That's the danger about certain kinds of clues getting discovered a bit too early - sometimes the PCs glomp onto something that seems really interesting that turns out to be out of their league. :)
Yeah, but that's kind of fun too.
So I spilled chocolate milk on my laptop and completely f&#@ed it up. I a got a new one, and finally got all my accounts and files transferred over, so I have access to all my notes again.
Session #12
Characters Present for the Session:
Potts (gnome, sorcerer 5)
Stinky (half-orc, oracle 5)
Wolf (half-elf, ranger 5)
The party arrives back in Diamond Lake in time to see a funeral procession making its way through town. All the town is out to watch the procession. Valkus Dunn and Captain Trask are leading the procession on horseback. The characters soon learn that the trouble with gnolls in the region had escalated. The gnolls were tracked back to Sentinel Hill and the garrison was mobilized to deal with them. They managed to coax them out of their caves and tunnels and fought them out in the open in the shadow of the hill. It was a tough fight though, and although the gnolls were defeated and sent retreating back to their caves, several soldiers were killed in the skirmish.
The next day Potts meets with Allustan and reports about on his exploits to Greyhawk.
Wolf receives word that Captain Trask wants to meet with him and his companions.
Stinky is given a note to meet a man at the Feral Dog regarding his delivery. At the Feral Dog he meets a man named Lester who tells Stinky that his delivery can be picked up at an abandoned farmhouse about a mile outside of town.
The characters go to the Spinning Giant to meet Captain Trask. There they learn that Trask recently received a letter from Marzeta the battle mage at Blackwall keep. In her letter she indicated that in recent weeks the militia stationed there had come into conflict with hostile lizard folk from the marsh. Many militia had been killed in the skirmishes including the garrison commander. Her letter requested reinforcements be sent from Diamond Lake, but Trask can’t spare men due to the losses inflicted by the gnolls. Thus, he asks that Wolf and his companions go to Blackwall keep to aid the militia there. Since the party was planning on heading there anyhow this works out well enough, and Trask doesn’t need to put any real effort into convincing them to help him out.
After Wolf spends some time consoling his brothers in the militia, he and Potts accompany Stinky to the meet. Rofo and Wraith are not present, as Rofo is busy “helping out his uncle,” and Wraith is presumably at the Moonmeadow residence involved in some weird elven orgy with Wolf’s mom.
Thus Stinky, Potts and Wolf walk along Urnst trail for about a mile until they come across an abandoned farmhouse near the lake. There they see a group of 8 armed men standing by a couple of wagons waiting for them. The leader of the group has a guard bring out a pair of shackled grimlocks from the farmhouse for Stinky to inspect. Stinky complains about their quality and makes it clear that he feels like he is being cheated. The leader of the band, tells them that he isn’t hear to negotiate, he’s just the delivery man and he expects them to pay up and be on their way. The PCs step back and discuss things among themselves. They decide that they might be able to get some info if they can capture some of the thugs alive to interrogate.
Despite being out numbered they decide to attack. Potts leads the assault with a magic missile bombardment against one of their archers. Wolf and Stinky charge into melee. Things go poorly from the start with some low rolls by the players (two 1s in a row for Jeff on attack rolls and Stinky doesn’t perform much better). Wolf and Stinky soon find themselves in a tough fight with a half dozen guards and their leader, who proves to be a power-attacking beast with his longsword. Potts does his best to support things from the range with magic missile bombardments. He manages to kill an archer and Lester, the man who had spoken to Stinky at the Feral Dog. Interestingly, Lester’s corpse changes as he dies, and Potts discovers he was actually a doppelganger.
Unfortunately, things go south quickly as the enemy leader takes down Stinky with several devastating slashes with his sword. Wolf hopes to save his friend and stays in the fight to the end, which comes for him not long after Stinky’s. Potts makes a run for it, but three guards chase after him, and soon catch up with him. He’s forced to fight, and although he holds his own for a few rounds, he eventually succumbs to their blades.
The session ends rather grimly and abruptly with Wolf, Stinky and Potts dead.
XP: non awarded
Total PC Deaths to date: 4
Characters Saved by Hero Points: 3
Number Sessions that have ended with Stinky KOed/dead: 4
Session #12 GM notes:
So this was not one of our better sessions. It was a Friday night, I was tired from work, players were late or cancelling at the last minute. We didn't start until about an hour and a half after we were supposed to, and even then there were only 3 players. Things didn't go so good. They initiated a fight when they were out numbered, hoping to capture the leader of the group so that they could interrogate him and try to find out more about the mind flayer. That didn't go so well. I probably should have downgraded the strength of the opposition to account for the fact that they only had three players present, but I was pretty tired and a little annoyed about having 2 players bail at the last minute and a third being really late, so I didn't bother. Besides, they chose to run in and attack while their enemies were armed and ready for them. If they had been thinking more clearly they might have attempted to ambush them at a later time when their guard was down. They had become a bit cocky, so I think this session taught them a bit of a lesson.
Anyhow, despite the semi-TPK the campaign can continue since the two players who were absent still have their characters back in town, and the the players who lost their characters are going to bring in new characters that will have been recruited by Eliagos to seek out Potts and aid him and his companions in their investigation of the Age of Worms and the Cult of the Ebon Triad. Of course when they arrive in town they will find Potts has gone missing.
Here's document I created that was intended as a handout for PCs regarding information they uncovered about Kyuss while doing research in the Great Library in Greyhawk. It is in the form of a scroll penned by an unknown scholar:
The exterior walls surrounding the inner ward of the Necropolis of Unaagh display some of the finest relief sculptures depicting the Age of Worms. The reliefs have deteriorated over the centuries, but the quality of their craftsmanship and the ghastly yet highly imaginative details displayed within their scenes of writhing death are still mostly intact and are unparalleled anywhere else in the known world.
When considering the nature of the Age of Worms, one cannot fail to associate this prophesized apocalypse with the entity known as Kyuss. Details regarding this being are limited, but he has been referred to as the “Worm that Walks” and the “Harbinger of the Age of Worms.” Scholars agree that Kyuss walked the earth as a mortal long before the rise of any of the modern civilizations that exist today. Shulm is the name of the civilization that he is most commonly associated with. It is suspected that Kyuss was either a necromancer or a priest of a death god, possibly Nerull. It is also widely accepted that he was shunned by his own people and forced into exile for practicing dark magic and speaking blasphemous prophecies of death and doom, presumably regarding the so called Age of Worms.
Rather than languish as an outcast, he became a prophet and drew to him demented followers who wished to hear his grim words. They saw him as a servant of the gods, and some even worshipped him as a living god. His followers believed that if they curried his favor he would protect them from the impending age of writhing doom that he prophesized.
In their exile, they fled to the southern jungles. There it is said that Kyuss and his followers discovered the ruins of a city built not by men that was already ancient in their time. He was drawn to the place and commanded that his followers rebuild the city. It became the base of his temporal power, and he ruled for many years as a god king. Kyuss was obsessed with attaining divinity, and he built a profane altar at the heart of the city. The altar was centered around a black monolith, which he used to channel his power. There he made countless blood sacrifices to his death god, and in a final vile rite he attempted to elevate himself to godhood by sacrificing his entire flock of followers. With their deaths he stepped into the monolith…
At this point the scroll is ripped and whatever came next is missing.
Session #13, Encounter at Blackwall Keep begins
Characters:
Seeros Glasswright (elf, alchemist 5)- replacement for Stinky
Solomon Thrush (human, inquisitor 5 of Saint Cuthbert)- replacement for Potts
Mort (half orc, sorcerer/barbarian 5)- replacement for Wolf
Rofo (dwarf, monk 5)
Wraith (elf, fighter 5)
Solomon Thrush, Mort and Seeros arrive in Diamond Lake in the mid afternoon after a tiring journey from Greyhawk, having been recruited and sent to the town by Eliagos to assist Potts and crew with their investigation of the threats posed by the Ebon Triad and the Age of Worms. They make their first stop at Allustan’s residence where they introduce themselves. Wraith arrives not long after to inquire if Allustan knows the whereabouts of his missing companions. He had spent the day investigating the disappearance of Wolf, Stinky and Potts and learned they had last been seen the evening before heading out of town on the Urnst Trail.
The new arrivals offer to assist him in finding his compatriots. Solomon, an inquisitor of Saint Cuthbert, proves to be a capable tracker, and he easily locates the scene of Potts’ death and the abandoned farmhouse where the meet took place. He finds evidence to suggest bodies were dragged down to the lake, as well as two dead grimlocks in the ruined farmhouse.
Wraith goes for a swim and locates the bloated, naked bodies of Potts, Stinky and Wolf, as well as a dead doppelganger and another man, all resting on the bottom of the lake, weighted down by stones. With these deaths confirmed, the adventurers track a pair of wagons that were at the scene back to Diamond Lake. There they discover the killers at the Able Carter coaching house. The leader of the group is busy selling off lumber and grain from the two wagons to the locals. It looks like the ruffians are staying in Diamond Lake for at least the night.
The adventurers report their findings back to Allustan, who is highly distraught to learn of the deaths of three of the town’s primary heroes. He encourages them to seek retribution and ensures them that he will pull any strings necessary with his brother, the mayor, to ensure that the heroes are not subject to any criminal persecution for killing the men responsible for the heroes’ deaths.
The party rounds up Rofo from a nearby tavern and heads back to the coaching house where they check in for the night. In the common room, they find the killers eating a meal, and they sit down at a nearby table. Mort strikes up a conversation with them, and that is enough to make them hurriedly finish their stew and head out to Feral Dog.
With the killers gone for the moment, they explain their situation to the innkeeper. He is angered to learn of the deaths of the local heroes, especially Stinky, as he was a fan of Stinky’s fight nights. They convince him to take them up to the room of the bands’ leader. Here they find a locked trunk, which they break into and discover the gear formerly belonging to Potts, Wolf, and Stinky. They claim this gear for themselves and give the Innkeeper 180 gp that they discover amongst the loot. They then set up an ambush, waiting in the rooms of their enemies. The Innkeeper pays the rest of his clients to be elsewhere for the evening.
Eventually, the killers return, and all but the leader are drunk. The heroes spring their ambush as the drunken men approach their rooms. This time the heroes have the advantage. Mort, Wraith and Solomon gang up on the leader, while Rofo and Seeros take care of the caravan guards. Seeros hurls alchemical bombs into the hall, searing the guards with flame. The inn itself catches fire as a result, and that combined with the pummeling handed out to them by Rofo is enough to make three of the caravan guards surrender, and their surrender is accepted. This is not the case with the leader; he viciously defends himself with his sword, but he’s outnumbered and surrounded, and he is soon cut down. When he dies, he to reverts to his true form- another doppelganger. Before the fire can spread, Solomon calls upon the power of Saint Cuthbert to create several gallons of water, which he uses to douse the flames, and save the inn from any damage more severe than scorched walls and timbers.
They take their prisoners to the sheriff’s office where the men are put in a cell. The dead doppelganger is brought to the garrison. The next day Valkus Dunn casts a speak with dead spell on the corpse, and the heroes try to interrogate it. Solomon uses his ability to detect lies and learns that the corpse is trying to deceive them regarding the name of his master. The do learn that they seem to be employed by an intermediary and not working directly for the mindflayer.
They also interrogate the caravan guards and learn the men are members of the Mercenaries Guild who were hired by the doppelganger to guard the wagons bound for Diamond Lake. They were paid more than usual for such work, and realized that this was because they were also helping to smuggle a pair of grimlock slaves out of the city. They explain that they met up with their employer at an old warehouse near the river docks and from there they headed out the Druid Gate and towards Diamond Lake. Their employer paid off the gate guards, so they had no trouble smuggling the Grimlocks out. The men claim that they had no idea they were working for a pair of doppelgangers.
The adventurers decide to postpone more investigation into the matter and instead opt to help Captain Trask by going to Blackwall Keep to bolster the beleaguered garrison against hostile lizardfolk raiding from the marsh.
They spend a few uneventful days on the road, but eventually arrive at Blackwall Keep. There they meet a man named Edrick Tomason. They learn that he has assumed command since the original commander was killed and Marzeta the battlemage was taken the evening before when she was captured in a lizardfolk raid.
The heroes rest the night at the keep, and the next morning they set out into the Mist Marsh in search of Marzeta and the Twisted Branch tribe. Thanks to Solomon’s tracking skills they are able to follow the trail of the lizardfolk. Their first day and night in the marsh are uneventful. On the second day they discover the naked body of a dead guard tied to a managroo tree with vines. His body is covered with dozens of leeches, and it appears that he was killed by lizardmen. Solomon locates a pit trap at the foot of the tree, beneath the corpse. At about the same time, they are ambushed by lizardmen warriors who rise up from the nearby pools of water. One of the lizardmen is a shaman or witchdoctor, and he animates the roots of the great tree they are near, and the roots try to entangle the heroes. The lizardmen hurl javelins before some close towards melee. Fighting erupts. Mort and Solomon hold one front of the battle, while Wraith swims out into the water to go after the shaman, but he is forced to engage with the shaman’s guards. Rofo finds himself in his own fight with a hostile lizardman warrior, and Seeros hurls bombs toward the shaman.
The heroes fight hard, and each one sustains some injuries, but nothing terribly serious. They soon kill several of the warriors and drive off the remaining lizardmen, including the shaman.
The session ends with the PCs out in the Mist Marsh ready to keep searching for the lair of the Twisted Branch tribe.
