Barrow Moor: Rescue of Three-Moons.

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Spearmint · #1 Post by **Spearmint** » Fri Apr 21, 2023 11:30 am

This thread is being opened for Callen and Cosmo's expedition to help the dwarves rescue a captive held for ransom by a Sauron war-party.

They are aided by ranger Traeliorn and leave Helix at dusk on June 28th 1066.

to be edited

Spearmint · #2 Post by **Spearmint** » Fri Apr 21, 2023 5:30 pm

Helix, Duchy of Aerik.

June 28th 1066.

7.00pm.

In an unusual turn of events, Karl Barrelgut, Forgemaster and Priest of Moradin takes up arms as well as donning a finely crafted suit of chainmail, leaving the sanctuary of the forge that his vocation is so intricately tied to, in order to facilitate a rescue mission of captive Three-Moons. A small number of kin rally to the call to arms.

Assisting them to locate and then parlay with the Sauron group are Cosmo Snag , the gnome adventuring illusionist, Callen an itinerant minister of St Ygg and apprentice ranger Traeliorn.

Your encounter with the Saurons took place along the westward trail, about two hours progress away from the field of Mammoth bones that mark the entrance to the Barrow Mounds. So from Helix, a trek to the forest edge and edge of civilization, turning southwards close by the Herne ring of stones then southwards following the meandering trail around boggy furrows and overgrown thickets. All being well, a four hour trek to the region you suspect they camp.

All being well ...

Barrow Moor: random and even more random vs 1 [1d6]=3 [1d6]=1 [1d6]=1 option [1d10]=9

Halfway down the trail and with darkness setting in to smother out any last rays of summer sunshine that might filter down through thick pervading Moor mist, the group trek in file, following the ranger's footsteps.

All is calm though not quiet. The croak of a multitude of toads and the cricketing of grass crickets fill the air. Gnats buzz relentlessly, a screech owl hoots overheard, hunting rodents and amphibians. Nothing you cross is bigger than it should be or more dangerous than a normal Moor critter might be. Wary of the many soft quick sand bogs, progress is cautious but steady. Though at this point in time, whether the mist is more hazy here, full of pollen release or spores; the effect is the same, causing those who wander along the trail to suffer sneezing and coughing fits.

Not just content with these physical afflictions, a number of the usually stout dwarves, the ranger and even the Forgemaster Priest succumb to rather bizarre reactions.

One suddenly starts hacking his axe into the backpack of the dwarf in front, trying to stab the apparent giant leech that crawls over his shoulder; another pulls his beard, clawing his face and clothes as he declares in his madness that he is melting away. Even Forgemaster Priest Karl clutches at his holy symbol, suddenly thrusting it in the face of comrades and rebuking them with harsh rhetoric in the same fashion Callen uses to Turn Undead. Traeliorn coughs at the vanguard of the file, loosing arrows into the air that with no particular target in sight whizz overhead in fiery sparks, northwards by the compass marks. Two dwarves look dumbfounded, checking upon you.

actions Callen & Cosmo, make a save vs poison please. Please make a [1d20] vs poison save and include a random [1d10] in your reply.

Success and the choking poison takes no effect, fail and suffer consequences ...

ateno · #3 Post by **ateno** » Mon Apr 24, 2023 10:04 am

What a start to the campaign

Cosmo
Save for Poison (11) [1d20]=1 [1d10]=9

Spearmint · #4 Post by **Spearmint** » Mon Apr 24, 2023 4:14 pm

What a start to the campaign

true, though the encounter occurs theoretically about four hours into your trek to the Barrow Mounds.

While we wait to resolve Callen's save, Cosmo you begin to hallucinate, believing that you are being transformed into Alastar the Helix beggar that you befriended. You once washed him in a hot tin bubble bath in order to copy the Barrowmaze tattoo that he has inscribed upon his body. You suffer a bizarre mind trick leading you to believe you are actually the beggar and begin to strip off clothes in order to have another bath, albeit a muddy one, surrounded to all intents and purposes by a bevvy of wanton wenches who wish to scrub you down.

actions describe how you act that hallucination out.

ateno · #5 Post by **ateno** » Mon Apr 24, 2023 4:50 pm

"The darkness its consuming me, changing me!!!

