NOTE TO THE PLAYERS
You will start out as 1st level characters.
Characters will be 30 point buy construction.
If you choose to play an oriental adventures class, I'd expect you to play the character in an oriental manner such as dictated by the class description (a samurai for example up holds honor above all other virtues)
Additionally, I'd expect a European type character to prefer European armor, spells and weapons - at least initially.
Any alignment is fair game. You don't have to write it on your sheet. If you are interested, I have a source book on evil characters that can be used with a suitable character concept.
Additional source books will become available through play and access to info in new books will be granted by joining guilds, prestige classes or finding items in adventures.
You may play any of the standard races from the Player's Handbook, and any of the classes from the Player's Handbook, Oriental Adventures, or the Psionist's Handbook.
The world you live in has two cultures that are fairly intermixed. One is an oriental type culture (i.e. the PC classes/spells and equipment from Oriental Adventures) and the other is European from the Player's Handbook.
PRELUDE
The action will start with the characters on a boat as part of a large troop transporting armada bound across the sea to reinforce the friendly forces at a besieged costal city. This is the earliest in the year (mid January) that the convoy can set out due to the rough weather that has plagued both armies since the onset of winter. With the arrival of these troops the friendly forces should be able to break the siege and destroy the enemy before they are able to move their reinforcements over the snow covered land routes to counter your side's new invasion. With luck the war could be over with your arrival.
But then what of you...
You have each graduated from the Sun Empire military school of unconventional warfare. You have been assigned to Shadow Command Unit 32. You were destined for covert action on and behind enemy lines, but if this assault proves successful...what then?
Session 1
The Party is:
Aramoro: Male Human Rogue 1 Antiqueas Sprye: Male Human Wizard (Necromancer)
Ran De Blathos: Male Human Cleric 1 (Luck & Healing)
Kag: Male Half Orc Monk 1
The party, having each individually completed their military training, has been loaded on a cargo ship, The Wave Skimmer. They are traveling as part of a large convoy transporting the first wave of troops and supplies to the battle-front. Caught in a storm they are separated from the rest of the convoy. After the storm repairs are made and, the very seasick, Antiqueas is cared for by Ran.
The Wave Skimmer makes all haste toward its final destination. As they approach the costal city where they are scheduled to disembark along with the rest of the convoy, the lookout calls “smoke on the horizon”. The city is under heave attack. The convoy is in port with the troop and equipment transports closely packed in the harbor. The military escort ships are ranging up the coast to attack the besieging force from the sea with their onboard catapults and ballista.
The look out then makes a second call “vessel dead ahead”. Scanning the path between The Wave Skimmer and the port the captain views a vessel that appears to be a metal plated ship with no oars or sails. Instead, it has two half circular solid arches, one on either side of the ship. As the captain watches, the new ship hoists the enemy flag and moves at a very rapid pace toward the closely packed transport ships of the convoy.
Everybody onboard The Wave Skimmer realized that with the wind at their back they are the best bet to intercept the new ship. The Military warships of their navy are up wind from the metal ship and won’t be able to maneuver to intercept in time, if they even notice the new ship’s attack run at all. The captain of The Wave Skimmer has his crew man the forward firing Ballista onboard his ship and he steers to intercept the strange ship. As The Wave Skimmer closes a stream of flame spews forth from the new ship. Through his spyglass the captain can make out several strange contraptions mounted on the railing of the strange ship. In front of each of these contraptions is a flame.
The party instantly realizes that in any prolonged combat with this ship they will end up dying a horrible fiery death. Kag shouts to the captain to ram the other ship. The captain at first refuses, but is persuaded by Kag through the threat of personal violence and the knowledge that there are thousands of troops and sailors in the harbor that will die if this ship is not stopped. The captain has the sails set for maximum speed and The Wave Skimmer shoots toward the enemy ship. The ballista crew fires two more poorly aimed shots at the metal ship while The Wave Skimmer narrows the distance between the two vessels. Suddenly three lines of flame shoot from the metal ship. Fortunately only one hits The Wave Skimmer, but that is enough to set the port side of the bow on fire. The crew moves toward the bow and braces for impact. As the two ships collide, the majority of The Wave Skimmer’s crew and the Party members are thrown to the deck.
Kag leaps to his feet and charges across The Wave Skimmer’s forecastle which, is lodged in the side on the metal ship in the middle of one of the solid arches which now is ruptures to reveal a water wheel, or at least the smashed remnants of one. Kag leaps on top of the water wheel’s casing and slides down the front of it to engage the enemy sailors in the bow of the metal ship. One of the enemy flame gunners in the bow of the metal ship manages to get a shot off which vaporizes two sailors on The Wave Skimmer and sets a portion of the port side deck on fire. While Ran, Aramoro and the remaining sailors attempt to board the enemy ship through the flames and broken wreckage of the two ships, Antiqueas makes his way back to the captain’s cabin an begins to loot it.
The captain sees Antiqueas heading for the cabin area, sees his ship in flames, and decides to flee to his cabin to recover his wealth and abandon ship via a rowboat that is stored on the aft castle. As he enters his cabin he sees Antiqueas rooting through his stuff and threatens the wizard with bodily harm if he doesn’t leave. Antiqueas, having found nothing of interest flees back to the deck, which is now completely alight. Not being much for valor or running through flame, Antiqueas flees to the aft castle and begins to lower prepare the rowboat for evacuation. At this point he is approached by the one remaining crewman on board. Fearing that his retreat may be jeopardized by this sailor, Antiqueas casts ’Fear’ on him and turns back to lowering the boat as the sailor screams and leaps over the side into the frigid water. As Antiqueas reaches the water he sees the captain, belongings wrapped in a blanket, peer over the aft castle railing and scream “Come Back”. Antiqueas fearing trouble with the captain for having rooted through the captain’s cabin rows away from the burning boat as fast as he can, knowing that he is dooming the captain to a fiery death, or a cold drowning death.
Meanwhile, Kag, Ran, and Aramoro as well as many of the sailors have boarded the enemy ship. Several of the allied sailors are killed in the boarding attempt either by enemy archers, or by the perils of jumping through the burning wreckage between the two ships. As the combat on the enemy ship rages, Kag is able to kill the enemy sailors at the bow of the enemy ship with his martial art skills. In the aft of the vessel the combat is vicious. Over half of the boarding allies sailors are killed and Ran is severally wounded before the final defenders are overcome. Aramoro ventures into the aft castle of the ship and finds a shrine where the sailors had made offerings as part of their suicidal attack. There is also a stairway leading into the hold of the ship.
Aramoro ventures down the stairs and finds a hold filled with large vats and some strange machinery as well as a stove that has no fuel present. Before Aramoro is able to do anything else he is rushed by a large man wearing a leather apron and wielding a huge wrench two-handed. Aramoro retreats in the face of this attack to the safety of the stairs then turns to face his attacker. The man strikes Aramoro with the wrench badly injuring him. Fortunately Ran descends the stairs behind Aramoro and casts ‘Cure Light Wounds’ on him.
Reinvigorated, Aramoro carries the fight to his foe and dispatches the man.
Ran returns to the deck and begins to administer healing to the surviving sailors and himself. Now that the combat has ended the boarding party realizes that they are still in peril. Their ship is nearly totally engulfed in flames and lodged in the side of the enemy ship upon which they stand. Furthermore, the now exposed wooden peaces of the paddle wheel are on fire and threatening to burn through into the hold of the metal ship. Seeing the captain on the rear of The Wave Skimmer they callout to him to turn the wheel to try to dislodge the two ships. Seeing that he is doomed anyway, the captain’s sense of duty returns and he moves to the ship’s wheel to try to help. The whole while he screams a string of curses at Antiqueas for abandoning him.
Kag uses a toppled metal mast from the enemy ship and with the help of the sailors uses it to leverage the two ships apart and break the burning timbers that entangle the two ships. Ran mans the metal ship’s wheel and tries to steer it away from the burning Wave Skimmer.
The ships finally tear apart and the last the party sees of the captain of The Wave Skimmer is his burning form still at the wheel, his mouth open issuing a dying curse on Antiqueas.
Then the deck of The Wave Skimmer collapses and the ship sink beneath the surface in a hiss of steam and smoke. The shattered remains of enemy ship’s port paddle wheel are still exposed and burning. The surviving sailors from The Wave Skimmer begin to fight the fire. Below desks Aramoro sees smoke pouring in from the port hull and knows that the timbers separating the paddle wheel and the hold are burning. He takes action and decides to smash the ship’s bilge pump to allow some bilge water into the hold to wet the burning hull timbers. In his enthusiasm he totally destroys the pump and a fountain of sea water begins to pour into the hold. As he tries to plug the hole to some degree a sailor from The Wave Skimmer and Ran come down into the hold. These two move to help, but the sailor is overcome by the smoke and passes out. As the hold is flooded the ship begins to list. This throws Ran against some of the gears and the oven. As he hits the gear control panel several levers are pushes and the sound of the Starboard paddle wheel suddenly stops. As he regains his footing Ran peers into the barred window of the oven and sees a fiery figure within pounding against the glass. He doesn’t have much time to think about this because his attention is quickly redirected back to the gushing water. He moves to help Aramoro and between the two of them they are able to minimize the inflow of the water.
Kag then enters the hold to see why the ship is listing and moves to help his companions out. The sailors above have managed to extinguish the fires onboard and now also move to the hold to help. Kag and a sailor are able to hold the leak so Aramoro and Ran move back to the deck. On his way Aramoro takes a look at the control panel and also notices the flaming figure in the oven. Aramoro flips a lever labeled containment and the bars on the oven slide out of the way. He quickly replaces this lever to its original position. Next he flips a lever labeled extinguish and is rewarded with a scream of anguish as the fire in the oven vanishes. Shrugging his shoulders he proceeded up to the deck.
On deck the sailors are all shouting and pointing to an allied man-o-war which is slowly approaching haven be alerted to the situation by the flames from The Wave Skimmer. Antiqueas, who has been sitting in the row boar about 100 yards from the combat and ignoring all calls for his assistance from the sailors slowly, rows over to the enemy ship and waits to be rescued by the approaching warship.
With the arrival of the warship, the sailors and party are rescued and the enemy ship is salvaged and towed into port. As the ship is toed into port the assault on the city begins to falter and then collapses completely. The party is called before several low level officers to give their account of the battle. They are then escorted through the ranks to give their report to higher-level officers.
Over the next couple of days they give their report dozens of times. Additionally they learn that the enemy has halted its offensive and is suing for peace. It seems that with the failed attempt to destroy the troop carrying convoy the enemy has played their final card. Unable to repel the new invasion, and unable to quickly move their own troops over the still snow choked roads they have no alternative but to surrender. The Party are hailed as heroes for stopping the “Flame Ship” since if it had reached the port the undefended and closely packed troop transport ships would have made easy pray as they waited to unload.
The party finally find themselves waiting on the foyer of the General commanding the operation. The general is currently discussing the surrender conditions with the enemy envoy. Periodically, portions of their heated discussions are overheard by the party.
“How dare you appoint that man to rule!”
“You are in no position to question my decisions”
“He is a ruthless butcher! The people will revolt! Will you have this war restart?!”
<Murmurs>
“No! His men looted Feldstone Thorp and left the villagers to starve!”
<Murmurs>
<Murmurs>
“NO! These discussions are at an END!”
With that the door burst open and the party jumped to their feat. Out through the door stormed the enemy ambassador. Just then the generals eyes lock on the party.
“Ambassador!…What about these men. They have just arrived and never even set foot out of this city. Surely you can have no opposition to appointing them?.”
The Ambassador eyes the party cautiously and then says, “I suppose not”
“Then come now. Lets be back to the table”
With that the two return to the general’s office and the door closes behind them.
Several hours later the Ambassador leaves and the party is ushered into the general’s office.
“I would like to thank you men for your outstanding effort. Without your action the convoy would have been doomed and we would not have been able to repulse this assault and may have even been ourselves repulsed from these shores before we were able to assemble such a force again. Your contribution is not to go unrewarded. You are to travel at once to the capital of Meriador. Once there you will be appointed rulers of the boarder region north of that state. There your charter will allow you to conquer and rule the region as you desire. Once again thank you. My adjutant will draft up your orders you will travel tomorrow following the medal ceremony. My adjutant will fill you in on that too. You are dismissed.”
With that the party leaves and is met by the generals adjutant who informs them that they are to receive the Order of the Star, a medal for valor in action and granted a governing charter to claim and rule what lands they may, north of the state of Meriador in a region called the Valdan Wilds.
The next morning they are presented their medals in a very formal ceremony in front of the assembled ranks of the army. They are then told to report to the Duke of the city of Gondrake, which is located on the southern tip of the Meriadorian peninsula and is the capital of Meriador.
As they are preparing for the journey they restock their traveling supplies. Antiqueas manages to procure a human corpse and casts ‘Skeleton’ (from Necromancy: Beyond the Grave [Mongoose publishing]) to animate it. He then dresses it in a heavy cloak and veil like the type worn by local mourners. Thus prepared the party departs.
ASEO out
This campaign will expant to various parties, and add in sessions for Playtests, Game Days and times when all my players could not make it to a session. I have tried to keep all the action somewhat linked into the same campaign world. What I hope come out in various chapters are several entertwining stories and characters in a living world. I will post the sessions as they were played, so there will be times where tha action switches parties in mid adventure.
We'll see how this plays out.
...Or if anyone actually reads it ;-)
ASEO out
CHAPTER 1 The Gryphon’s Legacy (Gaslight Press)
The party’s voyage to the city of Gondrake is uneventful. When they arrive they are quickly hustled into the castle of the local king who issues them a charter to conquer, settle and rule the region north of the Snowreach Mountains. To aid them in this effort the party is provided with 74 settlers who are willing to move into the new and untamed area. Additionally, the party is provided with a six-man squad of men-at-arms led by a young Lt Roderick. (It seems that Lt Roderick got a little too friendly with the King’s young wife and he is basically being exiled). The Lt seems competent enough and the five men under him seem equally so.
To complement this expedition, the party hires 2 mercenary men-at-arms (War 1), 2 mercenary archers (War 1), a mercenary horseman (war 1 w/ light warhorse), and a mercenary Leader (F2) to fill out their military might.
After spending a hectic day gathering supplies, the party leads their expedition out the city gates at the break of dawn.
Aramoro rides his new horse a half-day’s walk ahead of the rest of the expedition. Following him about two hours ahead of the main body of the settlers are the mercenaries and the remaining party members. The party travels for a week passing through the kingdom of Meriador. They settle down for the nights in toe outskirts of small towns or at waypoint stations that are placed every day’s travel along the roads. Finally the expedition arrives at the hamlet of Tir Feldar at the base of the Snowreach Mountains and at the mouth of the pass through them. Aramoro, having arrived earlier in the day has let the local town folk know the expedition is coming and has found a place for the expedition to set up camp for the night.
As the expedition enters the town that night they see a woman running toward them screaming. She is followed by a horseman wearing glowing skeletal armor and mounted on a skeletal horse. Aramoro moves to intercept the rider while the mercenaries and men-at-arms move to protect the settlers.
Seeing the approaching expedition, the horseman reigns in his horse and heads back to town. One of the mercenaries fires an arrow at him hitting him square in the back. The arrow, however, passes harmlessly through the horseman’s body. As the arrow passes through, the horseman’s armor loses its skeletal glow. Antiqueas is quick to follow up the mercenary’s attack with a ‘Magic Missile’ that also thuds into the horseman’s back. This time the party is rewarded with a scream of pain from the rider.
Aramoro dashes quickly back to town and then sneaks through the lengthening shadows toward the town square. There he witnesses several more horsemen wearing the same glowing skeletal armor, in the process of raiding the village. While Kag, Ran, Antiqueas and the mercenaries rush down the main street in pursuit of the fleeing horseman, Aramoro moves into position to attack one of the other raiders.
The fleeing horseman rounds the corner yelling in goblin, which Aramoro understands, that a patrol is coming and to get moving. The rest of the raiders toss some torches into some near by houses and then begin to grab some captured towns folk and flee toward the mountain pass. Aramoro strikes out of the darkness, throwing a dart at one of the raiders. Like the arrow before, the dart passes harmlessly through the raider with on effect except for causing the armor to lose its glow.
Aramoro prepares to strike again, but is unable to attack before the raider tramples him. Aramoro goes down in a cloud of dust and hooves, his arm bent at an unnatural angle. At this time the party and the mercenaries poor into the town center. Kag is able to pull a town’s woman off the back of the horses of one of the fleeing raiders, but is unable to prevent the raiders’ escape. The mercenaries fire some arrows at the fleeing horsemen, but to no effect. After a quick head count, Aramoro’s absence is noted. Ran notices Antiqueas peering into a shadow at the side of a burning building. Following his gaze Ran spots Aramoro’s unconscious form in the shadows. Ran rushes to his side and administers healing bring Aramoro back to consciousness. Aramoro’s arm is still broken and must be attended to, but there are wounded villagers that Ran moves to aid.
Session 2 The Gryphon’s Legacy (Gaslight Press)
The Party is:
Aramoro: Male Human Rogue 1
Ran De Blathos: Male Human Cleric 1 (Luck& Healing)
Kag: Male Half Orc Monk 1
Antiqueas Sprye: Male Human Wizard (Necromancer) 1
The remainder of the evening is spent fighting the fires in the town and guarding against a return of the raiders. The next morning, the party leaves instructions for their men-at-arms and mercenaries to remain in the town guarding the settlers and to wait with them there until the party returns from scouting the pass through the mountains. Aramoro leaves his horse in the town stables.
The party comes to a chasm about two miles out of town. The Chasm is about 30 feet wide and around 110 feet deep. Spanning the chasm is the ruins of an old bridge, its central stone support missing, and its wooden floorboards rotten. The bridge narrows the gap the party must cross, but there is still a 10-foot wide gap that must be crossed. The party discusses their options. Then they all sheepishly look at each other as they discover that they have no rope among them. They then walk the hour back to town to get some rope.
A couple of hours later the party returns to the chasm, rope in hand. Kag ties the rope around his waist, runs and gracefully leaps the gap. Ran then throws the other end of the rope across the chasm to Kag who ties it off to the bridge’s stonework. Kag unties himself and throws that end of the rope back to Aramoro who ties off and leaps the gap. Antiqueas is next and he makes a pitiful attempt at the jump and falls about 30 feet before the rope around his waist jerks him to a halt, the sudden jerk rendering him unconscious. Kag and Aramoro haul his limp form up out of the chasm and lay his still form on the ground while they throw the rope back to Ran to tie to the skeleton who absent Antiqueas’ commands is content to just stand there. Once Mr. Bones is tied off Aramoro and Kag pull him over the edge and then up out of the chasm onto their side. Meanwhile, Ran removes his armor and shield and they are pulled across the chasm. Ran then follows making a decent leap and landing safely on the other side. Once there he casts ‘Cure Light Wounds’ on Antiqueas who regains consciousness.
The party continues their progress through the pass for several more hours. In the mid afternoon they come to a steep series of switchbacks. There in the snow they see a trail of bloody footprints leading toward a very large pine tree. The party moves to investigate the tree and finds there is a covered area within the tree created by the tree’s branches and the snow drifts around the base of the tree. There is a dark gap between the branches that leads to this area. The party has a debate that basically includes everyone yelling “Not It!”. As a result Kag is selected to enter the gap between the branches.
Kag lights a lantern and carefully shines the light into the darkness as he moves through the branches. There at the base of the tree propped up against the trunk is a small reptilian creature with badly bleeding feet wrapped in tattered rags. The creature is very pale and obviously suffering from the cold. He is dressed in crude leather armor; a spear and dagger lay by his side. Kag asks him who/what he is and some other questions. The creature weakly replies, but Kag is unable to understand it. Seeing that the creature is no threat, Kag beckons the rest of the party into the natural shelter. Antiqueas realizes that the creature is a Kobold and that it is speaking Draconic. He communicates with the Kobold. The party decides to heal the Kobold in exchange for his acting as a guide for them as they move through the pass. The Kobold agrees and Ran casts ’Cure Lt Wounds’ on the little guy. Feeling much better, the Kobold talks freely with the party. His name is Meegoo and he is a scout for his tribe. He is looking for a new location for his tribe to move since they had a bumper crop of young born this year and have outgrown their new home. While the party is talking to Meegoo the weather outside takes a turn for the worse and a steady snow begins to fall. The party decides that they will shelter the night within the natural shelter that the large tree provides. Meegoo helps cut some interior branches to cover the floor with and make the area more livable. Being a bit concerned about having an armed Kobold among them, Kag offers Meegoo two gold coins for his weapons. Meegoo realizing the party means him no harm greedily makes the exchange. While the party settles down Meegoo tells the party of a mean “Bird-Cat” that lives in the valley and that he cut his feet on “Snow that bites”. He agrees to point these hazards out to the party as they move through the pass. That night Ran succeeds in healing Aramoro’s broken arm.
The next morning the party along with their Kobold guide begin to climb a series of steep switchbacks to the summit of the pass. As they near the summit around midday a tall tower appears before them on the western side of the pass. As they near the tower Meegoo warns them that it is the lair of the “Bird-Cat” and the snow around the tower bites. The party holds back as Aramoro slowly advances on the tower. He is nearing the tower and can see that the top is covered in a random mess of sticks. The door of the tower is missing and Aramoro is drawn forward by the darkness beyond. Suddenly his foot scrapes against something under the snow. Apparently the ground beneath the snow has been sewn with caltrops. The appearance of these wicked devices causes Aramoro to slow his approach and watch his footing. While his attention is diverted to his feet, a sudden bestial scream pierces the air and a young (or at least small) Griffon swoops from the top of the tower. The Griffon swoops down on Aramoro savagely attacking him and with a bite and a few swipes of its claws takes Aramoro down. As the rest of the party rushes to Aramoro’s rescue, the Griffon attempts without success to grab Aramoro’s body and leap into the air.
Antiqueas summons a Fiendish Hawk, which flies into the Griffon’s face and distracts it. Ran fires a couple of poorly aimed crossbow bolts at the creature and Kag charges the beast. The Griffon turns its attention from Aramoro to the Fiendish Hawk and tears the creature out of the air with a single swipe. As Kag nears the beast he throws a dart that hits the Griffon, again drawing its attention away from Aramoro. Ran who has been advancing finally also hits the Griffon with a crossbow bolt. Suddenly Kag feels a sharp pain in his foot and falls down with a caltrop imbedded deep on his heel. Meegoo scolds the party saying, “I told you “Bird-Cat” in tower, and snow bites." Only Antiqueas understands Meegoo, and he is to busy casting ‘Magic Missile” to comment back. The ‘Magic Missile’ slams into the Griffon who decides that it has had enough and it fleas back up to the top of the tower where it is lost from view.
Ran slowly approaches the wounded Kag, casts ‘Cure Lt Wounds’ on him then approaches Aramoro and does the same thing. Once these two are back on their feet they all slowly approach the tower door clearing a path through the caltrops as they go. Once a path is clear Meegoo and Antiqueas and his Skeleton follow.
The party enters the tower and finds the inside gutted. The roof is a collection of sticks and twigs that the party correctly surmises is the bottom of the Griffon’s nest. The party decides to fire a burning crossbow bolt into the bottom of the nest and burn/smoke the Griffon out. The bolt is fired and a slow smoldering fire begins to burn in the jumble of wood and sticks. Aramoro steps outside the door and shortly notifies the party that the Griffon has flown array from the smoking nest that was its home. The party then steps outside of the tower and waits for the nest to burn through and collapse to the tower floor. They then move back into the tower and clear the debris enough to spend the night.
The following morning, in a light snow, they continue to move through the pass. Around noon they come to a series of descending switchbacks. Here they are treated with a view of the valley before them, and their first look at the castle of Gryphon Rock. From this range they can see little more than the castle has several internal buildings and is situated on the crest of a hill overlooking the pass’s northern entrance. Additionally they can see a large tower on the Castles east side that appears to be connected by a drawbridge and sits on its own hillcrest. The party spends the remainder of the day watching the castle as they cautiously descend the switchbacks. As they near the bottom of the switchbacks they detect a faint trail of smoke coming from the castle. That night as darkness falls the party decides to have Aramoro sneak down the road within view of the castle and set up a campfire. Skeleton will replace him standing by the fire and he will then try to climb the hill to the castle then go back to the party. The party will then watch and see what happens.
About 15 minutes after Aramoro has rejoined the party three horsemen in glowing bone armor come riding from the direction of the castle and charge the skeleton who is standing by the fire. The first rider spears Mr. Bones with his lance destroying the Skeleton. The remaining riders thunder through the fake campsite then wheel back and circle the area. Between the darkness and their own disturbing of the area they fail to notice Aramoro’s footprints leading from the scene. The riders dismount and discover the skeleton for what it is. The one who killed it holds its skull up in triumph and howls something into the night air. The riders then stomp out the fire and ride back toward the castle.
Meanwhile, Aramoro has discovered that the hill is too steep to climb safely without rope. After nearly falling, he returns to the party, reports this information and watches the Ghost riders attack the Skeleton.
Having determined that the Ghost riders are in fact currently in control of the castle, the party moves back into the pass and waits until morning to continues scouting. The next morning, in a light snow, Aramoro moves stealthy down the road around the castle and out of the view of the party. Kag mentions that he wishes he could climb up the slope to a breach in the castles wall. Antiqueas says he can help out and casts ‘Spider Climb’ on Kag. Kag moves down to the base of the hill and easily begins climbing toward the breach. About half way up the 200-foot slope he notices a small stone landing. Investigating further he finds that there is an opening into the cliff face on the landing. This passage is rubble choked and looks as if it has not seen use in decades. Kag moves into the tunnel and navigates his way around the debris. The tunnel opens up after about 20 feet into a 15ft square chamber that has an opening on the far and left walls. Looking into the left opening Kag sees a room of about the same size that is choked with spider webs. Suddenly a medium-size, Monstrous Hunting Spider rushes forward to attack. Kag lashes out with a flurry of blows soundly striking the spider twice and killing it. Kag then steps back and moves to investigate the other passage way. This one contains several burial niches and the left over equipment from an embalming process. The end of the passage is blocked with stacked sarcophagi. Kag moves one and sees three animated Skeletons beyond. This is enough for him and he retreats back to the cliff face.
Continuing his climb, Kag makes it to the breach in the wall. The wall is about 20 feet high and close to 10 feet thick. Moving through the breach Kag finds himself in the inside of a ruined structure. The rood is missing and dead thistle stocks poke up through the snow-covered floor. Several exits lead from this building. There is a single door across from the breach, double doors at the right end of the structure, and a single door at the left end of the structure. Kag moves to the door on the left and listens. Beyond the door he hears the sounds of talking and some laughing. He decides to slowly open the door and sees that there is another internal building next to the one he is in that has a door very near the one he opened. Beyond that structure is another, then there is the castle gatehouse. Kag peers around the door to better see into the courtyard. There he sees two hyena-headed humanoids (Gnolls) talking to two beings wearing the glowing Ghost Armor. It seems that in the early dawn light they are stretching and beginning to have some weapon practice. They seem to be talking to another person that is out of Kag’s view. Suddenly one of the Gnolls looks in Kag’s direction, perhaps the movement of the door having captures his attention. Kag rapidly flees back across the structure, through the breach, and then ‘Spider Climbs’ up the wall to hide on the wall and amid the battlements. The 4 humanoids move into the structure and seem to be discussing Kag’s footprints in the snow. It seems that the ghost riders are trying to convince the Gnolls that what they saw was just some sort of being that might walk with arms extended and dragging a foot. (The Ghost Riders pantomime a zombie walk and slap the Gnolls on the back laughing.) Kag can’t understand them, but gets the gist of their hand motions. As the humanoids move to the breach in the wall and look sown the slope, Kag scurries down the top of the wall toward the Gatehouse towers.
Across the courtyard, a door opens on a tower on the opposite side of the castle. Stepping out of the tower to relieve him self is a lean white-haired figure with ebony skin (Drow). Kag quickly slides into the shadows of the battlements. The person he was unable to see in the courtyard says something to the Drow to which the Drow makes a rude gesture and comments back. Hearing this conversation, the two Gnolls and two Ghost Riders return to the courtyard. The ghost riders continue to tease the Gnolls about “having seen something” and making zombie gestures. The unseen being yells at the four and they once again return to weapon’s practice. The Drow stretches and returns to the tower closing the door behind him. Kag proceeds down the wall to the door to the gatehouse tower. Opening it he finds an abandoned room with a stairway down, a ladder leading to a trap door in the ceiling and a door in the right wall. From below he hears the sounds of conversation. Calculating the time of his ‘Spider Climb’ capability is nearing an end he exits the tower the way he came and descends the exterior of the castle wall and then the cliff. As he reaches the bottom his spell expires and he slides the last 20 feet.
Upon returning to the party Kag finds that Aramoro has not returned. Kag, Antiqueas, Ran and Meegoo wait until nightfall ant there is still no sign of Aramoro. Kag tries to scout the area after dark, but the wind has covered any footprints Aramoro might have left. With their food supply running short, the party heads back through the pass toward Tir Feldar at the break of dawn. There has been no sign of Aramoro.
ASEO out
The Fate of Aramoro
Unbeknown to the rest of the party, Aramoro skirted the castle at the base of the cliff and made his way sneakily up to the main gate. On his way around the castle he passed the ruins of a village that once stood in the castle’s shadow. As Aramoro proceeded up the winding path that led to the castle gates he saw a spray of dirt come from a large den-like hole at the base of a blackberry thicket. Avoiding this area he made it to the left gatehouse tower. There he threw a grappling hook, which he had padded to ensure silence, over the top of the tower. Careful to avoid any of the arrow slits perforating the tower he made his way to the flat snow-covered tower roof. Peeking over the parapet he is just in time to see Kag leaving the castle wall by slipping over the wall near the other gatehouse tower.
Aramoro lowered himself to the wall and moves along the wall toward the tower Kag saw the Drow emerge from. Aramoro is careful to keep close to the wall and out of sight of the 2 Gnolls and three Ghost riders he spotted in the castle courtyard. Aramoro carefully avoids the still steaming yellow snow in front of the door to a tower in front of him in the wall. He listens to the door and hears nothing. Deftly he attaches his grappling hook to the battlements by the door, opens the door and swings over the wall out of sight from the interior of the castle. Hanging on the wall he notices a large hole in the wall several feet from the tower he is investigating. When the opened tower door elicits no response Aramoro quickly bounds back over the wall and slides through the door into the tower’s interior, closing the door behind him.
The interior of the tower is bare of furnishings save a small wooden table encrusted with candle wax. A pile of arrows lies on the table. Arrow slits in the wall provide a wide range of fire and admit the only light in the chamber. Stairs lead down to a dark lower level, and a ladder leads to a trapdoor in the ceiling. A second door leads presumably to the wall on the far side of the tower.
Aramoro draws his short sword and moves down the stairs. In the growing darkness he is unable to discern all the features of the windowless unlit room at the base of the stairs. As his eyes acclimate to the darkness he is able to make out a white haired figure sleeping on a pallet on the floor near the stairs. As he approaches the figure, the sleeping Drow wakes up and jumps to his feet. Before Aramoro can react the Drow has grabbed a sword from the darkness. Aramoro throws a dart at the Drow who deftly dodges it. The Drow then lashes out slicing Aramoro across the chest. As the Drow withdraws into the darkness to strike again, Aramoro flees back up the stairs, pulling a string on a pouch that releases caltrops onto the stairs. At the top of the stairs Aramoro spins and faces the stairway dart in hand. The Drow is quick to follow, but stops short of the caltrops and dodges the dart that Aramoro throws. The Drow darts back around the corner and out of sight. Aramoro readies another dart. Suddenly Aramoro can no longer see. An arrow whistles past his head and thuds into the door. Aramoro scrambles for the door and throws it open. Diving through he finds his vision has returned, but the tower behind him is still utterly dark inside. Aramoro dashes madly down the castle wall back to the gatehouse tower. There he throws open the tower door and is confronted by two Zombies standing by a large wench system, presumably for opening the gate and raising the portcullis. Aramoro slams the door and climbs the side of the tower to the roof. In his panic he is deaf to the cries of alarm from the courtyard. He pulls himself over the roof battlements and lies on his back in the snow on the tower’s roof.
There he hears cries from the courtyard and the yell of the Drow coming across the castle wall toward the tower. The tower door opens then suddenly the snow near Aramoro’s feet erupts in an explosion as a trapdoor is thrown open. Aramoro leaps to his feet and throws a dart at the Drow emerging from the trap door. The dart catches the Drow in the shoulder, but doesn’t slow him. The Drow lashes out at Aramoro with his sword. Aramoro’s last sensations are of the cold steel rending his flesh and the warmth of his own blood splattering his face. Then, he knew no more.
ASEO out
This campaign will expant to various parties, and add in sessions for Playtests, Game Days and times when all my players could not make it to a session. I have tried to keep all the action somewhat linked into the same campaign world. What I hope come out in various chapters are several entertwining stories and characters in a living world. I will post the sessions as they were played, so there will be times where tha action switches parties in mid adventure.
We'll see how this plays out.
...Or if anyone actually reads it ;-)
ASEO out
While I think describing the game as it unfolded is a very good system I do hope you'll remind us which party we are reading about and who is in it.
Also I'll suggest that you use the naming convention I noticed on the Jason Bulmahn DMs Eberron Thread. That is characters are refered to with their players name attached. So you might have the ninja(Sara) throws her grappling hook or Podshi(Sara) throws her grappling hook. The benifit is that you can refer to your PCs by either their class description or their names as you see fit. The audience has an easier time following along since we quickly come to associate the names of the players behind the names or class descriptions and are not as easly forgetting that Podshi is a Ninja. This also allows you to more easily refer to metagaming events worthy of being written about. If the rest of the players have just had it with Sara's Ninja bumbling everything and this causes some printable material you can switch to describing that action easily "Sara retorted..." becomes easier to follow - we have already been seeing the name Sara attached to a ninja named Podshi for 6 posts. We know who Sara is in the context of this RPG.
