Episode 17: 8/15/09

The Party:
Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger-rogue/2-3
Nineve, human knight/5
Sarek, human wizard/5
Xicar, human cleric/5

*FLASH FORWARD*
The sun rises over the rim of the valley as we finish placing the last stones on Captain Lorring's cairn. The sunlight turns the heavy smoke still drifting across the valley from the ruins of Blackwall Keep gold and crimson in the early light. The few surviving rangers and convicts share a solemn moment of silence over their fallen leader. Edain, his arm in a sling and his face badly burned, turns to us and mentions that someone should say a few words for the Captain.

Skill Challenge! A few kind words
We're on the spot and we hardly knew the guy, but as professionals, these survivors-turned-funeral-attendees are looking to us for peace, comfort, and profound insights on the nature of mortality. Drawing from our deep well of experience in service to the goddess of death, we take turns addressing the group and manage to put in a stirring eulogy for Captain Lorring. Edain offers us the Captain's sword (a +1 Spell Storing longsword), which we graciously accept.

*FLASHBACK TO BLACKWALL KEEP, BEFORE SETTING OUT FOR THE ORC STRONGHOLD*
Xicar finds some time to talk to Captain Lorring and confirms that the dragons do seem to be working with the orcs. The orcs have become much more organized in the last 6 months or so, and Lorring suspects the appearance of the dragons around the same time is related to this change in orc behavior. They discuss some details of Lorring's proposal to strike at the orc leadership while the bulk of their forces regroup.

Sarek finds Black Bart working among the convict teams and pulls him aside. He commends Bart for doing such an excellent job, and rewards him with a necklace of dragon teeth reclaimed from the wyvern cave.

I look around for my dog and realize I haven't seen him in a couple of days. He must be in the woods. After we set out for the orc caves, a few of us notice the elven hound shadowing us from the woods. I leave some food out for him at the edge of our camp that night.

*FLASH FORWARD*
We finish of the half-dragon arcanist and advance to a large chamber, deep in the cave. The chamber is basically empty. It's lit by a large fire, and orc bedrolls and supplies are scattered about. Like the rest of the cave, this chamber reeks of foundry smoke.

The chamber slopes upwards. At the far end, three orcs spot us and the hostilities begin. Suddenly, orcs and goblins pour in from all sides - an ambush! It's a long and grueling fight, but we manage it.

We advance down a passageway that seems to be the source of the smoke. Emerging from a tight corridor filled with choking smoke, we find ourselves in an exceptionally warm chamber...

At the far end of the room, crudely formed iron racks suspend stony black and red ovoid objects over a large, tended fire. Could these be dragon eggs? Suddenly, an incredibly cute red dragon hatchling hops up to us and seduces Nineve into attempting to feed it. Then, it tries to take her face off. Two other hatchlings, as well as two hellhounds are drawn to the commotion and join the fray. Waves of fire wash over the party as we battle fiercely on. Soon, a red dragon wyrmling flies over to join the fight. Swords flash and spells fly as we are locked in a life-and-death struggle with what are essentially dragon TODDLERS. However, they're so evil and dangerous that when the last one finally falls, we're just happy to be alive. We smash all of the dragon eggs - no sense taking any chances.

Moving on, we climb up the crude steps into a large cavern. Fire from huge cauldrons casts dancing shadows on the rough stone walls. Along the edge of the chamber, a large gathering of orcs of all ages and stations look down on us, just watching. We cross the wide, recessed floor of the cavern and can't shake the feeling of being in an arena. At the far end of the room, seated on an iron and bone throne, is the first old orc we've ever seen. At our approach, he gives a nod, and several orcs and ogres jump down and charge us. So much for diplomacy.

An orc battle royal ensues, where groups of orcs and ogres jump in and attack us in waves while the crowd looks grimly on. The last champion to fall is an orc riding a dire boar, and we survive by the slightest margin. Exhausted and battered, we wait in tense silence for another challenger to appear. Suddenly from behind us, we hear one person clapping in slow, grim applause.

