With the farmer satisfied we collected the book and went on our way.

Re: AAR: A Book Worth Reading is Worth Buying

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 7:04 pm
by CodexDragon
Notes submitted by Osahar

Hjolthrum, a wizard, needed some people to act as an intermediary and purchase a book from Clem. Besides myself, there was Robert, human Wizard, Fliver, windling Illusionist, Dubhan, dwarf Wizard, and Durgin, dwarf Troubadour. We all agreed and Hjolthrum gave us a purse with funds in it.

We headed off to Borgan's Rest first. We stopped there briefly, heard about Clem's turacken eggs, which are quite big and very popular, and then headed to Clem's farmstead. When we got there we found out that his turacken had been run off by giant crickets. We struck a deal with Clem; if we killed off the crickets and helped him recover some of his turacken flock, he would give us the book we were looking for.

I was able to track the crickets back to their cave. One of the wizards, or maybe the troubadour, had heard stories about large insect driving people mad. So, I suggested stuffing our ears with what was available, strips of cloth in my case. Even with that, when we got inside, the chirping drove us to distraction. There were 4 giant crickets, and while we won, the fight did not go well. Durgin was the first to be swarmed and brought low, then Robert, and then Dubhan, before Fliver and I could take down the last of them.

Fliver shook Durgin and Dubhan awake, but Robert was dead. I carried his body back to Clem's place, where we borrowed a cart to take him to Borgan's Rest to look for a Last Chance Salve. The blacksmith did have one, and he gave it to us in exchange for promising to bring a replacement back within a month. We spent the rest of that day resting in Borgan's Rest and headed back to Clem's in the morning. We spent the rest of the day, after reaching Clem's, resting at his house. At that point, most of us still had some wounds, but we decided to push on.

We convinced Clem to come with us, since he had the best rapport with the animals. It took two days to find the birds, but we finally found four of them. We attempted to calm them with song and lure them back to Clem's place with us, but these birds were quite ornery and it turned violent. We wounded the birds and drove them back to Clem's farmstead. Clem was glad to have the birds back and gave us the book we were after for Hjolthrum.

Re: AAR: A Book Worth Reading is Worth Buying

Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 2:43 pm
by Slimcreeper
We should really manage the outlying settlements better. I understand that there is a hunger for freedom. A desire to forge one's own path under the open sky and all that. However, I believe the Exploratory Force should stop by some of these outer settlements, examine their defenses, and speak with them for a bit. And in some cases be able to say, "You sir, are nearly too dumb to live. You are bait for Horrors and bandits. You have to go back in Throal where you will be provided with biscuits and soft objects without any sharp edges to play with."

This Clem was one such. Apparently there was some intelligence in his line at one point, for he had inherited a Wizard's tome. It being of no use to him, Hjolthrum the wizard employed some adventurers to buy it from him. I came across Fliver, Robert, and Dubhan and joined them their quest. Osahar, an archer, was with them. He is of 3rd circle, and thank Floranuus he traveled with us.

Clem keeps turacken, massive birds that give eggs as large as a baby dwarf. The eggs are quite popular in Burgan's Rest, and deservedly so. Clem, however, has no skill to speak of with the animals and had lost control of them. A swarm of giant crickets had driven them off. I must find out their real Name; obviously they were not really crickets. We tracked them to a cave and battle ensued. They had a trick of scraping their legs across their wings that created a maddening chirping. Robert had heard of the creatures and had the idea to stuff our ears, which offered some protection, and I gave a Heartening Laugh to bolster our spirits. However, I was only able to give one ineffective strike with my spear before overcome by three of the wolf-sized insects, their chittering ringing in my skull and my blood on their claws.

When I awoke, I found that several others had also lost consciousness and Robert appeared to have died. I think the others were in shock, but I roused them to action and we took his apparent corpse to Burgan's Rest with a cart borrowed from Clem. Fortunately, with care, he was soon returned to health.

We still needed to return Clem's birds in order to secure the wizards book, so we set off with them. Clem came with us, advising us that music had a calming effect. I played a soothing tune as Clem came up to Annabelle, the leader of the birds. I had hope that we would get out of this without bleeding any more, but alas! Clem is an idiot. The bird ripped a huge chunk of flesh out of his arm and he ran back to his farm. Determined to secure the book, we subdued the birds with spell, song, and heavy strikes from the butt end of my spear and were able to lead them back. We made the trade for the book and left as soon as we could. I will speak to Varish (?), the leader of Burgan's Rest, at some point about getting Clem somewhere he can't do any more damage.

