On most occasions, the trip from the ruins of Spellgard back to civilization is reasonably safe. But what happens when the road is more dangerous than expected – especially when shadows bite? A Living Forgotten Realms adventure set in the Fallen Lands for characters levels 4 – 7.

DM: Perry (pgfrix)

Players:

• Callidus – Human Rogue, Level 4 (Chris – Nuke)
• Aelar – Elven Ranger, Level 6 (Scott – ssevener)
• Lorix Paumer – Human Rogue, Level 5 (Brett – khyron)
• Grimjaw Skullcrusher – Dwarven Fighter, Level 6 (Craig – EvilRubberDucky)
• Hardek – Dwarven Druid, Level 5 (Joe – joef60532)

As far as adventuring goes, serving as an escort usually isn’t a bad gig.  The pay is good, the clients tend to exaggerate the actual amount of trouble that they’re in, and if you play your cards right, sometimes there’s even a priestess or a merchant’s daughter in it for ya when all is said and done!  Of course, likewise there’s also the random occasion where the man hiring is kind of a cheapskate, he doesn’t realize that he’s being hunted by a dragon, and the closest the party ever gets to a shapely priestess is a creepy, old swamp hag with a glass eye.

I’ll leave it to you to guess which kind of gig this was…

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It’s a tough call to decide which would be worse – A) coming to find that the trail you need to follow has completely vanished, or B) getting ambushed while attempting to cross the rickety bridge serving as an alternate route.  Then again, if you’re Cal, you might actually answer C) getting thrown off of said rickety bridge and far too close to the mouth of an angry crocodile waiting hungrily below.  Few words can be said to reassure a comrade in that particular situation, although, “Yes – of course I remembered to tie off that rope you were climbing back up!” probably would’ve been a good start…

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The streak of mayhem continued as the party eventually found itself lending “favors” to a repulsive, old hag residing in the swamp for her cooperation in helping them get out, but of course, no one ever mentions the big, evil dragon who spits acid and eats bipeds for lunch still to be overcome!  This particular lizard’s name was Terror, appropriate enough for a beast that hides in her own shadows and flies around like she owns the place, but fortunately, as it were, Grimjaw still likes killin’ things and pretty much single-handedly dropped the scaly foe while the rest of the group took turns firing off their weapons in random directions that sounded particularly dragon-ish.

Say what you will, but the strategy gets results…

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Luckily, at the end of the day our heroic heroes still managed to get the job done and earn a few extra buckazoids for their efforts before heading back out of town in search of their next exciting adventure for fame and profit.  Nobody ever said that this job was easy, but then again, that’s just not the kind of thing that one says to a dwarf who walks around carrying a big axe…

(Additional Photos Available Here)
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Living Forgotten Realms is a 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons shared-world campaign played Wednesday nights at Anthem Games, among hundreds of other locations around the world.

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