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Jastermereel
2010-09-17, 12:16 PM
I’ve enjoyed reading other people’s game journals, so I thought I’d share the fairly lengthy one I’ve been keeping.

That said, I certainly expect more than a few “Too Long, Did Not Read” replies. I don’t mind as I’ve already written it for other purposes, but if you’re a TLDNR person, this may not be for you. I’d caution, though, that the emphasis is less on “fairly” and more on “lengthy”. The Word document version is over 70 pages. I’ve thus tried to make judicious use of the Spoiler tags in posting it. I’ve tried to be fairly descriptive, sometimes going a little beyond the descriptions provided in game as 5 minute jumbled conversations don’t make for clear or cohesive unless distilled, polished and enhanced a little. They’ve grown in size over time: the first entry was 609 words while the twenty-third was 3,660. This paragraph started as a single-sentence footnote, so consider yourself warned for what lies ahead.

My group meets every other week and it usually takes a little while to finish up the recap, so updates should be bi-weekly when we keep to our schedule and I don’t dally in writing it up. The first session happened a year ago last week.

Plot Overview
I started with The Invasion of Arun’Kid from Kingdom’s of Kalimar (Sessions 1-3), ran through a series of one-shot mini-adventures* (Sessions 3-6), a home-brewed city-based adventure (Sessions 7-24) and now, a year later, I am finally starting my players off with the Red Hand of Doom (at the end of Session 24).

Using RHoD was my goal from the start so I’ve tried to weave hints and snippets of the RHoD into the preceding five levels and even into the character backgrounds (even if they didn’t know it at the time). I don’t know how long that adventure itself will take, or if the campaign will continue after that.

*The mini-adventures were A Dark and Stormy Knight, Something’s Cooking, and The Burning Plague.

Setting
The world this game is set in is a sort of patchwork of various settings. The primary map is from the Kingdoms of Kalimar Atlas (starting roughly in the middle of the countryside). Cities, names, maps and encounters have been drawn from an assortment of sources. The end result is fairly generic, without any major exceptions or well known, pre-existing threats known to all in the setting.

However, just because a player or NPC is from a pre-existing culture doesn’t mean they follow the standard background for it. If a player wants to have a Mulan-type character as a Goliath, well then, they’re a bit more misogynistic than the sourcebook would indicate. Saurian Shifters aren’t inherently hairless and wild looking, Warforged aren’t necessarily run according to Eberron’s vague and cryptic backgrounds regarding the Source Forge, and so on and so forth. There aren’t too many ties to major parts of pre-existing fluff, but don’t be surprised if it isn’t as you’re expecting.

Characters
The four players are Adrian, a Goliath barbarian; Ennostiel, a Grey-Elf fighter; Naomi, a Saurian Shifter rogue; and Niss, a Catfolk bard.

The following are the results of my request that the players write up a description based loosely around the 7 Sentence NPC. None were quite that short, and you can probably guess which participate in NaNoRiMo.

Adrian – A Goliath Barbarian

1) Occupation and History -- Adrian was born in Dodera, one of the small countries to the north of Kalamar. While their territory used to be vast, their numbers have dwindled over the years, and their army, though strong for its size, has not made any attempts to expand its borders in almost a decade. Her people value strength above all else, their familiarity with music and magic is virtually non-existent. Positions in the army are considered the highest-honored occupation. Women are considered little more than objects, and in fact, are referred to as prizes. Because of this belief, Dodera has had a difficult time making peaceful negotiations with surrounding countries, and neighboring peoples are more likely to attack them for use of land and resources rather than friend them.

For the past five years, Adrian has served as a sergeant in Dodera's army, mostly holding back attacks on their borders. Dodera's leaders, however, fear that unless they can work out some sort of treaty with their neighbors, their country will be completely overtaken in the next few years. Reluctantly, they send Adrian out as a diplomat, to gauge outsiders' views of Dodera and to act as a positive representation of their culture.

2) Physical description -- Adrian has been raised as male by her father, who's paid special attention to both her diet and her physical training. She is flat-chested, well-muscled, and easily mistaken for a male (albeit a bishonen type), even when wearing light clothing.

3) Attributes and skills -- Adrian is used to winning things by sheer force, and is quite good at intimidating people into doing what she wants. She's also had decent practice at swimming due to a large river that runs through Dodera.

4) Values and motivations -- Adrian's chief concern is for her people, she is willing to undergo great personal stress and sacrifice if she feels it is to their benefit.

5) Interactions with others -- Among her own people, Adrian is considered to be intelligent and charismatic. While among others, this is considerably less true. As part of her mission, Adrian tries hard to understand and accept the cultures of others, although her attempts are usually clumsy at best. She has resigned herself to traveling with women, speaking with them, even fighting alongside them, but she will almost never take their advice or allow them to order her around. In a group of men, she is less on-edge, friendly, and more able to have a normal conversation.

6) Useful knowledge -- Adrian's knowledge of the outside world is limited, mostly she knows how to survive in the wilderness. However, unlike many people from her home, she knows how to read and write.

7) Distinguishing feature -- Adrian does not view herself as female, following the logic that because she is a capable fighter, she can't possibly be a woman. If someone confronts her with facts to the contrary, she loses her temper very easily. She sees her feminine body as a deformity and will avoid being seen nude at all costs. When bathing, she does it as quickly as possible and avoids looking at herself. NPCs and members of the party will, by default, see Adrian as male. She has grown up looking and acting like a guy, unless she slips up and lets her secret out.

Naomi – A Saurian Shifter Rogue
Occupation and History: Naomi was born into the rare bloodline of saurian shifters (Dragon Magazine 328 p62), one of only a handful of clans still in existence. Although clan members can pass as human, they are still untrusting and secretive by nature. They prefer the nomadic lifestyle, moving and converging at various ‘base towns’ throughout the regions of Kalamar. Although their friends are limited, the shifter clans are a close-knit community and remain highly protective of themselves and those alliances that have been incorporated into the “family.”

Since shifters have limited ties with outsiders they aren’t exactly picky when it comes to their employers, or for that matter, the legality of the job at hand. Their willingness to travel and saurian abilities make them useful for hire as caravan escorts and bodyguards as well as smugglers, robbers and bounty-hunters.

The summer she turned sixteen Naomi was sent on her first job; to assist several other clan members with a smuggling operation for a wealthy lord. Things went awry and the band was caught by the authorities as crossed through a neighboring region. Although most of the shifters were able to escape Naomi was still young and inexperienced in combat and was quickly captured and imprisoned.

While in jail she befriended a young man named Kaiden who was imprisoned two years before. During their subsequent incarceration the two became quite close and form a strong bond of friendship, which eventually turns to love. Naomi learns that Kaiden is the only son of Kale, the cruel and merciless leader of a deadly assassin’s guild known as the crimson talons. Unlike his father, however, Kaiden is kind hearted. It was because of his caring nature that he slipped up during a mission and ended up in prison.

After three years of confinement both Naomi and Kaiden are released. They seek out Naomi’s clan, into which Kaiden is eventually accepted as her chosen pair-bond. Kaiden tries to abandon his past and make a new life free of the talons and his father. Naomi and Kaiden marry and have a son, Troy. Although Troy has his mother’s blonde hair and saurian powers, he proves to be gentle and kind-hearted like his father.

Five more years pass and the family lives peacefully. Unfortunately, word of Kaiden’s release eventually reaches the crimson talons. Enraged at his son’s betrayal and fearful that the secrets of the guild might somehow be exposed, Kale orders Kaiden and his family killed. In a mass assault the talons succeed in killing Kaiden, Naomi’s entire clan, and nearly Naomi herself (now 24) in one night. Naomi is left barely alive under the rubble of one of the clan’s base towns, her left eye permanently scarred. However, Troy is spared when the assailants discover his saurian blood, and rather than kill Naomi’s son (5 yrs) the talons kidnap him to bring him to his grandfather, Kale, in the hopes that he can be put to use and trained in the ways of the crimson talons.

When Naomi comes to after the attack she finds herself in the town of Arun’kid under the care of Fesedore, a local merchant who runs a trading post. As she recovers her strength, Naomi eventually earns enough money for some weapons, supplies and a map. With her clan and beloved bond Kaiden dead, Naomi realizes that she must find some new allies in order to gain the experience she needs to find her son…and kill the man who took him.

Note: Although Naomi’s immediate clan was killed this does not make her the last shifter in Kalamar. There are a few other clans still migrating across the country.

Physical description: Naomi is of average height and feminine figure. She has short, unkempt honey-blonde hair and hazel eyes. She has well-proportioned muscle tone: supple but sculpted. Her outfits of choice tend to be form-fitting and in dark colors, such as black leather.

*While this differs from the fluff-text, I didn’t really see the need to stick to it strictly here.

Attributes and skills: Naomi is very athletic and also quite stealthy. Rather than face her foes outright, she prefers to jump, climb, and creep her way onto roofs or into unseen corners to ambush her foes from behind with sneak attacks. Naomi carries a rapier as well as a light crossbow. Naomi gains various saurian traits when “shifting” (claws, fangs a long-whip tail etc.). As a general rule, however, when shifted her eyes become like those of a raptor: yellow with black slit pupils.

*While this differs from the fluff-text, I didn’t really see the need to stick to it strictly here.

Values and motivations: Naomi’s chief goal is to find her son, Troy, and kill the man responsible for his kidnapping: the leader of the crimson talons, Kale. Before she can do this, however, she realizes she must first find some new alliances and become a stronger fighter.

Interactions with others: When interacting shifters refer to each other with family titles (Aunt & Uncle for elders, Brother & Sister for same age or younger) even if they aren’t related by blood. As a general rule Naomi doesn’t trust easy. However that isn’t to say she is incapable of making friends. Once a close friendship is established (which may take some time) Naomi will often perceive these relations as part of her “family.” That said, she will become fiercely protective over these individuals and may go off on her own to covertly “take care” any who threaten them. Naomi does not take kindly to those who betray her trust. Although Naomi tends to try and keep her saurian blood hidden in casual or everyday situations she may slip up occasionally and hiss, snarl or use a raptor-ish vocalization.

Useful knowledge: Her nomadic upbringing has given Naomi familiarity with a great deal of Kalamar’s overall geography. She has knowledge of travel paths, trade routes, as well as various towns and cities that are hospitable to wonderers. However, because of her untrusting nature, her visits are generally short and Naomi retains very little insight (and cares very little) about the actual people and their differing cultures.

Distinguishing feature: After her defeat by the crimson talons Naomi sustained a scar through her left eye that begins half an inch above the eyebrow and stretches to about mid cheek. Because of her saurian blood her injured eye now permanently resembles that of a raptor even in her normal, unshifted state. For this reason she usually elects to keep her saurian eye covered under a black eye-patch. When provoked, especially in anger, Naomi’s good eye may appear saurian for a brief second.

Ennostiel – A Grey Elf Fighter
1) Occupation and History -- Ennostiel was, until recently, an apprentice and sometimes bodyguard to her grandmother, a powerful wizard/artificer. Ennostiel only remembers the past 7 years of her life(she's 23). She woke up in her grandmother’s house with no memory of who she was or how she got there. The grandmother told her about her parents, wizards themselves, who had been reckless with their experiments and ended up destroying their house, killing them both and injuring their daughter. Because of this, Ennostiel has a dislike and distrust of magic, but will tolerate anything her grandmother deems 'safe'. While Ennostiel holds the laws of the land in high esteem, her grandmother did not have the same respect for the law. She frequently traded with people of questionable character and connections for valuable rare artifacts. Ennostiel didn't much like these visitors, but having been told by her grandmother that they helped her with her work, Ennostiel left well enough alone trusting her grandmother in all things. One day Ennostiel came back from training to find her grandmother dead and the home ransacked. Many valuable artifacts had been stolen. She reported this to the local authorities, but upon inspection of the house there were more questions about how rare stolen artifacts had gotten into the house. The residence (mansion) was seized in the investigation as evidence. Ennostiel, angered by the whole thing decided to track down the criminals who destroyed her life and family. Following some initial leads from the investigators, she travels from town to town in search of more information, occasionally taking up odd repair jobs to fund her quest for justice using what she learned as an artificer's apprentice. For the past few months she has worked at a cobbler’s shop in the hamlet of Arun’kid.

2) Physical description -- Ennostiel is unusually tall for an elf and has long light blond hair, which she usually ties or braids.

3) Attributes and skills (exceptional ones only) -- Ennostial appears to have a natural resistance to healing spells and this causes the spells to be half as effective as normal. This caused her grandmother great concern when Ennostiel decided to pursue a fighting profession. Unable to convince Ennostiel of pursuing a safer profession the grandmother, being a wizard of great skill, created various items for her over the years that would help her heal. These are used up quickly however and need to be replaced. Since the grandmother is no longer alive, Ennostiel will have to deal with her healing problem without the aid of pre-made magical items.

4) Values and motivations -- Ennostiel was brought up in relative isolation and as such has limited understanding of other people. Most of what she knows about how the world works comes from her reading of her grandmother's vast library including volumes from several races on various genres such as history, myth and various anthropological texts. In short she knows a lot about how the world "should be" and very little about how it is. Being brought up in relative isolation, she also has an unhealthy deference to authority and will follow official's orders unquestioningly provided that she does not believe their station to be lower than hers. She will also usually trust the authority over anyone else.

5) Interactions with others -- Ennostiel attempts to be polite but her honesty makes her ignorance about the world and its people apparent. She tends to come off as arrogant and privileged. She also likes to express an opinion about anything she's read in an effort to show off which may annoy some people.

6) Useful knowledge -- Having been a wizard's/artificer's apprentice, she has some knowledge of repairing mechanical things. Having read her grandmother's whole library, she may have useful knowledge pertaining to anthropology of different races but the accuracy of this information is questionable.

7) Distinguishing feature -- Ennostiel does not bruise and never has. She can't see in low light like other elves.

Niss – A Catfolk Bard


1) Occupation and History - Nissrram, Niss for short, is an orange tabby looking catfolk. He is easy going and kind of absent minded when it comes to doing daily activities. He is the second son of his tribe's chief Kirrsuk. He was born ten years after his older brother Kurssam. While Kurssam excelled in physical and leadership activities, Nissrram was left to his own devices. Instead of focusing on becoming a constructive member of his tribe, he collected trinkets, such as small bells, and spent a lot of time with travelers who traded with his tribe. So much that he never really became good at all the things catfolk are well known for.

The catfolk tribes are nomadic and tend to keep to themselves. They are fairly xenophobic, and while they don't enjoy it, they realized early on that trading with merchants was essential to their success and therefore do so regularly. However, they are also fascinated with the outside world and enjoy hearing stories about what happens there. Catfolk adventurers are well treated in their society. Therefore, as Niss showed no interest in other activities, his father arranged for a traveling merchant named Philip Ar'tire to take him on for a year. He paid the merchant and made arrangements to meet up again in the same location in one year.

It took only a week for Philip to betray Nissrram. He stole most of Nissrram's things and money, leaving Niss with only a few copper pieces, some worn down weapons he was not able to sell, and bells.

Traveling on his own Niss was able to develop a narrative style involving bells and some crudely manufactured hand puppets. While strange, it provided him with enough of an income to eat and find shelter. He's been traveling for about a month when he arrived at Arun'Kid. By this point he is fairly sure he can survive for the next 11 months and is looking for something a bit more interesting to do than just the bells and hand puppets.

2) Physical description - He is a humanoid orange tabby catfolk or medium height. He has bells and other trinkets woven into his hair, thus making a jingling sound pretty much everywhere he goes.

3) Attributes and skills - Having listened to many stories growing up, Nissrram is well versed in the history and legends of many different types of people, though he does tend to confuse which story is which. He can be quite inattentive, which can get him into trouble at times

4) Values and motivations - Nissrram is carefree and easy going. While he can get emotional quickly he is much faster to forgive and generally trusts anyone he meets for the first time. He is not an idiot, just easily distracted and if someone betrays him he will hold a grudge.

5) Interactions with others - He is easygoing and outspoken throwing out his thoughts and opinions as they enter his head. He doesn't mind being wrong and does not take long to be convinced of a different action as long as it has merit.

6) Useful knowledge - Having spend a good deal of his childhood listening to the stories of passing merchants as well as his own people's legends, Nissrram is well versed in the tales from many of the surrounding cultures. Having said that, he is not 100% clear on what is truth and what is made up.

7) Distinguishing feature - Nissrram has all sort of trinkets woven into his fur, including small bells. He sounds like a wind-chime in a breeze.

Jastermereel
2010-09-17, 12:17 PM
Session 1 – A Botched Kidnapping
Setting: Arun'Kid

Niss is performing at the tavern, hoping for a drink or a place to stay the night. Adrian is chatting up some of the locals seeking to gauge their views. Ennostiel and Naomi are working at their respective shops (the cobbler’s and a trading post). As dusk approaches, Adrian and Ennostiel hear scuffles in nearby houses.

Ennostiel sees some unusual lights in the window of a house, but before she can enter, she encounters a pair of gnomes (including the yet unnamed Larstin Barleten) in the neighboring alleyway who seem to be hiding something. After a quick exchange of words, she bull-rushes past the duo and sees three more with bound and gagged humans heading off into the nearby field. Before she can disrupt them further, the gnomes and prisoners disappear into the field. After hearing further scuffling from inside the house, she doubles back only to find it empty and the sounds an illusion.

At the same time, Adrian charges into the town-hall, the sources of the noises near her. After knocking twice she throws the door open to find a team of gnomes pushing human captives into the back room. Three charge her and attempt to subdue her before she can interfere, but she becomes enraged and slays one. The other two (including the yet unnamed Barston Barleten) follow their comrades into the back. Adrian gives persuit and intimidates the lot of them into stopping just before they can disappear down the river bank.

By this time, other villagers have alerted the Tavern patrons, including Nissram, and Naomi at the trader's post. Niss leads a mob (more due to his speed than taking charge) of villagers towards Adrian's location, while Naomi sneaks around the other side of the town hall. After a brief scene where those captives are freed (and loosed from their bonds by Naomi) the gnomes are taken into the town hall and interrogated.

They've been searching for Ver'Kusi, who 40 years earlier, as a young adventurer then going by the name Ovini, stole some of the P'Sapas tribe's heirlooms. It is revealed that in the decades since then, he settled down in Arun'Kid and then, about six months ago, died. His remains were passed to Dak'Wi, a druid friend of his, who might know where any alleged treasure is. One of the gnomish prisoners is sent back to their camp in exchange for "little Suzy" a child hostage. The freed gnome will send a message to the rest of the strike-force to delay further action while the leader (Barston Barleten, one of the captives) goes with the PCs to investigate the villagers' claims.

Niss, using some local knowledge, leads the group to Dak'Wi's house, though Naomi hides outside the window until the situation is clear. Dak'Wi is initially gruff but upon mention of his friend's name and the need to help the hostages, he invites the four visitors (Barston, not Naomi) in for a late snack. He offers to help them if they'll do an old man a favor and try out his garden maze. The party initially refuses that task until Dak'Wi "remembers" that he may have lost the key to Ver'Kusi's tomb in the maze some time back. The party agrees and lets Dak'Wi know about Naomi who enters, and all go to bed (with Barston in a locked side-room).

In the morning, the party enters the maze only to encounter a dire rat. Due to the tight passages, Naomi is initially alone before it and is bitten. The party kills the rat shortly thereafter and finds the key. Instead of running the maze, the party backtracks their way to the entrance.

END SESSION 1

Note: We basically ran through the first few encounters of The Invasion of Arun’Kid (Kingdoms of Kalimar), though with some significant changes thanks to Adrian’s brute force and Niss’s developing penchant for creating angry mobs and subverting my plans. I don’t remember how “little Suzy” came into being, but I aim to have her be of use somewhere down the line, though I’ve no idea how.

Session 2 - Tomb Raiding and Bandits Attack
Setting: Arun’Kid and the surrounding area
The players, having left Dak’Wi’s maze with the key prepare to leave for Ver’Kusi’s mausoleum. Dak’Wi appears surprised that there were dire rats in the maze, but admits that it has been some time since he tended its hedges and gives the players a Potion of Sweet Water for their efforts. Before they go, he reminds them to take Barston with them, whom they had left locked in Dak’Wi’s pantry since the previous evening. Naomi notices some figures hiding by the tree line, but as she tells the others, the figures scatter and disappear.

The party travel to the mausoleum, and Niss runs up to the door only to find the door barred by a web guarded by a dog-sized spider. Naomi’s quick thinking and quicker aim saves Niss from attack as she dispatches the spider with her crossbow. Once the area is secured, Adrian unlocks the door and, in an effort to dislodge it from the tar seal around the rim, knocks it off its hinges.

Niss and Adrian scout out the interior of the mausoleum, finding various engravings, urns, and small terra cotta statues. Niss investigates them closely though they appear to be part of a standard burial ritual. Naomi guards the front door, while Ennostiel keeps an eye on Barston who waits quietly, watching the players search for his treasure.

The third and final room contains a large sarcophagus and six small coffins (three to an alcove on either side of the room). Upon closer inspection of the small ones, Niss finds what appear to be Ver’Kusi’s hunting dogs while Adrian lifts the bronze lid off Ver’Kusi’s personal sarcophagus revealing an assortment of gems and jewelry as well as an iron short sword bearing the name Halamten.

Barston is brought in to confirm that this is indeed part of the treasure Ver’Kusi stole from his people over forty years ago, but only part of it. He postulates that the rest must have gone to supporting the town. Adrian, being the only one who is comfortable with more baggage, gathers up the treasures and prepares to leave, but as she does Ver’Kusi’s dogs rise from their coffins and attack. Adrian’s sword makes short work of half of them, but within moments, Ver’Kusi himself rises as a shadow and his touch chills Adrian, sapping her strength.

The party flees from the tomb, but stops outside when they see that their pursuers do not cross the tomb’s door frame. Naomi and Niss dispatch the remaining dogs from safety, but the Shadow stands unharmed inside. Ennostiel and Niss suggest that the entrance be blocked for the safety of wandering locals, so Naomi fells a small nearby tree to block the door.

Before returning to the village, the party stops at Dak’Wi’s residence and complains that they had not been warned of the dangers of the mausoleum. Dak’Wi scolds the party observing that they had just robbed his friend’s tomb and that, as adventurers, they should expect such danger. Naomi again spots a shadowy figure amidst the trees but, as the light is fading, the party hurries on towards the village in search of a healer to ease the wounds they have suffered in the past few hours. While they would like to heal up before venturing into the Gnomish camp, they find themselves short both on funds and bargaining power. After trading barbs with the keeper of the shrine, the party escorts Barston to his camp.

After Barston reunites with his traveling band, they elaborate on his prior statements: as Ver’Kusi used their heirlooms to support the town, the town belongs to them and will pay an annual tax. While the players disagree with the Gnomes on that point, they do trade the treasure they gathered for the remaining hostages and suggest that, as the hour is getting quite late, negotiations should continue in the morning in the village.

Naomi, Niss and Adrian return to Arun’Kid, but Enositiel starts off toward the nearby town of Wegov’Gid in search of a police force. However, before she gets far, she encounters one already on route. Captain Turigoth and his men had been in the area hunting for brigands when Little Suzy alerted them to the Gnomish invasion. Ennostiel fills them in on recent developments and they arrive at the village late at night. Turigoth explains that he and his men will hide from view until the Gnomes arrive and talks start.

Talks in the morning don’t go particularly well at first. However, Niss, who had not made a great impression with the Captain the night before, serves well as a mediator between the two sides.

While the two parties are engrossed in the discussion of the town’s ownership, Naomi and Adrian catch sight of smoke coming from across town. Closing to investigate, they see that a barn has be set on fire and several figures are seen running off to the northern forests with a few villagers over their shoulders. Naomi gives chase while Adrian checks to make sure the barn is empty before following Naomi. Shortly thereafter, a villager interrupts the negotiations to bring the news of the fire and, after checking the smoldering remains of the barn, Niss, Ennostiel, the Gnomish forces and Turigoth and his men work their way into the forest, while continuing a lively discussion.

Naomi arrives at the brigand camp at spots the few she chased run into the first of a series of elevated rooms and rope bridges setup like a large tree-fort. Adrian, however, marches up to the front door and demands for the villagers release. The brigands, displeased at having been found, demand that she drop her weapon and step inside. Adrian is reluctant, but complies. However, as one approaches with rope, she becomes enraged, knocks one unconscious against the wall of the hut and leaps for her sword outside. Naomi runs up to the side of the room and leaps up into the window, attacking one of the guards from behind. Adrian takes some damage from the brigand’s short bows, but the last two left standing in the room are quickly put down. However, she is startled and injured by more bolts coming from the next room over. While she makes use of her imposing form to make them briefly cease their assault, the situation is unstable.

The rest of the adventurers arrive, Niss approaches the source of the commotion and demands that the brigands stop before the might of the two small armies (though their captains are visibly bickering with one another).

END SESSION 2

Note: For a while I’d considered keeping the Shadow on their trail, but they’d given away the only weapon they could touch it with, and even some twenty sessions later haven’t gotten around to having one that could. As they’ve long forgotten about it, I don’t think I’ll be bringing it back anytime soon, though perhaps he and little Suzie could be in a side-quest together.

Session 3 – A Blackmail of Three Armies and A Dark and Stormy Knight
Setting: Arun’Kid and a nearby Brigand Encampment

Niss manages to convince Barson Barleten of the Gnomish band and Captain Turigoth of the patrol from Wegov'Gid to surround the Brigand's base. Even given their dire situation, the leader of the brigands demands payment for his hostages. However, Arun'Kid is not a place of great wealth so even as the brigands reduce their demands, they are forced to realize that they will be unable to get 20, 10 or even 5 gold pieces a head for those they hold. Indeed, not only had they expected greater wealth for their captives, they had also expected a cleaner escape from the village. Now, surrounded faced with the prospect of being set aflame, the brigands are talked down by Niss into releasing the hostages in exchange for the promise that they might be left alive.

Adrian exits the front room of the base and is soon followed by two upper-class persons, traveling merchants as it turns out, and Naomi. In a quick round of questioning they reveal that they are the only hostages, but that there did appear to be a small team of goblins working with the brigands.

The merchants are clearly shaken by their ordeal and ask the adventurers, apparently the most competent crew around, if they might be willing to escort them towards the south towards more civilized towns. While they did not have much money after their time with the Brigands, they could offer some magical trinkets with the promise of more upon arrival.

Before the group sets off, Turigoth complains to Niss that he is now in a compromised position, unable to dispatch the Brigands he had originally set out to hunt down, and unable to leave them to their schemes. However, Niss points out that only he gave his own word not to harm the Brigands, leaving Turigoth’s hand free.

The group returns to Arun'Kid and prepares for their departure. Niss gathers a healing potion from the guardian of the shrine as a favor for having rescued the prisoners of the Gnomes. Ennostiel gives notice at her job and Naomi bids a fond farewell to Fesedore, who gives her a small braid (of dire shifting) with a knowing look, suggesting she wear it when in need of great inner strength.

Before nightfall they travel south and arrive at the town of Salanido but, having little coin of their own, they postpone a desired shopping trip and, after gathering a little information about the area (avoid the towns to the north unless you're looking to be kidnapped), they settle down for the night in rooms adjacent to the Merchants as storm clouds gather above.

Setting: The road from Salanido to Lomithanido

Niss asks around for the best route to Lomithanido. A road to the south-west would take them by a string of prosperous towns, but, as it is often a route of wealthy merchants, there is a risk of bandits. A road to the south-east would get them there in about the same time, but the route is less populated and the wilderness may pose its own risks.

After choosing the latter path, the group of six sets out, but before mid-day they are forced to seek shelter as the weather turns from bad to worse. As the rain gives way to hail, they spy the ruins of a watchtower atop a hill. While the tower itself would not provide much in the way of protection, there is an entrance at the base of the hill amidst what looks like a ruined barricade to a large and sturdy looking room.

While there are three doors to other rooms, they all appear sturdily locked, until, with a crack of thunder heard as clearly from within the structure as from outside, the three doors fly off their hinges. Startled by the storm, a small swarm of rats runs out from the middle door and seriously bites Niss before he can withdraw. Before the rats can advance further, Adrian steps forth and squashes a pair, sending the others scurrying in a wide arc away from the band of adventurers and out into the storm.

With the way inside revealed, Adrian, Ennostiel and Niss choose to explore a little deeper, while Naomi guards the Merchants. After a little ways, the corridor broadens into another room. Rain pours down from a hole in the ceiling, apparently leading to the watchtower, and runs into a drain in the floor. There are a few tables and a few metal instruments whose purpose, while unknown, seems brutish. Before further inspection can be made, two hobgoblins, apparently defending their shelter, burst through a door on the opposite wall and attack. While they do manage to catch the adventurers off guard, they are quickly cut down: Ennostiel's double-sided sword cuts through one and, in a particularly brutal moment, Adrian's over-sized great sword neatly slices through the other as he attempts to dive under a table for shelter.

The trio strips the two of their armor and weapons and Niss finds an uncharacteristically ornate belt on one of them. Proceeding deeper down the corridor, albeit more carefully, they reach the doorway of what appears to be a tomb of some sort. Scattered about the floor are hundreds of gold coins, and lying atop a stone is the aged body of a long-dead hobgoblin. Thinking back to their prior encounter with the undead, no one is inclined to enter.

Instead, Ennostiel notices a smaller tunnel branching to the side. She and Niss head further, but Adrian, still raging from the fight, does not wish to squeeze through the tunnel and instead waits behind and quaffs the healing potion. Before long, Ennostiel and Niss spot a spider's handiwork and retreat back up the tunnel. In the mean time, however, the lure of gold proves too much for Adrian and the moment the nearest coin is lifted off the floor, the corpse stirs and attacks with an ancient morningstar.

Unfortunately, the last battle's rage has subsided, and Adrian is severely injured before Ennostiel can take some of the undead's attention. Showing more stamina than any foe thus far, the Bugbear zombie both gives and receives quite a beating before finally being put down. After a quick round of looting, turning up a rare masterwork double-sword, the trio returns to the main room and reunite with the others who've watched as the storm clears. Rather than risk any further confrontations before they've rested, the group opts to continue along their road to the nearest town.

END SESSION 3

Note: While it might have been a little premature, I had the players level up* upon leaving the village. I’m not really a fan of the minutia of XP calculations and so have them level at landmark story events and I felt Arun’Kid’s resolution served satisfactorily as an opening “chapter”. For the second half of the session, I used “A Dark and Stormy Knight”, as the first in a series of one-shot weeks. The end of summer brought a slew of scheduling conflicts, so we used a series of one-shots to avoid leaving multi-week cliff-hangers when we were forced to reschedule. This also explains Naomi fading into the background for this and the next session.

Adrian – Goliath (LA 1) Barbarian 1
Ennostiel – Gray Elf Fighter 2
Naomi – Saurian Shifter Rogue 2
Niss – Catfolk (LA 1) Bard 1

*Well, half leveled up. Niss and Adrian were essentially operating at level two with their +1 LAs (Goliath and Catfolk). In time, Niss might get to ignore his LA and level-up twice to catch up to the others as he’s not really using it to optimize. Adrian, however, doesn’t really need any boost and may never catch up.

Session 4 – Something’s Cooking
Setting: The road from Salanido to Lomithanido

As evening draws near, the players arrive at a small inn at a crossroads. The innkeeper welcomes the travelers warmly and has a few rooms available, but apologetically informs them that he only has a weak broth to offer them for dinner. Ordinarily he'd offer them a taste of the finest Kalamarian Pasty in a hundred miles, but Gendrew, the local chef, hasn't delivered any in a few days and he's growing worried for him. However, after the players off-handedly mention that they'd just come from the abandoned watchtower, having slain the bugbears, both living and undead, there, the innkeeper suggest that they, being no stranger to trouble, could go and check on Gendrew for him. He's willing to reward them handsomely if they could get the deliveries going again.