We turn to see the old orc, now standing in front of his throne, applauding us. He was obviously once tall and broad shouldered, but his thin frame is now hunched and bent, and long stringy white hair hangs around his face. When he has our attention, he stops clapping and begins to speak:

"Congratulations, pinkskins. You've done what old Kroghut could not." He thumps his chest dramatically, indicating he must be Kroghut. "You've freed my people from the tyrant, and I expect, destroyed the other pinkskins in the bargain. We will fight you no longer. You have bested my champions, and you have surely brought burning doom upon my people. Go now. Your work here is done. My people will not hinder you further. Were I you, I would scurry back to the walls of the pinkskins so that you might die heroically at their sides when their doom comes on fiery wings."

He sits back down with a note of finality, and we are aware that the conversation is over. After a pause, we turn around and leave the cavern the way we came in, watched grimly by the orc crowd, our footsteps echoing loudly off the walls of the silent chamber.

Once free of their oppressive stares, we heal up and discuss our options. We realize we don't really have any. We've accomplished our mission - the orc leadership is definitely broken, and the dragon-orc alliance is almost certainly on the out since we smashed up the hatchery. We decide there's nothing left to do but return to Blackwall Keep, so we head out.

The first half of our journey goes uneventfully, though we're all tense over Kroghut's parting words. No one is in the mood to talk, and we travel for hours on end in silence. I notice the elven hound periodically, watching us from the woods.

As we travel from the orc hold through the deepening shadows of the mountainous foothills, around late afternoon of the second day, a flicker of light from a high distant peak catches our eyes. Far off, the peaks are barely visible on the darkening horizon; mostly screened by the hills and pine forest at the far end of the valley. Suddenly the peak flickers back to view, a brief glow touches it and fades away.

We continue on, trying not to think about what this might mean, when suddenly, a great light appears in the low place in the hills where the orcs make their lair, and the gathering evening clouds turn golden. Faintly, in the distance we hear warning trumpets sounding,and drums booming and echoing along the rocky foothills as the glow fades, then flares again, even brighter than before.

We press on towards the keep. An hour passes. Distantly we can see something; a spark of fire low in the sky rushing towards us and growing ever larger and more bright. Before long, so great is its speed that the fantastic shape of a fiery dragon appears over the tall trees. Soon the roar of the dragon's terrible approach grows loud, and the rocks turn red as fire beneath the awful beating of its wings. Roaring it sweeps over the valley, leaving flaming desolation in its wake. We crouch behind what cover we can find as it flies past us, perhaps 100 yards to our right. Frightened, but with no other options, we continue our desperate march towards the keep.

We're still several hours away from the keep when the valley trembles with the dragon's approach. Things happen quickly as we look on helplessly from the far side of the stony valley.

As the dragon wheels to swoop upon the keep, a hail of dark arrows leap up and nap and rattle on its scales, and their shafts fell back kindled by the dragon's breath, burning and hissing into the swift running stream. At the twanging of the bows and the shrilling of the trumpets the dragon's wrath blazes to its height, til it was blind and mad with rage.

Green and scarlet fire leaps from the dragon's jaws. It circles for a while high in the air above the keep lighting all the valley; the trees shine like copper with leaping shadows of dense black at their feet. Then down it swoops straight through the arrow storm, reckless in rage, taking to heed to turn it s scaly sides towards the foes, seeking only to set the keep ablaze. Fire leaps from thatched roofs and wooden beams, and hard stone flows like wax as it hurtles down and past and round again, breathing gouts of terrible fire. Back swirls the dragon. A sweep of its tail and the tallest tower of the keep crumbles and smashes down. Flames unquenchable spring high into the night. Another swoop and another, walls crumble and towers spring alight and fall, burning. Still, no arrow hinders the dragon or hurts it. Men jump from the walls on every side. Weapons are flung down and the dragon vents its full wrath upon them at its leisure.

At last the dragon circles the blazing keep with a broad sweep of its dreadful wings. It swoops to snatch at a pair of fleeing figures, and then roaring and belching fire, spirals up through the low clouds to vanish into the darkening night sky.

With heavy hearts, we continue onwards to the now destroyed keep. When we finally arrive late at night, the keep and most of the valley is still ablaze. As we arrive, we find a few of the rangers and convicts have actually survived the attack, Vander Anderhoff among them. Vander is with a group of people searching the rubble near the ruins of the wall, evidently for survivors. Another group of 4 or 5 is huddled around a still form near the base of one of the walls.