Session #13 GMs Notes:
In this session we introduced some new heroes to replace the ones who died in the previous session. I gave the players a chance to avenge the deaths of their previous characters, which I think they appreciated, and we finally got started on Encounter at Blackwall keep.
I’m making several changes to Encounter at Blackwall Keep. This adventure has a reputation of being far too easy RAW, and a not overly well integrated into the AP as whole. My changes attempt to remedy those issues. They only just started into it this session, and the main change I made was doing away with the heroes breaking the siege on the keep. I didn’t really have a problem with that part of the adventure, but for some reason I just didn’t feel like running that set of encounters. I decided instead to go with the lizardfolk trying to ambush them in the swamp. This encounter wasn’t overly tough, as I didn’t want to run any encounters that were too tricky after having slaughtered the party the session before. However, they do have some bigger challenges in store for them in the next couple of sessions (and another character death).
Session #13, Mort's first journal
Every evening; before going to bed…Mort will very loudly say his prayers to Bahamut and tell him anything interesting that he has done that day.
Hello Bahamut, it’s me Mort. Today I did not find my clan. Instead Mort made a new friend named Wraith. Wraith was sad because he lost his friends so he was probably super glad to meet Mort and get a brand new best friend for life. Mort’s other best friend for life Tracking Guy helped Wraith find his friends; Mort was sad for Wraith because his friends were all dead in the bottom of a lake. Sadly Mort’s clan was not at the bottom of the lake either, don’t worry, Mort asked.
Tracking Guy decided to help Mort’s new friend Other Fighter find who killed his friends. We tracked them to this inn that Mort and his new friends are staying at now and where Mort is about to sleep in a nice comfy bed. Many boring things happened before that so Mort forget a lot of it. Oh but Mort was given a new shiny ring and axe. They are cool.
Mort is now going to lie in bed until the bad men come back and a plan Mort didn’t really pay attention to in the first place happens and everyone ends up happy.
Except for the dead people.
Love your Best Friend Forever, Mort
***
Hello Bahamut, it’s me Mort. Mort has not yet found his clan. Today, after killing a ton of people; (‘Splodyman killing the most) we are going to a marsh to kill Lizard men. Mort is looking forward to change of pace. We do a lot of walking every day. It is very boring as nothing much happens. Mort sings songs but no one joins in so sing louder to make up for it.
Mort is bringing joy to everyone.
Mort only hope tomorrow bring something super awesome to tell you…
Best Friends Always, Mort
Session #14, Encounter at Blackwall Keep, The Twisted Branch Lair
Characters Present:
Mort (half orc, barbarian/sorcerer 5)
Rofo (dwarf, monk 5)
Seeros (elf, alchemist 5)
Solomon (human, inquisitor 5)
The heroes proceed deeper into the Twisted Branch territory of the Mist Marsh. As the evening fogs descend, they begin searching for a suitable campsite. At that moment, a heron flies down from the sky and lands several paces from the party. As it does so it transform, changing from a bird to a hunched lizardfolk wearing numerous bone and feather fetishes. A parlay ensues as the creature explains that he is a shaman, and as a shaman it his job to help ensure the prosperity of his people and travel from tribe to tribe to aid them. The Twisted Branch tribe has learned of the heroes making their way towards their home, and is now amassing warbands to seek them out. He promises them that he will assist them by finding them a safe place to camp and drawing the warbands away, if they help him by killing King Shukak and his black dragon ally. The shaman further explains that King Shukak rules the Twisted Branch tribe. He was once captured by human slavers and forced to fight in the lands of the softskins before escaping. He is now gathering together the tribes of the marsh to lead them to war against his hated softskin enemies. The shaman does not want to see this happen, as he fears that war against the softskins will destroy his people. He believes that if they can kill Shukak and his dragon ally, then he can convince the warbands that have come to serve him to disperse.
The heroes ask more about the dragons, and the lizardman tells them that several years ago a powerful black dragon named Ilthane came to the Marsh. Ilthane claims that human arcanists were responsible for a plague of worms that infected and destroyed the eggs of his people 10 years earlier. This has incited many of the tribes to the cause of war. Now Ilthane’s dragon son, Vyrex, serves Shukak, and Ilthane travels the marsh, seeking out tribes of lizardfolk and “encouraging” them to send warbands to serve Shukak in his war. The shaman doesn’t trust the dragons. He feels that they have no real interest in helping his people, and their influence will only bring suffering and harm. He would see the dragons destroyed before this happens.
Finally the shaman is able to give some details on the camps and Twisted Branch lair. He explains that 6 warbands have already arrived and more arrive each day. The warbands average around 20 lizardfolk and have been making their camps outside the Twisted Branch lair. The lair itself consists of a great hillock covered in managroo trees that they have tunneled into. It is now riddled with halls and chambers. King Shukak dwells within. Below their home is a cave that is partially filled with water. It is here they keep their eggs, which are now guarded by Ilthane’s son. The female softskin that was recently captured has been given to the dragon, and the shaman does not know her fate, as he has not been allowed into the egg chamber. This vexes him greatly, as it is considered one of the sacred duties of the shamans to bless the eggs of each tribe, and not being permitted to do this duty makes him even more distrustful of Shukak and the dragon.
The heroes agree to the shaman’s terms, and the shaman reassumes his heron form and flies off. They rest for the night, and though they hear the sounds of warbands searching for them, they are sheltered by a thick ring of managroos on the top of a hillock, and they are not discovered.
The next morning, they awake to find that Wraith has been afflicted with some sort of swamp fever. They are forced to leave him behind, and Rofo, Solomon, Seeros and Mort press on into the marsh without him. They again pick up the trail of the lizardfolk and soon find themselves trying to bypass the camps of the warbands that surround the Twisted Branch lair. They do this without difficulty, and approach the great Hillock that is their lair. Using the natural morning fog and a silence spell, they get the drop on the two lizardfolk standing guard outside the lair. They then rush inside and find themselves in a fight with four spitting drakes in the entry hall. One of the drakes manages to spit a glob of poison on Mort, which over the course of a few rounds results in him suffering extensive dex damage. Lizardfolk guards also spot the heroes barging into their lair and rush to attack. A massive battle ensues, as the heroes press further in, and more lizardfolk join in the defense of their home. Fortunately, many of the warriors seem to be out trying to hunt to down the heroes, so they do not have enough numbers to overwhelm the adventurers. Mort enters his rage and brutally hacks through several of the lizardmen. Rofo aids with his usual headbutts and fists. Solomon and Seeros fight more conservatively, trying save some of their more potent powers for King Shukak. Towards the end of this battle, they are forced to engage a powerful lizardfolk barbarian dressed in hide armour made from giant spider chitin. He proves to be a nasty opponent, and although he fights only with his claws and teeth, he causes them much pain before they drop him.
They have only a brief respite (5 rounds) before King Shukak arrives with his 4 honour guard. King Shukak bears a dangerous, human crafted trident that he wields with great skill. A second fight ensues. This time the heroes break out all their tricks. Seeros hurls bombs; Solomon summons a spiritual weapon and adds a bane quality to his mace; Mort’s fatigue eventually wears off, allowing him to go back into his rage, and Rofo keeps pummeling his foes with his bare hands. The fighting is fierce. Early in the battle Shukak nearly kills Rofo with a single vital strike from his trident, and towards the end of the fighting he comes close to finishing off Seeros before Mort comes to his rescue allowing the elf to fall back. Mort is instead on the receiving end of the former gladiator’s trident. It impales Mort through the chest, and then Shukak bites out his throat for good measure. Solomon soon avenges Mort by slaying the already wounded lizardman king. This act demoralizes half the remaining honor guard, sending them into a retreat, which allows the heroes to win the battle.
Sadly, Mort is morte, and the remaining heroes are too injured to press on. They gather up Shukak’s gear and Mort’s corpse and flee into the swamp, returning to their hidden camp. There they find Wraith still fighting his own battle with swamp fever, but remaining alive.
That evening, the old shaman returns. He is pleased that Shukak is dead, but distraught that so many of his people were killed in the fighting. The death of Shukak caused enough chaos in the camp that the lizardfolk weren’t able to immediately rally more warbands to track the fleeing heroes. He suspects that it will take a few days for a new leader to emerge, but he figures that the dragon will see to it that another king arises to lead the growing army. With the dragon still alive, he does not yet have the influence he needs to convince the warbands to return to their homes. Unfortunately for him, at this point the heroes are ready to return to civilization, as they don’t feel they can press on without Mort and Wraith. They seem in no mood to take on a dragon. The shaman offers to help them once more. He bids they rest, and promises that he will conceal their tracks and that the next morning he will return with a spell prepared that can reincarnate Mort and bring him back to life. In return he will need an item of value from the them to make up for the valuable oils and such that he will be forced to expend casting the spell. He also expects that they will make another foray into the Twisted Branch lair with the intent of slaying Ilthane’s son. They agree to his terms, offering up Fury’s Bite as payment. The next day he makes good on his word and returns. He casts the spell, and a new body is formed for Mort’s spirit. The body takes the form of a full-blooded orc, and Mort returns from death.
Thus the session ends.
GMs Notes, Session #14:
This was a tough session for the PCs. King Shukak proved to be beast in combat, dishing out massive damage with his trident. Mort's death was the 5th fatality of the campaign. Poor Mort was basically at full hp, and took a full round of attacks from him, which did enough damage to kill him. He didn’t have any hero points to save himself, so after only his second session Mort was dead. His player wasn’t overly pleased. Nor was he particularly keen on a reincarnate spell since most of the races that he would have come back as would have been subpar for the “build” that he had carefully worked out for this character. Half orc and orc were the only two that he wanted, but he got real lucky and rolled an orc. Orc actually netted him an additional +2 to strength, so this certainly improved his acceptance of the character death.
I made some significant changes here. Firstly, I made Hishka much more proactive about seeking out the PCs and trying to cut a deal with them. I wanted to make sure the PCs learned a bunch of the backstory about what was going on in the Mist Marsh, and I figured that ensuring that Hishka was presented as a useful ally with some valuable information was the best way to do that. To that end, I made Hishka very helpful, but I think it worked out fine. Having Ilthane have a son to help guard the lizardfolk eggs was my other main change (who will be encountered next session). This was to make the end of the adventure more dramatic and offer a better challenge than a pack of kobolds. I also wanted the PCs to have chance to take on a dragon a bit earlier in the AP than RAW, plus this makes Ilthane a more vengeful enemy for further down the road.
Don't forget to post the fatalities in the AoW obits thread!
I believe I posted Bjorne and Mort's deaths. I wasn't sure if I should post the three that died in the mini-TPK, since it was a homebrew encounter that ending up taking place outside the actual adventures of the AP.
Mort's journal for Session #14
Hullo Bahamut…it’s me Moron. Mort for Short!!
You may not know it’s me cuz me look different now. Today VERY interesting day. Remember when Mort tell you about battle with Lizardspeoples and how Mort and friends chase them away and how we met that Lizardpeople that was a chicken and how he wanted us to kill all his people? You know, way back in da past? It ok if you don’t remember, Mort forget a lot of things too….aaaahhhhhh? Oh yeah, Well today AFTER SO MUCH TALKING we finally find where Lizardpeoples hide out is and go and visit them.
Mort not remember start of battle very much except there was lots an’ lots of killing. Mort use new axe that friends gave him but it not a nice axe, it hurt Mort a lot. Mort dropped stupid, stinky axe halfway through battle and drew Mort’s Great Axe (it not just a good axe). Battle go on for long time and Mort get very tired, but we kill lots of Lizardpeople like Chicken wanted. When it look like battle over, Mort very sad to see Lizardpeoples’ best warrior coming to kill his bestest friends. It had been good battle, Mort not get hit by hardly anyone except nasty axe even though Mort’s body move slower for reason that Mort forget. Best warrior of Lizardpeople hit Dwarffriend hard, so Mort stood in front of Dwarffriend to protect him cuz Mort is tougher than squishy Dwarffriend. Me told after that me was wrong ‘bout dat but Mort not remember much after that….only thing Mort remember is dat friends miss him and dat Mort want to keep hanging out with his bestest friends.
Next thing Mort know Chicken standing over-top of him and Mort feel very strong. Everyone is very happy, especially Mort who can keep hanging out with his friends. Mort wanted to thank you Bahamut, King of Dragons, for letting Mort keep hanging out with friends and letting Mort keep making them happy.
Good Night from your bestest buddy Mort the Orc.
Ps. Sun is very bright now; can you turn down the sun? Thanks.
Session #15, Encounter at Blackwall Keep
Character's Present:
Wraith, elf, fighter 6
Rofo, dwarf, fighter 6
Mort, orc (formerly half orc) sorcerer/barbarian/dragon disciple 6
Solomon, human, inquisitor 6
Seeros, elf, alchemist 6
After reincarnating Mort, Hishka the lizardman shaman shares that Vyrex the dragon has learned of Shukak’s death and has charged Hishka with selecting a new king to replace Shukak. However, Hishka plans to delay this appointment as long as possible. Hishka also explains that he pretended to track the heroes after Shukak’s death and told his people that the trail had come to a sudden stop, suggesting that they used magic to vanish. Finally, he informs them that he’s done some additional scouting of the Twisted Branch lair, and while in the form of a fish, he discovered an underwater entrance to the lower section of the lair where the egg chamber is. He offers to help the heroes make use of this entrance by casting a waterbreathing spell on them. The shaman then assumes Heron form and flies off.
