Diplomacy and Arson: A Likely Couple

The three brave party members are off to see the kobolds after a few days of rest. The first plan of action is find out how many there are, then murder exactly that number. They know that the little bastards have been troubling the local mushroom farmers, so head over to the farms and see whats going on. It turns out that the kobolds have been stealing food, and that can't go on, otherwise the town would grow less fat and more healthy. So they look around for the location of the kobold hole, and eventually find it, though it is somewhat less opulent than a hobbit hole. The send their talking man out first of course, and the little kobold bard descends down the deep dark hole.

After walking for not too long he trips a wire and gets covered by a bunch of oil, though is luckily not set on fire. This doesn't perturb him too much though, and he continues until he hears a small squeaky voice, telling him that only one may continue. He walks for another couple minutes, and finds a single kobold leaning out of the wall. They have a fairly amiable discussion, and the bard decides that it's time to help the kobolds to attack the town, as they have been oppressed for far too long.He comes out and finds his party has left, to go and train the mage's dog. 

Wandering around town blindly surprisingly does not help with this, though asking around they do find someone who helps them to a dog trainer. This man is a new player, a rogue named Ean. Also while wandering around they bump into a sorcerer elf who recognizes the barbarian from the boat. While he is not actually an elf, but a changeling, he also decides to join up with this party, not knowing anything else to do. The group then wanders back to the whole and find the bard, who tells them what they have to do. Here they have a large discussion about the morality of both sides, and in the end the party is largely divided, but grudgingly agrees to help the kobolds.

Before they try to burn the town however they go to the leader of the town, a gruff dwarf, and try to convince him to let the kobolds live like regular people. This doesn't go over so well, as he unequivocally decides that it won't work, and goes out hunting because he doesn't really like governing the town too much. They also manage to let out that the kobolds will attack in two days, but decide that the the current night will actually be the perfect time to attack, as it will before they are actually expecting the attack.

In the preparations for the attack they gather oil, flint and steel, and the changeling tries to infiltrate the guards. This does not go well however, as he is arrested by the member of the guards he is impersonating, and taken to the captain of the guards. The captain reveals he knows that the wizard is a changeling, and casts a small enchantment to identify him as one from then on. This puts a little bit a damper on his plans, because in addition to this he almost told the captain that they were attacking that night. Woops.

Despite all this they meet up outside the town at dusk and decide to assault the town, deciding they have enough numbers that it should go smoothly. However they forgot one thing, the elf arms dealer. He comes upon their group with his two guards, and tells them how he knows all about their plans, and that he will refuse to allow the destruction of the town to happen. This is when one of the guards decides he has had enough, and slowly shifts to the form of the elf. In one smooth motion he stabs a dagger straight through the elf's heart, and brings his other fist into the second guards throat, utterly destroying it. He then says, "Burn it all down, I love a little anarchy." 

He then disappears, and the party is stunned. Not literally of course, as they subsequently run over to the body and begin looting. After the most important thing is done they all set out to the sides of the town, and prepare to start the fires. The rogue however has a different role, he sneaks through the town and infiltrates the leader of the town's tent as quietly as he can. Unfortunately the leader is not there, and it turns out he wasn't as quiet as he thought he was. A guard comes in, and without the element of surprise the rogue drops very quickly.

The sorcerer saw all this through his familiar, and since previous going through a very similar experience he decided he needed to journey into town to save him. This goes better than expected due to some well made bluff checks. And enough magic missiles to bring down a horse, or a large jailer. Letting his comrade out of jail and healing him they both flee the scene. Unfortunately before they can get back to the farm they are confronted by several armed guards. By this point the fires have already begun, and they are the obvious culprits. The rogue however slipped away into the darkness, and the wizard was left alone to deal with 4 guards.

He ran, as fast as he could, calling for any help he could. Luckily he did actually get it in the form of the kobolds arriving with fires all around. The rest of the party charging in to help with the combat didn't hurt either, though by the end the barbarian and rogue had gone down, and the shugenja was on his last legs. In the end the true savior of the party was the dog, with some fiery support from the bard. And thus the party stood, looting the captain's body, staring at their handiwork. Since they had arrived they had disturbed they had disturbed an eel's habitat and killed said eel, dealt with some merfolk who were tormenting the town, helped to end one man's semi-dominance of the town, and then burned it all down. An adventurous couple of days all things told.

Jail Break

Have you ever woken up and seen the world in an entirely new light? Now I have, as I opened my eyes and saw everything as it truly was. The world is made of fools,  fools who live until they die, and that is that. I have defeated this, and though it was a painful experience, and difficult, now I defy all those who believe in a life span. My life is endless, and I will never let anyone attempt to do otherwise. They will all fear me, especially if they find out what I truly am. But they always fear what they don't understand, so some day when they all realize the superiority of the undead they will submit.

We recently acquired a few new members to our small party, as well as a new ship. But as I left off in the last entry we were fleeing from a large number of guards who refused to retreat even when shown true fear. The warlock, the warrior and I ran from the mob, while the druid flew overhead providing aerial information. Unfortunately when we reached the gate to enter the dock our boat was in we met with the apparent ruler of this island, a vice admiral. He stood towering above all of us, and demanded we hand over our prisoner, this was not in the plan, and I had run low on spells, with only weak magics left.