As we approach this group, we are shocked to see they are gathered around Captain Lorring, who is pinned under a huge piece of stone. He's dying, but still cheerful. He sees us, and insists on knowing if the orcs have been stopped. We tell him their leadership is broken and they've been thoroughly routed. Upon hearing this, he coughs out a "Jolly good show, chaps" - his last words.

The rest of the night is a blur of activity - putting out fires, tending to the dead and dying, and trying to rebuild order in the wake of utter destruction. We learn that Astrid was taken by the dragon in his final dive, and that Black Bard died defending her. Jakardos was killed when his tower fell, his remains were found int he wreckage of the stairwell. Parne and Torkan were killed defending the walls, and Orin, Astrid's brother, died in the subsequent fires. Edain and one other ranger have survived, along with a mere 15 of the convicts.

After the last of the bodies has been buried, the survivors salvage what they can from the wreckage. We find a leg for 31E in the ruins of the observatory tower, along with a large golden scarab. We also scavenge:

a Sepulchral vest
oil of Greater Magic Weapon +2
potion of Greater Magic Fang +3

Talk turns to what to do next. Obviously, we will return to the Ruby Temple in Istivin, but what of the survivors? Vander and the rest of the convicts refuse to return to the city, i.e. prison. Edain proposes they take up residence at the Broken Bow lodge until the Keep is rebuilt, if that ever happens. Until then, they can continue the rangers' work of maintaining the frontier by keeping the orcs, ogres and goblins in the mountains where they belong.

This sounds like a reasonable plan. With things pretty much wrapped up at the ruins of Blackwall Keep, we agree to set out with the survivors for Broken Bow lodge in the morning.

Episode 14: ?/?/09

The Party:

Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger-rogue/2-3

Haroldur, human cleric/5

Nineve Floret, human knight/5

Sarek, human wizard/5
Xikar, human cleric/5

[Note: It's been a long time since we've run this campaign, and a new player has joined the group. Since it's been so long, we just dropped his new character right into the story.]

As we finish exploring the small tomb, we're set upon by more orcs and goblins. Some of these orc leaders are incredibly strong, and this is a really tough and lengthy fight. After the battle, we return to check on our convicts and Astrid. One of the convicts managed to kill an escaping goblin, and they all start complaining about being taken, shackled and unarmed, through goblin-infested forests. Led by a man called Black Bart, they start to raise a ruckus, but we manage to quell the mutinous dogs.

It's now evening, so we camp at the shrine for the night. We spend half of the next day reinterring the exhumed remains and directing the convicts to bury the bodies of the orcs and goblins. Around mid-afternoon, we head in the direction of the hunting lodge.

Before long, we hear the distant sounds of woodcutting. Wary of what me way find in this orc-infested territory, I scout ahead and discover an orc, goblin and ogre logging operation. They appear to be erecting a roadblock on a part of the trail that leads through a gorge. I report back to the group and we prepare to crash their party.

Sarek sneaks up to the top of the gorge and kicks things off with a Fireball. We all scramble up the roadblock (eventually). Tamclar maims the ogre erecting the roadblock, but he eventually escapes, limping off into the woods as we turn our attention to the veritable swarm of orcs that's threatening to overcome us. It's a very tough fight, but at last, the final orc falls.

Victorious, we press on and come to a clearing in the forest. It seems quiet. Too quiet. As we're looking around, we notice blood on the grass. Upon closer inspection, I recognize the tracks of a limping ogre! Buoyed by the prospect of finishing off the wounded ogre, we walk right into a trap - literally! Tamclar steps right into a bear trap.

Suddenly, goblin archers appear in the woods nearby. I work on freeing Tamclar while the others battle the goblin menace. Through the confusion, I hear several orcs and an ogre running through the forest towards our convicts! I shout a warning and Xikar, Nineve and I take off to help. Sarek (who doesn't care about convicts), Haroldur and Tamclar(who don't run very fast) stay behind to finish off the goblins.

While we rescue the convicts, Haroldur steps into another bear trap! Fortunately, Tamclar mightily pries it open and frees the unlucky cleric. We manage to save all but one of the convicts. During the fight, Black Bart helped us out by strangling an orc with his bare hands. After this, I seriously consider lending Bart my longsword, Aernin, Rite of Law, but after much deliberation, and dissenting opinions from the party, I decide against. We bury the bodies of the deceased and set up camp for the night. That evening, we use up the last of the food for the prisoners...

