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Campaign History
A place where the history of the campaign, as viewed by both players and dm, can be posted.
Arch Lich Thoth-Amon
...and gamers/lurkers looking to live vicariously through gamers and their DM. :focus:
This is the actual campaign where my character, Tala, has been keeping his journal for. You will find a link to the journal in my signature. You can also navigate to it through my blog, a link is in the upper right-hand corner of any post of mine. i haven't set up a blog page to show them in the right order, so the blog has them posted in reverse order-most recent posting shown first. ^^ i'll fix that eventually. but they are numbered, for ease in reading them in the correct order.
so i though, instead of re-posting the journal here, yet again, that i'd post instead my actual campaign log-the notes i've been taking during and after all sessions of this game. reading both and comparing them should prove most interesting. =D i hope you all enjoy. please note, this is the actual raw log, how i write the notes to myself, no fixes, no edits, everything just as i wrote it. please excuse (the m)any flaws.
--- Merged from Double Post ---
so far...
(we scout out from the forest edge, seeing what we can see. we determine that the tower is our best bet of entry, especially as there seem to be wolves inside the courtyard. Pik is going to go in and see what is what. He uses his slippers of up the wall combined with a jump to make it up the tower face. He clings to the window frame and discovers that the sentries are (fortunately!) asleep. He decides to coup de grace both of them. And succeeds. He loots the giants of their valuables and scouts down the stairs a bit. He signals the rest of the party to advance and lets down a rope for them. They are surprised that he took out the guards ruthlessly. We explore some of the corridors and take out some parties of giants, causing a ruckus. We hide in a rope trick. After it dies down a bit, Gramblin goes to explore the upper levels, using invisibility, extended.
Pik- unexpected coup-de-grace award 250xp
whole party session award: 2000 (/5)xp
giant combat award: 4500 (/4)xp
gramblin non-combat exploration award: 1000xp
gold buckle: 1400gp
arcane marks on front door: "you have been warned!" in giant language.
arcane lock on front door to annoy giants
looking over gramblin-s map to decide if we explore more or retreat. large party approaching via hallway.
energy wall to block main doorway.
tala 100xp, good rp-ing
hiding in rope trick. discussing strategy. go over details of gramblin-s explorations. decide to destroy armory with energy wall-sonic and fireballs and a flame strike.
exit running via tower, kill one giant on way out.
come back next night, lure wolves with meat into sleep trap, some made save. scared them off, all party invisible. about to explore areas 23-25, then enter main keep.
remember to shut the gate you opened!!!
tala has used 6 second level slots. (invis.)
SEE MAC FOR NOTES ABOUT FOURTH SESSION.-Manticore fight. Tala almost dies!
(reconstructed from memory) We sneak around and enter the office area, and use the secret door to go down. We explore around and find the manticore room. Tala is not fooled by the illusionary treasure, but the manticores still attack! Gramblin finds and netrualizes the traps. We take the treasure.
(starting in room with defeated manticores) healed. searched room. found side chamber and secret door. side chamber had treasure chests.
13,000 cp
27,300 sp
7140 ep
a bottle (potion?)
27 copper ingots; 400cp each=10,800cp
11 gold bound ivory tusks; 1000gp each=11,000gp
980 gems; 1gp each=980gp
secret door leads to small room. another door on other side, enemies coming through the other door. get into fight with 12 bugbears and 5 hill giants. reenforcements come-2 dire apes.
nadem takes 24 hp. using fire bolt. manifest aug energy bolt (6pp), wall of fire(x2), inertial armor. healed to full.
tala casts mage armor, haste(ended), fireball, fireball, rope trick.
everyone hides in rope trick, healed to full, walls of fire block all of the many exits from this room (3 doors, stairway, 3 corridors)
Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth session xp award total=15000. 3000 apiece.
We are currently waiting in the rope trick to see what sort of reinforcements come in responce to the one that gets away. two tough-looking fire giants wielding an hammer and an axe come striding into the room about 5 rounds later. we wait till they leave. 3 bug bear guards left,
Gramblin, Pik, and Tala attack. Tala uses globe of force. Kills them easily, then notice that in an adjacent room is a bunch of bugbears (maybe 8, at a quick glance). Sabriel jumps out and attacks; Gramblin, Nadem, and Pik, are going to charge into the fray, Tala will cast web. More bugbears are in webbed off area, burn web and attack. they are trying to flank us and doing a pretty good job. nadem uses nimbus and dissolving weapon-next round he will use move equiv action to focus and then attack one of the bugbears. he will then focus-attack once every round that he can reach bugbears from his position. he was flanked by 4, but he took a 5' step and is now only flanked and threatened by 2... tala uses empowered (rod) scorching ray. he drops one that was flanking him, and wounds the other. he takes a 5' step towards the one he just dropped so that no one is flanking him. he is still threatened by the one. Pik charges into the room, and crits the one bugbear he can reach, wounding him. he has all swords drawn and is ready to multiweapon attack. he has used his dance for the day. (these bugbears are tougher than normal and have character levels. there seem to be about 8-10 bugbears now total.... it is now the top of the round and sabriels turn. (i need to finish out their equipment soon for the next time that we can play. (look into having all his weapons "balanced" so that he can use oversized weapons for the extra damage.)))
Pik takes a five foot step to threaten two bugbears, kills the one he wounded, begins attacking one threatening Gramblin and kills it too. Nadem incinerates the non-wounded bugbear in a very intimidating fashion. Tala greater-invis' himself, and hastes everyone the next round. Pik takes some more damage, and finishes off three of the four. Sabriel shoots the last one. Gramblin does well. The last bugbear (leader-quite tough) surrenders. We accept. Pik spots another group of bugbears (~10-12) woken from sleep, calls Nadem to follow, sprints down the corridor, and commands them to surrender also. Nadem comes up and INTIMIDATES them quite nicely. They give up. Tala hears (amazing, he actually hears something!) some giants coming, warns Sabriel who is healing him. Gramblin negotiates surrender, Sabriel sweetens deal with some gold for all the bugbears. Deal is that the bugbears flee for a week, and make themselves scarce in the woods. They get some gold now, and more loot from the giants after we deal with the remaining giants. Under no circumstances are they to attack us. They accept, but some of the underlings need 'persuasion' from Pik and Nadem (mostly Nadem), to whom the bugbear was sent. Tala is in the rope trick hanging out just enough to cast-still invisible. Three stone giants enter the room and look like they are heading towards the bugbear area. Tala will fireball them. Sabriel, hearing this will blade barrier the room the giants are in, leaving just enough space (3') for medium sized creatures to get past the blade barrier around the edges. Gramblin will send the bugbear to Pik and Nadem, and seeing Sabriel cast a spell, will come a-running as soon as possible. Pik and Nadem will finish off the negotiations, and will herd the bugbears out, if needed that far.
Fighting with the three stone giants... Tala has used a fireball and two lightning bolts. and a haste. we waste the three stone giants. allied bugbears are escorted out of the compound. we currently are in the courtyard. Invisibility sphere on us all (extended), and Gramblin is going to scout, as Sabriel has just noticed that, "it is too quiet..."! Gramblin scouting results: the giant compound is now on alert, patrols are looking for us inside the compound-groups of four, and led by a very tough looking leader (cloud giant and a big hill giant). Stairs are guarded by giants with gongs. some orcs and trogs are making trouble-is overheard. Awake and alert guard in the tower. Found some prisioners: elf, two humans, and some orcs. nearby is a storeroom. we decide to attack via the main stairs, as we have already hit at least two parties by the secret staircase, also it is a shorter distance. we buff everything we can-this is the last fight of this night, we will call it a night and rest and rememorize. we decide to rescue the humans and elf, we will see about the orcs later. we will silence just before we go in, hit the guards on the main stairs, get the prisioners, and hide in the storeroom where the rope can be left out of the rope trick and mingled with the other supplies and ropes to blend in. (hide in plain sight idea.) Nadem is focused, animal affinity to STR(3), Dissolving weapon on greatsword(3), Weapon aflame on greatsword, Force Screen Augmented once (+5ac)(5pp), . Tala is saving last 3rd level slot for another invisibility sphere to include the prisoners. Suggest to Sabriel to pull in the radius of the silence a bit (5' radius). Pik has all weapons drawn, and will use his racial Greater concealing amorpha power just before entering combat. Tala has cast spider climb on himself. He will have to use scorching ray (saving a slot for the last rope trick) and ray of enfeablement and magic missle in combat. He will try to stay off the floor so as to avoid direct melee combat. He will use crossbow if he has to. Tala: 50 bonus xp for good characterization.
We finish buffing up, (Tala uses his last invis.sphere) and hurridly sneak through room 19, down the cooridor and through room 8. We open the door to 8a, and find a surprised hill giant in front of the door. There is a big tough looking giant in the center of the room with a gong. There is a third giant by the staircase. We use the surprise round to move into position: Pik by the staircase giant- spitting out the silenced pebble at the feet of the big giant as he passes- and gets a single attack, Gramblin by the big leader-type giant, and Nadem edges into the room giving Sabriel and Tala line of sight to the giant. Nadem whallops the giant a massive blow, crit-ing. Tala uses the crossbow on him. Sabriel nails him with a bunch of arrows. Combined all that damage is just enough to kill that one. (Tala searched the giants after they were dead, or this one at least-but in our hurry to get as much rp in as possible, Nathan forgot to tell me the results of his searching.) Gramblin crits twice on the big giant and hits him some more managing to deal a massive amount of damage bringing him negitive in a single round! Nadem and Tala and Sabriel move into position, Sabriel manages to get off a single arrow into Pik's giant. Pik full-attacks the remaining giant and misses only once, crits twice, dropping this giant in a single round too! (by one point of damage more than Gramblin, too =P ) They swipe the gong and head downstairs. Just miss running into a giant patrol.
