DORCS: Durham Ongoing Role-playing Co-operative Society

Blood and Glory in the Clouds II

Melissa — Sat, 16 May 2020 13:33:40 GMT

All right stop
Collaborate and listen
Ice is back with my brand new invention
Something grabs a hold of me tightly
Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly
Will it ever stop?
Yo, I don't know
Turn off the lights and I'll glow
To the extreme, I rock a mic like a vandal
Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle

Sorry! Sorry! Damn earworms… now, where were we?

Ah yes, the group continues to explore the dragon’s fortress. A formidable looking demonic fellow is arguing with another water-ish creature. But, they haven't seen Damien yet.

After a moment of listening to their argument, Damien approaches the demonic couple and offers his services as a marriage counselor.

The creatures stop arguing and turn toward the mortals. A fight shall ensue!

The Affriti attempts to slam the paladin but is unsuccessful.

The Maragini changes into a gaseous form.

Pip makes ready to go up the stairs and join the fight and where he soon takes damage.

The gaseous Maragini retreats up another set of stairs.

Dar-wynn attacks the demon and the demon, now injured, retaliates.

Brega casts invisibility on herself and goes by the demon unnoticed to follow the gaseous form up the back stairs.

There are cages in this upper chamber, jail cells, someone is in there... they are looking down toward the stairs. The prisoner appears to be a tortured human male.

Dar-wynn continues to fight the demon and does significant damage. But as the demon tries to plane shift away, Dar-wynn and Damian continue their attack and vanquish the demon!

Brega moves out of the way as Damian barrels into the room. Damian sees the human mortal who has been tortured.

The gaseous demon does not see Brega. Damian sword goes through the demon.

Pip joins them in the small room and goes to open the cage and Dar-wynn follows him to bestow curse on their foe.

The demon attempts to plane shifts away from the adventurers but is unsuccessful and attempts to flee down the stairs.

Konrad also attempts to bestow curse, but the demon was able to save herself from that.

Damian tries to free the prisoner but is not successful. Eventually, the prisoner is freed. He wants to flee but the group is busy with their current quest and cannot help him.

The group tells the prisoner to wait in the tower as the adventurers continue exploring.

Suddenly, they come across that nasty intimidating gnome, one they have encountered before!

Pip becomes intimidated but the rest of the party, minus Brega, go in for the attack.

Dar-wynn used her whip and knocked the gnome flat on his back on top of the table he was standing on while he was swinging his flail.

Having been knocked prone, the gnome is killed by the adventurers. A magical ring is found on the body and it is given to Brega. (The ring adds 2 to AC.)

After some healing, the group moves toward the double doors.

Beyond the doors, the adventurers encounter some scantily clad women bathing in a pool. It seems that the women have evil intentions and so they try to lure the men in the party into the tub/pool.

Konrad prepares to attack but as soon as he steps in the water he is shocked by electricity. He leaves the pool to reassess the situation.

Darwynn attempts to claw a siren's face and is successful. The women try to counter with vampiric touch and they manage to charm Pip!

Konrad attacks again without touching the water.

Brainwashed Pip is horrified when Brega and Dar-Wynn team up to freeze-blend one of the sirens.

Damian attacks a siren. And Dar-Wynn and Brega take out two of the succubus with a sphere and ice storm combo. Luckily, Russ avoids being charmed again!

Huzzah!

I'm gonna pop some tags
Only got twenty dollars in my pocket
I'm, I'm, I'm hunting, looking for a come up
This is fucking awesome.

Blood and Glory in the Clouds

Melissa — Sat, 02 May 2020 13:10:37 GMT

Now this is a story all about how
My life got flipped turned upside down
And I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there
I'll tell you how I became...

*ahem!* Excuse me!

Our group of adventurers finds themselves back in the brambles. They are in possession of all but one of the tokens and now they plan to head to the dragon’s lair.

Suddenly, Brambleson appears and the group asks him for the location of the flying/moving castle but he doesn't know where it is.

Dar-wynn wisely asks for more details about the dragon. Brambleson tells them that the dragon is trying to escape the Storykin world. The dragon wants the skins so he can leave.