In the morning, we press on to the hunting lodge, hoping to at least find supplies. As we approach the lodge, we hear the steady sound of wood chopping coming from the barn. The path leading up to the lodge is littered with bear traps, and Nineve almost steps in one! We approach cautiously and are set upon by 2 goblin wolf riders and some orcs. We're in a bad spot - all spread out, so this fight is tougher and longer than it needs to be. The wolf riders escape into the woods, but instead of being angry, we're just glad to be rid of them. We've really got our hands full with the orcs.

Suddenly, we notice the chopping noises coming from the barn begin to be punctuated by cries for mercy, and we all have a sick feeling that whoever's in there isn't cutting up firewood. We finish off the last of the orcs and hurry over to the barn.

The area is littered with body parts, strung up or nailed to trees, the building, anything convenient. The outside of the barn is covered in orc graffiti, written in blood. The front of the barn has doors which open out from a second story hayloft. Haroldur decides to use his clockwork wings to try to jump through the doors into the loft. The rest of us quite sensibly elect to go around to the other side of the barn, where the doors are on the ground floor.

We burst onto a grotesque scene. In the corner are crudely constructed cages. Some are empty. One contains a terrified human teenage boy and a man with a dirty, bandaged stump where his left foot should have been. Another contains a strange looking dog, which seems very upset. The interior of the barn is littered with body parts. Bits of several dismembered corpses are everywhere, and I do mean bits - it appears the ogres have been taking their victims' limbs off a few inches at a time. In the center of the barn is a bloody chopping block. A recently-deceased human is tied to it, surrounded by three ogres. One of them holds a bloody cleaver.

Both parties spend a silent moment staring open-mouthed at each other in shock (and for us, revulsion). The sound of Haroldur futilely flinging himself against the closed hayloft doors (again) snaps us out of it, and we wade in. The ogres are brutal, but we fight savagely, enraged and horrified by the gristly things which have happened here.

Sarek throws down a fireball, which drives the ogres into a frenzy. In retaliation, the ogre with the cleaver attempts to hurl it at us, but misses! The cleaver sails from the ogre’s hand and somehow boomerangs directly into his stomach! He promptly starts bleeding to death. We capitalize on this opportunity to finish one of the ogres off quickly. As we’re cutting down the accidental seppuku-ist, Sarek casts Tasha’s Hideous Laughter on one of the remaining ogre threats. What Sarek lacks in cross-cultural understanding he makes up for in obscene gestures, and the ogre collapses to the floor in gales of laughter. I rush in and tickle his kidneys with my swords while the rest of the party deals with the last ogre, who has decided to leave the barn all of a sudden.

As he’s making his exit, he receives some parting shots from Tamclar and Nineve. They’re not enough to take him down, however, and he runs outside the barn… calling for his mammie? Our curiosity piqued, we all peer outside the barn. We look on in horror as “Mammie”, aka the most grotesque, obscene and unnatural creature we have ever seen, erupts from the lodge.

Her thin, stringy hair is pasted to her head and face in sweaty black mats. She is wearing a dirty, ratty red sarong, which, although it must’ve been fashioned from a giant’s bedsheets, is woefully inadequate to cover her enormous bulk. Purple scars and boils mar her dull, blubbery flesh. She looks as if she smells like week-old dead fish. I am suddenly glad that we are upwind.

She begins to loudly berate her son in a voice that is somewhere between a belch and a raspy cackle. Terrified, the wounded ogre starts to run off. Around this time, she notices us. Tamclar very sensibly takes the opportunity to shoot the fleeing ogre in the back with his trusty crossbow, which finishes him off.

She lurches towards us, vomiting zombies in a spray of sticky spittle. Xikar bravely wades in, and casts Bleeding Touch out the foul she-beast. Unfortunately, she takes exception to this assault, and chomps him! As she munches thoughtfully on her bite of cleric flesh, the hapless victim wriggles away and escapes to a safe distance. Sarek Webs the ogre matron just as her zombie minions close in on Haroldur, who has stopped jumping at the hay loft doors and re-joined the action. Haroldur and Sarek handle the zombies while the rest of us shoot at the trapped ogre matron from a distance. She struggles futilely in the Web while we pepper her with arrows. Drawing on her impressive size and strength, she eventually breaks free of the Web, but to no avail. Weakened by her struggle, she finally collapses under our onslaught. Victory is ours!

