Where have all the Empires gone, long time passing

The nature of time is so deceptive.  A year is a long time and it is also so short. Just like a day. You get up and eat breakfast and go to work then you eat lunch, go back to work and then go home and do some other things then go to sleep and repeat.  But you write that report and you want it to end and it seems like it takes forever.  You sit down to watch a movie and the time passes  and you wonder where it went.  Days are like years parts of them last forever and other parts whisk by and 25-33% of them are spent sleeping and at the end of it nothing seems to have been accomplished.  After twenty years, though you reflect about how much has changed and you know that it all happened year by year and day by day.  Things change this way.  After a century you see the world has moved in giant leaps, well it has in modern society, in earlier millennia not so much.  But in millennia, things have changed as well.  More in our last century than any past millennia except one that includes our century.  

In Caranus it is the same, only it has been static for years, static change; no big changes in millennia.  But why?  There is magic.  Divine and arcane and there is not much difference between what everyone else has.  Magic is not something that changes substantially and it is more powerful than technological wonders.  Better steel, better forging techniques, different weapon variations are all trumped by giving an older design a +1 or better.  A better sword is less effective than a ordinary sword with magical powers; a katana made of steel folded fifty times, is sharper than a European Longsword, but with a +1 the latter will cut the former in half sooner in a battle.    So there is nothing to be gained by research except arcane research, so no one does it.  Magic is finite in power, but it stifles advancement and improvement.  

So why not a steady state of occupied nation states?  Natural disasters, wars, and magical creatures.  Natural disasters are things like volcanic eruptions, or volcanic explosions, massive storms, or floods.  They include pestilence too, but again spells and divine healing spells can cure a lot of these troubles, so what is left?  Magical plagues.  A plague that required a much higher level spell to cure would effectively make it incurable.   The town is struck down by a plague but the high cleric can only cure five people a day and after five days the entire populous is dead, save twenty-five people, only the incubation period of the plague is five days and it remains quite virulent through that time, so the plague might wipe out an entire nation or several, before a cure is found, and teleporting ahead of the illness spreads it further.  In theory, that would wipe out a large swath of nations, more than other natural disasters.  

Wars are less effective.  Most wars involve killing of the opposing soldiers only, when they are dead, the rest change hands and are in the conquerors lands.  Not much of a killer or impetus of change.  Wars happen all the time, they are usually small battles on the local scale, but sometimes they are bigger affairs.  Like on Earth where the Mongol Hoard conquered most of Asia and half of Europe in just a couple generations.  The greek and then the Roman empire, or when the Arabs conquered the remains of the roman empire in the late 7th century.  Or when the British conquered half the world.  There are plenty of examples.  In Caranus, the First Ones conquered the world, only to be reconquered by the Dragons.  The Orcish empire filled most of the continent before it was itself destroyed.  Since then there has been little of the fast growing empires.  Gutral Mastekeena took fifteen hundred years to get to its current size, and while large, it is yet to hold a twentieth of the continent.  It is big enough to withstand any large natural disaster, unless it is some magical plague, and it is big enough to with stand other dangers, but it is still possible to that some one might raise and army that might threaten it or that it might expand too quickly and collapse on itself.  

Magical creatures are threats.  There are creatures that can represent an extinction level event for a culture.  Mid-sized dragons represent a palpable threat to most small nation states, and certainly a town or small city.  Depending on the city, it might also end the nation.  Larger dragons would affect larger nations with similar effects.  The Free City of Dhewtudum, when it was attacked by the largest known Red Dragon, it cut off the Local Dwarven Empire from trade with human lands and others, the loss of trade nearly destroyed the empire because it was dependent on the trade to acquire food to feed its millions of dwarves.  One dragon, one city almost the end of an empire connected to other Dwarven empires that could have brought them all down and may still.  

There are other single creatures that represent a possible death to a nation, Mind-Flayers, Abeloth, Demons and things like powerful Undead.  The First Ones civilization came down during the war with the Dragons, but a few of their cities were destroyed from within when great mages became Liches and Demiliches and worse, Demises.  Liches are undead Wizards, when they decide to travel the worlds within Caranus they become a Demilich, but when they return with all their accumulated power and knowledge they become a near undefeatable threat called a Demise.  The first Demise was only defeated by a cabal of the most powerful wizards working together along with the remaining powerful dragons in a joint assault.  

The First Ones that live in Caranus are charged with the duty to fight most of these magical threats to the world, as part of the promise they made with the Greatest Dragons of the past eras.  They will seek out the unnatural magical threats from the creatures that are not allowed to roam Caranus free, the Mind Flayers, Aboleth, Demons, and powerful Undead.  They do not interfere with Dragons.  

In addition to the world sweeping natural disasters, there are the occasional invasions from the Wild Lands west of the Mirror Mountains.  Those at escape over the mountains and across the wastes either are individually powerful or are powerful in masses.  Sometimes these invaders become a naturalized resident of Caranus, like giants, gnolls, and others.  

