[Classic Fantasy] Cyenannore (A Kage Gordain Story - Tunnels & Trolls)

[Teviko604]

Hey, all.  After a time off, I was getting ready to jump back into this adventure when I suddenly found myself sidetracked by a different journaling game all together.  As I've gotten older, I'm finding that when it comes to my leisure time, it's more important to do things that I'm really interested in than just force myself to do something just because it is there or left unfinished. As a result, I'll be putting this one off a little longer.

But in the meantime, I did write a post about my last chapter, how I came up with the Magaphan religion, and why I wanted to go into so much detail.  If you are interested in reading more about my writing process, you can find it at my Half Air Blog: I Invented A New Religion . . .

Look forward to continuing this adventure later, as well as posting my writing from my latest journaling journey.

Tev.

[mark]

Thanks for sharing. It's easy to get sucked into your websites; lots of good stuff.

[Teviko604]

Thanks for sharing.  It's easy to get sucked into your websites; lots of good stuff.

Thanks!  I appreciate the feedback.

[Teviko604]

CHAPTER 7: NEN THE WISER

System: Tunnels & Trolls 
Tools: d30 Sandbox Companion; LitRPG Reads encounter tables; RPGSolo.com

[The Story So Far]

Yeah.  It’s been over a year since I last made a post for this campaign.  A little refresher is definitely in order.

Sylralei Lumnum, the elven leader of the secretive mercenary group Kage Gordain, has decided to give up the adventuring life and return home to Cyenannore where her father is the headmaster of a university for wizards.  To accompany her on the journey, she hired three other members of the organziation: the dwarf Dalen Dimflayer; Ex-Outlaw Kristopher Miglward; and the young halfling wizard, Nen Goldmore.

Several days into the journey, the team encounters another pair of mercenaries: Jonik Urilen, an elf, and Fiddlestix the leprechaun.  The two had been hired by a nearby Temple of the Church of Zeriel to retrieve an important artifact from the Crypt of Mindrek, which just happens to be a mile or so from where the two groups meet.  After much discussion, Syl acquiesces and joins Jonik and Fiddlestix on their quest, in hopes of bringing back some interesting items for themselves.  After defeating a demon and his team of imps who had made the crypt their home, the party was disappointed to find that the artifact they were there to retrieve had appeared to have already been taken from the crypt. 

[Scene 1]

“Pack it all up!  We got a long way to go and I’m done wasting time.”  Sylralei barked out the command, making sure everyone was awake and packing. 

“Uh, you’ll raise the demons,” Kris said groggily, trying to shake the sleep from his head.  “Give us time to eat, at least.”

“You have fifteen minutes,” Syl relented.

It was only the previous night that they defeated the demon Beglaxeth and were still discouraged, having realized it was all for nothing.  In silence, everyone rolled up their mats and packed up their belongings.  The rest of the time was spent eating a meager breakfast of stale bread and cheese.

Between bites, Nen whispered the word Hidey Hole and focused on the instructions given to him by the leprechaun Fiddlestix.  As he did, he stared intently at that back of his hand, hoping to see it vanish.

“No luck, huh?”

Nen didn’t have to look up to see that Fiddlestix had made her way over to him.

“I know it’s hard,” she continued, “But try to relax.”  She offered some more suggestions and Nen tried again.

<Nen needs to make a L3 INT SR (target 30) to learn the spell.  3, 4 + 14 INT = 21. Fail.  Because Fiddlestix is helping, Nen will get a second chance today.>

“It’s no use,” Nen slumped down.  “It’s not going to happen.”

“Keep practicing,” Fiddle encouraged him as he finished his bread and stood up to go.  “You’ll get it next time.”

The six adventurers pushed open the chamber door and left.  Just beyond the door, the hall was empty, the corpse of the demon and imps they had drug outside the room having dissipated back to the plane of existence they came from. 

Jonik and Fiddlestix lead the party while Syl and Nen brought up the rear.  When they reached the bottom of the stairs that lead to the surface, Jonik faced the group.

“Fiddle and I have decided to explore the rest of the crypt and see what we still might be able to salvage.  You guys are welcome to . . .”

