Atlantea Session One

A brief overview was given to the group about why they were together and what their mission was.

In summary the party had been gathered by Thoradin, Dwarven Paladin of Moradin, based on visions he received from his god. They are to protect the girl, Atlantea, from Dark Forces that are after her. Each adventurer was promised something significant in return for aiding in the protection of the girl.

The game opened on the party in camp. Thoradin was gruff but would converse while the girl Atlantea was shy and withdrawn. Gaspar did not offer to take a watch, so the other three party members and Thoradin divided the evening. After an uneventful night passed the party continued on their way and stopped at the Five League House, about halfway between Hammerfast and Fallcrest.

There were some colorful characters, mostly ignored, in the tavern that night. Gaspar, warlord bandit prince that he is, stole money from the minstrel's tips. Arjan used his Hand of Fate ability to determine that staying at the inn would be the better choice, and that the dusty cask of ale was the best drink in the house. After briefly chatting with Barton, the owner, and having some ale, the party retired to their rooms (having basically rented out the top floor.)

During the evening most of the party awoke to the sounds of many footsteps ascending the stairs and moving down the hall to Atlantea's room. Gaspar alerted the sleeping Rain to the intruders, but also the intruders to the wakefulness of the party.

Combat ensued and the group fought against the strangest creatures they had ever seen. To the best of their knowledge they could only discern that what they faced must be abberant in origin. The party hastily donned armor, save Rain who dove out of her room swinging her greatsword with not a stitch on.
Several smaller humanoid creatures, spindly like goblins but with large halfing sized bloated bellies and oozing black viscous pus from gaping wounds, were accompanied by one larger humanoid looking like the offspring of an orc-bugbear mating with the black slime slipping from under it's fingers and from it's ears, nose and eyes, and a few "half-ways" that were dwarven shaped and sized and something of a look about halfway between the other two creatures.
Maveith held the line, chopping through minions with the aid of Rain. Gaspar called out orders to his allies, keeping them refreshed and granting them opportunities. From the safety of his room Arjan utilized the power of his god, Kord, to strike at all the enemies as well. It was a hard fight, but one the party easily won!

And there we ended for the night!

Chronicle of the Champion of Avariel: Session Five - Goblins Galore

At the goblin camp, Raiern concocts a plan — rather than attempt to fight our way past mobs of goblins and almost assuredly get ourselves killed, a more ideal method would be to sneak through the camp, quickly heal the captive elves, sneak out, heal the elves more, and run like heck. Raiern, Ace, and Leucis are chosen to make their way through the camp, while Autumn, Maveith, and Kyrie stay behind.

The trio moves silently into the camp, avoiding a tripwire trap on the way. They find three badly wounded elves in a cage (two middle-aged men and one teenage girl) guarded by a goblin sentry. Raiern quickly knocks him dead. Leucis uses his healing magic to restore two of the elves, while Ace happens to know enough about healing to give a boost to the one remaining elf.

The group sneaks back out of the camp undetected, and Autumn uses her shaman magic to heal the elves. The party picks a direction and begins its travels, but as they leave, Kyrie, in a bout of misplaced dwarven pride, yells after the goblins for being too stupid to detect them.

A patrol quickly sets upon them near the river as goblin sharpshooters rain down bolts and drakes move in for the kill as. The party orders the elves to hide in the trees to protect them from the goblins. Raiern charges into battle as Autumn readies her longbow and Ace unleashes his trademark lightning. Battle is joined as the drakes move to cross the stream while the goblins hang back on the other side, content to pelt the party from afar.

Maveith intercepts the drakes as Leucis uses his bardic magic to keep Gus the falcon alive and back up Raiern, who has charged into the thick of the goblins and appears to be taking levels in Pincushion. Kyrie entraps one of the drakes in a treacherous wind prison while Autumn unleashes the power of her bow. The drakes are pushed back, and one of them falls into deeper water and begins to drown. The party is surprised to find the role of "kill-stealing butt clown" has been taken by Ace, not Leucis for once.

Raiern is beaten hard by the drakes, who have doubled back across the stream to protect their masters, but Autumn summons her spirit bear, who comes to his defense. Leucis, similarly, is having a difficult time holding back the drakes and collapses, though Autumn's timely magic saves him from being drake chow. Maveith helps dispatch the drakes and then charges across the river to help wipe up the rest of the sharpshooters. Soon, only one sharpshooter remains, and he tries to swim away, only to be cut down by the towering Maveith.

