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Voting closed: November 04, 2022, 02:24:51 pm

[Maloy]

Quest: Hunt down the bandits

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Bandits have begun robbing travelers along the road leading north of Inkyrouts, the capital of the human confederacy. Trade has only just now restarted in the world of humans and if the species is going to make a comeback from their own apocalyptic events then the scoundrels must be stopped! The party is gathered together from a mix of goodwill, seeking out opportunity and the love of righteous combat!

Current objective: Explore the tombs

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Realizing that tombs are not only great sources of treasure, but also very defensible Burt and Owe reason that the bandits likely took up residence there! The party arrived to find the doors to the tombs kicked down seeming to confirm suspicions. What shall they find inside?

optional ambience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ-eaLEcXVM


The door. is. kicked. down.
Whoever sought entry before the party must have been powerful.

The party gingerly enters the tomb and reads the slab at the front.


Mubo(Otto) is deeply disturbed and frightened, but does his best to maintain his focus. Although he wouldn't voice it to any of the others he very much believes in the camp side stories of angry ghosts and curses found in these places! Kanil(Maloy) doesn't pick up on Mubo's panic, but does his best to be cheerful for the party and offer encouragement “I wouldn’t pay much mind to the ghost stories! I’d be more worried about an ancient rusty axe blade from an old trap caving my skull in."
"R-right! My thoughts exactly." Mubo says as he tries to focus on the task at hand.

The party already begins having to avoid traps that shoot up from the floor or ceiling and nearly hurt them!

On closer inspection of one weapon they find that the traps are coated in lethal venoms

As they continue through corridors they find the many entombed bodies of the dead law-giver's servants and friends. What is shocking though is that every single body is that of a dwarf!


Dwarves and humans have been friends for a long time, but in this case every single body in this temple-tomb belonged to a dwarf!

They continue to pick their way through until they find a treasure room.

Pedestals hold large stashes of treasure as the party picks through!
Astan and Mubo begin outfitting themselves with gear as good quality metal is hard to find! Como finds some larger and sturdier shields to wield as well!
Kanil passes Owe(Brewer Bob) a book about the castle Astan is from and the owl man's eyes light up in delight!

Kanil for his part finds a beautifully crafted dwarven toy that he quietly pockets.

He throws a jewel at Owe "For safekeeping. since you can fly away if needed" Kanil says
Owe clears his throat "Well, of course and I can, uhm, I can research this, yes! Learn more about the ancient days by looking at these jewels."
Owe poorly conceals his greed as he stares at the gem.
They also find a poorly concealed trap with honeybee venom on it leading credence to the old wives tale that confederacy humans are more inclined to bee allergies than most other people


They finally find the law-giver's burial room, but no bandits inside

This room actually has human servants buried alongside him which only raises more quests: Were the dead dwarves perhaps a lower caste of servant? Slaves? Ancient humans had no qualms about the practice after all.
Astan reads the slab and is very intrigued with the law-givers worship of his very own deity.


Regardless, the burial room has no treasure or bandits and so the party leaves the fallen lord to rest in peace and make to leave the pyramid.
On the way out Astan's(Kesperan) hunting hound, Aquos, wanders too close to a previously activated trap!
The poor hound cries out as its legs and chest are pummeled.


The poor hound squirms and bleeds on the ground as it desperately tries to draw in air before dying moments later.

Astan is solemn as he gently picks up his dead companion. He is sad, but he has loved and lost hunting dogs before. As the party exits the tomb he speaks "It is not my way to leave a friend in that dark place. I'm going to lay him to rest in the woodland here. Wait for me, please"
"This is no easy loss, I should know. Perhaps I could come with you to offer my respects to the hound?" Kanil says, but Astan had already begun walking away. Burt silently watches empathizing with the man's pain, but not wanting to interject himself.
The party politely waits for Astan to return and use this as a time to catch up on water and midday meal.


The next pyramid's door is not only knocked off, but is gone entirely!



This tomb has been cleaned of every inch of treasure inside of it. Not even a single empty bag remains as nothing, but the bones of ancestors fill it now. The party leaves after a quick search through with no injury.

One tomb remains...similarly with its door thrown down.

This tomb is the largest of the three, yet it is for a constable and not a ruler of the confederacy?


Who was this person to achieve such a resting place?
To add to the questions an even more disturbing sight awaits that causes Kanil's eyes to fill with visible alarm.

Demons. Statues of demons hunched over and leering at the entrance of the tomb! The appearance of the monsters is the same as those Kanil fought and the historical accounts. No decent person would put such a statue up.

In the corner of this entry room sits a pile of goblin skulls, fresher than the rest of the bodies found previously. This stack of skulls is only a few years old.

Kanil's eyes go wide with worry, but none notice and he does not speak. He begins muttering names under his breath.

More treasure is found, although most of it is not needed now. Kanil's iron gauntlets have been worn since his very first days as a warrior, but now are mangled and filled with holes. He replaces them with the ornate gauntlets of the dead constable. Burt(King Zultan) looks around sheepishly at the treasure, but his own heavenly shield and silver sword are far better than anything here.
Owe finds another jewel and Astan throws the owl another book. He chirps excitedly!