Run to the prision, pick the lock and free the elf (female, Arielle-fighter/mage/eldritch knight) and the humans (males, Sam and Karl, engineer/architect and merchant respectively). The humans have gone somewhat insane in their long imprisionment and require a cure insanity, courtesy of Gramblins staff of curing. We bundle the prisioners into the storeroom (room 24 on map G1-2), and into an extended rope trick. (Between Gramblin's scouting and Karl's knowledge, i can now look at the lower map-but i don't know anything about 17 or 18, and i don't know the layout of the cavern areas, but Karl knows that there is a river which connects to another seperate cavern. Nathan also described the basic function of the remaining rooms.) We disguise the rope trick's rope among other ropes in the storeroom. During the next couple hours, we get to know each other and discuss who everyone is, thier history and how they came to be prisoners. Arielle's spellbook was taken by the bugbears, so Gramblin searches the bugbear quarters finding the spellbook and her longsword, but no other gear.
Over the course of our roleplayed discussion, we decide that we want to become friends with these people. Arielle wants to become swordarm to Gramblin and swear service to him for one year, in gratitude of freeing her. (and through Gramblin to the rest of the party as well, by her stated intention.) Tala coaches Gramblin on the proper forms of the oath. We decide that Arielle needs to be better equiped so that she can join us as a full party member. Sam, as a merchant has many contacts, and pledges to use his contacts to enable us to obtain rare and otherwise hard to get merchandise. In return, we express an interest in investing some of our funds into his company. For Karl, we decide that we would like to make use of his skills at some future point, and decide to invest in his services by helping him pay the guild fee to become a master and setting up his own shop. When they protest that we do not need to do all of this-that they already owe us greatly for freeing them and restoring thier sanity-we reply that we wish to be more than just rescuers, we wish to become thier friends. (Nice touch, Tala! All the better for that we are sincere.) They are very greatful indeed.
So Sabriel will escort them back into town, stopping by our base camp, so that Arielle can find her way back to the camp. Tala's owl familiar will await them there. (Arielle's familiar pops up suddenly, a black cat-she had been living around the area. Named Pouncer, Tala plays string with the kitty.) (Tala needs to name his owl!!!) Sam and Karl will recieve enough money to provide food, lodging, and clothing for a week or so, that they may reestablish themselves (~100gp each). Arielle will recive the bulk of our loot so far, to reequip herself. They will also take some money for the bugbears, (~100gp total, 50 each way.) Sabriel will teleport back to the base camp and find the owl and rejoin us. Karl and Sam will use our horses, Arielle will return to the base camp when she is equiped. Having cemented the begining of our friendship, we rest and rememorize. Uneventful night.
We decide to provide a diversion to enable Sabriel, Arielle, Karl, and Sam to escape. Using the gong we swiped, raise a rucus in room 1, then move down the big cooridor to the south. Sabriel's party will wait around the north side of the room. Once giants come down the stairs, Arielle will cast an illusion of a giant beating a gong looking towards room 1, with other giants making fighting motions at something to the south. This illusion will be well down the hall. Once we hear people coming we will run down the hall past the illusion and wait till we draw everyone towards that area. We have already opened the doors to rooms 4 and 8 so that we can run through there and sneak around behind the giants for a surprise attack, or retreat, if needed. Sabriel and Arielle will buff us up protectively, and themselves as well, they will have a silence and invis sphere. We will have both as well. Once the giants head towards our diversion, Sabriel's party will run upstairs and head to saftey and town. Sabriel will probably be gone for ~24hours. Arielle for a day or two, maybe three. (Remember to try to acquire some lie detecting/ truth forcing/ speak with dead spells.)
While they are gone, Gramblin's party will keep up the pressure on the giants. Pik was reminded that he can use divine wands and other spell trigger items! (nice roleplaying) He concentrates so much on his sworddancing that he had almost forgotten that part of his training. It will be worth buying some cure wands for him to carry as well!
(Note to self-in addition to us forgetting about the results of Tala searching (at least one, if not all three) of the three giants we defeated at the stairs before rescuing the prisoners, I have a plan with which i hope to surprise Nathan a little. After we decoy the giants into letting Sabriel's group escape, (remember the wolves) I am thinking that now a parly attempt with some fairly stringent demands would be in order. We could justify our 'out-of-hand' attacks as just retribution for the recent raiding, and demand the immediate departure of the giants and allies. If they do not agree by a certain hour, then they will be destroyed. Or perhaps we could attempt a champions duel type situation. But in any case, I think that we should as good-aligned individuals grant a chance to parly. (Not the best situation strategically, but good roleplaying.) The exact details should be worked out later, but I have in mind, something requiring an immediate response from the giants, with us set up to cause some equally swift response upon a refusal. Perhaps use an illusion and ventriloquism to represent a parly figure.
(Tala's search =20gp and sundry giantish possessions.)
We set up our ambush, and 6 giants all come a running. however, they are all hill giants-this makes me nervous and suspicious. Where are the other bigger giants? tala has used mage armor(1st) and invis sphere(x3)(3rd), and lightning bolt(x3)(3rd). He is watching up the stairs. Nadem has used animal affinity (3pp-crystal), force screen (1pp-crystal), dissolving weapon (3pp). We are attacking and doing well, when the fire giants run around through room 4 and some giants come down the main staircase! They have tried to ambush us! now we are in some trouble- Nadem gets hurt pretty bad, and we manage to cluster for another invis sphere and a retreat. We are now facing 7 giants, 5 hill-only one of whom is injured, and 2 tough fire giants, minus the few that we killed. We decide to web off the north end of the main cooridor, and the south intersection, and flee to the forge area (#16) We determine that the dwarves are willing to ally with an enemy of the giants, we free them and put them up a rope trick. We also go into a rope trick(x2)(1st). We forgot to give them food and drink, so we will have to rectify that soon. It is decided to improve invis Gramblin to scout the cooridor. Invis sphere the rope, so that we can poke the end out and hear without anyone seeing the rope. There is a guard and search parties, so we web off the cooridor and ambush the fire giants. Improved invis(x2)(4th) for Pik, and they go out and hammer on the giants. Tala orbs one of them, and then re-webs the cooridor, as some giants are trying to break through. Gramblin finishes off the last giant after Nadem uses two energy missles at 5d6, leaving him with 1pp and 1pp in the crystal. We get the dwarves some food and water, warn them about the duration of the rope trick and the necessity of either resetting them or trying for freedom; and all of us return to the rope tricks. end of this session.
*** XP awards for sessions 6,7,8,9 and 10.*** (Sabriel is not here for tenth session combat.)
fire giants xp award:
freeing dwarves xp award:
skirmish with the giants and fleeing:
10th=2000xp each
Tala has gained xp, but not enough to level yet.
Pik has leveled up!
Nadem has leveled up!
Gramblin has leveled up!
Danger! While we are in the rope tricks, the giants build a fire and seal off the forge area with a piled masonry stone wall! The area fills up with smoke. We try to wait it out. Deadlock. Unfortunately, the chimney leading out of the forge is not all that great, this room no longer contains much oxygen. We manage to cast extended rope tricks once the first duration wears out-we all take some smoke inhalation damage, however. Ulap (dwarven leader-cleric) casts create food and water, which takes care of supplies for us. Then he gets buffed and equiped managing, barely, to cast four stone shapes, and widen out the chimney of the forge enough for us to escape. The giants piled a lot of stuff on top of the chimney exit, so we are still stuck and short on air. Sabriel finally arrives and gets filled in by skillful pantomiming of the owl. (need to name the familiar!) She manages to silence the giant in the watchtower, and blade barrier him in. Then she summons 3 celestial bison who clear off most of the rubble. Some of the rubble collapsed into the chimney, so Tala will have to orb of force it out. Current situation: top rubble is now clear, dwarves and we are in the rope tricks. Tala will have to climb up first to clear the remainder from inside, everyone will have to follow after him. Probably best to send the party up first. Sabriel is pretty sure that the giants heard the noise of clearing the pile, so we expect some giants to be coming out soon. We are not out of the fire (forge) yet!
Sabriel tries to lead off the giants that come out to investigate. Two are duped, one moves towards grate. Sabriel heals herself, having been hit with a few boulders, then flies up and arrows the third giant. Tala casts resonating bolt and pulverizes the rubble, weakening the grate. Then orb of force to blow everything free. This alerts the giants who start coming back. Tala climbs out, followed by Gramblin. One of the giants runs up and ends his move right next to us. Tala casts darkness to protect himself from being blinded by the sun, Gramblin dukes it out with the giant. Sabriel keeps up the good archery. Tala casts hallucinatory terrain and turns the surrondings into a 'lava field'. This panics the two giants outside the darkness. They run to the edge of the 'lava'. Pik makes it out and jumps (check=74!!) out of the darkness. Nadem gets snagged, but is boosted out by a dwarf so strongly that his armor straps are ripped. Gramblin kills his giant and it falls onto the opening, partially. Tala and Nadem drag it off and Nadem starts working his way out. Tala casts haste on the dwarves, himself and Nadem. Nadem acts as rear guard and tosses some firebolts. Pik chases down one of the giants and after killing him, retreats and also acts as rearguard. Sabriel and Gramblin finish off the last giant, but several more come around the edge of the stronghold. They are put off by the 'lava' field and waste time trying to figure out what is going on. Pik activates his armor's flying and him and Sabriel draw fire till the dwarves all make it out. Everyone retreats successfully. We go to the base camp. Tala will cast another terrain spell to hide the cave mouth and our tracks if needed.
