Red Hand of Doom in Sterich Part 2

[Elder_Basilisk]

It's been a long time since I got any of our sessions written up. The campaign is still going but since there's been a 5 month hiatus in posting, I started a new thread rather than resurrect the old one. Here's the link to the previous sessions: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?494229-Pathfinder-Red-Hand-of-Doom-in-Greyhawk-(Sterich)/page3&highlight=Red+Hand+Sterich

The Journal of Grimmath Coalhewer
Goodmonth 11

Journal, I hope you didn’t get too wet when we crossed the ford. We spotted a few hobgoblins at the ford ahead of us and crossed in a bit of a hurry. Jonas and the Peck wanted to rescue some of the prisoners the hobgoblins had. Well, I suppose it’s for the good. Wouldn’t want them to be sacrificed. Well, wouldn’t want most of them to be sacrificed. The young lord Trask of Elsircross—I don’t know if I’d shed any tears over him being sacrificed. Still, you can’t put ore back in the mountain once you’ve mined it. And the peck says a couple of the hobgoblin guards got away so no doubt there will be more patrols out for us before the day is out.

Engelhardt used a spell to contact the forgepriest, so we’re supposed to meet with the dwarven scouts tomorrow near the entry valley. Seems optimistic to me, but that’s what Jonas and Engelhardt think will work.

Goodmonth 12
Well Journal, I told you yesterday we wouldn’t make the meeting. Lots of hobgoblins crawling all over the plateau. We had to sneak around the edge of the plateau and didn’t even make it half the distance we need to go.

Goodmonth 13.
Go figure. The only thing worse than riding on those stupid horses is trying to lead the horse and avoid being outlined on ridges and all that crap that Jozan and the Peck say is really important if you don’t want to be spotted. I’m still picking briars out of my beard.

Goodmonth 14.
So I’m home again and back to being stuck in my archives. I did find a reference to a lost temple of Tiamat in the goblin valley to the north. Supposed to be very impressive or something. I’m sure it is, but what’s really impressive is the challenge getting there. We all knew there’s only one good pass leading into the goblin valley and when the hold isn’t sealed we usually keep watch on it. Well it looks like the Red Hand has fortified the pass right at the long slope. Roughly 1000 feet of steep straight grade under fire from their tower. Is there some other way it? Well, maybe. 100 years ago, we ran into some goblins in the deep mines and had a big battle with them before we retreated and closed off those mines. If there were lots of goblins there, it stands to reason that they must have come from a goblin city and the only goblin cities around here are on the other side of the mountains. So, just a small matter of unsealing the mines, finding our way through the caverns to the goblin city and then killing goblins till we get to their front gate. Jonas wants to assault the pass fortification instead. Go figure.

I did get a good price for the casks of ale in my bag of holding though. And I've still got enough in my cask to last me to the fane.

Goodmonth 15.
Well journal, I’ve discovered something worse than sneaking around the plateau trying to avoid the hobgoblins and getting thorns in your beard. It’s getting thorns in your beard while sneaking around the edge of the plateau avoiding hobgoblin patrols and then getting attacked by griffons who can’t tell the difference between a summoned horse and a real one. Stupid griffons. The peck thinks my fireballs will alert the hobgoblins to our position. What a whiner.

Goodmonth 16.
Journal, we reached the pass and made it to the base of the slope today. The hobgoblins have erected a gated wall across the narrow path that leads to the summit with a tower on the slope next to it. There is a ballista and a catapult on their fortifications and there looks to be a dragon there as well. The have torches in sconces all the way down the slope providing illumination at night and send out patrols to replace the torches every few hours.

We considered air walking invisibly around us but Engelhardt can’t cast air walk on all of us at once so we’d need to go in separate groups over two days. That seemed like asking for trouble so we’ve come up with a cunning plan instead. We prepare our spells tomorrow and wait until dark. Then, under the cover of darkness, Hellek, Jozan, and Engelhardt walk up the slope invisibly and take out the catapult and the signaling device at the top of the tower. When they do that, the rest of us charge up the slope and finish off the rest of the hobgoblin forces.

There are no more entries in Grimmath’s journal.

[Elder_Basilisk]

Goodmonth 17.
Excerpt from the report of Doompriest Sordrak and Lieutenant Phugek, Sergeant Ivlik, and Ozzyrandion

We were on alert because reports from the fortress stated that human forces had raided one of the prison wagons coming from the lowland valley nearly a week ago. They had seen few signs since but yesterday one of the patrols found a pair of griffons slain with only a few mighty cuts.

Though I know he is here as punishment, I must credit Ozzyrandion with detecting the foes. Shortly after dusk he heard a sound as though someone were invoking their god and asked me for a spell of invisibility to investigate. I invoked the dragon queen’s blessings upon him and sent him out. When he returned, he reported that three figures were making their way up the trail under the cloak of invisibility magic. I sent for Sergeant Ivlik, Lietenant Phugek, and to rouse the rest of the garrison. This was clearly the assault we had been expecting. Meanwhile the soldiers loaded stones into the catapult and cranked the ballista atop the tower.

