Session LIX: The End of the Beginning

For those of you who have kept up on this blog you may have noticed a complete lack of attention given to posting as of late.  In fact, I haven't posted in months - December to be accurate. Though I've been gaming a-plenty, I haven't had much to say on the topic these days.  I've been mostly playing board games with my group as we've been taking an extended break from our Swords & Wizardry campaign.  In fact, this post is months behind our last played session.  Call me a lazy sod, or lazy Sid if you prefer.  So here's the conclusion of our latest adventures which took place some time this past December.

Our Fearless Adventurers

1. Arg - Half-orc
2. Gnarly- Druid
3. Christopher - priest of Mithra
4. Maximus - Magic User
5. Skwanky - Halfling Warrior
6. Wolf - Viking
7. Thovin-Cleric 
8. Televon priest of Morpheus (via SKYPE)

So we picked up with the party recovering in the forest level of the tower preparing for their confrontation with the Fire giant above. As they make their final preparations Televon and two other warriors appear out of the woods sent by Baron Blackmoor to discover what has happened to our fearless explorers. 

So it was time to take on the Fire Giant.  Ascending to the next level of the magic tower, the party just launched into a full rush, with some running and some flying, at the giant while he tossed boulders at them knocking one of the red shirt warriors into the pools of fire.  Finally face to face with the Fire giant some hack and slash ensued with the party finally prevailing.

After looting the Giant they discovered that the 'stairs' upwards that they saw from across the room is nothing of the sort, just a pile of rock and iron.  The real entrance is a hole in the ceiling in the center of the chamber.  But this hole covered an area of reverse gravity and it took some time for Arg with his boots of flying and Skwanky's ring of feather falling, to transfer everyone up to the next chamber - which was an upside down tropical island in the middle of a salt filled sea.

Arg flew around the water filled chamber and discovered a hatch guarded by a number of Ixitxachitl.  After a battle with these creatures with Arg flying around stabbing them along with the Druid as an alligator with Skwanky on his back 'jousting' with them, they were finally able to get to the hatch, open it and climb into the final room of the tower, the chamber of the Soul Gem!

All crammed in the tunnel hatch, they discovered the body of Zadir the wizard lying on the floor, his body and belongings burnt white!  With ropes tossed, the body was pulled over to the party and Maximus recovered the Stygian's spell book!

Seeing white flashes coming from the gem, Arg, Wolf, Thovin, Skwanky and Gnarly charged the tower only to discover it was protected by a forcefield.  As they hacked away at it, there was a blinding flash and the souls of Thovin, Wolfheir and Arg were sucked into the gem, their burnt white bodies falling to the floor.  Skwanky, the halfling, who was also burned white did not have his soul sucked into the gem.

Gnarly the druid attempted to dispel the magic force-field and was able to do so, knocking the gem to the ground.  As Skwanky picked up the gem, the whole tower shook and quaked.  With the magic of the Soul Gem, the Heart of the Tower destroyed the magic tower crumbled and vanished leaving the remaining party standing in the courtyard of the merchant guild before the priests of the Black Church and Lord Blackmoor and his guards and soldiers.

The Priests of the Black Church wanted the Soul Gem as did Lord Blackmoor but Skwanky did not want to give it up.  So this is where things really went down hill, Skwanky, ran away with the Soul Gem, with the priests of the Black Church in pursuit along with Blackmoors guards.  They began to fight amongst themselves while the perused Skwanky leaped over the cliff and started to feather fall into the sea below.  Gnarly and the priests of the Black Church fighting to save and kill the halfling.  Blackmoor, meanwhile was in a hasty chase of the halfling, with his magic sword Blackrazor increasing his speed.  Seeing his companion in trouble, Televon cast a spell on the Baron freezing him to his spot.  Televon removed the magic sword from his hand but became possessed by the power of Blackrazor and killed Baron Blackmoor in cold blood.  Take note that Televon has been dressed in the garb of the Black Priests for quite some time.

So as Gnarly and Maximus lowered a rope to help Skwank (totally bleached white by the power of the gem), Televon kills the rest of Blackmoor's guards who rush up to avenge their fallen leader.

Now, the courtyard is filled with Blackmoor's soldiers, Freeswords waiting to get paid for the battle of Caladan, armored priests of the Black Church, armored priests of Mithra who all just saw Televon, a priest of Morpheus, dressed as a member of the Black Church, murder in cold blood Baron Blackmoor who was to declare his lordship over the land of Eir'ian.  At that moment, all present were turned against our party of adventurers - but that didn't last long...

Aaaand that is how we wrapped up this portion of the campaign.  As a DM I had planned on ending on a high note with a new king for the realm and a good ending point for an extended break to our sessions - a plateau so to speak.  Well, leave it to my players to really mess any plan I make.  In fact, where we get back to playing, maybe this summer, I'm not going to plan anything for any session.  It's all going to be total randomness with direction by the players.  So instead of a nice conclusion we now have:

1. Arg - Half-orc - Trapped within the Soul Gem
2. Wolf - Viking - Trapped within the Soul Gem
   
3. Thovin-Cleric - Trapped within the Soul Gem
   
4. Gnarly- Druid - came out fairly ok, just lost some of his mushroom-men
   
5. Maximus - Magic User - Finally has his hands on Zadir's spell book -  not bad
   
6. Skwanky - Halfling Warrior - Bleached white and implicated in the killing of Blackmoor
   
7. Televon priest of Morpheus - The murderer of Baron Blackmoor