#WHEN SHE SAVED HER IN THE WEIRD ASS DWARF TUNNEL

[camelspit]

never forget what they took from you (stinas character arc)

[fandomn00blr]

Day 15

of @the-wip-project‘s 100 Days of Writing

Had a little chunk of time, and far more inspiration than I needed really early this morning, so I wrote three chapters ahead in Warden Hawke...

“Wardens!” they hear someone or something roar from the other side of the cluster.

Someone else hollers, “Oh, thank the Stone!”

“It has never bothered to thank me for saving its weak, fleshy behind…” a deep rumbling voice, like boulders moving against each other, murmurs loud and low enough to hear under the shrieks of the Darkspawn between them.

“Were you checkin’ out my ass again…?” the second voice asks.

“Perhaps, if it had one…”

There’s a rumbling charge that shakes the walls of the tunnel, and a huge stone golem comes rampaging through the thickest of the Darkspawn, clearing a path to them. A heavily-armored dwarf follows close behind, swinging his axe in a frenzied rush, with a galloping bear at his side, swiping its massive, deadly claws at any blighted creature foolish enough to wander within its reach.

Oh shit, oh fuck...I had this triple cameo planned for this fic from the beginning, but I kind of didn’t anticipate how much fun I would have writing snark between my Amell (who is not nice or warm and is guilty of many ethics violations) and Loghain, and Carver, and poor Stroud...terribly out of his element trying to keep these two from killing each other.

“So…” Solona plops down next to Carver. “Gotta admit, it’s a little weird to be seeing you again down here in blue and silver. I kinda figured you all might have been eaten by Darkspawn shortly after we met.”

“I was hoping you might have forgotten our prior meeting…” he groans. “Didn’t exactly realize one of my cousins would end up saving Ferelden from the Blight.”

Solona cackles at that. “Hardly! Have you been up there recently? Whole country’s in disarray. But I left other, far-more-capable people in charge of fixing that mess...” She glances over at Loghain, who is still too busy fussing with his armor to overhear, then back to Carver. “How are your mother and sisters? Did you all make it to Kirkwall?”

“I’m fairly certain Marian will be fine, as always. And as far as I know, Beth and our mother are alright, too, though our uncle squandered the family fortune and apparently gambled away the estate. When we arrived, we had to indenture ourselves to competing mercenary groups and have them bribe the guards to even let us into the city.”

“Sounds fun!”

Loghain, having finally given up on cleaning the remaining gore from his uniform, squats down across the fire, eyeing both of them suspiciously. “If I’d have known you two were related…”

“You’d have what, Mac Tir?” She asks with an absolutely wicked-looking smirk that reminds Carver so much of Marian that it almost makes him miss her. Almost. “Would you have asked to be transferred back to Orlais? Because that can certainly be arranged…”

Stroud snorts into his mustache and Loghain shoots him a nasty look of betrayal.

“Andraste’s tits...” Solona looks back and forth between them. “Are you two fucking?!”

By the way, I guess I head canon shapeshifter Amell sleeping in bear form with Shale and Oghren (platonically) because even when they’re assholes to each other (maybe especially then?), Warden affection is very important to me, and being a bear is the best way to ensure she doesn’t get crushed (also, bears are just a running theme in everything I write with these Wardens).

But Carver doesn’t sleep. He can’t. So he waits. He waits until he’s convinced the others are asleep, their thoughts drifting into quieter places. Stroud and Loghain in their shared bedroll, Nate in his own further away from the fire, and Shale and Oghren and his cousin, who, in addition to being the Hero of Ferelden, is apparently now one of his commanding officers, nestled into a loud snoring pile of stone and dwarf and bear nearby.

[dungeonsnderp]

Season One: Puzzles, Villains, and Poor, Poor Alber (and also Jarvilli)

What do you mean you haven’t read the plot so far? I used gifs and everything.

Spoiler alert; I’m writing this like 92% because I want to show off my brilliance as a DM and 8% because Dots told me she wanted to know what our plot was like so this is heavily edited and in no real coherent order. So. Good luck.

The Puzzle

Really the only relevant bit here is those weird pieces they kept picking up at each stop on the map. As it turns out  each piece was actually one of a set of tangrams. 