Aramoro’s last sensations are of the cold steel rending his flesh and the warmth of his own blood splattering his face. Then, he knew no more.
I was wondering if any of your players ever died. I did not notice a single fatality in the last thread you did but here somebody buys the farm.
Aramoro’s last sensations are of the cold steel rending his flesh and the warmth of his own blood splattering his face. Then, he knew no more.I was wondering if any of your players ever died. I did not notice a single fatality in the last thread you did but here somebody buys the farm.
Yeah, the characters in "The Other Side" were just lucky I gurss. There have been a couple of deaths in this campaign.
ASEO out
Session 3 The Gryphon’s Legacy (Gaslight Press)
Chapter 2, Take II
The Party is:
Ran De Blathos: Male Human Cleric 1 (Luck& Healing)
Kag: Male Half Orc Monk 1
Antiqueas Sprye: Male Human Wizard (Necromancer) 1
Meegoo: Male Kobold Expert 1(Scout) Henchman/Mascot/Pet?
The party arrives back in the Tir Feldar in the evening two days later. There they discuss their plans with Lt. Roderick and The Mercenary Leader. It is decided that the party will be accompanied by the Mercenaries will return back through the pass in the morning. They will then assault the keep through the sally port Kag found on the cliff face. Lt Roderick mentions that there is an elf, just arrived in town, that is asking questions about rangers and mountain men that usually begin to come through the pass at this time of the year.
The elf is shown in and introduces himself as Falin hailing from the Moonbreak Forest to the west. He claims to have come to trade with and meet fellow Rangers who use the pass and have spent the winter in the Valdan Wilds. The fact that his compatriots have not arrived this year worries him and he says that he is planning to go through the pass to search them out. The party fills him in on the Ghost Riders, and he offers to accompany the party in an attempt to clear the pass and reach his friends. The party agrees that he can come.
Falin of Moonbreak Forest Male Elf Ranger 1 Joins the party
Kag then suggests that the party draw up rules by which any loot recovered will be divided, and how to compensate anyone who should die or be dismembered or disfigured. Ran, Kag and Antiqueas each get one share and first choice of treasure. The Mercenaries will get one share among them to split as they see fit. Falin will receive one share. Meegoo is not included in the discussion or the treasure sharing. The Mercenaries are pleased since they had just signed on for pay and any treasure is extra to them. Additionally the compensation for injury or death, an expense that they had worked out among themselves, out of their pay, is now to be paid out of any treasure claimed. The Mercenaries do make one claim very clear. They will serve in life for the duration of their contract (Which is half over), but they will not stand for the corpses of their fellows to be animated. Ran and Kag agree to this. Antiqueas shrugs and offers no comment. The townsfolk aren't real comfortable with having a Kobold in town, but since he seems to be with the party they try to ignore him. Still he manages to get into some trouble digging through rubbish bins, stalking family pets, and getting into a fight with a young boy. The party stopped him before anybody got seriously hurt. They learn that Meegoo responds to brute force and might makes right rule. They push and shove him around to teach him his position in their group, at the bottom. Meegoo seems content with this since the party seems powerful (to him) and it is always better to be the weakest member of a strong team than the strongest member of a weak team. Besides, this town seems too heavily protected to be a good place for his tribe to settle, and the half-orc did give him some gold coins. Still, he tends to hang out with Antiqueas who favors the dark corners.
The party leaves orders with Lt Roderick to repair the bridge north of town while the party is gone then to wait for their return. With this, the party and the mercenaries load up on rope and head back into the valley. They build a two-rope bridge across the chasm then proceed into the valley. They push through to the watchtower and spend the night there. They also spend some time clearing and marking a path through the caltrops. The next morning they all push to the base of the valley's northern entrance. There, in the shadow of Gryphon Castle, they wait until darkness falls. In the growing darkness Antiqueas casts 'Spider Climb' on Kag. Kag then loads up with rope and scurries up the hillside to the
sally port he had discovered on his first trip to the castle.
Upon reaching the sally port Kag tied off the rope and threw it down for the rest of the party and the Mercenaries to climb up. As everybody climbs up, they begin to move into the room where Kag killed the big spider. The Mercenaries start a small fire using pieces of beams from the partially collapsed sally port tunnel. In the debris of the room, a small helmet, a crude spear, and a small, jeweled ring are found. The spear and helmet are given to Meegoo who is greatly impressed with the generosity of the party. The fact that the helmet was to small for anybody else, and the spear, of poor quality is lost on the Kobold. The ring ends up in the "treasure bag" carried by Kag.
Once everybody is up, Kag and Ran move to the end of the passageway that is blocked by a stack of sarcophagi. Peering through some gaps Kag is able to see at least three animated Skeletons standing in the chamber beyond. Kag and Ran decide to try to push the top sarcophagus off into the chamber with the Skeletons. They try to hit the nearest Skeleton with the sarcophagus as well. On the count of three they both give the sarcophagus a mighty shove (STR check 24) and send it crashing into the room beyond. The falling sarcophagus lands squarely on the Skeleton (to hit roll natural 20) crushing it and sending its bones scattering across the floor.
Kag and Ran followed by the rest of the party charge through the breach and quickly dispatch the other two skeletons. Antiqueas then re-animates one of them with his 'Skeleton' spell. As the party is fighting in this room, they fail to notice the door across from their point of entry open slightly then close. The Mercenaries are commanded to guard the sally port and the gap in the sarcophagi. Taking stock of their new surroundings, the party finds themselves in a small vaulted chamber, lit by the torch of one of the Mercenaries standing by the sarcophagi. There is a door set in the wall left of the party's entry point, a door across from their entry, and a corridor running to the right. Their investigation immediately goes to the left door that is mounted with a large bronze lion's head. As Antiqueas examines the door the lion's mouth opens and it asks "Who are you and why do you seek to pass?" Antiqueas immediately responds in a commanding voice "I am Antiqueas Sprye. I own this castle. You will open for me!" (Bluff check 19)
With this the door opens to revel a dark round chamber with a descending stairwell around its outer wall. The party peers into the darkness and decides that they are not ready to descend into the depths of the castle...yet.
Their attention is then drawn to the passageway to the right. It extends about 15 feet then opens up into a large storage room. There is a stairway leading up on the NE wall and a large pile of trash on the SW wall. There are several barrels of provisions in the eastern corner of the room. As Kag ventures into the room using his dark vision, Ran stands in the hallway and Falin and Antiqueas wait with the Mercenaries by the fallen sarcophagi.
Suddenly the door across from the sarcophagi burst open and in the doorway is a snarling Wolf. The party can see little beyond the doorway except that the back of the room is covered by a curtain and behind the Wolf is a second wolf and several Skeletons. There is a Zombie standing holding the door open. Seeing the wolf about to pounce on Antiqueas, Ran dashes to the doorway and blocks the Wolf's exit from the room, narrowly avoiding being bitten himself. Ran brings his mace down hard on the Wolf's head then steadies himself for the Wolf's counter attack. However, before the Wolf can attack, two 'Magic Missiles' come flying from behind the curtain and slam into Ran's chest knocking him to the ground. The Wolf leaps over Ran's unconscious form and is met by Falin who savagely slashes at this his hated foe.
These may not be the same wolves who killed his parents, but that doesn't matter. The only good wolf is a dead wolf and Falin means to see that these wolves die. Kag joins Falin while Antiqueas makes a hasty retreat. The combat becomes more complex as the Skeletons move in to attack. While Falin fends off the Wolves, Kag manages to recover Ran and drag him from the fray. Meegoo and the Mercenaries fire arrows into the combat wounding one of the Wolves.
Once free of the melee Kag is able to bind Ran's wounds and prevent any further blood loss. Kag then leaves Ran in the care of one of the Mercenaries and returns to the battle. Re entering the fray, Kag bashes one Skeleton apart. One of the Mercenaries moves up to help, buy is tripped by one of the wolves and then bitten severely by the other. He goes down in a pool of blood. Falin manages to kill one Wolf.
Suddenly everything goes dark. Antiqueas yells "magical darkness!" Falin back peddles through the downed sarcophagi, and is met by the Mercenary Leader who is entering the 'Darkness' with a sword in one hand and a healing potion in the other. Seeing this valor Falin changes his mind and also heads back into the 'Darkness'. Back in the vaulted room he smells the stench of death. He hears the Mercenary Leader gasp in pain and then feels a blow just miss his head. Falin moves away from his attacker and toward the right passage. There he feels his way around the Mercenary Leader who is blindly trying to help his downed man. Once past them, Falin moves toward the sound of battle at the end of the hallway. Then, there in the 'Darkness' he runs into a Skeleton. Before Falin can act the Skeleton turns and lashes out with a clawed hand. Falin feels the claw catch him just below the chin and feels the flesh of his throat being torn.
The Mercenary Leader hears Falin's scream cut shirt in a watery gurgle and feels a warm spray of blood mist across his face. He's been in to many battles not to know what is coming next. He braces himself and leans over to protect his man from Falin's body, which falls on top of him in a limp heap. As he shrugs Falin's body off, he hears a slight rasp come from Falin. Having stabilized his soldier, he turns his attention to Falin. His fingers grope about for Falin's face. Suddenly, splinters of bone shower them both. Then everything gets quiet. The Mercenary Leader feels the ragged tear in Falin's neck and then feels the spray of blood that means the heart is still pumping. Finding Falin's mouth, the Mercenary Leader pours his Healing Potion into the dying elf. The mercenary Leader feels the skin of Falin's neck mending beneath his fingers. Falin doesn't regain consciousness, but at least he won't die yet. Meanwhile, Kag back peddles as well, kicking out at the remaining Wolf as he goes. His foot connects and with the sickening sound of snapping bone the Wolf goes down. Kag backs into the large room with the provisions and finds himself out of the 'Darkness'. Using his dark vision he waits by the wall at the edge of the 'Darkness'. A Whirlwind (small Air Elemental) suddenly spins out of the 'Darkness' and Kag lashes out at it. He misses and the Whirlwind then begins to take a more physical form stirring up dust and debris. Kag attacks with a flurry of blows even as he is buffeted by the wind and debris. His elbow connects with something solid as does his fist and the Whirlwind dissipates. Kag then sees a flash of a salvo of 'Magic Missiles' out of the corner of his vision, this is followed by a sharp stabbing pain in his side. Kag spins to find a woman crouched on the ceiling just out of the darkness. Kag (who is down to his last Hp) leaps forward and in a magnificent flurry of blows lands a foot just under the woman's jaw then follows up with a critical hit to her stomach. The woman falls from the ceiling and lands on the floor in a limp heap. Behind her emerging from the 'Darkness', Kag can just make out the back of a Skeleton, which seems to be fighting something on the other side of it. Before it has a chance to turn around Kag takes a well-aimed punch at its head and is rewarded with the satisfying sound of his foe's skull shattering. Kag then quietly calls out to any of his companions who might be able to hear him. The Mercenary Leader responds and together they pull the unconscious forms of Falin and the wounded Mercenary out of the 'Darkness' and into the large storage room. Kag peers up the stairs, and can hear some voices up above laughing and talking. He can also smell food being cooked. He and the Mercenary Leader take up positions on either side of the doorway just incase someone comes down to investigate. On the other side of the 'Darkness' back in the spider room, the Mercenaries are keeping watch for anything to emerge from the 'Darkness'. They can hear something moving around, but don't know if it is friend or foe, so they wait for the 'Darkness' to abate like Antiqueas told them it would. Eventually the 'Darkness' fades and there standing in the hallway is a Zombie that begins to advance on the Mercenaries. The Mercenaries and Meepoo promptly perforate the Zombie with arrows and it collapses looking like a pincushion. The Mercenaries then surge forward looking for their leader and are greeted by him coming back around the corner.
It is decided that all the bodies will be dragged back to the spider room. The party with the unconscious woman, who turned out to be a Half Drow (she auto stabilized at -5 Hp) in tow retreat back into the room the Wolves had emerged from. Ran regains consciousness, but Falin and the Mercenary are still out. Antiqueas rifles through the Half Drow's clothing and then scurries off into a corner cradling a book in his arms. He commands his Skeleton to stand watch in the vaulted chamber where the other Skeleton's had been then settles down to examine his treasure. Additionally, a slightly glowing dagger as well as what appears to be a sealed empty, but feels full, potion bottle is taken from the Half Drow. While Kag stands guard by the door, Ran begins to pray and the Mercenary Leader directs his soldiers in the investigating and looting of the room they are in. The room seems to be part bedroom and part morgue/operating room. The walls of this room are covered in dark, blood-colored tapestries showing scenes of forest unicorns, a plague of bats, and a pack of wolves tearing down a stag. A large wooden desk covered with books, scrolls, and candles stands in the center of the room. The party decides that they will wait here until Ran can recover his spells enough to bring Falin and the Mercenary back to fighting order. They think that the absence of any bodies and the presence of Antiqueas' Skeleton in the vaulted chamber will keep any of the keeps other residents from investigating or paying this room a visit.
ASEO out
Session 4.0 The Gryphon’s Legacy (Gaslight Press)
Chapter 3, Raid on Gryphon Rock
The Party is:
Ran De Blathos: Male Human Cleric 1 (Luck& Healing) Barbarian 1
Kag: Male Half Orc Monk 2
Antiqueas Sprye: Male Human Wizard (Necromancer) 2
Falin of Moonbreak Forest: Male Elf Ranger 1
Meegoo: Male Kobold Expert 1(Scout) Henchman/Mascot/Pet?
The party and mercenaries rest for a couple of hours when they begin to hear a thumping coming from behind a tapestry on the back wall of the room. Kag investigates and finds a small door set into the wall behind the tapestry. He cautiously unlatches the door and opens it to find a small 3ftx3ftx3ft cell in which is a bound and gagged human of oriental appearance. The young lad is pulled out and struggles to maintain his footing. Kag unties him while one of the mercenaries holds a sword ready. The lad is ungagged and quickly interrogated. He claims to be a powerful sorcerer who was abducted while traveling through the woods south of the Snowreach Mountains. He has been roughly treated by the bandits and believes that he was about to be transformed into a Zombie by the Drow Witch. He furthermore reveals that he is in fact a she, and her name is Jen Po.
Jen Po: Female Human Unwilling Sorcerer 1 joins the party
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New Character Class
Unwilling Sorcerer - Character dealing with undesired/mysterious manifesting of magical powers.
1. Character's castable spells are all rolled randomly.
2. Additionally, the character gets a bonus spell known at each spell level that may manifest in an emergency situation.
a. (for example: Should the character find himself falling off a cliff, the player could declare the desire to manifest one of his emergency spells. At this point the DM will chose an appropriate spell that will be beneficial to the character based on the availability of an empty emergency spell slot for the various spell levels. In this case the character might manifest 'Feather Fall', 'Fly', 'Polymorph Self', into something that can fly, 'Levitate', 'Monster Summoning' some flying creature to catch him, or some other spell that will get the character out of trouble.) This spell will then be added to the character's spell list and no further emergency spell of that level will be available.
3. The Character may cast spells with out material components.
4. The Character is not fully in control of their destiny. If the character wishes to add a level in a class other than Sorcerer they must notify the DM before they gain 80% of the Ex needed for that next level. At the 80% Ex point the DM will roll a 25% chance that the character immediately gains a Sorcerer level at that point and immediately begins to gain Ex against the next level. Should the 25% chance not result in the gaining of a Sorcerer level, the character will be allowed to gain the remaining 20% Ex needed for the next level and proceed to gain a level in the class of their choice.
5. The character may choose a magical blood type from Fantasy Flight's Spells and Spellcraft, page 67.
The current character is a Human Female of oriental background. She has manifested the following spells due to Fey blood in her veins:
0 Level - Daze, Ghost Sound, Mage Hand, Acid Splash (Magic of Faerun)
1st Level - True Strike, Ghost Light (Oriental Adventures)
Additionally, her Fey blood lets her cast 'Vanish' (invisible for 2 rounds or something like that) once a day as a Spell-like ability.
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The Drow woman is coaxed back to consciousness by Ran and then turned over to Antiqueas for "questioning". After breaking several of her fingers, Antiqueas gains the knowledge that they will all pay for their transgressions against her and that should they kill her, her master Vikram the Black will steal their souls and make their corpses dance for eternity in the burning fires of hell. Antiqueas gets tired of her threats, renders her unconscious with a vicious backhand, gags and binds her and stuffs her in the small cell and latches the door.
In investigating the room a couple of letters are recovered. One is a letter of instruction from Vikram to the woman who's name appears to be Vistola. The other is a letter is a draft letter found in the corner that mentions that the bandits had captured a Servant of Orcus who, under torture, confessed that he was entering the area to aid his fellows in uncovering the lost tomb of Abysthor. The fate of this prisoner of the bandits remains unknown.
After spending several hours Kag decides to try the potion that was found on Vistola. It seems that the bottle is empty, but feels as if it is full. Kag leaves the slightly glowing dagger he took from Vistola with Jen to reassure her of the part's good intentions. He then leaves whispered orders with the mercenaries to kill her if she tries anything funny. It seems that she is only interested in resting though. Kag then drinks the potion, which does as he believed convey invisibility upon him. He then leaves the room and heads up the stairs in the cellar.
He emerges at the top to the stairs in an empty kitchen. He estimates the time to be around midnight so he decides to investigate further hoping that the inhabitants of the keep are asleep. Kag sneaks across the kitchen and enters a dark great hall. With his Dark Vision he is able to see several sleeping shapes on the floor. He tries to sneak over to one of the forms but trips over a stray bone on the floor. The noise causes all of the forms, save one smaller one set apart from the rest, to stir. Kag waits for them to settle down then moves to the nearest form and stabs his siangham through the sleeping creature's eye. He instantly kills the creature, which appears to be a Hobgoblin, but the sound of his weapon smashing through the back of the creature's skull and clanging off the floor causes the other sleeping hobgoblins to instantly wake up. Kag lashes out and catches one of the creatures in a savage flurry of blows and is rewarded with a loud crack of snapping bone and a warm spray of crimson blood fountaining from the creatures smashed face. His foe crumples to a heap. His two remaining foes head for different exits. Kag leaps after one catching the hobgoblin as it passes the small remaining sleeping form. As Kag closes the Hobgoblin takes a poorly aimed swing at his head. Kag kicks the Hobgoblin in the head then spins to land his other foot against the skull of a newly awakened kobold, which had tried to bite him. With these enemies down Kag chases down the remaining Hobgoblin catching the creature as it throws open the great double doors and flees into the courtyard. A quick rabbit punch to the throat and this foe falls. Dragging the creature quickly back to the great hall Kag discovers that these were female Hobgoblins. He pulls all the bodies in and piles them inside by the double doors.
Kag then climbs a set of stairs at the end of the room and finds himself on the battlements near the point where he had spotted the Drow on his first foray into the keep several days earlier. Kag moves cautiously down the wall toward the gatehouse. As he nears the gatehouse he sees some light coming from the arrow slits of a structure. Creeping quietly, and this time he actually does, Kag peeks into the arrow slit and sees two hobgoblins seated by a dying fire over which simmers a pot of stew. The entrance to the room lies on the far side of the structure and Kag reasons that with help these two sentries could be eliminated leaving the gate house open for the party to inhabit, and if the Bandits are out of the keep at the moment (which he suspects), then the party will be able to ambush them as they return. Kag returns to the party in the basement and gathers the Mercenary leader and the four conscious mercenaries. The six of them return to the guard post and are amazingly enough able to quietly get into position. Two mercenaries fire into the room through the arrow slits while the Merc leader, remaining 2 mercs and Kag rush the complacently un bared door. One of the Hobgoblins is injured in the first volley of arrows. The Hobgoblins leap to their feet grabbing their weapons as the force led by Kag bursts through the door. Kag knocks aside a sword thrust at him and bashes his attacker's head in, then follows up with a kick to the groin for good measure. The Mercenary Leader slays the other wounded Hobgoblin with an overhead slash that bisects the creature's head. Suddenly the hum of a bowstring sounds in the night and one of the mercenaries cries out in pain. Kag spots a dark shape on the battlement above the structure his force had just invaded and directs the mercenaries to focus their return fire there. In an exchange of arrows, the mercenary leader is hit, but the figure is driven to seek shelter in the gatehouse. Two of the mercenaries and the mercenary leader climb up a ladder on the opposite side of the gatehouse and enter a door there. Kag then grabs the ladder and leans it up against the wall on the other side of the gatehouse and proceeds to follow the figure through the gatehouse door. (actually, Kag made a couple of pathetic Jump attempts to reach the battlements, but this makes a better story and is what he resorted to eventually anyway).
The smell of rotting flesh wafts over the mercenaries as they open the gatehouse door and in the gloom they can see forms shambling toward them. A fight ensues in, which the 2 mercenaries and the Merc leader fight 2 Zombies in near total darkness. This battle is briefly interrupted by the figure opening a door on the far side of the gatehouse room and firing an arrow at one of the mercenaries. The Mercenaries press the attack and the figure withdraws only to run into Kag who has battered down the door through which the figure had fled into the gatehouse.
The mercenaries' battle with the Zombies is long and sloppy on both sides over a third of the attacks resulted in fumbles and the Mercenaries suffered several bouts of retching do to the stench. The darkness further reinforced the reason that humans prefer to fight battles in daylight. The Mercenaries swung blindly and only hit their foes by pure luck. Kag, on the other hand, found himself face-to-face with a Drow who slashed at him with a sword. Kag, not hampered by the darkness fought valiantly and left the Drow a bloody pile of broken bones smeared across the floor. Kag then enters the room with the Zombies and aids in the dispatching of the remaining zombie post haste.
ASEO out
Session 4.1
Following the combat, the Mercenary leader and the other mercenary injured by the arrows collapse into unconsciousness due to some poison on the weapons which hit them. Kag and one mercenary armed with a longbow stay in the gatehouse with the unconsciousness Mercenary leader while the remainder of the assault force returns to the cellar quarters of the Drow Witch. The plan is now to ambush the next guards when they come on duty.
While the rest of the party waits in the Drow Witch’s quarters, Kag, one of the Mercenary Bowmen, and the unconscious Mercenary Leader wait in the gatehouse.
In the cellar Antiqueas pours over the Drow Witch’s spell book and the spells contained with in ‘Read Magic’, Magic Missile’, ‘Chill Touch’, ‘Mount’, ‘Spider Climb’, ‘Skul Snare’ (Necromancy: Beyond the Grave), ‘Bones of Steel’ (Necromancy: Beyond the Grave), and ‘Ghost Armor’ (from the module). The other party members rest under Ran’s healing care.
Around two hours before dawn, the Mercenary Leader regains consciousness. Then, at dawn, those in the gatehouse notice the first movement within the keep. Several Hobgoblins and a couple of Gnolls come out of the large tower across the courtyard. They are briefly visible as they come around one of the keeps internal structures and enter a door that leads to the kitchen, a few seconds later one of the Hobgoblins is seen fleeing back to the large tower yelling, having presumably discovered the dead female Hobgoblins. The Great Hall double doors open, and one of the Gnolls strides out into the courtyard heading toward the blockhouse where the party had killed the two Hobgoblin sentries earlier in the night. The Mercenary bowman draws a bead on the Gnoll then fires an arrow at him wounding him and sending him scurrying back to the cover of the great hall.
The Mercenary Bowman then takes aim at the small gap between the buildings where the bandits had previously been exposed as they exited the tower. Momentarily, nearly a dozen Hobgoblins come pouring out of the tower (moving to their “on Alert” positions). The Bowman fires and manages to catch one of the Bandits through the throat (Player rolled a 20, then confirmed the critical with a 20 then for kicks rolled again and got a third 20 which he then followed up with a 19. The player then rolled maximum damage on all the dice,) and the poor 3 Hp Hobgoblin was dead before he hit the ground. This obvious attack coupled with the Gnoll’s yelling spurred the Bandits instantly into combat mode. The Bandits all took cover in the Kitchen/Great Hall building cluster, with half of the Hobgoblins heading up the stairs to assault the gatehouse from the wall, and the other half taking cover and watching the gatehouse from various doorways. Additionally, a Hobgoblin was sent down to get the Drow Witch.
The party in the Witch’s room hear some yelling coming from the cellar storage room. The Hobgoblin there calls out to Vistola, but fears to go to her door because of the Skeleton (which he believes to be one of Vistola’s) standing in the hall. Antiqueas can understand what the Hobgoblin is saying and tells Jen what to say in reply, since she has a feminine voice. (Jen’s bluff roll of 20 + 4 for her CHA and + 4 for ranks in bluff easily overcome the Hobgoblin’s untrained roll of 3 for sense motive) Jen “Vistola” tells the Hobgoblin not to interrupt her current work unless he wants to end up as a Skeleton guarding her door. She appeals to the bandit to prove his worthiness and take care of the little problem himself. A bit flustered, the Bandit heads upstairs to aid in the attack.
Meanwhile, The Mercenary Bowman manages to pin one of the Gnolls who broke cover to the door of the Great Hall with another critical hit. (apparently the player had used up all his 1s in the battle with the Zombies and his dice were now over compensating with a vengeance that would continue for the rest of the session) Sensing that they might be assaulted from the wall, Kag throws open the door and the Mercenary Leader fires an arrow at the three Hobgoblins that are sure enough moving along the wall. One of the Hobgoblins is wounded by the attack, but the other two charge the open doorway and are able to attack Kag and the Mercenary Leader preventing them from closing the door. The Mercenary Leader drops his bow, draws his sword and slays one of the attackers, just as two more Hobgoblins appear on the far end of the wall. The Bowman manages to pick off another Hobgoblin that attempted to cross the courtyard to flank the gatehouse. Kag believing that the Mercenary Leader can handle the Hobgoblin facing them, dodges past him and charges down the wall kicking the wounded Hobgoblin in the head and sending him tumbling over the wall with the force of the blow. (the blow actually killed him, but The fall over the wall was met with a round of cheers and made a great cinamographic moment). Kag then engages the two Hobgoblins at the top of the stairs at the far end of the wall. And it was here his luck gave out. The two Hobgoblins both struck him grievous wounds and Kag fell to the ground. Seeing Kag fall, the Mercenary Bowman drops his bow and rushes to his employer’s aid. He dashes past the Mercenary Leader and his Hobgoblin foe, causing the hobgoblin to fumble in the process (Fumbled his AoO). The then sprints down the wall and immediately attempts to use the Healing skill, (provoking an AoO from each of the Hobgoblins standing above Kag’s body,) deftly dodging their blows as he binds Kag’s wounds. (He rolls a natural 20 on his heal check, and the Hobgoblins both roll below 3 on their AoO and then one fumbled his next attack and the other rolls a 2.) With Kag stabilized (at –7) the Bowman draws his short sword and engages the two Hobgoblins.
At this point the Mercenary Leader (fumbles) still feeling dizzy from the effects of the poison stumbled, dropped his guard and was dealt a vicious blow by his foe sending the Mercenary Leader crashing to the floor.
The Bowman, oblivious to the fate of his leader slashes at one of the hobgoblins and takes the beasts head clean off. The other Hobgoblin considers fleeing, but sees his ally finish off the Merc Leader and begin to move to flank the Bowman. Soon enough the Bowman finds himself fighting the two hobgoblins, one from each side. He dodges and parries lashing out with his short sword. It is a savage fight, but the Bowman manages to slay one of his foes. Then his luck falters. (both he and the remaining Hobgoblin have 1 Hp remaining) The Hobgoblin lands a blow that sends the Bowman spinning into the realm of oblivion (-7Hp). As the Hobgoblin is about to deliver the death thrust, The rest of the party emerges from the cellar. Antiqueas sends a Magic Missile flying up the stairs slaying the Bandit before he can strike. The remaining Hobgoblins, Gnoll, and a Hobgoblin named Novik, who seems to be directing the gatehouse assault, move to intercept the party cutting off their path to the fallen Bowman. Fortunately the Bowman’s luck returns and he Auto stabilizes.
Novik steps in to the combat in a frenzy that leaves the two remaining mercenaries sprawled on the floor. Seeing so many allies down Ran snaps and attacks Novik with a vengeance fighting his way through two Hobgoblins, slaying them without a second thought as he bears down on Novik. Antiqueas, with a ‘Magic Missile’, Meegoo with his spear, and the Skeleton with its claws manage to slay the remaining Gnoll. While Ran and Novik battle headless of the wounds they sustain, Jen, Meegoo, Antiqueas and the Skeleton kill the last Hobgoblin. Then with a roar of pure hate Ran swings his mace, which smashes into Novik’s head. With the splintering of bone and the squishing of brains the battle is over.
Ran quickly stabilizes the two mercenaries. He then runs to the battlements and finds Kag and the Bowman in stable condition. Then spying the still form of the Mercenary leader he dashes down the wall to the gatehouse door. But alas, the Mercenary leader is dead.
The party finds themselves in control of the main portion of the keep, but the depths of the great tower are yet to be explored, and what of the mysterious talking door and stairway beyond in the basement. A victory has been achieved, but the cost has been high. Kag, Falin, and all the mercenary troops are unconscious and, Ran is injured. Only the newly met Jen, and Antiqueas and his followers, Meegoo and The Skeleton remain uninjured. Ran begins to cast healing spells on the fallen, praying that the fighting is done...for now.
ASEO out
Session 5
Chapter 4: The Nightmare begins: The Gryphon’s Legacy (Gaslight Press)
Here in I totally blow it as a DM...
The Party is:
Ran De Blathos: Male Human Cleric 1 (Luck& Healing)/Barbarian 1
Kag: Male Half Orc Monk 3
Antiqueas Sprye: Male Human Wizard (Necromancer) 2
Falin of Moonbreak Forest: Male Elf Ranger 1
Jen Po: Female Human Unwilling Sorcerer 1
Meegoo: Male Kobold Expert 1 (Scout) Henchman/Mascot/Pet?
The Mercenaries, having distinguished themselves in battle all now receive names:
Smokey Blackbeard: Male Human Warrior 1
Chauncy Feather: Male Human Warrior 1
Tom Woodbow: Male Human Warrior 1
“Whitie” the Horseman: Male Human Warrior 1
Marcus Bowman: Male Human Warrior 1/Fighter 1 - Becomes a PC
The following is an excerpt from the journal of Antiqueas Sprye:
...Day 14 (Ok, I'm not even sure what day it is any more, so I'm just gonna pick one): I'm stuck in the basement of some castle pondering the meaning of this hopeless journey, so I decided to start jotting down some thoughts out of sheer boredom. I'm also pondering why in the hell I joined the military. I suppose it will be nice owning my own castle and ruling over everyone. It is obvious to me that I will be the brains behind this kingdom, as Aramoro is most likely dead due to his foolishness, and Kag has the intellect of a rotting fungus. It's sad when I feel that the people most loyal to me are the mercenaries who's paycheck I supply. I suppose I need to ramble on with this gaggling group of idiots for a while longer if there's any hope of having the absolute power I deserve. It's obvious the villagers are afraid of me, which works to my favor. They will do my bidding or they will pay dearly...perhaps adding their skeletons to my undead army. Ahhh, at any rate, I am ranting again. I need to spend some more time poring over the dark b#*&$'s spell book.
Kag, Chauncy, Marcus, and Whitie all regain consciousness following the fight. Chauncy and Whitie return to the Drow Witch’s chamber to look over Smokey and Tom. Tom regains consciousness following his bought with the Drow’s poisoned arrow, but remains in the Drow Witch’s chambers recovering (he's at 0HP). Whitie takes cover in the barrels in the cellar to watch the stairs leading down from the kitchen, and the talking door at the far end of the hall.
The Mercenary Leader’s body is laid out in the great hall for a future burial service. While the party rests, Marcus keeps an eye on the large tower at east end of the keep. This seems to be the remaining bandit point of resistance with in the keep. Marcus occasionally trades missile fire with two Hobgoblins that are stationed on a balcony above the closed heavy wooden doors leading into the tower.
Basically the play went something like this. One of the characters is writing up this portion so here are some rough notes. Green text is what the players don't know.
Party rests in basement
The tiefling in the stables who had been hiding releases all the ghost horses while the party rests in the basement
Marcus, watching the tower from the fails to hear the gate opening, but is startled by the sudden stampede of ghost horses that flee the courtyard. He fails to notice one rider among the ghost horses.
Skeleton sent out to investigate a metal covered door (to storage room)
Hobgoblins don't attack it because they think it is one of Vistola's
Skeleton finds door locked
Kag follows, gets shot by hobgoblins on balcony.
Falin tries to shoot at the Hobgoblins from the courtyard, gets shot and knocked out
Ran pulls him back to cover
Antiqueas sends Skeleton to tower door, Hobgoblins drop rocks on him, smashing him
Kag leaps out to draw fire, gets hit
Antiqueas steps out kills one hobgoblin with 'Magic Missile'
Kag tries keys in locked door…opens door
Kag finds room to be supply storage
Antiqueas gets beat at initiative and gets shot and knocked out
Ran drags him to cover.
Kag improvises a flaming jug. tries to throw it , gets shot, misses and nearly burns himself.
Seeing his hobgoblins engaged on the balcony and believing they have the situation covered, Urrevor sends one of his mates to go to Morgang and see if they can get Vistola's help. Morgang takes the Hell hound and Zombies and heads to Vistola's chamber.
Meanwhile,
Two zombies and a Hell Hound emerge from the talking door in the basement followed by a hobgoblin (Morgang).
Whitie shoots at them and hits one zombie.
Hell Hound charges and bites Whitie
Whitie plays dead
The Hobgoblins calls the Hell Hound and Zombies back and begins to bang on Vistola's (Drow Witch) door
Chauncy pulls Vistola out of the storage chamber, kills her, dumps her body by the door, and crawls into chamber to hide.
