Underworld Adventurer

 It had been a long time since a group of adventurers had gathered in the Burning Witch with one purpose in mind--to delve below the earth on an underworld adventure! Inspired by recent events, this hiatus was brought to an end by GaWoosh, Hate Pit, PakPak, and Wolfgang. Joining them at their table sat the recent gnomish rescuee Buddy B. Barksdale as he made a stop on his drinking tour of Orm.  Fellow patrons and eavesdroppers could hear them discussing the cold war inside the Complex between the Eye of Terror and the Imperial Mother. Patrons did not been to be a nosey gnome to overhear Barksdale loudly proclaim, "Me and my gnomies?!? We can come to the surface *hick* as we please!", as he stumbled out of the tavern to relieve himself on the Monument of the Old Gods. With the departure of Buddy, the groups conversation turned toward the Rani's 10% tax on treasure leaving the Complex at the cliff-side entrance. After weighting which was worse: taxes or potential death at t...

 

**This recap took place before the Sacking of Orm Session 1**  Since Journeyman Crannoc returned to Orm from his adventures in the Gloaming Hills, he had been deep into research in the Athenaeum's stacks. Well, when he was not with his tutor Sharune studying a new spell that marked his ascendency to the 5th Rank in the Transcendental Congress of the Aureate Precepts known as 'Philosopher'. Crannoc's research turned the magic-user's attention to the 4th Level of 'The Complex' often refered to as the Great Cavern. He convinced the following party to join him on his explorations: Journeyman Crannoc (Level 5 Magic-User) Uscha (fey servitor) Spike (wardog) Yeoman Klang (Level 2 Thief hireling) PakPak (Level 5 Kobold) Smokey Proag (Level 3 Halfling hireling) Wolfgang (Level 3 Duelist) Ur-Kel (Level 2 Vat Spawn Knight hireling) The party returned over a day later lugging a crate with them. The hirelings Yeoman Klang and Smokey Proag went off to to celebrate another...

 On Sunday, I ran the first session centered around the Worthy raiding Orm as the settlement burns (caused by the wreck of the Sunset Elf airship the Purple Rose ). One of the pieces of player feedback was some sort location-specific map (instead of just using my currently incomplete one of Orm) would help with player decision making. I make a rough, text-based point-crawl map based on the even rougher one in my session notes. As I looked at it, though, I thought, "Why don't I just overlay that over my incomplete map?" So, did. I threw the first ever sketch of the Worthy (circa 2017) at the top just for fun. I hope this will be helpful in coming sessions.

 

Early in the new year, a strange and small being was seen stumbling into the Drinking Crow. The small goblin-like creature approached the table where the adventurers known as the Dragon Slayers were plotting the first delve into the underworld dungeon know to Orm's adventuring community as "The Complex" and introduced himself as the Neophyte in the Transcendental Congress of the Aureate Precepts called Crambo. The magic-user could be overheard recounting some sort of carousing mishap that left a witch insulted and Crambo polymorphed into his current diminutive size. The transformation didn't seem to reduce Crambo's appetite for treasure as he easily signed on to join the following party return to the unexplored northeastern portion of Level 3 of "The Complex" on a hunt to loot: Copra Kaan (Level 5 Vat Spawn) Crambo (Level 1 Magic-User) Axel (Level 0 Man-At-Arms hireling) Malagath Finbaros (Level 3 Elf) Petra P. (Level 1 Elf) Palla (Level 0 Amazon hirelin...

Update Map of the Great Cavern  The Riverborn Scamandros, fresh from a wild round of carousing along the Twilight Shores, returns to the mortal realm eager to revisit the Great Cavern last explored two fort nights ago. The Great Cavern being a vast unexplored area, it was not hard for the Magician to pull together a crew to join him. The following party was seen walking along the beach headed towards that peculiar patch of black grass:  Abraxis (Level 3 Fighting Mutant) Frim Frimerson (Level 2 Fighter) Hate Pit (Level 3 Vat Spawn) Journeyman Crannoc (Level 4 Magic-User) Scamandros (Level 4 Magic-User) Kiddo (Level 3 Magic-User) The party returned over a day later, exhausted and smelling like an odd combo of stagnate vegetation and fried food. They were carrying more strange arms and armor too large to fit members of the adventuring population of Orm. Currently, the party seems pretty mum about the details of their expedition though Frim Frimerson will tell anyone about how g...

