I ran this encounter just last night and I wanted to share it with you guys. It took four hours to run and I really had no idea how this was all going to turn out. It wrapped up nicely and it was probably one of the most entertaining sessions I've ever run. I know there is an area for Campaign Journals, but this was just one session on how it all went down with Kazmojen at the end of Life's Bazaar.
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As the party began this session they were all low on hit points. Clarrissa, the Favored Soul had two orisons left and the wizard had no spells what-so-ever. But they had no real choice but to proceed, as Maple, the halfling woman they had rescued told them that Kazmojen was in the process of selling the children from the Lantern Street Orphanage. Although they had killed countless hobgoblins there was one final room left to face. Maple led the party through the forge area and into a mess hall. She indicated a door that she said lead to the main chamber of the Malachite Fortress. Thump-thump the barbarian kicked the door, but it appeared to be too strong for him to knock down, so Artemis the Spellthief came forward and unlocked the door and opened the latch. Then she stepped back and Thump-thump kicked the slightly opened door slamming it against the wall giving everyone inside a dirty look.
In the room beyond was a line of four hobgoblins with a fifth standing just behind them. Two hobgoblins stood guard at the double iron doors to the south and two more at another door on the far wall of the massive chamber. Sitting on the stairs leading up to a stage to the north was an odd beardless dwarf with yellowed thick skin that the party assumed was Kazmojen. Lying next to him was a creature that could best be described as a cross between a wolf and a porcupine. Behind Kazmojen a boy in chains sat miserable against a post staked into the floor. Windows lined the back wall of the chamber and standing there looking out one of them was a dwarf with dark skin holding a chain that two small girls were chained to with manacles. On either side of the dark dwarf lay two quivering mounds of flesh.
The party was overwhelmed with the forces arrayed against them and the half-orc paused for a moment. Kazmojen jumped up and said, “So you’ve finally arrived! About time. Come in or send someone in so we can negotiate this whole thing.” Clarrissa the Favored Soul of Heronious and Frieda her monk protector and mentor in the faith stepped into the room just beyond the door. Clarrissa said that she wanted the children returned safely to her. Kazmojen said that two had already been sold to the dark fiend Pyllrus, but they were welcome to buy the boy, since he was the last one left. Benner the wizard yelled through the doorway that they would take them all over Kazmojen’s dead body at which Kazmojen laughed long and hard. Then he told the dark dwarf Pyllrus that it was safe for him to leave now.
Kazmojen noticed that the party was wearing the armor from the secret area near the forge and insisted that if they wanted any slaves that they would have to return the armor they had stolen from him. Clarrissa was wearing the half-plate and agreed that they would return the armor as part of the payment and began working on the buckles. The monk whispered to the young woman to make a show of getting the armor off and take as much time as possible to stall for time.
During this time Thump-thump the barbarian asked if Kazmojen cared if they dealt directly with Pyllrus and Kazmojen smiled evilly and said that his business was done with Pyllrus and they were welcome to deal with Pyllrus however they liked. Meanwhile the dark dwarf dragged the girls and the lumps of flesh followed him to the double iron doors that the hobgoblins had opened. Before they could get through the doorway the barbarian rushed forward and attacked one of the lumps of flesh. Pyllrus cursed in Infernal at Kazmojen and the slaver laughed and told his hobgoblin guards to stand their ground.
Meanwhile Leif the Scout, Artemis the Spellthief and Benner the “spell-less” wizard rushed through the forge area to cut off the dark dwarf and little girls from making their way down the main hall and into the room that leads into the Underdark. Pyllrus ordered the piles of mindless flesh known as lemurs to protect his flank as he grabbed the girls and yanked them down the hallway. He cast darkness causing a shadowy darkness to descend upon him and made his way around a large pit trap that the barbarian had set off earlier. Leif and Benner fired arrows and bolts into the darkness missing Pyllrus and Aretmis rushed ahead of the dark dwarf to block the next set of double iron doors in an attempt to stop his escape. Then the barbarian rushed past the lemurs and jumped across the pit. In common Pyllrus warned the party that if they continued to attack him that he would kill the children. He held one hand up in a gesture indicating he was prepared to cast a spell. The girls cried and huddled against the wall and everyone paused for a moment.
Just then Leif the Scout darted forward and ripped the children from the dark dwarf’s hand and hauled them to safety in the next room. Pyllrus started to cast and an inky darkness began to coalesce but it was never completed as the barbarians great club struck him disrupting the spell. Pyllrus was furious and turned on the barbarian in a rage.
Back in the main chamber Ferrior and Fellian had been waiting patiently in the kitchen area keeping an eye on Clarrissa and Frieda making sure they were ok when they heard a noise in the Forge area. One of the Lemures had spotted Benner and was chasing the wizard down. The two half-elves rushed into the forge area to battle the lemure which turned on them as Benner headed back through the secret passages and around to where Leif had brought the children. The wood elf passed the children on to the wizard and Benner escorted the children to the lift. He told them how to escape once they were above and the girls were frightened, but they listened and he started the lift and sent the children to the safety of the locksmith shop and the waiting city gaurds.
