Meanwhile in Elkridge, the members of GoHAC gathered for breakfast in the large yet comfortable farmhouse kitchen and discussed the events of the previous evening. Jym and Mongo were the first to the table. Lethe came down sleepy-eyed and told them that Dawn would be sleeping in. Rael had not shown himself yet. Mongo complained about not getting a reward for saving the farmers from the warwing drakes. Jym was more concerned about collecting their fee from Marvos. They decided to go in search of payment as soon as they had finished their morning meals.
A pair of road weary travelers were just now coming into Elkridge. Scion, an elven woman and archer, and Macros, a tiefling man and paladin, were traveling together and looking forward to seeing the famous Last Harvest Festival in Elkridge they'd heard so much about. They were disappointed to see that the festival appeared to be canceled, since they could see no signs of decorations or revelers. In fact, the village seemed almost deserted and many of the houses were boarded up. Finally near the village center they saw figures gathered in discussion and approached.
Jym, Mongo, and Lethe had just started looking for Marvos when a stout looking farmer pulling a cart stopped in front of them and greeted them warmly. "I'm farmer Bumpkin, I own the biggest pumpkin farm on the edge of the village", he introduced himself, "and you folks saved my family yesterday. I'd like to offer you this here reward" and he gestured toward the goods in the cart. "My wife was up early this mornin' and baked this here pie for y'all", he explained as he handed over a massive steaming pumpkin pie to Jym. Next he pointed out a cask of pumpkin ale marked "Bumpkin's Private Reserve". "That's the good stuff right there". Also in the cart were five bottles of faerie berry wine, jewelry worth 50gp, and a small wooden box containing 25gp and 250sp.
Bumpkin continued, "This was all I could gather between me an' the other families y'all helped yesterday. The rest o' them ain't so generous see'ins how they've lost friends an' family to them damned drakes. I might'n be able to convince some o' them to contribute if'n y'all promise to go deal with the drake problem. They'll need some sort o' proof though. I'd keep my eyes open if'n you go out in the woods." Jym didn't promise anything, but the farmer thanked GoHAC for their time and help anyway and then left them with the cart.
At this time Macros and Scion approached the group and made their introductions. They asked what was going on in the village and Jym brought them up to date while sharing a piece of pumpkin pie. Marvos, the historian, finally made an entrance, looking red-eyed and disheveled having spent the entire night up examining and cataloging the first of the dragon bones recovered from the dig site. Despite his exhaustion he appeared to be full of barely contained excitement. His first order of business was to pay GoHAC for their services rendered the previous evening at the dig site. He produced a bag of coins and handed it over to Jym, "This is 500 gold, the money I would have spent on a month of wages for the farmers who were helping at the dig site. In the short time the necromancer held the site his undead minions managed to dig out most of the bones! So in retrospect they sort of did me a favor. Anyway, you earned this and if I don't spend it this season my budget would get reduced."
Marvos then asked the group if they'd be willing to do another job for him that could be quite dangerous, but also quite lucrative. Jym remarked that his group was currently down a couple members, however if Macros and Scion were willing to join them then GoHAC would be able to take the job. Macros and Scion signed up and then the group followed Marvos back to a large barn he was renting to learn about the job.
Inside the barn many labeled dragon bones lay in crates filled with straw. Benches and work desks lined the walls covered with books and papers. Near the back was a desk and a heavy looking metal chest. Marvos donned a pair of heavy leather gloves and apron before opening the chest and pulling out two chunks of glowing crystal. Scion could detect a strong aura of magic coming from the crystals, but could not pin-point its effect. Marvos began to demonstrate and lecture about the crystals. The smaller of the two chunks was drawn across the desk toward the larger piece, exhibiting a magnetic quality. Marvos explained that he had found these crystals buried along with the bones at the site. He hypothesized that these "dragon stones" or "chaos crystals" may have been shards of the power source that kept the citadel of Ustraternes afloat.
The stones are very rare and highly valued for the curious byproduct they make, raw residuum. However, they also cause chaotic mutations to anything left in contact with them for long periods of time. Marvos suspected that there were more pieces of this curious material all around Wyvern Mountain and wanted to collect as much of it as possible. He figured they'd be surrounded by dangerous mutated animals and plants, so needed capable adventurers to help recover them. To help with that task, Marvos felt he could construct a kind of lodestone or compass if given some time.
GoHAC negotiated terms, recovering the shards in return for significant compensation and possibly a single dragon tooth as a trophy, and then waited for Marvos to construct his compass. Marvos made a curious gyroscopic device with the smaller of the crystals suspended in the middle that would swivel and point in the direction of the closest detectable chaos shard. He also provided GoHAC with a loaner bag of holding to place any shards in, which would shield them from the compass so as to not interfere with the device. His own large chunk was carefully shielded as well.
The adventurers headed out into the wilderness, following their curious compass in the general direction of Wyvern Mountain. Scion steered the group around natural hazards that the direct path would have led them through. Eventually the party entered a wooded area that had signs of being a regularly used hunting ground. As they passed through, a pack of hyenas burst out of the underbrush and ambushed the party. Scion noticed a furry humanoid figure lurking in the trees and carrying a bow. After the hyenas had closed with the party the figure stepped out of the trees and fired its bow at Macros, driving an arrow almost completely through his shoulder. Scion used her knowledge of nature to identify the archer as a gnoll, an cunning creature with a passing resemblance to a cross between a hyena and a human.
Scion used her twin-strike ability to pepper the archer and his hyena pack with arrows. Mongo daringly charged into the hyena pack, slashing and vaulting over their fallen bodies. Lethe and Jym fought back to back. Macros charged the gnoll, striking him valiantly. The gnoll to dropped his bow and drew an axe then cut Macros, bloodying him. The hyenas were dispatched quickly and Mongo rushed to Macros's aid. When Mongo struck the gnoll it dropped its weapons and surrendered crying, "No, don't kill Snarl!"
Mongo and Macros intimidated "Snarl" until he answered their questions. Snarl told them that he had thought they were just "delicious soft pink villagers", but villagers rarely came out this far. When asked if he'd seen any strange plants or giant mutated animals, Snarl's ears perked up and he said, "Yes, yes! Giant ants and sickly dragon-bat things." He agreed to lead the party to where he last saw these things. Along the way they passed the fresh corpse of a warwing drake. This one was covered in blisters and pustules oozing a glistening substance. The corpse was curiously devoid of scavengers or feasting insects. Snarl told them they were getting close to the "dragon-bat" nest now.
At the base of the mountain they approached a steeply sided crater-like formation. A cave entrance pierced the side of the crater wall, the slope leading up to which was covered by small boulders and scree. Snarl pointed toward the cave entrance and said that the giant ants come from there and that the drakes nest inside the crater. The party decided to force Snarl to come with them into the caves as an extra fighter.
Inside was a bendy passage leading gently downward. The compass confirmed that another chaos stone was somewhere nearby. As they reached a bend in the passage, Lethe heard the sound of buzzing wings coming from the cave entrance behind the party. When he turned back to look he could see the forms of giant winged ants silhouetted in the opening and crawling workers ants behind them. Snarl called out in alarm from the front of the group as he spied a group of warrior and worker ants closing in on the group from the front. They were surrounded.
The party was outnumbered more than 3-to-1 as more ants came swarming into the passage. Snarl defended himself from the ants using bow and axe. Macros and Mongo surged to the front of the group, protecting Snarl and assaulting the tougher warrior ants. The warrior ants thrashed about in a frenzy, slashing and piercing them with sharp mandibles and pincers. The winged drones flitted about the battle field, stinging Jym, Lethe and Scion with their acidic stingers. The worker ants tried to surround their combatants and support the warriors and drones. Scion and Snarl focused their attacks on the workers, easily thinning their numbers. When the drones were heavily damaged they shredded their wings, flinging damaging debris in an area burst around them, but Jym shielded his companions from the worst of it.
When the battle ended, the passage was filled with the stiffening corpses of ants. Their bodies were dusted with a shimmering substance, possibly raw residuum. Mongo cut out the acidic stingers from the drones and put them in his sack along with his growing collection of strange animal parts.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Scions of Punjar, Session 5: The Mill on the Hill
When last we looked in on Chiana, Corvus, Aletha and Regnor, they had just finished searching the abandoned iron mines outside of Punjar. After defeating Haledon and his Crimson Hand band of ruffians they discovered various contracts, notes, and journal entries tying the bandits to a mysterious woman calling herself "Cadavra". Cadavra had been paying these bandits to exhume bodies and deliver them to her at an old windmill on a hill overlooking Punjar. It was Latimer who, against the stipulations of the contract, had sold some of the grave-robbing loot inside the city limits, tipping off the Dev'shirs that their family crypt had been pillaged.
After Jym and Mongo had left in search of Mongo's brother, the remaining four companions decided to see this mystery through to its end. After some light shopping to replenish their supplies the group gathered information about the windmill. Certain locals of Punjar spun stories of the place, of how it was supposedly haunted by the old miller's ghost who murdered his entire family before committing suicide by throwing himself under the mill stone. In particular, a young looking rogue described how he and a girlfriend had gone up there in months past to prey on the "old witch" who supposedly had moved in there. They never made it past the rotting fields surrounding the dilapidated structure, as the young man claimed the scarecrows placed throughout the fields came to life and began to attack. The young man ran and made it back to Punjar safely, but he never saw his girlfriend again. He hadn't gone back to look for her.
These stories did not perturb our heroes. They bravely went in search of the witch they suspected was Cadavra. Outside of Punjar they came across the split in the road that would take them up a hill to the windmill in the distance. A murder of crows fought and croaked over a corpse at the side of the road. After the crows were shooed away the corpse was revealed to be that of Latimer's, frozen in a pose of mortal terror. The Coruvs said a quick word of peace for the unfortunate dead rogue and then the party continued up the road toward the windmill.
Surrounding the windmill were fields of grain, rotting and going to seed, hemmed in by an aging wooden fence. Moldy bales of hay dotted the fields, interspersed with ragged scarecrows. Each scarecrow had an asymmetrically lumpy pumpkin for a head carved to look like a scowling face and held a long rusty scythe in one out-stretched hand. The party moved cautiously across the field, staying on a narrow, muddy path. As they passed between a trio of scarecrows, the creatures shuddered to life and began creakily advancing toward the party. Their pumpkin heads were lit from the inside by a ghostly green glow, and their gaze had a weakening fear effect on anyone who held it for too long.
Chiana searched her knowledge of the arcane and decided that these creatures must be a type of homonculi, a magical construct that is employed in warding specific areas or items. Aletha guessed that they might be vulnerable to flame, seeing as how they were obviously constructed of cloth, wood, and hay, so blasted one with her witchfire. She guessed right and witnessed it ignite readily and burn. She moved freely about the difficult terrain of the fields using her many teleportation abilities to stay away from the reaching scythes of the scarecrows as they closed in around them. The other party members had a more difficult time staying out of reach and moving about due to the mud, weeds, and snarls of undergrowth covering the ground. Regnor kept one of the scarecrows busy while Corvus, Chiana, and Aletha fended off the other two. Once the homonculi were destroyed and all wounds were tended they continued on toward the windmill.
As they approached the windmill, Regnor caught sight of movement at the top of the tower. A white haired woman looked down from a small window and when Regnor looked up she launched a bolt of eldritch energy at him before cackling and disappearing from view. Regnor was singed, but not seriously hurt. Aletha recognized the bolt as the work of a warlock, but of which type she could not tell. Rather than enter the windmill via the front door, the group searched the exterior of the building for another way in and found an old grain chute around back. Chiana detected a glyph of fire warding the doors, so disarmed it before opening them. A dirty metal slide disappeared into darkness beyond them. Before heading down the chute, Chiana performed a ritual of Corpse Light to provide light and to warn of any unseen undead.
Regnor was the first one down the slide. He landed on a pile of old and moldy grain that puffed up in clouds and made him cough. He swung his axe about in the darkness only to have it come back covered in cob-webs. Chiana was next down the slide, carrying the green flickering light source. She illuminated the basement which held at its center a massive grind stone with the main wooden shaft disappearing into the ceiling above. The mechanism was currently not operating. Stairs led up to the main floor along with an ancient looking grain lift. The corpse light Chiana carried surrounded ghostly figures locked in combat on the other side of the stone. Chiana and Regnor watched in amazement as the spirits of the old miller and his family played out the last few moments of their lives. Aletha used her fey-step ability to teleport safely down into the basement, while Corvus was not so graceful and ended up tumbling down the slide and landing in a pile at their feet.
Whether it was Corvus's clumsy entrance or something else that caused it, the spirits seemed to notice the party for the first time and turned their murderous gaze on them. The miller and his wife became dark shadows, Corvus identified as wraiths, and phased through the mill-stone to reach out at the party with numbing cold and shadowy hands. Corvus was assaulted by the miller's wife and was drained of much of his life force before he could crawl away and gain his feet. When he did, he retaliated with a rebuking blast of radiant power, but the wraiths' rage must have protected them from its effects. Regnor faced off with the miller's spirit, but his axe did minimal damage to the insubstantial wraith. Chiana and Aletha moved cautiously away from the fight and tried to engage them from range.
Just then a forked bolt of lighting shot out from the wall of a heretofore unremarkable closeted space on the other side of the room. The bolts struck Regnor, Aletha and Corvus. Corvus was knocked unconscious by the shock and lay still on the ground. Chiana spotted the place where the magical bolt came from and noticed small peek holes cut into the wood made to look like simple knot-holes. She approached the door to the closet and found it locked by arcane power. Another cackling laugh came from the other side of the door as a barrage of magic missiles shot out from the peek-holes and struck Regnor. Regnor and Aletha focused on defeating the wraiths while Chiana worked at disabling the arcane lock on the closet. As the wraiths were defeated and the lock was broken, Chiana heard the unmistakable sound of yet another door closing.
Inside was a small room with no obvious exits. After reviving Corvus and resting up, the party searched the small closet, but still could not locate Cadavra's escape route. Chiana was forced to perform a ritual to help them detect the secret door. Once the ritual was complete the outline of a well concealed door in the stone wall became visible. Once detected it was easy enough to open.
The door led to a natural stone passage that winded its way deep underground. The passage opened up onto a large natural cavern with a cold stream running across the middle. Two lesser passages exited the cavern, one on each side of the stream. Chiana's corpse light gave the faint outline of six bodies just under the surface of the water as she approached the stream's edge. Without hesitation Corvus once more called on the Raven Queen to rebuke the undead, this time his radiant blast threw the bodies of four of the creatures out of the stream and onto the other side. The remaining two corpses stood knee deep in the stream and hurled foul necrotic flesh from their own bodies at the party. Corvus was weakened and driven back by the foul stench.
Cadavra showed herself yet again in the far passage. This time she let loose with a massive fireball, blasting and burning all of the party members. Regnor shook off the flames and then leaped the stream in a single bound, landing amidst the zombies and Cadavra on the other side. He slashed at her viciously. She screamed in pain before summoning a dimension door and disappearing inside it. Regnor was left to take out his anger on the zombies shambling to their feet.
Together they mopped up the rest of the undead in the cavern before proceeding down the passage they suspected Cadavra must have gone. The passage doubled back on itself and came to another large chamber with most likely the same stream further on running through it. In the center stood a massive black cauldron with a foul green mist bubbling up from it. Surrounding it was a ring of animated corpses in various stages of decay. Beyond the cauldron guardians they could just make out the form of Cadavra, smiling evilly to herself and beckoning them further into her den.
After Jym and Mongo had left in search of Mongo's brother, the remaining four companions decided to see this mystery through to its end. After some light shopping to replenish their supplies the group gathered information about the windmill. Certain locals of Punjar spun stories of the place, of how it was supposedly haunted by the old miller's ghost who murdered his entire family before committing suicide by throwing himself under the mill stone. In particular, a young looking rogue described how he and a girlfriend had gone up there in months past to prey on the "old witch" who supposedly had moved in there. They never made it past the rotting fields surrounding the dilapidated structure, as the young man claimed the scarecrows placed throughout the fields came to life and began to attack. The young man ran and made it back to Punjar safely, but he never saw his girlfriend again. He hadn't gone back to look for her.