So, where did the empire go that left these ruins?  How did they build these great magical treasures and then vanish?  Why is there wide forests here and a crumbled ruin with long buried roads and no connection to anything?  Why is there a ruined city here in the middle of this plain but no one living near by for hundreds of kilometers in any direction?  

Outside the sacked Free City of Dhewtudum, there are the ruins of three cities, Awsland, Galden, and Stuj.  Four ruined cities within a hundred kilometers that rose and fell in less than five hundred years.  All in the shadow of Gutral Mastekeena.  

D&D plans: Elders of the Land

Elders of the Land

Next time our heroes leave the temple and head to Hommlet or out for a breather, there is an official notice for each of the characters with the lands that they now hold title too and the Farmsteads there that they must now manage.  

The Mountains to the East of Sunnydale

Awarded to Vistra the Dwarf, because the duke is racist and since she is a dwarf, she must like mountains.  There are a few things of interest in this place.  First, important to the Duke, possible mines the war machine.  There is coal in the Northern reaches, but there are veins of more valuable ores to the south.  There is a mysterious road that predates Jarda there too.

The Ford West of Neloar 

Awarded to Korin, the lands include not a ford, but a bridge and a road that predates the city of Jarda by lots.  The road is thought to be the source of all the orcs entering the fledgling nation some people have set up a settlement a few clicks from the base of this bridge and they need defending.  The Duke desires a road to this bridge to push an army through this bottleneck and he needs these people perhaps this will be a future new village.

The Ford East of Neloar

Awarded to Cal

Along the road from Neloar to Hommlet there is a small hamlet along one of the tributaries to that village and the duke wants to pull people away from the village and its recent problems.  The land is mostly uncleared, but it is proving to be almost as fertile as Neloar.  The duke wants to sap some of the strength of that town away as it is rivaling Greysteel.  As such he is assigning an army engineer to this site to encourage growth with a palisade. 

The Last Bridge, south of Greysteel on the Road to Jarda

Awarded to Io

This bridge marks the southern most extent of the land grant to Lord Greysteel, the bridge a gift from Jarda and the river itself the Southern border.  There is a small settlement on both sides of the bridge.  The duke wants to establish rule over both sides of the river and acquire taxes from these people.  He hopes that one day his nation will be strong enough to stand against Jarda.

The Northern Cursed Lands.

Awarded to Moo the Paladin.  This is the site of the seat of power that created the Temple of Elemental Evil over a hundred years ago.  The Temple sacrificed the entire population to the temple in the end and left this town a ghost town, no one settled here as the land is reported to be cursed, but that was a long time ago.  The fields are over grown with trees, the orchards still produce fruit and tall buildings loom in the woods.  Some infested with ghosts of the previous inhabitants, but most only hold mouldering antiques.  A group of youthful farmers have established themselves here hoping to avoid the rule of the duke and his taxes, but word has gotten out and wants this to change.  He also thinks that it might be a good place for a village to counter the growing independence of Hommlet.  Also, there may be more hidden treasures and relics.

Each area has about two hundred adults and a hundred children, a smith, a mill/brewer, a carpenter and one or two other services dependant to the locale.  The people are split of woodsmen and farmers with most of the population doing both.  There is an inn at last bridge.  There is a small temple to Jarda in the Cursed lands.  There is a a mason, and a smelter in the Mountains.  There is a furrier and a fisher at the Ford West of Neloar.  There is a saw mill and a small garrison at the Ford East of Neloar.  

There will be some trouble at each location too:

The Cursed lands have a couple of dangers, undead of the more permanent kind, a minor lich or a vampire sounds like a good choice.  There will be wraiths and specters too. Also there should be a few imprisoned devils or demons, bound to the site of a powerful site with old texts about the Temple of Elemental Evil.  Maybe a dracolich.  

The West Ford with the old road south and the bridge should include a ruin form that previous age.  Something very small, something like a way station or an inn with an Ancient booby trap and graffiti that is written in ancient Orcish.  Perhaps the inn is located in the arch of the bridge and contains a map of an Ancient and long dead empire.  The road appears to be straighter than the average arrow, but according to the map, the road is curved, just over a very long distance.  The clues of the map suggest the Capitol is for to the west and there is a regional Capitol to the South and a insignificant town to the North.  The Southern City is gone, scooped out and filled with water.  The insignificant town is bigger than Jarda and in ruins.  See dragon.  At the Inn, they retreat from the ruin and discover a Blue Dragon itching to Spark up a conversation.

