Diomedes and the Alternate Reality
atcDave
Member Posts: 2,896
This will be an alternate recreation of a team I created a couple months ago to play through the old Gold Box games. This team has already been through Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds, and I hope to continue their adventures into Secret of the Silver Blades and Pools of Darkness.
But for now, I really wanted to run them through IWD. This is partly for the more modern rule set (2e!) and partly for the more modern game play. Yes, the Gold Box games are really old! In PoR you only have the four core character classes to choose from. Curse adds Paladin and Ranger. But none of them ever add kits or simple things, like weapon proficiencies! So yeah, I really want to play with the more sophisticated rules/mechanics.
Not to mention the pure aesthetics of it. Its almost funny how after a couple months off, playing these older games, IWD suddenly looks so vibrantly new to me!
I will dive into this with a short “How They Met” story, then a run down of the characters (including a little about their gaming history/development). Finally I’ll launch into a Prologue that takes them into Easthaven.
*****
Diomedes and Garaint grew up together in Neverwinter. Diomedes was the son of clergy from the Temple of Lathander, Garaint was the son of a knight. Diomedes was always the more reflective and intellectual. Garaint was more high energy and competitive. They brought out the best in each other. Garaint challenged and dared Diomedes into action and achievement, while Diomedes pushed Garaint to actually thinking about what he was doing.
In his mid-teens, Diomedes met Psyche. They became a couple almost as soon as they met. At this time Psyche was being raised by an older woman, a mage. Psyche was already learning what would be her profession. Psyche had a background that Diomedes only learned of slowly. She had been born into slavery. It was not a terrible or abusive situation, but it was not a good life for a curious and intelligent young girl. Out of frustration and boredom young Psyche turned to thieving. At 12, Psyche’s older sister found her and bought her out of slavery. She left Psyche with the old mage to raise her up right. By the time Diomedes and Psyche met, Psyche had turned her back on her thieving ways and was determined to become a mage and a champion of the oppressed.
In their late teens Diomedes and Garaint had started training as warriors. Of course Diomedes was actually training as a Paladin, which meant he was heavily involved with his parent’s temple. As such, he introduced Garaint (and Psyche!) to a Cleric in training. Moya Durbin was a fierce and fiesty highland lass. Or so she said, don’t argue with her about it! She and Garaint bonded, like brother and sister (?). Which is seriously how it always looked. Except every now and then… well Psyche was the first to be sure, but there was defintely something other than just “brother and sister” going on between Garaint and Moya.
In the course of their martial training, Diomedes and Garaint also befriended a young Ranger. Harg had grown up on an isolated farmstead and had developed hunting and general outdoors skills all his life. Now he was training mainly to add melee/self-defense type training, and more general Ranger skills. They all bonded over the desire to make things right and safe in Faerun, and became good friends.
Then one afternoon Diomedes and Psyche were out enjoying a ride, when they encountered an exhausted woman. A refugee of sorts. It took some time to learn her story because she did not speak the local Common Tongue. But months before, her home village had been sacked and destroyed by raiders. She was taken captive, to be sold in a wealthier slave market she was told. (Psyche’s blood boiled on hearing this!) But Shuri was relentless and clever, and managed an escape from her captors in the dead of night. But now she’d been wandering for some weeks, and did not know where she was. Diomedes and Psyche provided the help they could. And when it was learned Shuri had been training in her village militia, it was arranged to get her proper warrior training along with the guys.
And that will be the team of six.
*****
Diomedes has always wanted to be a Paladin. A hero and champion to make Faerun safe for those who want to live in peace.
Diomedes game portrait.
18/00 – 18 – 18 – 13 – 16 – 17
LG 1st level Paladin-Cavalier
Diomedes is literally the oldest D&D character I still have a sheet for. I believe I started him in 1978. I played him for a long time, from 1st to 29th level. Which is a much bigger deal in most PnP games than in CRPGs.
In Gold Box, there was no “Paladin” initially so he was created as a Fighter. In the second game I was able to recreate him as a Paladin. There also are no weapon proficiencies and no dual wielding. In IWD he is specialized in Long Sword and Dual Wielding.
Psyche shares similar motives to her husband, to do right and make Faerun a better and safer place. Long ago she renounced her thieving, but as she adventures she will find cause and reason to dust off those skills and use them as needed. So yes, she will be a LG thief.
Psyche game portrait
7 – 18 – 18 – 18 – 14 – 18
LG 4th level Thief/1st level Mage
Psyche is just as literally the second oldest character I have a sheet for. She was created within a few weeks of Diomedes, and quickly became his partner and wife.
In Gold Box there was no Dual-Classing in the first game so Psyche was a single class mage initially. For the second game I recreated her as a thief, dualed to mage. But sadly, she had to remain NG to do that. Sad from an RP perspective, it diminished an interesting quirk of the character.
Garaint is a little more of the dumb jock than his buddy Diomedes. He revels in action and competition. He still wants to do right by everyone, but he’s no deep thinker about it. He will always be steady and faithful to his friends.
Garaint game portrait
18/30 – 16 – 17 – 10 – 9 – 10
NG 1st level Fighter
Garaint is from a short duration sort of PnP game. It was always going be a game of six or so game sessions. Which makes him a character I’ve not dug out for many CRPGs.
