Looking for D&D 3.5/ Palladium

[dffinley]

Yes. Looks good for tonight so far.

[glocness]

I'll there and as of now Josh says he'll make it as well.

[glocness]

The hounds picked up where they left off, fleeing the now occupied trog ruin for the safety of the kingdom of highwater and to bring the ill tidings of this monsterous invasion. Through skillful and vigorous interogation of our drow prisoner by the rogue and warlock, we have learned that our enemy numbers in the THOUSANDS, containing drow, orc, half orc, dwarf, hobgoblin, giant, troll, ogre and troglodyte factions with the possability of others as well. The Drakes have provided the key races in this hellish alliance with the magic we've seen thus far, all supplied through the grand visions of their lead, a hob goblin who call himself THE RED DRAGON. Their objective in the trog ruin was to recover a key which is said to unoock and area known as the dealands, so their leader and aquire an ancient artifact from the first king; this kings sword. Somehow this RED DRAGON has a plan to bring about the retun of the dragons to the land. All of his "allies" are conquered nations/factions pressed into service of his army and that the radical weather patterns that are occuring are the result of a combined channelling of roughly 50 casters at a time into this monsterous event....who just so happen to be gaurded by thousands of troops. Of some small note, the Red Drakes seemed to have mobilized and aquired their rappidly expanding power roughly 2 years ago. But, a ray of hope exists; the drow are not happy with their enslavement as they too were betrayed from within, denoting a patern of methodical and systematic planning. While seeking shelter from the unnatural weather in a swamp cave we discovered the commander of the first rescue mission, missing a leg and dying, alone. We tended his wounds and got him stable. The hounds proceeded out of the disgusting swamp, running into a band of friendly trogs along the way who had escaped the carnage of their former home ruin and eagerly joined out party after communicating with Ss'sl'thor and being fed by emergency rations from the ranger and the warlocks pack stores. Finally rid of the fould place, the hounds soon found some fresh water and got mercifully de-funkified, after which the band proceeded to the nearest town of Daverds Keep, a small walled in hovel of a place ran by a minor but pompus noble who kept his air of superiority untilthe hounds forced the nobles arrogant hand, allowing Commander Fang to exert royal authority by seizing command of the town. The town was ordered evacuated, booby-trapped and for the people to proceed to the Highwater capital while the band moves on to the next town, gathering and warning all allies of the impending doom that marches across the lands. Can the drow be turned against their masters? Can the giants be freed from their captivity in this encroaching army? How will the kingdom of Highwater survive this onslaught? What will it take to stem or turn the tide of fate in this ever foreboding war?
The band thus far: 35 troglodyte survivors (mostly females, most with eggs), 1 Troglodyte fighter (chieftains son), 1 goblin barbarian, 1 continuously hungry & frighteningly OMNIVEROUS troll berzerker (HIDE YOUR SHEEP, this thing puts a DRAGON to shame!!!), a 1 legged black hound commander from another squad (now on horseback), Commander Fangoran (acctually a General of Highwaters military forces and former SCREAMING LANCE member), The elven noble sorceress, a cleric, a samuri, a warlock, a rogue, a druid and a maenad ranger......and we wonder why no one invites us in for dinner!!!

Accomplishments:

successful lengthy interogation of drow prisoner
formulate potential plan to enlist the aid of inevetables to enforce a binding contract with the drow
kill 5 trolls
kill 2 drow lookouts
Rescue 1 more of the previous failed rescue party (6/10 found thus far)
Mobilized the people of Daverds Keep and laid traps for the oncoming army to stumble upon to pay for what they loot and destroy
Rescued, fed and escorted 35 friendly refugee troglodytes
Bait snotty noble into acting foolish enough to force Commander Fangoran to usurp his authority and order the evacuation of the town to the capital
Avoided shooting allies with eldritch blasts
No other friendly fire incidents, few wounds and no critical fails (everyone kept their feet this time!!!)
And no one got stabbed in the foot......it's a good day

What did the Rogue say to the troll?
"Hey ugly, hold these blades for me, IN YOUR BACK! HA!!!"

[dffinley]

Alright gents and lady, it's experience time!

3rd level characters got a little more because the cr xp for the trolls was a little different for them.

