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.