They jump over more traps

and find the final room of the tomb

No bandits.

Leering over the coffin of the constable is a damning statue:


A statue of one of the devils who ruled the goblin civilizations and nearly enslaved humanity.

The party leaves this accursed place and wanders back into the sunshine to make a plan as it is only just past noon.

"I'm just glad no one woke any mummies. I don't get why anyone would need a big burial place like this when a grave works fine" Burt says
"Dead is dead, as you say" Kanil says nodding


Burt pulls out the map and points at the strange ruins just west of the main road near to where they are. Most of the others have no opinions on where else to look and it is directly next to them so the party leaves to check the ruins.

It seems that this was some sort of ruined watch post where roadside patrols could get out of the weather, but stay watchful. It has entirely collapsed now, but the party finds footprints leading south. It appears the bandits may have been using this location!


The party follows the prints to the heart of the ruined village and decide to search door by door. As soon as they open their very first door they find the village is not empty at all!









I've got some good material for lore posts from this lol. The constable's tomb was interesting to me

Looks like quite the party we've got here.

Also didn't realize my guy had two loincloths and shirts on, I wonder if that grants him additional protection or not.

I don't think so. It won't stop blunt attacks by things like maces and any decent piercing or slashing attack can get past it no problem. I'm arranging getting your new gear by the way, because at the end of Burt's last adventure he wanted to spend his wealth to get new armor that would fit him!

That's good to hear, but where will you get the armour from because I've given the impression that larger sized armour is rare.

I have to use dfhack tbh. Not a big deal to me though I'm kind of already thinking of using dfhack to basically create shops and stuff so we can have some more detailed world interaction
[/i]

[King Zultan]

I have to use dfhack tbh. Not a big deal to me though I'm kind of already thinking of using dfhack to basically create shops and stuff so we can have some more detailed world interaction

Sounds good to me, and making shops and stuff sounds cool.

[bluhspizo]

This is really great. I hope I'm not being too rude when I ask: how do you make the table of contents thing in the first post? I'm working on my own story on this forum, and I think adding a table of contents would make it easier to read as I get further in.

[Maloy]

This is really great. I hope I'm not being too rude when I ask: how do you make the table of contents thing in the first post? I'm working on my own story on this forum, and I think adding a table of contents would make it easier to read as I get further in.

No problem! Glad to help

When you're making a post you can see all the different little buttons above the text box
The one I use for that is "Insert Hyperlink"

I'm gonna hyperlink your post by copying the link address attached at the top of your reply

https://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180460.msg8578602#msg8578602

As you can see it doesn't have any cool text and is just the link
So here is what we will change:
[.url.][./.url.]

I entered the periods for spacing visiblity when you do this don't put any periods

[u.rl.= insert text here].[./url.]

In practice it looks like this

insert text here

[bluhspizo]

I entered the periods for spacing visiblity when you do this don't put any periods

[u.rl.= insert text here].[./url.]

In practice it looks like this

insert text here

Thanks! Worked like a charm, though I had a bit of a hard time getting it to work : P My fault though thanks

[Maloy]

Quest: Hunt Down the Bandits!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Bandits have begun robbing travelers along the road leading north of Inkyrouts, the capital of the human confederacy. Trade has only just now restarted in the world of humans and if the species is going to make a comeback from their own apocalyptic events then the scoundrels must be stopped! The party is gathered together from a mix of goodwill, seeking out opportunity and the love of righteous combat!

The village was long ruined. Places like this were already poor and barely maintained before the war, but when Cor came she put hordes of zombies as guards in the towns and city. If the living were found outside of their homes at non-designated times or committing any type of crime under the new government they were fed to the undead hordes, and eventually every single person did die as fields were corrupted by necrotic magic and people had to choose between starvation and making a run for it.

So what was left was a skeleton of a village that the zombies squatted in as a buffer to protect their would-be goddess and once they were laid to rest it then just became a graveyard.

Now it had new tenants.


source:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/kla9eA

The man and woman were ragged, rough and angry looking. Armed, yet poorly so. They couldn't even seem to find enough armor to fully cover one of them.



Most of the party immediately tensed up at the sight of the two humans, and Como(Neblime) roared finally ready to let loose hours of pent up aggression, but Burt held his legendary silver sword between the two groups and said "I think we should try to talk to them first to find out if they're who we think they are."

Seeing the heavily armed and geared party themselves the human crossbow woman shouts "Bounty Hunters! They found us!" and she fires a shot that slams into Como's shield. He roars and charges in! Astan fires his own shot and the male warrior catches it on his shield: The battle is on!
Owe flies up to keep his distance from the fighting as Como begins beating his shields against the swordsman, but even as he lands blows another crossbow bolt fires and hits him square in the chest. His vital parts only protected thanks to his breastplate.

The angry elk man redirects his target and immediately runs to close the distance on the crossbow woman as he catches another bolt on the breastplate.
Meanwhile the swordsman closes the distance on Astan to prevent him from firing, but causes himself to be surrounded by Astan, Kanil and Mubo.
Burt runs full sprint around the house to come out the backdoor to help with the crossbow woman.


