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 Well, I’d say “gear up for another ‘Homebrewed,’” but truthfully, this session was relatively short, due to yours truly getting exhausted at about 9:30 PM, a mere 2 1/2 hours after we started playing.  Working overtime all week and then doing game on Friday night after work…yeah, it’s rough.  But if you remember the last game, we ended it by preparing to go to war with the Spruce Circle.  Well, really, Vueliss; some of the other druids are actually okay.  So this game, we witness the show down.

Briezen the 14^th

It really is too bad that I was so tired during this game, as this one was the game I had been looking forward to:  The confortation with Vueliss, head of the Spruce Circle, our very own General Dick.  As we prepare, Jim asks to see my spell list.  After glancing over it, he says Natalia’s little dragon head clasp is suggesting that Natalia swap out Cure Serious Wounds with Rusting Grasp.  Now, I understand swapping out the Cure Serious Wounds–my necklace allows me to swap out any spell for that level of a Cure spell, but I don’t get why I would bother with Rusting Grasp.  Nevertheless, I comply.

Iema, Natalia, and Corin get to Raelan’s, the agreed meeting place.  Julium is already there, along with his follower Jerth, atop a skinny black horse.  As for Julium, he is wearing shiny armor.  On it, there is a symbol of a skull with a knife through it.  Jim says that we recognize it as the symbol of the Numbraran emperor–and only the emperor can wear it, under the penalty of death.

Julium sure as hell knows how to make a statement.

As we approach, Julium greets us and tosses Iema a cloak.  Iema examines it and recognizes that the images on it symbolize him as the messenger.  Remembering what pissed people tend to do to messengers, he gulps nervously, but he puts the cloak on.

“You’re the messenger,” Julium says, in case we didn’t catch on.

“All right,” Iema says, “but what’s the message?”

“This.”  Julium reaches for a bag and tosses it at Iema.  “That’s the message.”

Out of character, Phil tells Jim that he accepts it, but he’s not looking inside.  Good call.  Because, while it’s probably obvious to all of us what that message probably is, it’s still pretty gross.

It’s time to get going.  Since Natalia is the one most familiar with the Spruce Circle, she morphs into a horse and leads everyone to their territory.  Iema is nervous when she gets to a river  because he can’t swim.  When he looks again, she appears to be walking across the water.  He realizes that she’s taking them across a secret, invisible bridge that she and the other druids know about.  He relaxes.

We cross the river, and finally, we get to Spruce Circle territory.  There are lots of druids around.  They’re all around us, even some hanging in the trees.  Everyone falls to a hush as we approach.  Natalia reverts back to her human form.  In the back, she spots Vueliss (boo hiss), his asshole son Iverrios (who looks MIGHTY pissed), and Nieniemao, the red-skinned elf that Natalia, despite her distrust of elves, grudgingly has to admit she likes.  And there is another druid that Natalia hasn’t seen in a long time, since back when we first started:  Virbéné, the very first druid I ever met, the half-elf druid who hung out with the gnome Rosco, the one I called “Creepy Lady.”

I wonder what happened to Rosco?

Vueliss points at us.  “Kill them!”

“No,” Nieniemao is quick to step in.  “We are not going to kill a bard, especially one that has a message.”

Vueliss isn’t happy about it, but he gives in.  As Jim has told us before, bards are very highly regarded in Valt.  Even though Natalia is a druid, Iema would probably be considered more highly than she would be.  Notice that Julium didn’t give her the message?

(Probably doesn’t help that Natalia isn’t very subtle about her dislike for Vueliss, either, OR his son.)

Iema starts forward.  He gets about halfway between us and them before Vueliss stops him.  “That’s far enough,” he says.  “The message…take it out of the bag and show it.”

I don’t think Iema, suspecting what was in the bag, was too keen on having to reach in and pull it out, but he complies.  Phil tells us that Iema still doesn’t even look in the bag.  He just pulls the object out.

Jim confirms what we suspect:  “It’s an elven head.”

