Five Go to Taurhopa, Return a Corpse, Kill Dragons, Make Friends and Influence People
71 views
Skip to first unread message
Richard Jackson
Sep 5, 2021, 10:56:17 AM9/5/21
to The Valley
The dragon's gaze stared, unmoving, unblinking, at the crowd gathered before it. Its fearsome white visage filled the dimly lit space. It looked terrifying in the flickering lamplight, its teeth bared for attack. Dramble met its gaze warily for a moment. The diminutive sorcerer was clearly intimidated by its presence, but trying to put on a brave face.
He pulled up a chair and joined his recent travelling companions at their table, turning his back on the preserved dragon head now mounted on the wall of the Lakeside Inn. He had been telling snippets of their adventures to the patrons of the inn all evening, many of whom had come to admire the new trophy and hear tales of how it had been slain and brought back to the Valley.
Dramble sighed, taking a deep swig from his tankard. "This story needs work. Maybe I need to tell it in order, so they understand all the context. I don't think they believed me. They looked at me as if I was mad!" Seeing Xyrxina, Kallista, Newt and Aila all silently raising their eyebrows at this, he elaborated:
"I mean, I was just telling them about that time in the enchanted forest. You know, when we snuck away from the experts who were guiding us through it, because the elf who'd been drinking spirits until the early hours of the morning said she saw some golden lines that no one else could, and her magic bone told us to follow them. Those dwarves over there told me this sounded crazy, but I reassured them it wasn't - We asked a squirrel for directions and checked with the trees that it was okay before we went off and started saying magic words to abandoned ruins. All perfectly sensible!"
Four pairs of eyes blinked at him.
"Come on, gang, help me out here!"
Evie
Sep 5, 2021, 3:18:56 PM9/5/21
to The Valley
Kallista looks slightly amused by Dramble's story. "When you put it that way, you make it sound a lot worse."
"You should probably start with when we arrived in Taurhopa. Then the story might make slightly more sense."
Kathryn Karnage
Sep 7, 2021, 11:05:59 AM9/7/21
to Evie, The Valley
Xyrxina looks up from her drink and glances at the warlock
"You're right, when he says it like that, it does seem a little... less than sensible... However, I seem to remember sending a letter back after the funeral of General Varisel with what had happened, so let's move on a bit."
She glances at her drink again
"And while this is no Black Crag Mountain Spirit, nor a Harmanorian Black Castle Red... It fills a spot ready for a story.
"So, Taurhopa. I had been Dreading and anticipating Taurhopa in equal ammounts. On the one hand, it is the seat of a branch of my family thought lost, and the excitement of meeting them was almost too much to bear. On the other hand - I had no idea if that was still the case and wasn't sure how the revelation of a long lost relative, one who *might* be able to press a claim at that, would be received into the established politics of the city. I resolved to make sure I would be constantly visible while at Taurhopa, to make any quick attempts to remove me more difficult.
She takes a drink and glances over at Aila with a rye smile
"My nocturnal explorations had revealed a city pretty much identical to the vision granted me at the Sentinel Tree, despite my worry that it was just Wood Elf mysticism. It didn't take long before an invitation to see Ninleyn Latharas, the current head of the family and his children. I won't bore you with hours of etiquette and politics, but suffice it to say I feel I succeeded in my aims [*] and made a friend of Bellaluna Latharas. We exchanged gifts with me receiving the quiver of our shared ancestor, Vallana.
She holds out the black quiver, embossed with her coat of arms for inspection.
"This and subsequent meetings with Bellaluna made it clear that if there was going to be any attempt on my life it would not come from the family. Wynshana Staronor and her desire to protect the Latharas Family however...
"I received 2 letters, one from Wyshana herself saying that a member of the guild was organising an expedition to Black Crag to clear out a nest of dragon hatchlings, and given my family heritage of dragonslayers, she would recommend to Heftriss that he contact me, and one fromm Heftriss inviting me on the journey.