( ***XP awards for sessions 11 & 12*** )
(300xp for Nadem and Pik, 400xp for Tala-who recieves a bonus for clever use of the hallucinatory terrain spell=D )
I intend to rest, recover, and make friends with the dwarves. We will need to send them off to town, and supply them with some funds as well to tide them over till they can establish themselves in town, same as Karl and Sam. Then we will need to plan when and how I will attempt a parley with the giants... perhaps kidnapping the leader? That would certainly be a bold move. If very difficult to pull off. Perhaps after the treasure room is raided.
We get to know the dwarves (make a note of names and clans-nathan didn't have actual, but characters have "made a note"), and await Arielle's return. Hero's feast for all, supplies for the dwarves. They will only accept 10gp each, for emergencies, as the nearest clan home is not too far. We send them off, and then spend the rest of the afternoon and evening debating plans. We decide to raid the treasure room, make a contingency for capturing the leader-should such an opportunity present itself. Tala's familiar has a name! Lord Mousehunter the Mighty, Lord of Her Forest, Ruler of the Night, the Swift Silent Death from the Shadows Above, etc.. ;) So the plan is to get in, and then to the treasure room. We have not figured out the best way, but we do not want to raise an alarm going in. We are thinking that maybe sneaking in the Great Hall through the smokehole might work, and then sneak by as giants pass in and out of the hall.
(Hereos feast in effect-immune to poison, fear; +1 attack rolls, will save; pik= +11hp, tala= +10hp, nadem= +12 hp.) We make our foray. We sneak through the smoke hole, less giants than expected in the Great hall. We sneak into the kitchen, and into room 8a. The door is open.... There are two giants standing so as to block the top of the stairs. We silence and attack them, but are seen from the open doorway behind us. Two more giants come up the stairs, so we have to fight them too. We run down the stairs, to find some giants piling up boulders to block the staircase. We kill them, and head for the secret door to the treasure room. (8 giants dead so far.) We make it into the treasure room, but have to hide-invisible. The leader's wife casts a dispel magic in the treasure room, we make it. But the leader makes her do it again, and we all become visible as the invisibility is dispelled. So we attack her, she retreats. We attack the leader, and Gramblin does major damage with Arielle's bardic abilties boosting him, killing the leader. We retreat into the treasure room and close the door. We are now arranged with Gramblin on the wall (spider climb), Pik in the corner-both by the door. Arielle and Sabriel on opposite sides of the room, with Nadem in the center, all behind the pit trap. Tala is still on the ceiling. We are hoping that they will attack us in here.... Otherwise we face a stiff fight going out.
We try to insult the giants into attacking us, but they leave (!?!) instead. so we open the secret door in time to see a last giant leaving at a hustle. we toss the two coffers into the bag of holding. Nadem stands guard, we open the pit, push the two chest/boxes over to the pit. Nadem burns the poison off of the spikes in the pit, while Sabriel stands guard. Tala spider climbs (x2, himself and Gramblin) down into the pit and casts rope trick (x1) on the 5' piece of rope down on the bottom of the pit. the chests are lowered into the pit with floating disk. Sabriel pulls on rope, Pik pushes chests into rope trick. we now wait just outside the secret door for Gramblin in invis sphere (x1). He does not come back.... we are getting ready to go after him when a strike force enters room 29, which we just moved into. Sabriel casts blade barrier, and we feel safer. Instead of retreating, as was my first instinct, we decide to attack. Pik attacks a giant, who moves back, letting the cave bear attack me, Pik only has one attack of opportunity.... the giantess zaps a wand of dispell magic at the party. The blade barrier gets dispelled. Pik gets grappled by the bear, and suffers damage from thrown rocks!!! (65 out of 81 hp gone!!!) this is seriously retreat time, only now we can't due to grapple. if i can get out of this we are retreating!
Tala casts a ray of enfeeblement on the cave bear. This enables Pik to break free from the grapple! He takes the rest of his action to move to Sabriel and get 'healed'. Nadem nimbuses, and moves up for an intimidating attack on the cave bear. He manages to intimidate everyone but the cloud giant and the giantess. Arielle finishes off the cave bear, and deeply wounds a giant next to it. (#7) However, the giantess does manage to grapple Arielle. Suddenly, Gramblin to the rescue!!! =D He invisibly tumbles in and backstabs the cloud giant! Tala gets whacked by the cloud giant to -6! And knocked into Sabriel for another 3 to boot! (at least Sabriel can heal him, silver lining, silver lining.) Pik slices the cloud giant, giant bashes Pik down over half again in one blow (!), Gramblin finishes him off in a single blow with a critical flanking sneak attack! Pik gets flanked by a couple of giants, but they fail to grapple him. So Pik runs along the wall and slices one to pieces and ends up near the dogpile on Arielle-another giant decided to help pin and silence her. Sabriel cast a hold spell, giving us a good chance to whomp. Bardic boost to abilities is making the difference again. Nadem finishes off the giantess, wounds the other one severely. The gaints lose moral now that the remaining leader, the giantess, and the cloud giant is dead.
We win! (barely by the skin of our teeth...) BETTER PREPERATION! LEARN FROM ALL THESE LESSONS! Pik almost died, Tala has almost died twice... we almost got our butts seriously kicked into the afterlife.... ^^ live to fight another day! We will finish up the details of this fight, round up and scare off any noncombatants along with any stragglers who may wish to fight us, and send the lot packing back into the wilderness. Bit of roleplaying opportunity there. Then to explore the remainder of the underground areas we have not gotten to yet. Perhaps more roleplaying opportunity there. We shall see!
Not too tough this time around. Pik and Nadem finishes off the pig pile of giants on Arielle, with some help from Sabriel and Tala. Gramblin finishes off some other giants. Some surrender. We allow them to surrender. Two giants manage to try to flee. One turns to fight as the other tries to bash through the webbing. We defeat the fighting one, and manage to hit the remaining one as he is fleeing. Not very honorable at all, but we were afraid of another regrouping, so we were fighting for our lives. This session was short, pretty much just playing out the last of the fight.
So now what we need to do is to round up the non-combatants and put them to chase. Im thinking perhaps putting the 3 giants in a room, and rounding up the rest, letting them take food and clothing, and then sending them all off into the forest in a certain direction, with instructions to continue back into the wilderness. Perhaps send Lady Mousehunter to keep an eye on them for the first few nights, while we finish off exploring the stockade.
Clean up of adventure. Negotiated with giants, Arielle charming the remaining 3 males, certainly helped. Negotiated with the orcs to leave, and the trogs. Trogs were impressed with our respect for their holy artifacts. We rid them of some lizards and carrion crawlers, found some interesting treasure! We sealed off the stairs down to the caverns with 4 walls of stone each. The idea is to let the trogs have the caverns, as we anticipate that the duke will send troops to claim a valuable fortress. (make it clear that we are sealing the stairs and that we are not responsible for the actions of those who may come in the future.) I figure that Tala and Pik will have been suitably impressed with Nadem and Sabriel and Gramblin that they will wish to extend to them the honor of being adopted into their family unit. This would entail a trip to Pik and Talas home desert region. (calls for about 3 months total.) As a messenger was sent with a description of us to the frost giants location, we should allow some time for vigilance to relax before going in. This little side trip should be just about perfect. And hopefully, Tala and Sabriel will manage to level up on this little trip. If so, Tala could take his first level of sandshaper. That should make things interesting. Now we just have some treasure to spend. So work on what equipment to buy for everyone. Think defensive! And power boosting! Sabriel can craft magic arms and armor, and wonderous items if someone in the party meets the prerequisites.
***XP AWARD for sessions 13-18.*** = 3000xp per person.
Having wrapped up various loose ends, (still need to purchase items!!!!!) we decide to journey to Pik and Tala's homeland, to celebrate the finding of a clutch-family for Tala. We bring gifts of food that we hunted up during our travels. During the celebrations, one of the tribal elders speaks to us about our purpose in journeying here. Since it is the occasion of Tala's "official" adulthood recognition by the tribe, on occasion of his having found his clutch mates, the elder bestows a quest upon Tala, as is custom. He is has grown well into his present, he has found his future, but he still remains without a past. He is to seek out the oasis where he was found, and discover what wisdom and knowledge of his past he is able, and then return and bring word. We outfit and prepare, training everyone for desert dangers. We arrive near the oasis, to find some suspicious tracks heading towards the oasis. We follow the tracks and are ambushed by a group preparing to ambush the oasis! A Sand-Giant and four Brownscales (desert lizardfolk) Tala is grappled, but Pik dances and saves the day, killing a lesser Brownscale as well the leader, if barely, in a single round! Pik takes severe damage from the giant. Nadem launches an electrical! energy missle, nother Brownscale is finished off, and everyone rushes to flank the giant. Pik finishes off the giant in a single round with only 3hp remaining... thanks to Arielle's singing, and Gramblin's flanking, and Sabriel's Bull's Strength, and Dervish dancing, and favored enemy! (lots of bonuses) Gramblin glares. One Brownscale is left caught in a command spell from Sabriel. He is knocked unconcious by Gramblin-our prisoner for interrogation.