These stories did not perturb our heroes. They bravely went in search of the witch they suspected was Cadavra. Outside of Punjar they came across the split in the road that would take them up a hill to the windmill in the distance. A murder of crows fought and croaked over a corpse at the side of the road. After the crows were shooed away the corpse was revealed to be that of Latimer's, frozen in a pose of mortal terror. The Coruvs said a quick word of peace for the unfortunate dead rogue and then the party continued up the road toward the windmill.
Surrounding the windmill were fields of grain, rotting and going to seed, hemmed in by an aging wooden fence. Moldy bales of hay dotted the fields, interspersed with ragged scarecrows. Each scarecrow had an asymmetrically lumpy pumpkin for a head carved to look like a scowling face and held a long rusty scythe in one out-stretched hand. The party moved cautiously across the field, staying on a narrow, muddy path. As they passed between a trio of scarecrows, the creatures shuddered to life and began creakily advancing toward the party. Their pumpkin heads were lit from the inside by a ghostly green glow, and their gaze had a weakening fear effect on anyone who held it for too long.
Chiana searched her knowledge of the arcane and decided that these creatures must be a type of homonculi, a magical construct that is employed in warding specific areas or items. Aletha guessed that they might be vulnerable to flame, seeing as how they were obviously constructed of cloth, wood, and hay, so blasted one with her witchfire. She guessed right and witnessed it ignite readily and burn. She moved freely about the difficult terrain of the fields using her many teleportation abilities to stay away from the reaching scythes of the scarecrows as they closed in around them. The other party members had a more difficult time staying out of reach and moving about due to the mud, weeds, and snarls of undergrowth covering the ground. Regnor kept one of the scarecrows busy while Corvus, Chiana, and Aletha fended off the other two. Once the homonculi were destroyed and all wounds were tended they continued on toward the windmill.
As they approached the windmill, Regnor caught sight of movement at the top of the tower. A white haired woman looked down from a small window and when Regnor looked up she launched a bolt of eldritch energy at him before cackling and disappearing from view. Regnor was singed, but not seriously hurt. Aletha recognized the bolt as the work of a warlock, but of which type she could not tell. Rather than enter the windmill via the front door, the group searched the exterior of the building for another way in and found an old grain chute around back. Chiana detected a glyph of fire warding the doors, so disarmed it before opening them. A dirty metal slide disappeared into darkness beyond them. Before heading down the chute, Chiana performed a ritual of Corpse Light to provide light and to warn of any unseen undead.
Regnor was the first one down the slide. He landed on a pile of old and moldy grain that puffed up in clouds and made him cough. He swung his axe about in the darkness only to have it come back covered in cob-webs. Chiana was next down the slide, carrying the green flickering light source. She illuminated the basement which held at its center a massive grind stone with the main wooden shaft disappearing into the ceiling above. The mechanism was currently not operating. Stairs led up to the main floor along with an ancient looking grain lift. The corpse light Chiana carried surrounded ghostly figures locked in combat on the other side of the stone. Chiana and Regnor watched in amazement as the spirits of the old miller and his family played out the last few moments of their lives. Aletha used her fey-step ability to teleport safely down into the basement, while Corvus was not so graceful and ended up tumbling down the slide and landing in a pile at their feet.
Whether it was Corvus's clumsy entrance or something else that caused it, the spirits seemed to notice the party for the first time and turned their murderous gaze on them. The miller and his wife became dark shadows, Corvus identified as wraiths, and phased through the mill-stone to reach out at the party with numbing cold and shadowy hands. Corvus was assaulted by the miller's wife and was drained of much of his life force before he could crawl away and gain his feet. When he did, he retaliated with a rebuking blast of radiant power, but the wraiths' rage must have protected them from its effects. Regnor faced off with the miller's spirit, but his axe did minimal damage to the insubstantial wraith. Chiana and Aletha moved cautiously away from the fight and tried to engage them from range.
Just then a forked bolt of lighting shot out from the wall of a heretofore unremarkable closeted space on the other side of the room. The bolts struck Regnor, Aletha and Corvus. Corvus was knocked unconscious by the shock and lay still on the ground. Chiana spotted the place where the magical bolt came from and noticed small peek holes cut into the wood made to look like simple knot-holes. She approached the door to the closet and found it locked by arcane power. Another cackling laugh came from the other side of the door as a barrage of magic missiles shot out from the peek-holes and struck Regnor. Regnor and Aletha focused on defeating the wraiths while Chiana worked at disabling the arcane lock on the closet. As the wraiths were defeated and the lock was broken, Chiana heard the unmistakable sound of yet another door closing.
Inside was a small room with no obvious exits. After reviving Corvus and resting up, the party searched the small closet, but still could not locate Cadavra's escape route. Chiana was forced to perform a ritual to help them detect the secret door. Once the ritual was complete the outline of a well concealed door in the stone wall became visible. Once detected it was easy enough to open.
The door led to a natural stone passage that winded its way deep underground. The passage opened up onto a large natural cavern with a cold stream running across the middle. Two lesser passages exited the cavern, one on each side of the stream. Chiana's corpse light gave the faint outline of six bodies just under the surface of the water as she approached the stream's edge. Without hesitation Corvus once more called on the Raven Queen to rebuke the undead, this time his radiant blast threw the bodies of four of the creatures out of the stream and onto the other side. The remaining two corpses stood knee deep in the stream and hurled foul necrotic flesh from their own bodies at the party. Corvus was weakened and driven back by the foul stench.
Cadavra showed herself yet again in the far passage. This time she let loose with a massive fireball, blasting and burning all of the party members. Regnor shook off the flames and then leaped the stream in a single bound, landing amidst the zombies and Cadavra on the other side. He slashed at her viciously. She screamed in pain before summoning a dimension door and disappearing inside it. Regnor was left to take out his anger on the zombies shambling to their feet.
Together they mopped up the rest of the undead in the cavern before proceeding down the passage they suspected Cadavra must have gone. The passage doubled back on itself and came to another large chamber with most likely the same stream further on running through it. In the center stood a massive black cauldron with a foul green mist bubbling up from it. Surrounding it was a ring of animated corpses in various stages of decay. Beyond the cauldron guardians they could just make out the form of Cadavra, smiling evilly to herself and beckoning them further into her den.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Ruins of an Empire, Session 1: Trouble at Elkridge
This session started off with a little house-keeping for the Guild of Heroic Adventuring Companions. Dawn & Lethe spent some time selling many of the items of value they recovered from the Halls of Tannheim and divvying up the remaining party loot. Mike Mitchel decided to take a break from adventuring for a bit and lent his armor and boots to Dawn. He was replaced with Mongo.
Mongo had tried to follow his half-brother into the wilderness but had returned frustrated to Punjar after his half-brother's trail grew cold. The Goliath barbarian decided to join GoHAC until some new sign of Ecamirg cropped up. Mongo used some of the funds he gained from his previous adventure with Jym, Regnor, Corvus, Chiana and Aletha to purchase a new pair of boots that would help him charge into battle more effectively. He planned on doing just that when he next met his brother.
GoHAC was not able to find a buyer for the Gems of the Septych due to their curse. They decided to keep and use them instead. Dawn, Lethe, and Mongo each took one of the Septych gems and claimed them as their own which granted them each a boon, but also cursed them with various vulnerabilities. Dawn took the Garnet of Hate which merged with one of her canine teeth, turning it red, granting her bonus damage to all her attacks, while also causing her to be vulnerable to fire damage. Lethe claimed the Emerald of Drunkenness, placing it on his tongue, turning it green, increasing his fortitude but weakening his resistance to all types poisons. Mongo took the Citrine of Greed which replaced his left eye, turning the iris yellow, granting him additional accuracy with his melee and close attacks, but also cursing him with vulnerability to radiant damage. Mongo, Dawn, and Lethe know now that the only way to remove the gems and their associated curses is amputation and removal of the body part that has been replaced. The rest of the gems have been placed in a safe place for possible use by other members as needed.
Jym the warlord received a new job offer through Mina's network of contacts throughout the city. An archaeological dig near the village of Elkridge had been compromised and a wealthy benefactor wanted the situation dealt with by the capable members of GoHAC. They were to travel to the village as soon as possible and meet with a contact there to get more information. Jym rounded up the members who were available to work and gave them their new marching orders.
Dawn, Lethe, Rael, Mongo and Jym headed North and reached Elkridge 2 days later. Elkridge sat nestled in the foothills of a great mountain range within sight of the massive peak known as Wyvern Mountain. The quaint village is known for its extravagant Fall festivals when it does a healthy trade business with humans and Goliath tribes who live in the mountains before the harsh Winter sets in. History told that this area was once plagued by a series of vicious dragons who ruled from a stronghold located deep in the mountain. No dragons had been seen in the area in recent years however.
As they approached the village they noticed that the characteristic festival banners were nowhere to be seen and that the usual customary swarm of country folk who greet friendly adventures were too busy boarding up their houses to spare a glance at them. When they reached the out-lying farms they heard a blood-curdling scream split the air. The scream was followed by the sounds of a bestial screech which gripped the local peasants with fear and rooted them to the ground. The party could hear the sounds of excited flapping of leathery wings and then the unmistakable sound of claws tearing and ripping through timber planks. The party hustled toward the sounds.
When they arrived they found a trio of large dragon-like creatures assaulting a farmstead. A pair were trying to break their way into a cottage, one on the roof and the other through the front door. The third was perched on a shed surrounded by dead and dying farm animals as it chewed on a slain farm-dog. The beasts were completely engrossed in their activities and did not notice the party's arrival.
The party split up to engage each of the beasts 2-on-1. The beasts, later identified as warwing drakes, used fly-by attacks raking everyone with their claws as they passed, but they did not have breath-weapons like true dragons. The party slew the beasts quickly and saved the inhabitants of the cottage who came out to thank them. The warwing drakes were wearing what appeared to be riding harnesses, but while the party was examining the creatures a young boy came running into the farm yard calling for help, "It's got my dad! Please help!"
The boy led the party to a neighboring farm on the edge of the woods. In the middle of the yard another of the warwing drakes was pushing the limp body of a man around on the ground in a muddy patch. Something was different about this drake, since it cowered and whined instead of fighting back when it was hurt by Lethe and Mongo. Jym checked the boy's father and found that he was not dead and had not been clawed or bitten. The man had taken a disorienting knock on the head and was covered in mud, but not bloody. Dawn, sensing the creatures docility, asked her companions not to kill the creature and then attempted to speak to it in Draconic. The drake seemed to recognize her speech but was already cowed into obedience by Mongo's intimidating presence. The party gathered around the beast to examine it and found it wore a broken collar in addition to a riding harness and saddle bags, containing a healing potion and a fancy dagger dating back to the Dragonborn Empire of Arkhosia worth 250gp, which they planned to sell later and split the gold evenly. The drake also had a brand on one of its forelegs that Lethe recognized as a symbol of the of Zehir, the evil god of a snake and reptile worshiping cult. Mongo attached a rope to the collar and claimed the drake as his pet, naming him "Bingo" and the drake followed him around meekly. Bingo was generally a playful and friendly creature, if somewhat retarded compared to the other drakes. Mongo remembered hearing about such creatures from bed-time stories growing up in the kingdom of Dlanodcam. Warwing drakes were thought to be extinct. They once were used as mounts for Dragonborn knights in the days of the Empire of Arkhosia, but none had been seen since the fall of the Empire many centuries ago.
The party questioned the boy's father when he came to and determined that this drake had not attacked him, but had blundered out of the nearby woods chasing a rabbit and had bowled into him, knocking him to the ground unconscious. The party could still see the trail the drake made leading into the woods. They decided they would follow this trail later when they had time. While they were talking with the farmer and his son, a middle-aged man better dressed than the peasants and farmers in the village approached the party and identified himself as Mavros. He thanked the party for their help and apologized for the state of things in the village. As he guided them toward the village proper he told the party what he knew. Mavros was not the mayor of the village, but a historian who was leading the archaeological dig nearby. The mayor had been carried off by one of these warwing drakes in recent days and the village was in a state of panic. The plague of drakes was a recent development that had compounded the woes of the poor villagers.
The party took a short rest while being treated to a meal and drinks at the large and prosperous farmhouse Mavros was staying at. He continued his own tale, that he had been staying in Elkridge for the last couple months working on a theory that an ancient dragon was buried somewhere nearby. Wyvern Mountain was steeped in legends and lore. In the distant past an evil ancient white wyrm, Skelya, with her daughter Dvalinna, claimed the mountain as their own and made their home in the caverns there. Skelya enslaved the wyverns that lived on the mountain peaks and had countless dark elf allies skulking in the caverns below. Skelya ruled over the surrounding lands as a tyrant and became known as "the Ice Queen".
Word of Skelya's wealth and power reached the envious ears of an great red wyrm, Xhitigal, who was worshiped as a demi-god by primitive inhabitants of the region. Xhitigal had a clever progeny called Azaegal and legend tells how together they confronted Skelya and Dvalinna and defeated them, although Skelya's and Dvalinna's corpses were never found. Xhitigal had a new stronghold built on Wyvern Mountain and then turned on his son Azaegal chasing him away. Xhitigal then ruled unchallenged on Wyvern Mountain for many years.
All this changed when the Dragonborn Empire of Arkhosia decided to spread its influence to include Wyvern Mountain. The great flying citadel of Ustraternes was sent to destroy Xhitigal. A great battle ensued over the peak of Wyvern Mountain in which Xhitigal employed ancient Dragonborn enemies, Tiefling warlocks and wizards, to unravel the magic and bring down the citadel. Ustraternes was destroyed, crashing into the side of the mountain and creating a rubble strewn crater of a ruin. Survivors of the crash rallied under their leaders and retaliated, meeting Xhitigal on the ground in a final battle. The wyrm was slain and the few survivors left stumbled off into the wilderness never to be seen again.
Again, Mongo's childhood memories were stirred. He could recall one of King Dlanor's most trusted advisors, Bejik Vuthaner, telling him and Ecamirg stories of "the good old days" when the Dragonborn Empire of Arkhosia was at its pinnacle. These tales always caught the imagination of Ecamirg, more so than they did for Mongo.
Mavros finished his history lesson and then explained that he had found the burial site of Xhitigal near Elkridge and had been paying some of the locals to help him uncover the bones. Dragon bones, especially the bones of ancient wyrms, are believed to have power and he hoped to recover many of them. Things at the excavation site were going very well until one night after they had finished uncovering the complete skeleton when out of the darkness came a mysterious dark figure, robed and stinking of the grave. The workers swore that the man commanded some sort of flying creatures that chased them all away, but Marvos did not believe all of what the cowardly and frightened peasants said. They had refused to return to work after that and the site had been left abandoned.
Marvos had sent for help then and he assumed that the adventurers were here to provide that help. When asked Marvos did not think that the warwing drake attacks were related. The excavation site had been abandoned weeks ago and the drakes had started plaguing the village only days before. Mavros promised payment to GoHAC if they could go to the excavation site and clear it of any menace so he could continue his work. If they wanted to do anything about the drake attacks then he was sure the villagers would be appreciative.
Dawn wanted to talk to someone who had been at the dragon's grave site when the mysterious figure had attacked. She was directed to a nearby farm where one of the teenagers, Aaron, lived. When they got there an elderly grandfather answered the door and told them that all the local kids had gone off into the woods. A wounded drake was discovered and they had all decided to go and kill it like they had seen the brave adventurers had done. The old man was concerned that some of the kids would get themselves killed and asked the party to go and save them from harm. He pointed them in the direction of the woods where they had gone.
When the party arrived at the scene there was a mob of children carrying pitchforks, rakes, clubs and sticks. They had surrounded a large warwing drake that appeared to be in the throws of agony and thrashing about on the ground. The children were keeping a safe distance for the moment. Dawn caught snatches of Draconic as the drake writhed, "Stop... pain... no... fight".