The Mountain settlement is riskier than it first seems.  There is a thriving community but there is a problem, Everytime the miners find a promising vein of mineral, they encounter a small mine that some other creature has mined before them.  The one exception is the coal mine, which has its own problems, cave-ins and mine explosions and deadlines that mean no excuse for the people.  The played out mines are being worked by a tribe of kobolds.  The tribe has been in existence for a few decades and their god, lives on the mountain overlooking the new human settlement, a red Dragon.  The kobolds have gained much experience and there are warriors and Sorcerors, not to mention a few Clerics too.  They have set up mines and smelters, but give the majority of the wealth to the dragon.  There are a lot of kobolds in the area, some of them are more powerful and others much weaker.  If they are stealthy they may see the Dragon creating Kobolds out of the earth with blood and fire.  

The Last bridge the threat is one that the inhabitants of Jarda have been living in fear of for a thousand years: a military expedition from Gutral Mastekeena.    The expeditionary forces are preceded by refugees.  First people fanning out running with fear of some unknown threat, strangers coming from distant lands.  There are some spies mixed in among them most of the refugees are looking for a stable place to live, but some, those that come later have seen war and they are running.  The spies are nearly indistinguishable from the others except they have a different look than the rest, but they say all the right things.  They seem to be in better order though and they are better disciplined.  They will learn as much about the area and then leave, or they will foment rebellion amongst the locals against the refugees—mostly so that they fight them and weaken themselves, soften themselves up for real conquest.  

The East Ford was chosen to pull people from the village of Neloar and make it irrelevant.  But just north of the chossen site is a ruin of a town similar to the Cursed Lands near Hommlet, but far older.  There is a temple to an ancient power.  An ancient temple to Drogath with a portal that leads to the moon of his name, ancient powers hunt those lands, werewolves in packs, night time undead able to roam the dark valleys day and night, creatures killed rise up at night, and towns of fearful humans and demihumans.  Dark versions of Faeriekind, treants that kill, foes of darkness.  And silent woods.  Silent wet woods.  No dragons.  Demons and devils here are more rabid and cruel, if that is possible, insane, with rot and odd growths.  

Ambushed the ambushes

One player did not show up for the last session, that's okay.  The characters joined up with the Orcish ranger and they rested on the eaves of the village of Nulb.  It rained through the night and the skies cleared as morning dawned.  The  Ranger Korin inquired about the progress of the Orc through the woods the previous day and it was then that they heard about the pathway that he found, that was made by a giant and the bandits.  The ranger was intrigued and passed the information back to the rest of the party.  They set out to find these tracks and soon found them not far off, less than a mile from where they were.

The tracks contained the footprints of two humans and one troll, the survivors of the fight on the road.  They elected to follow the tracks back to the creatures' lair.  As they closed in on the temple, the two rangers found a tunnel into the earth and called a halt while the rest of the party caught up with them.  The tunnel led into the ground on a path towards the temple.  Part way through there was a branch that headed up but after that the tunnel continued for another 1200 feet and down some 150 feet.  The way turned a few times and when it ended they were below the second level.  There was a room at the end and the ranger who was first peered into e room and he saw a frightfully presence, a Basilisk!  The mere sight of the beast turned his bowels to water and he hightailed it past the party crying basilisk!  The paladin trusted his mount to guide his blow and he closed his eyes and charged into the fray.  The Druid decided to block off the menace with a wall of stone, but turned the corner and saw the threat for what it was; a clever illusion!  The ranger was in effect the victim of an illusion and a spell, explosive rune, not an explosion but Phantasmal Force, a spell that made his fears real.  The loud reactions of the characters alerted the people that lived in the area, the assassin and the Wizard that had attacked them in the ambush.

The ranger used special powers that his artifact gave him to discern what was beyond one of the doors.  He learned it was a beautiful Elven woman armed to the teeth with a very impressive collection of assassin weapons  mounted on the wall.  The paladin announced that they knew she was there and she should surrender.  She had other ideas and when they tried to open the door they found it locked and also unlocked.  What they did not know was that the wizard had arcane locked the door; it would open freely only for the two.  The Gnome, Moolite the Door Opener, charged the door and broke it down with his giant goat mount, "Meeeeeeehhh". They charged in and found the room empty.  Confused they looked around and it was then that their confusion ended, crouched in the rafters, the assassin materialized attacking with surprise from invisibility, her crossbow with a mighty poison bounced off the Paladin's armoured hide.  She was ensconced fifteen feet above the ground and out of reach of all without ranged weapons, or so she thought.  The rangers fired on her, and the paladin with his lance stabbed at her, and the Dwarf rose up to her position with the Sword's levitating power.  

Hard pressed, as she was she was not done.  The wizard across the hall poked his head out and fired a lightning bolt that struck the two armoured foes, the dwarf and the paladin before ducking away and trying to make his escape.  The assassin quaffed a potion and activated her ring as she gave up he perch and tumbled to the the ground, she never hit the ground as she disappeared before impacting and she made tot a sound as she landed.  Curious.  The characters tried many ways to try to target her position and she realized that she did not have many options, she hoped that she might distract the party members by killing one of them; she materialized beside the Druid and stabbed her in the gut.  