The party makes their way from their camp to the pool backing the Twisted Branch lair, so that they can rendezvous with Hishka. However, before they reach the lair, they run afoul with a large pack of undead emerging from the mist. The undead come at them from all sides, and it isn’t long before they are engaged in a furious melee. The undead consist mainly of ravenous ghouls, some human and some lizardfolk, but there is also a pair of worm-infested Kyuss spawn among them.
Early in the fight Wraith charges one of the Kyuss spawn, but is overwhelmed by its fear aura and forced to flee combat. The rest of heroes hold strong, and set about slaughtering the undead. All of them take plenty of foul scrapes and scratches from the vile claws of the ghouls. Several heroes are also forced to pick the dangerous green worms off them before they burrow into their flesh. Things are looking grim for a time, but one by one the adventurers start to bring down the ghouls, evening the odds. Near the end of the battle, Wraith overcomes his fear and rejoins the combat. He’s just in time to finish off the final Kyuss spawn and see Solomon cut a worm out of his arm. Cutting out the worm, is enough to cause the already horribly wounded inquisitor to fall unconscious.
After the fight, much needed healing is administered and the party presses on to the meeting site. They hear the sounds of fighting coming from the lizardfolk camps nearby, and when Hishka arrives they discover that undead have attacked the lizardmen. Hishka is in a hurry to return and help his people, so he quickly casts the water breathing spell and leaves. The heroes then wade into the pool and make their way along the bottom into the lizardfolk lair via the underwater tunnel.
It is completely dark, and not wanting to risk alerting their enemies, they opt to rely on the party members with darkvision to lead the way. Rofo scouts ahead; in the first cave he finds a tunnel that leads to another partially flooded cavern. He also discovers a spit of dry land covered with the eggs of the lizardfolk. It proves to be guarded by four black-scaled, draconic humanoids. He then follows the submerged tunnel he discovered to another partially submerged cave, and here he finds the lair of the black dragon.
Rofo decides it’s best to lead his allies in an attack on the dragon first. They prep for battle by drinking elixirs prepared by Seeros to protect them from acid. Wraith and Mort also consume elixirs that will allow them to grow to large size. Combat ensues seconds later. They discover that the dragon has a hag ally and the pair had been working on some sort of alchemical experiments in a lab set up in the dragon’s den. Wraith leads the charge towards the dragon, but the creature promptly takes to the air and heads for the water. Wraith lands solid attack on it as it flies away, but it blasts Solomon, Mort and Seeros with its acid breath. Fortunately, their acid resistance pays off, sparing them from extensive injury. Wraith is left to fight the hag, and cackling she hurls herself at the elf and begins clawing at him. Her claws sap some of his strength, but not enough to slow him much, and after Rofo moves in and hits her with a stunning fist, they take her down quickly.
The dragon sticks to the water, relying on his breath weapon and the heroes’ lack of ranged attacks to even the odds. It doesn’t fight long before fleeing to gather reinforcements from the egg chamber. This gives the heroes some brief respite to heal some damage and investigate the lair. They find the dragon’s treasure horde and the battle-mage, Marzeta, who Seeros works at healing.
It isn’t long before the dragon returns with its minions. The dragon spawn emerge from the water and unleash acidic breath weapons of their own on Mort and Wraith. However, their acid resistance once again spares them from harm. The dragon stays in the water and blasts at the adventurers with its acid breath, causing Wraith more pain, despite his resistance.
Seeros and Solomon are able to land some attacks on the dragon. Seeros uses his bombs, while Solomon summons a spiritual weapon. The bombs in particular cause the dragon great injury. Wraith, Mort and Rofo set about dealing with the black dragon spawn, and Wraith in particular takes to this work, hewing his way through several of them.
As soon as the dragon spawn had been dealt with the entire party turns its attention on the dragon. The dragon had been successfully staying out of melee by remaining in the water and using its breath weapon. It makes a critical tactical error however, and swims a little too close to the shore. This allows Wraith and Mort to take advantage of their enlarged forms and wade into the water, using their reach take a couple of swings at the dragon. Solomon aids them by using a spell that forbids the dragon from moving away. The two warriors hit Vyrex hard with their two-handed weapons, and Mort lands the killing blow with a big swing of his axe.
After the battle the heroes spend some time healing their wounds and speaking with Marzeta. She is in a panic because the hag had put slow worms inside her. The heroes say that they will do their best to help her, and Seeros sets about trying to brew up an anti-toxin using the alchemy lab they had found. She also explains that she had overheard several conversations between the dragon and the hag. They didn’t seem concerned with speaking of their plans in front of her, as they were certain that she would soon be worn infested zombie. Thus, she is able to tell the heroes how the hag was merely one of a coven of three, and that together the hags and Ilthane (Vyrex’s mother) had created a worm infested dragon egg that had been inserted among the lizard folk eggs. The plan, as far as Marzeta can deduce, was to wait for the lizardfolk eggs to hatch and then infect the hatchlings with worms turning them into worm ridden undead, which would hopefully go on to infect the adult lizardfolk gathering in the region. According to Marzeta it is Ilthane that first brought the worms to the marsh at the behest of another master named Dragotha. And it is Ilthane and the hags that have been making a concerted effort to spread the worms among the lizardfolk and the hill-folk living in and around the marsh. They have tried to convince the lizardfolk that the men of Greyhawk are responsible for the worms.
Upon learning this, the heroes decide to go to the egg chamber and recover the worm infected dragon egg. Seeros stays behind to work on his anti-toxin for Marzeta and care for her. The rest of the party discovers that the egg chamber still has guards in the form of 8 kobold rogues, persumably brought in by Ilthane. Despite, the training the kobolds possess, they are still merely kobolds, and the heroes defeat them with relative ease. However one of them does manage to throw the worm egg at Rofo, who deflects it. The egg breaks on the ground nearby. Green worms spew out and immediately start burrowing their way into the lizardfolk eggs, and while Rofo’s busy pummeling a hapless kobold several of the worms crawl onto him. Wraith helps him pick a couple off, but he can’t get them all off before a couple burrow into his legs and start making their way up his body towards his brain. He’s forced to get out his dagger and cut them out while his allies deal with the kobolds.
After slaying the kobolds Mort and Solomon slay the worms with splashes of acid, but several of the lizardfolk eggs must be purged in the process. The heroes then return to Vyrex’s former lair to count their treasure and rest. Among the treasure they find a magical belt, which Mort promptly puts on. Unfortunately for Mort, the belt bears a potent curse, which transforms him into a female orc. Poor Mort entered the marsh as a male half orc and is leaving as female orc. Such is life.
The next day Mort finds that he too is feeling sick. Hishka comes to investigate. The heroes fill the shaman in on what has happened. He is very pleased to see the hag and dragon dead, but sad that precious eggs were destroyed in the process. He offers to help the heroes deal with the remaining hags by trying to find their lair. He suspects that he can do this, but anticipates that it will take him several days, as the marsh is a big place. He urges them to return to Blackwall keep and wait for him there. The heroes agree that leaving the marsh is a good idea, but they fear that the keep will suffer reprisals from Ilthane when she learns of her son’s death at the hands of “softskins.” They decide to go back to the keep, but feel that evacuating the remaining troops and taking them to Diamond Lake is the best move for the time being. Marzeta agrees this is a wise course of action. Hiska promises that he will send animal messengers to Diamond Lake to find them when he learns the location of the hags’ lair. At that point the heroes can return to the marsh and he will meet them and lead them to the hags.
They rest another day in the lair and the following day Hishka returns again and casts spells to cure Marzeta and Mort of their diseases. He then escorts them out of lizardfolk territory and puts them on the path back to Blackwall Keep. Thus ends the session.
Session #15, GMs Notes:
So Mort started the adventure as a male half orc and ended as a female orc. I didn't see that coming when I started it.
The fight with the dragon proved reasonably challenging, but they knew ahead of time they were going against the dragon, so Seeros had made a bunch of acid resistance elixirs. That took the sting off a bunch of breath weapon attacks that would have otherwise caused some real pain to several PCs.
Other than adding in another dragon and a hag covey into the mix to help Ilthane, I had Marzeta being held prisoner in the dragon's lair and gave her a chance to overhear conversations between the dragon and the hag, which allowed me to feed the characters a bunch of information about what Ilthane had been up to in the marsh- including dropping Dragotha's name (perhaps a little early in the AP, but it's not like they are about to go off and try and hunt down a foe as dangerous as Dragotha just yet).
Nice work on foreshadowing. :)
Well that's the benefit of having an entire AP in hand before you start to run it.
Mort's journal for Session #15
Hey Bahamut, it’s me Mort.
Mort have to tell you this all the time now. Mort not smart, but me know that you have plan for me and you change me to serve you better. Mort thinks this part of plan. Plus, bewbs are fun; thank-you.
Big day today. We fight a dragon, but not like you, an evil dragon. Mort may not be smart but he not dumb, Mort remember how to tell the difference: “It not shiney, kick its heiney”. Dragon not hurt us so much cuz SmellyBombGuy made potions that make Dragon breath hurt less. Also gave Mort potion that make him huge. Mort happy that SmellyBombGuy is his friend. Other best friend Bossy tell Dragon all sorts of stuff and Dragon listened. This good cuz Dragon did a lot of running away into water and Mort try to chase him but could not catch up. When Bossy tell Dragon to stay; he stayed. It cuz of this that Mort got killing blow on Dragon. Mort very proud but owes that to his friends. Mort have the bestest of best friends.
After that we fight little Dragon people protecting eggs. Eggs have worms that get inside you and eat your brain. Bahamut make Mort tough though and worms have hard time getting to Mort’s brain. Good thing too, Mort need what little brain he has. Worms like PunchyDwarf though. While Mort kill Dragon People friends take worms out of PunchyDwarf. It all end good, he alive. After fight Mort and friend use acid to burn infected eggs. Day is saved. Yay us.
We found a girl in Dragon Cave and saved her. She say a lot of things Mort not remember, but friends listen so that ok with Mort. ChickenMan come back after we kill the Dragon, tell us that now Dragons mom is gonna be mad. We go back to Fort and tell them to leave. They agree.
Now we going back to town and we going to heal Mort. Mort have the bestest of bestest friends ever.
Goodnight Bahamut, Love Mort.
One issue that I had with Encounter at Blackwall Keep was Ilthane's plan is kind of weird. Infecting a the lizardmen eggs seems like an odd way to spread the worms. As undead the little zombie hatchlings aren't going to get any bigger, so it seems like she'd be better off trying to infect the adult population with worms, so that the would transform into kyuss spawn and start infecting more lizard men. I realize she tainted several potions, so RAW she does this a little, but I tried to show more evidence of that going on and suggest that infecting the eggs was just one of the ways she was spreading the worms in the Mist Marsh.
One issue that I had with Encounter at Blackwall Keep was Ilthane's plan is kind of weird. Infecting a the lizardmen eggs seems like an odd way to spread the worms. As undead the little zombie hatchlings aren't going to get any bigger, so it seems like she'd be better off trying to infect the adult population with worms, so that the would transform into kyuss spawn and start infecting more lizard men. I realize she tainted several potions, so RAW she does this a little, but I tried to show more evidence of that going on and suggest that infecting the eggs was just one of the ways she was spreading the worms in the Mist Marsh.
If worm-infested lizard men make eggs, the logic is that the worms transfer into the mommy lizard men, thence into their eggs, as I see it. If it isn't too late, imply that the Worms are transferable like an STD. Especially if the little monsters incubate in a host for a time, a "carrier" can coitus in the red light district (or worse in the richer districts via B&E) of a city for a while before the brain damage goes to far and causes the victim to eat brains or something.
Session #16, Back into the Mist Marsh
Characters Present:
Rofo, dwarf monk 6
Solomon, human inquisitor 6
Seeros, elf alchemist 6
Mort, orc barbarian/sorcerer/dragon disciple 6
Back in Diamond Lake the heroes spend time resting and recovering from their exploits in the Mist Marsh. Valkus Dunn helps Mort recover from his death and reincarnation, while Rofo drinks, Seeros consults with Allustan, Wraith frolics with Elival Moonmeadow, and Solomon sets Jeiran Weirus straight about the heresy of self-mutilation.
During this time a monk from the Twilight Monastery comes to town, having heard that Rofo has returned and challenges him in single combat. Rofo confronts him in the muddy town square, while miners from the bars surround them to cheer and bet on the fight. Rofo demonstrates his skills and gives the monk a good thrashing, leaving him unconscious in the mud. Not wanting to totally humiliate and dishonor the monk, Rofo carries him into the Feral Dog and sets him down in a chair in the corner. Unfortunately for the monk several miners decide to draw a mustache on him, piss on him, and hang one of the serving wenches bras off him. When he finally regains consciousness he shamefully runs off into the night, presumably to return to his monastery.
The PCs also find time to consult with Allustan who shows Solomon a book called “Great Dragons of the Flanaess”, which was written twenty years earlier by Mordenkeinan and Tenser.
Rofo inquires about Tenser and Rary the Traitor, and Allustan sits them down and tells them of how Rary killed Tenser and nearly Otiluke in a magical spell battle on the eve of the signing of the Treaty of Greyhawk elven years earlier. Tenser was long thought dead, for Rary’s ally Robilar had managed to destroy his known clones. A few years ago Tenser returned for one of his clones had been hidden beyond Robilar’s reach. It is said that Rary now has his tower in the Brass Hills, which is the midst of the Bright Desert. He has made that land his own, gathering the nomads under his rule.
