D&D Campaign Session for Sunday, November 18th, 2001

Played with 3rd Edition Rules

Spellbinders Player Characters:

Kari Morningdew, Human Female Ranger/Cleric of Fharlanghn (Andy)
Kessem Chexz, Female Elf Wizard (Neil)
Odlits Burdfriend, Male Half-Orc Wizard (Bill H.)
Ozzy Gizzardsniffer, Male Halfling Barbarian (Dennis)
Sakara, Female Elf Fighter (Greg)
Selena, Female Gnome Monk of the Order of Zuoken and Xan Yae (Scott)
Simon (a.k.a. Corin Wyndin), Male Half-Elf Sorcerer (Geoff)
Simon deWinter, Male Human Rogue (Caleb)

Tales of the Gizzardsniffer's Escape From Ratling Tower

On the afternoon of the next day the air was filled with the smell of sweet cakes wafting on the breeze as the old hobbit neared the home of his sister-in-law and his two nephews.  “Mmmmm, she’s baking today.”

He clicked his heels together and quickened his pace along the path, grinning ear to ear as he neared his destination.

Roscoe, and his older brother Milo were playing outside when they noticed their uncle making his way up the path. “Hello boys!  Mother kick you out, did she?”

“Yes” said Roscoe, “Mother thinks we’re too much underfoot on baking day.”

“It’s YOU that’s too loud, rambunctious, and underfoot,” protested Milo, “I got sent out here because she doesn’t want YOU to be out and about wandering off alone!”

“Ahh, yes.” Uncle interrupted, “I guess on the whole it’s better to BE underfoot than to be GETTING the foot.”

A sly wink from their uncle defused another argument, and the three smiled. “So, Are you ready for the next part of that story?”

“Yes!” both boys perked up, “We’ve been waiting for over an hour out here!” added Roscoe.

“Well, I won’t keep you waiting any more,” said uncle, “now Milo, how about fetching me a chair.  And Roscoe, I have a dangerous mission for you.”  Roscoe swallowed hard, wondering what his uncle had in mind. “Why don’t you very quietly sneak into the kitchen, and grab us a few of those sweet cakes, ay?”

The young lad let out a long breath, “Is that all?? No problem!”

“Be very quiet now, don’t let her catch you.” He cautioned with his finger to his lips. The little boy nodded and went off to the task at hand.

Soon both boys were back and uncle satin his seat, took the block of wood and knife out of his pouch, and began the tale…

"Now when last we left off, Ozzy the barbarian, Selena the gnome monk, Kessem the elf wizard, Sakara the elf archer, Simon the half-elf sorcerer –"

“HUMAN, Uncle.” “What?” replied a confused uncle.  “Yesterday Simon was a human.” replied the little boy. “Roscoe, are you going to do this again today?” said Milo, rolling his eyes.  “Oh he’s quite right I’m afraid.” said uncle, taking this opportunity to taste his newly liberated sweet cake, “sometimes it’s hard to tell, but yes, Simon was indeed a half-elf. So I suppose I was only half right yesterday. Continuing on..."

"Rounding out the group was the weary knight from Pawford.  They were in the midst of a bad situation in the tower.  Some were fighting a terrible pain in their joints, others had been bitten by the were-rats, and they were quickly running out of options with more enemies on their way up the stairs. 

"Selena tried one of her new disciplines and pointed a finger at the Imp. A tiny burst of flame shot out toward the creature and it laughed as it shrugged off its effect. The Were-rat that Ozzy had been fighting hit him hard. That hit alone nearly took the wind out of his sails, but just then another Were-rat reached the top of the stairs and lashed out at Ozzy with his short sword and dug in deep.  The time to leave was now!  “We’re movin’ out!” Ozzy yelled.  Kessem who had done her best, didn’t need to be told twice, out she ran.

"Ozzy swung at the injured were-rat and cussed himself out for missing at such a critical moment.  Another cast a spell from the stairs and suddenly Simon froze like a statue, Selena’s eyes began to glow as she pushed Simon out of the room like he weighed nothing and was sliding on ice.  Ozzy, surrounded on three sides and looking for a place to step back to, noticed Sakara run out right past the helpless Simon. 