He takes off his pack and reaches in a lights a torch for the light!

Finding a area within the vison of his new friends, he starts pulling off his clothing.

"Maybe I can clean it off!
Turning around
AAARRRGGGHH.

Pushing the mud on his back, he call out. "ladies I need some help, I can pay you gold!

He cackles.... Looking for his ladies.

Hadarai · #6 Post by **Hadarai** » Tue Apr 25, 2023 5:02 am

Callen

Aww fiddlesticks

Spearmint · #7 Post by **Spearmint** » Tue Apr 25, 2023 10:24 am

Callen is also tormented by strange phantasms. After your coughing fit and swigging wine to lubricate your sore throat, you look to see that each of the dwarves manifest a large diabolic visage. Each has a gaping mouth of infernal dark and leer at you with the same green demon visage as the one you saw in the Obelisk Alcove.

You see that Cosmo sits kneeling on the floor, stripping off, baptising himself in blood, turning as green as a goblin. Two dwarves point at you and you see your hands turning form. Not content with human pale skin and freckles, narrow manicured fingers, they appear to wrinkle, becoming warty and your nails become claws. You feel your own face stretching, cheekbones lifting, brow intensifying into your own green demon face.

actions Callen post your reaction to this scene. How do you react to the sensation? Though caught in a hallucinogenic affect, you actually believe what you see to be real and therefore respond appropriately. Are these dwarves Nergalites intent on revenge? Can St Ygg save your soul from this possession? What babbling of Infernal black tongue do the dwarves speak to you.

I will give you time to respond then post the resolutions to eight of the ten strong party succumbing to the insidious affection.

Hadarai · #8 Post by **Hadarai** » Wed Apr 26, 2023 10:38 pm

Callen

"A fresh soul for the darkness, a pure spirit to be devoured, your blood will be spilled in offering, and your body will be taken. As the Father demands, so shall it be!!!"

The Cleric begins to scream and babble as the horrific events in his mind start to transpire, he trips over a himself trying to back away and desperately starts to crawl backwards away from the demon faced dwarves. "AWAY! AWAY FROM ME DEMONS!!! I-I-I-I am the chosen of St. Y-y-y-gg-g, his divine grace shields me from y-your tainted forms!" Once he sees his own body beginning to transform he claws into his belt pouch, screaming frantically, and retrieves his vial of holy water. Callen quickly douses himself and then swipes the air trying to fling what's left at the "Demons."

Spearmint · #9 Post by **Spearmint** » Thu Apr 27, 2023 2:03 am

Barrow Moor: trek to Sauron war-party.

Mayhem ensues aming the delirious group, each reacting to strange and bizarre hallucinations that disrupt the harmony and consolidation.

Cosmo wallows in his imagined beggar state. Stripping off to his waist and collecting handfuls of slimy peat to rub upon his head and shoulders. Seated as though in a bath, he gestures to his comrades, imagining them as wanton wenches from the Foul Pheasant, inviting them to scrub his back, waving his skeletal Hand of Hoodoo' trinket as the ideal instrument to get into those 'too far to reach' places. He shows his tattoos, bending over to drop his trousers, baring buttocks proudly just as the true Alastar does in order to display the Barrowmaze 'pit of chaos' that circles his nether regions.

Callen, baptises himself too, trusting in divine help to stop his Abyssal rather than Celestial ascension. Though Nergals's forces surround he consoles himself with brazen verses and words of holy inspiration.

The two unaffected dwarves rally, disturbed by the ongoings, they immediately think the group are under attack. But no bandit group or spell caster emerges from the mist. They try to calm Karl Barrelgut who fends them off, waving holy symbol and hammer as he believes them to be undead coming back to haunt him.