(earn 1250xp for Pik Tala and Nadem) =D
Interrogate the Brownscale prisoner. Find out that they nomad barbarians have been in the haunted oasis for about 2 years, the Brownscales suspect that they seek the 'old knowledge'. The giant had promised them revenge concerning the long feud between the humans and Brownscales. With the giant's might added, they thought to overcome-hence their presence in the nominally taboo area of the haunted/cursed oasis. Received about 20pp worth of loot, also took the littlest foot claw from each slain Brownscale as proof, as well as the head of the giant. (might as well grab giant's equipment-might be useful for bribes / gifts. We approach the oasis, and politely wait for a sentry. We request guest rights, presenting the head and claws of the enemies as proof of our good intentions. We receive the 3 day, 3 night standard guesting right. This particular tribe does not include woman in important decisions, and also segregates the sleeping arraignments, making it slightly harder to counsel as a group. The Headman (leader) of this people desires to see a demonstration of our fighting prowess by fighting him (!) with subdual weapons. Pik is chosen and manages to fight to a draw-without dancing at all. That seems to be a crowd pleaser. During the ceremonies, Pik notices that there is a priest/advisor to the Headman who is wearing a medallion that seems an almost exact replica of the one that Tala was found with.... During the festivities following, we manage to chat with him and discover that it is a family heirloom handed down from about 8-10 generations ago. It was found on the body of a woman who was found in the cave that Tala was found in. We are thinking that this might be his mother. So we invite the priest to go with us. Once there, a speak with dead is cast and comprehend languages spells too. She is speaking an unknown language, but it kinda sounds a bit like elvish. We find out that she is a servant in the House, and that the Matron Mother is Tala's mother. (Matron Mother Halven of House Ardet; Birthname: Coram; Servant: Talakir of House Ardet) We also find out that the mother went on to the city of the dead to seek more power from the engravings of the mosaics of the first king. So the priest is kinda freaking, and let slip some extra info. The City of the Dead is actually just besides and under the oasis! He requests that if we plan on going there to respect the decisions of the council of elders as to wether we can go or not, and wants to bind me to the decision before i know it. So Tala goes to think and fast on that one and is approached in the middle of the night by someone offering to sneak us in, as he doesn't think the council will allow us to go. We decline to take him up. Next morning Tala informs the high priest that he wants a chance to present his case personally. He gets an eagles's splendor, and talks to the group of high council. He presents his case, and after much presentation, he is allowed to go, but with a few conditions. He suggested that some of their people might accompany for insurance and help. (nice roleplaying, btw! what with Tala and the whole desert culture and all that. =D ) Turns out that one of the guys accompaning us is Rattapan the Loremaster, the same guy who approached us last night! Also with us will be guard, Hunral, with whom we've become somewhat friendly.
We enter the City of the Dead... and promptly start finding lots of traps and mummys! (using gametable for mapping, working out wonderfully!)
fought first room with two mummys. went to large central room. started combat with two mummys and a mummy lord. sabriel is using find the path so we are locating traps, learning how to bypass them, and the like. nice spell!
finished combat with mummy lord and two mummys. on our way to the tomb had to fight 3 desert genies or efreets or something like that. Rattapan was the only one to understand what they were saying. He said that they challenged us to prove our worth as warriors. found tomb of first king. tala does touchstone ritual successfully. gramblin notices a possibly mysteriously missing book from a shelf!! is it rattapan? or some invisible creature who snuck in after us? gramblin also finds a skeleton of a female in the genie room.... female has same house medallion. sabriel's speak with dead spell fails (alignment mismatch-it got a save) so we can't get info from the dead. so we take body with for internment. we do a careful strip search of our belongings and ourselves to ensure nothing has been snuck in to our stuff or on us. then we intend to let the natives leave first and follow them out, and then head straight to the elders to redeem our words. Rattapan is now viewed with suspicions by us, and we are careful to not allow any contact between us and him, while endeavoring not to arouse his suspicions.
3500xp earned!(tala levels!) treasure found: 1500 ancient gold pieces (worth more than value alone), splendid ruby 5000gp, and magic belt of some kind.
We exit the City of the Dead to find the High Priest and some guards (courtesy, one hopes?) waiting for us. We tell Rattapan to let us present ourselves to the priest to redeem our word, so he and Hunral moves off to the side and lets us by. We give an edited for public and shortness version of our doings. The priest seems faintly troubled. Tala mentions that he especially desires to commune personally with the priest about his experiences. The priest quickly agrees to a private discussion and we follow him. Before we go, the priest tells Rattapan and Hunral that he wishes to speak with them afterwards. Once in the priests chambers, he tells us that the guardians should have challenged us as to why we were there, but that to fight them to the death was unexpected. We request a Zone of Truth so that he can have confidence in the truthfullness of our words. We test it to make as sure as possible that we are all properly under it's influence, and then proceed to recount in detail all that occurred from the time we entered the antechamber. We also volunteer the information concerning the suspected missing book(s), as well as the steps we took to ensure that we were free from any possible violation of our word or geas. Tala also describes the ceremony that he performed and the particulars of it, as well as it's results-as best as he is able. [he has not slept yet, so technically, he has not 'leveled' up yet!]
so then the genies come storming up and there is a big confrontation, we debate and argue our points, they decide to take rattapan and tala to decide by trial of combat. long really cool and difficult mage battle, but in the last, tala loses by a smidge. the guy is at STR 1, but still manages to get off a magic missle and nails tala... and then gets off another scorching ray and nails the summoned badger. pik rushes in to kill the guy, sabriel dispells the darkness and evard's spell, saving lord mousehunter, who was caught in the tentacles grasp. gramblin is going to check or at least mention to have rattapan checked for the other missing things. but, alas tala is dead. the genies appear like they are going to move in to attack us, presuming guilt due to the lost combat. Pik actually misses! (blinded by grief?)
[[[tactical errors, no healing ability-potions or something; did not run away from rattapan when he was still casting spells, and i was at 5 hp; (but if lord mousehunter would have died, then i would have died too... no hp left and all....); could have backed away around the sphere of darkness and fireballed the area easily-even dismissing the badger to save it. sigh. we will have to see.]]]
Gramblin searches Rattapan and finds second and last missing book. The djinn concede that our incorrectly assumed guilt is absolved with the sacrifice of Tala's life. Rattapan is given to us to avenge ourselves upon, but we decide to make a gift of him to the djinn for "as long as they see fit" and for whatever punishments they see fit. Tala gains 1000xp for the fight.
[Nathan has decided that 3rd ed drow should be +1LA, instead of +2. So I give up the +2 to Will saves vs. spells and effects, and Tala is now +1LA. Combine that with his recent level loss from dying, and he "effectively" still gains his level of Sandshifter, but "loses" a level of sorcerer. So he is now a 10th level character, with a +1LA.]
treasure: magic belt: Archaic Belt of Giant Strength: user's STR becomes 16, regardless of actual STR.
1500 antique gold pieces. (15,000gp value)
(2500 per person) (Tala still has an extra 4000gp from buying the +2 ring of protection and +2 amulet of natural armor.) [total gp between my three characters: 11,710. -8000 for Tala armor and shield; 3,710. -3000 for Pik to enchant a +1 sword to +1 giant-slaying: 710gp.]
(upgrading Nadem's greatsword to giant-bane, this leaves 2710gp, between my three characters.)
On the voyage home, pirates! a band of evil elvish pirates attacks at night. arrows and fireballs are exchanged. our rigging gets burned. tala takes 34hp. nadem takes 33hp. pirate ship is closing, and apparently has ballista! they put a few holes below decks....
an invisible mage flies over and counterspells Tala's fireball. Tala gives imp. invis to Sabriel, Pik and himself. and then hastes whom he can. lots and lots of arrows are shot from the pirates ship. sabriel dispells the invisible mage's fly spell. captain archer guy is shooting away at us, he is flanked by a cleric of ethinryul or however it is spelled, and a tough looking fighter-type. lots of soldier and sailor types, but only one guy is manning the wheel. Pik sneak-flys around the ship, his invisibility suddenly dropped, good thing he was flying N.O.O. (nape of the ocean) ^^. so Pik winds up at the rear of the ship and is prepared to dervish dance his way into the guy steering from behind, and then working in spinning the wheel all the way so that the ship heels over HARD into his dance. =) hope it works. Nadem takes another 20hp, for a total of 53, and is sickened.
Pik manages to turn the pirate ship and pin the wheel with one of his lesser swords. The ship makes a rather violent movement tossing some people to the ground, and off the rigging. Arielle heals Nadem 26hp, (he's now down only 27hp) with Gramblin's staff. Unfortunately, he gets targeted by the now faerie-fired invisible flying guy with a bow; who then gets off a lot of lucky strikes.... Nadem is killed and (even worse!) his body is pitched overboard! Gramblin is ready to jump over with some rope after him, Sabriel attacks the flying guy for lots of damage, but he's still barely up, Pik is attacked by the captain and a couple of soldiers-captain is tough! Pik dances around him does some good damage, but gets nailed with a dispell, cancelling his armor's fly effect. he sinks to the water, but makes his swim check due to bulls strength.
Tala is fireballing left and right, cutting down the archers and swordsmen, mostly. Pik's wheel trick is nicely granting a round or two of confusion, Gramblin succeeds in getting Nadem tied to the rope (and resisting or so he thinks a confusion spell that was cast on him!), Arielle and some sailors pull them back aboard. Sabriel rescues Pik from the water and they return to the ship as Sabriel has an idea for dealing with the pirates.
We buff up, and Sabriel casts wind walk. We sneak into the ship and take the time to materialize, we summon a couple of creatures, send them up on deck to attack after Gramblin scouts the situation out. They cause confusion, we flank the door that the captain is going to come out of... but the dead clerics body still has that blasted invisibility purge attached to it, so our ambush is spoiled when Pik and Gramblin become visible. Arielle attacks the captain, but misses. Pik dances. Captain screams something about him being dead before we will take his ship. Gramblin smacks, Arielle gets AoO on captain as he moves away and draws another weapon.
