Yuku free message boards

The party makes its way to the Smiling Sultan. I don't remember what the players thought of the fact that this tavern was at one point a monastery and the "smiling sultan" statue was in fact a smiling monk painted in bright colors.

Upon entering they try and bluff their way past the greeter. He asks them who they are. Paul has his character say something about they are here on a mission and shows the man one of the four rings they found on the toughs back in Majoor. The greeter says that's fine and all but only those with the ring of the Ophidian Hand are allowed in. Everyone perked up when I stumbled trying to say "ophidian." The players now know the name of this gang, but what are they?

Well, only four rings but five PCs, so JediWife offered to have her elven archer wait outside the Smiling Sultan and the others agreed. In went the rest to the common room. They took in the place, noticing two doors on opposite ends of the room and a grand staircase winding up to a balcony above. They quickly decide to have the witch and the ranger approach the bar and make a scene to draw all eyes to them. This way the elven figher/magic-user/thief of Trevor could slip through the door to the north while the human thief played by Paul could do the same with the southern door. I wish I could remember what the scene they did was, but I do remember I was impressed. It wasn't enough to start a fight, but -gee, I think Ragnar1965 had his lady spellcaster slap Nightwing's ranger but I don't recall the details. Oh well, the two at the bar began to ask questions trying to get a feel for what they had gotten themselves into. Several of the patrons started showing some interest in Ragnar1965's PC. I do remember what Ragnar1965 said to me about this. He said "if even one of them touches Madriel it's over." He was not going to be taking prisoners.

Meanwhile, Paul's thief, Mouse, found himself in a dark storage room filled with crates and boxes. As he began examining them he was attacked by a viper. Several more of the deadly snakes came into the light of his lamp. The first attack missed him and he didn't wait for a second. He climbed up onto the crates and pulled his rapier. Mouse was stuck. He dared not risk running for the door as he was fairly sure at least one of the vipers might strike him. By the same token he could not risk yelling for help in fear of blowing the party's cover.

Trevor's elf had better luck coming upon a guard and quickly silencing him with a well placed arrow to the throat. He peeked into the curtained alcoves and I told him that a "lady of the evening" seems to be conducting business with a client and left it at that. The elf opted to continue to explore, leaving the "business transaction" alone for now and opened the door on the north wall. He followed the dusty corridor to an old bell tower. The bell would ring no more since it lay at the bottom of the tower. I told him an old flight of stairs wound its way up the tower to the bell tower. As he climbed carefully up the tower I told him his elven ears heard the sounds of rustling and squeaking at the top of the stairs. Trevor asked me if he could tell what was making the noise and I said it sounds like rats. Trevor opted for his elf to descend the stairs, not wanting to get his lonely first-level PC into a fight with multiple rodents of, he figured, giant size.

Trevor's instincts, as they often do, paid off for as his PC came back through the door by the prostitute, things took a turn for the worse out in the common room. One of the more inebriated patrons did more than comment on the lady spellcaster's beauty and became a bit unseemly with his hand placement. Raganr1965 said, "that's that." And a dagger dropped the pervert on the spot. I called out "Initiative" and we got down to a fight.

Many of the patrons chose to fight anyone and everyone, while others bolted for the exit. It was those fleeing that alerted JediWife's lady elf but I ruled she could not get into the fight until round 5. The bouncer drank a potion and charged into the fight intent on stopping Nightwing's ranger.

Paul decided this was the perfect time to start having his thief yell for aid. We all do a good job of not allowing the knowledge of what is happening outside the actual knowledge of the PC to influence our decisions. I told Paul that their was no way anyone is going to hear someone shouting for help behind a thick wooden door when a full scale bar-room fight is going on and he said he knew, but figured that his character would hope someone would hear and since he could hear the fighting he knew he could be of assistance to the party. After several rounds of combat, Paul had his PC begin to toss and pull over boxes towards the door in an attempt to make a bridge to cross and stay out of the reach of the vipers.

Trevor's elf, as I said, heard the combat break out but stayed put with arrows draw to see if either of the couple had plans to join the fight. When the man came running towards the hallway from the bed chamber, the elf greeted him with the nocked arrow. The man began blubbering that he wanted only to get away. Occulus, the elf, informed the man he had better get back into the room and stay under the bed if he valued his life. The man did just that so Trevor figured he was of no threat and hastened to get his elf to the door, open it a crack and proceed to shoot enemies from cover.

Nightwing's ranger, Greyson, pulled his magical blade Whisker and went mano a mano with Gregor the bouncer. That battle went on for several rounds. Ragnar1965 had his spellcaster leapt behind the bar since the barkeep abandoned it and used the bar for cover as she began casting magic missile at anyone coming towards Greyson or herself.

The same round Greyson dropped Gregor, the ranger went down under the pounce of a leopard. No one saw that one coming. I enjoyed the look on everyone face as I added up the raking damage. Trevor asked if he could shoot at the big cat and I said yes but with a -4 penalty. He opted to continue to shoot at the patrons. That was okay since JediWife's archer had joined the fray. She has the feat that allows for shooting into combat and each round put an arrow into the leopard's spotted hide.

The battle wound down and was over. Alura, JediWife's elf, heard Paul's thief and finally he was rescued. While that was happening, the ranger felt an arrow blossom in the back of his shoulder. Someone fired it from the stairwell. This time Trevor rushed his elf to the base of the stairs, wanting to get into the action right away. His elf got to see an "unusual creature." She "has a human (though somewhat scaly) torso, arms, and head, below her waist she has a long tail in the place of legs."

The Snake-Mother.

I said this being just licked the arrow head and has pulled back the bow for another shot. I also ask Nightwing to make a saving throw. Uh-oh, poison! He rolled quite high and made his save, but everyone gets out of the line of sight of the Snake-Mother to re-group and come up with a better plan than "get her."

They put the elven archer on point followed by the ranger. The plan is to have the archer ready her bow as she slowly climbs the steps while the ranger prepares to charge the Snake-Mother the moment she fires her bow. The Snake-Mother and Alura the elf have a slow dance of death up the curving stairwell, both firing at each other and both staying just around the bend enough to make it hard to score a hit. Nightwing keeps holding his ranger back from charging. Finally they back the Snake-Mother to the top of the stairs and began to realize she has all the advantages, the high ground plus cover. Nightwing decides to go for it and races up the stairs intent on striking with Whisker his magical blade; the rest of the party follow suit the following round and runs onto the landing. One or both of the first level PCs drop below zero hit points from the masterful attacks of the Snake-Mother and her sword, but she is at last overwhelmed by the party and dies. Twice did she successfully hit with her poisonous bite in this combat and both times the players made their saves!

They search her rooms and find the cold iron dagger as well as her ledger with the "entry of a silver goblet being delivered to an 'H. H.' in the Morass." This occurred two days before the party and Jonas arrived in Majoor.

From here the party headed back to Majoor and we stopped the game until next time.

I love this module thus far. Converting it on the fly to Castles & Crusades has been easy. Any questions or comments?