Ruins of an Empire, Session 7: Assaulting the Floating Tower

Moments before the Guild of Heroic Adventurers touched down on the floating remnants of Ustraternes, Ecamirg had just finished the ritual of transformation on his captive and affixed a control collar on the beast. This specimen had morphed into a huge and vicious cross between a wyvern and a warwing drake. The effects of the ritual scrolls Emperor Bejik had provided Ecamirg and his dragonborn soldiers had proven to be very volatile and unpredictable. Some of the creatures turned out docile and slow and of dubious use, others cunning and difficult to control. Most however were serviceable as mounts and war beasts. This one would serve as his own personal mount and would be a terror to behold in the skies.

Ecamirg had used the last scroll and control collar and was contacting Emperor Bejik using a special trinket he had been given for that purpose. Bejik was not pleased to be disturbed, "Ecamirg, just get someone who can read to make more. Use the residuum I left for that purpose in the tower."

In the background the guild flew into view. One of the dragonborn snipers stationed at the tower pointed them out to Ecamirg. Bejik cut off communication after telling him to deal with it. The Emperor then summoned the ghost guardian, Vrak, to him. The ghost appeared reluctantly, "You called your excellency?" When asked why she had not warned them of the intruders Vrak replied that she had not been told to watch the skies as well as the valley floor. Bejik chastised her for her impudence and commanded her to go make sure Ecamirg dealt with the intruders. She replied, "If you so desire, your excellency" before fading away.

Meanwhile, the guild had been approaching the tower. A group of dragonborn soldiers on warwing drakes came out of the fog, chasing the party. Fearing that they may be dismounted by the soldiers, the guild landed on a sizable chunk of floating debris. Their free mounts took off in an attempt to distract the mounted soldiers. Only two mounted soldiers remained to chase the party.

Ecamirg mounted up on his massive beast as snipers removed the chains binding it and he launched into the air. Ecamirg and his mount barreled directly into the party. The wyvern-drake breathed a cloud of poison over them all. Jym and Mongo closed in while Macros, Marvos, Lethe, Scion, Starbuck, Dawn, and Rudiger stayed back and shot at the mount from a distance. Three snipers hid behind the ramparts of the broken tower and fired upon the party. One of them used an arcane ballista to fire concussive bolts of magic at them. Ecamirg saw Mongo, "You should have had the good sense to die, bastard. Now I'll feed you and your friends to my new pet." He struck out at his half-brother with a long-hafted spear. Mongo dodged the stab, but got a look at his brother's arm, and was surprised to see he was not wearing the dragon bone bracelet.

Despite the wyvern-drake's menacing appearance, the guild was able to slay it with their combined attacks. Ecamirg rolled safely away and then leaped away onto another piece of floating rubble. The two mounted soldiers landed on nearby chucks and came to support their leader. The snipers continued to fire their bows and the arcane ballista at the party members. Marvos was set upon by a drake and a solider, but he held his own for awhile. Rudiger was proving to have learned his lessons with Mr. Lethe well. He stayed hidden in a clump of trees attached to the floating island while firing his hand crossbow at their enemies.

Jym, Mongo, Macros and Lethe began a dynamic battle with Ecamirg. They jumped from chunk of debris to floating rubble, fighting, pushing, and shoving each other. Ecamirg used his fiery breath weapon and powerful bite attacks, combined with his greatspear to keep his foes from him. At one point Mongo pinned his half-brother with his axe, but Ecamirg shoved him off the platform they shared. Mongo fell several feet through open space before striking another floating piece of masonry. One of the drakes landed near him and began to attack the prone goliath.

Dawn helped Marvos deal with one of the soldiers and drakes while Scion and Starbuck focused on the snipers. She was able to kill the one operating the ballista, but more came to take its place. Scion took refuge behind a piece of masonry as she was pinned down by sniper and ballista fire. While Jym and Macros focused on Ecamirg, Lethe ran to Scion's aid. He rushed onto the tower, killing snipers and taking control of the ballista, turning it on Ecamirg.

Mongo escaped from the drake bothering him and then climbing vines and roots up to the platform above where Jym and Macros were fighting with the last soldier and Ecamirg. Dawn and Marvos had dealt with the other drake and solider and had moved to help their allies. Ecamirg attempted to disentangle himself from the fight and jumped onto the piece of rubble that Dawn was on and ran past her. She struck him with her dagger, but his armor protected him. He laughed at her, until Mongo caught up with him and knocked him prone, keeping him from escaping.

Before Ecamirg could stand up Marvos struck him with a thunderous blast, forcing him over the end of the rubble. He clutched wildly at the edge but failed to get a grip before he plunged into the fog below and out of sight. Mongo cursed his luck for not being able to get in the last hit on his half-brother.

The guild mates gathered on the top of the broken tower to heal their wounds and take a short rest. As they rested Vrak appeared beside them. She congratulated them on defeating Ecamirg and his flunkies. Vrak felt no particular reason to help Ecamirg now that he was dead. She hadn't liked him much anyway and had begun to suspect that neither Ecamirg or Bejik had any claim to the lineage of the old Arkhosian empire. She couldn't confirm it though, although she had seen Ecamirg try on the dragon bone bracelet and then take it off with disgust when nothing happened. Vrak told the guild that the bracelet was stored in the tower below them along with some supplies and other items belonging to Bejik. The items had been warded against her type, the undead, and she could not take a look to prove her suspicions about them however.

Vrak told them that if they could discover the truth for her, then she would not return and tell the Emperor of Ecamirg's failure. If they could prove that her hunch about them was correct, then she might be able to do more for them.

GM Commentary: Scions of Punjar continued

We've completed the Scions of Punjar module and will take a break from Saturday games until the Friday group wraps up their adventure as well. It sounds like Kat, Chris, and Heidi want to check out the Carnival next. I'm hoping some of the Friday players will want to join them.