"I immediately drew the conclusion that this was the move I had been expecting, and that one of the retainers on that trip would have instructions to make sure I had an unfortunate accident. However, the lure of dragons was exactly what was needed for me to override that - I had studied dragons for all my life and here was a chance to kill one! So I decided that, of course I would go, but I would take actions to reduce the likelihood of my... disappearance... Therefore I immediately invited the rest of the Valley citizens to join us and went about researching this Heftriss. I disguised myself and followed him to an inn, where in the back room he was making plans with two other retainers to accompany him on the journey, however, despite my early conclusions that he was hiring assassins I became less sure of this, as it sounded more like he was actually hiring old friends, a Tabaxi and what I thought must be a Kenku from the duplicated snippets of conversation, although I worried about dealing with a Kenku, afterall people from the Valley had only had bad dealings with them"
"Heftriss supplied all of our party with Cold Resistant armour and a featherfall amulet, for emergencies, and Aila had struck up a friendship with an old human at the Guild of the White Wolf, who really wanted to see Hefftris succeed, and had given her an arrow of dragonslaying, for the best archer to use. Obviously, that was going to be myself.
"The day came to gather together and leave - Heftriss and ourselves being joined by 2 mercenaries, the voices I had heard at the inn, a very tall tabaxi woman by the name of Falling Leaf, and a Kenku called ... well I can't pronounce it, we called him Pebble. It was awkward at first, but Heftriss reassured us that he had worked with Pebble before and some Kenku were nice.
"So we set off for black Crag... and DRAGONS!!!!!!" The excitement still colours her voice as she says the word..
"Anyway.. I'm just going to nip up to my rooms and grab a bottle of Black Castle Wine, I'll let someone else continue."
She runs up the stairs at the back of the inn, before returning with a rather exquisite-looking bottle of wine, tipping the barman a couple of gold to make up for not drinking his ale, and sits down again.
[*] Which were :
1.) Don't make things worse
2.) Don't give away the homeworld
3.) Make things better
4.) Plan/Plot for the future
The first 2 being way more important than the last 2!
"You're right, when he says it like that, it does seem a little... less than sensible... However, I seem to remember sending a letter back after the funeral of General Varisel with what had happened, so let's move on a bit."
She glances at her drink again
"And while this is no Black Crag Mountain Spirit, nor a Harmanorian Black Castle Red... It fills a spot ready for a story.
"So, Taurhopa. I had been Dreading and anticipating Taurhopa in equal ammounts. On the one hand, it is the seat of a branch of my family thought lost, and the excitement of meeting them was almost too much to bear. On the other hand - I had no idea if that was still the case and wasn't sure how the revelation of a long lost relative, one who *might* be able to press a claim at that, would be received into the established politics of the city. I resolved to make sure I would be constantly visible while at Taurhopa, to make any quick attempts to remove me more difficult.
She takes a drink and glances over at Aila with a rye smile
"My nocturnal explorations had revealed a city pretty much identical to the vision granted me at the Sentinel Tree, despite my worry that it was just Wood Elf mysticism. It didn't take long before an invitation to see Ninleyn Latharas, the current head of the family and his children. I won't bore you with hours of etiquette and politics, but suffice it to say I feel I succeeded in my aims [*] and made a friend of Bellaluna Latharas. We exchanged gifts with me receiving the quiver of our shared ancestor, Vallana.
She holds out the black quiver, embossed with her coat of arms for inspection.
"This and subsequent meetings with Bellaluna made it clear that if there was going to be any attempt on my life it would not come from the family. Wynshana Staronor and her desire to protect the Latharas Family however...
"I received 2 letters, one from Wyshana herself saying that a member of the guild was organising an expedition to Black Crag to clear out a nest of dragon hatchlings, and given my family heritage of dragonslayers, she would recommend to Heftriss that he contact me, and one fromm Heftriss inviting me on the journey.
"I immediately drew the conclusion that this was the move I had been expecting, and that one of the retainers on that trip would have instructions to make sure I had an unfortunate accident. However, the lure of dragons was exactly what was needed for me to override that - I had studied dragons for all my life and here was a chance to kill one! So I decided that, of course I would go, but I would take actions to reduce the likelihood of my... disappearance... Therefore I immediately invited the rest of the Valley citizens to join us and went about researching this Heftriss. I disguised myself and followed him to an inn, where in the back room he was making plans with two other retainers to accompany him on the journey, however, despite my early conclusions that he was hiring assassins I became less sure of this, as it sounded more like he was actually hiring old friends, a Tabaxi and what I thought must be a Kenku from the duplicated snippets of conversation, although I worried about dealing with a Kenku, afterall people from the Valley had only had bad dealings with them"
"Heftriss supplied all of our party with Cold Resistant armour and a featherfall amulet, for emergencies, and Aila had struck up a friendship with an old human at the Guild of the White Wolf, who really wanted to see Hefftris succeed, and had given her an arrow of dragonslaying, for the best archer to use. Obviously, that was going to be myself.