Mongo intimidated the mob of children with his pet drake, Bingo, while Dawn tried to convince them that the wounded drake was more of a threat than it seemed. The frightened kids turned and headed back to the village. This drake was wearing a metal collar engraved with glowing runes which it claimed was hurting it. Lethe used his thieving abilities and disarmed it, but not before the party had tied the beast down, not wanting it to turn on them.
Dawn held a brief conference with the drake before they let it go. It told her that it and its brood mates had once been free and lived on Wyvern Mountain. They had been captured and forced to become mounts for some mean Dragonborn. The collars enforced the will of their masters upon them. Recently, she had managed to break some of her brood-mates free and they had been hunting since then. Dawn learned that their riders were stationed in an old abandoned graveyard some ways North of the excavation site.
The party returned to the village and asked Mavros to take them to the excavation site so they could get this over with. As night approached the group reached the edge of the site. At its center was the massive dragon's skeleton surrounded by a ring of smaller skulls which were illuminated from the inside by a pulsing ghostly light. A man in dark robes stood within the ring, chanting and performing some dark ritual over the bones. At the edge of the ring stood four figures with fleshy bat-like wings. At the edges of the pit stood clumps of blackened and dead looking trees, with impenetrable shadows beneath them.
As the party descended into the pit the figure turned and commanded his allies to attack. The four rotwing zombies, basically zombies with wings, lifted into the air on rotting wings and dive-bombed into battle. Dark creepers, small shadowy lurkers, came out from the dark stands of trees and attacked any isolated characters. The necromancer at the center of the site created a zone of skeletal hands that shot out of the ground, clawing and grasping at Lethe and Jym, immobilizing them. Mongo charged into the ring of skulls, and immediately felt his strength wane, but he fought through it anyways and closed with the bleak necromancer. Dawn was stabbed mercilessly by one of the dark creepers, and when she was finally bloodied she began to shift into her more bestial form, gaining regeneration and ferocity. Jym slew a rotwing zombie with a devastating blow, and then revived Lethe who had almost completely succumbed to the grasping hands. Mongo pounded on the necromancer, but just when he was about to kill him he missed the final blow and then ran off to help Rael battle the remaining zombies. As Jym destroyed one of the dark creepers it exploded into clinging darkness which temporarily blinded Lethe and Jym. Dawn blasted the necromancer to the ground with cosmic rays and the tide of the battle turned in their favor.
When they had finished the searched the area and Dawn found a pair of gloves that increased her arcane fire power. They then returned to Elkridge that night with Mavros to get some much needed rest.
Mongo had tried to follow his half-brother into the wilderness but had returned frustrated to Punjar after his half-brother's trail grew cold. The Goliath barbarian decided to join GoHAC until some new sign of Ecamirg cropped up. Mongo used some of the funds he gained from his previous adventure with Jym, Regnor, Corvus, Chiana and Aletha to purchase a new pair of boots that would help him charge into battle more effectively. He planned on doing just that when he next met his brother.
GoHAC was not able to find a buyer for the Gems of the Septych due to their curse. They decided to keep and use them instead. Dawn, Lethe, and Mongo each took one of the Septych gems and claimed them as their own which granted them each a boon, but also cursed them with various vulnerabilities. Dawn took the Garnet of Hate which merged with one of her canine teeth, turning it red, granting her bonus damage to all her attacks, while also causing her to be vulnerable to fire damage. Lethe claimed the Emerald of Drunkenness, placing it on his tongue, turning it green, increasing his fortitude but weakening his resistance to all types poisons. Mongo took the Citrine of Greed which replaced his left eye, turning the iris yellow, granting him additional accuracy with his melee and close attacks, but also cursing him with vulnerability to radiant damage. Mongo, Dawn, and Lethe know now that the only way to remove the gems and their associated curses is amputation and removal of the body part that has been replaced. The rest of the gems have been placed in a safe place for possible use by other members as needed.
Jym the warlord received a new job offer through Mina's network of contacts throughout the city. An archaeological dig near the village of Elkridge had been compromised and a wealthy benefactor wanted the situation dealt with by the capable members of GoHAC. They were to travel to the village as soon as possible and meet with a contact there to get more information. Jym rounded up the members who were available to work and gave them their new marching orders.
Dawn, Lethe, Rael, Mongo and Jym headed North and reached Elkridge 2 days later. Elkridge sat nestled in the foothills of a great mountain range within sight of the massive peak known as Wyvern Mountain. The quaint village is known for its extravagant Fall festivals when it does a healthy trade business with humans and Goliath tribes who live in the mountains before the harsh Winter sets in. History told that this area was once plagued by a series of vicious dragons who ruled from a stronghold located deep in the mountain. No dragons had been seen in the area in recent years however.
As they approached the village they noticed that the characteristic festival banners were nowhere to be seen and that the usual customary swarm of country folk who greet friendly adventures were too busy boarding up their houses to spare a glance at them. When they reached the out-lying farms they heard a blood-curdling scream split the air. The scream was followed by the sounds of a bestial screech which gripped the local peasants with fear and rooted them to the ground. The party could hear the sounds of excited flapping of leathery wings and then the unmistakable sound of claws tearing and ripping through timber planks. The party hustled toward the sounds.
When they arrived they found a trio of large dragon-like creatures assaulting a farmstead. A pair were trying to break their way into a cottage, one on the roof and the other through the front door. The third was perched on a shed surrounded by dead and dying farm animals as it chewed on a slain farm-dog. The beasts were completely engrossed in their activities and did not notice the party's arrival.
The party split up to engage each of the beasts 2-on-1. The beasts, later identified as warwing drakes, used fly-by attacks raking everyone with their claws as they passed, but they did not have breath-weapons like true dragons. The party slew the beasts quickly and saved the inhabitants of the cottage who came out to thank them. The warwing drakes were wearing what appeared to be riding harnesses, but while the party was examining the creatures a young boy came running into the farm yard calling for help, "It's got my dad! Please help!"
The boy led the party to a neighboring farm on the edge of the woods. In the middle of the yard another of the warwing drakes was pushing the limp body of a man around on the ground in a muddy patch. Something was different about this drake, since it cowered and whined instead of fighting back when it was hurt by Lethe and Mongo. Jym checked the boy's father and found that he was not dead and had not been clawed or bitten. The man had taken a disorienting knock on the head and was covered in mud, but not bloody. Dawn, sensing the creatures docility, asked her companions not to kill the creature and then attempted to speak to it in Draconic. The drake seemed to recognize her speech but was already cowed into obedience by Mongo's intimidating presence. The party gathered around the beast to examine it and found it wore a broken collar in addition to a riding harness and saddle bags, containing a healing potion and a fancy dagger dating back to the Dragonborn Empire of Arkhosia worth 250gp, which they planned to sell later and split the gold evenly. The drake also had a brand on one of its forelegs that Lethe recognized as a symbol of the of Zehir, the evil god of a snake and reptile worshiping cult. Mongo attached a rope to the collar and claimed the drake as his pet, naming him "Bingo" and the drake followed him around meekly. Bingo was generally a playful and friendly creature, if somewhat retarded compared to the other drakes. Mongo remembered hearing about such creatures from bed-time stories growing up in the kingdom of Dlanodcam. Warwing drakes were thought to be extinct. They once were used as mounts for Dragonborn knights in the days of the Empire of Arkhosia, but none had been seen since the fall of the Empire many centuries ago.
The party questioned the boy's father when he came to and determined that this drake had not attacked him, but had blundered out of the nearby woods chasing a rabbit and had bowled into him, knocking him to the ground unconscious. The party could still see the trail the drake made leading into the woods. They decided they would follow this trail later when they had time. While they were talking with the farmer and his son, a middle-aged man better dressed than the peasants and farmers in the village approached the party and identified himself as Mavros. He thanked the party for their help and apologized for the state of things in the village. As he guided them toward the village proper he told the party what he knew. Mavros was not the mayor of the village, but a historian who was leading the archaeological dig nearby. The mayor had been carried off by one of these warwing drakes in recent days and the village was in a state of panic. The plague of drakes was a recent development that had compounded the woes of the poor villagers.
The party took a short rest while being treated to a meal and drinks at the large and prosperous farmhouse Mavros was staying at. He continued his own tale, that he had been staying in Elkridge for the last couple months working on a theory that an ancient dragon was buried somewhere nearby. Wyvern Mountain was steeped in legends and lore. In the distant past an evil ancient white wyrm, Skelya, with her daughter Dvalinna, claimed the mountain as their own and made their home in the caverns there. Skelya enslaved the wyverns that lived on the mountain peaks and had countless dark elf allies skulking in the caverns below. Skelya ruled over the surrounding lands as a tyrant and became known as "the Ice Queen".
Word of Skelya's wealth and power reached the envious ears of an great red wyrm, Xhitigal, who was worshiped as a demi-god by primitive inhabitants of the region. Xhitigal had a clever progeny called Azaegal and legend tells how together they confronted Skelya and Dvalinna and defeated them, although Skelya's and Dvalinna's corpses were never found. Xhitigal had a new stronghold built on Wyvern Mountain and then turned on his son Azaegal chasing him away. Xhitigal then ruled unchallenged on Wyvern Mountain for many years.
All this changed when the Dragonborn Empire of Arkhosia decided to spread its influence to include Wyvern Mountain. The great flying citadel of Ustraternes was sent to destroy Xhitigal. A great battle ensued over the peak of Wyvern Mountain in which Xhitigal employed ancient Dragonborn enemies, Tiefling warlocks and wizards, to unravel the magic and bring down the citadel. Ustraternes was destroyed, crashing into the side of the mountain and creating a rubble strewn crater of a ruin. Survivors of the crash rallied under their leaders and retaliated, meeting Xhitigal on the ground in a final battle. The wyrm was slain and the few survivors left stumbled off into the wilderness never to be seen again.
Again, Mongo's childhood memories were stirred. He could recall one of King Dlanor's most trusted advisors, Bejik Vuthaner, telling him and Ecamirg stories of "the good old days" when the Dragonborn Empire of Arkhosia was at its pinnacle. These tales always caught the imagination of Ecamirg, more so than they did for Mongo.
Mavros finished his history lesson and then explained that he had found the burial site of Xhitigal near Elkridge and had been paying some of the locals to help him uncover the bones. Dragon bones, especially the bones of ancient wyrms, are believed to have power and he hoped to recover many of them. Things at the excavation site were going very well until one night after they had finished uncovering the complete skeleton when out of the darkness came a mysterious dark figure, robed and stinking of the grave. The workers swore that the man commanded some sort of flying creatures that chased them all away, but Marvos did not believe all of what the cowardly and frightened peasants said. They had refused to return to work after that and the site had been left abandoned.
Marvos had sent for help then and he assumed that the adventurers were here to provide that help. When asked Marvos did not think that the warwing drake attacks were related. The excavation site had been abandoned weeks ago and the drakes had started plaguing the village only days before. Mavros promised payment to GoHAC if they could go to the excavation site and clear it of any menace so he could continue his work. If they wanted to do anything about the drake attacks then he was sure the villagers would be appreciative.
Dawn wanted to talk to someone who had been at the dragon's grave site when the mysterious figure had attacked. She was directed to a nearby farm where one of the teenagers, Aaron, lived. When they got there an elderly grandfather answered the door and told them that all the local kids had gone off into the woods. A wounded drake was discovered and they had all decided to go and kill it like they had seen the brave adventurers had done. The old man was concerned that some of the kids would get themselves killed and asked the party to go and save them from harm. He pointed them in the direction of the woods where they had gone.
When the party arrived at the scene there was a mob of children carrying pitchforks, rakes, clubs and sticks. They had surrounded a large warwing drake that appeared to be in the throws of agony and thrashing about on the ground. The children were keeping a safe distance for the moment. Dawn caught snatches of Draconic as the drake writhed, "Stop... pain... no... fight".
Mongo intimidated the mob of children with his pet drake, Bingo, while Dawn tried to convince them that the wounded drake was more of a threat than it seemed. The frightened kids turned and headed back to the village. This drake was wearing a metal collar engraved with glowing runes which it claimed was hurting it. Lethe used his thieving abilities and disarmed it, but not before the party had tied the beast down, not wanting it to turn on them.
Dawn held a brief conference with the drake before they let it go. It told her that it and its brood mates had once been free and lived on Wyvern Mountain. They had been captured and forced to become mounts for some mean Dragonborn. The collars enforced the will of their masters upon them. Recently, she had managed to break some of her brood-mates free and they had been hunting since then. Dawn learned that their riders were stationed in an old abandoned graveyard some ways North of the excavation site.
The party returned to the village and asked Mavros to take them to the excavation site so they could get this over with. As night approached the group reached the edge of the site. At its center was the massive dragon's skeleton surrounded by a ring of smaller skulls which were illuminated from the inside by a pulsing ghostly light. A man in dark robes stood within the ring, chanting and performing some dark ritual over the bones. At the edge of the ring stood four figures with fleshy bat-like wings. At the edges of the pit stood clumps of blackened and dead looking trees, with impenetrable shadows beneath them.
As the party descended into the pit the figure turned and commanded his allies to attack. The four rotwing zombies, basically zombies with wings, lifted into the air on rotting wings and dive-bombed into battle. Dark creepers, small shadowy lurkers, came out from the dark stands of trees and attacked any isolated characters. The necromancer at the center of the site created a zone of skeletal hands that shot out of the ground, clawing and grasping at Lethe and Jym, immobilizing them. Mongo charged into the ring of skulls, and immediately felt his strength wane, but he fought through it anyways and closed with the bleak necromancer. Dawn was stabbed mercilessly by one of the dark creepers, and when she was finally bloodied she began to shift into her more bestial form, gaining regeneration and ferocity. Jym slew a rotwing zombie with a devastating blow, and then revived Lethe who had almost completely succumbed to the grasping hands. Mongo pounded on the necromancer, but just when he was about to kill him he missed the final blow and then ran off to help Rael battle the remaining zombies. As Jym destroyed one of the dark creepers it exploded into clinging darkness which temporarily blinded Lethe and Jym. Dawn blasted the necromancer to the ground with cosmic rays and the tide of the battle turned in their favor.
When they had finished the searched the area and Dawn found a pair of gloves that increased her arcane fire power. They then returned to Elkridge that night with Mavros to get some much needed rest.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Scions of Punjar, Session 4: Searching the Abandoned Iron Mines
Corvus Tremaine had lost track of time while in the Raven Queen's Temple scriptorium and archives. He was following a hunch of his based on something Latimer had said the previous day. Corvus located crumbling scrolls that detailed a battle between followers of the Raven Queen and their ancient enemies, Orcas cultists, during the early founding days of Punjar. The Raven Queen eventually won and drove many of Orcas's followers out of the city. It was rumored that a charismatic cleric of Orcas set up a secret temple in the abandoned iron mines out side of town, but it was never found and destroyed. When Latimer mentioned something about "dead things" wandering the old mines near the bandit hideout during his interview it immediately triggered a half-memory of these tales in Corvus. He confirmed his suspicions that these mines were the same, and then looked up to see that he was late to his meeting with the other members of GoHAC.
Corvus headed out quickly after them and came upon the carcass of the young green dragon that Jym, Regnor, Mongo, Chiana, and Aletha had slain earlier in the day on the road. A low green poisonous mist clung to the area immediately around the corpse, forcing Corvus to cover his mouth as he passed close by. Crows had come back and were dining on its remains, some even lay dead nearby, killed by the escaping poisonous gasses.
Corvus eventually caught up to the rest of the party just outside of the abandoned iron mines. He came upon a scene of carnage, a pile of Orcish bodies lying dead at the party's feet. Introductions were made and they brought him up to speed on the situation, including Mongo's situation.