Bear and Dustform Spider attack captain, but aren't doing too much. Sabriel casts Righteous Might of the Bow and lays the smack down on the arcane spellcaster, she doesn't stand a chance. Pik tumbles over to the captain and cuts him down to size. Pik thanks the dead captain for his ship. The remaining pirates surrender. We turn them over to the justice of the captain, as we do not construe ourselves as having the legal authority to just execute them. The captain of our ship has all the higher ranking ones executed, and the lower ones pardoned with conditions. We take control of the pirate ship! =D But we have one loss... Nadem. =(
xp awards: 1100xp to Pik, Tala, Gramblin, Arielle. (and Nadem?) Sabriel gets 900xp. =D
We are sailing along, having stopped at an intermediate port and offloaded the treasure and pirate ship-the ships captain is very happy. as we enter more temperate waters, a sudden storm comes up out of nowhere. we dispel the storm, remain on high alert, and about an hour later a sudden wind comes out of nowhere. Tala also dispels that, and we are then suddenly attacked by a kraken! the kraken rocks the boat tossing some of us into the water. Nadem gets chomped on by an orca. Tala hastes. Pik tries to sunder a tentacle, but it is much too difficult, so he decides to run along the hull and dervish dance on it's hide. Sabriel rescues Nadem and they go to attack the kraken. Gramblin is trying to climb back aboard via a safety line, and gets grappled by the kraken, until he activates his freedom of movement item. Tala enfeebles the kraken, and then hastes everyone again, now that we are all gathered. everyone pounds on the kraken, for all that they are worth. Gramblin does so much damage that the kraken full attacks him, and kills him! =( we pound some more on it getting in a fair number of crits. it finally dies. now however we have two big holes in the ship and numerous cracks and leaks. Tala uses overlapping wall of sand to help plug the holes and the crew does some emergency repairs using the time bought with that technique. we make it to a deserted island and Tala uses the gravel/sand to repair the ship with his sandshaping ability. this repair should last long enough to make it to a dock. we have just enough left over to get a diamond for the raising of Gramblin, whose body we did manage to rescue his from the kraken. we only have 10 gp to our name. we will have to hunt for food to stock up before we tackle the giants.
xp awards: Sabriel gets 1200 xp. Nadem gets 2000 xp. Tala and Pik 1650
We have returned to the region in which we started. (duke ardan) We are discussing where to go next (fort to check on things, duke to see what's up, or off directly to the frost giants fortress.) As we are discussing, a messenger from the duke comes and hails us. We are offered horses to speed us along our way, the duke wishes to see us "at our convenience", as in now. the duke wants us to attack the frost giant stronghold! (handy that.) apparently, while we've been gone the frost giants have taken over the raiding and are still attacking Duke Ardan's duchy only, now from the north. We are allowed to use whatever tactics we see fit, are to make an example of the frost giants, and whatever treasures we find are ours to keep. Should there for any reason not be much treasure in the fortress, then we will be fairly compensated for our successful efforts by the Duke, upon certification under truth magic.
(however, i think it might be wise to see that some of that treasure find it's way back to the Duke, as he mentioned that payroll wagons have been hit, in addition to merchant goods, and i'm personally sure that some people are suffering from the lack of money. Be sure to check if any of Sam's (Samuel, by the way) merchant trains have been hit by the frost giants. maybe send a message to that effect? We are also sending messages to Sam and Karl to see how they are doing.)
XP: 200 for everyone.
We mention to the Duke how this wondrous chain of MULTI-PERSON transport (Nathan has a custom campaign rule where transportation effects are single person only under almost all circumstances.) would be a very valuable resource if it's secrets could be learned. Moving his troops around his demense, for example. He thanks us, and promises to have the item studied. We have acquired enough skins by hunting to have cold weather gear made. We link the chain and off we go. It is cold but calm, sunny not much wind. We are outside at a miles distance or so from the rift where the giant fortress is supposed to be located. We hunt up a low deep cave, and prepare a base camp with wood and other simple supplies. In scouting out the area, one giant patrol is tracked by Gramblin. There is evidence of a large party of giants having left the area a week or two ago. If we are to effectively attack, sooner is better than later. Lord Mousehunter scouts the area of the rift, and returns exhausted. The rift area is windy, very windy. It becomes more windy the lower one goes!! (presumably colder as well...windchill if nothing else.)
We scout out the area and come up with a plan for entering the giants lair from a completely unexpected point. This involves a dug tunnel in the glacier, prestidigitated color changed ropes, Ten's floating disk and Invisibility Sphere. Down the back wall we go, near the bottom right-hand ledge. We enter the room and find cold-radiating Giant Toads. There are about 5 of these things, and we are busy fighting them.
XP: Nadem 1500xp, Tala and Pik 1100xp. (Good preperation and foreplanning bonus.)
We kill off the toads, without too much difficulty. However, if a lot of the creatures we are going to run into have this cold radiating ability, we are going to start needing some serious energy resistance before long. That or lots of healing. We start to explore, and find (room 9) but see some giants guarding it, so we retreat to figure out what to do. We decide to send Gramblin with extended invisibility to scout, and get a good layout of the upper levels of the caverns, with numbers of giants and other creatures as a bonus. However, some winter wolves got wind of him and are raising a rucus. So we decide that we need to do something about that. We are about to leave, when some yeti enter! Two of them. We attack and rapidly dispatch them. Then we hurry to (room 1) and ambush the giants there. We take them out without a single return blow.
We forgot to take the silenced pebble with us, and the giants to the south (room 2) heard us and come to investigate. We trap them in the hallway and annihilate them. We cast spider climb on Sabriel who is enlarged, and can hold ropes to keep us from falling on the slippery ledge. Entering (room 3) we surprise two adult winter wolves and kill them. The remaining three are smaller teens. We decide to charm them and task them with helping keep the giants off of our trail. In return we promise to bring them live game, and/or to get them out to hunt for themselves. We leave them charmed, pick up our silence stone and search (room 5-see below), the giants and the storage (room 6) on our way back. Lots of treasure. (as listed below.) We end up in our rope-trick lair.
Room #5 had a gruesome trophy hall of sorts. Badly damaged bodies of humans, elves and dwarves were entombed in blocks of ice. The catch? The ice blocks apparently hold up the walls and ceiling, and the ceiling is covered with a huge number of icicles. Body number 1 is a dwarf and something in his ice block radiates magic-transmutation; #2-female elf, magic-evocation; #3-human man, #4-human man, magic-abjuration; #5-dwarf; #6-human man, magic-abjuration, #7-human; #8-human woman, magic-transmutation.
200gp, 1600gp belt-silver, 3000gp necklace, sack of 4,128gp. 3000gp, gems-4000gp, scroll tube-300gp(silver)-cure serious wounds.
XP: Nadem 1750xp, Tala and Pik 1300xp. (Nadem levels up! Tala levels up!) (Pik will level up soon....)
We rest and Gramblin scouts the layout of personnel quickly. some giants have moved around, and everyone is much more alert and paranoid. we decide to take on the ogres, and after some careful planning, we basically annihilate them. on to the 8 giants to the southeast! (room 9)
2111sp, 5700gp, 14 jewelry = 6000gp total, gold armband with inset ivory bear-sized for an ogre. high quality and beautiful, sized for an ogre, is rather unusual.
XP: 550xp for Tala, Pik, and Nadem.
We annihilate the giants in rooms 9 & 10. Wall of force to seal it off. Nadem took 28hp dmg, Pik took 31hp dmg.
A giant sees us from behind the wall of force, so we cancel it and run after them. We pile into a room with five giants ready to go, but we beat their initiative, and start pounding on them. We take out all in short order, Pik scoring something over 80% critical strikes. Now there is one left fleeing out the north of room 23. Yelling for help has occured. Sabriel lingered to fetch the silence stone, Tala stayed to protect her, They are just now catching up, with Tala entering the room and Sabriel behind him.
Pik is able to take out the last fleeing confused giant. Tala catches up at last, but Sabriel is lagging behind. Tala goes ahead and casts haste upon the party members present (including self and L.M.). Nadem resets the G.Psi.Weap, and moves. Arielle casts some buffs. Gramblin heals Pik with staff of healing. Sabriel catches up and tosses the silence pebble away. Tala casts Invis.Sphere on the party. Sabriel launches an attack at the first fire giant which came out of room 26, and stopped in the silence. Nadem charges and whallops for some serious damage. Gramblin finishes him off. Pik moves between the remaining two giants-still invisible, and does not attack. Arielle, not knowing where he is, casts confusion, and catches Pik-who fails his save!! The rest of the party continues to move forward and attacks the second giant. Pik moves to attack the caster of the confusion... Arielle!! Amazingly, he only hits her once, thankfully she was mirror imaged, but that one hit is a crit.
[[[we discover that i have been reading and understanding the dervish rules wrong this entire time! a dervish must move a MINIMUM of 5' between attacks, but there is no limit placed on the maximum movement. When Pik is hasted, he can move around a lot, and could do a lot of damage to a fair number of targets....]]]]
The last giant is finished off by Gramblin and Sabriel (yea! her first critical strike!). Tala dispels the confusion on Pik with no problem. However, there are more giants coming down the corridor to the north of room 26.
We allow some of the giants to explore, and then take out most of them. One flees, but we are not too worried about them yet. We plan on eventually holing up in the lower level in a rope trick and observing what we can. We head up to area 16-20 to finish off those giants, and are part-way through it. We are not running into serious opposition here. Area 22 is quickly polished off on our way up towards 16. We wall of force off all exits from 16-20 and invis and otherwise buff ourselves before we charge in.
