Vigilante Game Four: Multiplying Electrified Direbears

Finally, we appear to have a stable group of adventurers! Martin the Glaive Fighter, June the Monk, Alvin the Necromancer, Oranoak the Dwarven Cleric, Berrian the Drow Assassin, Snowpest the Halfling Ranger and Ereden, a bard of many talents! I lied we lost half of the group in the following game. Ha.

We continued from where we ended in our last game, we arose after a long rest in the sand covered room. Examining the room more closely, we discovered a book with runes on the cover. Unfortunately, the pages were blank and we were not able to figure anything else out about it. Suddenly a noise came from the passage above! A fresh looking adventurer stumbled into the room looking anxious and cautious. Seeing us his persona changed and he walked over. Introducing himself as Ereden, the Bard. He had been sent by the captain of the guard to help with our investigation of the tower. We welcomed him and showed him the book we came across. Surprising all of us he could read the runes on the cover! He said they translated to “Metal Death.” The rune was draconic and instantly the Bard became obsessed with the book. So… of course Martin kept it. Berrian examined the room more closely and told us he believed the room showed signs of explosions, a lot of them. He also believed a secret door was located behind a cabinet. Pointing to what appeared to be a small crack behind the cabinets on the northern wall. Martin walked up to it and Knocked (22 strength check) and blew the door open.

A stone passageway leading down lay before us. Ordering ourselves with the rogue at the front and the party members blind to the dark in the center, we descended into darkness. It just kept going… we wandered around for what seemed like hours. Ereden finally chimed in, “this… feels wrong. I believe something magical is causing us to walk this passage.” So Martin did the only logical thing and put his hand through the wall. “Well, that’s odd.” This lead Berrian to hop through the wall, revealing a massive hall, the walls were covered in glowing green torches, stalagmites and stalactites rising and falling making the cavern appear to have massive column surrounding it. The rest of the party followed through the not-wall. Looking around we soon heard what seemed to be thousands of tiny clicks from above us. Looking up we all saw what was making that noise… hundreds of tiny little scarabs were crawling down the walls in our direction!

Without much thought, we all began throwing any kind of fire down in front of us to cut off the scarabs. We successfully dispatched them after a few rounds of combat, only to have another swarm appear above us. We ran for a passageway throwing down torches behind us. Catching our breath, Ereden turned to me:

Ereden: “Hey, give me that book.”

Martin: “Now? Aren’t we running for our lives?”

Ereden: “I think it will help us! Give it to me now!”

Martin: “If you’re going to be sassy about it I don’t see why I should do anything!”

Martin continued to run down the passageway… darkness crept around him as he distanced himself from the torches... He tripped falling into knee deep water. Sputtering, he stood up looking around, rubbing his knees from the fall. “Guys, it's wet and dark and I may have gotten the book wet.”

Ereden: “Did you really just get the book wet…”

Martin: “Nah, I’m just fucking with ya.” As he tossed Ereden the book.

Ereden produced one of the scarabs we had destroyed, showing us the scarab was made of metal and had a similar rune on it to the book.

Martin: “Guys! A clue! I guess we should have listened to you earlier… but that would have made way too much sense.”

Looking around what appeared to be some kind of sewer system, we followed the moving water and came to a series of waterfalls turning on and off in what seemed to be a random order. Snowpest told us sharply to be quiet, she turned back down the way we came listening closely. “We are not alone” Metallic footsteps began to echo down the corridor towards us. We believed it to be four different steps echoing in the hallway… wait... maybe we were wrong? Was it two? I swear I heard four just now…. That’s when Berrian let out a gasp of pain. Turning to him we saw his now hunched figure, a smaller vine covered metal halfling with a rune glowing brightly on its forehead smiled over him.

Oranoak: “Oh crap.”

Ereden: “Wait, there is no need for combat! We have no wish to fight you!” The creature in a raspy voice said, “You have invaded our home. None may leave knowing our secrets..”