The group proceeded cautiously into the mine entrance and to a T-intersection. A pair of rusty rails set in the ground bent around the corner to the West. To the East the passage appeared to end abruptly at a wall, but there was something odd about that wall. Sharp eyes spied a large rat looking at them with malevolence from down the Eastern passage. Regnor moved to stomp on it, but when it noticed it was spotted it quickly ran away and disappeared under the Eastern wall. Chiana shouted a warning to Regnor as he pursued the rat and he stopped just short of a trip wire stretched across the passage. The party cautiously climbed over the trip-wire and examined the "wall" which was only a canvas sheet pinned to a beam in the ceiling. Chiana was the first party member to bravely peek behind the curtain. Behind it a quartet of crossbows were rigged to fire through the curtain and down the hall at anyone tripping the wire. The large rat was behind the crossbows, watching and waiting to see if the trap would be sprung, then squeaked and streaked for a small rat hole in the wall. The passage beyond the curtain was short and ended in a cave-in. Mongo moved a largish boulder in place of the rat hole, blocking the rat's return. A faint scent of old fish hung in the air here, and reminded Mongo of something he smelled the previous evening when he was rudely dragged from his bed.
Jym dismantled the crossbow traps and took some of the bolts which appeared to be smeared with some sort of poison. The party then followed the Western passage which led to a crude door made of rotting wooden boards scavenged from old ore carts. Some of the boards still had brands and markings of the old mining company that opened these mines. The band passed through the door and into what seemed to be where the Orcs had set up camp. Regnor found a sack of coins under one of their piles of sleeping furs. The set of rails in the floor continued under a table and apparently through the far wall. Mongo smashed the table and Chiana discovered a secret door behind which the mine shaft continued on.
The rails turned a corner and proceeded up a steep ramp. As the party followed them they heard a challenging shout from the top of the ramp, "Stop! Who's there?" At the top of the ramp they could just make out the shape of a mine cart leaden with spears, axes, and swords pointing out in all directions and a figure standing close beside it with his hand on a lever. Chiana, thinking quickly called back the password Latimer had told them "Kaz-Gar wets the bed!" The voice responded "I do not! Besides that's the old password. What's the new one?"
A female voice at the top of the ramp encouraged Kaz-Gar to "Just pull the lever already!" Chiana attempted to convince them that "We're here to speak to Haledon. He'll be mad if you don't let us pass." To that Kaz-Gar replied, "I don't know, Aneurine, maybe I should let them by." Aneurine was getting frustrated with Kaz-Gar and threatened to pull the lever herself if he didn't do it soon.
Chiana's delaying tactic allowed Mongo, Regnor, and Jym to start moving up the ramp to engage the pair of bandits before they could launch the mine cart trap. Kaz-Gar panicked and tried to release the break while Mongo bared down on him. Regnor came up on the other side of the cart and attacked Aneurine who was trying to help Kaz-Gar. Jym borrowed Mongo's trident and ran up the ramp to jam it into the ground in front of the cart to keep it from moving. Kaz-Gar tossed a lit torch into the back of the now stationary cart. Jym could see that the inside of the cart was filled with explosives that would go off at any moment.
At the base of the ramp, Corvus, Aletha, and Chiana attempted to stay well away from the potential blast and directed range attacks at the pair of bandits. Jym commanded Regnor to "Put out that fire!" Regnor shoved Aneurine out of his way and into the blades of the cart and she screamed as she was impaled on them. Jym pushed past them and put out the torch before it could ignite the explosives. Kaz-Gar turned to flee after Mongo bloodied him and he was followed by Aneurine when she extricated herself from the cart. They ran through a door and further into the mine. Aletha slayed Aneurine with an eldritch blast and misty stepped into the next room and Mongo caught up with Kaz-Gar with a mighty charge, dropping him in his tracks.
The next room contained a group of bandits and a pair of elves that looked to be twins. One of them was armed with a massive sword and wore heavy armor, the other was dressed in robes and wielded a wand. Chiana identified these two as Fenn and Finn from her interview notes.
Fenn charged the group along with the other four bandits in the room. Finn stayed in the back and fire balls of lightning at Jym, Regnor, and Mongo. The bandits went down easily, and so did Finn once Mongo got toe-to-toe with him. As his brother died, Fenn flew into a bloody rage, but he was the only enemy left in the room and suffered the full focus of the party's powers. When they were done with him they caught sight of the same giant rat from before sitting in the corner of the room watching them. It quickly ran from the room under another door and deeper into the mines. The smell of rotting fish seemed to cling to and follow it.
Mongo chased after the smelly rat and struck it when he caught up to it. The rat squealed and immediately vanished leaving Mongo in a new room surrounded by surprised bandits. In this room there was a burley dwarf wielding a nasty looking morningstar. Latimer had described this character as Bramm. Another brief fight took place in this room. During the fight Aletha moved toward the door leading to the next room, but failed to notice the hulking female half-orc, Borsc, lurking behind the open door. Borsc snuck up on Aletha and wrapped her meaty hands around the eladrin's thin neck and began to strangle her. Luckily Aletha was able to fey-step out of Borsc's grasp and eyebite her.
The party easily defeated the bandits in this room before chasing after the elusive rat and continued into the next room. Corvus stayed behind with Chiana to search for treasures. The next room was empty of bandits. There was a tidy bed and a small make-shift altar made from a wooden crate in one corner of the room. The other side had a very messy bed, empty bottles, and a wicker basket in the corner. Something under the messy bed glinted in the light. Corvus and Chiana found a locked and trapped wooden chest in the previous room. Chiana disarmed the trap but was unable to pick the lock. Corvus smashed open the chest to get at the gold inside. Mongo opened the wicker basket and discovered Latimer's pet snake, a deathrattle viper, that rose up and attacked. Everyone in earshot of the snake's rattle was struck with irrational fear, weakening them. Mongo tried to wrestle with the serpent, but it slithered easily away. Regnor, Jym, and Aletha closed in and helped slay the vicious creature. Mongo spotted something at the bottom of the basket, an iron key. Regnor drug a metal chest out from under the bed and the key opened it. They looted the treasure before moving into the next room.
Corvus came into the room and noticed the small shrine. He identified it as being dedicated to Orcas. In anger Corvus smashed the altar, discovering a hidden cache of treasure inside the wooden crate. He gathered these treasures up, before following his companions into the next room.
In the final room, they confronted Haledon, a burly man with a bald head, a scarred face and bushy red beard. He wore a bandoleer of knives across his chest and held a longsword in one hand. Jym shot him with a poisoned bolt, slowing him down. Then Regnor, Mongo, and Jym rushed forward to fight him. Aletha struck Haledon with eyebite keeping him blind to her. Lem Kipper, the gnome wererat, took advantage of Aletha being distracted and sneaked up behind her to deliver a nasty stab from the back. Haledon alternated sword attacks with thrown knives, while also barking commands at Lem Kipper, granting him additional attacks.
When Lem was bloodied he morphed into his half-rat half-gnome form. As he attempted to bite someone to infect them with filth fever he was finally brought down. Haledon lasted only a moment longer.
The party searched the rest of the mine for treasure and clues. Jym, Corvus, and Rengor each found magic items they could use. Amongst Haledon's items they found a contract signed by him and Cadavra, regarding grave-robbing and placing bodies around the Punjar area. They also found a box of jewelry containing many items belonging to the Dev'shirs. Mongo did not find any sign of his half-brother, Ecamirg, but a note written by Haledon mentioned that he had been cheated out of payment by Ecamirg and planned to follow him to the North.
The party took their loot and headed back to the city of Punjar. They planned to return the jewelry to the Dev'shirs and potentially gain some more information about this Cadavra and what happened to their daughters Dugesia and Lukasia. Mongo returned to the city in the hopes of getting GoHAC to help him pursue Ecamirg into the mountains to the North.
Corvus headed out quickly after them and came upon the carcass of the young green dragon that Jym, Regnor, Mongo, Chiana, and Aletha had slain earlier in the day on the road. A low green poisonous mist clung to the area immediately around the corpse, forcing Corvus to cover his mouth as he passed close by. Crows had come back and were dining on its remains, some even lay dead nearby, killed by the escaping poisonous gasses.
Corvus eventually caught up to the rest of the party just outside of the abandoned iron mines. He came upon a scene of carnage, a pile of Orcish bodies lying dead at the party's feet. Introductions were made and they brought him up to speed on the situation, including Mongo's situation.
The group proceeded cautiously into the mine entrance and to a T-intersection. A pair of rusty rails set in the ground bent around the corner to the West. To the East the passage appeared to end abruptly at a wall, but there was something odd about that wall. Sharp eyes spied a large rat looking at them with malevolence from down the Eastern passage. Regnor moved to stomp on it, but when it noticed it was spotted it quickly ran away and disappeared under the Eastern wall. Chiana shouted a warning to Regnor as he pursued the rat and he stopped just short of a trip wire stretched across the passage. The party cautiously climbed over the trip-wire and examined the "wall" which was only a canvas sheet pinned to a beam in the ceiling. Chiana was the first party member to bravely peek behind the curtain. Behind it a quartet of crossbows were rigged to fire through the curtain and down the hall at anyone tripping the wire. The large rat was behind the crossbows, watching and waiting to see if the trap would be sprung, then squeaked and streaked for a small rat hole in the wall. The passage beyond the curtain was short and ended in a cave-in. Mongo moved a largish boulder in place of the rat hole, blocking the rat's return. A faint scent of old fish hung in the air here, and reminded Mongo of something he smelled the previous evening when he was rudely dragged from his bed.
Jym dismantled the crossbow traps and took some of the bolts which appeared to be smeared with some sort of poison. The party then followed the Western passage which led to a crude door made of rotting wooden boards scavenged from old ore carts. Some of the boards still had brands and markings of the old mining company that opened these mines. The band passed through the door and into what seemed to be where the Orcs had set up camp. Regnor found a sack of coins under one of their piles of sleeping furs. The set of rails in the floor continued under a table and apparently through the far wall. Mongo smashed the table and Chiana discovered a secret door behind which the mine shaft continued on.
The rails turned a corner and proceeded up a steep ramp. As the party followed them they heard a challenging shout from the top of the ramp, "Stop! Who's there?" At the top of the ramp they could just make out the shape of a mine cart leaden with spears, axes, and swords pointing out in all directions and a figure standing close beside it with his hand on a lever. Chiana, thinking quickly called back the password Latimer had told them "Kaz-Gar wets the bed!" The voice responded "I do not! Besides that's the old password. What's the new one?"
A female voice at the top of the ramp encouraged Kaz-Gar to "Just pull the lever already!" Chiana attempted to convince them that "We're here to speak to Haledon. He'll be mad if you don't let us pass." To that Kaz-Gar replied, "I don't know, Aneurine, maybe I should let them by." Aneurine was getting frustrated with Kaz-Gar and threatened to pull the lever herself if he didn't do it soon.
Chiana's delaying tactic allowed Mongo, Regnor, and Jym to start moving up the ramp to engage the pair of bandits before they could launch the mine cart trap. Kaz-Gar panicked and tried to release the break while Mongo bared down on him. Regnor came up on the other side of the cart and attacked Aneurine who was trying to help Kaz-Gar. Jym borrowed Mongo's trident and ran up the ramp to jam it into the ground in front of the cart to keep it from moving. Kaz-Gar tossed a lit torch into the back of the now stationary cart. Jym could see that the inside of the cart was filled with explosives that would go off at any moment.
At the base of the ramp, Corvus, Aletha, and Chiana attempted to stay well away from the potential blast and directed range attacks at the pair of bandits. Jym commanded Regnor to "Put out that fire!" Regnor shoved Aneurine out of his way and into the blades of the cart and she screamed as she was impaled on them. Jym pushed past them and put out the torch before it could ignite the explosives. Kaz-Gar turned to flee after Mongo bloodied him and he was followed by Aneurine when she extricated herself from the cart. They ran through a door and further into the mine. Aletha slayed Aneurine with an eldritch blast and misty stepped into the next room and Mongo caught up with Kaz-Gar with a mighty charge, dropping him in his tracks.
The next room contained a group of bandits and a pair of elves that looked to be twins. One of them was armed with a massive sword and wore heavy armor, the other was dressed in robes and wielded a wand. Chiana identified these two as Fenn and Finn from her interview notes.
Fenn charged the group along with the other four bandits in the room. Finn stayed in the back and fire balls of lightning at Jym, Regnor, and Mongo. The bandits went down easily, and so did Finn once Mongo got toe-to-toe with him. As his brother died, Fenn flew into a bloody rage, but he was the only enemy left in the room and suffered the full focus of the party's powers. When they were done with him they caught sight of the same giant rat from before sitting in the corner of the room watching them. It quickly ran from the room under another door and deeper into the mines. The smell of rotting fish seemed to cling to and follow it.
Mongo chased after the smelly rat and struck it when he caught up to it. The rat squealed and immediately vanished leaving Mongo in a new room surrounded by surprised bandits. In this room there was a burley dwarf wielding a nasty looking morningstar. Latimer had described this character as Bramm. Another brief fight took place in this room. During the fight Aletha moved toward the door leading to the next room, but failed to notice the hulking female half-orc, Borsc, lurking behind the open door. Borsc snuck up on Aletha and wrapped her meaty hands around the eladrin's thin neck and began to strangle her. Luckily Aletha was able to fey-step out of Borsc's grasp and eyebite her.
The party easily defeated the bandits in this room before chasing after the elusive rat and continued into the next room. Corvus stayed behind with Chiana to search for treasures. The next room was empty of bandits. There was a tidy bed and a small make-shift altar made from a wooden crate in one corner of the room. The other side had a very messy bed, empty bottles, and a wicker basket in the corner. Something under the messy bed glinted in the light. Corvus and Chiana found a locked and trapped wooden chest in the previous room. Chiana disarmed the trap but was unable to pick the lock. Corvus smashed open the chest to get at the gold inside. Mongo opened the wicker basket and discovered Latimer's pet snake, a deathrattle viper, that rose up and attacked. Everyone in earshot of the snake's rattle was struck with irrational fear, weakening them. Mongo tried to wrestle with the serpent, but it slithered easily away. Regnor, Jym, and Aletha closed in and helped slay the vicious creature. Mongo spotted something at the bottom of the basket, an iron key. Regnor drug a metal chest out from under the bed and the key opened it. They looted the treasure before moving into the next room.
Corvus came into the room and noticed the small shrine. He identified it as being dedicated to Orcas. In anger Corvus smashed the altar, discovering a hidden cache of treasure inside the wooden crate. He gathered these treasures up, before following his companions into the next room.
In the final room, they confronted Haledon, a burly man with a bald head, a scarred face and bushy red beard. He wore a bandoleer of knives across his chest and held a longsword in one hand. Jym shot him with a poisoned bolt, slowing him down. Then Regnor, Mongo, and Jym rushed forward to fight him. Aletha struck Haledon with eyebite keeping him blind to her. Lem Kipper, the gnome wererat, took advantage of Aletha being distracted and sneaked up behind her to deliver a nasty stab from the back. Haledon alternated sword attacks with thrown knives, while also barking commands at Lem Kipper, granting him additional attacks.
When Lem was bloodied he morphed into his half-rat half-gnome form. As he attempted to bite someone to infect them with filth fever he was finally brought down. Haledon lasted only a moment longer.
The party searched the rest of the mine for treasure and clues. Jym, Corvus, and Rengor each found magic items they could use. Amongst Haledon's items they found a contract signed by him and Cadavra, regarding grave-robbing and placing bodies around the Punjar area. They also found a box of jewelry containing many items belonging to the Dev'shirs. Mongo did not find any sign of his half-brother, Ecamirg, but a note written by Haledon mentioned that he had been cheated out of payment by Ecamirg and planned to follow him to the North.
The party took their loot and headed back to the city of Punjar. They planned to return the jewelry to the Dev'shirs and potentially gain some more information about this Cadavra and what happened to their daughters Dugesia and Lukasia. Mongo returned to the city in the hopes of getting GoHAC to help him pursue Ecamirg into the mountains to the North.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Scions of Punjar, Session 3: Mongo the Massive
Aletha, Regnor, and Chiana were surprised to see Jym waiting for them at their customary meeting place the following day. He summed up his experiences with Lethe, Dawn, Rael, and Mike at the Halls of Tannheim and then cautioned them against Vismund who turned out to be the real menace all along, although he claimed to be "cured" now. Aletha brought Jym up to speed on their current mission, locating the hideout of the Crimson Hand and interrogating their leader to find out who hired them to steal corpses from their graves.