Eventually, Hishka the lizardfolk shaman shows up in Diamond Lake in heron form and assumes his lizardfolk form in the town square, causing quite a commotion. The heroes come to speak with him before a mob tries to lynch him. He informs them that he has found the lair of the hags and can lead them to it. He also tells them that Ilthane has learned of the death of her son at the hands of “softskin assassins” and has since tried to destroy Blackwall Keep, which had fortunately been evacuated. Hishka has been making it clear to his people that the dragon is their enemy, and has been trying to corrupt their eggs and infest their marsh with undead.
The adventurers journey back to the Mist Marsh and meet Hishka near Blackwall Keep. The shaman leads them into the swamp, and for several days they travel. Eventually reaching the managroo mound that hags have made into their lair. Architecturally it is similar to the Twisted Branch Lair, in that it is a series of tunnels carved into managroo-covered hillock. Hishka had discovered that it too contains an aquatic entrance in addition to a surface entrance. The surface entrance is enclosed by yard surrounded by a brair wall, so the party decides that they will again make use of Hishka’s offer to cast a water breathing spell on them.
Rofo scouts ahead and swims up into the hag lair, and in the chamber with the water entrance he discovers four troll nests. Only three of the nests are occupied and one of the three trolls is sleeping. Rofo reports back to his companions and they prep for battle with spells and alchemical elixirs.
Rofo sneaks into the troll den invisible and finds tunnel leading out into the central portion of the hags’ lair. He spots the hags in a nearby room busy brewing up some terrible concoction in their cauldron. He also notes three spitting drakes milling about near the surface entrance. All of them are close enough that they could easily join in the fight with the trolls. This does not concern Rofo, and he takes up position in the tunnel, ready to prevent the trolls from escaping. He turns his attention to the sleeping troll and grabs its head as Solomon and Mort burst out of the water. At the same time Rofo takes advantage of the extra strength provided by one of Seeros’ elixirs to tear the head off the sleeping troll. There is shrieking from the other two trolls as Solomon and Mort come out of the pool and attack. Battle ensues. The trolls fight viciously but find it difficult to penetrate Mort’s magical defenses.
Seeros hurls alchemical fire bombs at the trolls from the water, causing them much pain and anger. One of the trolls catches fire and leaps into the water right near Seeros, clawing at him, putting out the flames and then swimming off to heal. The final troll is severely wounded by Mort and Solomon and also flees, but it retreats towards the hags, pushing past Rofo. The fighting moves into the main portion of the lair, as the hags, 3 drakes and another troll join the fight. Solomon attempts to keep the hags from using their magic by casting silence spell on their cauldron. This tactic forces the hags to come out from behind the two trolls that are protecting them and engage the heroes in melee or combat cast.
The fight rages for several rounds. Seeros proves deadly as usual with his bombs, using them to burn the trolls, while Mort and Solomon finish them with their weapons and take on the hags. Rofo kills and drives off the spitting drakes before they can do much harm with their poison spittle, and the heroes general perform well, resisting spells cast by the hags and fending off the attacks of the trolls. Soon only a single hag remains and she turns herself invisible and tries to flee towards the water exit. Rofo hears her and runs after her. As a monk, he’s very fast and beats her to the pool. He waits a few seconds and when he sees the splash of her leaping into the water he jumps in and manages to tackle her and get her in a grapple. The pair flail about in the water. She claws at him and he tightens his hold, pinning her. Mort comes to the edge of the pool and is able to hack at her with his axe, while Solomon summons a spiritual weapon. Despite her great strength, she is unable to escape the dwarf before she his cut down. Victory goes to the heroes, and the dead hags and troll are dragged into the central chamber where their bodies are burned.
Injuries are healed and the lair of the hags is searched and looted. They discover an alchemy lab, a pit contain a worm infested zombie (which Seeros incinerates), a secret treasure chamber and a room holding four prisoners. The prisoners consist of two lizardfolk and two tribesmen. All four have been infected with slow worms, but in the couple days that follow Hishka uses cure disease spells to heal them.
Mort learns the hard way that the treasure chest they find is protected by a magical ward that unleashes a cloud of choking black death. Luckily he is hearty and able to withstand its effects well enough to flee the cloud before it can kill him. Once it dissipates they loot the chest and find it full of gems and coins. They also uncover a goblins skull bomb and an elixir of fire breath. Once the pillaging has been completed, Hishka leads the heroes on the long trek out of the marsh. They say their goodbye to the shaman, and from there they make their way back to Diamond Lake.
For GMs- this is a handout I gave containing excerpts from a book I called "Great Dragons of the Flaness."
“Great Dragons of the Flanaess” by Mordenkeinan and Tenser, 575 CY. Allustan claims that only 12 copies of the text are known to exist, and the copy that he received was bequeathed to him by Tenser upon Tenser’s death at the hands of Rary the Traitor.
In the text there is an excerpt on Dragotha: “Dragotha is perhaps the oldest dragon to still exist in the Flanaess today, and as such warrants special attention. It is believed that he was a former consort of Tiamat and after offending her was forced to flee from the Nine Hells to Oreth. Here it is said that he became an ally of the being known as Kyuss, and with the aid of Kyuss became the first Dracolich, effectively making him immortal. It is not clear as to what type of dragon Dragotha was before his transformation. It is believed he was either a red dragon or a black dragon. His activities have been limited and or secretive in the last several centuries. Most scholars believe that he had been in an extended period of hibernation until very recently. Sightings of the dragon have begun occurring again in the past few years in the vicinity of the Rift Canyon as well as to the south in the Bright Desert. It is rumored that he lairs in a portion of the Rift Canyon that is called the Worm Crawl Fissure, but the nomads of the Bright Desert have also described sightings of a skeletal undead dragon within the vicinity of the cursed necropolis of Unaargh, suggesting that he may maintain a second lair near or within necropolis. I have reason to believe that since becoming active again he has been gathering a number of mighty chromatic dragons to serve him as vassals, which is a further testament to his power given the uncooperative nature of chromatic dragons. Dragotha is considered one of the most dangerous beings in the Flanaess today. Several bands of powerful adventurers have attempted expeditions into the Worm Crawl Fissure to destroy Dragotha and claim his horde since he has emerged from his hibernation. None have returned. It is my belief that destroying Dragotha is not possible without first destroying his phylactery, which is certainly well hidden and well guarded.”
There is also an excerpt in the tome about Ilthane
“Ilthane is a female black dragon. It is estimated she is approximately 500 years old as of this record. She has been seen active north of the Nyr Dyv in the vicinity of the town of Alaster. Her lair is thought to be in the marsh lands several miles north of that town. A band of Knights of the Holy Shield attempted to slay Ilthane in her lair in the year 570 CY. Only one member of the band escaped with his life- Sir Jondar Pelgrave. According to his testimony Ilthane has an interest in alchemical experimentation
Session #12 GM notes:
So this was not one of our better sessions. It was a Friday night, I was tired from work, players were late or cancelling at the last minute. We didn't start until about an hour and a half after we were supposed to, and even then there were only 3 players. Things didn't go so good. [etc.]
This encounter isn't ringing any bells. Was this something you added?
GMs Notes, Session #16
This session was a home brew extension of Encounter at Blackwall Keep. I brought in the hags because I’ve always been fond of hags as villains, and I wanted them to be Ilthane’s lab assistants for her alchemical experiments around the worms. The hags’ lair was intended to be the main laboratory or factory for worm production in the Mist Marsh.
The lair wasn’t overly large, and it basically turned into a single (but multi-roomed) encounter area. The PCs did well for themselves. They got the drop on the trolls, and though trolls are tough, their to hit with their claws is only +8, which was missing at lot since most of the PCs had an AC around 23-25. Sadly, I never got lucky enough to do rend damage. In addition, the players were making all their saving throws against the spell-like abilities the hags had, so they never got burned with: deeper slumber, suggestion, bestow curse, or charm monster- any of which could have been trouble. So it was a little easy for them than I had hoped. Oh well, there’s plenty of pain to come soon enough.
This encounter isn't ringing any bells. Was this something you added?Session #12 GM notes:
So this was not one of our better sessions. It was a Friday night, I was tired from work, players were late or cancelling at the last minute. We didn't start until about an hour and a half after we were supposed to, and even then there were only 3 players. Things didn't go so good. [etc.]
Back in three faces of evil, I set them up with a letter from Loris Raknian to Theldrick that indicated that an unknown buyer in Greyhawk (i.e., Loris, who didn't sign the letter) was using the services of Xyrxog the mind flayer to acquire a mysterious set of magical scrolls (i.e the apostolic scrolls from Champions Games, though the name of the scrolls wasn't revealed in the letter).
At this point the PCs still don't know the nature of the scroll or who wants them. All they know is that a mind flayer has been recruited to get them for an individual associated with the Ebon Triad to aid with some sort of ritual to the Overgod (i.e. bad stuff).
When in Greyhawk they took it upon themselves to start investigating this lead. They learned that the owner of a place called the Pits had used the mind flayer to acquire exotic underdark creatures like Grimlocks to fight in the Pits. From this man they got a lead on how to contact the mind flayer- via his doppelganger intermediaries (of course they didn't know they were dealing with any doppelgängers). They decided to make contact and pose as buyers looking for grimlocks for their own fightclub in Diamond Lake.
They set up an order of 2 Grimlocks to be delivered to Diamond Lake, and their plan was to jump the guys that delivered the order and try to interrogate them for info on how to find the mind flayer. This plan failed, and they got themselves killed.
. Unfortunately for the monk several miners decide to draw a mustache on him, piss on him, and hang one of the serving wenches bras off him. When he finally regains consciousness he shamefully runs off into the night, presumably to return to his monastery.
you're cruel... WTF ? Seriously I loved it !!!!! I imagine the atmosphere in "your" feral dog ! Well done PH !!!
Thanks Krimssone. I think that the players are getting the feel of Diamond Lake, though they won't be spending that much more time there.
Session #17
We took a bit of break from our regular band of heroes. Since I had introduced a storyline about gnoll bands raiding outlying settlements earlier in the campaign, and the militia in Diamond Lake had recently lost many men in a battle against the gnolls, I had the players create a new band of adventurers to arrive in Diamond Lake to help deal with this problem. This group of heroes has been put together by Eliagos and sent from Greyhawk to help deal with all the troubles in Diamond Lake.
This entirely homebrew material and not particularly tied to the Age of Worms storyline.
PCs:
Dior Kirkson (Halfling bard 5)
Kyrus (Half Elf Magus 5)
Torgan (Dwarf Cleric 5)
Maggie (Tiefling Witch 5)
Brothum (Dwarf Ranger 5)
The new party of adventurers arrives at the Able Carter Coaching House in Diamond Lake. They find themselves dining that evening after a hard day on the road when Sheriff Tyrol Eberly comes into the common room and introduces himself and has a chat with them (basically plugging his store and warning them not to start trouble). Just after he leaves they hear commotion from outside. Rushing out to see what has happened they find Tyrol and his deputy shot with crossbow bolts. Three men with hooded cloaks are seen nearby. Torgan hurries to see if he can help the sheriff and the deputy, while the rest of the heroes chase down the assailants. They catch the men after two of them trip while trying to climb a hedgerow. A fight ensues. Two of the fellows are killed and one is captured. Torgan is able to help the sheriff, but finds that Eberly has been hit with a poisoned bolt, so he does his best to flush out the poison with a create water spell. He’s able to save the sheriff, but unfortunately the deputy is dead.
In the aftermath, the heroes learn from several miners who come to investigate that the man they captured is former Sheriff Cubin. One of the dead men was a former deputy named Jarmis, and the last fellow was man named Ranald. All three are known to be in the employ of Balabar Smenk, a man unknown to the heroes.
They take Sheriff Cubin to the Garrison where they speak to Captain Trask and explain what happened. Trask puts Cubbin in holding and sends Valkus Dunn and half a dozen men into town to see that order is maintained. The characters have a meeting with Captain Trask and inform him of their interest in helping to deal with the gnoll threat. He briefs them on the situation and gives them what few details he can tell them about Sentinel Hill and the caves beneath it.
They return to the coaching house, rest for the night, and the next morning set out for Sentinel Hill. They spend several hours investigating the hill with Brothum and his pet badger Miffy leading. Brothum discovers a cave around the back of the hill, which he scouts using an invisibility spell cast on him by Kyrus. In the cave he finds an ettin and a troll, as well as a tunnel that continues deeper into the hill. They decide that they aren’t eager to take on two such dangerous foes.
They also find a path leading up to the top of the hill, which they investigate. There they find an ancient circle of standing stones and in the middle, with its back to the party, Bothrum spots a manticore. They decide to approach and realize that the beast is busy inhaling strange spores that are rising up out of holes/vents in the ground. While it’s distracted they ready for an attack. Maggie starts casting a mage armour spell, which its keen ears detect despite it being distracted. It takes to the air before the heroes can close on it, and hurls spikes from its tail, injuring the two dwarves. At the same time tentacles burst out of its back, making it clear that this is no ordinary manticore. Maggie and Dior try to bring it down with ranged attacks including a lightning bolt from Maggie. They find this difficult, as it seems resistant to spells, and though they cause it some injury, they fail to fell the tough beast and prompt it to bombard them with spikes. Torgram summons a spiritual weapon that hovers in the air and starts attacking it. Then Maggie manages to hit it with a hex that causes it to fall into a slumber. It crashes to the ground on the path, nearly crushing Miffy the badger. It’s injured in the fall but wakes up instantly from the impact. Kyrus leaps heroically down from a ledge and lands a crit with his scimitar. Dior, Bothrum and Kyrus all engage the thing in melee, while Torgram and Maggie hang back and help with spells. It fights viciously from prone for several seconds, focusing its wrath on Kyrus and causing him great injury. In the end, its Torgram’s spiritual axe that lands the killing blow.