In Gold Box there is never much to say other than “Fighter”. For IWD I’ll mention he is specialized in Bastard Sword, and will build that to Grand Mastery as fast as he can. He is a Sword and Board type fighter.
Moya Durbin is a spunky and sassy sort. Her personality may seem at odds with her calling to the clergy. But make no mistake, she is devout and serious in her faith in Lathander.
Moya game portrait
9 – 16 – 15 – 11 – 18 – 16
LG 1st level Cleric of Lathander
Moya was first created for Seige of Dragonspear, for Psyche and Diomedes’ run through. I noticed when the party scatters early in that game, we had no cleric. She has the quirk of a great disparity between her appearence and her reality. She is *Human* thoroughly. No Infravision, no funny sleeping habits, she’s only 22 years old. And she’s never been to Kara-Tur, nor have her parents. She has green eyes just like her daddy!
Harg is a quieter sort than most of his companions. But he is driven by the same sort of desire to protect. He is from a more rural upbringing than the others, which will provide some help in the adventure ahead.
Harg game portrait
3 – 18 – 17 – 10 – 11 – 13
NG 1st level Ranger-Archer
Harg is another character who goes way back into PnP days. He was first created as a Barbarian, with a completely unofficial *class* in a 1E game. That game was ended well before 2E came along, although at some point I did redo his sheet for 2E as a Fighter with the Wilderness Warrior kit (sort of a low-rent Ranger). But the thing is, the whole time, he was always an archer first and foremost. Regardless of the names and titles he used. So it seems fitting to recreate him as a Ranger-Archer. And don’t think of him as “weak”, he is short and fit. He is also a Short Bow specialist and relies on Quarter Staff for melee.
Shuri was from a small, remote village. She would register as a Southerner and a foreigner to most people around Neverwinter. After a year in the area she speaks local common passably. She is very tight with her new friends, practically we could say they are her new tribe. Especially Psyche, who has bonded with the young woman over her brush with slavery.
Shuri game portrait
15 – 17 – 16 – 11 – 15 – 15
LG 1st level Fighter
Shuri is from my own PnP game, one of the later original characters I ever designed for it. She was an NPC from an adventure into an Ancient Egyptian setting. She was an orphaned young woman taken in by the adventuring party.
A thing worth mentioning here is that historically a spear is a *one-handed* weapon used with shield. Seriously, this is how most ancient armies fought. So in PnP I had her using a shield and specialized in spear. She was *very tanky*. Didn’t really hit so hard, but a good armor class and lots of hit points. We loose some of that in IWD, because she can’t use a shield. We’ll call that a vague reflection of having learned an obsolete weapon (just that she won’t be as effective as she could be). Further, I have her started with specilization in spear, proficient in quarter staff and two-handed weapon style. In theory, she would continued to Grand Mastery in Spear as a priority. But in IWD? I think it will depend on what weapon she is currently using (she is more likely to find a good quarter staff than a spear I think?).
*****
Diomedes and his friends were all approaching completion of their training within a few weeks of each other. They started looking out for, and asking around about any opportunities to try their newly formed skills.
But more importantly, they started planning a grand party. A graduation bash of sorts to celebrate their entry into adulthood. Then Diomedes and Psyche got to talking, they decided they had something even more important they wanted to celebrate with their friends.
Diomedes and Psyche decided this was important before they set off on a grand adventure together.
They had so many friends, and family, and extended family to celebrate with. This became a celebration that would be remembered.
Even Garaint and Moya let down their guard, just a little this day.
The party was barely over when one of the clerics at the Temple of Lathander summoned Diomedes and his friends to a meeting. He had a vision, in a dream. A devout and stout warrior from far off Easthaven, in the ten towns of Icewind Dale, would soon be summoning heros to deal with an ancient evil. Hrothgar did not even know this himself yet. But the cleric’s vision was clear, Diomedes and his friends were called to Icewind Dale.
The friends all packed for a trip to the frozen north. Shuri was a little on edge at the idea of someplace with a longer, deeper winter than she had experienced here!
The journey took a few weeks. And finally mountains, the Spine of the World Mountains had to be crossed!
Just a few days from Easthaven their greatest challenge hit. Something spooked the ox. They lost everything into a ravine.
Well, everything but the coin purse. And thankfully, it was just stuff. But ALL their stuff except what was on their backs.
Finally, exhausted, they arrived in Easthaven.
*****
A couple comments about the build. This is mostly as it has been with Tweaks Anthology providing a lot of little things, mostly convienence oriented. SCS is at Improved. I have several Lava adventure mods installed, including the newest “The War of Bloom and Rot”. That last is apparently the biggest of the bunch, and is the only one I’ve not played.
My instinct is that this is a strong party. No Undead Hunters this time! But I still think this is a strong crew.
But for now, I really wanted to run them through IWD. This is partly for the more modern rule set (2e!) and partly for the more modern game play. Yes, the Gold Box games are really old! In PoR you only have the four core character classes to choose from. Curse adds Paladin and Ranger. But none of them ever add kits or simple things, like weapon proficiencies! So yeah, I really want to play with the more sophisticated rules/mechanics.
