Yeah, I'm giving it another shot, but this time with a twist. I'll be writing these from the viewpoint of a player. That said, the story will be a bit skewed towards my perspective. I'm hoping to be able to update weekly and really hoping this thread has a longer life than my last disaster.

Tobey (the DM) felt sorry for Kirk who had attempted to remake an old character after I made him a custom Mini for and since they had just made 2nd level when I scrapped my game and we were starting at 2nd for survivability and use the same character creation method, he allowed him to play the same Character, so Our group looks like this:

Kirk, playing Fisto Fistin' the Dwarven Monk
Me playing Galeb Thog, "The Duhr", Human Duskblade
and Chief playing a Human Rogue whose name I can't remember at the moment.

We start near Thea Harbor, in Southern Ergoth. I'm not sure of the exact timing, but the White Dragon Overlord is still in power.



We start off the campaign thrown into the middle of the action, as we're hot on the trail of a Renegade Wizard we only knew as Mr. Robbins who has stolen some precious scrolls from a White Robe. I liked starting off like this. It seemed to help capture the chaos of the chase when we really were figuring out what was going on as we went.

As we get in line to get in the gate at Thea Harbor, Chief decides to try and find a nice mark to pick someone's pocket. He get's the guy's money pouch, but accidentally gives him a nudge while doing so and has to do some fast talking to distract the guy from what he was doing.

At this time, Fisto randomly decides to try and start a brawl with a merchant. He soon gets the attention of the guards. After bribing them with all of the money he had, he then decides it's time to attack them. He didn't last very long.



After scouring the town, we're able to find out that the elusive Mr. Robbins seems to have left a couple of days ago for Daltigoth across the frozen Morgash Lake. So, after bailing Fisto out of jail, we're all broke, so we hire onto an Ice Runner called the Blizzard's Wind with Captain Duggan and head to Daltigoth posthaste.

We catch a lucky break and get some good wind and make excellent time. Upon arrival, I decide to check with the Harbormaster and learn that Mr. Robbins makes quite an impression. After a well timed bribe, I learn he arrived on an Ice Runner called the Ghaele Sleehk, which was still docked. We decided to head there and talked with an old salt who was a little bitter at having to guard the ship, but eventually was cajoled into telling us that Mr. Robbins did something embarrassing to the Captain and left not more than 30 minutes ago.

We head the way he says Mr. Robbins went and end up at a market square. I take a look around and try to see if I can spot the type of nosy person who takes everything in. After a couple failed attempts at striking up a conversation, I start talking to this guy who's selling rings with a flourish. After bribing him with what little we made from the duty on the Blizzard's Wind, we learn that he overheard Mr. Robbins asking about a good place to spend the night and we have him narrowed down to 2 possible inns.

We choose one at random and head inside. Feeling our quarry close, chief and Fisto go to see if they can learn anything from the patrons and Chief cuts a purse to get me some jink to bribe the bartender, who, after I put down a deposit to take care of damages, reveals that Mr. Robbins is in the 3rd room on the left on the 2nd floor.

We rush up the stairs, despite feeling that it seems a bit too easy, and when we get to the door, we hear chanting. Fisto bashes in the door and the place is huge, some sort of extra-dimensional space has been opened in the room. We catch 3 of the five guards by surprise. 



As we prepare to engage the other 2, a mysterious man standing next to Mr. Robbins and some sort of dormant portal slices his throat and leaps to the side as a wave of fire erupts from the portal as it activates, killing the 3 surprised guards. The guards earn their pay by keeping us engaged, but I hack one down with a Blade of Blood and cleave into another, allowing Chief to finish him off.



The portal is still open, so I grab Mr. robbins' body and charge through.....into the middle of a town I don't recognize. I give Mr. Robbins a quick feel up for loot and toss him at astonished lookers-on, followed with some dancing lights to buy us a minute to flee.

At this point (if you wanna know more see the OT thread) we cut the session a little short, not even knowing where in the world we are.