The last session was fun. I had hoped it would feel climactic even though they had already dealt with Cadavra. The final fight was pretty tough, but I feel like I could have done a better job of pacing it. The whole thing took place in the first few squares of the building. If I'd tempted them into the room further before springing zombies on them it would have felt more dramatic as they all got surrounded.

Once again I didn't feel very prepared for this session, but we managed to have fun anyway. We took extra time to role-play the NPC encounters which helped fill out the evening. Some of the encounters I had pseudo planned turned into suggested quests for later like the dragon horde, the Orcus cult, the slum plague, and the left-over devices of Illserves.

I was glad the group was excited about their new property. I'm hoping to have them flesh out the plans for their new headquarters complete with secret doors, arcane locks and magic circle protections in place. I'm also happy that they hired on Marie as a housekeeper, since every organization needs a few NPC allies to keep things interesting.

Scions of Punjar, Session 8: Just Rewards

After sending Dale off to join the Raven Queen's growing followers, Aletha, Regnor, and Chiana went back to searching for their missing companions. They eventually met a trio of revelers, either getting an early start or still going after a long night of partying, traveling down the street. A massive Goliath male was staggering toward them with his beefy arms around the shoulders of two giggling women, an Elf and a Tiefling. Aletha and Chiana stopped the group to ask them some questions. The Goliath looked on the new pair of women with lasciviousness and asked in a slurring voice if they wanted to join him for some drinks and some fun. The Elf and the Tiefling looked Aletha and Chiana up and down with disdain. The Tiefling woman opined, "What do you want with that bony Eladrin bitch, Brutus. She looks frigid to me." Regnor watched the exchange from a respectful distance.

Aletha fey-stepped behind the Tiefling and tripped her into a puddle of mud, or vomit, and the Goliath laughed at the woman's misfortune. The Tiefling flung a wrathful glance at Aletha, but was humiliated into inaction. Chiana presented the Goliath and the Elf with Cadavra's scribbled image of a frothing tankard and asked if they knew of a tavern near here that matched it. The Goliath failed to focus on the image, but the Elf quickly replied, "Yeah, you're looking for the 'Frothing Tankard Inn'. It's that way near High Court, but I don't know why you'd want to go there. It's boring and overpriced." They thanked her for the information and Aletha told Brutus to look them up again if he was looking for a job, because they had many openings for someone with his talents. The Goliath laughed heartily at her innuendo, but was quickly ushered away by his entourage and down the lane. Regnor quietly watched the trio saunter away, keeping his own private thoughts to himself.

The group went in search of the Frothing Tankard Inn and soon found a building with a sign matching the sketch. It appeared devoid of activity from the outside. Regnor and Aletha took a cautious circuit around the building while Chiana peeked in through a window. At first the common room looked empty, but soon a single middle-aged man in an apron came into view from the back room and began dejectedly cleaning up the leavings and evidence of previous customers. Sensing that he was being watched, the man looked up and was startled to see a pale face staring at him from the window and recoiled, spilling plates and mugs on the ground. Chiana quickly came in through the door and apologized for scaring him.

Aletha and Regnor didn't find any signs of a fight outside, but did notice that the building had a deep foundation and probably stood over a cellar. They finished their search and came around and entered the building. The innkeeper, who introduced himself as Harry, was happy to see new customers after his initial shock and brought them wine and beer. The guildmates question Harry on the day's events and he mentioned that another group like theirs had come by earlier and caused a ruckus. They bullied his nephew, who worked for him, into letting them into the basement where there was a loud commotion and much damage done. The intruders had spooked his customers at the time who were all driven away. Then the group left and said they were moving on the Fortune Street.

Harry's nephew had admitted to him that he had been bewitched by a woman with white hair into letting her into the basement and keeping it quiet. Harry hadn't been down there in at least a week and was not aware that his nephew had let anyone down there. He reprimanded the boy when he found out and sent him home to his mother. Aletha, Regnor, and Chiana asked permission to look into the basement which Harry reluctantly allowed. In the basement the party found the remains of a frantic battle. Wine racks and storage shelves were tipped over and smashed on the dirt floor. The smell of spilled wine filled the air, but the liquid was slowly being absorbed in the dirt, making a muddy mess. Many humanoid bones were mixed with debris, enough to account for 10 skeletons. Chiana used a Detect Secret Doors ritual to locate any remaining hidden undead, but was convinced that the basement was cleared.

Feeling guilty about the damage that the other GoHAC members had caused, Aletha paid Harry 50gp as recompense. The innkeeper was pleased and gladly posted GoHAC's contact information on the wall and agreed to send folks their way in anyone needed help. The group then went in search of their friends on Fortune Street.

They crossed the Pinch in a hired boat and entered the Bazaar of the Gods on their way. They passed through the crowds and mad prophets preaching various forms of doom on their makeshift podiums and made their way to Fortune Street. There they found Vismund, Mina, Mike, and Rael standing outside a building debating what to do next. The building appeared to be an abandoned residence, the upper floors showing signs of a fire that had burned holes in the roof and blown out all the windows before being put out. The opening on the lower floor had been boarded up to keep out squatters, but the planks on the front doors had been pulled down recently. The GoHAC team was relatively certain that this place matched Cadavra's clue depicting fire and next to the words "my good 'fortune'".

Aletha sent everyone except for Regnor and Chiana back to headquarters after reprimanding them for their careless behavior at the 'Frothing Tankard Inn' and promised to take it out of their pay. Then she told Regnor to enter the building. He burst into the front room, making out nothing in the dark interior at first, but then he caught sight of movement in the back. The smell of smoke and rot were powerful. Aletha moved past Regnor and into the room in order to get a better view of what lurked in the back of the room. Two hulking zombies, slightly hunched so that their heads did not strike the high ceiling, lurched forward, throwing smoke damaged furniture out of their path, in order to grab at the warlock. Aletha attempted to eyebite the first one, and failed. Chiana joined them inside and shot at the massive lumbering corpses, which could have been ogres or trolls at one time. An arrow lodged in the first creature, but it came onward, undeterred.