Everyone they’ve met with so far (including the dwarf, Alber, poor guy - more on him later) has been dropping hints that their Arch Nemesis the Evil Planner of this Weird Mind Game Thing is nuts. And very evil. So they roll up to his house and surprise surprise, not only is it a gloomy-ass day and he apparently lives in a mini castle, but he’s got a cool tower and oh yeah the whole thing is built on an ancient burial ground. 

So they scope out the tower first like any rational human being would, and find among other things an interesting scrap of paper.

Thus bolstered by the act of surrender, the flow of battle at last ebbed. Having kept tabs on the seashore it was no surprise to hear that the low tide had laid bare the bodies of the slain, now made rich and stinking by the bright sun.  

Weird, right? But easily forgettable. 

They move on and start scoping out the house/castle. They break in the back, snoop into the first room, and there’s Evil Villain’s mother snoozing in a chair. They try to talk to her, villain himself shows up.

Now Vodal was an interesting one for me. Bottom line is he sold his soul to a deity in return for “eternal life” via vampirism (I share this only because they figured it out already) and enough power to keep around some minions, including the dead, possessed body of his mother, who was killed in a war on those very grounds about 700 years ago. 

Mirasha got to wrestle with the concept of what it means to be an orc, as Vodal’s conversation at her was about reclaiming the glory days of the orcs (he’s an orc himself). 

Eirlys got faced with the concept of having someone you could count on to always be there for you - especially since they’re not gonna die of old age. 

It game them both something to chew on but I had to laugh when Eirlys eventually decided to sacred flame him ;D 

So they start fucking him up, mom gets involved, they end up chopping off a good chunk of his health and he books it for his lair. They barricade mom in the parlor and are faced with the grand puzzle of the hallway.

Remember those tangram pieces they’d been getting for 13 sessions? Oh yeah.

Turns out under the hall rug was a set of floor tiles that their gold pieces just so happened to fit in. And that scrap of paper from the tower? Each bolded word was an anagram for a particular animal on the floor; solve them in exactly the right order and the tiles cascaded down into a staircase shape, letting them into the tunnel under the house. How long they took on it determined how much health Vodal got to recoup in the process.

It’s simple on the surface and didn’t go exactly to plan, but I still like the concept of this puzzle. Next time I need more hints and less handholding though, that was a mistake on my part as DM. Live and learn!

Vodal

I’m also pretty happy with Vodal. I homebrewed him by combining the orc spellcaster with a toned down vampire and got this weird mash of brute force and possession/summoning combat. His focus for the second part of the encounter was pretty simple; get to the alter at the back of his lair and start summoning. He had to preform 5 rounds of successful attempts to request help from his deity...but without chickening out. (Wisdom saves abounded). 

I couldn’t roll for shit and he made four of them in quick succession and then failed something like four turns in a row. It added a certain fateful beauty to the encounter however as they just managed to defeat his summoned minions and get up to wail on him as he completed his last attempt. Some sort of horrible hybrid between gorilla and human the size of an 18 wheeler was starting to push its way between the planes, sporting the same blazing eyes everyone posessed by Vodal had. My players got the last swing in just in time and watched as the portal collapsed but not before Valkek (they found his name later on a number of spellbooks upstairs) got a good look at them. Hopefully he’s stuck to his plane for the foreseeable future, but he did manage to get out I  W I L L  R E M E M B E R so maybe they didn’t get off scott free ;D

The Aftermath

Eirlys picked up a cool new bow to finally have a shot at hitting things. Maybe. Mirasha confirmed Vodal had been a vampire. The house collapsed into a giant sinkhole without Vodal’s magic. All in a day’s work. 

They decided to swing back and check on the two NPCs they’d met along the way. Alber was first - they’d found him bound to a pond inhabited by a baby krakenling a couple session earlier. As it turns out, freed from Vodal’s control he’d finally been allowed to pass on and join his long-dead wife in the afterlife. They gave him a proper burial and it was very moving, props to my players. 

Then it was back to Jarvilli’s house for tea and axe shenanigans. 

Good shit. 

Next Up

Well that wraps up a solid story arc. We made a ton of mistakes (myself most of all) but I learned a lot, built some solid plot hooks for the future and made almost as many good choices as bad. 

We’re heading into Neverwinter next, to visit Stephanie at the Lady Finger Inn and I can’t wait.