~Ashe

Episode 13: 3/7/09

The Party:

Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger-rogue/2-3

Haroldur, human cleric/5

Nineve Floret, human knight/5

Sarek, human wizard/5

Zolara interprets our reading:

[insert reading here!]

We've made camp. Sitting around the fire, our conversation drifts to Tamclar's wavering faith. Despite a slight misstep by Nineve, we manage to have a stimulating religious conversation, which gives everyone plenty of food for thought as we head off to bed.

Dawn breaks and we head out, but unfortunately I find it impossible to lead the group through the wilderness effectively while also preventing my party and our convicts from actively killing themselves. I spend all day saying things like, "No! Don't eat that!" and "Wait! That's poison ivy!" and we end up wasting a day wandering through the wilderness. At the end of the day I'm frustrated with our lack of progress, but fortunately I have little time for self-chastising as we spend another evening chatting with Tamclar around the fire. We talk late into the night, and in the end, he announces that he has resolved his issues and decided to stay with the church of Wee Jas. This is great news! Buoyed by our success, the next day I'm feeling very confident in my woodsmanship and we make terrific progress!

Unfortunately, on day three of our journey I am struggling to make headway with our group through the dense forest. We're lost, and we're running low on food. Preoccupied with putting us back on the right track, I neglect to pay attention to the signs of danger around us. Suddenly, we find ourselves at the entrance to a wyvern's cave!

The criminals run from the clearing into the cover of the forest, but our group has been spotted. We get a few shots off at the wyvern, and suddenly it dives at me, attempting to snatch me into the air! I manage to twist out of its grasp at the last second, and it flies past us, just as it's mate emerges from the cave!

Nineve charges the wyvern on the ground, but stumbles and misses. Nineve is taking a beating from the wyvern at the cave entrance, so I charge forward and deliver a telling blow, wounding it gravely. Sarek summons a hellhound, which joins the fray at the cave entrance. Working together, we manage to finish it off.

While Nineve and I are fighting the grounded wyvern, the airborne one continues to menace the rest of the group. Sarek blasts it with a bolt of lightning, but then it swoops down and snatches up Haroldur. The cleric struggles, but the wyvern is making off with him. Out of nowhere, Tamclar shoots the beast down with an expertly-placed crossbow bolt, saving Haroldur and the day! We loot the Wyvern's cave and find:

700 gp
400 sp
Sandals of Sprinting
some valuable cleric's vestments
a jade pendant
a Lesser Crystal of Life-Keeping
a magic Crystal of Glancing Blows
a CLW potion
a scroll of Invisibility (arcane)
a scroll of Remove Paralysis (divine)
Panpipes of Sounding

In all, it turned out to be a profitable excursion. As an added bonus, I finally orient myself and recognize this cave as one marked on our map! I feel like I've gotten us back on track, and as evening starts to fall, I know we're nearing our goal - the hunting lodge, where we will rendez-vous with some of the rangers affiliated with Blackwall Keep. We decide to camp in the shelter of the cave. Near dusk, we hear the baying of hounds and oafish, inhuman laughter mixed with cries for help. It sounds close. We leave the convicts at the cave and investigate the nearby commotion. In a short distance, we come upon another clearing.

Two ogres and their pack of hunting dogs have treed a naked human and are making obscene taunts at him. They don't seem to notice our approach. Sarek pounces on the opportunity and nukes the clearing with a fireball, laughing maniacally. The charred corpse of the naked man falls from the tree. Several of the dogs also go down, and the ogres are singed and angry. Before the rest of us can react, the ogres and their remaining dogs are upon us. We fight valiantly and eventually put them down.

Looking over the bodies, it's clear the naked human died violently in a fire... Puzzlingly, the ogres are clearly not equipped for travel, meaning that they must not be far from their camp. This doesn't make sense, because Blackwall Keep is stated goal to prevent ogres and their ilk from settling this area...