In the morning, after the crew rests up, they depart the inn leaving Naomi and the merchants to relax for the day as the trio heads up the small hill to the west to check on the absent chef. The front door of the house is unlocked, leading to a small storeroom where the most recent batch of goods is growing stale. The party calls out, but no one answers. Two doors lead off into the residence and Niss, leading the expedition, checks to the door to the south, which opens into a dining room. It's set for two, but there are no significant signs of a struggle. However, an adjacent door opens onto the bedroom where Gendrew lays, bound to the bed, bleeding from numerous cuts all over his body; nearby, perched on a desk, is an Imp. Around it lie numerous pages from books it has torn to pieces, but it freezes as Niss enters the room; they lock eyes, and Niss runs from the room, shrieking of the Imp to the others, leaps over the dining room table and cowers behind it.

Ennostiel runs into the room, but sees nothing and begins to undo Genrew's bonds. However, the Imp, drops its temporary invisibility to strike at the distracted Ennostiel. While it delivers a bit of a scratch, and poison is visible oozing from the wound, Ennostiel is unfazed and continues work on the ropes. Niss, finding his own courage, inspires it in others, with epic tales enacted with his puppets. Adrian runs into the room and with a mighty swing, slays the Imp, knocking it halfway through the wall, extending back into the storeroom. As his bonds are loosed, Gendrew awakens but is clearly still quite dazed from the Imp's poison running through his veins. His tattered clothing is stained with his blood, but also a large helping of tomato sause. Amidst half-crazed mumblings he appears to try to warn the players of other dangers of other dangers: "Imp not alone" "calzone raging below" (or perhaps "blow").

As Ennostiel and Adrian try to learn more, Niss has wandered into a nearby Sitting Room. While it appears unoccupied, he is attacked, quite unexpectedly, by a book, a poker from the fireplace and the drawstring from the curtains. As he dives for cover, Adrian runs in, but does not see anything threatening, but is soon attacked by the animated guards of the sitting room. Adrian's axe cleaves the spine of the book, but is eluded by the other menacing objects. Niss, calling upon the powers of the arcane, summons an unseen servant to move a nearby chair drawing the attention of the cord and blocking the poker so that Ennostiel and Adrian can pass by unscathed.

Beyond the sitting room is a rather battered looking kitchen with signs of a struggle, with pots and pans scattered across the floor, and vaguely human footprints, mixed with tomato stains, leading down the stairs into the pantry. Ennostiel creeps downstairs and sees even more destruction, with all of the supplies and shelves bashed to pieces and lying in scattered piles across the floor. From around the corner, she hears a strange shuffling, gurgling sound. Adrian joins her and spots around the corner the source of the noises: a humanoid form covered in what looks like pizza dough with tomato sauce and melted cheese oozing from fissures in its surface. The calzone golem sees the intruders and charges the intruders, but misses in a sloppy assault. Ennostiel and a now enraged Adrian cut into it deeply, but boiling-hot juices gush forth, scalding them with every blow. Niss supports them from saftey, and before long the raging golem is cut down, but not before seriously wounding Adrian who would pass out, were it not for her rage.

Moments later, the trio hear a voice from upstairs: "Hello? Gendrew my love? Are you there?" From downstairs the tired heroes call out to let the newcomer know of their presence and purpose, and Andolyn, after reviving her husband, rewards the unlikely rescue party with a small box of potions and, with a bit of magic, heals Adrian to prevent her from bleeding out. She asks that the innkeeper be told that deliveries will be resumed in a few days, after Gendrew has had time to sufficiently recover, and hints that she would like to be left alone with her husband now. As the heroes return to the inn, the innkeeper offers them free lodging whenever they might return, and free food, once the deliveries have resumed.

END SESSION 4

Edit: Thanks to diseases taking days to develop, we finally got to find out both that Naomi had and effortlessly rid herself of a case of Filth Fever she hadn't even been aware that she'd caught from the Dire Rat in Dak'Wi's garden maze.

Session 5 – The Burning Plague
Setting: The road from Salanido to Lomithanido

Having returned to the inn, the group settles down to rest for the evening, but as night falls Naomi hears a commotion from outside. A small band of what sounds like goblins approaches the inn and demands to know if the innkeeper had seen two humans escorted by a small adventurer band recently. The innkeeper says that he had, but that they'd passed southwards a day or two ago. As the goblins ride off, a small scuffle can be overheard. Naomi crept downstairs and found the innkeeper outside, unconscious on the ground with some minor wounds to his legs and lower torso. She brings him inside and heals his wounds.

The next day the party continues their journey south. Naomi informs the merchants of the previous night's events and asks if they know why they're being tracked. They claim they don't, but Naomi senses they're hiding something.

Setting: Duvik's Pass on the road from Salanido to Lomithanido

Before long, the party arrives at the town of Duvik's Pass. What once was a thriving mining town and a hub of rural commerce is now looking rather diminished. The party sells some of their excess gear with a local merchant and buys a Healing Belt and a Tanglefoot Bag from him. While he makes the exchange at a bit of a loss, he seems happy to have any business at all and tells the party of the town's woes. Through him they find out that the miners of the city were recently hit by a plague, and, in their weakness, were soon attacked by a band of Kobolds who took over the mines. The townspeople have been tending to their sick, but it is unclear how long they can hold on. The party offers to have a look into the mines to see what they can do, while the two traveling merchants decide to stay with the local merchant. Naomi asks him to tell her if they act at all suspicious while she's away.

The mines appear largely empty, with clear signs of the struggle that took place recently. Bloodied shovels and pickaxes lie scattered about and several mining carts are tipped over. Beneath one, a man's remains are visible amidst various chunks of silver ore. The party steers clear of this former carnage, but takes one of the intact mining carts that wasn't derailed to hold a torch and any supplies they may encounter on their way.

Deeper into the mines they encounter a well-carved doorway and thick wooden door to the side of the tracks. Inside is what used to be the miner's mess hall, with two long tables lined with chairs and various barrels lining the room. In one corner, a rather pungent stew is simmering over a low fire. To one side of the room, next to a row of barrels, is a closed door. At the far end of the room, half concealed by the tables is a quartet of Kobolds with crossbows. Niss surprises them with a quick demoralizing insult in Draconic while Ennostiel runs towards them. The Kobolds fire, but while one hits Ennostiel, the rest miss (and continue to do so). Naomi takes cover next to some barrels from where she tries to return fire. Adrian takes the central path between the two tables and, before long, has turned two, and then a third of the diminutive barkers into a fine red mist. While Niss emboldens his allies with a tale of a Kobold who was unprepared for winter and died, which "is funny because the Kobold gets dead". As Adrian turns to take on the last of the Kobolds, Ennostiel strikes true and smites, leaving Adrian with a bit of red on her.

In the quiet that follows, the players loot the bodies and open the barrels of the room, though the latter only reveals the crude way the Kobolds had been using the space. Meanwhile, Naomi has turned her attention to lock-picking the door. While she nearly succeeds, picking the lock becomes moot when a key is found on one of the Kobolds.

Inside, five other Kobolds had been lying in wait, hoping their brethren would have faired better. This grouping is dispatched quickly as the adventurers rush into the room. Even a dire weasel that had hidden in the corner provided little threat. The barrels of this room proved a little more interesting with a large supply of wine and lamp oil rolled back to the mining cart. The beef jerky topped with recently butchered rat, however, was left behind when the quartet prepared to delve deeper into the mines.
END SESSION 5

Jastermereel
2010-09-17, 12:19 PM
Session 6 – The Burning Plague (continued)
Setting: The mines of Duvik's Pass (while on the road from Salanido to Lomithanido)

Having loaded the wine and lamp oil casks into the mining cart, the quartet venture deeper into the mines. As the entrance recedes into distance, the path beings to slope downward more steeply; eventually the cart no longer needs to be pushed, but pulled to keep it from rolling away on its own. Just before the track ends, the tunnel, previously low-ceilinged, opens up into a large cavernous space above the travelers. Ropes extend upwards leading to alcoves on either side of the space starting twenty feet above the floor. Adrian slowly walks the cart forward with the others close behind.

Suddenly, the floor opens up beneath Naomi, Ennostiel, Nissram and the cart. Naomi deftly leaps to safety, while Ennostiel and Nissram each manage to catch hold of the edge of the pit, slamming into the side but not falling atop the cart twenty feet below.

While Adrian pulls the two up, the barking sound of more Kobolds is heard from above and a few crossbow bolts are released from above. As Adrian and Ennostiel move to return fire from cover, Adrian climbs up a rope to the right side of the hall coming almost face to face with one of the attackers. As the four Kobolds in that alcove prepare to face off against a barbarian thrice their size, M'dox, the lead Kobold fires a clean shot from the opposite alcove causing Adrian to drop.

Niss bravely scurries up the rope and delivers a burst of positive energy from his belt, reviving his fallen ally. While Naomi and Ennostiel pick off Kobolds to the left, dropping them to the cavern floor below, Adrian cuts down the pair of Kobolds nearest, sending the others of the ledge running for cover, and leaps across the gap to confront the leader who, in turn, rushes to the farthest corner and seems to fiddle with a blanket before turning to face his foes.

Seeing his clan dwindle, M'dox calls for a truce, initially in halting Common, and then in Draconic as Niss and Naomi climb up to the alcove and reveal themselves to be proficient in it. M'dox tells of his clan's attempt to claim the mines as their own, only to fall victim to a disease. He asks the adventurers let the Kobolds leave the mines peacefully once the sickness passes and, in exchange, they may may have the ore they'd hoarded and the wealth of the “demon” deeper in the mines. As talks wind down, Niss spots the blanket in the rear of the alcove and convinces M'Dox to begrudgingly let him see what turn out to be two Kobold children.

Realizing that the skirmish with the Kobolds left them seriously wounded and without any means of healing (the belt being drained), the four head back to the miner's mess hall to take shelter for the night.

In the morning, they explore deeper into the mines, though Niss is feeling feverish, perhaps suffering from the same affliction that claimed the miners and the Kobolds. After the Kobold's cavern, the tunnel appears rougher and more irregular; if the miners had been using a natural cave system to mine, they hadn't harvested this deeply before. As the adventurers advance, the air also becomes thicker and more heated and is filled with an increasingly putrid smell.

Around a bend, the caves open up into a larger bowl-shaped room. The bottom appears filled with a pile of corpses in various states of decay with rats running through the pile, chewing on the bodies. At the far end, around another bend, the sound of running water can be heard, but between it and the quartet are a small group of undead Kobolds, slouched over, slowly turning their vacant gaze to rest on the newcomers. Niss and Naomi snipe from cover while Adrian and Ennostiel batter down the zombies who approach, reducing them to a pile of rotten flesh while barely taking a scratch. While the commotion caught the attention of some former miners, reduced to a similar state, they are bottled up, flanked and dispatched without much trouble.

The sound of water grows louder, until they arrive at a final cavern. The air is humid and smells of sickness. At the far end, a small subterranean river flows in from a hole in the wall and out through another but not before mixing with a glowing yellow stream, running over the rocky floor from a large pillar of rock in the center of the room. At its top, an Orc dressed in stained and dirty, but ornate, robes gestures and chants over a pool of the putrid slime that feeds the stream. Though the rocky pillar is coated with lichen, magical runes glow through from beneath.

Wasting no time, Adrian rushes forth and scales the pillar as the figure retreats down stairs on the far side; before he can be followed, however, he growls a few guttural tones, freezing Adrian in place. Jakk Tornclaw, commands the intruders to “Leave now! Or you'll never see the sky again” and issues dire warnings against hindering “them”. Naomi sneaks to the side of the pillar, but is spotted just as she moves to strike. Niss follows but keeps his distance while giving support and sniping. Ennostiel, having paused to recognize the trickling slime as the source of the plague, waded through the river to strike. Realizing himself to be surrounded, Jakk utters an incantation to Gruumsh and darkens the room around him, but the darkness does little to save him. As a dying act he attempts, but fails to cast fear on Ennostiel.

However, as her blade cuts through him, his skin begins to recede and then inflate, becoming bulbous in some areas and bare down to the bone in others. His final words of angry warnings trail off into gurgling snarls. Even in his monstrously diseased state, he is unable to cause serious injury to those around him. Adrian, now freed from paralysis, leaps down the stairways and delivers the final blow only to have the bloated walking corse explode in a shower of bile and ichor knocking out Naomi and Nissram (standing thirty feet away). As the last echoes of the blast fade away, the diseased pool fades and the waters begin to clear.

Adrian, using Nissram's Healing Belt, revives the fallen allies and all began to scour the room for anything of use.

END SESSION

Note: I’d been trying to weave story threads of future events into these early chapters. While Jakk Tornclaw is a worshiper of Gruumsh, the larger forces he was working for worship something quite different. However, he is far enough down the food chain that it didn’t make sense to make strong connections to them just yet. I don’t think my players would have remembered if I’d used Tiamat anyway.

Session 7 – First Steps into a Larger World
Setting: The mines of Duvik's Pass

In the aftermath of the fight, some party members barely standing, they begin to loot loots the body of Jakk Tornclaw, Cleric of Gruumsh, taking his Holy Symbol, a fine Heavy Mace, and an assortment of potions and scrolls. The Kobolds appear to have been true to their word as the mine is empty as the quartet works their way out of the mine. At the entrance, however, they spot a lone goblin riding a worg sniffing. He carefully eyes each of them, but before either side can draw arms, a strange looking owl swoops in and, with a screech, sends the goblin off running. It, in turn, looks at each of the adventurers and flies off with a hoot.

After returning to town, they collect their reward, and promptly spend most of it on assorted magical knickknacks. The storeowner is visibly unnerved when they mention the worg-rider, as are the traveling merchants who ask the party to leave now, rather than in the morning. The party, however, decides to make use of a local inn with rooms given freely in thanks and baths pushed upon them in disgust at the blood and ichor that covers them.

As the sun rises, they prepare to hit the road and travel the final stretch to Lomithanido. However, growing suspicions along the journey reach a breaking point and the quartet demands an explanation before continuing. Reluctantly, the two explain that while they are not merchants, they aren’t at liberty to explain neither their circumstances, nor their pursuit just yet, but that when they reach Lothmanido, the party may be granted an audience who will both reward them and give them an explanation. Temporarily satisfied, they continue on the road and arrive, uneventfully by early afternoon.

Setting: Lomithanido
Lomithanido is a town, larger than any they’ve yet encountered, but still a town, with a population under a thousand. Near its center lies a large park fully shaded by a single great tree. The merchants lead the party to a small hall just south of the park and ask them to wait outside for a minute or two. In the brief wait before they are permitted to enter, a familiar hoot is heard.

Entering the hall, the party sees half a dozen figures, dressed well, but not in finery, sitting around a large wooden table. They thank the party for escorting their scouts home again, giving them both a reward in coin and of knowledge, as is more their custom. They are of the Andave’Cenda, an independent group of scouts, spies, lore-keepers, and influence peddlers. While a responsible city or nation has its own intelligence gatherers, they can often be territorial and short sighted. The Andave’Cenda owe no allegiance and claim no territory as their own, but instead watch for the larger or more hidden threats that others may miss.

Those present in the hall are of the Lomithanido chapter of the Andave’Cenda. The two “merchants”, Linaewen and Parma were relatively new initiates; they had been tasked with tracking the dire elk populations in the midlands near Arun’Kid, aiming to prevent overcrowding and stampedes, when they were ambushed by brigands, who mistook them for locals, and taken to the brigand’s base in the woods. The brigands lived aboveground in a small fort suspended in the trees, but they also had space beneath the ground. Linaewen and Parma were taken down into the small cave, past a small group of goblins and hidden behind a false wall. The brigands expected a ransom for the two, not knowing them not to be local, and while the scouts did have some trinkets on them for use in the wild, the brigands were simply looking for gold. However in the time behind the wall, Parma, who speaks goblin, could hear the goblins talking. Apparently the goblins were employing the brigands to scout out the area and, in exchange, they’d be given favored status by the goblin’s tribe. Parma could also hear discussions of troop movements. While any given tribe of the goblinoid races may have fighters, there are rarely enough to justify organized plans. When the players staged a raid on the Bandit camp, Linaewen and Parma were released and caught a glimpse of maps of the Ka’asa mountains to the North-East. On the way out Linaewen tore a small emblem from the goblin's supplies, but fumbled it a little. The goblins realized they knew and would have killed him then and there but for the two armies outside the base. They've been tracking them ever since trying to keep anyone from raising the alarm.

The torn emblem bears the image of a red claw in front of a yellow circle. The Andave’Cenda have seen it before and Linaewen and Parma’s stories match with information they’d been gathering, but the rural chapter is in no position to combat the rising threat; word must reach the capital city Bet Kalamar. As, the two scouts don’t have the training for such a mission, the Andave’Cenda offer the mission to the party, who have shown they can handle themselves in a rough environment. They give each member of the party a small pin with the Andave’Cenda’s emblem on it; while they shouldn’t flash it to everyone, it may help to identify the city’s chapter upon their arrival. As the chapter’s leadership suggests the players take horses from the stable at the North end of the town to speed their journey, the party hears a series of low, rumbles.

Suddenly, a large boulder crashes through the wall of the hall, instantly killing one of the members of the Andave’Cenda. A large hill giant can be seen through the hole peering in to survey his strike as he lifts another heavy stone. As the party flees the building, they find the streets deserted save for the giant, and four worg-riding goblins. Naomi makes a dash for the stables, picks the lock on the barred windows and, after a fumbling an introduction and pushing her way through a quick deal with the terrified stablemaster, rides off into the woods. Nissram makes it to the stables, buys two horses and rushes back to Adrian and Ennostiel, who cannot hope to out-pace the worgs on their own. Adrian takes one and Ennostiel joins with Nissram as they ride out of town with the goblins in hot persuit.

Before long, the quartet rides up to bridge over a river. However, the strong rains from a few days past have turned what might otherwise be a quiet and slow flowing waterway into rapids which washed much of the bridge away. Naomi makes it over the gap with her horse, but Ennostiel and Niss slip off their mount and land on the bank of the river while their horse clears the jump. As the worg riders near, Adrian scoops up Ennostiel and charges over the river while Niss takes a running leap across. The goblins race up to the edge, but seem strangely unwilling to cross the river and, turn back, disappearing into the woods where the ogre can be heard. As dusk falls, the quartet comes across a well dressed Hobgoblin sitting at a campfire who invites the party to stay, if they are friendly. Niss, Adrian and Naomi take the occasion to rest for the evening, but Ennostiel stays up, keeping an eye on the Hobgoblin.

However, in the night the campfire goes out and, as sunlight breaks through the trees he is nowhere to be found, though tracks lead off into the woods. By mid-day the tall walls of Bet Kalamar are visible, with small clusters of buildings dotting the land outside the city’s protection. However, before the party can reach the city gates, a goblin, small and fast, but lumbering under considerable bulk, sprints out of the woods, runs up to the party and explodes in a great fireball.

END SESSION 7

Note: A long expository session. The Andave’Cenda (or, as my players call them, the “tri-boob” thanks to an unexpected interpretation of their logo) were introduced so as to give the party some plot-hook support in the future. The upcoming two chapters (in the city of Bet Kalimar) needed a way to keep the party aimed at adventure without falling into a motivation-less freeform mess and the A’C fit the bill.

I hadn’t expected the players to deal with the Hobgoblin quite so civilly, but it’s good to have a party that isn’t bloodthirsty all the time, especially when you want to have recurring lieutenants to the various forces of the not-so-good.

And yes, the goblin suicide bomber was a nasty cheap shot but wasn’t meant as an un-winnable fight (which it wasn’t), and more as a way to let one of the characters be unveiled further. Well, that and I’d been thumbing through the Munchkin Monster Manual (p18’s Kamikaze Kobold to be exact).

Still, they weren’t left hanging about their character’s fates for long. I only paused for a few seconds after the fireball and a “fade to black” before letting them know they were all leveling up. Sure, they hadn’t “defeated” anything, but it didn’t kill them so, clearly, it must have made them stronger.

Adrian – Goliath (LA 1) Barbarian 2
Ennostiel – Gray Elf Fighter 2 – Wizard 1*
Naomi – Saurian Shifter Rogue 3
Niss – Catfolk (LA 1) Bard 2

*Ennostiel’s player requested a delayed leveling to justify the choice (which was planned out well in advance. Technically it didn’t happen for another session and then trickled in as seemed right, in character.

Session 8 – New Heads and New Trails
Setting: Bet Kalimar

The party awakens in what seems to be a hospital of sorts. Each is wearing the clothes they were in, but their armor and weapons sit by their bedsides. As they stir, attendants call for the captain of the guard. Kardith is a rather large man and, after gaining control of the conversation he demands to know what “you three and your mechanical hireling” were doing near his city; guards patrolling the wall spotted a massive explosion a little ways off and found the party unconscious and badly burned. Confused about his mention of the “mechanical hireling”, eyes fall on on Ennostiel who no longer appears as a Grey Elf, but as a creation of metal and wood with the face like a cracked mask of a Grey Elf. She protests that it must be an enchantment, some effect from the goblin’s explosion. Largely interested, Kardith simply states that provided none of them intend to cause any trouble, they are all free to go; however, he warns that they should stay out of the docks district as there’s been some trouble there with a plague and that it has been quarantined.
As the party gathers their things, several members find a note amongst their belongings, signed with the mark of the Andave’Cenda, asking them to meet near the north bridge.

They arrive around dusk, but instead of an envoy, they find a cloaked figure rummaging through the pockets of a corpse. Before any can attack, the figure runs to the edge of the bridge and leaps off. Ennostiel leaves to find members of the local police force while Naomi goes over to the body to investigate, but the cloak figure reappears, swinging up from under the opposite side of the bridge and strikes. Adrian charges and drives him back a little while Naomi receives healing from Niss. Three further cloaked figures slink in from the shadows and join the one, but upon seeing Ennostiel return with a trio of guards, all of the assailants quickly depart.

The party gives a description of what they saw, but there is little to tell. Nissram spots the Andave’Cenda mark on the inside of the body’s cloak while Naomi fleeces the body; While she finds a small coin purse, Nissram inquires as to what she’s found a little to loudly and the guards confiscate the body and the man’s belongings and return to their headquarters. As they leave, Naomi spots a figure in another alleyway watching the party, but it disappears when Ennostiel calls for the guards.

As night falls, each member of the party finds their own way to the Broken Anvil Inn. Niss spends some time performing while Adrian spreads word of the fine people of Dodera. Naomi, upon arriving at the inn, spots, and is spotted by a figure who resembles the one that disappeared after the conflict at the bridge. While talking quietly in the corner, she is informed that the dead man was Andave’Cenda’s envoy, meant to meet them, but he was attacked. He asks her to gather her people in the morning; he will find them and take them where they need to be.

Meanwhile, Ennostiel goes out into the streets to seek information of her “curse”. Before she can find anything, however, the owl finds her and lands atop her head. After some shooing, it perches on her shoulder but refuses to budge from there. While frustrated, she continues with her quest. After meeting with a disreputable potion-dealer and a disinterested guardsman, she finds a librarian of sorts. Upon retelling her tale, he reluctantly explains to her that she is not a cursed elf, but a confused construct: a creature of metal and wood. He reaches up and removes the cracked mask from her face as evidence, noting that masks sometimes may be used to enchant a subject – in her case, so as to appear in all respects as a grey elf. She asks if he might research the topic more, and returns to the inn for the night.

In the morning, Naomi explains her meeting to the others and, shortly after leaving the inn, the contact finds them as promised. He is Elzedar, a stooped creature with a mottled and mildly disfigured face, but one who seems comfortable in the shadows, appearing as though from nowhere. He takes them through various small alleys and back-roads until they reach the local chapter of the Andave’Cenda lead by Anduin, a magical being with a glowing halo of arcane writing levitating around her head.

The party conveys the news from the north, showing the small torn badge reclaimed from the goblin’s hole in Arun’Kid so many miles ago. Anduin has seen the symbol before and is distraught by the news of the goblinoid movements in the North-East. She and the other agents of the Andave’Cenda have been using back-channels to urge the leadership of Bet Kalamar to send scouts and eventually a military presence to combat this very threat, but they have been unsuccessful thus far. The armed forces are being used to keep the docks district quarantined and what’s more, other factions in the city have been undermining their efforts. Several Andave’Cenda agents have made it past the quarantine to see what is happening there, but only one has made it back. Anduin looks distraught as she explains that the agent didn’t report in, but was instead found wandering the streets and had no memory of his mission or of the Andave’Cenda for that matter.

Despite the dearth of intelligence, Anduin suspects the Lord Jarasco, a local merchant boss, may be involved. For years he and his organization have been major players in the city’s political stage, but made few allies outside the corrupt sections of the aristocracy. Lately, though, he seems to have undergone a transformation and has been working to improve relations with the common citizenry; holding large parties one neighborhood at a time, using his wealth to entertain them. While such a change could be an honest one, Anduin doubts it. His agents are among those working to undermine the scouting effort. For years he has worked to confirm the existence of the Andave’Cenda and expose them; while he has been hunting them out, he has not yet been successful.

Anduin asks if the adventurers might be willing to take on another mission for the Andave’Cenda. In two days, Jarasco will be holding another one of his parties, but tavern, owned by Lord Jarasco, is connected to one of his organization’s offices. Perhaps they might attend and, if the opportunity arises, find out the real story of what’s going on.
The quartet agree and have two days to find the supplies they need, while Anduin pulls strings to get passes to the party. Before leaving, however, several members wish to call on Anduin’s extensive knowledge for some personal questions. Adrian, having extended a common greeting earlier, extolling the virtues of the Doderan people, inquired further at the mild displeasure Anduin seemed to express at the mention of her nation. Anduin strives to smooth things over diplomatically, but Adrian seems less than completely placated by her assurances. Ennostiel explains what happened with the exploding goblin, and later with the librarian. Anduin concurs with the findings of the local librarian and pledges to search the Andave’Cenda’s archives for more information on her condition. Naomi asks if the emblem they brought from the north might be related to the Crimson Talon, the mercenary group that slew her love and stole her child. Anduin is unsure, but similarly promises to explore such possibilities further.

END SESSION 8

Note: Ennostiel was actually a Warforged from the start, a semi-secret deal made by the player. They and Grey Elves had enough in common that it wasn’t particularly tricky to manage, and it provided a more interesting player-plot-hook for me to work with than yet another vengeance story. While her grandmother had crafted a glamour of sorts, she had not built her and did not know where exactly Ennostiel had come from. I had planned on a side-quest to develop the explanation, but the matter became moot.

Session 9 – A Not-So-Long Expected Party
Setting: Bet Kalimar

While Elzedar of the Andave’Cenda seek out passes to the Lord Jarasco’s masquerade ball, the adventurers prepare. Naomi and Adrian, lacking suitable costumes seek out a specialty tailor. The tailor, being aligned with the Andave’Cenda allows them to rent outfits at a discount, but cautions that the deposit is contingent on the outfit’s return condition. Naomi garbs herself as a Black Dragon, while Adrian chooses the look of a handsome bearded pirate before purchasing a masterwork large great sword at the weapon-smith’s next door. Niss, having bought a Vestment of Many Styles while on the road, is simply transforms it into a “big thing of feathers” and Ennostiel, while still perplexed by her new form feels it should suffice as a costume.

As the party draws near, bad news finds them: Elzedar has only been able to acquire two invitations and, furthermore, no armor or weapons will be permitted at the event. Consequently most of the gear must be left back at the Broken Anvil Inn where the quartet is staying; however, Naomi decides to attempt to smuggle in a dagger and a single vial: a potion of invisibility.

As guests begin to line up outside the party hall, Naomi attempts to pickpocket an additional invitation, but fumbles the attempt and is forced to flee as the victim begins to shout. Thankfully, the private guards are more concerned with watching the door and checking invitations and don’t spare the commotion a glance. Adrian has no trouble entering, and Niss is able to pass Ennostiel off as a construct servant, which, as his property should need no invitation. Once the others have entered, Naomi has better luck with a less observant guest and an even less observant guard who accepts her excusing the vial as her “medicine”.

Inside, the ballroom has been decorated with crepe paper streamers and magical lights dart about to illuminate the crowd. An elven band provides music as a growing group of revilers begins to dance. Most, however, are near the bar, enjoying the free food and drink, while others mull about in the second floor’s balcony enjoying the chance to put on airs for the night.

While mingling, Adrian greets others with the usual Doderan sales pitch, apparently forgetting that the party is for local residents of the city. Thankfully, those within ear-shot assume the rehearsed-sounding line to be just as part of the costume as the gaudy outfit and the rocky gray “face paint”. Niss nearly does the same, going so far as to name the inn the quartet is staying at and to none other than Lord Jarasco himself, as he works the crowd. However, a large ape-like figure, a Hadozee, emerges from a room on the second floor seeking Lord Jarasco’s attention, and so Niss’s intrusion is excused as Jarasco magnanimously puts for that there is plenty of food and drink for all.

Naomi takes an interest in the room on the second floor but, finding it locked, regrets the decision to leave her tools at the inn; she asks one of the party-goers for a hairpin, but the request is rejected disdainfully. Niss, unable to open the door by drunkenly shouting “let me in!” at it, is able to smooth things over for Naomi and even manages to come away with a spare hairpin. However, between the casually watchful eye of the crowd and the makeshift nature of the tool, Naomi is unable to unlock the door to the backroom.

In the mean time, Ennostiel was spotted by Oskias, the librarian she met while roaming the city. While he is very clearly intoxicated, he exclaims that he has great news on her condition and asks her to stop by his offices in the morning.

Adrian, in a later conversation with Lord Jarasco finally manages to destroy the remnants of a cover story. However, he simply suggests Adrian ask the bartender for a glass of the Mor’dal’an Ale; while it’s a bit stronger than what most of the party-goers can handle, a heavyweight like Adrian should be able to handle it better than most. He extends the offer to the nearby Niss as well, but Niss politely declines.

A commotion at the front door draws Lord Jarasco’s attention. From the second floor the adventurers spy Kandar, the hobgoblin messenger they shared a campfire with some days before, being barred from entry by the guards. Lord Jarasco allows him in but is clearly annoyed at his untimely appearance. Niss works his way over to the duo, slouches in a nearby chair and listens-in as Kandar tells how he found Jakk Tornclaw slaughtered in his cave with his work undone. Lord Jarasco briefly appears displeased but quickly hides his reaction and demands that further discussion wait until they might have more privacy. Kandar downs a drink from the bar but, recognizes Niss as he walks past his table. Niss pretends he doesn’t recognize him, but Kandar is unswayed. Fortunately, Kandar does not appear to suspect Niss or the others in the death of Jakk Tornclaw.

Around the ballroom, several revilers pass out; Oskias and Adrian are among them. The guards briefly leave their posts, pick up the fallen and take them upstairs to the back room. Those that they pass are told, “We’ll take them home after the party. For now, let’s just let them sleep this embarrassment off, shall we?”

Naomi finds a dark corner, quaffs her potion of invisibility, and circles around the upper balcony getting to the back room’s door just as it locks shut again. With hairpin at the ready and no longer risking being seen, she unlocks the door and slips inside. There, the guards lay the unconscious partygoers on a large table. On the other side of the room, three Hadozee work at opening several crates while the fourth, the one seen talking to Lord Jarasco earlier, shouts at the guards for having left the door open. Naomi slips out of the way as the guards file out of the back room to return to watching the lower level. While they re-latch the door on the way out, Naomi quietly flips the latch back after they’ve gone.

With the room secured, the Hadozee being their work. One carefully takes a small box from a crate, carries it to the first of those laying on the table, and slides it open over their mouth, letting something dark drop inside. Naomi thinks quickly and, as the Hadozee watch over the second procedure, she slips over to the crates, pockets one of the small boxes and dumps the contents of a second one on the floor sending a large roach skittering across the floor. The head Hadozee, angered at his subordinate’s carelessness shouts at them to squash it while he finishes with the second victim.

