AAR: A Gorgeous View

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etherial
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AAR: A Gorgeous View

Post by etherial » Fri Apr 27, 2018 4:03 am

Mission: A Gorgeous View
Time: 2018-04-26@23:59 GMT
GM: etherial (Ursula)
Circle: 2
Difficulty: Medium

Player Rewards:
Dubhan: 3 TIPs, 800 Legend, 230 Silver
Durgan: 3 TIPs, 800 Legend, 230 Silver
Fliver: 3 TIPs, 800 Legend, 230 Silver
Osahar: 3 TIPs, 800 Legend, 230 Silver
Robert: 3 TIP, 800 Legend, initiating to 3rd circle through Dubhan and 80 silver.

Downtime Actions Available:
Dubhan: Alchemy 7 (Rank 3, Per 7, Kit -3) : Booster Potion
Dubhan: Research 20 ( Rank 3, Per 7, Speed Read +6, Karma +4)
Durgan: Item History 10 (Rank 5)
Fliver: Research 10 (Rank 3)
Fliver: Mapmaking 8 (Rank 1 - spend downtime to possess charts of locations and routes)
Robert: Item History 15 (Rank 4)
Robert: Research 21
Researchers may spend 20/2 Silver for +3 Steps

Further Information:
Fortune Fields Industries now controls an Elemental Water Mine.
The Throalic Mountains are still infested with Ghouls.

ChrisDDickey
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Re: AAR: A Gorgeous View

Post by ChrisDDickey » Fri Apr 27, 2018 6:10 am

From the Journal of Fliver

Pre-Scourge, the Alidair River Gorge was apparently a big place for mining of Elemental Water. Most land claims having been dissolved by the scourge, Fortune Fields Industries is eager to stake a claim to the site that they hope still contains the valuable true element. Previous expeditions to the Alidair River Gorge encountered a whole army of Ghouls, but a recent Throalic Military expedition is said to have eliminated that threat. Our contract is to escort the FFI Elementalist, a Troll by the name of Tyna Forgefire, to and from the gorge, and protect her while she negotiates with the Elementals she expects to be there (assuming the True Water is still there, the Elementals will still be there as well).

Things felt very strange at first, as if everything was misplaced. Fish with Fowl, Lions with Lambs. We all had to lay down until the strange feelings went away. Obviously great powers are at work within the world.

We made our way to the village of Avon with no problems, and spent a restful night within it's protective borders. Two days of hiking into the mountains later, we spotted tracks, which we identified as Ghoul tracks. It looks like they were following a regular patrol route. We set up an ambush, but may have done too good a job. When the ghouls saw us raising up out of perfect concealment on a floating disk of thin air, their leader immediately decided we were too prepared for them, and lead a retreat. We only slew one before they all got away. I, however followed the remaining 4 back to their lair, which we entered.

I called for two volunteers to lead the way. Durgin, a true hero, immediately volunteered. With no others standing forth, I also volunteered to stand in front. Bear in mind that while Robert immediately adjusted his chain casting to include me in the shield willow, Dubhan did not and I am the only member of the party not reviving the chain cast Mage Armor, Me being on the front line worked out fine at first, as everybody seemed to have grasped the plan that the greatest priority for targets was those whom had sensed the illusion and could see through it. The first two ghouls who sensed the illusion were slain very quickly.

Then everybody else became very confused. The two ghouls in the middle had been slain. Leaving one (who had not seen through the illusion) on the left facing Durgin, and two on the right facing me. One of the two facing me had seen through the illusion. For some reason, every single one of them thought "If Durgin moves away from the one on the left to help Fliver, then the Ghoul on the left can get at the wizards and the archer. We can't have that. If we kill the one of the left (who is of no immediate danger to Durgin), then Durgin can move to face the ones on the right". I assume they all thought would have improved the tactical situation in some way, though I am not certain what great good to the tactical situation they thought it would be to give two targets to those that can see through the protective illusion rather than just one. So all of them concentrated on killing the absolutely least important of the targets, totally ignoring the actually dangerous target that was facing me and could actually hit somebody.

