Eschalon: The Bridges

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The massive castle of Grimhold once served as the bridge across a deep and dark chasm. Unfortunately, the goblins had taken over this too and sealed the gateway. Now really annoyed at these green skinned creatures, Rollo took it upon himself to murder every last one of them within the castle, including their warlord after managing to access the opposite end through the underground maintenance section and reopen the bridge.

Not the safest of bridges ever built...

Finding a good supply of flammable demon oil, Rollo returned to Vela and burned all the goblin archers with it then lured their leader and his pet minotaur into a supply of explosive barrels for one hell of a detonation. With the town cleared, he finally found his brother Ragner - dying from the wounds suffered during his torture. Before expiring, Ragner blames him for the loss of their ship and all their bad luck then tells him to find Erubor of Shadowmirk Tower but fails to actually give directions so Rollo wanders around a bit and finds a strange magic-looking basement.

After fiddling with the alembic he accidentally activates a teleporter and finds himself in a warm, desert region full of acid slugs! He has a small ocean of them chasing him when he encounters a village of giants. Luckily, they are friendly and try to assist him. While very strong in combat, the giants cannot escape the exploding acid each time they kill a slug and ultimately both sides are totally wiped out. Rollo honors the giants by taking whatever valuables they have and teleporting the hell out of there once more.

Insight: Always lure and kill. Blind corners are your friends against archers.

Eschalon: Double Edged

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Having emptied the first lock box, Rollo opens Lilith's next which holds a divine great sword! He takes the magnificent weapon then returns to the city proper, collecting an extra 500 gold coins from Mael for "killing Lilith and recovering her amulet". Rollo then pays the resident Amazon Sonya to master the blade until she can teach him no more. Feeling skilled, he sets off to leave Blackwater only to be confronted again by Mael. Now furious at Rollo's trickery, he lets loose his squads of Barrea mercenaries to finish him off.

The heavily armored swordsmen are certainly more than Rollo can handle so he falls back into the city where the guards and residents come to his aid. It is a blood bath, with only Sonya and two elderly shopkeepers being the survivors of Blackwater. Rollo defeats Mael in combat and the merchant barters information on Rollo's brother, Ragner, in exchange for him letting him go. Rollo agrees, and Mael reveals the goblins at the sinking town of Vela have him before taking his leave. While Rollo keeps his word, Sonya makes sure Mael doesn't get far and executes him after cutting off his legs.

Apparently she has a book? LOL.

With Blackwater now deserted, Sonya escorts the two shopkeeps back to Aridell while Rollo goes to Vela - fighting off many goblins in the town and the surrounds. Unfortunately his swordsmanship is nullified by goblins wearing suicide kegs, as well as goblin archers floating out on rafts. Unable to push deeper into the town he opts to train a bit more first in the wilderness, defeating a boat load of pirates on a beach and a horde of slimes at a marsh before finding a beautiful castle in the middle of the woods...

Insight: The exploding goblins hurt all those around them so if they are going to explode anyway, try get them to hit their friends too - especially other exploding goblins as they chain react.

Eschalon: A Letter to Yourself

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Yup, there are dinosaurs in the woods!

Lucky the raptors are very territorial and don't pursue out of their part of the woods. Soon Rollo arrives at the city of Blackwater, which he pays a 100 gold fee to enter. He looks around for work again and finds a sly looking merchant named Mael who is offering a tidy sum for anyone that kills the druid Lilith and brings him her amulet. Rollo hides the fact that she's already dead, and that he already has her amulet while offering Mael a drink in hopes to get more clues as to what the amulets mean.

Unfortunately Mael only reveals his unfortunate past of being an important merchant leader before having something valuable stolen from him. He pursued the thief by ship but was caught in a storm that crashed him upon this continent with no means to pursue and is now working to rebuilt his wealth. Clearly not getting anything useful, Rollo says he'll consider the offer then leaves to explore the rest of the large city - finding the corpse of a murder victim in one house, lying in a pool of blood that was staining the ransacked mess around him.

By chance, Rollo discovers a torn paper in the garbage that holds a pass phrase for the tavern. Upon using it, the tavern owner takes him through some magic protections and into a large vault below where he asks to see his ID Keys. It turns out, these are the amulets - they aren't magic at all! The crypt amulet opens a lockbox that contains a huge gem and a note from himself saying that this gem is the only thing that can stop the goblin invasion. It goes on to explain that he used a forgetfulness potion on himself so that the goblin leader, Gramuk, won't be able to track him with his uber-mindreading powers. Unfortunately the gem was found by him and his brother Ragner, and if only one of them was reading the note then the other was likely already captured by the goblin forces. Uh oh.

Insight: The well in Blackwater is one of the best healing sources around.

The Cursed: Unbound

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

Despite having lost his host body, the demon spirit then began to flee - only to be easily eliminated by Gevlon who was now carrying all the demon-killing trinkets from before (he is greedy after all).