We beat the rest of the giants in the rooms 16-20. The last group of six heard us coming and was well prepared, it was a tough fight. Pik was grappled and brought to -8 before he was healed. Very tense combat. But no one died this time, and all have safely come through the battle, and there was even one unexpected bonus. The last giant standing, surrendered and was successfully charmed. We are now trying to get all the information we can out of him, and contemplating how we can use misinformation through him. Perhaps convince him to run off on a wild goose chase, but use that to have him tell the other giants to search for us in the wrong area.
We discover that there is a "black lady" whom the giant leader is much taken with. He assumes that she is human, but noticed that her hands appeared to be black skinned. The giant leader has also recently converted to worship of an unknown, probably evil power. The giant mentions that the leader has been gaining power... (cleric?) We let him go sound the alarm and follow behind hiding in the corridor to level two in a rope trick. During the night, a party of frost giants lead by a giantes with some winter wolves pass under us. We let them go. We rest and rememorize. We plan to hit the lower level and do as much damage as we can while, hopefully, avoiding the dragons. But just in case we are buffing with energy protection-cold.... Tala has used 5 1st lvl spells for buffs, and invis sphere. We go into entry room on second level, and decide to move boulder #1-giants, instead of boulder #2-dragons. They are ready and waiting for us. Pik does a leaping charge of 100ft. (!) and attacks the giant all the way across the room who appears to be about to retreat. The rest of the party enter the room and are trapped in a net that is dropped.... (did they just try it or did nathan forget that we were invisible? ask nathan how the giants knew when to set off the net trap) Sabriel and Gramblin and Arielle are all entangled, Nadem alone is not entangled. (Arielle has freedom of movement!! does that counteract the entanglement?) Tala is still outside of the room. Time for him to start letting fly with spells.... But the giants have not gone yet.
Nadem manifests nimbus, burning through the net and freeing the trapped ones. Arielle starts singing. We take a few hits, but basically we thrash the four giants and two winter wolves. The alarm has been sounded, however, so we decide to buff up for the strike team.... Cast fireball, wall of force and another invis. sphere, as well as other buffs on other members. We waste the few giants who are pushing defenses into place. When we charge past the incomplete defenses, there are no giants to be heard or seen anywhere. This is striking a bad note, and Gramblin speaks up pointing out that the giants are acting all too smart. Now would be a good time to alter plans and hide and scout.
We decide to huddle up and cast a rope-trick. then invis sphere on the rope. Sabriel and Pik and Gramblin decide to do a quick reconnoiter while the buffs last. first we find a finely appointed quarters with larger than human, but smaller than frost giant, with some unusually shaped weapons. We swipe some food and obvious valuables. Next room is huge, stone or storm giant size at least.... worrisome. We detect something invisible, and flame strike the area we think it is in. It flees. We gather in the rope trick, and send out Gramblin to scout and see. We detect that invisible creature again, and manage to glitterdust it. It was flying near the ceiling, it flees when it gets hit with the reveal. We follow it, but it is behind a fairly solid barrier to the south west. To the north west there is a beautiful storm giantess chained and manacled behind some iron "bars" about a foot thick! We move the food within reach, and talk with her. We find out about ogre-mages, and some other useful information. We promise that we will return with a weapon so that she can fight and get some revenge on her captors. In the meantime we unlock her manacles so that she can free herself at anytime, if need be. Weapon, and armor or shield, soonest!
We decide to assault the barricade, as i have had an idea.... >:D So we free the giantess and buff her with every overlapping spell we can, and give her that ogre mage weapon we found. Once we are all buffed are ready, Tala dramatically casts a (summon monster V) dustform locust swarm right after Ariellele casts confusion. Then Tala casts stone to sand, and the giantess, Ahanna, just pushes away the sand forward so that we can get through. We get glitterdusted by a spellcasting giant in the rear, and shot at by truely enormous crossbows. Only Pik, Gramblin, Nadem and Ahanna are affected, but Gramblin and Nadem are blinded. (dispel on the glitterdust soon?) One giant is confused, the other charges but falls down in the sand. The others hold their actions. (waiting for a clear shot at us i'm sure....)
Tala hastes everyone. Pik tries to jump diagonally at a non-confused giant, but passes an ogre mage and gets sneak attacked and attacked on the way past. Pik fails a fort save getting stagger striked-losing his attack. He is now between the again invisible ogre-mage and the frost giant he was going to attack. Gramblin drops his weapon and runs to heal Pik, Nadem runs to attack the giant near Pik and whallops him after an incredible series of tumbles for massive amounts of damage. He gets charged by another giant in turn, and triple crit-ed! Arielle spots an invis ogre mage looking to attack from behind and glitterdusts it. Sabriel is ready to attack with arrows. Ahanna smacks down some serious damage on the ogre mage behind us. This fight is not going well... We need more damage from a distance.
We are still in a poor situation. Pik has died. (now everyone of my characters has died at least once!) (about that cultural thing, i'm thinking that there is a belief that the spirit lingers around the body for a short time (several days, at least) allowing a window of opportunity to be raised. Once the spirit has left the prime material, and gone to the outer planes, and then returned-this is when the person must become the special type of elder of the tribe.) I am thinking that we need to retreat shortly. and re-think our strategy. Especially as we are at the end of our resources!
Pik did not die! He was saved by a magic revivify spell that Sabriel rushed over and cast on him. The fight continues apace, with fearsome wounds being delivered on both sides. We finally manage to make them retreat and rush to retreat ourselves. Alas, just as we are starting to rest, we discover that we have been tracked by those thrice-pesky ogre magii! We charge out of our rope tricks and attack, surprising them. We are virtually out of resources and are fighting for our lives.
We manage to paralyze some of the giants, and kill off the cloud giant. We barely pull off making a break for it, webbing the doorways and corridors behind us to slow them down. We finally manage to successfully retreat (without the ogre magii!) and will now rest and recover. (WHEH!!)
XP: Tala = +5300, Pik = +7241 (LEVEL UP!), Nadem = +7241.
We make various plans. Gramblin is going to scout. And we will have rary's link going for communication. Next session (assuming uneventful scouting, we will find out what he learned.
Sabriel winds up doing the scouting, because we hit upon the idea of using an invis-ed wind walk to bypass all the boulders and makeshift walls. we also use stoneshape to work in a private tiny opening into the barricaded portion of the caverns. we have found an out of the way nook, cast silence to seal off our area, while allowing us to talk and buff. the plan is to surprise the jarl and knock out the center of the group, effectively ending the adventure.
XP: 1000 for Nadem, 750 each for Tala and Pik.
We decide that the moral thing to do is to charge the giant couple with their crimes, and then fight them, rather than murder them in their sleep. and as we are setting up the area with spells, they awake. Tala uses a ventriloquism scroll to throw his voice across the chamber and to charge them with their crimes. They cry for us to face them in combat, and they manage to negotiate for one protective spell each. We grant them the one spell with prepared actions to counter if they are not defensive. The fight is quickly resolved. Nadem and Sabriel gets their weapons shattered. (we'll have to seriously watch out for that, in the future. seems like most of our treasure will go towards replacing Sabriel's weapon. Nadem, of course, is the least affected by this attack.) Two cave bears and two giants, even seriously tough giants, are just not a match for us. Tala doesn't even attack directly, but rather casts supporting spells. Sabriel gets poisoned by the evil giants blade, but a heal cures that.
We explore the rift and take care of the creatures there, as needed. We fight the remorhaz, but wind up losing it's treasure as we used fire on it's lair and the treasure sunk into the water beneath the ice rift. (too bad that one of them was a ring of wishes!! =( very sad. sigh.) Tala picks up an antique crossbow of speed (see "frost giant loot" for details), and a ring of fire resistance minor (10). Nadem figures that a +2 giant bane bastard sword would be handy to use. [[[i should really get around to just calc'ing all of pik's attack variations so that we don't have to add it on the fly....]]] summoned horn's barbarians, and sent them through the lever-portal. scryed on them and saw that they attacked the giants and were squashed.
XP: 11th receive 3750xp. 12th receive 3350xp.
Finally we invis-ed ourselves and went through the portal. Tried scouting the fire giant stronghold. Alarm spells on the rather small windows tipped them to Gramblin's attempt. Dispell worked. Sabriel is using wind walk, and lots of protective magics to scout for us. Gramblin was doing well, but was getting tracked by scent. We found lots of fire giants, some uncomfortable frost and hill giants, ettins, and some others. We observed a human and a fat dwarf, who appear to be in collaboration with the giants.... There are quite a few prisoners, 8 elves in one cell, a female elf in another, two humans in two other cells, a titan, some fire giants, a wacked out troll, and some others. Lord Olmar (the titan) is a prisoner there, but after healing and talking with him, seems willing to aid us if we can free him. He also seems to be quite prideful. He claims that there are reasons-pacts and treaties-why he can't act directly against the giants, but is willing to help us. We have scouted a site away from our hideout for meeting.
The only way we can figure to work a prison break is to sneak in and use a combination of bag of holding and dimension door for the 8 elves, and plane shift for the remaining elf, the two humans, and the titan. However, that will put Sabriel and Gramblin likely far far away from us with the prisoners and without the bag of holding.
(during a later discussion with nathan, i casually asked what the titan could do, and it turns out that he can gate! so this will change our plans for the prison break... =D )
Brief session. Finalized plans for the jail break. the combat half of the party gets dropped off in the prison, and starts working to free the prisoners. Ahanna has been setting up a control weather, the spellcasters (less Arielle-who went with the combat group) start summoning as many powerful creatures as possible and sending them to rampage through the fortress. Tala summoned many swarms of locust and bats from the dust of the volcano. This provides a fine distraction for the prison break half. We manage to get everyone freed and into the titan's prison with but one incident. Some of those strange dark-skinned elves ran by, and spotted us just as we were crossing the hall. We attacked them and drove them off. We took no casualties, and were successful in liberating all of our chosen prisoners! The combat group with prisoners were gated to olympus by the titan (fearsomely powerful creature.) And once the others were safe, the spellcasting group with Ahanna plane shifted after them. We were able to establish contact and were able to be united again.