Not to mention the pure aesthetics of it. Its almost funny how after a couple months off, playing these older games, IWD suddenly looks so vibrantly new to me!
I will dive into this with a short “How They Met” story, then a run down of the characters (including a little about their gaming history/development). Finally I’ll launch into a Prologue that takes them into Easthaven.
*****
Diomedes and Garaint grew up together in Neverwinter. Diomedes was the son of clergy from the Temple of Lathander, Garaint was the son of a knight. Diomedes was always the more reflective and intellectual. Garaint was more high energy and competitive. They brought out the best in each other. Garaint challenged and dared Diomedes into action and achievement, while Diomedes pushed Garaint to actually thinking about what he was doing.
In his mid-teens, Diomedes met Psyche. They became a couple almost as soon as they met. At this time Psyche was being raised by an older woman, a mage. Psyche was already learning what would be her profession. Psyche had a background that Diomedes only learned of slowly. She had been born into slavery. It was not a terrible or abusive situation, but it was not a good life for a curious and intelligent young girl. Out of frustration and boredom young Psyche turned to thieving. At 12, Psyche’s older sister found her and bought her out of slavery. She left Psyche with the old mage to raise her up right. By the time Diomedes and Psyche met, Psyche had turned her back on her thieving ways and was determined to become a mage and a champion of the oppressed.
In their late teens Diomedes and Garaint had started training as warriors. Of course Diomedes was actually training as a Paladin, which meant he was heavily involved with his parent’s temple. As such, he introduced Garaint (and Psyche!) to a Cleric in training. Moya Durbin was a fierce and fiesty highland lass. Or so she said, don’t argue with her about it! She and Garaint bonded, like brother and sister (?). Which is seriously how it always looked. Except every now and then… well Psyche was the first to be sure, but there was defintely something other than just “brother and sister” going on between Garaint and Moya.
In the course of their martial training, Diomedes and Garaint also befriended a young Ranger. Harg had grown up on an isolated farmstead and had developed hunting and general outdoors skills all his life. Now he was training mainly to add melee/self-defense type training, and more general Ranger skills. They all bonded over the desire to make things right and safe in Faerun, and became good friends.
Then one afternoon Diomedes and Psyche were out enjoying a ride, when they encountered an exhausted woman. A refugee of sorts. It took some time to learn her story because she did not speak the local Common Tongue. But months before, her home village had been sacked and destroyed by raiders. She was taken captive, to be sold in a wealthier slave market she was told. (Psyche’s blood boiled on hearing this!) But Shuri was relentless and clever, and managed an escape from her captors in the dead of night. But now she’d been wandering for some weeks, and did not know where she was. Diomedes and Psyche provided the help they could. And when it was learned Shuri had been training in her village militia, it was arranged to get her proper warrior training along with the guys.
And that will be the team of six.
*****
Diomedes has always wanted to be a Paladin. A hero and champion to make Faerun safe for those who want to live in peace.
Diomedes game portrait.
18/00 – 18 – 18 – 13 – 16 – 17
LG 1st level Paladin-Cavalier
Diomedes is literally the oldest D&D character I still have a sheet for. I believe I started him in 1978. I played him for a long time, from 1st to 29th level. Which is a much bigger deal in most PnP games than in CRPGs.
In Gold Box, there was no “Paladin” initially so he was created as a Fighter. In the second game I was able to recreate him as a Paladin. There also are no weapon proficiencies and no dual wielding. In IWD he is specialized in Long Sword and Dual Wielding.
Psyche shares similar motives to her husband, to do right and make Faerun a better and safer place. Long ago she renounced her thieving, but as she adventures she will find cause and reason to dust off those skills and use them as needed. So yes, she will be a LG thief.
Psyche game portrait
7 – 18 – 18 – 18 – 14 – 18
LG 4th level Thief/1st level Mage
Psyche is just as literally the second oldest character I have a sheet for. She was created within a few weeks of Diomedes, and quickly became his partner and wife.
In Gold Box there was no Dual-Classing in the first game so Psyche was a single class mage initially. For the second game I recreated her as a thief, dualed to mage. But sadly, she had to remain NG to do that. Sad from an RP perspective, it diminished an interesting quirk of the character.
Garaint is a little more of the dumb jock than his buddy Diomedes. He revels in action and competition. He still wants to do right by everyone, but he’s no deep thinker about it. He will always be steady and faithful to his friends.
Garaint game portrait
18/30 – 16 – 17 – 10 – 9 – 10
NG 1st level Fighter
Garaint is from a short duration sort of PnP game. It was always going be a game of six or so game sessions. Which makes him a character I’ve not dug out for many CRPGs.
In Gold Box there is never much to say other than “Fighter”. For IWD I’ll mention he is specialized in Bastard Sword, and will build that to Grand Mastery as fast as he can. He is a Sword and Board type fighter.
Moya Durbin is a spunky and sassy sort. Her personality may seem at odds with her calling to the clergy. But make no mistake, she is devout and serious in her faith in Lathander.