  Hex #0809 During a recent excursion  into the Complex, PakPak created some excitement for returning to Sourwood Marsh with talks of stuck interplanar ships and theories of its connections to recent unusual events. This especially rekindled a desire on the part of the Beholder Phasmo to return to the mysteries of the swamp land. While the magic-user was present in the first investigatory expedition into the marshlands west of Orm, he was not part of the group that discovered the ship trapped in a cave. A group comprising of members of previous expeditions into Sourwood along with a few pair of eyes fresh to Sourwood Marsh began to form around the ideas of trying to collect the reward for rescue the Margrave Quinus and slaying the mysterious monster roaming the swamp while they looked for this strange ship. The following party set out for the fishing village of Kêm  (Point #2 in Hex #0809) talking about renting a boat from 'Duber': Fancy Jean-Yves Beauvollier (Level 5 ...

 Fresh off of their delve just the night before, Drinking Crow regulars Bors Redbeard were seen wearily making their way past the Monument of the Old Gods and into the Burning Witch . A party was being gathered to rescue the magic-users Crambo and Riverborn Scamandros. The fate of the pair, l ast seen in the clutches the Imperial Mother , was unknown but the bard Fancy Jean-Yves Beauvollier painted a very worrisome picture. Copra and Scamandros' apprentice Kiddo were there to inform the rescue party on the details of the last moments Crambo and Scamandros were seen before their compatriots retreated. As the following party left to free the magic-using pair, grumbling could be heard of begrudgingly trying to treat with the sorcerer king Valtropis near the 'Pool of Life' on Level 2: Bors Redbeard (Level 4 Dwarf) Copra Kaan (Level 4 Vat Spawn) Frim Frimerson (Level 2 Fighter) Journeyman Crannoc (Level 4 Magic-User) Phasmo (Level 3 Magic-User) The group, even though they set o...

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Ur-Dan The region known as Ur-Dun was once populated with vacation homes, tourist towns, and their supporting municipalities from the capitol of the Empire-That-Was back when that power stretched continents and mortal beings still possessed the spark to achieve such peaks of grandeur. In the epochs of the following aeon, the region has collapsed from holiday destination into petty and in-fighting, self-styling "City-States" which possess delicate truces with obtuse elfin courts, are besieged by rebellious Sea Kings to the Southwest and fierce Amazonian tribes to the Northeast, and whose wilderness are riddled with dangerous monstrosities. Some might say times are bleak but, hey, the sun is going to die soon anyways. Sourwood Marsh Situated in the center of the region, the wetlands known as the Sourwood Marsh once provided some of the richest farmland in all the Empire-That-Was. The land had been drained and filled but with the collapse of Empire...

Much has been happening at the Burning Witch of late. The neophyte magic-user known has Phasmo rented the attic of the tavern to establish a laboratory of sorts. A prisoners, rumored around the tavern to be a member of the Order of the Illuminated Eye, was brought the attic against bar keep Rosie's protests. Patrons heard her yell at Phasmo, "She no stay here. This tavern, no prison!" A party of adventurers coalesced days later in the tavern common room, reflecting upon newly acquired intelligence from the prisoner before setting out to "The Complex". They were: Journeyman Crannoc (Level 1 Magic-User) Many-faced Gene (Level 1 Assassin) Phasmo (Level 1 Magic-User) Scamaneros (Level 1 Magic-User and fellow to Journeyman Crannoc & Phasmo in the Transcendental Congress of the Aureate Prespets)  Kiddo (Level 0 Scrappy Youth) Sergio Cankersore (Level 1 Half-Elf) Sir Basileus (Level 1 Fighter and Knight of the Morningstar) Here are maps from ...

Here is the map draw by Feeble Finn's player Rob covering some of Levels 1 and 2 of the Caves north of the pit.