Meanwhile, Niss and Ennostiel, having seen the guards exit the back room walk over to the door; Niss begins to drunkenly hammer on it. Having squashed the roach, but displeased by the constant interruptions, one of the Hadozee walks to the door and opens it a crack to tell Niss to buzz-off. Before he can, however, Niss and Ennostiel grab the door, swing it wide open and push inside. Niss casts a sleeping spell on the room causing all but the head Hadozee and Naomi, still invisible in the corner, to drop to the floor.

While Ennostiel and Naomi move to flank the remaining Hadozee, Niss works to shake Adrian awake. Naomi, dropping the veil of invisibility strikes out at her foe but misses and Ennostiel has similar luck. The Hadozee calls out for the guard to return, draws his rapier and tries to push Ennostiel out of his way, but the she holds her ground. Niss, taking a slightly more drastic approach, rolls Adrian off the table and onto the floor with a boom that resonates through the room; Adrian clearly still groggy and rather confused as to what’s going on, makes a run for it with Niss. Naomi, sensing it’s time to go, retreats from the room and follows Adrian and Niss as they leap from the second story window, though taking the fall rather badly. The Hadozee brutally slashes at Ennostiel with his rapier, and she, in turn, withdraws pausing only to pick up Oskias. The guards, answering the cry for assistance, try to batter Ennostiel down, but she eludes them and follows the other out the window, landing on the street below with a groggy Oskias over her shoulder.

END SESSION 9

Note: I’d cribbed the basic setting of this session from the Eberron adventure Whispers of the Vampire’s Blade, specifically part two’s Trolanport Masquerade, but the players, ran in an unexpected direction fairly quickly. With a planned two chapters to spend in the city, I found myself having to revise and modify plans almost constantly between game nights; not to defeat the player’s intentions, but to keep up with the consequences of their actions.

Session 10 – Laying Low
Setting: Bet Kalimar

Staggering to their feet, the party runs off to the Broken Anvil Inn with a groggy Oskias over Ennostiel’s shoulder. Naomi makes it to the steps of the Inn first and peeks in the door only to find Lord Jarasco talking with the bartender. She doubles back and reports to the others; Ennostiel is incredulous that he could have arrived here before they did. However, unwilling to abandon their gear, they set Oskias down in an alcove in the neighboring alley and proceed to enter the bar one at a time to avoid drawing attention: Nissram uses his cloak to sneak into the west wing of rooms, followed by Naomi and a surprisingly inconspicuous Adrian. Ennostiel, however, is noticed as she enters and walks towards the east wing of rooms ignoring Lord Jarasco’s commands to halt. As she enters the east wing, she can hear several chairs move as people rise, but none appear to follow her.

The other trio quickly gathers their belongings and those of Ennostiel. Niss peeks out into the main room, but Lord Jarasco has disappeared and the bartender is nailing up a message on the back wall. Disguising himself in a heavy cloak to avoid detection Niss walks over and peers at the note: Lord Jarasco has put a bounty on a traveling trio, a Catfolk, a strange gray behemoth, and their construct. On his way back to warn the others, Niss notes that a pair of men have moved from their tables to either side of the door, but don’t appear to be watching him. Leaving as quietly as they came, the trio sneaks back out one at a time.

Once outside, they bring Oskias up to speed on what happened at the masquerade ball and the roaches the Hadozee had been implanting. Adrian takes him by the hand and starts off to the Andave’Cenda meeting place, but Niss and Naomi wait for Ennostiel at the bottom of the steps and in the shadows respectively. Neither waits long, however, as Ennostiel comes barreling out of the front door, having sprinted past the two thugs nearly knocking Niss over in the process. They take off towards the meeting place, but the ruffians, interested in the bounty, follow, and Naomi, unnoticed, follows them.

Elzedar lets Nissram, Adrian, and Oskias into the entry room. He initially looked displeased, having just started to hear about the chaos that broke out at the masquerade ball, but he is further angered upon realizing they’ve brought a stranger into an Andave’Cenda safe house. Ennostiel soon arrives and lets them know she’s been followed, sending Elzedar into a rage, turning his dark and mottled skin a deep purple color; he throws up his hands, drags her into the back room and tells Niss and Adrian to deal with the situation, before locking the door behind him.

A knock is heard at the door and, thinking fast, Niss replaces his disguise so as to appear elderly and infirm while Adrian hides to the side of the door. Upon answering the door, his appearance initially confuses the two thugs. However, while they do not recognize him as one of the targets, they can tell he's hiding something. Niss steps back, feigning fear, until Adrian slips behind the two thugs and cuts them down with a single mighty swing.

Ennostiel and Elzedar return from the back room and Naomi walks in the front door. While figuring out what to do with the bodies, Elzedar listens to their tale of what happened at the party and afterwards. While recounting the tale, Oskias recognizes the descriptions of those who were next to him in the back room; each lives and works at one of the shops near his.

When Naomi reveals the box she's been carrying, Elzeadar is shocked: the roach-like creature is only in the larval stage. Once ingested, it rapidly grows and consumes its host from the inside while preserving the general form. However, while it can walk and, with time, learn to talk as the host creature did, all of the host's memories are destroyed in the process. While it is unclear why Jorasco would be inflicting this fate on citizens of Bet Kalimar, the roaches' presence is a sign of worse news: as the larval form cannot survive long without a host, Jorasco must have a brood-mother nearby, possibly in the quarantined area of the city.

As Elzedar slips away to research further, Oskias explains to Ennostiel what he had only hinted at in the party. However, he appears to be under the impression that she is trained in the magical arts, citing the owl that followed her, acting as a familiar would. While Ennostiel explains that she is more martially trained, Oskias points to the runes in the mithral filigree in her armored body. He explains that while her kind are normally immune to magic, they are often unable to create magic of their own, but the intricate mithril work, clearly applied after she was built, were intended for magical purposes. Upon closer inspection, he recognizes the style and craftsmanship of Ma'ar'tha Ol'a'de, a powerful artificer whom he was in correspondence with until she abruptly stopped some months ago. Ennostiel recognizes the name of her “grandmother” and mentor and tells Oskias of how she was murdered. While both knew she was working on something big, neither can tell what it was.

Elzedar returns with news for Naomi. Kale had been keeping quiet for some time before he attacked Naomi’s people and disappeared again shortly thereafter taking the Crimson Talons with him. There have been rumors of him creating something larger, possibly connected to the trouble in the north. However, if true, her revenge will be more difficult than initially imagined; it is one thing to kill the head of a band of assassins, but quite another to take on a powerful warlord. While reluctant to deliver more bad news, Elzedar tells Naomi that amidst the rumors, there hasn’t been a single mention of her son, Troy.

With a bounty on three of their heads, they agree it would make sense to lay low, but Naomi wants to find out more of what's going on; she proposes that she and one other party member go to one of Jarasco's major offices, under the guise of having information on those he seeks, and once inside, giving him a truth serum they found some time ago. Furthermore, Oskias fears for what Jorasco's plot means for his neighborhood and, more directly, for his shop. While Elzedar, seeing in him a useful ally to the Andave'Cenda, offered to let Oskias might stay in their offices until the situation is resolved, Oskias still wishes to be escorted to his home in the morning to gather some of his things before Jarasco's thugs arrive.

END SESSION 10

Note: Jorasco’s sudden appearance at the inn, ahead of the party, had the players muttering for a good long while, but not much past this session; I’d not meant it as a hook, but was sort of disappointed I didn’t have the occasion to use his magic item again.

Jastermereel
2010-09-17, 12:20 PM
Session 11 – A Hint of Lilac and Catnapping
Setting: Bet Kalimar

In the morning, the five arise and prepare for the day with Ennostiel receiving and studying a spellbook given to her by the Andave’Cenda. Donning large cloaks as a precaution against casual glances from would-be bounty hunters, they set off toward Oskias’s shop nestled in the corner of the merchant district on the east side of Bet Kalimar. On route, they pass through the hustle and bustle of the marketplace, but by the time they can see the shop, traffic has thinned away. However, the shops near Oskias’s have their windows covered and persons dressed as beggars are slouched in doorways. A stench of sewage is in the air, but Oskias claims that it’s not so bad. “Living near the sewage maintenance tunnels, you get used to it. In fact, there’s a hint of lilac with it today.” The others exchange skeptical looks and enter the shop.

Oskias’s shop has been ransacked with papers and books strewn across the floor, but nothing appears to be missing. Oskias ducks into the back room, promising he’ll only be a minute, as he searches for a few important items. Ennostiel follows him in and is soon presented with a pair of leather gloves with glowing arcane runes covering the palms. Amidst the relative quiet, a noise is heard from the floor above them in Oskias’s loft. Nissram, peering out the windows, spots several of the figures in rags approaching, but with halberds drawn. A hadozee, seen last night in charge of those at the party, comes down the steps with rapier drawn.

Ennostiel eases out of the side room and blindsides him with a casting of Chill Touch, with her first magical act. While he cringes in pain, he does not seem weakened. Adrian strides forth and, with a mighty swing, misses the simian combatant. He retaliates withdraws up the spiral stairway a little. Adrian climbs closer to the hadozee and swings and misses again before he retreats fully into the rooms above. Nissram, more concerned with the gathering of armed men outside than the single foe by the stairs, slips over to the door. Peeking out the barely open door, he sees that some of the armed men have positioned themselves near the entrance to the shop and others just beyond them. He casts Sleep and the guard to the right of the door collapses, but the others are unaffected. Ennostiel, aids Niss’s efforts to clear a path by cutting down the guard to the left of the door. Oskias, finally taking the hint that the shop isn’t safe, follows behind Niss and Ennostiel into the street. Four of the halberd-wielding strangers stand in front of the store with the hadozee by their side. To the other side of the alley, down a thin set of stairs is the sewer maintenance entrance; strange sounds and light emanates from the edges of the door.

Adrian, frustrated by a series of misses, charges forth from the shop in a rage and cleaves one of the halberd-bears in twain, drawing a red line in the street between the two groups. Having seen three of their own dropped in a matter of seconds, the others thugs are reluctant to approach further. Naomi, still inside the building, eases open one of the windows facing the street and readies a crossbow shot.

Niss, feeling confident, demands to know Jorasco’s plans and, in exchange, offers the Hadozee and his men their lives. The Hadozee rejects the offer, disgusted that such filth would stand in the way of his master’s plans and demands his men attack. Adrian, seeming pleased at the lack of a peaceful resolution and still seething in a bloodrage, advances on the hadozee, slices clean through one thug and cuts the hadozee close to the bone. Realizing that he can’t take another hit like that, the hadozee takes off down the street, nimbly keeping away from the grey menace’s swinging sword. Naomi takes a shot, but misses him in his retreat. Ennostiel offers the two remaining thugs a safe escape and both take off; however, a frenzied Adrian doesn’t extend the same offer, charges off after them and cuts down all but the last thug with a single blow. Coated in and surrounded by the blood and entrails of his companions and boss, he justifiably soils himself and wordlessly surrenders.

The four adventurers, Oskias, and the terrified (and malodorous) thug, head off back to the hideout, but on route Naomi and Niss spot a sizeable lizard sitting near the entrance to an alley. Unlike other assorted animals and vermin of the city, it appears to be staring directly at the traveling band and, even stranger, it seemed to sparkle or shimmer. As they near the alley, however, it spins about and darts back into the shadows. Always the curious sort Niss follows it with Naomi sneaking quietly behind him. The rest of the band, intent on returning home continues on their way.

The alley continues for some twenty paces before ending in a brick wall with a small wooden door, under which Niss spots the lizard disappearing. From above him, a voice calls out to him. “You there, cat, surrender now.” A figure, making no secret of his arcane powers, stands on a small balcony looking over the alley. Near the end of the street, an armored human wielding a large mace steps out of a doorway. Niss tries to dissuade his would-be assailants, arguing that Jorasco’s plans are bad for everyone, but they are unmoved. The wizard tosses a small leather bag at Niss, coating him with a sticky sap-like substance that slows him as he bolts for the door where he saw the lizard. Finding it locked, he runs back towards Naomi. Trying a different approach, she “grabs” him yelling “gotcha!” in an attempt to convince the bounty hunters that she’s been beaten them to their prize. However they are only confused, for while they believe that Niss feels he has been caught, Naomi’s performance is somehow less convincing. Realizing the jig is up, she bolts for the alley entrance slyly ducking out of the bounty hunter’s flail. Unwilling to miss their true prize, the wizard Dazes Niss as his ally walks over, trips Niss and binds him for travel.

Niss tries several approaches to talking his way out of trouble by explaining the situation, but finds little success. He convinces them that he’s with a group called the Andave’Cenda and that they’d pay more for his return than Jorasco would pay for his capture, but, while they’re interested in this other group he mentions, Jorasco is a known power in the city and is not to be crossed. When Niss tries to convince them that he’s evil by explaining the plot with the roaches, but they aren’t concerned about the city, just the next job.

Naomi trails the trio from the shadows as they march off to Jorasco’s market office and then quickly doubles back to inform the others.

END SESSION 11

Note: I can’t be the only DM who foreshadows (the lilac) and then forgets to follow through on connecting it when what was foreshadowed is revealed. I just wish I knew a way to avoid dropping one of those thirty balls while juggling DM duties.

Session 12 – Trousers Aflame

Setting: Bet Kalimar

Ennostiel and Adrian return to the Andave’Cenda hideout with Oskias and a prisoner in tow. They give Elzedar a quick explanation of what happened at Oskias’s shop and who the captive thug is. Before the pair head out again to check in with Naomi and Niss, Oskias gives them some of his possessions that he gathered from his shop, hoping that they’ll be of use to them.

On their way back to the alley, they run into Naomi who tells them of Niss’s capture and shows them Jorasco’s office, where he was taken. Rising above much of the rest of the market district, the three-story building is dotted with barred windows and looks solidly built. There doesn’t appear to be an easy way in except for the front gate, flanked by two guardrooms. Reluctant to waltz right in, Ennostiel and Adrian head off into the market in search of incendiary material Naomi watches the office for guard schedules.

Meanwhile, Niss has been brought inside and locked in the closet of what appears to be a library room. While he is able to slip free of his bonds, he is unable to pick the lock on the door. However, peering out the keyhole, he summons an unseen servant to scout the room for a key and, finding none, create a signal for the others by tearing pages out of a tome of old poetry and dropping them out the nearest window.

Niss isn’t left waiting for long, before Jorasco and a Hadozee guard come by; neither of them spot the book by the window. Jorasco demands to know about Niss’s employer, citing the Andave’Cenda by name, and why he had crashed last night’s party. Niss denies being an agent of any group and explains that the trouble at the party was due to one of the Hadozee trying to implant a bug in Adrian. Jorasco seems a little confused, and ends the interrogation, leaving Niss locked in the closet again. Niss hears a booming maniacal laugh with just a hint of a surprisingly girlish giggle mixed in come in through the window from somewhere out in the marketplace.

On a completely unrelated note, Adrian and Ennostiel, managed to procure a dangerously large supply of Alchemist’s Fire (40 vials) and returned to the offices. Just as they prepare to lob vials of the stuff through every window in reach, Adrian notices a small pile of papers at the base of one of the windows on the Eastern side of the building. Putting the firebombing plans on hold, Adrian scales the side of the brick building and calls to Niss and tries to break the window open. Sadly, after having expended so much energy and fury by Oskias’s shop, not a full hour ago, Adrian is unable to summon the strength to bend the bars open, even after quaffing a potion of Bull’s Strength.

This commotion doesn’t go unnoticed, and a Hadozee soon comes out of the front gate and demands that Adrian get down off the building. Not getting much of a response, he then asks Ennostiel to try to talk some reason into Adrian, explaining that they’re both invited to come inside to help sort this matter out. Two human guards join the Hadozee who, tired of being ignored, lobs a javelin at Adrian, missing by inches. Another one, investigating the matter from inside tries to knock Adrian away from the window but meets with little success. Adrian retaliates by trying to toss a vial of Alchemist’s Fire at the guard through the window. However, the toss goes awry, strikes the window’s bars, and succeeds only in lighting Adrian’s pants on fire. Further, as it is hard to combine clinging to the side of a building by one’s fingertips and putting out flaming pants, Adrian drops to the ground. After putting the fire out, Adrian stands, largely unharmed save for severely singed pants, and attempting to salvage a little dignity from the situation, acquiesces to the guard’s request and follows him inside, joined by Ennostiel.

Naomi, unwilling to be left outside, makes use of her new cloak (a gift from Oskias), vanishes from sight and slips in behind the others follows the duo inside in time to hear Adrian demanding the guards acquire a new pair of pants to replace those burnt by the fire. As the others are taken down a long hallway and into a larger room, Naomi checks out the various other rooms on the first floor. However, nothing stands out as being nefarious; mostly accountant types fussing over piles of trade documents.

Adrian and Ennostiel followed the guards into a large round room, with a spiral staircase circling around above them. On the second story balcony, Jorasco, flanked by guards, demands to know what their business is in town. Ennostiel claims that they have dealings with a merchant in the city, but haven’t yet found their contact. Jorasco, certain he has found agents of the Andave’Cenda, pries further at the alibi, asking about their presence at his ball, their scuffle at the north bridge. However, Ennostiel and Adrian explain that they had been given tickets by a friendly stranger at the Broken Anvil Inn and that the fight at the bridge was in defense of the man the perceived as being under attack. Jorasco, unsure what to think, glances above them to the third floor balcony where the Hobgoblin they met on the road to Bet Kalamar stands, and asks if they’ve recently spent time in Duvik’s Pass. While Ennostiel admits they were there, she explains that they simply cleared the town’s mines of some Kobolds before passing through.

Satisfied with the line of questioning thus far, Jorasco asks the pair if they might mind waiting upstairs while he tracks down some information about their merchant contact nothing that he’ll have their friend join them shortly. The two agree, and are placed in a room on the second floor. Meanwhile, Naomi, having scouted out much of the second floor, retreats into a corner of the library upon hearing footsteps climbing the stairs.

END SESSION 12

Note: Even if they can afford it, never let your players get so many vials alchemists fire at once. On the other hand, it did let them handle a nasty swarm or two, and get a few more instances of friendly-fire in. Still, some ten sessions later, I think they’ve still got a few vials left.

Session 13 – Four Cups of Tea

Setting: Bet Kalimar

Unwilling to simply wait for Jorasco, Adrian breaks down the locked door o the meeting room, and goes hunting for Niss again. Entering the library, Adrian doesn’t see Naomi, but hears Niss hammering on the closet door. Adrian finds the closet Niss is in, unaware that Naomi is in the room. While Niss hammers on the door, Adrian charges towards it. Thankfully, for Niss, the door holds and he isn’t slammed backwards. Unfortunately, for Adrian, the clamor has alerted the guards who now stand in the hallway, unwilling to get too close to the angry barbarian. The guards ask Adrian to return to the room, but Adrian is unwilling to budge until Niss is released. The impasse continues for some time, until Jorasco makes his way upstairs and, after an equally fruitless exchange, escorts a guard to release Niss (which he would have done had Adrian acquiesced anyway).

Jorasco, Niss, and Adrian return to Ennostiel in the meeting room as several servants bring in a table, several bowls of stew and a candle. The trio are unwilling to trust the food and Jorasco, accepting that there is little trust at the table, lights the candle and explains that it has magical properties: that those around it are compelled to tell the truth. While Adrian and Ennostiel feel the aura around them, Niss’s will resists the enchantment.

Jorasco explains that, while he was unable to find the merchants mentioned in their last exchange, he did find V’rath, his Hadozee agent, and a group of his men slaughtered in the market district. Niss, taking the initiative to act as the spokesperson, exclaims that while he and his friends did kill them, it was done in self defense after V’rath’s men surrounded and attacked first. While Jorasco believes him, he inquires further about a missing man; apparently it had been a team of seven, the hadozee and six others, but one is yet unaccounted for. Niss denies any knowledge of the man, but suggests he may have fled. So convincing are Niss words that Jorasco not only believes him, but doesn’t feel the need to ask the others much of anything.

In an awkward give-and-take, Niss asks Jorasco about the matter of the bugs V’rath was implanting. Jorasco, appearing both reluctant and compelled to speak, explains that he is attempting to resolve the plague in the docks faster. Much of his income relies on long distance trade, thus the quarantine is a sizeable disruption to his earnings. He also explains that, while the Hadozee are in his employ, they are not his men, but on loan from a distant ally. The trio demands that one of the Hadozee be brought before them to explain further. One is summoned, but soon learns of the death of V’rath. Jorasco quickly dismisses the Hadozee, who had become visibly angry, before anyone was hurt.

While Niss observes that neither Jorasco nor the Hadozee really answered his question, little else can be gleaned from the ensuing conversation, save that Adrian seemed disproportionately uncomfortable about being near the candle. Jorasco, apparently satisfied, permits his guests to leave, but gives them a small coin-sized disk “in case I need to contact you”. The trio head back down to the lower level, but loudly proclaiming their intent to visit “the pants district” of the marketplace, in the hopes that Naomi, whom they have not seen since they entered, is within earshot.

Naomi is indeed, and has been busily gathering up maps and papers from the library while the others met with Jorasco. While many are difficult to decipher, one is clear: a map of the city. Various districts are outlined and marked with dates. The docks' date has already passed whereas the greater part of the market has a date is just a few days off. Naomi assembles the most intriguing of the materials and, once the floor is again deserted, she sneaks from the library to the other end of the hall, picks a lock on a pair of balcony doors, and descends into the afternoon market rush unnoticed. She finds the others assisting Adrian shop for a proper pair of pants. Leaving Adrian with Jorasco’s token to limit exposure in case it can be used to spy upon them, the trio compare notes and Naomi learns of the meeting and Niss and Ennostiel are shown the maps. In the interests of keeping their ally informed, Naomi splits off to take the findings to the Andave’Cenda. After a proper pair of pants is procured, the others search for a place to stay other than the compromised Broken Anvil.

Naomi, taking care not to be followed, arrives at the Andave’Cenda hideout. Inside, she is met by Elzedar, who is covered in blood. He tells her not to worry and assures her it isn’t his, an admission that brings a smile to her face. Indeed, he has good news: the thug they took captive after the morning’s brawl decided to spill his guts, so to speak. The man was part of a team assigned to V’rath, the hadozee, meant to keep that corner of the market unoccupied. To what end, he was unsure, but there are other teams at work in the sewers. Elzedar appears worried when Naomi shows him the notes from Jorasco’s and he suggests that she and the others investigate further quickly.

However, after meeting with the others at the The Feral Dog Inn, a place more welcoming than its name, the group decides to opt for preparedness over haste and gets a good night’s sleep before heading underground.

Early the next morning, they return to the site of yesterday’s fight. While the bodies have been cleared away, much of the blood will remain until the next heavy rain. Using the entrance near Oskias’s shop, they head into the sewers, trying to ignore the vile stench. After decending a flight of stairs, they come to a tunnel half-flooded with egesta and waste-water flowing through an iron grate, past the stairs, and down past a series of large iron valves lining the tunnel, before meeting another branch and disappearing into darkness. Every few seconds, one of the valves regulating the labyrinthine subterranean waterworks opens with an eruption of filth shooting into the sluggish brown river. From around the bend, several voices can be heard – at least one has the grunting low tones of a Hadozee, while another sounds more human. Adrian, recklessly taking the lead, rounds the bend and comes nearly face to face with a small band: two hadozee, and several humans, some dressed far too well for the sewer, possibly even in costumed finery.

END SESSION 13

Note: When looking about and mining other sources for potential NPC names don’t draw from future adventures unless you intend to draw connections. I’m certain I’m going to forget to replace the name and, in the first chapter of RhoD, refer to V’rath Keep and have them drawing false connections rather than remember to replace the name.

Session 14 – Into the Depths
Setting: Bet Kalimar

Spotting Adrian, the two hadozee at the front each hurl a javeline, but miss and flee past the others with them. One of the humans, better dressed (at least, before delving into the sewers) drops back a little ways as well, before diving beneath the surface of the sewage. The other three lumber forwards, less steady on their feet, and attack the interloper. Adrian slices through two without trouble, and runs past the third, off after the Hadozee down the dark tunnel.

Naomi narrowly dodges a jet of sewage from the wall and draws her crossbow. Niss, reluctant to step into the sewage, leaps from his ledge in the valve room to Naomi’s shoulders, but is too much for her knocking her face first into the feculence as he, realizing his mistake, springs back to the ledge, before sheepishly easing into the sewage. Ennostiel, steps forth to take down the last of the attackers and notices a fist-sized yellow and purple flower in the commoner’s hair. However, neither she, nor Niss (who steps forth to support her with his song) can pull it free and so simply run him through. Unlike Adrian, the remaining trio of adventurers depend on the light to see, so Niss casts Dancing Lights to guide them down the tunnel after their reckless comrade.

Having followed the two Hadozee to a side tunnel, Adrian peeks around the corner. The floor is slightly higher, sitting above the sewage, and the passage quickly opens up into a larger room. The two Hadozee, however, are waiting in ambush in small alcoves just before the maim room, though they don’t see Adrian. After waiting a moment, one flees deeper into the corridor and around a bend. Just as the rest of the team catches up, Adrian rushes in, pinning the remaining Hadozee in his alcove and cuts him clean through before venturing deeper. Niss follows, and loots a smaller room, finding an exotic botanical book, what looks like a page of ingredients and instructions, but in an unfamiliar language, and a handful of coins. Adrian, chasing down the fleeing Hadozee, passes through a room full of alchemical equipment, with various flasks and pipes bubbling away above open flames placed precariously on a large table. A pair of voices can be heard from the next room, with hushed angry whispers. Adrian strides in finding a pair of Hadozee protecting a small pedestal standing behind them in the shadows. Niss, having caught up, heals Adrian just as the Hadozee move to flank. However, both are cut down quickly, leaving their prize, a delicious pie.

Meanwhile, Ennostiel and Naomi, having just seen Niss run off to aid Adrian, catch a glimpse of something strange further up the tunnel. Where they expect only the darkness of the sewers, there appears to be a glistening translucent wall some thirty feet off, slowly approaching; if not for the Dancing Lights, it would be nearly invisible. As the wall passes and engulfs the lights, they briefly illuminate its whole form, a gelatinous cube, nearly fifteen feet on a side. Suddenly, something makes a grab for Naomi’s leg, and she is dragged under. She quickly rights herself and dodges an attack by the now sewage-covered human that ran from them earlier, who retreats again, diving under the surface back towards the entrance. Naomi and Ennostiel half-perusing, half-fleeing, leave their comrades behind and return to better-lit sections of the sewer.

Naomi manages to spot her submerged assailant near the door and makes a bee-line for him. Realizing he’s been spotted, he leaps towards the entrance leaving a trail of muck behind. Naomi keeps close behind, even as her quarry scales the side of an abandoned shop and scrambles into the second-story window. Climbing in after him, she finds the odorous figure now twitching erratically. Suddenly, he tears his sullied flesh from his body revealing a man-sized roach-like creature inside. Naomi, not missing a beat, attempts to strike it down, but is outmatched; while both are nimble combatants, its claws find purchase more often than her rapier, wearing her down. In the nick of time, she has a flash of insight; activating her Vanisher Cloak, she disappears from view, quickly quaffs a potent healing potion, and strikes true, vanquishing the aberration.

Ennostiel, in the mean time, lures the ooze to the entrance of the sewers, but finding it unwilling to leave the darkened confines, brings the light to it with one of her many vials of Alchemist’s Fire. Recoiling, it retreats to the valve room, where a jet of sewage douses the flames, but clouds its form, making it easier to spot.

Niss and Adrian, having made short work of the pie, round the bend looking for their friends. Spoting the ooze, Adrian hands Niss several vials of fire. As Ennostiel and Niss bombard its vast form with the fiery fluid, Adrian runs forth with greatsword held high, but only manages a single mighty swing before the gelatinous cube lunges forth, engulfing the brash barbarian. To add insult to acidic-injury, an adjacent sewage valve opens up, spraying the enclosed Adrian with waste. However, one final vial of Alchemist’s Fire is more than the ooze can take; with a great shudder, it loses cohesion and sloshes out along the surface of the sewage, leaving Adrian soiled and burned, but still standing, though with slightly dissolved garments. Leaving the sewers to find Naomi, the group plans to return to The Feral Dog Inn to wash up and to return to market to find yet another pair of pants for Adrian.
END SESSION 14

Note: As it happened, this session fell on March 14th, so the world’s shortest complete adventure was shoe-horned into an already crowded sewer-crawl. What better way to celebrate Pi Day than with The Orc and the Pie (or the Hadozee and the Pie as the case may be). Regarding her fight, Naomi, still a little early in her career, needed a little OOC reminding about how to get the most out of her sneak attack and a reliable use for her vanishing cloak, but was a quick learner after the sudden victory. And while there wasn’t really a need to destroy Adrian’s pants again, but it made for a good recurring joke and kept her on her toes regarding her character’s secret.

Session 15 – Shifting Priorities

Setting: Bet Kalimar Sewers

After spending a little more on a pair of acid-resistant pants, Adrian and the rest scrub up at the inn, and check in with Elzedar, who is also cleaner than when last Naomi saw him. After Adrian finishes showing off the new pants, they consult with him on what they found in the sewers. The creature Naomi fought that was hiding the human flesh was a late-stage version of an implanted roach; however, it isn’t the only path in their lifecycle. Also, he confirms Niss’s earlier theories on the flower-wearers: the blooms are the sign of a seed within them, but also that a larger plant nearby that controls them. While that much is covered in the book of exotic botany, Elzedar cannot decipher the recipe Niss found near it. Anticipating that they might return to the sewers, he gives them a depleted Ioun Stone, a small grey rock that, when released, orbits around its owner’s head giving them limited illumination.

Taking the afternoon off, they rest up and head back down below in the morning for another look. Some ways past where they first encountered the ooze, they find a slightly raised side tunnel, much like the one with the lab, but with a channel etched away so that a small flow of sewage makes it’s way in, quickly flowing down a set of stairs to a lower level. Below, the tunnel opens up and splits off, and splits again, and again. While the sewage flows through just one path, most of the dry paths are marked with unusual glyphs on the floor. With a little work, they’re recognized as a ward of some sort, but against what remains unclear. However, the markings don’t appear to be harmful to the party, so they explore deeper, finding another set of stairs off one of the dry tracks, leading up to a room with assorted supplies, including some Mineral Acid, likely used to etch the sewage’s new path.

Following one of the tunnels out of the room, Naomi, following the sound of running sewage, explores down a darker tunnel. Peeking into a doorway to the side of the tunnel, she finds a large room, where an elevated floor has long since caved in, leaving only a few small platforms above a large pool of sewage. Faintly visible above the muck, a vast web stretches from wall to wall, supporting a pair of spiders of considerable bulk. Sensing it has been spotted, a bloated man-sized spider spits a blood-red web at Naomi, snaring her in the doorway. However, nimble by nature, she slips free and darts back down the hall before the other spider, a much larger and thornier beast, can take a shot at her.

Meanwhile, the others scout out a different path, but are attacked with two arrows whizzing by Ennostiel’s head. Another two harmlessly follow, seeming to come from a blank wall. The trio takes cover behind a set of pillars, and hears a voice call out, “Release them, abomination!” The catfolk, goliath, and warforged look at each other in confusion and ask which of them he’s talking about. “The clank, of course! We’ve seen your kind in the depths of these tunnels and you shall not take them like the others."

A figure appears, walking through the wall. He appears human, but with a feral edge. Describing himself as a member of the Wild Fang Guild, he explains that the guild was driven into the sewers after the surface was overrun.

Days after the first cases of amnesia appeared, the guard closed the gates to the docks district. However, the condition didn’t seem to spread like a plague. While people generally stayed inside, but no new cases appeared after the lock-down. Before anyone could petition the guards to relax the quarantine, the whole issue became moot. The isolated houses of frightened city-folk had made for easy pickings as the Yellow Musk Vine Creeper plants, with some assistance, converted them all. Within two days, the whole district was overrun with mindless hoards. The Wild Fang guild was barely able to fall back and make a temporary hide-out in the sewers.