“What was that?”  Nen interrupted, looking around with the light from his Will-O-Wisp spell.  Seeing nothing, he glanced at the ceiling.  “Roach!” He called out, seeing the giant six legged creature clinging to the roof above them. Three more skittled out of the crevice in the wall where the spider had emerged from earlier and engaged the members of the party.

Nen and Syl, in unison, cast their Take That You Fiend at the roach above them as it dropped.  The twin blasts obliterated the bug, sending roach guts raining down of them.  The rest of the party quickly cut down two of the remaining bugs.  Kris has sliced off several of the remaining roach’s legs and was preparing for the final blow.  He lifted his scimitar when, suddenly, the tip of a staff smashed through the creature, spraying its viscous innards across the boots of those standing nearby.

Syl stared past her staff at Kris. “Let’s stop wasting time and get going,” she said as she wiped a small piece of roach residue from her nose.

<I made one encounter check for the entire trip out of the crypt and got the necessary 1.  Using my same list from before, but eliminating the demon and greatly reducing the chance of undead, I rolled roaches.  The entire battle took 3 rounds, with the roaches only winning by a few points on the first round, which was easily absorbed by the party’s armor.  The TTYF spells took out one of the roaches and the reduction in MR resulted in them always being on the losing end of the battle.  Only a few spite points were distributed among the party.>

[Scene 2]

Sylralei stood in the pouring rain, wind whipping the folds of her cloak around her.  Her face was turned up to the sky in an angered and annoyed scowl.

“I don’t think she’s happy,” Kris said to Dalen.

“That’s an understatement,” the Dwarf corrected.

As Jonik announced, he and Fiddlestix went on to explore the crypt, but Syl was adamant about leaving.  Unfortunately, when they reached the surface, they found a storm raging outside, limiting their view to just a few feet beyond the opening.  In a rage, Sylralei marched out as if to challenge the gods and make them stop the horrible weather.  In apparent response, inch-sized hail began to fall, chasing the soaking wizard back inside, having accomplished nothing other than washing away the remaining roach guts.

<I still have a couple of pending events that I need to resolve. One was Change/Weather.  When I rolled it, I determined that the weather would be storming when the party was ready to leave the crypt.  Using the weather tables in the d30 Sandbox Companion, I rolled on the Multi-Cell, Non-Severe Cluster column to determine how long and how bad it would be.  The whole storm consists of 7 cells and lasting approximately 6 hours.  I had the party reach the surface during the worst cell (cell 3) and will make an oracle roll after each cell to see if they decide to leave.>

Despite her hurry, Sylralei knew that it would be best to wait until the storm was over before moving on.  The rain and wind died down after about twenty minutes, but picked up again another twenty minutes later.  This new event was less severe, but still lasted for almost a half hour. 

<Unlikely check (the chance will improve after each cell): No, and . . . the “and” means the group is really not wanting to leave while it is raining, so the next check will also be at “unlikely” instead of improving.

I’ll also check to see if Jonik and Fiddle return, starting at “Unlikely.”  Yes.>

The rain finally stopped, but the sky was still dark.  Dalen made a strong case for waiting a little longer. Syl argued against him.  Using the knowledge he had gained during years of adventuring and research, the dwarf rebuts with many reasons why it’s too soon to assume the rains were over.  Syl tried to dismiss him, but neither Nen nor Kris were in any hurry to leave so Syl was forced to hand out a little longer.

The Sky Was Still Dark

“You guys still here?”

It was the voice of Fiddlestix as she and Jonik climbed up the stairs to meet them.

“We’re waiting out the weather,” Dalen explained.  “It’s pretty bad out there.”

Jonik grinned at Syl.  “So much for that ‘let’s get moving,’ I suppose.”

Syl just glared back without a word.

“What did you find,” Nen asked Fiddlestix who had taken a seat next to him. 

“Nothing much. Just one room full of statues.”

<The map I was using only had one room left.  It was a long narrow room with columns and three alcoves.  Statues could have been 1-3: Famous Priest , 4-5: Different forms of Zeriel, 6: the three Modern Gods - Roll: 6>

“There were three statues in a row.  The middle one, the largest, was of a man with a rather plain, unremarkable face.  At least I think it was a man. Like the painting in the Preparation room, the legs looked more like a cloud.” As she spoke, Fiddlestix opened her book, found a blank corner of an otherwise full page, and started sketching what Nen assumed were the statues.