Kazmojen noticed that the party had left the monk and favored soul all alone and decided that he could get the armor and a few more slaves/hostages to bargain with in the process. So in hobgoblin he ordered the guards to surround the women who were still pretending to take the half-plate off. Frieda the monk grabbed Clarrissa and pushed her back through the doorway into the kitchen, then she stepped back through herself and told Clarrissa to run. The young woman in the half-plate did as she was told and ran into the forge area calling Fario and Fellian for help. The monk was surrounded as hobgoblins filed into the mess hall all around her. She leapt through them trying to escape, but one of them blocked the door into the forge area so she was forced to fight. She heard Kazmojen say “Chain. Fetch.” And a spiked chain they had seen earlier wrapped around a statue started slithering forward from one corner of the Main Chamber toward her.
Back in the great hall Artemis and Thum-thump fought Pyllrus and the darkness the fiend had cast was causing the barbarian no end of trouble. He missed four attacks in a row because of the shifting shadows and took a number of hits from the dark dwarf. The barbarian had to retreat before he was killed as one of the lemures arrived and flanked him. So the half-orc barbarian ran away to take a healing potion leaving the Spellthief to fend for herself. Pyllrus clawed the woman one round and turned invisible the next. Artemis was wounded and did something totally unexpected. She ran back to the Main Chamber where Kazmojen and the hobgoblins were. Then she banged on the double iron doord the hobgoblins had closed and screamed “Let me in! Let me in!” The guards looked to Kazmojen and he nodded his head. So they let Artemis in and closed the double iron doors behind her. The Spellthief was out of breath and thanked Kazmojen then she walked right by him and up the stairs toward the boy that was chained to the post. She sat down next to him and started working on unlocking his manacles! Kazmojen laughed out loud. He liked the spirit this woman had. He also decided that since she was already here, it was much easier just to capture her instead of the monk that kept hopping around. So he called back the chain inside and ordered the side door closed.
Back in the great hall the dark dwarf was invisible, but decided to drop it when the half-orc returned and attack the barbarian that had cost him his rightful property. He attacked the barbarian bringing him down even further then he rushed for the next set of double iron doors that led into the Underdark with his lemure behind him. The barbarian and scout were both extremely tired and horribly wounded without any healing left. They started at the escaping dark dwarf and thought that letting him go, now that they had the children, didn’t seem like such a bad idea after all. Pyllrus struggled with the iron bar across the doors and enlarged himself to remove the bar. This proved to be too much of a target for the barbarian. The half-orc raged and rushed forward to attack… only to swing and miss. The scout was more fortunate however, he got off a shot that struck Pyllrus in the ear and killed the fiend. Then the barbarian finished off the lemure. Benner and Lief rushed back to the rest of the party while Thump-thump made sure that the dark dwarf was not going to be returning any time soon.
In the mess hall area Frieda continued to jump around avoiding attacks while Ferio, Fellian and Clarrissa attacked through the doorway at hobgoblins. Eventually the hobgoblin blocking the door was killed and the party surged forward into the room and finished the remaining hobgoblins in the mess hall. Then they heard the cries of Artemis coming from the Main Chamber.
Artemis had succeeded in unlocking the little boy from the post, but he just sat there huddled and hiding his face an eyes away form everyone going on around him. Now she was doing her best to avoid the animated chain that was lashing out at her. Kazmojen was getting impatient with her and yelling at her to stand still. But she just kept yelling for help and dancing around.
Just as Thump-thump finished decapitating Pyllrus he turned around and noted a beholder hovering behind the statue of the dwarven defender. One of the eye stalks looked at him and he weakly waved at it. Then the beholder glided forward down the great hall to the Main Chamber. The barbarian slowly followed the beholder and slipped down a side passage to the forge room and into the mess hall with the rest of the party. Meanwhile the chain had finally gotten a hold of Artemis and started squeezing the life out of her and she fell unconscious. As soon as she stopped struggling the chains remained tight, but still.
The beholder demanded that the doors be opened and the hobgoblins quickly complied. Kazmojen was grinning evilly again. He had a hostage and now he had a beholder to back him up. But when the beholder entered he realized that it was not at all happy with him and he pleaded in Undercommon with it. That was when Thump-thump knocked down the side door from the mess hall and stepped in. Frieda, Clarrissa and Benner followed him. Leif tried to sneak down the main hallway and spotted one of the beholder’s eye-stalks watching him so he quickly snuck away back down the hall.
In common the beholder said to Kazmojen "You've made your last mistake," and before anyone knew what was going on one of the eyestalks aimed at Kazmojen and a green light shot forth enveloping Kazmojen and it disintegrated him. Then the beholder turned to the others and said “The boy is mine.” The party begged for the boys life but the beholder said “I don’t make deals with the likes of you,” and another eye stalk aimed toward the boy and a white light issued forth. The boy stopped crying and without looking at the child the beholder commanded him to stand. The half-orc barbarian tensed up to rush the beholder and before he could act, the beholder and the boy disappeared.
The remaining hobgoblins immediately bolted for the doors and were quickly cut down. Meanwhile Clarrissa and Frieda worked to remove the animated chains while Fario and Fellian faced off against the howler. Fario was impaled by multiple quills and died just before the barbarian charged the beast and finished it off.
The party had managed to stop the slave ring, but the appearance of the beholder and the abduction of the boy was still a mystery to them.
A fantastic write up and a damn fun sounding game.
Thanks for that :). Gave me something to read with the morning coffee.
Keep up the fab work.