Time spent training on olympus with the titans. Received various benefits from the training by the titans, courtesy of the titan we rescued.
Made a scouting foray into the stronghold. We managed to explore and map a number of things, but managed to fail some saves and triggered some traps, cutting our explorations short. We have planned a commando raid upon the giantish leadership of this place. [most of this session was discussion of ways and means... next session should see some combat, pretty much right off the bat.] [some more planning, maybe take on some of the support first instead of king, but didn't last long enough to make a 'session'.] [finalized plans, and loaded up with initial buffs, ready to fight next time. still not long enough to make a 'session'. ^^ ]
Ahanna breaks the door-done in spectacular silence. Ahanna, Pik, Nadem, and Gramblin all pound on one giant, but he survives. He was the one not surprised by us bursting into the room, so he gets a full attack. he trys to sunder Nadem's weapon, which after three tries, succeeds. Nadem and Gramblin are then grappled by some other giants. We pound on the giants, but it's not until Pik dances that Nadem is freed. Gramblin uses his medallion to get free. We continue to pound on the giants. Ahanna is not doing so well. Pik finishes off two giants and wounds a third. The last two giants fall quickly to our attacks and Pik dances over to the neighboring door and manages to open it. Everyone catches up as the door opens to reveal... a number of hellhounds. Squish, squish. quick search of the room, some nice stuff-it's the kings bedroom, belike. so we're going to head back the way we came, and look to our next target. Nadem's giant-bane sword gets shattered. He picks up the pieces.
We boldly walk in invisibly with Arielle singing, but with ventriloquism going to confuse our location and manage to charge the king and his four guards, only to fall into a big trap set up! Ahanna and Nadem fall into a pit, Pik falls, but hits the far wall and runs up it and out. The king and some guards turn out to be illusion, with other guards hidden! some sound an alarm, but the wall of force blocks that, others move to shove some stone covers over the pit. Pik starts attacking, but not dancing, Ahanna puts Nadem out of the pit, Sabriel lays down some covering fire, Tala is casting damaging spells, and Gramblin is attacking as well. We manage to finish off the guards without too much damage, the wall of force is holding off the reinforcements, but now is looking like a good time to retreat.
We decide to nail the first reinforcements by "running away", invis-ing and coming back, then canceling the wall of force. We pretty much get full surprise on them. Ahanna goes first, she nails one, hurts another. Gramblin waits for Arielle to tumble-strike to a flanking position, and then he lays down the sneak attacks. The fight is quickly over. We make false "fleeing" tracks in the blood of the giants and ettins back to the window, then clean off using prestidigation, and head down to the jail cells, figuring that they won't check there, or maybe by the magic wall to cloak the rope tricks.
We decide on the jail cell, and Gramblin scouts around a bit. While spying on the strange "humans" (who spoke of 'their mistress') they scent gnome!! So he scurries away, but fortunately it looks as if they cannot track by scent. We move to another location and do an extended rope trick. So we decide to risk sending Sabriel off to buy something that will let us hide our scent. In the meantime, we are holed up in the extended rope trick somewhere in the corridors, as we don't want to be trapped in the dead-end of the jail block. We figure that we need to make a serious dent in the giants pretty soon. and capitalize on the rift between the giants and the dark elves.
Some of our equipment goes with Sabriel for trade (Tala's rod of avoidance, and Nadem's Giant Bane Bastardsword) Gramblin manages to scout out a new lower level, finding a red dragon, some dark elves, and lots of trolls, and more hellhounds. (yuck). So he runs away, and manages to get back to us. We contemplate for a bit and decide to sow some havoc. After a search party passes us, we drop out of the rope trick, leaving just the tiniest bit of rope out to maintain it, and head the opposite way. I have an idea. We orient ourselves above roughly where we think a large cavern that Gramblin spotted is, and bust a hole through the worked stone of the floor to reveal natural stone underneath. Then Tala transmutes rock to sand in a large area. Then makes us all invisible again, lowers the sand magically, and then casts it again on the floor underneath. *BOOM*!!! The ceiling of the third level underneath collapses, leaving us standing on 3ft thick of stone. We happen to trap a couple of red dragons in the sand, and boy, are they angry. We plan on ambushing whomever responds. Only Nadem caught sight of a cloaked figure sneaking away, so we are going to rush after it.
{{{I'm thinking that Tala will linger to cast one more spell and then high-tail it after the party. "transmute sand to rock"! he's out of 5th now, so he'll have to dip into 2 fourth to pull it off. should be fun! }}}
We chase after the shadowy figure, and Arielle manages to charm it. Nadem spots a second figure high-tailing it, so Tala webs off the corridors leading away. The drow tries to free the webbed one, but we get across to wait a bit. We manage to cast a rope trick and spike a rope like we went down the hole we made, then it goes dark. The webbed drow gets free and moves through the darkness. We all miss the drow and the drow jumps down the hole. ~40' drop, but onto sand. Hope the dragons are hungry and mad! We are trying to scramble to get everyone into the rope trick, when a door to the north opens, and some frost giants start to come through. We link to Ahanna to smash the floor by the giants.
They run in fear, throwing a rock each (3) as they go. We hear some ruckus from the other door to the north, and so web off the entire area to block view. We make some noise about going down the hole, and then scramble up the rope trick.
{I think that we should leave the charmed drow we captured in the rope trick to face the search party and run for another area. I'm guessing that we need to do some serious hit and run on the run here.... the sneak in and sneak out isn't really working too well. We need to damage and cause some attrition of forces.}
Some interrogation of the drow, and we pick up some of his words, and a bit of info. At least we can understand what he is saying. Before too long, we send him on his way, wait a bit and then follow after. We waylay two drow who were trying to spy on us and remove them from the picture. Then we follow after our charmed drow down to the third level. We explore a bit, kill off a couple of ochre jellies explore a bit more, only to hear a war party nearby. We retreat, hide in the crystal cavern where the jellies were, rope trick, use hallucinatory terrain to make the cavern a bit lower trying to hid the rope trick, remove our traces over on this side of the cavern and plan to rest, reset spells, and wait for Sabriel to rejoin us.
*to be played via play-by-post here on out*
the read is too long to go through as it is hard to maintain the concentration to finish it .. would it not be better to form a shorter version with the highlighted points
well, that is a good point. this is a copy of my actual post-session notes... and for the most part they were just enough to remind me of what went on, and where we were going next. if you go check my blog here out, there is a character-point-of-view-diary of this self-same series of events, which is much easier to read, and likely more entertaining. nonetheless, easier to read notes is a good idea. i hope you give me some feedback on the blog here, i'd be interested in your take.
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subset: commoncrawl


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So perhaps it will surprise you that this not-being-perfect quality is what's sought after in speakers. Top conferences, in which I include TED and its offshoots, are skeptical of the too-polished speaker, the one with no sharp edges, flubs or all-too-human qualities. No one trusts a speaker who's too glib, too ready with the prepared answer, too smooth by half--the one who starts with "unaccustomed as I am to public speaking," while pulling out a prepared text. At the same time, the unprepared and unfocused speaker, the one who doesn't hear directions, isn't at all wanted.
So where's your mark to aim for, speakers? Here are a few thoughts, and I welcome more in the comments:
- Be prepared: Listening to and absorbing all the directions--your time limits, the big idea the organizers are counting on you to deliver, the tenor of the audience--are non-negotiable musts. Ditto showing up on time, being rehearsed and being available to interact with the audience.
- But also be human: If you flub something, can you laugh at yourself and with us? Can you be human enough to cry about something or pause to let us absorb a horror you just shared? If you're just moving on cue from line to line and not letting us emote and reflect, you're not thinking about the audience. If you're not acting like a person we can relate to, you'll lose us.
- Know your topic well enough to stray from your key points: Many smooth speakers crumble during Q&A because audience questions rarely line up with your key points. Remember that your points are just an organizing principle, and make sure you've anticipated questions that go beyond your topic.
- Have some nerve(s): Nervousness just tells you you're like the rest of us, and that's a good sign. Lack of nerves? Maybe you need to get in touch with us more than with yourself.
- Handle backlash and questions: If you haven't anticipated or clearly can't tolerate negative reactions, we'll think less of you--and wonder if you can't get off-script. Bend a little.
- Attend to your audience: A good speaker hears and reacts in real time to the little noises and reactions of an audience. Can you work us into your talk? If so, we'll admire you more.
- Don't run away from training: Contrary to what some believe, training need not make you too polished--but that depends on you and the trainer. Don't forget the irony of public speaking: The most relaxed, effortless-looking speaker is the one who has practiced. Tell your trainer you want to avoid the robot look, and address the things that will make you feel most prepared.
What do you dislike about a too-polished speaker? What stands out to you as awkward or difficult to relate to in a polished speaker? Share your feedback in the comments.


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Dear Cecil:
A while ago I saw a tagline on alt.fan.cecil-adams from someone who was darn proud to be a member of the National Rifle Association. I asked if the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution still holds water today since the intent was to provide guns and protection against the other side of the puddle. This sparked a huge debate on the Net about the right to bear arms with, as usual, both sides claiming they are right. I figured it's time to take it to the top and ask you to settle it all for us. Is it time to reevaluate the Second Amendment? If only so that those who argue can at least now argue an up-to-date amendment?