I’m secretly glad that Natalia doesn’t have to do this.

Phil says that, as Iema, he is very gentle with the head, still trying to show it respect.  See, this is why Phil is a better bard than I would ever be: I imagine Natlaia whipping it out carelessly, trying to use it as a sock puppet, speaking in a Cookie Monster voice the entire time.

So Iema gingerly handles the head.  The head turns to Vueless and the eyes snap open.  Suddenly, the elven head speaks–in Julium’s voice.

And this part is so awesome, I have to put it in a quotation box!

Vueliss of the Spruce Circle!  Some time ago, you gave me a choice: either withdraw all of my people and dismantle our buildings, or you would wage war upon us.

So in return, I give YOU an offer.  Surrender to me, or be destroyed.

If we do not have your surrender within the next minute, I shall march upon this forest with every man at my disposal.  We will level every tree, and march with engines of war built from your very homes.  We shall slay every creature of the forest, and use them to feed our troops.  Our battle standards will be painted upon canvases of your skin, flayed from you and your children.

I am engaged in a war against other forces, and can ill afford to have another enemy at my back.  Drop your weapons, withdraw your forces, and surrender to the rightful Emperor of Numbrar.

Upon hearing this, Vueliss grows pale.  This is the first I’ve ever heard of Vueliss being scared.

Virbéné starts to reach for her pouch, but she doesn’t get a chance.  Nieniemao springs on her and slits her throat.  He whips around.  “NOW!”

What does “now” mean to us?  Why, DRUID ON DRUID ACTION, THAT’S WHAT.  It’s a civil war!  All the druids in the Spruce Circle start attacking each other!  Apparently, Natalia wasn’t the only one of the Circle who was unhappy and frustrated with its leader’s evil leanings.  She’s as excited to be watching the druid on druid action as much as a school boy is to watch actual girl on girl.  Except, you know, without the Catholic guilt or the mess, heh.

We roll for initiative.  I think Jim’s happy because I’m ready with my dice, excitedly saying THIS IS WHAT I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR, I WANNA KILL VUELISS AND IVERRIOS!

Sadly, I don’t remember the order of our initiatives.  I doubt I went first, as Natalia’s initiative bonus is only a 1.  Personally, I think there should be certain scenarios in D&D where, if the player gets to a scene that their character has been DYING to get to–in this case, Natalia finally gets to openly attack the evil Spruce Circle members–then there should be, like, a temporary initiative bonus.  I mean, really, she’s been itching to kill this guy, then she gets her golden opportunity–and she hangs back just because I happen to roll lousy?  That doesn’t make sense to me.

But what do I know?

The first thing Natalia does do when it comes to her turn, though, is cast Barkskin on Corin.  I’ve been trying to remember to keep defensive skills on my list for the kid.  Another one I like to keep on my list is Invisibility to Animals, figuring that should we run a situation where animals are the bad guys, that would at least save Iema’s Invisibility spell.  Speaking of which, Iema casts Invisibility on Corin, in attempts to keep the kid a little safer in the ruckus.  Handy little spell; Natalia wishes she had it herself sometimes.  Although, honestly, given how I run my character, it wouldn’t suit her anyway.  This is one aspect where Natalia isn’t like me:  She doesn’t talk much (which, okay, is more like me), but damn, does she enjoy a fight.

Julium decides it’s time to jump into action himself.  “IMPERIUS REX!” he yells, whipping out a sword, lightning bolts crackling from it.  Iema rushes over to Julium and quickly casts Haste on the emperor before casting Invisibility on himself.  Jerth steps back behind Beta and seems to disappear.

Jim tells us that suddenly, it seems like the world around us has grown black.  Being that I’ve never experienced this before, I’m confused; I’m even more confused when Phil, getting suspicious, starts muttering, “Oh, no…”

Out of character, I wonder what’s so bad that it’s getting Phil worried.  In character, something rustles in the darkness, attempts to hit Iema–not that Natalia can see this–but she does feel something whack her for a good 10 points of damage.

