# DragonShadow's DMemoirs



## DragonShadow (Mar 30, 2004)

The primitive continent of Kurai has seen but minor scuffles when compared to the more developed lands of Elsewhere; however the up and coming civilization has begun to speed up at a phenominal rate. City states are rising into powerful nations and begining to claim borders, developing disputes over the concept of "property" rather than the basic disputes over survival. It is on Kurai that our story begins; more specifically it takes place in the gigantic Kash desert that dominates the north western quadrant of the island. 

Like most primitive social structures, the concept of slavery and ownership has already developed. Building even further upon this is the Arena, near the edge of the desert...


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Awakening in a large cell inside the slave pens, three distinctly different new arrivals groggily get to their feet. Griph: the swashbuckling air Genasi, Flitter: the pixie, and Ogion Woodhaven: the human ranger. Their surroundings dark and foul smelling, none of the three seemed too keen on adapting to their newfound environment. One thought was on each of their minds: escape. Each unaware of exactly where he had ended up, and none entirely sure how they had even gotten there, confusion hung almost tangibly in the air. Having been left to their own devices by the already present slaves in the cell, Griph and Ogion tried to get their bearings. Flitter, realizing that his wings had been bound by wire, begins prancing around oddly trying to remove it. 

"Get wire off Flitter!" he whimpered.

Ogion, kneeling down to the pixie out of the kindness he feels towards fey creatures, and perhaps also out of a kinship felt between another in the same situation as he, undoes the binds around Flitter's wings. Without a word of gratitude, Flitter zipped upwards towards the ceiling, and then over towards the cell bars. "Let Flitter out!" he yelled, to no avail.

Ogion, attempting to discover exactly where he had ended up, moved to the nearest slave and grabbed at him. "Tell me where we are!" he gruffly uttered. Unimpressed, the accosted slave stared blankly into Ogion's eyes. 

"Please let go of my tunic."

Complying out of frustration, Ogion walked towards the cell door and waited by the bars and the two he had been tossed into the pens with. Still undecided as to their course of action, assuming they had options to choose from, they stood for a moment in contemplation. Griph, then noticing a glowing black mark upon the necks of his two companions, points out the brand to each of them, drawing it in the dust for reference. Each of them are perturbed by the discovery of the obviously magical brand. Ogion attempted to claw his out with his finger nails, while Flitter merely rubbed at his skin like a fairy possessed.

Ogion, in a team effort with Griph, came up with a plan to attempt to weaken the bars. Removing his loin cloth and pissing on it (the color of which being blue due to a genetic defect), he wrapped it around the bars of the cell door and tried pulling the bars apart...with a resounding echo of failure. Left naked by the idea, Ogion crept to a slave of roughly his size that was sleeping and proceded to steal his loincloth off of him, well enough that he remained asleep. 

With no success on the mark or the bars, Griph, upset with his situation and hell bent on escaping in some way, moves over to the midden heap in the far corner of the room after taking the piss soaked loin cloth off of the bars. Kneeling down and scooping up the  in one hand, he wrapped it up in the loincloth, fashioning himself a make-shift projectile. Putting his back to the corner, he hurled the Ball of Nastiness at a random grouping of slaves, directly hitting one in the face and barely missing four others.

Obviously upset by this, the five advance on the genasi with mal-intent. "What's your problem, you blue freak?!" Not answering, Griph remained in the corner, ready for a fight. Out of the group of five, the half-orc stepped forward and swung a beefy fist for Griph's chin. Stoically taking the blow, Griph smirked arrogantly as he spun with the punch, leaping and dancing to the side and allowing the stupid orc-kin to fall face first into the dung pile. Now faced with four other attackers, Griph used his inate powers of levitation to hang in mid-air and begin his Aerial Escapade.

Noticing Griph trading blows with a group of slaves across the room, Ogion moved over to flank the nearest assailant and lend a hand. Rendering the poor man nearly unconcious with the first hit, one attacker was effectively taken off of Griph's hands. Flitter, fully aware of the combat but uncaring, remained at the bars trying to call for someone and demanding to be let out.

With Ogion dealing with attackers systematically and Griph's mind-boggling aerial antics, they're making short work of the slaves. It was then that the sound of a heavy door opening could be heard and a guard came downstairs. Griph and Ogion immediately break their combat and try to formulate a plan to ambush the guard, who shows the world that his ears do in fact work when he hears them shouting to one another what they should do. Walking up to the cell door, the guard shakes his head with a confused look on his face. "You guys suck at ambushes."

They found out then from the guard that they had been made slaves.