The adventurers need to find the cloud with the dragon's castle and they make a plan to camp for a bit on the mountain where the forge is located.

Off in the distance, an unusual cloud (lower than the others) can be seen. Using his special abilities to see through illusion, Konrad can see the castle within the cloud.

It will be a day’s journey through the brambles to reach the location where the cloud is hovering. The group decides to head back toward the circus through the brambles.

Dar-wynn elects to fly up towards the dragon's castle. She is looking for a place to tie off the rope she carries so that the rest of the party can join her. The group makes it to the castle landing and sees a group of ogres.

The paladin attempts to speak cordially with them but the guards are not having it and once more the adventurers prepare to engage the ogres in battle.

Konrad causes damage to one and as battle continues, the Sprigen charges Konrad and Damian.

The Sprigen attempts to use flails on Dar-wynn and misses. However, Dar-wynn does not miss!

Pip flanks the Sprigen and does a good amount of damage. Damian does more damage to the ogre after taking incidental damage from Brega's spell.

Enraged, the Sprigen injures and intimidates Brega.

The battle rages on. Brega does a little damage and tries to escape. The Sprigen pushes Damian back. But Damian recovers some of his health and the group spreads out a bit to change up their tactics.

Two of the ogres are looking worse for wear and as the fighting continues, the ogres fall one by one.

The group takes time to heal and avoids the tannery for the stone stairway and shrine. The shrine seems to be devoted to a dark god but the books themselves seem to contain gibberish.

Within the shrine, the altar is made from wood and is inlaid with alabaster and precious stones. Pip finds a scroll and gives it to Dar-wynn to read. It is a scroll of spell immunity.

The stairway seems quiet. At the top, there seems to be a kitchen. Pip continues to investigate. Shadowy figures turn toward Pip and start to come after him. He runs away back down the stairs.

Pip runs to the others.

Brega moves back as the rest of the group gets ready again for battle. Damian casts heavenly bond on his weapon. Konrad also buffs the paladin to make him ready to face the demons. Brega cast protection from Evil on herself. The paladin also buffs himself again to protect from evil.

Pip sees a demon teleport in and hits it with an arrow. Together, Dar-wynn and Brega take care of a demon with a resilient sphere of ice storm.

To be continued…

The Ant Queen & the Space Man

Michelle — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 20:52:41 GMT

Cor-Wynn

The Stein and Sword

Safka

Dearest Mother,

As if the letters I’ve already written don’t sound far fetched enough, I’m actually now in a story or a storybook world any way. I’ve met some of the strangest creatures but let me tell you about Marsley the Weaver. On our quest we came to the manmolds in search of her. We did try out best to be polite and knocked loudly at each door, but with no response we had no choice but to force our entry. The entire inside of the building was a maze of corridors with dead ends. We eventually discovered that we needed to look for secret passages in order to make our way further into the building. Our meat shield, I mean our heroic (slave trading) paladin proceeded us as to trigger any traps laying in wait for us of which there were many. Horrible scalding steam was blasted on him time after time, until he remembered his “space suit” which he donned, and it provided him protection. After quite some time we made it to the inner chamber where we potted an enormous ant queen dipping larva into large pits of wax with another woman helping. It was a rather creepy site. Upon spotting us the ant queen grew enraged and attacked us (without provocation). Our paladin took the brunt of it, but I of course ran to aide him. The other woman just ran around screaming at us to stop, as her ant queen tried to make us into paste. It was not the most heroic fight or even very extended as we all eventually disengaged. I did get to see our paladin hopping around trying to take off his “space suit” though. Once the ant queen, Marsley the Weaver, was willing to listen we were able to strike a deal. In return for her token to help us in our quest, she only asked that we return all the tokens to her when our quest is finally complete if at all possible. We decided that now was not the best time to tell her that our Paladin had actually promised to kidnap her grub children and sell them into slavery. Instead we listened to her advice on how to find the Knight who is a most evil being that has been kidnapping the ant queens children. Instead we shall see if there is any way to procure the grub children our paladin agreed to provide the smith from him once we catch up with him. Things just keep getting stranger all the time.

I’ll keep writing as I get a chance. I hope things are going well at the inn and that I make it back to you all soon. I could really use a beer about now.