A hallway door at the groups flank, previously ignored, burst open and disgorged three human-sized zombies. One of them grabbed and held Aletha, but she used her ethereal step to escape it and appeared next to Regnor. The other two grabbed and held Regnor, impeding his movement and making him an easy target for the hulks. The first hulk reached across one of the smaller zombies and slammed Regnor into the ground. The other swiped clumsily at Aletha and missed.

Aletha retreated outdoors and shot eldritch blasts back into the building at the zombie hulks. Regnor cleaved through the smaller zombies holding him, but more kept streaming out of the hallway to replace the ones that fell. Chiana began to sing of victory and blasted the zombies with a sorcerous burning spray. She too backed out of the doorway, allowing Regnor to get surrounded, but kept him upright through multiple uses of her majestic words. Regnor bravely fought on, sweeping through the ranks of zombies, but one did slip by his defenses. It managed to catch up with Chiana and ripped at her, knocking her unconscious and ending her song.

Aletha killed the zombie attacking Chiana and then attempted to bring her back from the edge of death. After failing her first aid attempt and watching Chiana slip closer to death, Aletha gave up and just fed her a potion of healing. Meanwhile Regnor had slain the rest of the zombies with his acid breath and even managed to knock over one of the hulks, but to his horror the hulk stood up again a moment later. Regnor was bleeding freely from multiple wounds and was running out of exploits.

Chiana, newly revived, and Aletha stayed as far away from the hulks as possible while still being able to target them with their ranged attacks. In many ways this fight was very similar to the first fight they had on this adventure at the Dev'shir's tomb. Then Regnor had been left alone surrounded by skeletons while Chiana and Aletha had stood outside the tomb and picked them off one by one as they came through the door. Now they concentrated their attacks on the hulk that had stood up again, destroying it, then focused on the last one. That one also proved to be resilient, standing up when it was first knocked down, but Regnor gave it no quarter and dismembered it with his axe.

The guildmates searched the rest of the building and found a cache of 445 gold coins, four healing potions, and a magic item Regnor laid claim to, presumably hidden here by Cadavra on her last visit. The group had some suspicion that this building was the one promised to the guild for their help and intended to question the Dev'shirs about it. After a short rest they headed back to the High Quarter and knocked at the Dev'shirs door.

Elam answered after making sure that it wasn't a horde of hungering dead trying to get in and eat him. He summoned his parents, Lord Abir and Lady Noura, who came downstairs to see who had arrived. Aletha informed them that they had dealt with the tomb looter and ended the threat to their family. Lord Abir asked about the fate of his errant daughter and Aletha handed over the sack containing Cadavra's head. The family was horrified, Elam was struck dumb, Lady Noura was inconsolable and the Lord was close to retching. Lord Abir got control of himself and commanded his son and his wife from the room.

Chiana handed over Lakasia's journal. Lord Abir asked about where her body was and they told him they had left it in the attic of the Rudebaker's residence. Lord Abir explained that the Rudebaker's had worked for their family for quite some time, handling the matters of their salt processing business. The warehouse had been part of that business. He admitted that the house on Fortune Street had been the property that he was giving the guild.

They moved into his office to settle the matter of payment. Lord Abir handed over a deed to the Fortune Street property and a purse containing 250gp. He apologized for the lack of on hand funds and suggested they pick out 750gp worth of art objects from their collection in the house to complete the payment. Aletha pressed him on the condition of the property he was giving them and recommended that he instead help them by hiring workers to fix and remodel the place. They settled on a reasonable exchange of services and then parted on good terms.

Their mission complete, the group earned a few days of rest and relaxation. Chiana spent some time learning a couple of ritual spells she had copied down from Cadavra's journal: Knock and Magic Circle. Aletha leafed through the "Necromatic Devices of Illserves" which detailed other artifacts the infamous necromancer had invented. In addition to the Cauldron and the Cudgel of Command, the book describe a Shadow Censor very similar to the one Aletha had taken from the Maw of Madness. The book contained instructions on the creation of Corpse Light candles and a goblet made from a skull that would confer the gift of undeath on any who drank blood from it. Aletha found the whole thing disturbing and decided to turn it over to the temple of the Raven Queen to deal with.

During their down time they learned of other events in the city. A plague had broken out among the poor in the Smoke district. Those infected sometimes reanimated as zombies after their deaths. This new development could have been due to the necromantic goo that had spilled out of the cauldron and into the water supply. The guild also heard word that a Winter carnival was coming to a small town on the outskirts of Punjar and was promised to be quite a spectacle.

Marie, the Rudebaker's one-time paid servant, happened by GoHAC headquarters and inquired about a job. Aletha interviewed her and they came to an arrangement where Marie would cook and clean for the guild at the salary of 3sp a week, to increase to 5sp a week when she had learned to read and write, and they would also provide her with two new dresses a year. So GoHAC hired their first non-combatant employee.

New job leads came in over the next few days, due to the guild's aggressive advertising campaign. Corvus returned from the temple to say that his brethren might have lead on the location of the skull goblet of Illserves and would like the guild to look into it. Unfortunately the cauldron had also disappeared from the windmill and they would like the guild to recover it and any other necromantic devices they manage to find. Suspicions were cast at the death cult of Orcus growing in numbers in the Bazaar of the gods. Another prospective client came in the hopes of hiring the guild to deal with a pesky dragon and recover the creature's horde. Aletha, Regnor, and Chiana decided they'd rather go to the carnival than look into any of the other jobs.

Scions of Punjar, Session 7: Loose Ends

Chiana, Regnor, Aletha, and Corvus had all gained in power at the beginning of this session. Chiana tapped into her vampiric heritage and gained additional alacrity. Aletha deepened her fey pact, gaining the ability to dazzle captives and force them to tell the truth for a limited time. Regnor learned to make his great axe strikes more deadly, and improved his combat footwork and resilience. Corvus had deepened his devotion to the Raven Queen, but did not reveal his new powers to the rest of the group.

