A Body for Pug

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Summary

• GM: Miles Jackson
• Time: Winter 814 WK
• Day: Wednesdays
• Level: Low

The Party

1. Perrin – Party Leader, Human E&E (Scribe)
2. Mave – Human Bard
3. Mîm – Dark Celestial Elf (well Shapechanger really)
4. Lim – Water Mage Elf

Employer

Death

Mission

A guild member called Pug died a year ago. He was a nasty little Goblin and tried to sell out his party.
Being dead hasn’t stopped him from being annoying. Death wants us to travel to Kerrena and convince Tuvar (a necromancer) to build a fresh body for Pug. Death is offering an incentive to Tuvar as he really wants Pug gone from his realm. Once the body is created Death will ensure Pug uses it.
Death has also provided a goblin guide for us called Grebo. Grebo is on a leash which compels obedience and truthfulness.

Payment

10,000sp + 2,000sp to provision

Other

Gift from Death - 1 free resurrection (a dose of Goblin sn*t each)
Rank 20 greater @ 1,000sp

Seagate

Day 1 - Mission Briefing and Supplies

Meet Death and Grebo. Get mission. Get supplies. Get greaters. Get 2 x 10pt Healing potions each

The Pit

Day 2 - Into the Pit, A Task

LeRoy, the new Death, hires us to get Pug out of his realm. We buy some goods and Grebo activates a rune portal to get us to Kerrena.
We appear in a darkened crypt. There are voices approaching muttering about thieves pillaging the crypt. If they find any they will kill them.
We take them by surprise and kill the mage and one of the guards, the last guard surrenders when we offer it. We explain we are here by accident and meant no offence. We tie him up and seal the door to buy us some time. We find 3 horses outside and lead them away in to a forest, then let them free. This should serve to distract any pursuers while we head off to the Goblin Pit.

The pit is a huge settlement of several thousand people, mostly goblins, orcs and humans, but elves are not uncommon since it is a trading center for the area.

Grebo doesn’t know where Tuvar is so we pass ourselves off as workers with merchant leanings.
Mîm has a conversation with Julia (the head Madam of the area) and we find ourselves hired to “make an example” of Kovax. Kovax has been killing her girls. He is skilled with knives and has a silver octopus ring. No one knows what he looks like but we believe we can organize a contact through playing as a band of merchants looking to hire a barge with other merchants.

Day 3 - Barges and Bsrds

We talk to pit boss and get papers promising supply of goods. We then organise a barge to carry goods out of the Pit to the next trading post. This is just a cover so we can move around upstairs and quietly ask questions about Kovax.
See Kovax in the pub

Day 4 - Discrete Investigations

We gather information on Kovax and the spectre (dark shadow seen moving across roof tops). We go into the Dandelion pub and spot Kovax at a table near the back. He DAs us and we figure out he is a spirit mage. We finish dinner and circulate. We meet Kingi (Orc, top slaver) and Foggy (strange human alchemist). Kingi tells us more about Kovax. We go back to the Pit and let Julia know about Kovax. She brings in Blastaar (an old goblin) who sets up some communication wards for when a spirit mage enters the town. We are asked to kill Kovax and bring his body back. Blastaar gives us 2 grenados to help kill him, and a small gem.

Day 5 - Ambush

At 1am the wards go off so we know Kovax is on his way. We kill him really quickly and his spirit moves into the gem Perrin is holding. We use a grenado to blow up his body and return to Julia. She passes the gem to Blastaar who tortures Kovaxs spirit before destroying it. At 4am an orc arrives from Kingi and warns us not to come back up top. It is too dangerous at the moment. Julia tells us Kovax was using the girls souls to power his shadow (spectre) in the search for some item deep in the pit. Julia promises to bring Tuvar to us when we return from our barge trip. We leave all our magical and identifiable items in her safe keeping before going up top.

Day 6 - 7 - Barge at Large

We load up the barge and depart for Hamilburg. We trade goods and return to find some obvious out of towners here who are searching for the killers of Kovax. They arrived on a Roc from Heliopolis. One has an oaken staff and the rest are warriors. We avoid them as they killed 50 goblins on the dockside seeking information about us. As we approach the lower town a barracade has been erected to stop this group from coming down. We pass through when Kingi allows it.

Day 8 - 9 - We Split the Pit

Tuvar appears and we hand over the gift from Death. He is an unusual character as one arm and leg ae mechanical. Half his face has been replaced and he has a crystal eye. Never the less he tells us what we need to create a body for Pug.