Your Loving Daughter,

Dar-Wynn

In the thick of it...

Melissa — Sat, 08 Feb 2020 13:14:16 GMT

My friends! Good news! The lost scrolls have been recovered! Though small pieces were missing the following text is a faithful accounting of the events contained herein...

***

Through the dense brambles, a gate can be seen. Overgrown with weeds, the gate opens outward with an inviting feeling. The garden beyond has grown wild, but it is still recognizable as a garden.

A path can be seen despite the overgrowth. The skydome overhead provides light which illuminates the garden.

The party of adventurers hears voices arguing. Under a large tree is a unicorn with a pear on it’s head, impaled through the horn. The unicorn is standing and in conversation with a creature, while he is playing what appears to be a game of keep away. The creature wants the pear and the unicorn does not want him to have it!

The small creature’s head doesn’t look real. Dar-wynn strides toward the pair to speak with them.

The goblin creature, seeing the newcomer, runs up to Dar-wynn and asks her if she is Soninrey. The goblin follows that inquiry to ask if she could tell the unicorn to share the pear.

The goblin states that he needs the pear but won’t tell Dar-wynn why. The goblin has always needed the pear.

Dar-wynn moves closer to the unicorn. The unicorn also asks if she is Soninrey. Dar-wynn tells the unicorn her name. The unicorn offers a pear to Dar-wynn but tells her that the goblin cannot have one. Dar-wynn, ever the curious sort, asks the unicorn why can’t the goblin have a pear.

The goblin declares that Soninrey is “so nice” and “unicorns are bastards”!

After a moment, the unicorn tells the group that Soninrey is located down a path in the distance.

Dar-wynn tells the goblin that Brega is actually Soninrey (she isn’t) and the goblin believes this.

The unicorn gives a pair to Dar-ynn and she takes a bite of it, but it only tastes faintly of the real fruit.

Pip stealthily takes a pear himself and joins in the game of “keep away”. The unicorn declares Pip “a friend”.

Damian, ever the righteous paladin, joins the mix to convince the unicorn that it’s ok to give the goblin a pear “just this once”.

The goblin takes the pear and eats it, shouting for more and more pears! This is why GOBLINS DO NOT GET PEARS!

As the group continues with their exploration toward the gate and path that leads to the Mute Hag. The air is grows colder and dark stains appear on the pavers along the path.

Columns are observed containing bits of pieces (body parts) of storykin.

A concrete slab platform can be seen containing a writing station. Papers are strewn about and Pip checks for traps. He finds none.

Dar-wynn stands on the platform and reviews the papers. Every piece seems to refer to the maintenance of the garden for example, requests to plant new plants.

A voice calls out asking Dar-Wynn to identify herself. She does.

The group witnesses the Mute Hag appear before them.

Dar-Wynn tells the Hag that the party is searching for Amicas and that they also were looking for the Hag as well.

The Mute Hag is offended by the moniker. She identifies herself as Sonninrey, or rather what’s left of Sonninrey. Of the group, she requests that they gather all of the tokens and bring back her parts.

Suddenly, Sonninrey attacks Dar-Wynn, desperate to recover that which was taken from her. The Hag is evil and inept at combat. She lunges and falls prone. Dar-Wynn counters with a punishing swipe of her claws and Sonninrey lays on the ground injured.

Konrad joins the fight with a damaging channel. Damian deals a blow to the Hag’s shoulder as Pip backs away.

Brega deals a little bit of damage from an elemental ray.

The Hag takes another swipe and bite at Dar-Wynn. Damian and Dar-Wyn continue their attack and the Hag soon steps away and glares at them.

Konrad casts another channel and does more damage. Brega casts magic missile and manages to enrage the Hag more than anything else.

The Hag casts a spell on Dar-Wynn to wound her and give her the shakes. Dar-Wynn starts singing to aid the party as they continue the battle with the Hag.

It is a rather brutal fight but ultimately the adventurers triumph over the Hag.

After leaving the Hag’s garden, the group runs into the Rabbit King and they tell him that they have killed the Hag and taken her token—a quill.

The Rabbit King advises the group to watch out and take care that their shadows are not stolen.