Chauncy hears door being smashed down. Chauncy comes out a couple hours after everything gets quiet.
Smokey and Tom who had been on the bed are gone
Chauncy heads up stairs to find party and discovers then resting in the storage room
Morgang finds signs of a battle and Vistola's dead body when his zombies finally smash through the door. Morgang doesn't realize Whitie is still behind the Barrels, he thinks the Hell hound was running toward the food. Morgang finds the two unconscious/seriously wounded mercenaries and has them taken back up to Urrevor's chamber in the Tower.
Jen casts 'Ghost Light' to scare the Hobgoblin on the balcony, but it doesn't do much
The party rests in storage room
The Hobgoblins rationalize that the party is in the storage room and move down to the cellar with the plan that they will make a run for the gate via the great hall once the party is distracted by the Hobgoblin guard on the balcony. The Hobgoblins are able to move into position since the party left no sentries within view of the cellar stairs.
Smokey's helmet lands in the courtyard and some yelling is heard from the balcony
Party looks out and sees hobgoblin holding Smokey's body over the battlements.
Party can't understand Hobgoblin.
Marcus shoots at hobgoblin
Hobgoblin drops Smokey just as 4 hobgoblins (Urrevor, Morgang and the two females), 2 zombies, and a Hell Hound burst from great hall and make run toward gate
Smokey splats,
Zombies and Hell hound move to block the party from perusing hobgoblins.
Hobgoblins sprint toward gate.
Hobgoblin on Balcony descends into crevasse between tower and keep on a knotted rope placed on the balcony for that reason.
Kag gets beat up by zombie
Ran and Marcus run down wall to get parting shot
Zombie beats up Chauncy
Jen kills Zombie
Hell hound called by hobgoblins and joins them in retreat from the keep (since I know that with the Hell hound the party is more than doomed)
Ran fumbles (99 roll twice and suffer, hit self, critical hit, self with heavy crossbow) the bolt ricochets off the battlements and hits Ran in the face. Ran loses his head in a crimson spray
Marcus suffers post traumatic stress syndrome and the fleeing Hobgoblins clear the gate, descend the hill, and taunt him from a safe distance.
Marcus begins to move back toward the storage room.
Jen (3HP) and Meegoo (4 HP) face the (full strength 18HP) zombie and see their deaths in its cold eyes.
Body count:
Kag down and bleeding
Antiqueas down and stable
Skeleton Smashed
Falin down and stable
Ran Headless
Mercenary Leader dead
Smokey Splattered
Whitie 0 hp
Chauncy down and bleeding
Tom MIA (rendered unconscious and laying in Urrevor's chambers)
Marcus completely traumatized
Jen under assault by a full Hp Zombie
Meegoo enjoying the carnage until he realizes that he is next on the menu
As the DM I feel bad that since Jen's player wasn't there (and I was playing her) I forgot that she had 'True Strike'...so...
then everybody wakes up in a cold sweat, except Antiqueas who seems to have found the dream arousing.
Dooh!
ASEO out
From the journal of Antiqueas:
...Day 15 (I guess...): I just had the most wonderful dream I've ever had. I was so close to the wondrous darkness that is death, when Ran stole it from me! The fool paid for it in the end of the dream however. I've never seen a crossbow do such things to someone. I was admittedly impressed with the way he totally destroyed himself trying to load it. Now I don't claim to know everything about crossbows, but I'm pretty sure I could load one without decapitating myself. Kind of an interesting dream really, although I was near death, and totally unconscious, I could still see and hear everything going on around me. If the afterlife is like that, I look forward to it more and more every day...the omnipotence was wonderful. But alas, it was only a dream. So I continue to drudge through this waste of a life. Hopefully this will all be over soon and I can either die, or rule my kingdom and raise my undead army to take over the world. Lofty goals, I know...but I swear it will happen.
Antiqueas.
ASEO out
Yeah, the characters in "The Other Side" were just lucky I gurss. There have been a couple of deaths in this campaign.
ASEO out
LOL. . . I should say so. Fortunately, I never had to do a "Dream Sequence" time rewind before. Usually, someone would just snatch away my DM screen and tell me to roll a character for their new game.
You are the exclusive DM, right? That make awkward moments like a near-TPK a little tougher to reconcile.
LOL. . . I should say so. Fortunately, I never had to do a "Dream Sequence" time rewind before. Usually, someone would just snatch away my DM screen and tell me to roll a character for their new game.
You are the exclusive DM, right? That make awkward moments like a near-TPK a little tougher to reconcile.
Well, a TPK will usually end a game pretty quickly;-)
This one was totally my bad since 1. I agreed to NPC a Character for a Player who couldn't be there. and 2. I completely forgot/overlooked the fact that the character had 'True Strike' which had I remembered would have kept the events that lead to the TPK from happening in the first place. The players thought it was funny though, and Rand still has a unhealthy fear of Crossbows.
As for the dream secquency. It is so cheesy that I was able to get away with it this _Once_. The Players were all.. "Ha ha, We made the DM resort to "The Dream Secquence"." and giving each others high fives. ::Oh the shame:: I spit in their pizzia when they wern't looking, and that made me feel better about the whole episode ;-)
Now that the players have multiple characters in the campaign world, a TPK will just leave a bunch of characters dead, and the players will have to pick up with their other characters.
It has been a while since I've had a TPK, although I nad a near TPK (one character walked away) in the Playtest of "A Gathering of Winds" episode 6 of the Age of Worms Campaign. Once it gets published I'll check with Wolfgang Baur and see if he will let me post it. It is a much more scientific type write-up than the above ones are since it was a playtest. Still I always find it fun to see how adventures change in the publishing.
ASEO out
Chapter 5: Lessons Learned: The Gryphon’s Legacy (Gaslight Press)
After resting the party drafts plans to assault the tower. Jen claims to be a decent shot with the crossbow, so she is given a light crossbow. The Skeleton is sent out to try a green metal-sheathed door to one of the out buildings. The Skeleton leaves the Great Hall and proceeds to the door, which it finds locked. Kag then peaks out of the Great Hall’s double doors and spots the two Hobgoblins on the balcony above the tower door. Leaping into the courtyard, Kag tries in vain to block the two crossbow bolts that the two Hobgoblins fire at him. One bolt misses, and the second familiarly hits him in the shoulder. Kag ducks back into the Great Hall. The party decided to have Kag leap out to draw fire, and then have Jen and Antiqueas step out and return fire with crossbow and ‘Magic Missile’ respectively. Jen says a short prayer (casts ‘True Strike’) and readies her crossbow. Kag leaps out and the Hobgoblins fire at him. Out step Jen and Antiqueas and return fire. The ‘Magic Missile’ catches one Hobgoblin in the head, while Jen’s crossbow bolt catches the other in the throat. Both Hobgoblins go down in a spray of blood.
(Unknown to the party, the Hobgoblin Bandit Leader, King Urrevor, is standing in the room behind the balcony with his two favorite mates. Upon seeing his two snipers suddenly and apparently easily dispatched, he begins to gather his valuables and retreat to the basement to meet up with Morgang, the Bandit’s Cleric who has been working in the deep cellars.
Morgang attempted to reach Vistola’s quarters several hours earlier, but heard the party in the hallway on the other side of the talking door and thus retreated back to his chambers.
King Urrevor drags with him the bodies of his slain snipers in the hopes that Morgang can animate them. After a brief argument in which Urrevor tries to persuade Morgang to lead him out of the crypts via the stairway leading to Vistola’s chambers, the sounds of the party are heard outside of the chamber. Urrevor moves to the secret door to go peek into the hall, but as he opens the door he hears voices and carefully closes the door and retreats back to Morgang’s chamber. Morgang, Urrevor, the two female mates of Urrevor and Morgang’s zombies wait in Morgang’s chambers for the final confrontation with the party.)
The party's Skeleton is sent across the drawbridge and finds the tower doors firmly bared from inside. The Skeleton assaults the doors to no avail.
The party then decides that their only other possible route in through the talking door in the cellar. Whitie is left to cover the tower door should anybody try to pass through it and into the courtyard. Whitie goes about setting up a well- fortified position in the gatehouse, and closing the main keep gate, which he finds is mysteriously open. Whitie moves around periodically to give the impression that there are more people in the keep than there are. Tom who has regained consciousness, but remains very week joins Whitie in this effort.
In the meantime, the party descends the spiral stairway beyond the talking door. At the bottom of the stair they find themselves in a strange hallway. The walls slope toward the ceiling forming trapezoidal passageways, the floors are carved to appear much like rippled sand, and the pillars supporting the ceiling are twisted and resemble snakes or something else serpentine.
The party exits the stairwell at a four-way intersection. The left the hallway disappears in an unnatural ‘Darkness’. Across the hall is a oval chamber the floor of which is covered in sand and some sort of shards. To the right lies a pillared hall in the center of which lies a sarcophagus. The walls of this hall are covered with banners showing griffon riders battling all sorts of foes. At the end of the hall a large shape looms in the darkness of the next room.
Kag crosses the hall and enters the sand covered room. Immediately he cuts his foot on a razor sharp shard of what appears to be some sort of eggshell. Kag backs out of the room. Antiqueas sends his Skeleton forward into the pillar lined room and tasks it to open the sarcophagus. As soon as it touches the stone slab, a dark wraithy form flows through the lid. Ran immediately turns undead, and in a burst of incredible holy power, the shadowy form flees back into its stone coffin. The Skeleton is then sent across the room to investigate the chamber beyond. As it passes between two large headless serpentine statues it suddenly falls through the floor and vanishes in a loud crash and a small puff of dust whish rises from the previously hidden pit. The pit’s lid then resets sealing the Skeleton within.
Kag slowly enters the room carefully moving against the wall and keeping as far from the sarcophagus as he can.
In skirting the room Kag finds a side passage that leads 20 feet to a small circular room. Ran moves across the eggshell room to a passage on that room’s right side and finds that it merges with the passage Kag found. Fortunately for Ran his armor protects him from the sharp shells.
Kag and Ran investigate the circular room, and in the light of Ran’s lantern the see it to be a planetarium of some sort. The domes ceiling clearly shows stars, but Kag and Ran are unable to identify any of the constellations. Chalking it to weird they both move back to the pillared room. Falin takes a step into the ‘Darkness’ and finds that it conceals a descending stairway. He abandon’s this path, however, to cling to the safety that the party seems to provide when it remains together.
Kag and Ran lead the party around the walls of the room and across a ledge that boarders the edge of the concealed pit trap. In the next room they find themselves standing before a large statue of a snake with a human torso. Antiqueas tries to read some script he finds at the statue’s base, but is only able to make out a few words of the ancient script. Besides the way by which the party entered this room, three sets of double doors lead from the chamber, one on each the left, right, and opposite wall. Falin examines the doors to the right and for a brief moment thinks he hears the sound of shouting coming from beyond them.
Suddenly a snake-like face on the door opens it’s mouth and says “Who are you, and why do you seek to pass?” Falin replies that he is Falin and he is an adventurer who is probably over his head”. Which is true, and he is. The door suddenly sprays a black mist across the chamber leaving many of the party members stunned. The party members that can move drag their stunned comrades back into the planetarium carefully avoiding the pit trap and keeping far away from the sarcophagus as they do so.
Once the rest of the party is safe, Falin moves carefully back into the room with the central snakeman statue. He investigates the double doors opposite the black fog spitting, snake door and hears something big and heavy moving beyond it. The pounding footsteps rattle his teeth and the shockwaves that pass through the floor leave his feet numb. For once Falin decides that curiosity killed the cat and he leaves this set of doors alone.
Next he moves to the double doors across from the entry way to the room. He opens these doors and finds a wide corridor with trapezoidal-leaning walls made from dark stone leading into a round chamber resembling the inside of a beehive in shape. Suspended from the center of the ceiling is a cage made of reddish bones bound with black strips. Within the cage is a glowing ball of light that hums a soft three-note tune over and over. Suddenly the ball of light speaks to Falin saying “Please free me. I’ve been imprisoned here for so long, please let me out.” Just as the ball speaks, Falin notices a secret door in the left wall quietly close. Falin keeps an eye on the door while he moves about the room.
Falin figures “Sure, why not?” He throws a rope up over the cage, loops it around the chain suspending the cage and then ties it off and climbs up. Upon reaching the cage Falin tries to cut the black strips, but finds that his blade is unable to cut the alien material. Falin then remembers that Jen has a magical dagger and heads pack to the party assuring the ball of light that he will be back shortly.
ASEO out
A couple of people have enquired about my game.
It is being played at my house in Norman, Oklahoma. There are between 2 and 5 players, per session with me DMing. I have 3 very relyable players, and periodic guest players.
We will be playing session 45 in the campaign world tomorrow.
ASEO out
Session 6: The Gryphon’s Legacy (Gaslight Press)
The Party is:
Ran De Blathos: Male Human Cleric 1 (Luck& Healing)/Barbarian 1
Kag: Male Half Orc Monk 3
Antiqueas Sprye: Male Human Wizard (Necromancer) 2
Falin of Moonbreak Forest: Male Elf Ranger 1
Jen Po: Female Human Unwilling Sorcerer 1
Meegoo: Male Kobold Expert 1 (Scout)/Ranger 1 Henchman/Mascot/Pet?
The Mercenaries:
Smokey Blackbeard: Male Human Warrior 1
Chauncy Feather: Male Human Warrior 1
Tom Woodbow: Male Human Warrior 1
“Whitie” the Horseman: Male Human Warrior 1
Marcus Bowman: Male Human Warrior 1/Fighter 1
Falin retrieves the magical dagger and then returns with the party to the chamber in which the ball of light is imprisoned. The party is careful while moving through the chamber with the sarcophagus so as not to invoke the wrath of the undead horror (Allip) there entombed. As they pass out of the crypt room Antiqueas and Meegoo go about pulling the Antiqueas’ Skeleton out of the pit. Seeing that they are having a hard time of it Kag lends a hand. Fortunately for Kag the choking dust (Rust Mold) that clouds out of the pit as it is opened doesn’t affect him (rolled a 20 on his Fort Save), and the Skeleton is extracted. Falin moves to cut the black bindings on the bone cage while Kag and Ran open the secret door and then a second secret door beyond that. They find them selves in a “T” intersection with a hall ending in a door to the left and a hall that passes some crypts then ends in stairs leading up to the right. Kag listens to the door to the left and hears faint chanting.
(Morgang is preparing spells for the assault he and King Urrevor believe the party is about to make any second).
Falin frees the ball of light, which turns out to be a Lantern Archon. The being thanks the party and pleads with them not to be left alone in the dark and to travel with them. Only Antiqueas feels uneasy about this, but he knows better than to speak up about it. Meegoo complains that the light hurts his eyes and seeks shelter in Antiqueas’ shadow. (Since I don’t use PC alignments, and neither Meegoo nor Antiqueas has done anything “evil” in the presence of the Archon, and neither has plans to harm the Archon, they do not incur the Archon’s animosity. They are however, not totally comfortable in its presence). Watching the door, the party turns right and heads toward the stairs instead of braving the inhabitants of the room beyond the door.
Beyond the door Morgang, King Urrevor, ”Sparky” the Hell Hound, two zombies, and Urrevor’s 2 females wait for an assault that never comes.
The party climbs the spiral stairway and find themselves in a dark chamber. Deep shadows fill a dark stone mouth in the ceiling, and thick pillars support a spiral staircase of stone that emerges from the far wall and is drawn inexorably upward toward the maw. A heavy door hangs on the far wall, and four stone doors line the to the left of the party. Yellowed bones litter the ground around. In the light shed by the Lanterns the party is toting, and that given off by the Lantern Archon, the party is able to discern scorch marks on the walls and tufts of black hair on the floor.
The party investigates the lone door on the far wall. Opening the door they find a torture chamber. A torture rack, a brazier and a set of branding irons, shackles, a block, and dunking trough stand mute testimony to the imagined horrors of what this room has seen. Signs of recent use abound: blood, hair and the smell of burned meat. In the far corner lies a desiccated body of a long dead Ogre.
As the party backs out of the room and begins to discuss their next course of action, they hear a weak voice from beyond one of the stone doors.
“Hey, who’z dar?”.
The party moves closer to the door and asks back, “Who are you”?
“Iz Umberto, Iz priz’ner. You aint’n bandits...be let’n me out.”
Kag fumbles for the keys he found on one of the dead Hobgoblins while the rest of the party takes up positions to cover the door with missile fire.
Opening the door reveals a shell of a man who has obviously been severely tortured. The man staggers forward. Clearly not a threat, Ran rushes to catch the man as he collapses.
The party quickly opens the other doors and finds them to likewise be cells. In one cell lie two women that were captured in the Ghost Riders in Tir Feldar.
The party decided that since it appears to be the only exit from the area that they haven’t explored, they will exit the chamber via the staircase spiraling up through the carves mouth in the ceiling.
They cautiously advance up the stairway through the gaping maw and up to a landing that is apparently in the interior of the tower. In front of the party off the landing is a wedge-shaped room with a single door on the wall on each side of the chamber, and a set of large bared double doors at the far end. Light enters the chamber through a single arrow slit flanking the double doors.
Realizing that they are at the tower’s front gate the party recognizes the fact that they are only a short walk away from the stairs in the kitchen, which lead down to the cellars where their wounded mercenaries lay...and where in their dream their foes attacked... Suddenly the party burst into action removing the bar on the tower door and sprinting across the drawbridge and across the courtyard, through the great hall into the kitchen, and down the stairs to the cellar and Vistola’s room. Fortunately “Whitie” recognized the party as they emerged from the tower and held his fire since he had been guarding the tower door for just such a breakout had any remaining bandits been bold enough to choose this as their path of exit.
In position in front of the talking door, the party sets up an ambush plan. Falin hides in the stairwell leading up to the kitchen, while Marcus takes up position along the wall just inside of the large cellar storage room. This gives both of them a clear shot down the hallway should anyone emerge from the door. The Lantern Archon and Kag take up positions amongst the fallen sarcophagi in the hallway leading to the cliff-side sally port. Antiqueas leaves his skeleton in the hallway with orders to attack anything that emerges from the door. Ran, Meegoo, Jen, Antiqueas and Chauncy hide in Vistola’s room with the wounded Umberto the two women from Tir Feldar, Tom and Smokey.
Meanwhile, Morgang spells begin to wear off and he realizes that the party is probably plundering the tower. He convinces King Urrevor to come with him and exit the dungeon via the cellars and kitchen. Morgang speaks to the magical talking door in his chamber ant it opens to allow the bandit force to pass. Morgang leads the group around the pit tram and through the sarcophagus room. There one of the training female Hobgoblins idly runs her hand across the lid as the group passes. Too late for Morgang to react the Undead figure rises through the stone lid. The rest of the bandits quickly flee up the stairs, leaving the female Hobgoblin to her fate at the wispy hands of the undead horror. The bandits climb the stairs leading to the lesser guardian door. There the Zombies are commanded to open the door and then move through. King Urrevor and “Sparky” will follow, followed by Morgang and the remaining female Hobgoblin. Opening the door, the Skeleton in the hallway comes into view. Relief turns to horror as the Skeleton moves to engage the Zombie that first exited the door. “Sparkey” bounds through the doorway followed by Urrevor. The hallway is suddenly illuminated by a holy light.
The Lantern Archon moves in to attack the Hell Hound and does so with a blazing ray of holy light. Falin and Marcus open up with their bows and both arrows thud into the Zombie holding open the door. The Hell Hound jumps up at the Lantern Archon and breathes a gout of flame, but the Archon is able to dodge out of the way. The Archon responds with two more light rays and then Kag enters the fray and downs the Hell Hound with a bone splintering kick to the beast’s head. Ran charges out of the door to Vistola’s room to attack the Zombie fighting with the Skeleton. Urrevor in his ghostly glowing armor attacks Kag and lands a wicked blow that leaves Kag severely wounded. Falin fires into the combat only to see his arrow pass cleanly through Urrevor as if Urrevor were incorporeal. What is more disconcerting is that the glow on Urrevor’s armor fails to fade after the attack. The Zombie that had been holding the door moves into the fray and Marcus and Falin abandon their bows, draw swords and rush to the assault. The Skeleton and Zombie are engaged in a sissy slap fight and neither can seem to land a solid blow. Meegoo joins the assault on the Zombie followed by Jen who places a ‘True Strike’ heavy Crossbow bolt right between the Zombies dead eyes. The Zombie crumbles in an instant. Kag and the Archon finish off the remaining Zombie a second later. Urrevor screams, “Come back here you coward!” over his shoulder and hacks the Skeleton in half. (Morgang has grabbed the remaining Female Hobgoblin and is retreating down the stairs to the Darkened hall to seek shelter in the room of the Dark Pool). The Archon Blazes away with its holy rays and one of the beams passes through Urrevor like the Arrow had done before. Kag presses the attack, but misses horribly. Marcus reaches the fray only to be cut down by Urrevor. Ran moves to extract the loyal Mercenary while Falin takes a swing at Urrevor. For a third time the attack passes through the bandit leader. However, this time the glow on his armor fades. Jen fires another ‘True Strike’ bolt at Urrevor which hits the bandit square in the chest. Kag manages to land a sound blow with his elbow. Urrevor counters by nearly slicing Falin’s head clean off. Only Ran’s fast healing action saves Falin’s life...again. The Archon burns Urrevor with both of its light rays and Kag levels a mighty blow against Urrevor’s skull.
Urrevor is beaten, and he knows it, but he it determined to not go to the afterlife alone. He stabs Kag through the chest just as Jen puts a finals crossbow bolt through his head. Ran rushes to Kag’s side but try as he might he just can’t seem to stop the blood gushing from the grievous wound. However, Kag seems to have caught the eye of some deity somewhere, because just as he is about to pass from this world the bleeding stops. (Ran, out of all spells, failed 6 heal checks in a row, even with assistance from Jen. On the final attempt Ran failed, but Kag managed to auto stabilize). The party retreated back into Vistola’s chamber, but posted the Archon at the top of the stairwell, with a lit lantern, (The Archon doesn’t like the dark) to watch for any further incursions. Chauncy headed back to the courtyard to aid “Whitie” in guarding against a breakout from the tower should anything remain their in. These two scatter some caltrops they collected in the pass on the drawbridge and in the area just in front of it, “just in case”. Meegoo is posted to watch the pass from the sally port while the rest of the party rests, recovers spells and heals.
The party eventually descended to the chamber of the Black Pool and confront the Shaman who has already pushed the female into the pool and has her as a Zombie now. The Shaman then dove into the pool when he was wounded badly and arose as a Ghoul, only to be cut down bu the party's might.
Antiqueas calls "Dibbs!" and quickly ushers the others out of the chamber and begins to do some research. The Cellars become his domain.
ASEO out
Session 7: Introduction
Chapter 6: The Snowreach Rangers
MEANWHILE...
The world we are playing expands beyond your current characters. While your main characters are exploring Gryphon Rock, events are transpiring elsewhere in the realm...
Also, I'd like each of you to bring two second level Rangers to the next game. 30 point characters, you may use any race in the PHB, and may wither use the Ranger in the PHB, or << File: ranger.pdf >> this, the Monte Cook Ranger.
The PHB Ranger is a bit front loaded, but is good if you plan on multi-classing.
The Monte Cook Ranger allows a little more versatility in character creation, but is better for continual advance through the Ranger ranks.
Each character must have at least 1 level of either Ranger.
Your characters are all mountain men (or women) who are members of an roughly knit community of traders and hermits that live in the wilds and northern slopes of the Snowreach Mountains. You call yourselves the Snowreach Rangers. Each of your Ranger characters has spent the winter sheltering in far valleys, caves and isolated dwellings. At this time of the year you all come together and meet in a particular valley called Nom Stot by the small local community that lives there. This community desires to be left alone and only opens its markets to trade for one week each season following the last full moon of the season. Tonight is the last full moon of Winter. You and several other Rangers have gathered at the mouth of the pass that leads to the valley. Some of you come barring pelts to trade while others have finally carved trinkets with which to barter. Having spent the long Winter alone, it is good to gather amongst your fellows in preparation for your trip into the small community. In the following days others of your fellowship will be making the trek to the valley, but you are the first to arrive. In the brisk darkness of the night you can almost hear the music played by the people of Nom Stot as they celebrate the end of Winter, almost, but not quite. Your thoughts drift away as the smoke from your communal fire rises into the sky. You peer into the faces of your companions this night and see the appreciation of this brief fellowship reflected in their eyes. You all tell tails of your endeavors these last few months, and even longer for a few of those at the fire that you have not seen in several seasons. You know that following this week of trade, fellowship and relative comfort you will all once again go your separate ways until you once again come to Nom Stot.
Each of your characters is equipped with winter apparel and has some sort of wilderness trade good. You may have a pack animal for transporting you goods. Additionally, as members of the Snowreach Rangers, each of you carries a smoke stick that you may use in an emergency to mark your position and call in aid from any fellow rangers or friendly beings that may be in an area. Because you all tend to wander far a field and aren't commonly in close proximity to each other, these sticks have come to be called "Death's Shroud" since the danger they are reserved for usually results in the death of the user with only the shroud of smoke to cover the Ranger's remains. However, there have been times when a ranger has activated his "Death's Shroud" and found the wood suddenly full of allies. Each character has the max amount of gold for a starting ranger + your CHA modifier X10gp. (some of you may be better traders than others and more well off because of it).
Adventure Synopsys
The Rangers, having meet the night before will enter a quiet vale to trade with the local barbarian (think 13th Warrior type) homestead. Entering the vale, which was once the site of a great city, the rangers can now only see a single tower standing on a bald hill in the center of the vale. A thin layer of snow still blankets the ground. They know that elsewhere beneath the thick forest canopy there are other ruins. A colonnade here, an arch there. But they have come to trade, resupply, and perhaps spend some time with the local maids. The forest is oddly silent. As the Rangers reach the stockade wall surrounding the enclave they see signs of distress...an arrow sticking out of a post, scorch marks, and then a collapsed section of the palisade. Peering into the steading they spy ruined buildings. The snow on the ground here has been disturbed, their pack animals grow restless. As the Party enters the ruins a Hooting Growl suddenly breaks the silence. Then there is motion in the shadows. Again the growl. Then from the darkness, from every burnt out window door way and cellar come a hoard of Goblins. Each Goblin is wearing a golden, or at least gold splattered or gold painted gauntlet. There are many more of them than the Rangers can hope to defeat...and they have an Owlbear...no, make that two Owlbears. The Rangers best hope is to flee and reach the tower and signal their fellow Rangers who are converging on the valley. If they can get to the tower, and activate their Death's Shrouds they may be able to hold off the goblins long enough for their woodland brethren to arrive. However, all is not that easy. There are lesser tribes than Gold Arm Goblins that have been forced to live in the scattering of ruins while their more powerful (or at least Owlbear equipped) brethren feast of the steadings supplies. These less fortunate goblins are just as mean as their cousins, and even more hungry...and they lurk between the Rangers and the tower.
Background
And what of the Gold Arm Goblins. Why the gold arms and how have they come to command Owlbears? It seems we (or at least the PCs) are not alone in this universe. A race from beyond the stars once came to this vale to observe life here when the city was one of the grandest in the realm. They built a sub aquatic laboratory/observation post along the shore of the local lake. There they watched and studied until one day their android assistants revolted. All contact with their home world was lost and shortly after the great city fell. Whether the android uprising had anything to with the city's fall is something that may never be known. But the melted stone amidst the ruins attest to something strange happening here. Now after centuries in solitude the Androids have once again detected humans in the vicinity. Believing these are people from their home world coming to investigate the loss of communications and uncover the uprising, the Androids abandon their studies and experiments and sent forth a battle droid (a golden robot humanoid in appearance) to assess the threat and eliminate the humans.
Fortunately for the humans in the vale a passing Dragon spotted the robot emerging from the lake and swooped down and attacked the droid thinking it a tasty knight. In a single bite the droid's body was snatched in the great Wyrm’s mouth leaving only its severed golden arms lying on the shore of the lake. The Dragon, after several seconds of chewing, realized the bot was not as tasty as anticipated and spit the well chewed remains out as it swooped low over the lake. The Androids having lost communications with their robot scout have decided to wait and see what transpires next, content in the safety of their hidden sub-aquatic base.
All this would have gone unnoticed by the valley inhabitants (human and otherwise) had a lone goblin scout not found himself running for his life from a very hungry Owlbear. Fleeing toward the lake (which just happened to be AWAY from the Owlbear) the goblin found that the beast had suddenly halted its charge only 30 feet from the fortunate goblin. The Owl bear stood up on its hind legs, pawed at it's head and rolled on the ground as if it had just been stung by a swarm of giant wasps. While watching this and cautiously backing away, the lone goblin stumbled and found himself laying on his back in the shallow water at the lake edge. Looking to grab the log that he tripped over in hope of stemming off the beast when it resumed its assault, the goblin's grimy hand instead closed around a golden arm. Without thinking the goblin brandished the arm as its only weapon and was surprised to see the Owlbear retreat back. The goblin now spotted a second arm, this one gripping a black sphere, laying in the lake-side mud. Grabbing that arm as well the goblin advanced on the Owlbear forcing it back with each step. Soon the Owlbear was fleeing before the goblin. The goblin then returned to his tribe with his new discovery and the mantel of the golden arm was taken up by the entire clan. After a few messy attempts the goblins of the golden arm managed to corral several Owlbears. (It seems that the arms still emit a subsonic frequency that the Owlbears can hear and causes the Owlbears pain. Using the arms the goblins are able to crudely, but effectively herd the Owlbears.) With their newly found power the goblins gathered some weaker clans and set upon the human settlement in the Valley. Goblins would never been much of a problem for the steading's inhabitants, but coupled with a gathering of goblin tribes and their herd of Owlbears the Steading fell in a single night. The Goblins now grow fat off the steading's food stores. The surviving Owlbears are kept in a cellar trapped in by the golden arms, which have been posted by the entrance.
And in walk the PCs...
The Party is:
Tully Male Half-elf Sorcerer 1/(MC)Ranger 1
Linton Male Halfling Ranger 1/Rogue 1
Larissa Livingwall Female Human Ranger 1/Cleric (Healing & Luck) 1
Thaleles Male Elf Ranger 1/Fighter 1
Moltar Male Half-elf Rogue 1/(MC)Ranger 1
Surefoot Moltar's packhorse
Having meet the night before, and being familiar with each other from past encounters the party rises early in the morning and begins the two-hour trek into the valley to the Steading of Nom Stot. As they descend into the valley they spot "The Lone Tower", a ruin from a bygone age, standing alone on a low, unwooded hill in the center of the valley. The morning sun glistens off the water of Mitchgoom Lake at the distant end of the valley. While most of the trees have lost their leaves, the heavy bows of the great forest cloak the forest floor below in shadows. The valley floor is carpeted with a thin layer of snow that crunches under the Ranger's feet.
The Rangers speak about the past season as that travel through the forest. The pass several scattered ruins that herald back through the centuries to a time when this valley was the site of a great city. What great catastrophe laid that city to ruin is of no concern to the Rangers this morning for they are content with their companionship and are looking forward to the hospitality of the people of Nom Stot.
A strange lump under the snow crowned by a strange branch like growth protruding skyward from its crest catches Tully's eye. Moving to investigate the party finds the branch to be a frostbitten human hand. Clearing off the snow they find the body of a Nom Stotter that has apparently been ravaged by some large beast. The Rangers load the body on Surefoot and continue toward the Steading.
As the Rangers approach the palisade surrounding Nom Stot the sense all is now well within. No sounds come from within the wooden palisade, absent are the sounds of the forest animals. The Rangers begin to see signs of distress as they circle around toward the palisade gate. Stray arrows in trees, scorch marks on the palisade walls, and then a large section of the defensive fence that has been pulled down. The Rangers remove the body from Surefoot, draw their weapons and enter the palisade.
Beyond, Nom Stot is in ruins. Only a few buildings remain intact. The party makes their way through the carnage spotting the occasional body and set of footprints in the frozen streets. Arriving at the town center, the Rangers find several Nom Stotter bodies clustered by the village well. Larissa kneels to check the footprints while Moltar ties Surefoot off to a scorched timber.
Suddenly there is a loud bang as if a lose shutter banged against it's now windowless frame. The rangers move to defensive positions around the well. Arrows are notched, swords held at the ready. Larissa thinks she sees some movement in the shadows of the ruined smithy. Tully spies a small avalanche of snow sliding down the roof of a ruined house...Something else is here. Then there is a deep-throated howl that seems to come from the ground beneath the Rangers feet.
From the shadows emerge Goblin faces. Their beady eyes focused on the party, wicked daggers in their hands they advance on the party. Flashes of gold sparkle from a gauntlet on each Goblin's arm. Tully looses an arrow and pins one goblin to a charred timber, all that remains of the corner of a destroyed structure.
The sky is then filled with Goblin arrows in response. The clatter against the cobblestones of the court yard and against the well, but fail to hit the Rangers.
There is a loud crash from behind the party and the Rangers turn to face the ruins of what was once the village hall and storehouse. Several Goblins rush the party just as the doors to the hall nearly burst from their hinges. There in the doorway is the largest Owlbear that any of the Rangers has ever seen.
The Rangers quickly regroup and begin a fighting retreat toward the breach in the palisade. The furious Owlbear strikes out at a goblin that in its lust for the Rangers' blood strayed to close to where the beast emerged. The unfortunate Goblin never knew what hit him and vanished in a spray of blood and entrails. In the doorway then appears a second Owlbear that follows the first toward the Rangers. The Goblins do their best to stay away from the Owlbears.