"The injured were-rat moved past Ozzy and Selena to block their exit, and struck her on the way by.  She retaliated with her fire finger, which he seemed to all but ignore. Simon, who was jostled by this movement, began to slowly float back into the fray.  The spellcasting were–rat began to move out but was blocked by Ozzy, who missed once again with the silver long sword.  Fuming with anger, the were-rat pointed at Ozzy and said “DIE!” – "

Uncle looked at the faces of the two stunned boys he was pointing his whittling knife at. They were both frozen, holding their half eaten sweet cakes inches from their wide-eyed faces.

"And Ozzy clutched his chest, and fell wiggling around in the throes of death!"

“Ozzy can’t die!” Roscoe exclaimed. 

“What is this you’re telling my young boys?” Mother was standing in the round doorway of the dwelling, holding a tray with three mugs and a pitcher of lemonade. “Thought you could use a little bit to drink with those sweet cakes you made my little one pinch.” she said, giving her brother-in-law the evil eye. Roscoe shrugged his shoulders and gave his uncle a wide eyed look. “Don’t you be tellin’ them any of your scary stories—Which are not true.” she quickly added to the boys.  She shook her finger at the old hobbit, “I’m the one who has to deal with bad dreams around here. So you behave!”

“Darn right, you do.” He muttered after she had gone back inside. “Don’t listen to her, it’s all true…every word” He told the boys in a scary whisper.

"Selena, seeing no other option, began to tumble out as the soldier came in to see if he could assist, but the poor man was immediately struck down by the were-rat who was blocking the door. Just then the smaller Were-rat with the short sword came forward from his place on the stairs, and stabbed into the wriggling body of Ozzy for good measure. Ozzy lay still after that.  Selena, overcome with sudden despair -- thanks to the spell caster – left the tower in a hurry.  The imp flew past Ozzy’s body cackling all the way, as he swooped in on Selena and hit her on his way out.

"When the survivors reached the woods outside, they scrambled to run or find hiding places.  Two of the larger were-rats emerged and began their search for the heroes.

"The imp flew past Kessem, but failed to notice the elf’s hiding place, while Selena used her new power on herself to skate through the woods as if she were on ice. The two persuers spotted her and gave chase. The skating worked well for her, but in the hilly area, the uphill parts let the were-rats started to catch up a bit.

"Elsewhere in the wood, the imp found the hiding Kessem and attacked her, then it found Sakara and hit her as well. Then it turned its attention back to Kessem and attacked her repeatedly as she ran through the woods. It left her to find Selena and hit her again. The two were-rats were quite outrun by now, but the imp wasn’t ready to give up the chase. It found Sakara again and attacked as she ran – finally it seemed to tire out and began to fly away.

"Moments later a bedraggled Selena emerged from the wood at the ford in the river where the rest of the heroes waited. “Where’s the cure?” they asked confused at the state she was in.  Selena was out of breath, badly hurt from the fight, and bruised from moving so quickly though the forest, and not making any sense as she tried to answer.

"A few moments later Sakara stumbled out of the wood and was retrieved from the river.  Looking worse than Selena, she was nevertheless able to convey to the others what had happened.  Kari was able to understand that they were attacked by were-rats as she knew something about them, but their description of the imp puzzled her.

"Having also retrieved the only other escapee, Kessem, They made camp for the night so all could rest and make plans to rescue, or retrieve and avenge, their fallen comrades. 

"At first light, having rested and healed, they packed up camp and gathered what silver weapons they had, and found their way back to the tower. Kari the half-elf cleric/ranger, Kessem, Selena, Sakara, Odlits the half-orc wizard, and the lieutenant from Pawford hid in the woods looking for any sign of activity. To this day it’s not clear which one finally was brave enough to walk up the clearing to open the door, but they all eventually entered the tower, The lieutenant must have taken up the lead, for it was he who nearly fell into the first pit. It had been closed again and well hidden. Slowly the group made their way into the known rooms of the tower, but there was no sign of either Simon or Ozzy.