[donegeonsndragons]

Narratuary: Session 4 Highlights

The party searches for the next item, cults are suspected, and bosses are defeated way too easily.

Oh boy.

5 hours long session with a bunch of DM “OH SHIT” moments. I’ve created a group of extremely careful players and it’s coming to bite me in the ass a bit. Whoops. 

Premise: on their first mission for Councillor Astorio, they head to the port city of Prospos to try to recover the magical mirror that can be used as a powerful arcane focus. Also, since last time, Carlin got a badger friend, Baldwin has a cleric acolyte named Corrick following him, and Innchie has a celestial familiar. 

Warning: this is a fucking long post

Entering the city, they reach the city square with a bustling marketplace

Carlin and Innchie immediately go for the arcane merchant there and are immediately skeeved out by him

The merchant says that they can get regular magical items at normal market price, or they can play his “spin-the-wheel” game and get a random magical item for only 15 gold, but that he’d also give a discount to Innchie

Carlin and Innchie play along, Carlin gets a periapt of health (immunity to diseases) and Innchie gets a Lantern of Human Detection (which detects humans within 10 feet)

Aurora sees a crying woman who’s pleading for help and goes to talk to her

The woman explains that her daughter had gone missing since last night and she doesn’t know where she could be, but there are rumours of people going missing around town

Meanwhile, Igtbtgh talks to 2 workers tearing down a platform and asks them what’s up, they tell him that this platform is being deconstructed as it has no use now that slavery has been abolished

With a blessing from Baldwin, they leave the woman and head to the docks 

Carlin tries to steal from randoms, but is spotted by Corrick and is thwarted 

In his frustration, as they head towards the docks, he intimidates a dwarf named Janus to become his friend and rolls really really high (Janus is now his “friend”)

Janus confirms the rumours that people have been disappearing, especially girls at the Out Inn

Igtbtgh OOC: what if they’re getting kidnapped for a satanic ritual? Me: *sweats nervously*

Why are my players so good at guessing plot points...

For the rest of the game, it was just “yep cults” anytime something weird happened

They talk to a group of sailors who explains more about the slavery situation, and how the people of Prospos don’t really like the High Council and Councillor Astorio

But they like the adventurers, so they invite them out for a drink at the Blind Eye and then maybe some more fun at the Out Inn *wink wink*

Innchie (both in and out of character) didn’t get it. I had to explain it was a brothel

Honestly I’m surprised they didn’t catch the innuendo sooner

Anyways since the Blind Eye and the Out Inn don’t open until the evening, they go to kill time by exploring the houses on the cliff (that belong to the wealthy citizens and merchants)

Carlin and Innchie perform music well and loudly (accompanied by Carlin’s flailing badger), and they attract the attention of servants (and scare off one of the servant girls)

Aurora uses her charms to talk up a cloth merchant named Rodon Dag, and Baldwin uses this opportunity to get more info on the relation between the merchant businesses and the recent slavery abolishment

Innchie realizes that the lantern is useless and so she goes back to the merchant and yells at him, where he allows Innchie to reroll for free and get a new item, the lightstone

I’m sad they didn’t get to see the other items at this stall, but I get to recycle them so it’s all good

After getting more info, it’s finally evening and they go to the Blind Eye, a gambling and drinking den

Baldwin and Corrick notice a man watching them and go talk to him with Aurora, while Innchie and Carlin play dice games and Igtbtgh gets drinks

The man asks Aurora, Baldwin, and Corrick to deliver a sack of candles to one of the houses on a cliff belonging to widow Navarra Holm, and when they accept, he pays them and leaves

Now they all go to the Out Inn to talk to Rosie, the matron

She tells them that she bets most of the girls who have gone missing have runaway with the money or the client, and that the latest missing girl is Amber

Baldwin convinces her to give him the key to check out Amber’s room, and before headed upstairs, notices a maid looking at him

After getting her to come up with them, the maid tells them that Amber’s frequent client is Rodon Dag and that she’s sure Amber didn’t just leave

Aurora is offended that Rodon didn’t just like her

Carlin flirts with some of the girls and gets info while Innchie asks Rosie the process to becoming a brothel girl (to which Rosie says “if you were cleaner you’d probably pass”)