We respectfully bury the human and head back to trail, but I can't shake my growing sense of foreboding. Suddenly, everything in the woods looks suspicious. As we hike along in the gathering dusk, I spot another naked figure sprinting through the woods some distance away. I call out to the person, who cries for help and dashes towards us headlong. At the sound of my voice, another naked person emerges at about the same distance, and flees towards us, recklessly tripping and scrambling through the brush.

Suddenly, the source of the nudists' fear becomes evident as goblins on wolves appear over a small rise. One of them, clearly the leader, calmly levels his crossbow at the first fleeing human and shoots him in the back - the man collapses about 20 yards in front of us. The image of the midwife appears to Sarek, and he feels more resilient (gaining DR = his WIS modifier for this encounter). The mounted goblins seem surprised to see us and charge forward, warning us away from their kill. We notice the leader is riding a hellhound. They fire on us and the battle is joined. Incensed, we rush in and slaughter them.

After the panic of battle dies down, I hear something in the woods, just the slightest quivering. Silently closing in on the sound, I find a naked female elf crouching under a bush, shaking. Speaking softly in Elven, I coax her out of her hiding spot. I suppress a gasp as she crawls cautiously into view. She has been badly tortured, recently - her eyes are gone.

I wrap her in my cloak and we heal her as best we can; we can't restore her sight, but at least her other injuries will no longer trouble her. She can hardly speak as she's still quite in shock, but we manage to make out that the hunting lodge has been overrun. We try to reassure her as much as possible, and bring her back with us to our wyvern-cave camp. Nineve tends to the girl, who mutely allows herself to be fed, clothed, and put to bed. She moves like a frightened animal. The rest of us explain the situation to the convicts. Surprisingly, they seem to pity the girl and appreciate the gravity of the current circumstances. They give us no trouble, and we all pass an uneasy but mercifully uneventful night in the wyvern cave.

Morning comes and the girl seems to have recovered a bit. She tells us that her name is Astrid. A few nights ago, orcs, goblins, and ogres attacked the lodge, and captured and tortured the residents. She was taken to an old ranger shrine in the woods, blinded, and released to be hunted. She suggests we check out this shrine for clues to the attacks, or perhaps even survivors.

The shrine isn't included on my maps of the area, but following her rough directions we eventually discover it. At the shrine, we find orcs and goblins milling around, desecrating the shrine and exhuming the graves of the rangers buried here. A building to the side of the shrine is a smoking ruin. As we approach, the goblins spot us and shout, "Kill the pinkies!" Thinking quickly, Sarek casts Wind Wall to protect us from the hail of projectiles that soon follow. Nineve receives a vision of the Mute Hag (and gains DR = her WIS modifier for this encounter), and the battle is joined.

The orcs and goblins try to pick us off from a distance, but their attempts are thwarted by Sarek's Wind Wall. They soon become frustrated and charge our position. We make quick work of them.

After the battle, a search of the granite shrine in the center of the area reveals a concealed mechanism. Everyone stands well back as I activate it - and a hidden stairwell descends into the earth under the shrine! We move down the stairs and enter an ancient burial chamber, obviously for some sort of barbarian lord. Centered on the back wall is an altar. The chamber seems to be guarded by immobile skeletons, keeping mute vigil over the tomb. As we approach the altar, the dust-shrouded skeletons move to an uncanny semblance of life!

We dispatch the undead guardians and find:

2 MW scimitars
a suit of +1 half-plate
a +1 helm of defense
a +1 orcbane short spear

~Ashe

Episode 5: 5/3/08

The Party:
Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger-rogue/1-2
Haroldur, human cleric/3
Nineve Floret, human knight/3
Sarek, human wizard/3

After the battle, the bones of the skeletal guardians are sucked up through the metal gate at the end of the room, like iron filings. I ask Hezzrak where the treasure is, and he says it's upstairs, where the bones went. Downstairs is apparently water. As I'm picking the lock to the metal gate, Hezzrak explains his past. He was a wizard's familiar, once, and these ruins were the wizard's tower. One of the wizard's experiments went wrong, causing a huge earthquake that killed him and sealed Hezzrak in the tower. Being immortal, he was stuck here for about 300 years with no company save the guardians, until the goblins came along. Communicating telepathically, he brokered a deal with them, whereby he'd serve the goblin leader for one year if they would tunnel him out. Since his rescue, the goblin leader had been trying to make him her familiar, without success. Hezzrak is eternally grateful for relieving him of his contract with the goblins. I ask him if he is interested in becoming someone else's familiar, and he launches into a foul-mouthed tirade about how he'll NEVER be anyone's familiar ever again.... It seems to be a touchy subject with him...