"Exploring further in the tower, Kari stepped on a bit of loose flooring and a flask of acid splattered her and Odlits. They had discovered that the were-rats had reset all of the traps, so carefully up the stairs they went. There they found loaded ballistae at all angles of defense, weapon racks, casks and cauldrons, and a large amount of oil spilled on the floor, and a Dwarf slumped over one ballista. Odlits crossed over carefully to find that he was dead.  Nothing more of note was to be found in the rest of the tower, so they headed down to the lower levels.

"As they got there Odlits heard something. All quiet, they listened and heard some breathing coming from behind one of the curtains."

“It’s Ozzy!” both boys shouted hopefully. Uncle used this break to finish his cake and take another sip of lemonade.

"Kari took her weapon in hand and swung at the curtain, with a swish! She didn’t hit anything, but someone was waking up and moving toward the curtain!  It was…… a dwarf!  A scared one at that!  He swung wildly at the group and shouted something in Dwarven; unfortunately no one there spoke the language. Kari tried to pray for calmness in this situation, as he swung at her and missed.  Odlits, realizing that he indeed was a real dwarf, yelled “Stop!”,  but he swung wildly again.

"Sakara tried to get him to understand “We’re on your side.”  

"Selena was quick to add “We’re not here to harm you.”

"“You’re not one of those rats?” he finally asked in common, still wielding his weapon in a defensive posture.

"“No, we may have chased them off earlier, we haven’t found them here yet today.” was the reply.

"The dwarf lowered his weapon and seemed to relax a bit, being in the company of others now.  He introduced himself as Snurry, one of many housed here to protect and help the alchemist since he insisted on living way out here in the middle of nowhere. He explained that the tower was inexplicably overrun suddenly by the were-rats. He had no idea how they had gotten in, and feared that the alchemist was dead and the situation was hopeless so he’d hidden down in the barracks hoping no one would find him.

"The heroes told Snurry about their missing comrades and of the slimy doom that had hit Pawford.  They said they were looking for the alchemist in hopes of a cure and asked if Snurry would join them.  Not wanting to be alone at this time, he agreed to help.

"So off they went, down towards the dark recesses of the lower levels where none but the alchemist himself ever went. Soon they found themselves in the laboratory where all of his experiments took place. They noticed a statue that lay in rubble, a closer look revealed that it was in fact the smaller of the were-rats – the one that had stabbed Ozzy when he was in the throes of death."

“Serves him right!” said Milo.

“Oh, NOW look who’s interrupting!”  

“Shhh!” hissed Milo, intent on hearing the tale.

"It seems that he was standing in front of an open box so, whatever was in it…must have gotten him for his thievery while the other were-rats were out hunting the heroes. The group moved on past a library filled with books in dwarven, but Odlits spotted a scroll and figured he’d keep it because dwarves don’t dabble in spells too much and it was in that magic writing he knew. Along the passageways beyond, they had a few tense moments when they wished they had a thief along with them. No one was hurt, but the corridor was filled with traps, and Snurry had never ever been down this far.

"They soon found themselves in the alchemist’s private chambers. Searching the rooms they found nothing about a cure, but Odlits picked up a small ivory plaque – decided that it had no magical properties, but it may fetch a good resale price.  Then, it was decided that Snurry had better stay in the library and look for a cure for the slimy doom while the rest of the party followed a long passageway. It led to a small window, through which they could see a canyon with a waterfall and a river below.  They figured that this would be the only way the were-rats could have gotten in as secretly as they did.  Odlits, being very good at spotting things, saw that there was a body at the river’s edge on the rocks below.  He saw no movement, but decided he’d have to look around there anyway.  He opened the window, lowered his rope of climbing and it secured itself. Upon investigation, he found that the dwarf was dead, the body wore a night shirt and there were two large gaping wounds.  It was the alchemist and he had apparently been attacked from two different sides and dumped out the window. He’d lain there for some time.