“Zeriel?” Nen asked.

“That’s what I would assume.  One was an old man and other was a woman.  If the middle one statue was Zeriel, the others were probably the other two modern gods, Moro and Ilmis. ”

“Was there any treasure?”

“Not much. The room was ransacked like the rest of tomb.  I did cast an Oh There It Is and a Detect Magic spell to see if anything turned up. We gound an empty jewely box and a few other trinkets the church might be interested in.  But nothing exciting like a “Zombie Killing Sword of Fire!”

Nen suspected her comment was influenced by on another sketch on the page that looked just like such a weapon.”

“Anyway,” she said, suddenly slamming the book shut without warning.  “What are you doing?”

“Uh, killing time?  Waiting for the rain to stop.”

“Hmm.  I was kinda thinking you’d want to disappear.”

“Why?  These are my friends!”

“No! Not run away, silly.  Practice your spell!”

<While they wait, this is a good time for Nen to have his second chance to learn Hidey Hole.  L3 INT SR: 1, 6 + 14 INT = 21  Fail.  He needs to make two more L3 attempts before the difficulty drops to L2.>

Nen focused and attempted to magically hide for nearly fifteen minutes before he shrugged and relaxed.  “Not today,” the halfling said.  “How long did it take you to figure out this spell?”

There was no response.

“Fiddle?,” Nen asked before turning his head to find her asleep, her head resting against his shoulder.  Nen glanced across the steps at Kristopher who sat looking at the two with a conspiratorial smile. Nen sighed resignedly and leaned back for a rest himself.

<Bookkeeping:  Each character received 100 Adventure Points for completing the crypt.  While waiting for the rain to stop, I decided the characters would spend their AP and raise their stats:

Kristopher: Raises STR to 18; DEX to 13. Combat adds raise to +13. 105 AP remaining.
Sylralei: Raises LCK to 16; INT to 16; DEX to 13.  Combat adds raise to +5. 67 AP remaining.
Dalen: Raises LCK to 18; INT to 15. Combat adds raise to +18. 84 AP remaining.
Nen: Raises WIZ to 19; STR to 7.  No change to Combat adds. 27 AP remaining.

Finally, by the time they leave, all characters would have been fully healed and all WIZ points returned to full.>


[Scene 3]

Nearly two hours had passed before the party felt the rain had run its course.  The was a momentary panic when their horses were not where they left them.  Apparently, in the storm, they had come loose from their tethered.  Fortunately, they stayed close to the crypt and were easily rounded up. The rest of the  journey back to the main road was uneventful. <Negative encounter check>

“You guys are welcome to join us,” Dalen asked Jonik and Fiddlestix, without giving Syl a chance to object.

“You’re heading north?  Toward Habrycg?” Jonik asked.

“Yep.  We’ll pass right through it.”

Jonik casts a glance at Fiddlestix who returns it with a warding look. “Thanks for the offer, but I don’t think we’ll be travelling with you.  We had a job there a while back and, let’s just say, not everyone appreciated our work.”  <resolution of the other pending event:  Malice/Military or the powers that be have ill feelings toward the mercenaries>

“Besides,” Fiddlestix added. “We found some Zerielian artifacts in the last chamber, and we’re hoping the church might be interested in them.  That may justify our fee and possibly earn us a little more.”

The two groups parted ways.  As before, Syl and Dalen took the lead, while Kris and Nen hung back several feet.

Nen glanced over his shoulder and watched Jonik and Fiddlestix disappear down a side road that led toward Millhelm.  “Do you think we’ll see them again?”

“I thought you couldn’t wait to be away from them?” Kris asked.  “Especially the leprechaun.”

“Fiddle turned out to be not so bad after all,” the halfling admitted.  “I think I’ll miss her . . . un, both of them.”

Nen blushed slightly at Kris’ smile before urging his mount to pick up the pace.

