Erif's Story - Part 7

Erif's story is the story of a D and D 5th edition campaign that I am playing in, from the perspective of Erif, the character that I am playing (with the occasional out of game note)

I have been falling behind on my writing, so this post will actually be the overview of the events of two sessions.

In both of these sessions, all of the players (including Enigma's) were able to make it. Yay!

Now, that is all of the essential information that needs to be established, it's time to get on with the story...

From the Journal of Eric Hcrocs:

We have completed what I am pretty sure has been the most satisfying contract yet! There have been no "no killing" orders, no diseases that cause you to be kidnapped by beings from beyond space and time, and most importantly, no acid rain!

Also, I may or may not choose to join a cult, if I feel motivated.

Backing up a bit, we where completing the second part of our 2-part contract - the part where we need to find a reliquary in a ruined temple, and bring it back to the person who hired us - Seeker Andronis, a priest of Karsis (out of game note: in the floating isles setting, Karsis is a god of fire, creation, and destruction. What makes his followers interesting is that they believe that Karsis is the only god, which can sometimes prove to be difficult, as this is a fantasy world where other gods are known to exist, and actually give their followers magic powers).

On the way to the temple, we are accosted by a group of bear-riding kobolds, who demanded that we pay a toll. For a while, Rhaugox and Etcher try to trick them into accepting a smaller amount of money than they demanded. However, it eventually became clear that they weren't going to fall for it (also, I was getting bored). So, I decided to set them on fire.

A fight Ensues!

The fight did not prove to be that difficult - we end up killing all of them with relative ease.

Also, during the fight, Enigma and Sairon rejoin the group (out of game note: this was the game master way of bringing the whole group back together. a detailed explanation was nit needed or provided)

After the fight, the remaining days of travel to the temple are uneventful (which also means that they are incredibly boring)

Eventually, we reach the temple which has a courtyard full of swords. It was weird, but I did not give it too much thought. There were also some gnolls (out of game note: gnolls are bloodthirsty hyena-people. Also in the floating islands setting, they are skyship pirates!). We fight them and we kill them, and they all burn.

We explore the rest of the temple, and eventually find the reliquary in a underground and partially underwater section. There are also some more gnolls there, but we are also able to kill them all fairly easily as well (although it was not as enjoyable as the first fight, because of all of the water.  

(out of game note: this is where the first session ended, and the second one began)

After retrieving the reliquary, we proceed to leave the temple, at which point all of the swords in the courtyard animate. 

Apparently, the original priests who lived at the temple had used magic to cause these swords to animate if anyone tries to take the reliquary. The swords tell us to put the reliquary back, but since taking that reliquary is going to get us a whole bunch of money, we attack it, and

A fight ensues!

After a slightly longer, and slightly more difficult fight, we are able to kill it / destroy enough swords / disrupt the magic stuff animating the swords? I really don't know what the best description would be.

The journey back is mostly uneventful, with the exception of a detour into a forest that the whole group went on, trying to solve a puzzle that involved statues and gems and matching the correct pairs. I really didn't care that much at all - I spent the time looking for something to set on fire that wouldn't cause a forest fire (not that a forest fire wouldn't be awesome, it's just that I feel that people shouldn't approve of me doing so, and their disapproval might be dangerous to my health)

Eventually, we arrive back in town, just in time to see the leader of the cult that we had defeated get burned by the stake by seeker Andronus. It was pretty satisfying to watch, although not as satisfying when I discovered the flames where only that impressive because there where lots of flammable materials placed under the wood.

After the burning, we go to see seeker Andronus, who provides us with our reward. In addition, he talks to me privately, having noticed my similar interests in flame, and asked me if I would consider joining the crimson dawn (the church of Karsis). I told him that I would consider it, and he gave me a symbol of the cult that I could show to any member to get myself initiated.

I've never really felt the appeal of worshiping any sort of deity - the most I ever do is occasionally feel grateful toward them for creating the world and everything in it, etcetera, etcetera. However, worshiping Karsis does have a certain appeal to it - since he is apparently the only god, I would only have to worry about praying to him, instead of having to pay respects to a bunch of them (I could also make fun of any other priests that I meet and make fun of them by saying that their god is fake). Plus, Karsis is probably one of the few gods that would be okay with me setting random things on fire, and I don't think I would want to worship any god that didn't let me do that. I haven't made up my mind just yet, and I think I will need to research Karsis more in detail when I gt back to freemen headquarters be for I make my final decision.

After receiving our reward, we are about to leave back to Freemen headquarters, when a commoner asks us if we can find her missing husband. After quite a lot of dissension (out of game note: It must have been quite distressing for the lady - "please, can you help me?" "hold on, we have to spend 30 minutes auguring with one another, and then we'll get back to you"), we eventually decide to help her.  Ugh. Everything up until this point had been great, and now we have to end out adventure with this downer!

We are eventually able to determine that the lady's husband was captured by gnolls, who took him back to their airship. We find the airship, but from a distance, there does not appear to be anyone in it, so I set it on fire. After setting it on fire, Rhaugox and Sairon both decide to go into it (why?), and discover that while there are no gnolls inside it, there were prisoners, which they attempt to rescue (although it became increasingly hard to do as the ship is both burning and sinking, since I set the balloons that were keeping the ship floating in the sky on fire).

The boat ends up falling into the mists, and the people inside it are only able to escape by Rhaugox turning into a giant spider and using himself a a web platform.

(out of game note - the web platform thing was awesome. So very, very awesome)

With some help from the webs, everyone is able to make it to safety.




Ands that's were the session ended.
I enjoyed the game, as always, although probably not as much as Erif himself, who thought this was the best contract yet (because unlike him, I actually enjoyed all of the previous adventures!)

Erif's story - part 8 will be coming when ever I find the time to make it.