Once Chiana, Regnor, Aletha and Corvus finished with Cadavra in the attic of the Rudebakers' residence they went back downstairs and told the servant girl, Marie, to clean up after them. They went back to headquarters to rest and wait for the others to return and give a report. Late that evening Rael, Mina, Vismund, and Mike Mitchel came back, beaten and bloodied but alive, and said they had warned the Dev'shirs about Cadavra and then found and eradicated the undead at the low-court well and copse of dead Jenys. They needed rest too.

In the morning Aletha instructed the second group to go out and find two of the final undead locations, one of the taverns in the Devil's Thumb district and the other somewhere on Fortune street. She would take Regnor and Chiana with her to the wharf in search of the last location in Cadavra's notes. Corvus spent the previous night at the temple of the Raven Queen and would not be joining them right away.

Word on the street said that the Dev'shirs owned many salt processing plants in wharftown. They checked for these first. After spending some time wandering about in the fish stink district, Chiana spotted a dead fish logo on the sign of a salt storage warehouse that matched a drawing in Cadavra's journal. The front doors were padlocked shut. One corner of the building had dirty and cheap glass paned windows, but they were obscured by dark canvas tacked up on the inside. Closer inspection showed that the windows were latched on the inside, but could be unlatched with a carefully applied blade.

Frustrated by the padlocked front door, Regnor headed around the side of the building to look for another entryway. Meanwhile Chiana borrowed Aletha's pact blade to try and open the window. She began to work the blade between the frames when suddenly a putrefied arm shot through the canvas, shattering glass, and snatched at her sleeve. Chiana dropped the blade in shock and backed away as the torso of a zombie leaned out to swing wildly at her. She drew her new bow, launched an arrow, neatly skewering it, and it fell heavily out of the window and onto the muddy street.

Aletha stepped up the to vacated window and ripped down the canvas blocking her view of the room. As she did two more zombies clawed at her. She ignored their flailings and blasted them to rotting bits. More zombies swarmed the window, grabbed Aletha and dragging her through the it and into a small office where others could rip and bite at her.

At the sound of smashing glass Regnor turned and ran back around the building. He could not squeeze into the office so turned his attention to the padlocked door again. He decided to use brute force to break through it. Chiana took a shot through the window and destroyed the zombie holding Aletha who was then able to misty step to the far corner of the small office and blast another zombie. Chiana climbed into the office and killed the final zombie.

A single door, latched from this side, led out of the office and into the warehouse proper. The zombie bodies looked to be those of common warehouse workers, apparently slain and revivified by Cadavra. Aletha listened at the inside door, but could only hear Regnor attempting to break down the front door. Regnor smashed through the door, boldly strode into the dark warehouse and shouted "Come get some". The interior of the warehouse was filled with a maze of stacked barrels of salt fish and sacks of salt. The whole place smelled like rotting flesh and briny fish.

A pair of skeletons stepped out of the shadows and shot at the Dragonborn fighter with bows, but their arrows bounced harmlessly off his new armor. Aletha quickly opened the office door and blasted one of the bow wielding skeletons to bits. Chiana moved out into warehouse, turned a corner, spotted another skeleton and destroyed it with psychic force. Regnor charged the other archer skeleton and cut it to pieces.

The Aletha and Chiana slowly worked their way around the maze of the warehouse, spotting and destroying the weak skeleton minions. Regnor tired of the hunt and with a mighty shove, toppled a tower of barrels, causing a domino like reaction throughout the whole storage room, crushing the remaining skeletons under a heap of stinking fish.

Satisfied that they had dealt with this pocket of undead, the guild went in search of the other group in the Devil's Thumb district to see if they had had any luck yet. The Devil's Thumb was a sprawling entertainment district where taverns outnumbered just about every other type of establishment. Being fairly early in the day still, the streets were mostly vacant. On one of these ale and vomit soaked streets the group was approached by a pair of figures in dark robes.

The taller of the two called out, "We've been looking for you, Regno, or shall I say Regnor. I've been looking forward to dealing with you once and for all." He revealed himself to be the Tiefling assassin, Traenor. Regnor had played Traenor as a fool when they had met at the Famished Froghemoth Inn earlier in the week when they were both looking for the grave-robber Latimer. Traenor had escaped their first encounter and had nursed his wounds while plotting his revenge. Using his position with the Slayers' Guild he had brought some allies to deal with the troublesome Dragonborn and his friends.

The robed figure with Traenor was a greataxe wielding cultist doombringer with horrific tattoos covering his face. The doombringer grinned evilly at Regnor and hefted his axe in anticipation of the coming fight. On the roofs behind the party another pair of robed figures came out of hiding. The first was a human cultist with a longbow, and the second appeared to be a devil covered in spines poking through its robe.

Regnor let forth a might battle cry and charged the doombringer. They exchanged verbal threats and vicious blows. Regnor used his newest ability, Unbreakable, to resist some of the physical damage the doombringer was dishing out. Traenor placed his warlock curse on Regnorand then hit him an eyebite, effectively blinding him to the assassin's presence. The spined devil, technically known as a spinagon, projected flaming spines from its skin. Some of these spines struck Chiana and then injected poison into her system. The archer took aim at Aletha, but his arrows fell short.

Aletha used her curse and eyebite on the spinagon, keeping herself safe from its attacks and moved around the street to gain concealment from her other enemies. She laughed cold heartedly at the archer who continually failed to hit her. Chiana retreated to a corner of the alley in an attempt to hide from the burning spines of the devil and the arrows of the archer, while striking Traenor with her bardic magic. Regnor could not see Traenor so he directed his acid breath in his general direction, but was only able to engulf the doombringer.

Traenor moved around behind Regnor, who still could not see him, drew a poisoned short sword and stabbed the Dragonborn in the back. Regnor shrugged off the effects of the poison, but his wounds were taking a toil on him. The spinagon spread its wings, shredding its robes, and flew over to the eaves above Chiana, plaguing her with more poisoned spines. The archer continued to fail miserably and pinning down Aletha.