They waited until it was clear Corvus was not joining them this time, he apparently had duties at the temple of the Raven Queen to attend to, before they gathered up some supplies and headed. Guided by the directions Latimer gave them, they headed out of the city of Punjar and to the Northeast toward the old abandoned iron mines. An hour or so of traveling took them out of the well traveled lands and into unfamiliar territory. Off in the distant the could see a murder of crows heckling something small on the ground. An occasional gruff shout would drive the birds into the air to circle briefly before settling back down down again. The shouts came from the small thing on the ground, which turned out to be the head of a goliath who was buried to the neck in the dirt. The party shooed away the birds long enough to talk with the giant.
He introduced himself as Mongo, a prince and son of Dlanor Dlanodcam ruler of a kingdom to the North. He claimed that he was given a magical bracelet that was important to the line of kings of Dlanodcam, but was forced to leave when his half-brother, Ecamrig, attempted to get the bracelet back from him. He was pursued across the land until Ecamrig eventually caught up with him. Mongo defeated him after a fierce battle, but was forced to take a room and rest in Punjar. During the night he was seized by many strange hands and drug out here and buried by a band of mercenaries. One of them, a filthy gnome, dropped his pants and left a smelly gift right in front of Mongo's face. The last thing Mongo remembered before passing out from the smell and rough handling was Ecamrig's laughing face as he held the magic bracelet aloft and turned to leave him there.
Mongo asked that the party help dig him out so he could pursue his brother and punish the mercenaries. He heard them call themselves the Crimson Hand. Since their goals were aligned the party decided to help Mongo. While they were discussing Mongo's back-story Chiana had noticed that the crows had sensed something and flown off. She caught sight of a large winged creature heading their way and as it got closer she could see the distinctive shape of a dragon. It appeared to have seen the group on the ground and began diving toward them. Chiana gave a cry of warning to the group and then prepared for a fight.
The dragon, a young green but still a large specimen, swooped low and bit Aletha as it passed. As it landed in their midst the party was stunned by its frightful presence. The young green dragon took advantage of their fear to taunted them "Hahaha, I will feast on your flesh after you have fallen." and then belched out a cloud of poisonous gas to engulf them all. Choking and coughing on the fumes, Jym staggered forward to slash at the great magical beast and then dodged aside as its great tail came lashing down to strike the ground were he stood. Aletha blasted the dragon before running to take cover behind some rocks. Mongo struggled to free himself from the ground and Regnor moved up to help and started digging. Chiana struck the dragon with cutting words, which made it howl and leap over Jym to get to her. Jym slashed at and cut the beast as it did.
Mongo with Regnor's help finally got free of his earthen prison and joined the fight. Chiana was struck by the dragon's claws before she used one of her powers to make it blunder backward past Regnor who took a swing at it with his greataxe as it passed. Aletha stayed safely behind her rock, cursed the dragon, and vexed it with eyebite. The dragon lured Mongo into range and then blasted all but Aletha was another cloud of poison.
Things were looking grim for the party at this point. The poison was slowing them down and making them weak. A few words of inspiration from Jym and majestic words from Chiana were needed to get the party back on their feet and into the fight. Regnor, Jym, and Mongo closed in and hacked away at the dragon bloodying it, all the while keeping mobile to avoid its lashing tail. It bit and clawed at them and spewed forth poisonous gas yet again, this time only managing to catch Regnor, Mongo, and Chiana in it. A few lucky critical hits from the party staggered the dragon and it attempted to flee while it still had its life, but it could not escape in time. Its wings slashed to ribbons, it crashed back to the ground and died.
Chiana played her restful song as the party searched the dragon for treasure. Aletha discovered a magical rod somehow, whether it carried it or had swallowed it wasn't quite clear, but she decided it would come in useful and kept it for herself. After everyone was rested they continued along the path toward the abandoned iron mines. They eventually left the main path and followed a side track that led to a rocky ravine riddled with caves and mine shafts. A barely discernible footpath weaved its way toward one of the mine entrances near the base. Large trees grew nearby overlooking the path.
Regnor and Jym caught sight of movement in one of the trees. A wooden platform was built up in the branches and was partially obscured by the leaves. A pair of figures were standing watch from up on the platform. One of them had a bow drawn and pointed at Jym and called out, "Come no further or I'll put this arrow through your neck". Mongo took up his trident and hurled it at the bandits but his aim was low so it struck and stuck into the trunk of the tree.
Chiana called out hastily, "That was a warning shot! We're not here to attack you, we need to speak with Haeldon. Let us pass."
The bandits were confused by this. The bandit with the bow looked down and recognized Mongo and said "He's supposed to be dead by now! What's he doing here?"
Chiana tried to explain that Mongo wasn't a threat and that they really needed to see Haeldon. Mongo had moved underneath the platform by now and the others were preparing to attack if things turned for the worse. The elven bandit with the bow, Selvin, told the party to "Stay there." while his partner, Bork, summoned some help. Bork moved over to the opposite side of the platform and jerked repeatedly on a rope that ran from the platform and into a small hole in the side of the ravine wall. The party decided that their bluff was called and moved into action.
Mongo scaled the tree and onto the platform, drew his axe and slashed Bork. Regnor spewed acid breath up onto the platform singing everyone up there and melting away some of the leaves. Selvin jumped off of the platform to get away from Mongo, landed gracefully and dodged opportunity attacks from Mongo and Regnor. Selvin took cover behind an old overturned mine cart and shot Regnor. Regnor charged him. Aletha cursed and blasted Bork, who took a wild swing at Mongo. Jym commanded Mongo to return the blow, killing Bork, and Aletha used her pact boon to misty step up onto the platform with Mongo. Chiana helped Regnor finish off Selvin before the reinforcements arrived.
Then came the next wave of attackers. As orc mercenaries began to pour out of the mine shaft, Chiana shot one of them with her bow. Regnor caught one of the orc mercenaries off-guard as he leaped out from behind the cart. A third orc charged Jym and struck a lucky critical hit against him. Mongo leaped down from the platform and a fourth orc came up to challenge him. The last orc out of the passage was an Eye of Gruumsh, a shaman, that stepped into the middle of the battlefield. He directed his Eye of Wrath at Regnor, temporarily lowering his defenses and then struck Aletha, Jym, Mongo, and Chiana was a Hammer of Chaos blast, knocking many of them prone. They picked themselves up and retaliated. Mongo used his Vault the Fallen power to slash at one of the orcs, maneuver close to the shaman, and then strike him with a pinning blow with his axe. Regnor blew acid over three of the orcs and then struck two of them with a sweeping blow of his axe. Althea cursed and blasted one of the orcs from above, while Jym and Chiana combined attacks on the last orc. The mercenaries struck minor blows on the party while the now pinned shaman was at a severe disadvantage being next to the barbarian. Jym moved into a Myrmidon Formation, getting back to back with Mongo.
The party was able to defeat the orc mercenaries and the shaman soon after. The last of the mercenaries had a brief surge at the end, but was quickly overpowered by the combined attacks of the party. Aletha searched the platform and tested the rope again. She could hear the distant sound of a bell clanging as she did. The group waited for a fresh wave of defenders to come out of the mine, but none did. They decided to take a short rest before heading into the dark mine.
They waited until it was clear Corvus was not joining them this time, he apparently had duties at the temple of the Raven Queen to attend to, before they gathered up some supplies and headed. Guided by the directions Latimer gave them, they headed out of the city of Punjar and to the Northeast toward the old abandoned iron mines. An hour or so of traveling took them out of the well traveled lands and into unfamiliar territory. Off in the distant the could see a murder of crows heckling something small on the ground. An occasional gruff shout would drive the birds into the air to circle briefly before settling back down down again. The shouts came from the small thing on the ground, which turned out to be the head of a goliath who was buried to the neck in the dirt. The party shooed away the birds long enough to talk with the giant.
He introduced himself as Mongo, a prince and son of Dlanor Dlanodcam ruler of a kingdom to the North. He claimed that he was given a magical bracelet that was important to the line of kings of Dlanodcam, but was forced to leave when his half-brother, Ecamrig, attempted to get the bracelet back from him. He was pursued across the land until Ecamrig eventually caught up with him. Mongo defeated him after a fierce battle, but was forced to take a room and rest in Punjar. During the night he was seized by many strange hands and drug out here and buried by a band of mercenaries. One of them, a filthy gnome, dropped his pants and left a smelly gift right in front of Mongo's face. The last thing Mongo remembered before passing out from the smell and rough handling was Ecamrig's laughing face as he held the magic bracelet aloft and turned to leave him there.
Mongo asked that the party help dig him out so he could pursue his brother and punish the mercenaries. He heard them call themselves the Crimson Hand. Since their goals were aligned the party decided to help Mongo. While they were discussing Mongo's back-story Chiana had noticed that the crows had sensed something and flown off. She caught sight of a large winged creature heading their way and as it got closer she could see the distinctive shape of a dragon. It appeared to have seen the group on the ground and began diving toward them. Chiana gave a cry of warning to the group and then prepared for a fight.
The dragon, a young green but still a large specimen, swooped low and bit Aletha as it passed. As it landed in their midst the party was stunned by its frightful presence. The young green dragon took advantage of their fear to taunted them "Hahaha, I will feast on your flesh after you have fallen." and then belched out a cloud of poisonous gas to engulf them all. Choking and coughing on the fumes, Jym staggered forward to slash at the great magical beast and then dodged aside as its great tail came lashing down to strike the ground were he stood. Aletha blasted the dragon before running to take cover behind some rocks. Mongo struggled to free himself from the ground and Regnor moved up to help and started digging. Chiana struck the dragon with cutting words, which made it howl and leap over Jym to get to her. Jym slashed at and cut the beast as it did.
Mongo with Regnor's help finally got free of his earthen prison and joined the fight. Chiana was struck by the dragon's claws before she used one of her powers to make it blunder backward past Regnor who took a swing at it with his greataxe as it passed. Aletha stayed safely behind her rock, cursed the dragon, and vexed it with eyebite. The dragon lured Mongo into range and then blasted all but Aletha was another cloud of poison.
Things were looking grim for the party at this point. The poison was slowing them down and making them weak. A few words of inspiration from Jym and majestic words from Chiana were needed to get the party back on their feet and into the fight. Regnor, Jym, and Mongo closed in and hacked away at the dragon bloodying it, all the while keeping mobile to avoid its lashing tail. It bit and clawed at them and spewed forth poisonous gas yet again, this time only managing to catch Regnor, Mongo, and Chiana in it. A few lucky critical hits from the party staggered the dragon and it attempted to flee while it still had its life, but it could not escape in time. Its wings slashed to ribbons, it crashed back to the ground and died.
Chiana played her restful song as the party searched the dragon for treasure. Aletha discovered a magical rod somehow, whether it carried it or had swallowed it wasn't quite clear, but she decided it would come in useful and kept it for herself. After everyone was rested they continued along the path toward the abandoned iron mines. They eventually left the main path and followed a side track that led to a rocky ravine riddled with caves and mine shafts. A barely discernible footpath weaved its way toward one of the mine entrances near the base. Large trees grew nearby overlooking the path.
Regnor and Jym caught sight of movement in one of the trees. A wooden platform was built up in the branches and was partially obscured by the leaves. A pair of figures were standing watch from up on the platform. One of them had a bow drawn and pointed at Jym and called out, "Come no further or I'll put this arrow through your neck". Mongo took up his trident and hurled it at the bandits but his aim was low so it struck and stuck into the trunk of the tree.
Chiana called out hastily, "That was a warning shot! We're not here to attack you, we need to speak with Haeldon. Let us pass."
The bandits were confused by this. The bandit with the bow looked down and recognized Mongo and said "He's supposed to be dead by now! What's he doing here?"
Chiana tried to explain that Mongo wasn't a threat and that they really needed to see Haeldon. Mongo had moved underneath the platform by now and the others were preparing to attack if things turned for the worse. The elven bandit with the bow, Selvin, told the party to "Stay there." while his partner, Bork, summoned some help. Bork moved over to the opposite side of the platform and jerked repeatedly on a rope that ran from the platform and into a small hole in the side of the ravine wall. The party decided that their bluff was called and moved into action.
Mongo scaled the tree and onto the platform, drew his axe and slashed Bork. Regnor spewed acid breath up onto the platform singing everyone up there and melting away some of the leaves. Selvin jumped off of the platform to get away from Mongo, landed gracefully and dodged opportunity attacks from Mongo and Regnor. Selvin took cover behind an old overturned mine cart and shot Regnor. Regnor charged him. Aletha cursed and blasted Bork, who took a wild swing at Mongo. Jym commanded Mongo to return the blow, killing Bork, and Aletha used her pact boon to misty step up onto the platform with Mongo. Chiana helped Regnor finish off Selvin before the reinforcements arrived.
Then came the next wave of attackers. As orc mercenaries began to pour out of the mine shaft, Chiana shot one of them with her bow. Regnor caught one of the orc mercenaries off-guard as he leaped out from behind the cart. A third orc charged Jym and struck a lucky critical hit against him. Mongo leaped down from the platform and a fourth orc came up to challenge him. The last orc out of the passage was an Eye of Gruumsh, a shaman, that stepped into the middle of the battlefield. He directed his Eye of Wrath at Regnor, temporarily lowering his defenses and then struck Aletha, Jym, Mongo, and Chiana was a Hammer of Chaos blast, knocking many of them prone. They picked themselves up and retaliated. Mongo used his Vault the Fallen power to slash at one of the orcs, maneuver close to the shaman, and then strike him with a pinning blow with his axe. Regnor blew acid over three of the orcs and then struck two of them with a sweeping blow of his axe. Althea cursed and blasted one of the orcs from above, while Jym and Chiana combined attacks on the last orc. The mercenaries struck minor blows on the party while the now pinned shaman was at a severe disadvantage being next to the barbarian. Jym moved into a Myrmidon Formation, getting back to back with Mongo.
The party was able to defeat the orc mercenaries and the shaman soon after. The last of the mercenaries had a brief surge at the end, but was quickly overpowered by the combined attacks of the party. Aletha searched the platform and tested the rope again. She could hear the distant sound of a bell clanging as she did. The group waited for a fresh wave of defenders to come out of the mine, but none did. They decided to take a short rest before heading into the dark mine.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Scions of Punjar, Session 2: Looking for Latimer
Aletha, Chiana, Regnor, and Corvus reviewed everything they knew about the strange case of the Dev'shirs' misfortunes. They knew someone had robbed and defiled the family tomb and left behind undead guardians and traps but for what purpose it was unclear. They also knew that Dugesia Dev'shir had died alone in the stable fire and that Lakasia Dev'shir had not been there and was not accounted for among the dead at the tomb. They had their suspicions about the family's honesty, but decided to investigate their final lead before confronting the family with questions and accusations.
Their final lead was a known grave-robber by the name of Latimer who was a regular patron at the Famished Froghemoth in the Devil's Thumb district. They set up a stakeout in the common room of the tavern. Corvus waited patiently in their private room above. Chiana entertained the guests with music and dance, Aletha sat with a pair of scholarly types betting over an intense game of chess. Regnor took up position at the bar. A couple hours after dark Latimer, a half-orc rogue, came in and bought some ale before heading over to a table where a loud game of beer pong was being played.
Regnor was the first to notice a trio of men sitting at a well position table in the corner of the common room. They appeared to also be interested in Latimer. Regnor took it upon himself to distract the men while his companions attempted to shuttle Latimer off to their private room. The leader of the other two brutes, Traenor a Tiefling warlock, attempted to scare Regnor off by displaying a tattoo marking him as belonging to a nefarious assassins' guild known as the Slayers, but Regnor was not deterred. He bought the brutes some ale and then tried to convince Traenor to hire him. He gave him the false name of "Regno" and asked what they needed him to do.
Meanwhile, Aletha and Chiana had closed in on Latimer who was now well inebriated after defeating his last opponent at beer pong. They attempted to seduce him into coming back to their room with them, but their innuendo did not pierce the fog of his beer-soaked brain. Finally they convinced him that they could continue playing "games" upstairs so he gathered up his coin, some glasses, and the rest of the beer to take upstairs with them.