Hot times

• Bones: wild boar horn - from the Goblin Teeth Hills (300 miles north)
• Muscle: muscles of goblin trolls (2 miles deep in the pit)
• Organs: Salamander or Fire Drake glands - Gaterville (1000 miles south)
• Brain: brain coral - The Abyss (1000 miles south)
• Eyes: goblins - under any rock
• Head: goblin - under any rock
• Essense of Life: evil pixies - The Waterfall of Epherium (700 miles west)
• A Spine: never had one so doesn't need to be replaced

Tuvar is aware of the shadow and will help us with it once we return with the components for Pug. We leave town for the Goblin Teeth Hills. We walk for 2 days.

Goblin Teeth Hills

Day 10 - Crash, Smash, Splash

Today we fly and discover how bad Perrin is at landing. After he is resurrected by some fresh goblin snot, supplied by Grebo, we examine the area looking for boar tracks.
Mîm is attacked by a squirrel while hiding in the safety of a tree. She seems offended by this.

R.I.P.

Mave was heard to murmur
Flying Perrin forgot what he was taught; shield charging the ground came to naught
Had to stomach another shot of squat goblin snot; next time shield charge a boar – not

Day 11 - A Boar Scores

Perrin's Night Mare/Boar

On the midnight watch, while we all rest up some trees, Mave and Perrin hear some humans talking as they carry out the body of a small boar. We ignore them.
By lunchtime we have talked to some small animals and found out a witch and some crows live with the boars. We follow some crows for a while and come across a boar carcass surrounded by 12 dead goblins. We take the boar horn and depart.

A Wide Ride

It isn’t long before a huge boar charges from the undergrowth and attacks Perrin. He leaps onto its back and is carried away. The rest of the party remains hidden in the trees for a while but neither the boar or Perrin reappear. Mîm goes looking but gets lost, which is very unusual for an elf.
After 2 hours Grebo finds Perrin and brings him back to the campsite. Mîm takes an extra hour.

We decide to seek out the witch

Grebo offers some information and says she is called Black Agie. Her house isn’t far away but it is surrounded by big spiders. Mîm creates a bat familiar to send our message to Black Agie but it dies before completing the mission. We don’t know why. We make a camp in the trees and settle in for the night.

Day 12 - Nature Maker

After midnight we hear some goblins wandering below carrying some boar carcasses. Before we can do anything the giant boar that attacked Perrin the day before arrives and slaughters them all. We wait a bit and then Grebo jumps to the next tree, leaping from branch to branch. Perrin, not being the brightest adventurer, follows suit and quickly realises he is much heavier than Grebo as he plummets to the ground. Grebo resurrects him again – sigh. The boar comes back and sniffs the spot where Perrin had died and, seeming satisfied, wanders off.

R.I.P.

Mave was heard to murmur
Grebo is goblin – nimble and light; Perrin is human – armoured and not slight
Grebo jumps tree to tree at great height; Perrin falls - to another deadly ground smite

At dusk Mîm summons an owl so we can try talking to Agie again. A huge owl appears and tries to fear us. It screeches that it is ‘death Incarnate’ to which Lim replies ‘What a coincidence. We are working for death.’. It flees as quickly as it came. Grebo thinks it was the spirit of the forest. We rest up for the evening.

Day 13 - Passing By In The Sky

In the hours before sunrise Lim sees a figure on a flying boar, silhouetted against the moon. We do nothing. During the day we continue on towards Black Agies place. She appears in our evening camp. She quizzes us and seems satisfied with our answers, particularly when we say we mean no harm to the boars and seek permission to take horns from dead boars. Agie will let us pass in peace if we destroy 2 enchanted boars for her and the evil shapechanger with them. We agree and decide on a battle plan. The boars appeared a year ago and have been killing everything in sight.

Day 14 - 18 - R&R

For the next few days we train while Agie creates some new potions for us. She also organises for a band of goblins to arrive who will help in the coming battle. We also get our weapons silvered.

Day 19 - Mound of the Beasts

Home of the Boar Babe

We portal to a short walk from the base of the nasty boars and observe the surroundings.
There is an ancient mound in the centre of a forest clearing. Nothing grows here and we think there is a draining effect in operation.
There are four sets of pillar lined avenues heading to the mound, one for each of the compass directions. The southern entrance to the mound seems to have the most heavily disturbed earth so this looks like the entrance they use the most. Perrin discovers he can be useful as bait, as he walks the path leaving his scent behind, then retreats to the ambush area we have set up.