He offers the traveling adventurers a deal: they can have the aid of the guild and access to a safe house in the docks if they reclaim some belongings of some of his fallen guild mates who were slain by one of the plants in the south tunnels. Agreeing to this temporary alliance, the group makes their way back to the flowing sewage. A little ways off from where they left it, the tunnel broadens into a wider corridor, where the sewage flows to the base of a huge plant, a vast expanse of ropey vines dotted with the same yellow and purple flowers seen on the commoners yesterday. More of the villagers, turned musk-zombies, stand in alcoves along the hall.

While the others continue onwards, Naomi hangs back to observe from the shadows. This time, however, her caution costs her; a small vicious looking creature lashes out from a dark corner of the room, and grabs hold of her throat with it’s ropey arms. Ennostiel and Niss double back to help: Ennostiel cutting the strangler badly enough to scare it off while Niss heals Naomi. Naomi, unwilling to let an assailant live, gives chase and cuts it down with furious anger.

Adrian lunges towards one of the alcoves, cleaves through two of the people under the plant’s control and runs to take the plant head-on in a rage. From within, it sprays a cloud of pollen, but it has little effect on the raging barbarian who slices through the side of it with a mighty swing.

Ennostiel attempts to finish off the last of the plant’s thralls and delivers a nasty blow, but leaves it standing so she can better aid Adrian. Naomi finishes what Ennostiel started, having caught up after her grudge-kill and cuts down the enthralled merchant. Niss stays outside of the plant’s range, cheering his allies on and tosses a pair of vials of Alchemist’s Fire. Before long, the plant succumbs to Niss and Adrian’s mix of fire and steel and the vines collapse to the ground, smoldering.

END SESSION 15

Note: The new pants may be acid resistant, but don’t bestow any benefit on their wearer; they’re just less prone to being dissolved. Also, once the players made a dedicated push into the sewers, leaving the safe zones of the city behind, I let them level up to level 4.

Adrian – Goliath (LA 1) Barbarian 3
Ennostiel – Gray Elf Fighter 2 – Wizard 2
Naomi – Saurian Shifter Rogue 4
Niss – Catfolk (LA 1) Bard 3

Also, it had been my plan to have a two-faced foe for this stage of the campaign, but it was only locked down to the Roach/Roach-Thrall and Yellow Musk Vine Creeper fairly late in the design. I think the players understood the double-pronged nature of the attack, but I tried to keep them a little separate to avoid confusion.

Jastermereel
2010-09-17, 12:21 PM
Session 16 – Blink Dogs, Blood Ticks and Hook Spiders, Oh My!

Setting: Bet Kalimar Sewers
As the plant shrivels, the sewage more freely flows into the hole the vines had clogged revealing a steel shield, engraved with an image of the moon, faintly glowing from within and a small, knotted pouch – the items that the Wild Fang member was seeking.

Behind the group, from the tunnels they’d left, barking can be heard, approaching rapidly. Adrian and Niss rush to the rear of the tunnel and come face to face with a pair of angry brown dogs, each wearing a sturdy collar. Still in a blood-rage from dealing with the plant, Adrian swings, cleaves one dog in twain and then slices clean through the other – too cleanly. The blade passes through the dog’s space without harming it at all.

Two more dogs appear out of thin air behind Adrian and Niss, just in front of Naomi and Ennostiel, who were bringing up the rear after picking up the loot. Naomi takes a shot at the one, but her crossbow bolt passes through the dog as if it weren’t there.

Adrian, frustrated by miss after mighty miss, takes careful aim and brings the mammoth great-sword down between one dog’s eyes, only to have it hit the cold stone floor, splashing sewage on dogs those nearby. One leaps forward and takes a bite out of Naomi. Feeling she’s on the wrong side of the line of dogs, Naomi touches the clasp of her cloak, disappears from view, and moves behind Adrian and Niss. Now isolated, behind the dogs, Ennostiel weathers a storm of claw and fang as best she can, but finds it difficult to land a hit.

One of the dogs flashes nearer to Niss who, startled, pauses in his inspirational chant to take the scarab charm from his hair and throw it at the ground by the dog’s feet. A swarm of scarabs appears, surrounding the dog. However, the dog, clearly in pain, flashes away, towards Ennostiel, leaving the swarm behind.

Naomi grabs a healing potion from Adrian, downs it, takes aim and slays the dog, but breaking her own her invisibility. While the other dogs flee, the scarab swarm Niss summoned remains, and engulfs the newly revealed Naomi causing her considerable pain from thousands of tiny bites. Fortunately, she is able to flee the cloud of vermin and the others keep their distance until the magic that sustains it fades away and the scarabs disappear.

Adrian and Niss try to chase the remaining two dogs, but they only catch a brief glimpse before they blink away leaving only the diminishing echo of their barking. Badly injured but still standing, the group returns to where they met the member of the Wild Fang guild. From behind the wall, the voice asks them to set what they found down by the wall; Ennostiel drops the shield, but as Naomi approaches to set down the pouch, the voice asks her to come closer to the wall and whispers, “I know your kind. You are like us, are you not?” The voice, identifying himself as Fierenze, asks Naomi where she is from, and expresses regret upon hearing of the destruction of her clan, promising to aid her in what ways he and his clan can in her vengeance.

Having had his attitude of the adventurers improved twice in one day, Fierenze invites them in to rest. The wall that he had previously passed through fades away, revealing a hallway and several small rooms where he and, from the looks of it, several others, absent at the time, are taking refuge. Fierenze explains that a group of constructs, apparently intelligent ones, have taken up residence in the lower reaches of the sewers and had been working to turn the remaining population of the docks into thralls of the plants. “They’ve established a significant presence down the tunnels to the north, but there may be a back door. Years ago we used to make use of a tunnel to the east that ran through the older sewage lines. It wasn’t a pleasant path, but it’s since become unusable: two spiders have claimed it as their own and have resisted our efforts to dislodge them. However, if you can make your way past them, you might be able to catch this heinous band off-guard.”

After resting and mending their wounds, the quartet follows the eastern tunnel that Naomi had scouted earlier. Adrian shows little caution and leaps into the room, sword held high, but gets just a glimpse of the threat before the larger of the two spiders, hiding under one of the remaining pieces of the elevated floor, launches one of its fangs, hooking into the brash barbarian. Adrian, unable to resist its pull, is dragged forward over the ledge, into the muck, closer and closer until the spider can take a bite. Adrian, enraged by the spider’s attacks, hacks at it with great vigor, but gets seriously cut by its spines in the process.

Niss, nearer to the door, throws the last of his alchemist fire at the smaller of the spiders, but gets hit with its web. Ennostiel follows suit and also gets stuck. The spider seems largely unharmed and the fire dissipates as it hits the blood red webbing. Less inclined to fight, Niss slips free of the webbing, and scampers across the remaining pieces of flooring, running over a plank crossing a gap to get closer to the hole in the lower floor opposite the door. Thinking quickly, though perhaps not cautiously, he uses his magic to create a gap in the wall-to-wall webbing and leaps down, disappearing into the tunnels below.

Ennostiel also frees herself and continues to try and ignite the tick-like spider. Naomi, firing from the doorway gets a hit with her crossbow, sending a small spray of blood from its bloated body. Realizing its webbing has had little effect on the flame-throwing interlopers, it abandons its shelter and scuttles towards Ennostiel, but she runs it through before it can do serious damage.

Meanwhile, Adrian, who has been trading blows with the spider, finally gets the better of it, tearing off several of its many legs with a final powerful swing, but not before it gets a final bite and injects the raging goliath with its venom. While of stout heart, Adrian soon feels the numbing effect of the toxin.

Naomi makes a quick scan of the room, rightly assuming such a nest must have some loot from less fortunate adventurers, and finds some trinkets amidst some webbing-wrapped bones. Realizing that Niss has run ahead, the rest of the group quickly follows behind, though Adrian is clearly still woozy from the fight.

END SESSION 16

Note: If they’d taken a moment to examine the slain blink-dogs, they might have found collars with Jorasco’s house icon on them, but players can be unobservant at the most peculiar times. Also, while the Choker’s attack didn’t completely cure Naomi of the urge to hang back at all times, it certainly was a good start. And Adrian’s poisoning had to be handwaved a little. I didn’t want them to try to rest so soon again in the sewers, and I didn’t want her stumbling through the next week of game time…so I had the toxin metabolize quickly and run its course before it was a real nuisance for player and DM alike. Next time, I might not feel so constrained to keep things moving though.

Session 17 – Down the Spider Hole

Setting: Bet Kalimar Sewers

Regrouping after the battle with the spiders, the adventurers find themselves in a thin winding tunnel with a shallow river of sewage. While Fierenze couldn’t provide an up-to-date map of the lower complex, he had managed to give the quartet a fair idea of the layout and where to go. However, where once was a hallway, leading off from the tunnel, now was a passage clogged with thick vines denying entry. Attempting to keep the element of surprise, the party quietly moves further along the sewage tunnel.

Naomi, leading the way and, peering down a small side-tunnel, she catches a glimpse of a pair of small constructs similar to Ennostiel, but about half the size and with a less refined design. Signaling the others, she sneaks up and with some help from Adrian and Ennostiel, cuts the scouts down before they can make a sound. Ennostiel, taking a close look at the first thing to resemble her new form, finds a small repair kit, and then takes the scouts’ eyes.

A little ways further, the sewage runs into small holes by the base of the wall while the tunnel opens into a larger hallway, less choked by vines, with several doorways and passages branching off before a bundle of vines, emerging from the eastern wall at the far end, block the view. Fierenze’s directions suggested that the second passage to the right would lead to the main bundle of the Yellow Musk Vines.

However, Naomi opts to explore a little, easing open the first door to the west, spotting two construct guards, and gently closing the door before they notice her. Ennostiel, curious about her kin, re-opens the door with a little less care, catching their eye immediately. While their form is similar to hers, she is clearly of a more refined make, and, consequently cannot convince them that she has arrived with another team providing reinforcements. As they approach, she shuts the door and signals for Adrian to prepare. As the pair of guards opens the door, Adrian swings and cuts them down in one mighty swing. Still curious, Ennostiel picks through their shattered remains and finds a wand of Repair Light Damage, clearly used but still well charged, and gathers their eyes, adding to her collection.

Continuing on past the guard’s room, the party finds a series of smaller rooms and a long corridor – part of the larger complex Fierenze had warned them to avoid a direct assault on. Naomi opens a door to find a trio of the mindless thralls, formerly residents of the docks district. Previously a minor threat, but when bottlenecked by the doorway they can barely threaten Naomi before she cuts them down.

Meanwhile, Niss wanders off to the south, but finds rooms thick with dust, left uninhabited for many years. Ennostiel and Adrian peek out into a grand corridor, several hundred feet long and bending out of view to the northwest. Just outside the door, however, stand two further construct guards like those in the previous room. Ennostiel and Adrian attempt the same trick, luring them into an ambush, but one manages to land a solid blow on Ennostiel and calls out for aid before Adrian silences it and Ennostiel harvest’s its eyes.

Adrian crosses the hallway and peeks into the windows of a large rounded room revealing a bundle of vines and blossoms much like the one they’d fought some hours before. However, she stays out of its range and doesn’t engage it. Ennostiel, moving north to the limits of her vision, spots a guard, heftier than the others encountered thus far. Taking a chance, she calls attention to herself and “warns” him of the barbarian that killed the other guards; fortunately, her luck turns around and he believes her and thunders off towards where she pointed. Upon spotting Adrian, he lets loose a mighty bellow and charges ahead, but not before taking an unexpected attack from Ennostiel who slashes at him. While surprised, he continues his rush without hesitation and slams Adrian into the wall with a resounding crash. Nearly stunned but still ready to fight, Adrian strikes back and nearly takes him down. Ennostiel fires off a Ray of Enfeeblement and moves to flank, but Naomi, firing from the doorway makes the killing shot with her crossbow. While well built, it held little in the way of treasure, but Ennostiel still makes a point of taking its eyes.

After regrouping, the quartet heals their wounds and return to the original corridor where Fierenze had suggested. At the northeast end of the corridor, a broad set of steps lead to a pair of doors, sturdy but wrapped in vines. Not one to leave a room unexplored, Niss checks a nearby room, only to find more enslaved villagers. Slamming the door shut, he sings a song of competence as Adrian hews a piece of the vines lining the walls and uses it to bar the door. Naomi finds a similarly populated alcove, but works with Ennostiel to flank the doorway, rendering them nearly harmless, though still quite durable. While the pair slash at the first to emerge, Niss fires off a shot from his crossbow scoring his first kill. However, Adrian, having little patience for tactics and positioning, simply rushes up and cuts the next down, leaving the last for Ennostiel to finish up with a flourish.

With the nearby threats eliminated, the group stands before the vine-wrapped doors and prepares to enter.

END SESSION 17

Note: It was around this time that I started to use a note grid to keep track of actions during combat. While I use a compute with photoshop, a projecter, or a big blank wall instead of a battle-mat and miniatures, that only leaves me with a before and after image of the field of battle to aid my memories (sometimes a week old) to recreate the flow of combat for the journal. To remedy the difficulties in that process, I printed out a little table. The left column was open, filled in with the PCs, NPCs, and environmental effects after initiative was rolled. The top was numbered for the turns. Each space was filled in with the basics of the turn, e.g. “Niss moves near Adrian. Crossbows Orc 2 for 4” The exact damage numbers didn’t matter so much as the effect and to note the difference between just grazing someone, smashing them something awful, critting, or fumbling. Highlighters also helped to figure out durations of effects like Rage or Bardic Music. So far, I’ve not had to exceed a single 10 turn sheet for combat and it’s worked extremely well for keeping track of lingering and delayed effects such as the second turn of burning from alchemist’s fire).


Session 18 – Unexpected Bravery

Setting: Bet Kalimar Sewers

Adrian throws open the doors and stands but a few feet away from a mountain of vines and flowers. Towering above the party, it stretches to the ceiling of the large hall, partially supporting its bulk with vines wrapped tightly around a set of pillars. Large bundles of roots stretch out and dig into the walls and floor, tearing apart ancient stonework. While it has no eyes, everyone feels its attention turn to them.

Naomi shouts out for the party to fall back and readies a gem from the Necklace of Fireballs she had found in the spider’s lair. Niss follows her retreat while beginning an inspirational chant. Ennostiel, once a safe distance away, lobs a vial of alchemist’s fire, setting the plant ablaze. Adrian, for the first time in memory, thinks twice about charging into such a foe and backs up down the stairs with the rest of the party. However, a burst of spores from the plant envelops the fleeing barbarian, turning anger into confusion and instilling a desire to approach the plant, welcoming its embrace.

Sensing the change in his friend, Niss thinks quickly and mercifully casts a Sleep spell on Adrian. With the party, safely back down the steps, Naomi lobs one of her tiny golden spheres which explodes on contact with the plant, filling the hallway with fire, stopping just short of the dozing barbarian. Encouraged by the sight of the gargantuan mass of vines charred and burning, Ennostiel and Niss each lob another bottle of alchemist’s fire while Naomi hits it with an even larger fireball. However, while she was able to dodge one cloud of spores, another catches Ennostiel full in the face and, despite her best efforts, infects her, clouding her thoughts and drawing her into the green embrace of the plant, which sends tiny tendrils to tunnel into her mechanical skull.

Realizing a new strategy is called for, Naomi draws her crossbow and lands a hit. Niss, less cautiously Niss calls out for his friend while charging straight into the core, getting slashed at by the flailing vines. While he manages to pull Ennostiel free of the tendrils working at her head, the green lashes take their toll and he collapses to the ground, still deep inside the plant.

Naomi stands alone. Adrian is asleep on the steps, mumbling something about the plant and Niss is unconscious and bleeding from tiny wounds covering his body with Ennostiel lies in a crumbled heap beside him, still dazed. Thinking quickly, she calls upon her primal heritage, manifesting faint reptilian features, runs to where Niss and Ennostiel lay, and with a touch of her cloak’s clasp, turns the three of them invisible. While the plant seems unfazed by her disappearance, slashing at her with its vines, she manages to drag Niss and Ennostiel to safety down the steps and just out of view of the plant, pouring one of the remaining potions of Cure Moderate Wounds into Niss’s mouth.

As Niss comes to, he heals himself further, leaps to the other side of the hall, and resumes his inspiring song. However, after Naomi’s daring rescue, the plant appears to have shifted its massive form to the side of the doorway, no longer visible from where the heroes sit in relative safety. Ennosteil and Naomi, slip up the stairs and into a neighboring room to get a better shot and lob fireball and bottle of fire alike, redoubling their attacks with a vengeance even as Naomi's subtle reptilian traits recede. Niss, running low on Alchemist's Fire, pickpockets half a dozen bottles from Adrian, accidentally rousing his slumbering friend as the effects of the spores wear off. Confused as to what has transpired, Adrian takes a cue from the others and starts lobbing bottle after bottle, drowning the abomination in a volley of sticky fire.

As the last of the blooms go up in smoke, the large bundles of vines extending into the walls shrivel into dried husks leaving crumbling holes in the ancient masonry. Naomi takes a moment to spit on the charred remains of a worthy foe before joining the others in digging through its deep recesses for the bodies those less fortunate, finding an assortment of acidic projectiles, explosive caltrops, and a small gray bag with tiny fluff balls in it.

As the others continue to hunt for loot, Adrian hears a noise from behind a large sliding stone door at the far end of the hall. After a short muffled conversation, assuring the other that the plant is dead and that the room is safe, Adrian heaves the door aside finding a slight figure, bearing a strong resemblance to Fierenze. Thanking Adrian, she identifies herself as Moonspeaker and explains that she had been part of a raiding party several days ago, but when the others died, she had no choice but to seal herself in the dusty tomb. Once the others explain that Fierenze sent them, she tells them how they might find the Wild Fang guild house, following the fresh air in the northern tunnels. Adrian also asks for help in contacting the Doderan people, wishing to report in after several weeks of traveling on a diplomatic mission. Moonspeaker mentions that, before the attack, there was a group of arcanists near the guild’s building, though they may have been captured or displaced since then.

Assuring the others she can make her way to Fierenze safely, Moonspeaker departs, quietly slipping a small sky blue crystal to Naomi with a knowing look of kinship. After she leaves, the party heads off in the direction she suggested. The hallway, once choked with vines is now clear save for some fallen brickwork, leading to rougher less used tunnels. After some time, the tunnel widens into a large dusty room with the tunnel continuing out from the opposite corner. Upon inspection, however, the party finds strange footprints in the dust; not those of a human, but of a bug of what must be monstrous size. Cautious, but eager to explore further, Niss darts down a side tunnel, little more than a hole in the wall, with Adrian close behind.

In the main tunnel, Ennostiel proceeds a little further before the light from her Ioun stone reveals just what made the prints: a brown chitin-shelled beast filling the tunnel with its form. Spotting Ennostiel, it charges towards her but she narrowly dodges its bite. Hearing the scuffle, Niss and Adrian rush back as Naomi readies her crossbow. However, with the party regathered in the cramped tunnel, the insect spreads its jaws wide and spits a jet of acid, burning all but one badly; Niss, spared from the spray, cheers the others on while readying his crossbow and taking cover in the side-tunnel. As Naomi and Ennostiel heal themselves, Adrian takes the lead and charges and nearly knocks the oversided insect’s mandibles off with a mighty swing. However, it still manages to retaliate with a powerful bite, ripping into Adrian’s Goliath hide. Taking careful aim, Naomi steadies her hand and fires clear through the bug’s gaping maw, killing it instantly.

Badly wounded, but reluctant to delay further, the party climbs over their fallen foe, following a faint breeze down another offshoot from the main tunnel, through a broad crack in the ceiling of the tunnel and into a large stone room, of more modern architecture. Keeping a careful eye on both the crevice they crawled from and a wooden door at the far end, the party decides to rest and heal their wounds.

END SESSION 18

Note: Technically, Naomi should have been cut to ribbons by the Yellow Musk Vine Creeper. While she turned invisible, the plant has blindsight and should have attacked her and not just her squares, but if there was a time to bend the rules, this was it. I’m not looking for a party wipe if it can be helped, and she showed character (and player) growth, thinking tactically and showing such bravery. Besides, it was good to let her get bragging rites over Adrian’s faux-misogyny for once.

Session 19 - Hunted

Setting: Bet Kalimar Docks District

After resting, the group does a more thorough search of their surroundings. In the adjoining room, amid broken boxes and broken bottles, Niss finds four intact cure moderate wound potions while Naomi, having a rogue’s eye for the color, finds 160 gold pieces. The rest of the storeroom appears to have been torn apart by bugs similar to the one encountered in the tunnel.

While the storerooms’ walls are smooth stone, the connecting tunnel, sloping upwards, is barely more than a cave, suggesting it existed before the rest of the building was constructed. The floor is covered with various shards of chitin, likely leftover from molting, and piles of droppings. While it isn’t currently occupied, it likely was not too long ago. Ennostiel, with a strange look in her eye, takes a mixture of the material and covers her gleaming mithral form with it.

Eventually, the tunnel ends at what appears to be the back end of a secret door, which the party silently slides open. Naomi scouts ahead and finds the front room of a tavern and, peering around the corner, sees a lone figure standing behind the bar. The rest of the party advances on him and asks where everybody went. The rotund man, apparently quite surprised to see anyone else, declares himself to be Jowan the Inkeeper, but his speech is littered with quiet clicking sounds. Before he can explain further, Ennostiel, still covered in assorted broken shells and droppings, rushes up to him, grabs him by the shoulders and shouts, “My good man! You’re just the person we were looking for!” Jowan’s surprise turns to uncontrolled shock and he starts flailing erratically as the clicking noise grows louder.

Naomi, still watching from the hall, recognizes the flailing from the bug she’d fought when the party first entered the sewers and calls out her suspicion to the others. A suspicion that is confirmed as pincher like claws poke through the skin of his hands and begin to tear the flesh from his body with an eerie wail.

Ennostiel, unfazed by this strange development, holds on to “Jowan” tighter, pushing him against the bar, but is cut by the flailing of the emerging roach. Niss leaps backwards, taking cover behind a table and draws his crossbow. Adrian takes a swing at him, but narrowly misses, and simply helps to remove the meaty disguise further. Naomi, charges up from her hiding place, leaps onto the bar and stabs the flailing foe, but her rapier barely scratches the shell beneath as her blow was blunted by layers of dead flesh.

Confident that his comrades can handle a single foe, Niss peers out the front door into the streets, covered in a dawn mist. The docks district’s endless variety of taverns and trading houses are packed together, built on top of one another connected by thin bridges crisscrossing above the thin twisted streets. In the distance he can hear a piercing wail echoing the cry of the false innkeeper. Long thin shadows creep towards where he stands. Niss, reconsiders braving the streets and decides to scout out rest of the tavern, but finds only a office with a bed, which looks like it’s been unused for quite some time.

Meanwhile, the others continue to struggle with the wailing flailing foe. While Ennostiel is holding it down, the loose flesh makes for a slippery squirming target and no one seems able to land a hit until Naomi, taking careful aim, stabs through its shell. It rears back in agony as its wails grow louder and end abruptly, when Adrian takes off its head.

However, the silence in the tavern is countered by increased calls from the streets. Realizing that the tavern offers no other escape except back into the sewers, the adventurers dash out into the mists. Ennostiel smears some of the blood and droppings encrusted on her form on a door across the street hoping to create a false trail, before following the others into a different building, a library’s reading room with a small fireplace.

Just as they close the door, the hoard arrives. Dozens of man-sized roaches, not disguised like the one in the tavern, skitter forward, swarming around the legs of several larger ones, like the one in the sewer.

While staying quiet, Niss and Adrian take a poker from the fireplace and try to jam the door shut while Naomi and Ennostiel, unwilling to simply barricade themselves in, search adjacent rooms for another way out. Finding a door in the back, Naomi peeks out into a rubbish-filled alley that opens onto another street, also teeming with a mass of oversized roaches swarming toward the source of the noise. Waiting until they pass, she sneaks out and hides in an alcove amidst the trash, quickly followed by Adrian and Niss, who didn’t feel the door would hold off the swarms.

Niss, feeling their situation untenable decides to find a more defensible position and sneaks deeper into the twisted alley until he finds another door. Inside another shop, in similar disarray, he finds a stairway leading to the second floor. Bodies lay strewn across the floor of the second-story hallway, cut to ribbons by razor sharp claws. Unwilling to dally amidst the dead, Niss runs past and through another door, leading out on to one of the bridges crossing the street.

Naomi, having waited until the bugs were out of sight, ran down the street they’d come from, and hunts for a new hiding spot, and whatever she can loot, from the broken storefronts. Most are empty, torn to pieces by the roaches. Whatever wasn’t edible was left broken on the floor, however an upturned cashbox reveals a few coins, but little shelter. Adrian, more out of impatience than a belief in stealth, decides to follow Naomi, but knocks over a pile of rubbish, including a large number of empty flasks, making a terrific racket.

A ear-piercing shriek goes out as the bugs find one of their own slain, and the tide reverses as they fan out to find the intruders. Unfortunately, the swarm reappears around a bend in the street, spotting the Niss just as he crosses the bridge. With a renewed need for haste Niss casts Expeditious Retreat on himself. Dashing through the door, he’s surprised to find a man, tired and thin but still fairly composed, waving at him, beckoning him into another room. Ever curious, Niss follows and finds a trio of men waiting in a room that is packed to the rafters with armor and weapons. Strangely, the three figures are wearing only simple robes and holding wooden staffs. Before introductions can be arranged, Niss pokes his head back out the door to the street, and, spotting two of his companions, sends them a silent message to follow him.

Naomi spots Niss above her, and sprints toward another bridge leading to his building crossing the street as the bugs draw nearer. While Naomi has little trouble, Adrian, who was a little further behind, barely makes it onto the bridge as the hoard arrives, with the larger ones nipping at the dangling heels of the Goliath. While the stonework is not ideal for their pinchers, the man-sized roaches still swarm up the wall while a larger one pulls itself up onto the bridge.

Hurrying them into the armory, one of the robed men makes an odd gesture and a door down the hallway slams shut. Gently closing the door, the room collectively holds its breath as the scuttling of the swarm passes by and continues down the hall following the misdirection.

The leader of the robed men identifies himself as Pitne and introduces his associates as Shial and Daveth. They explain that they are all that’s left of their order, to their knowledge. Since the attacks they’ve been on the run, moving about the district trying to find temporary safety. Ironically, while their current hideout, either the storeroom of a master armored or the residence of an obsessive survivalist, would be a boon for anyone else on the run, it’s nearly useless for a trio of scholarly arcanists. Shial gestures to a rack of masterwork rapiers saying, “You’re welcome to what you can use, but I’m sticking with my staff. It may not do much, but I’d likely take Daveth’s arm off with some fancy sword.” They’d previously had a fourth companion, Roy, but he got caught when their last hiding spot was found. Pitne offers up the spare spellbook, asking if there are any among the adventurers who are students of the arcane.

Remembering their missing ally, Niss peeks out a window and spots Ennostiel, hunkered down in an alley, watching as the bugs continue to swarm the bridge Niss had been on. Waiting until the bulk of the hoard passes, Niss gets her attention, coaxes her out of hiding, and has Adrian pull her up to safety. While they’d been willing to accept the strange trio, the arcanists recognize Ennostiel’s design as that of those involved in the attacks and they begin to object, until she shows them her collection of eyes. Both relieved at her being on their side and unnerved by her way of showing it, the room settles down again.

Figuring out their next move, the arcanists suggest that, while they don’t have the power to take down this threat, the ragged bunch of adventurers might. They explain that the center of the district-wide hive appears to be based in what used to be the university. If the source of the scourge can be taken down, it might be possible to have the guard retake the district.

As the group figures out their next move and digs through the supplies, Adrian thinks back to before all of the trouble with bugs, plagues and invading armies and remembers the tribal elder’s mission: to gauge opinions on an alliance between Kalimar and Dodera, the home of the Goliath people. While there’s been little in the way of dealings with the local government, Adrian asks Pitne, the oldest of the trio, if he might help to send a message North as a progress report. Pitne nods, explaining that he has an agent up north near the border that he could send a short message to who would, in turn deliver it to whomever Adrian wanted, but that it couldn’t be longer than twenty-five words and would take some time to send and that any reply might be days away.

While focused on plotting out routes, puzzling over missives and grabbing what martial treasure is to be found, the group fails to notice a thin line of tiny bugs crawling about the windowsill.

END SESSION 19

Note: I’m not sure just what made the group of four split into four groups of one for most of a session, but the whole thing moved at a painful crawl for a while. Having each take a walking turn, one at a time, was slow and impractical, but spending a few minutes on each at a time made it drag out slowly for the others as well. I don’t think there are any good solutions to that problem except not having them split up in the first place.

Adrian’s player had recently had the notion that she should check in with Dodera, and I’d thought I should try out longer waves of combatants. Strangely, the two mixed together fairly well in the next session.

Session 20 – Siege of the Safe House

Setting: Bet Kalimar Docks District

While carefully crafting a message home, Adrian spots a line of tiny bugs on the room’s windowsill and brings it to the magi’s attention. They warn that they’ve been found and should prepare for a scouting party to attack shortly.

Adrian quickly settles on a phrasing and relays it to Pitne. As the wizard prepares to send the message, the others scout out the neighboring rooms. To the south of the armory, where Niss first spotted Pitne, is a large room with three doors; those to the east and south lead to elevated bridges, while the one to the west leads to a smaller room with one door leading out to another bridge. While there’s little of use in the debris strewn about the floor, Naomi finds a clay helm.

Daveth and Shial, reluctant to stand on the front line in the coming fight, brief the party on what they can offer: Shial spent his academy days working to bring out the inner strength in others, while Daveth tended towards flashier shows of force and power.

Several minutes pass in silence, save for Pitne’s arcane mutterings, before a distant scratching is heard. Naomi and Niss check the outer doors, to guess where the attack may come from. Hearing scratching from the western-most door, Naomi backs away, while Niss, at the southern door, decides to peek out onto the bridge. A chitinous arm pushes the door open and Niss finds himself face to face with a man-sized roach. Niss leaps backwards from his foe, suffering only a storm of criticism from Daveth who shouts at Niss “Hold the line!” as he tosses a small green glowing sphere that splashes on the roach’s carapace.

Realizing they may be surrounded, Naomi readies her Caltrops of the Captain, she had found in the sewers and shouts for everyone to fall back to the armory. Waiting until Daveth and Niss are safely with the others, she drops the lone caltrop in the doorway between the two southern rooms, joins the others, and commands it to deploy. In an instant, the floor is carpeted from wall to wall with tiny glistening glass caltrops. After slamming the door shut, the party listens to the sound of glass shattering followed by a loud boom. The sequence repeats rapidly for a few seconds before the room returns to silence. Before long, the room is silent again. Peeking out, the party sees a pair of roach corpses, charred and broken amid the glistening mines. Each appears to have pushed nearly halfway to the armory’s door from their point of entry before succumbing to their wounds; behind each one is a clear path leading to each door. Daveth, delighted with the explosive results, compliments Naomi on her defensive idea. Shial, while pleased he didn’t need to get involved, feels certain more are on the way.

As the minutes tick past, Ennostiel gazes idly out the north window and spots a tiny construct, like those she first saw in the sewers, standing on the bridge, trying not to be seen. She waves, but it runs off. However, before she can contemplate it further, the distant clacking and scratching sounds return, but much louder than before.

Niss, feeling more cautious than before, stands towards the back and tries to inspire the others, orating on historic fights against vermin. Adrian and Ennostiel move to flank the armory’s door and wait. The thunderous booming of the caltrops resumes growing nearer and nearer to the door, culminating in a final blast as the door is smashed in. In its place stands one of the more massive insects, announcing its presence with a piercing shriek. Behind it, more roach corpses lie scattered about the room, having cleared a path to the door. While the remains of the doorframe constrain its movement a little, it grabs hold of an awestruck Daveth with its mighty mandibles. Eager to save their would-be ally, Ennostiel, Naomi and Niss all take shots at the beast, but its armored shell deflects their blows.