After killing the manticore they proceed to investigate the top of the hill and its den. They find some accumulated treasure, and after completing their looting they decide to search for other entrances to the hill.
Eventually, they find two other entrances that Rofo scouts out. One cave is guarded by a trio of ogres that have made it their lair, and the other is the den of a pack of hyenas. Both caves seem to have tunnels that presumably lead deeper into the mountain. There is some deliberation about how to proceed, and in the end they decide that they will go in through the ogre’s lair; thus ending the session.
GMs Notes for Session #17:
This session marked the start of a homebrew adventure that was inspired by the Dunwich Horror, and more specifically the Dunwich sourcebook for Call of Cthulhu rpg. For instance, Sentinel Hill is taken from that reference, and there’s a bunch of other stuff that may show up in the next couple of sessions, depending on how deep the characters decide to delve into the cavern complex.
I also wanted to run a more sandbox style Dungeon Crawl where the characters have a fairly large area they can explore with multiple points of entry that lead to very different places depending on their choices. There’s not usually at lot of room for that style of play when running an AP (some APs allow it better than others), and since, IMO, that freedom to explore and make choices is central to D&D, I want to make sure I allow room for it.
Session #18, Sentinel Hill continued
Characters Present:
Dior (halfling, bard-dervish 5)
Kyrus (half elf, magus 5)
Boften (dwarf, ranger 5)
Torgram (dwarf, cleric of Clangedin Silverbeard 5)
Maggie the witch mysteriously vanishes. Perhaps her patron is calling on her. Perhaps her player is absent.
The remainder of the party approaches the ogre lair and find two of the three ogres Boften had previously spotted playing some game that involves tugging each other’s lips as hard as possible. The third ogre is busy laughing at the pair, and none of the notice the party approach. The heroes catch them by surprise. Dior hurls a silenced rock into their midst with his slingstaff, while Boften and Kyrus rush in to attack. Kyrus enchants his scimitar with a flaming burst quality and promptly lands a critical hit on the ogre, slashing it down the back and causing terrible fire damage at the same time. Boften hits the same ogre with his war axe and they bring the thing down. Torgram casts a bull’s strength spell on himself and moves into help. The other two ogres barely have time to react before the heroes are hacking them down as well. In seconds two are dead and the third one is fleeing down a tunnel that leads deeper into the caves. They hurry after it, not wanting it to get away and warn of their attack. It doesn’t get far before they lay into it and bring it down as well. Unfortunately, their flabby mamma is just up the tunnel and flies into a brutal rage when she sees her three boys have been slaughtered. She causes Kyrus a terrible wound with a massive cleaver and dishes out an equally terrible wound to Torgam when he tries to move past her. Yet with four enemies arrayed against her, she doesn’t stand much of a chance and is quickly cut down.
After healing their wounds and looting the ogre lair of some coin and recovering an enchanted mace, they press deeper into the caves. Their silence spell seems to have done its job, and it doesn’t appear as though they have altered anyone to their raid.
Soon the tunnel they are following comes to an end at a steep downward slope. It opens into a massive cavern. They spot the light of a few cooking fires scattered through the cave, and they can make out about eight gnolls around each of the fires. They decide they want a better look, so Dior goes back to the ogre lair and casts light spells on several of his slingstones; he then puts them in his magical satchel and returns to the party to discreetly hand them out. Each of the heroes hurls one into a different section of their cave. The light stones illuminate much of the cavern, and they spot several more gnolls gathered around a fighting pit in the centre of the chamber, as well as a half dozen or so hyenas. The cave sprawls back beyond the radius of the light stones, indicating that it is very expansive, and there seem to be a couple of tunnels branching off it as well.
The sudden influx of light gets the attention of the gnolls and they turn their evil red eyes towards where the PCs hurled the stones from. The adventurers decide they don’t want to risk a fight with at least thirty or so gnolls and their hyenas, despite having a terrain advantage, so Kyrus casts a grease spell on the slope to cover their retreat, and they flee for the outside.
They find they are being pursued by a pack of hyenas and a band of gnolls. Not wanting to get surrounded, they make their way back around the hill and start up the narrow trail that they had previously followed to the top of the hill. They don’t get far up the hill before the hyenas catch them. A large dire hyena leads the pack, but the creatures can’t really come at them more than one or two at a time due to the narrowness of the path. They easily kill a couple and drive the others back to the gnolls who were following the hyenas. The heroes move further up the trail as the gnolls come up after them. The gnolls have the same problem as the hyenas in that they can’t face the party more than one or two at a time. Boften and Kyrus hold the front line, while Togram enlarges himself, so that he has the extra height and reach needed to attack the gnolls over his allies’ heads. Dior takes up position on a nearby rock and attacks with his sling staff. The gnolls fight viciously, but are no match for the heroes on the path, and they are soon in retreat. Kyrus pursues them with a murderous vengeance. In the end, only one escapes.
By this time it is getting late in the day, and the heroes are weary from their battles, including the fight with manticore from earlier in the afternoon. They decide to try to make camp back at the top of the hill, hoping that if more gnolls come after them they will be able to defend it easily since the only feasible means up is the narrow path.
As they are resting, Torgram decides to start casting create water spells down one of the vents in the hill top that is exuding the strange spores. Boften adds his own little contribution by urinating down one of the vents, while holding his breath so as not to inhale the spores.
This activity attracts some unwanted attention however. Suddenly, a trio of carrion crawlers burst out of the vents. To make matters worse the heroes hear the distant howls of hyenas, suggesting more are on their way up the hill. The fight with the carrion crawlers does not go well. Boften, his badger Miffy and Togram are all promptly paralyzed by their tentacles. Dior is fortunate, in that he had climbed up onto the top of one of the standing stones to rest for the night and is not in their immediate reach. Kyrus is also lucky and doesn’t succumb to paralysis, but he finds himself stuck fighting one of the creatures with no help from his allies.
The carrion crawlers that paralyzed Boften and Torgram each begin to eat their respective dwarves alive, while the numb, paralyzed dwarves can do nothing but watch in horror as the aberrations tear into their flesh. From his perch on the standing stone, Dior, the little halfling bard, has a clear view of this horrible sight. He wonders where Maggie is and considers just staying real still and hoping that the creatures won’t notice them and will go back down their holes once they have finished their meals. In the end, he decides to help his companions. He hurls a sling stone down at the crawler eating Torgram, smacking it hard, which catches its attention. It turns away from the dwarf and skitters up the side of the stone lashing at the bard with its toxic tentacles. Dior is able to resist the effects briefly, but soon succumbs and falls paralyzed on the top of the standing stone. Meanwhile, Kyrus has done a good job holding his own against his foe and has consistently shaken off its paralyzing tentacles. The crawler briefly changes tactics and bites into the magus, inflicting brutal wound on him.
Torgram recovers from his paralysis quickly (2 rounds, unlike Boften who rolled 8 rounds- the max). He gets to his feet and sees the crawler that had taken a bite out of him going after Dior. He channels his divine power and heals himself and his allies with a wave of positive energy. This keeps Boften alive, as the crawler on him continues to eat away at his legs.
Soon after, Torgram starts hacking at the crawler on the stone, drawing its attention away from Dior and back to him. This time he fairs better and is able to resist the crawler’s toxins. By this time Kyrus has driven his foe back down one of the vents. Together Torgram and Kyrus take on the remaining two crawlers, slaying one and driving the other back into the vents, while Boften and Dior recover from their paralysis. During this time Torgram inhales a dose of spores from one of the vents and finds himself feeling exceptionally aggressive and angry. Poor Boften is horribly mangled by the time they save him, having spent several long rounds watching himself get chewed on. This is also about the same time that another pack of hyenas, led by two dire hyenas reaches the top of the hill.
Before the adventurers can rest a new fight ensues. Kyrus heroically takes up point at the top of the hill to draw the attacks of the hyenas, while Torgram goes about healing Boften. The half elf is promptly pulled to the ground by one of the massive dire hyenas and the pack surrounds him to tear him to shreds. He manages to save himself by casting an invisibility spell and sneaking off. He’s bought time for Torgram to heal Boften enough that he can fight and for Dior to shake off his paralysis. The two dwarves, with the support of the halfling’s sling staff, come in hard at the hyenas and Kyrus rejoins the fight. The hyenas cause some more injuries, but it isn’t long before they are defeated.
The adventurers are exhausted and in terrible condition after this battle. Fortunately, there don’t seem to be any gnolls following after this pack of hyenas, so they have time to use magic to heal their wounds.
The session ends with them on the top of the hill, hoping that they will be able to make camp for the night without being set on again. Hopefully, in the future Boften will be more careful about where he urinates
Session #18, GMs Notes:
So after two sessions of this adventure, the party has barely even entered the cavern complex- not really what I had expected, but still entertaining. The carrion crawlers proved nasty- poor Boften spent most of the fight being a carrion crawler snack, but his player took it very well, and the cleric kept him alive to be chewed on round after round.
I pulled a couple of punches here, in that I could have done a couple of coup de graces and killed Boften and Torgram and possibly Dior. However, it didn’t really seem to me that the carrion crawlers would bother going for the throat like that when they have their prey paralyzed. I figured that it would make more sense for them to just paralyze their foes and eat them leisurely. Of course, Boften would have deserved it had a crawler bit his throat out, but maybe watching himself get eaten alive was enough to teach him to be a bit more careful about where he decides to take a piss.
I should mention that the second party that is exploring Sentinel Hill is doing so while the main party is busy taking care of business in the Mist Marsh.
My journal is now caught up with where we are in the campaign. This Sunday will mark our 19th session of the campaign, in which the second group of PCs will presumably continue some exploration of Sentinel Hill. I'm not sure how many more sessions they'll want to poke around that locale, but once they're done, I plan to have them meet the main party returning from the Mist Marsh. Then the whole crew will likely head for Greyhawk, at which point I'll give players some freedom to mix and match characters from the two parties, so they have two PCs to choose from (sort of like the character tree concept from the Dark Sun setting- 2nd edition). They can then continue their investigations of the Age of Worms as they see fit, which may or may not result in them completing Hall of Harsh reflections, but should assuredly lead them to the Champions Games not too far down the road.
I'm going to miss the daily updates. Reading your post session analysis is interesting. Looking forward to the Champion Games......
Session #19. Sentinel Hill
Characters Present:
Dior (Halfling, Bard 6)
Maggie (Tiefling, Witch 6)
Boften (Dwarf, Ranger 6)
Torgam (Dwarf, Cleric 6)
Kyrus (Half Elf, Magus 6)
After resting the night at the top of Sentinel Hill, the PCs venture back down the hill and decide to explore the cave at the back of the hill, which Boften had previously scouted and found an ettin and its troll lover living inside. As they approach, they spot the troll returning from a night of hunting, dragging a dead deer behind it. Maggie attempts to trap the creature with a web spell that she casts on the mouth of the cave, but the troll is able to force through the webbing, much of it clinging to him. With the element of surprise gone, the adventures rush the cave where they find the troll and ettin waiting. Boften and Kyrus take up the front line and engage the pair in melee while Torgan, Maggie and Dior provide support from behind. Boften hacks deep into the troll with his axes, and he uses his dwarven giant fighting training to avoid most of the angry troll’s attacks. One lucky claw swipe leaves a deep gash across his shoulder and neck, however, reminding him trolls aren’t to be underestimated (critical hit- 22 damage). At the same time, the ettin targets Kyrus with its great clubs, but thanks to his shield and mage armor spells, it only lands a single blow, despite several unrelenting attempts to smash him to a pulp. A fireball from Maggie, combined with well-placed sling stones from Dior, melee attacks from Kyrus and Boften, and a spiritual weapon from Torgan, all combine to make short work of the two giants, and when the fight ends only Kyrus and Boften have suffered any injuries.
After some healing is doled out and the cave looted of some coin the two giants had amassed, the heroes follow a tunnel at the back of the lair deeper into the hill. They soon come to a spot where the tunnel gets very narrow and would require some difficult squeezing for the most of the party to get through. At this point, Dior, the halfing, volunteers to scout ahead. Using the dim light provided by various phosphorescent fungi, Dior navigates his way through tunnel and cavern. Soon he comes to a chasm. It is about 30’ across, and on the other side the tunnel continues. Dior turns back, and he returns to report to his companions. They consider proceeding, but first they send him to scout another tunnel that they had previously noticed in the Ettin’s lair. This particular tunnel is more like a chute. They give him a rope, and he starts to scurry down. The chute cork-screws its way steeply down, and Dior’s rope ends before the chute does. Using his Ioun stone light, Dior notes that the chute seems to open up into a cave not too far from where his rope has ended, so he climbs the rest of the way down. He discovers that the chute opens up about 15’ above a pool of water that occupies the majority of a cave that is about 60’ across. More phosphorescent fungus grows on the cave’s walls, and strange little cave crabs scuttle about. Weird, glowing jellyfish float on the surface of the pool, making for a rather alien looking place that Dior decides he has no wish to further investigate on his own. He climbs his way back up the chute and rejoins his companions in the former ettin den. There they discuss their options and decide that they will head for the chasm and see if they can cross it.