We continue on up the stairs and come to a room with a bridge over water. At the end of the bridge, the skeletal guardian's bones are reforming into a single bizzare, skeletal monster, the likes of which we've never seen. Nineve charges forward (of course) and the bridge crumbles underneath her. She doesn't react in time, and is plunged into the water and buried underneath an avalanche of rubble. From there, everyone moves forward cautiously, except for me. I leap gracefully over the chasm, throwing in a few flips for good measure. Hezzrak flies over and oogles the monster while I nimbly dodge a spray of bone shards it flings in my direction. With my hands full and the rest of the party held up by the bridge obstacle, I ask Hezzrak if he'd mind flying behind the monster and trying to actually help... He flies onto one of the monstrosity's heads and covers the eye sockets, but it doesn't appear to notice. I hack at the monster a few times, but it doesn't seem to be doing much. Nineve finally climbs back up out of the water and jumps the gap, but the monster slams into her and knocks her off the ledge and back into the water! The monster slams into me, too, but I manage to cling to the edge of the bridge and maneuver around to the far side of the monster, just as Nineve and One-Eye scrabble up the rubble and join the fray. Nineve and One-Eye get a face full of bone shards as I hack the monster in the back, Hezzrak clinging to one of it's skulls all the while. Haroldur and Sarek wisely stay on the other side of the collapsed bridge and pepper the monster with spells, occasionally yelling advice. At length, Nineve finishes the monster off with a vial of holy water.

With that epic battle behind us, we take stock and continue on. The next room has been mostly caved in. I squeeze past the rubble blocking the entrance to scout ahead while the rest of the group starts clearing a larger path. As I step into the room, I notice a pool in the center. I approach it, and a large skeletal dragon erupts from the pool in a fountain of water. I notice the dragon is definitely worse for the wear - it's missing an arm and it's tail, but I'm sufficiently taken aback that I turn around and scramble back through the crack. Hezzrak mutters something about "Snapper" - he'd forgotten about him... I help the others clear the rubble, and Haroldur sends One-Eye in. Nineve is close behind. Snapper unleashes its full fury on Nineve and One-Eye, and then I (reluctantly) run in to help. It's a rough and brutal fight in which Nineve goes down, but we narrowly prevail. After the climactic battle, we elect to rest, despite Hezzrak's insistence that we continue to "entertain" him....

After resting, we find Hezzrak's promised loot:
4 everburning torches
black journal of historical interest
scroll (A) Resist Energy
set of granite dice (25gp)
scroll (A) Identify
bronze spectacles (10 gp)
potion - Protection from Good
scroll (A) Invisibility
wand - Detect Magic
lg. zircon paperweight (70 gp)
broad brimmed velvet hat (50 gp)
Dust of Disappearance
scroll (A) Baleful Transposition
green dragonhide gloves (300 gp)
Belt of Healing
embroidered linen blanket (10 gp)
obsidian chips (20 gp)
MW breastplate
gold bracelet (80 gp)
MW leather armor
MW lt. steel shield
marble relieve of dwarf wrestlers (gay! 100 gp)
lg. golden pearl (200 gp)
Soul Void Orb
really ugly earrings (50 gp)
mahogany bust of a scholar (75 gp)
scroll (A) Sending
potion - CSW
carved bone and ivory statuette (100 gp)
mithril circlet engraved with Elvish poetry (350 gp)
Audra crystal
jade cameo pendant (250 gp)
potion - Fly

We divide all the loot we've accumulated and we each get 6 pp, 646 gp, and 1830 sp... if we want it.

Brolan encourages us to move on to the cavern with the confiscated notes. We leave Hezzrak's keep and move through the goblin warrens, avoiding wandering patrols. At length, we come to a huge cavern. We're on a cliff about 25 feet above the main cavern floor. Below, hundreds of goblins are tending an incredibly huge, unbelievably massive yellow musk creeper. 3 goblin guards stand up on our cliff, blocking our path to the next cavern. We decide stealth is our only option, and try to take them out as quietly as possible. Our plan almost fails, as my companions are not exactly the sniping sort, but we manage to eliminate the goblin guards without alerting the rest of the horde.