Sadly, there is no significant loot to be had, so the party quickly departs. Gus the falcon spots the tracks left by the other elves and points out the way to go. The elves tell the party their camp was suddenly attacked by goblins, and most of them scattered; the remainder probably went to a secondary location, the Selafien encampment, which is where the party heads now.

Autumn Mist's Visual Journal 1

And here is the first edition of Autumn Mist's Visual Journal - where the shaman pictorially tracks her journeys.

Chronicle of the Champion of Avariel: Session Four - Forget Destiny, Let's Go Party With The Elves

This session opened on the group picking up the pieces loot left by the (practically prenatal) dragon that almost handed them their keisters. Mavieth ended up with a shiny new sword and gave the amulet he had used to Kyrie.

The group then trudged back to the ever-cheerful Edenna to proclaim their victory. She was, needless to say, thrilled to see us alive and still traveling with Leucis. Her shining becon of happiness shone on us and gave us the gold we were due, while asking us if we had decided to help Leucis with his role in saving the world (or some such tripe.) When Leucis continued to evade our questions on what the task was by vaguely alluding to "destroying evil in the area," Raiern and Autumn had the fine idea to defeat some evil in their old digs in the woods. It should be mentioned here that Autumn had a "vision" of her tribe being in grave danger by some unknown evil. This seems to be the wrong answer for Edenna and she gets up and heads out, forever leaving us with out her cheery smile and bitch ass sass. She will be missed... Just not by us.

So a few of the party decide to do a bit of shopping with their new found wealth. Mavieth buys a horse and cart to "carry all the treasure" they will indubitably find. Ace holds the silver key from Kobold Hall and realizing that he is in a prime position goes out to find a dupe to buy the whole place. He easily finds a noble with a full purse and no sharp wit, who seems interested in "Ace's property." Due to a lack of foresight when confronted about the deed to the property Ace quickly counters that he needs to go and get it. He returns a bit later with the deed to the land, ink still wet and his fingers smudged black. The noble seems to fail to notice this and agrees to buy the land. His condition was that he see the land first, at which Ace balked and tried to get money right away. The noble sensed some kind of scam and walked off. (The funny part is that since we were the ones to "clean out" the kobolds we really did have some claim to it and could therefore sell it. But I digress) Ace give up and goes out to find something a bit more... shall we say illicit.

When the group rejoins to head into the wilderness Mavieth is cheerfully leading Ed (the horse) while Ace is looking paroxysic. The group ignores Ace's dilated eyes and sallies forth. Autumn sings (poorly according to Leucis) and is replaced by Lecuis' traveling melody. The group reaches the wood line uneventfully, so (unspoken) Ed and the cart are left behind to make the travel faster. A few hours in and they reach the once home to half of the party only to find it in ruin. Goblin tracks criss cross the whole area, with blood and tools of destruction strewn about the area. Worried for their brethren (and sistren (EDIT - this ain't a word)) they decide to follow said tracks and track down the goblin menace.

After a rather easy path (let's hear it for 4 out of 6 having Nature checks above 10) leads the group to a fair sized goblin village the group pauses to discuss their plan of attack. The encampment has more goblins than the group is willing to face, at least all at once. It is decided that Raiern should sneak into the encampment to get a better assessment of the situation. So after (masterfully) slipping past a few of the goblin guards he comes to a cage that is guarded by the Great Ubequay! Master spy and watchman for the whole village. Or just some schlub who is practically dozing at his post. What Raiern does discover tho is that there is indeed a few of the elves of the tribe being held in a ramshackle cage. After spiriting back the way he had come Raiern returns to the party with his information. They begin to discuss their plans when they are stumbled upon by a returning goblin scouting party. Battle ensues.

Raiern and Mavieth dive headlong into the fray while the bear appears and lays waste to the goblin fools. The battle was short (being that in the entire encounter only 2 misses were rolled on the side of the heroes) and sweet. The only real problem was that Raiern kept softening up the goblins, Mavieth kept finishing them off. That is, up until the last goblin running away. Mavieth's blow was just not quite hard enough, and so Leucis once again darted forward and shouted in such a mocking fashion that the goblin was overcome with self-loathing that he died on the spot. Once again proving that Leucis is a kill stealing butt clown. In picking up the wreckage that was the scouting party a sword was found that was taken by Raiern.