Maybe driven insane due to his genetic defect, or perhaps in an instance of dinvely inspired fool-heartedness, Ogion reached through the bars and grabbed the guard by the neck and pulled him forward. "Let us out of here!" The guard struggled with with his grip, and in the confusion, Flitter swiped the keyring from his belt. Breaking away from the rangers grip, the guard fumbled about himself and pulled out a whistle.

Flitter swiped that also. "Shiny!" Prancing around and tooting on the whistle, Flitter had what most would consider childish fun.

The remaining guards, finally alerted, came down the stairs, fully armed like the other, and formed in front of the door. "Stand back!" Each of them standing back, they waited as the guards opened the door. "Quiet down!"

The slaves they had been fighting, had at this point, decided to finish their earlier confrontation. Griph and Ogion immediately jumped back into the fight, and in short order the Half-Orc was knocked unconscious and pushed towards the door.

Griph, seeing the open door and not wanting to let the opportunity slide, dashed outside and managed to evade the guards with sheer speed and evasive skill. Running down the hall and up the stairs at the end, he felt that he was on his way to freedom. The guards, leaving one of their number behind, closed the cell door and chased the renegade slave down the hall.

After an extremely short encounter, Griph ends up being tossed back into the cell with the others. Shortly after that, a slave cleric was brought in to heal the seemingly suicidal genasi. Finally discovering that they were expected to be gladiators in the arena, they decided to try an escape from the arena floor.


Geared up with their own equipment, they entered the domed arena to the deafening roar of the expectant crowd. Emerging on the other side of the arena were their opponents: a gnoll and two goblins. 

Closing for combat, Ogion and Griph readied themselves for the coming encounter. Preemptively however, Flitter fired an arrow towards the three monsters, though his aim was off. Thinking fast, he raised his chirping little voice in a lie, speaking in goblin. "Look out behind you! The gnoll is going to attack!" 

The goblins stupidly believed him and began their counter-attack on the "backstabbing" gnoll. 

Now flanked, the gnoll alternated between fighting one of the goblins and Ogion who stood before him. Griph, working the crowd with his dextrous attacks, felled one goblin, and then the gnoll in short order while Flitter attempted to pick the lock on the domes cage door.

The remaining goblin, assuming that he had defeated his enemies and emerged victorious, was defensless as Griph and Ogion each layed into him from behind. The poor goblin died at the moment of its glory.

Flitter, having opened the door in his invisible state, zipped outwards and tried getting out of the arena, only to find that the doors were locked and barred. Griph turned to Ogion with a glint in his eye. "Give me a boost!" Complying and readying himself for the action, Ogion assisted Griph in his running leap onto the wall. Flitter, flying back over to the edge of the cage, used his fey powers to make the weeds grow at an abnormal rate near the wall, giving Ogion an easier time in climbing the wall. 

The three of them now out of the arena, the guards began towards them quickly, to the cheer of the crowd, who was thoroughly enjoying the crowd. Now needing a way out of the arena itself, Ogion and Griph moved into the crowd and incited a riot. The guards, sufficiently block, could do little to stem the tide of the panicked crowd, many of whom made a dash towards the exit.

Breaking through the door, the three ran with the crowd inconspicuously and leapt into a carriage about to leave. Now riding eastwards, out of the desert and to freedom, the three lied to the driver of the carriage to allow them passage.

"No, it's really a magic piece of quartz. I swear."

"Well! In that case, you're most welcome!"

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## BrooklynKnight (Mar 30, 2004)

Starring BrooklynKnight as the adorable Flitter!


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## Evil Eli (Mar 31, 2004)

@#$%


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## BrooklynKnight (Apr 1, 2004)

Problem?


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## alberk (Apr 12, 2004)

...and the sort of handsome ranger fella with a green tongue and blue piss Ogion 

"Hi, I'm Ogion, how do ya like me so far?"


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## BrooklynKnight (Apr 18, 2004)

Session 2 was today. Stay tuned for introductions. The Wookie Barbarian has not joined yet, but we have a "Desert Elf" (themed after an Athesian Elf minus psionics).

just a short summary...