Mid afternoon three boars come out

The first is moving underground. This is the one that attacked Perrin before. The second flys. The third is armoured and runs at us.
Lim puts some devastating arrows into the flying one and quickly kills it.
The first boar drives under Mîm's wall of dark and focuses on Perrin - and uproots the tree Perrin was hiding in. A short scuffle ensues and Perrin lies unconscious.
Lim gets a doom grenade on that boar and it retreats to die in the mound.
The goblin shaman , chief and their troops focus on the third boar. All of them die except the shaman and the chief before Mîm gets the final thrust into the shapechanger boar and kills it.
We pick up the treasure and wait for the first boar to sleep - and die (that is it's doom).

Late evening four adventures go in

The boar takes it's final sleep - so we venture into the mound.
Perrin uses a little trick to drop all the magic near him as he and Lim enter a room near the top. This frees a demonic form. Lim throws a grenade (one of those special ones that REALLY blow up an area). In the ensuing madness we escape before the area is purged by light and fire, presumably from the Spirit of the Forest.
We are all suffering from draining and will need several weeks to get our endurance back.

Day 20 - R&R

Back at Black Agies we get some healing and plan our next step. We want to get to Gatorville but we will stop in villages or safe areas as we make small flying trips.

Pursued

Day 21 - 38 - In Pursuit of Happiness?

It isn’t long before we realise we are being tracked by a group associated with Kovax and we discover that Grebo somehow pocketed the distinctive ring Kovax had. We destroy it and then lay false trails by changing our direction and distances each day.
Along the way we encounter a large lizard but manage to avoid it, a large hill giant that wants us for dinner (literally) - and Perrin damages himself on most landings.
We finally get to Kerrena and Perrin foolishly mentions we killed a demon. This raises the attention of a group of Michaelines and he gets taken away for a ‘talking to’. On the plus side they do heal him and give him a silver flask which will provide a potion of his choosing each morning. He also has a bonus when fighting demons. By the end of the day we have restocked our potions and leave town. We rest up in the closest village for the night.

Day 39 - 43 - Swamp Romp

Tuvor (through Grebo) tells us we are no longer being followed but on the 42nd night we are attacked by a swamp drake. Naturally it tries to take Perrin. Lim shoots some arrows into it and Perrin is dropped to the ground. Well most of him is. The drake has ripped off one of Perrins arms. He uses his next mornings potion for rejuvenation and the party continues on.

On day 43 we land about 200 miles from gatorville. Grebo and Perrin stay in a hiding place while Min, Lim and Mave head into town. They will buy the fire drake glands we need and come back to the hiding place tomorrow. Sounds like a good plan. Afterall how hard can it be for Grebo and Perrin to stay hidden and out of trouble?

Gatorville

Day 44 - Tales of the Drake I

R.I.P.

As the team fly into town they see a singed mound about 5 miles out. There is a body of a large black dragon in the surrounding water with small drakes flying around. They avoid any chance of being seen and continue to gatorville. The town has recently been attacked as evidenced by the gapping holes in the wooden walls being repaired. It seems a large black dragon (the same one under the water?) killed Snaggletooth and then was driven off by the townsfolk and a horde of smaller drakes.

On their way to a local pub the group is attacked by a bunch of bullyboy humans. Lim attacks the leader but somehow falls into the water. No problem for a water mage though. Mim and Mave also attack and the humans retreat. They expected some easy marks… As Lim climbs back up he feels an octopus leg brush past him but nothing serious happens. They enter the goblin pub and speak to Katrina. She says there aren’t any fire drake glands for sale but they will eagerly buy some (7000 SP each). All they need is a small group of canny adventurers to drive off the dragon and horde of drakes so regular hunting can continue. She offers us a goblin hunter (very old) called Coors who will guide us in the swamp. He has a crazy boat with some sort of jet engine. The plan is to leave town, camp with Mim in tiger form (bait) and wait for some drakes to approach. The first 2 kills we need but any others can be sold back to Katrina. As dusk approaches a very large drake spots Mim and zooms in. A normal sized drake wasn’t going to be a problem. This large one is almost too much. Through skill (read LUCK) only Mave dies, with Mim only pulses behind her from being crushed (sat on) but Lim gets the final arrow into the drake and it falls off Mim in time. The group harvests the glands, eyes, claws, teeth and most of the skin before leaving as other drakes appear. Mave resurrects.

RIP: Mave
RIP: BIG Drake
Resting: Lim

Day 45 - Where's Perrin?