Chronicle of the Champion of Avariel: Session Three -A dragon, a dragon, I swear I saw a dragon!

The party decides to take a full night's sleep in the catacombs, the better to be prepared against whatever horrors await in the depths. When they wake up, each person shares their various dreams: Autumn's spirit bear spoke to her of her clan in danger, Leucis saw a city in Hell and a skeleton-man, and Ace was told he needs to see Aurora — prompting Leucis to tell the party about Aurora, Edenna's eladrin benefactor. The party debates what to do — go see Aurora? Clear out Kobold Hall? Follow up on Autumn's dream? — and decides that since they are already in Kobold Hall, it should be cleared out first and foremost.

The party follows the stairs down into the next room — a raised platform sits on the far side of the room from the door (bearing a kobold priest and guards), while another platform sits in the middle of the room. Around the central platform is a well-worn groove in the floor. As we enter, the room shudders, and a boulder rolls onto the track to hit whatever unsuspecting person should be in its way.

Combat is joined — taking care to avoid the boulder, Autumn summons her bear amidst the far kobolds while Ace launches a scorching gout of flame on them. Raiern climbs atop the central platform and sees kobold slingers inside, diving into melee combat with his falcon, while Kyrie uses her fire powers to toast the cramped kobolds inside; burned and trapped with a battle-crazed elf, the kobolds climb atop the platform and begin lobbing rocks. A small drake enters the room, and Maveith and Leucis successfully engage it. The kobold slingers are successfully killed by Kyrie's magic and Raiern's sword, though not before Raiern is once again glued to the top of the platform.

The kobold wyrmpriest invokes magical words of courage to inspire his allies, but it doesn't do much good as the party descends upon them. Not even the wyrmpriest's cold breath weapon can keep the party away, as Maveith and the bear tear through his guards while Ace, Leucis, and Kyrie provide artillery support. Despite managing to destroy Autumn's spirit bear twice, the wyrmpriest soon finds himself on the wrong end of Maveith's sword. Leucis reminds Ace not to step in front of the still-roaming boulder. The last kobold guard surrenders, but Leucis, in a battle frenzy, kills it anyway. The party receives an Amulet of Health +1, which goes to Maveith.

Following the hallway to the next room, the party is marching two-by-two down a hallway when it comes to a large, cold cave, complete with stalactites and a frozen pool of water. A large, young white dragon appears and blasts the in-formation party with his cold breath. A dragonborn warrior then attacks the party as well, apparently some sort of ally or thrall of the great beast. The party moves out of formation, some seeking cover while others moving into melee range. Maveith and Autumn engage the dragonborn warrior, with Autumn finally using the blessings of the seven winds to physically rip him apart and shift the entire party into formation to fight the dragon.

The dragon, unimpressed, breathes more cold onto the party, sending Leucis and Kyrie into sweet unconsciousness. The two weakly get up and continue to hammer the dragon with spells and swords. By this point, the party has learned to not stay in close formation so as to minimize the effect of the dragon's breath weapon; when it becomes bloodied, the party is spread out that only a few members are caught in the blast, and no one takes a direct hit. The dragon is badly beaten, and Leucis offers it a surrender, but it refuses, prompting Ace to destroy it with Sith lightning.

Coming Up - The Big Threat & Ch-ch-choices

The party cavorts carefully into the cavernous cellars of the crumbled and corrupted catacombs of Kobold Hall.
Alliteration aside, Leucis, Raiern, Autumn, Kyrie, Mavieth and Ace seek to eliminate a growing threat to Fallcrest and the Nentir Vale - if only to collect whatever loot may be lurking in the kobolds hoarde.
Will they succeed? What then? Will they go back to Edenna, the sardonic and callous provider of their quest, or decide that being a paranoid party of anti-heroes is right in their wheelhouse? What of Leucis's Formorian enslaved gnome clan? Autumn's elven bff lost somewhere in the Feywild? The confusion whether Bob is really Ace? Maveith's sudden exposure to the sun and stars and people he isn't related to?
Game on at 6:30 pm - location is Jim & Sarah's again!