Adrian lets loose a manly giggle as Shial casts Bull’s Strength, further empowering the towering barbarian who appears to grow in size while summoning a fierce fury from within. Drawing back with near unimaginable strength, Adrian swings the towering great sword in a wide arc and smashes clear through the doorframe, missing the vast vermin by inches and considerably widening the hole it had created. Undeterred by the other’s attacks, the giant bug cuts Daveth’s screams off abruptly as it waves him around like a rag doll. Naomi, unwilling to waste another chance to injure her foe, strides forth with rapier drawn and pierces the shell deeply, causing her foe to rear back a little. Niss, hoping that Daveth may yet be alive, leaps forward, uses his healing belt and is rewarded with the sorcerer’s renewed screams. Shial casts Bear’s Endurance on his injured friend, hoping to improve his odds while in the vermin’s serrated jaws. Adrian, confident that the great sword will not go astray as before, attacks again and beheads the towering foe in a single mighty swing, dropping Daveth to the ground, injured but alive.

In the quiet that follows, Shial works to further heal Daveth’s deep wounds and Adrian, appears to calm down with the bloody rage sated by the death of a powerful foe.

Without warning, the adjacent room is host to a flurry of activity. For a brief moment, a wide range of constructs pile in from every door, some caught explosively unaware by the remaining caltrops, but just as quickly as they appeared, they disappeared, shrouded behind a dense fog that filled the room, flowing up to the ruined remains of the armory’s door. Ennostiel tries to bluff the mob, claiming she’s got the situation under control, but a voice from the fog declares, “Ignore the imposter!”

Niss, confident his compatriots have the situation under control, decides to scout out their eventual escape route across the north bridge, which, according to Pitne, would lead to the university. In light of the new threat, Naomi asks Shial for a casting of Bear’s Endurance. Adrian steps away from the fog’s reach, hoping to see the new threat before it gets within striking range. In the next instant, two fairly simple constructs emerge from the mists, but don’t last long; Ennostiel chops one in twain and Naomi sends a carefully aimed crossbow bolt through the other’s head. Pleased with the results from the last fight, Shial renews the lapsed Bull’s Strength on Adrian, who readies a swing, catching a heavily armored warrior off guard as he clears the fog, cutting him down before he can act.

However, no sooner is he cut down than, with a thunderous rumbling, an immense construct looking like an armored gorilla charges into the room, trampling over the bodies of the fallen. His initial swing against Adrian finds only air, but his charge causes the mists behind him to swirl wildly revealing for the briefest of moments, a cloaked figure, a construct like the others, but with more elegant lines and etched runes, gesturing with a glowing symbol. A glowing warhammer appears floating in the air in front of Adrian and catching the Goliath off guard. Ennostiel lands a solid hit on the shoulder of the larger foe, cutting a deep grove into the armor, but a resounding clanging sound makes it clear that most of the force of the blow is deflected. Unsatisfied with that approach, Ennostiel carefully steps back, out of reach. Naomi, hoping for another solid hit, takes careful aim, but the bolt barely marks the thick armor. Daveth, having held back until now, raises his left arm and sends a jet of fire at the towering foe, melting some of the armor, and charring parts between gaps in the plates.

Adrian, typically unable to find inner strength so quickly after having raged, finds inspiration in such a powerful foe and enters into a bloody rage, once again, and hits with so great a force as to nearly shake the behemoth to pieces. However, another strike from the glowing warhammer and a shockwave emanating from the cloaked figure start to wear the powerful barbarian down; the vast armored foe rears back and swings a pair of oversized adamantine fists down leaving Adrian standing, but only just barely.

Ennostiel and Naomi seek to finish off the threat, fearing anything that could nearly take down Adrian, but neither manages to land a solid hit. Daveth raises his other arm and, taking aim at the cloaked figure, launches glowing darts from his fingertips, eliciting a grunt of pain as they find their mark.

Seeking a second wind, Adrian activates the Amulet of Tears, largely unused until now, and is suddenly unburdened of the effects of the damage just sustained, if just for a little while. As it turns out, it’s all that is needed. A terrible screech fills the air as metal grinds against metal and Adrian’s greatsword cuts the towering foe in two, dropping it to the ground with a thunderous clang. Unwilling to face such a resilient foe alone, the cloaked figure retreats silently into the fog.

Niss returns from scouting, just in time to see the battle’s end, reports back that the way is clear, and shows off a strange shepard’s crook he’d found, with the words “Beware Zed, Prince of Rams” carved inside the curved end. Taking stock of the situation, he strides over to Adrian and provides healing for some of the more egregious contusions. As the fog clears, revealing scattered bodies of half a dozen roaches and constructs alike, Ennostiel pries loose the eyes of the newly bisected foe and pockets them.

Pitne’s arcane mutterings rise to a crescendo as he completes the spell, making contact with his distant ally and conveys Adrian’s message:

“Adrian reporting to Chieftain LongFighter. Most unaware of Dodera; mostly getting strange looks. Doing noble quests to boost our people’s reputation. What’s happening with invasions?”

His energies spent, Pitne gathers Daveth and Shial to him, and the trio disappears into a puff of smoke. As if as an afterthought, his voice calls out from an unseen place “If we get out of this alive, I’ll be sure to contact you with the reply.”

Following Niss’s lead, the quartet head across the bridge, and upstairs into what used to be a warehouse. While clearly not the first to toss the room for loot, the party manages to find a few items amidst the piled boxes: Naomi discovered a three vials of spices, while Ennostiel stumbled upon a set of iron bottle stoppers, melted, with the inscription “Efreeti! – Do Not Remove” still faintly visible. Adrian picks up Niss, dropping him onto wide gray shoulders, and gazes out a window. Amidst the fading morning mists, groups of roaches patrol the streets below. Glancing a little closer, Adrian spots a familiar line of tiny bugs crawling over the windowsill into the room. Stomping on as many as possible, Adrian follows the trail to a heavy double-door.

Adrian throws the doors open to reveal a broad bridge stretching high above the streets for some eighty feet to a neighboring warehouse. The bridge is roughly twenty feet wide with shin-high guard-walls running along the edge. The trail of bugs ends halfway between the two buildings at the feet of a figure staring off into space. While clearly once human, it is now impossibly gaunt with pale, leathery skin stretched tightly over a shifting frame.

Not waiting for it to strike first, Naomi takes aim and lodges a crossbow bold in its shoulder. It slowly shuffles and turns to face the party. Ennostiel takes a more direct approach and charges towards the figure cutting through its tough skin. From the hole, dozens of tiny bugs crawl out and fall to the ground. Adrian sets Niss down and briefly contemplates the mortal danger of the situation, having nearly been knocked out just a few brief minutes earlier. However, the moment passes, and Adrian joins Ennostiel with a mighty shout, but misses the target.

The zombie-like figure silently swings with two fists, clumsily missing the brave duo, dropping bugs about it on the ground with every move. Naomi lands another arrow, but the others struggle to piece the thick hide. Falling back, Ennostiel lobs a vial of Alchemist’s fire, but the toss goes wide and the flames barely singe the target. Stepping forward, the zombie slams a powerful fist into Ennostiel’s metal frame dropping bugs on her form, but none find purchase and fall to the ground. From the doorway, Niss lands a bolt clear through it’s eye, but it appears unfazed. Ennostiel backs off and heals herself with the wand from the sewers, leaving Adrian to face the roach-zombie’s increasingly powerful attacks.

Standing strong against a series of surprisingly powerful blows, Adrian matches slam with slash, slicing deeply into the roach-zombie. However, even with some remote healing from Niss, the blows begin to take their toll. With a final solid slam with a rock-hard fist upside the head, Adrian is knocked out and drops to the ground at the roach-zombie’s bug-covered feet.

Naomi leaps into action. Activating her invisibility cloak, she sprints to her fallen ally, borrows a potion of cure moderate wounds from Adrian, reviving the groaning barbarian. Ennostiel, having had little luck with Alchemist’s Fire, moves to flank the sturdy foe with the aid of the Adrian. Not pausing even to stand, Adrian picks up the greatsword, and cuts the roach-zombie off at the ankles.

However, as it topples, tens of thousands of tiny bugs abandon their former host and pour out onto the ground, covering Ennostiel’s legs, and wholly engulfing Adrian. Naomi nearly runs back to cover, but, upon realizing that Adrian has blacked out and will soon be eaten alive, she summons great inner strength and drags her massive companion behind her while Ennostiel, also moving to cover, tosses vials of Alchemist’s Fire to cover their retreat.

Niss slams the door shut as the trio makes their way back into the warehouse. A deafening drone from the other side of the door suggests that there is little time to rest before the swarm gnaws through the only protection. Naomi grabs another of Adrian’s healing potions, and several vials of Alchemist’s Fire, before healing her ally into consciousness again. Each of the four readies a vial and tosses it as Niss opens the door a crack. In the brief moment before he slams it shut, the swarming mass is set alight. However, the gnawing continues, albeit slightly fainter. Figuring the plan worth another shot, a further volley is launched, and is followed by with silence. Niss cautiously opens the door, the base of which is little but charred splinters, and pushes aside a mound of charred roach casings.

Bruised and bleeding, the party still pushes onwards, fearing what might find them if they stay put. The neighboring building appears much like the last; little stands out as salvageable, though Naomi finds a hefty jar of what can only be liquefied Grick, gone slightly moldy.

END SESSION 20

Note: From time to time, review exactly what treasure your players have, so you don’t forget that they have a minefield that can resolve more than one encounter all on its own. Also, if the later treasure seems silly, it’s only because I found the 100 Useless Items list series in Dragon Magazine. I’ve not had to use it recently, but I have it ready the next time they try to scour pre-scoured warehouses.

Jastermereel
2010-09-17, 12:23 PM
Session 21 – Knight Takes Queen Takes Knight

Setting: Bet Kalimar’s Docks District

Finding the rooms on the other side of the bridge deserted, without trace of the infestation, the group pauses to catch their breath after the draining fight. While Adrian downs a pair of healing potions and the others count up their remaining few vials of alchemist’s fire, Ennostiel digs through the room’s piles of boxes. A few held a small quantity of coin, while a sizable one was empty save for packing straw and a cryptic bill of goods signed at the bottom with an ornate J. Ennostiel speculates that the box may have held the original source for the roaches in Bet Kalimar and were brought in by Jorasco. While Adrian and Naomi work at finding some coin of their own, Niss examines a large indoor cargo crane positioned above a hole in the floor, with a rope dangling down into the darkness.

However, he leaves it behind, following the others down a set of gradually curved stairway with slightly more ornate décor. Naomi and Ennostiel hang back on the bottom landing while Niss and Adrian scout ahead. After following a short corridor, the duo stands at one end of a large library. While the room is fairly well cared for and is without a trace of the bugs that have taken over the rest of the district, Adrian spots signs that suggest it’s been recently used, possibly lived in. Niss sees a wide set of stairs spiraling into a lower level and starts to descend further when he hears a low rumbling sound and thinks twice about going ahead on his own and ducks back to bring Naomi and Ennostiel ahead. Adrian, more willing to continue without backup, wanders towards the far end of the room.

A bolt of crackling eldritch energies flies out of a small alcove and slams into Adrian’s back. Thinking fast, Adrian ducks back around a corner, trying to take cover, but not before catching a glimpse of the assailant: a well-dressed hobgoblin last seen at Jorasco’s costumed ball. Kandar yells to Adrian, “You’ve meddled for too long. It’s time to bring this to an end.” From the rafters above, Adrian hears the rustling of a thousand crows taking flight.

Ennostiel, the first to the spot Adrian and the crows, yells back to Niss and Naomi who ready their weapons. Niss tries to cast Sleep on the swarm of crows before they engulf Adrian, but his magic has little effect. Having sized Kandar up, Adrian rushes towards him, and slices his fine attire to ribbons. He cries out in pain, but remains defiant, “If you’d kept out of the docks, we could have let you live, but you’ve seen too much.” With an arcane gesture, he darkens the room, and sprints towards a set of stairs behind him. Adrian manages to cut him badly, but not before the swarm arrives. With a thousand tiny landing a thousand tiny cuts upon the barbarian’s scalp, blinding and nauseating Adrian who runs from the squawking cloud, knocking over tables and chairs in the way.

Cautiously advancing, and fearing there might be back-up, Naomi hangs back, and instead peers out of a door on the side of the great hall. Outside sits a large courtyard, empty save for a few trees, surrounded by university buildings on all sides.

Ennostiel, unafraid of the swarm, wordlessly runs through the darkened patch of the room and slashes at the fleeing hobgoblin. Niss, less inclined to pass near the pecking flock of birds, sneaks between the rows of shelves nearby bookshelves and manages to get a quick shot off on Kandar, but it barely scratches his tough hide. Naomi, satisfied that he’s alone, joins Niss by the shelves. Kandar, in an attempt to detain his pursuers, summons a mighty stone fist from the library's tiled floor, which lashes out at Ennostiel, but does not land a hit before she, in turn, strikes him down with a final blow of her double-sided sword, sending him tumbling down the stairs.

After blindly fumbling for a time, Adrian finds and downs a healing potion and is able to see again. Niss, feeling boisterous, shouts at the bleeding and unconscious bugbear, “That’ll teach you not to let us mettle in your own business!” before running back to the warehouse to grab the cargo crane’s rope to secure the prisoner. While he’s gone, Adrian stops his bleeding, to keep him alive for later questioning, and rummages through his clothes for valuables finding a pair of Bracers of Armor (+1), a glowing red flask of Amorphous Fire, a mundane sickle and, most strangely, a small mummified elf hand on a chain about his neck (Hand of the Mage). After Niss binds and gags the prisoner, Naomi drinks an Elixir of Hiding and an Elixir of Sneaking, and, confident she won’t be spotted, descends the stairs Kandar had tried to run to.

Spiraling well below the library, the stairs open into a vast open room with a high ceiling. While there may once have been several enclosures and rooms, only rubble remains now. Where the library’s walls had ornate stonework, the basement’s walls have been reduced to raw stone deeply scored with great claws. One small building still stands to the side of the room, apparently a forge, as a chimney rises from the partially collapsed top of the shack to the ceiling of the great hall. Near Naomi’s entrance stands a tall ten-foot wide pillar, apparently meant to help support the ceiling, but it shows the same deep groves that cover the walls. Several doorways appear to lead out of the main room, likely connecting to other surface-level stairs; while there may be others, the remains of the walls and the piles of rubble obscure the far end of the hall. While there is a near-constant low rumbling, its source is not immediately clear.

Naomi cautiously approaches the dilapidated forge, and in peeking around the edge of the doorway, nearly comes face to face with one of the massive roaches. While it appears alert, it does not spot her. As the rumbling grows louder, Naomi looks toward the far end where the rubble covering the floor forms a low wave rolling across the floor as if something large, much larger than the other roaches, were tunneling below. Unwilling to face such a threat on her own, Naomi scurries back upstairs, careful not to attract any attention. Adrian, who had been exploring the courtyard, which appeared visibly depressed towards its middle, had been pushing a plan involving explosively demolishing the courtyard to access the chamber below, eventually reconsidered after Naomi relayed her findings.

Niss, apparently eager to lead the charge, takes off towards the far end of the room, beyond where Naomi had scouted, winding his way along the nearest wall. His curiosity takes a back seat to caution when he finds, and nearly runs into, another large roach resting behind the ruins of a wall. Naomi and Ennostiel take up positions on opposite sides of the large support pillar, carefully eyeing the room. Adrian, feeling bold but acting with some restrain, steps into the room and approaches where Naomi had seen the burrowing beast. However, barbarians are not known for their stealth, a fact that becomes further apparent as a large roach emerges from the dilapidated shack and screeches out an alarm.

From an alcove towards the far end of the room, a vast monstrosity appears, half again as tall as the others. Its mandibles, each as long and sharp as Adrian’s great sword, flank a cavernous maw, from which a stream of viscous acid pours creating a smoking hole in the floor. As Pitne predicted, this can only be the brood mother of the infestation. Rushing toward the lone intruder, she lets out a screeching wail that reverberates through the ruins, but Adrian stands undaunted. Naomi, using her best ammunition, peers out from behind the pillar and looses a corrosive bolt on the brood mother, showering her in acid. Adrian, confronting the mother of the vermin who have been an enduring source of pain and frustration, calls forth a inner rage and closes the gap, swinging the vast great sword in a wide arc and cuts a deep groove at the feet of the brood mother.

Meanwhile, at the far end of the room, unseen by the others, Niss tries to hide amid the larger rocks, but is seen the moment the large roach rounds the corner replying to the alarm. Bending low, it nearly cuts the lean catfolk in half with a single bite. Eyeing the tender morsel of flesh, it lingers for a moment before continuing on to defend its queen.

While Adrian seems eager to engage the foe alone, Ennostiel is less confident in the barbarian’s prowess and raises her gleaming metal hand, firing a coruscating ray of enfeeblement at the massively oversized vermin. The brood mother’s body sags noticeably, as if the thick shell was suddenly much heavier than before, but she appears no less determined to drive out the intruders. Hatching a plan, Ennostiel calls out to Adrian to keep the queen busy, while she searching for the explosive blasting disk from her pack.

The roach that first sounded the alarm charges towards Adrian, but is nearly cut down with a single blow from the raging barbarian for its incautious approach. The brood mother, enraged by the attack on its spawn, lunges, scything its razor-sharp mandibles together, but Adrian nimbly ducks aside. It cries out as injury is piled upon insult when another of Naomi’s corrosive bolts find its mark, and Ennostiel lands another ray of enfeeblement on the smoldering shell of the harried giant.

Adrian, reluctant to face two vast vermin at once, tries to finish off the lesser foe, but misses while attempting to avoid the relentless counter-attacks. While the guardian has the same difficulty, the brood mother takes advantage of Adrian’s split attention and bites deeply into goliath flesh, slicing through the tough hide as if it were jelly, raising her prize high in the air. Adrian, experiencing unimaginable pain, manages to pry apart the great jaws and tumbles to safety on the far side of the brood mother. Standing tall, the bleeding barbarian shouts a curse in the Gol-Kaa tongue, looking up to see the second guardian emerge from the rubble at the other end of the room with blood dripping from its maw.

Taking a more direct role in the fight, Ennostiel approaches the roach Adrian had weakened, and stabs clear through its armored underbelly. Enraged by the death of one of its own, the brood mother sprays a broad stream of acid at the gleaming interloper, dissolving the outer layer of Ennostiel’s intricate armored form. Naomi launches another bolt and while it misses, she attracts the attention of the surviving guardian who burrows under the ground as it approaches Naomi. Adrian, barely able to stand, yet appearing to enjoy the fight all the more, lashes out at the brood mother coating and, at long last, lands a hit. The vast great sword is dyed black as a foul-smelling grume pours forth from deep within the towering beast.

With all eyes elsewhere, Ennostiel, her form still smoldering from the acid, draws forth the blast disk from her pack, and sets it down near the base of the tall pillar. Grasping deeply within the downed guardian, she taunts the brood mother while draping herself with the remains. Turning to face the insolent metal foe who would so defile her loyal protectors, the queen launches herself at Ennostiel, tearing the warforged limb from mithral limb, leaving only traces of life in the pitted and battered shell, all the while remaining just outside the range of the disk’s magic.

The surviving guardian resurfaces near Naomi and locks on to her with a powerful bite. Unwilling to face such a foe head on, Naomi once again calls upon her primal heritage, drawing her repressed reptilian heritage to the surface, this time in full view of her comrades, and slips free of the roach’s grasp, though not without injury. Landing on the ground, she taps the collar of her cloak and disappears from sight.

Adrian, sensing an opening in the brood mother’s defenses, slips underneath, and opens the lightly armored underbelly open with a gash as long as a man, dropping organs without name to the dusty ground. However, the queen still stands. Screeching in agony and rage, it tries to retreat, not wishing to die just yet. Staggering away from Adrian, it plants a clawed foot clear through Ennostiel’s shredded torso, directly onto the blast disk.

A massive explosion rocks the underground room sending bits of the brood mother and warforged to the far corners of the room. The support pillar shudders, now missing a chunk near where the disk had been. Even as the echoes of the explosion die down, a new rumbling sound takes its place, louder and more ominous than the queen’s digging had been.

The remaining guardian charges at Adrian in a blind rage, undeterred by the chunks of stone falling from the ceiling, and receives a nasty backhanded slash with the barbarian’s bloodied great sword. Naomi, increasingly aware of the room’s instability, is filled with a sense of urgency and charges the towering roach, and skewering it with her rapier, piercing its heart with a perfectly precise lunge. The last of the giant roaches collapses to the floor, but its fall cannot be heard over the rising thunder of the rocky ceiling falling to pieces.

END SESSION 21

Note: Ennostiel had been asking about trying out a new character and, seeing as how, at this point, she was Fighter 2 / Wizard 2, I was willing to indulge her request. While it was done for solid in-character reasons, her multi-classing was starting to hurt her options. Besides, the party was starting to feel the lack of a full-time arcanist. I’m just glad it worked out so cinematically, with a minimum of DM shaping. She didn’t go out of her way to die, I didn’t go out of my way to kill her, and it all came together with a climactic explosion. What more could we ask for?

Session 22 – Forced Introductions, and an Audience with the Council
Setting: Bet Kalimar

Adrian glances over at Naomi and asks about the strange changes she’s undergone. Naomi, realizing she’s still shifted, gestures at the crumbling ceiling with a claw-like hand and shouts, over the growing thunder, “Is this really a good time? Go get the stuff and get out of here!” Adrian, assuming she means Kandar, heads for the tunnel they entered from while Naomi sprints towards the far end of the room where the roach with the mouth of blood and emerged from, fearing the worst.

Rounding a corner, she spots Niss’s blood long before she sees him. His wounds are deep, but he is alive. She pours a healing potion down his open mouth while cursing his careless nature in Draconic. He awakens, still in pain, and thanks her, strangely also in Draconic. To the side of his head, Naomi spots a small ivory chalice, half buried amid the debris, and snatches it up. Upon closer inspection, only half is ivory, the opposite end of the hourglass-shaped chalice is rusty pockmarked iron. She pockets it and helps Niss to his feet. However, the moment of peace cannot last and is interrupted by a deafening crash as the support pillar, weakened by the blast, crumbles to one side and the ceiling beings to cave in. The pair takes off at full sprint towards the entrance. While they try to stay clear of the plummeting debris and the thick dust cloud, several sizable stones graze them before they manage to duck into the tunnel to the stairs.

Meanwhile, Adrian, having reached the library, examines Kandar’s body. While he is still bound, he is no longer living. In their absence, someone or something had repeatedly stabbed his helpless form. A thin scorch marks branch out from every wound, covering his body in a web of burnt flesh. Adrian peeks out the door into the courtyard and watches as trees, benches and a broad cobblestone path disappears into a massive sinkhole. Adrian yells out, inaudible over the din, “Are you guys ok?”

A burst of dust pours forth from the library stairs, revealing Niss and an un-shifted Naomi as it settles. The three gather and mourn the loss of their comrade, now buried beneath unknowable tons of dirt and stone. Adrian and Naomi explain about Ennostiel’s sacrifice to Niss, but also express their anger. Adrian especially feels that had Niss helped, and not gone missing at such a crucial time, Ennostiel might have survived. However, other, more pressing matters, draw their attention as they examine Kandar’s body together. Adrian makes a fairly uneducated guess that the assailant must have been a “Tree fire lizard”, but Niss, almost as ill informed, puts for that it was a “lightning scorpion”, a dangerous foe his clan allegedly fought on the plains. None are quite certain of what could have caused it in the library in such a short time. Adrian, sensing the danger is over, once again asks Naomi about her sudden, and short lived, changes in appearance. Naomi is tries to dodge the question, somewhat defensively, and Niss backs her up. Adrian drops the question, for now, though remains somewhat suspicious.

While they discuss the possibilities and mourn the loss of their comrade, the thunder of falling debris fades to an echo as the cave in slows. In the relative quiet, another sound can be heard: a sizable group is fighting just outside the university’s walls. At door at the south end of the library slams open and several guardsmen hurry inside. As they heal one another, a dwarf, apparently in charge, shouts orders to search the place for survivors.

The trio approaches the dwarf who introduces himself as Dolom, sergeant of the city guard. While Adrian extends a hand, Dolom steps back, avoiding physical contact. He tells the trio that he and his men had been maintaining the lock-down of the docks district, but had seen the bugs suddenly retreat en masse about half an hours ago. Taking initiative, he had his men push forward to take back several neighborhoods, but found minimal resistance. Other groups of guardsmen had broken off to escort a few survivors out of the area, but Dolom had his men push towards the sound of the cave in.

While the trio tells of their encounter with the infestation’s brood mother, Dolom directs his men to further explore the university and make sure it’s cleared out. He explains that all survivors are to be taken to an inn the guard had commandeered and kept there for observation for a few days. Naomi is suspicious of his motives and Adrian looks particularly reluctant to be kept in close quarters with the others for a stretch of time, but Dolom seems earnest. Neither sympathetic nor malicious, he is simply doing his job when he directs a few of the guard under his command to escort the party out of the district.

That afternoon, upon arrival at the inn, a young guardsman explains the situation to them: survivors are being housed four to a room, no exceptions. To maintain a safe space, all dangerous materials, magical or mundane are being confiscated. Adrian, further displeased at having to stay with a stranger, tries to hide the large great sword, but the guard only laughs at the attempted subterfuge and holds out a storage crate. Naomi is luckier with a more reasonable goal and manages to hide a dagger in the cuff of her boot. Most of the magical clothing, such as Niss’s healing belt and Naomi’s invisibility cloak, go unnoticed by the rookie guardsman who is distracted and disgusted by Adrian’s mummified elf-hand necklace.

The trio is directed down a long bent hallway. The door on the far end opens to a communal bathing space. In their room sits a girl, barely five feet tall wearing a cloak, larger than appropriate, covering a slightly tattered dress. Displeased by the filthy state of the exotic travelers thrown into her room, she looks at them with disgust.

Eager to entertain a new audience, Niss tries to amuse her with puppets and elicits a brief guarded smile before her unfriendly expression returns. Naomi asks her name, but is rudely rebuffed, as the girl barks back “None of your business.” Adrian launches into the oft-repeated diplomatic spiel for Dodera, apparently oblivious to the nature of the girl’s retort, “Hello Nunav Yorbizniss, I am Adrian of Dodera, a friendly…” but the girl appears uninterested. Niss asks if she, like they, is a survivor, but is rebuffed with the same hostile sarcasm that the others received. “I’m alive, aren’t I?” Adrian, tired of the rudeness, wanders off to the communal bath, but after realizing that the shaving razor was among the confiscated goods, returns to the room in frustration.

After a little while, a guard enters to deliver food. He looks carefully at each person in turn before handing them their dinner. Niss hungrily devours his, while Naomi and Adrian eye theirs suspiciously. After prodding at it a little, each discovers a short note signed with the stamp of the Andave’Cenda: “Good work in the docks. Guard freed up considerably. Expected to depart within a day or two. Contact us when you’re out.” The trio confer, attempting to find a modicum of secrecy in the cramped room to discuss the notes, while the young girl, seeing that the food is safe, hurriedly eats, before revealing and devouring another bowl she had hidden away earlier, neither of which contains a secret message.

Naomi, curious as to the nature of their situation, listens through the door at the hallway’s entrance, but the guards outside sound of fairly low rank and prattle on about rumors coming in from those clearing out the docks. Eventually, the group succumbs to sleep, even Adrian, who refused to take of the hide armor, which, while masterwork, is also thoroughly soiled, claiming to need it for modesty and decency.

As the sun rises, the quartet awakens and immediately begins to complain about the smell coming off Adrian. The girl declares, “I’ve seen cows that smell better!” Adrian insists that it’s simply a good manly odor, but does not convince the youth, who still suspects Adrian is hiding something. When the morning meal is delivered, Niss complains that the smell is making the food go bad, but the unsympathetic guard just tells him to eat faster. The remainder of the day passes largely without event, though Niss was bothered enough by the smell to fill Naomi’s clay helm with water and dump it on Adrian, twice. From the corner, the young girl quietly watches the others, gauging whose possessions might be worth the most.

The third day begins with cries of alarm from a neighboring room. While Niss and Adrian sleep through the noise, the shouting wakes Naomi and the girl up. Naomi’s keen ears catch enough to let her piece together what happened: apparently one of the survivors in that room had been a roach in disguise. However, the guard managed to take it down before anyone in the room was hurt. Awake earlier than expected, Naomi lies awake and notices Adrian’s scalp, normally clean-shaven, is unusually stubbly, but doesn’t think much of it. With lunch, comes news; the guard explains that they should be free to go tomorrow. However, tensions still run high over the stench, as even Adrian now admits to feeling fairly disgusting. As the others bicker and argue, the girl magically levitates a full water pail from the bathroom and dumps it on Adrian, shouting over them, “Shut up! All of you!”

Adrian, sick of the stench and the fighting, asks Niss to guard the bathroom door. While he is uncertain why such a strong barbarian would need a guard, he agrees. However, absentminded as he is, he soon wanders off and Naomi, needing to make use of the facilities wanders in. While Adrian is facing away from the door and Naomi pauses for but a brief moment, one thing is made clear: The burly barbarian with a chauvinistic streak a mile wide, is actually a woman.

Adrian, startled by the intrusion, clumsily throws her armor back on and runs down the hall, cornering Naomi before she gets back to the room, hissing at her, “If you mention this to anyone, I will kill you. A lot.” Naomi while surprised at Adrian’s tone, doesn’t seem at all bothered by the discovery, “Why would I care?” Adrian, marginally calmed by Naomi’s response still tries to impress upon her that word must not get out insisting that it must, absolutely must, remain a secret. Naomi doesn’t understand what has Adrian so bothered and asks, “You’re a good fighter, why should anything else matter?” Adrian explains, apparently thinking it obvious, “All good fighters are men!” though, admits that Naomi’s efforts with the crossbow in dealing with the brood mother were quite decent. While Adrian remains fairly distraught, she feels the need for silence is understood and the two return to the room. However, her anger rises again when she sees Niss sitting on his bedspread playing with his puppets and calls him an utter failure. Niss observes that Adrian smells much nicer, but doesn’t understand why she’s yelling, having long forgotten about guarding the door. The strange youth, watching Adrian gesture angrily in the sloppily donned armor, suddenly sees through the disguise. “You’re a girl! A pretty pretty girl!” she cries out, and collapses into a fit of laughter as Adrian turns purple with rage while denying the accusation. Naomi glares at the girl, and asks how her parents let her grow up without a trace of manners, but she snaps back, “They’re dead!” Naomi’s anger subsides, and looks on in unspoken sympathy. Niss, however, still doesn’t understand what everyone is shouting about, and returns his attention to his puppets.

A new member of the guard interrupts the conflict, and declares that they have an audience before the city’s council tomorrow. He had been told to find the group that had made their way to the core of the infestation, but expresses confusion having found only three of that group. While the young girl was not one of the intended invited, she arranges to tag along anyway, suspecting that there might be some reward involved.

As night falls on the city, the young girl decides that it might be her last chance to swipe something from this crew. However, she trips over the water pail while crossing the dark room waking Naomi. She returns the bucket to the communal bathroom, and returns after Naomi drifts off again. While her thievery skills aren’t quite as practiced as those of her mark, she carefully parts Naomi from her locket and slips back into bed.

Naomi wakes to find her locket missing and immediately suspects the newcomer who, in turn, claims it must have been Niss, pointing to the assorted glittering bits woven into his hair, but no one is convinced. Adrian demands that the locket be returned to Naomi and while the girl snidely remarks “Out of all the ones here, I’m the most honest…Miss!” she decides realizes that picking a real fight with the towering barbarian might be unwise and throws the locket back at Naomi. As she places the locket back around her neck, Naomi gives a nod of thanks to Adrian. Niss, remaining oblivious to the hostility in the room, exclaims “Yay! We’re all friends now!”