The battle is brutal as the warrior fights with reasonable skill, but goes about as expected given the circumstances.
His parries and blocks are sufficient, but in a whirlwind of knife cuts, well-timed spear thrusts and Astan's own blade he is slowly picked apart until Owe attempts to slap him from above with two books. The bandit uses all his momentum to block the two new attacks and Mubo delivers a lethal spear jab into the man's skull.


The party enters the building to find Como covered head to toe in blood panting over the thoroughly mutilated corpse of the woman! His shields, made for defense, are covered in gore.


The bandits have nothing valuable.

The party continues on picking through the village and find the town square full of skeletal remains long picked clean by carrion critters and harsh weather. "That was a very good battle and better days" Kanil says to himself quietly


They hear movement inside another ruined hovel and the party enters to find an elephant person

She is at least two feet larger than even Como and Burt, covered in muscle and armor. A single punch to the skull could easily kill a human.
Seeing the party she waves her hands back and forth in surrender "Woah woah woah! Whatever this is I am sure we can work it all out!"
"Are you with the bandits here?" Burt asks plainly
"Bandits? This village is ruled by the Godly Fellowship, but I don't know anything about them!" she seems scared of you all, but continues "Only bandits I know causing trouble in this area are from a camp in Failuredungeon in the plains"
The place she is referring to is actually on the other side of the country in the borders of the Union.
"If that is true then you should come with us and show us the way" Astan calls
 "No can do! Too many of you guys. I mean what share of the glory would I get? hahahaha! You got this!"


Kanil casually places his hands on both of his daggers "Bandits traveling back and forth across an entire country just to pillage around here? And you want us to just leave this place and take your word? I smell a snake."
Astan is also very suspicious. "The elephant is muscular and clearly has some skill with wrestling. This is not some farmer. If she refuses to join us, we must return her to Kemus Wildmoral."
Mubo lowers his voice, his usual jovial voice now serious "Yeah, we can't leave this to chance, if we can't take her with us or confirm her identity. A bandit elephant would be a serious threat to the folks around here."
He turns back to the elephant woman and smiles warmly
"But mayhap this land is so ravaged that even bandits have abandoned it. If we can't find the camp of those crossbowmen, we should consider traveling to this Failuredungeon. What can you tell us about it, or the bandits there, Mizbo?"

Mizbo the elephant woman still looks visibly nervous despite being several feet taller than each of you "aha what can I say? Been around forever. Maybe longest lived bandit group around? Not cause they're good or anything they just haven't been important enough for anyone to do anything about....until now that is." Her gear is farily standard, but just from her size her copper breastplate could probably be used as a tower shield

The party continues questioning her "Look, I'm just a soldier here protecting the town! I even killed a left over zombie recently."
"A soldier? I thought you said you didn't know anything about the Godly Fellowship?"
Panic sets in on her face "Well, I don't its just...ahaha"
Como strikes first, but the elephant woman quickly catches both shield attacks and swings with an axe large enough that even though Como blocked the blow it still pushed him back several feet.


Mubo strikes her in the leg with his spear causing her to fall to the ground ensuring escape is not an option for her.
Besides being armored, elephant people also have intensely thick bodies making it even harder to deal crippling or lethal blows as the party finds out.
Her speed and strength are overwhelming as each person she attacks just barely dodges, parries or blocks. She focuses on Kanil as she sees him lacking a shield and he parries and dodges around deftly while Burt's shining sword cuts chunks out of her limbs. Still she does not drop her axe.
Kanil and Mubo aim for her chest and head, but her armor protects both.
Owe, as it turns out, is quite strong and as he slams one of his books into her arm it twists her arm out of place.
She turns a strike with her axe upon Burt and his blue shield, glowing with divine energy, catches it easily and sends her reeling. Astan's eyes gleam as he finally notices the shield.
As she reels back from the deflection Mubo thrusts and his spear connects with her neck severing the spine and causing total collapse of the elephant.

From here the party became confident of the result and began trying to deliver a lethal blow, but the elephants flesh and armor was too thick and they underestimated her resolve.
She lashed out with her tusks, left with no other weapon, and nearly snapped Kanil's ankle! The legendary man falls to the ground and begins dodging quickly as everyone present tries to finish the elephant off.

Finally after moments of agonizing struggle the elephant passes out from exhaustion, but the party still can't pierce deep enough into her hide to kill her as each member stabs and stabs again and again at the elephant woman!
Mubo cracks a joke that Burt snorts a laugh at. "Now. Is. Not. The. Time!" Kanil stabs in between each word and as he shouts the last one he stabs with all his might and caves the elephant woman's skull in entirely.

Oddly, once dead a worm crawls out of her pack and stands atop her corpse.

Kanil lifts the creature and it quickly crawls along his arm and climbs to his helm where it imperiously observes all around it. Everyone laughs at the strange worm.

"Uhhh anyone want a pet?" Kanil says in confusion
"I'll take it if no one else wants it." Burt says
The bandits are defeated and now the bounty hunters need to go collect their reward!

[King Zultan]

Guess it was a good thing that the elephant was only wearing copper armour.