What none of these smart Wizards or Perceptive archers even appeared to have contemplated was that having Durgin step over next to Fliver would have been to no tactical help to the situation at all. What was needed was for the rear rank to focus their fire on the Ghoul that could see through the protective illusion. If Durgin had simply stayed where he was, and fought the remaining ghoul on the left (who was striking at Durgin's displaced image, leaving Durgin totally safe for the time being) and all the rear rank simply quickly dispatched the ghoul that could see through the illusion, If they could have killed it or knocked it down, it would be unlikely to hit me. Then if one of the two remaining ghouls happened to see through the illusion the following round (which as chance would happen - the ghoul leader actually did) they could have focused their fire upon that ghoul and killed it. This was all very strikingly obvious to me, and it was a continuation of the plan that everybody had been following and had been working so well. It shocked me when I finally realized that every single one of them had abandoned that plan (and me). Instead they each wasted their attacks upon the ghoul that had absolutely no chance of hitting Durgin. In the meantime, the ghoul that did have a chance of hitting me, did. It hit me hard giving me a nasty wound and delivering some sort of poison attack which gave me another wound. In the meantime, the ghoul leader managed to see through my illusion.

This left us with two ghouls on the right who could see through the illusion, and one badly wounded ghoul on the left who had not seen through the illusion yet (and thus was absolutely guaranteed to miss his next attack - assuming he attacked Durgin or me). What did the back row do? Well one of them spent his attack finishing off the ghoul who could do no damage this round. This was actually better than Roberts action which was to call for a retreat and cast a defensive life circle of one around himself. Durgin, who fought heroically and well the entire combat (I have nothing but praise for his skill and tactics) stepped forward to put himself between me and the two ghouls. Of course by this time I was already poisoned and both of the ghouls he faced had seen though our protective spell. So tactically the situation was unchanged except for the very important point that the guy facing them was not 2/3 dead from poison. But on the other hand the only reason I was 2/3 dead from poison was because the rear rank had spent so many actions freeing him to be able to move instead of actually killing ghouls that are an immediate danger of delivering poison. So now he was standing in front of the two ghouls against which he was vunerable.

I managed to get a new casting of Displace Image off on Durgin just before the poison rendered me unconscious. With a new casting of the defensive illusion, and all the rear row once again focusing their fire, the remaining two ghouls fell quickly. The poison ceased to affect me as soon as the ghoul that had poisoned me was slain.

The next morning we proceeded to the gorge where Tyna Fireforge negotiated with a water elemental while we fought it's three friends. Mission success.
Last edited by ChrisDDickey on Mon Apr 30, 2018 4:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.

CodexDragon
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Re: AAR: A Gorgeous View

Post by CodexDragon » Fri Apr 27, 2018 8:59 pm

Notes submitted by Osahar

Kurt Beck of Fortune Fields Industries (FFI) wanted a handful of us to escort his Elemental expert, Tyna, to a river gorge for possible Elemental Water. Along with me were Fliver, a windling illusionist, Robert, a human wizard, and Durbin and Dubhan, dwarven troubadour and wizard, respectively.

Our first stop was the village of Avon. A short and uneventful trip. From there we pushed on to the gorge. On the way we found tracks of a patrol. The wizard identified the tracks as those belonging to ghouls. We set an ambush for the ghouls; the wizards made us invisible and floated us up out of reach. The ghouls were smarter than I thought they would be and ran away, though we managed to kill one. I tracked them back to their lair; a cave. The wizards prepared with a number of spells and then we went in and killed the 4 remaining ghouls. Fliver was wounded, but we rested overnight and he was fine to continue in the morning.

We made it to the river gorge and Tyna went out onto a tree that had fallen over the river to negotiate with the elemental in the river. While they were conversing, three smaller water elementals came out of the river and attacked us. One engulfed During completely, but we were able to free him before he drowned. All three went down rather easily. After that, negotiations were settled fairly quickly and we escorted Tyna back to Throal.

ottdmk
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Re: AAR: A Gorgeous View

Post by ottdmk » Fri Apr 27, 2018 9:00 pm

From the files of Dubhan Goronich:

Once again I found myself working for Fortune Fields Industries, a group of scoundrels if there ever was one. On this occasion they wished to stake claim to part of the Alidair River Gorge. Historical records suggested that the gorge was a prominent source of True Water before the Scourge.

My colleagues (Fliver, Durgan, Osahar, Robert) and I were hired to escort an Elementalist to the Gorge and keep them safe. Initial inquiries into the area revealed a Ghoul infestation, but it was reported that the Ghouls had been wiped out by the Throal Army. Nonetheless, as we set out for the village of Avon we were on our guard.

Thanks to some skillful navigation in the wilderness, (along with mystical aid to our traveling speed) we reached Avon on schedule. The next day we resumed our journey, and discovered that the territory we were traveling in was regularly patrolled by Ghouls.