Just as the dust settles, Ragner and Rollo show up with reinforcements but find that the task is already complete. Instead, they escort the survivors Shelumu, Gevlon and Sir Siegfried out of there to a not so nearby town where they celebrate their victory and their freedom.

Before leaving with the rest of his people, Shelumu pays Siegfried enough to start a new mercenary company, Ragner and Rollo enough to purchase a brand new ship and Gevlon a king's bounty for saving the day against Tyranthraxus, an amount that could buy him a whole fleet of ships. The day is saved... for now.

Everyone likes shineys.

The Cursed: Full Circle

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

With Moander defeated, all the monsters including swarms of vegepygmies that had skulked away earlier came on the offensive and the party had to fight their way tooth and nail out of that pit but followed Dragonbait's nose to finally reach daylight.

Tiny plant men. Ridiculous.

Once there Alleon's contingent headed to the river to meet up with Ragner and Rollo and their stolen ferry which they used to escape upstream to Daggerfall (wait what?). Reinforcements in the form of Faeris, Kelaide, Shelumu and Gavion joined the squad here and a visit to the magic shop saw them loading up with expensive gear to hunt down the last curse master.

Before they could depart, alarm bells rang throughout the town as a mob of ettins had descended from the nearby hills to attack! The party leaped into action, driving them back but Mercedes was brutally squashed by a giant club in the encounter.

Alias and Dragonbait opted to remain to hunt down the troublesome ettin tribe, leaving the rest to board the ferry once more and sail down the river fork, almost back to Tilverton. From there Alleon instructed Ragner and Rollo to go find reinforcements while the remainder began the march up to the standing stones that Siegfried heard Dynrigg speak of back at Hap.

The Cursed: Not the Quest we signed up for

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

Upon leaving Hap all the Drow gear the team is carrying dissolves in the sunlight so they stop by another small village and restock with the best available gear and also take the time to level up. Eleran then leads the team Northeast to the sea where they catch a boat and are promptly beset upon by pirates!

Said pirates are terrible though, and surrender after they are easily defeated. Ulfert recognizes two of them as Ragner and Rollo who he once fought alongside. Eleran decides to hire them as transport and messengers for the other Curse Bond teams.

Eventually the group reaches the Zhentil Keep, home of another bond master - Fzoul. They bid farewell to the pirates then make their way into the city filled with worse scum and undesirables. Eleran has a way of talking to them that keeps them out of trouble though, and at the local magic shop they stock up on potions and the like.

Follow me into this dark alley...

Afterwards they meet Eleran's contact, a halfling thief named Olive Ruskettle, who shows them a secret way into the local temple before vanishing into the shadows. It's only at that point that Eleran gives the specifics of the job today, and the team is surprised to learn that this is in fact, a rescue mission.

Battle Brothers: Retirement

Part of the Fate of Heroes series - spoilers ahead!

Retired as a rich man, Sahkarov purchases a keep and pretty much buys his own little fiefdom near the sea where his allies of House Ruhmolt are glad to have him. Scribes visit regularly to notate the impressive adventures he and the Spears have had as the remaining members all went their own ways.

Ragner and Rollo took to pirating on the seas, Sir Erland left on a quest to hunt down a "dragon", while Sunbro became a champion of the noble house tournaments. Sir Winfred Steinhart, Wilrech and Ulfert joined another mercenary band to try destroy a goblin city but never returned.

Too bad I never ran into a Lindwurm.

The last surviving member, Raven Skinny Bastard would visit Sahkarov often - still with a mind to build up a company strong enough to reach the Black Obelisk. Whether the ex-juggler would actually achieve such a goal would have to be a tale for another time.

Battle Brothers: Path of Peace

Part of the Fate of Heroes series - spoilers ahead!

Having lost face, Sir Winfred Steinhart asks to join the Spears - which Sahkarov agrees to despite Sunbro's protests. Sahkarov also convinces Ulfert the pimp, who was part of the entertainment caravan, to abandon his sinful ways of and join them instead (because murder is better than lust apparently).

The Spears defend the mountain town of Finsterkoppen against leftover orc marauders, joined by the local militia and the brothers Ragner and Rollo Eagle Eye. They are successful, though all but one militia man dies and Ragner loses an ear.

With the blood still fresh on the ground, Sir Winfred and Sunbro are dueling again - this time for real. Sahkarov manages to use his priestly ways to talk them both down, earning another recruit - Wilrech the apprentice. The company then completes more hunts, reclamation quests, and a lot of envoy escort missions becoming the premier troop the nobles want to hire for such treks.

The company goes on to survive undead ambushes, more orc marauders, and a skirmish against House Grimmund soldiers when the Spears rescue a Lord of Folsach from a prison wagon. Sahkarov earns a broken knee during the jail break and finally, having been with the company for over a year now, the monk decides to retire.

Wise enough to know when to fold.