Tonight's Background

After leaving Fishersville as literal heroes, you have traveled to Berkenstoke to meet with Vershur Boomish from the recommendation of Tyrius the magician.  Vershur Boomish offered you a quite handsome reward to seek out and retrieve his family's treasured battle shield which he believes to be part of the unguarded treasure hoard of Medora the slain dragon somewhere beneath the ruins of Xlarthan's Tower. A year prior, he asked Sir Fumark, the slayer of the dragon,  and his men to retrieve but they never returned.

You crossed the River Blackmoor and entered into the Shadow Hills seeking out the ruins but ran into a party of wild Neanderthals of the Uk'Chuk clan.  After a challenge of mortal combat in which Edan was victorious the Neanderthals invited you to their caves.  It is after spending the night among these primitives that the morning brings....

Notes & Maps:

I still owe you 800 xp each for slaying the were-bear, be sure to add that to your experience.

Session Notes

Versur Boomish  is looking for a party to explore the ruins of Xlarthan's tower where once lived the dragon Medora who was killed by Sir Fumark who hasn't been heard from in over a year. Looking for family shield Boomish, red wyvern on a yellow field.

The city of Blackmoor is currently being ruled by the Temple of Mithra. Word of Baron Blackmoor's murder has been sent to his nephew far west in Morgon's Fort. There is tension between the Temple of Mithra and Morpheus over Blackmoor's murders who Mithra thinks Morpheus knows something about.

Owed XP: 800 each for Werebear.

Session Notes

So the Big'ye was defeated and the Gnolls freed from their mental enslavement.  The Gnolls, in their gratitude, returned to you all the treasures they have stolen from the travelers over the past few weeks (including all of your old gear) and their leader promised to move their pack out of the cave and Brushwood.

Monsters killed:

1 Beholder: 3,800
3 Gnolls: 90
3 Bugbears: 360

Total monster XP:  4,250 each

Treasure: 

Gold and merchant items (tapestries, trinkets, etc.): 1,120gp
Gems: 465gp
Jewelry: 449gp

Total GP Value: 2,034 gp divided amongst party (6 I believe).  That will also be the amount of XP you will receive from the treasure which comes up to 339xp each

Quest Reward: 1,000 xp each

Totaled adventure XP for each party member:  5,586 each

Tim, when Thenus recovers the bow she had gained from before the alternate reality thingy, it merges with the very same bow that she gained from the bower and thus making it a +2 bow.

So we'll pick this up next time still in the cave because there is still that unobtainable treasure guarded by....????

You have had worse days...

Tonight's Background: Orange is the New Black

Whatever the circumstance, whether highway traveler or explorer, mercenary or merchant, you have been waylaid and captured by Gnolls and brought to their dark prison cave. There were many others grouped in adjacent cells but over the days, one by one, they were taken out and you never saw them again. All the other cells have been cleared out with the exception of yours (where you are all gathered) and a smaller cell where the beasts have kept young children whom they are saving for some final devilish need. Jute is held in that cell while her father Zahl is held in the cell with you (the party). Zahl has been held here for days and has seen the rest of his family taken, one by one, by guards never to return. He does not know what has happened to them but fears the worst. Zahl has heard talk of someone called “The Big Guy” and that there is a symbol of an eye painted above every cave opening.

You know that there are Gnolls wandering about, Gnolls who's eyes are a pale white as if they were being controlled by some outside force. There are also Orc guards that have handled the prisoners who do not seem to be under that control but are acting of their own malicious accord.

Though you have been kept alive with rancid water and rotten meat of some kind which none of you have touched you all have been healed of all wounds by Su the cleric who has also been captured.

In short you have full hit points but no armor or weapons.

Clerics (and druids for that matter) can start the session with all their spells.

Magic-users will only have 2 spells remembered before they were captured, their spellbooks missing at the moment.

Experience points for the survivors of the last adventure:

6 Mephits: 1,440

10 Gnolls: 300

Sending Xuthal to hell and destruction of Earth Stone: 800

Total: 2,540

Most of you will have new characters except for Mike and Zach if I recall.  Tim, I don't recall if your ranger survived, my notes are a bit scattered at the moment.  If you haven't rolled up characters yet you can do it this evening using the compete rules for race and classes.