The characters surrounded her and cut her down.  

Once the arcane lock on the door had been broken, the characters piled into the mage's room. There was a door and to one of them, an obvious secret door.  With a detailed map of the current level they were on.  The ranger entered the room to remove the map, when it exploded in fire scorching the other characters.  Behind the secret door was a narrow passage that led to another secret door.  The warriors shared through and attacked the Mage as he was packing supplies away and attempting to flee.  The battle ended quickly with his death.  In his treasures the fighters of the group discovered an artifact of supreme evil and the paladin decided that even though it matched the description of the quest item of the warlock, he decided that it must be destroyed.  He raised his Mace and brought it down with all his might using his holy smite ability: the strike was blindingly bright and the sound was deafening.  In the end, his magic mace was destroyed utterly and the three inch golden skull  was not scratched at all.  The loot in the three rooms was substantial.  There was magic and there was gold.  And there was an exit that led to a part of the temple not yet seen.  They decided to head back and rest a while.

I Feel Happy!

Personal stuff.

I am happy.  There is sucky stuff in my life, my longtime friend dying slowly, seeking to live as long as he can, but not seeking treatment for the cancer, he seems to want to actually die from cancer.  But at the same time he is putting his family through hell.  I understand that he is afraid to die.  Everyone who is older sees this as normal and acceptable, but I don't.  I don't because he has given up living until he it fifty or more and he is instead giving his children future trauma and making his wife's life hell, trying to raise two children AND care for a man that has all the baggage of dying and wishing he can be as he was but instead depending on her.  It is selfish behaviour.  It is behaviour that has plagued him his entire life, that and lack of empathy.  The man that suggested that spending money on premature children, and continuing to care for the results of a premature birth as they go through the school system is a waste of money, but reverses his opinions when he himself has a premature child.  He has now reversed his opinion of end of life care now that he is in his end of life.  All that stress and I am still very happy.

I am happier than I have ever been.  I sing songs, "I've got Sunshine…", my humour is still dark at times, but it is also very light, so light grey with a hint of rose.  Bouts of depression are mild, shallow and short lived.  I am happy.

Yesterday, Natural20 and I went out and did some shopping, I picked up some essentials, and she did some Christmas shopping and we bought a couple of rings together.  Rings!  Rings to signify that we are linked and that when her kids are old enough and we decide that it is the right time we will get married.

Me married!  Never in the last twenty years had I thought that possible!  The choices were clear, yellow or white, because that's all she ever knew so it was clear that it had to be one of those two.  We looked at white and yellow gold, tried them on and spent some time looking but then I saw it there something better.  I had always thought that yellow was nice and plain, white was cold.  I always wanted warm.  Rose Gold.  A bit of copper to make gold warm, there it was right there.  I think it as Natural20 realizing that red gold was possible and that it was a new idea, a new life, something unexpected.  That she wanted to go through with it, that it was not an idle fancy.  She will wear it next to her other rings, warm beside the others hidden in plain sight, just like us.

When I see her, I see the future, a happy future.

The Doctor is a Woman!!

I did not start as early as I could have watching Doctor Who, but I through myself into it when I had matured enough to find the stories appealing.  We are talking Doctor Who that started in black and white and had long plot lines that lasted half a year, sometimes less, but on the whole it was made with a small budget and had many unforgettable villains in campy costumes. 

Doctor Who, simply known in the series as The Doctor, the 'Who' part is referring to the mystery surrounding him in the initial series, he is never referred to as Doctor Who.  He is a Time Lord, that is a race that lived on distant Galfrey, a world like any other, except the inhabitants had time travelling technology.  The TARDIS which is an acronym for Time And Relative Demensions In Space, because it was a time machine and a space ship rolled into one AND it was bigger on the inside than the outside.  The outside occupied about two or three square meters and was in the shape of a Police Box that was common back in the 60s when the show premiered.  The Tardis has a cameleon circuit that allows it to assume the shape of any object, so that it appeared as part of the local landscape, but it was always broken and so the ship always appeared as the same thing, a police box.  

When ever the doctor appeared there was always adventure and there was always death.  Lots of death.  There was a lot of conflict too and there was also bad guys and good guys and a lot of regular people fighting to do what was right, and The Doctor and his companions would drop into this setting and stir the pot and disrupt the evil plans and set things back to where they needed to go.  The series was inexpensive to produce and filled in a time slot consistently for decades, 1963-1987 and it had a following of devoted fans.  

One of the main problems with the series was encountered early in its life, when the actor who played The Doctor decided to leave the series.  *Choke*  The show was SciFi, so they came up with a SciFi answer, Timelords can regenerate themselves when they reach the end of their natural lifespan or die of trauma.  Boom, there was new life for the series.  This also allowed the series to go in different directions, just by changing the actor who played him; and it was always a man.  There was an injoke that every time they regenerated they hoped that they were Ginger — never happened yet. 