None of the PCs have any flight magic, and none of them feel like they can jump a 30’ chasm, so they decide that they will attempt to throw Dior across. They tie a rope to Dior, and Torgam casts an enlarge spell on himself. The dwarf cleric then does a spinning hammer toss with Dior, sending him hurtling through the darkness across the rift. The throw isn’t quite far enough, and as the halfling realizes he isn’t going to make it, he reaches out with his sling staff. He gets lucky and manages to catch it between two rocks on the far side, allowing him to safely pull himself up onto the ledge. He then spikes the rope in with a piton, while Torgam does the same thing on his side. With the rope strung taught across the chasm, the heroes start making their way across one by one. All of them manage the climb, some with more grace and ease than others.
After crossing the cavern they continue following the tunnel into the heart of the hill. It leads them to a cave that has vents in the floor; spores drift up out of them. There are more vents in the ceiling and the spores float up into those vents. The party considers the possibility that these vents lead up to the top of the hill and are the same ones that the carrion crawlers were lairing in. From down below, they hear the muffled sounds of metal banging against stone coming up through the vents.
Avoiding the spores, they continue deeper into the caves. They soon come to another cave. They discover this one has an opening in it that overlooks the large cavern that the gnolls are using as a common area. This “window is about 10’ wide, and it is about a 15’ drop from it into the gnolls’ common cavern. The PCs take time to do some surveillance and see that there are still approximately 40 gnolls gathered around multiple cooking fires in the great cave. Most of the gnolls look like they are finishing up meals and about to sleep. In addition to the opening looking into the gnoll common area, the PCs also find a narrow, low ceilinged tunnel leading out of the cave. Dior follows it and eventually hears the chittering sounds of what he suspects might be kobolds up ahead. He decides to turn back and report to his allies. There is some discussion about what should be done next. The heroes decide that since their cave seems to be in a fairly safe, low traffic area, they will bide their time and wait. After several hours of sleeping and lethargy, the gnolls start to stir. Hunting parties are formed, and it appears as though many of the gnolls are leaving. The party gives them some time to depart, and with most of the gnolls gone they decide to make a strike on those that are still left.
Boften drops a rope down and starts to climb down into the gnolls’ cave. Unfortunately, his foot kicks loose some rocks as he climbs, alterting a pair of gnolls and a hyena that are camped around a nearby cooking fire. They turn, and with their darkvision easily spot the dwarf ranger climbing down the rope. The gnolls pick up their spears, and along with their pet hyena, they charge towards Boften, cackling in their foul language in an attempt to summon the rest of the pack. The hyena leaps up and takes a chunk out of Boften’s ass, but it fails to pull him off the rope. Boften decides to jump down, and though its only a 10’ drop, he fails to land it well, and he ends up on his back, making him an easier target for the two gnolls, who try to run him through with their spears. Kyrus comes to Boften’s aid; the half elf does a flying leap into the great cave, crashing into one of the gnolls and knocking him to the ground while slashing him with his enchanted scimitar. Dior and Torgam also clamber down into the great cave, while Maggie stays up above in the safety of the smaller cave. She calls upon her magic and summons a dire bat to aid in the coming battle.
The heroes in the great cave promptly find themselves in a major melee, facing off against over a dozen gnolls and several hyenas. The fighting is fierce. Torgam aids his allies with a prayer spell to his battle god. Kyrus is quickly surrounded by
gnolls and hyenas, but he manages to cast a mirror image spell on himself that saves him from a number of wounds, and it combined with his other defensive spells allow him to hold his own against a veritable swarm of enemies. Dior does his best to stick to the outskirts of the battle, using his unique style of dervish dance to unleash deadly barrages of stones from his sling staff. Maggie reigns down magic on her foes, blasting away three gnolls with a lightning bolt, and harming others with a flaming sphere. Boften gets into the thick of things, hacking away at the savage hyena men, but spending much of his time fighting a particularly tough gnoll wielding a great axe. That gnoll possesses more skill and ferocity than his packmates and lands a few grazing blows on the dwarf, leaving him quite bloody by the time he falls.
Part way into the battle, an albino gnoll wielding a shield and wicked flail, accompanied by two gnoll clawfighters, joins the battle. This appears to be their shaman. He casts a spell on Kyrus, trying to force the half elf to hurl his scimitar away, but the magus resists the magic, and he keeps on slashing at the gnolls and hyenas surrounding him. Torgam targets the shaman, first summoning a spiritual weapon to attack him, and then blasting him with a ray of searing light. Dior goes after the albino as well, hammering him with stones from his slingstaff. It’s enough to get the shaman’s attention, and he rushes over to attack the dwarf cleric and halfing. Unfortunately, he is promptly killed before he can make a single attack. With the shaman dead, and the battle field strewn with other dead gnolls and hyenas, those that still live turn and run, leaving the heroes victorious.
Figuring that the gnolls that fled have gone to fetch the hunting parties that had previously left the lair, the adventurers decide that their time is limited. They do a quick search of the great cave, and they find that there are no more gnolls. They do discover a couple of tunnels leading out of the cave, and the back end of this great cavern opens up to the chasm that they had previously crossed- albeit this is a different section. This portion of the chasm has a bridge made from a single log that spans it, and the heroes cross the bridge to investigate tunnels leading back into the heart of the hill that are on the chasm’s far side. Here they find the den of the chief, which they loot after slaying his mates.
They also uncover a tunnel leading down. It takes them to a lower level of the complex, and here they discover a cave that overlooks an enormous cavern dominated by a great subterranean lake. In this cave they find three large cages constructed of wood that has been lashed together; in the cages are seven malnourished human captives. They free the captives and provide them with healing and water. One of the prisoners is Merris Sandovar, the garrison’s sole remaining scout. The others are villagers from nearby Bostwick. Sandovar explains to the heroes that there had been more prisoners, but the gnoll shaman and a kobold shaman sacrificed them on a strange altar by the shore of the lake. An altar flanked by pillars and inscribed with glowing spidery runes that can clearly be seen from the where the cages have been positioned, thus forcing the prisoners to watch their fellows die. Sandovar explains that after the sacrifices have been made, their blood is used to fill buckets, which are carted off by kobolds for some unknown purpose. The bodies are then left by the shore of the lake, where strange fishmen emerge from the water and drag them into the water. All of this is overseen by some sort of aquatic dragon that dwells in the lake.
The heroes are curious about what the gnolls and kobolds are up to, but they decide that it is not the time to investigate further. As quickly as possible, they lead the prisoners out of the caves and retreat back to Diamond Lake.
Session #19, interlude
The heroes spend some time back in Diamond Lake recovering from their exploits beneath Sentinel Hill, reporting back to Captain Trask, conferring with Allustan, bolstering morale in nearby Bostwick etc… Eventually, Solomon and company return from the Mist Marsh with their own reports. At this point, Captain Trask invites all the heroes for a feast at the Spinning Giant to thank them for the help they've provided to the beleaguered garrison and the region. During this feast both of the parties have a chance to mingle and get to know one another, and of course they discover that they are all tied together through their connection to Eliagos.
Although the feast is one of celebration, Captain Trask finds an opportunity to have a more serious and private conversation with the PCs:
"I received a letter this morning from Greyhawk. It states that some sort of terrible plague of undead has be wreaking havoc in the city. Packs of ghouls and worm infested zombies have been emerging from the sewers each night and preying on the citizens. Because of their infectious nature, many of their victims have risen as undead, growing their numbers even more. The letter says that curfew is being strongly enforced, folk are fleeing to the countryside, and the city guard and Nightswatch have been spending their nights fighting the undead, including sending men into the sewers to destroy the horrors. It sounds bad.
In the letter I also received orders that I'm to temporarily abandon Diamond Lake and bring my men back to Greyhawk. I plan to tell the boys tomorrow, and we'll head for Greyhawk the next day. If you wish to stay here and continue your forays into Sentinel Hill, you are more than welcome, but unfortunately the militia won't be around to offer you any support. Once we leave I have a feeling that the mine managers will seize the opportunity to settle some scores, so this town could fall into chaos pretty quick. You may or may not want to be around when that happens. I'm sure Greyhawk would be grateful for your help, and you certainly don't owe this s!## hole anything; you've already given the folks here more of yourselves than they deserve. It's not my place to push you down one path or the other. I'll only say that I'm grateful for what you've done, and may the gods be with you."
GMs Notes for Session #19:
This session went well enough. The PCs got some good exploration done, made some interesting choices, killed some monsters- there wasn’t much in the way of rp, but it was a good hack and slash dungeon crawl session. Unfortunately, I wasn’t rolling particularly well. I had been hoping to make some magus paste with my ettin- I got in 2-3 rounds of full attacks on him, but despite having 4 attacks each of those rounds, the ettin only managed to connect with 1 hit- Boo!
The gnoll fight was a little on the easy side as well, though the PCs were smart and waited for most of them to leave, so they didn’t have to worry about taking on more than about 15 or so (along with some hyenas). All the gnolls had at least a level or two of warrior to give them a bit of a boost, but they just didn’t have a high enough attack bonus to land many hits, even with flanking bonuses. This is a typical “problem” with Pathfinder- even in great numbers low-level monsters eventually become a complete non-threat against PCs several levels higher than them due to the gap between bonus to hit and ACs (as well as other defensive abilities the PCs might have). 4E addressed this problem by making it easy to scale minions and such up with characters. It looks like D&D next is attempting to deal with this by flattening the math, so ACs and to hit bonuses won’t escalate the way they do in Pathfinder. I think the max BaB in the current playtest is +5. I’m interested to see how that works out in play.
As of next Session party #1 will rendezvous with party #2 in Diamond Lake, and the players will decide how they want to proceed. There is talk of returning to Sentinel Hill, but they may end up heading for Greyhawk, given the undead problem that seems have arisen there.
Nets don't care about AC, let alone some other things ;-).
Besides, it's good to let the players be absolute monsters. Especially in AoW these moments are all too fleeting...
Session #20, Part #1, Back in Greyhawk
Characters Present:
Kyrus (half elf, magus 6)
Mort (orc, sorcerer/barbarian/dragon disciple 6)
Solomon (human, inquisitor 6)
Torgam (dwarf, cleric 6)
Dior (halfing, bard 6)
Wraith (elf, fighter 6)
Maggie (tiefling, witch 6)
Boften & Miffy (dwarf, ranger 6)
Parvis Wyrmsbane (human, fighter 6)
After several days of travel from Diamond Lake a motley crew of adventurers consisting of: Kyrus, Mort, Solomon, Maggies, Boften, Torgan, Wraith, Dior and Seeros arrives in Greyhawk to report back to Eliagos regarding their recent exploits in Diamond Lake and the Mist Marsh.
As they had previously learned in Diamond Lake, not all is well in Greyhawk. There is no line of traffic waiting to enter the gates. Instead, numerous folk are fleeing the city, carrying what belongings they can. The streets are much quieter than usual, the merchants and hawkers are nowhere to be seen; folk are nervous and go quickly about their business with no laughter or idle chat; shops are closed and boarded up, and the Inns and taverns are much less busy than usual. All this is a result of a plague of undead that has been terrorizing the city at night.
When they get to Eliagos’ manor they are greeted by Pollard, Eliagos’ elven butler. Kyrus, being Eliagos’ bastard son, does the talking, and Pollard shows them to the study. They learn that Eliagos has slipped back into some of his old ways. He is drinking and gambling once again, and he has been losing great sums of money. Several paintings are missing from the walls, which Pollard explains Eliagos sold off to fund his gambling addiction. One of the paintings was even a fine portrait of Kyrus that was done just after he graduated from the Graymalkin Academy.
Waiting in the study is another man, who Pollard introduces as Parvis Wyrmsbane. The butler explains that Eliagos has a long-standing relationship with Parvis’ father, and he recently borrowed money from him to fund his gambling. Parvis is Lord Wyrmbane’s son, a stupid, ill-mannered lout, sent to collect some of the money that Eliagos now owes the family. Pollard looks at him with disdain as the noble drinks Eliagos’ best wine with his dirty boot propped up on a table.
There is some discussion about what to do. Pollard suggests that they wait for Eliagos to return, but Kyrus is worried he will be too drunk to be of much use to them when he gets back, so the half elf decides he wants to go find him. Pollard informs Kyrus that he is at the Golden Wheel Gambling Hall, an upper class establishment owned by Lord Mayor Gasgul himself. Kyrus, Mort, Parvis and Torgam head for the Golden Wheel after Pollard cleans them up with prestidigitation spells. At the same time, Solomon sets out for the temple of Saint Cuthbert to check in with his superiors. The rest of the party remains behind at Eliagos’ home.