We quickly developed a strategy, based largely on Fliver's illusions and Robert's Levitation spell. The stratagem was a great success. Realizing their peril, the Ghouls ran away. We were only able to kill one of the creatures, but our Windling, Fliver, was quick enough to follow the others to their den.

Arriving at the conclusion that we could not suffer the Horror constructs to "live", we invaded the den. Durgin was at the forefront, with Fliver close behind. Robert, Osahar and myself brought up the rear.

As has been my pattern, I spent the first part of the fight increasing the battle prowess of Durgin and Osahar. I then inflicted some damage on a Ghoul menacing Fliver before I made my mistake. I lost track of time during the fight and thought my Iron Hand spell on Durgin had expired. Had I not been focusing so much on the battle I might have realized that his skin was still grey.

Regardless, I recast Iron Hand, my focused state smashing aside his natural resistance and granting a greatly extended duration for the spell. In the meantime though, Fliver had been severely injured by a Ghoul and poisoned by its claws. My studies had impressed on me the importance on ending the Ghoul who had done the damage, lest its poison continue to work. I imparted my wisdom to my colleagues as best I could, but when the time came it was my own magics that ended it. Shortly after the fight was over.

I bound Fliver's wounds and we proceeded to rest until the morrow. Moving on, we arrived at the Gorge and our charge began negotiating for mining rights with the local water elementals. The elementals decided they would prefer to simply remove us from the area, and attacked. We were able to beat them off and our charge completed the negotiations successfully. Our trip back to Throal was uneventful.

Slimcreeper
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Re: AAR: A Gorgeous View

Post by Slimcreeper » Sun Apr 29, 2018 12:01 am

From Durgin Trotter, Documentarian

Thank Floranuus! It was wonderful to get back into the air again. Our travel was through some especially beautiful territory this time.

Fortune Fields Industries, represented by Kurt Beck, asked us to escort their Elementalist, a troll named Tyna, to the Alidair River Gorge (I had forgotten the name, and had to go ask Dubhan. I've been concentrating too much on my spear work lately!) Tyna was extremely laconic, even for a Troll. I wish that I had spent more time trying to draw her out of her shell, although that can sometimes be risky with our horned brethren. Fliver, Dubhan, Osahar, and Robert, the human wizard plus, and myself stopped a Avon first, as one Osahar had detailed maps of that route.

The river gorge was simply breathtaking, but possessed an inconvenient number of ghouls. On coming across a patrol route, we established the most beautiful ambush you could imagine. Oliver concealed us and Robert raised us on a levitating platform. It was so beautiful that the ghouls took one look and said "nope" and continued on their way. We managed to kill one anyway, and Fliver tracked them to their lair where we defeated them.

Thanks to some well-placed spells the ghouls were not much of a match for us. Unfortunately, we got over confident. One of Fliver's spells faltered. Rather than eliminating those ghouls that could see him, we killed one that was pestering me. Fliver caught a nasty case of poison claws in the face. We were able to kill the foul creature responsible before the magical poison could end our good windling, but it was a near thing. I rather rudely swatted Fliver out of the way so I could get in the ghoul's face; I hope he forgives me.

This was the debut of Eclipse, a thread spear that I found not long after our adventures in Bog Gopolis. Yes, found. A dream sent to me by Floranuus sent me out of the gates alone - and didn't I get some funny looks for that! At any rate, the Passion seemed to guide my travels and I found a small grotto shrine to the Traveler. It contained a statue of Floranuus in the guise of a fantastic beast. It had a huttawa's body, but in the place of a head it had the torso of a dwarf, complete with beard and arms. It held Eclipse in one hand, and a spring bubbled from the other. I washed my face with the sacred waters and filled my skin, then laid my hand on the spear. The statue opened its hand to release the weapon, then turned its head to me and spoke, saying "Safe travels, Durgin Trotter of Throal." Then it was still as stone again, as if it had never spoken. I felt joy rising in my breast and nearly ran the entire way home, chainmail be damned! Thanks to Robert's assistance, I was able to unlock some of its secrets - it strikes true and hard, and made short work of the ghouls I wielded it against.

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BattleChad
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Re: AAR: A Gorgeous View

Post by BattleChad » Wed May 02, 2018 4:53 am

The Great Library of Throal thanks Dubhan, Durgan, Fliver, and Osahar for their contributions.

Journal Rewards: 40 Legend Points and 57 Silver

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