Hey everyone. I thought some of you might be interested in my group's new Shackled City campaign. I'll post our weekly session recaps here so you can see how I've tweaked the campaign slightly, and how I'm running it. We're moving through the adventure path relatively quickly. Today is our fourth session, and the group is already beginning Chapter 3, Flood Season.
The party:
Zura, Elf Bard/4
Thorak, Half-Orc Barbarian/4
Vondvar, Dwarf Druid/4
Caleb, Halfling Rogue/4
Session #1 - Street Encounter, Lantern St. Orphanage, Ghelve's Locks, Jzadirune
Patchwall (10th month), 597 CY
The party, after recently being released from the Cauldron Jail, met on Ash Avenue. The news of the month included reports of counterfeit jester coins circulating around, controversial tax increases on the wealthy of Cauldron, and recent kidnappings in the city. After meeting at the Tipped Tankard to gather information from the proprietor, Artus Shemwick, they decided to travel to the Lantern Street Orphanage to investigate. On the way, they encountered a priest, Ruphus Laro, being assaulted by thugs that the party suspects of being associated with the infamous thieves' guild, The Last Laugh. They rescued Ruphus and accompanied him to the Church of St. Cuthbert, where they met Jenya Urikas. She related how the Church is investigating four kidnappings in particular from the orphanage. The priests consulted their most holy relic, a mace called the Star of Justice, which produced a cryptic riddle. The party was hired for 2,500 gp to retrieve the orphans, wherever they might have been.
The mace's riddle led them to the gnome Keygan Ghelve of Ghelve's locks. After roughing him up severely, the party managed to beat some information out of him, namely that Ghelve's familiar Starbrow has been captured by two different types of creatures. Ghelve was then blackmailed by the creatures into making a set of skeleton keys that opened all of the locks in the city. After one of the creatures assaulted the party in the back room of Ghelve's locks, they were led by Ghelve to the secret entrance to Jzadirune, an ancient Gnomish city under the streets of Cauldron. Ghelve informed them that the gnomes of Jzadirune were killed some 75 years ago by a magical infection called The Vanishing. The party sent the body of the creature to Bluecrater Academy for identification and descended into Jzadirune.
After encountering some strange talking masks and several more of the creatures, the group located several trapped doors that resembled large gears in the city, as well as some crudely constructed tunnels between rooms. They explored for several hours, encountering several traps and creatures and a damaged Pulverizer Automaton as well as a recurring ghost of a Gnome Bard. The exploration came to an end after the party hastily broke down a crude barricade into a large room containing a Grell, a hideous aberration which quickly dispatched all of the adventurers.
Session #2 - Fario & Fellian, Jzadirune, Malachite Fortress
Patchwall, 597 CY
Our new party was approached on the streets of Cauldron by a messenger boy, which requested their audience at the Tipped Tankard later that evening. There the group was greeted by two half-elves, Fario Ellegoth and Fellian Shard. They seemed concerned about the kidnappings, especially of their wizard friend Elethor Ashstaff, and requested to accompany the group back down into Jzadirune. Using their invisibility spells, the half-elves had followed the previous party closely and had recovered most of their gear and a map given to them by Ghelve.
The party, now with two more to their number, descended into Jzadirune and explored most of the other rooms in the enclave. There they encountered a strange Gnomish ballet involving fairies and a bear cub, as well as an illusory sleeping Gnomish king. After disabling a few more traps and finding some exquisite Gnomish oil paintings, eventually the party was led back to the beginning of the city and into a large, octagonal wooden elevator.