- Journal of Durgin Trotter, Troubadour of the 2nd circle, 1420 Riag.

Re: AAR: A Book Worth Reading is Worth Buying

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2018 11:04 am
by ChrisDDickey
From the journal of Fliver, windling illusionist.

For some time the Wizard Hjolthrum has been attempting to purchase a tome "The Endless Realms", on the known Depths of Astral Space from one Celembrian Dawnmist (known to his neighbors as "Clem"), an Elf farmer. Clem has always rebuffed his efforts, but Hjolthrum, hearing rumors of troubles at Clems farm hired us to see if we could strike a bargain, wherein we would solve Clem's problems, in exchange for the book.

We first stopped briefly in Borgin's rest to inquire as to the exact location of Clem's Farm. We might have stayed longer, but Osahar had difficulty with the greeting ritual. Repeatedly. During our travels I inquired about several other landmarks in the area and have started to construct a map, in the hope that in the future we will be able to go directly to such farms without stopping for directions.

We found Clem's farm with no difficulty, and while Clem was not inclined to welcome visitors, soon managed to inveigle an invitation inside the farmhouse. It turns out that Clem raises turacken, 8 feet tall, 500 pound flightless birds. Bigger than a Crakbill, but with temperaments that are just as bad, if not worse. They lay watermelon sized eggs that are delicious. The turacken are very capable of taking care of themselves, but the area has near Clem's farm has become infested with some soft of giant Crickets. The Crickets make a racket that the birds dislike intensely. They have wandered away.

We struck a deal with Clem where we would deal with the crickets, then, track down his turacken and herd them back to his farm. In exchange he would give us the book to give to our patron. The giant crickets were easily tracked to a nearby cave. The chirping was extraordinarily annoying, and the bright idea was had to plug up our ears. This helped somewhat, but for the most part, especially within that echoing cave, the chirping distracted us greatly, such that we could not concentrate fully upon what we were doing.

We again suffered from the lack of someone who truly enjoyed the role of melee fighter and our planning was inadequate. Durgin was quickly swarmed and Osahar a few seconds later. I failed to pull several important threads, and fianlly gave up doing anything subtle in favor of blasting with ethereal bolts. The others had managed to wound some of the giant crickets, and I was able to push two of them over the edge, leaving 2 down for our side, and 2 down for theirs. It was 3 down on ours side before it was over. I was the only one without at least two wounds. I checked the downed comrades, and two could merely be shooken awake, but Osahar seemed dead. I checked out the rest of the cave for larva, eggs, or a queen, and we carried Osahar back to clems farm where we borrowed a cart to take him to Borgin's rest where we "borrowed" a Last Chance Salve against a promise to replace it within a month.

The next day we returned to Clem's. Everybody else was still feeling rotten, so we rested the rest of the day and looked over the book we were buying with our blood. We also enjoyed chatting with Clem. He seems to enjoy raising turacken, but is also considering raising War Rams. What a character. The morning of the 2nd day after the fight everybody had recovered somewhat, but still had wounds. I was fine, so when everybody like of agreed that we ought to start looking for the turacken, I felt it was not my place to argue, even though several party members still had most of their wounds. Fortunately we got lost, so had one more day to recover.

That night I had a most strange dream. I dreamt our camp was attacked by bandits, but woke to find it had not happened.

Clem told us that the turacken enjoy singing, and he agreed to come along and help sing the creatures back to their nests. We figured between him and a troubadour, we would have the "calm animals" angle covered. We reckoned without taking into account the fact that Clem is a masochistic idiot, who does not seem to mind having livestock almost bite body parts off. At first it seemed OK. Durgin sung a nice soothing tune, that made me feel good and calm. But when Clem came up to "Annabelle" the lead hen, one of the birds almost took his arm off.

I yelled for the others to run away, but since I was flying and the birds apparently could not, felt I was pretty safe. I cast blindness upon "Annabelle" and she calmed right down and settled down right where she was. Two others were injured enough that they ran back to the safety of their nests at the farm. With this one group back at the farm, the other members of the flock soon wandered back. Clem gave us the book and we returned to Throal.

Re: AAR: A Book Worth Reading is Worth Buying

Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2018 5:07 pm
by BattleChad
The Great Library of Throal thanks Dubhan, Durgin, Fliver, Osahar, and Robert for their contributions.

Journal Rewards: 60 Legend Points and 86 Silver