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: Tyranthraxus

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

Getting tricked (and a fireball to the face) from a goblin was so humiliating for Tyranthraxus, he had to flee. This gave the team time to compose themselves with Shelumu providing healing before giving chase, fighting through his priests, hell hounds and margoyles before reaching him in his upstairs chamber where he waited with an army.

When in doubt, bring an army.

Sir Siegfried was familiar with this setup and quickly ordered everyone back through the doorway. Faeris was too slow though, catching a Tyranthraxus thrown lightning bolt (and it's bounce back), killing the ranger instantly.

Kelaide provided the stinking cloud while Gavion and Siegfried held the door, with Gevlon using all his accumulated wands to throw spells across into the swarm of margoyles. Eventually the herd thinned, and Tyranthraxus himself barged through the frame - killing Kelaide with a stomp and Gavion with a punch.

Still, the focused attacks weakened the demon giant, and Sir Siegfried finally brings him down and kills him.

The Cursed: Middle Finger

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

After escaping the spiders, Faeris leads the team through the trees into the city proper where they avoid hell hounds and wandering rakshasas, ducking into what turns out to be a massive temple. There at the entrance, the old man/demon now in possession of an ice giant waited for them, activating their cursed bond immediately.

Behold my purple power!

"Welcome my puppets! Thanks to you, I - Tyranthraxus shall be invincible! Now, hand over all the artifacts you were absentmindedly collecting - all those items that are the only threat to my existence."

To their horror, each of them started dropping various trinkets before their demon master, not even knowing where or when they had picked them up. Into the pile Tyranthraxus also throws a piece of paper with a single word.

"That is the word that will free you," he laughed manically before turning to a nearby, robed priest of small stature. "Servant, burn these in front of my new slaves."

The little priest wandered over, and without hesitation picked up the paper and read the word aloud. In a flash, the party was free! "WHAT!?" exclaimed Tyranthraxus.

The "priest" threw back his hood, revealing an ugly goblin face - it was Gevlon. The real priest was dead in the corner with a slit throat. "You never bound me you piece of shit!" he exclaimed waving a middle finger at the giant with one hand and a wand of fireballs in the other.

The Cursed: A Horrible Death

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

Alleon's troop finds the old man at the standing stones who welcomes them openly. He says "The bonded serve one more master," and then grins as he turns into a demon. "Me! You want your freedom? Come find me at Myth Drannor."

"Detect Evil" totally failed I guess.

With that the man vanishes, and Alleon decides to march on to said location in the middle of the forest reaching the outskirts which looks to be an overgrown cemetery. Thrikeen patrol the place but apart from dealing with a few grave robbing insects they generally stay away from the explorers.

Elven spirits are also present and generally help the team with information and equipment. Everything is looking up, until Gavion accidentally steps into a sink hole sending the entire party into a nest of giant spiders!

Spells are let loose and steel hacks into chitin as the squad attempts to escape. Aika is the first that gets bitten, and is immediately slain by the toxin. Meanwhile Olive is jumped and dragged away screaming to be used to feed the young. They are almost out when Alleon is also bitten on the ankle, and vomiting into his helmet, dies a horrible death.

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: Garden Goblin

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

Finding the main cultist temple on the deeper floor was made easier as most of the inhuman creatures steered clear of the party. This turned out to be intentional, as upon arrival Alleon's bond was activated while the others were held in place by a burst of tentacles holding them in unbecoming places.

The head priestess then channeled the power of the bond into a huge pile of corpses, intent on raising Moander, the god of decay. Fortunately as the power drained away, so did the bond, leaving Alleon free to rescue the others and begin combat against the cultists in earnest.

Apparently Moander knows MJs "Thriller" dance.

Despite Aika head shotting the head priestess, three massive segments of Moander made it through the closing portal. This was Gevlon's time to shine, as the bone wand he had looted was one of defoliation - almost specifically designed to combat shambling mounds and plant life, which happened to be what Moander was made of. And so, with the others tanking, the little goblin destroyed the god.

The Cursed: Common Foe

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

The fully rested team heads out into Yulash city at dawn, and encounter a number of Zhentarim "terror teams" in the ruins who prove to be much stronger than their counterparts who were working for Fzoul - mainly because of all the enchanted gear they were equipped with.

Ulfert also proves to be his own undoing when he strikes a fleeing Zhentrim mage, killing him but also triggering the fire shield around his target which does double fire damage in return, melting Ulfert's flesh from his bones.

They also run into shambling mounds dragging bodies into a pit, and while the plant monsters are tough adversaries, defeating them leads to a reward in the form of a bone wand which Gevlon quickly pockets.

Finally they find an entrance to the underground pit and descend, only to find a whole bunch of cultists already dead within. Following the bodies, they find two other adventurers - Alias and Dragonbait (the Saurian) already clearing the way. Clearly having a common foe, they decide to join forces.

An odd pair, and an oddly descriptive scent.

The Cursed: Short Ones

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

The team doesn't get far before they run into Olive Ruskettle and her associate, a greedy goblin mage named Gevlon, looking for their employer. After delivering the bad news, the two short ones lead the squad out, fighting past a few more drow and manticores.

