Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Ater hears footsteps in the staircase and says in a loud voice - “We meet again Azbara Jos, now I have you where I want you.”, but his attempt didn’t really fool anyone.
What really happened, was that Azbara Jos telepathically communicated with Ater and told him: - “We need to talk, now! Step outside quick!”.
As soon as the fog filled the room Azbara Jos teleported out of the room, and Ater snuck out. Azbara Jos told Ater: - “Your friends were trying to kill me. Trust me, if I was your enemy, you would all be dead now. We might not work for the same employer, but we do share the same goal. Do I make myself clear?”, then he left.
Ameiko and Merisiel dashed up the staircase and Ulfnaar hurried after. The room upstairs was a sitting room with a fireplace, very office like. The staircase continued and while Merisiel listened to a door, Ameiko dashed one floor further up. She sees a shadow, a figure moving, then suddenly a loud thunder explosion and she is tossed down the staircase again…
Merisiel dashes up the stairs after the sound and jumps over the rolling Ameiko. She sees a shadowy figure in a large room with an open bronze ceiling. It’s like a wide gap, and in the center of the room is a very strange device. The shadow figure, an elf, looks at Merisiel and whispers in elven “Race traitor!”, and Merisiel attacks.
Meanwhile, Ater is looking through the belongings of Azbara Jos, and he finds a small traveller spellbook with the insignia of the red wizards of thay. Ater smiles, he will hopefully learn some new spells from this book.
The shadow fighting Merisiel, is identified as no one else than Dvalmorer Borngrey, the elf working with Razmir. Ameiko now is on her feet and comes rushing up again, passing Ulfnaar a second time. When she comes up the last step of the stair, she sees the elf take a step right out from the tower, and disappear in a small cloud, to reappear on a tower about 60 feet away. Ameiko didn’t hesitate for even a fraction of a second. She rushed and jumped after him. Celthor and Ulfnaar saw her fly out from the tower into the moonlight.
Just getting caught up...
I was thinking that maybe it would be good to have some sort of parts like chapters and endings too. But I have to say that I wish I could have such a bard in my party, though my group play(ed) 2e Ad&d :). Anyway just wishing for good winds for adventures.
Ameiko drinks a potion of Healing while in the air, and then lands on the tower, startling Dralmorer Greyborn. Celthor shoots him with two well aimed arrows. Ameiko hear soldiers coming up the stairs, so she hides hanging on the outside of the tower. Celthor hits one of the Dragon wing cultist. Meanwhile, Ater is looking for the rest of the group. He opens a door and shouts “Are you in here?”. The only living thing in there is a Raven in a cage, and Ater let his cat in and closes the door to the room. Merisiel rushes down again, bringing Ulfnaar with her. They aim for the lower part of the tower, where they met the dwarven cook before. They open a door, and see a floor flooded with water, and some plans to walk on. Ulfnaar crosses the water and opens the next door, and a group of dragon wing cultists charge, but he stand his ground. Celthor keeps firing, and kills two on the tower together with Ameiko.
The situation is getting out of control downstairs, they hear lots of soldiers and they come rushing hard, Merisiel and Ulfnaar has to retreat.
Ater and Celthor arrives to assist Ulfnaar and Merisiel, and together, unknowingly the intentions of the other, they together with magic creates the most dangerous trap for the dragon wings. Celthor uses his last magic powers and casts a Spike growth, while Ater decided to cast a Stinking Could. Ther result of those two spells was brilliant. The Stinking cloud causes anyone in the area to want to leave it as fast as possible while the Spike growth causes anyone moving in the area to take injuries from the sharp thorns.
Meanwhile, Ameiko hears what’s going on below, and she uses her hairpin of disguise to make herself look like a seriously injured Dralmorer Greyborn, the dead commander of the dragon wings. He rolls down the stairs from the towers, looking half dead, pointing down the next staircase (the one leading to the room with spike growth and stinking cloud). She mumbles and tries to give orders to everyone to charge. The remaining forces fails to call the bluff, and is convinced that this is their commander giving them an attack order.