The elevator led 100 feet down into a strange fortress carved out of malachite, a black and green gemstone. They encountered a strange stone elemental creature (stone spike), which they defeated and moved on through the fortress. They easily defeated several hobgoblin guards and found a sinister slave bazaar hosted by Kazmojen, a twisted half-dwarf and half-troll. Kazmojen was in the process of selling four child slaves to Pyllrak Shyraat, a durzagon slave trader. Moving quickly, the party burst into the room and began attacking in an attempt to free the children. They were definitely overmatched by Kazmojen, but Zura's spell charm person rendered him incompetent. They quickly dispatched the durzagon and led Kazmojen into another room, away from the children, where he was slaughtered. The adventurers searched the rest of the Malachite Fortress and rescued 9 more slaves from Cauldron above. After finding an unbelievable amount of treasure in Kazmojen's secret lair, the party (now numbering 19) ascended the elevator into Jzadirune, and attempted to leave, when a beholder (!) stopped them before the exit and demanded one of the children, one Terrem Kharatys. The group wisely, but reluctantly, turned the child over to the aberration and returned to the surface. When they delivered the other three children to the Church of St. Cuthbert, they received both their reward (increased to 3,000 gp) and word that Terrem had been returned safely (but mysteriously) as well.
Session #3 - Lord Vhalantru's Feast, Goblins, Orak's Bathhouse, Drakthar's Way
Ready'reat (11th month), 597 CY
After returning the kidnapped victims, the party's renown is spreading slowly throughout Cauldron. News of their exploits was featured in the Ready'reat edition of The Cauldron Herald along with sensational news of a Goblin crime wave in the city, with the vile creatures robbing, looting, and vandalizing over the past couple weeks. Everyone did some extensive buying and selling at Tygot's Old Things, Zanathor's Provisions, Skie's Treasury, and Gurnezarn's Smithy to earn some extra coin. The group also encountered Morgan Lennox of the traveling business "Morgan's Luck" on the street. He regaled them with descriptions of some wondrous, but expensive, magic items for sale.
Lord Vhalantru then sent the heroes an invitation to dinner that Freeday evening at his expansive estate. They appeared there after a couple days' wait and were treated to a lavish feast in their honor. Vhalantru extended another invitation to join him at a few events at next month's Flood Festival. After drinking a superhuman amount of alcohol, Vhalantru bestowed some fine gifts on our four adventurers as following:
Zura: Pipes of the Sewers
Caleb: Goggles of Minute Seeing
Vondvar: Lightning Gauntlets
Thorak: Bracers of Armor +1
Caleb was also given a purple velvet pouch containing 10 counterfeit Jester coins, which he gave to the Town Watch captain Terseon Skellerang at a meeting with him the next morning. Skellerang hired the group to attempt to eliminate Cauldron's "Goblin problem" which had escalated. He promised them 5 gp per Goblin ear returned to him. The group went straight to Lakeside Pavilion, where they obtained 8 ears from the Goblins already killed and strung up there.
Wisely, they returned to Jenya at the Church of St. Cuthbert to use the holy relic, the Star of Justice. It provided three cryptic answers to their questions about the Goblins. Both the Star and the Goblin graffiti indicated the Goblins revered a creature named Drakthar. The relic also mentioned a "red-eyed Dwarf" that the party suspected was Orak Stonehaven of Orak's Bathhouse. Naturally, the heroes went straight to the Bathhouse where they bathed and met Orak himself. Something was amiss; Orak was lying but was under some kind of supernatural control. Zura's charm person led Orak to hand over the key to his office.
They descended the stairs in Orak's office down into a vast natural cavern network infested with Goblins and covered in excrement, blood, and other foul substances. After exploring for several hours and killing many Goblins, some mounted on Worgs, the party encountered two mercenaries, a human sorcerer named Chorlyndyr and a female tiefling named Kallev. They successfully made it past them when the mercenaries assumed they were new recruits of their boss, a mysterious figure named The Blue Duke.
The party eventually met Drakthar, a powerful Bugbear Vampire. They finally defeated him after an extremely prolonged and tiring combat. He converted to gaseous form and returned to his coffin, which the party burned to destroy him. They collected some treasure from his throne room in the midst of the burning flames. Following this incredible battle, the heroes explored some more areas of the cavern (Drakthar's Way), collected more Goblin ears, and ascended back through Orak's Bathhouse to the surface.