Aletha dealt more damage to the spinagon with eyebite and curses. Chiana used her psychic abilities to cause Traenor to blunder past Regnor, but the weakened warrior missed his opening to get in a free shot. The doombringer and Traenor teamed up on Regnor and knocked him unconscious. Chiana, however, was able to revive him with a majestic word. Regnor took a moment to get his second wind and bolstered by the power of his magical lobster bib was almost fully recovered by then.

In the rounds that followed, Aletha killed the spinagon while the archer continued to miss her. Regnor dropped the doombringer, who seemed to welcome his own death. Traenor began to panic seeing his allies failing him, took a step away from Regnor and blasted him with eldritch power. Chiana took a moment to heal herself and recover from the poison effects. Regnor closed with Traenor and bloodied him with a critical hit. Traenor used a reactive teleportation ability to trade places with the archer on the roof and get away from the fighter. From the safety of the roof he continued to rain down eldritch blasts on Regnor. The archer was surprised to be face to face with the Dragonborn so he drew his sword and took a wild stab at him, but failed.

Aletha used her own warlock powers to blast Traenor, killing him, and his lifeless body tumbled down from the roof and onto the wet pavement below. The archer surrendered. They bound him and made him helpless so Aletha could use her new power to compel him to answer their questions.

The man's name was Dale, but he was known as "Dark-death" among his cult friends. He was a fairly new member of an Orcus death cult who met regularly in a small worship hall in the bazaar of the gods. He had only joined them because it was hard to find honest work these days. He and the doombringer had been hired by Traenor to hunt down and kill Regnor. His cult often worked with the various Slayer's guild cells in Punjar. Traenor was the leader of one of these cells called "SG-7" although Dale did not know where this cell's headquarters were. Dale mentioned that the Orcus cult leader might know more.

Aletha was able to convince Dale that it was in his best interest to leave his cult and see if there were any jobs available at the temple of the Raven Queen. She told him to ask for Corvus. After Dale left the party searched the bodies and found 500 gold coins in Traenor's purse.

Ruins of an Empire, Session 6: Learning to Fly

Lethe, Dawn, Macros, Mongo, Scion and Jym woke early and headed back into town. Along the way Mongo stopped by the tanner's shop and picked up his new suit of deathcut armor +1 crafted out of the hide of the mutant alligator. Scion also took some time this morning to introduce the party to her companion, Starbuck, a sleek blond wolf. Scion had abandoned the way of the Seeker and embraced the path of a Beastmaster.

The morning was chilly and dark clouds to the north promised a storm on the way. The guild had made plans the previous evening to meet Marvos in the Sleeping Dragon Taproom for breakfast and talk of another job. As the approached the agreed upon meeting place they spotted two shapes as they detached themselves from the clouds and flew toward the village. Sharp eyes made out the forms as a pair of warwing drakes with Dragonborn brigand riders armed with flails.

The few villagers out of doors were alert for attack and quickly cleared the street as they ran for cover. The riders drove their mounts into a dive toward the party seeing that they were the only ones left out in the open. Unseen behind a stack of empty crates by the side of the taproom, Rudiger watched with fascination as his favorite hero moved into action.

Jym gained some cover and prepared to fire at the first rider to get within range. When they did he let fly with a bolt, striking the first rider in the shoulder. Dawn followed up with a mid-air blast of power, engulfing both drakes and riders, the force of the blow knocking one of the riders out of his harness and onto the ground in the street. Jym commanded Mongo to go kill the one on the ground and the big Goliath charged forward to do just that.

Before anyone else could react the drakes buzzed low over-head. Jym was raked by claws, but shield blocked a clumsy flail swing from the Dragonborn brigand he had hit previously as they passed by. Macros and Lethe were caught in the middle of the street as the second riderless drake clawed each of them and continued past. Scion let fly with twin strike, bloodying the drake and rider that had struck Jym, forcing the beast to land briefly. Mongo bloodied the prone brigand who then stood up and smashed Mongo with his flail. The flail was coated with viscous substance, a contact poison of some sort, but the Goliath's great fortitude protected him from it's effects.

Everyone could see now that their opponents all bore signs of taint from chaos crystals. The drakes appeared crazed and diseased, with patches of scales missing and open sores on the flesh underneath. The drakes wore metal control collars, binding them to the will of their riders. The brigands appeared to be molting, scaly skin hanging from them in ribbons, unheard of for normal Dragonborn. The tabards they wore had the heraldry of the Kingdom of Dlanodcam, but defaced and painted over with a crude symbol of Zehir.

Macros moved to help Jym with the drake and brigand attacking him. Jym had cut the Dragonborn, but it still fought on. Lethe turned, drew his repeating crossbow in the same motion, and fired at the drake that had clawed him, tearing its wing and bringing it down. The enraged beast charged Lethe and bit him. Scion sent Starbuck bounding after the drake to flank it with Lethe. Mongo slew his brigand and then circled around to pin the drake against the tavern door. The tavern keeper opened the door, peeked out the see what all the commotion was about and was terrified to see a diseased drake snapping at him. He slammed and barred the door.

Jym slew the other brigand. Dawn, not wanting to kill the poor beasts, suggested that if they cut off the collars maybe they could calm the beasts down. Macros tried a slash at the collar, but the drake dodge out of reach. It looked as if it was about to bolt so Dawn leaped on back, but slipped partly off and held on to its shoulder. Macros quickly grabbed one of its legs as the creature took off and slowly gained altitude. Dawn tried to reach the collar to cut it off, but the beasts snapping teeth kept her dagger at bay. Jym called out to Macros and urged him to put the creature out of its misery. Macros, without considering the danger of being a couple dozen feet off the ground, gutted the creature with one of his swords. The dying drake plummeted with Dawn and Macros still hanging on. Macros hit the ground hard and the drake landed heavily on top of him. Dawn leaped away at the last minute and rolled with the fall, taking minimal damage.

