DnD Update: On the Road to Brittania

Hey hey, folks HappyPariah here with another DnD Update.

Today we pick up where we left off last time. Archer is infiltrating the depths of the former Elven Stronghold of Traymosil. As he makes his way along the winding path that scales the entirety of the inside of the tree he finds no sign of any of the orcs that were supposed to be there. He returns to the group and they enter. However, their presence, and loud armor, alerts a patrol from far above. The group defeats the patrol and move up into an armory where Elijah finds a locked door that he opens using his Sound Burst spell to shatter the lock. Inside the group finds a book written in Elven and a small model ship. The group packs the items away and then continue. At the very top of the tree the party comes upon a pile of orc corpses and a single enormous orc in robes holding a staff. Elijah rushes forward only to be stopped by two orc zombies which are reduced to dust in no time. After a long fight with the orc necromancer, the group continues into a dining hall where they see the Elven Traitor and an Orc Boss. Elijah goes after the traitor while the others fight the Boss. The group defeats the Boss after an epic battle. Meanwhile, Elijah corners the Traitor, who reveals himself to be Elijah's father.  He explains that he didn't want Elijah growing up among the Elves, that they were overly indulgent and the only way he knew to stop them was to aid the orcs in their means. His father had helped the orc necromancer gain the strength he needed to fully resurrect Elijah's mother who had perished during child birth. Elijah would hear none of it and captured his father to turn over to the Elf survivors to punish as they saw fit. He told no one that the traitor was his father.

After leaving the forest of Elijah's past the group happened upon a boy laying on the road wrapped in a robe. Half of the boy's body was horribly burned. They took him into the shade of the trees and Elijah attempted to heal him, the boy's scars retreated into his eye and then they tied him to a tree. Fearing for his life the boy used his powers as an illusionist to send part of the group on a wild goose chase, ending in them accidentally tying two illusions to the same tree he was on, allowing him to slip out after they had disappeared. He was captured by Lohenngrin, the team's pet Pseudodragon and it's poisonous sting. Afterwards he was tied upside down and explained that his name was Artyom. The group attempted to beat information out of him but ultimately ended up cutting him loose. Artyom fell, but his hands and legs were still bound so he landed on his head and broke his neck. However, after he broke his neck the bindings on his hands and legs fell off, as if they were cut a while before that. As the group slept, Elijah, needing no sleep, kept watch on Artyom's body. Eventually the corpse stood up and asked Elijah to heal him. After some banter between a groggy Roland and Elijah, Elijah did heal his neck. But then the group threw him into a sack, leaving his head out to breathe, and tied him to their donkey named, Sir Gawain, who wears magical donkey boots that make it impossible for him to ever fall over. The next day the group let Artyom go, and he runs off into the forest.

The party then finds themselves at a small town. They are warned by the guard to leave immediately, but they refuse and get a room at the inn. After eating some extremely spicy food Archer opens the window and suddenly everyone but him and Elijah fall asleep. Elijah and Archer are then stuffed into bags and everyone is abducted. They find themselves shackled to each other and trees in front of a large altar. They are surrounded by people in robes. Samanosuke is the first to be taken up to the altar. Just as he is about to be sacrificed four figures in robes carrying large ceremonial weapons approach and the villagers run in fear. A fifth appears and tears Samanosuke off of the altar, dragging him off as the other four do the same with the rest of the party. After they had gotten sufficiently far away the four figures disappear, but the one with Samanosuke reveals itself to be Artyom who says to Samanosuke that they are even. As he walks off Roland asks Artyom to join them, as his skills would be of great use to them. Artyom agrees and, after a long and embarrassing stint through the town, involving criminal charges, brain aneurysms, and stakeouts, the group eventually decides to leave, as they are unable to root out the cultists. As they come upon a crossroad a caravan is passing by and the leader asks where they came from. Elijah mumbles something about the town with the cultists. The man looks around and says that there's no town near here. Artyom starts to laugh triumphantly, they had fallen for his trick again.

Afterwards they find themselves at the portal to the island of Brittania, Arturia's homeland, where her father was killed for advocating her Knighthood. Roland works with Arturia to make her look like a man then the group continues passed the outpost and into Brittania. On the other side they find a customs building that takes census of the group entering then sends them on carriage to the nearest city, a large one famous for it's markets. Elijah purchases 5 healing potions while Roland and Samanosuke attempt to swindle people out of their money buy tricking them into fighting Samanosuke. After the first challenger is defeated everyone shies away. The group returns to an inn, purchases a room, and goes to sleep, thus ending the exploits for the day.

And here is where we have left it. I hope you enjoyed this DnD Update. Next time we'll be avenging Arturia's father, and maybe even beginning our search for a crew to man our new boat.

Cheers,

HappyPariah

DnD Update: Pariah's DMing Failures

Welcome to another segment concerning my exploits in Dungeons and Dragons, aptly named DnD Update until I can think of a more snazzy name, pretty original huh?

I think since this is the first DnD Update I should start by describing our cast of characters before explaining what is happening.
First up is my character, Thorax the Dwarf Barbarian. He was excommunicated from his clan for breaking a sworn oath, he lived on his own for a long while, developing skills as a woodsman and hunter.
Next is Roland Durendall a human Marshal. Roland was born to a village of dragon worshipers and has always been a charismatic and likable person, which is likely the reason he is our leader.
Then we have Arturia Dragonbane. She is a human Fighter from the island of Brittania that left her homeland once Knighthood was denied to her based upon her gender. She is also the lover of Roland.
Next we come to Elijah Lightbane the elven Cleric. When Elijah was young his village was attacked by a warband of Orcs and most of his village was killed. Somehow he escaped and was raised by humans, thus his mannerisms and general attitude reflects humans much more than elves.
Our fifth member is Samanosuke Rylechi the human Monk. Samanosuke is from the eastern continent of the world but came to the west in search of his own path, as he has rejected the path of the solitary monk. His relationship with his master has been strenuous since his defection.
Lastly, is Archer the half-drow Soul Knife. Archer was a merchant who had the unfortunate luck of being stuck in an oasis village in the middle of a desert. When the group first met him they purchased some lightning lizards from him to aid a Shield Mage whose guardians had been ravaged by the desert winds.

Okay now we can get into what is currently going on.

After aiding Thorax to regain his place within his clan through diplomacy with the nearby Frost Giant kingdom, the group finds themselves heading south to the forest of Elijah's past. They were initially side-tracked when psycho-reactive spores from odd mushrooms caused them to hallucinate, but eventually they found their way to a refuge for the survivors of the attack. Even after all of this time the survivors were still as ragged as if they had been attacked yesterday. One elf called simply "Elder" told them the story of how the village fell due to a traitor allowing the Orcs access to the elf's greatest achievement, an impenetrable fortress magically built into a living tree. Elijah swore to bring the traitor to justice and to retake his people's land. The group was given a magical seed that was said to allow them entrance into the Traymosil, the Impenetrable Tree Fortress. Upon arrival to the base of the tree, Roland suggested that Archer, being the most dexterous and stealthy of the team, should scout inside of the tree. This is where the group now sits, awaiting the arrival of Archer's reports.

I hope you all enjoyed this little update, I know it had a lot of build-up to such a small update, but I really feel it was necessary to understand the different characters before I just started spewing out events to you.

Cheers,

HappyPariah