Downstairs, a few dragon wings and other dragon cultists successfully escapes the deadly trap and attacks. Ater shouts “No one remembers a coward!” and casts Scorching Ray on a cultist that was coming through. Ulfnaar decides to go defensive and picks up his shield, which might be what saved the group from the onslaught of dragon wings, who seemed to fight exceptionally good while they were together with others on the same kind. They seemed to be trained to fight together, and they were really hard to fight.
Celthor starts to shoot with his bow, Ulfnaar drinks a potion of healing and a potion of extra healing, which had cost him ten times the money but was only twice as good. What a waste Ulfnaar thought, I need to arrange a meeting with that peddlar once we’re back on Baldur’s Gate.
Merisiel makes some dashing attacks, and then hid behind Ulfnaar to be out of reach from the dragon wings.
Some dragon wings appeared with crossbows, starting to hit Ulfnaar over and over, acting as a living shield for Ater and Merisiel. Celthor casts a healing spell on Ulfnaar, and Ater hand him a potion of healing, and Ulfnaar is back in business again. Suddenly the sound of battle fades away, and everything becomes silent.
We have just finished off a platoon of well trained dragon wings, that’s something for the bards to write a song about Ulfnaar says.
The battle is won, and outside we hear that Snapjaw and his friends had fought and won the battle with the frogmen. Ater finds some stuff belong to Azbara Josh, and just like that, without any warning tells the rest of the group that Azabara had told him that somewhere below the last tower was a portal leading to a hunting lodge.
While the group takes a short rest to look over the wounds and damage to armors caused by the recent fight, Ulfnaar walked up to the weird room with a slit in the roof. He took a look in the strange machine, and saw two large black dragons cuddling, even though there was building in the way. He rushed down to tell Ater, and Ater joined him. They decided to try to look at the last tower, and Ater successfully adjusted the delicate machinery, and Ulfnaar realized this thing can see through walls. They saw an office like roof, with chairs. Ater tried to adjust it to look further down, but accidently broke the delicate machine.
After the rest, Ameiko decided to walk into the room with the staircase, where the platoon of dragon wings and cultists had been coming from. She was convinced they had defeated every enemy and was not at all alert when she was attacked by several huges beetles, or centipedes. The poisonous bites quickly made her fall to the ground, and when Merisiel came after her, she saw Ameiko on the floor with huge beetles crawling all over and chewing at her. Smaller insects were flying or crawling on the floor.
A group of Lizardmen led by Snapjaw were outside the last tower, chanting like sport fans that had just seen their team win. The door was bolted, but Celthor used his Ring of the Ram to shatter the door.
A staircase is leading up, but at the top, a group of dragon wings have built a barricade with crates, holding their position armed with crossbows. Merisiel tried to dash and jump over the crates, but tripped, fell, and came rolling down the stairs again swearing.
Ulfnaar rushed and made a jump that took him flying over the dragon wings, landing behind them forcing them to stop shooting and engage in melee combat instead, but before they draw their short swords, they once again hit Ameiko, sending her down on the floor bleeding for the second time today. After the fight, Cethor gave Ameiko a sip from his Flask of the Unicorn, which healed her. Even Merisiel had been shot during the fight, but she took a potion of healing.
The search continued through the tower, and several rooms were searched without finding anything really interesting. In one room, a very large guestroom with it’s own privvy and a large painting of a five headed dragon rising from a volcano on the doors of a cupboard, Merisiel accidently failed to detect a trap, and a vial of acid fell and exploded and destroyed everything in the cupboard and most of the things in the room. Ater was a little upset as it might have been knowledge.
The group continued the search and wandered through a library which caught Aters attention. He decided to note the exact position very carefully, the books here was not only worth a fortune themselves, they would be a very good start the day he decided to start to build his own major library.
After another hour of looking through washing bins and chests, the group decided to make a long rest, a real rest, and made camp up in the observatory tower, where Ater broke that interesting looking glass.
They talked to snapjaw and his friends to hold watch over the grounds as they all needed to sleep and rest. When they woke up, everyone felt energized and more experienced, like the past days of events had added something more to their lives. Ater learned more spells, Ameiko some more combat moves, and both Celthor and Ulfnaar learned new and improved ways of dodging and attacking. They had all gained powers and increased their abilities to perform their tasks, in other words, they had all leveled up!