The awkward silence holds for the rest of the morning until a familiar guard arrives. Kardith, Heart of the Wall of was the first face Niss, Adrian and Naomi had seen upon waking up in Bet Kalimar little over a week ago. “I see none of you were listening when I told you lot to stay out of trouble,” he says with a smile of recognition. For the rest of the trip to the council, it’s the last time he seems to be aware of them. Mostly Kardith mutters to himself oblivious to his surroundings. From what the group can gather, most of the city’s guard boarded ships yesterday and started the long journey up the river to the North. Kardith seems displeased about having his men sent into battle without him and at being left shorthanded in the city and sent on “bloody useless errands”. Despite his immersion in his own thoughts, he eventually leads the way to the city’s council chamber.

Bet Kalimar does not have a single ruler, but is governed by a collection of the most powerful merchants, religious leaders and assorted influential movers and shakers. While most of the seats are filled, Adrian and Naomi note that a few are empty, including one with Jorasco’s name engraved on it.

The council explains that they’ve been collecting accounts from survivors of the infestation, looking for an explanation. While most of the small group of survivors simply found a place to hide and had little to say, yesterday, the council had talked with a trio of mages who had told them of a brave group of adventurers who should have quite a story to tell.

Naomi begins to tell of their time investigating the “plague” and their experience at Jorasco’s party. Gesturing to the empty seat, the council’s speaker explains that Lord Jorasco is wanted for questioning, but that city’s guards haven’t been able to find him since the storming of the docks. Naomi continues to tell of their journey through the sewers and the giant plants they found there, but Adrian keeps interrupting, apparently feeling the need to explain just how filthy and sewage-filled the sewers were. Niss also takes a moment to note the presence of the other living constructs in the sewers. The speaker appears surprised; no other survivor had mentioned them, and there was no trace below once the soldiers had cleared the surface. However, they do ask after Ennostiel, expecting her, and not the quiet street urchin who apparently tagged along. Niss tries to explain, but the council doesn’t quite understand what he means by “She was covered in poo, and exploded.” Naomi, renews her push to finish the story, covering the hoards of roaches in the docks, their encounter with the mages, and eventually their encounter with Kandar and the roach brood mother in the university, before Adrian interrupts to misidentify the hobgoblin’s wounds again. Pleased by the light Naomi was able to shed on the situation, the council responds in kind, and tries to answer any questions the adventurers may have.

Once both sides are satisfied with the story, the council’s speaker stands and declares, “Brave deeds are deserving of a reward, and yours have been so very brave.” He summons each of the adventurers forth in turn. “To Niss, an Amulet of Retributive Healing: never again choose between healing another and healing yourself. To Naomi, a Helm of Tactics: you know the need position yourself well in battle; teach this virtue to your friends, and you and yours will be victorious. To Adrian, a set of Bully Chains: while your sword may end a battle quickly, but your towering form may end it before it begins.”

The council’s speaker pauses briefly, uncertain about what to say about the young girl’s presence, before continuing. “To…um…you, a pair of Lightning Gauntlets: may they, um…your…may your enemies be shocked and surprised?” The rest of the council groans at the poor joke, but the speaker ignores them and continues.

He explains that while the adventurer’s belongings will be returned to them, one will be withheld: the ivory and iron chalice Naomi had found in the ruins of the university. The mages of the university had borrowed it and were studying its effects when the district fell to the infestation and was assumed lost when the university’s lower level collapsed. The council explains that it is an artifact as old as the city, and, as such, cannot simply be given away as a reward, no matter how grateful the council is. However, each of those responsible for saving the docks will be permitted to use it once. The young girl interjects that she should also be party to this reward as well, for the hardships she endured while trapped in the quarantine. The council, while not thrilled by the prospect of cheapening the reward, concedes and leads the quartet to an ornate fountain.

Each of those to be rewarded may use the chalice to drink from the fountain once, but with a warning: while the chalice may bestow a great gift, that gift comes with a price. Those who drink from the ivory half of the chalice, wishing for wisdom or wealth may find themselves poorer in unexpected ways, while those who drink from the iron half, thinking on their impending loss, may well be surprised by their boon.

Understanding the risk, each chooses to drink. Nissram, younger prince to the catfolk clans of the plains, drinks deeply from the ivory side, and finds himself feeling surer of himself and more inspired as a bard. As he steps aside, preparing to recount every detail of his journey, he notes that the details of the room fade from view a little. Adrian Kalios, barbarian diplomat of Dodera, drinks from the iron side, and coughs up a hard iron ring with the image of a ram’s head engraved in it. However, her move is needlessly course, making few friends among those of the council. Naomi, last of her clan save for one, drinks from the Iron side, and feels more single-minded and focused on finding her missing son. Though with her attention focused within, she stands for a time oblivious to the young girl waiting impatiently for her turn. Once she has the chalice, she wastes little time and dips the ivory side into the fountain and drinks deeply. Her’s stomach spasms and she spits out an amulet, much as Adrian did. Donning it, she feels her hands tense up; while they are accustomed to arcane energy, a baser force flows through them and she feels empowered by thoughts of more mundanely brutal methods. However, having been touched by the magic of such a powerful artifact from within, she also gained a resistance to imbibed magic, such as potions.

The council, having seen the impact that a small group of skilled adventurers can have on a problem, broaches the topic of another opportunity. With the troops on route to the goblin-filled lands in the northeast, the city is once again short-handed. Word has just come that citizens from Drellin’s Ferry, a small but influential trading town on the Elsir River, have been subject to attacks by creatures in the nearby woods. The town is not far from where the troops are headed, but the council does not seem particularly worried. However they seem to consider the town to be politically important and so wish to oil the squeaky wheel before it becomes a problem. To that end, they offer the adventurers a job; if they head north along the river and assuage the fears of Drellin’s Ferry, there will be a considerable reward in it for them.

Agreeing to think on the offer, the quartet gathers their belongings and departs from the council’s building into a courtyard open to the street. Adrian, pausing to savor the sensation of swinging a sword again, is startled to find a faint burning sensation coming from her pocket. She reaches in and pulls out a small forgotten metal disk, one Jorasco had handed to them at their last encounter. Then it was blank, but now, a small dot glows on its surface, pointing northward, towards the central districts of the city. Niss declares, “If something burns a hole in your pocket, I wanna follow it!”

Before a decision is made, a distant voice calls out Adrian’s name. Pitne, the wizard from the siege at the docks, is running down the street towards them with a sheet of paper in hand, “Adrian! So glad to see you made it out of there. I just received a reply and hoped I’d find you here to deliver it.” Pitne reads, “Good work Adrian Marmot-Herder Kalios, but Kalimar’s alliance unnecessary. Situation has changed. Sending envoy to Terrelton to debrief you. Rejoin your people. Prepare for war.” Having read it aloud, some of Pitne’s enthusiasm fades as he ponders just what “Kalimar unnecessary” and “war” could mean for the future and he excuses himself. Niss, apparently having missed those portions, starts laughing at Adrian’s honorific and makes a “de-brief-ed” joke, apparently having figured out what everyone was fighting about the night before.

As they discuss the meaning of the message, the glowing dot on the disk changes direction, swinging slightly towards the west. Niss is eager to follow where it may lead, but the others want to head to the market. Adrian is displeased by the fountain’s gifts and aims to trade it for something more practical and Naomi appears eager to go that was as well. The young girl explains that she also plans to liquidate the fountain’s gift, and decides to tag along with the others for a while longer suspecting there’s more wealth to be gained with them, having received two glittering treasures after spending three days in an inn with the trio. Niss follows along, keeping a close eye on the disk.

END SESSION 22

Note: Still there? Who’d have guessed that a combat-free session would go on for so long? What better way to get to know a new character than to be locked in a small room with them for three days?

The reward ceremony also doubled as a leveling up occasion. After a few bridging encounters, they’ll be starting up the Red Hand of Doom module, so I could have leveled them up as that began, here seemed more natural, even if there are 4 more events between now and then.

Adrian – Goliath (LA 1) Barbarian 4
Naomi – Saurian Shifter Rogue 5
Niss – Catfolk (LA 1) Bard 4
The girl / “Ominakna” / Marisol – Human* Sorcerer 5

Adrian wasn’t thrilled at the way her secret came to light, but the time was right, and darned if I wasn’t sick of meticulously her sections of the recap with gender neutral language, using “the massive sword” for “her sword” and a score of similar substitutions.

And for reference, the goblet/fountain was the Fountain of Fortune’s Folly from Dragon 339, p61.
Niss was rewarded with an Amulet of Retributive Healing, and the fountain gave him a +2 bonus to Charisma, and now has a –2 penalty to spot checks.
Adrian was rewarded with a set of Bully Chains, and the fountain gave her a Ring of the Ram, and now has a –1 penalty to Charisma checks.
Naomi was rewarded with a Helm of Tactics, and the fountain gave her a +1 on Will saves, and now has a –2 on her Initiative.
The girl, who has chosen to remain nameless for the moment, was given a set of Lightning Gauntlets meant for Ennostiel, and the fountain gave her an Amulet of Mighty Fists, and now has SR 10 v. potions which means that for each potion consumed she must roll a resistance check based on the level of the caster (presumed to be the minimum necessary).

The girl / “Ominakna” / Marisol is a human girl with an odd change. She has four arms. I traded the player for a feat (if I recall correctly) for the basic elements of a Diopsid’s four-armed nature (Dragon Compendium Volume 1, page 10). She was sold to slavers at a very young age, but escaped a few years back. She’s only around 14, so is a sort of magical prodigy but is mostly concerned with getting by on the street. She wears a dress that covers her other two limbs so as to not attract attention. She’s fairly abrasive to those around her and hasn’t yet revealed her name to the players, so Naomi dubbed her “Ominakna” or nameless in Draconic (according to some player’s research). The nameless element isn’t quite as frustrating to writing the recap journal as Adrian’s gender ambiguity was; there are only so many ways to construct a sentence without revealing someone’s gender and I think I ran through them all many times over.

I’m not really interested in penalizing players who want to try something new as a character so she gets to start at the same level as the others. If a character dies from abject stupidity, they might get a penalty, but her fighter/wizard wasn’t working out, which isn’t surprising, so bringing in a full arcane spellcaster seemed fair.

Jastermereel
2010-09-17, 12:24 PM
Session 23 – Let’s Go Shopping, A Rescue Too Late, and Dredging the River
Setting: Bet Kalimar

The quartet heads off into the market district to spend a little well-earned coin. Always looking for a bit of a boost, Adrian picks up an armful of healing and bull-strength potions, but sells off her Ring of the Ram, preferring to hit her foes directly, not with a piece of jewelry. While still fearless, the memory of the brood mother’s jaws has her looking for a little more protection. Entering the store of a high-end armor-enchanter, her eye is caught by a set of studded leather. While the craftsmanship is unparalleled, the exact details and shape appear are fuzzy and unclear. The half-elf shopkeeper demonstrates its uses and Adrian, intrigued, purchases the set. She finds a changing room and happily trades in her old armor for the new +1 Blurring studded leather. As she turns to leave, the shopkeeper taps her on the shoulder, while standing across the room behind his counter. “I see you’re the discerning type of barbarian who doesn’t take a blow if it can’t be helped. Perhaps I might interest you in these”, he says as he raises his hands. A pair of bracers covers his arms with leathery sinews, looking as though they belonged beneath his skin, rather than above it. Intrigued and amused by the offer, she buys the pair of Greatreach bracers and heads off to meet up with the others.

Naomi, glad to empty her haversack of an assortment of valuable but impractical items, goes looking for familiar resources. Pleased at her experiences on the receiving end of Niss’s healing belt, she tracks down one of her own, as well as the Hide and Sneak potion pair she’d used prior to her encounter with the brood mother. She aims to save most of her treasure for a finer rapier than she can presently afford, but she can’t resist browsing through the wares at Trueshaft’s, a merchant famous for his fine arrows and bolts. While happy to use mundane ammunition most of the time, a Fountainhead bolt catches her eye and tugs at her purse strings. Buying just the one, she meets up with Adrian who gives her a set of mundane bolts, before pawning off the rest of the mundane items.

Niss asks Adrian for the mummified elf hand she found on Kandar, seeing as how she has little use for its limited telekinetic powers. She agrees, preferring direct brute force when possible, and passes it to Niss. He promptly braids it into his hair, much to the others disgust, and runs off to find a wand of Cure Light Wounds, hoping his limited magical experience might help compensate for the limits of his healing belt, which has been drained dry a little quickly as of late.

The girl, whom Naomi dubs Ominakna, a draconic word for “nameless”, follows the others. With the sack of gold she gets from selling off her Amulet of Mighty Fists, coughed up at the council’s fountain, she grabs an assortment of magical odds and ends. Much of the wealth goes to a tan bag of tricks, similar to, but stronger than, Niss’. Intrigued by Naomi’s new belt, she also picks up a healing belt. Lastly, for reasons known only to her, she buys a +1 Heavy Crossbow, and a Hat of Disguise, though does not immediately try the latter out.

After everyone seems satisfied with the market’s offerings, Niss resumes urging the group to follow the “compass”, now pointing North-East. Adrian gets a look of horror on her face, realizing that she forgot to talk to the council about Dodera, and tries to persuade everyone to double back to them now, but Niss is unusually persistent and Adrian yields. Naomi is also reluctant to go charging off to wherever it points, preferring to check in with the Andave’Cenda first, though without the young girl; however, the glowing dot appears to point towards their neighborhood anyway, so she agrees to follow it. Delighted with her new possessions, the girl follows along at Niss’s suggestion, but catches an irritated look from Adrian and says, “I’m pretty sure she doesn’t want me around.” Adrian sternly requests, “Use the male pronoun please,” but the mischievous youth insists, “But you’re not a guy!” Niss ***** his head to the side and confusedly asks, “You’re not a guy?” but quickly dismisses it and focuses back on the compass as the others exchange indignant threats as they walk along.

Following the compass, the group comes to the door to the Andave’Cenda safehouse. The door is slightly ajar. “Ominakna” doesn’t quite understand why the others are surprised, but no one seems willing to explain at the moment. Niss carefully advances through the foyer to the library beyond while Adrian backs him up, keeping close behind him. Willing to play along for the moment, the young girl follows them, aping their movements. Naomi brings up the rear, but notices signs of a forced entry at the door.

Inside is a large open room, some fifty feet long. At one end, a dark stairway leads to the floor above. The other walls are lined with curtains leading to small alcoves. Three tall bookshelves stand in the center of the room. Above them the ceiling opens to a second floor balcony. A commotion can be heard upstairs. As Niss eases between two bookshelves, he finds the body of Elzedar, Anduin’s assistant. His body is covered with the same sort of wounds they’d seen on Kandar in the university. Niss expresses his confusion to the others: if Kandar was evil why would he have the same enemy as Elzedar? However, the hushed discussion is cut short when a deep voice echoes down, “Where are they?”

Choosing to investigate the living before the dead, Adrian, Niss and “Ominakna” quietly ease up the stairway while Naomi activates her cloak, and carefully climbs the bookshelves. While they wobble slightly, she manages to balance on top, standing eye-level with the second floor. On the far side of the room, Anduin leans against a table holding a dagger. Before her is a small dark creature. While he bears some resemblance to a goblin, there’s no mistaking him for one; his sturdy frame is covered with a thick black hide with traces of the darkest of blues where the candlelight catches it. He stands holding a scimitar before him facing Anduin, with his back to the stairs.

Adrian peers around the corner and sizes up the situation, but as she quietly advances on the small assailant, Anduin makes eye contact with her and tries to subtly warn her away. Uncertain as to how to proceed, Adrian glances back to the others in the stair to see if they’d followed. Suddenly, the short figure whips around and, with his jaw opening wide, appears to breathe a bolt of lightning at Adrian. She dives for cover behind a set of bookshelves, but finds the shock staying with her, causing burns up and down her arm. A crossbow bolt from an unseen assailant lodges itself in the spine of a book near Adrian’s head. Niss, realizing that the element of surprise is gone and unwilling to stay pinned down in the stairwell, runs for the set of bookshelves behind Adrian’s and starts trying to inspire the others towards bravery.
The young girl peeks around the corner of the stairs and with a wave of her hands and a few muttered words, the short assailant drops to the ground with an eruption of barking shrieks that must pass for laughter in his savage lands.

Satisifed that the one threat is out of the way, Naomi climbs over the railing and circles around to where the crossbow bolt must have come from, finding a similar figure holding a crossbow hiding in the shadows of a bookshelf. Less muscled, but equally armored, this figure has a dark gray hide covered with splotches of blood, some fresh, others caked and dried on. As she prepares to strike, Anduin throws her dagger at the lurking foe. The dagger flies through the air leaving a trail of flame behind it, but lands far from the intended target. The dagger reappears in her hand, but the act seems to have drained her and she slumps over a chair.

Adrian, eager to retaliate against her attacker, leaps out and slashes at her foe. However, he isn’t entirely helpless; while he can do little but roll about, every slice of Adrian’s massive blade creates a bright blue spark giving her a nasty shock. While she doesn’t relish the pain, Adrain doesn’t miss a beat as she continues to cut into her hysterical foe.

Niss rushes pas her and tries to revive Anduin, but while she appears conscious, all is not well and she doesn’t appear able to stand. The short shadowy figure makes a run for it, with crossbow loaded and aimed at Niss, but Naomi stabs him from behind causing him to stumble to the railing and spin around to face her. She darts forward, slashing at him with her rapier, keeping him off balance. The young girl in the stairway tries to land a shot with her crossbow, but the balcony’s railing deflects the shot.

Niss, suspecting that Anduin has been poisoned and realizing that time is of the essence, aims to finish the fight. Drawing his crossbow he takes aim, and pierces the thick hide of the cornered foe who falls over into the bookshelves. “Ominakna” casually walks over to him, steadies her heavy crossbow against the side of his head and pulls the trigger, ensuring that he wouldn’t be getting up again.

Naomi loots the remains of his failed accomplice. Behind his light crossbow, she finds surprisingly supple padded armor with silver highlights and a short sword made from a fang from a blue dragon. Intrigued by the lot, Naomi is disappointed to realize that none of it would fit her.

Adrian finishes off her prey and, as he stops laughing and starts bleeding in silence she moves over to Niss and helps him to lift Anduin. As the two of them carry her downstairs and outside in search of a healer, “Ominakna” takes stock of the falchion-wielding foe’s possessions. While he has no armor to speak of, his falchion, upon closer inspection, is also made from a blue dragon’s fang. In a small pouch by his side, he also carries a small silver disk, identical to the one Niss followed there. While she has little use for it, she is pleased to find that the treasures that Niss enticed her with are real. As she and Naomi follow the others, she asks who the wounded woman was, but Naomi leaves the matter vague, saying simply, “A friend. One who has helped us.” The two discuss the matter of the tracking coins, but can’t make heads or tails of the blank silver disks.

Adrian and Niss find a house of healing and an apothecary for Anduin. The healer convinces them he will do what he can they set off for the council while Naomi guards the door to her room against further attacks and “Ominakna” goes off to pawn her new treasure.

Adrian and Niss report to the council and, speaking on behalf of the group, agree to travel to Drellin’s Ferry on the council’s request. The council appears delighted to have the matter resolved and agrees to provide them with a small boat with some supplies to ease their travels.

Niss, on a whim, decides to tell the council about where Adrian and he have just been and starts describing how they’d “interrupted a burglary.” Adrian looks confused by his partial deceptions and begins to interrupt, but he just keeps talking right over her as he explains about the attack. The council assumes that it was just a few goblins, nothing that a guardsman couldn’t handle, and certainly below their concern, but Niss starts to convince them otherwise when he tells of their strange appearance and surprising abilities. However, when he finally piques the council’s interest they ask where the attack was, so as to start an investigation. Realizing that Anduin might not want the Andave’Cenda’s base of operations exposed, he recants and admits to the council that it must have been “just another goblin after all.”

Adrian steps forward, attracting their attention and professes how honored she is to be before the council again. She goes on to present her standard pitch for “Dodera, a friendly place” explaining their interest in developing further diplomatic relations. The council’s speaker appears surprised, and explains that while they knew relatively little of their northern neighbor, “it is always good to see a friendly face from a foreign place.” However, while Kalamar looks forward to forging an alliance, they cannot do so on a whim without having met more representatives. Adrian agrees that a full alliance will have to wait, but is delighted to have made a good impression with those overseeing the region. She and Niss excuse themselves to prepare for the mission ahead.

Regrouping with the others outside the house of healing, Niss shows uncharacteristic anger towards the others for having delayed their arrival at the Andave’Cenda with the shopping trip, feeling that if they’d arrived sooner, Elzedar might be still be alive and Anduin would not have been poisoned. Adrian reminds him that it would have been the first time his curiosity had saved lives and that previously it had resulted in him getting kidnapped. Naomi chimes in to remind him about the giant roach he’d run into, alone, just days before. Adrian continues, “Your curiosity doesn’t normally save a life. This would have been a first.” Niss is chastened, but still bothered by what happened.

Going inside, the group finds that Anduin is awake, but looking frail. She thanks them, but wastes little time on pleasantries and explains, “The Red Hand is larger and more powerful than anyone had thought. The city’s soldiers won’t be enough, but there are no more to send. You must go to the northern cities to prepare defenses. Find Norrow Wiston, the mayor of Drellin’s Ferry. He must be warned.” As she pauses, somewhat out of breath, Naomi asks if she’d found anymore more about Kale, the one who slew her husband and stole her child. Anduin tells her, “He is one of leaders, if not the warlord of the Red Hand.” While he sounds impossibly out of reach, Naomi is glad to know her target. The apothecary returns to the room and asks the group to let his patient rest.

While the others go prepare the boat, Naomi excues herself and goes off to loot the items from the attack on the Andave’Cenda and to make final preparations before leaving town. On her way back, she encounters a friendly face, Fierenze, the Shifter from the sewers. He appears delighted to see that the rumors were true that she survived the infestation and he tells her of the running skirmish he and the other Shifters had with the retreating Warforged after the hive collapsed. While some escaped, the Shifters managed to destroy their base completely and to loot what they left behind. “These now are yours,” he says, handing two strange items to her. The first is a gnarled mahogany rod covered with sticky amber ooze: a Rod of Viscid Globs. The second is less recognizable; a metal and wood sphere, roughly an inch and a half across with an intricately carved circular pattern. Sensing her confusion, Fierenze explains that it was all he could find of her friend. Thanking him, Naomi explains her intention to head to Drellin’s Ferry and to track down the one who has her son. Fierenze suggests she might drop his name with “a certain kind of people” up north if she needs a favor, though she should be careful in doing so. While he cannot go with her, he and the rest of the Wild Fang Guild will give her a hero’s welcome when she returns. With that, he disappears into the crowd.

Naomi rejoins the others, and, without further ado, they board their vessel, an oversized rowboat, and set off up the river Elsir.

Setting: Elsir River

Days pass as they make their way Northeast. While the quarters are a little cramped, save for nights by the shore, “Ominakna” seems to become a little friendlier, even going so far as to compliment Adrian’s endurance, “We don’t need to row with Adrian aboard!”. While Adrian does do much of the rowing, Niss tries his hand at it a little. Naomi spends most of the day sitting at the back of the boat, but doesn’t much care for traveling by boat, uneasy at the prospect of swimming should something go awry.

Mid-morning on the sixth day, a few hours from Terrelton, the quartet comes to a bend in the river. Thick vegetation starts to catch on the oars. Peering over the side of the boat Naomi spots something moving deep below them in the murky water, amid the tangled marsh grass: a scrag or river troll. She draws her crossbow and shouts to the others. Adrian starts rowing for the nearest shore of the wide river; while she’s eager to take on a dangerous foe, she’d much rather do so on solid ground.

Swimming up to meet them, the scrag crosses beneath them. As it does, the whole boat lurches and the boards beneath Naomi’s feet crack and splinter as water starts to pour in. Naomi runs to the front while “Ominakna” stays near the rear, readying a spell for the scrag once it pokes its head above the water. Niss tosses a small fluff-ball from his Bag of Tricks, figuring that another ally, no matter how small, couldn’t hurt, and, as the bit of fluff hits the water, he is delighted to see a badger appear and start paddling towards the scrag.

Two massive claws grab hold of the edge of the boat. While the young girl launches a orb of electricity at its slimy green nose, the scrag shakes off the shock and climbs aboard and cuts her badly. Realizing her talents might best be used standing a little further away and still alive, she runs toward the front with Naomi to stand behind their Goliath friend. Naomi tries to steady a shot as best she can in the rocking boat and grazes the rubbery hide, but the wound appears to heal up within seconds. Adrian stops rowing, draws her great sword, and turns to face the towering giant. However, before she can approach it, Niss throws a source token he’d been keeping in his knotted dreads. The cloudy glass ball lands near the feet of the scrag and shatters; tendrils of protomatter swirl and coalesce; arcane mists clear revealing a light horse, which is none to pleased to be looking straight into a wide toothy maw. Whether out of duty or fear, it rears up and strikes the scrag with its hooves while the badger, having climbed aboard, nips at its heels. However, it appears to shrug off their attacks and its jaws form a malicious grin as the weight of the summoned allies tips the boat backwards sending even more water coursing through the hole.

Adrian, not willing to squeeze past the horse, activates her Greatreach Bracers, and swings her massive sword in a wide arc, slicing deeply into the scrag’s side. While the wound begins to close up, it appears to heal more slowly than the minor cuts and bruises it endured thus far. Acting with more urgency the scrag slashes at the horse, grabbing it with a pair of massive claws and tears the short-lived beast in two, taking a bite before tossing the halves into the water for later. Naomi, remembering Fierenze’s gift, uses her Rod of Viscid Globs and launches a sticky orb at its feet, anchoring them to the bottom of the sinking boat. “Ominakna” unsatisfied with direct attacks tries a repeat performance of the laughing spell that served her well in the city; unfortunately, humor doesn’t translate well and doesn’t elicit even a chuckle from the scrag who keeps its toothy smile. Niss uses a little arcane magic to warm up for an inspirational story, but before he can begin, Adrian takes action.

She activates her new armor, blurring her outline and, summoning an inner rage, lunges towards the scrag. Swinging through a wide arc, rocking the boat, she slams her sword into the giant, cutting deeply into its waist. However, the wound begins to slowly heal up and, while still stuck to the floor of the boat, the scrag reaches out and grabs Adrian, biting and tearing at her, nearly doing to her what it did to the horse. She stumbles backwards, barely alive and bleeding profusely, but the others come to her aid. Niss and Nomi heal her while the young girl gives her the strength to fight on with a well-practiced wave of her hand.

Bleeding and battered, but with a renewed vigor, Adrian strides forward and strikes where precisely where she had before, cleaves her foe in twain. Its muscled torso tips backwards, leaving the legs stuck to the boat, falling back into the water, crushing the badger who had been nipping at its heels till the last. With balance renewed, the boat violently levels out again, causing Niss to fall backwards out of the front of the boat. Adrian reaches over the side and grabs her “little buddy”. Niss is thankful, but clearly unhappy about getting wet. Jumping back to the oarlocks, Adrian rows the half-submerged boat to the shore, getting close to wading depth as the rest of the boat slips beneath the murky waters.

The sun is high in the sky as the quartet climbs up the riverbank and dries off. With no boat and road in sight, the trip to Terrelton may take a little longer than anticipated.

END SESSION 23

Note: The duo who took on Anduin and Elzedar were Norkers (Dragon 343, p53). I’d planned to have it be a fairly tough fight to wrap up the city, but was unprepared for a full sorcerer from the first spell.

And yes, it was a bit of railroad-type move to have a trio of objectives (the council’s mission, the Andave’Cenda request, and the Goliath debriefing) all happen close together at a distant location, but I wanted to make clear that one chapter was ending while another began. A choke-point of adventure hooks seemed a reasonable solution.


Session 24 – On The Road To Find Out
Setting: The Elsir River

The mid-day sun dries the adventurers quickly as they heal one another and work their way alongside the river, looking for a way through the thick foliage to the road that must lie beyond. Not far from where they came ashore they find a dried riverbed, once a tributary of the Elsir River, branching off towards their destination. While the sides of the riverbed are steep and lined with vegetation, the bottom has only sparse tufts of grass.

After an hour or so of walking, the quartet comes across a small cave, extending deep into the embankment. Naomi pauses upon spotting a skeleton lying just outside the cave’s mouth; while it’s clearly been picked at, it looks fairly new from the condition of its clothing. Beyond it, partially hidden beneath some shrubbery, is a pile of assorted remains, mostly picked clean to the bone.

Still, Niss, ever curious, runs up to inspect the lone skeleton, but is startled by a small blue horned lizard just inside the mouth of the cave. He jumps back some twenty feet with the reflexes and speed of his kin, eyeing it with suspicion. His sudden movements startle it just as it startled him and its horns crackle bright blue with electricity, giving Niss, even at a distance, a powerful jolt in warning. Naomi and the unnamed youth run over to Niss. Naomi heals him up, while “Ominakna” levels her heavy crossbow at it and grazes it, just before the barbarian’s towering form hides it from view. Adrian raises her mighty great sword, but brings it down cutting a deep trough in the dirt, missing the nimble little lizard. Its horns charge with energy again, but, much to her surprise, Adrian is untouched.

However, a rustling noise from the opposite embankment catches everyone’s attention. Turning around, they spot a mass of vines and leaves slough off the slope and form itself into a vaguely humanoid form some seven feet tall. Shambling towards the young girl, it lashes out with a thick ropy vine and pulls her into its considerable bulk. Not wanting to be its next target, Naomi darts away and embeds a crossbow bolt in its broad form, narrowly missing the girl’s shoulder. Niss joins her, and with a little arcane assistance begins to self-harmonize.

“Ominakna”, straining against the constricting vines, activates her healing belt buying a little time. As Naomi lands another bolt in it and Niss attempts to inspire the others (apparently by reciting the recipe for a traditional catfolk salad), Adrian, activates her new bracers and, given a worthy opponent, summons up a battle rage. Unwilling to delay further, she swings again, cleaving through the little lizard, painting the cave walls with its blue blood, and stretching out her arms, slices through the thick vines of the girl’s assailant, but not enough to free her. Enraged, but reluctant to risk hitting the girl, Adrian sets aside her sword, approaches the mass of vegetation and grabs the leafy mass, prying the vines off long enough for her to get free and run to the others. “Ominakna” quickly grabs her crossbow and takes a retaliatory shot at the plant. Naomi, however, tired of chipping away at it leaf by bolt-riddled leaf, tries a new tactic and lobs one of the last beads from her necklace at it, engulfing both the plant and Adrian in a burst of flame. When the smoke clears, Adrian’s thick skin is looking a little singed, but the plant appears unchanged. Adrian tries to break free, hoping to put her sword to good use, but can’t quite get free of the vines. While her anger makes her stronger, she seems evenly matched with the plant, and neither manages to gain the upper hand until Naomi lands a corrosive bolt deep in its core, dissolving some of the vines at their source. Adrian takes advantage of its weakness and tears large clumps of plant-matter, loosing an earthy smell. Niss, sensing the moment is right, stops his inspirational recitation, steadies his crossbow, and lands a killing blow. The vines stop moving and fall to the ground about Adrian’s feet.

Naomi, unimpressed by Adrian’s fruitless struggles in the fight, swears something unflattering about her mother in Draconic under her breath. “Ominakna” wanders over to the skeleton and finds a few gold coins in the tattered clothing, an Everfull Mug, and a thin metal cylinder a hand-span in length with a wax sealed cap on one end. Cracking the seal, she opens the tube. Inside a piece of parchment bears a message, “Drellin’s Ferry requesting aid of Brindol Lions. Trouble in Witchwood. Scouts haven’t returned. Please send aid.” Having read the message, she tosses it aside. Naomi picks it up, shows the others and replaces the message in the unsealed tube. She suggests that when the group finds the road, that they head back down river to deliver the message to Brindol, but Adrian and the others want to press on to Terrelton and Drellin’s Ferry. Before continuing down the riverbed, Niss grabs a tattered broad rimmed hat from the messenger’s body and places it upon his head.