Mongo cut the collar off of the cornered drake, which immediately became non-violent, but was still wary and wild. Dawn tethered the nervous and wounded creature with some rope and then decided to lead it into the woods where the other drakes and Snarl were waiting. Scion and Starbuck went with her. Mongo and Lethe took a moment to have a celebratory smoke around the side of the tavern while Macros and Jym tried to convince the tavern keeper to open up and let them in. Lethe discovered Rudiger in his hiding place and took a moment to continue the boy's education in knife fighting. Rudiger was excited about what he had just witnessed and told "Mr. Weef" about how his mom had to take a job at the tavern to pay the bills now that dad was gone and he was playing outside when the drakes came.

Eventually Macros and Jym got the tavern keeper to open up. He thanked them for dealing with the raiders, brought them a free breakfast and talked about how the attacks have been getting more and more frequent of late. Marvos was already in the common room finishing his own meal and invited the pair of Tieflings to join him. Marvos peppered the warlord and defender with questions about their discovery of the ancient ruins of Ustraternes. Their brief and clipped responses only served to pique his curiosity further. Jym in particular seemed anxious to get a move on as daylight was wasting and all the scholar's questions would be answered en-route and at the site.

When Mongo and Lethe finally joined them, Mongo told the scholar about their encounter with the ghost, Vrak, and asked him if there was anything he could do to help resolve the question of who was the true heir to the empire of Arkhosia. Marvos did not have anything on hand, but said if the guild could take him to the ruins he might be able to find something of use there. They left the tavern to help Marvos gather up some materials. including many scrolls and books and his hiking staff, before joining Scion and Dawn. Lethe decided to take Rudiger with him without talking to his mother first. He suited the boy up with a backpack and traveling gear and they set off together, hand in hand.

In the woods, Scion and Dawn had arrived to find the matron drake and her brood resting comfortably, but no sign of Snarl. As they drug the diseased warwing drake into the clearing the free drakes became agitated and circled around the intruder. Dawn asked if there was any way to save the tainted drake, but the matron drake only said that the creature needed to be destroyed. Two of her brood fell on the tainted drake, pulling at its damaged wings and the matron grabbed and bit down on its neck until it was dead, while "Bingo" leaped about roaring playfully at the edge of the clearing. When the display of primal justice was over Dawn asked about Snarl. She was told that Snarl had left before the sun was up, presumably to go hunting, but had not returned. Scion attempted to track the Gnoll into the woods with Starbuck's help, but found his trail hard to follow in the heavy underbrush. Starbuck was not able to pick up his scent and Dawn could not penetrate the dense canopy from above as she wheeled about on the matron drake's back.

Mongo, Lethe, Rudiger, Marvos, Macros, and Jym arrived at last. Marvos was impressed to see that the party had befriended a pack of free drakes and Rudiger was happy to see "Bingo" again and they chased each other around the clearing for awhile. The newcomers discussed the situation with Scion and Dawn and decided to leave a number of varying messages for Snarl to find if he returned. Mongo and Marvos mounted "Bingo". Scion rigged a papoose for Starbuck and then joined Dawn on the matron drake. Jym and Macros shared one of the other drakes. Lethe and Rudiger climbed on the remaining drake.

The storm clouds seen earlier were now directly overhead and as the party took flight, rain and wind began to harass them and making it hard to communicate between drakes. Dawn and the matron drake took the lead and the other drakes followed in formation. Mongo brought Marvos up to date as they flew. They flew over the woods and the bog and soon found themselves on the outskirts of the Ustraternes crash site. Nervously, the group passed over the perimeter of undead sentinels and penetrated the inner ring. Floating debris grew more and more dense as they grew closer to the largest source of chaotic magic. They banked and flew a scouting circuit around the entire site.

As they passed by they noticed many smoky fires among the rubble on the floor of the valley. They took this as a sign that a sizable force of Dragonborn warriors were encamped below and guarding the valley along with the undead sentinels. A ground assault of the citadel looked to be a dangerous option. Coming out of the stormy haze the group could see a growing mass of rubble and architecture floating hundreds of feet above the ground. The roughly spherical mass seemed to be slowly reforming itself, as they watched small chunks of moss covered stone drift into place. Marvos speculated that the center of the mass would contain the power source, most likely a large mass of chaos crystals. He warned that the chaos crystals would be highly volatile and if destroyed would bring the whole mass crashing down to earth again. As if to test his hypothesis, Marvos drew out one of the compasses and watched in surprise as it shattered, the small piece of crystal inside being ripped out and carried away by an invisible force.

The party kept their distance from the central mass because they could see other drake riders flitting about the reforming citadel. The matron drake warned Dawn that she and her brood would not be able to protect the party if attacked, that without harnesses and training it would be almost impossible to remain astride while fighting and taking evasive movement in mid-air.

Dawn asked the drake what she remembered about the citadel. Her memories were hazy, but she thought she could remember a magic circle on tower floating somewhere on the perimeter of the site where she was summoned, the collar was placed on her, and the ritual was performed, binding her will to that of her rider. Her increased intelligence and Bingo's lack of intelligence seemed to have been a side-effect of the spell. It appeared that the effects of the training spell were highly variable just as prolonged exposure to the chaos crystals affected creatures differently. The drake banked and led the party in search of the training circle.

They approached a mostly intact tower floating above a large chunk of floating debris. A series of smaller chunks floated between the broken tower and the landmass among a webbing of vines, making a network of steps leading from one to the other. The top of the tower had a large magic circle on it, with heavy chains set into the stone. Attached to the chains was a very large drake. A hulking red Dragonborn warlord wielding a great spear and a pair of Dragonborn archers stood guard on the tower top and spotted the approaching party. The warlord immediately mounted the giant drake and the snipers began unchaining the beast. Mongo recognized the warlord as his adopted brother, Ecamirg Dlanodcam. Lethe turned in his seat and spotted a group of Dragonborn riding drakes coming in from above and behind them.