Regnor managed to keep the Slayers busy enough that they did not notice when Latimer left his table and headed to the stairs. Once Traenor realized his mistake her ordered the brutes to search the room and then the streets outside the tavern. Regnor stuck close the the Tiefling who grudgingly accepted his help and they headed upstairs together to search the private rooms.
Aletha and Chiana had managed to get Latimer in their room where Corvus accosted him and attempted to interrogate him. Latimer was cornered and confused, but held out against their onslaught of questions and moved surreptitiously toward one of the windows.
Regnor played the bumbling side-kick role very well and frustrated Traenor to his wits end. They barged into wrong room after wrong room looking for Latimer until Traenor overheard voices coming from the party's room. Regnor made enough noise himself to warn the others of their approach. Chiana attempted to bluff Traenor by playing the part of an overworked call-girl already booked to capacity which bought them a few moments, but it did not keep him off their trail for long.
As Aletha, Chiana, and Corvus prepared themselves for intruders, Latimer took the opportunity to escape by climbing out the window and dropping to the street below. The brutes who had been searching for him outside came circling around the building and spotted him as he attempted to run off and closed in. Corvus leaned out the window and cast grasping shards at Latimer keeping him slowed down. Aletha fey-stepped down to the street and attacked one of the brutes, keeping him cursed and partially blinded. Chiana jumped down next to Latimer, who expected her to attack him and was surprised when she turned to strike the other brute with vicious mockery.
Traenor attempted to bust into the room after hearing sounds of battle. Regnor, still playing his part as the fumbling lackey, pushed him out of the way to get into the room first. Traenor finally lost his patience with "Regno" and turned on him, blasting him with eldritch magic. Regnor dropped his pretenses and slashed at the Tiefling with his greataxe. Corvus came into the hallway to support the fighter after blasting the brutes with divine bolts from the window.
One of the brutes shot Chiana with a poisoned crossbow bolt before charging Latimer with a greatsword. Chiana tries to fight off the effects of the poison but failed and fell unconscious for the rest of the encounter. Aletha finished off her brute before turning to help Latimer, who was handling himself well despite his drunken state. He had tossed sand into the eyes of the other brute to get behind and backstab him before he recovered. Once Latimer saw that Aletha did not intend to harm him he helped her finish off the remaining brute.
Corvus and Regnor had more trouble with the tricky Traenor. He managed to confuse Regnor into blooding Corvus with his axe and bloodied Regnor with his blasts. Regnor managed to bloody the Tiefling before Traenor vowed they hadn't seen the last of the Slayers before turning invisible and teleporting away.
In the aftermath, the party managed to keep Latimer from running off long enough to convince him to talk to them. They found a quiet place to discuss things. It turned out that Latimer had once belonged to the Slayers' guild but had left on bad terms. Apparently they had been hunting him down ever since and finally caught up with him. Recently Latimer had been running with a bandit band called the Crimson Hand who set up a base in the abandoned iron mines outside of town. They had been ordered by their leader, Haeldon, to dig up corpses, loot the bodies, and load them onto wagons. He had no idea where the bodies went or who had hired the gang to do the work. Latimer had stolen Dugesia Dev'shir's necklace from Haeldon's personal loot, and had not known where it came from. The Slayers had nothing to do with the grave-robbing as far as he knew, it was just an unpleasant coincidence that they had turned up tonight.
After the party bribed Latimer he spoke more freely of the location of the hideout, the layout of the mines, and the inhabitants. The party got Latimer to draw them a map and tell them some passwords before they let him go. The party decided to rest up again before heading out to confront Haeldon and the Crimson Hand and learn who their pay-masters are.
Their final lead was a known grave-robber by the name of Latimer who was a regular patron at the Famished Froghemoth in the Devil's Thumb district. They set up a stakeout in the common room of the tavern. Corvus waited patiently in their private room above. Chiana entertained the guests with music and dance, Aletha sat with a pair of scholarly types betting over an intense game of chess. Regnor took up position at the bar. A couple hours after dark Latimer, a half-orc rogue, came in and bought some ale before heading over to a table where a loud game of beer pong was being played.
Regnor was the first to notice a trio of men sitting at a well position table in the corner of the common room. They appeared to also be interested in Latimer. Regnor took it upon himself to distract the men while his companions attempted to shuttle Latimer off to their private room. The leader of the other two brutes, Traenor a Tiefling warlock, attempted to scare Regnor off by displaying a tattoo marking him as belonging to a nefarious assassins' guild known as the Slayers, but Regnor was not deterred. He bought the brutes some ale and then tried to convince Traenor to hire him. He gave him the false name of "Regno" and asked what they needed him to do.
Meanwhile, Aletha and Chiana had closed in on Latimer who was now well inebriated after defeating his last opponent at beer pong. They attempted to seduce him into coming back to their room with them, but their innuendo did not pierce the fog of his beer-soaked brain. Finally they convinced him that they could continue playing "games" upstairs so he gathered up his coin, some glasses, and the rest of the beer to take upstairs with them.
Regnor managed to keep the Slayers busy enough that they did not notice when Latimer left his table and headed to the stairs. Once Traenor realized his mistake her ordered the brutes to search the room and then the streets outside the tavern. Regnor stuck close the the Tiefling who grudgingly accepted his help and they headed upstairs together to search the private rooms.
Aletha and Chiana had managed to get Latimer in their room where Corvus accosted him and attempted to interrogate him. Latimer was cornered and confused, but held out against their onslaught of questions and moved surreptitiously toward one of the windows.
Regnor played the bumbling side-kick role very well and frustrated Traenor to his wits end. They barged into wrong room after wrong room looking for Latimer until Traenor overheard voices coming from the party's room. Regnor made enough noise himself to warn the others of their approach. Chiana attempted to bluff Traenor by playing the part of an overworked call-girl already booked to capacity which bought them a few moments, but it did not keep him off their trail for long.
As Aletha, Chiana, and Corvus prepared themselves for intruders, Latimer took the opportunity to escape by climbing out the window and dropping to the street below. The brutes who had been searching for him outside came circling around the building and spotted him as he attempted to run off and closed in. Corvus leaned out the window and cast grasping shards at Latimer keeping him slowed down. Aletha fey-stepped down to the street and attacked one of the brutes, keeping him cursed and partially blinded. Chiana jumped down next to Latimer, who expected her to attack him and was surprised when she turned to strike the other brute with vicious mockery.
Traenor attempted to bust into the room after hearing sounds of battle. Regnor, still playing his part as the fumbling lackey, pushed him out of the way to get into the room first. Traenor finally lost his patience with "Regno" and turned on him, blasting him with eldritch magic. Regnor dropped his pretenses and slashed at the Tiefling with his greataxe. Corvus came into the hallway to support the fighter after blasting the brutes with divine bolts from the window.
One of the brutes shot Chiana with a poisoned crossbow bolt before charging Latimer with a greatsword. Chiana tries to fight off the effects of the poison but failed and fell unconscious for the rest of the encounter. Aletha finished off her brute before turning to help Latimer, who was handling himself well despite his drunken state. He had tossed sand into the eyes of the other brute to get behind and backstab him before he recovered. Once Latimer saw that Aletha did not intend to harm him he helped her finish off the remaining brute.
Corvus and Regnor had more trouble with the tricky Traenor. He managed to confuse Regnor into blooding Corvus with his axe and bloodied Regnor with his blasts. Regnor managed to bloody the Tiefling before Traenor vowed they hadn't seen the last of the Slayers before turning invisible and teleporting away.
In the aftermath, the party managed to keep Latimer from running off long enough to convince him to talk to them. They found a quiet place to discuss things. It turned out that Latimer had once belonged to the Slayers' guild but had left on bad terms. Apparently they had been hunting him down ever since and finally caught up with him. Recently Latimer had been running with a bandit band called the Crimson Hand who set up a base in the abandoned iron mines outside of town. They had been ordered by their leader, Haeldon, to dig up corpses, loot the bodies, and load them onto wagons. He had no idea where the bodies went or who had hired the gang to do the work. Latimer had stolen Dugesia Dev'shir's necklace from Haeldon's personal loot, and had not known where it came from. The Slayers had nothing to do with the grave-robbing as far as he knew, it was just an unpleasant coincidence that they had turned up tonight.
After the party bribed Latimer he spoke more freely of the location of the hideout, the layout of the mines, and the inhabitants. The party got Latimer to draw them a map and tell them some passwords before they let him go. The party decided to rest up again before heading out to confront Haeldon and the Crimson Hand and learn who their pay-masters are.
Monday, September 14, 2009
GM Commentary: Forges of the Mountain King
I reworked every encounter in this module. I liked the setting and elements of the back story, but the encounters seemed wildly unbalanced to me. I put a ton of work into this adventure, probably more than I should have. I crafted unique puzzles, handouts, and monsters. The "gems of the septych" had a brief hint as a treasure entry in the module and became more of a central theme for me.
Once again I was disappointed in the quality of the maps in this module. Rather than redraw maps to represent what is supposed to be a massive dwarven civilization I chose to represent the dungeon as a skill challenge. I made a table of key encounters and random encounters. While traveling in the halls of tannhiem the party made a series of skill checks (History, Nature, Perception, Dungeoneering) to determine how far and how long they traveled before the next encounter. If they failed many checks they would encounter something random. If they did well they would reach a key encounter quickly. Some of the random encounters I planned would have been natural hazards, although at the pace my group went I ended up skipping most of the random encounters in the interest of time.
I stole another idea from the "Keep on the Shadowfell". I replaced the tomb of the underking encounter with the Sir Keegan skill challenge. This added a depth to the setting and allowed the PCs a chance to gain some quest XP. I used the throne room map from H1 again, it's just too cool to pass up on.
The beholder encounter could have been better. I learned that solo monsters aren't really built to be soloed and need some allies to help flesh out the encounter. Vismund became a pseudo-villain for the duration of this adventure, but was "fixed" by the end. Austin and I came up with the idea for the monster he became from a Castlevania boss fight.
The Mountain King is positioned to become a reoccurring villain.
Once again I was disappointed in the quality of the maps in this module. Rather than redraw maps to represent what is supposed to be a massive dwarven civilization I chose to represent the dungeon as a skill challenge. I made a table of key encounters and random encounters. While traveling in the halls of tannhiem the party made a series of skill checks (History, Nature, Perception, Dungeoneering) to determine how far and how long they traveled before the next encounter. If they failed many checks they would encounter something random. If they did well they would reach a key encounter quickly. Some of the random encounters I planned would have been natural hazards, although at the pace my group went I ended up skipping most of the random encounters in the interest of time.
I stole another idea from the "Keep on the Shadowfell". I replaced the tomb of the underking encounter with the Sir Keegan skill challenge. This added a depth to the setting and allowed the PCs a chance to gain some quest XP. I used the throne room map from H1 again, it's just too cool to pass up on.
The beholder encounter could have been better. I learned that solo monsters aren't really built to be soloed and need some allies to help flesh out the encounter. Vismund became a pseudo-villain for the duration of this adventure, but was "fixed" by the end. Austin and I came up with the idea for the monster he became from a Castlevania boss fight.
The Mountain King is positioned to become a reoccurring villain.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Forges of the Mountain King, Session 7: Finally, the Freakin' Forge!
Jym, Dawn, Lethe, Rael, Vismund, and Mike spent another night in the halls of Tannheim. Mike summoned up a wizard's curtain for them to rest in peace down a dead-end passage. During their rest Lethe kept watch as a pair of giant centipedes and a large shadow-bat went on their nocturnal hunts, passing very close by to their camp.
Once all were rested Vismund led them on their way toward the temple district. As they drew closer they discovered the corpses of ancient dead dwarves locked in death embraces, signs of some previous civil war that wiped out their kind in this area. Soon they were outside a massive temple complex and Vismund rushed anxiously up the stairs and in through an open door.
Jym followed and peered inside to see the crazed dwarf hurrying around a large hole in the floor and toward a kind of throne on the other side of a large chamber. More ancient corpses littered the floor here as well. A stone plug swung high from a chain and pulley system directly over the hole in the floor. Vismund was now in front of the throne where a mummified figure sat. As Jym approached and the rest of the party filed into the room Vismund tore something from the mummy's neck, causing the head to bounce onto the floor, and then clutched the thing to his chest declaring "It is mine! My time is now!". Jym tried to see what it was and caught a glimpse of an amulet made of seven brightly colored stones as Vismund placed it around his neck and then the room was plunged into darkness.
Before their vision returned the party could feel things brushing past their legs in the dark and could hear the sounds of high pitched squeaking of thousands of rats filling the room. As sight returned they made out the shape of a massive mound of vermin engulfing the area that once contained Vismund. The mound of rats soon formed itself into a writhing sphere of fur, claws and teeth which then rose into the air and began floating menacingly toward the party to their astonishment. It was impossible to tell if Vismund or what if anything was inside the globe.
Lethe, Jym, and Rael were assaulted by gnashing teeth as the sphere attempted to engulf them. They fought back with their blades and Rael kept the others shielded as best he could from the worst of the attacks. Mysterious beams of multi-colored energy shot out from somewhere deep inside the writhing mass striking random party members who were burned, scoured, pushed, immobilized, weakened, frozen, or exhausted. Dawn and Mike attempted to keep their distance from the thing and blast at it with their range powers. Mike even threw a sack of acid he'd found somewhere along the way at the thing. As they all did damage the rats began to die and fall away from what was in the middle. They slowly revealed an abhorrent beast comprised of a single central eye, a large mouth lined with sharp teeth, and several lesser eyes mounted on long tentacle-like stalks all covered by a hard chitinous shell. Once the outer shell of rats was destroyed the beholder rose slightly higher off the ground and floated out over the hole in the center of the room. It was shooting blasts out of all of its eyes at the party as it shouted threats at them claiming that "Naurorc will devour you all!". Rael and Mike used their powers to maneuver the creature into a more advantageous position where the party could reach it and they finally cut it down. As it died it exploded and seven gems went flying in all directions across the room. When the smoke cleared they found Vismund laying unconscious and apparently unhurt on the ground where the thing once was.
The party gathered up the seven gems and revived Vismund. He claimed to be once again in control of himself and thanked the party for freeing him from his mania. The spirit of Naurorc no longer possessed him, and as a happy side-effect his crippling fear of vermin also seemed to have been cleansed. The rest of the group wasn't entirely convinced he was back to normal and continued to keep a close eye on him. He attempted to help the group make sense of the gems and the room they were in.
There was a door behind the throne that Vismund guessed would lead to the ritual chamber which might contain some useful items in dealing with the forge-bound demon. The hole in the floor contained a ramp which presumably led down to the forge itself. The mummy of Naurorc appeared to have once clutched an item in one of its now missing arms, and they assumed that they would find it below at the forge with the minions of the Mountain King. The doors to the ritual chamber contained a magical lock in the form of a puzzle. Using the dwarven runes inscribed on the door and the gems the group eventually worked out the mathematical solution, after only one failed attempt.
Beyond the door was the ritual chamber which contained many books, scrolls, and tomes. One of which was a ritual scroll which could be used to banish the demon Azan-Zog once it was freed from the chains that bound it. Jym discovered a chest under a bed which Lethe unlocked and de-trapped. It contained many valuable items. Mike and Dawn found another door locked with a magical puzzle mechanism and used the gems once again to bypass it, this time without any missteps. Behind it was a small vault which contained another sample of the rare meteoric filings, a pair of fleetrunning boots and fullblade of wounding +1.
The party gathered up their new treasures and then turned their attention to the hole in the floor. Mike used his skittering sneak power to wildshape into a stealthy form and scouted ahead. Below he found the forge, the demon Azan-Zog with heavy shackles and chains forged of the rare meteoric iron leading back into the forge, and many dwarves at work. The master smith, Urwol, appeared to be wielding a special hammer that controlled the demon and forced it to do his bidding. At his command Azan-Zog would use his control over the element of fire to heat the metal as Urwol pounded it into shape. Massive piles of unrefined and finished weapons littered the floor. Urwol seemed to be able to move the weapons about at-will with the power of his mind or by his command of the hammer.