Chronicle of the Champion of Avariel: Session Two - Kobolds Love Traps!

After a short rest in the previous room, the party followed the adjoining tunnel deep down into the catacombs. At the far right corner was a statue of Tiamat, while in the eight recesses in the walls were several suits of armor. Situated in the center of the room were coffins — visibly disturbed and already looted — and Raiern and Autumn were quick to notice that one of the suits of armor was trapped, firing darts at those who walked too close to the coffins. Perhaps the biggest threat, however, was the mob of kobolds that spotted the party! Three bigger spear-wielders drew closer as a swarm of weaker kobolds approached.

The groups were joined in melee, as the adventurers made quick work of the kobolds. A heroic shout of triumph from Leucis cleared a large group of minions, while Maveith, Kyrie and Raiern dove into melee with the larger kobolds. Raiern was badly hurt by the kobolds, but recovered with the help of the healers. One badly wounded kobold tried to make a break for it to warn the others, but was swiftly dispatched by Kyrie's claws. Autumn summoned terrifying spirits to haunt the larger kobolds, distracting them so Maveith could easily slice them with his longsword. With only one kobold left standing, Raiern's falcon made quick work of it. Ace swiftly disarmed the traps, while Leucis and Raiern defiled the Tiamat statue, painting on "Avandra was here." No divine repercussions, whoo!

After another short rest, the party proceeded deeper into the catacombs, coming upon another room. In the center of the room was another pit of green goop (such as Raiern landed in), surrounded by coffins. At the east side of the room was a 10-foot-tall parapet guarding a wooden door. Atop the parapet were plenty of kobolds, most of them armed with slings. One of them carried a sludgy rock attached to a string in the center of the room.

The party wastes no time moving into combat. Autumn summons her spirit bear right on the raised platform in the midst of the kobolds. Raiern, straight out of an action movie, runs and jumps up to the platform, holding on to the edge and waiting for his chance to climb up. Autumn, Leucis and Ace hang towards the back, launching spells from afar. The kobolds chant "Skull-skull!" and launch the sludgy rock, which hits fairly hard and is enchanted to return to its wielder when lobbed. A flame seed from Kyrie burns up one corner of the platform, and Maveith climbs up the other to engage the kobolds in melee, seeing that they've summoned some fierce guardian drakes.

A kobold takes the opportunity to hurl a glue jar at Raiern, sticking him to the wall. The kobolds try to stab at Autumn's spirit bear, to no avail; few of them can hit hard enough to damage it. Autumn and Leucis keep Maveith standing against the onslaught of drakes, while Raiern breaks free of the glue, but finds the ledge above him full of kobolds, leaving him unable to get up (and requiring his falcon to do most of the dirty work). As Leucis gets closer to the action, the kobolds launch the Skull-Skull at him, hurting him badly. A kobold finally destroys the bear, only for Autumn to re-summon it a few seconds later. With most of the healing reserves gone, the party kills most of the kobolds, leaving only one kobold and one drake alike. As they try to make a break for it, Maveith charges at them, but the surprisingly fierce drake slashes at him, knocking him unconscious as he bleeds out on the floor. Ace uses his fire spells to blast through the door, and some quick healing work by Raiern stabilizes Maveith. The kobold and drake have gotten away to warn whatever is deeper in the catacombs, but the party must rest for a few hours to recover its strength against whatever awaits further down...

Coming Up - Deeper into Kobold Hall

The party delves deeper into the depths of the decrepit dank dungeons of the destroyed debris of Kobold Hall.
Alliteration aside, Leucis, Raiern, Autumn, Kyrie, Mavieth and Ace seek to eliminate a growing threat to Fallcrest and the Nentir Vale - if only to collect on the payment that Leucis was already given.
Will they succeed? What then? Will they go back to Edenna, the sullen and cynical supply of their quests, or decide that being a hero for the gods is not in their bailiwick? What of Leucis's foster family of gnomes? Autumn's elf friend captured by the Fomorians? The bounty on Ace's head? Maveith's sudden exposure to the world outside of a cave?
Tune in at Jake's on Wednesday, May 6th, at 6:30 pm to find out!