"When Odlits returned and reported that he’d seen nothing else out there, Kari suggested that the rest go search the storage room that they’d passed while she went out on the grounds to look around. Outside she found a great confusion of footfalls due to the fights that had taken place there, but after some time of analysis, she figured she’d found the trail of tracks that she thought could be of the surviving rats.

"The heroes gathered, leaving Snurry to his research, and slowly followed the trail.  Soon they realized that they weren’t going to catch them at this pace, and all eyes fell upon Kessem.

"Kessem and her huge overflowing backpack. She was suddenly set upon by Kari and Selena who started rummaging through her pack, ignoring the indignant pleas uttered by the embarrassed mage, as all of her worldly possessions were rifled through.  Sakara stood by to coach on each and every item, mostly to say “Chuck it.” “Toss it.” “don’t need it.” , while Odlits smiled in agreement, marveled at what a packrat Kessem was, but made sure that the others left her with the essential magic items she’d need.  The items left behind were well hidden, and Kessem’s dog agreed to let the gnome, Selena, ride him to help make the group even faster.

"So off they went at a quicker pace until nightfall, when they found an acceptable place to make camp. Deep into the night on Sakara and Selena’s watch, Selena heard a noise. Suddenly she was set upon by a very large and ugly troll!  It missed with its first swipe at her, Selena quickly envisioned herself in a suit of armor and it appeared to wrap around her body as she moved in to the fray.  Sakara stepped back to make use of her bow but the monster hit her before she could get out of range.  Firing a quick shot in return she missed the large monster, as everyone else scrambled to their feet.  Kari summoned that Flaming Dwarf she’d used days ago, but he missed his first attack. Selena pointed her fire finger at it and it winced in pain as it struck. Sakara notched another arrow in a hurry which also missed. Another arrow went flying wide from another direction as the Lieutenant had his bow at the ready. Odlits cast an arrow of magical acid at it, Kessem unleashed a few magic missiles at it, and the creature reeled in great pain. Kari’s Flaming Dwarf missed again, as the troll struck her hard. The ugly beastie had a real mad on now, after being burned by acid, and as it turned to Odlits Selena missed with her finger.

"The horrid monster started after Odlits with its long fingered bony hands stretched out to kill the mage for burning him. Odlits stepped back, cast mages shield in front of himself, and defiantly shouted an insult at the creature in its own language!  And as it spoke back to him, Sakara struck deep with an arrow, followed by an arrow from the Lieutenant. Completely enraged by attacks on all sides, it swiped at Kari who quickly dodged just inches away from its sharp claws.  The Flaming Dwarf was not so lucky and was completely destroyed by the trolls’ next blow—"

“Whoa! One hit and the dwarf is gone?!!?” 

“Yes, little one a troll has awesome power even when not enraged.  Did I mention that the arrow wounds started to heal before their eyes?” 

"Next, the troll turned its awesome power against the Lieutenant! It slammed him with one claw, and followed with the other claw, then it grabbed hold lifting him into the air, and ripped the poor man in half from top to bottom and dumped him on the ground in a bloody heap—"

“Ewww!” both boys had suddenly stopped eating their sweet cakes .

“Sakara then missed with another arrow,” uncle continued “probably as shocked and grossed out as you two are now.  Are you going to finish your cakes?” he asked as both boys volunteered their cakes to him. He continued with the story as he whittled the piece of wood he’d brought.

"Odlits cast a ray of frost that barely touched it, then Kessem backing away from the vile creature, cast a spell of her own and the troll suddenly slowed to half its normal pace.  It headed toward her as Kari hit it with her spiritual weapon, but it struck Kessem hard. Selena hit with a fire finger, then suddenly an arrow squished out through its eye – Sakara had fired from behind and the arrow flew straight through its head, and out its eye!—"

“You boys okay?” uncle looked at their faces and they nodded.

"It grabbed its head and screamed bloody murder, and Odlits yelled something from behind it and shot another acid arrow at it, its skin bubbling with burns now. Kessem wisely stepped out of its reach, and she and her dog disappeared.