Grebo gets drunk on watch and they are both captured by a sadistic necromancer. Meanwhile Mim, Mave and Lim are forced to flee gatorville, along with the rest of the townsfolk, as drakes make a violent attack on the town. Almost a quarter of the town is turned to ash but most people survive. From a place of safety the three of them leave Katrina and head back to the hiding place of Grebo and Perrin, who of course are nowhere to be found. The party waits overnight.

Day 46 - Tales of the Drake II

They eventually track Perrin and Grebo to a house on a mound surrounded by skeletal trees. They can hear Perrin being tortured. It doesn’t take long to put a plan together for a rescue but it is long enough for another very large drake to spot the party and attack. Mim is grabbed up and torn apart.

What is it with these drakes and the party?

Outmatched again, Lim and Mave use every distance weapon and spell they have on hand and fluke some devastating strikes on the drake. It falls from the sky and crushes the house, killing all in it except Grebo. When Perrin is resurrected again he decides this dying lark isn’t a good idea and vows to be more careful.

R.I.P.

RIP: Mîm
RIP: Perrin
RIP: HUGE Drake
Resting: Lim
Mave was heard to murmur
Death flies with the winged drake - teeth that bite and claws that scrape
Beware its bard blistering breath - and the weight of a crushing death Perrin uses his contact with the Michaelines to seek a safe place with a healer in the vicinity. The party is guided into the mountains about 200 miles west.

Day 47 - Tales of the Drake II

A short flight later we land near a monastery where we are welcomed in. This is a gabrielite stronghold where they pracrice unarmed combat and some celestial and earth magics. We gratefully accept their offers of healing.

Day 48 to 59 – Training and Planning

The monks offer to create a body for Pug in exchange for dealing with the problem in the Deep Pit. There is likely to be some powerful artefact at the bottom of the pit, which is what the followers of the Beast are after. They ask us to bring it back here for destruction. After some discussions we agree to this offer as we didn’t really trust Tuvar and the quests he had sent us on. While we are in the monastery we learn a counterspell against demonics and some amulets are created for us. We also get potions to shapechange us so we can pass through the Pit township without being accosted. The monks also tell us about the Pit and its history. Over 4000 years ago people went there to seek great challenges from the ‘Pit of the Beast’. Typically they were hunters but greed soon became a factor on who went there and some undesirables arrived. Something happened to make the area a corrupt place of power. We take our time but on the eve of the 59th day we arrive near the Pit township. The town is under attack but we manage to get to Julia without anyone dying. We tell her what we are here to do and she joins our group.

Day 60 – The Path to Enlightenment

Just after midnight, with some help, we send our spirits down into the depths of the pit. We focus on the strongest form of corruption and are guided down in to a cavern. Along the way we pass many tunnels and some guards who would appear to be working for the Beast. There are also some natural creatures in the tunnels like giant worms. Mim tries to make one of the worms afraid so it will leave us alone but instead finds her mind entering the creature. With a little effort she disengages from it. In the cavern we see a robed figure with 4 heavily armoured guards. There are 4 more dead guards near the back of the cavern. It looks they have tried to enter a rune protected portal and paid the price for it. The robed figure is watching the portal. Lim has a brilliant plan to enter some nearby worms and use them to kill the people in the room. This works better than we expected and we watch the spirit of the robed figure being devoured by some batlike creatures for failing to complete his mission. The party returns to their bodies only to find Perrin hasn’t come back. Mim kills Perrins body which forces his spirit to return. Perrin was overwhelmed by the worm he was occupying and couldn’t break free so Mims valiant effort was appreciated.

By 4:30am we have entered the cavern again. Julia has bought a band of Goblins to act as a distraction which is just as well because there is a giant worm in the room. It spits acid and starts filling the room with a gas. We do it some serious damage before it blocks the entrance to the cavern. Most of the goblins have been killed already and it remains stationery while we examine the runes at the other end of the cavern. There are 7 runes, one each for the 4 elements, 2 for law and chaos and the final one is for Truth. We can’t see or DA anything through the black portal. We conduct a few simple tests to see what the runes will do before the worm begins heating up. It becomes very hot very quickly so we use the last resort and leap through the portal. The four of us get through with Julia and 2 of her bodyguards. The rune mage Julia had brought with her dies horribly. Grebo didn’t make it either.