Josh's ranger +1150xp bonus:+200 for scouting and survival
Lurch's Warlock +950 bonus: +250 for treetop scouting and questioning a prisoner. (rescuing the elf noble Lady was awarded with session two xp)
Zyrb's Samurai +950 bonus +250 for protecting Noriko and sneaking Thunk the Goblin into Davard's Keep
Brian's Druid +950 bonus +300 for healing, fresh water, food, and handling a hungry troll
Noriko +1150 bonus +300 for healing, water and food purification, and caring for the wounded (Elisha) during battle
David's Rogue +950 bonus +250 for trap setting, scouting, and interacting with the prisoner
Thunk the Goblin +1150 bonus +150 for sneaking into Davard's keep and finding food
S Sl Thor +950 bonus + 600 for scouting, finding food, and assuming the burden of tribal leader over the troglodytes
Fang +600 bonus +100 for leadership tactics
Elisha Cauldwell +250 no bonus
Elsaril (elf) +950 bonus +50 for torching the trolls

[glocness]

Sweet! Ranger made level 4; he can now help out with spellcasting (I recomended he take entangle for his level 1 spell, swapping out as needed). If anyone can contact our rogue, please inform him that I got his character information transfered onto a new sheet and he's all caught up (lv 4) but also inform him that I screwed up his skill points and as such he no longer has the handle animal skill (at this time). Thanks guys, awesome group thus far!!!

And FYI, I volunteered to help the DM out by making "generic" monsters (the type we're typically facing from the enemy army). Some of these things will be packin a punch down the line folks.

[dffinley]

Tomorrow we pick back up at Davard's Keep with Sir Gregory and the bunch.

I'm assuming we'll meet at 4:30. Let's try to start sooner this time. Please have your characters ready to go at the beginning of the session. Waiting on everyone to iron out their paperwork has been pushing our start time ridiculously far back. There will be significant xp bonuses for those who are ready to play by the time I start.

[dffinley]

I've just started it and it is time consuming, but here's a early version of Highwater's map and some key locations, some of which you've been to, others are to come. The largest worded places are nations, the medium are provinces, and the small are cities or landmarks.

[glocness]

4:30 aye! Fang, my warlock, the rogue and joshs' ranger are all ready except for HP rolls.

[glocness]

THe hounds were delayed in their departing Davards keep as the pompus noble who ruled there was slain, and the last person seen with him was our very own commander Fangoran! The hounds quickly rallied and began searching for clues to this frame job (for is Fang had killed him, there'd have been two pieces to the corpse, not one). thanks to some quick thinking and handy magic work from our Druid, we were able to locate a secret passage that led under the keep to a secret room which had an escape route outside the keep. following the clues led us all the way into the lady of the keeps quarters where the druid and our barbarian distracted the serving maid while we search for clues, finding bloody jewelry and finger smears of blood all over in secret mini-compartments throughout the room. Once we presented the keep commander with the evidence, the maid rushed quickly away towards the memorial service, pursued by our rogue. She was able to reach the noble lady before we could stop her, but to our dismay, she bladed down the lady then gashed her own throat out! As it turns out, this noble was yet another Red Drake turn coat/sympathizer.....good riddance he's dead. Seems their pattern of having spies and turncoats every where has not faltered even in the kindom of highwater. We were able to save the lady with the last bit of our Druids healing magic while I went to secure the release of our commander. To my suprise, the exterior gaurds were dead and inside lay the bodies of 4 would be assassins, who obviously thought the commander easy pickings. I secured his release, rallied with the rest of the hounds and we all began the imediate and hasty departure of the town. While on the road, myself and the barbarian took the liberty of spending a few days with blessed assistance from the towns folk to craft a huge great axe for our ever hungry troll, the rogue kept his raport/interogation of the drow captive, and both our ranger and scout were out assisting the limited scouting parties of Daverds keep, aiding us in avoiding a 50+ element of bandits laying in wait. Now, the hounds are miles away from a bridge, which is gaurded by 100 hobgoblin troops (50 line men, 25 pikemen, 20 archers and 5 casters). We have ourselves, the troglodyte forces and the scant amount of Davards keep military to rely upon to get us through this upcoming battle. How will the hounds claim victory without decimating the little force we have? Can we take the path and keep ahead of other Red Drake forces that are sure to be in the area?

I have a plan, but timing is everything and we need to hope that the hobgoblins take what I offer them...and that the Davards keep folk have what little I need.........

[dffinley]

I'll try to have xp soon. It's a little trickier this time since there was no combat last session.

Unfortunately, we are not going to be able to meet this week. I have some commitments with work that I can't get out of. We will play a week from this coming Monday at 4:30pm, hopefully.