Walking along, the embankments disappear as the riverbed becomes shallower. Through the thinning foliage, the party spots a broad well-used dirt road and proceeds in an up-river direction. The area seems fairly dry, trading the riverbank’s lush dense vegetation for grassy plains, though large swaths of forest are visible a ways off.

Setting: Terrelton

The group can smell Terrelton before they can see it. Fenced in herds of cattle and livestock dot the fields and several large and foul-smelling tanneries sit on outskirts of town. For Niss, the stench brings back sad memories of his lost comrade Ennostiel, who often had a similar stench in her final days.

Walking into town the party can sense every villager’s eyes turn towards them with suspicion. However, it quickly becomes clear that Adrian is the focus of their attention as ranchers hurry their animals out of her way. While a few halflings were seen on the way in, Terrelton seems to be almost completely human, with certainly no trace of Adrian’s contact. Niss leads the others to the center of town, and Adrian tries to strike up a conversation with a merchant, but he fearfully looks away and whispers something to a coworker. Adrian can only hears scattered phrases, but picks up “the spy” and “of the forest”. Before she spots a woman in gleaming armor confidently walking towards her.

The woman introduces herself as “Leille, Cleric of St. Cuthbert, and the law about these parts” and, focusing her attention on Adrian, asks if she’s new around here or if she’s been in the area for some time. Adrian answers truthfully that she and her friends just arrived, and while Leille still eyes Adrian with some suspicion, she seems to relax a little and welcomes the quartet to Terrelton, explaining that someone who matches Adrian’s description has been seen lurking about the woods to the north of town. Adrian gives her standard Doderan spiel and excuses herself to go investigate the rumors with Niss in tow.

After Adrian and Niss have left, and the young girl wanders off to explore the town on her own, Naomi gets Leille’s attention. She explains what they’d found out in the riverbed and shows her the message tube. Leille seems to recognize Naomi’s description, commenting that she had thought that the catfolk’s hat had looked familiar. She asks for Naomi’s name but Naomi gives her a false name, Sityra, not eager to trust a member of the local authority. Leille accepts the name without question and summons a messenger to carry on where the last had failed, and politely departs without commenting on the contents of the message. Naomi scouts about town, looking for other shifters, but doesn’t have any luck.

By mid-afternoon Adrian and Niss are well into the woods. While they aren’t quite sure just what to look for, their questions are answered when another Goliath emerges from between a dense patch of trees sitting astride a rhinoceros with thick leather barding, moving with surprising stealth for a beast of its bulk. Adrian recognizes the Goliath from her clan. Gauthak the Oathkeeper is considered one of the most honorable living Goliath, known for keeping his word and making others do the same, whether for good or ill. He dismounts and, speaking in Gol-Ka, he greets Adrian and, with a somewhat amused look, acknowledges her “pet”. Niss, oblivious to their conversation, amuses himself with hand-made finger puppets.

Gauthak explains to Adrian that the Gnolls that had been encroaching on their homeland are no longer a threat. Not long after Adrian had left, they were utterly wiped out. However, their end came not at the hands of the Goliaths, but a massive army of Hobgoblins, who had swept out from the mountains, slaughtering the wild Gnoll tribes, stopping at the old borders. The peace had come at a price, the Hobgoblins requested that the Goliaths join them in an upcoming conflict; in return, the Goliath clans could have their old lands returned to them and, furthermore, would be granted great swaths of territory to their south. The clan’s elders, fearing the Goliaths would go the way of the Gnolls if they refused, have been calling back their scouts and diplomats to prepare for war. Gauthak pauses, sighs deeply, and reluctantly continues, “I was ordered to bring you back home to help fight for this Red Hand, but I do not trust them. Their word means nothing to them and if we ally ourselves with them, it will be our doom. Adrian Marmot-herder Kalios, I must ask you to disobey the council. I want you to stay in the field and find out what this Red Hand intends.”

However, he has a further request of Adrian before he may go. As he was instructed to bring her back, he cannot return empty handed; he would rather be exiled than defy the elders so openly. He suggests that perhaps Adrian was found slain by one of the larger roaming beasts of the forest while on route to meet him, and as evidence, he asks that Adrian hand over her large great sword.

Adrian recoils at the suggestion and quickly scrambles for a reason to keep it. Thinking quickly, she points out that it is not the same one she left Dodera with, and so would not prove anything, but her backpack is of Doderan make and should suffice as evidence. Gauthak nods and, after she empties it into a spare sack and hands it to him, he swings himself back onto his mount and returns to the darkness of the forest without another word.

On their walk back to town, Adrian explains what happened to Niss, but in vague general terms, suggesting to Niss that he and the others be cautious should they encounter other Goliaths. By the time they return, it is nearly dark, but Niss agrees to buy Adrian a replacement backpack, though has to settle for a saddlebag in order to match the capacity of the one she lost. The quartet regroups and finds room for the night. Adrian tells the others of her new mission, though is unsure what proof she could bring to the elders. Naomi flips up her eye-patch revealing her left eye, stuck forever in a reptilian shifted form at the center of a four-inch scar, and tells, with an uncharacteristically open display of fury, of what the Red Hand did to her and her people and why she hunts their leader. “What more proof do you need?” she asks Adrian. No answer is given, and the rest of the night passes in deafening silence.

Setting: The Dawn Way, on route to Drellin’s Ferry

Early the next morning, the four head out on foot to Drellin’s Ferry. The Dawn Way, the road passing through much of the region, trail is broad and curving, with deep ruts marking the passing of countless wagons, but while the four walk for much of the day, they see no wagons, nor anyone else. After cresting a small rise, the road descends and broadens a little. Through the trees, the ruins of a small farmhouse are visible on the side of the road. While it is hardly the first such site on the long walk, Naomi suspiciously glances about at the dense forest flanking the road, and spots several figures, Hobgoblins in armor, lying in wait.

She yells out, “Trap!” to warn the others and touches the clasp of her cloak, vanishing from sight just as a flurry of arrows is loosed from the trees, peppering the rest of the party. Niss, barely standing, heals himself with his belt, catching sight of a stocky dark red dog, with smoke trailing from its nostrils as it charges up the path towards them, whom he dubs “Smokey”. The young girl gestures at her outfit, appearing more satisfied at her defenses, though still wounded. Adrian, not one to dally with such preparations, scales the left embankment, trudges through the undergrowth and with a single vertical slice effortlessly disarms the Hobgoblin, who clutches at the wound, before rapidly bleeding out amid the shrubberies. Naomi tries to do the same on the opposite embankment, but while she catches her mark off guard, he is only startled and not stabbed as her rapier misses. Fortunately, he has no better luck with his sword. His allies, however, fearing Adrian’s approach, all focus on her and one borrowed the others’ luck, piercing her armor and her thick hide, embedding itself in her shoulder most painfully.

From around the bend, by the farmhouse, another Hobgoblin comes into view. His armor isn’t quite as heavy as that of the archers, but he appears better trained than the others, and certainly more confident as he draws two short swords and, holding them above his head, begins running down the road shouting challenges at Niss and the young girl who stand before him.

Niss starts to Harmonize, and steps back a little, leaving “Ominakna” first to face the attackers in the road. Unconcerned, she thrusts her palm at the smoking dog, launching a small blue orb at it. The orb catches the dog on the snout, killing it instantly before the body slides to a halt some twenty feet later, its head covered in frost. Pleased by her success, but reluctant to stand alone before the charging fighter, the youth backs up a few feet to stand beside Niss. Adrian continues to make her way through the dense undergrowth and takes revenge on the Hobgoblin who made the lucky shot, but is caught off guard when the last of the archers of that side draws a sword and takes a brave, but foolish, swing at her. While he draws blood, his allies on the opposite embankment aren’t so lucky. Naomi’s foe is similarly luckless; he followed her as she tried to flee, and while he has little success with his blade, she manages to give him a little scratch for his trouble.

Niss starts up with an inspirational chant even as the leader of the Hobgoblins bears down on him. “Ominakna” gestures with her other hand, launching a bright green orb, and while it hits him squarely in the chest, earning a growl of rage, he continues his charge daring her to try harder. Adrian thinks quickly and activates her armor with a final calm command before summoning up a rage from within. Towering above the nearest grunt she swings her sword in a low arc, cleaving through him at the waist without resistance almost as if he were an appetizer before her intended target: the boastful swordsman. Unfortunately, even with her reach, she misses him with the long swing, and is forced to leap down the embankment to defend the weaker duo. A volley of arrows land around her, narrowly missing their mark, as she stands before the blade bearer. He lunges at her, but she catches him with her sword before he can close the distance, cutting off his final taunt with a gurgling shriek.

Adrian stands perfectly still, sword still deep in the entrails of her foe; while it is unclear whether she is pausing to savor the moment or frozen by unseen magical means, the young girl walks up and heals some of Adrian’s wounds with a touch, though she is unable to restore her fully.

From further down the road, another dog, with tongues of flame flickering from its open mouth, leads another half-dozen hobgoblins around the bend, to join the three left remaining on the right side of the road. Spotting the slaughter before them, they ready their bows and move to ready a volley. The young sorcerer steps before the frozen Adrian, and draws a small fuzzy ball from a tan bag she’d been carrying, and tosses it into the woods near one of the archers. A warhorse springs into existence, rears up, and tramples the surprised hobgoblin in a single moment of equine strength. His neighbor meets a similar end when Naomi, tired of dueling a feeble opponent, thrusts with finesses, and pierces him through the heart.

Adrian shakes off whatever had affected her, but takes a moment to formulate a plan as the Hobgoblins take position. The last of the ambushers joins the others, as does a previously unseen hobgoblin with the look of a cleric about him, who stands behind their lines, shouting threats of whips and hot irons should they fail him. The septet of archers loose a volley at Adrian and though some miss narrowly, thanks to her blurred armor, four find their mark. Niss stops chanting, to come to the aid of Adrian; standing before her he calls upon a deep inner sadness and, with a mighty pout, creates a wave of grief that flows over the hobgoblin ranks. However, none seem particularly bothered except the Cleric, whose threats loose conviction as he stutters and stumbles over his words. The youth heals Adrian further, and her warhorse leaps down from the tangling underbrush, onto the path, and catches the lead dog with its hoof, though not lethally. Undeterred, it lunges and bites Adrian’s side with fiery jaws, scorching her gray hide as she runs past to engage the archers in melee. Activating her new, and much loved, bracers, she swings with at the ranks of the hobgoblins, cutting down three before her great sword catches on a bit of frayed tendon, stopping its mighty swing.

Naomi releases her wild shifter side, and uses her newfound speed to stand by Adrian’s side, healing her accumulating wounds. The dog nips at the horse’s hooves as the Hobgoblins release another volley, but only half manage to hit the dangerously close giant. The cleric, unable to heal the dead, reads from a scroll in a guttural tongue, calling another of the smoking hounds into existence behind Adrian. It opens its smoking maw wide and belches out a short blast of flame, which nearly drops Adrian at the feet of her enemies; through her strength of will as much as anything else, she remains standing. Niss joins the others by her side, dodging the attacks of the fiery hound, and heals Adrian, ensuring she can finish the fight. With a final mighty swing, Adrian cuts through the remaining hobgoblin archers, and the awestruck cleric, leaving a wide stripe of gore across the width of the path.

The masterless hounds, alone and surrounded, continue to fight, but only lightly singe Naomi before succumbing to a volley of crossbow bolts and the might of the towering warhorse. A peaceful silence returns to the road as the heroes heal one another’s wounds.

END SESSION 24

Note: Managing the restrictions for Adrian’s rage have been tricky as she’s gotten magical loot. It wasn’t until this session that we realized she shouldn’t be able to activate some of her magical items after raging; otherwise her Amulet of Tears would have solved her hit point problems quite easily. The great-reach bracers were grandfathered in for the moment, but will need to be re-evaluated. Heck, managing the various properties of everything is getting more difficult. While I’m still sure she would have slaughtered the hobgoblins much the same, I’m wondering now if I might have missed a miss-chance amidst the trees. Still, she certainly filled in for the adventure’s recommended “arcane spell caster who can throw area-attack spells”; that Great Cleave is going to be dangerous against clusters of minions.

The earlier riverbed encounter sprung up out of a random encounter table and a randomly chosen map image. However, it grew over time as we had our game session postponed stretching the gap from two weeks to six. What began as a “while walking you find an X” type encounter became a mini-hook with a fallen messenger who had been sticking to the woods having narrowly escaped the hobgoblins guarding the road, but fell prey to a Shambling Mound / Shocker Lizard combo and was known and would be missed by the residents of the towns along his delivery route and…yeah.

Onwards to the Red Hand of Doom!

Jastermereel
2010-09-17, 12:26 PM
My apologies about front-loading the thread so heavily, but with a 50,000 character limit per post and 249,990 (with spaces) to be posted, I needed a little extra room.

Jastermereel
2010-10-01, 08:22 PM
I figured I'd give this "thread" another shot, but might let it go after this. No sense risking a bi-weekly necromancy.

Session 25 – We're Here to Help & Run Away!

Setting: Drellin’s Ferry

Niss looks down and at the two halves of the body of the hobgoblin fighter and picks up one of his short-swords for himself, recognizing their high quality. Feeling a tad overburdened, however, he passes off his trusty (and unused) dagger to Naomi, who suspects she’ll find a use for it sometime soon. For the next twenty minutes Naomi and Adrian, taking it easy after her rage-fueled slaughter, pick the corpses clean of anything of value including more than half a dozen sets of armor, most of the hobgoblin’s weapons, and an assortment of potions and scrolls and a strange holy symbol composed of five dragon heads. Exploring the remains of a small cabin off the side of the road, they find the bodies of the previous unfortunate victims of the hobgoblin’s ambush. Next to them, Naomi finds a bag of gold pieces and a crude diary, likely kept by the head hobgoblin, describing the day-to-day happenings over the past week or so, including a narrow escape by a lone wanderer with a broad-rimmed hat. Cramming what they can into Naomi’s Handy Haversack, and typing the rest of the mountain of loot to Adrian with rope, the group continues on to Drellin’s Ferry.

For a town of its size, Drellin’s Ferry appears well guarded. On the outskirts of town, a quartet of armed militia members call out to the party, “Halt and state your business, strangers!” Niss blurts out that they were sent to evacuate the town. A guard in chainmail, apparently in charge, seems concerned both by Niss’s words and by Adrian’s imposing presence. He gestures to one of the guards who runs off back towards the town. Adrian tries to give her standard spiel to the militia but they seem disinterested until a well-armored woman arrives.

Identifying herself as Captain Sorrana Anitah, she walks over to Adrian and tries to size her up. While Adrian is clearly well armed and is carrying enough extra armor and weapons to supply a small army, Sorrana detects no ill intentions from the towering figure. Satisfied that she, the catfolk and the two humans shouldn’t be any trouble, she waves them through, but asks them to stop by the town hall, as soon as possible. Adrian proceeds onwards silently, masking her reluctance to defer to a woman in authority.

Before tracking down Norro Wiston, Adrian wants to sell of what she can of the haul from the last battle. She is forced to spread the sale across several shops in town, as no single one is willing to take the whole lot; while the merchants would prefer to made sales rather than purchases, they are delighted to hear that the hobgoblins blocking the road were gone, and buy what they can as thanks as much as for the wares themselves. Adrian is simply glad to walk away several hundred pounds lighter and nearly six thousand gold pieces richer.

Not wanting to delay further, the quartet heads towards the town’s center near the banks of the Elsir River. A pair of thick ropes span the river and are affixed to the town’s eponymous ferry. Beside them, a line of ancient, well-worn stone pylons stick up out of the water, all that remains of the old bridge that carried The Dawn Way over the river. On the near bank, to the side of the old road stands the Old Toll House. Clearly older and sturdier than those around it, it now serves, among other things, as the town hall. Entering the building, the group finds Town Speaker Norro Wiston and Captain Sorrana.

Naomi and Niss try to explain the Andave’Cenda’s warning and tell Norro that there are vast hobgoblin hoards on the move. While Norro agrees that there is a larger than average band organizing the attacks on travelers and he is worried that the town could be overrun, he feels that if the council sent this quartet to help, then they should be able to take care of the threat, even if he had hoped for more assistance. Niss tries to explain that the threat isn’t simply little raiding parties and that the town is surrounded, but Norro doubts that Niss could have seen as much as he claims. He notes that Niss apparently came straight into town from along the vale and seems sure that the majority must be in the Witchwood across the river given that the town is the only reasonable crossing point for miles. Sensing that Norro would need more proof before taking the threat seriously, the party agrees to look into the threat across the river and requests Sorrana as their guide. Sorrana immediately rejects their request, pointing out that the town is largely defenseless without her, but she suggests they track down Jorr, a reclusive woodsman, as he knows the woods better than anyone. Considering the matter settled, the party departs to find lodging for the night.

Feeling somewhat frugal, the quartet steers clear of The Old Bridge Inn, but not so frugal that each doesn’t take their own room. Before turning in, Niss decides to try to entertain the townsfolk with some of his puppetry repertoire. While the crowd is mildly amused, still somewhat uneasy at the looming threat of further hobgoblin attacks, the dwarven proprietor Tharrma seems quite taken with his routine commenting, “You’re a bit scrawny, but…might well do.” Naomi, seeing Tharrma leering at Niss, shudders and orders a double of Drellin’s Frenzy-water, a strong locally-distilled spirit and downs it quickly. One by one, the members of the quartet find their way off to bed, with Niss last to retire to his own room after the bar is nearly empty.

In the morning, Niss wakes early and walks over to the center of town to the farmer’s market in search of an apple. Adrian takes her time shaving her head before leaving the inn, thankful for the privacy; it had been lacking since her time at The Broken Anvil when she first arrived in Bet Kalimar over two weeks ago. While Gauthak had not seen through her deception when they talked outside Terrelton, other goliaths might if greater care is not taken in the future.

Setting out, they arrange to be taken across the river by ferry; Drathgar, the ferry’s current proprietor, waves the standard fee in gratitude for their efforts. He comments that they’re some of the only travelers he’s had who want to cross to the far side of the river in some time; most folks had been fleeing from the rumored hoard. On the other bank, the young girl, apparently reluctant to cover the Witchwood on foot, buys a small dark-gray riding horse from Sterrel’s Provisioning along with a saddle and sufficient feed for a long journey.

Setting: The Witchwood

Picking up The Dawn Way on the other side of the broken bridge, the party travels at a brisk pace into the Witchwood. Every few miles an abandoned cabin is visible off the trail; while some look very old, others look well maintained, but all are clearly abandoned. All save one. Around noon, they come across a cabin, small but well built, with a wisp of smoke curling from a brick chimney. Behind the cabin flows a swift creek in which a small skiff sits, tied to a dock covered with an assortment of accoutrements for fishing and trapping.
As the party approaches, three stocky hounds charge out from under the cabin’s porch barking loudly at the intruders. Unlike those encountered the day before, however, these do not breathe smoke and flame nor do they attack. The hounds stop before closing the distance, but continue barking both warning the quartet to stay back and daring them to come closer. Adrian does not approach, but instead gives the trio the meanest most intimidating stare she can muster. In an instant the cacophony becomes a pitiful whimpering whine. A lean figure of indeterminate age steps out from the cabin door laughing. “Bravo stranger, I didn’t think anyone but I could get them to keep quiet,” he says, but he quickly turns more serious as his hand moves to a large sheathed knife strapped to his thigh, “Now, state your business. What do you want with me?”

Niss explains that Norro Wiston had recommended him as a guide to the Witchwood and that they were on a mission to deal with, or at least to scout out, the hobgoblins gathering in the North. Jorr is pleased to hear others will be helping rid his forest of the savage intruders and he offers his services as a guide, but his mood is fickle, possibly an effect of having lived alone in the woods for years, and he seems reluctant to help for free. He asks for ten gold pieces a day for his services as they’ll be heading into dangerous territory. The party agrees to his fee and, as they don’t quite have a destination in mind, Jorr suggests Terrak’nor Keep, and old fort half a day’s journey away. “While it’s fallen into disrepair in the centuries since it last saw real use, that’s where I’d be if I were they”. Niss agrees with Jorr’s advice, and suggests they might be able to scout it out by nightfall, but that they’d be at a disadvantage attacking at night, as only Adrian has reliable night-vision. Jorr makes preparations for his dogs in his absence, grabs the bare essential equipment and provisions for himself and is quickly ready to go.

After a few hours, the quartet plus Jorr, are deep into the Witchwood’s flooded lowlands where dense green forests have given way to a thick and fetid bog. Rather than try to trudge through the treacherous terrain, Jorr guides them to a rickety wooden causeway built just above the water level, narrowly winding through the mire. To one side of the causeway a wagon lies overturned, half submerged in the muck. Naomi spots a large reptilian head lying next to it, but just as she points it out to the others, it slithers back into the deeper waters.

Jorr stands back and watches to see how the others react. “Ominakna” rides forwards a little, pulls out her tan bag, and tosses a puffball out into the middle of the bridge. Where it lands a heavy warhorse springs into existence. Naomi hides beside the youth’s mount, watching for a response from the waters, but Adrian and Niss aren’t inclined to wait around to see what takes the bait, so they press on, squeezing just past the idle horse.

The reptilian head lunges forth from the murky waters beside the causeway, supported by a long muscular neck, and is met by five others, all apparently connected to an unseen body hidden somewhere below. Within seconds the heavy warhorse is reduced to a pile of meat and bone. Jorr yells out “HYDRA!” and both he and the youth loose crossbow bolts at the heads, but the shots lands somewhere in the marsh beyond. Adrian and Niss move further away from the flurry of heads and the remains of the horse. Niss moving to make sure Adrian stands between him and the Hydra, tries to magically enrage the beast, but it resists his efforts.

Naomi, sensing that she and the others might be in trouble should the Hydra come after them, uses her cloak to hide Jorr, the youth, and herself from view. While she invisibly darts past the remains on the causeway to join Adrian and Niss, Jorr jumps onto the back of the girl’s still visible mount and together they turn back the way they came. He shouts to Niss explaining that he’ll find another way around and to meet him near the crossroads at nightfall.

The Hydra climbs onto the causeway, pulling its bulky body out of the deep waters, but appears disappointed. To one side, its lunch vanished, and to the other it’s rapidly retreating. It briefly tries to catch Adrian, but realizing it can’t keep up, it returns to finish off the remains of the warhorse.

Jorr guides the youth and her horse through the witch trails, hidden paths weaving through the forest, keeping up a steady pace despite the rough terrain. Adrian, Niss and Naomi quickly find their way out of the marshes and back onto the trail. With more than a little luck, neither half of the party runs into significant trouble before reaching their destination. As night falls, the party regroups just off the crossroads, where The Dawn Way and The Old Forest Road meet.

While the rest of the party sets up camp, Naomi decides to scout out their target from a distance. While the light is fading, she manages to cut through the underbrush and find the mossy building. Atop a small rocky hill stands what remains of Terrak’nor Keep: a fifteen-foot high stone wall stretching some ninety feet on a side in a roughly square shape. A crumbling tower stands at one corner. A flickering pale green light emanates from its second story window and from within she can hear bloodcurdling screams. Suspecting it to be haunted and unwilling to go further with her limited vision she quietly withdraws.

Naomi returns to the others and reports what she has seen as they settle in for a long night in the midst of the goblin-occupied Witchwood.

END SESSION 25

Note: I'm going to have to be more careful about the "vendor trash" loot some of these guys drop. Between Adrian's strength, Namoi's haversack, and the chance of nabbing Koth's bag of holding, they'll be able to pick up a considerable amount of wealth through of fairly mundane loot every time they get into a little skirmish.

The various diplomatic encounters were a little rough, partially due to a rushed evening, partially due to my not easing the transition into RHoD as well as I could have, and partially due to odd player expectations, but it worked out well enough.

I was a little disappointed they ran away from the Hydra, but with it's 20' speed, there wasn't much I could do. Perhaps it'll spot them again on their way back to town.

Session 26 – I love it when a plan comes together

Setting: The Witchwoods

That night, having pieced together some fragments of stories he had learned while on the road, Niss is able to tell the history of the keep, with a little help from Jorr. He explains that some two hundred years ago, not long after the fall of the kingdom of Rhestilor, a young ambitious lord named Amery Terrak’nor inherited the keep and had taken it upon himself to cleanse the Witchwood of any evil influences. His primary target was a tribe of forest giants: The Twistusks.

As Niss mentions the forest giants, Jorr gives a strange look towards Adrian who defensively tries to clarify that she is not a giant, but instead a goliath, but it is unclear if Jorr believes her. Waiting for the interruption to die down, Niss continues the story. While Amery had managed to drive the Twistusks from the woods and into the mountains, they soon returned in force. In a single night, Terrak’nor keep was breached and Amery’s force was slaughtered to a man. Amery himself was said to have retreated beneath his stronghold and died slowly from a poisoned wound. Some say his anguished cries can still be heard coming from his tower. Jorr nods and confirms that Niss’s story is how he had heard it too, but that he’s never believed the rumors of the keep being haunted. The group takes turns with guard duty, but the night passes uneventfully.

The next morning, the quintet forms a plan of attack. Naomi and Jorr will work their way up the side of the hill, through the brush, and wait by the hole in the south wall while Adrian, Niss and the young sorceress take a more direct route to the front door. The trio will then see just how much of a commotion they can cause to create a window of opportunity for the stealthier team to strike unexpectedly. Before the groups split off, Niss casts Message, connecting everyone to him, allowing members of the groups to share their findings with him and he to them while also allowing them to hear his inspirational chants and stories even when fairly distant.

Setting: Terrak’nor Keep

On the way up the slope, Niss notes that the trail is covered in the tracks of a number of humanoids and several large wolves. The keep itself looks much more rundown in daylight. The front gate and the neighboring watchtowers are nearly rubble, likely broken from the forest giant’s assault many years before. A rickety shack stands by a garden out front, but neither has been used much in quite some time.

Passing through the ruins of the gate, they find the courtyard is empty. A trio of giant skeletons and nearly a dozen boulders lie strewn about the enclosure, the remains of the battle long ago. Several closed doors dot the perimeter of the enclosure leading to smaller rooms, though some of the doors seem superfluous given the large holes the boulders have left in the walls.

Niss spots one such hole, a fairly small one some eighteen inches across, in the north wall and runs over. Peering inside he sees a stable and a pair of worgs who see him. The worgs start growling, but with a wave of Niss’s hand, one suddenly falls asleep. Niss quickly pokes his head in a little further and spots a goblin; while he’s clearly uneasy, he hasn’t yet looked over to see what is bothering the worgs. Niss quietly relays what he’s found to the others, allowing them time to prepare. However, while Niss is pre-occupied, the worg he left awake lunges for his head. Niss ducks back in the nick of time, but shrieks in surprise. Adrian crashes through the stable doors catching not one, but two, goblins by surprise. Her blade cuts the near one deeply, but not fatally. The two of them try to retaliate but miss and start hollering for aid in goblin.

Naomi, from her hiding place by the south entrance, hears a deep booming voice urging others to action, though in an unfamiliar tongue. She relays this to Niss while Jorr mumbles something snarky about the plan’s success. Niss and Marisol move to the middle of the courtyard, backed by a few boulders, and fire past Adrian to the rear goblin, but do little damage between them. Adrian, surprised to find such a small foe that could withstand a blow from her sword, tries again but with the aid of her Greatreach bracers and cuts the near one in half, but is unable to touch the one across the table from her. Unwilling to face the same fate as his comrade, the lone goblin darts to the side, ducking beneath another of Adrian’s attacks, leaps over the small stable walls and sprints to his Worg.

At the other end of the courtyard, four hobgoblin’s appear, two coming out of a door to the north, and two emerging from a large hole in the east wall, near Naomi and Jorr’s location. Niss casts Inspirational Boost and starts an stirring oration giving them courage and strength to fight their foes, while he retreats to the northeast corner near the entrance to the stable and far from the hobgoblins. The young girl opens her tan bag of tricks, tosses a puffball at the feet of the pair of guards to the north. A lion pops into existence before them, and eviscerates one in a matter of seconds. The other slashes at the lion with its sword, but only scratches it by comparison.

Adrian, aware of the struggle in the courtyard behind her, is still fixated on the lone goblin who has stubbornly resisted her efforts to chop it to pieces. In a murderous rage she runs over to the worg it has mounted and lets loose with a mighty blow. The two halves of the goblin fall to the ground, but Adrian was unable to cleave through to the worg. Enraged at the loss of its rider, it lunges at her and bites her shoulder, but is unable to drag her to the ground as it had intended.

A building at the southeast end of the courtyard rumbles, and monstrous creature climbs out onto its roof from within. With a body of a lion, but dark red, a pair of wings and a covering a spikes, the manticore pauses and watches from its perch, with a vaguely bemused look on its face, but it does not attack.

Naomi, sensing that the moment is right and that the distraction could not be more successful than it is now, checks that the new foes’ backs are turned, hides Jorr and herself from sight with her cloak and runs off into the room the hobgoblins came from. Inside, she finds the source of the deep voice in the form of a Minotaur, towering over her even while stands hunched-over shouting into the door to the tower. “Sir! We are under attack. We should secure the map!” At the north end of the long room, past half a dozen bedspreads and a pair of smoldering fire pits dug into the floor, she sees a pair of doors: through the open one she can see a hobgoblin guard fending off a furious lion, but the one to the left is closed. Unwilling to face a Minotaur alone, even with the element of surprise on her side, she doubles back out of the room, and carefully eases open the door to the building beneath the manticore. The room is dark, illuminated only by the hole in the ceiling above. The floor is littered with the broken remnants of the original furniture and scattered remains of several large animals. While she’s aware of the manticore above her head, Naomi keeps her eye on the room she came from, watching the Minotaur and trying to catch a glimpse of who he is talking to. Jorr, keeping an eye on the surroundings for signs of her movement, follows her inside.

Suspecting that song and bolt will not end this fight quickly enough, Niss stops his oration and charms the rearmost hobgoblin into thinking that his comrades have been plotting against him and must be slain. The lion grabs hold of the nearest guard and leaves bloody gashes as its claws rake across his exposed limbs. He manages to crawl out from under the lion, but is in poor shape to fight and his hopes fall as he watches his allies turn on one another. One guard slashes at the lion, but the other stabs his ally in the back, following the suggestion as if he were one of Niss’s puppets. Adrian, emerging from the stables, exasperated at having had such difficulty with lesser foes, locks her eyes on the manticore still watching the fight from the rooftop and finds it to be a worthy foe.

Naomi’s patience pays off. The hulking brute of a Minotaur steps away from the doorway and out of sight as a bugbear dressed in high-quality studded leather and a blood red cloak hurries out of the tower room and heads northward out of view. In that brief moment Naomi saw the emblem of the Red Hand emblazoned on his armor’s chest. She shifts and sprints after him. While the Minotaur waits in the barracks, his master hurries about in a neighboring room, previously closed. Naomi makes her way just inside and watches as the bugbear strains to free a map pinned to the table with daggers. She weighs her options and almost decides to let loose with her fountainhead arrow, but reconsiders as the ensuing spray of acid could destroy the map, invaluable and fragile evidence of the enemy’s plans. Instead, she draws her rapier, steadies her hand and thrusts deeply into his side catching him by surprise. The bugbear cries out in agony, but looking upon his assailant a look of recognition pierces through his pained expression. “You? I hadn’t thought we’d left any of your clan alive.”

