Author: John Willson

Halwyr in the Valley Of The Titans, AP #2

This AP is written by one of my players, in the voice of his character, Halwyr the Wizard, with only minor edits and comments by me. Warning, it’s long. 😉 Commencing copy-paste!

“After trekking across the Valley of the Titans towards the “City above the Labyrinth” we discovered a lot about ourselves and each other. For example, Halwyr the wizard makes an excellent football, while Flobee the Paladin can be easily tricked into healing Titans who throw Halwyr like a football. It was a strange night…

Dringa, our guide from the village was distraught when we came across a village that had been flattened – literally – by a Titan who likes to stomp things. We didn’t see a lot of bodies, but there were a few and these were friends to Dringa. As we searched for the landmarks that would take us to the City, we came across a group of villagers that were clearly carrying everything they owned. [The quartermaster rolled badly. -JW]

We offered them our food and rations (because, you know…Flobee). And as they were telling us about the Stomping Titan who tried to kill them all, Flobee promised to protect them and slay the titan. (Hey, it worked last time…). Of course stomp, stomp, stomp…here he comes now. /sigh

He laughed heartily as Flobee informed him of his impending death. Halwyr got smushed under his ginormous feet and when he tried to defend himself, the Titan picked him up and threw him across the valley. Fortunately, he was able to divert his magical energies to buffet his fall. Meanwhile, Rill noticed that the Titan’s wings were crippled by old injuries. So she convinced Flobee to work together to heal the Titan so that he would leave the valley in peace and thereby protect the villagers.

There was poor Halwyr, abused and misused, charging back into the fray, quarterstaff held high, ready to strike, a warcry on his lips as he crests the rise… only to see Flobee and Rill patting the Titan gently and bandaging him up…Unfortunately, Halwyr does not yet know how to turn people into toads…but soon. Very soon…

We camped with the villagers who were so grateful for our assistance that they provided us with some…uh gifts. The elder presented Flobee with a wooden box full of his ear wax. Yeah, you heard me. Magic ear wax. He’s been collecting it for like 30 years. Apparently if you drip it into someone’s ear, they are compelled to fully answer 3 questions truthfully. Halwyr has taken to staying up on Watch most of the night…

Rill received a large pewter coin with the power to prevent death one time. And Halwyr received a book with 5 blank pages in it. Yeah, I know. Halwyr had a rough night…

(Ok, apparently the pages are magical and if you fold them into animal shapes, they become giant paper animals. I mean it’s cool and all, and it’s better than ear wax. But it’s not like a Coin of Defying Death or anything…).

Anyway, middle of the night, Halwyr goes to wake Flobee for his Watch shift, but he’s gone. We find him wandering around in the desert. As we try to wake him, we’re attacked by the undead shadows that are trying to convert him to one of them! Man, if that Paladin hadn’t one-shotted a Titan the other day, I tell ya…

Anyway, Rill finally turns the undead and Halwyr tackles the idio…Paladin, before he gets too far. So yeah, Flobee’s cursed. Lovely. When we get to the City the next day, we determine that Halwyr can cast a ritual to cure Flobee, but we need this Nannorian thingy – basically the jewel heart of a Titan. Awesome! Cuz we didn’t just kill one 3 days out and could have killed another yesterday, right? No, we learn this NOW. So we gotta go find another one and then figure out a way to kill it too.

Freaking Flobee…

So then we find out that there’s this “Order” who “administer” the City. And what they mean is that they round up trouble makers and sacrifice them to the Labyrinth so that it doesn’t come alive and eat the whole city!

So we’re trying to figure out how to get in to the Labyrinth, where we believe this Angelic Sword is, when this guy Cameron convinces Flobee to rescue his friends being held by The Order for sacrifice the next day. So that’s where we stopped. I do hope this Angelic Sword inside the Labyrinthe is worth it. Cuz Flobee is really getting under Halwyr’s skin. On the plus side, we’ve almost convinced the Paladin that a sun tattoo on his ass would be COOOOLLLL. :)”

Sabe Jones 

Halwyr in the Valley Of The Titans, AP#1

This AP is written by one of my players, in the voice of his character, Halwyr the Wizard, with only minor edits and comments by me. Warning, it’s long. 😉 Commencing copy-paste!

“We found ourselves heading towards the Valley of the Titans, a land of death and destruction where the gods sent their titan-servants to do battle for them. [I’ve since drifted this interpretation a bit. Titans can ascend to become gods, and gods can fall, becoming titans again. Both were involved in the War Of The Gods that preceded our adventure in the Valley. -JW] Many of those titans still roam the lands and the people of the valley have inked themselves in shimmering tattoos to identify which Titan they belong to (and to make sure they are seen and not smushed as the Titans walk by).