During the night, Ameiko wakes up. She hears a sound, a whispering sound, from the swamp. She looks out and sees a long haired girl in a white dress, and a thick fog is rolling in. She decides to find the girl, and rushes out into the dense fog. Ulfnaar, Ater and Merisiel continues to sleep.
When Ameiko comes closer, the girl is engulfed by the fog and Ameiko can’t see her, but she sees a huge black raven with a red marking on the chest, the raven looks at her. When she is looking for the girl, she suddenly sees the reflection of a bright full moon in the mound. She remembers a story from her childhood, Khami, protector of nature. Khami goes by another name here on the Sword coast, Selûne. The Raven with the red markings on it’s chest sits in a tree close to Ameiko. Then a new Raven arrives, a fully black raven and it attacks the red chested raven and drives it off. The mist goes away when the red chested raven is gone, and so is the bright full moon. Ameiko remembers the full moon at the graveyard at Brinewall castle.
Suddenly Ater wakes up with a scream, and he finds Spivvy sitting on his shoulder happily singing and giggling. Ulfnaar is woken up by Aters scream and almost trips over his swords when he tries to get up and be ready to fight. Celthor comes down from the roof where he has been outlook, and he did see Ameiko but didn’t want to interfere. Merisiel also wakes up, slowly.
Spivvy says that Kelda is here too, and Ulfnaar rushes to the door when she enters shouting: - “Kelda!”. Ameiko returns and Kelda starts to tell the group what have happened. Sadro has gone south again to Waterdeep with a new caravan. Spivvy and Kelda was told by Selûne that the group might be in danger, and Spivvy showed the way, but Kelda thinks Selûne was guiding her, Spivvy frowns then giggles. Kelda continues to tell them that when they arrived, the fog has surrounded the castle and was trying to enter it. Now Ameiko tells the others about her experience with the little girl, the fog, the full moon and the two ravens, and Spivvy giggles and says: - “She decided to help you, she is watching over you.”
Everyone is happy that Spivvy and Kelda joined them. Ater says: - “Friends, I think it’s time we head down to the basement where portal is supposed exist. It’s good to have another great warrior among us.”
Moist was dripping from the walls as the group followed the stairs leading down, to where Ater guessed the Portal would be. He had the password for it, nicked from one of the rooms, and he also knew where it would lead, sort of, as Azbara Jos had mentioned a hunting cottage.
Merisiel scouts ahead and sees a split of the tunnel. One way, the tracks in the muddy ground were only those of Frogmen, Bullywugs, and the smell in that direction indicated the same thing. The other passage had tracks of many kinds.
They followed the tunnel that led downwards, and soon there were no more dripping of moist as it became rather cold, and a thick mist covered the floor, coming from a basin of water on the right side of the tunnel. The mist is really thick and makes it hard to move, Ulfnaar was thinking, “If anyone had hidden traps here, Slam!, yes, they had hidden traps here, they would be difficult to find.”
Ameiko summoned her Air Elemental once again and he drove away all the mist, and that was lucky, as they just reached a five feet drop, where the cultists obviously used a crane to lift goods up and down.
They continued for a while and found a round room with a strange circle in the ground. Ater said, here we are, now, please stand inside the circle and hold hands. “Are you ready, I have no idea where this will take us, in three, two one…” And they were gone….
Finally I got some time to continue the story (much have happened, just real life matters that have been in the way of telling it)
The group came to the end of the misty tunnel, and the mist was no longer as dense as it was before. On the floor was a circle with strange markings, an old magical portal Ater told the rest of the group, the very portal they dragon cultists have been using.
Ater smiled and said some words in a very different tongue, and suddenly on the wall, there was an image of a forest landscape. Celthor walked first, he loved to see some green trees and he was the scout, Ulfnaar was next, then came Ater, Kelda and the rest of the group.
They all found themselves in a very different landscape. Ulfnaar, who was used to navigate on the open sea with only help of the sun and stars saw that there were high mountains to the west, where the sea used to be, which meant that they were somewhere very far from the coast, very far. The air was fresh and a somewhat chilly breeze was in coming in over the mountains.