Chronicle of the Champion of Avariel: Session One - An Untested Champion

We opened with some exposition about the Nentir Vale, the Harken Forest, and the elves. Every 16 months, near the elf encampment, is a planar bleed where the lines between the Feywild and the normal world are blurred and travel is possible from one to the other; thus, it's become a tradition for the elves on one side to meet with the gnomes on the other. Recently, on the day of the planar bleed, fomorians attacked the gnome colony, leading the elves to aid with their defense, but in the end Leucis, a tiefling bard who was the ward of the gnomes, was thrown into the normal world while many gnomes and elves were trapped on the other side, as well as an elf woman who both Leucis and Autumn had befriended. The elf leaders convinced a grief-stricken Leucis to help the elves travel away from the planar bleed (for their own safety) and help tend to the wounded.

Later, fast-forwarding to the present time, Raiern saw Leucis follow a tiefling woman into Fallcrest. While returning from town, he met up with Maveith the really, really tall goliath and Ace, a half-elf warlock ("Ace" being short for a longer elvish name). As they had no other ambition but to explore, Leucis convinced both of them to join him in forming an adventuring party, although Ace did bluff Leucis into thinking that his name was Bob and that there is in fact a bounty on Ace's head, so look out for that guy. Upon returning to the elf encampment, Leucis meets up with Kyrie, Raiern and Autumn, telling that he has found a patron who wishes to enlist their services and that they can do good deeds and earn gold and magic items. As Raiern knows that Autumn is prophesied to travel with him, they both agree, as does Kyrie, the exiled dwarven druid.

They travel to Fallcrest to seek out Edenna, a tiefling woman who acts as a go-between between the party and her patron, an eladrin named Aurora, who claims to work for an angel, Avariel, who works for Pelor. Edenna identifies Leucis as the "champion" — prompting some guffaws from the party — and then is frustratingly vague about their objectives: either retrieve an artifact to bring Pelor's light to the world, or fight a menace that threatens to deal serious damage to the area. Edenna is less than impressed with the party, and spills that Leucis has already been paid in advance — prompting the party to seriously consider shaking him down for gold pieces. Suffice to say Leucis looks pretty bad for assembling an adventuring company to pursue a mission that isn't specific, and he's already been paid for it.

Seeing as how no one in the party worships Pelor — Ace goes for Ioun, Autumn, Raiern and Maveith pick Melora, Kyrie is content with just nature and Leucis represents for Avandra — the choice is to fighting the unknown menace. Edenna offers a magic item for Autumn and some gold (as well as the spoils) for going to Kobold Hall, east of Fallcrest down the King's Road in the Cloak Wood, a keep which used to be owned by human nobles from the now-defunct kingdom of Nerath which is overrun by kobolds and possibly led by a greater threat. Leucis sings a jaunty Traveler's Chant to get the party there faster.

At Kobold Hall, the keep itself is mostly empty, but Autumn and Raiern spot a trapdoor leading underground. Following the stairs, the party spots a large room with a pit of ooze in the center and a kobold who quickly yells out and readies his sling. Raiern tries to jump over the pit to get to the kobold, but falls short, landing gracefully in sticky sludge. The party makes quick work of the kobolds that attack: Kyrie uses her flame seed spell to great effect; Raiern and his falcon successfully tag-team several kobolds; Maveith, though consistently wounded by kobold spears, takes a few of them down and awesomely teams up with Raiern and his falcon to bring down one of the stragglers; Autumn uses her bear spirit to ward the party; Leucis makes a magical insult that makes a kobold's head explode; Ace curses many kobolds, blasting them with lightning and drawing precious life force from their deaths. Sadly, the kobolds do not carry much impressive gear, and the party presses on further.

Introducing: Leucis

Meet Leucis!

He's a Tiefling who's parents sold his soul to an Archfey and left him to be raised by Gnomes in the Feywild!

Leucis, happy-go-lucky youngster raised amongst the warrens of the middle fae and sometimes cavorting with the Woodsinger Clan of Elves from the Mortal Realm.

A bard trapped in the Mortal Realm after his adoptive clan was assaulted by evil beings, forced to converse with beings who distrusted him solely for his heritage.

One lone man, caught in the sight of greater powers than himself, being thrust into battles he wants no part of just so he can try to return to his home and save his family!

Or, as the DM likes to call him, one paranoid bastard.