The party decided to focus their attack on Urwol and wrest the hammer from his control. Mike gained surprise using his skittering sneak ability, but failed to strike Urwol with the full force of his flaming seed. Urwol summoned a whirlwind of deadly metal blades to hack and hammer on Mike. Blackhammer dwarves rushed to their leader's defense and Mike was driven back into a corner of the room. Lethe crept down the stairs and sneaked up on one of the blackhammers. Rael raced down the stairs and then used his feystep charge to avoid the chained demon and gain the center platform where Urwol stood and commanded from behind a massive anvil. Jym leaped down the stairs and granted Lethe an extra attack on his opponent while shrugging off the effects of standing so close to the heat of the forge. Azan-Zog was commanded by Urwol to attack the intruders and summoned the flame of the forge to heat the weapons in Lethe, Rael, and Jym's hands. Lethe and Rael were burnt badly but managed to hang onto their swords. Jym was barely phased, due to his infernal heritage and just laughed at the demon, "Is that all you've got?". Enraged the demon engulfed Jym and Rael in balls of fire which slowed them down a bit. Dawn and Vismund watched from the balcony above and launched their attacks on Urwol from a safe distance.
Urwol shifted his zone of swirling iron over to engulf Lethe and Rael once they had dispatched a pair of blackhammers. They moved out of the cloud and surrounded the master smith. Urwol brought down a thundering hammer blow which knocked Lethe away and to the back of the room near Mike who was still fighting with a blackhammer minion. Rael clung to the anvil and managed to stay near Urwol. Jym, struggling against the slowing effects of the forge fires, finally reached the center of the room and lent aid to Rael and urged him back into the fight. Vismund came up as well and aided with his magical craghammer. Dawn rained cosmic death down on Urwol from above and he was finally taken down.
Jym was first to snatch up the hammer of the forge and commanded Azan-Zog to stop fighting. With reluctance the demon obeyed. They needed his help to forge Lethe and Dawn's blades into weapons that could cut the chains. Dawn was tricked into burning herself with her own blade. Jym held Lethe's fullblade and Dawn's dagger as they were covered in meteor filings and Azan-Zog heated the weapons fusing the metals together. Vismund took up the hammer of the forge and completed the process creating two new powerful weapons who's surfaces resembled the night sky. Jym took up the fullblade and approached the demon. Mike held the scroll of banishment at the ready.
With two mighty swings Jym freed the demon of his chains. Azan-Zog gave a mighty cry of triumph and then attempted to push past Jym and Vismund to get to Mike before he could complete the ritual. Jym and Vismund struck out mightily as Azan-Zog flew past but were unable to stop the beast. Mike stammered out the words of the ritual as he eyed the demon baring down on him. Azan-Zog's flaming claws tore into the druid, but Mike was able to scream out the last few magical phrases on the page. As the last words were spoke Azan-Zog howled in fury and was forcibly ejected from the world and back into the elemental chaos of the abyss.
As the party sat and regained their strength they witnessed a host of ghostly dwarves marched down the stairs and into the now cold forge. The last dwarf was the shade of the underking who turned and saluted the party before following his subjects and disappearing forever. The curse of the forge had been lifted. The party gathered all their treasures and found their way out of the halls of tannheim and back to the circle where they originally appear through the portal and used their recall stones to get back home.
Once all were rested Vismund led them on their way toward the temple district. As they drew closer they discovered the corpses of ancient dead dwarves locked in death embraces, signs of some previous civil war that wiped out their kind in this area. Soon they were outside a massive temple complex and Vismund rushed anxiously up the stairs and in through an open door.
Jym followed and peered inside to see the crazed dwarf hurrying around a large hole in the floor and toward a kind of throne on the other side of a large chamber. More ancient corpses littered the floor here as well. A stone plug swung high from a chain and pulley system directly over the hole in the floor. Vismund was now in front of the throne where a mummified figure sat. As Jym approached and the rest of the party filed into the room Vismund tore something from the mummy's neck, causing the head to bounce onto the floor, and then clutched the thing to his chest declaring "It is mine! My time is now!". Jym tried to see what it was and caught a glimpse of an amulet made of seven brightly colored stones as Vismund placed it around his neck and then the room was plunged into darkness.
Before their vision returned the party could feel things brushing past their legs in the dark and could hear the sounds of high pitched squeaking of thousands of rats filling the room. As sight returned they made out the shape of a massive mound of vermin engulfing the area that once contained Vismund. The mound of rats soon formed itself into a writhing sphere of fur, claws and teeth which then rose into the air and began floating menacingly toward the party to their astonishment. It was impossible to tell if Vismund or what if anything was inside the globe.
Lethe, Jym, and Rael were assaulted by gnashing teeth as the sphere attempted to engulf them. They fought back with their blades and Rael kept the others shielded as best he could from the worst of the attacks. Mysterious beams of multi-colored energy shot out from somewhere deep inside the writhing mass striking random party members who were burned, scoured, pushed, immobilized, weakened, frozen, or exhausted. Dawn and Mike attempted to keep their distance from the thing and blast at it with their range powers. Mike even threw a sack of acid he'd found somewhere along the way at the thing. As they all did damage the rats began to die and fall away from what was in the middle. They slowly revealed an abhorrent beast comprised of a single central eye, a large mouth lined with sharp teeth, and several lesser eyes mounted on long tentacle-like stalks all covered by a hard chitinous shell. Once the outer shell of rats was destroyed the beholder rose slightly higher off the ground and floated out over the hole in the center of the room. It was shooting blasts out of all of its eyes at the party as it shouted threats at them claiming that "Naurorc will devour you all!". Rael and Mike used their powers to maneuver the creature into a more advantageous position where the party could reach it and they finally cut it down. As it died it exploded and seven gems went flying in all directions across the room. When the smoke cleared they found Vismund laying unconscious and apparently unhurt on the ground where the thing once was.
The party gathered up the seven gems and revived Vismund. He claimed to be once again in control of himself and thanked the party for freeing him from his mania. The spirit of Naurorc no longer possessed him, and as a happy side-effect his crippling fear of vermin also seemed to have been cleansed. The rest of the group wasn't entirely convinced he was back to normal and continued to keep a close eye on him. He attempted to help the group make sense of the gems and the room they were in.
There was a door behind the throne that Vismund guessed would lead to the ritual chamber which might contain some useful items in dealing with the forge-bound demon. The hole in the floor contained a ramp which presumably led down to the forge itself. The mummy of Naurorc appeared to have once clutched an item in one of its now missing arms, and they assumed that they would find it below at the forge with the minions of the Mountain King. The doors to the ritual chamber contained a magical lock in the form of a puzzle. Using the dwarven runes inscribed on the door and the gems the group eventually worked out the mathematical solution, after only one failed attempt.
Beyond the door was the ritual chamber which contained many books, scrolls, and tomes. One of which was a ritual scroll which could be used to banish the demon Azan-Zog once it was freed from the chains that bound it. Jym discovered a chest under a bed which Lethe unlocked and de-trapped. It contained many valuable items. Mike and Dawn found another door locked with a magical puzzle mechanism and used the gems once again to bypass it, this time without any missteps. Behind it was a small vault which contained another sample of the rare meteoric filings, a pair of fleetrunning boots and fullblade of wounding +1.
The party gathered up their new treasures and then turned their attention to the hole in the floor. Mike used his skittering sneak power to wildshape into a stealthy form and scouted ahead. Below he found the forge, the demon Azan-Zog with heavy shackles and chains forged of the rare meteoric iron leading back into the forge, and many dwarves at work. The master smith, Urwol, appeared to be wielding a special hammer that controlled the demon and forced it to do his bidding. At his command Azan-Zog would use his control over the element of fire to heat the metal as Urwol pounded it into shape. Massive piles of unrefined and finished weapons littered the floor. Urwol seemed to be able to move the weapons about at-will with the power of his mind or by his command of the hammer.
The party decided to focus their attack on Urwol and wrest the hammer from his control. Mike gained surprise using his skittering sneak ability, but failed to strike Urwol with the full force of his flaming seed. Urwol summoned a whirlwind of deadly metal blades to hack and hammer on Mike. Blackhammer dwarves rushed to their leader's defense and Mike was driven back into a corner of the room. Lethe crept down the stairs and sneaked up on one of the blackhammers. Rael raced down the stairs and then used his feystep charge to avoid the chained demon and gain the center platform where Urwol stood and commanded from behind a massive anvil. Jym leaped down the stairs and granted Lethe an extra attack on his opponent while shrugging off the effects of standing so close to the heat of the forge. Azan-Zog was commanded by Urwol to attack the intruders and summoned the flame of the forge to heat the weapons in Lethe, Rael, and Jym's hands. Lethe and Rael were burnt badly but managed to hang onto their swords. Jym was barely phased, due to his infernal heritage and just laughed at the demon, "Is that all you've got?". Enraged the demon engulfed Jym and Rael in balls of fire which slowed them down a bit. Dawn and Vismund watched from the balcony above and launched their attacks on Urwol from a safe distance.
Urwol shifted his zone of swirling iron over to engulf Lethe and Rael once they had dispatched a pair of blackhammers. They moved out of the cloud and surrounded the master smith. Urwol brought down a thundering hammer blow which knocked Lethe away and to the back of the room near Mike who was still fighting with a blackhammer minion. Rael clung to the anvil and managed to stay near Urwol. Jym, struggling against the slowing effects of the forge fires, finally reached the center of the room and lent aid to Rael and urged him back into the fight. Vismund came up as well and aided with his magical craghammer. Dawn rained cosmic death down on Urwol from above and he was finally taken down.
Jym was first to snatch up the hammer of the forge and commanded Azan-Zog to stop fighting. With reluctance the demon obeyed. They needed his help to forge Lethe and Dawn's blades into weapons that could cut the chains. Dawn was tricked into burning herself with her own blade. Jym held Lethe's fullblade and Dawn's dagger as they were covered in meteor filings and Azan-Zog heated the weapons fusing the metals together. Vismund took up the hammer of the forge and completed the process creating two new powerful weapons who's surfaces resembled the night sky. Jym took up the fullblade and approached the demon. Mike held the scroll of banishment at the ready.
With two mighty swings Jym freed the demon of his chains. Azan-Zog gave a mighty cry of triumph and then attempted to push past Jym and Vismund to get to Mike before he could complete the ritual. Jym and Vismund struck out mightily as Azan-Zog flew past but were unable to stop the beast. Mike stammered out the words of the ritual as he eyed the demon baring down on him. Azan-Zog's flaming claws tore into the druid, but Mike was able to scream out the last few magical phrases on the page. As the last words were spoke Azan-Zog howled in fury and was forcibly ejected from the world and back into the elemental chaos of the abyss.
As the party sat and regained their strength they witnessed a host of ghostly dwarves marched down the stairs and into the now cold forge. The last dwarf was the shade of the underking who turned and saluted the party before following his subjects and disappearing forever. The curse of the forge had been lifted. The party gathered all their treasures and found their way out of the halls of tannheim and back to the circle where they originally appear through the portal and used their recall stones to get back home.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Forges of the Mountain King, Session 6: The Detour of Ruin
During the previous night Lethe woke up to mumblings and caught Vismund talking to his hammer saying "No. No I won't. I won't let you!". Lethe raise the alarm and everyone gathered round to question Vismund about the voices in his head. He admitted that they had gotten worse but that if they quickly dealt with the forge-bound demon they may go away and he was eager to lead them on. The party packed up their gear and headed out in search of the temple and the demon.
While traveling through the halls they came upon what appeared to be an old residential area complete with a market square with rotting stalls. The party stopped to search for valuables and Lethe discovered an old silver chased drinking implement made from a minotaur's horn. The noise of their search brought a patrol of dwarves in the service of the Mountain King who attacked them on sight. The dwarves were easy enough to deal with, and soon the party was back on the trail.
At a fork in the path the party changed their minds and decided to go return the crown they found in the throne room back to the Underking in the crypts before continuing to the temple. They could either head all the way back from where they came, down the great stairs, and then to the crypts, but that would take a lot of time and they stood a high chance of encountering more patrols and wandering creatures going that route. On the other hand, Vismund suggested that they take a shorter path from here to the Stairs of Ruin which they had not attempted to climb previously. It was much closer at this point and would put them very close to the crypts below. They debated the pros and cons but eventually decided to try out these Stairs of Ruin.
The party took the fork leading away from the temple and in time came to a pair of sealed gates. They appeared to be designed to be defended from this side and were not difficult to unlock. The doors were heavy stone gilded with gold and illuminated by a reddish light that came from the cavern beyond. After opening the doors they determined that these were the Gates of Gilded Blood they had heard mentioned in the writings of Yrgut the Trapmaster. A devilishly trapped locking mechanism was fitted on the other side of the gates, but it was easily bypassed from the other side. The party took little notice of it.
Beyond was a massive and deep cavern with a pool of water far below. Pillars of stone rose from the pool at differing heights. The pillars were connected by narrow stepped bridges forming an elaborated series of staircases that split and rejoined to terminate lower on the opposite side of the cavern. Many of the bridging stairs were broken, leaving gaps of up to ten feet is some places. Some of the ledges on the pillars were lit by torches on tall poles that guttered with a reddish light.
Lethe and Mike noticed great sheets of spiderwebs hung between the pillars and the stalactites in the ceiling of the cavern above. They suspected an ambush by spiders at any time. Dawn spotted a couple of pillar ledges that appeared to have been covered in sticky webbing, apparently an attempt to trap prey passing through the area unaware. The party picked a path that seemed the least dangerous and Dawn burned away the impeding webs.
The fires caught the attention of the inhabitants of the cavern. First to show itself was an ettercap webspinner, who perched on top of one of the broken pillars. Lethe had made a rope swing by hooking a grapple over a conveniently shaped stalactite and swung over to a nearby pillar with Jym. The ettercap shot restraining webs out at Jym and then caught the rest of the party that was near the gates in a massive sheet of webbing. A deathjump spider that was hiding near the ceiling leaped down onto Lethe and bit him, delivering a dose of poison along with its puncturing bite. Another spider climbed over the lip of the ledge near the gates and attack Mike. A third one crawled stealthily along the ceiling toward the party. Vismund placed the battle standard of healing near the center of the group and pulled out his hammers. Dawn blasted the ettercap with acid orbs and drove it off, keeping it at far range and out of the fight for most of the battle. Rael used his feystep to get out of the immobilizing webs and join Lethe and Jym on the next pillar and attacked the first spider. Jym, Rael and Lethe triple teamed the spider, and killed it before swinging back over the gap to join the rest of the party that was fighting off two remaining spiders at this point. Vismund and Mike had taken up the front line against them, each taking grievous wounds from their bites and poison. Vismund dropped before he was able to heal himself. Jym gave Mike an inspiring word to keep him on his feet before closing in. Rael caught up and then used his sword bursts to good effect. Lethe was having trouble aiming his bladebow properly with little room to move effectively on the cramped ledge.
Once the spiders were taken care of the party went in search of the ettercap that had gone into hiding once it was bloodied. Vismund was revived and used his arcane springboard to help the party get over one of the bigger gaps in the stairs, but then slipped and fell himself when attempting to use the rope swing to get across the smaller gap. Luckily a sheet of webbing caught him before he fell all the way to the base of the cavern. Dawn had to lower a second rope to help him climb back up. When the party was almost to the bottom of the stairs the ettercap mounted a desperate final attack. Jym and Rael finish him with a pair of expert sword blows.
At the base of the stairs Mike decided he'd stay behind and look for treasure in the murky depths of the pool below while the rest of the party continued on to the crypts. While they were away he turned himself into a creature more suitable to the water and swam around in the pool. He found a sodden corpse that appeared to have once been an adventurer and brought up his soggy gear. He recovered some coins and a magical bedroll, that although was soaked through still looked like it would serve well. It turned out to have all the properties of a restful bedroll, but Mike suspected it might also induce inadvertent soiling of oneself while sleeping now that it had lain at the bottom of a pool for so long.