When the series ended it was a loss I keenly felt; I religiously followed the series  and I was heart broken when it was over.  There was a sense that many of e episodes were lost, as when the BBC produced the show they sent the series to North America and they did not archive the episode, so when they sent it across the Ocean it was gone.  There was an attempt to reboot the series, or atleast interest in the series with a movie, but they tried to market it to everyone and not just to the core fan base the movie was not a success.

In 2005, they rebooted the series with a new format.  Hour long complete episodes, that concentrated on character development and not on SciFi ideas and plotlines.  It was still SciFi, just not the main focus.  They focused on more important things, like love and relationships and the companions recieved equal billing to the person who played the Doctor.  This was a better format, it had wider appeal and the following was much stronger.  The budget was also greater too and the technology was better too.  

But there were some problems.  Notably the search for new Actors playing the role of the doctor was not as smooth as the first series, when an actor decided to leave there was a mad scramble to find someone that would take tthe role and atleast on two occasions the actor left without there being a clear successor and we. Issd a season.  The writers calibre also was an issue, the episodes were more based on fantasy than on science fiction and it showed.  There was a few episodes that resembled Jumping the Shark.  There was an episode where the moon hatched into a dragon and one where lighter than air sharks lived in the sky, there was actually a large number of those.  There was great writing in that time, but it had become silly too.  It's not like that was not good science fiction out there to make and it was not like ere are less SciFi writers out there; their are more.  

But then they did something controversial.  The longtime super villian of the Doctor regenerated and came back as a woman, the Master became Missy.  It worked, it showed the writers that viewers would not react poorly to a female casting of a non companion.  Then the rumours.  The new Doctor would be a woman.  And about, roughly, half of the fans refused to continue watching they said.  They said this was a ratings stunt and that it would not work.  The first episode was weired.  Very odd.  But it could be explained as moving from one regeneration to a new role.  The old doctor was, eccentric and the new doctor played an eccentric loopy individual.  The second episode she played a more fliuid character.  The third episode and the fourth.  Then I noticed it.  The writing had improved.  The focus was more on the old series, where there was not always a happy ending for the people of the setting the doctor appeared in.  People died, people that seemed to be good people died; just like in the first series.  The writing was good too, and varied, seven episodes in, the cast is diverse and so are the writers.  The subject matter is also diverse and there is a tension, just because you are a strong character and are likeable and on the doctor's side, does not mean you are immortal.  The first episode through to the most recent good people die.  

The settings are great too.  They actually went to shoot in South Africa and other locals besides England and the settings look exotic and alien too.  I can't wait for the next episode, I might even rewatch some of them again.  

D&D:an unexpected ambush

So the adventure began with a query about what the Player Characters wanted to do with all their money.  I mean it is about what their character's values are and how their goals are being furthered.  Collectively they had all paid 25% income tax and that amounted to 25,000 gp, and in honour of that cash injection to the War effort, the duke granted them the status of Elders of the Land, meaning they were gifted minor Nobility.  Technically the lowest level of nobility is Baron, but I will say that they are Elders.  Which in this case means that one of the unprotected hamlets in the periphery of the five villages and one town are now theirs.  It will be up to them to build their homes there or not.  But occasionally there will be times that they need to come to the rescue of their people.  

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And then I get inspiration about a future adventure

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After a time, the characters come to the conclusion that they want to do something with their money.  The ranger decides that he would like to donate money to the rebuilding of Neloar and the building of a shrine to his god.  The Druid of Xeric likes that idea and wants to build a temple to Xeric.  The Warrior thinks that helping the Orphans on the street of Jarda is a good goal and is looking on how to do that, but not trusting the Duke to do that.  The Half-Elf decides that the opportunity to invest in the Foaming Mug was a good thing passed by and decides to do it anyways, dropping some coin to clean it up and restock it.   

Those that dropped money on the poor get a blessing of Hestium upon them right away, They get to choose a failed saving throw in the future to succeed and take no damage.  

The party then decided that they needed to vanquish the rest of the Temple of Elemental Evil so they set out to pick up their fellow player who had been training at the Tower of the First One.  He was now an initiate to a new career as a Warlock.  He learned a lot of esoteric things, most of which meant no sense to him, but he was made to learn to open himself up to a ring that was given to him that was to be his focus for casting spells.  It was also a focus that allowed him to sense magic and more importantly identify magical items.  The First One sent him on his way to find a powerful artifact, a Golden Orb.

When the party announced their intentions to travel to Nulb, the Lord Gerald, Count of Hommlet, sent a detachment of soldiers with the group to show Nulb that the party members were important to the Crown and not to be set upon.  Then the townsfolk seeing this as an expedition with free armed guards, those that had future business in Nulb decided that this was a prime opportunity to travel in safety, so they joined.  Latest of the arrivals was the owners of the trading post, they closed up shop and decided to accompany the characters to pick up supplies for the store.  