That's a spikey winged lion.

With the keep now in full riot, the team escapes to the next town of Yulash which happens to be a war front between the Zhentarim and the Red Plumes of Hillsfar. Having experienced the "hospitality" of the Zhentarim, the team decide to try ally with the Red Plumes and are successful when they aid in slaying some Zhentarim spies.

At the local barracks they find another curse bond bearer, Commander Alleon, who takes charge of the party as their new employer and explains that a strange cult has taken up residence beneath the crumbling, war torn city... and one of them is the next curse master.

The Cursed: Eleran and the Medusa

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

Using fireballs to clear a way through the melee, the team fights past minotaurs, drow and Zhentarim before finally reaching Dexam and his column of minotaurs. The lady in purple also reveals herself to be a medusa!

The mages open with their biggest spells, with Eleran intentionally incinerating Dimswart who was too smart to live (and whose usefulness had come to an end). This infuriated Dexam who quickly was running out of minotaurs. The medusa used her petrifying gaze on Eleran, but the mirror he brought reflected it and turned her into stone, killing her.

Unfortunately, Dexam also used a petrification ray at him at the same time turning Eleran into a stone statue. This left an opening for Melia to backstab the beholder but it wasn't enough to kill it - resulting in her disintegration next.

How does this thing fly... or poop for that matter?

Finally it is Sir Siegfried that slays the eye tyrant, then leads the injured survivors onward to search for an exit, leaving the statues of Eleran and the medusa behind.

The Cursed: All Part of the Plan

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

Rescuing Dimswart the sage was easy as he was totally unguarded. Eleran then cast a small spell that summoned a lady in purple. "As promised," was all Eleran needed to say for the woman to open a magic gateway.

Stepping through, the group found themselves in a large underground chamber filled with minotaurs and their beholder leader, Dexam, who was overjoyed that the sage and his knowledge was now in his possession. Dexam doesn't get to celebrate long before more portals open with Zhentarim troops pouring out led by Fzoul himself!

That mustache means business!

"Dexam! You..." Fzoul was cut short as Dexam disintegrated him in a single blast, removing another of the cursed bonds from Eleran's arm. As both sides then clashed into battle, Dexam now disinterested, left with his entourage and Dimswart in tow.

"Was that part of the plan?" questioned Ulfert. "After him!" was the only answer Eleran offered.

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.

The Cursed: Second Team

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

Outnumbered and standing in the open against a spell caster is never an ideal combat situation so Siegfried ushered the others back through the door and got Aika to enchant it with a stinking cloud. As expected, Dracandros just hung back and ordered his troops to charge.

Doorways, the MVP of combat.

With the warriors holding the door and the spell casters shooting through the fog, the enemy was thinned out slowly until only Dracandos was left. Granted, the survivors lost Wilrech in the melee towards the end, but there was still enough of them to rush the mage at the end, with Melia finishing off Dracandros with a sneaky backstab. 

Finally free, the survivors Aika, Melia, Mercedes, Siegfried and Ulfert, made it back to Hap and told the villagers of what transpired much to the interest of the visiting mage Eleran, one of the branded, who then offered them an exorbitant amount of gold to continue the quest of breaking the Azure Bonds. Either from greed or from a sense of righteousness, they all agree.

The Cursed: Wizard's Pets II

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

On the next floor the team finds the warriors Siegfried Baranor, Wilrech and Ulfert who had also been branded by Dracandros to assist in abducting women. When he disabled the bonds the trio also had been freed and offer to assist to make up for their mind controlled crimes.

Knowing there is strength in numbers, Dynrigg accepts. The Drow also know strength in numbers, and shortly attack the group with a huge army of owlbears which rip apart Winter2Silence, behead Marogund and consume Aelinore before being fought off.

Wiser than the average bear.

A staircase trap then lands the team in a wyvern pen where both Dynrigg and Irthorn are stabbed by their poisonous tails and succumb into melted puddles of flesh. Sir Siegfried manages to get the remaining survivors out of there to a courtyard where Dracandros and a small army of guards were making their slow escape.

The Cursed: Wizard's Pets I

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

Following blindly, Dracandros leads them to the top of the tower where a flight of black dragons awaits. Using the bonds the wizard then uses the team to try insinuate a movement against the dragons, but the black reptiles are not fooled and command he unbind the party who then easily convince the dragons of Dracandros' lies.

By this point Dracandros, who was slowly backing away, fled down into the tower and the dragons fly off - letting the team deal with him. They give chase, fighting past more Drow and Efreeti, but run into trouble against a Drow Lord who slays both Pendrianne and Eineron with his blade before finally being put down.

They work as pub bouncers on the side.

He was guarding Dracandros' slave harem who the team rescue - composed of Aika Lazuka, Melia, Winter2 Silence, Mercedes and the Duchess Aelinore. Aika in particular is useful during their rescue as she manages to win a magic duel against another tower mage by pushing a small sphere of annihilation into him. The team gives the naked women their spare gear and continues the pursuit.