"The day came to gather together and leave - Heftriss and ourselves being joined by 2 mercenaries, the voices I had heard at the inn, a very tall tabaxi woman by the name of Falling Leaf, and a Kenku called ... well I can't pronounce it, we called him Pebble. It was awkward at first, but Heftriss reassured us that he had worked with Pebble before and some Kenku were nice.
"So we set off for black Crag... and DRAGONS!!!!!!" The excitement still colours her voice as she says the word..
"Anyway.. I'm just going to nip up to my rooms and grab a bottle of Black Castle Wine, I'll let someone else continue."
She runs up the stairs at the back of the inn, before returning with a rather exquisite-looking bottle of wine, tipping the barman a couple of gold to make up for not drinking his ale, and sits down again.
[*] Which were :
1.) Don't make things worse
2.) Don't give away the homeworld
3.) Make things better
4.) Plan/Plot for the future
The first 2 being way more important than the last 2!
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Valley" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to thevalleyrpg...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thevalleyrpg/daf3c3a5-7f8a-493c-9f04-1eb0d800a609n%40googlegroups.com.
Richard Jackson
Sep 7, 2021, 2:32:17 PM9/7/21
to The Valley
Seeing the dwarves he was talking to earlier leaning in to overhear Xryxina's story, Dramble couldn't resist showing off a little to the growing audience.
"We called him Pebble, because his real name is the sound made by pebbles as they are washed around a river bed." With a hand gesture, he conjured a passing imitation of the name Pebble had been introduced to them by, which echoed softly around the room for a few seconds. "And we needn't have worried about him; he saved at least a couple of our lives, and was an excellent jamming partner to boot!" Louder sounds now, of Dramble's familiar musical repertoire, mixed with natural percussion.
"...But I digress. Our elven friend naturally assumed our whole party accompanying her on the trip, and having cold-resistant armour prepared for them, just *happened*. That took a fair bit of organisation and negotiation from yours truly, I'll have you know!"
He hesitated, seeing the looks on his other three companions' faces and remembering how he hadn't actually asked them whether they *wanted* to get involved with a fight against dragons before signing them up.
"Er, you weren't around for that, of course. What exactly *did* you get up to, on your camping trip out in those woods?"
Evie
Sep 7, 2021, 5:23:07 PM9/7/21
to The Valley
Kallista leaves her table in the corner and walks to the middle of the room. "Newt and Aila went to practice their camping skills or something, I only went because it seemed more interesting than staying in Taurhopa. We were informed before we left that the forest was cursed or something, which is always a good start. Being the wise and sensible adventurers (is that an oxymoron?) we are, we went there anyway.
So, we did all the standard camping stuff, finding a good campsite, setting up tents, and so on. We found somewhere we could fish, which was good. However, Aila decided that casting Shatter on the water was not an appropriate fishing technique. (Neither, apparently, was the somewhat more precise method of using Eldritch Blast on the fish.)
So, we did all the standard camping stuff, finding a good campsite, setting up tents, and so on. We found somewhere we could fish, which was good. However, Aila decided that casting Shatter on the water was not an appropriate fishing technique. (Neither, apparently, was the somewhat more precise method of using Eldritch Blast on the fish.)
During the night, there was smoke in the camp. Seems normal, except that we'd already put out the fire." At this point, Kallista uses Thaumaturgy to make the lights dimmer. "This smoke was actually a group of smoke creatures, which attacked us! We managed to get rid of them though, so we decided, of course, to head deeper into the forest the next day.
Stone, Kasharin)We found a stone in the forest, which had Goblin writing on it. This writing said "Kasharin" -the name of a settlement destroyed in the war. The stone also had a tree with stars hanging from its branches - the symbol of Sehanine. The stone was also hallowed, which turned out to be important.
We also found a large blue stone object. It was a Builder vehicle, but it was broken and mostly buried in the ground, so no cool Builder stuff for us. However, we managed to dig out the entrance, and we acquired some magic items from inside the Builder vehicle. It had been used in the war, but something had happened and it was left in the forest. The crew were inside the vehicle, so Aila suggested that we give them a proper burial. After we had done that, it was quite late, so we headed back to the camp.