Thaleles, with a battle axe in one hand and a hand axe in the other clears a way through several Goblins and Larissa makes a dash for the breach. Moltar moves to untie Surefoot while Tully and Linton cover him. Tully picks off another Goblin with a 'Magic Missile' while Linton threatens any who move close with his short Rapier. Out of the corner of his eye Linton spots two Goblins emerge from the same doorway that the Owlbear first appeared in. Each of these Goblins has a large gold colored gauntlet on the end of a stick. They seem to be using these to coax the Owlbears on.
A high-pitched horn sounds from somewhere within the palisade and soon there are answering horns from beyond the stockade. With Surefoot free Tully, Linton and Moltar begin to hoof it after the other two Rangers. As they round a building several Goblins leap out at them. Surefoot kicks one in the head, splattering its brains over its comrades. The other goblins fail to hit the Rangers and are left sitting in the dust of the Ranger's retreat.
At the breach in the palisade Thaleles and Larissa find themselves facing three Goblins with faces stained black. They seem to be the first of many Goblins that are moving through the woods toward Nom Stot. Larissa takes aim with her bow and places an arrow between the eyes of the nearest Goblin. More Goblins begin to move through the woods toward the gap in the palisade. Thaleles moves to cut them off with his twin axes. Tully, Linton and Moltar arrive on the seen with a screaming pack of Gold Arm Goblins, and two Owlbears hot on their heals. Tully clears a Goblin out of the retreat path with a 'Magic Missile'. This clears a path through the nearest Goblins, but the woods are now crawling with the little beasts. High-pitched horns sound from around the valley. The Rangers realize that their path out of the valley is blocked.
Realizing that they are trapped in the valley by several different tribes of Goblins all of which are converging on their position the Rangers decide that they need to try to make it to a defensible position. Furthermore they need to warn the other Snowreach Rangers that are converging on the valley of the danger within. Larissa suggests they head to "The Lone Tower" from there they can form a defense and activate their "Death's Shroud" so that any Ranger moving into the valley will be able to see them. Tully points out the direction to the tower and the Rangers are on the move. Larissa and Thaleles run ahead while Tully falls behind to cover the rear. Moltar and Linton are not nearly as fast as Larissa and Thaleles and began to rapidly fall behind. Moltar released Surefoot and the pelt-laden packhorse chased after the two faster Rangers.
As they ran Larissa took a Goblin arrow in the leg. Tully held off the Goblins from the rear with his bow, killing several of the creatures. Moltar and Linton find their way increasingly choked with Goblins that have moved between them and Larissa and Thaleles.
Goblins begin to swarm in toward Tully. Realizing his escape is cut off he casts a final 'Magic Missile' killing the closest Goblin and draws his swords. Behind him the largest Owlbear rushes in. Tully takes several Goblins down then turns to face the howling Owlbear. As he turns to face the beast a trio of Goblins dash forward with their spears. At least one spear plunges into Tully's back and he slips into blackness. Seeing its prey slump to the ground, the Owlbear flies into a berserk rage and tears all three Goblins limb from limb. Only the urging of the Goblin Gold Arm bearers finally urge the creature away from the bloody spot and after the escaping Rangers.
As Linton watched Tully fall, two Goblin arrows strike him in the chest. He drops his weapon and is barely able to crawl to cover behind a nearby tree. Thinking his death is at hand Linton uses his "Death's Shroud". The area around him is suddenly filled with a billowing purple smoke. Several Goblins move through this 'Obscuring Mist' but they are unable to find Linton. While the haze cloaks the view of those on the ground, the thick high branches of the forest keep the Shroud from being visible from above the treetops.
Moltar seeking the Shroud activated begins to move to Linton's aid, but his path is blocked by the two Owlbears and several Goblins that seem to be rallying around the Gold Arm Bearers. Moltar thinks it is best if he can get to the tower to warn his fellow Rangers.
Larissa and Thaleles find themselves at the mouth of a ravine that seems to lead in the direction that they are heading. They stop briefly for Larissa to cast healing magic on her wound. They then decide to move through the ravine hopping that the lower ground will keep them out of the Goblin's sight.
Moltar finds himself moving from tree to tree, ruined wall to fallen column. When he can, he ambushes a lone Goblin. He moves this way ever closet to the tower with an ever-growing number of Goblin corpses in his wake.
Linton is content to hide in the haze while he catches his breath until he hears the nearby growl of the Owlbears. He crawls across the now footprint crisscrossed snow toward a cluster of nearby ruins.
Larissa and Thaleles move through the ravine, but find that they are spotted by a Goblin on the rim who calls out to his brethren before an arrow from Larissa's bow silences him. The sides of the ravine are soon teaming with Goblins. These all wear a single red boot and bear shields painted with a blood soaked boot. Several Goblins slide down the sides of the ravine and are cut down by blades of Thaleles and Larissa. The Goblins on the ravine tow soon produce bows and begin to pepper the two Rangers with arrows. Thaleles is hit twice and Larissa once. Several more Goblins slide down the sides of the ravine to engage the Rangers in melee. Thaleles activates his "Death's Shroud" and he and Larissa make a mad dash past the goblins blocking their path and up a corner on the ravine that isn't as steep as the other walls. The Goblins on the ravine edges continue to fire their arrows into the haze, but manage to only wound a couple of the goblins that were left in a confused clouded melee within the Shroud.
Having made good on their escape, Larissa and Thaleles stop by the ruins of what was once a great temple of the old city. There they catch their breath cloaked in the shadows of a ruined staircase. Several Goblins pass them by unnoticed. Ahead perhaps 300 yards away they see an open field at the top of a small rise. There in the center of the field at the top of the hill is "The Lone Tower".
Linton crawls into a cluster of ruins and hears the chaos stemming from a band of Goblins encountering two Owlbears in the haze of his "Death's Shroud". A brief smile crosses his face even as he clasps his hands over the shafts of the arrows piercing his chest and breaks off the fletchings. Crawling further he finds a pile of fallen pillars. Climbing admits them he finds a sheltered hollow where his small frame is just able to squeeze down out of view.
Larissa and Thaleles slowly make their way toward the tree line. Just as they reach it several Goblins come over the hill and look in the tower before moving on toward where the Rangers are hiding. The Rangers remain hidden and the goblins begin to pass them by. Larissa makes a dash for the tower while Thaleles leaps out to engage the Goblins. Suddenly Surefoot runs in to the clearing throwing the Goblins into confusion.
Entering the tower Larissa finds the structure in fair condition. It is missing a front door and the only access to the second floor seems to be a hole in the ceiling that may have once had a ladder or wooden stairway leading to it. Through the hole comes a faint ray of sunlight. Peering up through the hole Larissa sees that a portion of the battlement level above has collapsed and that several timbers (which must have been added in the recent past) have fallen from the battlement level. Four arrow slits perforate the wall of the first and second levels, offset by 45% to provide overlapping fields of fire. Larissa moves back to the doorway and whistles trying to get Surefoot's attention. The horse stops it's run, but seems confused by Larissa. Larissa does get the attention of two Goblins that head in her direction. Surefoot circles around the tower. Seeing the Goblins advancing on her position Larissa retreats into the tower. She throws her bow up through the hole in the ceiling and then attempts to climb the wall up to the hole. (Rolling a 20 on her climb check) Larissa easily makes it through the hole just as the Goblins enter the tower.
Meanwhile Thaleles has his hands full with several Goblins outside the tower. Fortunately for him Moltar breaks cover and puts arrows through two of the Goblins facing Thaleles. The both then make a dash to the tower with the remaining Goblins in hot pursuit.
Linton hunkers down in his hole. He hears Goblins passing by him then hears a loud sniffing. The little light that was shining from outside into his hiding place is suddenly blotted out and a large hairy feathered arm reaches into the hole, razor sharp claws barely missing Linton's huddled form. After several tense moments the Owl bear shrieks in pain and it withdraws its arm. Linton can see it howling and rubbing its head on the ground and then move away. He then sees a group of Gold Arm Goblins pass caring their Gold Arm totems. Linton waits until they are well past before slowly emerging from his hole.
Larissa hurriedly retrieves her bow and attempts to scale the rubble to the tower's battlements. After slipping several times she makes it to the roof where she activates her "Death's Shroud" and throws it as high in the air as she can. The cloud that forms hovers a good 20 feet above the top of the tower.
Larissa hears some commotion below her and a Goblin arrow streaks from within the tower slicing her leg. Looking down she sees two Goblins on the tower's first floor trying to climb up through the hole between the first and second floor. Larissa returns fire with her bow, but finds that by setting off her shroud she has made her presence on the battlements known to all the nearby Goblins who begin peppering the tower with arrows.
Thaleles and Moltar enter the tower and find one Goblin lifting another toward the hole in the ceiling. The appearance of the two Rangers causes the bottom Goblin to drop his fellow who falls on the first Goblin leaving both Goblins in a heap.
Thaleles and Moltar have more to worry about as they turn and flank the doorway striking out at a Goblin that is following them through the door. Thaleles decapitates the Goblin and Moltar kicks it's head out the door and across the clearing. A second Goblin comes through the door and his head follows that of his comrade out the door and into the clearing. Larissa fires an arrow through the hole and pins one of the goblins to the floor. Thaleles slays the other one with a backhand swing with his battle axe. He then lops its head off, punts it to Moltar who then punts it out the door. The remaining Goblin corpse is also beheaded and the head thrown out to the gathering Goblin hoard.
All three Rangers then pepper the Goblins with arrows until the Goblins retreat to the safety of the tree line. In the lull Moltar throws his "Death's Shroud" up to Larissa who catches it, activates it and throws it high off the top of the tower creating another purple haze above the clearing. This action is followed by a hail of Goblin arrows.
The Goblins begin chanting and banging their weapons against their shields. The Goblins then part to allow the two Owlbears through and into the clearing. Moltar and Thaleles rapidly climb up to the tower's second floor and take up firing positions at the arrow slits. They rain arrows down upon the Goblins they can see while Larissa focuses her attention on the larger of the two Owlbears. Larissa then spots two Goblins each caring a Golden Arm totem emerge from the tree line in order to drive the Owlbears toward the tower door. These Goblins are surrounded by their tribe mates who are all shouting and howling. Larissa releases a couple arrows into the nearest pack and thins its ranks a little. She then shoots at the totem holder. (She rolls a critical hit, confirms with a second 20 then rolls max damage on both dice, this deserves to get messy) Scores Her arrow slices in and strikes the totem's fist in which is clenched a fist sized black orb. As the arrow slams into the clenched Golden Hand, the fingers of the release the orb. A small piece of metal catches a glint of sunlight as it flies off unnoticed by all but Larissa. Several goblins dive to recover the orb. (a grenade, which was clasped in the Robot’s golden fist when its arms were severed. The arrow severed a servo causing the fist to release its grip dropping the grenade.)
A great explosion suddenly erupts amidst the Goblins sending their broken bodies flying through the air and reducing many others to a crimson spray. When the smoke clears only a smoking crater remains, strewn with Goblin bodies. The smaller of the two Owlbears, free from the ultrasonic leash bounds after the closest pack of Goblins and tears into them with wild abandon. The Goblins flee closely followed by the hungry Owlbear.
From far off a loud clear note sounds on a horn, it is followed by several more. Help is on its way, but still far off. Some of the Goblins begin to panic, especially those being mauled by the Owlbear. The remaining totem holder glances up at his totem and seeing that it has no orb grasped in its fist moves to direct the large Owlbear toward the tower door. The totem bearer is cut down by Larissa's arrow, but another Goblin races to grab the arm. Totem bearer after totem bearer is perforated with arrows, but the Goblins finally manage to force the Owlbear into the tower.
Linton sees help arriving. Two giant wolves bound past him followed by an elf mounted on an elk. As the elk rider passes he tosses a flask to Linton. Linton hefts the flask and sees it's labeled with the rune for healing. Linton chugs the contents and then hurries after the elk rider as fast as his short legs will carry him.
A Large shape darkens the sky and the Goblins flee before a Ranger mounted on a Giant eagle. The newcomer peppers the Goblins with arrows as he passes and the Eagle grabs a goblin in its talons and flings it high into the sky where it arks screaming into the forest beyond.
More horns are heard now and closer than before. Linton is passed by several Rangers running toward the tower.
Inside the tower Thaleles and hacks at the Owlbear as it passes under the hole between the floors while Larissa and Moltar continue to pick off stray Goblins. Finally the totem holder is slain and no other Goblin moves to recover the totem. Two great wolves burst into the clearing and charge the remaining Goblins. As the Wolves near the arm totem they suddenly cartwheel to the ground and rapidly retreat whining, pawing at their ears and rubbing their heads against the ground as if in terrible pain. The remaining Goblins scatter into the woods as a swarm of Rangers burst into the clearing.
The Rangers clear the knoll of Goblins and then hear Larissa yelling about the Golden Arm and the Owlbear in the tower. Several Rangers fire arrows into the tower at the trapped monstrosity until it is slain. The three Rangers emerge from the tower to meet up once again with Linton who is just arriving on the scene. Examining the arm totem it is discovered that no animals like to be near it, and that it is full of metal pieces and strange wires. It appears to have been torn from something. Amidst the wires is found a dried piece of lake weed, and some dried mud. The remaining Rangers ponder this while their fellows begin to hunt the fleeing Goblins.
ASEO out
Do these long posts turn off readers?
Is there anyone reading this?
ASEO out
Senior Software Developer
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Do these long posts turn off readers? Is there anyone reading this?
You have at least 1 reader LOL. I don't mind the long posts. I have enjoyed reading them so far. I especially enjoy reading how the different players put their experiences in their on words. Keep up the good work, all of you. What part of the country do you run this game from? I am curious about the DM's and player’s age, D&D experience etc. It seems like you have a good group of people who mesh well together. A good group is hard to come by now days.
What part of the country do you run this game from?
Norman Oklahoma, Just south of Oklahoma City.
I was trying to base it on the final scene in "The Fellowship of the Rings" with the heroes running through the forrest admist scattered ruins, and hacking down goblins that got in their path. I used several battle mats and my grid-lined chalkboard for the combat. I placed periodic plastic trees and used some wooden blocks to make the ruins. I built Nom Stot out of the paper fold-ups that were on the wizard's site a while back.
I also had a small three story tower model that I used as "The Lone Tower".
It all worked fairly well. I don't think any of the players sat down during the entire session.
Having all the 3D props gave the PCs things to climb and jump from in their flight through the valley.
I will say that a running PC can cover a lot of distance in a single round. I found that Goblins chasing the PCs tended to get left in the dust. Goblins intersepting the PCs were the main threat, but were often avoided. Once the Rangers reached the tower, the Goblins caught up.
Part of my inspitation for the adventure was a Middle Earth Goblin spearman who was missing the tip of his spear, and two futuristic arms that I found in a miniatures "Bits Box" at my local game store. One of the hands was grasping a grenade...I glued that arm on to the end of the malformed spear, wrapped it with some dental floss and ta daa arm-on-a-stick. I then used a piece of a paperclip, attached the other arm in the same manner and placed it in the crooked arm of another goblin...and the rest is history.
There are some more advenuters with these rangers, they they arrive at Gryphon Rock at the behest of Umberto and join the character pool.
ASEO out
I just wanted to chime in here and say that I also follow your journal. I'm just not one to post all that often most of the time.
I just wanted to chime in here and say that I also follow your journal. I'm just not one to post all that often most of the time.
Glad to have you reading. I hope you are enjoying it.
ASEO out
Session 8
Chapter 7: Time for Retribution
The Party is:
Linton Male Halfling Ranger 1/Rogue 2
Larissa Female Human Ranger 1/Cleric (Healing & Luck) 2
Thaleles Male Elf Ranger 1/Fighter 2
Moltar Male Half-elf Rogue 1/(MC)Ranger 2
The Rangers spend the next couple of days stalking the dispersed Goblin clans. The dead Goblins are piled in a heap that is then set alight. Tully is given a proper funeral, as are the bodies of the Nom Stotters that are recovered.
During the cleanup, a rune carved Longsword is found. It may have once belonged to someone in Nom Stot, but became Goblin plunder. Thaleles takes up the blade and swears that it will taste Goblin blood and that the people of Nom Stot will be avenged.
Some of the fleeing Goblins are tracked to a narrow side valley. There the Rangers find evidence of a more primitive tribe of Goblins, the Cracked Skull tribe, that seems to have not been included in the Goblin hoard that swept through the valley.
Finding their more advanced cousins absent from the more prime areas of the Goblin warrens. Seeing their more advanced cousins arriving/returning in a weakened state of disarray, the primitive Goblins fell upon their brethren defending their newly claimed territory, killing the Goblins from the other tribes and taking prisoners for sacrifice. Following a brief skirmish, the victorious Cracked Skull tribe then retreated back into the safety of their caves.
The following Rangers join the party:
Nyther Male Half-Elf Ranger 2/ Cleric (Healing & Animal) 1
Dedric Gallows Male Half-Elf Barbarian 2/Ranger 1
Ghorn Male Half-Orc Ranger 3
Depths of Rage (DUNGEON Magazine # 83)
The Rangers track some of the fleeing Goblins to a side valley near the great lake that occupies the far end of the valley. There they come upon a scene of a recent skirmish between rival Goblin tribes. Up on a rock-covered hillside lies a cave mouth. Around the area are strewn the decapitated members of several Goblin tribes. Additionally the totems of these tribes, The Bloody Boot, The Black Face, and the Golden Arm, which were once displayed around the cave have been torn down or defaced, and replaced with a single totem, that of a Cracked Skull.
The entrance to the Goblin’s lair appears to be a fairly large cavern mouth, perhaps 20 feet across and 6 feet high. The rangers cautiously approach the cave mouth and peer inside.
Four natural pillars of rock support the back of this cavern, which is 20 feet high. The pillars also surround an open area with an uneven floor. A wildly painted Goblin carrying a bucket moves out of the shadows at the back of the cave and disappears among some rocks to one side. Linton squeezes around the right side of the cave while Moltar and Thaleles move in around the left side heading toward the rocks where the Goblin was last seen.
As Linton clears the first pillar he spots another Goblin sitting on a stool with his back toward the Halfling. Linton fires an arrow into the Goblin’s back and the creature drops without a sound. Just then the Goblin with the bucket re enters the cave and is met by Thaleles’ axe and sword and Moltar’s blade. The result is a pile of thinly sliced Goblin lunchmeat on the cavern floor.
While the other Rangers scout the cavern Ghorn loots the bodies. All he finds though are a couple of old copper coins. The cavern has two back exits. One is fronted with a crude wicker gate behind which are several mountain goats who are pushing and shoving to get at the contents of the bucket the Goblin had just emptied over the gate. The second tunnel lies through a natural clef in the rock at the back of the cave. Dedric stands guard at the mouth of the cave watching for the arrival of more Goblins from out of the valley. Larissa casts ‘Light’, then she and Thaleles step over the gate and wade back through the mountain goats. The both receive a few bruises from the butting goats as they pass, but finally emerge from the tunnel in an unremarkable 10-foot high cavern that is used as a corral for livestock. There are a few small tunnels leading from the cavern. There is some evidence on the cavern floor that a goat was recently slaughtered and the carcass dragged into one of the tunnels, but the two Rangers decide not to investigate and return through the flock back to the main cave.
Linton Lights a torch while Ghorn uses his darkvision to scout down the cleft tunnel. About 30 feet down the tunnel Ghorn sees that there is another cavern. The cavern is lit by a small fire, and smells of burning flesh and hair. Sneaking a little closer, Ghorn sees a dozen Goblins in the cavern roasting a goat on the fire and fighting over the choice bites. Ghorn moves back to the main cave noting a slightly wider portion of the tunnel where it is bisected by a cleft. He tells the Rangers about the Goblins and Nyther, Moltar and Thaleles move down the tunnel to the wide spot. From here Nyther can just make out one of the Goblins sitting by the fire. He nocks and arrow and lets it fly. It loges firmly into the Goblin’s back and the creature falls forward dead. The sight of their clan-mate with an arrow sprouting from his back sends the remaining Goblins into a rage (They are Barbarians, so they ‘Rage’). As they come pouring up the tunnel Nyther puts an arrow between the leading Goblin’s eyes. Moltar and Thaleles strike out of the darkness and cut down the next Goblins to approach. Nyther drops his bow and draws his sword.
While the three Rangers bottleneck the Goblins in the tunnel, Dedric continues to guard the mouth of the cave, Larissa stands by to provide healing if necessary, Linton hangs out by the goat pen, and Ghorn ventures amidst the goats to the back of their pen cavern and begins to crawl through one of the small tunnels leading from that chamber. Ghorn finds the small tunnel very tight and cramped and gets several scrapes and bruises transversing the tunnel.
Ghorn emerges into the fire-lit room that his fellow Rangers are working on entering. Emerging on a ledge, Ghorn finds himself within striking distance of a Goblin archer who is firing arrows into the melee in the tunnel. Ghorn stabs the Goblin archer just as the Rangers in the hall slay the last Goblin blocking their path into the room. Ghorn spots three more Goblin archers in the room and moves to engage the next nearest one. Hearing their clan-mate’s body fall to the floor the Goblin archers focus their attacks on Ghorn. Fortunately they are not very good shots and all miss the Half-Orc.
Moltar, Thaleles and Nyther rush into the room followed by Larissa. The five Rangers make quick work of the remaining Goblins. Linton and Dedric, seeing their allies moving further into the cave complex follow the others into the cavern. Several small tunnels are found to exit this cave and since the party knows which tunnel Ghorn emerged from they decide to go through the other small tunnel.
Linton is ushered to the fore since he can easily fit through the narrow tunnel. Linton discovers that the tunnel is only cramped for about ten feet and then opens up enough that the other Rangers will be able to walk. The tunnel does seem to descend rather steeply at the point that it opens up, and Linton hears the faint trickle of water ahead.
Ghorn is next through the tunnel. As he emerges and begins to descend the steep slope he slips and tumbles down the rocky slope. Linton is able to jump out of the falling Half-Orc’s way as Ghorn passes. Ghorn finally comes to a stop about 20 feet down the slope in the foot deep muddy floor of a small chamber.
Moltar comes through the tunnel next. With him he brings a rope, which is tied off to aid in the descent of the steep tunnel. The other Rangers follow, all received some scrapes and bruises in their navigation of the narrow section of the passage. Dedric is the last to pass, while the others are proceeding he ransacks the goblins corpses, mutilating them and spreading them around the room. He reasons that since he is last in the marching order, he will be the first attacked if something approaches the party from the rear. He hopes the grizzly scene he is creating will deter any pursuit. With his task finished, and several silver pieces richer, since he loots as he hacked, Dedric follows through the tunnel.
As the rangers congregate at the foot of the steep slope their lights illuminate the room. The muddy floor of this chamber is crisscrossed with plenty of Goblin footprints attesting to its frequent use. Additionally the see the outline in the mud that looks like some man-sized humanoid had been trying to make mud angels. A very dirty Ghorn quickly rubs out the latter marks while trying to draw the party’s attention to several small tunnels leading from this room.
Dedric makes an attempt to convince the other Rangers that they should all turn back and that the mess he left in the last cave will be enough to keep any Goblins from coming back out of the cave complex. The other Rangers remind Dedric that he arrived after the battle with the Goblins in the steading and after the clean up and burial of the Nom Stotters. The Rangers tell him of the Goblin atrocities that were committed against the people of Nom Stot. After retching in the corner, Dedric agrees that the Goblins must be hunted down and eliminated once and for all.
Once again Linton is hoisted to the nearest opening. Larissa lights a torch, her ‘Light’ spell having ended. Linton reports back that the tunnel is a dead end and tries a second opening. He finds this tunnel forks ant then on the route he took opens up. He explores further and finds a narrow rift crossed by a plank-and-rope bridge. Figuring he is on the right track Linton goes back and ushers the other Rangers forward. In the shuffle Nyther and Ghorn get left in the rear and with out a light. Ghorn with his darkvision can see well enough, but Nyther ends up with a bloody nose as he prangs face first into a wall in the dark. Ghorn is able to lead Nyther through the narrow tunnel to the other Rangers, but not without Nyther getting banged around a bit.
At the rift, Linton easily scurries across the 15-foot long bridge. Moltar follows and then Dedric crosses. Halfway across Dedric slips and falls fortunately he is able to catch himself and pull his way back up onto the bridge and crawl the rest of the way across. The rest of the larger Rangers tie a rope around their wastes in case they fall. Larissa and Thaleles have a harder time crossing. Both stumble from the bridge and plunge into the depth of the chasm. Only the sudden tug of the rope prevents them from splattering on the rocks below. Their relief is short lived though. As the rope tightens they are swung face first against the far wall of the chasm. They are each then hoisted out of the chasm by Moltar and Dedric. Nyther and Ghorn arrive on the scene and both opt to crawl across the bridge.
Once all seven Rangers are across they proceed further down the tunnel. This tunnel also begins to descend steeply and Ghorn uses his rope to tie to the bridge then throw down the slope. With the rope in place our heroes all safely reach the bottom of the slope. They find them selves in a pillar and bolder filled chamber. They opt to follow the first tunnel they find leading from the chamber.
The tunnel widens into a great chasm. The ceiling is lost in darkness, and the floor drops out of sight below. Firelight glimmers here and there from cave mouths at various levels on both sides of the chasm, and the sound of tittering Goblin laughter echoes through the darkness. A simple rope-and-plank bridge crosses the expanse.
Linton nears the edge and drops a lit rag into the chasm. Just before it is extinguished the party sees the rag’s fire reflected off water far below. Linton quickly scurried across the bridge to scout the far side. Once there he signals to the party that the far side is clear. Thaleles, having fallen off of a much shorter bridge, decides that he will crawl the 75-foot length of this bridge with a rope tied to him. Linton meets him halfway and secures another rope to him so that if he should fall he’ll be suspended from both sides of the bridge. Once on the other side Thaleles takes the rope and holds it tight so that Larissa may cross. Larissa crawls across as well, looping the rope through her belt. Nyther follows, as does Dedric. Moltar comes next. He finds the crawling more difficult since he is doing it with a torch in hand.
The bridge suddenly shivers, and a low grinding noise reverberates through out the chasm. From somewhere below comes a single loud splash, and the bridge begins to sway alarmingly. Dust trickles down from the ceiling creating a hazy scene. Momentarily all Goblin noises stop, then comes a wild chattering of Goblin voices.
Moltar breathes a sigh of relief as he finds himself still clinging to the bridge. This turns to panic when he realizes that his torch has set fire to the bridge. He begins crawling at a furious pace. Ghorn notices Moltar’s increased pace…IN THE LIGHT OF THE BURNING BRIDGE!
Ghorn ties his end of the rope around his waste and begins to run across the bridge. Moltar feels a slack in the rope from behind him and the increased bouncing of the bridge. Peering over his shoulder Moltar sees Ghorn bounding over the ignited bridge. Moltar tries to pick increase his pace, but suddenly feels a gut-wrenching tug on the rope around his waste. Ghorn has fallen from the bridge.
Moltar is barely able to maintain his hold as Ghorn reaches the end of the rope and is jerked to a halt 30 feet below Moltar. Moltar is now forced to crawl at an agonizing slow pace pulling the suspended Ghorn with him. The rest of the party watches the entrances of several caves along the chasm for signs that they’ve been discovered. Fortunately it seems that the Goblins are more concerned with the stability of the caves they are currently in than they are in investigating the rest of the cave system.
Inch by inch Moltar crawls. Behind him portions of the bridge begin to burn through. The bridge lists heavily to one side as several it the support ropes snap. Closer and closer Moltar gets to the safety of the chasm edge. Finally he makes it to the landing and is helped up by the Rangers that are already there. Just thin the bridge collapses. The burning ends swing toward the opposite sides of the chasm in graceful arcs that collide with the chasm sides is a brilliant shower of sparks.
Ghorn is just able to get a good hold on the chasm wall right before the bridge burns through and crashes into the wall next to him. He is drug to safety by the other Rangers. Once he is safe Ghorn scouts the tunnel for the party using his darkvision. The tunnel takes several turns through the rocky earth. Ahead the sound of Goblin voices are heard. Ghorn peeked around a turn and sees a couple dozen Goblins in the chamber ahead. The Goblins are still gazing at the small trails of dust and pebbles that are trickling down from cracks that have appeared in the ceiling of the chamber. Several Goblins scurry across a low shelf at the back of the cavern amidst what appears to be their personal belongings.
Once again a wide spot is found in the passageway. The Rangers quickly move into position. Thaleles, Nyther and Moltar took up the front positions, backed up by Larissa and Ghorn. Dedric and Linton remained in the rear. Initially, Larissa, Nyther and Moltar attempted to set up a staggered archery line. The managed to pick off a couple of Goblins inciting the others to ‘Rage’ and rush up the tunnel to engage the Rangers in melee. This staggered firing sequence soon degraded into confusion as the Rangers hampered by the narrow confines of the tunnel and their companions between them and the Goblins began to bump into each other, get their bows and arrows tangled and find that their shots were blocked by allies.
Thaleles and Moltar are able to hold back the Goblins even though several try to group grapple Thaleles and drag him down. Thaleles slices the head off the leading goblin and then deftly dodges out of the way of the others. Nyther is having a harder time in the fight. Whether is was the exertion, or the view of the pure gore that the goblins were being reduced to none may know, but something turned Nyther’s stomach causing him to vomit all over the wall of the niche he had squeezed into. Moltar and Thaleles managed to continue to bottleneck the Goblins, but things just got worse for Nyther. Slipping on the vomit slick rocks he stumbled, wedged his foot in a crack and broke his ankle. Slowly regaining his footing and so stoked with fury Nyther swung his sword at the nearest Goblin…and nearly severed Thaleles’ neck. Only by leaping back into Larissa was Thaleles able to save his head. This knocked Larissa off balance and she too stumbled back. Fortunately Ghorn caught and steadied her.
Not one to be shown up by the ferocity of another’s attack, Thaleles takes a mighty swing with his newly acquired sword and hits himself in the crotch. Had it not been for Larissa stepping over his writhing form on the floor the Goblins surely would have pushed into the Rangers ranks and flanked Moltar. Fortunately the Ranger’s line holds long enough for Thaleles to regain his position in the formation.
Linton tried to throw his torch over his allies and into the midst of the Goblins, but just barely missed hitting Moltar in the back of the head. The Goblins once again pushed their attack and managed to wound Moltar, Thaleles and Nyther. A few Goblins remained on the ledge at the back of the room and fired arrows into the melee. Mostly they missed, but they managed to kill a few of their brethren and even hit Larissa once.
The Goblin assault finally wavered as exhaustion began to overcome the Goblins. Those in melee with the party began to retreat to the relative safety of the ledge while the archers on the ledge continued to shower the Rangers with arrows. The Rangers advance into the room cutting down the fleeing Goblins when they can. Linton, Dedric and Ghorn return fire picking off several Goblins. Thaleles leads the advance up the slope leading to the ledge. However, once there his size becomes an issue and he is forced to fight crouched over since the ledge is only 3 feet from the ceiling. The Goblins on the ledge try to counter attack, but are repulsed by a rain of arrows from the Rangers in the room. Soon the battle is over and as the dust clears the bodies of two-dozen Goblins lay on the cavern floor illuminated by the dying light of their cook fires.
While Linton covers a tunnel at the back of the Ledge and Ghorn watches a side passage off the front of the room, the other Rangers receive healing from Larissa and Nyther, who heals his broken foot. The bodies of the Goblins are searched. Amidst the gathering of stray coins and other Goblin possessions is found a stick with fiery markings painted on it. Larissa casts ‘Detect Magic’ and the stick glows with the light of Evocation.
The party is just about to move on when the earth again begins to shake.
ASEO out
I have another question for you. Are the Rangers the same players that are in the original adventure or new players?
Kag's Player Moved
Antiqueas's Player is also playing Thaleles and Larissa and runs Meegoo
Linton and Tully are played by a new player who also plays Ghorn
Aramoro's player played Falin, and Dedric before he moved.
Nyther was a guest Player
Moltar is played by the player who made Marcus Bowman into a PC.
Jen Po's player moved
The rest of the men at arms are played collectively by the party.
I think I may have run Rand as a NPC to provide the party a cleric at the begining.
Clear as mud?
ASEO out
A page from the Journal of Dedric Gallows:
Ah well today’s events were rather interesting. We tracked those damned goblins back to this series of caves. Did I mention I’m stuck in a cave right now? Well I am, but I’ll get to that. So we were tracking these goblins back to this cave when we noticed that apparently someone else had moved in. Not only did they mark the place as their territory, but apparently the killed some of the goblins we had been tracking as well.
Well of course we decided to explore these caves. As we went in using only sunlight to light the way, we spotted a goblin emptying what later turned out to be a feed bucket for some goats. We rushed him and in the quick moment of surprise I was able to send an arrow right into the bastard dropping him without a sound. I looked around for more enemies, but someone had already taken care of another goblin, which was apparently stringing his bow. I don’t think he had a chance.
Now that we were at the back of this cave, it was already starting to get dark. The Linton produced a torch, and Larissa cast some kind of spell that made her shield glow. Now that we could all properly see, we sent out a recon party. Ghorn, the half-orc, Thaleles and Larissa went down through the goats to see if there was anything leading off that way. Much to my amusement I saw Larissa get butted by a goat. Surprisingly she didn’t kill it. I know I would have killed every one of those flea bitten animals after that. Then again I’m not nearly as animal conscious as most. Apparently there wasn’t anything that way because after a few minutes they came back. Then the halfling set off down the other hallway. Once again I stayed behind. I figured if I’m needed the time will present itself. Apparently they did find something this time, because most of them rushed off down the hall. When I turned around to see down the cave, they pretty much had it filled up, so I just waited for them to filter on through. When they stopped and then I heard the crash of battle, well I couldn’t do anything about it could I. I mean they were blocking the hall. Then I realized, hey these are goblin caves. They could come from anywhere and boy would they be in a mess if they got attacked from behind. So of course I defended their backside. I don’t think they ever realized I was helping them, because later on I got some comments about…” oh now your helping”. But that comes later.