The group rests briefly before continuing slowly through the brambles and eventually stopping for the night.

During the night, The Owl took Dar-Wynn’s shadow, replacing it with a blanket tied at her ankles. Unable to remove the blanket, Dar-Wynn’s tucks it up into her belt so that she can walk without dragging the blanket behind her.

The Party makes their way to a clearing where a sludgy lake can be seen. The owl’s tracks have disappeared.

Standing on the banks of the lake by a rickety bridge, a mournful song can be heard.
Konrad walks across the bridge and sees a winged serpent.

The Quoxtil is singing and crying. Through her tears, the creature, named Morning Choir, tells Konrad that they did something horrible that can never be fixed. Of course, she speaks of Sonninrey.

It is learned that the souls of the mortals go to the lake. The dragon tricks the mortals out of their skins because the dragon wants to be mortal.

****

[February 8, 2020]

The party is on the bridge…

Black, mildew stinky lake… there is an island in the center of the lake. On the island, the dancing color lights, sobbing winged serpent (Quoxtil – Morning Choir). Sobbing and singing dirges.

Dar-wynn engages the creature in combat (because Darwynn sang a debuff dirge) … and we all get hit with the spell (Crushing Despair).

The group moves in a bit in preparation for a possible battle. But Dar-Wynn has pulled back a bit in an attempt to diffuse the situation.

The Paladin tries diplomacy in attempt to apologize for Dar-Wynn’s offense. Morning Choir asks the group to sing with her, it is a song of loss and hopelessness. The group joins in. And Morning Choir considers them friends and tells them to stay with her forever.

She asks Dar-Wynn to sing more… they converse about the party’s quest, different worlds and the universe.

Pip wanders away and runs into a bunch of undead. He shouts and the paladin (Damian) hears him. Damian goes to investigate and joins the fight against the undead.

Pip and Damian battle the undead, more and more grisly hands reach up from the ground to grab at them. Pip manages to run away and back towards the group.

Dar-Wynn checks on Pip. They see the Barrow King (Litch) holding a great sword.

Damian detects evil coming from the storykin and uses a channel to attack the hands coming up from the ground.

Konrad takes his leave from Morning Choir and joins the fight, doing area damage to a bunch of undead.

The Barrow King attacks Damian. Damian was able to deal some damage. Pip runs to the other side of the battlefield. The battle ensues and the Barrow King is taking damage but still seems very strong.

Damian and Konrad continue making progress. Pip is over by the sarcophagus and is attempting to replace and relight the candles that were on the sarcophagus. The undead hands retreat.

Brega hits the Barrow King with Lightning Bolt and causes a bit of damage. Dar-Wynn uses her claws.

The Barrow King attacks Konrad but doesn’t hit. Damian attacks next and takes the head off the Barrow King. Judy Bug runs after the head as it rolls away and barks at it.

Konrad searches the body of the Barrow King but finds nothing of note. Dar-Wynn goes over the sarcophagus to inspect it and search for the token.

Dar-Wynn and Pip attempt to open the sarcophagus but drop the lid on Dar-Wynn’s paws. Pip calls for help. Judy runs over with an arm in her mouth. Damian goes over to assist.

Damian and Dar-Wynn get the lid off the sarcophagus. Inside, there is a token of a heart and a half dozen scrolls. The scrolls are time spells. Konrad holds on to them for safe keeping because he is the only one who can read them.

The party says farewell to Morning Song and goes to look for the owl that stole Dar-wynn’s shadow.

Dar-wynn locates a tree that looks promising and Pip goes with her to climb the tree. Brega also finds an owl feather at the bottom of the tree.

Dar-wynn and Pip reach the owl’s nest and sees that it is lined with the stolen shadows. Dar-wynn realizes that they will need to wait for the owl to return. The party makes their way to the nest, climbing carefully. Everyone rests and waits.

In the middle of the night, the party hears a rustle of wings and a thump as a giant owl appears. Konrad and Damian can see the owl. Konrad attempts to intimidate the owl and succeeds. Dar-wynn requests her shadow back.

After much negotiation, the owl finally takes the blanket off of Dar-wynn and returns the shadow. The party climbs down and Damian gives the owl another coin so the owl won’t steal any other shadows.