They looked around and saw the hunting lodge mentioned by Azbara Jos, and it was a very large building with several utility buildings around it.
What happens next is really too complicated to describe i details, but as you probably have noticed, Murphy is a companion and he shows his ugly whenever he can turn something from bad to worse.
To cut a long story short, they took the wrong door, several wrong turns and ended up in a terrible chaotic almost deadly fight with a four armed troll, the personal guards of the dragon cultist commander Tallis the White, and a bunch of staff, but in the end Tallis the White raised her hands in the air and said “We can talk about this”.
Ulfnaar saw that Ameiko was laying on the floor, lifeless. He shouted: “Ater, Ameiko is broken, we need to fix her!”. Spivvy came and they opened the black box and took the Amatatsu seal out of the box. She placed the seal on Ameiko’s lifeless body and shouted “Clear!”
A green magic circle of light emitted from the seal flow through the room, and Ameiko started to cough blood, but she was alive again. Ulfnaar kneeled to Ameiko, who said, as usual “Stand up Ulfnaar!”
That could probably sum up most adventures.
But its good to see the story continue!
I so enjoy reading this and seeing all the amazing renders to go along with it, it is truely a great story that I hope never ends!!!
Thank you both! It will continue as long as Mattias (the DM) will run it, but we keep bribing him with all sorts of treats to continue as this is one of the better campaigns I've played in my 37 years of roleplaying.
Was glad to see more of the story!
Wow 37 yrs is quite a long to roleplay!!!
But it has served you well.
Started young and has never grown up ;)
I was going to say that butttt thought it may be better left unsaid giggles!!!
They all took turns keeping Tallis the White under close watch. Merisiel and Celthor scout the surroundings. They realize that this little hunting cottage is probably owned by someone very rich. The whole building has a feeling of luxury over it. Ulfnaar thought that it was smart to have red carpets in the stairs, as the blood from the guards didn’t make them look too bad. Cethor sees a tapestry that is so details as it looks almost real, even the trees are moving.
Ameiko and Ater does the talking with Tallis, and she tells them the following story:
The dragon cultist leaders are five, Varann the White, is the one representing the white color. Varann the White works with Rezmir and the Red Wizards of Thay. Tallis would like to see their scheme failing, so she tells Ater and Ameiko that..
Suddenly Ulfnaar, Celthor and Kelda shows up with a dwarf, a priest and a woman they found in the basement. Who are these people? Why were they chained to the wall, and why were they chained in the basement?
The dwarf is severely beaten, the woman needs care but the priest is untouched. Tallis continues:
The dwarf is a spy for Varann the White, and a traitor. The Woman just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, and the priest, yes, he amuses me, we have had long and deep theological discussions. Just leave it.
Where was I, yes, I want to help you find your treasure, which I assume is what you are hunting. They have loaded it on a flying ice castle, owned by a cloud giant. Circling the castle is a White Dragon, Cloudchaser. You need me for this, trust me, or you will be dragon lunch, or worse. The castle has docked in a ravine just a half hour ride from here, outside the village of Parnass. I know how to get on board, without getting killed, are you with me?
Ater and Ameiko looks at Tallis the White, then at each other and the looks said can she be trusted? Ater and Ameiko decides to keep Tallis under constant watch and tied up, Kelda will be in charge of the watch as she won’t be easily seduced by Tallis, who knows what powers she has?
Celthor finds a locked room behind the kitchen, full of Kobolds, and Celthor tells them to run or die and they all fled out to never be seen again. Then they speak with the staff that seems to still be here at the hunting lodge. The dragon cultists had killed the owners and took over the lodge. The warden, Angrath and the butler Gastyn are very happy the infestation of filthy kobolds in the kitchen area has ended. They explain that the magic tapestry is a portal. This is a hunting lodge, you can see the forest and then just go there when you see deer.
Ater goes to the dwarf Cragnor and charms him to find out how to enter the castle. The answer is, bring a purple banner, wave it and say “Tiamat our mother and strength”. Ater sneaks off to the banner room and takes a purple banner and hides it in hos pocket. While Kelda watches Tallis, the rest looks through what appears to be her quarters on the upper floor, and Ulfnaar finds a magical chainmail and is very happy about that.