The Cursed: No Saving Throw

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

After the celebration, Nesturs is approached by a town elder who asks that the team continue the fight to the Drow's boss - a wizard at the top of the nearby mountain. Nesturs agrees and Akabar shows them the way into a cavern system at the base of the cliffs.

Within the tunnels the team fight through Drow and Salamanders, as well as one group with trained Ank Hegs whose poison spit melts through Akabar's face - killing him painfully. Deeper in they find a lair of Crimdrac the dracolich who guards the wizard's tower.

Because a living dragon wasn't bad enough.

Nesturs is the unlucky recipient of a dual fire and ice breath which reduces him into frozen pieces of ash. The rest of the team defeat the monster, and continue on to the tower where they meet the wizard Dracandros. Before they can do anything, he chants some magic and all of their cursed bonds activate, enslaving their will. Apparently no saving throw allowed!

The Cursed: Saviours of Hap

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

Since the old man's tip was as good as any, the party journeyed South to Hap but encounter three black dragons on the way! The fight is difficult, with Phiruno getting eaten and Stenriya melted to the bone by acid breath.

That's one hell of a random encounter!

Morale drops even further upon reaching the village as they find it being oppressed by Drow. They manage to reach the inn where they can recouperate a bit, and are joined by old allies Irthorn and Marogund as well as the local Akabar Bel Akash.

The team starts taking out drow patrols on the streets, finding magic to be not as effective on them. On the plus side, the Drow equipment is superior to their current gear so after enough patrols are taken down, the team in full Drow gear heads to the barn and deals with the Efreet commander without much hassle.

The village rejoices and celebrates them as heroes!

The Cursed: Mobilization

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

The King himself shows up in the sewers to rescue his daughter, who somehow avoided being turned into ash. While he is thankful to Nesturs team for the aid, he can't trust them and banishes all of them, except Assagh who died from becoming a arrow pincushion, from Tilverton.

He's a very hands on King.

The rest of the team make their way up the road and eventually find an inn, but it is under attack by displacer beasts! Magic is used to slaughter the beasts but one of the tentacle cats manages to rip Thellaphes in two before it is put down. For their efforts, the inn keep lets them stay for free while they recover. During this time Nesturs orders Pendrianne to summon his other champions.

Wizard Phiruno and rangers Dynrigg and Faeris arrive in a few days, confirming that the others are also branded the same way and have started searching for a remedy across the land. Nesturs gives Faeris some instructions and sends him back as the messenger while Phiruno and Dynrigg join the party to do the same.

On their travels they come across a set of standing stones that are home to a strange old man. The fellow seems to know about their predicament, stating that they are servants to four more masters, the next of whom is to the South.

The Cursed: Fire Knifed

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

While Stenriya could barter past the other otyughs in the sewers, it was back to mass fireballs for the rest of the inhabitants including trolls, crocodiles and of course, Fire Knife bandits as the team ventured deeper in the muck, eventually finding their hideout.

Tired of the running around Nesturs decides to surrender to one of their checkpoints, and the team is brought before their mage leader, just as he had hoped. He hadn't counted on the army of Fire Knife archers with said leader though, nor the fact that he had the princess bound and gagged beside him.

Fortunately the princess saw the opportunity presented and knocked the leader over before he could compel the team to do anything, resulting in a very messy battle where everyone but Nesturs went down to the rain of arrows. Fortunately, Nesturs necklace of fireballs wins the day for the heroes, leaving everyone else a smouldering pile of ash.

It's a staple of Fantasy magic!

At the death of the Fire Knife leader, one fifth of the magic tattoo vanishes.

The Cursed: Shitty Friends

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

Eager to find the culprit behind their bonds, Mencor tracked the Fire Knife foot prints down into the sewers where he was promptly set upon by disgusting otyughs! A surprise tentacle broke his neck and threw his lifeless body aside into the piles of excrement.

One of the grossest monsters ever.

Fortunately the wizard heavy team fire balled the monsters to death. After the battle, they were surprised to find a familiar face hiding in the piles of shit. It was Stenriya, once an enemy to Nesturs. She had made a deal with the now roasted Otyughs for protection as she too had the magic tattoos worn by the others and had been serving them ever since her defeat, living in and consuming their filth.

Having a common goal, Nesturs offered Stenriya to join their endeavor and with her protector / masters gone she could only accept.

The Cursed: Stolen Massacre

[Part of the Cursed story line.]

The royal guards were no match for Nesturs team, but when they found the King absent from the carriage the bonds suddenly released and they were free to process what they had just done.

Before the rest of the guardsmen could reach them, a group of thieves *abducted* helped the team escape into some tunnels underground while the thief leader kept spouting on about a rival gang called the "Fire Knives" trying to take over and using the heroes to do their dirty work.

Thellaphes was just about to ask a question when a small army of said Fire Knives appeared and attacked, causing absolute mayhem as they dressed exactly the same as the allied thieves. To ensure that all enemies were slain, Nesturs made sure to kill everyone that wasn't of his original party. In the end, only he and his squad remained standing in the midst of the massacre.

They should have worn different armbands or something.