<Travel along the road will continue with guidelines set up in Chapter 2. Referencing the d30 Sandbox Companion, I will roll once per hex for a unique feature, encounter, and settlement.  Results are only suggestions and, based on the narrative, I will use and adjust them as I feel appropriate.  If I roll an encounter, I will either use the result from d30 (which tend to be rather basic) or roll on the tables at LitRPG Reads for something more colorful. At this point in the road, the party will be travelling along the outer edge of a forest on one side, hills on the other.  I will be using the Forest options in the d30 Sandbox Companion.>

[Scene 4]

<Move 6: No special features, encounter with a merchant, no settlement
Move 7: Special feature-forked trees, no encounters or settlements.>

Soon after leaving the crypt, the surrounding environment began to change. Flanking the road to their south was a thick forest.  The road primarily skirted the edge, but every so often it did wind in a bit among the trees.  In the distance to the north could be seen the start of foothills, with taller mountains looming beyond.  As the road continued, the base of the hills crept closer.

As it was already early afternoon when they left the crypt, Sylralei was glad they encountered very little along the way except for a group of travelers every so often.  The most interesting encounter was with half-elf merchant from somewhere up north.  Usually, he had packs full of oddities from various locations around Barisea.  Right now, however, his inventory was low and he was going to Baybrook to restock before returning home.  Not surprisingly, the merchant had nothing that interested the party, as they already tended to find all kinds of curiosities during their jobs. However, Dalen did suggest that he stop at the Dragon’s Hoard to see if Garlen had anything the merchant might find interesting. 

With only about an hour of good sunlight left, Syl quickened the pace. As the sun was starting to set, they left the road and found a protected clearing where they could spend the night. Several trees around the edge of the clearing had branches that forked two or three times and Nen was quick to take advantage of them.  He tied some rope between several of the branches, to which he secured his blanket, forming a simple hammock. 

“You guys should try this. It’s nice and comfy” he goaded, knowing full well that the set up would probably not work for anyone much heavier than he. Even Dalen, who was about the same height as Nen but bulkier, would probably fall right through to the ground.

The other three did their best to ignore the halfling as they spread their blankets and cloaks on the softest patches of ground they could find.

<Nightime encounter roll came up negative.>

[Scene 4]

<Again, Syl wants to make up lost time.  Can they? (Unlikely) No.  There turns out to be a good reason later on.>

<Move 8: Special feature-pond, Encounter-TBA, no settlement>

“Sylralei?  I . . . I was wondering if I could ask you for some help.”

The party had on the road a little over an hour when Nen worked up enough courage to approach the brooding elf.  Normally, he felt very comfortable speaking with Syl, but her demeanor since leaving Baybrook had been so offputting that the halfling was afraid the wizardess might use Take That You Fiend against him just so he would leave her alone.

“Help?” Syl asked in response.

“Yes.  You see, Fiddlestix taught me the spell Hidey Hole and gave me some casting advice.”

“She did, did she?”  Syl asked, her voice skeptical.  In reality, the leprechaun had impressed her more than she expected.  While annoyed with Fiddlestix at first, perhaps not as annoyed as Nen however, Syl was glad they had another competent, powerful spell caster with them during the fight with the demon.  In fact, if the elf’s focus wasn’t so directed on returning home to Cyenannore, Syl might have offered the pair a place on Kage Gordain.

“Yes, she did,” Nen confirmed. “I think she’s a pretty good wizard.  And nice too.  Anyway, she was helpful, but I still haven’t been able to disappear, not even my pinky.  I could just keep practicing on my own, but I was hoping you could watch me and let me know what I might be doing wrong.”

Syl thought a moment before responding. 

“Well, with me going home, I guess that means you will be the head wizard for the group, young as you are.  It’s probably my duty to see that you are ready to take on the position.  However, you do know I have not learned Hidey Hole myself.”

“Hmm.  I didn’t know that.  Does that mean you can’t help?”

“It means, I can assist with your general technique, but just don’t expect me to unlock the deepest, darkest secrets of casting this particular spell.”  Syl smiled at Nen, a welcomed but brief sign of the elf he knew she could be.  “Now, let’s hear you try.”