The lights flicker, and ominous noises can be heard. "When we got to camp, we noticed that something was watching us. It was two ghouls!" Two glowing pairs of eyes appear in the shadows at the edge of the room (Minor illusion!). "We packed up and ran. The ghouls followed us, and almost caught us, but we eventually got to the stone. The ghouls ran at full speed towards us, and...
stopped ten feet away from the stone. They couldn't enter the hallowed area, so we heroically stayed inside it and defeated the ghouls with ranged attacks. We thought it would be best to stay in the hallowed area until morning.
The next day, we headed back to Taurhopa. That was the end of the camping trip, but not the end of our adventures in Taurhopa and the Black Crag."
Kallista strolls back to her table. "If I've missed anything, (particularly about the history of Kasharin and the war), go ahead and mention it "
Rory Cullen
Sep 9, 2021, 5:07:52 AM9/9/21
to The Valley
>
a long lost relative, one who *might* be able to press a claim at that
Elf princess, called it. > made a friend of Bellaluna Latharas
> "If I've missed anything, (particularly about the history of Kasharin and the war)
I remember the apocalyptic black tide of evil dust bringing down the entire Builder civilisation, but I don't recall hearing about a war...
R.
kelly...@googlemail.com
Sep 9, 2021, 6:41:55 AM9/9/21
to The Valley
Halla looks up from her tankard at the bar.
"Then you ain't been listening!" She snaps.
"The whole thing about us fighting undead hordes and death spitting builder machines in an Elven fort set up during the Sesseron civil war last year? The Elven General... Vass...er Verseria? What was his name? Ah well, doesn't matter. He's at rest now thanks to this lot."
"The whole thing about us fighting undead hordes and death spitting builder machines in an Elven fort set up during the Sesseron civil war last year? The Elven General... Vass...er Verseria? What was his name? Ah well, doesn't matter. He's at rest now thanks to this lot."
She looks back to the storytellers. "What happened next? I want to hear about the dragon!"
Rory Cullen
Sep 9, 2021, 6:59:25 AM9/9/21
to The Valley
The heckler turns a dignified stare on Halla. "I remember you talking about fighting undead and builder necromancy spider metalthingies, but I've been back over the written account and I don't see even a passing mention of a civil war. Have I missed it? Or did you all forget about that part?"
Kathryn Karnage
Sep 9, 2021, 10:20:17 AM9/9/21
to Rory Cullen, The Valley
Xyrxina speaks up, a slight crack in her voice,
"As Heskeron fell deeper into his obsession with immortality, then betrayed and murdered his 6 councillors, the leaders of the six kingdoms of Sesseran,an act that left a gaping wound on the collective psyche of the citizens, the kingdoms fell into a bitter war that lasted for many mortal lifetimes, the weapons concocted during that time drew on a lot of the builder technology, especially the "black dust" found in the canyon to the South"
She takes a deep drink
"No-one won, but everyone lost, and it mostly seemed to end via attrition, the great kingdoms much lessened"
She glances at Aila again
"However, the scars from that war, and the acts that prelude it, while centuries ago, are still there and ripe to reopen, despite the seemingly calm and stability of the regions. So whilst there are still wrongs to be righted - we must always be wary of the wounds that lie beneath the seemingly calm surface."
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thevalleyrpg/0cb5166e-cdd7-424c-b2c2-82468a7893fen%40googlegroups.com.
ed.ch...@gmail.com
Mar 2, 2022, 6:16:10 AM3/2/22
to The Valley
Hey folks, are any of you going to finish this update or should I just post a quick update myself on what's generally known after the trip to Taurhopa? Obviously not revealing any secret player stuff or anything that isn't generally known to the whole group
Kathryn Karnage
Mar 2, 2022, 7:24:50 AM3/2/22
to ed.ch...@gmail.com, The Valley
I'll see if I get a moment to write up some dragonslaying antics. After all, everyone had had plenty of time to come up with a less obehsided account 😹
Hey folks, are any of you going to finish this update or should I just post a quick update myself on what's generally known after the trip to Taurhopa? Obviously not revealing any secret player stuff or anything that isn't generally known to the whole group
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Valley" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to thevalleyrpg...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thevalleyrpg/37de23ca-9dce-48c9-abcb-7e88a893636en%40googlegroups.com.
Richard Jackson
Mar 2, 2022, 1:31:30 PM3/2/22
to The Valley
I forgot we'd left this write-up unfinished TBH. Go for it - I'm sure Dramble will chip in if he feels Xyrxina isn't telling it the way it should be told! ;o)
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages