So....the characters discover that Hrothgar is residing inside of a magically floating wagon over at a farm known as "Gregory's Fields". That's where Max has been farming for a while (with Gregory), and where he is now....

Kratos, Lucy, Dante, Mog (the talking frog), Rufus, Jocelyn, Meatlips (the bulldog), and Lars travel to the farm to see Hrothgar. The sisters, Alyona, Galina, and Vladlena stay at their room at the Chainmail Inn, and Horatio stays in his room, diligently working on crafting a restoration scroll. :cool:



The farm is just outside of town. The characters travel via carriage, driven by Lars, and just as they pass the Eastern Gate, it begins to rain....just a little. This makes Rufus very anxious, as he possesses the Involuntary Physical Change defect from BESM d20, which causes him to transform into a female if splashed with cold water. The characters then continue to make their way down the road, towards the farm....

The PCs finally reach the farm, and see Hrothgar's wagon off in the distance, hovering a foot or two above the ground. They also see Max and another fellow tending to some plants in a field. Rufus wraps himself in a waterproof garment of his, though fortunately....the rain is very light.

Max and the other characters meet up, and Max brings them over to the wagon. Kratos goes over to the large wagon, and knocks on the door...

Kratos: (knocks on door)
Hrothgar: (opens door) "Kratos?!"
Kratos: "Hrothgar!"
Hrothgar: "How are you doing, big guy?"

The characters get reacquainted, and Kratos introduces him to the other characters. Oh, and Hrothgar's raven familiar, Banjo, is there too.



Hrothgar senses that this is not merely a social call, and the characters explain their hope that he can help them to revive Karen. He explains that he possesses a powerful incantation that can do the job, but he should not attempt it alone, and that their assistance (especially Horatio's assistance) would be invaluable in achieving the success of their goal. They will also need 6,000 gps worth of alchemical reagents, so Rufus does an auditing of his jewelry (since he didn't previously realize their value). Here's a list detailing the value of Rufus's previously unappraised jewelry:

* gold necklace (800 gp)
* gold bracelet (1,400 gp)
* gold bracelet (100 gp)
* gold ring (20 gp)
* gold ring (3,000 gp)
* silver dagger (50 gp)
* brass watch (500 gp)

Hrothgar agrees to help them.

Meanwhile, back at the Chainmail Inn, Horatio has successfully crafted that restoration scroll. He casts it upon himself...

....and his Constitution is fully restored.

The characters are at Gregory's Farm outside of the walls of the city. They're inside Hrothgar's Earth Sled, which is parked there over at the farm.



Before the incantation can proceed, alchemical concoctions are needed, Rufus and some of the other character travel to Iyn's Alchemy to purchase the reagents that they need...

Rufus, Horatio, Lucy, Karen, Kratos, Banjo, and Lars travel back inside the city to the shop, via Lars's horse and carriage. At the front of the building, the PCs see a pair of stone gargoyle statues at each side of the entrance. Horatio becomes alarmed, immediately sensing that these statues are animated via animate object and permanency (successful Spellcraft skill check) spells. He advises Rufus and the others to tread very carefully...

The chamber that they enter has some glass cases with various bottles and vials...made of glass, leather, and clay. The characters see a distinguished-looking, gray-haired gentleman, whom they soon discover to be Iyn. He is professional and polite. They briefly chat with him, and provide him with a list of alchemical reagents that they need.

He presents them with a box contains all the necessary alchemical concoctions (verified by Horatio), and pay him 6,000 gp. Then they depart.

The characters return to Gregory's Farm, and begin the incantation, using the various multi-colored potions...



Hrothgar and Horatio perform the lion's share of the incantation, but gain assistance from Rufus, Dante, and Max...

....and successfully complete the incantation.

Karen lives.

She blinks, and her eyes open fully. Though weakened, she is back amongst the land of the living. However, there's a problem. Meaty's hackles rise, and he starts growling...

The PCs have no idea what the Hell is going on. He growls something about seeing a ghost near the ceiling of the room, and he then flings open the door and runs outside, while barking and growling. Kratos follows him.

Kratos: "Meaty, what is it? What do you see?"
Meaty: "Don't know. It's leaving. I see a person...or ghost, flyin' away from us, towards the city..."

Meaty just sits there, staring off into the distance..

The characters discuss this...

Horatio: "Could we have accidentally summoned something?"
Hrothgar: "Not possible. We performed the incantation perfectly. It doesn't make any sense. If it went wrong, then Karen wouldn't be here now. Instead, we'd be fighting an undead monster in her place.."

Some of the characters are exhausted from the incantation, so they plan to rest. Jocelyn has earlier explained to the PCs, that she has the ability to examine and enter dreams, and even potentially divine the future from them. Since they're resting now, this seems like a good time to proceed, so as the PCs rest, Jocelyn enters the dreams of Rufus, Horatio, and Max...

To be continued..

...continued from before.

Before they sleep, Rufus discusses his nightmare again, as well as the physical ailment accompanying it. Horatio and Max explain how their suffered from a similar experience, with thew only deviation in the details of their nightmares. After Rufus carefully explains to Jocelyn the precise details of his nightmare, she comes to the conclusion that he endured a dream haunting, which is induced by an outside malignant force. So whatever the Hell it is, it's dangerous...

Before Horatio falls asleep, he uses a powerful magic item that he'd forgotten about. It's known as the Harrow Deck, which allows its possessor to divine the future. He asks it a question...

Horatio: "Will Jocelyn's reading of Rufus's nightmare provide any fruitful information of any hostile actions that will be taken against our characters in the next week?"
Harrow Deck: "Outcome is most likely."

So Jocelyn enters the dreams of the three young men, starting with Rufus, then with Max, and finally with Horatio. Rufus's dream is mostly uneventful, Max's dream is torturous, and Horatio's dream is just plain weird.

I could explain the details of their unusual dreams, but for now, I'll just say that the session ended at that point, and we plan to continue next session...

Harrow Deck

The Harrow Deck is a very rare and sacred tool used in the hands of fortunetellers. Some believe these decks were created by either the gods, Loki......or Nore.

The wielder of the deck may cast the equivalent of the divination spell, with a 90% chance of success. This may be performed up to three times per day.

Strong divination; CL 20th; Craft Wondrous Item, divination; Price: 24,000 gp; Weight: 1/2 lb.

Look. A post from MeatLips.

I'll try to post more relevant stuff when I have time. Meanwhile, you fellas have been doing a bang-up job in keeping this thread up to date.

Good work!

yea... It's banged up job... but you just made the cherry in a cream pie.

I'll update this journal some more tonight. I guess I've been a bit lazy. And Meatlips....congratulations on finally posting to the thread. You win a cookie! imurrx wins more cookies though.

...continued from before.

The nightmares of the PCs continues, though it never escalates to the point of causing the PCs any lasting damage....

....and so they awaken.

Jocelyn explains that these creatures are Night Hags, who form a group known as "the Coven". The PCs wonder if the women whom they saved from Orc bandits were in fact this group of Night Hags, disguised as a group of helpless travelers. Jocelyn realizes that she's met these beings before at Archer's Cove, when they were in disguise. They took a special interest in her, because of her ability to examine and interpret dreams....

The Coven seems to have been plaguing Max with nightmares for a long time, and mentioned to Jocelyn (back when she was suffering from a magical charm induced by the vampire, Araith) that he will be the recipient of some form of ritual sacrifice. The how or why of it has never been explained...

Jocelyn brings further grim news. The one named Vladlena explained to Jocelyn, how Vladlena and Rufus were "soul mates", and that they were intended for each other.....forever. :eek:



Rufus's heart sinks when he hears this, and Karen gets riled up. This precipitates a discussion/argument about how Rufus could have already slept with this Vladlena without knowing it, do to the Night Hag's ability to magically disguise herself...

At this point, the PCs decide to invoke the Harrow Deck to help them find some answers to their problems....

Horatio: "Are the three girls that were rescued by Rufus and company on the journey to Delzar, the Night Hags that have been plaguing our dreams and causing harm to us?"
Harrow Deck: "Yes."
Rufus: "How does Vladlena know me?"
Harrow Deck: "Your manly charms entranced the women of Gaxaral's Grove..."
Rufus: "Do these Night Hags know about my sex change curse?"
Harrow Deck: "Not likely..."

Horatio then proposes the beginnings of a plan to fake the death of Rufus...