Early in our travels, a group of such valleyfolk got incensed with us for trespassing on their land and for eyeing their sacred fruit. Let me tell you, we should have heeded their warnings. After threatening to eat one of their precious fruit if they didn’t leave us alone, they attacked. So I ate the fruit and turned into a woman. I’m not sure if Flobee the Paladin was jealous or aroused.

I also had a vision that showed me the ancient Angelic Sword – a key to finding out if I was part of a prophecy that would make me take the place of the existing god of magic.

I was able to convince the villagers that their god Pria had given me the vision and described the sword. They want the sword back for themselves, so we were escorted to their village. They mocked Flobee for his simplistic devotion to Pelor. And Kila the Bard sang songs of valour and combat to entertain the villagers. We watched and then participated in a ritual test of strength, which I won. (I’m strong for a wizard, plus I turned the spear into a snake which helped).

Overnight, Flobee was attacked by some kind of darkness and we don’t know what it did to him. Meanwhile, I returned to normal in the morning. It was a mystery whether the Angelic Sword was still in the belly of the dead Titan Arkus who had swallowed it, or stolen by villagers and placed inside the Crawling Labyrinth. I summoned the spirit of Arkus who demanded that the sword be returned to his belly at once! So we made tracks towards Labyrinth.

Then things got…interesting. It was several days journey to the Crawling Labyrinth and we chose to go through the Hills, risking awakening Pengi – the Titan of Hills and Smoke, who actually looked like a small hill. Well, wouldn’t you know it, we found him. And as usual, Flobee’s adherence to the Truth nearly got us all killed.

See, he had promised Pelor to SLAY A TITAN! In return, Pelor promised him the ability to discern lies. So wouldn’t you know it, as soon as we see this giant hill, stand up, shake the boulders from its back and attack us with a freaking giant tree, Flobee goes CHARGING IN! I mean this thing wasn’t the size of a hill…it WAS a hill!

The tree bounces off Flobee’s shield and with one mighty thrust, he stabs Pengi right through his baby toe – the only weak spot the Titan has! The entire hill collapses on Flobee and we spent the next 2 hours digging him out from underneath all the rubble and rocks. Well, I’ll never doubt Pelor again, that’s for sure. But that Paladin is still nuts, I tell ya. Who in their right mind charges a HILL???

– Halwyr The Wizard

Favourite moment from our latest DW session: when the cleric (of Pelor) convinced the paladin (of Pelor) to break his oath to Pelor!

They had been battling a village-squashing titan, and not faring very well. The wizard had already been stomped on, picked up, and thrown over the next hill (spoiler: he lived), when the PCs noticed that the earth-bound titan’s wings were badly hobbled by old bone-breaks that had never knit properly.

“I could fix your wings,” offered the cleric.

The titan paused mid-stomp. “What?”

A parley ensued, in which the cleric convinced the titan that she really could heal his old wounds for good. The titan Hantlogoth agreed to stop hunting mortals, if she could really do it. “But if you fail, I’ll kill you next.”

“How are you going to heal his wings?” I asked.

“I… don’t… know…” admitted the player, scanning her playbook. “Cure Light Wounds?”

Hantlagoth cracked his knuckles. The sound echoed off the hills like distant thunder.

“I can Lay On Hands,” offered the paladin. “Says right here, ‘remove one disease.’ This counts, right?”

“A debility is like a disease,” I reason. “Okay, it’ll work, if you roll well. He’s like a hundred times your size.” The PCs get the titan to lay down, and are all set to perform a miracle when the paladin realizes something:

“Hold on, I just swore to Pelor that I would KILL this titan!” He had in fact invoked the advanced move Exterminatus just minutes ago. “I can’t heal him now!”

“If you don’t, he’s going to squash us into jam!” the cleric stage-whispered.

Paladin, reading from his playbook: “When you speak aloud your promise to defeat an enemy, you deal +2d4 damage against that enemy and -4 damage against anyone else. This effect lasts until the enemy is defeated. If you fail to defeat the enemy or give up the fight, you can admit your failure, but the effect continues until you find a way to redeem yourself.”

“What’s the hold-up?” rumbled Hantlagoth.

A very interesting theological discussion ensued, in which the lives of the PCs and all the villagers were weighed against one hasty oath. The recently-ballistic wizard returned during this, spied this scene of healing and demanded “what the hell is going on??”

The cleric eventually prevailed, and the newly air-worthy titan kept his promise. Now we have a paladin who is firmly in the doghouse with his god, and is desperate for a chance to redeem himself.

Good times 🙂