Session Notes

Monsters Slain

29 Death Stalkers xp 435

12 Gnolls  xp 360

Experience: 795 each

Session ended evening on 6th day of the Wyrm

Tonight's Background

5th day of the Month of the Wyrm.
10 days until the first day of winter and the Black Sabbath

You’ve been staying in the small fishing village of Fishersville for the past 5 days.  Fishersville is a usually quiet sleepy village on the shore of Lake Blackmoor but it seems that there is an odd edginess to the people there.

Here is a general summary of those five days.

Day 1
On the morning of the first day, the two sellswords, whom Edan had befriended drinking into the late evening hours exchanging war stories, left on a ferry boat to join Lord Blackmoore’s army in Blackmoor.  Tibag and Thenus are seen casually walking around town. Tibag leaves Thenus at the bower’s shop and continues his wanderings.  After spending the night in a tiny grove near the Bearded Clam, Gnarly wanders around the town chatting with the folks of Fishersville.  He spends the evening with his friends in the Bearded Clam. The ‘witch girl’ has been freed by the watch and is wandering the streets.  Folks in town keep their distance from her.  Maximus is not seen that day until the evening meal when he comes down to get a plate of biscuits and gravy with fried herb potatoes and onions then hurries back upstairs to his room.  The day is quite chilly and grey and the townsfolk are pleasant though somewhat distracted.

Day 2
Edan  and Gnarly leave the village gate early and are seen wandering off into Brushwood.  Thenus spends the day with the bower, Devlin. Tibag continues his wanderings around town. Edan returns to town before sundown and spends the evening in the Bearded Clam drinking with a woman named Tilly.  Maximus is again only seen for the evening meal chatting with a hooded old man then heading back up to his room.  There seems to be less people about this day, and the ones that are about appear distant and almost in a daze.  It is much colder today and the sky is very overcast and heavy.  In the late hours of night a heavy fog rolls in and howling is heard in the distance of Brushwood. Gnarly doesn’t return.

Day 3
A heavy cold fog blankets the town and forest.  Edan again leaves early in the morning and is seen entering Brushwood.  Tibag is out and about the village again but notices that there are not that many people around and that many shops are closed. Thenus, goes to visit Devlin the bower again but finds that his shutters are closed and the door goes unanswered. Maximus is seen leaving the Bearded Clam and meeting up with the hooded old man and both walk up to the tower on the hill.  Late afternoon brings the only stirring among the dwindling populous for out of the fog on Lake Blackmoor drifted in the ferryboat – empty and without signs of the ferryman or the two sellswords.  There are some murmurings at the Bearded Clam about the missing ferryman. As night falls the wind picks up and a heavy cold rain begins to fall as Edan and Gnarly both return from Brushwood bloodied from killing a hunting pack of Gnolls near town. That night the wind gusts and groans against the rafters and the cold rain beats heavily down upon Fishersville.   Howling once again is heard close to town.  Sleep is disturbed by wild dreams of faceless shapes in the shadows...

Day 4
The whole day is spent within the Bearded Clam and the storm continues to rage outside.  No other townsfolk show up to the Clam but that is blamed on the bitter cold and sleet blowing hard through the streets of Fishersville.  That day, the only occupants are Gnarly, Maximus, Edan and Tilly, Tibag and Thenus, the innkeeper and his wife and daughter.  Time passes slowly and dreamlike huddled around the fireplace sipping cider.  You all sense a tense uneasiness in the innkeeper and his family and they seem distracted and in a daze.  Everyone in the party feels exhausted and drained and on edge. All turn in early, even Gnarly.  There is no howling but disturbing dreams are had by all of faceless doom and portents of death, of entrapment and endless darkness, of a floating eye and many arms tearing at flesh...

Day 5
It is morning,  none of you feel rested but at least the storm has stopped but again, a heavy fog lingers.  The first thing you notice is that there is no fire burning in the fireplace and no food cooking on the hearth….

The quick version:
Besides the personal backgrounds you received in email, as the days in Fisherville progress, the storms get worse, a heaviness hangs over the town, less and less people are seen each day and you a have dreams of dark death.

Tonight's Background

After finding refuge in an old ruined abbey, which apparently has kept a pack of hunting Gnolls away,  you found a young girl named Jute.  Her family was attacked by the Gnolls and she escaped to the Abbey just like you.

Exploring the Abbey basement, you found a demonic guardian in possession of a spherical glowing green stone.  After you killed this guardian and Maximus recovered the stone, you were attacked by a pack of four headless hounds.  It was an odd battle but Gnarly has come to your aid and you were victorious, or so it seemed...

You will all receive an additional background note at the beginning of the session.