Ozzyrandion began the battle cautiously. He flew above and called out distance to the catapult crew who performed flawlessly and were reloading before the dragon could even hear the grunts of pain as the stones fell among the invaders. Then, observing that the intruders had allowed a large gap to develop between the lead element and the rest of the group, he hovered and snapped at the point man. Though it broke his invisibility, the gambit worked and the lead—who we have now learned to be Hellek, a Lion of Bova scrambled towards the wall and was cut off from his companions.

One of those companions—Sir Jozan of Hillwatch Keep if the prisoner is telling the truth and my magic seems to confirm that he is—drew his bow and opened fire at which point Sergeant Ivlik led a devastating volley of fire from the garrison who had by this point reached their arrowslits and machiolations. It was amazing that this Jozan was still standing, but the human gods give blessings to their cursed servants and if this is indeed the companion of the Green Glaive and Whitebow, it is not surprising that he survived even though our arrows blocked the moon from the sky. It only took Jozan a few arrows to force Ozzyrandion to withdraw, but our volley frightened his companions enough that one cast a spell and created a wind wall in front of them. Ozzyrandion recognized the opportunity this presented because their scout, Hellek was on the far side of the wind wall and Ozzyrandion could attack him without fear of the humans’ arrows. He did so and when the human tried to escape, Ozzyrandion snatched him in his talons and held him fast so that my men could shoot him from the wall. He fell limp in the dragon’s grasp and the dragon then brought the body to the tower according to our standard orders so that he may be interrogated and reserved for sacrifice.

The engineers who built this place to defend the pass worked marvels and the humans struggled up the slope as several more of them including a mounted knight, a dwarf wizard, and a halfling riding a lion came into the light of the torches at the base of the slope. The wind wall protected them from arrows until they expired but fortunately did nothing to shield them from our siege engines which worked flawlessly raining rocks and giant bolts upon their heads. There were a few tense moments. Once, the dwarf invoked his elf-magic in feeble mockery of the dragon magic that the Dragon Queen has given us and scorched several of us with a fireball—this was responsible for one of the deaths in my garrison. Lieutenant Phugek and I were able to reach the rest of the men before they could die and with our magic, we brought them back into the fight.

Then the dwarf ripped a hole in the fabric of Oerth and stepped through with the knight, who we could now see wielded General Kharn’s pick. He slew the ballista crew and Ozzyrandion battered him while the dwarf stepped to the trapdoor and thought the better of climbing down, seeing me at the ready beneath. One of the archers stepped back and fired up through the trapdoor, at once unmanning and killing him. A moment later, I cast a spell and paralyzed the knight enabling Ozzyrandion to bite off his head. The others seemed to lose heart and turned to retreat, having come to nearly 100 feet of the wall.

According to standing orders, I did not send out patrols to search for them since they are skilled woodsmen and doing so would risk defeat in detail. Nevertheless we have slain two of their champions and captured a third and recovered relics—most notably General Kharn’s pick and two dragon blades.

Interrogation revealed the following:
1. Rumors of our force’s defeat at Bova are true and General Kharn is indeed dead, but he made an end worthy of a song and slew two of their champions—including the Green Glaive and the dragon armored dwarf champion that had caused us much trouble—before finally falling to their captain general.
2. The Green Glaive and the dragon armored dwarf are dead at the hands of General Kharn.
3. The Whitebow was killed in an ambush by our forces in the Witchwood but was raised to life by the dwarves.
4. The humans know of the High Wormlord’s ritual and are attempting to stop it.

Based on this, we anticipate further attempts—possibly with better planning and possibly in concert with the dwarves our forces have seen on the plateau. I request two lances of wolf-riders to help guard against invisible infiltration and an additional ten regulars to reinforce our position as well as an engineer to construct a second catapult and additional fortifications. Additionally, I request a double strength escort so that the prisoner can be taken to the pyramid of skulls for sacrifice.

[Eldariel]

That's...quite brutal and against an encounter a party of this level shouldn't actually have that much trouble against. But it seems like their planning fell woefully short; who the hell tries to beat a Dragon-defended keep with simple Invisibility? Surely they must know of Dragons' keen auxiliary senses by now; I thought this particular plan blew up in their face once before already. Dimension Door is better, but came way too late and way too uncoordinated. Well, sow the wind and reap the whirlwind, I suppose. I'm looking forward to seeing how this progresses and indeed, how you keep telling these stories; a Hobgoblin view point was rather surprising but refreshing.

[Elder_Basilisk]

It was a brutal result. The party toyed with a few plans before finally settling on half of one and half of another. Then Hellek's player kept moving at his full speed which was faster than the other two invisible characters and got well ahead of them. Then, a bit more than halfway up the slope, Engelhardt's player decided that since he and Hellek weren't stealth, he had better cast silence to mask their approach. Not a bad idea but he overlooked that the casting itself could be heard (and pathfinder silence doesn't last long enough). Ozzy heard the spellcasting, thought, "that's funny, I should check it out" and the rest happened as recorded including a nasty longbow crit literally right up Grimmath's kilt while he was at single digit hit points.