At the Golden Wheel they confront Eliagos. He is in the midst of a dice game with a pair of courtesans hanging off him and a goblet of wine in hand. Despite the undead plague, it seems as though many of Greyhawk’s upper class are still finding time to drink and gamble- perhaps this is their way of coping with the horrors they are facing. Kyrus speaks with his father, who has no interest in coming home. Eliagos tells the heroes that they should come by the next afternoon and that he will meet with them then. This isn’t good enough for his son, nor is it good enough for Parvis who wants to collect money that Eliagos owes the Wyrmsbane family before he gambles it all away. Kyrus pays the floor manager to have Eliagos removed, and they escort him and one of his ladies home. Eliagos refuses to converse and seems annoyed about being kicked out of the Golden Wheel. He heads straight for his chambers with his lady friend. Pollard offers Kyrus and Parvis rooms, and gives the rest of the heroes a spot on the floor to sleep the night.
Late the next morning, Eliagos emerges. He is sober and apologetic for his behavior the night before. He listens intently, as the heroes share the stories of their recent exploits. Solomon, Seeros and Mort fill him in on the dragon Ilthane, and the trouble she has caused in the Mist Marsh, as well as her ties to Dragotha. Dior, Kyrus and Torgam recount their exploits beneath Sentinel Hill. Maggie, Wraith and Boften are all quite quiet during these interactions.
For his part, Eliagos tells Mort that he has done some research and thinks he has a lead to help Mort find his clan, though he suggests to Mort that his kin will likely have no interest in taking him in and will probably try to kill him if he seeks them out. At any rate, Eliagos has learned from a ranger knight of the Gnarely forest, named Nestor the Stout, that there is rumored to be an orc tribe living in the forest that has ties to a green dragon. Eliagos suspects this might be Mort’s clan, given Mort’s draconic bloodline. He tells Mort that rangers of the Gnarely Forest usually stay at the Whistling Fish in the River Quarter when they pass through Greyhawk. He suggests seeking Nestor out there, though he figures the ranger will have moved on by now, in which case Mort may find him at Camp Greenleaf in the Gnarley Forest.
Mort immediately sets out in search of the Whistling Fish and Nestor the Stout. Unfortunately, Nestor is no longer there.
Eliagos has done some research regarding the nature of the scrolls that the Mind Flayer is attempting to acquire for the unknown individual in Greyhawk who has ties to the Cult of the Ebon Triad. He has narrowed it down to three likely possibilities, which he shares with the adventurers:
Scrolls of Vecna: contain many secrets, and are thought to be penned by Vecna before the lich’s ascension to divinity, but in particular are known to contain the ritual required to make the transformation into a lich. They are also believed to contain Vecna’s research on divine ascension. The location of these scrolls is unknown.
Necro Scrolls: Are a series of scrolls written by the Elkennor the famed, and long thought dead, dread Suel Necromancer. It is said that they contain extensive information on various undead, as well as details on the creation of powerful undead and secret means by which to extends one’s life, through draining the life force of others. These scrolls were thought to have been in the possession of Yagrene and be somewhere in the ruins of Castle Greyhawk.
Apostic Scrolls: Are said to be penned by Kyuss himself, and detail the rituals needed to create a horrific bread of gargantuan, undead, worm like creature called the Ulgurstasta. It is said that the Ulgurstasta are capable of consuming the living whole and regurgitating them as undead. The current location of these scrolls is unknown.
Eliagos thinks that any of these scrolls would be very dangerous in the hands of madmen like the Ebon Triad cultists. He inquires as to how their investigations on this front have gone. Solomon tells Eliagos about the deaths of Potts, Stinky and Wolf, as well as the presence of doppelgangers working for the mind flayer. Eliagos grows grim, and he explains that there have long been rumors of a secret society of doppelgangers infiltrating the upper echelons of the city, from nobles to guild masters to religious figures. He eyes Pollard suspiciously as the elf enters the study with a platter of bread and cheese. Eliagos encourages them to do more to find the mind flayer, but the heroes seem discouraged by their lack of fresh leads in the search.
As mentioned previously, while Kyrus and his companions are off rounding up Eliagos from the Golden Wheel, Solomon heads for the Temple of Saint Cuthbert. He finds the temple packed with worshippers, even though no service is taking place. They have come to seek refuge form the undead threat and to pray. Acolytes scurry about tending to the flock, ignoring the inquisitor when they would normally give him their full attention. Solomon eventually makes contact with High Shepard Tomas Dunhill and they meet in Dunhill’s private chambers. Solomon shares what he has learned in his adventures, explaining his thoughts on the reason for the undead infestation. Dunhill explains to Solomon that the outbreak began in the Old quarter and is worst there. He also tells him that members of the Guild of Nightwatchmen have reported that ghouls have been heard chattering about a being called the Bloated King. Dunhill has tried to do some research on this name, but has not turned anything up.
While talking to Dunhill, Solomon learns of another issue. Dunhill tells him of a church in a small village called Dominic’s Crossing, which is in the Wild Coast lands to the south, near the town of Safeton. This church has for decades held a holy relic- a mace nicknamed “Sense Knocker,” that Dunhill explains is one of several lesser versions of the “Mace of Saint Cuthbert,” which is known as the faith’s most sacred artifact. Dunhill recently received a letter from an acolyte of the church that indicated the village had been raided by orcs from the Pomarj. The High Shepard, one Marco Evenmore, stayed behind with some of the village men to fight the orcs and buy time for the villagers to escape. Now both High Shepard Evenmore and “Sense Knocker” are missing. It is assumed that Evenmore is either dead or in orc hands, along with the relic. Dunhill wants to see Sense Knocker recovered and brought to Greyhawk where he is certain that the relic will be of use in dealing with the rising tide of undead activity that seems to be sweeping the region. He urges Solomon to take on this holy quest, and the inquisitor vows to see it done.
Discussions ensue about what to do next. It is decided that Solomon, Kyrus, Mort, Parvis and Maggie will head to Safeton to seek recover Sense Knocker. Torgam, Boften, Wraith, Dior, and Seeros stay behind in Greyhawk to help deal with the undead plague.
Session #20, Part #2, Quest for Sense Knocker
Characters Present:
Solomon Thrush (human, inquisitor of Saint Cuthbert, 6)
Mort (orc, barbarian/sorcerer/dragon disciple 6)
Parvis Wyrmsbane (human, fighter 6)
Kyrus (half elf, magus 6)
Maggie (tiefling, witch 6)
Solomon, Kyrus, Mort, Parvis and Maggie make arrangements to travel south to Safeton with a flotilla of Rhenee barge folk. They spend several days travelling down the Selantin river. One of their first stops is Wyrmbane manor where drops off the money he collected from Eliagos.
Baron Wyrmbane proves to be hospitable enough- at least to the adventurers, less so to the Rhenee barge folk, who have a reputation for thievery. That evening a feast is held, and the baron regales the heroes with tales of his days “adventuring” in the lands north of the Nyr Dyv. He brags about slaying a mighty red dragon back in his youth, and he points them to a great, empty wooden plaque above the hearth. The baron claims it once had the dragon’s head mounted on it, but the head was stolen back when Parvis was baby by barge folk. He does, however, have a finely carved wooden chest with a bone inside that he claims was part of the dragon’s forearm. Parvis has long admired this dragon bone. For years it has been a source of inspiration to him, and he would place it before him when saying his prayers, convinced that it could give him strength and courage. Solomon thinks that it looks suspiciously like a cow’s femur
That night Solomon and Kyrus are given guest chambers, but Maggie and Mort are forced to sleep on the floor by the hearth in the common room. The next morning Lord Wyrmsbane insists on having his son demonstrate his fighting prowess for his new “friends”. Five household guards are gathered in the manor’s courtyard to face off against Parvis. They are all given wooden practice swords and sparring ensues.
Despite being an ignorant lout, Parvis proves to be a more than capable fighter, and he handles the men with ease, all the while being encouraged by cheers from his overly proud father. After the demonstration ends, the heroes set out to rejoin the flotilla before it leaves without them. The say their farewells to Parvis, pleased to part company with the annoying noble. However, before they can be rid of him, Baron Wyrmsbane insists that Parvis bring honor to his family name by assisting in the noble quest to recover Sense Knocker. There is much groaning among the party members, particularly from Kyrus who seems to find the man’s mannerisms more offensive than most.
Several days later the flotilla reaches the mouth of Selantin River where it flows into the Wooly Bay. Here sits the bustling town of Hardby. It is near the end of Readyreat (November) by the time they arrive, and there is chill in the air. They spend a few days in the town provisioning for the last leg of their trip and arranging passage aboard a merchant caravel bound for Safeton.
It is a cold, windy day when they set out onto the Wooly Bay aboard the caravel called “The Sea Ghost.” Trouble arises on the second day of the voyage when the lookout spots a pair of wyverns, which emerge from the cover of the clouds and dive towards the deck of the ship. The captain orders the sailors below deck, except for a few who load crossbows. The adventurers (except for Maggie) stay above deck as well, ready to fulfill their contract by helping to defend the Sea Ghost. The wyverns are far enough away that they have time to ready bows and get off a couple of arrows each. Unfortunately, most of the arrows either miss entirely or deflect off the beasts’ scaly hides. Solomon manages to summon a spiritual mace to appear in front of one. The ghostly mace flies along with the wyvern, smashing at it and causing it much pain. The two beasts swoop in at the heroes. One of them goes for Kyrus, attempting to grab him up with its talons. It is distracted by Solomon’s spiritual mace, and at the last second, the half elf calls upon his mystical training to throw up a quick, arcane shield; the monster’s claws miss, and it continues to fly on past. The second wyvern is more successful, grabbing Solomon off the deck of the ship flying away with him.
As the second wyvern flies away with Solomon, it stings at him with its poisonous tail and continues to dig its talons into him. Parvis, Kyrus and the sailors fire their bows at the wyverns, while Mort readies his great axe for when one of the creatures does another pass by. A couple of the arrows connect with the beast trying to carry off Solomon, but none of the shots cause the creature to drop him. The first wyvern is quite wounded, but it seems determined to return to its nest with food. It swoops down at Kyrus once more. This time Mort is ready for it; the orc charges. Just as the creature’s talon scrapes off of Kyrus’s shoulder, he cleaves the beast with his axe. The blow stops it from grabbing hold of Kyrus, and causes the beast to glance off a mast and catch a wing in the rigging. It lands hard on the ship’s deck, and the vessel to lists hard for an instant. The wyvern scrambles to its feet on the slippery deck, and snaps at Mort. The orc takes another brutal swing with his axe, and this blow cuts deep into the creature’s neck, slaying the hungry predator.
Parvis continues to fire volleys of arrows at the wyvern carrying Solomon away, but by this time Solomon has poison coursing through him, and is barely alive. One of the arrows hits the wyvern in the leg, making its talons open. The inquisitor plummets to the sea far below where it swallows him up. The wounded wyvern flies off; its meal lost to the depths.
A rowboat is deployed, and the adventurers search for their companion, but it is a futile search; Solomon is gone. There is much sorrow at the loss of Solomon, for it feels as though he was taken before his holy quest could really begin. The remaining heroes decide they will attempt to finish the quest in his honor.
A day later, the Sea Ghost arrives in Safeton’s port. The town is a dismal, mucky place, surrounded by a wooden palisade that is in the midst of being replaced with a stone wall. Here they are informed by the town watch that orcs are not welcome. Mort finds himself being jeered by the townsfolk, and they hurl rotten fruit at him as he and his companions make their way towards the church of Saint Cuthbert. A few of the locales are even gutsy enough to throw a rock or two at the orc, and an angry mob begins to form behind the party. To his credit, Mort does not respond with hostility. In fact, it is unclear if he even realizes the folk hate him. He waves, gives a toothy grin and thanks them for the food. However, Parvis has limited patience for peasant rabble, and after a rock rebounds off his armor, he picks it up out of the muck and hurls it back at the mob, calling them “dirty peasants.” This incites the mob even more, and they look like they are about to attack. Fortunately, by this time the heroes have reached the church of Saint Cuthbert. A recently arrived inquisitor by the name of Lief Jarvison, emerges from church to see what the commotion is about, and once he figures out what is going on, he hastily urges the adventurers inside, bolting the doors behind them.
The church of Saint Cuthbert, is a modest one, and one that has fallen into disrepair. Inside they are greeted by brother Bertramb and an old, blind priest named High Shepard Lucas. The PCs explain that they have come to help recover Sense Knocker. Brother Bertramb is most pleased that his request for aid has not fallen on deaf ears. He immediately offers to escort the heroes to the village of Domonic’s Crossing where the weapon was lost so that they can begin their search. In fact, he suggests that they set out as soon as possible, given the shouts from the angry mob outside demanding that Mort be handed over to them for execution.
Bertramb offers Mort a cloak with a hood on it to help hide his “orcness”, and they use a trap door in the floor to access a secret tunnel that leads them to a nearby alley. They then make their way out of Safeton as discreetly as possible.
GMs Notes for Session #20:
So this session was a bit different. I knew the characters were going to go back to Greyhawk, but beyond them reporting in to Eliagos, I wasn’t really sure what they’d get up to. In addition, one of the players decided to bring in a new character at the last minute- Parvis. Consequently, there was a lot of improvising and flying by the seat of my pants. I had thought they would spend some time trying to deal with the undead wreaking havoc on the town before heading off to Safeton or maybe even continue their attempts to track down the illithid- I guess trudging around in the sewers wasn’t sounding appealing to them, and since they didn’t have any new leads on the mind flayer, they weren’t feeling much like making the effort to find it. So off they went to Safeton, which I hadn’t really got around to doing any prep for.