Moya game portrait
9 – 16 – 15 – 11 – 18 – 16
LG 1st level Cleric of Lathander
Moya was first created for Seige of Dragonspear, for Psyche and Diomedes’ run through. I noticed when the party scatters early in that game, we had no cleric. She has the quirk of a great disparity between her appearence and her reality. She is *Human* thoroughly. No Infravision, no funny sleeping habits, she’s only 22 years old. And she’s never been to Kara-Tur, nor have her parents. She has green eyes just like her daddy!
Harg is a quieter sort than most of his companions. But he is driven by the same sort of desire to protect. He is from a more rural upbringing than the others, which will provide some help in the adventure ahead.
Harg game portrait
3 – 18 – 17 – 10 – 11 – 13
NG 1st level Ranger-Archer
Harg is another character who goes way back into PnP days. He was first created as a Barbarian, with a completely unofficial *class* in a 1E game. That game was ended well before 2E came along, although at some point I did redo his sheet for 2E as a Fighter with the Wilderness Warrior kit (sort of a low-rent Ranger). But the thing is, the whole time, he was always an archer first and foremost. Regardless of the names and titles he used. So it seems fitting to recreate him as a Ranger-Archer. And don’t think of him as “weak”, he is short and fit. He is also a Short Bow specialist and relies on Quarter Staff for melee.
Shuri was from a small, remote village. She would register as a Southerner and a foreigner to most people around Neverwinter. After a year in the area she speaks local common passably. She is very tight with her new friends, practically we could say they are her new tribe. Especially Psyche, who has bonded with the young woman over her brush with slavery.
Shuri game portrait
15 – 17 – 16 – 11 – 15 – 15
LG 1st level Fighter
Shuri is from my own PnP game, one of the later original characters I ever designed for it. She was an NPC from an adventure into an Ancient Egyptian setting. She was an orphaned young woman taken in by the adventuring party.
A thing worth mentioning here is that historically a spear is a *one-handed* weapon used with shield. Seriously, this is how most ancient armies fought. So in PnP I had her using a shield and specialized in spear. She was *very tanky*. Didn’t really hit so hard, but a good armor class and lots of hit points. We loose some of that in IWD, because she can’t use a shield. We’ll call that a vague reflection of having learned an obsolete weapon (just that she won’t be as effective as she could be). Further, I have her started with specilization in spear, proficient in quarter staff and two-handed weapon style. In theory, she would continued to Grand Mastery in Spear as a priority. But in IWD? I think it will depend on what weapon she is currently using (she is more likely to find a good quarter staff than a spear I think?).
*****
Diomedes and his friends were all approaching completion of their training within a few weeks of each other. They started looking out for, and asking around about any opportunities to try their newly formed skills.
But more importantly, they started planning a grand party. A graduation bash of sorts to celebrate their entry into adulthood. Then Diomedes and Psyche got to talking, they decided they had something even more important they wanted to celebrate with their friends.
Diomedes and Psyche decided this was important before they set off on a grand adventure together.
They had so many friends, and family, and extended family to celebrate with. This became a celebration that would be remembered.
Even Garaint and Moya let down their guard, just a little this day.
The party was barely over when one of the clerics at the Temple of Lathander summoned Diomedes and his friends to a meeting. He had a vision, in a dream. A devout and stout warrior from far off Easthaven, in the ten towns of Icewind Dale, would soon be summoning heros to deal with an ancient evil. Hrothgar did not even know this himself yet. But the cleric’s vision was clear, Diomedes and his friends were called to Icewind Dale.
The friends all packed for a trip to the frozen north. Shuri was a little on edge at the idea of someplace with a longer, deeper winter than she had experienced here!
The journey took a few weeks. And finally mountains, the Spine of the World Mountains had to be crossed!
Just a few days from Easthaven their greatest challenge hit. Something spooked the ox. They lost everything into a ravine.
Well, everything but the coin purse. And thankfully, it was just stuff. But ALL their stuff except what was on their backs.
Finally, exhausted, they arrived in Easthaven.
*****
A couple comments about the build. This is mostly as it has been with Tweaks Anthology providing a lot of little things, mostly convienence oriented. SCS is at Improved. I have several Lava adventure mods installed, including the newest “The War of Bloom and Rot”. That last is apparently the biggest of the bunch, and is the only one I’ve not played.
My instinct is that this is a strong party. No Undead Hunters this time! But I still think this is a strong crew.
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We entered the small frozen town and discussed where to head, it seemed a rustic tavern had some activity. It might be a good place to get some information and see where we could find this “Hrothgar.”
Actually, Hrothgar was already at the tavern. So we made our introductions, and stuck around a while to get warm!
Hrothgar affirmed we was putting together a band of heroes for an expedition. He invited us to drop by his home a little later to talk more in depth about it. The villagers were friendly, and we met a dwarven warrior who was also here to join the expedition of heroes. Aparently a messenger from the (not so) nearby village of Kuldahar had delivered a message a few days ago that help was needed. The messenger died of exhaustion after delivering word. This had obviously generated some buzz and excitement.
There was a general goods store nearby, and we knew we needed some new gear. So that was our next order of business.
On entry, we saw the shop keeper was a severe looking southerner. Psyche suggested Shuri might want to talk with a fellow southerner. She groaned and said she didn’t think *HE* would see it that way!