They sleep the night in a normal inn and wake up next morning to go do the delivery right away

First thing in the morning, they head back to the cliffs and go to deliver and explore again

Aurora, Baldwin, and Corrick go to Navarra Holm’s house on the edge of the cliff

Innchie casts detect magic on the cliffs, and detects weird magic below her feet near the cluster of houses that raises red flags

Detecting that magic, she then sends her familiar Rupert to fly down the cliff and explore (and look through Rupert’s senses)

She discovers an opening, leading to tunnels that have bloodstains on the floor and leads to a basement of one of the houses (alongside a branch that leads somewhere she didn’t explore)

She’s catatonic during all this, and Carlin has fun trying to poke her awake

Without having success, Carlin rolls two atheletics checks: first time he rolled a 3 and barely did anything, the second time was high enough to poke just short of straight-up punching Innchie in the face

Meanwhile, Aurora, Baldwin, and Corrick have been invited inside for some tea

This is where I fuck up

Me: did you drink the tea? Innchie OOC: ....now we don’t want to Me: wow, who do you think I am?

The 3 of them refuse to drink the tea, but I still had them make constitution saving throws against a powerful sleep spell thing

Me: *laughs evilly* Innchie OOC: SEE

I forget sleep stuff doesn’t work on people with elven blood WHOOPS

Anyways we manage to kind of slide through this as Aurora passes out and Corrick gets blasted by Navarra (who, surprise surprise, is not an evil mage)

Baldwin gets hit by divine weapon, but he manages to heal himself completely and yells out for the other party members outside

Hearing him, the rest of the party goes inside and combat starts!

Baldwin immediately grapples Navarra, and that’s when I knew I was fucked

Intense combat happens, Navarra never escapes that grapple, she tries to use an item but is straight up knocked out before she can do anything

They discover that the item she tried to use is teleportation powder (which Carlin snatches out of Baldwin’s hands before sneaking it back into his pocket)

Meanwhile, Navarra’s body has started to turn into weird mist, and so Baldwin just straight up kills her (in which she fully turns to mist and disappears into the depths below)

They killed my boss before the final showdown

Really, now that I’m thinking about it, I could’ve just had her disappear after serving tea and that would’ve made everything work (whoops)

Anyways, they now decide to explore the basement to see if they can find the underground network, and surprise surprise there’s a tunnel

Carlin goes first and hears some cultists, and so when he comes back they hatch a plan to have Aurora use Disguise Self to become Navarra and have the rest of the party follow her

Marching forward, they find a natural cavern which has dead bodies in a corner, a crowd of 14 cultists surrounding an altar with a small girl and the true-sight mirror on it, and they’re chanting “Great One open our eyes” in a language only Innchie knows

Surprise, it’s a cult of Tharizdun (Innchie’s otherworldly patron and part of her past that she doesn’t know)

Aurora manages to just scrape by with her deception rolls while Innchie tries to communicate with one of the cultists, who turns out to be the magic merchant from the marketplace 

The merchant calls Innchie “the true child of Tharizdun” which peaks her interest

After some fumbling conversation (and the cultists trying to convince that Innchie being there is a sign that the sacrifices are working), Aurora crit fails her deception (for the third time that night)

Time to fight! (much to my chagrin of having to deal with 14 CULTISTS)

Thankfully, with a combination of Carlin’s ball bearings and Baldwin’s thunder spell, they knock out/kill them really quickly

As Baldwin and Aurora go to put the true-sight mirror in a bag, they catch sight of their reflections

Baldwin sees himself as a reaper with scales, and Aurora sees herself as a child version with no red hair and no markings

Baldwin takes this as a good omen and packs the mirror away safely

Much to everyone’s protests, Innchie revives the merchant to 1 HP and asks more about what he said

Aurora helps call for High Council guards and brings the mother to the child, while Carlin and Igtbtgh move the dead out of the cavern

Baldwin is pragmatic and takes all of the cultists’ gold and weapons, and gives the profits to everyone 

Before getting arrested, the merchant tells Innchie that she’s the most pure form of Tharizdun’s energy he’s ever felt, and that she must be Tharizdun’s true child

With the mirror recovered and the cultists arrested, the party is met by Solvrye who gives them their payment and directions to Arca, their next destination to deliver the mirror