Heroes of Falcon's Hollow [Part 1]

The screaming stopped about a half an hour ago. The woods open to a small, circular glade the sounds of the forest become suddenly distant. There is the faint sound of sobbing by a grown man. At the glade’s center towers a gnarled ancient dead oak. Two lumberjacks are crucified on opposite sides high among the enormous oaks branches. One seems to be uncontrollably sobbing while the other is catatonic with an expressionless face.

Suddenly, the tree seems to vomit out the disemboweled remains of a Halfling from one of it’s many hollows. The body hits the ground with a splat and its bones snap like twigs. Then the creature emerges from its lair in the tree. It’s as large as a human. It has the legs and wings of a vulture but the head and torso of a wild naked old woman, her mouth still dripping with gore.

The harpy belches and begins to cackle, “Now that the appetizer is spent…” Her gaze falls on one of the lumberjacks, “Your next weepy!” She hops from branch to branch closing with the crying helpless human. “Don’t fret deary, you’re not going to die today. I’m only going to have a nibble.”

So preoccupied with her captives, the Harpy does not notice a small band of townsfolk from Falcon’s Hollow have braved the Darkmoon Wood to rescue their neighbors. Just beyond the southern tree line stands one of the sheriff’s deputies, Surinder Murali, the shop girl from the general store, Tanayia Clayborne, an accountant, Eilo Buckram, two of the brothers from the temple, Bjorn Hammerstein & Kern Domen, the clerk from the court, Sangilak Ekchua, and one of the local fishermen, Drake Cranston planning a daring rescue.

Meanwhile on the far side of the clearing, hidden from both the harpy and the townsfolk perched high in a lofty pine is a mysteriously cloaked figure.

Eilo and Sangilak fire crossbow bolts at the Harpy. Eilo’s dart sticks into her feathery wing while Sangilak’s lands deep in the beast’s thigh! Eilo grabs hold of his rapier and begins his charge but that clearing is wider then it looks. Kern speeds across the clearing, grabs a low hanging branch, swings up into the tree and whirls wildly at the Harpy. This distracts her but his fists fail to connect. Tanayia gets underneath the creature and stabs it in the side while it is distracted by the blots and Kern’s courageous charge.

Surinder shouts at the harpy, "Stop in the name of the law! As a sheriff’s deputy of Falcon's Hollow. I have orders to bring you in, dead or alive! Now, come here and come peacefully!" He continues, "The rest of us are also deputies! Now, surrender!" which the Harpy ignores entirely.
Bjorn steps up and speaks with a deep guttural voice of command while brandishing his holy symbol, "Thou BEAST of eternal damnation! You will answer for your treacherous deeds and acts upon the living. In the name of IOMADE and all that is good and just, I will see delivered back to the Hell Pit from which you came!" then walks as close as he can get to the Harpy. Drake stands his ground next to Surinder and Sangilak. He is seems to be plotting something clever and daring! The cloaked figure is still undetected but shifts its stance to a readied stance.

The Harpy is surrounded! The Halfling swings his rapier, the monk swings his fists, and the deputy swings his short sword, none of which connect. The Harpy flies straight up to the next highest branch about five feet above them. Her head bobs, feathers ruffle, and wings rapidly expand and contract with frustration. She screeches at the townsfolk, “Fools! Mighty warriors have tried to destroy Elgaurda! Tired and died! I will not be chased from my eyries and cheated out of my meal by a mob of Falcon’s Hollow’s peasantry!” She turns her face towards the sky and begins to belt out a bird call.

The call is extremely melodic and begins to entrance the townsfolk! In the minds of her victims, the Harpy begins to transform! Her wild ratty mess of dull gray hair because a mane of brownish red locks. Her ashy wrinkled skin becomes firm and youthful. Her crimson stained muzzle, is replaced with a succulent rose colored lips. Her black vulture feathers change their color as if leaves in autumn. In contrast to the man-eating monster, now sits a radiant bird woman that sings an enchanting song of lust and contentment. They begin to feel their legs moving towards her with out their consent.

The Harpy’s song enthralls Surinder, Bjorn, Sangilak & Eilo into a trance and they walk ever closer to the singing monster. Brother Kern of the Temple of Iomadae shakes his head clear of the illusion and realigns his body into his fighting stance.

Suddenly the creature’s song changes to a cry of anguish as a spear explodes through her side! The Harpy spins around frantically trying to dislodge the protruding pole arm from her body. Behind her is a ferocious female raptoran warrior that had sailed down from the lofty pine at the far side of the clearing to rescue the townsfolk. It appears she too has succumbed to the Harpy’s ballade and is helpless to defend herself.