"The spiritual weapon missed as it swung around to attack Sakara and ripped into her. Selena shot her fire finger and it found the mark. Sakara hit it again and it grabbed for her as the acid really burned deep now and it was not healing that damage. It teetered from the pain and exhaustion, then Kessem suddenly reappeared out of nowhere to shoot an arrow at it – hit it through the throat and it collapsed."

“YES!”

"but as it lay there it started to slowly heal the arrow damage—"

“NO!”

"Kessem’s dog leapt upon it and bit into the leg to keep it down and wounded. The dog barked at Kessem and she laughed, “He says he wants a little help, because it tastes awful!” with that, the rest of the heroes kept it down until it was burned to ashes."

“She talks to dogs?” said Milo.

“Well duh! Just this one, it’s her familiar.” answered Roscoe.

“Oh you think you know everything, don’t cha squirt!” 

“Boys” uncle interrupted.

"Weary from the harshly fought battle the group settled down for the night once more. Unfortunately that particular woodland trail was quite busy that night; Kessem’s dog became rather restless.  Sakara and Kessem listened for a while and then they heard someone trudging through the woods talking to himself.  Odlits picked up his head and yelled out something to whoever it was. 

A silent pause was followed by a loud “What?”  At the edge of the clearing appeared an Ogre. “You say sumpting?” It looked pretty upset with whatever Odlits had said.  It was big and hairy, warty, smelly, and disgustingly ugly; it also had a Halfling hanging from its belt."

“Ozzy?” asked the two boys in chorus.

"They couldn’t tell, but they knew they had to find out. Kessem cast mage armor on herself, and Sakara shot it with an arrow. Next Kessem cast a stinking cloud over it “Oh, Yuck!!” it bellowed “Dat stink!!!”   Well it began to wheeze, gag, burp, fart, and barf all over the place.  Odlits got up from his bedroll and cast a ray of frost at it, and it shuddered from the sudden cold. Kari followed that up with a spiritual weapon hit, and it tried to move away through the middle of the cloud still barfing all the way. A few of the party’s shots missed in the dense fog, but finally it moved out into the darkness followed by Selena who lit up the area with dancing lights. The hulking beast swatted at the lights “Go away!!!” he yelled still sick from the clouds effects. Kessem and Sakara pelted it with arrows and brought it down as it tried to run away.

"They looked over the Halfling and found that it was not Ozzy, and it had been dead for quite some time.

“Phew.” Roscoe sighed with relief.

"They rested for the remainder of what was a peaceful night, took care of the camp and moved on to continue their search.

"After struggling to keep the trail for some hours, Kari and Kessem’s dog were finally able to regain the pathway left by the were-rats, and discovered the camp the villains had set up the night before.  There were signs of four bodies that had lain down for the night, claw marks on a nearby branch, and the remains of the knight that had fallen in the tower. They surmised that the imp had perched in the tree, and that the four figures on the ground were indeed the two remaining were-rats, Simon, and Ozzy.  Their fate was still to be seen, however, for it seemed that the vile, disgusting creatures had had the knight for breakfast that very morning."

“Oh, gross!!!” the boys exclaimed.

"The group took off with more of a sense of urgency now, and quickened their efforts to find their quarry.  

"They did not find them the rest of that day, but early the next morning when they had begun their search, Kessem’s dog suddenly froze.  “I smell them.” It said to Kessem. “And rats!”  The group stopped to look around and discuss their plans should they have actually found them, then suddenly a shout was heard loudly and clearly “Hey you G-U-Y-Y-Y-S!”

"They looked at each other. “Definitely a barbarian.” they agreed.  And then two figures came into view.  It looked like them, but the untrusting Sakara notched an arrow to be on the safe side, and Kessem’s dog took off like a shot, running up to them and bowling Ozzy over to lick his face as he lay on the ground laughing.

“Yay! It’s really them this time…right uncle?” Roscoe looked hopefully. 