Korin headed out first so that he could tell his shadow to stay low, as an Orc, the Duke's Men would see him as a spy.  Korin was a head of the group when he encountered a boulder sitting out in the middle of the road.  He was about a hundred yards from the boulder, but thought it suspicious as there was only forest near by and they had passed by here only a week before and saw no boulder.  He reported this back to the rest of the party.  They approached looking for trouble.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the temple were in a fury that they had been attacked with impunity and the outer defenses breached and turned asunder.  They contacted their spies and soon discovered that there was a group of raiders and they had left a trail.  They picked through the detritus of their passing and formulated a plan to deal with these interlopers.  A plan was developed, an ambush along the road that the raiders had to follow to get back to Nulb and e temple.  Their agents were to accompany the adventureers and try to assassinate them when the confusion of battle decsended.  The leaders contacted a mage and his body guard that controlled the operations outside the temple and sent five bugbears, a giant, and a troll to accompany them when they ambushed the players.  The Mage had recruited a force of twenty-eight bandits.  They were to exit the forest from a hiding spot and attack the players.  The Mage drew some Explosive Runes on the roadway and covered them with dust, leaves and fallen branches.  The runes exploding was meant to be the signal to attack, then the Mage would send an illusion of himself out to goad the hot-headed Paladin out to attack the illusion, then the hill giant and the troll would gang up and kill the paladin and the mage would throw fireball and lightning upon the rest of the party, using phantasmal killer to attack the other players, before fleeing with the assassin bodyguard and the troll and hill giant.  The Mage was to cast wall of force to stop pursuit.  

Back to the party…

The Paladin seeing the boulder in the road decided that this time he would charge forth to get to the boulder, tripping the Explosive Runes spell and setting off the explosion that looked just like a fireball.  The men-at-arms accompanying him all died instantly, his mount, the holy Giant Goat was left with one hit point and a couple characters got singed.  The civilians acted with terror at the explosion, the traders tried to take control of their cart, but it rolled over.  The bushes to either side erupted as six bandits jumped out from each side and seven attacked from the front side and another five bugbears from the other front side to converge on them, they sprinted to close with the party, the overturned cart and the farmers abandoned teams and carts blocking their retreat.  Twelve archers with crossbows took aim from the fringes of the wood.  

The Druid was the first to react and she strode forth ready to cast a spell.  She thought an Ice Storm would stop the ambush and turn the tables quickly, but of one thing.  The traders in Hommlet had different ideas, they were secret cultists of the Temple.  One was an assassin and the other was merely a high level rogue.  The over turned cart provided good cover and blocked the character's escape.  The assassin fired his crossbow with its poisoned quarrel at the Druid, the arrow passed right through her chest killing her nearly instantly; she hit the ground unconscious.  The Rogue fired his crossbow at the paladin hoping to take a damaged foe completely out of the fight, the quarrel peirced his armour and he was close to death in just a few heart beats.  The rest of the party stunned by the quick turning of fortunes turned from the rushing bandits and tried to find the source of the rain of feathered death.  Vistra the Dwarf jumped onto the side of the cart and cut down at the crouching assassin with her Frostbrand and Korin did likewise with bow in hand and tried to kill the Rogue.  Unhurt, but in the middle of the converging forces the bard warlock chose to flee away from the ambush, the low level Cleric of Xeric was ignored the initial attack and the Druid was bleeding out.  The paladin summoned the healing Power of Scoria and healed himself before the troops took him down.  Ignored the Grave Cleric of Xeric prayed and lay her hands on her former mentor's crumpled body and healed her before retreating before the soldiers.  The druid's eyes fluttered open.  The fleeing Half elf cast hypnotic pattern on half of the archers and a wing of attacking men.  

Still it looked like the party was going to be wiped out in this small battle, even before the main and powerful magical attacks had begun, but as if fate had chosen to smile on the party the Hill Giant forgot the battle plan and had run out to pick up the boulder and reeled his arm back to lob it into the party.  The Druid stood up and cast her spell, a dark cloud formed over the ambush site and sleet began to rain down on the group, she then leaned over and assumed the form of a large cave bear.  The assassin died under the relentless attacks of the Dwarf and the rogue from the archer.  The icy conditions did their job on the attackers and they slipped and slid, standing up only to fall again.  The only ones in the initial ambush unaffected by the sleet were the ones that were affected by the hypnotic patterns.  There were a few the continued to act be they quickly died.  The hill giant, whose only joy in life was throwing boulders decided that this is what he should do anyways even though he could not see any targets.  So every round a rock would drop at random into the melee and kill one of the combatants, usually one of his allies.  The hot headed Paladin decided to break cover and attack the Giant.  He must have thought all the bugbears and bandits hit by rocks meant he was a bad shot, he wasn't.  And he was hit by two rocks as he charged the giant's position.  The Mage also attacked him with Phantasmal Killer and he believed that he was shrinking, his fear of getting shorter.  The rest of the ambushes handled the part began to move as a group on the hill giant when the Mage revealed himself and the party tried to kill him with directed spell fire.  Fearing his life he cast his escape spells and fled the scene the Assassin became invisible and fled as well the troll that was waiting in the wings came out to attack and they cast fire at him and he ran.  The Hill Giant, was considered irreplaceable by the leadership, died.  But the Mage acquired valuable information about the party.  Including that they were coming back soon.  