Rather fight an air-to-air battle, the party opted to land on the landmass and dismount. As Ecamirg took to the air on his giant drake, the party landed and sent the drakes off to distract the incoming flying patrol. The drakes took off again and all but two of the patrolling riders gave chase. The guild prepared for a fight.

Ruins of an Empire, Session 5: *sigh* It's only a hydra-gator

When we left Jym, Macros, Mongo, Scion, Dawn, Lethe, and Snarl they had just rescued two children from the clutches of tribe of bullywugs who were performing their twisted rituals to a hideous idol. They could hear the sounds of angry bullywugs amassing outside the ruined structure they currently occupied. The group lingered until javelins started raining down over the walls at them, then they finally got the hint and fled by the closest means possible, taking the children with them. A muddy chase through the bog followed.

The chase led them through a maze of broken masonry half buried in the bog. Before the mob of bullywugs could catch up with them, the party sought a new hiding place among the rubble and remained quiet as the bulk of their pursuers passed unwittingly by. A few straggling bullywug searchers stopped nearby, argued for a bit, and then began to hunt for them again with earnest. The group was flushed from their hiding spot and ran further into the bog, away from the ruins and into the open.

Their stealthy maneuvers granted them a sizable lead on the bullywug horde, but they were eventually spotted so the chase began again. Just when it seemed that they would be overrun, the bullywugs came to a halt and gesticulated angrily as they let the party get away. Befuddled yet pleased, the group continued to run from the strange creatures until they reached the edge of a wide lake.

Before the group could contemplate their strange luck for long they spotted a trio of shapes moving toward them from the center of the lake. As the shapes grew closer they resolved themselves into the heads of three massive alligators. When the heads raised out of the water the party could see that they were attached to the same massive body. The three-headed alligator was a mutated monstrosity with six legs and an elongated and forked tail. The beast rushed forward out of the water to attack the adventurers.

Dawn dove behind small tree and Snarl ran to be near and protect her from the hydra-gator. Mongo dropped the unconscious girl, Lisa, onto the wet ground and charged into battle. Jym, Macros and Lethe each took up blades and faced off with one of the heads each. Scion stayed well out of range of the creature and peppered it with arrows and poisoned kruthick spines. Rudiger hid behind some rubble.

The hydra-gator swatted Macros with its tail, knocking him away and sprawling onto the ground. It then snatched up Lethe, Mongo, and Jym in it's massive jaws and carried them backward into the lake and underwater to drown them and eat them. Scion, Dawn, and Snarl fired arcane missiles and arrows at the roiling water, hoping to hit the beast and not their allies. Macros dusted himself off and ran to the edge of the lake before leaping out over the water and diving deep to strike at the creature with his outstretched swords. Mongo went into a rage and struck at the head biting him to escape the grab and knocked the hydra-gator upsidedown. The monster turned and lashed out at him with his tail, driving Mongo back to the shallows. Lethe and Jym held their breaths until they could escape their respective grabs. Once they got a lungful of air they dove back down and slashed at the beast, cutting and bleeding it.

Mongo charged back into the water and slew one of the heads. The enormous reptile grabbed Jym and Macros with its remaining two heads and swam deeper into the lake. Jym and Macros continued to hold their breaths and fight back. When Lethe caught up to it the three of them were able to slay another of the heads. The monster fought hard to the bitter end, but it was losing the battle. Mongo flipped the beast on its back one more time and then it was soon over for it.

Mongo and Jym drug the carcass of the beast back to the shore. Mongo skinned it and kept the skin and some of its teeth as trophies. Another piece of chaos crystal came out of the monster's guts along with a remarkably intact pair of robes. Jym took the crystal and threw it in the bag with the others. Lethe washed off the robes in the lake and then claimed them for his own, since they appeared to be magical and came in his size.

The group trusted in the bullywugs' fear of the lake monster and made camp nearby in a convenient lean-to made of ruined masonry. Lisa had finally awoken at this point and they got a chance to talk with her and Rudiger while they sat around the camp fire and had something to eat. Lisa wasn't much help though and only repeated the story Rudiger gave them, about being carried away from Elkridge along with others by Dragonborn soldiers mounted on flying drakes. They had landed in the bog and when the soldiers were distracted by the other prisoners Lisa and her brother got away. Unfortunately they stumbled directly into the bullywug village and were captured again. Rudiger stayed close to Lethe while his sister told their story. Lethe began to teach the boy how to hold a knife and wield it.

The next morning after everyone had recovered from the previous day's adventures they took a reading on the compass and then began to look for a way around the lake. Jym caught sight of a group of drakes flying overhead among the clouds and told everyone to hide until the drakes were out of sight. When they were gone the group skirted the edge of the lake. The ground began to rise out of the bog and large pieces of broken masonry became more prevalent. Students of history determined that the chunks dated back to the Dragonborn empire of Arkhosia and that the remains of Ustraternes must be nearby. Jym's compass was glowing brightly, revealing the presence of a strong chaotic magic all around them. As an outward expression of that magic the travelers witnessed pieces of stone and masonry floating above the ground, the pieces getting larger and higher off the ground as they progressed.

The next landmark they found was a shrine to warriors that fell during Ustraternes's last battle. A group of statues depicting Dragonborn soldiers stood on top of a stone dais. Some of the statues appeared to have fallen down in the past but recently been set upright again. As the party approached the dais a female Dragonborn spirit separated itself from one of the statues and addressed them.

"This sad valley is haunted by the dead and is no place for the still living. I am the spirit of Vrak Tiburcaex. My soldiers and I mean you no harm, but our preference will be meaningless if you continue past here. I am duty-bound to the last scion of our once glorious empire to watch these lands and defend them against invaders. The new steward commands us against our will, but we can only stand idle for so long."

The party parleyed with Vrak for as long as they dared. She answered their questions willingly, but gave ever increasing threats that she would be forced to attack them if they lingered in the valley. The adventurers learned that the "new steward" of the area was Bjek Vuthaner, a name Mongo recognized from his past. Bjek was once a trusted advisor to the old King Dlanodcam and would speak with nostalgia of the old empire of Arkhosia for hours on end.