We find ourselves in a corridor with painted frescos on the walls. There are lots of dead bodies around. They seem to have died of starvation. The corridor seems to never end and the frescos repeat themselves. Lim tries to connect to an aspect of Nature and finds himself pulled into a fresco. He feels quite ill and sick as if he is out of sync with the world around us. Lim comes back to the corridor. Perrin tries to mediate and finds himself in a different fresco. He sees Grebo for a while and then Pug. (Pug has been reborn in the monastery). Perrin tries talking to Pug but he keeps getting a comment that “he (PUG) is the message” which Perrin doesn’t understand. Perrin then focusses on communicating with Death. He now feels ill and tries to leave the fresco. He gets out but falls unconscious. Julia clears her mind to heal Perrin and promptly disappears. Mim tries entering a forest fresco but emerges later unconscious too. We notice that there are 7 themed frescos which approximate the same things as the runes from the portal.

After some time we hear some guards approaching. They have chainmail armour and the same emblem as Kovax (the octopus) so we avoid them by focussing on rebirth. This gets us back to the monastery. The abbott tells us we need to focus on free will and an absence of desire. This is the path to enlightenment. Julia is here and the abbott explains that the beast tried to corrupt the life essence of Kerrena but part of himself was trapped in the chamber of enlightenment. The beast likely wants his aspect back or to complete the task and corrupt Life.

With the abbotts help we get back to the corridor and this time we see a wooden door at the end. We ‘focus on nothing’ and the door opens. We enter a domed room with a huge glowing ball in the centre. There are 8 other figures in the room. The 4 elementals, and angel and a skeleton (holding a sythe), and a jabberwocky facing off with a Buddha. All the figures are chained, except for the jabberwocky and the Buddha. We realise we need to bring the figures into balance but every time we do something it increases or decreases an aspect. The beast aspect has been here for over 2000 years so it has been almost completely balanced by the forces at work in the domed room, but it is this balancing that caused the lower levels of the pit to become slightly corrupted. Mave senses an evil aspect outside the room. We think it is the demon making its final push to get in. We focus being outside the room again and back in the corridor. Perrin appears nose to nose with the demon and it threatens him with utter annihilation unless he lets the demon into the room. Lim bravely lets the demon into himself and promptly focusses on being reborn in the monastery. This is totally unexpected by the demon as it finds itself on consecrated ground, surrounded by monks and us. It quickly calls on a horde of imps to even out the battle. Only the abbott is strong enough to face the demon so the rest of us keep him protected by engaging the imps. We win the final battle as the abbott drives the demon off. We only loose Mim and Perrin as some imps take mental control of them, forcing Julia to kill them.

After the necessary resurrections we are introduced to Pug in his new body, which is why we came on this mission in the first place.

Administration

Comments of the Day

Combat Order

• Front – Perrin and Grebo
• Middle – Mave
• Rear – Lim and Mîm

Watch Order

• Perrin and Grebo
• Mave and Perrin/Mîm/Lim (alternating nights)
• Lim and Mîm

Death Register

R.I.P.

• Perrin - the ground is harder than it looks I (flying)
• Perrin - the ground is harder than it looks II (jumping)
• Mave - a drake bake (grilled really)
• Mîm - heart stopped by necro ward (she has a heart?)
• Perrin - flattened (a falling drake)
• Perrin - Mîm (had to be done)

Treasure

Blastaar the Goblin sage

• Red Crystal - +25% MR vs spirit magic
• 'Pineapples' x 2 - explosive

Black Aggy

• Healing salve x ? - ???
• Acorn - command word triggered instant growth (animal?)
• Diamond amulets x 4? - +2% strike chance
• Restoratives x 4 - 10/20 each
• Grenado of Lust
• Doom Grenado - will die when next fall asleep
• Potion of Rk20 Trollskin x 3

Mound of the Beast

• Black Bear crystal (tainted animal growth)
• Boar barding (worth 500sp)
• Blue gem - flying (instill flight Rk6)
• Blue gem - Lightning Bolt of the Djinni (Mîm)

Michaelines

• Silver Flask of potions - attuned to Perrin

Perrin's Host and Bane (Black Necromancer)

• Staff of Earth (tainted?)
• Alligator Belt (transformation into a crocodile)
• Dagger - +20%SC & +2dmg (Mîm)
• Small chest - 5000sp
• Drake hide

Monastery

• Counter vs Demonic Magic (+15%MR)
• Hypericum Amulet vs Demonic Magic x ? (+10%)
• Climbing claws
• Skill: Meditiation - rankable (sleep gets additional +1FT/hour)

Blastaar the Goblin sage

• Blastaar Barrels - explosive!

Treasure Rolls

• Perrin – first (well, he had an item that he had to take)
• Mave - second
• Mîm - third
• Lim – forth

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