Yeah, he was really not the pleasent sort!
After our business was complete, we had new weapons and armor to replace what we’d lost. Shuri said to Psyche “You know there is more than one nation to the south! And it wouldn’t have mattered, I’m pretty sure he thought he was better than any of us.”
The best armor in town was scale mail, definitely not the quality of what we’d lost. But it was better than being unarmored. We headed over towards an inn, and saw a young boy in a panic over a basket of fish some goblins had stolen from him, we pointed towards, well we could see the goblins making off.
We tried to suggest they return what they’d taken.
They weren’t too agreeable, and they had friends.
I’d say this was our first fight. I’m not really sure if a small band of goblins counts as a real fight, but these guys could have seriously hurt some of the townspeople. We returned the boy’s fish.
We got our room at the inn, after stashing some of what we’d just bought we set out for Hrothgar’s place. Along the way, we encountered a fisherman who seemed lost in daydreams. After we got his attention we found he’d been having dreams of a beautiful singing lady. Garaint found this amusing (“well, who hasn’t!”). Psyche looked over the large lake that provided this town’s livelyhood, and suggested that could be something interesting. We should take a look along the shore.
We met Elisia, the guardian spirit of this lake. She had been trying to communicate with Jhonen, the fishermen we met. She had loved an ancester of his and wished to return a family heirloom. Funny, Garaint got a painful elbow in the gut just after this.
We played go between, and got the broken remains of a fine old sword back to Jhonen. We had a few other little side adventures in town, but finally made our way to Hrothgar’s home. We learned a little more. The arch-Druid of Kuldahar had sent the request for help. He was a friend of Hrothgar’s and not a man prone to needless panic. But nothing more was really known about the nature of the trouble.
Heroes and adventurers were still gathering for the expedition, that was planned to depart in two days. Hrothgar asked us to look into an overdue supply wagon. He showed us the route it *should* have followed into town.
We set off to find the wagon the next morning. We found it not too far outside of town, smashed near a mountainside cave. An orc was still pilfering gear from the wagon, when he saw us he ran off towards the cave.
We followed, but not too rashly. Anything could be in there.
This really led to the toughest fighting we’d seen yet.
Shuri and I clashed with one group of a half dozen orcs.
Garaint turned the other way and faced a smaller group. Moya leapt in at his side, no doubt she is our biggest noise maker!
Psyche cast her first combat spell! A Magic Missile at an orc cleric who was trying to cast something of his own. Harg joined with Psyche to engage the cleric who was still out of reach for the rest of us.
This was a pretty large cave complex, and we explored through several connected cave chambers. We fought a few more orcs and another cleric.
We came around one corner and found the head man, a large ogre!
He had a number of other orcs with him, this demanded everything we had left in us. We prevailed. At least we’ll have a little real world experience now before we head off on the expedition tomorrow.
We trekked back to Easthaven, and nursed our wounds at the inn.
Psyche used her magic to identify a really fine dagger we found in the orc’s lair.
As magic weapons go this was a pretty low power item. And sadly, none of us primarily use a dagger. But we’ll hang on to it for now. Psyche is at least trained in small blades, and you never know when such a thing might be needed.
Tomorrow, we join the small expedition marching out.
*****
After the several little quests in Easthaven, and the bigger adventure in the orc caves, Most of the team is now 2nd level. Moya is already 3rd. That makes them all far more capable.
This whole post is up, inciuding one video now (!) at DavesGaming
An exciting moment as we marched out with the expedition. Hrothgar seemed to be a good leader, no doubt energetic and commited to helping a neighboring town. We had not only seen most of the expedition members around town the last couple days, but obviously many of them were old friends.
Which made the tragedy of it so bitter. An avalanche started up high as we walked through a valley. My team was right near the front talking with Hrothgar when we saw something (someone?) up a slope, and snow just sort of broke loose in their wake. Hrothgar yelled at everyone to hurry, hurry! He held fast yelling to his companions. I first stood back with him yelling and gesturing towards the others. As Psyche ran by me, Hrothgar gave me a shove and said “get your team out of here!”
I complied and we made it. But no one else did. It was just the six of us. Rookie adventurers. Still several hours out from Kuldahar.
We soon made it to the last pass, Kuldahar Pass.
It was overrun with nasty Goblins.
We battled several different groups of the little guys. And a group of orcs had laid claim to a Mill. We saw evidence of the slaughtered owners, and routed out the orcs. And some more goblins.
In the main equipment room we found a young boy hiding in a storage closet. Shuri coaxed him out. We learned he was Jermsey.
From here it was about an eight hour hike into Kuldahar.
We arrived none the worse for wear. But sadly for this small town, we were all the help that would arrive.
Our first order of business led to us meeting Arundel, the arch-Druid. He had asked for help, that we would gladly provide to our utmost. He reported strange weather patterns, monsters in the area, and several locals had disappeared including the priestess of the Temple of Ilmater.
He thought the source of trouble might be a tribe of yeti, and restless undead in the nearby Vale of Shadows. An old burial ground. We agreed to check it out in the morning.
For now, it was late afternoon and we were tired. It seemed prudent to explore around the small town with what remained of the day.
A father and son practicing archery. They had little information for us, but it is good to make friends as we travel!