I am not quick thinking; therefore, neither is my druid.  I’m utterly confused by why everything went black.  Jim ever so politely suggests that I could try getting out of it.  Get out of it? I think.  This seems absurd.  Didn’t he just TELL me that the world went black?

Well, turns out he didn’t mean literally.

I take his suggestion.  I move Natalia her standard move action on the battlemap (30 feet) and tell Jim that Natalia calls Beta out with her.

“You see a dome of blackness where the battle was,” Jim says.

This is where Phil gets animated.  “I KNEW IT.  I KNEW IT.  I KNEW THAT FUCKER VUELISS WAS DEALING WITH DROW!”

Oh.  Shit.  Now, I don’t know a whole lot about drow.  But when Jim and I first started dating, he bought me Homeland, so pretty much, everything I know comes from that book.  And what I know is this: Drow are evil, evil, evil.

But I don’t know much beyond that.  That’s going to bite me in the ass in the next game.  You’ll see.

Meanwhile, Jim says that although Natalia has stepped out of the darkness, the dome moves over and engulfs her again.  There are now two domes of darkness on the field.  In the other dome, where I know that they have both darkness AND silence going on (I’m not sure about the one I’m in), Iema gets hit and takes 20 points of damage.  Feeling desperate, Natalia blindly casts Entangle, hoping the area of effect spell with catch some bad guys in it.  And, yeah, while it slowed things somewhat, it also proved not to be the best idea I’ve ever had, either.  Why?  Well, for one, some good guys got caught in it, too.

Case in point: Julium, the Numbraran Emperor himself.  Jim-as-Julium rolled crappily for him, and Julium ended up stuck in Entangle for a while.

At first, Natalia and Beta are about the only ones who make their reflex saves and stay out of the Entangle.  Luckily, even though it’s dark, Beta can sniff out the bad guys, pinpoints one, tries to attack but misses.  Corin can’t help because he’s stuck.  Iema, I believe, is also stuck, and Phil rolls his ever-so-useful bardic knowledge (at least, I think it was bardic knowledge) to see if he could figure out why he’s caught.  Phil rolls well, so Iema identifies it as Entangle.  So he knows at least it’s one of Natalia’s spells.

One of the bad guys breaks out in Iema’s Dome of Doom.  Iema feels blood spray on his face, but he doesn’t know if it’s one of ours or one of theirs.  Phil says, “If this is drow blood, I’m licking my face.”

And this is how I found out that Phil really, REALLY hates drow.  Because that’s a pretty gross thing to say and, my guess?  You’d only say it if you really hated someone.

Or if you’re some kind of creepy stalker.  Which, you know, Phil isn’t.  Although if he wants to be a creepy drow-stalker, he can be my guest, because between this game and the next, I’m growing to hate drow with a vengeance myself.

Again, you’ll find out.  Meanwhile: Back to this game.

Natalia’s done screwing around.  She turns into a brown bear.  Sadly, she’s got a little more time to screw around because that pretty much uses her turn.

Beta attacks the guy he’s sniffed out again, bites, and manages to trip the enemy.  Score!  Julium, however, is still trying to get out of the Entangle.  Natalia and Beta attack, but with the darkness factored in, we’re not doing so hot and we miss.  Iema manages to wriggle out of the Entangle, but between walking over the vines and the darkness around him, he’s slowed to a quarter of his normal speed and can’t go far.

More reflex saves, more people Entangled:  Julium and Corin still, and now Beta and Jerth.

Natalia is still out and finally manages to get a swipe in on somebody.  So she’s happy about that.

Further away, Iema has managed to drag himself out far enough away to realize he can hear again.  He moves further away and surveys the situation.  He sees ahead of him two globes of darkness, one of them appears to be centered on the square Natalia’s in, almost as if something has been planted on her.

Back in the Dome of Doom, Jim rolls for Julium again to see if he manages to get out of the Entangled.  He does!  Then I roll.  Nat 1 on both my attack AND my reflex save, which means I’m caught in my own Entangle.  How embarrassing.