:: Met Athesian Elf and fought Tri-kreens and Baby Blue Dragon during escape from desert. Came to river and met Eddie the Nixie. Flitter and Eddie become fast friends. A trip to the mountains is taken to discover the missing fish. Hilarious Antics ensue. Treasure found. Travel to city. Treasure traded/sold. Session end.::


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## DragonShadow (Apr 22, 2004)

*Chapter 2: Truly free at last*

Forgive the lapse, I've been kind of busy. Hope at least somebody is enjoying the story hour. Also, I appologize for the shoddy writing --- I'm not as enthusiastic as writing the SH as I thought I would be, so it's coming out as a shortened summation. In any case, here's the SH for session 2:

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Venya "the Quick," the desert elf Rogue/Wizard, while off alone on a routine scouting mission through the dunes, found himself running alongside a wagon traveling eastward across the sands. While this was not exceptionally odd, it would of course merit a closer look. While those simple thoughts shot through his head, he noticed not a second too soon the ambush that awaited him; buried beneath the shifting sands were three Thri-kreen raiders, cunningly camoflauged with the coloring of their carapaces. Wary of their menacing gythkas, Venya employed his agility to beat a hasty retreat from the enclosure they would have him in. Now directly behind the wagon by a good thirty feet, he decided it would be a good idea to catch up and, possibly, get help from within. Meanwhile, while attempting to catch the fast-moving vehicle, the glib tongued elf tried his hand at communication with the mantis-warriors: to no avail.

Ogion, Griph, Flitter and Slyvanus (the escaped Cleric from the Arena) stayed their places in the wagon though in sight of the raiding Thri-kreen and the slightly desperate lanky elf. Bouncing up and down in his lap-side seat, Flitter chittered at the driver. "Go faster!" The driver, in all honesty, would have been more than happy to oblige, save one fact: two more of the insectoid warriors burst out of the sand and, with well placed shots of their chatkchas, rendered the running horses unconcious. The inertia of the wagon, and the drag of the falling horses caused the entire carriage to overturn. Flitter immediately employed his powers of flight to maintain himself within, Ogion leapt from the open back and rolled harmlessly in the sand, the driver, his two passengers, and the cleric were jostled around inside the overturned vehicle, and Griph was unceremoniously flung through the air into the dunes. Venya, having caught up to the wagon by that time, nimbly sprung out of the way.

With nothing left to slow down their raid, the Thri-kreen approached the party. Ogion immediately took out his bow and began sending arrows deftly into the carapace of the nearest one. Flitter waited within the wagon, unwilling to enter combat. Tumbling and running for a more advantageous position, Venya distanced himself nicely from the original three Thri-kreen, but moved almost directly into the second two. Griph, with his typical flare, leapt atop the carriage to engage the closest one in combat, bearing his rapier and kukri with sure hands. He soon found himself flanked, however, when the mantis that had been entering the carriage leapt atop it as Flitter darted out the back.

Giving the two carapaced fighters a good run for their money, though unable to score any hits of his own, Griph was suddenly in desperate need of help when the crescent head of a gythka slammed into him, as well as a viscious bite from the mandibles of the less than pleased Thri-kreen. With arrows flying across the dunes from the ranger and pixie (who was hovering in mid-air), the Thri-kreen themselves didn't seem to be much better off than the waylain party. "Griph!" came the high-pitched shout from the pixie, "Move!" Waiting for the genasi to comply, who readily accepted the advice and removed himself from the mantis-sandwich he had gotten himself into, Flitter used his inate abilities to entangle the Thri-kreen atop the wagon. 

Meanwhile, the spry elf found himself facing two Thri-kreen all by himself. Reletively unconcerned, though not about to enter direct combat with them, Venya rendered the both of them unconcious with a color spray from his fingertips. Ogion by this time finally managed to strike down his foe, leaving only the two that had been entangled as any sort of real threat. Griph, with a goodly amount of pain wracking his system, got back to his feet with an uncharacteristic grunt.

In short order, the helpless and near helpless Thri-kreen were dispatched, but not before one of them could call in their pet: a blue dragon wyrmling. Bursting out of the sand with a light roar that, by some standards, could almost have been considered cute, the wyrmling looked upon the party (most especially Flitter) as a welcome lunch. Speaking to it in Draconic, Venya tried to reason with the mighty beast, who only looked at him with intelligent eyes and failed to respond in any way and leaving the elf confused as to why it didn't seem to even understand him. The wyrmling in the meantime took to the air and darted quickly towards Flitter, snapping at him with his jaws. The screeching that came from the skies was the frightened screams of a pixie, not the satisfied screeches of a dragon.

Darting around and trying to keep ahead of the much stronger dragon, Flitter desperately tried to divert its attention elsewhere. Venya and Ogion contributed arrows, all of which embedded themselves in the wyrmlings hide with little effect. Until Venya hit a soft spot beneath its scales, causing it to flounder in mid-air with the pain. Forgetting about the pixie and diving towards the elf, Venya suddenly found himself eye-to-eye with a baby blue dragon. Griph, finally able to return to the thrill of the fight, darted to close with the Dragon and move to flanking position. Still contributing arrows, Ogion had aquired a pixie for his back as well. 

