Riding high above a vapour wave pocket dimension, the PCs search for an exit, and find much more. One of the players used a satyr race as class character this session. I’ll post that sometime later this week.
Characters
Jassan Al` Nadir – Cleric 1 – A Dervish gentleman posing as a trader, known for dark whispers.
Tiaathque – Elf 1 – a mysterious elven warrioress.
Tych – Satyr 1 – the bravest young buck in the pocket dimension.
Later joined by –
Ithitus – Assassin 1 – A killer in the making.
Due to the players of Vahan and Chiron being unavailable they decided their characters would rest with the Satyrs whilst the other PCs rode out on Hippogriffs.
Jassan, Tiaathque, and their new satyr friend Tych, took the reigns of three hypogriffs and flew West. Keeping one hundred yards in the air, they followed one of the footpaths through the enchanted wood. Soon they came over a river bridge and were able to view the pagoda to the South. They came to a fork in the path and decided to go North, this was where they came upon a familiar sight; a three way crossroad with a skeleton hanging in a gibbet.
The party landed and asked the skeleton some questions. The skeleton told them he would answer three questions for every day that passed in the ‘real world.’ This time he wasn’t limited to yes/no questions. Only one of his answers would be truthful, but he wouldn’t tell which one was true.
Q1. Tiathque asked: What is the average flying speed of the unladen swallow?
A. 20.1 miles per hour!
Q2. Jassan asked: Which way does water flow?
A. Up!
The party then huddled together and tried to figure out what to ask next. There came a rustling in the foliage however, and eighty yards away a rider came blowing on a horn. He wore green garments, a stag skull atop his head, and carried a shield and a lance. He rushed towards them.
The battle was fast. Tych attempted to climb a tree, failing miserably. Tiaathque loosed two arrows, the rider dashed aside and avoided them. But it was Jassan with his mighty sling who felled the elf.
“Right where were we?”
Q3. Is the way home inside the mound of Herne the Hunter?
A. Yes!
The players had inferred that the first question about a swallows flying speeds was the one truthful answer, so now they assumed that the bronze doors leading home would not materialise there. They saddled up on their noble mounts and took to the air again, this time heading due West.
They’d only travelled for twenty minutes when they saw on the path below the set of bronze doors. Stood astride of the doors were four more off these mounted elven hunters.
“Look! They have taken the masters steeds!” One of them cried, pointing towards the party.
“I’m your master now!” Said Jassan, and the party began to dive bomb the elves with their mounts razor sharp claws.
Arrows were loosed, two elves died. Tych managed to swoop down within ten feet of the elves on the first round, but not close enough for contact. The elves failed their morale check and fled through the door. Beyond the portal was the dark catacomb Jassan recognised. Tych swooped in and his mount sunk its claws into a horse. With his spear the satyr felled another elf.
The remaining elf fled down into the catacomb. The party charged in after him, loosing arrows but none found purchase. The rider opened the second set of doors, which opened into the fragrant bathhouse filled with comely elven maidens. The maidens screamed as the rider dashed through to the next door.
The party reached the doorway leading to the bathhouse. Beyond this they saw the rider open another set of doors into the great hall of the King.
“Close the doors!” The party screamed, and they did so.
Jassan put his staff through the hand holds of the door to bar it. Someone tried to open it several times with a slam. Tych dashed towards the doors they had originally come through to attempt to find escape. It was getting very tense now. As Tych reached the other end of the room the doors burst inward. King Lazziar and his court stood there, furious.
“You! What are you doing out of your cage? Prey.” Said the king to the Satyr.
For Generations Tych’s kin had been hunted by this elf, and the blood rage rose up within with heart. He charged!
At the other end of the corridor Jassan and Tiaathque opened the doors. Lo and behold! It was the entrance foyer lined with a hundred sets of armour and weapons. They were home free.
Tych leapt at the King, drop kicking him with his hooves. The King chuckled like a dandy. Tych rolled back into one of the cemetery alcoves. Inside was the corpse of a beautiful elf Queen.
“Get away from her!” Lazziar screamed hysterically. The king strode forth with his sword and cut the satyr in twain.
Jassa and Tiaathque had got back into the saddle and were charging towards the exit. The doors slammed behind them. They took a second to grab a set of chainmail and a helmet. Then the doors blew in behind them and the King stood there in his emerald finery, splashed with the blood of his hunt.
“Dismount immediately!” He commanded.
“Hell no.” The party dashed towards the entrance, their mounts claws pushing the doors open, and they saw before them the fields of the vale. The sky was blue, not a hideous pink. They were outside the emerald citadel. They took to the sky, but heard the Elf King mutter an incantation, and looking over their shoulder they saw he was flying after them!
An hour of evasive manoeuvres allowed the party to escape him and make way to the local village of Ronton on Fie. Their arrival caused a commotion amongst the population, having a bunch of adventurers turn up on Hippogriffs was quite unordinary. Jassan unloaded the captured crowns of the dead Elf Kings and began bartering with them.
The party took a few days rest here. Selling the crowns, and burying much of their treasure in a nearby wood. In total the five crowns were worth 3,000 gp. All this money attracted an assassin named Ithitus to join the party.
All was not well however, because during the night there had been a raid by twelve mounted elves on the town. Thirteen peasant guardsmen had been slain. The town wanted to host a meeting, clearly the attacks had something to do with the party stealing from the elves.
This was a great time to scarper, and the party did exactly that, mounting their hippogriffs and making East.
Long ago they had received a quest to investigate the strange cult growing at the old elven temple of Omirion. This didn’t take long to find from the air. They saw the ancient temple atop a hill and a small village at the base of the hills.
Flying down to this village they were approached by many white toga wearing peasants. This place had a strange hippy feel to it, the women tried to coo and lure the character into taking off their armour and joining them for ‘pleasure untethered.’ The party refused. This caused a sort of hue and cry from the toga clad cultists. The party took off on their mounts into the hills. As they did so, they saw strange men with large hooked heads emerge form the huts.
Whilst traversing the air high above the hills they saw a fort.
Camping that night Jassan was awoken by a terrible figure looming over him. It was Niarchos, the retainer who had taken Gunther’s sword over twenty days ago. He stood, white as a sheet, his gurning mouth chocked with black blood. He raised a finger and pointed at Jassan.
What will happen next time?
Judges note: Quite a session really, the players managed to escape with quite a bit of treasure. Unfortunately some PCs are still inside the emerald citadel, we will see if they wish to try and escape via PbP.
This session marks the campaigns first level up, Jassan is now a level 2 cleric. The part also have three very well behaved hippogriffs, which could change the nature of the game significantly.
Maliks player is still engaged in PbP and is having quite an adventure on his own, this will be posted at some point in the future, perhaps when it reaches a conclusion.
I’ll post the satyr class later this week. I offered this to a player because it seemed a little off to keep having the party running into wandering PCs in what is effectively a prison. I made this using the ACKS players companion with a bit of janking. I tried to keep it as close to the AD&D monster stat as I could.
Posted at Dragonsfoot
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