January 1153

Week One

Monday, January 1st, 1153

The party stared outside of the small town of New Sorpigal with their six letters in hand. They walked around the town wondering where to go, and decided to enter the inn first. They saw a shady character who they thought was Andover Potbello. Haku approached him, gave the password "Sandman", and handed him the letter from the King of the Devils. He gave the party a bag of money and asked them if they could retrieve a candelabra that was lost in their abandoned temple to the northwest. He would give them another bag if they were successful. The party got a room, thought about it, and decided to do it including figuring out a way to mess up the evil item before it got back to Andover. They returned to Andover and agreed to the task.

They used their money to purchase some weapons, armor, and needed skills for adventuring. They also purchased memberships to the Blade's End, Buccaneer's Lair, Guild of the Elements, and Guild of the Self. Talking to various people around town and in the town hall, they agreed to kill the Queen of Spiders lairing in the abandoned temple, and retrieve the combination of the vault door in Goblinwatch.

The party attempted to attack the fort, Goblinwatch, and ran into trouble on the way there. Three orcs attacked, and with some trouble the party defeated them. They took their spoils, including a light warhorse, and sold their wares for more cash. They finally spent the night ready to face the next day.

Tuesday, January 2nd, 1153

The party, fresh from their rest, wanted to continue on to Goblinwatch. In the morning, they quickly discovered, after purchasing some new skills and spells, that the town's center fountain healed the drinker, but they learned the magic did not carry outside the fountain. The other two fountains, they discovered, replenished Spell Points and temporarily increased the strength of the drinker for the day. In addition, one of the town wells, randomly increased a below exceptional ability score. Haku's strength increased, Boom Boom's charisma increased, and Tigger's dexterity increased. Not all party members benefitted and they decided to try again tomorrow.

They then made their way up to the fort, this time carefully skirting the edge and attempting to remain out of sight. Their idea was a good one as they saw six Goblins guarding the front door. They went around back and discovered a ladder which would reach the battlements on the roof of the fort. They set the ladder against the keep's wall and climbed it to discover better armored and armed Goblins watching the road. The party attacked this group from behind, pulling up the ladder behind them. After slaying this band, Sick took her time picking off the remaining Goblins on the ground.

After going back, selling the goods in town, and regaining hit and spell points, they entered the fort through the front door. The main room was empty but upon opening a side door, they were set upon by a large host of Goblins. More of them came out of nearby rooms so the party was having a hard time. Tigger's new death cry was "Not Again?!!?" as he kept being "killed" and revived by Haku. The party finally killed these Goblins and after a quick search discovered a key in the Elite Goblin's room, and in another room the Goblin King, who cursed at them and fled through a one-way trap door in the floor. The party returned to sell more loot and rest for the day.

Wednesday, January 3rd, 1153

Waking up early, the party set off again. They finished clearing out the main level, leaving a group of rabid giant rats in the trash room. They headed down a ramp to the basement level and discovered a storage room. In that room was a host of weapons and provisions. Hidden in the corner was a locked box. Using the key found yesterday, the party opened it and found the new combination to the vault. However, it was a puzzle as the vault seemed to have sixteen buttons and six doors. Pressing a button would open one door and close another. They left it alone for now as it made Haku's head hurt just thinking about it. Continuing on, they discovered the fort's temple and killed some Goblins guarding it. They discovered a large button which Haku pushed because it looked pretty. Two walls hiding hidden passages rose into the ceiling and from one of them, several dog-sized rats came running out. Tigger started foaming at the mouth when he was bitten by one of them, so the party quickly finished off the rest of them. Tigger bravely continued on and the party finally discovered the vault room. After killing the Goblins guarding it, they tried to figure out the riddle. After some time they discovered the answer to the riddle was GOBLIN spelled backwards to make "NILBOG". After touching the buttons in this sequence the six doors of the vault opened up like the show "Get Smart". Inside the vault was a long corridor which led to a cavern filled with rats and flying bat like horrors with razor-sharp teeth. In the center of this room was an Obilisk. The group shot at one of the monsters and fled back through the vault shutting the doors behind them. Two of the bat creatures made it past them but the party was able to quickly slay them.