Snowpest let loose an arrow as Oranoak shot a blast of energy at the creature, knocking it into the water. June and Martin turned back down the hallway to face the footsteps that still echoed through the passageway. A large figure carrying an even larger club roared at us. June flipped to the other side of the waterway and charged it. An arrow flew past Martin coming from farther back the passageway. Another vine covered halfling was hunched down drawing another arrow. Martin charged it glaive in hand yelling, “It’s time for a bit of the rough and tumble!” Swinging the glaive into the creature's side ripping away vines and pieces of metal. June let loose a flurry of blows upon the larger creature, also covered in vines, the blows seemed to be working. From behind her a blast of electrical energy escaped Oranoak’s hand and collided with the figure towering above June. It stumbled and bellowed, then straightened and swung its massive club down on her. June narrowly dodged the blow, but the creature didn’t seem to care as it let off another ferocious swing, smashing into June and sending her flying.

Berrian, managed to retreat a distance after the initial encounter, quickly moved behind the small one Martin was fighting and slammed his two daggers into the creature's back. Only to feel the pain of another dagger hitting his own. The first halfling had resurfaced and was not pleased that Berrian had survived its first attack. Berrian let out a scream of pain falling to the ground. Martin Swung his glaive about and decapitated the first halfling, finishing the swing by smashing in the head of the other halfling he had been fighting.

The large creature let out another yell of rage and charged after June still swinging. Side stepping the blow June flipped into the air kicking the creature in the chest and slashing down along its body as she fell back to the ground. Snowpest and Oranoak continued to blast it with projectiles, which slowly seemed to have less and less of an effect on the creature. With a devastating roar, it raised its club and struck June, knocking her to the floor unconscious. As it did, it also fell to its knees and collapsed.

Martin turned up the passage hearing one last set of footsteps coming towards him. A figure emerged from the darkness holding a scimitar, it rushed him swinging the sword over its head letting out a rusty battle cry. The first blow glanced off of Martin’s Armor but the second made contact, slicing across Martin’s chest! Feeling this the best time for Action, Martin Surged forward placing blow after blow on the creature, finally removing the head causing the rune to sputter out as a small mist escaped from it.

The party examined the corpses of the creatures. They all exuded black ichor from the wounds we had given them. Examining the Barbarian more closely we heard a rattling coming from its chest. Ereden pressed on the chest and a compartment opened. A glowing scarab burst from the creature and flew away down the hallway. June dashed after it quickly followed by Snowpest and Berrian. After several flips, rolls, dives, and lunges June snatched the Scarab out of the air and brought it back to the group. Martin walked over to the group after finding a key on the body of the one that had the Scimitar. All at once, the key, the scarab and the rune on the head of the barbarian began to glow. Ereden brought the book out touching it to the key. With a flash of light words appeared on the pages. It was very ancient draconic, Ereden began reading through it as we set up a makeshift camp to rest before moving forward. The book described constructs of old. We didn’t quite understand what it really was but Ereden began taking notes on it.

During our rest we studied the changing waterfalls, realizing a pattern existed between them. The first was always the same, the rest after a period of time would repeat but it was dissimilar to the first one. Through studying the falls over several hours we were able to pass by them without falling into the running water. Beyond the falls we found a metal plated door with a large rune. It read Acid on it. Martin walked forward and “Knocked” (Once again rolling a 24 strength check on the door) The door flew open revealing a large cavern. In the center of the room was a large stone building. The air was stale as we descended the steps towards the building. It felt as if the fresh air hadn’t touched this place for years. Old rusted tools hung from the walls of the building, as we approached they began falling, shattering, and turning to dust. This place had to be ancient… The door to the building was marked with the rune of electricity. Berrian, Martin, and Snowpest approached the door. Berrian began looking for traps, with a sudden click the air around us began to thicken.

Berrian: “That.. was not what I wanted to happen.”

Snowpest: “Guys, get away from the door!”

A blast of lightning leaped from the rune smashing directly into Martin, passing through him and knocking into Snowpest and Berrian. After a few moments, they got up, slightly burnt and looking a little worse for wear. Martin shrugged and breathed deeply and a little color returned to his face. Berrian and Snowpest both pulled out healing potions and downed them. You can never be too careful when exploring long forgotten caverns.

Oranoak opened the door to the building, torches began to glow around the room revealing a large anvil, a forge, and two very large metallic dogs… Their eyes opened glowing red. They attacked without any hesitation, we clearly were not supposed to be here. June jumped at the first dog kicking it in the face. The dog retaliated by grabbing her leg and throwing her aside. Ereden moved forward, book in hand, and attempted to talk to the dogs. The dogs were in no mood to listen and bit Ereden, throwing him to the ground unconscious. The book slid across the floor, coming to rest next to the furnace. The furnace burst into life, the walls around the room began to glow with glyphs and a keyhole near the furnace illuminated. Martin walked over and placed the key into the keyhole, it seemed like the logical thing to do before going into combat... The roof of the building creaked and began to move apart revealing the cave ceiling. Above us, all a faint blue glow began to form and the anvil in the center of the room started to rise into the air.

Martin: “Guys, I did a thing... maybe it was a poor decision…”

Martin rushed at the dogs, completely missing both of them with his glaive. Oranoak was stuck fighting one of the dogs close to the furnace, Snowpest had retreated near the door with Berrian and they were launching arrows at the dogs which seemed to have little effect. June was smashed out of the air by one of the dogs after striking a solid blow to the creature’s face. The party had seen better days…

Martin: “Guys.. maybe if we destroy the book then all of this will stop!”

Martin dove for the book behind one of the dogs tripped and rolled head first into the bottom of the furnace.

Oranoak: “Don’t put the book in the fire! Throw it onto the anvil floating in the sky!”

Oranoak grabbed the book and threw it… completely missing the anvil. June, standing up from the fight saw the book falling and it occurred to her… this was the best opportunity to do flips and shit! She jumped into the air doing a backflip, kicking the book up higher into the air! The book landed on the Anvil right before a sudden blast of lightning smashed into it!

Nothing happened...

Martin swung his glaive into the dog closest to the furnace slicing it in half and launching it into the fire.

Oranoak: “Hot dog!” We all sighed...

The other dog appeared to be frightened by the lightning and ran for the door. Snowpest and Berrian brought it down after it had made it halfway through the cavern. The anvil lowered and the charred remains of the book lay atop it.

Group: “Well damn. That clearly wasn’t what we were supposed to do…”

Martin walked over to the key and turned it again, the anvil began to rise into the air, before it got too high Martin placed his Glaive, shortsword, and a few daggers atop it.

Martin: “This is just a hunch.”

The process repeated, the anvil lowered, the weapons glowed with a faint blue light. They had become enchanted. Once per long rest we could turn them into +1 weapons for 1 minute. Not the best of enchantments, but since we were pretty sure we fucked up by destroying that book something was better than nothing. We examined the room more thoroughly looking at the glyphs, furnace, and anvil. The Anvil revealed to have several compartments on it, we were able to remove an attachment that matched the other compartment slots. We believed the anvil was missing four other attachments, hopefully meaning it had more abilities to it. We assumed the book had the information that we needed to understand this anvil… kind of annoyed we thought we should destroy it now… The furnace and anvil were made of an odd metal we were not able to identify. Things could have gone better, which is always the case when adventuring… But we managed to gather a lot of information in the tower. We decided to make camp and rest before making the trek back out and returning to Bastion to report our findings.

End of Game four.

Thoughts on the game: This was by far the best game I had played in yet at Vigilante. Gareth, our Dm for the night was fantastic and very inventive on the fly. The party worked together exceptionally well apart from destroying the book. But I suppose we did destroy it with a bit of teamwork… haha. We discovered information about some kind of constructs and possibly how they were made, even if we didn’t understand how to do it ourselves. We got somewhat magic weapons! Finally! Huzzah! We also established some in character banter and began forming some relationships, even if they were slightly passive aggressive towards one another. Overall it was a great game and I look forward to the next one! OH! We decided on our Guild Name! Multiplying Electrified Direbears! Me and Arlyn just had to reference The Adventure Zone somehow!

Again I’ll explain the game, the idea behind the games at Vigilante are that several D&D groups are all active in the same world and are all influencing the events of the Town of Bastion and surrounding area. I’m not sure where this will lead but so far it has been a ton of fun. It allows groups to exchange items and also allows players to switch parties to pursue different quests. Overall, I think it will continue to work out and I’ll keep posting updates of my weekly games!