Anyhow after a little while the din of battle receded and everyone left the tunnel to go further on. I figured the battle was over, so I went ahead to see what had happened. It was dark, but I figured they couldn’t have gone too far right? Well I was right. I about tripped over some goblin corpses though. Apparently they had decided to bottleneck the goblins in the tunnel so it was a three on one advantage for our side. I was having doubts as to whether they were really dumb or not now. They were looting the bodies when I finally got into the main chamber, where apparently they had killed more goblins, which had been eating a bloody goat.
Once they were done looting and looking around in this room, they decided to send Linton on up ahead again. This is about the time I regretted being in a party of rangers that had a halfling with them. This little bastard didn’t realize that most of us just don’t fit through the smaller caves. Then to make matters worse the others just plunged in behind him. I mean what were they thinking. We could get stuck, or better yet lost. I don’t know about them, but I’d rather be outside in the woods and stuff than lost wandering around in a cave. I didn’t like the idea of staying behind though. I have no delusion that I’m invincible or anything, and I could be overtaken by a horde of goblins. So while I was waiting for everyone else to get through the tight squeeze ahead, I started to mutilate the goblin corpses. I figured it would deter any goblins that decided to come up behind us. Since I was in the rear, that’s good for me. So I busily began hacking and throwing pieces around until the room looked like a charnel house. Now it was my time to wriggle on through. I banged my head a few times, but didn’t get close to getting stuck. Thank the gods. After I made it through the wriggle spot apparently the ground got steep. I had no trouble getting down, but after I got down I saw that a couple of the others apparently had. Then I noticed what I had stepped in. It was the foulest type of mud, a sticky sucking type. I even saw a goblin boot stuck in the mud. Now not only do I have a little bit of a headache from being banged around, but I’m in this muck. So things are looking really grim. I mean ok its one thing to come into a cave and kill the goblins, but it’s a totally different thing to go crawling around in the goblin warrens where a man just wasn’t meant to fit. I mean I could just imagine getting stuck and then there’s this goblin that comes up and starts poking me. Shudder. Anyhow I tried to talk the others out of going, but apparently I have no influence. They just looked at me, and I got this impression they though I wasn’t too bright or something. Anyhow I couldn’t go back without someone with a light going back, so I had to go on.
After a lot of wriggling we came to this narrow shoddy bridge that didn’t seem too long. It was over this nice chasm with water though. But apparently everyone had it under control as we had a rope to break our fall. Good thing. Almost everyone fell off the bridge and banged up against the wall. I figured I’d be ok because I tend to be decently dexterous, but I fell too.
So that bridge behind us and a few downgrades later and a few rope pieces lighter, we came to an even longer bridge. Now I mean this was a bridge. It was about like the other in make and width, but it was long as hell. I think these idiots were going to try to balance across like that damned halfling, but I quickly gave them a better idea. Boy would it have been a bad day if they had tried to balance across this one. Anyhow almost all of us had crawled across, when I turned around and saw that one of the idiots had set the bridge on fire. Now I’m no genius or anything, but I see the fire as being a really big threat. They didn’t seem to think much of it though. Then one of the guys fell off. Luckily he was tied onto someone else who was decently strong. So then one of the other guys grabbed the rope to help them. Finally they made it up to our side, but they kind of cut off our way back with the fire and all.
Anyhow, a short way up the cavern, apparently there was this big cave with a lot of goblins. I didn’t get to see it until a few minutes later. I came up with a plan of how we could shoot in the tight quarters and we had one guy who figured he could keep all of the goblins fended off that came down the cave. It worked ok except for two things. One I wasn’t included, so I just sat and watched the bridge. Second, from all of the cursing I heard, I don’t think they were really hitting anything. Once, or twice, I think I even heard them hit one of the others. Anyhow the bridge collapsed confirming my worst fear. I’m trapped between something that they are fighting and a deep chasm with water in the bottom. I was planning an escape route of into the water hoping that it took me out somewhere, when the battle stopped. I turned around and saw that they were making their way up the tunnel.
Thinking that I had missed out again, I was not very happy. I yelled for people to get out of my way as I was coming through, but that damned halfling got in my way. I think he saw the murderous intent in my eyes as he got out of my way. Next time I’m just going to flatten him. I made my way quickly into the cave saw that there were some archers causing problems for our guys fighting on the lower ground so I ran up behind them. A couple of them turned and tried to attack me but they missed while I chopped one down. I don’t remember much else as I was hacking and chopping, and then when I looked around there weren’t any more goblins left. Anyhow right now we’re searching corpses and hopefully we’re going to take a little bit of a rest here and figure out what we’re going to do if there isn’t another way out from here. So it is in this short reprieve that I pen these words.
ASEO out
Session 9 Depths of Rage (DUNGEON Magazine # 83)
The Party is:
Linton Male Halfling Ranger 1/Rogue 2
Larissa Female Human Ranger 1/Cleric (Healing & Luck) 2
Thaleles Male Elf Ranger 1/Fighter 2
Moltar Male Half-elf Rogue 1/(MC)Ranger 2
Nyther Male Half-Elf Ranger 2/ Cleric (Healing & Animal) 1
Dedric Gallows Male Half-Elf Barbarian 2/Ranger 1
Ghorn Male Half-Orc Ranger 3
The Rangers attempt to back down the passage way and rest near the ledge that supports the remains of the collapsed bridge. Unfortunately for them this happens to be a major Goblin thoroughfare and they are constantly interrupted by groups of one to three Goblins who stumble in to the party on their way to other chambers in the cavern complex.
The Rangers finally decide that between the constant Goblin incursions and the increasing frequency of the tremors they had best press further into the complex.
With Ghorn scouting with his dark vision, the party navigates a series of jagged winding tunnels to finally emerge in a large chamber where they are able to ambush four Goblin guards in a fairly stealth and rapid manner. As they are looting the corpses the earth shakes more than it had ever before and their looting is interrupted by a large Half-Orc accompanied by three Wolverines.
The Half-Orc tosses a net over Moltar entangling him. The combat goes rapidly down hill from there for the party While they are able to collectively dispatch one of the Wolverines, the Half-Orc and the remaining Wolverines render Nyther and Thaleles unconscious. It seems then that the Mother Earth herself comes to the party’s aid. A great tremor shakes the cavern and causes one wall to collapse crushing one of the Wolverines. Several large stones fall from the ceiling, one barely missing the unconscious Nyther. A second stone Strikes the Half-Orc knocking him to the ground while a third falls nearly blocking the tunnel by which the party entered the cave. (I numbered all the squares in the room and then rolled a D6 to determine how many stones would fall then a D100 to determine where. Fortunately for the party, luck was on their side and none of them were crushed)
The Half-Orc seeing his escape path nearly cut off calls to his one remaining Wolverine breaks combat with the party and flees out of the chamber. The party, not wishing to suffer further casualties, quickly untangle Moltar and drag Nyther and Thaleles through the opening from which the Half-Orc emerged.
They are forced to crawl over a newly collapsed pile of rubble partially blocking the tunnel, but finally emerge in another chamber. This chamber seems to have weathered the quake fairly well. Bits of gear and personal items scattered around suggest that this cave belongs to someone special – perhaps the Goblin war chief. Flickering light from a single torch sends shadows dancing along the walls. The chamber stinks of animals, but the only sound to be heard is the snap and crackle of the flame. Dust fills the air and small rivulets of it stream from cracks in the ceiling. After a few moments a loud chanting and beating of drums can be heard from an opening on the far side of the cavern.
Linton retrieves the torch to find that it is a magical ‘Ever-Burning Torch’. Larissa begins to treat the wounded while Ghorn cautiously scouts the exit from the room. Beyond the sound of the Goblin drums and chanting grows louder, but the room beyond is empty of foes.
The chamber is long and narrow, and the walls were once lined with objects that might have once been someone’s greatest treasures, but are now nothing more than Goblin junk befouled by the creatures and scattered across the floor by the quake. Rusted weapons, dented armor and broken shields lie where the earth’s movement tossed them. Piles of rotting cloth, tarnished plates, broken goblets and cracked skulls complete the ambience of the chamber. This room too has an exit at the far end and it is from this tunnel exiting the room that the Goblin cacophony echoes. Moltar calls Larissa, the only Ranger to speak Goblin, to come see if she can hear what the Goblins are chanting. A now conscious Thaleles baring the ‘Ever-burning Torch’ accompanies her to Moltar’s side.
“Earth demon, take our offerings”. Then a cheer then Drums and more hooting and hollering followed by the chant again. As Moltar is about to scout the tunnel Thaleles notices a bolder on the wall near the exit seems to be blocking the entrance to another tunnel.
The rest of the party moves into the room and helps Thaleles move the bolder while Moltar keeps watch. Beyond the bolder is a small chamber in which a coffer and a barrel are stashed. The party thinks that this might be a good place to hold up and rest for a while. They all move into the cramped chamber and using a rope drag the bolder back into place. Once the bolder is back in position they untie the rope, douse their torches and place the ‘Ever-burning Torch’ in a sack.
There in the dark the rest and pray and listen to the chanting Goblins.
After a couple of hours the chanting stops and shortly after the sound of several Goblins moving through the outer chamber is heard. Followed by cursing that Larissa translates as ”That Elf born Murkko and his thrice damned fur beasts! He’s taken my gold and run away like a Dwarf! Send some hunters and bring back his head!”
A series of after shocks then ripple through the chamber and a Goblin shouts “Back to the Maw! We must feed the Demon!” Shortly thereafter, the drumming and chanting resume.
As they rest Linton investigates the coffer using the smallest shaft of light he can allow to escape the sack containing the ’Ever-burning Torch’. Linton picks the lock on the coffer and finds a vial of yellow oil (Oil of Slipperiness), sever gems and a pearl inside. Larissa cast ‘Detect Magic’ and sees a glow from the vial and the pearl. Dedric opens the vile and the scent of bananas fills the small chamber. He considers drinking the substance, but is stopped by Larissa who mentions that she doesn’t think drinking oil is a good idea.
Having rest enough to heal and regain spells, the Party emerges from the cave.
The Rangers move to the tunnel from which the sound of the Goblins emanates. Slowly progressing through the winding tunnel the party stumbles upon the remains of a rope-and-plank bridge that has been smashed to kindling when the Chasm it was spanning closed. The party is now able to step over the small remaining gap and proceed toward the din.
Ahead the party spots the flicker of firelight. Ghorn creeps down the passageway and peers into the chamber beyond. Painted howling Goblins fill the mammoth, 20-foot-high cave. The floor consists of several tiers and natural shelves some rising as close to 5 feet from the ceiling. A large rift bisects the floor of the chamber. From it comes an eerie red glow and the smell of sulfur. The air in the chamber is noticeably hotter here. On a platform just below Ghorn stands a huge Goblin painted in vivid red loops and swirls. Above his head he waves a glowing longsword (+2), and at his sides stand two other Goblins painted in equally barbaric designs. Scattered through out the rest of the cavern are just over a score of additional Goblins, shouting and beating on drums.
Another small tremor shakes the cavern and all the Goblins go silent until it subsides. Then they once again break into wild yells and howling. The Goblin with the glowing sword climbs down several tiers and Ghorn moves for a better view. From his new vantage point he is able to see that the lead Goblin has moved town by the smoking rift to where several other Goblins lie bound. On the arm of one of these tied Goblins Ghorn can make out a golden gauntlet.
As Ghorn watches the head Goblin’s aids haul one of the bound Goblins to his knees. The head Goblin then raises the glowing longsword , bellows something that Ghorn can’t understand, and then decapitates the prisoner. The Goblin prisoner’s body is then hurled into the rift after it’s severed head. All the Goblins go wild, and then suddenly another tremor shakes the cavern complex.
Ghorn retreats back to the party and informs them that the Goblins are making sacrifices to something in the smoking rift and that what ever is in the chasm is causing the earthquakes.
The party decides to backtrack and try another tunnel they hadn’t explored back in the room where the Half-Orc had attacked them. They move back through the trophy hall and the chief’s quarters. As they are entering their intended cave another tremor shakes the cavern. A large portion of the ceiling collapses and Linton and Ghorn find them selves separated from the rest of the party by a large portion of mostly collapsed tunnel. Neither part of the party seems particularly interested in trying to cross the very unstable rubble pile.
Ghorn and Linton that they can hear the sound of the Goblin din coming from the tunnel they were planning to explore. They investigate and find that it leads to the same large cave. The party decides that if they don’t stop the Goblin’s ritual it is likely that the entire complex will collapse and kill them all. They decide to make a two-pronged assault with Linton and Ghorn attacking from the rear of the cave as the rest of the party attacks form the point Ghorn had originally scouted.
Linton and Ghorn take up positions and wait for the rest of the party to move back into place.
DM Note: The Goblins are making sacrifices to try to stop the earthquakes and are not causing them. All that resides in the rift in the cavern is a flowing stream of lava about 50 feet down.
The party once again backtracks and moves into the mouth of the tunnel overlooking the rift cavern with its teams of Goblins.
The party strikes fast and furiously. Several Goblins are cut down before they know they are being attacked.
Linton and Ghorn add to the confusion by striking out of the darkness at the other end of the cavern. Linton is able to dispatch two Goblins before they notice Ghorn and him. Ghorn moves to engage several Goblins in combat but is slowly repulsed and forces to give ground.
After the shock of the initial assault the Goblins are able to mount a defense and even take on an assault against the party. Several Goblin archers take up positions across the cavern on some of the higher ledges and pepper the main party with arrows. Other Goblins including the chief and his sub chiefs also are able to charge the party and engage them in melee. Thaleles is the first to fall under the Goblin’s vicious onslaught, but he takes sever Goblins with him. Moltar manages to kill the Goblin Chief before he too is struck down. Larissa tends their wounds while Dedric and Nyther hold off the slowly stemming tide of Goblins. Nyther attempts to claim the Goblin chief’s glowing sword, but finds that as soon as he picks it up he becomes the target for every Goblin around, all of whom seem interested in claiming the sword as well.
Ghorn is finally cut down and only Linton’s quick attack on the remaining Goblin on that side of the cave saved Ghorn from being finished off. Linton then dragged Ghorn back into the darkness of the tunnel and out of the cave.
Dedric and Nyther manage to slay the remaining Goblins that are in melee with them, but are still being harasses by several Goblin archers from across the cavern. Additionally, a Goblin that they suspect is a shaman has climbed up and taken a position with the Goblin Archers. Dedric and Nyther retreat back around the corner into the entrance of the tunnel and out of the sight of the archers. There they help Larissa with their fallen comrades.
DM Note: At this point I distributed the experience for the Goblins that had been defeated
ASEO out
Session 10 Depths of Rage (DUNGEON Magazine # 83)
The Party is:
Linton Male Halfling Ranger 1/Rogue 3
Larissa Female Human Ranger 1/Cleric (Healing & Luck) 3
Thaleles Male Elf Ranger 1/Fighter 3
Moltar Male Half-Elf Rogue 2/(MC)Ranger 2
Nyther Male Half-Elf Ranger 3/ Cleric (Healing &Animal) 1
Dedric Gallows Male Half-Elf Barbarian 2/Ranger 1/Fighter 1
Ghorn Male Half-Orc Ranger 4
Moltar and Thaleles regained consciousness while Ghorn remained unconscious. An archery battle then began with the few remaining Goblins atop an outcropping on the far side of the cavern. It soon becomes apparent that the Goblins are to well concealed for the party to hit so Moltar and Thaleles, backed up by Nyther begin to advance down the tiers on their side of the cavern and then up the outcropping on the far side. The Goblins continue to pepper the Rangers with arrows but only manage to nick Moltar.
Nyther picks up the glowing sword on the way. As the three approach the outcropping a Goblin dressed in robes emerges from behind the Goblin archers and casts a spell. The Rangers are seemingly able to shrug off the effects, but Nyther finds that he is unable to climb the steep tiers of the outcropping. He promptly blames this on the Goblin’s spell.
Meanwhile Larissa continues to keep the Goblin archers pinned with suppressing fire from her bow. Dedric begins to stealthfully descend the tiers toward the bound Goblins lying by the edge of the fiery chasm. In the glow of the molten lava he slits the throats of the two remaining Goblin prisoners.
Once again the Goblin Shaman casts a spell on the advancing Rangers who once again suffer no adverse effects. Nyther finally manages to scale the first tier of the outcropping but fails repeatedly to ascend the next tier, cursing the vile Goblin “Anti-Climbing spell” all the while.
In the face of the onslaught, the remaining Goblins break cover and flee down the far side of the outcropping. Larissa picks one off, and Thaleles cuts down another who is slower to flee than his brethren. Nyther moves to intercept and slay another of the foul creatures as they descend past him. The three remaining Goblins reach a tier that borders the chasm and is 10 feet higher than the cavern floor on the chasm’s far side. Without breaking stride they jump. The first Goblin makes it across and lands in a heap…right next to Linton who had been sneaking closer to the backside of the outcropping the Goblins had been sniping from. Linton moves to attack the prone beast when the Goblin Shaman leaps the chasm and collides with Linton on the far side. Seeing a halfling emerge from the darkness to break the Goblin Shaman’s fall, the third Goblin is thrown out of stride, stumbles and plunges screaming into the glowing chasm. His demise is highlighted by a flare of flame that bursts from the chasm at his point of entry.
Linton franticly tries to extract himself from the two Goblins as all three attempt to regain their feet. First to his feet, but not first to his weapon, which was knocked away in his collision with the Goblin Shaman, Linton finds himself slowly backing away from both Goblins who have managed to stand and draw wickedly serrated long knives. A bellowing war cry suddenly breaks the silence as Thaleles flings himself across the chasm and into the Goblin Shaman. Thaleles’ landing is cushioned by the splattering Shaman’s head as Thaleles bears his foe to the ground driving the Goblin face first into the stone floor. (jump check natural 20/attack roll natural 20 confirmed with a natural 19…and the Shaman only had 3 hp left). As the remaining Goblin turns to face this new threat Moltar puts an arrow between its eyes from atop the ledge across the chasm.
With their foes defeated, the party investigates the opening atop the outcropping the Goblins had been sniping from and find that it has collapsed. It seems that their only way out is through the nearly completely collapsed passageways.
Larissa, Moltar, Nyther, and Dedric retreat back through the trophy hall and Goblin Leader’s room back to the pile of rubble that separates them from Thaleles, Ghorn , and Linton. Eying the pile they decide that they can push through, but not without suffering some serious injury. Dedric then comes up with the idea to put the Banana scented oil on a cloak and then use the “slickened” cloak to ease each of the party’s trip through the narrow passages. After tying a rope to the cloak so that they don’t lose it Dedric moves through the narrow area and finds that the cloak does indeed make the trip easier. Linton, who because of his size never had a problem navigating the narrow areas, then using the rope pulled the cloak back to the remaining rangers. While time intensive the procedure proved highly effective. Once on the same side as Ghorn, Larissa used her magic to help him regain consciousness.
Using the cloak the party manages to move fairly easily through the partially collapsed passages. Along the way they are suddenly attacked by a wandering Carrion Crawler that managed to paralyze Ghorn and Moltar before the rest of the party defeated the beast.
The party eventually made it back to the ruined bridge that they had burned down. From there they trekked through the chamber where they had previously defeated a large number of Goblins. This chamber was now full of rubble, but a small opening was spotted at its rear. Passing through this cramped chamber the party found themselves in an area of the complex that seemed virtually untouched by the earthquake.
Here the tunnel divided from one direction the sound of Goblin voices could be heard. The party chose the other passage, but soon found that it seemed to lead to Goblins. Rounding a corner, the party found themselves standing on a shelf at the edge of the great rift they had crossed earlier. However, across the chasm they could see several goblins in the firelight of a different ledge that had the remains of a collapsed bridge trailing down the chasm’s wall from where it was anchored to the ledge’s lip. However, about 30 feet further down the far chasm wall was another ledge with an intact bridge leading across the chasm. This bridge apparently terminated on the party’s side of the chasm on a ledge about 30 feet further down the party’s side of the chasm.
The party backtracked and took the tunnel they had avoided earlier. In front of them was a room inhabited by several Goblins, the ruins of a bridge that once spanned the rift at this point lay at the chasm’s edge. The party rushed into the room quickly cutting down the startled Goblins. From across the ravine came a hail of arrow fire to which the party responded in kind. Three of the five Goblins on the far side of the chasm were killed and the remaining two retreated into the darkness.
The intact bridge the party had seen earlier apparently terminated on the party’s side of the chasm just on the other side of a 5ft thick portion of the cavern wall that separated the bridge landing from the ledge the party was on. The party spent some time trying to figure how to get to the bridge, which was only 10 feet across what might well be a bottomless chasm. Linton considered drinking his potion of ‘Jump’ and leaping, but the party finally decided on throwing a grappling hook tied off to their last rope over to snag the bridge then having Linton swing down and climb up the rope to tie it off to the bridge so that the rest of the party could cross. The lose end of the rope was tied off to the remains of the bridge on the party’s landing. Linton threw the hook and missed the bridge, nearly tumbling over the ledge himself. On the second throw the hook caught on the bridge and Linton swung down it. Suddenly a Goblin burst from the darkness on the far side of the chasm and sprinted across the bridge wielding a huge ax and aiming to sever the rope to which Linton was clinging, but not tied to. Linton franticly scrambled up the rope, but knew he wouldn’t make it to the bridge in time. Thaleles fired an arrow at the Goblin and missed. Moltar’s arrow likewise went astray, as did Larissa’s. The Goblin swung his ax, which bit deeply into the planking of the bridge narrowly missing the rope. As he readied a second blow Dedric put an arrow through his head and he tumbled from the bridge into the darkness of the rift. Before the party had a chance to estimate the depth of the chasm by the sound of the Goblin’s descent a second Goblin emerged from the darkness and began hacking at the bridge supports on the far side of the chasm. Dedric, Thaleles, Larissa, Moltar and Nyther all fired as one and the Goblin exploded in a crimson spray as all five arrows struck home.
Linton at last made it onto the bridge and tied the rope more securely. He then moved to the far side of the ravine to watch for more Goblins. The other party members carefully crossed the rope to the bridge, except Dedric who simply scaled the 5ft section of wall separating the two ledges. The party then all crossed the bridge.
Once on the same side of the chasm as the cavern entrance the party made their way through several partially collapsed chambers and new clefts in the rocks to finally emerge in the cavern that still served as a goat pen. They carefully made their way through the panicked animals…um…OK, so they killed all the animals with arrows from a ledge overlooking the cavern and then made their way safely through the corpse strewn chamber to exit the Goblin warrens via the partially collapsed cave mouth.
After emerging from the cave and making their way back through the valley, the rangers are reunited with some of their fellow Rangers who were still in the valley. That night they celebrated their victory with a huge feast of roast goat. During the festivities they learned that the earthquakes had done more than nearly trap the party in the cave. After the quake a large square opening appeared about 50 feet up on a nearby cliff face by the lakeshore. Emanating from the left edge of the opening was an oscillating spectrum of light. From the base of the cliff, only the metal plated ceiling of the Opening can bee seen.
Someone should investigate this new mystery...
Now, for the next several sessions we introduced some new characters to the gameback in the town of Tir Feldar.
We then went back and caught back up with the rangers.
Do you want me to keep posting the Ranger adventures (they pick back up in session 15),and then skip back to the new characters, or keep posting the sessions in the order that they were played?
Rangers or sessions in order?
ASEO out
Now, for the next several sessions we introduced some new characters to the gameback in the town of Tir Feldar.
We then went back and caught back up with the rangers.
Do you want me to keep posting the Ranger adventures (they pick back up in session 15),and then skip back to the new characters, or keep posting the sessions in the order that they were played?
Rangers or sessions in order?
ASEO out
My vote is that you keep going in order and pick up with the rangers in session 15. I do have a question however; what happen to the previous party back at the castle? Good job ASEO keep it up.
-Bandit of LV
The Ranger episodes take place maybe a month before the other party reaches Gryphon Rock. The Heroes of the Gryphon Rock adventure will continue to clean up, and re fortify the castle using it as a base of operations in their founding of their own realm. The next adventure takes place while the PCs who were clearing out Gryphon Rock were doing that.
ASEO out
Session 11
Chapter 8: How My Life as an Adventurer Began
While Kag, Rand, Antiqueas, Meegoo and their party are clearing the keep, Lt Rodderick is charged with rebuilding the bridge that spans the chasm at the Tir Feldar end of the pass. It seems that a recent earthquake rocked the region and the old bridge was unable to withstand the shock and collapsed. The Settlers will need a bridge in place in order to move their wagons through the pass. Lt Rodderick organizes the Settlers and a few citizens of Tir Feldar in an effort to span the chasm with hewn trees and replace the ruined stone bridge with a new timber one.
While the initial survey of the site is being conducted one of the Men-at-arms, by the name of Leovild noticed that the falling stone from the bridge had knocked lose some of the chasm wall and exposed a landing about 40 feet below the lip of the chasm. From the landing hewn stone steps descended another 30 feet and then entered a dark opening in the chasm wall.
Lt Rodderick has called for volunteers to investigate the opening. Who will answer his call?
[I]NOTE TO THE PLAYERS
Characters will be 20 point buy construction.
One person may play one of the Men-at-arms, a 1st level Warrior
One may play a 1st level expert who is a Blacksmith
The rest will start out as 1st level Commoners...Unless you come up with a good reason to play a different NPC class.
Characters will gain a level of any PC class when they gain 500ep. At that time characters may add an additional 8 points to their characters stats. And then progress as a normal PC from there.
Here is a list of the Settlers and the Men-at-arms. (I gave the Players a spread sheet of the settlers and Man-at-arms) Currently they are humans, but if you wish to use a different race let me know and We'll change that family's race. There are 5 Dwarves who live in Tir Feldar and are not listed on this sheet, but may be used for character creation. Feel free to change any of the character's first names, but not ages. Any of the Settlers from age 15-40 may volunteer, but be aware of that person's relation to the rest of the family. Men tend to be fathers, grandfathers, or eldest sons, while Women tend to be mothers, grandmothers and eldest daughters.
Feel free to create as many characters as you wish. Send me a list of who you want to play and I'll let you know if you are the first to call that individual.
FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE!
Based on a person's age and occupation you may be able to make an argument that the character is a 1st level expert...if you are interested.[\I]
The Sunless Citadel (WotC)
The Party is:
Private Deodantus Male Human Warrior 1
Jo’len Greenleaf Male Elf Commoner 1
Shelly Villerns Female Human Commoner 1
Sarah Marholdt Female Human Commoner 1
Heleren Vochek Male Dwarf Expert (Blacksmith) 1
ASEO out
The Ranger episodes take place maybe a month before the other party reaches Gryphon Rock. The Heroes of the Gryphon Rock adventure will continue to clean up, and re fortify the castle using it as a base of operations in their founding of their own realm. The next adventure takes place while the PCs who were clearing out Gryphon Rock were doing that.
ASEO out
Sounds good, keep up the great work. I enjoy reading other campains while I am suppose to be working :) Gets the ole' creative juices flowing for my own adventure designs.
-Bandit of LV
Session 11
The Sunless Citadel (WotC)
As the volunteers step forward they gather what supplies and equipment they think they might need for the task at hand. Before they descend Grainnie, the village healer arrives on the scene and provides each of the party members with two potions of light healing. She says this is all she has and hopes that the party can return safely. The newly formed band say farewell to their friends and families and then are lowered one by one down to the platform. From there they wave their last farewells and slowly descent the stairs through the opening in the cliff face. Once inside they light a couple of torches and then continue to descend the stairs.
The stairway spirals down and then opens up onto a landing. From the landing the party is able to see a vast cavern below. Strewn about the cavern floor are the ruined buildings of some long forgotten complex.
Now only rubble and the shells of the building remain. At the base of the cavern face that the stairway seems to be descending lies a platform that looks like it may have once been the top of a crenellated wall. Across the platform lies a tower shell with a door opening onto the platform.
The party descends into the darkness and eventually emerges on the old wall. The narrow stairs empty into a small courtyard; apparently the top of what was once a crenellated battlement. The buried citadel has sunk so far into the earth that the battlement is now level with the surrounding cavern floor. The floor stretches away to the north and to the south, and is apparently composed of a layer of treacherous, crumbled masonry, which reaches to an unknown depth. To the west looms the surviving structure of what must be the main citadel complex. A tower stands on the west side of the courtyard. A single wooden door in its face beacons the party forward.
Deodantus flanked by Jo’len begin to move across the old wall toward the door when Heleren shouts for them to stop. His keen Dwarven eyes have spotted a discolored portion of the floor. Investigation shows the spot to be a trapdoor. They carefully avoid the spot and move to the door. The rest of the party also moves forward and takes up positions on either side of the door. Their shadows dance in the flickering torchlight casting larger than life images across the tower’s side.
When everyone is ready, Deodantus throws the door open. The door seems to catch on something and Jo’len is forced to push against it to get it to open fully. Beyond the door is a circular chamber, which is cobbled with cracked granite. Upon the floor are sprawled four Goblins, all apparently slain in combat. One stands with its back against the western wall, the killing spear still skewering it and holding it upright. On the far side of the tower are two wooden doors like the one through which the party entered. Above, a hollow tower of lose and crumbling masonry reaches a height of about 30 feet, but the intervening floors and stairs are gone, except for a couple of crumbled ledges.
Deodantus leads the party in searching the corpses, and he and Heleren both take one of the short swords the Goblins were armed with. Heleren pulls the spear out of the skewered goblin. The corpse slumps to the floor revealing a carved inscription that none in the party can read. Jo’len begins to pile the goblin corpses against the wall just to the left of the door the party entered from when he notices something strange about that wall. Further investigation shows that there is a long forgotten secret door in this portion of the wall. Some further searching turns up the opening mechanism. As Jo’len opens the door, his finger is pricked by an old needle trap. Shelly checks out and cleans the wound and then looks at the needle to see if it looked to be poisoned. It doesn’t seem to be. She thinks that any poison would have long ago become inert. Jo’len is relieved, but notes to him self to look for traps on any future doors.
The party then moves to open the door and finds that in the small room beyond there is nothing but the skeletons of three long0dead archers slumped against the rubble filled arrow slits along the east and south walls. Just as Jo’len is about to investigate further, glowing pinpoints of light flare in the darkened sockets of the skeletons skulls. Jo’len jumps back as the Skeletons rise and advanced. Seeing the dead rise puts quite a start into Shelly and she retreats issuing prayers for protection to any and all gods she can think of. Heleren pulls out the crossbow, which his father had given him, and takes a shot at the nearest Skeleton. The bolt clips the Skeleton’s spine, but inflicts very little damage. Seeing this Heleren switches to his forge hammer. Jo’len slashes another of the Skeletons with his sickle and finds that it is not a very effective weapon against the fleshless. Deodantus attacks with his short sword and, by the sheer force of his attack, is able to shatter the Skeleton that was moving on Jo’len. Sharah back peddles from the Skeleton’s assault and Deodantus issues a brief prayer of thanks for his armor, which wards off the Skeleton’s raking claws. Sarah swings her quarterstaff at the Skeleton advancing on her and cracks its skull, but still it advances. Jo’len finishes it off by severing its spine with his sickle. Deodantus and Heleren destroy the final Skeleton with the fury of their combined attack, but not before it tears into Jo’len with its claws. Fortunately he recovers with the help of one of the healing potions.
Once the dead are once again dead, the party searches the corpses. In the chamber they find the remains of the archers rotten and rusted crossbows as well as the remains of their rotted uniforms as well as a few scattered silver and gold coins. They do find three finely crafted and rune inscribed bolts (+1), which Heleren adds to his inventory. Following the battle Sarah has to shake Shelly to get her out of the apparent trance she had entered, or perhaps she was just frozen by fear. What ever the case Sarah is glad she made a better showing than Shelly did in the encounter.
With much bravado Sarah states that the party should try the northern most of the two other doors leaving the tower’s shell. Deodantus moves to the door, but is stopped by Jo’len who wants to make sure the door is safe. Jo’len goes through a very through search of the door and spends some time listening to it to try to discern what may lie on the other side. He eventually pronounces the door safe, moves to the back of the party and covers his eyes as Deodantus opens it. When no sudden explosion or attack of a raging monster greets the party Jo’len calmly announces, “See, I told you it was safe”. What does lie beyond the door is a hallway about 40 feet long that ends in a wooden door and has a second wooden door in the north wall about 30 feet down. Across from the northern door on the south wall is a stone door carved with a relief portraying a dragon-like fish swimming in an aquatic setting.
Deodantus watches the door at the end of the hall while Heleren and Jo’len investigate the wooden door on the northern wall. Jo’len goes through his “checking out the safety of the door” routine and once again pronounces the door safe. Opening the door Heleren finds the 20 x 20 room beyond to be completely empty. Only the dust of several years blankets the floor.
With Deodantus still watching the far door, the others turn their attention to the stone door. Jo’len finds that this door is locked, but with some wires he produced (and an ungodly natural 20 pick locks roll) he has the door unlocked in do time. Heleren opens the door and finds a 10-foot chamber hewn from stone beyond. It contains an upright keg fashioned of rusted iron. Similarly rusted pipes lead from the keg into the floor. Mystified the party closes the door and moves to the one at the far end of the hall.
Jo’len listens to the door and hears nothing so Deodantus pushes it open. Crudely executed symbols and glyphs, scribed in bright green dye, decorate the large and irregularly shaped crumbling chamber. A large pit in the chamber’s center shows evidence of a recent bonfire. A metallic cage in the center of the southern wall has its bars bent leaving a gaping hole and stands empty. A small wooden bench draped with green cloth stands before the cage. Upon it sit several small objects. A bedroll lies near the wooden bench. From a lump in the bedroll comes the sound of a high-pitched whimpering.