The raptoran’s spear comes lose and it falls to the ground. The Harpy looks seriously wounded and she seems more terrifying then every before. With a snarl, the Harpy limps over to pluck the eye balls out of the damn raptoran. Spitting blood you can almost hear her begin speaking to the raptoran in a hushed voice, “To the pain’ means the first thing you’ll lose will be your…“ The Harpy is interrupted again, this time by the splash of an acid ball. She flutters about to try to get the jelly like weapon off of her before it burns through her feathers. Drake yells, "Your mind tricks don't work on me!" As he holds his ground and prepares for another attack.

The Harpy painfully cackles as she watches the young monk fall out of the tree and catches a branch under his jaw before belly flopping onto the ground. She peers over her shoulder at the stocky man on the edge of the clearing. “That was a nasty incantation for a fisherman? It appears your comrades will be joining these lumberjacks as my wind chimes. But you, I will not even devour!” The harpy spreads her vulture wings and soars down from her roost wildly screaming, talons outstretched. Drake ducks and weaves and his studded leather armor is enough to prevent The Harpy from braking skin.

"Shows what you know! I'm a whole new breed!” Drake yells back. His hand begins to glow a blue color and he attempts to bat the harpy down. Failing that he swaps his spear into his main hand.

The others begin shaking off the Harpy’s song and are again aware of their surroundings. They hear shouting and see the Harpy hovering over Drake Cranston, local fisherman. Her ferocious talons swipe wildly at him but he is doing well to avoid them. He mutters something in an arcanic language and you see his free hand suddenly glows with blue energy. He reaches his icy hand up towards the Harpy but she moves her leg just in time. The Harpy looks badly beaten from the wounds she has already sustained but her fight has only become more determined. You realize it has to end now and these lumberjacks need immediate attention if they are to live.

Kern charges The Harpy! As she dives at Drake again with her talons, Kern lands a solid punch and shouts, "Die!” The cracking of her ribs is audible. She gasps for air and hops along the ground trying to take to flight. She begins to get airborne and appears to be retreating to the forest. Surinder charges toward the harpy and yells out to the dwarven cleric, "Tend to the wounded!!" The Harpy looks back to see if she is being pursued, she can barely conceive how the situation got so out of hand. There is a glint of terror in the monster’s eyes when she sees Surinder barreling down on her. Before she can let out a cry, with a mighty sweep of his sword Surinder decapitates the vile beast.

Game On!

Ok the holiday season is officially over and that means all my Play by Post games are moving forward again. Some of you play in these two games but many more just enjoy reading them.

DarkMoon Vale is my D&D 3.5 campaign that takes place in an obscure location in the Pathfinder setting by Pazio Publishing. The heroes have volunteered to plunge into the dark foreboding woods to rescue local lumberjacks that have been ensnared by a Harpy. After a frustrating battle two of the three victims are saved when the Harpy loses her head. The heroes decide not to brave a return trip to town in the middle of the night with two wounded men.

During the night a motley band of goblinoids arrive to slay the already dead Harpy. By the time the monsters realize the Harpy is no more the battle between them and the heroes is already raging. The orcs in this encounter provoke a bit of a twist. The orcs inform the heroes that they are in fact slaves. And if the heroes swear to help the orcs liberate their people, they will turn upon their Goblin and Hobgoblin companions. With the help of the orcs the heroes win the battle even after unexpected Bugbear taskmasters enter the fray.

We have just ended another climatic cinematic battle and the heroes are now faced with what to do with the rescued but injured lumberjacks and the party’s new orc allies.

Justifiers is my sci-fi adventure which we use the D20 Modern (and its expansion D20 Future) game engine for breathe new life into this famous cult classic setting. “Justifiers” is a set in a gritty future where the heroes are space explorers that have to survey uncharted new worlds for possible colonization. At this point the party has landed on a beautiful planet perfect for colonization but they soon learn that the planet has mechanized residents that don’t take kindly to strangers.

The party has split into three teams, two away teams and one group has remained behind in base camp. The first team traveled several hundred miles by helicopter only to crash and barely survives. The second team has been attacked by large multi-armed gorillia-like creatures that have obviously suffered from some nuclear fallout. Last, the team left behind to “hold down the fort” has encountered their first sentient alien and it mysteriously knows of the Justifiers and says it has come to help them.

If you are playing then the wait is over! If you would like to read the PBP games you can find the D&D thread here http://rpgbomb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=133&t=761 and the Justifiers thread here http://rpgbomb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=121&t=604

Enjoy and tell me what you think of the stories so far!