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.

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.

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.