Now Ater and Ameiko tells Tallis they agree to her helping the group to enter the castle. Tallis goes to the banner room and picks up a few banners in different colors. They set off to Parnass, but first Ameiko tells Angrath and Gastyn, to feed and water the dwarf Cragnor, as the group will be back and then he will be brought to Justice for his crimes at Parnass, once we freed the town.
They set off to Parnass, and then they arrived, they saw that the poor town was in complete hands of the dragon cult. Ameiko said quietly - “We need to take care of this too, later.”
They saw the huge ice castle floating in the air and almost totally engulfed in clouds, close to a huge rift outside the town. There was a walkway from land onto the castle and the gates were closed. Manning the walls and towers high above the huge gate were ogres.
Tallis took her purple banner waved it in the air and said “Tiamat our mother and strength.” and the gate opened. They walked inside, and in the huge court yard they saw several dragon cultists, but what caught their eye was a huge Goliath, with chain cuffs on his wrists and ankles, and he was carrying a huge chunk of meat, into a huge door. The group decided to follow him and talk, his name was Naratel, and he was a slave to two Stone Giants who was here visiting Blagothcus. Ater and Ameiko made friends with him, and the chunk of meat was for the flour Wyverns in the stable. They asked quickly for directions and found out where the guest quarters were. They group decided to find a free guestroom and have it as a base camp. Merisiel went out scouting and came back reporting she had head what she believed was Azbara Jos from a room down the hallway. Ater said “We must seek him out first”. Tallis, Kelda, and the scout Mirecella stayed in the guest room.
They decided to just walk there, knock on the door and enter, but Ameiko spider climbed on the outside of the castle with some help of spells from Ater’s staff, and found a window she would ninja in from.
Ater knocked and opened the door holding Azabara Jos spellbook in his hand and said: “Azbara, I came to return thi…” but suddenly two gargoyles appeared and Azbara Jos wan not alone, another Red Wizard of Thay was there too and spells started to fly. After a fierce fight, where both Ater and Azabara Jos throw fireballs around, and most of the documents, books and letters in the shelf along the walls was turned to ashes. The other wizard jumped out in the air from a balcony and Celthor tried to shot him while he fell to the ground, most probably using the spell featherfall to land safely. Azbara Jos met his end here, he will no longer bother us, at least we hope so.
Hello...I didnt read all the story but this can be easily be a movie!! Like hollywood top adventure movies.Really Amazing!!
It looks great, I need to read latest three post with pictures but I will leave it for later. I was away a bit too long, now time to catch up with the story :)
I have read it finaly. Nice work, need to try to make things like this :)
Thanks - I will try to make the next render, all I can say is that involves most of the group, half a dozen Ogres, two dozen Dragon Wings and Cultists, a half dragon and a dragon, all on a gigantic courtyard on the Flying Ice Castle... trying to squeeze that into my machine.
The group has realized that time is of the essence here, the lower courtyard is filling up with ranks of dragon cultists. Ater casts a fog cloud on the courtyard to cover our way, then the whole group dashes up the stair to the next level. There is a huge fight between dragon cultists led by the half dragon Rezmir fighting with Ogres. When the group comes up, the Ogres attacks them as well, until Ulfnaar realizes they disguised them self as cultists. The quickly dispose the cultist disguise, it serve no longer any purpose, and engage in the fight. Suddenly the sky darkens, and a huge white dragon comes down breathing cold death upon the battlefield, Cloudchaser. The battle is one of the worst Ulfnaar ever seem.
Talis hold her part of the promise and uses her magic staff to attack Rezmir and Cloudchaser and Kelda goes into her Berserker rage. After a long fight, the dragon is finally killed by Talis. When the sound of battle goes away, Talis stands crying beside the dead Cloudchaser, whispering: “You were a magnificent creature, a one of a kind. I am so sorry that I had to do what I did.”
Suddenly heavy footsteps are heard in the mist, and the cloud giant Blagothcus arrives. He looks down at the tiny heroes asking: - “Who are you?” in a thundering voice.
