by Michael Eckenfels, 6 August 2023
Champions of Krynn AAR: Part 16, Jelek Me Down
We have cleared Gargath (more or less) and fought our way up the Keep there to attain the Dragonlance, only to find that Myrtani, an Aurak Draconian, had already stolen it and made haste into the distance on the back of a Red Dragon. We were left holding the bag (and not even a Bag of Holding ‘twould it be), and so we have no recourse now but to retrace our steps back to the Outpost and figure out what to do next.
On the way back west to the Outpost, we actually run into a random group of adventurers that offer to train us. This is something I was going to do back at the Outpost, but what the heck, let’s give these random strangers we meet in the wilderness a try.
Wow, that seems a lot of trouble just for lil’ ol’ us.
Our Cleric potential has shot through the roof, fortunately.
With that done, we decide to move on.
And just like that, they deconstruct their temporary stockade and move on as well.
Well, that’s better than some battle in the wilderness, I think.
We make it to the Outpost and immediately go to the Commandant’s Office, only to find it closed.
The duty roster only has one mission:
Okay, where the heck is that? What the heck is that?
I find the lack of a bridge of explanation to be sorely lacking, here. Just some random city we’re supposed to go to, now? I might have missed something along the way. After all, I’m writing these chapters not all at once, so there may be some minor details here and there that I forget along the way. But still, it seems rather random.
That all said, let’s go check out Jelek. To that end, I check the overland map that comes with this deluxe Steam version, displayed to the right of my main window.
Jelek is a bit southwest of Gargath.
And what’s that just southwest of Gargath? A frikkin’ Outpost.
AN OUTPOST.
We went ALL the way west here to the original Outpost, thinking this was our only safe harbor…and there’s another one just a few steps away from Gargath?
Could the party facepalm any harder?
In any case, we’ll head out there. I’ll want to save our game in a place much closer to Jelek so if disaster strikes, we don’t have to hoof it halfway across the map again, to get where we want to go.
D’oh. So let it be written, so let it be done.
We want to not have too many wilderness encounters, so of course we have one almost immediately as we head west to that other Outpost.
When an encounter starts with nothing next to you, the best thing to do is to just Guard and wait.
It’s not long before Hill Giants come calling.
And after a bit of frustration, they finally go down.
Their treasure hoard is rather large. I’ve no idea how Platinum equates to Steel; I do know in the DnD I used to play that one Platinum piece is equal to five Gold pieces. The manual does not say anything about this, and two thousand coin of any type is an encumbrance, so we’ll need to eventually trade this in on gems and jewelry to make it easier to move around, and not restrict our characters in combat.
We find this second Outpost finally, and enter therein.
And who do we find in the Commandant’s Office but Sir Karl.
Thanks for the heads-up on your relocation, bro.
Oh good, it’s story time!
Journal Entry 18:
Tale of Sir Dargaard:
In the past, a faithful Knight of the Rose named Sir Dargaard gained an item which gave him great fighting prowess. He was a scourge of the evil armies until his entire company was poisoned at a feast. The company was buried along with Sir Dargaard’s great device in lands later overrun by evil. The evil ones sought to wrest the artifact from the tomb, but were slain by the spirits of Sir Dargaard and his company. Our scouts now say that draconians have attempted to penetrate the tomb again, perhaps with sufficient strength to succeed. It is time for a truly noble knight to go and ask that the artifact be passed on to guard the forces of good today.
On a side note, you will be happy to know that Caramon has contacted our elite units in Solamnia. The Council of Knights themselves will lead them into the coming battles, I will be certain to mention your impressive record to them when they arrive.
There’s also a little map showing us where the Tomb is located:
Then Sir Karl finishes with:
Oh great! “You’re doing a fine job, keep it up. Oh, and there’s a tomb off over there full of probably some nasty undead creatures…go and have a go at it, eh?”
Sure, why not. It’s not like we play this game to do anything but pillage and loot!