Iema can feel someone draw a bow back nearby, but he doesn’t see them.  He’s hit.  The arrow, turns out, does Con damage.  He’s at a -9 now.  He does a face-plant on the ground.

Natalia isn’t having much luck.  Thankfully, Julium is out of the Entangle and smarter than I am.  He does something with his sword–Natalia misses it and Spring-the-player didn’t catch it, either–but suddenly, it seems as if all the magic has been sucked into the weapon.  Natalia looks over and spots Iema, facedown on the ground, arrow in his neck.  It’s obvious that Jerth did it, presumably on accident due to the dark.

Presumably.  Not sure if I mentioned this, but neither Natalia nor myself trust Jerth a bit.

Besides Iema on the ground, we also see two dead drow.  And although we can at least see, we still can’t hear.  We move out of the area.  Nearby, the druids are still having their own battle.  Nieniemao is busy fighting Vueliss.  Jim says at this point, they’re not even using spells anymore.  I don’t know why.  Maybe they blew them all earlier.  But now, Vueliss and Nieniemao are down to fists, just beating the hell out of each other.

Elves or not, underneath it all, they’re still just men I guess, heh.

We hear booming footsteps and turn to see a forest giant running toward us.  I think Natalia peed her pants a little.  As luck would have it, Aquaeous drops down from a tree, slimes it, and it drops .  The Ooze Master is gleeful, sliming all his enemies in his path.  Many start clawing at their faces, trying unsuccessfully to get the slime off.  And let me tell you, the results are not pretty.  One of them gets crazy enough to stab himself in the eye.

Natalia is secretly grateful that while most of the other druids ostracized Aquaeous, she was nice to him.  She wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of that slime.

Ahead, Natalia sees a dire bear.  We wonder if she’s gonna have to fight him, but as it turns out, she doesn’t have to–Big Shroom bursts out and attacks him.  Did you guys know that fungi could be all B.A.?  Because I sure as hell didn’t.  Around Big Shroom, smaller myconid archers are peppering baddies with bows.

Gury–remember Gury, the old, naked guy?–runs up to us.  You’d think given our scenario, he’d be wearing gear, but nope, he’s still naked, just covered with mud.  “Hey, what’s up?” he says cheefully.  He sees Iema’s injured, heals him up entirely, and jaunts off to join the battle.

We don’t have much time.  An elf that looks remarkably like Iverrios comes storming toward us.  Jim says we’d guess him to be Iverrios’s brother, yet another son of Vueliss.  Julium quickly charges him, Jerth close behind, firing arrows at the doppleganger.

The lookalike does a curious thing: He drops his mouth, way lower than any elf’s should be able to go, like a lizard’s, and splays scaled fingers.  Phil calls it immediately: “A half-dragon?”

I’ve no clue what a half-dragon is, so Jim and Phil quickly explain it to me before we get back into the fight.  God, how many kids does Vueliss have?  Man, that elf is a slut.

Natalia jumps into the battle, misses, and then Beta gets a bite in.  Iema, remembering that the myconids had given us potions, quickly downs a potion that protects him from the elements.  Turns out it was a moot point, as Julium and Jerth together brought the half-dragon down quickly.

There’s a small break in the waves of baddies, and Natalia uses the time to put a rushed heal on Jerth.  Once done, we turn to see that the crowd has parted.  Iverrios is standing there, looking smug.  I don’t know why, since Julium and Jerth just totally bitch-slapped his way badder-looking brother.

Iverrias casts Flame Strike on us.  He pointedly laughs at Natalia.  “You think you control nature?” he howls.  “I control nature!”

Leopards and wolves bound away from their druid, quickly surrounding Natalia and Julium.  Julium shakes off one leopard, stabs it in the neck, and then turns to elbow a wolf back.  Beta kills another leopard.  Natalia starts summoning a dire lion.  Iverrios tries to counter-spell her summon, but luckily, he fails, and I got me a mighty big cat on the loose.