Illustration by Slug Signorino
Cecil replies:
You mean well, Colin, but you couldn't write a proper question to save your soul. What you want to know is what the framers of the Bill of Rights intended the Second Amendment to mean, and whether that intention has any continuing legal relevance in view of the (supposedly) dramatically altered social landscape upon which we gaze today. The answer to the second question is easy: yes, else why have a Constitution? But the answer to the first is knottier.
Historically there have been two interpretations of the Second Amendment: the states-rights argument and the individual-rights argument. The states-rights view is that the Second Amendment merely guarantees the states the right to organize militias and citizens the right to join. (Militia here means any armed force raised for the common defense, not just the national guard.) The individual-rights view is that the Second Amendment means what it says: citizens have the right to keep and bear arms. The states-rights view currently prevails in federal case law, but the individual-rights view is probably closer to the framers' intent. A reasonable restatement of the amendment might go something like this: "Since we as a nation have found it necessary to organize citizen militias to defend against tyranny and may be compelled to do so again, and since these militias are necessarily composed of volunteers supplying their own weapons, the right of individuals to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
OK, some gun-control advocates will concede, but that merely means infringed by the federal government. As an article in Mother Jones put it, "The legal precedents are clear: Almost any state or local gun-control action is fine; the Second Amendment does not apply. On the federal level, only laws interfering with state militias are prohibited."
This is a crock. The legal precedents are far from clear. They're also pathetically sparse, suggesting a reluctance on the part of the courts and the legal community generally to deal with the issue. (An enlightening article in the Yale Law Journal a few years ago was titled "The Embarrassing Second Amendment.") In almost every other aspect of law the Bill of Rights has been broadly construed to restrain the states as well as the federal government. Few today would argue that states can abrogate the right to free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment. Yet many are prepared to let them gut the second, on the grounds that the framers didn't foresee urban violence on the scale we face now. Maybe they didn't, but so what? Civil-liberties advocates don't accept urban violence as an excuse to curtail other constitutional rights, such as the protection against unlawful search and seizure.
Accepting the Second Amendment at face value doesn't mean you can't regulate gun ownership. No one can argue plausibly that the authors of the Bill of Rights meant to make the authorities powerless to disarm criminals. The framers likely would have objected to a blanket proscription of handguns, which they would have seen as legitimate weapons of self-defense, and arguably they would have opposed a ban on assault rifles, the AK-47 being to today's oppressed what the long rifle was to those of 1776. But local gun registration presents no obvious constitutional problems. Criminals don't register guns, of course; that's the point. Arrest a carful of mopes with guns and no permits and you have a good ipso facto case for throwing the book at them. How much better to approach gun control on a reasonable basis rather than make a religious war out of it.
Taking another shot
Dear Cecil:
Why is it that you, as well as the NRA, have different copies of the United States Constitution from my own? The Second Amendment in my own library clearly starts out with the words "A well-regulated militia …" What is well-regulated about a private citizen with a stash of guns in his basement? The opening words of this amendment seem to clearly indicate that the possession of guns was not meant to be beyond control.
Cecil replies:
Let's put it this way: it wasn't meant to be beyond regulation. The question is whether the power to regulate encompasses the power to ban. So far as guns are concerned, the courts have held that it does. You may say outlawing guns altogether wasn't what you had in mind. But it's certainly what some people have in mind, at least with respect to broad categories of firearms such as handguns, and a few would happily prohibit guns, period. Federal case law currently offers virtually no protection against such draconian measures.
Put yourself in a gun owner's shoes. While the first half of the Second Amendment is no miracle of clarity, the second half is about as plain as it can be: "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." But gun-control advocates deny this sentence means what it seems perfectly evident it says, and the courts have backed them up. Gun owners' recognition that one of their most cherished rights has been interpreted out of existence accounts for the apocalyptic tone in which their arguments are often framed.
But let's get back to "well-regulated." A number of serious scholars have disputed the idea that this phrase necessarily means "subject to a lot of regulations." The historian Robert Shalhope, for example, makes a good case that for the framers it meant "duly constituted" — that is, subject to civilian authority. The framers, in other words, didn't propose to have armed gangs of self-appointed militiamen roaming the streets. Some take Shalhope's argument a step further and say that "well-regulated" applies only to the militia and doesn't constrain an individual's right to keep and bear arms in any way.
A more reasonable interpretation, however, is that if the government can regulate the militia it can regulate the individuals in it, provided it does so in a way that doesn't make a shambles of their basic Second Amendment rights. For that reason I think even if the amendment had been interpreted more in line with the framers' intent, the regulatory landscape wouldn't necessarily look a lot different from the way it does now. But it's silly to think the framers would guarantee a right in one half of the Second Amendment only to allow the government to unguarantee it in the other half.
However odd the notion strikes us today, the framers regarded private gun ownership as one of the pillars of their liberty. They'd recently defeated one of the most powerful nations in the world using an army that in the early going had consisted of amateur soldiers using their own weapons. They considered these citizen militias vastly preferable to standing armies, which in their experience had been instruments of oppression. They also had no professional police force upon which to depend for defense of their lives and property. It seemed natural to them that ordinary folk should have the right to own guns.
That was then, you may say, and this is now. In the 1990s it may well be foolish, as a matter of public policy, to allow law-abiding private citizens to own guns (although I'm not persuaded this is so). But it seems pretty clear that's what the founders intended, and it eats at the heart of the constitutional process to simply wave that right away. No one doubts today that slavery is bad, but the constitution as written permitted it, and a duly ratified amendment was required to put the matter right. Likewise we should concede that the Second Amendment means what it seems to mean and that if we want to control guns to the point of prohibition, amending the amendment is the honest thing to do.
Send questions to Cecil via firstname.lastname@example.com.


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February 14, 2013
Ron Paul was on Bloomberg's Lunch Money discussing the developing currency wars. Paul states that the currency wars have been ongoing for decades, but they are now gearing up, but that government's always compete to devalue their fiat currencies.
Paul informs the Bloomberg host that the loss in purchasing power from currency devaluation in a currency war devastates the middle class, and cancels out any slight benefit that you might be getting temporarily in terms of trade.
Paul also states that one day soon people around the world will reject all fiat currencies, and we will move into an age where people want to buy hard assets, and that this has already started with real estate, gold, & silver.
Paul's full interview on the coming economic collapse is below:
The next evolution of activated nascent iodine, Survival Shield X-3, is back in stock at 50% off with double Patriot Points and free shipping!


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City of Conyers, GAHome Menu
City Council Meeting
- Date: 08/21/2019 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
- Location: City of Conyers Council Chambers
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Conyers, Georgia 30012
The Conyers Mayor and City Council meet on the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, the second floor of the Conyers Police Department, located at 1194 Scott Street. The public is welcome and invited to attend. Meetings are subject to cancellation if there is a lack of items for the meeting agenda, so please check with the city clerk prior to the meeting. For more information, call 770-483-4411.Return to full list >>


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I seen videos and read discussions about the mysterious opening chord to a Hard Days Night. A friend emailed this audio track to me recently. This nails it!
The speaker is Randy Bachman from his Canadian Broadcasting Company show called Vinyl Tap. He is discussing a conversation he had with Chris Martin who is the son of Beatles producer George Martin.


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From the magic of a Chameleon to the mighty roar of a Lion, our 4 day Classic Safari Package allows you to discover the diverse animals of the Kruger National Park in the company of an expert guide.
The trip is ideal for couples, families and small groups. Travel through the Kruger National Park in a specially adapted safari vehicle and enjoy encounters with prides of Lion, herds of Elephant and spotting some of the regions diverse birdlife, including many raptors.
In the evenings gather round the roaring fire and enjoy a refreshing drink while your guide entertains you with stories of bush life. Savour a delicious meal at camp before returning to your bungalow and falling asleep to the sounds of the African night.
In the morning, you will fly from Johannesburg to an airport near or inside the Kruger National Park. There you will meet your guide for the trip. Delight in a leisurely game drive through the pristine wilderness. The area is renowned for its Lion sightings as well as large herds of Elephant. The birding is excellent, and you may see Martial and Tawny Eagles.
The adventure will stop at a picnic spot and you'll enjoy a light lunch (on your own account) before continuing your exciting safari. Keep a lookout for Giraffe, Wildebeest, Buffalo and Zebra.In the late afternoon, you will arrive at your accommodation for the night.
Relax and settle into your accommodation before gathering around a crackling fire. Perhaps explore camp before having a tasty meal. (Dinner included)
After some snacks and coffee, you will set out on an early morning game drive. Watch as a new day begins - see how the guide follows the tracks of lion or hyena. Listen as the birds start calling, and smell the fresh scent of the bush.
Explore this complex region and see everything from small creatures such as dung beetles and chameleons, to herds of elephant or an endangered white rhino. Return to camp for a delicious brunch. Spend some time relaxing in camp, enjoying the facilities.
In the early afternoon enjoy a siesta before continuing your adventures in the cool afternoon. The guide will talk about the uses of the plants and the local mythology attached to them, as well as the interesting history of the region and of course track more wildlife. Return to camp for dinner. (Brunch and dinner included)
Delve deeper into the scenic bush of the Kruger National Park on a morning game drive. Travelling at a leisurely pace, encounter animals such as buffalo, kudu and even the regions smaller creatures such as a mongoose or steenbok. The birding is excellent and you may see a Kori Bustard or even a Ground Hornbill.
Return to camp for a hearty brunch and enjoy a few hours at your leisure. You will then set off on an afternoon game drive. Continue to discover the abundant wildlife of the region. In the evening gather around the warm glow of the fire and reminisce about your experience, enjoy supper at camp, before heading to your bungalow and falling asleep to the distant hoot and laughing of a hyena or call of a lion. (Brunch and dinner included)