Now flanked and taking hits from both Venya and Griph, the dragon turned its back on Venya and inhaled sharply. Griph, directly in front of the dragon at the time, couldn't find room or time to avoid the wicked line of lightning that shot from its mouth, reaching all the way back towards Ogion, who, through virtue of being a good distance away, managed to at least evade some of the blast and get himself grounded to drain off some of the excess energy. Writhing in agony and feeling himself ready to pass out, Griph somehow remained on his feet, with a sudden lack of interest in the actual kill. Venya, however, capitalizing on the opening left him, finished the dragon off with his longsword.

A near unconcious Griph, a slightly jostled Venya, and an uncannily untouched Ogion and Flitter met formally on the dunes.

Taking what they could from the Thri-kreen and essentially taking the entire wyrmling along, they returned to the overturned wagon and returned it to rights. The ranger knelt beside the horses and administered first aid, getting them groggily to their feet. Upon meeting with the wagon driver once more though, they found him curiously unrelieved for the recuse, and for some reason quite hostile towards them. Trying to get them to leave him and his wagon, Ogion ended the arguement prematurely by tossing the ungrateful man out into the desert. His two passengers left with him with reletively no arguements whatsoever. Venya tossed them a waterskin, and then the party turned eastward once more and began the journey homewards.

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Two days later they arrived at the Modin River, running south off the Garm mountains. Deciding to camp by the river before heading to the nearest city of River's Rest, they each set about resting in their own way. Shortly after nightfall, a greenish head popped up above the driving current of the river to investigate. The Nixie, creeping up onto the shore, was shortly stopped and interrogated by Flitter, whom had found a fast companion in the fellow sprite. The nixie, whose name turned out to be Eddie, informed them that there had been no fish in the river. Flitter, determined to help out his newfound friend, helped persuade the group to head upstream to find the missing "fisheys."

Following the river upstream all the way to the mountains and the cave from which the Modin River came out of, Flitter and Eddie moved in to investigate further where the missing fish were, while Venya and Ogion moved along slower on the caves ledge. One hundred feet into the cave, Flitter stopped when he noticed Eddie had come to a halt and begun thrashing around. The answer to the unasked question of "why" was soon answered: he was caught in a gigantic web that extended under the water. Calling for the cleric to illuminate the area, who readily obliged, they soon saw their adversary. An enormous spider with two humanoid arms extending from its midsection, clinging to the web not but a few feet away from Flitter. Turning to their newly seen enemy, who waggled his fingers and began to glow slightly and otherwise remained ready for them, Venya once again reached into his magical repetoire and set the web aflame, easily burning it.

The web above the water gone, Eddie was swept downstream, followed closely by Flitter who wanted to help him. Ogion and Venya remained with the Aranea foe, the ranger using his bow and Venya preparing his spells. Dodging a burst of webbing from the creature, which splayed out over the cave wall behind them, they were still left to ranged combat as the beast was on the other side of the cave. For the time being.

Unwilling to remain at range, it leapt over the length of the water and landed right before Venya, who just barely evaded the snapping mandibles. Ogion, standing behind Venya, found his shot obscured but nevertheless pulled back the string on his bow and nocked an arrow. Taking a moment to ready himself and take careful aim, he let fly with the arrow, aiming beneath the tall elf's legs and managing to connect with the soft underbelly of the Aranea, which fell to the ledge lifeless.

Kicking the carcass into the river, and awaiting the return of Eddie and Flitter, the group of four ventured further into the cavern to find the eggs they suspected to be therein. Finding them, Ogion stomped them to a paste all along the cave floor in what had to have been the most disgusting eruption of primordial goo the world had ever seen.

Moving further into the cavern, they discovered, to their delight, that they were far from the first to entanlge with the Aranea, though they were apparantly the only ones to ever have succeeded. Finding a number of magical items and weapons among the carrion, as well as a small amount of money and gems, they happily took their booty and left the cave to camp for the night.

Taking a shortcut through the mountains that Venya had found overnight, they cut their time around the river by two or three days. Reaching the nearest town by the edge of the Fey Forest, a fairly short distance from River's Rest, the party traded and sold off the things that they had aquired up to that point to their best interest, and then got themselves to an inn for the night.

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So that's the end of that session. Yes, I know it's still a summation and it's horribly lacking on dialogue and the like, but well... that's just the way that it's going. I'll see what I can do about the next session, but I don't promise anything.

=D This is mostly a service for the players.


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## BrooklynKnight (Apr 23, 2004)

I'm so good at keeping out of combat, with a 24 AC heheh.


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## alberk (Apr 23, 2004)

Um... what happened?


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