Adventurers of the Drinking Crow Session #12-There and Back Again...Twice **Updated with Bors' Journal Entry**

The adventurers based out of the Drinking Crow were very secretive about their plans all for their next delve. Bors Redbeard, though, was seen buying several block and tackles along with 150ft. of rope and a dozen sugary pastries from a baker. The following party left in the direction of "The Complex" early in the morning on the first working day of the week:

• Bors Redbeard (Level 2 Dwarf)
• Fredrick Featherstone (Level 1 Vestigater)
• Malagath Finbaros (Level 1 Elf)
• V'Naïss Two-Face (Level 2 Vatspawn)
• Will the Wisp (Level 1 Illusionist)
• Mister Fantastic (dungeon terrier)

The party return to Orm later that morning carrying a sealed chest that they immediately took to the local blacksmith. After a night's rest and hireling hiring spree at the 111th Company, the party returned to the seaside dungeon with the following assistants:

• Whiskers Redbeard (Level 1 Dwarf hireling)
• The Sargent (Level 0 Woman-at-Arms hireling)
• Butterfingers (Level 1 Halfling hireling)

The party return, completely intact, with a sack of gold pieces and some other assorted items. Bors Redbeard immediately hit the town, drinking his way through taverns, backroom get togethers, and secret watering holes in Orm only to end up back at his cousin's bar (where he is an investor, he would like to add), no worse for wear. The following was found on a piece of paper on the floor of the Drinking Crow:

V’naïs Two-Face’s to do list:

1. Meet some apes. 

2. Kill some apes. 

3. Get a big block of melted treasure (and maybe a magic sword!). 

4. Kill a giant cricket. 

5. Fight some worms. 

6. Fight a gross ogre. 

7. Help some brothers out. 

8. Feed some cannibals.

And here is a journal entry from Bors supplied by his player Shahnawaz:

Bors’ Journal

Entry seven:

        I feel it has been a long time since we’ve had a truly successful trip to the complex.  It was hard to keep this tightlipped for a fortnight as we planned on retrieving the lump of treasure that I accidentally set the fireball trap out of.  As for our second trip, I was cautious about hiring Whiskers to come down with us because I was afraid something might happen to them, but I know he and Lefty are itching to go back in, and I know I would be furious if they went in with another group and met their ultimate fate with them.  If they meet their ultimate fate with me, I would be the one solely responsible.  But I was tremendously relieved that we were able to not only arrive back successfully, all alive, and with some treasure to boot, but we were also able to help “The Brothers” with their ogre problem.  That is to say that they don’t have problems with ogres as a race, but with one particular ogre. I was so elated and relieved that I gave Whiskers my share of the treasure.

        On another note, learning about Ruavel has filled me with a bit of greed, I think it would work wonders in my hands, staying in the front and protecting the others while a dance metal happens  around me.  Although, it is a group choice.  If not me, I think the Great Hero Malagath benefit from it, considering it was made from his people, but I do know he tends to favor his spear and orb. V’Naïss might also be interested in it, but I do think trying to commission a crossbow or some other sort of ranged weapon which she could use from the walls would make her safer.  But like I said, that is a group decision.

The Loot

• 3,000gp
• a glass bottle filled with a mysterious white mist.
• a magic scroll of some kind.
• a sword (see below for the identification results).
• ruined weapon of the Group Captain.
• 724gp in a sack
• a skull covered in runes

Experience Points

• 3724xp from treasure
• Sentient ape soldiers defeated 4x 50xp
• Cave locust defeated 1 x 20xp
• Burrowing worms defeated 3 x 5xp
• Mutagenic Ogre defeated 1 x 650xp

Player Character Cut

• 600gp ea. from the 1st delve
• 630xp from the 1st delve
• 90g and 5sp ea. from the 2nd delve
• 281xp ea.

I know that Willow the Wisp is looking to be mentored in a spell and to purchase a new dog while Bors is carousing. Let me know about any additional downtime activities anyone wants to perform. Maps, art, or write-ups from the session are worth 100 x PC level xp as always.

Ruavel

Once the possession of the crew of a ruathinmaer (apparently some sort of vessel in an obscure elfin dialect), the weapon known as Ruavel came to the possession of the folk hero Shareela from a clan of hobs in the crags where the Sunset Praire meets the Slumbering Mountains. It is from Shareela's tales that most of what is known about Ruavel comes. In the Imperial-era penny dreadfuls that are the source of the lead on the weapon, Shareela often calls the blade the 'Dancer of Death'. Use of the blade works as follows, as described in the catalogue of treasure confiscated from borderland reavers belonging to an unnamed Imperial Warden of the Elfish Marches circa 23rd Dyntasty of the Empire-That-Was:

At first, the milky-white blade of Ruavel swings by its wielder's hand as any weapon. Even, then, though the weapon grows more accurate and sharper than an normal arms with every swing or thurst. After about the passage of a length of time to execute four maneuvers from the sword fighting schools of Cavarendesh, the blade leaps from its master's hands to join them not as a weapon but as a fighting companion for about the same segment of  time. If the wielder is within 30 paces of the blade when it enters refractory, the blade returns to their hand. At which point, it will serve its master as any weapon would for the remainder of combat. Mithril starburst guard. Poem to activate the sword in elfin inscribed on blade. Leather grip. Star sapphires inlaid throughout (7 total).

In game terms, Ruavel begins combat as a +1 sword. Each consecutive round the user wields the blade in combat, the enchantment bonus increase by +1, capping out at a +4 bonus. The sword then leaps from the wielder's hand, to fight along side its wielder (occupying the same space as the fighter). While dancing, it is considered to wielded by its user for purposes of to-hit and damage. After four rounds of fighting on its own (-1 bonus to a +1 each round), the sword will return to its wielder as long as they are within 30'. If not,  the blade falls to the floor.