Deodantus and party move to surround the bedroll. Heleren aims his loaded crossbow at the lump while Jo’len and Deodantus have their bladed weapons ready. Sarah pulls back the blanket with her staff. There, lying on the cold floor is the huddled furry form of a large mouse-like, or perhaps rat-like, humanoid. The creature continues to huddle moping, perhaps unaware of the party’s presence.
Heleren: “What is it?”
Sarah: “I don’t know, poke it”
Deodantus: <poke>
Sarah: <poke>
Creature: “whimper”
Deodantus: <poke>
Sarah: <poke>
Jo’len: “Hey you. What’s the matter?”
Deodantus: <poke>
Creature: “You go kill me Squeeiek Squeekey?”
Sarah: <poke>
Jo’len: “We’re not here to hurt you?”
Deodantus: <poke>
Sarah: <poke>
Jo’len “What’s wrong?”
Deodantus: <poke>
Creature: “Me Squeeiek Squeekey”
Heleren: “Yeah whatever, Rat Boy, What you do’in here”
Sarah: <poke>
Rat Boy: “Me lose clan Dragon”
Deodantus: <poke>
Rat Boy: “Me in big trouble”
Sarah: <poke>
Rat Boy: “You help me?
Jo’len: “He can’t have a dragon, lets help him and see what we can get out of it”
Deodantus: <poke>
Jo’len “What happened to your “Dragon?”
Rat Boy: “Greenlings came and took it.”
Some discussion on what Greenlings are takes place and it is resolved that Rat Boy is talking about Goblins.
Sarah: <poke>
Shelly: “I’m not sure about this”, <Prods Rat boy with her foot>
Heleren: What we get if we help you Mr. Mouse?”
Shelly: <prod>
Deodantus: <poke>
Rat Boy: “I take you to chief. She have treasure if you get dragon back”
Party: “What Treasure?”
Shelly: <prod>
Deodantus: <poke>
Sarah: <poke>
Jo’len: Will you guys quit poking him!?”
Shelly: “Sorry”
Deodantus: “Um…Apologies”
Sarah: <poke>
Rat Boy: “I take you to chief”
Heleren: “OK, Lets go see the big cheese.”
Rat Boy leads the party through a door on the far west wall of the chamber, which opens to reveal a hallway. The party is led up a northern side hall, which led to a long, wide, colonnaded hallway. Deterioration and decay filled the hall, however a double row of relief-carved marble columns marched the length of the hall. The warn carvings depicted entwining dragons. From a couple of doorways off this hall several mousy faces appear. Before long there are a dozen Rat Men escorting the party to the end of the hall.
There at the end of the hall a short throne stood, constructed of fallen bits of masonry stacked against an old alter. A small furry figure sat on the throne dressed in red-dyed robes. A force of six similar creatures guards her. The altar’s top contains a variety of small items, while the portion of the altar that serves as the throne’s back features a carving of a rearing Dragon. A metallic key is held firmly in the rearing dragon’s mouth. The items on the altar appear to be a large feather, a small flask and two rolled tubes of paper.
With much squeeking Rat Boy apparently introduces the party while carefully stepping out of Sarah’s poking range. In broken squeaky common, the Chieftess inquires about the party’s presence in the citadel. They tell her that they are just looking around. She seems leery and asks them if it is true that they will recover the clan’s dragon. Jo’len once again reassures the party that there can’t actually be a (he makes the Quotations with his finger every time he says Dragon) “Dragon” down here. The party says that they will get the Dragon back but that Rat Boy had mentioned a reward. The Chieftess gestures to the items on the altar and says that they are powerful items and the party can have two of them if they return with the Dragon. The party barters for one item in advance and the Chieftess agrees, but the party must take Rat Boy with them. Rat Boy isn’t to sure about this, but knows that he is already in trouble for losing the Dragon, so agrees. Shelly selects the feather (Quaal’s Feather Token (Oak Tree)), which has a tree painted on it.
The party is led with much fan fair back to the room in which they first encountered Rat Boy. There they are pointed toward a door in the east wall about 30 feet north of the door they had first entered the room from. There seems to be some discussion between Rat Boy and some of the other Mouse Folk over who gets Rat Boy’s stuff if/when he doesn’t return. Once that is resolved, with one of the larger Mouse Men claiming “Dibs”, the party moves through the door and down the hall beyond. After a couple turns, the hall ends in a wooden door. Rat Boy opens the door and the party moves into a 20 x 25 room beyond. This room is completely empty save for a door on the northern wall. Rat boy is questioned about what is past that door and replies that there is a fountain in the next room, but that he hasn’t been there since the Goblins stole the Dragon. “Dragon” reminds Jo’len, using his fingers to make air quotes.
Deodantus opens the door. Dust and odd bits of stony debris and rubble lay scattered on the floor of the next room. An ornate fountain is built into the eastern wall. Though cracked, stained, and dry, the fountain’s carving of a diving dragon retains its beauty. A relief carved stone door stands on the west wall. To the north a 10-foot hall leads from the room. The party takes one look at the carved dragon on the stone door and decides to check out the hall instead.
The party moves up the hall past an intersection that is collapsed to the east and has a wooden door to the left. Further up the hall is flanked by 6 cell type doors, 3 on either side of the hall. Beyond the cells lies a large room at the end of the hall. As the party passes the first two cell doors they are attacked by three Dire Rats that emerge from the middle cells. The fight is quick and once again Deodantus thanks his armor for the protection it provides. Still the party didn’t escape without harm. Both Heleren and Sarah were bitten and the healing potions were once again passed around. With the Rats slain the party investigates the cells and finds them each filled with filth and the rubble that has been arranged into a rat’s nest. The party moves into the room at the end of the hall when they are sure there are no more Rats in the cells.
The cobblestone floor of this chamber contains two trap doors blocked open with iron spikes. It’s obvious that if the tops of the doors were flush with the floor that they would be difficult to spot. The north wall of the chamber holds a dry fountain carved with a base relief of a rampant dragon. A lone wooden door stands in the middle of the west wall. Jo’len moves to investigate the door and detects the strong smell of rotting meat from beyond. Heleren opens the door. The stench of rotting meat suffuses the air rising from several heavily chewed carcasses of cave rats, other vermin and a few suspiciously humanoid corpses. The cadavers lie upon a floor of filth, old bones, and fur that combine to make a particularly large and vile nest. The northern wall is smashed, opening on rubble filled darkness. In this darkness the party sees their torchlight reflecting back at them in the eyes of several Dire Rats. The Party quickly closes the door and jams it shut with an iron spike.
With no other obvious choices the party backtracks to the wooden door at the intersection. Opening the door they find an empty 25 x 25 room. On the north side of the room is another wooden door. Jo’len checks the door and finds nothing out of the ordinary. However, when Deodantus opens the door the tinkling of small bells is heard from the other side. In front of the party is a 10ft-wide hall liberally strewn with sharp caltrops. The northern door to the hall is missing, but the room beyond is partially blocked by a roughly mortared 3ft-high wall complete with battlements.
Before the party can act two Goblins emerge from behind the wall and throw javelins at the party. Both miss, though one nearly takes a chunk out of Deodantus’ ear. The party is forced to slowly move down the hall toward the wall. Once again the Goblins throw javelins, this time one strikes Heleren. Jo’len leaps up onto the wall and slashes one of the Goblins with his sickle. Seeing this onslaught the remaining Goblin begins yelling for help. Rat Boy tries to climb over the wall but apparently came in contact with some unguent that the Goblins had smeared on its surface. This makes Rat Boy squeak something like “rat bane” and fall to the floor in a fit of convulsions. Shelly moves to help Rat Boy. Sarah: <poke>.
Heleren is having a hard time getting over the wall. Just as Deodantus ascends the wall four more Goblins come running into the room from the west. The remaining original Goblin remaining tries to stab Rat Boy by leaning over the wall. Jo’len swings his sickle at him but misses, fortunately so does the Goblin. Heleren gets his crossbow reloaded and fires it into the head of one of the new Goblins. Deodantus faces off against the other three and takes several cuts from their short swords for his effort. Sarah stops poking the twitching Rat Boy with her staff long enough to smack the Goblin attacking Rat Boy over the head. It takes several hits, but finally the Goblin’s head is reduced to jelly. Shelly freaks out again and goes into a plethora of prayers, chants, and speaking in tongues. Jo’len moves to help Deodantus and another bolt from Heleren’s crossbow leaves only two Goblins facing the party. One of the Goblins scores a wicked hit on Jo’len, but is quickly cut down by Deodantus. Jo’len backs away from the fight in time for Heleren to finally scale the wall and wade into combat with his forge hammer. He and Deodantus flank the remaining Goblin and quickly end its life. The girls eventually get Rat Boy to stop convulsing and the party carefully lifts him over the wall. Healing potions are handed out again and the party takes inventory realizing that they only have five potions left. The Goblin’s corpses are looted, and a pot filled with ‘Rat Bane’ salve is found near the wall.
The room they find themselves standing in is covered with a layer of filth. Trash on the floor, stains on the walls, shabby hides, and a much used fire-pit attest to the years of use this room has seen at the hands of creatures not overly concerned with hygiene. Around the corner from the small wall on the south side of the room is an open door from which the Goblin reinforcements must have arrived. Peering through the door only a short dark hall beckons the party.
The short hall opens up to the west. There, there is a room with dozens of blunted and broken javelins lying on the cracked cobblestone floor, though a few actually protrude from three crudely sewn human-sized targets hung along the center of the south wall. The northern third of the room is separated from the south by a crudely mortared and crenellated half-wall. A permanent camp of sorts lies north of the half-wall complete with a fire ring and several iron cook pots. A Wooden door stands in the middle of the western wall in the southern half of the room. A second wooden door is in the center of the west wall north of the half-wall. And a third wooden door stands in the left side of the northern wall.
The party moves through the room keeping an eye on the northern portion of the room for more Goblins. Jo’len listens to the door in the southern west wall and hears nothing, so Deodantus opens the door. Squalor reigns in this long. Low dungeon. Three small furry Rat Men are roughly tied with crude ropes to a large spike near the entrance. Farther back, a battered Gnome languishes inside a rusted iron cage, which is small even for his frame. Several sets of corroded manacles are connected to the walls, and are empty except for the occasional crumbling skeleton. Rat Boy moves to free his clan-mates while the rest of the party helps to free the Gnome. After a few bashes with Heleren’s hammer, the lock falls off the cage and the Gnome is free. He introduces himself as Erky Timbers, an adventurer, miner, entrepreneur, and humble servant of Pelor. Erky tells the party that he was captured by the Goblins about a year ago and has only been able to survive through the covert use of his clerical spells. The party invited Erky to travel with them and take revenge on the Goblins that treated him so badly. Erky jumps at the chance.
Erky Timbers Male Gnome Fighter 1/Cleric 1 (Pelor: Sun & Healing) Joins the party.
The three Rat Men are escorted back to their den by Sarah and Heleren and warned about the ‘Rat Bane’ on the half-wall along the way. They chatter thanks and rush back to their lair carrying word of the party’s progression with them. Erky is given a Goblin short sword, but is unwilling to try to wear the Goblin’s foul smelling and flea-infested armor.
The party then leaves the room and scales the short wall in the target practice room. From there they try the western door and find it unlocked. The north and south walls of the 15 x 15 ft chamber beyond are stacked halfway to the ceiling with ill-made barrels, boxes and crates. A clear path allows access to a door on the far side of the room. The party starts to investigate the boxes, but stop when they encounter a barrel labeled “Elf Pudding”.
Opening the door on n the west wall the party emerges in a long colonnaded hall. Several torches mounted in crude wall sconces burn fitfully in this chamber, filling the air with a haze that blurs the party’s sight. A double row of marble columns carved with entwining dragons marches the length of the hall. On the north wall 20 feet from the party is a wooden door, a second wooden door is 10 feet further down the same wall. Beyond that the hall is lost in the haze of the smoky torches.
ASEO out
Session 12 The Sunless Citadel (WotC)
The Party is:
Pvt Deodantus Male Human Warrior 1
Jo’len Greenleaf Male Elf Commoner 1
Shelly Villerns Female Human Commoner 1
Sarah Marholdt Female Human Commoner 1
Heleren Vochek Male Dwarf Expert (Blacksmith) 1
Erky Timbers Male Gnome Fighter 1/Cleric 1 (Pelor: Sun & Healing)
The party investigates the smoke-filled hall and decides to examine the nearest door on the north wall. Jo’len examines the door and finds the handle very cold to the touch. Suddenly a large crash reverberates from beyond the door. Jo’len finds the door to be locked, but is eventually able to pick the lock. Deodantus moves to the door and with Jo’len standing ready, throws the door open. Mounted and stuffed animal heads adorn the walls. The mounting job is sloppy, and the assortment of heads includes cattle, rats, and other not particularly impressive specimens. However, a few grisly trophies share the wall with the animals including a couple of Slitheren visages. Smashed and broken cabinets and small tables litter the periphery of the room, mute victims of some sort of rampage. A rusted iron spike stands askew in the center of the room, trailing a length of broken chain. Thin patches of ice coat sections of the walls, floor, and debris. The temperature in the room is low enough that the party’s breath fogs before them.
Cautiously the party enters the room. Jo’len then spots a length of chain slowly retreating behind a broken and overturned cabinet. As Deodantus moves to investigate, a cat-sized white lizard jumps up from behind the cabinet to the uppermost edge of the overturned wardrobe and growls fiercely at the party.
Rat Boy squeals in glee “Our Dragon”.
Jo’len: “Holy crap! It is a DRAGON”
Shelly: “You said there wouldn’t be a DRAGON!”
Erky: “’is just a little Dragon.”
Jo’len: “It’s a DRAGON!”
Deodantus: “Well, lets get it. That’s what we are supposed to do.”
Jo’len: “That’s your plan? Lets get it? It’s a DRAGON!”
Erky: “Snap out of it kid. We’ve got work to do.”
Before any of the party can react further, the hatchling lets out a cold blast of ice from its mouth. The party all dive for cover and all manage to avoid the icy blast.
As they are regaining their feet Rat Boy announces “Him no do that before!”
Jo’len: “Did you just see that?! It’s breathing ice! What the hell is up with it breathing ice?!”
Deodantus reminds the party that they are supposed to capture the Dragon alive and recommends that the party use the flat sides of their weapons to attack the creature. Shelly attempts to calm the Dragon by making sounds and gestures like those that might appease a dog or cat. The Dragon only growls louder and hisses directly at her. Deodantus leads the way attempting to slap the Dragon off its perch with the flat of his short sword. The Dragon ducks the blow and snarls at Deodantus. Jo’len moves up, but slips on a patch of ice and falls bruising his tailbone and ego at the same time. Shelly begins to speak in tongues and whips out some old steak knives, which she begins to hurl in what may only be called the Dragon’s general direction. Rat Boy reverses his spear and swings the butt at the Dragon smacking it soundly in the head. Erky also steps in and lands a solid blow.
The Dragon attacks Deodantus with a flurry of teeth and claws. Deodantus is able to smack the beast aside and his armor prevents the Dragon from harming him seriously.
Deodantus: “Damn! It fights like a wench I once knew.”
Jo’len regains his feet and decides to try to grab the Dragon. He is rewarded for his effort with a severe scratch across his face from the Dragon’s claws. Erky briefly distracts the Dragon by focusing a ‘Ghost Sound’ of a screaming hawk diving for its prey just behind the Dragon. Shelly continues to chuck her knives until one bounces off Deodantus’ shield and he firmly recommends that she stop with the knives and grab an “F’n” club. Erky and Rat Boy both manage to knock the Dragon around, but not before it flies into Jo’len’s face with its claws of fury.
“Aaaaah, It’s going for my eyes!
My eyes!”
Jo’len, once he regained consciousness, later commented on the encounter, “ I couldn’t believe the anger in a creature that small…so much anger…”
Shelly moved to Jo’len’s still form and poured Jo’len’s remaining healing potion down his throat.
With Jo’len out of the action the Dragon focuses its rage on Deodantus, but his armor proves harder than the Dragon’s teeth and claws. The Dragon retreats with a bruised wing. Erky and Rat Boy keep up their assault. Jo’len regains consciousness, picks up Shelly’s torch and cracks the Dragon soundly over the head with it. “Try to claw my eyes out will you!?” The Dragon recoils in pain, as its white scales are singed black. Shelly returns to her trance. Caught off guard by the pain caused by Jo’len’s fiery attack, the Dragon is an easy target for Erky. Rat Boy moves for a better angle and finds himself sprawling on a cold sheet of ice on the floor. Deodantus swings and misses, but doesn’t have to fear the Dragon’s reprisal because Jo’len bashes in again with the sputtering torch, sending the Dragon into a steaming unconscious heap. Deodantus pulls Jo’len away from the Dragon before he can pummel it further. Rat Boy and Erky quickly hog-tie the creature while the rest of the party searches the room. Shelly finds some real “Silver” silverware and a crystal goblet. Jo’len discovers an inscribed bone tube and a jade dragon figurine. Rat Boy continues to rough up the Dragon and is beginning to have second thoughts about returning to his position as ‘Dragon Keeper’ with the Dragon’s newly developed breath attack, that position just got a lot more dangerous.
With the Dragon properly trussed and tied the party returns to the Ratling’s throne room and presents the creature back to the clan. The Chieftess offers the party the rest of their reward. The value of the gold alone makes the gold key the commoner’s choice and the Chieftess gives it to them.
At this point several party members gain their first PC level.
Pvt Deodantus Male Human Warrior 1/Fighter 1
Jo’ Len Greenleaf Male Elf Commoner 1/Rogue 1
Shelly Villerns Female Human Commoner 1/Cleric 1 (Madness & Random Domain currently: Trickery)
As a cleric who is not completely sane, Shelly always has access to the Madness domain. Every Midnight as she meditates she gains a randomly selected second domain. Whether his random domain is granted by a single deity who is tormenting her, or by different deities that she manages to contact through her crazed nightly ravings is yet to be fully understood. We play her spells as less than intentional and somewhat a mystery to her. She may not even realize she has cast one while in her trances and fits of basking in divine glory.
The party is then invited to party rat style and spends the evening with the Slitheren. Heleren and Sarah both begin to feel ill and their rat bites are beginning to show signs of infection. They both head back to the surface to get better. During the festivities Rat Boy continues to beat the Dragon and insure it remains unconsciousness. In the morning he announces to the Chieftess that he wants to go with the party and give up his highly valued post as ‘Dragon Keeper’. The Chieftess is initially surprised, but quickly gives the position to one of her favorite lieutenants, who just happened to be one of Rat Boy’s rivals within the clan. With one more good, hard hug to the Dragon, Rat Boy joins the party.
Rat Boy Male Slitheren (Creature Catalogue/Warrens of the Rat Men)
The party spends some time gathering some supplies and trading for a few light maces that the Rat Men have. These are given to Erky and Shelly. A few sacks are gathered, and Erky manages to get some thread and a needle and patch his torn pants.
The party sets back off toward the Goblin portion of the underground complex. The party decides to check out the carved stone door in their passage back through the room with the dry marble fountain. Jo’len examines the door, which is carved with images of skeletal dragons. As he nears the door is feels the air grow slightly colder. While investigating the door Jo’len sets of a scythe blade trap that nearly takes his head off. Only his reflexes prevent him from being decapitated. Still, the wound he does suffer is far from minor. Erky comes to Jo’len’s aid and soon Jo’len is back to more carefully investigating the door. Several runes are discovered on the door, and Erky casts ‘Comprehend Languages’ to read them. They say, “Channel the light to open the way.” Jo’len manages to disarm the trap and then Erky focuses his holy turning power on the door, and his power fizzles. So he tries again, and the door opens.
The faint glow from a single candle burning in the room beyond sheds the faintest light in the room. The party moves closer to the door and their torches further illuminate the room. Five dusty sarcophagi stand on end in this silent chamber; three stand on the north wall, and two on the south wall. The carved stone sarcophagi each resemble a noble elflike humanoid in ceremonial robes. A shrine carved of obsidian is set in the center of the far west wall on which a candle still burns. Next to the candle two items: a small crystal whistle and a potion flask stand covered in a thin layer of dust.
Erky and Jo’len enter the room and move toward the shrine. Shelly stands outside the door and holds a torch to light the room. Deodantus enters the room and stands by the door. Rat Boy remains in the fountain room watching for trouble. Erky looks for any deity specific markings on the shrine while Jo’len holds a torch to light the area better. The candle is most definitely magical, how else could it burn and not melt. Erky is leery about the shrine and moves to check out the nearest stone sarcophagus. Jo’len searches the shrine and discovers a secret drawer. As he opens the drawer, the lids of the sarcophagi also open to reveal animated Skeletons within each of them.
Shelly screams (Turn attempt) and the Skeletons briefly cower in their stone coffins. Deodantus swings his short sword at the nearest Skeleton and takes a small chink out of its ribs. Erky also wails on the Skeleton nearest to him with his mace. The mace proves to be much more effective than the short sword and several of the Skeleton’s bones are sent flying from its frame. Erky tries his greater turning but (Rolls a 1) is unable to link to his Deity in his time of need. The Skeletons then all lurch at the party and Erky and Jo’len find themselves cut off from the exit. Deodantus wades into the fray, trusting his armor to fend off the Skeletons grasping claws. Jo’len swings his torch at a Skeleton attacking him and smashes it soundly, scattering its bones across the floor.
“Yeah! That’s what the Dragon thought of the torch as well!” Gloats Jo’len over his fallen foe.
Erky fells the Skeleton he was facing as well. The remaining three Skeletons turn their attention on Deodantus and once again his armor saves him. Shelly strikes out with her mace and manages to knock the skull of the Skeleton attacking Deodantus from the rear. Deodantus turns and finishes that headless corpse off. Erky claims one of the two remaining and Jo’len smashes his torch into the other shattering it, but extinguishing his torch as it splinters into a shower of sparks from the impact.
Following the battle the party is able to search the room in peace. Still under his ‘Comprehend Languages’ spell, Erky reads an inscription on the whistle. Azan-gund “Night Caller”( Necromantic Magical item). The Whistle is carved from a rare transparent iron called Nephelium, and resembles a small dragon curled up like a snail. The item is given to Shelly who pockets it. The potion flask is cold to the touch (Endure Elements, fire), and gets put into Jo’len’s gear. The drawer Jo’len opened contains a small box that in turn contains six peridot gems, each carved in some likeness of a dragon. These also go into the party loot bag. Lastly, Erky claims the ‘Everburning’ candle.
The party navigates their way back to Goblin territory and is immediately confronted with evidence that the Goblins have at least passed back through the areas where the party had previously explored. The caltrops are gone, and the two Goblin guard positions are abandoned. Making their way back into the wide pillared hall, the party finds the torches there extinguished.
Bypassing the door that led to the room where the Dragon was penned, the party tries the next door on the north wall of the hall. This door leads to another hall that links with the next door on the north wall, and then leads down to a couple of doors at the hall’s end. The end of this side hall is sprinkled with caltrops, but the party can’t be sure if they were the same ones they had encountered before.
As Jo’len moves to check the door at the end of the pillared hall he hears a loud din of many voices coming from beyond it. Erky listens and tells the party that beyond are the living quarters for the Goblin tribe. He used to be brought here to be tormented and prodded by the Goblins when they were in need of entertaining. His cage was covered with a sack during his transportation so he wasn’t sure of the route, but the sound of so many Goblins is etched in his memory. The party decides to leave this door alone. This leaves only one more door in the pillared hall on the south wall. Jo’len checks the door, and Deodantus kicks it open when Jo’len gives the all clear.
The stench, garbage, rotted carrion, and half-eaten legs of strange animals speak of the years of use by unsanitary tenants. Tattered hides form six unstable hammocks around a much-used fire pit. Battered cooking equipment lies mixed indiscriminately with broken pottery and rotting baskets. Four Goblins roll out of their hammocks and grab their weapons. Jo’len and Deodantus each pin one of the creatures to the wall with well-aimed arrows. As the Goblins counterattack Erky and Rat Boy quickly cut them down before they are able to raise the alarm. The party quickly loots the room and then moves to a door on the east wall. Opening this door, the party is faced with a hall that goes for about ten feet and then makes a sharp turn south. Jo’len and Deodantus lead the way. As they round the corner two Goblins jump out at them. Well, maybe jump isn’t a good word, the two Goblins more stumble awkwardly into the party’s path in a bumbled ambush attempt. Their ineptitude and fumbled attacks make them easy prey for the party and the combat that ensues barely even slows the party’s pace. At the end of the hall is another door with a large evil looking face crudely painted on it. Jo’len listens to the door and hears nothing. Deodantus opens the door and hears the tinkling of small bell, accompanied by the twangs of several crossbow strings. In the brief second before he closes the door he views a hallway filled with all manner of primitive and jury-rigged traps and alarms. “Oh this is where that door leads,” exclaims Rat Boy. Seems that this is another heavily trapped way back to the territory of the Rat Men.
The party finally decides that the caltrop strewn side hall is their last option so they move to that area. They carefully clear the caltrops from the northern side of the east-west hall. As they pass a door on the south wall they can hear the sounds of the Goblin den beyond. They carefully avoid that door. Rat Boy takes up a guard position back by the doors that led to the pillared hall. He’s not to excited about fighting a pack of Goblins and their possible Rat Bane smeared weapons, so he is leaving his escape route open.
The party makes their way to the door at the end of the hall. Listening to the door Jo’len detects a few voices from the other side, but is unable to make out anything more. Once he is sure the door isn’t trapped he and Deodantus ready their bows and Erky throws the door open. A circular shaft pierces the floor in the center of this 40-ft diameter domed chamber. Dim violet light shines out of the shaft, revealing the sickly white and gray vines coating the shaft’s walls. Four lit wall torches set equidistant around the periphery of the chamber supplement the light from the shaft. A crudely fashioned throne sits against the curve of the northwest wall. A large iron chest serves as the throne’s footstool. A sapling grows in a pot next to the throne. Seated on the throne is a hairy humanoid wearing scale mail, the sight of which makes Erky snarl “Hobgoblins!” Three other Hobgoblins lounge on stone chairs near the throne. Seven Goblins also stand in the room, one of these holding a spear is whispering in the ear of the Hobgoblin on the throne.
Deodantus and Jo’len loose their arrows and the two nearest Goblins die before they know they are in danger. The rest of the creatures in the room, including the potted plant, which steps from the pot with rooty legs, rush the party and Deodantus and Jo’len are forced to drop their bows and draw their melee weapons. Seeing the fierceness of the counterattack the rest of the party begins to retreat while Deodantus and Jo’len hold the line. Shelly casts ‘Change Self’ to look like the Hobgoblin chief as she backs away from the fray. Erky is able to kill one Goblin before he suffers a savage wound and is forced to retreat as well. As he retreats he casts ‘Dancing Lights’ just above the Goblinoids. As Deodantus and Jo’len slowly fight a tactical withdrawal, Erky follows up with ‘Obscuring Mist’, hoping to help his buddies who are locked in deadly combat. Deodantus slays another of the Goblins. The remaining Goblin seems to be hanging back by the Hobgoblin leader. The other three Hobgoblins are attacking furiously and both Jo’len and Deodantus suffer hits as they slowly retreat. The Mist is making the fighting much harder for all involved. Erky adds to the confusion by using ‘Ghost Sound’ to replicate the sound of elves in the Goblinoids midst. This doesn’t seem to slow then and they continue to press the party back. Panic finally overcomes Shelly and she flees the battle. Only the ‘Obscuring Mist’ keeps Rat Boy from attacking her thinking she is a Hobgoblin. Deodantus is able to kill one of the Hobgoblins pressing him. Jo’len is having much less luck and slowly shuffles back through the caltrops on the southern half of the hall. Seeing an opening, the Hobgoblin Chief enters combat and savagely slashes Deodantus. The fight progresses back down the hall to a sharp turn. In Erky’s retreat he took with him the torch that Jo’len and Deodantus were relying on to see. They yell for light and Erky moves back to illuminate the combat area. Jo’len manages to kill another of the Hobgoblins. While Erky is near he casts a healing spell on Deodantus who is bleeding from several wounds. Just as the combat reaches the corner Jo’len is struck down. Erky moves to heal him, but his spell is disrupted when he suffers a blow from the Hobgoblin Chief’s long sword. Deodantus and Erky yell for Shelly ant Rat boy to help and both of these two return just in time to see Deodantus slay the remaining Hobgoblin guard. While Shelly heals Jo’len Erky and Deodantus with some help from Rat Boy continue to fight the Hobgoblin Chief, the pissed-off potted plant, and a female Goblin that begins to cast spells on the party. Fortunately the party manages to shrug off her foul spells. Jo’len is revived just as the Hobgoblin Chief begins to step over the elf’s prone form. Jo’len lashes out with his sickle and manages to critically hit the Chief in the crotch. (Natural 20 confirmed with a natural 20 confirmed with a 19 then rolled high damage). Jo’len jumped to his feet as the Hobgoblin Chief fell dead. Deodantus and Erky combine their attacks and soon the potted plant is just splinters. The remaining Goblin Shaman tries another spell, but once again the party all manage to shrug off its effects. She then quickly dies in a crimson spray as she is swarmed by the party’s combined attacks.
The party, low on spells and nursing some serious injuries slowly moves through the passage into the throne room dragging the bodies of the Shaman and Chief with them. There they loot the bodies and recover a couple decent long swords, and a suit of scale mail. Jo’len finds a trap on the iron chest at the base of the throne and disarms it then opens the chest.
Inside are many gold coins, a potion vial holding a yellow liquid, a scroll, and two-dose ampoule of anti-toxin as well as two small onyx gems. Erky listens to a door that connects the throne room with the Goblin den and believes that the battle went unnoticed. Examining the shaft the party finds it to be around 80 feet deep. The party gathers to decide what to do next.
ASEO out
Session 13 The Sunless Citadel (WotC)
The Party is:
Pvt Deodantus Male Human Warrior 1/Fighter 1
Jo’len Greenleaf Male Elf Commoner 1/Rogue 1
Shelly Villerns Female Human Commoner 1/Cleric 1 (Madness & Random Domain: Currently Trickery)
Sarah Marholdt Female Human Commoner 1
Heleren Vochek Male Dwarf Expert (Blacksmith) 1
Erky Timbers Male Gnome Fighter 1/Cleric 1 (Pelor: Sun & Healing)
Rat Boy Male Slitheren
While the party is dragging the dead Goblin’s bodies back into the throne room, Sarah and Heleren venture back down into the sunless citadel, having received a treatment for the sickness they were suffering from. They retrace the party’s steps and speak to two Rat Men who are poking a still unconscious, very small white dragon in a jury-rigged cage. The Rat Men point them in the direction the party had previously taken and the two adventurers head in that direction. Sarah and Heleren note the open stone door in the fountain room as well as the scattered bone shards littering the floor beyond. The two venture past the cells where they had their encounter with the Dire Rats and into the chamber with the spiked-open pit traps. There they reinvestigate the trash room where Heleren spots the glint of gold about a human corpse. As he moves to collect the coins he is jumped by several Dire Rats and is barely able to flee with his life. He and Sarah backtrack and move back through Goblin territory. They see signs of the passage of their friends and following the trail of bloodstains and empty healing potion vials eventually move into the long pillared hall. There they check out several of the doors and even make it to the trapped corridor before deciding on another search path. The fact that they were both almost killed by the triggering of several traps when opening the door to the trapped hall aided in their decision to look elsewhere.
Eventually they make it into the hallway where the rest of the party made their heroic stand against the Goblin King. Confronted by the two doors off the end of the hall, Heleren advises against the door through which they can hear a great cacophony of voices. That leads only the door with the bloodstained drag marks leading under it. Sarah attempts to open the door buts finds that it appears to have something stacked against the other side of it. Pushing harder she manages to force her way into the Goblin King’s throne room and right into the waiting sites of Jo’len’s bow. Fortunately Jo’len is able to check his shot and Sarah and Heleren are welcomed back into the party.
The party re-fortifies the door as well as the door off the throne room that leads to the Goblin warren. A healing potion is administered to Heleren who feels much better, but notices some puffiness around his newest rat bites.
The whole party begins to re-equip with the armor and weapons of the dead Hobgoblins, Which unlike the Goblins, seem to have taken care of their armor and weapons. Jo’len, Heleren, and Shelly don Studded Leather Armor, and Deodantus and Jo’len both take long swords. Rat Boy takes a long sword as well, strapping its scabbard across his back. Jo’len, Shelly and Deodantus decide to climb down the vines and investigate what is below.
Deodantus and Jo’len find the climbing fairly easy. After about a 70-foot climb they see that the vine-filled shaft opens into a large chamber and that the final ten feet of the climb will be through this room. Peeking into the room Jo’len sees that luminescent fungus clings to the walls and ceiling shedding violet light. The air is damp, chilly, and redolent with the odors of loam and decay. A layer of earth, mixed with rotting vegetation and the remains of cave animals, covers the floor of the wide chamber. Several varieties of mushrooms and fungus grow on the detritus as well as a few saplings. Two gaunt, cloaked figures busily shovel well-turned earth into a rusty bucket.
After watching the two gardeners for a while Jo’len creeps into the room and manages to sneak up behind one of them. As he moves to place his sickle to the figure’s throat he realizes that they are in fact Skeletons. Jo’len makes a hasty attack with his sickle and then retreats back to the vine. Once there he begins to climb. Suddenly a small woody plant, like the one that he had encountered in the Goblin throne room, attacks him as he begins to ascend the vine. Deodantus moves to kick the Twig Blight away and sees another climbing toward him. Jo’len climbs up with the Skeletons in pursuit. Deodantus on the other hand drops out of the vine and draws his long sword to meet the Twig Blights’ attacks. Hacking with his sword Deodantus cleaves deeply into one of the Twig Blights. Jo’len continues to climb. As he nears the top of the shaft he yells out a warning to his allies at the top. They all prepare for the fight to come.