Bjek had come here with many other Dragonborn, presented Vrak with documents showing that he was a direct descendant of the last emperor of Arkhosia, and commanded her obedience. In deference to their shared noble history, Vrak complied and pledged her loyalty and that of the ghostly army she led. Mongo asked about his brother, Ecamirg, and Vrak admitted seeing the large red Dragonborn warlord with Bjek. When they asked more about Bjek, it was obvious that Vrak viewed him with disdain in large part due to his outward worshiping of Zehir, an evil serpent god, and breaking from the Dragonborn traditions of worshiping Bahamut. She pointed out a tabard that had been placed on one of the statues that had the symbol of Zehir painted over the heraldry of Dlanodcam as an example of Bjek's blasphemy.

When asked as to the location of Bjek and Ecamirg, Vrak only pointed to a network of floating structures in the distance, but warned that if the party went anywhere near there she would have to report to Bjek and alert him to their presence. Mongo tired to convince Vrak that he was a prince of Dlanodcam and that she should follow his lead, but she viewed him skeptically and asked for proof, of which Mongo had none. Vrak did say, if the party could convince her that Bjek was an impostor then she would not be bound to his service any longer.

The party thanked Vrak for her time, promised to look into Bjek's story, although they did not know where to begin, and they left the area. As they left they once again saw flying drakes in the sky above them, but without riders. The party tried to avoid detection, but Mongo was too slow and could not find anywhere suitable to hide his massive bulk. One of the drakes wheeled away from the main group and shot straight down at him. The drake barreled into him knocking him flat and pinned him to the ground with its forepaws and then began to drool and lick at his exposed face. Mongo finally recognized the drake as the one he had named "Bingo" and then set free. Soon the other drakes landed nearby and Dawn was able to converse with their matron, the large and intelligent drake the party had saved from the mob of villagers and set free from her control collar.

The matron drake greeted the party civilly. Dawn asked about other drakes in the area and was told that many nested nearby, and some were being abducted and trained as mounts by the Dragonborn living at the floating citadel. The matron agreed to have her pod transport the party back to Elkridge when they asked. The party mounted up and flew back to Elkridge, landing in a forest clearing nearby where they left the drakes in the care of Snarl along with some alligator steaks as incentive to stick around for when they returned.

At Elkridge the party returned the children, Rudiger and Lisa, to their mother. Their father had been carried off in an earlier attack by the Dragonborn drake riders. Lethe was sorry to see the young boy go and intimated to the mother that he might want to continue the boy's training and someday make him his cup-bearer. The mother was a bit off-put seeing Lethe wearing her missing husband's religious token around his neck, but Rudiger told his mother about how exciting it all was and how heroic Lethe had been which put her more at ease.

Mongo went in search of a leather worker to give the massive alligator skin to in the hopes of crafting something of use. The one he found said he would see what he could do and would return it to him in the morning.

Then the party sought out Marvos with their bag of chaos crystal shards. Marvos was impressed by the collection and paid the party with 200 gold coins and one of the old fossilized dragon's teeth that Jym had requested. He also gave them a choice of two magic items from his collection. Jym chose a suit of Tactician's Finemail +2, and Scion received a Screaming Longbow +1. Mongo traded with the scholar, exchanging some animal and bug parts for alchemical items in Marvos's possession.

When they told Marvos about discovering the remains of Ustraternes, he became very excited and requested the opportunity to return with them the next day so he could study the ruins first-hand. The party agreed and made plans to set out again on the following day.

GM Commentary: Scions of Punjar

I had a lot of fun with these sessions. The Saturday group tends to deal with situations much more differently than the Friday group. Saturday sessions tend to have more role-play, character development, unique problem-solving techniques, and fewer combat challenges. The combat challenges they do have also tend to be more difficult, maybe because there are only four of them usually. I think it makes things more intense.

I ran "Scions of Punjar" pretty close to the written material, which made it easy on me with my limited time to prep. As a module I think it's fairly interesting, but my standard complaints about Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics still apply. The maps are practically useless, the encounters are wildly variable in challenge level, and there are many editorial errors in the text and in the monster stat blocks. I had to replace or modify many of the monsters to better fit my group.

Some of my favorite moments from this game were Corvus getting cornered in the family tomb by zombies, Chiana biting Aletha for a quick healing surge to get back in the fight, Regnor getting a magical lobster bib, the entire session with "Regno" in the tavern, the introduction of Mongo, frustrating the party with the smelly wererat in the mines, and watching the party get more and more pissed off at Cadavra and her hit and run tactics. I also enjoyed listening to the party try and decipher the clues she left behind.

Here are some notable changes I made to the module. Since the party skipped a solo encounter in the pawn shop I replaced the, in my opinion lame, elite dire stirge with a young green dragon encounter to give them some more XP. The windmill encounters were reworked a bit. I added the wraiths in the basement, which were inspired by the rumors about the miller's family. The undead marsh troll on the first floor became a cauldron corpse in the final room, since the party skipped the whole upper levels of the windmill. I took the cauldron corpse stats from the Penny Arcade inspired module in Dragon Magazine. The inner sanctum battle with Cadavra was retooled a bit, I got rid of the fleshripper vampires just because they didn't fit with any of the other undead we'd seen in the game so far.

I had to wing the encounter in the Rudebakers' house. The module ends at the inner sanctum and only gives hints as to the other potential encounters. I really had no way of knowing where the PCs would go next so I didn't prep anything specific. Despite me goofing up the map, I think it was fun doing some impromptu DMing.

Going into the last session I agonized over how to reintroduce Earl's character when I thought he was going to be able to make it. It turned out not to matter since he couldn't be there, but I had all sorts of ideas on how to explain how he went from Elkridge to the windmill just in time to catch up with other group during their cliff-hanger. Just goes to show you, don't over prepare because your time will be wasted.

This next session we will be cleaning up loose ends and exploring the connection between Cadavra and "The Sisters".