OK, this may seem a bit unorthodox, but I actually want to continue game play for a few post.

Horatio does have a question to Hrothgar:

Horatio: Do you still have that Iron Flask we procured? Way back 5 years ago when we were facing undead and where Xelos killed me.

Quote from: imurrx;659115OK, this may seem a bit unorthodox, but I actually want to continue game play for a few post.

Horatio does have a question to Hrothgar:

Horatio: Do you still have that Iron Flask we procured? Way back 5 years ago when we were facing undead and where Xelos killed me.

Hrothgar: "I still have it. What's on your mind?"

Horatio: I think I know how to bag these hags. Let me think for a second... hm... yes.... perhaps.... I got it! Oh this is great. Now everyone, this plan take some timely execution, good misdirection, a bit of luck, and we can con them and beat them.

First, Rufus, you need to die, still. but not really die. For all intended purposes, you will be dead to anyone who can observe your body. I will scribe a scroll of Magic Jar. Now, what this will do Rufus is take your sole out of your body and placed in a vessel called a jar, say a gem worth at least 100 gp. In this jar you will not know what is going out side unless you decide to possess another person. You can sense lifeforms with-in a certain range, they be positive or negative. Once you possess them, your wits and your knowledge will insert into the new body and the soul of the body you are possessing goes into the jar. This spell once enacted we will have a limited time do to this. It may take two days to scribe this, but since I am that good, I can do it in 8 hours.

Second, once the spell is enacted, we need to stage his death. We could slay him and inflict wounds on his corpse. Or we could poison him. Actually, that's better, Hroth we can concoct something. How will we pitch the death.... Oh oh... we will write a letter and put on his body and that says "If I cannot have you, nobody can". Yea that will work. We should do this back at the inn.

Third, we will need to conduct another "resurrection incantation" that we preformed to Karen. Since we are "tired" from her incantation, we will solicit the help of the three hags that are stalking us. I am sure they will help.

Fourth, while this is going on at the inn, I will infuse 3 bolts or arrows of Slaying Night Hags. We will need this for later on.

Fifth, Once everyone is back here to conduct the incantation, Rufus, you need to keep an eye  on how many life forces you can sense. Once you notice 13-14 life force, start to possess once. There are 9 of us and 3 animals and once we have the 3 hags that is the number you need to keep tract of. Possessing a body is random so you will need to hop in and out of us until you land in a hags body. it is a 1/4 chance you will get it with each attempt. Everyone, you need to stay calm if you are possessed and transferred into the  jar.  We need to keep the rouse up. The hag that is entrapped in the jar will probably cannot do anything since they are imprisoned in there until you transfer back, the spell ends, or her natural body dies.

Sixth, Once you have entered the hag's body, You will use the command word of the Iron Flask. I am assuming since these hags can travel in the Astral plane, they are probably extraplanar beings. Since natives of this plain cannot naturally exist on another plain simultaneously, they must from another plane of existence. The Iron Flask will suck one of the hags into it and entrap it until it is uncorked or if you use the command word and uncork it which you can command it for one hour.

Seventh, once the 2nd hag is trapped, the third one will be altered something is afoot. That is when we slay that  hag with the Bolt or Arrow of Slaying for Night Hags.

Eighth, We then kill the hag that Rufus is possesed. Rufus will go back to the jar and the hag will be slain since she has no body left to occupy. This must be done with a certain distance to the jar.

Ninth, We hide the dead bodies and release the hag from the Iron Flask using the command word. This is where we interrogate her for answers and then Rufus will either possess her again and we coup de gra or we shoot her in the back and slay her.

Now, Any questions?

Holy shitsnakes, that seems really complicated. It seems like the plan the guys used in Ocean's Eleven was less complex... wait, are we gonna have a Chinese contortionist in the jar first?

I think we'll need to play this out and discuss it. It seems it would require us to work as smoothly as a fine swiss watch together, except we're a bunch of shit-chucking apes.

it's not that complicated.. Horatio, Rufus and who ever is the dedicated archer will carry the burden. Everyone else just needs to go along. There are other things that can go wrong that will be out of our control.

for doing this in game, I am ok with.

Hrothgar: "We can't use the iron flask, because of what's trapped inside of it...."