Deodantus is able to cause serious damage with the long sword and soon one of the Twig Blights is a pile of toothpicks. In the violet light of the room he then fends off the second Twig Blight and then returns its attacks with a vengeance. Apparently the disciplinary work detail time he spent tending the royal hedges paid off, because in short order the Twig Blight is a well-pruned Tree. Deodantus then tires of his artwork and hacks the plant in two.
Up above, Jo’len scurries from the shaft. Sarah throws a stone at the front-most Skeleton and nearly konks Jo’len on the head. Both Skeletons then follow Jo’len out of the shaft and into the waiting attacks of Rat Boy, Erky and Heleren. Shelly gives a wailing yowl (Turn attempt), which doesn’t even seem to phase the Skeletons. Fortunately their attention is captures by Erky’s mace and Heleren’s forge hammer. Deodantus notes shards of bone cascading down the shaft and moves to take up a defensive position on the two doors leading from the chamber. Rat Boy and Jo’len slash at the Skeletons with their blades, but with out any meat to sever they only do minimal damage. The Skeletons are finally put to rest by the smashing blows of Erky and Heleron.
Erky does some hasty arranging of the bodies to make it look like the Skeletons killed the Goblinoids and then joins the party in their descent of the shaft. Just as he reaches the bottom a curtain in the north wall (colored to blend in with the nearby wall, and covered with the glowing fungus) is thrown aside and there stands a large creature that resembles a Goblin. It is holding two particularly large Dire Rats on leashes. Antlers adorn the helmet on the creature’s head.
It Bellows something to which Erky replies: “I think we’ll not be your dinner! Get him!” Sarah replies, “Who the Hell made the Gnome boss”. Her protests are cut short as the creature, a Bugbear, released his Dire Rats, which charge the party. One Dire Rat heads for Erky and one for Rat Boy. Heleren steps up to intercept the one headed for Rat Boy and deals it a blow that reduces it to a hairy jam-like substance, which splatters against the lower legs of the nearby party members. Erky chokes up on his mace and cracks the Dire Rat facing him squarely on the head. The Bugbear then enters the fray, swing his morningstar in both hands. A faint trail of blue light shimmers trailing each swing (+1). Erky gasps “Magic”. Deodantus slays the Dire Rat attacking Erky and then turns to face the approaching Bugbear, taunting it as it approaches. The Bugbear strikes Deodantus, but he holds his ground and the rest of the party swarm in around their foe. Heleren is hit hard and sent spinning through the air to land in a heap several feet back. Sarah is likewise rendered unconscious. Deodantus, Rat Boy and Jo’len all manage to injure the creature, but is finally Shelly screaming what the others interpreted as a war cry, that managed to drive her goblin short sword clear through the Bugbear’s heart. The creature stared in disbelief as its lifeblood gushed from the mortal wound caused by a mere human girl. Shelly stared hard into the Bugbears eyes until they finally dimmed all the while driving the blade deeper. Only when the creature collapsed in front of her did she relent and back away mumbling something about divine vengeance or fate or something like that. Her blade still imbedded in the Bugbear’s chest is abandoned and Shelly absent mindedly draws a mace she pulled from a dead goblin and bashed the Dire Rat corpse that hasn’t been reduced to jelly as she passes, muttering and speaking in tongues all the while.
After the fight Sarah and Heleren recover from their wounds.
And gain their first PC level:
Sarah Marholdt Female Human Commoner 1/Warmage 1
Heleren Vochek Male Dwarf Expert (Blacksmith) 1/Fighter 1
Rat Boy also Gains his first PC level
Rat Boy Male Slitheren Rogue 1
The party then pulls the bodied back behind the curtain and investigates the Bugbear’s lair. The lair’s rough cavern floor is stained as if regularly drenched in blood. Luminescent fungus reveals the eastern niche, which holds a matted-hair-and-fur pallet, a wide wooden board on which a variety of weapons are affixed, and a great coat of patchy black fur hung on a long pole. To the edge of the niche are two large nests made of fur and refuse. Shelly claims the Bugbear’s scale mail armor, and Heleren claims the Morningstar, which proves to be enruned. A potion in a frosty metal vile is found on the Bugbear’s corpse. Jo’len stashes it in his gear.
Pulling the curtain closed behind them the party settles down to rest. Shelly slips into a strange trance in the corner and Erky keeps an eye on her as he himself prays to Pelor for rejuvenation and blessings on a new day. Sarah experiments with the new eldritch powers that are now pouring through her body. The fight with the Bugbear, or perhaps the blow she suffered seemed to have awakened something inside of her. Jo’len investigates the room further and finds a back exit that seems to lead deep into the earth. The Weapon rack holds several javelins, two spears and two big swords. A scattering of valuable coins is found in each rat nest.
Shelly gains access to the Madness and Protection domains
Shelly is apparently an open conduit to the material plane from various divine planes and different deities periodically channel power through her. Whether this is done on purpose, or is a mere fluke has not been determined. The result, however, is shifting divine powers that are punishing Shelly’s sanity and driving her into madness.
Deodantus, Jo’len, Heleren and Rat Boy keep watch through out the rest cycle. In what Erky proclaims is dawn above, the party moves back into the large chamber and toward the door on the eastern wall. The door opens into a hall with two rows of dragon-caved marble columns marching its length. These columns are nearly completely covered in the luminescent fungus. The cobbled floor is cracked and stained with much use, and it holds many small wooden tables. The tables are covered with mortars and pestles, bowls filled with crushed leaves, chopped fungus stalks, and other plant specimens. The six doors leading off this hall are all partly open and various sounds are audible from beyond them.
Jo’len moves to investigate the first door on the north wall. From within the sounds of snoring can plainly be heard. Peering in Jo’len sees several sleeping pallets, two of which are occupied by sleeping Goblins. Jo’len stealthily moves into the room and kills the first Goblin as it sleeps. As he is about to dispatch the second Goblin it wakes with a start and yells out as it dives for Jo’len’s throat. Taken aback by the sudden attack Jo’len swings his sickle wildly in the Goblin’s direction. In the pillared hall the rest of the party move to cover the nearest doors and wait for anything to emerge. Jo’len struggles with the Goblin for a few more seconds before he is able to drive the point of his sickle though its eye.
From the nearest door on the southern wall a goblin emerges with a wooden club held at the ready. As the creature exits the room, it is attacked from both sides by Sarah and Deodantus who quickly end the creature’s miserable life. A second Goblin emerges from the middle door on the north wall, followed by a third from the middle door on the south wall. Jo’len exits the sleeping room and jumps up on one of the tables in the hall. From there he hacks at the goblin that emerged from the middle northern door. Erky and Rat boy move to help him. Deodantus and Sarah watch another Goblin emerge from the door they were covering, and with the aid of a slash delivered by Rat Boy as he passed by quickly kill this Goblin as well.
Heleren jumps up on a bench to fight the Goblin from the middle southern door, and the Dire Rat that followed it out of the room. Another Goblin also emerges from the middle southern door, along with another Goblin from the middle northern door. Heleren caves in the head of the first Goblin facing him with a mighty swing of his newly claimed magical morningstar.
Erky and Rat Boy take out the first of the northern Goblins and Jo’len moves into position to attack the second one. Rat Boy aids Heleren against the Dire Rat and gets a small nip from the Rat before slicing it in half. Deodantus moves in on the remaining southern Goblin and removed its head from its shoulders. The remaining Goblin has second thoughts after seeing the rapid demise of all of his comrades and makes a run for the third door on the northern wall. Deodantus calmly draws his bow and fires an arrow at the fleeing Goblin just as it clears the door. Deodantus misses horribly, but while he is reaching for another arrow, a glowing arrow of energy flashes past him and slams into the Goblin’s back momentarily pinning it to a door on the far side of the room it had entered. As the Goblin’s blasted body slides to the floor, Deodantus and the rest of the party turn to stare at Sarah who merely shrugs.
With the threat eliminated, the party goes about searching the six side rooms. The rooms to the north prove to be a sleeping quarters, armor repair room and armory for shoddy Goblin weapons. To the south the party finds some sort of still, a room where the Goblins appeared to be operating on a Dire Rat and implanting some sort of plant in its head, Jo’len humanely kills the beast, and an empty room with a partially collapsed back wall leading to a natural rift through the rock. Nothing of any real value is found and so the party moves on to the door through which the Goblin had been trying to flee.
Through this door is a short hall that ends in another door. Jo’len checks this door out and then opens it. It opens into the northern end of a large cross-shaped chamber. Nodules of luminescent fungus hang from the ceiling and walls and grow in clumps upon the flagged floor. The vaguely nauseous light illuminates portions of grand base-relief carvings on the stone walls that are not covered with the self-same fungus.
These carvings all consist of dragons in a variety of stages of raining fire or other breath weapons down on terrified elves, humans, dwarves and the like. Soil and compost cover portions of the chamber’s floor, which allows a variety of wan grasses to grow. A nearby bench contains simple gardening implements.
Suddenly the double doors at the north end of the chamber open, and Jo’len finds himself face to face with a Bugbear wielding a large scythe. Both sides are caught by surprise and each combatant rapidly readies their weapon. The party quickly moves into position around the brute and begins to drive their attacks home. Heleren and Deodantus severely injure the creature, but then another glowing arrow (‘Magic Missile’) from Sarah finishes it off. Beyond the Bugbear is another large chamber very similar to the one the party had just entered. Between the two large chambers there are four visible exits. One at the north end of the northern chamber, one on the east wall of the northern chamber, one on the east wall of the southern chamber, and one on the south wall of the southern chamber.
The party moves to investigate the eastern door in the northern chamber. Opening the door, the party confronts three Skeletons spreading compost in a large octagonal room. Shelly gives a wail (turn attempt) as Rat Boy enters the room, and the Skeletons begin to shamble away toward the back of the room where they cower. With the Skeletons cowering, the party is able to gang up on them one at a time and thus makes quick work of all three.
ASEO out
Session 14 The Sunless Citadel (WotC)
The Party is:
Pvt Deodantus Male Human Warrior 1/Fighter 1/Barbarian 1
Jo’len Greenleaf Male Elf Commoner 1/Rogue 1/Fighter 1
Shelly Villerns Female Human Commoner 1/Cleric 1 (Madness & Random Domain: Currently Protection)
Sarah Marholdt Female Human Commoner 1/Warmage 1
Heleren Vochek Male Dwarf Expert (Blacksmith) 1/Fighter 1
Erky Timbers Male Gnome Fighter 1/Cleric 1 (Pelor: Sun & Healing)
Rat Boy Male Slitheren Rogue 1
With the Skeletons slain the party moves back into the large room and moves to investigate the door at the north end of the hall. Listening to the door Jo’len hears loud grumbling within. Heleren suggests that Jo’len knock on the door, which he does. The party waits a few seconds then Deodantus throws the door open and the party comes face to face with a Bugbear who was apparently heading toward the door. In a fast and furious combat the Bugbear is struck down without landing a single blow against the party.
A quick look around the room shows several areas of scorched fungus and another door in the south west side of the octagonal room. This door is evaluated then opened by Jo’len. Beyond is a short hallway that opens up into a room. Dragon-carved granite blocks tile this chamber’s walls and ceiling, though many are crumbled and broken, creating stony debris on the floor. A huge marble statue of a rearing dragon still stands in the curve of the west wall. The eye sockets of the dragon are empty, but a red glow lingers there, providing reddish light throughout the chamber. The effulgence casts an inky shadow behind the statue’s wide wings. A crumbling 5-foot-diameter circular redstone tile is set in the floor in front of the rearing dragon carving. Runes are carved around the circular tile’s inner edge.
The party cautiously moves into the room, led by Jo’len. For just a second Jo’len thinks he sees a part of the shadow behind the statue’s wings slip apart from the main darkness and merge with the darkness around the statue’s clawed feet. He cautions the rest of the party that he thinks that there is something here as he moves closer to the tile. Suddenly a Shadow leaps from the darkness, swirls up the wall and then down on the party. Jo’len and Deodantus both swing at the shape but their weapons pass harmlessly through it. The Shadow rakes Deodantus and he feels it’s death-cold touch pass through his armor and just barely rake through the hair on his chest. The experience leaves him rapidly backing away from the shadowy shape. A glowing medical bolt of energy springs from Sarah’s hands and slams into the Shadow causing it to scream in pain. Heleren steps up and smacks the Shadow with the Bugbear Hunter’s Morning star and the creature again feels pain. Deodantus bolstered by the damage his friends have caused the shade wades back into melee and slashes a mighty swath, which passes harmlessly through the Shadow. For the second time only his quick reaction saves Deodantus from the Shadow’s grasping claws. Heleren steps back up and slams his Morningstar down on the creature causing it to scream and then dissipate in a thousands shards of darkness that instantly meld to the shadows cast by the dragon statue’s wings. All is quiet except for the party’s hard breathing. It was as if nothing had happened. Deodantus quickly opens his chain shirt, and there are lines of gray hair on his chest where the Shadow’s raking claws nearly touched his flesh.
The party investigates the runes on the circle and finds them to be Draconic, a language none in the party can read or understand. Erky curses having transferred his divine ability to comprehend languages into pure healing power, but is then reminded that the healing he provided allowed Sarah to be conscious enough to cast her spell which surely injured the creature. Investigating the area behind the statue, Jo’len’s sharp elven eyes spot a lose stone which he pulls out to reveal many gold coins and two clay flasks shaped like dragon heads. These are pocketed and then the rest of the room is explored. There is a door in the north wall that is opened and found to lead to a ruined library. A door on the far side of the library leads to a landing with stairs leading down. The party spends some time searching the scattered papers and toppled bookshelves of the library. Two scrolls are found that are written in the language of magic. Erky casts ‘Read Magic’ and finds them to be arcane spells; ‘Melf’s Acid Arrow and ‘Pyrotechnics’. These are given to Sarah since she is the only one to have shown any arcane aptitude. Additionally, a book is found, written in Draconic, which appears to cover several informational aspects of dragon lore. This book too goes in Sarah’s pack.
The party decides not to investigate the stairway yet and so leans one of the bookshelves against the door to prevent anyone coming through it, or make said intruder make some noise in the attempt. With that done the party moves back into the southern of the two large chambers back where they fought the first of the two Bugbear gardeners. From here they move to investigate a door on the eastern side of the chamber. Nearing the door, the smell of cooking and burning mushrooms becomes apparent. The party gets into position by the door and Deodantus throws it open. Jo’len leads the charge into a large open octagonal room, the floor of which is covered in cultivated mushrooms. A red glow comes from a hole in the floor amidst several scorched mushroom stalks. Deodantus moves over to investigate the hole and as he leans over it a large 3-foot long worm with a nose glowing red hot springs from the hole and strikes him in the chest. The blow knocks the wind out of Deodantus, and sets his clothing on fire. While Deodantus drops to the ground to extinguish the flames Jo’len leaps in to fight the creature (a Thoqqua). The worm springs again this time striking Jo’len.
“Ahhh! It’s going for my eyes” Screams Jo’len.
The blow hits Jo’len hard and he is severely burned by the attack. (At this point Jo’len’s player, with a wave of his hand, attempted to use Jedi Mind tricks on the DM. “Jo’len takes no damage.” Apparently the DM was immune to such attempts and Jo’len falls to the floor). As Jo’len falls unconscious, Heleren takes his place in the battle line. Heleren bashed the work with his morningstar, Rat Boy then steps up and slashes a viscous wound in the creatures flank. Shelly finishes off the beast with a blow from her mace. Erky runs to treat Jo’len and he is up again in no time. Having extinguished the flames Deodantus stands and shakes out his singed garments.
After finding nothing else of interest in this room, the party investigates the final door on the south end of the southern chamber. Brashly kicking the door open, the party surprises four Goblins who were harvesting some tubers. These pitiful creatures are slain before they even have a chance to counter-attack. Heleren gives his Heavy Crossbow and three magical bolts to Sarah. Sarah loads up and is ready to move out. The party, having found nothing else of interest in the room decides to go back and check out the rift in the back of one of the goblin workrooms.
The rift looks fairly new and may have been caused by the recent earthquake that shook the area. The party moves down the rift to a place where an old tunnel is bisected by the new natural hall. Looking north the party sees a door at the end of the tunnel. Investigating it they discover it leads back into the room with the vines leading to the level above. The party then decides to investigate the southern tunnel before continuing down the rift. After a few turns, this tunnel ends in a stone door. After the door is thoroughly checked for traps, Deodantus and Heleren manage to push it open. Faded mosaic tiles still cover parts of the wall, but most have fallen and shattered on the chamber floor. Situated at the center of the chamber stands a slim pedestal of rusted iron shaped like an upright dragon. In the Dragon’s mouth is an empty tray. A heavy layer of undisturbed dust covers the floor. The party tries placing several items upon the tray, A carved jade dragon figurine, the clay dragon head flasks, and a couple of gems. Nothing happens and they eventually grow board and decide to head back to the rift.
As they move further down the rift they begin to notice several 1-foot diameter holes in the rock walls. The rift eventually widens creating a stone antechamber. Many one-foot-diameter holes riddle the node. A fiery light shines from one such opening. Remembering their experience with the Thoqqua back in the fungal garden the party turns tail and heads back to the library to investigate what lies beyond the door they barricaded.
They find the door undisturbed and remove the bookcase and head down the stairs beyond. The hallway descents then turns east and then leads to a set of stairs that lead the party back to the same lever they were previously at…or so says Erky. After climbing the stairs the hallway turns south and the party follows it until it ends with two doors on the east wall. The party tries the first door and finds it to be locked or stuck. The second door is tried and the party finds it unlocked. Jo’len throws the door open and the party rapidly assaults the four goblins that were sitting in the room sorting stick and root piles on the floor. The collapsed southern wall opens on a vast cavern. Pustules of luminescent fungus on the rough walls and high roof loom over a twilight grove of sickly briars, bushes, saplings and other woody plants. Ruined walls and hollow towers protrude from the briars like islands in the sea.
The Goblins are dispatched with a speed that shows the party’s growing cohesiveness as a team. A door on the north side of the room is found to lead to the room that the party was unable to enter from the hall. A layer of soil covers the floor. Rough wooden shelves, filled with a scattering of tomes and scrolls, line the north and east walls, while a rough-hewn desk stands in the center of the chamber. Fungus on the ceiling provides light, apparently in sufficient quantity to nourish several small bushes and pale saplings that grow in the soil.
The party roots through the shelves and the desk while Jo’len keeps an eye on the grove through the hole in the wall. A couple of magical scrolls are found, as are a couple of interesting looking books. These all go into the party’s packs and the party leave the room to move to investigate the grove.
The party cautiously enters the area of pale, spindly briars. The little barbs snag and tear their cloaks. In the glow of the luminescent fungus and the party’s torches the shadows of the plants sway and move creating the illusion of movement among the branches though no wind blows here.
Suddenly the party finds themselves beset by nearly a dozen Twig Blights. Clawing and scratching, they emerge from all around the party and manage to split the party into three groups. Caught in the surprise onslaught Rat Boy is rendered unconscious by a savage series of blows. Jo’len and Erky try to move to aid Rat Boy, but soon Erky too is knocking on death’s door, and Jo’len is forced to conduct a fighting retreat.
Heleren and Deodantus face several Twig Blights but are able to fight their way back to the rest of the party before Heleren succumbs to his wounds and drops to the ground. Deodantus attempts to fight his way to Jo’len, who has been backed up against a small cluster of trees. Shelly is able to kneel and cast a healing spell on Heleren before she flies into a fury and begins turning the Twig Blights menacing her into so much battered kindling. With Deodantus’ aid Jo’len is able to escape the Twig Blights encircling him and make a mad dash to Rat Boy’s side. Sarah likewise exposes herself too much danger and sprints to Erky’s aid. She manages to stop his bleeding just as Shelly finishes off the last Twig Blight attacking her and Heleren.
While Deodantus holds the rest of the Twig Blights at bay Jo’len bandages Rat Boy’s wounds and stabilizes his condition. He then joins Shelly and Deodantus in finishing off the rest of the Twig Blights.
As the party shoulders their unconscious companions a maniacal laughter fills the cavern. “Come to me now. Why not accept your fates? I will wait for you here at the foot of the Gulthias Tree. You will join me soon enough.”
The party is in no shape to encounter anything. Out of healing spells and with three members unconscious they beat a hasty retreat back to the hallway outside the two doors leading to the grove. They push the desk into the hall and set up a barricade to the north incase something comes down the hall. Through the cracked open door Jo’len watches the grove for any sigh of an impending attack. Shelly rests and prays and recovers sufficient spells to revive the unconscious party members. As she breaks out of her trance Jo’len notices that her skin has taken on a slight bluish tint. Her speech also changes and when she speaks in tongues she sounds not unlike a pirate or mariner. She walks with a rolling gait of one accustom to being onboard a ship and makes mention of hearing the Sea King’s call. (Her random Domain is Ocean)
While the party is resting a lone Skeleton shambled down the hall toward their barricade. Deodantus and Jo’len quickly dispatch the corpse and return to their posts while Sarah and Shelly rest.
With Erky revived the party continues to rest so that he too can regain his spells. Come dawn in the world above, Erky begins casting his repertoire of healing spells, and soon the party is sufficiently healed that they are ready to re enter the grove.
Leery of another encounter with more Twig Blights, the party stays close together and skirts the eastern wall of the grove. They cautiously approach a courtyard wall of heavy stones that creates a half-walled clearing among the briars. Several varieties of plants grow around the parameter, including a few suspicious-looking saplings, but their importance pales before that which stands at the courtyard’s center. Beneath the venomous fungal light grows a singular tree of evil. Its blackened, twisted limbs reach upward like a skeletal hand clawing its way from the earth. Human figures stand near the tree: A woman and two men. A three-foot-long tree frog squats next to one of the men.
The party begins to move into an assault position, with Heleren, Shelly, Rat Boy and Erky heading for a partially collapsed tower at the corner of the courtyard. Jo’len moves toward a hole in the courtyard’s eastern wall while Deodantus and Sarah move toward a crumbled hole in the northern wall where gates might have once stood.
The man dressed in a leather smock and holding a sickle standing near the Giant Tree Frog calls out to the party. “Hold your actions a moment, you know not what you do!” The party pauses a moment to parley.
Deodantus: “Who are you and what are you doing here?”
Speaker [Belak]: “I am Belak, called the Outcast. My druidic brethren expelled me the fools. And why? Because I dared to expand nature’s reach in ways their puny minds could not fathom. I care not about them now, for I have found what I sought for so long, embodied in the Gulthias Tree.”
Deodantus: “What is this Gulthias Tree of which you speak?”
Belak: (Gestures to the vile tree behind him) “It’s beautiful is it not. It lives though it looks dead. In an age long past someone drove a wooden stake through the heart of the Vampire Gulthias on this very spot. The stake was still green and took root and grew into a tree that absorbed a portion of the Vampire’s essence. When the Vampire was eventually freed the tree remained as did its primal power that is fresh for the tapping.”
Deodantus: “ Why talk to us now?”
Belak: “ Though your remains would enrich the compost, you’ll better serve my needs as supplicants. Plus you’ll retain your lives. Surrender and you will yet live, otherwise your blood will feed the tree and your bones will nourish its roots”.
With that, Jo’len draws back his bow to lose an arrow. Before he can do so, Belak points a twisted stick wand and Jo’len and shouts “Embrace”. The very briars and branches of the plants around Jo’len entangle him causing his shot to fly far wide of its mark.
Three saplings in the courtyard reveal themselves to be Twig Blights and begin to move in on the party members in the tower. The Giant Tree Frog begins to hop toward the entangled Jo’len.
Deodantus stands ready to intercept one of the Twig Blights that breaks off from the path taken by the other two and heads for the hole in the northern wall where Sarah and Deodantus wait. Erky begins to move toward Sarah’s position.
Belak chants some words of magic and a ‘Flaming Sphere’ appears near Sarah and forces her to retreat to prevent being burned. Heleren begins to set fire to some of the plants in the grove, but the approaching Twig Blights pull his attention to the courtyard. Sarah tries to cast ‘Magic Missile” but her spell is foiled by a counter spell cast by the woman by Belak’s side. Shelly and Deodantus each engage a Twig Blight and Jo’len begins to squirm out of the entangling branches. Sarah is forced back further by the ‘Flaming Sphere’ and then attacked by one of the Twig Blights. Rat Boy comes to her rescue, but is burned badly as the ‘Flaming Sphere’ rolls into him. The Armored man standing by Belak advances just as Jo’len frees himself from the entangling plants. As he escapes he fires an arrow that pierces the Giant Tree Frog’s eye and drops the creature dead in mid hop. Deodantus slays the Twig Blight he is fighting and rushes forward to attack Belak. Heleren moves to intercept the armored man and notices the man’s skin is woody and bark-like. Shelly smashes the Twig Blight she is facing into flinders and joins the rush on Belak. Jo’len also moves to attack the two humans beneath the tree.
Belak casts a spell (‘Heat Metal’) on Shelly but there seems to be no effect. (Additionally, Shelly had used her Domain ability to ‘Endure Element: Fire’, but having made her WILL save is unaware of that additional protection…she’s crazy remember). The trio continues their charge. Heleren locks weapons with the Armored man and finds that the man is trying to break Heleren’s magical morning star with his evidently enchanted long sword. Heleren manages to disengage before his weapon is destroyed. The Twig Blight continues to attack Sarah, and she is only saved by the selfless attack by a very, very wounded Rat Boy, who manages to kill the Twig Blight. As Heleren joins the charge on Belak, Rat Boy (1Hp) is left to deal with the Armored Man and his weapon sundering long sword.
Belak casts (‘Charm Person’) a spell on the charging Jo’len and says, “Defend me my friend”.
Jo’len laughs (having made his save) and yells, “You’ll befriend my blade!” and with that slices Belak across the cheek.
The armored man swings his sword and shatters Rat Boy’s scimitar. Rat Boy draws the Hobgoblin long sword he had strapped across his back and readies him self for the next attack. Deodantus and Shelly strike as one and as Deodantus’ sword slid into Belak’s gut, Shelly’s mace caved in his head.
In his dying breath Belak screams, “Defend my tree!” The Woman under the tree sends a ‘Magic Missile’ screaming into Deodantus’ side. The Armored man turns and charges the party under the tree with hatred burning in his eyes. Rat Boy is able to slice the man’s leg as he breaks combat. He and Sarah then chase the man back to the vile tree.
Shelly swears at the “Woody B~#%#” and slams her mace into the woman’s chest. As the woman doubles over Heleren drives the spikes on his morning star into her chin with an up swing that sends the Woman’s head snapping back and nearly tearing her neck in two. The woman flies several feet through the air to land in a heap with the sound of dropped cordwood.
Jo’len and Deodantus move to intercept the charging armored man. The Man abandons his sundering attacks and nearly impales Deodantus with a wicked two-handed, over-the-head, downward stab. Jo’len drives the point of his sickle into the man’s chest as Erky, Heleren and Rat Boy move to encircle the man.
Shelly gives the woman’s limp body a good strong golf-swing to the temple then moves to aid her comrades Sarah having seen a book fly from the woman satchel as she sailed through the air moves to find the fallen book.
Surrounded, the Man is no match for the party and while he manages to get a few blows in he is inevitably laid low by the party’s blows.
With their foes defeated, the party begins to loot the bodies. On Belak they find his journal, which tell of his research and finding of the grove and the Gulthias Tree. It tells how he managed to grow the Twig Blights from its corrupted seeds. It also tells of a trio of adventures that were captured by the Goblins. One, a ranger was slain for insulting the goblin leader, but the other two, an aspiring mage woman named Sharwyn, and a Paladin of Pelor named Sir Bradford, were brought before him. He tied them to the Gulthias tree and watched as the tree absorbed them only to expel them later as supplicants, beings under Belak’s control as master of the tree. Their skin and flesh now replaced by wood and bark these servants were to be the first of Belak’s future army of Gulthias Supplicants.
Erky is distressed to see the horrible fate that befell a noble Paladin of his god and recommends that Deodantus take the sword named “Shatter Spike”, as he has proven himself worthy of carrying a blade that once belonged to Pelor’s finest. Heleren dons Sir Bradford’s Scale Armor and Jo’len gathers Belak’s sickle, which is of superior quality to his own. Sarah gathers the book, which proves to be Sharwyn’s spell book and the twisted stick wand. Three healing potions are found in Belak’s satchel and these are promptly given to the wounded party members. Shelly finds two vials of antitoxin as well as three smoke sticks. She quietly pockets these without a word to the party.
Before the party no more foes loom, only the Gulthias Tree remains.
At the completion of the session…
The Party is:
Pvt Deodantus Male Human Warrior 1/Fighter 1/Barbarian 1
Jo’len Greenleaf Male Elf Commoner 1/Rogue 1/Fighter 1
Shelly Villerns Female Human Commoner 1/Cleric 2 (Madness & Random Domain: Currently Ocean)
Sarah Marholdt Female Human Commoner 1/Warmage 2
Heleren Vochek Male Dwarf Expert (Blacksmith) 1/Fighter 2
Erky Timbers Male Gnome Fighter 1/Cleric 1 (Pelor: Sun & Healing)
Rat Boy Male Slitheren Rogue 1
The party back tracks through the cave after resting a bit. They discover that the Goblins have fled into the under dark, and that the Rat men are still waiting for the young dragon to regain consciousness. They make their way back up to the entrance of the complex and report back to the Lt. They then retire back to the village for a much deserved rest. The Lt continues to guide the construction of the bridge and sends a request back to the capital for some more men-at-arms. Some consideration is taken in creating a trading relationship with the Rat men.
ASEO out
Session 15 GW1 Legion of Gold: Sub Aquatic Laboratory (TSR)
Chapter 9: What is This (Part1)
And now we return to our rangers who are looking at a strange rectangular opening about 50 feet up on a cliff face down by the shore of the long lake at the end of the valley.
A strange prismatic spray of light is emitting from the left edge of the opening. From where the Rangers are standing, they can just make out the metal lined ceiling of the opening. Nyther and Dedric join up with some of the other Rangers who are still hunting down the small bands of Goblin resistance. A wandering Druid who had come to the valley for the trade meet is consulted about the unnaturalness of the opening. The Druid, Avollios, has never seen such a thing and suggests that the party move to investigate this odd occurrence.
Avollios Male Elf Druid 4 and his wolf animal companion join the party.
Linton Male Halfling Ranger 1/Rogue 3
Larissa Female Human Ranger 1/Cleric (Healing & Luck) 3
Thaleles Male Elf Ranger 1/Fighter 3
Moltar Male Half-Elf Rogue 2/(MC)Ranger 2
Ghorn Male Half-Orc Ranger 4
The Rangers quickly gather what supplies they can and then devise a method for reaching the opening. Ghorn ends up spending a fare amount of time throwing a grappling hook up to the opening, but it finally catches and Thaleles slowly climbs up. The first thing he notices as he reaches the top of the rope is that the opening has a metal lip that is about 4 feet high. As he swings his legs over the lip he realizes that the lip is actually the back of some sort of row of desks. Three metal chairs appear to be bolted into tracks in the floor. On the floor lie two human looking skeletons clad in fairly good condition blue one-piece outfits. From the ceiling is hanging a thin translucent rectangular panel in the recess that the panel once covered is a rectangular piece of glass.
As the other Rangers rig a harness for the wolf and climb up the rope to the opening, Thaleles examines the metal desks. Several of the desks have dark glass windows in them. In fact it seems that the grappling hook broke one of these. Behind the broken glass is a empty hollow space and some wires. The desks are covered with buttons and imbedded with small gems and lines of runes that none in the party recognize. While Thaleles is examining the desks, Larissa and Moltar climb into the opening. A 10ft square alcove dominates the back wall of the opening, but there no obvious exits are present. Moltar investigates the skeletons, and in removing the jumpsuits finds a palm-sized, thin, rectangular piece of strange material that had been placed behind a leather rune inscribed patch on the left breast of the outfit. Linton and Ghorn climb up while Avollios begins to rig the harness for his wolf.
Ghorn moves to investigate the strange device that seems to be emitting the light patterns. He notices that there is a similar device on the right side of the opening, and that the device emitting the light seems to have been knocked out of place by the recent earthquake. He decides to move the device back into place and is surprised when he hears a cry of alarm below. As he leans into the light to look down to see what the cause of alarm is, he hits his head on an invisible wall evidently created by the light. He can still see out, and hear sounds from outside. What he hears is Avollios calling for them and yelling “Are you there?…Hello?” Ghorn dislodges the light emitter and the invisible wall is gone. Leaning over the edge he calls down to Avollios. Seems that to Auollion the opening just vanished, and the severed end of the rope fell on him as he was about to call for the wolf to be hoisted up. Another rope is lowered (Having run short of rope on their last excursion, the Rangers are carrying extra this time. Just as they are about to call off the need to bring the wolf up, Linton finds a crack in the back of the alcove that has an empty space beyond it.
Larissa casts ‘Comprehend Languages’ and begins to read some of the runes on the desks. Several of the sayings make no sense to her “Cameras” “Indigenous Biometric Matrices” “Substation”, “Begin Diagnostics”, “Sensor Configuration”, but others read as “Enter”, “Page Down”, “Off” and the like make sense, but not in the context of their placement on buttons on the desks.
Moltar picks up an 8-inch square, 3-inch thick object off one of the desks. The device has a narrow window on two of the opposite sides, and a rolling dial in the middle of one of the 8x8 sides. Another indention on the device makes a click as he touches it and a faint blue glow emits from one of the windows. Moltar looks in the other window and sees nothing. Looking in the faintly glowing window he sees an enormous pair of boots standing on the floor. As he moves slightly the image moves and he realizes that he is seeing an enlarged view of his own feet. He holds the device so that he can look through it out in to the valley. He is rewarded with the sight of eagles. He can make out the furthest reaches of the valley, and as his hands hold the device his fingers come to rest on the roller dial, which he finds through manipulation, can clarify the image. He shows off this new wonder to his allies and then places it in his pack.