Two of the dwarves afflicted are crawling in the mud. One believing many Orb Weaver spiders have entangled him in sticky silken threads. As he struggles to free himself, a spider leaps upon him. The other furiously pulls at the first's backpack. In his mesmerized state, he imagines his comrade being covered in giant leeches and he cuts them away being they can bleed him dry. Two more afflicted dwarves act just as bizarrely. One falls to the ground, adamant he is melting away, a pool of urine he passes adding to his belief that he is leaking and shrinking. His comrade crawls into the mist, screaming some nightmare and coughing up his nauseated stomach.

Another volley of fiery arrows are loosed aimlessly into the night. By the time they fall to the ground hundreds of yards away, Traeliorn is lost in the mist.

After several minutes, folk finish their hiatuses and come to, ashamed, panicked, bruised in mind and body. A single cry from the mist gathers your attention. The dwarf who crawled away whimpers in a thicket. He is injured, bludgeoned about, suffering with his breathing. His ribs fractured, his face black and blue.

"It walked on leathery stalks, legs like tree trunks and strangled me with horny tentacles and enveloped me in its head frond. Like a mushroom wanting to eat me!" He shares a bizarre description which is just as lurid as your own hallucinations.

It is then that you notice your guide ranger is missing. Folk call out for Traeliorn but no one answers back. A search is made and you find signs of a brief struggle. His shield battered and dented, his prized bow broken in two, his quiver stamped upon and his arrows spread about. But there is no blood trail to follow, no footprints.

In the thickets nocturnal frogs croak and far beyond them in the mist, something 'burps' after a hearty meal ...

"We should move on. This delay is misfortune indeed. I am sorry for your friend. There is nothing more to be done. ", Karl Barrelgut says, looking around in the unfamiliar territory.

Callen & Cosmo
actions and any comments please.

ateno · #10 Post by **ateno** » Thu Apr 27, 2023 4:26 pm

Cosmo, embarrassed about the action from the pollen is a bit sheepish.

But he gathers the items left behind in hopes to give to his master later.

"What a waste."

Cosmo checks on Callen and gets in line to continue the march.

Cosmo

Hadarai · #11 Post by **Hadarai** » Sun Apr 30, 2023 4:45 am

Callen

Callen tosses the empty vial aside in disgust, shaking the stars from his vision he gets back to his feet and brushes the dirt and mud from his legs.

When the search for Traeliorn leads them to the Ranger's final fate, the cleric sadly collects the broken bow and says a prayer for the man's soul. "He was a damn fine man...Helix will be worse off without him. I'll make sure he gets a proper monument at the chapel when we return."

With that, Callen joins back in line with Cosmo and the dwarves to continue on their way.

Spearmint · #12 Post by **Spearmint** » Sun Apr 30, 2023 9:21 pm

Barrow Moor: trek to Sauron war-party.

The loss of Traeliorn is a hard blow for the apprentice ranger was relied upon to locate the Saurons. Without his specific tracking skill the group halt pace, moreso in order to mark the trail so as not to get lost or to blunder so unwarily into other natural hazards and lurking predators.

It adds needless time onto your trek and more than once the group find themselves looping around to come upon the same knotted thickets of grasses that were tied turns earlier.

The trek is done solemnly. It takes six hours, doubling the time expected and exposed as your are upon the barren Moor, open to more chance encounters. Thankfully the only one of note being the startled herd of grazing buffaloes. The indignant and cantankerous creatures graze upon the tall grasses, the bulls forming a formidable 'meat shield' to protect the cows and new born calves. They stamp feet, snorting, alerted to your presence but with enough distance between dwarf and herd, the group can withdraw before any such stampede to drive you away begins.

Bull Run? vs 75% [1d100]=100

you can check in the dice roller archives, half a dozen macros generated to cover locating the Saurons vs other random encounters.

"They are right. I am not your brother and you have yet to gain the status as Ngenga, an honoured adversary. You can take a message to one who is though. His kinsfolk dwarves, that renegade priest. Tell him I have Three-Moons and that is all he will get. Three days and nights. After that his head will be posted here upon the trail." He plants a spear into the ground as if to signify he will go thus far and no further.