Next session back into the temple.  

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Eyes of players go no further

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It did occur to me that there are some monsters that the party skipped over on the first level are still alive and the party did nothing to remover the bodies of the creatures they killed, which means any of the ghasts might create more ghouls with the body parts and any of the clerics with animate dead and animate dead ritual has a lot of raw resources available in the first two levels.   This means the Blessing of Xeric will come back into play

D&D post break plans and reactions

D&D next sessions

Warlock/Bard

Was given a ring and told how to operate it.  The ring taps into the suspended medium within the diamond, called a zirconium, was stated that there is a world in the cubic zirconium suspended.  When he meditates upon the ring and holding a magical item of unknown quantity the properties of that item will float to you from the ring.  In addition to this function it can be used to contact your master and ask a question, or alternatively allow your master to contact you during a dream.  Your patron suggested that when you gain more experience with the ring it has other functions. 

Most of the week you spent With your patron was spent attuning to the ring and adjusting your mind to be able to reliably activate the ring in these manners.

Identify 10 minutes per magical item

Contact Patron one hour for one question per day, and patron may require a quest before he answers.

There were many things that you observed while you were there in 'his' tower, other than 'he' does not appear to need to eat or sleep, 'he' appears not exactly immortal nor omniscient, but close.  You were able to surprise 'him' when 'he' was deep at work one day and you have seen 'him' bleed.  You are not sure of its gender as there were a number of things that seem off.  While you were in the tower there were a number of very odd things, the walls appeared to illuminate and had pictures on them, most of them were images of fine threads woven with other threads in a fine web and you felt strongly with one of thos threads and when you touched it your image arose from wall tied to it.  Other threads included your other party members and the threads were knotted together with other threads that seemed to end near your threads.  When you questioned your patron, 'he' just dismissed your query saying that it was not important yet, but time would tell.

Patron asks that you be on the lookout for a Golden Orb.  It is a powerful artifact and 'he' requires it, further instructions when you acquire it.  

Ranger

Many of the gold chunks appear as they might join together like the other ones did, you now have three smaller chunks and the one larger one.  They seemed like they might fit together, but the matching was quite elusive for the most part.  You spent time every night trying to make sense of them.  During your week resting you were able to spend some time alone in the woods meditating in the soothing woodlands.  It was there, when you were most alone that you were able to hear the music again drift from the artifact.  Resting with each chunk in your hand you were able 'hear' the song components of each piece, it was then that you were able to hold identify two pieces whose melody was most in tune.  Resting with both in your hands you were able to adjust them so there was harmony and they fused.  Resting in your hand was a pommel and hilt to a weapon without a blade, it seemed to be the match of the other larger chunk, except, the melodys were discordant.   

The enlarge power increases to 40% and stealth is reduced by 4 for a minute.  You can speak to animals 2/day and ask 2 questions each instance.  In addition to snakes you can now also understand motivations of animals (+4 animal handling). New powers: 2/day you may activate a burst of speed for one action, double movement, an extra attack, however you must imeadiately lest for a full minute afterwards or make a constitution save 10, a success after you stop and rest you must rest a minute for every round of delay, failed save you must rest an hour.  1/day know the result of one decision.  Can be as immeadiate as what is behind this door, or as long term as when is down this road.  The foreknowledge grants a +4 on one roll in the first moment of the encounter, initiative or first attack or even a bonus to interacting with encounter.  

Druid

Fighter

Paladin

Subs

Cleric

After her discussion with her patron Ceraza is less willing to help the paladin and will become outwardly hostile to him in the future if he doesn't clean up.  For starters she is not the druid's pawn; she will decide where she goes and what she does.  This means the GM will need to make spell selection for her and decide her actions.

Ranger

Muc'culuk, was rescued by Korin and has come back because his village has been destroyed by an army of humans and a Green Dragon.  His favoured prey is Humans, if he is called evil by that, he will ask how many Orcs Korin has killed and how many Humans.  If that is not enough then he will also state that you don't appear to be vary human either, so what's your point.  His name means Far Light Seeker, and he is the first native Orc speaker that the party has encountered, when he speaks Orcish, his speech is peppered with Orcish idioms, they are almost entirely SciFi based, they deep rooted and have persisted for ten thousand years in this area. He seems have been taught a lot even if it has not stuck in his head.  