The party continues their journey toward the forge. Suddenly, a rustling sound is heard and Brambleson appears. He greets the party and talks to them about their progress.

Closer to the forge, the ground is flat until it goes straight up…

The party decides to camp for the night. A fire is built. Pip takes first watch, nothing eventful happens. Konrad takes the next watch but falls asleep. Dar-wynn wakes Konrad and takes 3rd watch.

In daylight, the group makes their way up the mountain. They come across a group of dwarves who start yelling insults. Konrad fires back with an insult and gets a hammer thrown at him.

Damian manage to talk to the dwarves and ask about the tick-tock man. The tick-tock man makes things and works back in his offices but the dwarves aren’t allowed to go back there. Dar-wynn asks for directions and the group is told to go through the breakroom.

Damian opens the door to the breakroom. Inside the room, there is a table full of drunk dwarves and a cyclops. The cyclops tells the group to get out, “giants only”… the cyclops throws beer mugs at Damian. “Get out!” yells the cyclops.

Dar-wynn wanted to investigate the beer the dwarves were drinking and gets mugs thrown at her for her trouble.

Dar-wynn explodes in a shockwave and knocked over the dwarves table. She has taken a lot of damage. But between Konrad and her own powers, she slowly recovers. Brega casts gaseous form and slips under the locked door. There is a giant head made of stone in the room. A giant sits in front of the massive statue, staring at it.

Dar-wynn attempts to negotiate with the Cyclops. Damian offers a vial of pixie dust which causes the Cyclops to pass out.

Damian talks with the giant inside the next room. The giant’s brother has been turned to stone. Damian promises to find a cure for the giant’s stone brother if he will let them pass to the office. The party makes their way to the Tik Tok man’s office.

The Tik Tok man asks them who they are and what they want. Damian states that the party is after the token. He appreciates their moxy and asks what they have to trade (for information?). The Tik Tok man is holding a pipe behind his back.

The Tik Tok Man believes that the group is there to kill him. He speaks of Manteley who makes grubs at the man-molds.

The Tik Tok Man wants the grubs because he sells them to a trader for new metal.

The party agrees to find grubs and bring them back to the Tik Tok Man. The TTM tells the group to talk to Brambleson for assistance getting the grubs and bringing them back to the Forge.

The group makes their way back out of the Forge and into the brambles again.

Brambleson appears again to talk to the group about their progress. He tells the group about the circuit which is old and doesn’t work well. (It is a glowing teleportation disc.)

The group travels on…

Damian and Dar-wynn get into a heated debate about the morality of our actions.

To be continued...