Meanwhile the rest of the party had found the crypts again and prepared to enter the Underking's tomb. Vismund chose to stay outside on a hunch that the Underking may mistake him for Naurorc again. Jym, Dawn, Rael, and Mike were very highly suspicious of his behavior and there was a short stand off between them until Vismund gave them assurances that he would wait for them and not do anything “crazy”.
Jym, Dawn, Lethe, and Rael gave the Underking his crown back. He thanked them and then promised to come to their aid as a spirit when they would need him most. He also warned that if they stole his crown after he was gone he would haunt them until the day they died. At that he crumbled to a pile of dust and the crown remained behind in his tomb. Lethe was sorely tempted to steal the crown but thought better of it at the last minute. The party did steal the Underking's battleaxe of thundering +1 though.
After that the party returned to the stairs of ruin and met back up with Vismund and Mike. They reached the top of the stairs with little difficulty and headed back toward the temple.
While traveling through the halls they came upon what appeared to be an old residential area complete with a market square with rotting stalls. The party stopped to search for valuables and Lethe discovered an old silver chased drinking implement made from a minotaur's horn. The noise of their search brought a patrol of dwarves in the service of the Mountain King who attacked them on sight. The dwarves were easy enough to deal with, and soon the party was back on the trail.
At a fork in the path the party changed their minds and decided to go return the crown they found in the throne room back to the Underking in the crypts before continuing to the temple. They could either head all the way back from where they came, down the great stairs, and then to the crypts, but that would take a lot of time and they stood a high chance of encountering more patrols and wandering creatures going that route. On the other hand, Vismund suggested that they take a shorter path from here to the Stairs of Ruin which they had not attempted to climb previously. It was much closer at this point and would put them very close to the crypts below. They debated the pros and cons but eventually decided to try out these Stairs of Ruin.
The party took the fork leading away from the temple and in time came to a pair of sealed gates. They appeared to be designed to be defended from this side and were not difficult to unlock. The doors were heavy stone gilded with gold and illuminated by a reddish light that came from the cavern beyond. After opening the doors they determined that these were the Gates of Gilded Blood they had heard mentioned in the writings of Yrgut the Trapmaster. A devilishly trapped locking mechanism was fitted on the other side of the gates, but it was easily bypassed from the other side. The party took little notice of it.
Beyond was a massive and deep cavern with a pool of water far below. Pillars of stone rose from the pool at differing heights. The pillars were connected by narrow stepped bridges forming an elaborated series of staircases that split and rejoined to terminate lower on the opposite side of the cavern. Many of the bridging stairs were broken, leaving gaps of up to ten feet is some places. Some of the ledges on the pillars were lit by torches on tall poles that guttered with a reddish light.
Lethe and Mike noticed great sheets of spiderwebs hung between the pillars and the stalactites in the ceiling of the cavern above. They suspected an ambush by spiders at any time. Dawn spotted a couple of pillar ledges that appeared to have been covered in sticky webbing, apparently an attempt to trap prey passing through the area unaware. The party picked a path that seemed the least dangerous and Dawn burned away the impeding webs.
The fires caught the attention of the inhabitants of the cavern. First to show itself was an ettercap webspinner, who perched on top of one of the broken pillars. Lethe had made a rope swing by hooking a grapple over a conveniently shaped stalactite and swung over to a nearby pillar with Jym. The ettercap shot restraining webs out at Jym and then caught the rest of the party that was near the gates in a massive sheet of webbing. A deathjump spider that was hiding near the ceiling leaped down onto Lethe and bit him, delivering a dose of poison along with its puncturing bite. Another spider climbed over the lip of the ledge near the gates and attack Mike. A third one crawled stealthily along the ceiling toward the party. Vismund placed the battle standard of healing near the center of the group and pulled out his hammers. Dawn blasted the ettercap with acid orbs and drove it off, keeping it at far range and out of the fight for most of the battle. Rael used his feystep to get out of the immobilizing webs and join Lethe and Jym on the next pillar and attacked the first spider. Jym, Rael and Lethe triple teamed the spider, and killed it before swinging back over the gap to join the rest of the party that was fighting off two remaining spiders at this point. Vismund and Mike had taken up the front line against them, each taking grievous wounds from their bites and poison. Vismund dropped before he was able to heal himself. Jym gave Mike an inspiring word to keep him on his feet before closing in. Rael caught up and then used his sword bursts to good effect. Lethe was having trouble aiming his bladebow properly with little room to move effectively on the cramped ledge.
Once the spiders were taken care of the party went in search of the ettercap that had gone into hiding once it was bloodied. Vismund was revived and used his arcane springboard to help the party get over one of the bigger gaps in the stairs, but then slipped and fell himself when attempting to use the rope swing to get across the smaller gap. Luckily a sheet of webbing caught him before he fell all the way to the base of the cavern. Dawn had to lower a second rope to help him climb back up. When the party was almost to the bottom of the stairs the ettercap mounted a desperate final attack. Jym and Rael finish him with a pair of expert sword blows.
At the base of the stairs Mike decided he'd stay behind and look for treasure in the murky depths of the pool below while the rest of the party continued on to the crypts. While they were away he turned himself into a creature more suitable to the water and swam around in the pool. He found a sodden corpse that appeared to have once been an adventurer and brought up his soggy gear. He recovered some coins and a magical bedroll, that although was soaked through still looked like it would serve well. It turned out to have all the properties of a restful bedroll, but Mike suspected it might also induce inadvertent soiling of oneself while sleeping now that it had lain at the bottom of a pool for so long.
Meanwhile the rest of the party had found the crypts again and prepared to enter the Underking's tomb. Vismund chose to stay outside on a hunch that the Underking may mistake him for Naurorc again. Jym, Dawn, Rael, and Mike were very highly suspicious of his behavior and there was a short stand off between them until Vismund gave them assurances that he would wait for them and not do anything “crazy”.
Jym, Dawn, Lethe, and Rael gave the Underking his crown back. He thanked them and then promised to come to their aid as a spirit when they would need him most. He also warned that if they stole his crown after he was gone he would haunt them until the day they died. At that he crumbled to a pile of dust and the crown remained behind in his tomb. Lethe was sorely tempted to steal the crown but thought better of it at the last minute. The party did steal the Underking's battleaxe of thundering +1 though.
After that the party returned to the stairs of ruin and met back up with Vismund and Mike. They reached the top of the stairs with little difficulty and headed back toward the temple.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Forges of the Mountain King, Session 5: The Underking's Crown
After their short rest, Jym, Mike, Rael, Vismund, Dawn, and Lethe searched the area and turned up some minor treasures. Mike stalked silently up the stairs to scout ahead. He found a barrier of large rum barrels blocking access to the next landing. He also heard a pair of orcs speaking in a strange tongue on the other side of the barricade. The group suspected that the barrels would be used as flammable weapons against them and decided to ignite the barrels preemptively to catch the orcs off-guard. Dawn blasted the barrels and immediately ignited three of them which exploded and caught the surprised orcs on fire. The last barrel burned for a moment before it finally exploded. This caught Lethe and Rael in it's blast who had forgotten it was still a danger as they attempted to move past it. Mike used his powers to drag one of the orcs through a campfire which finished burning it to death. The remaining orc tossed an axe at the party before it was killed.
As the group reached the next landing they could hear more orcs charging down the stairs from above. Two orc raiders were followed by an orc shaman of Gruumsh, the orcish god of destruction. The shaman gave a battle cry and then struck the group with "hammer of chaos", a disorienting blow of invisible force. Mike recovered and then replied with his own blast of forceful wind, attempting to knock one of the orcs over the railing and into the deep chasm below. Unfortunately the raider in question was able to grab and hold on tightly to the railing to save himself from a surely fatal fall. The raiders threw their hand axes before charging down the stairs with their greataxes raised. The shaman continued to support them with eye of wrath, weakening his opponents' defenses, while encouraging the raiders to take extra swings at his targets. Rael courageously retreated from the front line to recover from the effects of the eye of wrath, while Jym moved the rest of the party into myrmidon formation allowing them to recover from their wounds while presenting a strong frontal assault. Once the raiders were dealt with the party closed in around the shaman and finished him off.
The party found more treasure on the orcs and at the top of the last landing they found an old battered battle standard that had some minor magical healing properties. Because of its ratty appearance the party decided to have Vismund carry it. There was also a pair of large metal doors at the top of the stair which led into the upper halls of Tannhiem. They cautiously opened the doors and continued on their way.
They went in search of the throne room rumored to have been the last place the Underking saw his ancient crown. When they got there they came upon a large group of dwarves in the middle of some religious rite. The roof of the grand chamber was held up by crystal pillars, pulsing internally with bluish light, one of which had collapsed and lay in pieces on the ground. A short dais with a stone throne was on the far side of the room, where an important looking dwarf sat and watched over the rite, a battered golden crown resting on his bald head. A pair of tough looking dwarves with crossbows stood idly by, apparently acting as bodyguards to their leader. The rest of the dwarves were dressed in plate-mail emblazoned with a symbol of a black hammer and were armed with greatswords. They were gathered about a massive stone statue in the center of the chamber standing on a metal grating from which steam continuously rose, slightly obscuring the statues features. The statue appeared to be cobbled together from the bits and pieces of other statues and depicted a massive demonic dwarf with bat wings and a beard of writhing tentacles.
Vismund recalled seeing many statues of the Septych, the seven deadly dwarven vices represented in demonic form, that the party had discovered in the underground lake and remembered that they appeared to have had pieces scavenged from them. He determined that some of the schematics in the trapmaster's journal matched this construct, so warned the party that the colossus might have more to it than meets the eye. Luckily the party had approached silently and the dwarves had not noticed them yet. A closed door to the party's left promised a circuitous route around the main chamber. Lethe, as instructed by Jym, decided to try to sneak in closer to the statue to get a better look. Unfortunately he kicked a broken piece of masonry which skittered noisily across the floor and alerted the dwarves to his presence. Quickly the party sprang into action to recover what advantage they might still have.
Lethe engaged one of the crossbow wielding bodyguards to neutralize him. Mike and Dawn coordinated their blast attacks on the black hammer dwarves and annihilated a small group of them. Rael opened the side door and encountered another group of black hammer dwarves guarding the next room, charged in and took a pair of them out with a sword burst. Jym and Vismund moved in to the main chamber to get a better view of the action. Then the dwarves recovered from their surprise and fought back.
The statue came to life and turned to face the party. Mike attempted to move past it in order to support Lethe, but was struck by a heavy stone fist and dropped prone to the ground. He had to crawl away from it as it tried to smash him to the ground with its foot, only to be struck by bolts from the other crossbow bodyguard. Rael finished off the other black hammer dwarf he faced and then continued to sneak around the side chambers. Lethe traded blows with the other bodyguard. Their spiritual leader, Master Gimbolge, came down off the dais and got into the fray, focusing his attacks on Lethe and Mike while calling on more support troops from another adjoining room. As new black hammer dwarves entered the battle Dawn picked them off. Rael eventually found his way back into the main chamber and fey-charged the crowned dwarf and his minions. Meanwhile Jym and Vismund surrounded the statue, bolstering each others strikes, as they pounded away at it while dodging its massive fists.
It was a brief but violent battle. The black hammer dwarves were defeated first, then Master Gimbolge was overwhelmed. One of the bodyguards was killed before the statue was destroyed. The final bodyguard attempted to flee but he did not get far before being dropped. The party recovered the battered crown from the corpse of the bald dwarf and then searched the bodies. Jym found a power jewel on the leader, while the rest of the group looted beard rings, coins, and ingots.
They decided it was time to take an extended rest before heading in search of the temple-forge. Mike set up a "wizard's curtain" in order to hide the party from view while they rested.
As the group reached the next landing they could hear more orcs charging down the stairs from above. Two orc raiders were followed by an orc shaman of Gruumsh, the orcish god of destruction. The shaman gave a battle cry and then struck the group with "hammer of chaos", a disorienting blow of invisible force. Mike recovered and then replied with his own blast of forceful wind, attempting to knock one of the orcs over the railing and into the deep chasm below. Unfortunately the raider in question was able to grab and hold on tightly to the railing to save himself from a surely fatal fall. The raiders threw their hand axes before charging down the stairs with their greataxes raised. The shaman continued to support them with eye of wrath, weakening his opponents' defenses, while encouraging the raiders to take extra swings at his targets. Rael courageously retreated from the front line to recover from the effects of the eye of wrath, while Jym moved the rest of the party into myrmidon formation allowing them to recover from their wounds while presenting a strong frontal assault. Once the raiders were dealt with the party closed in around the shaman and finished him off.
The party found more treasure on the orcs and at the top of the last landing they found an old battered battle standard that had some minor magical healing properties. Because of its ratty appearance the party decided to have Vismund carry it. There was also a pair of large metal doors at the top of the stair which led into the upper halls of Tannhiem. They cautiously opened the doors and continued on their way.
They went in search of the throne room rumored to have been the last place the Underking saw his ancient crown. When they got there they came upon a large group of dwarves in the middle of some religious rite. The roof of the grand chamber was held up by crystal pillars, pulsing internally with bluish light, one of which had collapsed and lay in pieces on the ground. A short dais with a stone throne was on the far side of the room, where an important looking dwarf sat and watched over the rite, a battered golden crown resting on his bald head. A pair of tough looking dwarves with crossbows stood idly by, apparently acting as bodyguards to their leader. The rest of the dwarves were dressed in plate-mail emblazoned with a symbol of a black hammer and were armed with greatswords. They were gathered about a massive stone statue in the center of the chamber standing on a metal grating from which steam continuously rose, slightly obscuring the statues features. The statue appeared to be cobbled together from the bits and pieces of other statues and depicted a massive demonic dwarf with bat wings and a beard of writhing tentacles.
Vismund recalled seeing many statues of the Septych, the seven deadly dwarven vices represented in demonic form, that the party had discovered in the underground lake and remembered that they appeared to have had pieces scavenged from them. He determined that some of the schematics in the trapmaster's journal matched this construct, so warned the party that the colossus might have more to it than meets the eye. Luckily the party had approached silently and the dwarves had not noticed them yet. A closed door to the party's left promised a circuitous route around the main chamber. Lethe, as instructed by Jym, decided to try to sneak in closer to the statue to get a better look. Unfortunately he kicked a broken piece of masonry which skittered noisily across the floor and alerted the dwarves to his presence. Quickly the party sprang into action to recover what advantage they might still have.
Lethe engaged one of the crossbow wielding bodyguards to neutralize him. Mike and Dawn coordinated their blast attacks on the black hammer dwarves and annihilated a small group of them. Rael opened the side door and encountered another group of black hammer dwarves guarding the next room, charged in and took a pair of them out with a sword burst. Jym and Vismund moved in to the main chamber to get a better view of the action. Then the dwarves recovered from their surprise and fought back.
The statue came to life and turned to face the party. Mike attempted to move past it in order to support Lethe, but was struck by a heavy stone fist and dropped prone to the ground. He had to crawl away from it as it tried to smash him to the ground with its foot, only to be struck by bolts from the other crossbow bodyguard. Rael finished off the other black hammer dwarf he faced and then continued to sneak around the side chambers. Lethe traded blows with the other bodyguard. Their spiritual leader, Master Gimbolge, came down off the dais and got into the fray, focusing his attacks on Lethe and Mike while calling on more support troops from another adjoining room. As new black hammer dwarves entered the battle Dawn picked them off. Rael eventually found his way back into the main chamber and fey-charged the crowned dwarf and his minions. Meanwhile Jym and Vismund surrounded the statue, bolstering each others strikes, as they pounded away at it while dodging its massive fists.
It was a brief but violent battle. The black hammer dwarves were defeated first, then Master Gimbolge was overwhelmed. One of the bodyguards was killed before the statue was destroyed. The final bodyguard attempted to flee but he did not get far before being dropped. The party recovered the battered crown from the corpse of the bald dwarf and then searched the bodies. Jym found a power jewel on the leader, while the rest of the group looted beard rings, coins, and ingots.
They decided it was time to take an extended rest before heading in search of the temple-forge. Mike set up a "wizard's curtain" in order to hide the party from view while they rested.
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