During all this–I don’t know when–Iema started singing one of his bardic songs.  The nice thing about bards:  They add to stuff, so we’re all doing extra damage in the fight.  Iverrios gets pissed and starts frothing.  This is when we realize that Iverrios isn’t just a druid–he’s actually raging.  Uh oh.

He turns into an even bigger bear than Natalia can ever hope to be, I’m afraid.  Sure, she’ll get Dire Bear next level, but even with that, it’s dependent on your actual size, and, well, Iverrios is just bigger.  The group is still trying to clear out Iverrios’s pets: Beta takes out a wolf near Jerth and the summoned dire lion kills another leopard.  The dire lion is now flanking with Natalia, but sadly, she misses.  Iverrios, spotting Iema nearby, attacks the bard, knocking Iema down half his hit points.

Julium then swings in on Iverrios.  The frothing druid, sensing that Julium is probably the real threat around here, turns his attention from Iema to the fighter claiming to be emperor.  On Natalia’s go, she misses the leopard RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER (how annoying) while Beta jumps in to help Julium with Iverrios.  Natalia sends the dire lion to assist on the evil-druid-gone-dire-bear, and holy shit, even though the dire lion did 60+ damage, it STILL didn’t take Iverrios down.  Iverrios, however, did manage to kill my dire lion.  I wasn’t thrilled about that, I must admit.

Before I can swear vengeance, Julium, Jerth, and Beta take Iverrios down.  I’m disappointed that Natalia didn’t get a piece of him herself, but I’m glad that Beta’s the one who did the final blow to that asshole.

Then Julium does something just nasty.  He gathers the two brothers, Iverrios and that unnamed half-dragon we “met,” from the ground, and spears their heads on his greatsword.  He lifts it up.  Around us is still pandemonium.  Alpen, the child druid, and his gray render Licky are nearby, along with Big Shroom, and they’re lifting stone statues and bashing bad guys with them.  (Well, Alpen isn’t, but Licky’s doing it for him.)  Despite our victory, we’re still surrounding by lions, eagles, and other various animals fighting each other.  There’s also what feels like a light acid rain falling, stinging our skin.

The elves are starting to scatter, though, and the evil members are trying to escape.  They run toward something, as if they’ve found a way out, then they slide, stumble, and lose their way.  We hear giggling.  Jim hints that it’s some fairy creatures’ doing.

I remember meeting the insect guy at the mage fair, the one trying to sell that instrument to Iema, and how he had warned Natalia that the fairy folk were getting sick of Vueliss bossing them around.  HMMM.  Allies I had completely forgotten about.

Virbéné makes another appearance here.  We thought she had died when Nieniemao slit her throat, but apparently, she survived it.  “We surrender, we surrender,” she says desperately. 

I actually feel sorry for her. 

Julium, however, doesn’t.  He kills her outright, and she crumples to the ground.  “Too late,” Julium says.  “No mercy.”

Natalia, for a moment, just looks at Julium, rolling that over in her mind.  Julium’s her friend, but…she doesn’t like this “no mercy” stuff.  Which, again, as you’ll see in the next game, will bite us in the ass…

Regardless, Natalia bites her tongue and after about 20 minutes, the fighting dissipates.  The battle is over.

Iema, Corin, and Natalia must have gotten separated from Julium somehow, but Jerth seeks them out, telling them that Julium wants to meet with them.  We group up with him, go to the Circle, where Nieniemao is now in the lead’s chair, where Vueliss used to sit.  Nieniemao, we notice, has lost a hand during battle.

Julium stands in front of the new druid leader.

“Vueliss escaped,” Nieniemao says.  “We knew about some of the stuff he was doing that we didn’t like, but even we had no idea that he was consorting with drow.”

Iema speaks up and tells Nieniemao about the “other brother.”  When Nieniemao looks at him questioningly, Iema describes the half-dragon.