It's starting to look more and more like we will be skipping Hall of Harsh Reflections, and moving onto the Champion's Games in the not so distant future. No worries there though, they already have the key information they would have gleaned from HoHR, so running it really isn't essential to the campaign.
I threw in the random encounter with the wvyerns to spice things up a bit, since there had been no combat in the session. Unfortunately for them, it proved a little nastier than I had anticipated, and poor Solomon was killed. Thus, the PC who the quest was centering around died in a random encounter before the quest could really even get started- not my finest dming. As a result, I can’t really blame his player for basically changing the name and bringing in a clone of the character to replace him. Oh well, these are the risks you run when you are an adventurer.
Guess they better hope that Solomon's corpse doesn't become undead ...
^ There's a thought.
Unfortunately, we aren't gaming this weekend. We should be on for next weekend though.
Here's a recent journal from Mort:
We have Great News Today Bahamut!!
Mort come back to Greyhawk and Magic Sword Man tell Mort he might have found his clan! He tell Mort where to find a dwarf who can tell Mort where his clan is. He also ask Mort what he will do when he find his clan. He think that Mort’s clan will not welcome Mort back with open arms. Mort do not see why Clan not welcome Mort back with open arms…everyone loves Mort.
Magic Sword Man kept talking about something but Mort rushed off before he forgot information. Unfortunately dwarf not at bar when Mort arrive. When me get back, me get Solomon to write down all stuff that Mort learn on paper and me keep paper. Solomon is so nice; me hope we best friends forever.
Mort and friends leave tomorrow to get magic mace for BossyMan. Me told there are lots of Orcs there. Maybe they know where Clan is, and Mort will finally be able to go home. Me can’t wait.
We meet a new friend who will be joining us. A noble fighter who tell great stories. It going to be good trip.
Good Night, Bahamut; Love your best friend Mort.
***
Hey Bahamut, it’s me Mort.
Today very sad day because Mort lose a good friend. We take ship to get to place where Mace is and while on ship we attacked by giant chickens. Chickens carry Solomon away and there nothing Mort could do to stop them. Luckily Mort was able to kill other chicken before he carry away another of Mort’s friends.
Friends kill other Chicken but Solomon fall into water and he disappear. We look but we don’t find him. Now he gone and Solomon one of few friends who try to watch out for Mort. We all very sad and decide to find Mace for Solomon.
When we arrive at village Mort become center of attention. People cheer for Mort and throw food at him. Mort thinking that was nice until me realize that it not cheering. Me remember that other Orcs not nice like me. Mort think that squishy people acting very stupid. If me real Orc me could crush them easily; but since they not hurt Mort or friends me not try. Mort show people that me am good and Orcs can be good.
People throw rocks at Mort’s friends and new NobleFighterFriend get mad at people. He yell at them. They get madder at him then they get at Mort. Mort think new friend is good friend. It get even better when we invited in temple away from angry people. Mort’s new friend defend Mort to soldiers who only know bad orcs and don’t know Mort.
Mort think new friend is a keeper. At temple we meet another Solomon. NewSolomon not like Mort at all. That ok. Me used to that. Me think that NewSolomon will learn to love Mort just as everyone does.
We going to meet up with Orcs now. Mort can’t wait. Mort knows though that Orcs only listen to those that are strong. Bahamut, King of Dragons, has made Mort strong. Me cannot wait to show Orcs just how strong Mort has become. Mort hope that he find his clan and clan welcome Mort back and Mort can share you Bahamut with other Orcs and Orcs will become strong and good like Mort.
It gonna be great.
G’night Bahamut!
Session #21, Part #1- Exploration of Domonic's Crossing
Characters Present:
Kyrus (half elf, magus 6)
Mort (orc, sorcerer/barbarian/dragon disciple 6)
Lief (human, inquisitor 6)
Maggie (tiefling, witch 6)
Austin (human, fighter 4/barbarian 1/alchemist 1)
Parvis Wyrmsbane (human, fighter 6)
In this session we continue with more homebrew adventure:
As the characters leave Safeton to head for the razed village of Dominic’s Crossing to begin their search for Sense Knocker, they are joined by an old friend of Bertramb’s, a half drunken lout of a warrior named Austin.
They make the 5 mile trek inland without incident and arrive in the vicinity of Domonic’s Crossing at nightfall. They camp the night among a copse of trees overlooking the vale that shelters the ruined village. The next morning they make the journey down into the vale to explore what’s left of Domonic’s Crossing. The thought of looking upon the carnage of his former home is too much for Brother Bertramb, so he decides to stay behind. Parvis offers to stay with him, as his bodyguard. Thus it is Mort, Lief, Maggie, Kyrus and Austin that venture into the village.
It has been two months since the village was destroyed, and as they explore the place, they find that it has been thoroughly razed by the orcs. Here and there is the odd orc corpse that has been well picked over by carrion birds, but anything of value has been taken. They do find several broken shields that have an image of a skull on them that has been partially cleaved open. Lief knows them to be the markings of one of the local orc tribes, but he knows little beyond that. Mort is certain that they are not his clan.
In the center of the village they discover a manor house and out buildings surrounded by a low stonewall. All the structures have suffered from extensive fire damage. In the courtyard they spot a band of humanoids that are up no good. A pile of corpses has been assembled in the courtyard, and an unkempt human woman with wild hair is in the midst of animating them as zombies. Four hobgoblins, one of which is armed with a longbow, a bugbear with a great axe, and a hulking man wearing a battered breast plate and wielding a maul, all stand nearby watching.
As soon as Lief sees this, he rushes forward bearing his mace, condemning their actions in the name of Saint Cuthbert. His allies are right behind him, and battle ensues. He summons a spiritual mace to attack the witch, while Mort and Kyrus cast defensive spells on themselves. Maggie lays down a fire ball that destroys the zombies and causes great injury to the hobgoblins, as well as the bugbear and maul wielding human. The witch retaliates by casting an Evard’s black tentacles spell. The black, rubbery tentacles burst from the ground and grapple at the heroes. Only Lief manages not to fight them off. The rest of party is caught in them, and takes damage as they start to crush the heroes.
Austin, being an angry fellow with prodigious strength, manages to fight his way free of the tentacles, and he charges through them, swatting them away with his great axe. He escapes the zone they occupy, and moves up to engage the goblinoids. They promptly surround him, and he finds himself on his own, outnumbered about five to one. His armor does well at protecting him, but he takes some wounds. Luckily, Kyruss is also able to escape the tentacles, and comes to his aid, as does Lief. Mort is not so fortunate, and finds himself thoroughly entangled. Maggie, being a woman with little physical strength, is also unable to free herself and continues to suffer under their crushing grasp. Finding it difficult to cast spells, while grappled, she turns to her hexes to provide aid to the party.
Things take a turn for the worse when a displacer beast emerges from the wreckage of the stables and begins thrashing at Austin with its barbed tentacles. It isn’t long before Austin is horribly injured. Fortunately, Mort manages to get free of the magical tentacles, and he and Lief does their best to aid the battered warrior against the displacer beast, while he furiously cleaves down the hobgoblins.
Kyrus goes after the witch, who tries fly up into the air to escape the magus. Lief’s spiritual mace consistently batters away at her, and even flying up in the air doesn’t allow her to escape it. She manages to heal herself from some of her wounds with a potion, but she is still badly injured, allowing Kyruss to bring her down with a magic missile barrage.
Maggie is forced to use some of her own magic to heal herself from the crushing tentacles, but she still finds time to put a misfortune hex on the displacer beast, which is probably the only thing that saves Austin from being torn to shreds by it. It isn’t long before Mort and Austin have finished off the humanoids, and they along with Lief can focus all their energy on bringing down the displacer beast. The heroes soon come out victorious, their enemies slain. The tentacles spell comes to an end, releasing a badly wounded Maggie. Austin and her seem the most injured, and magical healing is soon administered.
After taking a short rest and spending time healing, they spend a couple of more hours exploring the ruined village. However, they turn up nothing of real value. They do recover a ring of feather falling and an amulet of natural armour from the witch, as well as a cloak of resistance from the male warrior and a few potions.
So we will get back to the actual AP sometime. I have a feeling Champions Game will be the next AP adventure, and I'd like to make sure I get the party to at least 8th level first. Thus, they will likely be involved in home brew material until then. Since I'm using the medium xp track, I'm finding that more side treks are required, but I'm fine with taking my time with this campaign and enjoying the mid level game play. I will probably speed up the advancement once with get into the second half of the AP and move into the high level play because I'm not really interested in drawing out that portion of the campaign.
Session #21, Part #2
The heroes set out back to Safeton bearing a battered orc shield, hoping that there they will be able to learn more about the orc tribe that has taken the relic “Sense Knocker.” During the return journey they run afoul with another band of goblinoids. This group consists of hobgoblin and bugbear slavers that are escorting a group of human captives to the orc lands to the south. The adventurers find the group stopped in a glade where they are resting and refilling water skins by a pool. Another combat ensues, as the heroes attempt to rescue the captives. Although the goblinoids have the heroes outnumbered and are reasonably competent warriors, they prove no match for the seasoned adventurers. The party soon emerges victorious, rescuing the captives and slaughtering their enemies. They keep one of the hobgoblins alive for interrogation, and from him they learn that the slavers were taking the captives to an orc held town called Cantona. The hobgoblin recognizes the symbol on the orc shield and claims that it belongs to a tribe called the Skull Cleavers.
Back in Safeton, the heroes rest in the temple of Saint Cuthbert. There, High Shepard Lucas proudly shows off a fine wooden reliquary box that he recently had commissioned from a local artisan. He plans to store Sense Knocker in it once the relic is returned. However, whether the PCs acquire the mace, and whether they give it to him is still very much uncertain.
The next day Mort and Austin go drinking in the marine quarter. As an orc in a town that is well known for its hatred of orcs, Mort does not receive a warm reception. However, after spending hundreds of gold on buying drinks for the locals and knocking a few heads together, the stupid but ineffably friendly orc begins to win them over.
Meanwhile, the rest of party pays a visit to the Marine Keep where they garner an audience with Turin Deathstalker, but they are first forced to speak with his battle mage Ferion, who, like Kyruss, is a graduate of the Graymalkin Academy. It turns out Ferion was a classmate of Eliagos’ and is aware of the indiscretion Eliagos had with his elven teacher and resulted in Kyruss being born. Ferion takes a few verbal jabs at Eliagos, but Kyruss maintains his cool and is not provoked by the man.
Finally, they are escorted to an audience room to speak with Lord Deathstalker. Turin is famed throughout the Greyhawk region, as he is a former Greyhawk director and said to have been head of the assassin’s guild in Greyhawk. He is known for his hatred of orcs, and rumors claim that he frequently ventures solo into the orc lands to single-handedly lay waste to orc warbands. They begin by sharing news of the undead outbreak in Greyhawk and their quest for the stolen relic. They inquire about the Skull Cleaver tribe, and Turin explains that the tribe is the dominant tribe in the nearby orc held town of Cantona. Turin goes on to inform them that the population there has been growing recently as many warbands from the south have arrived, as well as a warband from the Gnarley Forest. Deathstalker suspects that the orcs are preparing for an assault on Safeton. He is planning a preemptive strike before the orc numbers swell to the point where Safeton will surely be overrun. A powerful cleric of Gruumsh arrived in Cantona recently and is believed to be responsible for rallying the bickering orc clans into a unified threat. Turin is currently waiting for a mercenary company to arrive from Harby to aid in the attack. He expects them in the week. He invites the heroes to assist in the raid, as he could use an elite strike force to help him take the gates. They would then be free to do as the please in the town to find the mace, so long as they kill plenty of orcs in the process. The heroes decide this seems like a preferable alternative to trying to infiltrate the town on their own, so they take Turin up on his offer. Before they leave he informs them of one other important detail. Cantona sits within a zone where magic is not predictable. This is thought to be the result of damage caused to the weave by a Suel wizard that made his residence in Cantona long ago. The wizard is long gone, but his former villa and tower remain the dominant architectural features of what would otherwise be a typically fishing settlement.
The adventures spend the next week resting in Safeton awaiting the arrival of the mercenaries from Harby. Mort continues to woe the populace with rounds of drinks, and has some success in this arena, though many folk have seen too many horrors wrought by orcs to be able to stomach his presence.
\o/ cameo!
Sort of... Turin Deathstalker is in fact an official Greyhawk character.
Sort of... Turin Deathstalker is in fact an official Greyhawk character.
O.o ... dinnae know that. Ironic. :)
Turin Deathstalker's been around since at least 2nd edition, as there is a big profile about him and stats for him published in the 1989 "Greyhawk: folks, feuds and factions" hard cover. In that book he's a director of the city and guild master of the assassins guild. In the later 2nd edition "From the Ashes" boxed set he is described as being in charge of Safeton.
The "From the Ashes" boxed set was the product that first really introduced me to the Greyhawk setting (I started playing D&D right around when 2nd edition came out), and I've always really liked that set. I've had it sitting on my shelf for years, but other than a campaign centered around reclaiming Geoff from the giants that I ran about 15 years ago, I never really got a chance to make that much use of it. When I decided I was going to run Age of Worms I figured it would be a good chance to go back to that boxed set and dig out some ideas from the Campaign Book, which focuses on the Greyhawk region.
I'd never focused on Turin Deathstalker's area - my main addiction for Greyhawk was the Greyhawk Wars boxed set released not long before From the Ashes. I LOVED Greyhawk Wars, great stuff in there!