We got some chow at the Root Cellar Tavern. A hospitable place. Except one of the barmaids, by the name of Lysan, seemed more like a blast of frigid air.
“What, I was just trying to be friendly.”
“Right buddy, you tell yourself that!”
After eating, we set out for the Inn to get some sleep.
Along the way we had an encounter with a spectral boar. It reacted to a broken tusk Shuri had picked up earlier. It claimed the tusk, and seemed to impart some of its strength on her.
The next day we set out towards the Vale of Shadows.
We were barely at the edge of town when had our first run in with some cranky yeti.
We continued into the Vale, and had a few more yeti to fight.
We also explored several ancient tombs. No doubt the dead were restless!
There were four smaller tombs, before we found a single much larger one at the far end of the Vale.
After shattering a horde of skeletons and zombies, we encountered a more articulate sort. He introduced himself as Mytos. We explained our situation, seeking the source of trouble for Kuldahar.
He denied knowledge, and refused us entry to investigate. Naturally this came to blows. We destroyed Mytos and a number of undead guardians he had with him. The evil was plainly detectable here, but we were finding no clear connection to the problems of Kuldahar.
We explored deeper into the tomb, at least two levels down.
The undead grew more dangerous too. We faced mummies, wights and undead spellcasters.
What we hadn’t planned on was Psyche using so much of her almost forgotten thieving skills. We had tripped a few traps so far and suffered minor injuries. But now Psyche was growing more confident in her old skills and traps bothered us less as we went deeper into the tomb.
We finally stood before The Black Wolf himself, an ancient warrior named Kresselack. He offered us information if we chased off an Aurilite priestess who had paid unwelcome visits to his tomb.
This was unexpected. Auril, the Frostmaiden is a frightening goddess of unrelenting winter. Such could explain *some* of the troubles besetting Kuldahar. Psyche mentioned a yeti cave we cleared several hours ago had shown some signs of human usage. So we trekked back to it to see what we could find.
HAH! Yeah, well, apparently Lysan really was a frigid piece of work.
We put an end to her reign of terror, apparently she really had put a curse on this valley. It had made many of the dead restless, several ghostly images appeared and thanked us for their return to peace. We reported back to Kresselack and he was appreciative. But the information he gave was a bit underwhelming. He claimed to only know that nothing in this valley was the true source of evil facing Kuldahar.
Garaint grumbled that he’d just taken advantage of us to remove *his* problem. No doubt, there was a shred of truth to that. But I reminded him Lysan brought trouble too, and we would have needed to deal with her anyway.
We headed back to town with only a minor piece of information. Arundel suggested we head off to a forgotten old temple, that had split from the druids of Kuldahar a generation ago. They may know more of what was going on.
Finally, Psyche visited a small outfitter and got some gear more fitting to her now expanded role on the team. No doubt we need her, she counts as two of us! [gushing newlywed husband is narrating]
In the morning we’ll head off to the Forgotten Temple.
*****
I sort of liked how Psyche unlocking her thief abilities worked so well in this case. If we figure she hadn’t practiced thieving since she was 12, it makes sense it might take a while for her to remember what she once knew. And it clearly justifies a different look for her!
A few of these renders are moments from Lava’s “Rediscovery of Kuldahar” mod. A lot of little encounters and mini-adventures. I really like how it brings the little town to life more. What some gamers may not like is it is enough of a boost in experience that you will likely set out for the Vale of Shadows with your whole team at 3rd level. That does make everything before Kresselack’s Tomb a bit of a walkover. We entered that tomb at 5th level, and were all 6th level by the time we were done (Psyche is still only 5th) which I think is more on target (the experience boost in Kuldahar is *small* in an absolute sense).
Our run up to the Forgotten Temple proved to be mostly frustrating.
The “Heartstone”, a sort of divine scrying device, had beed been taken just before we arrived.
A lot of destruction left behind. We found oursives fighting both the original temple priests and guards, and some of the attackers. These were Yuan-Ti, large and vicious snake men.
Basically we stepped into a war zone and were not recognized by either side.
The only good to come of it was that in facing the Yuan-Ti, Arundel guessed this trouble might be coming from an old cave complex known as Dragon’s Eye.
In considering our next move, we decided to look into a couple detours along the way to Dragon’s Eye.
First was a lake that had once been a minor Holy Site, something involving dreams and romance. But recently things had taken a bitter turn.
We encountered a barbarian shaman at the lake. He claimed the locals used to fish the lake, and had a good relationship with the guardian spirit. But things had all turned a couple years back. This had become a popular spot for suicides since, especially those related to a romantic malfunction.
There were colorful old paintings in a cave at the site. It seemed likely offerings had once been made here.
The shaman suggested we could try to make an offering (some sort of fish was prefered!) and see if that helped. So we did that. Then we explored another cavern nearer the lake, and found the Guardian spirit.
She was deeply grieving, and there was evidence of drowned dead all around. We were able to learn she had her heart broken by a human man.