Ameiko replied: -”We are your friends, we have fought the dragon cultists”.
Blagothcus pointed his mighty hammer at the stairs and said: -”There are more enemies, prove yourself loyal to me.”
The group sighed, and ran down the stairs again, leaving a half dead Kelda to watch Talis so she didn’t get the idea of trying to resurrect Cloudchaser.
Downstairs, the fighting was fierce, and Ameiko shouted clear while putting the sigil of the Amatastu family on Ulfnaar’s chest not once, but twice, before the battle was over and victory was a fact. When they walked up the stairs again, they felt the whole castle rocking, and moving.
When they came up, Talis said that Blagothcus was in his tower, but she had something to tell them. She said that she was no dragon cultist, not for real. She is a druid of the winter, and that’s why she felt so deeply for Cloudchaser, but she has sworn to kill Razmir, Varann and the other dragon cultists for what they had done to her family. She also told Ulfnaar, that Onthar the Paladin, who Ulfnaar liked and Ater and Ameiko trusted, was indeed one of the dragon cults leaders. Ulfnaar could just not believe this, not Onthar, and Ulfnaar tore of the Order of the gauntlet insignia from his clothes in anger. Talis said: - “Go and speak with Blagothcus now.”
The group went to see Blagothcus. He was in a tower at the front of the castle, or the bow as Ulfnaar called it, guarded by some very strange looking figures. Ogres dressed in red livré and wearing helmets with a red plumes. Ulfnaar thought that was a fun sight, but then he felt it again. Some real pain in his ribcage. He asked the all knowing Ater, and Ater just told him that he had been knocked unconscious twice within a minute, and one of those hits, a spear, probably broke a few of his ribs. It will heal, in time.
Inside the tower, which was as everything else, made of ice, everything was as huge as outside. The Stairs was like climbing a wall, and Ulfnaar thought, good Garnek isn’t here now, then he missed Garnek. Blagothcus looked a the the group asking: - “You smallfolk are full of surprises”.
Ater asked: - “Where exactly are we heading?”
Blagothcus replied: - “South, to unload the dragon hoard at the Well of the Dragons, where Tiamat will rise, but now I have no Dragon cultists on board, so shall we turn north instead, I do miss home.”
While Ater stood and tried to figure out what Blagothcus was doing waving magic symbols in the air, Ulfnaar thought about many things. Ulfnaar has many interests, but how you control a flying castle of ice was not one of them.
When Blagothcus had changed the course from the previous destination, he invited the group to his private quarters at the back of the castle, or stern as Ulfnaar called it. Ulfnaar was a ships person, and although this was castle, made of ice, swept in white fog, flying in the air, as far as he saw it, it was a ship.
In Blagothcus private quarters, they were helped up to sit on a bed, a huge bed, but as Blagothcus is about 18 feet tall, he needs an 18 feet long bed. Blagothcus told the two servants, also Ogres in Red Livré to leave them alone after they had brought some refreshments.
Now it was time to talk.
After a a long journey, without anything of interest to tell to the bards so they can sing it for the coming generations, Ulfaar and his friends found themselves back in Baldur's Gate. A but richer, a bit wiser and a far bit more scarred on the body and in the souls. Ameiko just wanted to look after her tavern, the Rusty Dragon, but as always, adventure came in the way. As this group as usual meddled in affairs they were supposed to keep their noses out of, someone threatened to burn down her tavern, a very unwise theat to make. Ulfnaar had to visit his parents, and had already sailed out to the islands, so he missed all the fun. When he came back, he learned that his good old friend, Garnek the Mighty Dwarf had visited Baldur's Gate and helped the group slay some evil demons from out of this world, just another week of work for the mighty heroes of the Swordcoast. Ulfnaar can decide what he missed most, Garnek or slaying demon spawns.
But fear not that the story ends here. Ulfnaar will soon be adventuring in Baldur's Gate again, together with some of his old friends and maybe an new face. He heard Ater speak of someone worthy to join the group. Garnek, Ulfnaar so miss him, had to travel back to his clan and work even deeper in the mines, hopefully he and Ulfnaar will meet some day, what a reunion that will be! Not a barrel of ale will be left in the town after that.