*My camera batteries died near the end of the first battle, so this one may be a tad short on pics.*

We pick up immediately where we left off, fleeing down random streets and back alleys. I pass a crucial spot check (which everyone else fails) and catch 2 things, the first is  a group of guards coming from the right and the second is a guy waving me towards him down the left. A glance straight ahead shows more guards there and we hear blowing whistles. I sprint left and the other guys start to split up until they finally see the guards. The mystery man opes a well hidden trapdoor into the sewers and we all get nice and stinky.

My ranks in Knowledge(ancient history) pay off as I recognize the guards uniforms and heraldry as belonging to the Knights of the Divine Hammer. Very strange indeed. Why anyone would be wearing the symbols of the guards of the long gone Kingpriest of Istar is beyond me for now.



Eventually he leads us up out of the sewers directly into what appears to be an abandoned warehouse.
 


A long conversation ensues (like 1.5 hours or so actual time) and we find out this guy is Melcore, and claims to be a Servant of the Burning Robes and says they are a rebel force opposed to the Godpriest of Istar at which point I ask what year it is. We're in the same year, and day even, so I ask if we're underwater which confuses him greatly. So, I tell him about where we're from and the Cataclysm. He shows me a map of the world, which (Knowledge AH pays off again) I recognize as the world pre-Cataclysm. I then show him a map of our world. He tells us that he believes us, more so because of the Zone of Truth we're standing in.





As our conversation starts to wind down and he sends some underling to get us some tasty grub and refreshments, we hear a booming voice, "The Warehouse is surrounded. You have 30 seconds to throw down your arms and come out peacefully in the name of the Godpriest." Turns out he counts fast as about 2 seconds later the windows and door burst open and guards come pouring in.



I win Initiative and skirt around the storm archer mini to attack one of the leaders, using a broken combo, casting a swift Blade of Blood (and taking the 5 damage to give it 2 more d6 damage) and using arcane attunement I cast a shocking grasp through my weapon. The result, 3d6 from BoB, 3d6 from Shocking Grasp and 2d6 from greatsword ended up being enough to give even the most anti munchkin on earth a powergamergasm as the dice came up 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 3. No save on either spell. Bye Bye captain. a cleave later and bye bye to the storm archer guy as well.

Things went downhill from there. On the guards turn, they hacked down all of the apprentices on the left in the pic, the other captain turns out to be a priest and to have an impenetrable AC. By the time it was all said and done, it was nearly a TPK. I stabilized at -7, Melcore at -5 and it was very close to a tpk.

We escape into the sewers (some of us being carried )and I wake up in a safehouse, where the Burning Robes are planning to leave the city. We're not sure what to do, torn between ending up rotting in a cell in some foreign world or forsaking our original mission, and talk it out for a while, eventually deciding to leave as well. Melcore thinks we should try and gain audience with Par Salian at the Tower of Wayreth, which is, unfortunately on the other side of the continent. He says he'll send a message of introduction magically to Par Salian, though he doesn't say whether or not he'll actually see us, just that it's our best bet to get home and after sneaking out of town, we part ways a few miles later.

We decide to head to Tucuri and see if we can catch a boat to at least get us out of the Godpriest's domain. About 8 hours from Tucuri, we get bushwhacked by some monsters that resemble huge fleas (Skrit) which were too powerful for us really and only luck kept us from a tpk.

We hobbled into Tucuri and sought a priest to tend our wounds and cure Chief from his nasty poisoning. Unfortunately, Chief had looted the guards we fought and the cleric saw something with the marking of the Knights of the Divine Hammer on it and says, "Hmmm....now where did you get this?" We tried to talk our way out of it, but ended up having to knock him unconscious and flee to the docks. We hooked up with an unscrupulous captain who, after some canoodleing, took our bribe and set out immediately.

Looks like it's gonna be a couple weeks before the next game. Tobey (DM) is hitting the beach for a nice vacation. I told him he needed to get his priorities in line and slap his game face on, but to no avail. That said, Chief and I came up with an amusing side track game combining DDM and dungeon crawl, so i should have a thread for that next week.