Meanwhile, in the courtyard, the battle rages on. Adrian fueled by a powerful rage, activates her greatreach bracers, runs south past the young sorceress and her horse, and, reaching high with her greatsword, cuts a deep groove in the side of the startled manticore’s meaty head. It spins around, now quite engaged in the fight, and launches a volley of spikes from its tail at her, all piercing her armor, and one, her cheek, returning the wound. One of the guards near “Ominakna”s lion tries to regain a little stamina by swigging a potion, but in doing so he lowers his guard and suffers a clawed swipe by the lion for his carelessness.

Naomi’s eyes are locked on the bugbear, searching her memories of the night of the massacre for his face. Her focus costs her dearly, however as she forgets about the Minotaur behind her until his greataxe slashes down her back. As she cries out, the bugbear mutters and sharply gestures at her eyes with a pair of long fingers and her world goes dark; Naomi is robbed of her sight. Though panicked, she realizes that the bugbear must have part of the crimson talon band that wiped out her kin. She calls out “What have you done with my son!” and hurls a flurry of blood oaths at him in a coarse mix of Common, Draconic, and Shifter gutter slang unfit for the ears of man or beast.

The bugbear does not reply immediately, apparently savoring the moment, before sinisterly replying, “No need to get so riled up half-breed. He is being taken care of. We will be making the most of his bloodline in the days ahead.” Enraged, but nearly helpless, she activates her cloak, draining the last of its daily charges, and disappears from sight while carefully sidestepping into a corner of the room. The booming voice of the Minotaur calls out to his master again, asking for his orders. The hobgoblin demands only that he cover their escape. Naomi listens from her private darkness to heavy footsteps retreating from the doorway and the rustling of the map being folded up.

Niss, seeing Adrian in great pain, hatches a plan. He casts Expeditious Retreat on himself and moves towards the front gate, ready to lure a foe away, but before he can target his intended pursuer, the young sorceress repeats her success from Bet Kalimar. With a wave of her hand and a muttered phrase, the manticore, monstrous though it may be, falls to its side and lets loose with a barking laughter. Adrian reaches up and hits it again, severely wounding it, but finds it unsatisfying; healing herself with the Amulet of tears, she calls out to the Minotaur to face her if it dares. While she has not yet seen it, Jorr had passed along word of its presence from his hiding place somewhere in the keep.

As if on cue, the beast appears. It stands as tall as the enraged goliath, but its massive horns and thick hooves have it appear even taller. However, rather than charge towards the intruders, it simply blocks their path to the south passage. To the surprise of all, Niss shouts out “I’ve got this one,” but his casting of Mindless Rage on the beast doesn’t appear to have any effect on its demeanor. “Never mind!” he calls out. Jorr gives away his hiding spot, firing at the Minotaur’s furry flank, but the great beast ignores the pinpricks and holds its ground. Niss’s charmed hobgoblin, his previous prey slain, turns and takes a shot at the manticore. The youth, apparently tired of the unsettling sound of a manticore’s laughter, launches a bolt and silences the beast forever.

The lion finishes off the last of the hostile hobgoblins and turns its attention toward the Minotaur. Climbing over the various boulders, it closes the distance and swipes at the horned beast, avoiding a potentially lethal blow from its greataxe. Adrian activates her armor, blurring its outline, and slashes at the Minotaur - towering titans trading blows. With a single powerful strike it cuts the lion in twain, and tries to impale Adrian with it’s horns, but the awkward strike misses. Its brief resistance is cut short: a bolt from the young sorceress’s crossbow leaves it bleeding on the ground.

Naomi, hearing the bugbear mage shove the map into his bag, regains her nerve. Listening carefully, she tries to pinpoint his location and throws her dagger at his heart. Yet it is her heart that falls when she hears the sound of metal hitting stone. Only a sharp gasp from the bugbear tells her how close she came. His laughter fills the room, as Naomi is once again revealed, helpless before her sworn enemy.

Footsteps approach and a familiar voice in an unfamiliar tone demands the bugbear’s surrender. “You cannot get out alive. We have killed your Minotaur the flying thingy with spikes. If you stop now and go with us, we will not kill you” Niss stands in the doorway between the bugbear and escape. The sorcerer hesitates for a moment to ponder if the catfolk might be finished off in a single strike. It isn’t until Adrian appears behind him that the bugbear appears to accept his fate and surrenders.

END SESSION 26

Note: Yes, some worgs can speak common and goblin and would have raised an alarm quicker. These…well, I’ll need to make better notes on the various foes’ languages in the future.

Regarding the fight with Koth, Naomi took him down to 3hp in her first shot, and he stayed there until the end. When Niss gave him an ultimatum, he would have used Lightning Bolt against him (possibly fatally) but Adrian’s appearance changed that. The bolt might have finished Niss or killed Naomi, but likely would have left the hulking barbarian alive and very angry. Even turning invisible would have, at best, bought him a free attack, but wouldn’t have helped as long as the doorway was blocked. The fight was over.

And yes, those were Niss’s words when demanding Koth surrender. I made him write them down. Sometimes recounting their actions gets surreal when the catfolk gets center stage. I was just lucky it didn’t end in “meow” this time.

His map folding was done a little faster than the adventure describes (5 turns to pack things up) but Naomi’s player sometimes urgency to prompt her to decisive action when in a tight spot. There was no need to let it linger, especially as the fight was fully over elsewhere.

Also, the rule-focused ones of you may have noticed we’ve been bending some of the rules of rage. Adrian used (and has used) her Amulet of Tears, Greatreach Bracers, and Blurring armor at various times while enraged. While they are all activated by a swift command, and being in rage precludes the activation of “magic items that require a command word” we sort of grandfathered in such acts. I hadn’t realized the conflict at first and later we hand-waved it away. While the restriction generally makes sense, no one would say to no to He-Man calling upon his swords powers with his famous catchphrase. She won’t be using wands (obviously) nor making use of manipulation triggers, but it seemed excessive to forbid vocal commands…if only in post-permission retrospect. If given it to do over again, I might have decided otherwise, but I think I’ll allow it this time around.

LordShotGun
2010-10-01, 08:42 PM
Well I will say it is rather intimidating to start reading, but I plan to have a go at it after dinner tonight and I usually enjoy Campaign Journals so hopefully this one will be good as well. I am mostly intrested with the RHoD campagin you said you just started but I will read just about all the posts.


Don't be discouraged by lack of posts, some of the best Journal's I have read have had less then 20 pages in total containing dozens of sessions.

Certainly bookmark this I will.

evil-frosty
2010-10-01, 11:45 PM
I plan on reading this too when i find the time, which with school is sparse for me. But ya its just rather intimidating with how much there is.

Nick_mi
2010-10-02, 04:35 AM
tagged for later reading

Jastermereel
2010-11-19, 05:52 PM
I'm terribly sorry it took so long to get back to this thread (not that I expect anyone is exactly hanging on the next words), but sickness and scheduling kept me from getting the details of the latest pair down for a while.

Session 27 – An Informal Inquiry

Setting: Terrak’nor Keep
As the well-dressed bugbear slouches in resignation Naomi, still blind and pressed into in the corner of the small room, explains how the he, whom the minotaur called Wyrmlord Koth, blinded her, has a map of the Red Hand’s plans in his bag, and was among those who took her child.

Adrian, somewhat surprised, asks, “You have a kid? How come I’ve never seen him?” Naomi, not in the mood to spell out the details again exclaims, “Because he took him!” Still slightly confused, but confidant as always, Adrian steps up to Koth and demands to know whom he works for, but he remains defiantly silent. Naomi indignantly interjects, “We know who he works for!” She, in turn, tries to get him to spill more, but he doesn’t appear to care for her questions and says nothing.

Niss, seeing the gruffer approaches fail, tries a softer tone with the stubborn sorcerer, “You should give up your life of evil and do good and tell us where her son is.” While he appears no happier to be held captive, something subtly changes in Koth’s expression and he requests that he be brought one of the healing potions from his fallen guards. Niss, hoping it might help their cause, complies despite Naomi’s protests, though he withholds the potion until Koth, in no position to argue, relinquishes his bag and the rest of his magical possessions.

“Ominakna” quietly joins the others as Niss passes their captive the potion. He cringes as he drinks it, but his condition does not appear much improved. Niss, appearing generous, offers him another potion. Koth quickly snatches it up and downs it, failing to notice that the passed potion was an Elixir of Truth. Koth cringes again and complains, “That one seemed to help even less.” Niss, uses his wand of cure light wounds to heal him a little more.

As Niss heals Koth, the others reach into the bag of holding and remove and unfold onto the table a massive map of the region: a crude but fairly accurate representation of the Elsir Vale covered in scribbled notes in unfamiliar letters. Eager to get more information, Niss asks about what the Red Hand’s intentions are, but, almost predictably, only receives a threat from Koth in return, “When the Red Hand comes, you shall all perish beneath our might!” Naomi shouts out that she’ll kill Kale before then, but the hobgoblin laughs and ridicules the notion that she could stand against him.

Sidetracked by Naomi’s outburst, Niss asks Koth about her son. The bugbear just repeats the same vague answer about bloodlines as before. Naomi threatens him, conveying her rage even though she cannot see him, but he barks out a laugh, “You think you’ll find your brat faster with me dead?” However, he seems reluctant to push his luck too far and gestures at the map near the swamps of Lake Rhest.

Apparently satisfied with the hint, but unwilling to drop the topic, Naomi grills Koth on what happened the night her clan was wiped out. He explains, while remaining somewhat vague, that it was one of Azarr Kul's final acts before uniting the tribes. Naomi interjects, “Is that what he’s calling himself now?” Koth continues, but while he was present at the slaughter, his promotion to Wyrmlord came later, so he was not privy to his leader's motives for the attack. Asked again for details of the Red Hand’s plans, he keeps silent, but Adrian sees his eyes involuntarily dart to the map and she asks him what the notes mean. Koth simply laughs at them for not knowing “the tongue of the chosen people”. Naomi threatens to tear his “chosen tongue” out, if he doesn’t speak up. Jorr steps forward, noting he might be of assistance as he has some experience with Goblin writings. He examines the map and observes that while the hand that penned them clearly belonged to one of the goblin races, the notes are coded and he cannot read them. “When next we make camp, I might have a better chance of puzzling it out,” he suggests.

Adrian, worried for her people, asks for details of the alliance between the Red Hand and the Doderan people, but Koth doesn’t appear to know what she’s talking about and admits, with some regret, that he might simply not be privy to that information.

Naomi's pride keeps her from asking Koth to return her sight to her, but the others don’t share her priorities and demand he undo his spell's damage. He shrugs indifferently; while he was fine with spreading vague rumors of plans and past battles, he appears unwilling to actively aid his foes. They threaten him with violence to little effect, but when Niss suggests using an elixir of love on him, Koth snarls, “You would regret that!” with such vehemence that the idea is immediately dropped.

Satisfied with the initial round of questions, and confident that the town guard will have plenty more, the party binds Koth and proceeds to loot the corpses from the battle, stuffing almost everything except the bodies themselves into the bag of holding Koth had carried. Once readied, the group begins the long walk back to Drellin’s Ferry. Adrian carries Koth over her shoulder, regaling him with tales of the fine land that is Dodera. Jorr leads the way through the witch trails, being sure to avoid the swampy hunting grounds of the Hydra.

Setting: The Witchwoods
Around noon, after hours of winding their way through the thin dirt trails, they come across a small crumbling wall. While it might once have been part of a house or watchtower, now it’s barely more than a head-height pile of worked stone. Adrian and Naomi both pause upon hearing a rustling hooting sound. Jorr, apparently having heard it too, whispers to the others, “Owlbear” and gestures go suggest that that they give the ruins a wide berth as they pass. Adrian resists the urge to take on another powerful beast and tries to sneak past, but steps on a dry branch, splintering it with a loud crack. Almost instantly a head pokes up from behind the ruins. While it resembles an owl, it’s nearly two feet wide and the body that appears as it climbs atop the ruins looks more like that of a half-feathered bear.

Jorr draws his crossbow and gently guides Naomi behind him. She, in turn, passes her Rod of Viscid Globs to him and explains its trigger. Niss begins inspiring the others to cut down the monstrous foe, but it gets in the first strike as it leaps from the pile of stone to slash at Adrian with a feathered claw. Adrian drops Koth to the ground, triggers her blurring armor and draws her greatsword. The young sorceress aims her crossbow, kept at the ready from atop her horse, and buries a bolt in the beast’s amber coat.

Jorr, taking Naomi’s advice, levels the rod at the owlbear and launches a green gob of sticky goo, gumming up its feathers and gluing its hind-paws to the ground. Niss moves a bit further back from the beast and draws his crossbow. The owlbear manages to pull free, but while it is distracted, Adrian summons up her anger and swings wildly and with great ardor, cutting deep into the beast’s feathered hide. “Ominakna” scores another shot from the back lines while Naomi mutters angrily at her inability to help. Jorr, clearly pleased with the results from before, refastens the beast to the ground while Niss lodges a crossbow bolt in its neck. The beast wavers for a moment, realizing its end is near, takes a final swing at Adrian, cutting deep grooves into her gray skin with its sharp claws, before falling over with a mournful hoot.

In the quiet that follows, the cry is returned, though very faintly, from the other side of the ruins. Niss, peering over the top of the mound of stones, sees the bones of a worg and its goblin rider picked clean by the tiny beaks of a pair of owlbear young nestled within a crude shelter of braches and leaves. Adrian grabs Koth and begins the long walk back to Drellin’s Ferry with most of the others in tow, but Niss takes pity on the helpless offspring and uses a charge from his wand to heal the mother before sprinting off to catch up with the others.

Setting: Drellin’s Ferry
The party returns to Drellin's Ferry near nightfall. While the rest of the party goes to find Norro Wiston and Captain Soranna, Naomi and Jorr track down Brother Derny, the town's elder cleric. While he cannot help her with her blindness that evening, he suggests that if she return tomorrow, after his morning prayers to Pelor, he might be of some assistance then. She and Jorr rejoin the group and see to it that the bugbear prisoner is locked up in the Old Town House's jail and kept under a close watch by the town's best guards. The group briefs Norro on their assault on Terrak'nor Keep and what they learned from the prisoner. Norro and Sorrana examine the map and, while it's details are still encrypted, the scope of the invasion plans, emerging from the Wyrmsmoke mountains to cover cities well past Brindol, makes clear the need to evacuate. Norro sends messengers to contact the town elders to form a plan and thanks the quintet for their efforts, asking the party to check in with him in the morning. Jorr and Norro, already acquainted from some time ago, get to work on deciphering the map. The others, exhausted after a long day, return to their rooms and fall asleep.

Early the next morning, the party helps Naomi return to Brother Derny. While he is happy to help, he does ask for a reasonable donation; while a few hundred gold coins would be a steep fee for one of the villagers, he keenly perceives that an adventurous group like the one standing before him, should have more than enough funds to cover his comparatively modest costs.

With Naomi's sight returned to it's previous condition, functioning, but still a little murky-eyed, the group returns to the Old Town House to find Norro and Jorr still pouring over the map. While they haven't teased apart all of the code, they have a better sense of the Red Hand's plans. Norro points to the north edge of the forest, “We think they'll be passing over the Skull Gorge Bridge here. If you lot can find a way to slow them down, that might buy us enough time to get everyone out of town.” Adrian suggests they could destroy the bridge, but Norro cringes at the idea. “That bridge has stood for generations and that trade route keeps this town afloat, but...if there are no other options, do what you must. But do hurry! Stop by Sterrel's on the far side of the river and let him know I said for you to be given his fastest horses.”

The party excuses themselves, but just outside the Old Town House, Jorr calls the party aside. “While I'd not thought to check before when we had the map in hand and a prisoner in tow, it might be worth your time to take another look around the keep. The old stories suggest that the young lord had greater wealth than looters have taken from the grounds thus far. I'd hunt for it myself, but you lot more than earned it yesterday and you’ll need every advantage to halt the hoard.” He gives them a little advice for following the Witch Trails they'd used yesterday, before disappearing inside to further decipher the map.

Setting: Terrak’nor Keep
After getting ferried across the river, Niss, Naomi and Adrian rent horses so that the whole party is mounted. By noon, they’ve followed the witch trails back to Terrak’nor Keep to see if Jorr’s notions of treasure were true. The remains of yesterday’s battle are as they were left, though clearly gnawed upon by some scavengers. Naomi starts her search in the largely unexplored tower room. Using her keen sense of sight in her good eye, she spots the edge of a secret door beneath a pile of rags and rubble. Beneath it lays a thin vertical shaft descending into darkness.

The small room at the bottom of the shaft can barely hold the quartet once the rest of the others join her with illumination. The air is stale and the party’s decent has swept a great deal of dust into the air. Slouched in the corner of the room are the skeletal remains of a human dressed in tattered chainmail. Along the walls are three gated alcoves. While Adrian is ready to bash through the locks, Naomi suggests a subtler approach, seeking to test her lock picking skills. It takes some time to release the centuries-old locks, but the reward is worth it.

The first alcove contains a set of ten iron coffers which hold, as Naomi gradually opens their locks, piles of silver, gold, and platinum coins as well as a few useless notes of credit and, just as old but much more valuable, the deed to the keep itself. The second alcove appears to be a sort of private study with assorted papers relating to the keep’s history up to the final assault; the last entry is a gloating account of the young lord’s last victory in driving the giants from the forest. The third alcove contains some of his personal trophies. From them, Niss quickly snatches up a glistening chain shirt. While patterns in its design suggest it was made by and for a hobgoblin of some importance, it appears to be made of mithral, which is practically unheard of for the goblinoid races. The young sorceress spots something more her style with a tall staff made of white oak engraved to look as though it were made of braided bands of holly and oak crowned with a unicorn’s horn, which she recognizes as a Staff of Life, admittedly one that has already seen much use. The rest of the contents are less practical: a leather gauntlet nearly as large as a keg of ale which, while primitive, still exudes an undeniable power; a necklace of two dozen forest giant teeth, and the bleached skull of a young black dragon.

While the others take inventory of the treasures of the three alcoves, Naomi investigates the human remains. An arrow as thick as a quarterstaff protrudes from his ribs. From the body’s age and the giant sized arrow, it seems likely this is the body of Amery Terrak’nor, the young lord who led the attacks on the forest giants nearly two centuries ago. While his armor is no longer of any use to the living, he still clutches a glistening rapier. The blade comes to an impossibly thin point, yet is surprisingly firm and the whole length shines with unexpected brightness in the dim light coming from the thin shaft to the surface. The grip is made of etched malachite with a simple but elegant mithral guard. Naomi wastes no time in breaking the extraordinary weapon from the stiff calcified grip of the skeleton. In disturbing the remains, she reveals that the young lord had been lying atop an elegant cloak, green with silver trim. While the style matches that of the rapier, Naomi doesn’t show much interest in it, but the young sorceress eagerly dons it.

The party climbs out of the dark hole and back atop their mounts before continuing north. Not having been shown where to find the northern witch paths they stick to the main road, keeping a cautious eye on the path ahead. While they carry a heavier load, none feel burdened by their find.

END SESSION 27

Note:
Ok. I learned my lesson: Don’t DM While Sick. What was already a fairly complex, though thankfully combat-light, session became absolutely muddled. The antagonistic dialogue between the players and Koth ended up being fairly low-energy and unfocused (just like I felt!). Consequently I missed a few things. The map was supposed to be in Goblin (check!) but Jorr can read goblin (oops) and it wasn’t coded (oops). Only the other notes in the room are coded (and those are in Infernal anyway). So…I had to come up with a better reason for Jorr not reading the map there other than “You didn’t ask me to.” The same goes for why Jorr suggested they look for treasure fairly late in the session rather than when they were there.

Hopefully the gambit about Naomi’s son allegedly being at Rhest will pay off. Others have suggested that the bridge between chapter 1 and 2 is weak, so this might help strengthen it, though I’ll probably end up over-emphasizing it to make the way clear (as was done with the trip from Bet Kalimar to Drellin’s Ferry (2-3 leads going right there). While it’s debatable whether or not Koth would point the PCs to the base at Rhest in character (he might either not know the details of the base or hope those forces finish the PCs off), but out of character, it was either that or risk derailing the campaign by pointing somewhere else and hoping Naomi didn’t lead them charging off there calling for WAAAAAALT!…err…Troy.

My perspective on the backstory is that Koth was there at the massacre of the sasurian shifters, and was fairly low level at the time. It was there that he caught Azzar Kul’s eye for his successes on that battlefield. The battle was one of Kale of the Crimson Talon’s last acts before accending to become Azzar Kul of the Red Hand. Since that time, Kul promoted Koth to Wyrmlord. While Koth might know of Naomi’s child’s whereabouts, it’s no longer of much concern to him.

I had meant to be more detailed with Koth’s answers, including angering Naomi more by implying her mate, Kaiden was partially responsible for the massacre, but my head wasn’t nearly clear enough to remember half of what I’d meant to say (including Jorr’s tip about the extra treasure) on time. With luck he’ll have a chance to say more as they evacuate the town. Someone will have to decide the Koth’s fate: whether to bring him along with the fleeing townsfolk, or to kill him there and be done with the matter.

The loot remained the same except that the bracers of ogre’s strength (+2str) were swapped for a cloak of charisma (+2cha). The tank didn’t need more strength (and didn’t want to give up the GreatReach bracers) so rather than give them some vendor trash, I worked to give more members of the party a piece of loot.



Session 28 – Bravely Bold Sir Adrian

Setting: Skull Gorge Bridge
Traveling along The Dawn Way road towards the Skull Gorge Bridge, the party happens upon a towering, but crudely made, effigy standing just off the road. A wide, well-tended, dirt path leads off into the forest beside it. Niss recognizes it as the work of some tribe of giants, but the group’s attention is still focused on the road ahead and none are inclined to investigate further.

As the afternoon creeps on, the road, fairly level thus far, starts to slope upward and the travelers gradually slow. The sound of rushing water can be faintly heard and, in the distance, the party catches glimpses of a large stone bridge. Rather than walk right up to it, the quartet dismount and creep forward through the undergrowth to get a better look.

Before them lies the Skull Gorge Bridge. The ancient construction of hewn stone forms a narrow span some ten feet wide and over a hundred feet long over the gorge. No other crossing is visible in either direction. A pair of tall stone towers flanks the bridge at each end and, on the far side, half a dozen tents are gathered around a thin pillar of smoke, likely coming off a fire pit. In each of the towers, a single bowman stands watching the road, and between each pair a stocky hound guards the way across with curls of smoke coming from their snouts. Atop one of the far towers, however, is a more fearsome foe: a shimmering, sleek green dragon. Though it appears to be resting in the afternoon sun, it doubtless is keeping a better watch over the bridge than the surrounding forces.

Adrian, a little intimidated by the idea of taking on what she assumes is the bulk of the Red Hand, suggests that they empty the town and ambush the forces when they strike there. Niss seems even more unnerved and quietly rants at the others, “It’s an army! With a dragon! We should make some rough terrain, go home and make biscuits!” However, after a short time they regain their nerve and start work on a plan of action. Niss suggests that Naomi might be able to scout out the encampment on the far side and, should they have any significant explosives, destroy the hobgoblins in the tents. Naomi seems reluctant to be sent out ahead of the others, preferring to lurk behind them, so Niss prepares a backup plan. With some assistance from his new chain shirt and his Vestments of Many Styles, he pulls together a passable hobgoblin disguise. Though it isn't clear what he plans to do with it, Naomi seems reassured enough to proceed with her task. Niss casts Message so she'll have a way to keep in contact with them while she quaffs her elixirs of Hiding and Sneaking, Shifts to reveal her Saurian heritage giving her a bit of a speed boost, and triggers her cloak to disappear from view.

Moving briskly, but being careful not to give away her position, she moves towards the bridge. The bowmen pay her no mind, and while the hellhounds seem to sense something and sniff about, they don't seem particularly bothered. However, as she passes beneath the dragon's tower at the far end, she hears it quietly mutter in Draconic, “Spies!” Taking a chance she darts towards the camp, spotting a few more hobgoblins sitting around the campfire, and darts into a smallish unoccupied tent.

Niss, seeing the dragon roused from its rest and suspecting Naomi could use a diversion, borrows a puff ball from “Ominakna”'s bag of tricks, runs up to the near end of the bridge, and throws the fuzzy orb at the feet of the hound, summoning a lion, which slashes at the smoking and startled hound.

Adrian, caught off guard by Niss’s bold spontaneity, hangs back to better prepare for what looks to be a tough fight and quickly downs a potion of Bull's Strength and draws all she can from her Amulet of Tears. The youth readies her crossbow, but keeps hidden in the brush feeling it unwise to follow Niss's lead.

After pausing for a moment to size up the strange situation unfolding below them, the nearest pair of bowmen raises an alarm, take aim and pierce the lion's hide with their longbows, choosing to fire at the overtly hostile beast over the unexpected hobgoblin interloper. The hound opens its jaws wide unleashing a jet of flame, singeing the lion. The other hound starts loping across the bridge, eager to engage the intruders while the hobgoblins at the camp gather their weapons.

The dragon responds more quickly and more definitively: taking flight from its perch on the far side, it rapidly flies over the chasm, swoops downwards on the nearside and belches forth a cloud of acid, reducing the menacing lion to a pile of bubbling bones, keeping the nearest hobgoblin alive; while fearsome and powerful, it does not appear to relish explaining friendly casualties, even those it doesn’t recognize.

Naomi takes advantage of the movement of the nearby troops to scout the largest of the tents, likely belonging to a more senior hobgoblin. Inside, she finds notes sent by Koth to this camp and reports to be sent to the larger hoard on the status of the bridge. Realizing that her invisibility won't last much longer, she readies her weapon.

Back on the south side of the chasm, Niss, acting unusually bravely, tries to goad the dragon into a Mindless Rage, but his spell, for better or worse, seems to have little effect and so he quickly reverses his plan and runs downstream a little ways while calling out, “Be our friend. It will be nice. You can do nice things to good people instead of working with those bad ones.” His offer doesn't seem to appeal to the dragon, but its attention is quickly directed elsewhere.

Unwilling to leave her friend alone on the field of battle any longer, Adrian activates her bracers, summons a great inner rage and charges the dragon. While it is still some thirty feet above the ground, her increased stature combined with the effect of bracers give her startling reach; with a fearsome shout she thrusts her sword into the vulnerable underbelly of her scaly foe creating a gory chasm between rows of emerald scales. The nearby hound leaps at her, but she cuts it in half from smoking snout to twitching tail in a powerful upwards sweep that ends, again, with her sword embedded deeply in the dragon’s belly eliciting an agonized roar that echoes up and down the ravine.

The young sorceress, wishing to keep the dragon in Adrian’s reach, tries to charm it with Tasha's Hideous Laugher, but the spell fizzles. The surviving hound, having reached the near end of the bridge in time to see it's litter-mate brutally bisected, skitters to a stop on the Dwarven stone, seemingly cowed. The hobgoblin bowmen have no such concern and take shots at the fearsome barbarian, but to little effect.

Realizing its perilous situation and lack of significant support, the dragon quickly retreats to its roost. While Adrian seemed perfectly at home cutting away while beneath it's fearsome form, something in its rapid retreat overhead rattled her to her core. She barely hears her massive sword clatter against the ground over her own thunderous heartbeat. Adrian “Marmot-herder” Kalios, Doderan diplomat and fearless barbarian, turns to flee the field of battle with terror in her eyes.

Naomi, watching five hobgoblins move to assist in the fight on the far side, leaves her hiding spot, takes aim at the nearby stonework and looses a Fountainhead Bolt. A geyser of acid erupts from where it hits the stonework, dousing the hobgoblins in a caustic spray. While most rush past, Niss manages to hit one with a Sleep spell, dropping the savage soldier in the middle of the ongoing acid spray. He tries to intercept and calm Adrian, but she is barely aware of his presence as she runs past him into the woods. As the sound of her scream trails off, the young sorceress casts Mage Armor on herself, expecting matters to get worse.

The nearby bowmen, no longer concerned with lions or towering gray giants, take aim at Niss, apparently no longer concerned that he appears to be a hobgoblin, but have little success, and only startle him as their arrows strike the dirt by his feet. The other hound closes and breathes a jet of fire at Niss, but its heart simply wasn't in the attempt, and barely singes his fur.

Realizing he stands essentially alone in the middle of the conflict, Niss triggers his long forgotten Armband of Elusive action, casts Expedious Retreat, and darts downriver, away from the hound’s snapping jaws. “Ominakna” bravely takes his place and smacks the hound on the snout with Lesser Orb of Cold, which draws its attention but fails to finish the fight.

Naomi, aware that the dragon has returned to her side of the gorge, re-cloaks and retreats to a small tent. While it did not see her, it seems to suspect something amiss in the apparently emptied campsite and lands near the fire. Its very presence unsettles Naomi, but rather than cower in fear, she draws upon a deep inner courage and lunges at the scaly beast thrusting her glistening rapier into its neck. It recoils in shock and pain at the surprise attack, but turns to face her with furious anger. In a flurry of tooth, talon and wing it drops the defiant rogue to the ground. Though she still lives, a single scratch could easily rob her bleeding body of life.

Aware of Naomi’s plight, Niss screams Draconic obscenities and attempts to drop the nearby dog with his crossbow while keeping his distance. The youth takes a more productive approach: she draws another fuzzy ball from the tan bag, tosses it at the ground and summons a hulking brown bear beside her, which in turn cuts the dog to ribbons. While the bowmen each land a hit on the beast, it doesn't seem bothered and roars in defiance as the hobgoblin reinforcements approach.

Adrian, now much farther away, rants to no one but herself and the trees, “I stabbed a dragon! A dragon! Why would I do that!?” and continues onwards, crashing through the forest.

END SESSION 28

Note: So…that went differently than I’d expected it would. The players seemed to fixate on Norro’s hope that the bridge not be destroyed and likely would have been flummoxed even had they been able to deal with the forces stationed there. I’d been reading various Red Hand of Doom threads that suggested buffing the opposition against parties that were charging through, so I changed out some of Ozzy’s Feats. I’d considered buffing his breath with metabreath feats but increasing the damage (through lingering breath or the like) seemed likely to simply kill off characters; only one could likely take his breath and live as it is. So I slightly buffed his Bite and gave him a new ability.
His original feats were: Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, and Persuasive.
His new feats were: Hover, Flyby Attack, Improved Natural Attack (Bite), and Awaken Frightful Presence
And what a difference that Frightful Presence made. While every one is effectively level 5, Adrian and Niss have 4 HD and 1 LA, and being on that side of the 4-5HD divide made all the difference. While Naomi was shaken, Adrian…well…the party’s big damage dealer is set to run around a quarter of a mile away from the encounter and into the woods.

Naomi should technically be dead. However, I didn't remember that Ozzy had consumed a potion of Bull's Strength after getting slashed at by Adrian until...around an hour and a half after the session ended and most of the group left. Her -4HP should actually be -10HP. I'm actually rather thankful. I like giving players a degree of plot armor (the more plot you build, the more you'll survive to see) and would have had a hard time figuring out how to keep her alive there without simply lying about the damage done. Before the next session, I simply decreed that he, having taken a hell of a rapid beating from Adrian, drank his Cure Serious Wounds potion. While this pre-negated Naomi’s attack on him (exactly the same total), it’s better to effectively cancel out her attack than to cancel out her life.

Lastly, I’d been trying to explain to my players why Tasha’s Hideous Laugher allowed drastically different races to have a bonus to resisting the spell. The explanation that worked was as follows:
D&D Chris Rock: “White humanoid bipeds are like this! Green humanoid bipeds are like that!”
A Dragon: “You all taste the same to me!”

Useful? I don’t know, but it made sense at the time.



While I’m working on this past Saturday’s recap, I’m not sure how many more I’ll have for the near future. Two of my players are about to welcome a new little nerd into the world and while I look forward to the pitter-patter of tiny D20s and D12s (all infants use greataxes), I don’t expect we’ll reach Rhest anytime soon. I expect I can probably toss one or more of the on-route encounters at them, but the Tiri Kitor will likely have to wait until after the parents-to-be have their lives back in order again.