“Well the entire party hadn’t been convinced yet…”

"Sakara still had a bead on them as they approached, and even as they were asked the first questions to explain what had happened to them, Ozzy looked straight at her and said “I already don’t like you, now get that weapon out of my face.” And eventually she did.

"Ozzy proceeded to tell them about their ordeal:   

“Ya see when I woke up, that beastie that told me to die was right in my face. Slobberin’ all over the place, and telling me that we were going to join them, so I spit in his face and told him ‘Never!’  Then they kicked Simon here, and said every time I acted up, he’d get a beating. And they told him, if you act up you’ll get another beating. He looked pretty worked over already, so I shut up. And then they added that if we both didn’t cooperate we’d end up like the knight they had for breakfast.

“So then they loaded us up and traveled all day, hardly stopping at all, except to nibble on us to try to infect us, until last night. Looking for a place to hide for the night, they found a burial mound with a small cave in it, and as they were about to take us inside, a nasty Ghoul or something came out and the one carrying Simon dropped him to attack it.

“Well Simon and I started wriggling around as the battle started and the nasty thing hit the rat and he healed the damage, but didn’t move after that. So the other one dropped me and tried to tell it to go away, but it didn’t listen. So he started trying to kill it, and about this time Simon got his fingers free and hit the imp with magic and put a good size burn into it. It swooped down on him and started to claw at him so I shouted, ‘Roll away!’ and he started rolling back and forth to try to avoid the imp while putting some good sized holes into it – and then it disappeared. 

“By this time the other rat was standing still too and the ghoul thing was standing over me!  Everything went black again when it struck me, and when I came to, Simon was pouring something down my throat and I felt better. Looking around I saw that the Ghoul was dead, the imp was dead and Simon untied me. We hacked the were-rats to pieces while they were still frozen, took all their stuff, and all our stuff - and here we are.”"

“So Ozzy was saved by a magic user.” said Milo.

“Ahh, but not just a magic user,” answered uncle “a Sorcerer! Ozzy didn’t much care for ‘book mages’ as he called them, but he gained a whole new respect for the power of a sorcerer.  In fact, he pledged a life debt to this one. Told him if he was ever in trouble or needed anything, Ozzy would always do his best to help if possible.”

“So what about the slimy doom?” Roscoe wondered.

"Well the group accepted their story and headed off back to the tower, and the trip was uneventful, except for the rare sight of a giant eagle gracefully gliding across the sky. Along the way, Simon read one of the books on lycanthropy that was written in dwarven, and the group found out about the possibility that some of them must find a cure before the next full moon. Kari stated that Pitchfield would probably be their best bet and so they made plans to go there after Pawford was taken care of.  

"At the tower they found the door had been locked so Kessem pulled out her magic chime and a loud ringing was heard and the door creaked open. From inside they heard a voice “Halt! Who goes there?”  Kari answered and they seemed to recognize the name as a hero of Sunndi, so they cautiously came forward to talk.  They didn’t let the group into the tower, it was a dwarven militia that had been sent to discover what had happened to the alchemist and didn’t want strangers inside just yet.  One of them yelled from the back of the entry hall during the conversation “We got lots of long sharp pointy fings, an we’ah not ‘fraid t’use em!”

"The group was told that Snurry had found the cure for the slimy doom and was on his way to Pawford with a small group of dwarven fighters.  There were enough clerics and alchemists there to put it all together he said. So the party thanked him and set off to the ford in the river, making plans to get horses and other provisions in Pawford for the trip up to Pitchfield.  THE END."

“Oh, no!” said the boys “That’s not the end!”

Uncle smiled. “For today it is. Gotcha hooked have I? Well I will be back and then we’ll continue, but for now I’m done whittling, and I think your mom’s waiting for you to come inside. ”  Sure enough, she was standing in the round doorway with her arms crossed.

“I hope they can sleep well tonight.” She said to him.

“Oh this one had a mostly happy ending.” He replied filling his newly made pipe he popped it into his mouth, lit it, and started off down the trail. “See ya later boys.” He called out to them “And remember…it’s all true! They watched him puffing his way down the path until all they could see were the smoke rings floating on the gentle breeze.