What I did have however was a scroll of mists. As we ran up to the gate I unleashed the power within and we were able to escape, though unfortunately the druid's pet was grappled by the man so we had to abandon it. We ran again from the mob but before we got to the ship the druid arrived and reformed into his human shape. He informed us that our crew had been incapacitated and that the Vice Admiral had already arrived on our ship, a most unfortunate situation. We then slept in one of the nearby buildings, and undignified condition but unfortunately unavoidable.

Upon waking we decided the best course of action was to go to the boat where we met up with the inquisitor who had been searching for heretics throughout the night. I don't trust that one, he seems to be adventuring with us only in the belief that we will eventually be adversaries, a precarious situation. As it stood though most of the crew had been taken to prison, with only our mercenary companion still with us. For the next few days we began preparing for the assault on the prison. Prior to actually assaulting the prison we had the inquisitor gain the bounties for both Travis and the warlock.

During that time was when my eyes were opened, as I discovered the city had a substantial underground population, who with the right motivation were able to grant we what I had been searching for. I have not surpassed my master in knowledge, and will not have until I can raise him, but I will outlive him, one way or another. For now however it has granted me unholy resilience, much greater than before, as well as access to a new line of spells, which will allow me to keep an eye on both the party and the crew.

The assault on the jail went much better than expected. We picked the lock on the back door and quickly shut down all resistance through intimidation, leaving not a trail of corpses but merely unconscious guards who would then fear us, and also remember that we spared them. Mercy is not the domain of the weak, but of the intelligent. Upon arriving at the actual cells I created an enormous web disabling almost all of the guards who had bunkered in the room, and intimidating the rest into giving up their weapons.

After stripping the armor and weapons off all these foes we released our crew as well as the motley band of what are in all likelihood rapists and murderers who are now members of our crew. I'll be watching them very closely. But we parted ways with these criminals allowing our pirate captain to guide them safely back to the ship. From here we went to the docks seeking our other prisoner, Travis. Unfortunately once we arrived at the dock we found Reaver, the man from the first island who's boats we destroyed.

Luckily we have grown since then, and were able to utterly demolish his guards and himself. First the druid did a bombing run dropping alchemist's fire and acid destroying the boat they were on nearly completely. Then we created a windstorm forcing the guards to stay on the boat, which was now filled with fire and an inescapable web. They effectively had no chance to escape, and fear tactics destroyed the rest of them.

In the end the Admiral managed to stumble his way out of the burning web, right into the warrior and mercenary, and he was brought to unconsciousness swiftly afterwards. With that we took the fully functional boat that was in this dock and sailed out with everyone, subsequently meeting up with our other two vessels, and setting out for parts unknown.

Remember, Remember, the 5th of November

The tower is burning, burning down, collapsing, booming out over the city, letting the populace know just what has happened. That was how it all ended, but it began in quite a different way. As of last session the plot had become more involved, four factions not two now. There were the kobolds, the dwarves, the humans, and the goblins. In the end it would all come together in an explosive finale.

The original plan was such: the goblins would assault the keep from the front, distracting the guards, the dwarves would then go into the tunnel that the kobolds had built, and would be followed by the humans once all the guards were dead. The explosives would then be planted, and everything would go off without a hitch, with most of the factions dead resulting in less payment.

The initial planning and arming went fine, but the issue came when the actual plan was to be enacted. The dwarves went up, closely followed by the humans, but their was commotion just outside of the tunnel. The guard were more than expected, and better armed. This is further compounded when three guards descend the tunnel, and charge.

Luckily the party minotaur dwarf makes short work of these, with some additional courage from the bard. The magical energies granting the corrosive energy of acid, burning all in its path. But above was chaos, the garden stained with the blood of the not so innocents. The party bard plans to go and check the explosives but doesn't quite get that far.

A gunshot is heard, and he falls, not quite dead, but on the brink of unconsciousness. Luckily he gets off one more spell, and instantly he has 6 copies, adding confusion to the already chaotic battle. The rest of the group goes to assist him, but are intercepted by an additional sniper. Luckily both of these are still in the courtyard, and so can still be reached.

With one sniper down the other fell quickly to the sword bigger than him, and now all that was left was the explosives. The leader of the human anarchists seemed to be the only one alive, and he was surrounded by guards. But one shout from the knight drew them away, enabling a back-stab and death. Corpses were gathered and everyone was just about done, when a group of seven guards burst through a door, and urgency was again added to the situation.

Luckily they were faster and set up all the explosives to be triggered at the same time, destroying the tower and everything in the surrounding area, hopefully disincluding them. Unfortunately the explosives timing was a bit off, and five of the seven made it into the tunnel for an extensive fight in close quarters. The fight was close in the end, with the party knight being knocked out, and the dragon's pet almost being destroyed. But in the end victory, for some at least. The tower is burning, burning down, collapsing, booming out over the city, letting the populace know just what has happened.