Before we can continue onward, Sir Karl can’t seem to shut up quite yet:
It might be an impressive fighting force, but is it a fighting force of extraordinary magnitude?
(If you get THAT quote, bravo to you.)
With Sir Karl finally done, we exit the office and go to reequip a few things – most notably, arrows for Izzie.
I then go to the Vault, which is something of a bank, and deposit 400 Steel to our account.
Which I think can be accessed from any Outpost. How’s THAT for banking in medieval-like times?
With spells re-memorized and the game saved, we trudge off to Jelek.
Upon entry, the city guards accost us and have a few words to share, apparently.
Journal Entry 47:
“We’ve had a lot of unsavory characters passing through town lately. The good armies have left us in the lurch and we are forced to take the law into our own hands in order to protect the citizens of this town. Here’s the official proclamation.
“All persons entering Jelek that are unknown to the guards shall be assigned an escort for the duration of their stay in the city. They will be restricted to the public parts of the town. The burial grounds are strictly forbidden to all strangers.
“It’s signed by our leader, Sir Lebaum.
“So, here’s a nice young man who’ll show you around the town.
“Skyla! Come over here!”
He introduces you to a man who looks you over and breaks into a goofy grin. His entire aspect seems dignified enough, until he smiles or begins to talk, then his ancestry is extremely questionable and you wonder if maybe he hadn’t suffered a fall on his head as a child.
Oh great, this oughta be a barrel of laughs.
This guy apparently likes to talk as much as Sir Karl does.
Journal Entry 76:
. . .friend has many objects of value for sale . . .
. . .great frog collection!!! . . .
. . .sword that seems to be magical, at least undead creatures are afraid of it . . .
. . .many potions for sale . . .
. . .information about the incidents of undead and draconian incursions in the area . . .
. . .a beautiful daughter. . .
I REALLY don’t like this guy. As much as this game likes to try to woo us into an ambush, it seems we’re about due. First, dude in Throtl tried to join up, and it turned out he was just trying to get us into an ambush. Then the guy in Gargath turns out to be okay, but doesn’t try to join us. Now this guy, who joins us WITHOUT asking me if I want to allow it, or not.
He’s being forced on us, he’s offering things that sound too good to be true, so…as a true paranoid DnD player, I proclaim him someone we absolutely cannot trust.
Journal Entry 45:
Oh, a map. How nice.
“Here’s a map to totally not an ambush, my fellow adventurers!”
We’ll see where this goes in the next chapter.
End of Part 16
CHAMPIONS OF KRYNN AAR
PART ONE ~ PART TWO ~ PART THREE ~ PART FOUR ~ PART FIVE ~ PART SIX ~ PART SEVEN ~ PART EIGHT ~ PART NINE ~ PART TEN
PART ELEVEN ~ PART TWELVE ~ PART THIRTEEN ~ PART FOURTEEN ~ PART FIFTEEN ~ PART SIXTEEN ~ PART SEVENTEEN ~ PART EIGHTEEN ~ PART NINETEEN ~ PART TWENTY
PART 21 ~ PART 22 ~ PART 23 ~ PART 24 ~ PART 25 ~ PART 26 ~ PART 27 ~ PART 28 ~ PART 29 ~ PART 30
Thank you for visiting The Armchair Dragoons and saddling up with the Regiment of Strategy Gaming.
You can find our regiment’s social media on Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. (We have an Instagram page and we never use it.)
You can support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, also, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events.
Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below.
There once was a game called Krynn,
With warriors, mages, and dragons within,
In Champions of might,
They battled all night,
For glory, for honor, to win.
The heroes were brave and true,
Fighting foes, both old and new,
With spells and with swords,
They faced their rewards,
To vanquish the dark and break through.
From the streets of Solace they roamed,
To the lairs where dragons called home,
With quests to fulfill,
And battles to thrill,
Champions of Krynn, on they’d roam.