Trying to look for a spear planted in the trail might seem as though looking for a needle in the haystack. But it is found to signify that within bow shot perhaps, a camp of Saurons is found.

actions Callen & Cosmo.

we never strategised regarding how you approach the Saurons once you locate them. Do you just announce your presence, scout the camp.

As far as the discussed 'trade', each dwarf with you has a sack of goods, based on Karl's offer described here:

"But I would not like to have needless death upon my hand, trading blood for blood and sword blade with axe upon shield. The lizardmen do not value currency and gems as we do and to ask his weight in gold would bankrupt our community. We can match his weight in irons; broadswords and spears and suit the Officer in chainmail as a sign of good faith. Perhaps even there are other desires they have we might discreetly meet. We are superior craftsmen, renowned even among their Moor retreats."

how would you like to go forward?

ateno · #13 Post by **ateno** » Mon May 01, 2023 10:02 am

Spearmint wrote: ↑Sun Apr 30, 2023 9:21 pm we never strategised regarding how you approach the Saurons once you locate them. Do you just announce your presence, scout the camp.

<snip>

how would you like to go forward?

Cosmos plan would be to find the camp and when within a verbal distance shout 'Hail The Camp." to announce ourselves and not advance until recognized.

Though Cosmo is not that experienced with the intricacies of Sauron culture, he will be respectable and open and wait until a formal negation seems to have been started to say anything about the 'ransom,' of Three-Moons.

In the meantime, in the risk of seeing something he does not want. If there is anyplace that looks like where they were a couple days ago, Cosmo will cast 'Detect Illusion'

Detect Illusion [4d6+1]=14+1=15

As a 'Hail Mary' gesture.

If there is nothing, "Should we risk camping in the Moors or head back and find that path again?

Spearmint · #14 Post by **Spearmint** » Tue May 02, 2023 8:57 pm

In the meantime, in the risk of seeing something he does not want. If there is anyplace that looks like where they were a couple days ago, Cosmo will cast 'Detect Illusion'

There is nothing illusory in your surrounds.

If there is nothing, "Should we risk camping in the Moors or head back and find that path again?

You are on the right path, the spot you met the Sauron patrol. While the Moor mist limits visibility and amplifies or deafens sounds, it does give you a minimum level of shielding. The party dim lanterns to mere candle lights and into the mist two of the more sneaky dwarves sneak off to the side in order to locate any camp of lizardmen.

A few turns later, the scouts return, confirming that the Lizardmen have staked out a camp, pitched among a circle of boulders. They could not approach too close for the perimeter is patrolled.

I will just pause here for Callen and to confirm Craigers07 character as he might be introduced in upcoming scenes.

Hadarai · #15 Post by **Hadarai** » Wed May 03, 2023 2:21 pm

Callen

"We've come to treat, and so we should do so honestly. I volunteer to approach them first to begin introductions, if everything goes smoothly I will call for you to join us in the camp. As long as that is acceptable to all of you?"

Spearmint · #16 Post by **Spearmint** » Wed May 03, 2023 4:07 pm

Barrow Moor, Duchy of Aerik.

Negotiations in the Sauron Camp.

June 29th 1066.

3.00am. Visibility, reduced by Mist to 60'ft.

"Better not to go alone. We will stay close by, in case of trouble or betrayal."" Karl Barrelgut agrees to the priest of St Ygg and gestures towards one dwarf, a quiet, muscular warrior figure bearing scale armour fashioned from gator' hides and a clan shield notched with many divots. He blesses his man-at-arms, shielding him with a Sanctuary warding spell.

'Rum', named perhaps for his passion for the favoured spirit made from distilled molasses and spices. Certainly he is as stout as the oak barrels they ferment inside and his stalwart nature already holding him in good stead, being one of the two warriors who did not succumb to the Basidirond hallucinogens.