Out of the Oil, Into the Fire

Russ — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 18:14:22 GMT

The party finds a room coated in a black oily material and there is a moat of that very oil in front of the door. They spot the shape of a pillar and a figure that Damien sensed the evil radiating from them. When the evil figure noticed them, they started firing arrows at the group, who had retreated to the doorway with Damien holding his shield up while Pip fired back at the evil creature to minimal success. Eventually the party decided to light up one of Pip’s arrows and he fires it in front of the creature so that the Damien can see the creature and trigger Smite Evil. Meanwhile, Dar-Wynn (still afflicted with limited intelligence) continued to stay at Pip’s feet while showing a disdain for Damien, who had tried to shoo her away to get to a safer spot behind Pip. The group then start to traverse the moat through various means but Pip and Damien fall in the moat. The oil in the moat attempts to cause the two to give into despair and sink into the pit, but through their willpower, they were able to cross to the other side. With a glowing divine weapon in hand and the desire to smite evil in his heart, Damien struck at the creature and severely weakened the evil creature. This allowed Brega to cast Burning Hands upon the creature’s groin until they fell dead. After the monster was dispatched, they investigated the pillar to find that the pillar held a menacing orb atop it. Damien attempted to strike the orb, but what promptly thrown back by a magical force. Konraad could hear the voice trapped within the orb explaining that it was a demon that was contained and wished to be free of the orb. It was ultimately decided to contain the orb in Pip’s backpack, but when Konraad spoke the phrase that had been ringing in his head, the orb struggled heavily, leading to the destruction of all of the fragile items within the backpack. After giving up, they just decided to keep the orb as they proceeded into the next room.
They entered a room that looked very similar to the room that they entered the dungeon at with the three trapped men on the chairs. The men congratulated the party on making it through the dungeon and told them that Amicas was waiting behind the door on the right. The group was very suspicious of the men and Pip went through the door on the left to explore, despite the protestations of the men. Damien went over to the door on the right and asked the men once again what was behind the door and they reaffirmed that Amicas was behind that door. Damien then cast Zone Of Truth within the room and asked the question once more, leading to the men, compelled by the spell, to admit that there were several traps waiting behind the door on the right, leading to the party to join Pip in the room on the left. In that room, they came across a chasm with a rickety bridge between the party and the door to the next room. Then two young copper dragons flew from the chasm and landed on the other side of the bridge, breathing toxic fumes above themselves to show dominance. After several failed attempts to negotiate with the dragons, the party tried putting the orb on the bridge and Konrad spoke the phrase, causing the orb to fall into the chasm. Faced with desperation, Damien prayed to his god Sarenrae and he received a divine miracle. He morphed into a large adult copper dragon much bigger than the other dragons, breaking his armor in the process. He breathed much larger fumes to assert his dominance and subdue the dragons before allowing the rest of the party to ride on his back over to the other side and letting them into the next room before transforming back and following them inside.
Inside, they found a spirit child carrying a wooden box. The spirit child explained that inside was a deck of cards that represented the mind of Amicas, including his thoughts and memories that could be traversed by drawing cards. Amicas, as was explained, is trapped inside the deck, but someone needs to take the role as the guardian of Amica’s mind. Damien stepped up to the role and the rest of the party agreed to let him take the responsibility.

And that's where the story is left off….

...for now.

Of all the things I've lost ...

Michelle — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 00:37:40 GMT

Cor-Wynn
The Stein and Sword
Safka

Dearest Mother,

Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve written. I’ve seen so many amazing things and met so many wonderful friends. Let me tell you of my latest friend/pet/eternal slave…

We were in a room that had a deep pit in the center and two large boulders on a track at the edge of the room. It turns out the rooms was the lair of a pair of sphinxes. They were a very friendly sort that took a great liking to me. I might even have stayed with them for a bit if they’d been able to produce a lovely collar, but alas they didn’t have one. We paid our fee and went onto the next hallway.

After entering the next hall I was surprised by a human fellow who had apparently been following us opening the door behind me. As I was currently claiming that hall and had lost a good bit of loot to the sphinxes, I offered to let him pass or join us for a small fee or becoming my eternal pet slave. He responded quite rudely by raising his crossbow at me. I took a few swipes at him which damaged him much more than I meant too. He’s apparently a bit of a light weight. He started running back into the previous room where the sphinxes watched out negotiations with some amusement. He eventually agreed to pay my toll of eternal servitude, but only for the lengthy of time we were trapped in this location. Considering if we die here we’ll come back as part of this place we might just be together for all eternity.

It’s seems my new friend/slave, whom I named “Pip”, had quite a few handy skills. He’s quite stealthy and super quick. We came to a room with several slits in the side walls. He investigated using some light and mirror and discovered they were archer slits. He got a bit banged up, but I make sure to take good care of my toys and he was healed up in no time. As I mentioned he’s very quick, so he just ran though the room to the end where two doors awaited us. I of course followed him, then the others.

We next found ourselves in an entry to some caverns. We moved on into the black slimy and spongy tunnels. It was a bit hard to make our way around and we started to hear some moaning and were confronted with two undead. That’s what they seemed like they were anyhow. Konraad was able to damage them with a channel to soften them up. Both he and I were able to each take one out but popping off their heads. Brega was so mad that she kicked one of them so hard it stuck into the wall and was absorbed.

We next found a room off the tunnels that had some type of magic writing in it that made everyone dizzy and sick feeling. Brega, Konraad, and Damien were able to make out the writing and felt empowered for it. Pip and I didn’t do so well and we felt sick afterward. I might even have lost my mind for a bit….

Your Loving Daughter,
Dar-Wynn