“What kind?” he asks.

Jim reminds me that Natalia saw a resemblence between him and the black dragon that she had fought before.   She tells Nieniemao.  He shakes his head in disbelief.

Iema suggests showing Nieniemao the body.  “Did Beta already bury it?” he asks.

Almost as if on cue, Beta turns very suddenly and trots away.  We assume he’s getting the body, but when he doesn’t come back soon, we realize we’re wrong.

“Where’d he go?”  Iema asks.

“I don’t know,” Natalia says.  Beta doesn’t come back.

There’s a bit of clean-up going on around us.  Despite all the carnage, there are few bodies around us, a Aquaeous’s slime and ooze-things are taking care of it.  We see Aquaeous himself, petting a gelatinous cube containing prisoners.  The prisoners are frozen inside the gelantinous cube, faces contorted in horror.  Faces that, I might add, are dissolving.

“Good cube, good cube,” Aquaeous says lovingly.  He licks it.

Okay, he really is a messed up little guy.

Nieniemao and Julium get down to business.  Nieniemao says he won’t help Julium, but unlike Vueliss, he’s not going to hinder the fighter’s war efforts either.  Julium seems to think this is fair; I don’t think he actually expected druids (except Natalia) to help him, anyway.  But just having them not attack him and his men from the woods helps tremendously.

“Very well,” Julium says.  “But I have to leave now.  I have a diplomat to save.”  He turns from Nieniemao, huddling with those of us who will go with him.

He quickly lays it out for us:  The kidnapped diplomat was snatched by the Lord  Polsen Numbra, the same one who defeated Jovos 20 years ago.  I was surprised by this information.  Someone who took on Jovos is running around kidnapping people?  HUH.  We also learn that Lord Polsen Numbra had come in through Derikkol right around the time of the mage fair, so he could try to take over the hobgoblin fortress of Kugai and stop Julium.

Things start to click:  We now know why Jovos left the mage fair in such a hurry.

Julium says we have two options:  Go to Kugai where they’re holding him tonight, when they’re not quite prepared yet, or to go in the morning, when they will be.  We opted to push on for the night.  Sure, we’re down spells, too, but at least we’ll have the element of surprise.

Before we leave, we turn to spot Tango, wolf-turned-centaur and Beta’s former lover, talking to Nieniemao.

“Oh,” Natalia murmurs.  Suddenly, Beta’s leaving makes sense.  Poor Beta.

Iema, being the friendly one, greets Tango.  Natalia still has mixed feelings, torn loyalties between Beta and Tango.  I imagine it’s what divorced kids feel like with their parents.  Tango greets us both, but I notice she doesn’t ask about Beta or their pups.

I’m a little bitter about that.  I cannot lie.

As it turns out, being a former wolf makes Tango a bit of an outsider to the centaur that she now lives with.  As such, she has been serving as the liason between them and the druids.  The centaur sided with the fairy creatures to help drive out the evil druid.

Nieniemao turns to Natalia.  “Natalia, do you plan on staying with the Spruce Circle?”  he asks. 

Natalia doesn’t even think twice.  “I wasn’t going to, but if you’re in charge, yeah, I’ll stay.”  Then she pauses.  “That doesn’t mean I can’t go help Julium, does it?”

“No,” Nieniemao says.  “If you choose to help Julium, that’s your decision and we will honor it.  That’s what a druid circle is supposed to do.”

Natalia nods.  “Then, yeah, I’ll stick around.  But I’m going to help him.”

So it’s all arranged.  We heal up and, while it’s still dark, creep toward Kugai.

Note:  Special thanks to Jim for writing up Julium’s counter-demand to Vueliss, so I could post it.  I remembered it was impressive and wanted to have it written here, as close as possible to what Jim actually said in game, but knew I would never remember it right.  So…thanks, Jim!

Tags: dork training, first D&D game, gaming, homebrew D&D, Homebrewed

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 15th, 2010 at 8:31 pm and is filed under Geekdom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.