"I can translate if necessary for I speak the tongue of the Saurons. Though it may be prudent to hide such a fact initially." the dwarf takes the spear of the Sauron officer, "we can return this. Three-Moons need not fear decorating the trail as a decapitated trophy. Not while I draw breath."

and here we can welcome Craigers07 to the game who is playing as dwarven warrior, Rum.

The trio (Callen, Cosmo, Rum) advance across a patch of boggy ground until nearing within a bowshot, they make their presence known, lighting a firebrand to illuminate themselves and calling out. Very quickly they are challenged by guards who appear, one on each side, bows nocked and strings drawn. After a tense moment one calls out to those in camp and lowers his aimed shaft.

"He announces our presence. He must recognise you, calling Callen, the Justicar' and the gnome, 'Grasshopper'"

Rum whispers a translation, perhaps neglecting the 'grasshopper' is not a term of endearment but comes from a root word to describe, 'him who hides in the grass'.

You are gestured forward towards the edge of the camp. The 'officer' approaches. At least you think among these evolved reptilians that the hierarchy among them might be signified by the plumage upon the polished helms they wear.

You stand in front of a tall lizardman, his raiment and garb bearing a military aspect. Neatly lacquered leather bands rivetted together in overlapping strips across his torso and shoulders. Underneath a thin mail shirt and skirt that drapes below his waist made of interlocking metal rings. A sword, broad and heavy strapped to his waist. Upon his elongated skull he wears a chromed plum helm,

Here is your initial encounter with them.
https://www.unseenservant.us/forum/view ... 67#p647067

He looks at you over, noting the muddy stains on your clothes, clumps of peat in the gnome's beard. It is an inauspicious presentation in the moonlight hours. As before he throws his wineskin so you may take a draught before you speak.

Beyond him you see a circle of boulders, a stony ground rising just a few feet above the boggy furrows. In between the boulders are a covered tent, a tarpaulin of scaly skin rather than waxed canvas; a campfire for cooking with the carcass of a vulture draped on the skewer. Several dory type spears tied in bundles are pitched, an arms reach away from the dozen or more thatched mattresses with a blanket thrown over. Some weary lizardmen tribes-folk poke a nose in your direction, then roll back to get some shut eye, though you might suspect they sleep with one eye open.

actions any comments and introductions please.

ateno · #17 Post by **ateno** » Thu May 04, 2023 1:38 pm

Cosmo will bow his head respectively and raise it and wait for Callen to make introductions.

Hadarai · #18 Post by **Hadarai** » Sun May 07, 2023 3:39 am

Callen

"That would be best, if I am treating with the same leader as last time he'll know the common tongue. Anything he'd like to keep from us, you'll be able to find out. Callen says to Rum during their walk to the camp.

***

The Half-Elf bows his head to the Officer before drinking from the skin and hands it back to the Sauron. "Well met, it is good to see you again Sir. Apologies for our appearances, the Barrows have not been kind to us on our way here.

May I present to you my companions, Cosmo and one of Three-Moons clan mates, Rum. Thank you for meeting with us.

Just as you requested, your message has been delivered to Three-Moons Clan and they have asked us to help make introductions and treat with you for his safe return."

Welcome to the expedition Craigers07!

ateno · #19 Post by **ateno** » Mon May 08, 2023 10:42 am

Cosmo smiles at his name, but understands the implications. He lets Cosmo lead, but when introduced:

He will bow and "Good evening, glad we found you, if you recall our bowman, he was .. eaten by some sort of walking plant monster if accounts are to be believed. He will be missed.

Cosmo decides not to cast a illusion of him having grasshopper features, knowing it might be taken wrong.

Cosmo

Craigers07 · #20 Post by **Craigers07** » Tue May 09, 2023 11:35 am

Rum

Rum continues to the camp with Cosmos and Callen.

"Pleased to meet everyone and am sorry for the loss of your friend. Keep up the conversation with the officer and I'll keep everyone informed."

He joins them in greeting the officer and keeps quiet to listen to the conversation and observe.

Barrow Moor: Rescue of Three-Moons.

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