Apparently her grief was tinged with wrath, which had something to do with the suicides. We rushed back to Kuldahar and consulted with a couple of the local magic types. The gnome Oswald came up with an idea for purifying the water. I think Psyche and Moya both understood this whole conversation better than I did! Soon we were rushing back to the lake and introduced some uh, “ghost filtered” something or other…
It seemed to help! The spirit was able to quit weeping. The Shaman thought she might be able to recover more naturally now. It did feel like a dark cloud had lifted.
Next we set out for a small patch of forest. A mage we met in Kuldahar had asked us to track down a beast known as the “Skineater”. Yeah, lovely name. The forest was thick and hard to navigate. But we eventually found a large cave, a lair.
We did battle with a fearsome beast!
It completely regenerated itself a couple times. After we had slain it three times it stayed dead.
There was a dead mage to the back of the cave, he seemed to have kept a lot of records.
As near as we could tell he had created the monster with the help of his brother, the mage who had sent us on this little mission. Apparently we were to feed the creature. Oops! We returned to the mage and ended his monster making business.
Finally we made it down to Dragon’s Eye. We fought some trolls outside the entrance.
And Lizard Men inside! Really a lot of Lizard Men.
One big guy called himself a King.
He admitted to abducting villagers, for food. Yeah, we killed a lot of lizard men.
We found a large number of villagers in these caves too. Most were still alive, we were able to heal and feed many.
The problem was, these caves still went deeper. A lot deeper we suspected. These chambers seemed to be secure now, and since it was a solid 8 hours back to Kuldahar we requested that the villagers hold tight. We would be back for them, and accompany them home.
The next really problematic thing we encountered were beetles.
Bombardier Beetles, the sort who attack with a loud *BOOM* and a spray of caustic acid. They’re not really very big, and wouldn’t be a challenge except the noise and the acid are often incapacitating for a brief period. It seemed every fight led to one or two of us being helpless for a period. Fortunately with three of us up front, we were never *all* down.
But I really hate bugs.
And there were a lot of trolls.
Trolls are nasty, they are strong and always want to kill. And you need fire or acid to really put them down. Fortunately we have flame arrows for Harg, and Psyche knows a few spells. But seriously I lost count. I think we killed 20 trolls.
In a large chamber, some sort of unholy rite was going on. There were several Talonite clerics, and a bunch more trolls.
That was an exciting fight. Psyche’s Fireballs and Moya’s Holy Smiting carried the day.
After, we found the missing priestess for Kuldahar. And another bunch of villagers. We moved them up to the previous group, and continued deeper into the cave.
From here we faced a number of undead, lead by an evil lady mage… I forget her name but I think Psyche was taking notes.
Deeper in things seemed to change a lot, we had walked into an artificial chamber. Something constructed, not natural. It first *felt* like a quiet, peaceful place. A man in robes came forward speaking words of friendship.
But I could immediately sense this was all wrong. He had an aura of pure evil.
When I plainly saw through him he actually seemed relieved. This was a large enclave of Yuan-Ti. And we had a large running battle for most of the next hour.
Most the villagers we found here were already dead. The evil was growing more overt and oppresive the deeper we went.
Continuing on we had a strange encounter. A clearly demented little girl spouting odd riddles.
The Yuan-Ti did her bidding, it was obvious she was no human child. We slew many more snake men. We were able to free a few more captives, but as we drew nearer to the heart of this beast the surviving slaves were fewer and in rougher shape.
Finally, in another large chamber the little girl changed before our eyes. I was relieved, this was much less frightening. And there were no more riddles.
She was some old demon named Yux something or other. Psyche did not note this one down, she said she didn’t feel like digging into the pack again.
Yux and her snake boys fell pretty quickly.
And we found she did have the Heartstone Gem!
Garaint and I felt some of the earlier battles in these caves were tougher. Shuri mentioned the fight back at the Ziggurat was really brutal. Yeah, we were feeling pretty good just now.
Moya said she hated to break up the party but we had a lot of villagers we needed to get out of here. And many of them would need help getting back to Kuldahar.
No doubt, she is the wise one amongst us…
The trip back took more than the whole next day. We had a large crowd who weren’t all in good shape for travel. And we didn’t have nearly enough cloaks and blankets, this was not fun for many of them.
Just as Kuldahar came into sight we saw orcs, kind of big orcs. Neo Orogs I believe?
There were maybe a dozen of them causing trouble in town. This wasn’t a huge problem for us, but it was very concerning. Troubles for Kuldahar were getting worse. After slaying the Orogs we rushed to find Arundel.
We were too late. His last words to us were to head down to an old elven fortress for help using the Gem, and get guidence on where to go next.
It wasn’t exactly a party at the Inn that night. But it was good to all be together.
I wanted to sleep for a week. But we would be ready to head out in the morning.
We set off for the ancient Elven fortress Arundel had told us about. Along the way we stopped by a Halfling village, known as Snowytoes Hamlet.
The residents were a friendly and cheerful bunch, as one often expects from Halflings.
But the village headwoman was grieving. She had recently lost her husband, and had since been haunted by heartbreaking dreams that seemed to call her to a “Black Pyramid” nearby. We promised to take a look at it for her.
Uh yeah, there was a bit of a problem here.