But the party regrouped and came back in a three to four week chapter I had to add to the adventure due to the geography changes and fleshing out the trip to the Fane of Tiamat. But it was also needed because the party kept losing experience due to deaths. They need to be at least 10th level starting the fane but having two characters kick the bucket in the battle of Bova and four more die on the way to the fane meant that they were actually lower on average than they were when they finished the battle of Bova. At this point, Jozan is the only character who has never died as well as the only character who has been a part of the party the whole way through. (Penn joined the second session and has died once).

[Elder_Basilisk]

The new characters:

Engelhardt got promoted to full PC upon Jonas' death.

The party picked up a couple new characters replacing Hellek and Grimmath
Ferric Fireheart, Human Magus
One of Marshall Verthundle’s apprentices, Ferric aided her as she and her cavalry cleared the pass for General Commander Griffage Terpin’s reinforcements to reach Bova. Once informed of the ritual threat, Marshall Verthundle provided him a scroll of teleport and dispatched him and his aid-de-camp Garrik to assist the lions of Bova in any way they could.

Garrik (cohort), Human Cavalier/Bard/Battle Herald
Garrik is Ferric’s aid de camp

Goodmonth 18. Sending and divination
Journal of the Glorious Engelhardt of the Valiant Host

Woe! Woe! Woe! The noblest among us have fallen to our foes—heroes the like of which we should not expect ever to see again. The Valorous Knight revealed to me that Hellek yet lives and that Jonas and Grimmath do not. Even so, Hellek seems to be beyond our reach. There is nothing for us to do but to signal the dwarves and return, hoping that the hobgoblins do not follow us. Thus far, they have not and the relative peace only gives us more time to reflect upon the ignominy of our failure and the army of hellish devils that the Red Hand will soon be summoning upon us.

Goodmonth 19.
Journal of the Glorious Engelhardt

We reached the Coalhewer clanhold today and were received with more courtesy than our failures deserve. Indeed, it seems that one of Marshall Verthundel’s apprentices once visited this clanhold in his youth and he teleported here with his aid de camp. Certainly we are in need of reinforcements and their blades and magic are welcome. It is a good sign that the gods still see such hope in our endeavors as to provide such valiant and skilled companions for us in the hour of our need.

In our council of war, we discussed our options and decided to chance the deep mines. The dwarves examined the treasuries of their temples and found an ancient scroll of a spell that will reveal the path to a location. Divinations confirmed that if we used that scroll and do not delay, it will suffice to enable us to reach the goblin city on the other side of the mountain.

Goodmonth 20.
Diary of Lady Penelope Underfoot

I had thought caves unpleasant before and these proved to be thoroughly unpleasant. The deep mines were still haunted by the wraiths of the goblin dead. Though we fought our way through, our new companion Ferric barely survived the experience and in another cave, we faced a monster of stone that attempted to eat us. By the time the dwarven scroll ran out we found ourselves in cramped narrow tunnels of goblin work and we made our way through the mines until we reached a wide chasm. The sound of picks and hammers echoed in the distance but we could not see from where. Eventually we came to an elevator shaft and fought our way past a goblin guard. They nearly killed me but fled from us. We decided to check another passage and eventually sneaked up on a group of goblins who were complaining about the Red Hand in their language.

Now I know that the only good goblin is a dead goblin, but my companions were eager to prove their openmindedness—most likely at the cost of their lives—and chose to parlay with the goblins rather than slay them. Their leader, Skarsnik, claimed to be the head of one of the leading clans of this city—the Crooked Moon—and had supposedly been exiled here on account of some goblin politics. He offered to smuggle us into and out of the city if we kill the Red Hand garrison here and their leader, some Red Claw Scar Face or some such thing. He promised us diamond dust to restore Ferric, but it won't happen. Goblin promises are worthless. It was a transparent ploy to get us to wait with some hostages he could not care less about while he fetched the full force of the Red Hand in order to get back in their good graces, but transparent or not, the others were thoroughly taken in and agreed to this plan. So, Skarsnik, after you kill or capture us all and read this diary, YOU DIDN’T FOOL ME!

[Elder_Basilisk]

For the record, the scroll was Find the Path. I know the spell has a bad rap, but I don't think this plan would have been doable without the scroll and forcing the party to essentially force march (using the marching chant spell to avoid fatigue) through the caves even after a brutal fight with the wraiths and another brutal fight with a roper was pretty good. They knew that if they didn't find their way to the goblin city before the spell ran out, they'd be lost in the underdark and would probably be unlikely to make it to the Fane in time. In this case, the spell wasn't, "solve the adventure" instead it made the adventure possible.