The party made several trips back and forth to the fort to get supplies, but they didn't decide to bring back the combination, as they thought the town would like what was behind the doors in the vault. They decided to wait and see what was hidden in the vault first before telling the town about it. Tigger got healed at the temple, and they slept well that night.

Thursday, January 4th, 1153

The party woke up and prepared to head back down to the fort. As they ate breakfast, Lychee, a young Druid, finally arrived at the inn. She had been not feeling well over the last few days and couldn't join everyone when they all started. Now that she was feeling better, she joined them. She was quickly brought up to speed on the goings on in town and Boom Boom took her to get her skilled in Leather and purchased her some Leather Armor. Doomhammer, Sick, and Lychee attempted to increase their abilities at the north-west well and Doomhammer was able to increase her Constitution, and Lychee increased her Strength, while Sick failed again. They set off to the fort.

On the way, everyone decided to check out what was in the vault and then decide if they were going to report it to the town or not. Boom Boom and Tigger thought that it would be best to not mention anything, just give them the combination and then see if they ask for anything. Re-opening the vault, they proceeded slowly down the corridor. Then suddenly Doomhammer came up with a brilliant idea. She suggested that the party should take a goblin corpse and throw it into the room to distract the monsters inside so that everyone could get prepared and properly kill them. Everyone agreed and it was done. There were several more flying penis monsters (a name Sick coined and it just stuck), and six rats of various large sizes. After a violent fight in which Boom Boom got a familiar foaming mouth disease, the monsters laid dead at the party's feet. Upon entering the cave, the party discovered a pyramid in the center with an obilisk standing at the apex. There was an inscription laid upon the obilisk which said,

Search about the land of the king,
To find the obilisks fifteen
Decipher the clues of which they sing
To discover a treasure of your dreams.

"That doesn't rhyme," slobbered Boom Boom. Well duhh, what do you expect from a beta test??

After a quick search of the cave, the only way to continue was down a human sized hole leading down into the darkness. Boom Boom bravely (albeit stupidly) offered to be led down there on a rope. After sliding down to the bottom of the hole, Boom Boom discovered a large room with a hewn passage leading out. To the left of him were four large chests and in front of him were four well armed and armored Goblins. "Goblins!!" Boom Boom sprayed, and he was yanked quickly back up. Doomhammer came up with another superb idea of lighting the goblin corpse on fire and throwing it down to distract them while the rest of the party followed it down. Score another point for fine tactical thinking!! Everyone braced themselves, threw the rotting, bitten, and now flaming corpse down the hole, and quickly followed it. The Goblins at the bottom were set up for an ambush, but the corpse landing first unnerved them. A battle quickly ensured resulting in the death of the Goblins. Everyone then checked out the chests, rather than let Sick use her unpracticed Disarm Trap skill. Boom Boom felt that setting off the traps they found would be a better and more fun means of opening them properly. Using a hammer they found, he proceeded in smashing each of the four chests open. The first two opened without doing much, but the next two shocked and then sliced Boom Boom up. We had to patch him up after that. Inside were a bunch of items that we couldn't identify, but many of the items were new and improved items like a shiny broadsword, a metal shield, a curvy bow, and a curiously phallic shaped blue wand. The newfound loot was rather bulky, so the party thought it time to find a way out. The passage from that room led upwards. On the way there was a left branch which upon peeking around the corner looked to be the last stand of the Goblins. Sick counted a total of seventeen(!!) Goblins, so everyone quickly grabbed up the rest of the stuff in the previous room and ran past. At the end of the passageway was the trapdoor that the Goblin King used to escape from the party a few days ago. This must have been his bolt hole. Boom Boom tied the trapdoor open to the bed and everyone went back home to rest, recoup, and sell and identify items.