We slew many undead. On entering the pyramid we encountered an alien, evil force. It fed off of, was strengthened by grief and fear. So the Halfling headwoman had been vulnerable to it. We were able to end it. Although in an attempt to upset us? Or something, it threatened that a greater, darker evil than it was growing in strength in this area.
We returned to the village with the news the trouble had been ended, they should be able to sleep without fear.
Another Halfling woman asked if we would be heading back to Kuldahar anytime soon (we would), if we could drop off bags of treats for her sons.
This was definitely a more agreeable chore than battling undead and alien entities, we happily agreed to help.
We eventually made it down to the Elven fortress.
Known now as “The Severed Hand” because of the way its ruined towers reached for the sky. We marveled at how the magic forces could hold the ruins in place, perhaps indefinitely.
We knew the story, the specters of the elves and orcs who battled here ages ago, still battled in the ruins without pause. And we needed to find an ancient elven mage named Larrel.
Immediately on entry we were beset by shadows of orcs and goblins. We defeated many of them. Did we give them rest? Or would this repeat?
There were really a lot of them! So many some shadowed goblins got into our rear, Moya and even Psyche drew weapons for melee so Harg could keep up his precision archery.
There were armored skeletons, and other shadowy things too. We kept very busy for a while. It was hard business, and if we hadn’t grown so much more capable from our experience in the Vale of Shadows, The Dragoneye, and other adventures, we would not have been able to face this!
Finally we reached a floor that seemed quiet. There were a few shadows of elves here, but they seemed more like living elves. They were friendly to us, but seemed to have no knowledge of their actual status.
An elven shopkeeper boasted of his quality wares. He did actually have some goods we could use, we bought some magic arrows and sling bullets.
An inn was empty except for a little girl playing by herself. She happily let us rest at her mother’s inn as long we would play with her after.
This was the top floor of the main Keep. Each of the five towers continued up from here. And this would get strange.
In the armory we met the ancient Elven arms master. She requested that we climb the towers and put her troops to rest.
Oh boy. The first lucid elf spirit we meet, and she wants us to kill the others. Do you kill spirits? Moya suggested there was no easy answer to this, but the lady seems to think destroying the shadowed spirits will give them peace. So that must be the right way to proceed.
It really inspires confidence when your team cleric shrugs.
So we battled elf spirits.
They had a lot more spellcasters than the orcs and goblins we faced earlier. That really kept Psyche busy.
We worked our way through all five towers, even finding a way into the floating remains of the shattered tower. This whole time, Psyche had been finding parts of ancient equipment. Things that looked both magical and well engineered. She had been keeping much of this machinery. That proved fortunate.
Atop the ruined tower was a giant astrolabe. Two figures moved about. One was dressed as a regal arch-mage. He was speaking non-sense, he had lost his mind.
The other was an engineer. He was frustrated that he seemed to be missing parts to get the mechanism working again. Psyche offered up the parts she had collected.
We all watched fascinated as the engineer restored the great machine. (Okay, really, Psyche was fascinated, Garaint and I tried to remember which pack had the playing cards).
After just a few short hours the machine shrieked, sparked, steamed and groaned to life. The engineer was very happy. And the ancient arch-mage seemed to find his senses.
Larrel proved friendly and helpful. He knew exactly how to use the Heartstone Gem.
He discerned that we need to search the ancient Dwarven fortress of Dorn’s Deep to find our answers to the source of evil. He was not surprised that evil would be found with the Dwarves. There was deep and ancient antipathy between these elves and the dwarves.
He offered to send us directly there. But we had need of supplies in Kuldahar first, so at a word he transported us there. Serious magical power there…
It was really good to have a night to rest up. We did take care of business in and around town. We needed more arrows and sling bullets, some gear mended, some bags of treats delivered to errent Halflings. But mostly a warm and comfy place surrounded by the living.
*****
I’m still very pleased with how this team is doing. They can unleash a lot of damage quickly. Only minor shortcoming is no real “emergency” fighter for the back rank. Moya is the best option. With decent hit points and good armor class, she can hold off attackers while Psyche and Harg do their thing. In the one battle with all the shadowed orcs and goblins, I did have Psyche draw her dagger and step into melee too. She is *really* not much good at it. But Harg is a devestating archer. The rear rank can defend itself even without a melee type handy.
I should mention too, I took some liberties in my retelling of some things in SnowyToes Hamlet for two reasons. The first is just length, I prefer to keep my naration brief (no one wants to read my blathering). Second, while I'm not much worried about divulging all the secrets of an almost 30 year old computer game, I feel much more cautious about exposing all the plot points of a much more recent mod. For those who haven't played, its fun and I did not spoil all major plot points!
I'd also mention *one* of these images rendered above, becomes a video at my website. Check out the update at davesgaming.blog.
@shaigan22 i’m not sure I understand your comment? But as an American I may be immune to seeing what you’re seeing?
But I am glad if you find it interesting!
Then transition into the adventure and things get harder, grittier, darker. Now its a darker palete. The look should reflect how much harder life just got.
Now yeah, I like good guys and heroes. So I'm not thinking this will ruin anybody. But it will put strain on the characters. In the end they all be more tempered, hardened. It will be a challenging passage into adulthood.
So yeah, sappy I guess. Should I mention I like Hallmark movies? Naw, forget it, I never said that...