As mysterious deaths continued in the city of Caladan, our fearless party decided to try to hunt this so-called vampire down as 'she' stalked her prey.
Before they leave for the darkened streets of Caladan, however, Slick Vinny had identified the mysterious Cat's Eye crystal that they had hauled out from the basements beneath the tower. It turned out that it was crystal ball of sorts used to communicate with Kushana, the witch-queen of the Southern Empire.
Thinking it best to keep this magic item under wraps (and away from a particular curious halfing), Vinny covered the 'Eye of Zenopus' and joined the party heading into Caladan.
Arvin's Avengers decided to stalk the southern district on their first night out. Wolfheir would be the 'bait', Tibag would be hiding in the shadows keeping an eye out for him while Vinny turned the rest of the party invisible (except for Skwanky, he wore his newly found ring of invisibility).
No sign of mischief that first evening though a dead body was discovered the next morning in the northern district.
The next evening Adessa would be the 'bait' while being watched by the others.
As the night progressed, Adessa was accosted by two drunken hooligans. Leading them on, the Amazon escorted them into a dark alley. The two tried to have their way with Adessa who fought back. Skwanky appeared out of nowhere and stabbed one of the drunkards in the back, killing him. The other, seeing the halfling appear out of thin air, tried to high-tail it out of the alley but was shot dead by Tibag's arrows.
In the morning, the town guards found the dead bodies with Tibag and Adessa. After a pathetic round of questioning the guards let the two murderers go but they were forbidden from entering Caladan.
So no vampire but two dead thugs and another dead body drained of blood in the northern district.
So on the third night, the party decided to try their luck on the north side. After having some trouble at the entrance to Caladan, the party worked their way up to the north side using the same plan they used on the first night with Wolheir posing as a drunken derelict.
As the night progressed, the fog rolled in from the sea. Standing in an alley, the viking felt an odd sensation pass over him. Not knowing quite what had happened, Wolf became more alert and soon spied a shadowy shape approach. As the figure came closer, Wolfheir saw that it was a woman wearing a red cloak. The woman stepped up to the Viking and asked if he wanted to spend the night together.
It was at this point that the party discovered that though they had a plan on
stalking the murderer they really didn't have any plan on how to deal with her once they found her. After trying to alert his companions of his suspicions, Wolfheir decided to rip his ragged, alcohol drenched cloak off to reveal the garlic around his neck and try to grab this woman. At the surprise movement, the woman hissed baring her pointed fangs at the viking before easily breaking away. At that point, Tibag stepped up behind the woman and stabbed her in the back. Maudlin flung her dwarven war-hammer at the witchy-woman who easily dodged the famed weapon. She then turned to face Tibag and after giving a snarl turned into a green mist and quickly floated off towards the south.
The entire party was stunned at what they had just witnessed. They still weren't sure if that was indeed Zenopus but the evidence was almost undeniable. They all seemed a bit dismayed and wondered how to kill a being that can disappear into a mist.
After some debate, it was thought that it would be best to pursue this creature to her lair and kill her and that meant going back beneath the tower.
So Arvin's Avengers high-tailed it out of town and back to the tower. On the way they found their night-guard, Ozark had been slain - his body drained of blood!
Entering the ground floor of the Moon-tower they found the bodies of Profia and Baradund drained as well.
Hearing the hatch above beginning to open, Adessa ascended the stairs only to find a bleary-eyed Televon and Gnarly who had spent too much time with the Moon-milk!
While Televon and Gnarly sobered up, the rest of the part descended the stairs into the Underworld once again. This time, as they entered the second level caves beneath the tower they noticed a thin layer of green mist hugging the corners of the passageways.
Following the tunnels the soon descended down into the lower levels and back to the chamber where they had fought the Purple Worm. Continuing north they discovered a number of passages and chambers. In one chamber there was only a single small shiny apple in the center of the room. Thinking it best to leave that apple be they turned to walk back up the passage. Skwanky slipped on his ring of invisibility and dashed back into the chamber to devour the apple. As the apple was eaten the party saw that the piece of fruit slowly rose into the air. The halfling removed his ring to reveal that by eating the apple he had grown twice his normal height! Skwanky was now an eight foot halfling!
Continuing down a passageway Arvin's Avengers entered a comfortably furnished chamber. As they explored further they found a second wing to the room which was an exact mirror to the room they were in, right down to the rungs on the floor and the comfortable chairs around the room. They pondered what this meant…..
I picked up these guys with about 50 other minis for $5 at a yard sale!
I like using the black and white images as I feel that it doesn't distract at the table. The black and white stands out enough for one to see what it is without having to focus on it. Black and white, IMO, lends itself open to one's imagination.
I bet these guys are thinking they should have stayed in the tavern!
Cheap hoards
Last weekend was a cold wet weekend here in Tucson (relatively speaking to those of you in the mid-west and the east) and probably the last nasty day until maybe next December or January. Lucky us, here in the southwest.
Over the holidays I picked up all my players minis of their characters from Reaper Miniatures (or in some cases dead characters) in the hopes that we may use minis more in play (yet to happen). Christy received a female dwarf warrior.
Good times with the best of company! What a way to spend a rainy weekend with the wife, no?
You can pick up the pdf version of Tales of High Adventure, our first pulp style magazine. Yes, I know pdf and pulp is really a contradiction in terms but we're not bound by convention, right? Sorry, the print version is being sold through ComiXpress so no discounts there as of yet. But if one comes up, I'll let you know.
Also check out the new issue of Knockspell #5 from Mythmere games as well as his compilation books.
There's also tons of great stuff that I'm sure you've been putting off picking up but now there's no excuse!
Tales of High Adventure, the book of pulp style adventure stores in both prose and illustrated yarns is now available as a pdf download! 52 thrilling pages for only $4 for either the print version or the pdf version.