<Will Syl help Nen learn his spell? (Unlikely, due to her mood): Yes.  Nen can try twice today.  However, after I rolled the attempts, I realized that Syl doesn’t actually know the spell.  Technically, that might mean she couldn’t help, however, as Syl’s family’s background is in instructing others in using magic and Hidey Hole is only a second level spell, I figured that she could advise Nen well enough to allow him to benefit from the help.

His first try: L3 INT SR (target 30)  4, 3 +14 INT = 21 fail.>

The halfling tried in vain to successfully cast the spell.  Whenever he looked to Syl for advice, she would only repeat the same word again and again.  “Relax.” He would take a deep breath and try again.

Another half hour passed before Syl stopped the ground.  “There’s a good spot to water the horses.”

The “spot” she to which she referred was a small body of water, not much bigger than a house.  To call in a pond would be generous.  It was probably just a deep depression that had gathered rainwater runoff from the surrounding area.  Everyone dismounted and led their animals to drink while they helped themselves to their water skins.

“I’ll be back,” Nen said as he headed off to a small copse of bushes to take care of some personal business.  “Don’t leave without me!” He laughed, indicating it was a joke. He had no fear of being left behind.

Sylralei had just mounted her steed when they heard a cry from the bushes.

“Rats!”

“A little stopped up?” Dalen chided back as he and Kris chuckled at the halfling’s supposed predicament.

“Let’s go!” Syl ordered, having returned to her previous state of impatience.  “You can hold it till the horses need another break.

“No!”  Nen called back as he burst out running from around the bushes, his hands holding up his pants.  “There’s rats!”

Chasing after him was a pack of seven giant rats.  Kris and Dalen quickly readied their weapons as Nen cry “Oh Go Away!”.  More than just an exclamation, they were the trigger words for one of the first spells he had ever learned. As if severely scolded, four of the oversized rodents stopped, turned tail, and ran back into the bushes.  Three, however, still ran after the halfling, nipping at the back of his legs. (2 Spite damage)

Chasing After Him Was Rats

<To see how successfully Nen cast Oh Go Away, I used house rules to “solofy” the spell. Each opponent has a dice pool of one die. Then, comparing the totals of each opponents INTELLIGENCE, LUCK, and CHARISMA, additional dice are added to the opponent with the highest result; the greater the difference, the more dice.  In this case, Nen added three dice for a total of four.  Both opponents roll their dice and compare the two highest die.  If the spellcaster’s die is higher, the opponent is turned.  I rolled for each rat and Nen was able to turn four.>

“Take That You Fiend!” Kris turned at the sound of Syl casting the powerful spell.  Instead of the confident, commanding wizard he expected to see, Kris thought he saw a touch of fear cross her face.  Could it be that her fear of mice has carried over to similar rodents? (See Kage Gordain, Chapter 2, Scene 3) Regardless, the elf remained on her mount and swatted with her staff at the one creature that jumped up at her. <In order to successfully attack the next round, she must make a L2 DEX SR with a +1 due to her Balance talent.  She succeeds.>

Nen sped past Dalen and Kris who intercepted the two rats chasing after him, quickly dispatching them with a few swift blows from their weapons.  Syl shrieked as the rat jumping at her as it took a bite of her leg. (1 Spite Damage) Hefting her staff like a spear, she drove it down and ran it straight through the critter’s head, the tip sticking into the ground.  As Syl pulled back on her staff, the rat began to rise with it before sliding off the pole and landing in a heap on the ground.

<The battle only lasted three rounds with the rats only landing a few spite points which were recorded above.  I awarded AP to the characters based on all the rats, including the ones that ran away.>

Dalen, Kris, and Syl turned to look at Nen, who had stopped running and was now cinching up and securing his trousers.  Satisfied his pants would stay, the halfling looked up to see everyone staring at him. The look he returned at first was questioning, wondering what the problem was. However, when he saw Syl raise a questioning eyebrow, he understood. In shame, the halfling dropped his head and looked at his feet.

Syl let out a deep sigh.  “Finish up behind that tree.  We’ll keep watch. But hurry up, we’ve got a long way to go.”

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1 Peter 4:9-10

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