Linton moves from the crack in the alcove, which he can’t figure how to open, to the gems on the desks. After several of the gems turn out to be glass and shatter when he tries to pry them out, Linton gives up on the “Treasure”. Moltar and Ghorn pull the wolf and Avollios up while Larissa reads some of the runes on the wall of the alcove. One rune “Call” has an empty palm-sized rectangle engraved under it. Larissa calls out as loud as she can “Hello!”, but nothing happens. Linton is called back over, but he can’t find any trigger or opening device. Several different verbal efforts are made to open the door but all are to no avail. Everyone is sure it has something to do with this “Call” rune, but what call? Several animal calls are tried but none of them do anything beyond exciting a young male moose who happens to be in the local area. Just as Larissa is about to crank off a ‘Detect Magic’ spell, Thaleles pulls out the card he found on the skeleton. The card is almost the exact same size as the rectangle. Thaleles places the card over the rectangle and nothing happens. Then comes a horrible scraping noise that sounds like metal grating on metal. The party all ready their weapons and take aim at the door. The sound gets closer then, suddenly stops. A few seconds later a series of notes sounds from the alcove and the doors open. The party jumps back and is relieved to discover that all that is beyond the door is a 10x10 metal-sheathed room. Moltar steps into the room to investigate and notices another crack in the far wall which looks like the crack in the alcove, which turned out to be a door. As he approaches the crack another series of tones sound and the open door behind Moltar closes. He feels a slight tug as the room about him begins to move.
As Moltar travels in the room he hears his companions pounding on the closed door that led to the room. As the sound of the pounding fades into the distance it is suddenly replaced with the sound of loud scraping around the outside edges of the small room. As suddenly as it began, the scraping stops and then the room continues to move in silence. After a while three tones sound and then Moltar feels the pull of momentum as the room stops around him. Three more tones and the wall opposite the door he entered through opens.
Beyond is a large domed room with walls made of a transparent material. Looking through the walls, Moltar finds himself on the floor of the lake some 25 meters underwater. Through the dim waters three other illuminated domes can be seen, one large building straight ahead, and a smaller dome on either side of it. The smaller domes are connected to the larger dome by long, tube like passages. The room in front of Moltar is elegantly furnished with chairs, couches, and tables. Moltar slowly steps into the room to investigate further. An oval opening in the far wall leads to a tubular walkway that connects this area to the central dome. To the left of the opening is a large metal desk with a small rune covered plaque sitting on top of it. A couple strange looking devices are also on the top of the desk. As Moltar moves to investigate the desk, he hears three tones sound and the door to the small room that carried him to this place closed. Moltar dived for the closing door, but fell just short. Now alone, with no avenue for retreat, Moltar takes cover behind the desk. As he rounds the desk he is closer to the dome wall and is able to gaze out at the lake floor. Growing in neat orderly rows are huge fields of lake weed. Apparently tending these are several metallic crustaceans-like creatures. In the distance Moltar can just make out the sunken remains of a couple of the boats that the people of the valley used for fishing and trading lying in the mud on the lake bottom.
The party, still in the alcove on the cliff, had tried to stop the doors from closing behind Moltar, but were not able to react quickly enough. As they pounded on the closed door, all they could hear was silence, then the sound of scraping moving away from them in the distance. Soon too, this sound faded into silence. The party began to try to re enact what ever they had done to cause the doors to open in the first place. They are rewarded with the sounding of three tones and then the approaching scraping sound. The scraping stops and then the tones sound again. The party readies for the door to open, and when it does, they find the small room beyond empty. They all move into the small room. It is very crammed, but they decide that they all want to remain together. The tones sound again and the door behind them closes. They feel the tug as the room begins to move followed by the eventual scraping sound from outside the room, then silence again. They ready their weapons when they hear the three tones again and burst out of the room ready for combat when the doors finally open.
Instead of hoards of fiends or other fell creatures, they find the domed chamber and Moltar crouched behind the metal desk. Moltar quickly grabs the chair from behind the desk and throws it into the doorway to the small room. When the doors don’t close immediately he moves to make a barricade with some more furniture in the room so that the doors can’t close in the future. The rest of the party is slowly taking in the scene when Thaleles and Larissa see two men dressed in green jump suits coming down the tube like corridor leading to the main dome. Each man is carrying a small knife and other than that, only a hand axe blade sized triangular pouch hangs from a black belt around each man’s waist.
Thaleles draws his swords, but Larissa motions for him to stand down. Moltar and Ghorn take up positions on either side of the tube entrance while Linton and Avollios back up Thaleles and Larissa in the tube mouth. While holding his position, Ghorn notices that there are some sort of doors that apparently can apparently slide from outside the tube to seal off the hallway.
The two men in green stop about halfway down the hall and pull small triangular devices out of the pouches on their hips. As they point these devices at Larissa and Thaleles.
Thaleles draws his swords, but too slow to deflect the bolt of green light that flies from one of the triangular devices. The bolt hits him square in the chest and he is flung backwards to the floor unconscious. The other man fires his device at Larissa with the same devastating result.
Moltar and Ghorn rush the two men while Avollios casts ‘Heat Metal’ on them. The wolf also charges to back the combatants up. Moltar dodges a bolt fires at him and Ghorn closes on his opponent before he is able to get another shot off. One of the men starts to smolder, and the party members in combat can smell burning flesh. Ghorn drives his axe into the gut of the non-smoking man and is rewarded with a satisfying “chunk” Strange blue and green liquid begins to flow from the man’s wound. Moltar receives a vicious stab from the man who seems to be literally burning from inside. As the blade enters Moltar’s shoulder he sees a vial in the dagger’s hilt empty and feels a flood of pain burn through the wound. Linton moves to pull Larissa back into the entry dome and Aoullios cast healing magic slowly reviving her. Larissa then crawls over to Thaleles and magically heals him.
The burning man’s skin begins to glow and smolder dropping off in large chunks. Beneath the skin is a layer of glowing red hot metal. The man stumbles, sparks and falls to the floor. Moltar turns his fury against the remaining man and plunges his sword through the man’s neck. The wolf then bounds into the man, knocking him down and pulling a bundle of wiring out of the gaping wound in the man’s stomach. Then the man lies still.
With their foes defeated the party re groups and moves to search the body that hasn’t melted down. Moltar confiscates the triangular weapon and begins to study its use. Ghorn takes the unexpended poisoned dagger and tucks it into his belt. The only other thing the party finds is a thin green card made out of an unknown material, although it may be thinly sliced horn of some sort.
After Larissa does some more healing, the party is ready to investigate the domed complex further. The domes and causeways seem to be lit by long cylindrical white tubes that are hung from the dome tops and glow with a bright white light. As the party moves down the tube they are able to see two tubes leading off from the main dome ahead of them. On closer inspection the tube to the right leads to two smaller illuminated domes while the tune to the left leads to one darkened dome and an illuminated dome with some sort of strange apparatus on top of it.
At the end of the tube in front of them the party sees a corridor, which seems to run around the interior perimeter of the dome. The internal wall of the corridor is set with several doors, three that the party can see on either side of a hallway that leads through the internal structure within the dome, past two more doors and then to what looks like a room furnished with a large table surrounded by several chairs.
As the party moved out of the tube one of the doors to their left opened and a man in a white jumpsuit and a whit cloth apron emerged. He was carrying a large glass beaker that required both hands to carry. Upon seeing the party, he heaved the beaker into their midst where it hit the floor and shattered splashing the party and Larissa in particular with acid. Ghorn and Moltar quickly killed the man with a flurry of blades. Once he was down they discovered that he too was metal and wires inside. A small thin white card is found under a leather-like patch on his jumpsuit.
The party investigates the room the man emerged from and manages to open the door by placing the white card they found against a metal plate by the door. They find the room filled with strange metal tubes, basins, spigots and vats. They turn a couple of dials, but nothing happens. The body of the man in white is dragged into the room and left hidden there.
The next door down the left side of the hall is checked. The white card fails to open it, but when Moltar tries the green cart the door opens. The room beyond is about 10x15. At the far end of the room against the wall is a bed with built in drawers below it. Against the wall is a desk and chair. Over the desk is a rectangular metal plate set into the wall. While Linton Ghorn and Moltar check out the drawers, Thaleles watches the hallway. Larissa touches the metal panel on the wall and it rotates to show a glass panel. A series of runes then begin to glow faintly on the desk’s surface.
In the drawers, Moltar finds several blue jumpsuits and a couple pairs of leather boots like those the party found on the skeletons in the cliff-side opening. He dons one of the suits.
Larissa studies the runes and can tell that they are in the same language as the runes through out the station. As she runs her hand over them several of them appear in the glass panel above the desk, these are followed by several lines of runes and a harsh beeping noise. The party decides to leave the room and move to the next one.
Pressing the green card to the panel next to the door, the door opens and the party comes face to face with a man wearing a red jumpsuit. Both parties are surprised by the close encounter, but the man in red quickly recovers and draws a cylindrical “C”-shaped device from his belt and points it at the party. Thaleles swings his sword at the man and delivers a vicious blow. The man’s device fires a red beam of light that causes a serious burn on Thaleles. Ghorn and Moltar coordinate their attacks while Larissa swings her sword and nearly takes of Linton’s head. Avollios watches down the corridor incase any more company arrives. The man fires again but misses. Moltar returns fire with his triangular device and misses as well. Before the man can get off another shot he is hacked apart by Thaleles and Ghorn, and falls at the party’s feet. Moltar collects the “C”-shaped weapon and examines it. It is similar to the triangular device and apparently uses the same sort of power cell which’ Moltar managed to eject and reinstall. A small window on the side of the device shows 8 glowing rectangles, with two darkened ones. The room beyond is similarly adorned as the last room.
The party moves on and passes a long tube that connects this Dome with two other domes located to the left of the main dome. One of these domes is located off a side tube about halfway down the main tube. The doors to this side tube are closed and the dome the side tube leads to is dark and the party can see gaping holes in the dome’s shell. Apparently the dome is flooded.
ASEO out
Session 15 GW1, Legion of Gold, Subaquatic Labratory (TSR)
Part II
At the end of the main tube is the dome with the strange apparatus on the top. The party decides to examine this after they finish with the main dome area. They move to a door that lies off a hallway that bisects the main dome and apparently leads to the side tube off the right side of the station. This door opens with the use of the green card and the party finds themselves in some sort of metal clad privy. Linton steps into a side room and gets sprayed with several jets of water. Finding nothing worth looting the party moves on. A side hall leads down to a single door at the end, but in front of the party is the open room with the table and chairs that they saw as they approached the main dome. The area is divided by a thin clear partition that has been partially rolled back into a recessed cabinet. The room contains one long table surrounded by twelve chairs. There are a dozen depressions in the table, each fifteen centimeters across and about four deep, one in front of each chair. A small spigot attached to a one-meter length of retractable tubing is inset in the table next to each depression.
On the other side of the walkway that bisects the room is a series of metal cabinets, counters and rails. Protruding from the wall, is a massive, spherical apparatus. On the side of the device are several sets of buttons, while at the bottom are a series of slots, openings and faucets. A stack of trays, bowls, plates, cups lay at one end of a series of metal rails that run along the edge of the counters. In several bins near the stacked flat ware are metal forks, knives and spoons. Thaleles pushes several of the buttons and the machine begins to whirr and turn. A square, blue block then slides out of one of the openings at the bottom of the machine. Thaleles jumps back and the block slides off the counter to fall and shatter on the floor. Avollios’ wolf moves over, sniffs the shattered shards and then begins to lick them up. Thaleles tastes one of the shards and finds it frozen, but slightly sweet with a fruity taste. Thaleles pushes several other buttons and is rewarded with a variety of edible substances of different colors textures and temperatures. After making a substantial mess much to the wolf’s delight, Larissa suggests that Thaleles catch the food in a bowl or cup. Having had all the fun taken out of his experimentation Thaleles moves of to check out other things. A door off the hall at the far end of the room, just before the hall re connects with the outer hall that runs around the dome, is found to lead to another privy.
Another series of living quarters are examined and all are similar to the ones the party had previously investigated. The one difference is that in one of the rooms there is a large bloodstain on the floor as well as a series of scorch marks on the walls. Moltar notices that the scorch marks are the same as those made by the light weapons when they hit the wall instead of their intended target. The bedding is in a state of disarray. Drag marks lead from the dried bloodstain to the doorway of the room where they disappear at the doorway threshold.
The final door in the apparent living area is opened and the party surprises a man in a red jumpsuit sitting at the desk. Moltar fires his triangular weapon at the man and succeeds in hitting him through the back of the chair. As the man stumbles to grab one of the “C”-shaped weapons off the desk, and stand up Ghorn buries his axe in the man’s head. Ghorn takes the man’s weapon.
Moltar happens to look at the lights on the side of the triangular weapon and notices that all five of them are dark. He decided to put the weapon in his pack and pull out the “C”-shaped weapon he had recovered. Nothing of significance is found in the room, and the red card the man had had behind his patch on his suit was melted by Moltar’s shot.
Having never spent this long in these tight of confines, Avollios tells the party that he has to get back to the entry half domed entry area where he can at least touch the rock that makes of the back wall of that dome. He takes his wolf with him and says that he’ll guard the escape route for them, but if they need his help to come get him. He thinks that he’ll be fine shortly, but just needs a break.
As Avollios makes his way back to the entry dome, the party moves to the last door in the main dome, the one at the end of the hall past the privy. The door is opened with the green card. Inside the 20x30 room has a clear wall that is part of the dome and looks out over the lakebed. The room is stacked high with cartons, mattresses, folding chairs, metallic cylinders of different colors and sizes and shelves stacked with strange metal devices. In the center of the room is a thick pillar studded with lights and dials. Around the base of the pillar, a red circle is painted on the floor, at about 3 feet distance from the pillar. Linton tosses one of the smaller strange metallic devices off one of the shelves at the pillar. As the device crosses the red line on the floor it suddenly bursts into a spray of pieces that rebound across the floor. Ghorn having taken some instruction from Moltar points his “C”-shaped weapon at the pillar and fires it. The red beam from the weapon bounces of an invisible shield around the pillar and burns a hole in a mattress which is stacked against the inner wall. Thaleles picks up one of the smaller metal cylinders, a red one about two feet high and a foot and a half around, with a black triangular fixture on the tapered top. He then throws this at the pillar. There is a terrific explosion of white smoke and the party ducks as they hear pieces of the cylinder whizzing through the air. As the smoke begins to clear, or at least settle to the floor, the party can see a clear area in the smoke around the pillar and know that the invisible shield is still intact. Linton suggests that the party get going because the noise they just made may attract attention.
The party leaves the room and moves to the side tube leading past the flooded dome to the dome with the strange device on top. As they approach the dome they can see that there is a ramp leading from the dome to the lake floor. As they pass the sealed tube leading to the ruptured dome, they are able to make out a few small pinpoints of light glowing in the darkness of the dome’s interior.
Reaching the dome at the end of the tube, the party finds themselves on a landing. There is a series of stairs curving up the inside of the dome to a door leading to a second floor within the dome. To the left is a heavy door with a large wheel dial on either side of it, through the doorway is a short flight of stairs leading down. The hallway beyond, curves around the inside of the dome. Benches line the hall and hung from pegs in the right wall are a series of 12 one-piece suites of black material with hoods. Also hanging from the pegs are masks set with clear glass windows and webbed footgear. Hard rectangular backpacks with various hoses attached lie under the bench beneath each suit. At the end of the short hall is another wheeled door. Next to this door is a rack with three devices that look like cross bows, but with out the cross bar. Clipped to each weapon are three rods with conical points at one end, and a series of notches at the other. Down the shaft of the weapon is a cylindrical hole the size of the shaft of the spear.
Larissa moves down and picks up one of the spear guns. The party is very curious about the weapon and encourage her to test fire it. The party all move back by the entry door as Larissa loads the spear. She then joins them and asks what she should shoot at.
“The wall”
“The bench”
“One of the suits”
“Moltar” <Moltar cuffs Linton>
In the end Larissa steps up on the bench and fires the spear at the bench on the other side of the hall. As the spear impacts there is a huge explosion. Larissa and Thaleles are knocked unconscious, Ghorn and Moltar are severely wounded, and only Linton escapes the main force of the blast, but he is not without injury.
Ghorn and Linton quickly move to help Larissa and Thaleles. Moltar is stunned by the attack and is able to do little more than look on. As Larissa is stabilized a man in a green jumpsuit appears at the door at the top of the stairs leading up to the dome’s second level. He fires one of the triangular weapons at Moltar. Moltar is only able to stare at the smoking hole that has been completely burned through his chest. A waft of smoke pours out of his mouth as he collapses on the floor.
Linton and Ghorn draw their weapons and charge up the stairs to attack the man. The man fires another bolt that just misses Ghorn’s head. As the two heroes press the attack, the man retreats into the room at the top of the stairs. Linton and Ghorn chase after him. Entering the room they see a chair of sorts suspended in the center of the room, hanging from the apparatus attached to the top of the dome’s exterior. Around the edges of the circular room are a variety of desks and consoles with a variety of blinking lights. The man retreats to one of these consoles and presses a large button. All the lights providing illumination in the room instantly turn red, and a loud grating series of tones sounds through out the station. Ghorn moves up and hits the man with his axe, but it is not enough to stop the man from firing a green bolt into Ghorn, which sends him sprawling across the floor to lie still against the wall.
Linton instantly has second thoughts and hightails it back out of the room and down the stairs. Linton sprints down the tube toward the main dome. As he rounds the curve he sees three more men emerging from the tube on the far side of the main dome. Linton takes a hard right and heads through the tube leading to the entry dome where Avollios and his wolf should be waiting. His yells of warning are drowned ort by the sounding klaxon. As he arrives in the room he sees Avollios standing in the small room furiously pounding on the panel trying to get the lift to return to the surface. When it becomes apparent that the lift isn’t operable Avollios and his wolf turn to join Linton in a frantic stand.
Avollios begins his attack with the ‘Heat Metal’ spell that he had found to be particularly harmful against these men with metal cores. The wolf charges the men as they rush down the tube and into the room. Linton tries firing a couple of arrows, but their effects on the men seem to be minimal. The wolf bites one of the men and nearly bowls him over. One of the other men points his “C”-shaped weapon at the wolf and fires a red beam of light that knocks the wolf out of the fight. One of the men begins smoldering, but two more men dressed in green come around the corner and head for the entry dome. Avollios puts up a good fight, but is eventually laid low by a strange ray that paralyzes him. Then he blacked out.
Linton dives over a couch, which is then perforated by red and green bolts of light. He rolls to his feat and finds himself dodging blasts right and left. He tries to move close enough to attack and decides to make one final charge…which proves to be his last.
ASEO out
Glad to see someone is reading this ;-)
ASEO out
GW1, Legion of Gold: Subaquatic Labratory (TSR)
Session 15 Part III
The Vats
Larissa finds herself choking. She opens her eyes and feels a warm liquid draining away from around her body. Still coughing and sputtering she falls to her knees and finds herself gasping for breath on a cold metal grate floor. As she purges the last of a viscous blue jell from her lungs she begins to take in her surroundings.
There is a buzzing noise sounding from the circular room she is in. She rises to her feet and find that they support her well enough. She is standing in a room that appears to be at the top of one of the domes. Around the wall there are several cylindrical tubes about 8 feet tall. Each of these has a clear window in it ant through the window she sees the faces of her companions immersed in a blue jell like that which is still dripping from her heir. There are two empty and open tubes, and one filled one in which she sees no one. Only Linton appears to be absent. Avollios is there, but she sees no sigh of the wolf that traveled with him. In the center of the room is a long rectangular metal table with a large strange apparatus hanging above it. All manner of tubes and metal arms dangle from the device. Around the table are several trays that contain small metal devices. Scanning the room again Larissa notices a single door on the one straight vertical portion of the rooms otherwise clear glass domes walls. Next to the door is a large metal box. Larissa moves to investigate the room. Be hind her is a tube similar to the ones her companions are in. The front of her tube is retracted into one of the sides. She notices that above her tube is a green, lighted panel while the panels above the other tubes are red. As she takes her first steps she realizes that all her belongings and clothes are absent. Moving over to the metal box, she opens it and finds that inside it is cold and are stored several vials and glass cups full of different liquids and to her horror she spies a very scorched heart suspended in one of the beakers. She closes the box, and as she does so she hears a three-toned chime come from the vicinity of the door. As she spins around, the buzzing stops and the door opens.
Larissa quickly crouches behind the table in the middle of the room. A man in a red jumpsuit enters, and upon seeing the open and empty tube that Larissa had occupied, pulls a “C”-shaped weapon from a pouch on his belt. Larissa slowly pulls a tray off the table as the man closes the door behind him. Larissa then hurls the tray at the man and dives at him, just barely dodging a bolt of red light from the man’s weapon. Larissa grapples the man and in the struggle he drops his weapon.
The man throws Larissa to the floor and grabs a metal rod about 3 inches long off one of the trays on the table. Larissa retreats to the opposite side of the table. With a twist of the rod, the man makes a green beam of light about 4 inches long rise from the end of the rod. Larissa finds a similar rod and activates it. She is rewarded with a red beam about an inch long. The man begins to circle the table with Larissa retreating and keeping the table between her and the man.
Larissa throws her beamed device at the man and manages to hit him with it, causing a minor cut to his arm. The man leans over the table and makes a stab at Larissa, but misses. Larissa rummages for another of the light blade rods and finds one that has a green, 4-inch blade like the one the man has. She throws this one at the man, but he dodges it and dives around the table at Larissa. Larissa tries to hit him with a device she picked up off another tray, but once again misses.
The man manages to grab Larissa’s arm and drops his bladed rod to throw her up on the table. He manages to lock one of her arms into a shackle on the side of the table, and then holds her opposite foot, pinning her across the table as he pushes some buttons on a panel on the edge of the table. As Larissa thrashed to get free, a green light shone from the apparatus over the table and illuminated a green grid pattern over her body. Then as she watched, a red light appeared and illuminated her skin over several of her major organs. The man then turned some dials on the panel and the apparatus above Larissa began to whir and many of the metal-hinged arms began to move.
Larissa gave the man a furious kick and managed to free her leg from his grip. She then flipped off the table but found her arm still pinned. As the man circled the table to get her, she struggled franticly to free her arm. The green glow of one of the light rods caught her attention lying just beneath one of the nearby vats. She made a desperate lunge for the rod, but found it just out of reach. The man rounded the corner on her and she straind with all her might against her bond. The shackle dug into her wrist cutting into the skin and causing blood to flow freely down her arm. The man grabed Larissa to throw her back on the table. As he does so he grasps the rod in her hand. With all her might she drives the beam of light into the man’s head right between his eyes.(rolled a 20 and confirmed with a 20) Caught off guard by the attack the man released Larissa and stumbled back against the table. With her last bit of energy (she only had 2 Hp) Larissa grabs the man’s leg and he falls back across the table. The man stares up as the green grid pattern glows across his body. Larissa sees the red light shining in the shape of her heart illuminated on the man’s forehead for just an instant before a beam of brilliant yellow light shines down cutting a circle around the illuminated heart. Then in a swift movement one of the metallic arms plunges down and pulls a mass of severed wired and smoking pieces of metal from the gaping hole in the man's head, and he lays still. A beeping sound begins and the machine begins to repeat a single word over and over. Larissa pounds on the panel and the sound and voice stop. The machine above the table grows quiet and still and apparently shuts down. Larissa waits several moments for the man’s reinforcements to appear. When they don’t, Larissa takes the light rod she has in her hand and begins to work on the shackle to free herself.
ASEO out
Glad to see someone is reading this ;-)
ASEO out
I check the boards everyday ... And I am really enjoying it. Keep it up!
-BANDIT of LV
Glad to see someone is reading this ;-)
ASEO out
Yeah. . . there are a couple of us. :)
I think that campaign journals and the sharing of adventure experiences are the best part of messageboards like these. I only wish I had kept notes and journals of my old campaigns so I can participate. . . but alas, I'll just have to keep reading yours.
- Chris
Well, I don't want to dissapoint the readers. On with the story.
Session 16 (Part I) GW1 Legion of Gold: Sub Aquatic Laboratory (TSR)
The party is:
Avollios Male Elf Druid 4
Linton Male Halfling Ranger 1/Rogue 3
Larissa Female Human Ranger 1/Cleric (Healing & Luck) 4
Thaleles Male Elf Ranger 1/Fighter 3
Moltar Male Half-Elf Rogue 2/(MC)Ranger 2
Ghorn Male Half-Orc Ranger 4
Larissa uses the light rod and manages to cut herself free. She takes some time examining the room and determines that it will be a matter of time before her companions are released from their vats. She dons the red jumpsuit that the man she had slain was wearing. Picks up the “C”-shaped weapon and sits down to cover the door. Several hours later, judging from the light filtering through the water from the surface, the vats containing Thaleles and Linton open. Linton was to short to see through the window in the vat.
Both of these two spend several moments gasping for breath and clearing the blue jell from their lungs. Looking back at the remaining vats, Moltar and Ghorn look pretty well, but a large section of Avollios’ head is missing. Small mechanical arms are apparently moving around the wound, and seem to be manufacturing living tissue and healing the wound.
Thaleles and Linton slowly recover and with Larissa’s help get cleaned up. She points out the cabinet containing the spare bleu jumpsuits. Thaleles puts these on as well as the man’s boots, which were too large for the other party members. Linton is forced to rig a loincloth out of one of the jumpsuits because they all prove to be too large for him.
Thaleles and Linton arm up with a light rod each and settle down to wait for the remaining party members to emerge from their vats.
Larissa takes the time to rest and recover her spells. However, without her components and holy lucky coin, is unable to cast many of the spells. Linton examines some of the glass windows and figures out how to do some minor manipulation on the images that appear in the windows. Several of the pictures displayed are of skeletons and have notes written next to arrows pointing to different parts of the body. Without the capability to translate the notes, Linton can only guess to their meaning. However, one of the Skeletons seems to have some sort of device where its heart should be, and another seems to be mush shorter than the rest.
After about a day, once again judging by the outside light, Moltar and Ghorn are ejected from their vats. The work on Avollios seems to be progressing slowly, so after Moltar and Ghorn have recovered and been issued blue jumpsuits and light rods, the party decides to try their luck once again in this underwater dome system.
Cautiously, the party moves to the door of the room and unlocks it using a red card that Larissa found behind the leather like patch on the jumpsuit. The door opens and a set of stairs leads down to another door at the foot of the stairs. The lower door has a window in and Linton moves down to check it out. Realizing he is too short to see through, he retreats to the party and suggests that Ghorn go check it out.
Ghorn peers through the window and sees a circular room with seven doors leading off of it. The middle door directly across the room also has a window in it and through it Ghorn can see the tube connecting this dome with the main dome. The party moves down the stairs and toward the first door to the right. Using the red card they open the door.
In the center of the brightly lit room is a large round table above which hangs a complex of many bladed appendages. Strapped onto the table is some sort of aquatic humanoid who is evidently unconscious. Standing next to the fish man are two men, one in a white jumpsuit, and one in a red jumpsuit. The one in red holds a box-like device encrusted with antennae, knobs, and dials. The other man caries a pinecone-sized object that emits a high pitched whine. Also visible to the party is a stand next to the table on which lie syringes, clamps, and other strange devices. On the right wall is a console equipped with a many buttoned panel above which is a illuminated glass window showing a oscillating green dot which leaves a glowing trail in its wake.
As the party launches into the room, the man in red unstrapped the aquatic creature while the man in white pointed his device at the party with one hand and turned a dial on it with the other. A sonic beam blasts past the party. The party charges and Ghorn activates his light rod and moves to engage the fish man. Linton attempts to jump up on to the table but fails to scale it. The man in white once again activates his device and a wound appears on Linton’s arm. Moltar gets the “C”-shaped weapon from Larissa and fires it at the man in white burning a hole on the man’s chest. Thaleles moves to help engage the fish man and scores a good hit with his light rod. Ghorn then finishes off the fish man and moves in on the man in red. As Ghorn approaches, the man in red throws the box he had been evidently controlling the fish man with at Ghorn, striking Ghorn in the chest. Thaleles moves up to support Ghorn’s assault. Larissa keeps watch on the other doors out on the central chamber. Ghorn and Thaleles attack the man in red but both miss. The man in red pulls a syringe off the tray and jabs it into Ghorn's chest. Ghorn feels a burning sensation as the fluid in the syringe enters his system. The man in white causes another wound on Linton with his device. In retaliation Moltar blows the man’s head clean off with his “C”-shaped weapon. Thaleles moves around the table to flank the man in red, stepping over the still smoldering headless corpse of the man in white. Ghorn barely nicks the man in red with his light rod. The man responds by hitting Ghorn in the head with a device off the tray. Moltar fires a beam of red light at the man, but misses horribly. Linton manages to scale the table, but is forced to retreat from his position when the man in red hits a lever which causes many of the bladed appendages on the device suspended over the table to begin spinning, and the device shines a green grid of light over the table and Linton notices several of his major internal organs highlighted by red beams of light. Moltar fires another beam of red light from his “C”-shaped weapon, but continues what becomes a long trend of missing his target. Ghorn finally scores a savage hit as does Thaleles. The man throws a beaker of fluid at Ghorn and misses. Linton moves over and retrieves the device the man in white was using and tries to ascertain its use. Moltar and Thaleles team up in their attacks and are finally able to slay the man just as Moltar fires the final shot from his weapon…and misses.
Linton retrieves the pinecone-sized device. Moltar takes the man’s red jumpsuit. Thaleles finds a hammer, which he decides to wield as a second weapon. Ghorn gets sick and barfs on the floor. Two clear jars topped with a button and tube, and filled with a pink jell are found on the tray by the table. Moltar gathers these…just incase. Moltar searches the room for a new cylinder that will power his “C”-shaped weapon, but doesn’t find one.
The party decides to try the next door. Opening it they find a small room, the walls of which are lined with several rows of slowly turning cylindrical drums. These drums seem to be covered with a large sheet of paper on which a thin metallic arm is drawing a line on each of the drums. Occasionally one of the metallic arms jumps slightly leaving a jagged ink mark on the drum. Simultaneously, a glass window in one of the walls displays several lines of the mysterious runes found throughout the domed complex. One of the drums has a very severe jagged mark on it about 8 rotations back. This is accompanied by some minor jagged marks both prior and after the main large jagged mark.
Finding no foes in the room, Moltar gives it the once over for a power cylinder for his weapon. After not finding any, the party leaves.
Moving to the next door, the party takes up positions and opens the door using their red card. Ten humming wardrobe-sized metal cabinets are located throughout the room, all connected by thick, black cables. Against the back wall are three desks holding a glass window in which various runes show. Sitting at one of these desks is a man in red who leaps up from his chair and moves to attack the party with his bare hands. Ghorn, who is still feeling bad, and Thaleles move to intercept the man and are able to score some devastating hits on him. The man counters with a backhand that rattles Thaleles’ teeth. Moltar joins the assault with his light rod and the man goes down in a heap.
The party looks around the room, Moltar once again searching for a power cylinder, but when nothing of interest is found, the party moves on.
The party decides to start back at the door that is to the other side of the one that leads to the stairs, instead of continuing around the room.
Once again, the party takes up positions by the door, and open it using their red card. The room beyond is similar shape to the other labs. However, the walls are lined with aquariums of all sizes and shapes. Standing towards the back of the room are two totally silver-clad figures working intently on the opened corpse of a large fish that is stretched across a long table. As the door opens, both of the figures look up revealing a mirrored window in their silver hoods. One of the figures advances on the party with a light rod, while the other continues to run its hands through the internal organs of the fish.
Moltar moves to engage the silver clad figure with the light rod, while Ghorn moves toward the other figure. The figure facing Ghorn throws a large glob of fish guts at Ghorn hitting him squarely and messily in the chest. Thaleles notes that there is no apparatus above the table and decides to leap up on the table and join the attack. The table is slick with the fish carcass and innards, but Thaleles is as sure footed as a mountain goat and has no trouble keeping his balance amidst the mess even though he does manage to get his feet and lower legs thoroughly inundated with fish guts. Linton gives the pinecone-sized device to Larissa and gives her a brief instruction in its use. The being with the light rod swings it at Moltar and manages to nick him with it. Thaleles takes a swing with his hammer and light rod at the silvery form that seem intent on spattering Ghorn and him with fish guts. The hammer connects with the side of the being’s head causing the figure to re-evaluate the threat Thaleles poses. Moltar and Larissa focus their attacks on the other figure and manage to tear the silver suit to revel a man in a red jumpsuit beneath. Pressed with over whelming numbers, both silver clad men eventually fall to the party’s attack, but not before Thaleles and Ghorn are well covered with fish guts.
After the battle, Thaleles finds himself retching in the corner of the room as the others examine the room’s contents. Moltar searches for more power cylinders, but only finds a tube filled with a yellow liquid. Still, this may prove useful if he can get Larissa to read the runes on it once she finds the components necessary to let her cast her reading spell, or what ever she does.
Linton finds a door in the corner of the room that slides on a curved rail into the wall of a small cylindrical side room. The ceiling and floor of the room are made of a metal grate, beyond which is only a series of open ducting. Linton enters the small chamber and looks around, but seeing nothing of interest beyond a rectangular metal plate set in the wall of the chamber, he leaves the chamber. Ghorn begins to feel ill as well, and the party believes that something in the room is making the two sick. They all exit the room back into the central portion of the dome and close the door. Thaleles then managed to damage the door-opening panel with his light rod to prevent the door from being reopened.
Ghorn finds that his skin is itching terribly.
ASEO out