Bugbear

A bugbear is shadowing you and your party.  He will only get closer when the party sleeps.  He is waiting for a moment when the party is needing him most and he will join them and help them.  The will be happy to tell the party that the Cleric is not a good leader, he took advantage of him and has deserted him; this is not the same as left the Temple.  The cleric has not left the temple permanently, but only to secure his position.  When he comes back it will be with a large group of Trolls, including the Chieftain and the two leuitenants, those three have rings of fire protection.  The hydra and the owlbear too.  

Sword

The Sword is tolerant of the dwarf, but is unhappy about her complacent role in the party and will hurl insults at the dwarf if she acts like a that.  It will also goad the 'Little Toad' of a paladin.  It is a good sword and a great tool, so it feels that it has every chance to speak it's mind.  If the paladin disparages the Cleric, the sword will stick up for her, because someone has to have a backbone if it is not going to be you (Vistra).  If Vistra speaks up it will voice "you go girl" and "that's right" or "take that bully" the point is the sword is lawful good and will not stand by and shut up in the face of injustice.  If Vistra muzzles the sword, he will chose not to work for her.  If she takes a stand and chooses to step forth and lead, the sword will back her up and give her more information without having to be asked.

The Temple of Elemental Evil.

In the next few days the air temple will be deserted, it will appear that the cleric has left and has taken his treasures with him; he is on a trip to secure new allies— a clan of Trolls.  Their Chieftain has been wooed and convinced that the Air Temple has the strength and cunning to destroy the Fire and Water temple, so clearly is the strongest.  He will return shortly with twenty trolls and  five young troll children.  If the characters have destroyed the Air temple in the meantime, then he will report to the Greater Temple and will receive a reward for gaining the recruits.  

The captain of the guard who intelligently gained intelligence on the party has reported to his superiors about the strengths and weaknesses of the party and they have acted calling in a hit squad mad up of the two merchants in Hommlet and the assassin from level 3 and her companion Mage.  The two are to hold back and gain intelligence and support the battle.  The leaders suspect that the Captain of the Guard betrayed the temple and he has been sent there with five Bugbears and two trolls, there is a hill giant also there acting as artillery and is the leader of the fight.  The Mage has been told that the giant is only expendable if there is no other choice.  The assassin has been ordered to make sure the Mage escapes.  The hill giant will rush the party if they dispatch the others too quickly.  The Mage will pack a couple wands in addition to his spells.  

Other than that the results of the battle will be sifted through for a day or so and the temple will be more watchful. 

There are members of the town of Nulb that are directionless because they were part of the smaller temples.  Over the last week they have been contacted and set to work together for the Greater Temple.  The greater Temple has taken some pains to map the movement of the characters and thus they have figured out that the Guard Captain betrayed the Temple and that the Air Priest attacked the others, which they applaud his wile and the result of gaining the Troll clan makes up for all the rest.  If the party tries to camp inside the temple again, they will be in for a rude surprise, as it has been alerted to them they have been checking in with the groups on the 3rd level and they will hunt them down.  Checks have been made at intervals of four hours over the last week, and inactivity has reduced these checks to every six hours, if nothing happens for another week checks will be made every eight hours, then twelve and then daily.  As soon as any intrusion is detected the seek them out by tracking their progress and ambushing them.  The first time it will be brutal and blunt with trolls and giants, but the next time it will involve spell casters and dispel magic. 

The goal of the Greater Temple will be to kill them, or subdue them and cast them naked into the elemental nodes.  If they attack the Greater Temple, they will be forced into one of the elemental nodes.  If the Party has gained the Golden Orb of Elemental Death, then the party will be on the road to success, if not they will be in some great danger of being permanently trapped.  This version of the Elemental Nodes are actually based on the moons of Caranus.  The Water node is on Xeric, the Air and Fire nodes are on Hestium, and the Earth node in on Drogath.  If the characters are stuck, they will have to free themselves of the magical containment.  Ideally they will do this on Drogath, as it is the most hospitable location and not Hestium, where their life existence might be measured in hours…

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The is the possibility that the characters may wish to abandon the current area.  A curve-ball.  But I just have to flip the side e Old road is on and send them either to Crater Lake or to the Orc village, or perhaps the army of Greysteel, or perhaps the greater danger of the great green dragon in the ruins of the Middle Orc Empire.  There is the possibility they will head to Jarda and I will introduce them to an expeditionary force of the great Eastern Empire seeking to reclaim the descendants of the rebels, Jarda.  If they head West they will encounter the drying out of the land and eventually the great stone desert, the climate is temperate but there are great winds scouring the land.  There are rivers with arable land but hotly contested.  The desert gives way to the Blasted Lands, even less habitable where the oasis here are places where the land is merely like the rock desert.  If they proceed further west they will encounter the Forge Furnace plains and the Mirror Mountains. All the way they will encounter great ruins that have been blown down, the direction of the blow down is in the center of the Blasted Lands.