We continue on to a precarious log bridge, and Haroldur nearly plummets to his certain doom, but somehow regains his balance and manages to continue the clifftop escape. Next, we come to a 15 foot cliff. I climb up and lower a rope for the party. Everyone makes it up fine except for Haroldur, who finally manages it after several false starts. At the top of the cliff, an ogre zombie is waiting for us, just around the corner. We get stuck in and are surprised to hear the sounds of shrieking goblin-imp combat in the clearing ahead. It would seem Hezzrak is "helping"... We hack through the zombie and move on to the goblins Hezzrak has started for us. The last goblin surrenders, but Hezzrak ices him, cackling evilly.

Brolan explains that these caves contain Alastor's notes, and on closer inspection, we notice the area is littered with the debris of ages. Everything that could have conceivably been carried off in a thousand goblin raids clutters these caverns in haphazard stacks. However, the sounds of our recent combat have undoubtedly drawn some attention, so we should hurry and try to find those notes as quickly as possible. Hezzrak, Sarak and I search while Nineve and Haroldur keep watch. We find:

Alastor's notes (Lucky!)
wand of Magic Missile
wand of Resurgence
troll gut rope
deck of interesting looking cards
scroll (A) Bull's Strength
potion - Bear's Endurance
+1 shortsword
vial of silversheen

Hezzrak finds the silversheen and cackles with glee. The goblins finally hear us and begin to give chase. The rest of the party begins their escape, but Hezzrak and I stay behind for one last loot grab. I find a jewel-hilted longsword (+1 mithral Elvencraft) and Hezzrak grabs a Dwarven beer stein (an Everfull Mug).

We join the chase just in front of the massive goblin horde. I sprint ahead, soon outpacing the heavily armored cleric and knight, traipsing gingerly across rope bridges and scrambling up rocky cliffs like they're not there. I emerge first from the caverns, to find Tamklar and his team of dwarves preparing to collapse the mine. I explain that all the goblins ever born in a 500 mile radius are right on our heels. Also, we found the yellow musk creeper god, and I think we made it angry...

Tamklar explains taht I can help them collapse the caverns more quickly, so I set to it. Sarek comes dashing out of the caverns a moment later, with his robes hiked up around his knobbly wizard-knees. A score of goblins is right on his tail. Hezzrak pops into existence and casts Suggestion on the first goblin to appear, causing it to dance. Then Sarek webs the passage he'd just emerged from, trapping the first of the goblin menace. More goblins pour into the side passages, and Sarek draws a scroll and Lightning Bolts a line of them. Nineve comes up behind a band of goblins, with more on her heels. Just then, the dwarves collapse the caves and boulders start falling all around us. Haroldur runs out just in time, and we all rush out, blinking into the sunlight, as the thundering crash of the mountain collapsing onto the goblin horde rings in our ears.

Back in Kolbenberg, we're local heroes. We rest up and heal our wounds and assess the goblin treasure we made off with. Also, I provide care to Tamklar's wife - I think I can help her get through the worst of the Red Ache now, though her condition has deteriorated since I saw her last. Brolan, Sarek and I pour through Alastor's jumbled, dirty notes and manage to determine that he was on the trail of Ulavant (which we knew) and was headed to a plave called the Whispering Cairn (which we didn't). Sarek and I don't know where the Whispering Carin is, but we've heard of the Cairn Hills outside of Diamond Lake - it might be a good place to start our search.

Sarek sends the Cabal an update:
"Following Ulevant to Cairn Hills.
Need info on Whispering Carin.
Request additional material support.
Kolbenberg is sacked, in desperate need of supplies, guards, priests, rebuilding."

They reply:
"We cannot offer aid to Kolbenberg.
They must live or die on their own.
Ask a local about Whipering Cairn.
What support is required? >2000gp."

Wise of them to put a gp limit on that, with Haroldur around....

As we are investigating the deck of cards we found, a woman appears to us and introduces herself as Zolara. She was once a powerful fate-spinner, and has bound herself to her Harrow cards, that she may continue to use her influence even in death. She has fortold our coming and has been waiting for us for many years. She explains that as long as she travels with us, she can foreshadow events and subtly manipulate our futures.

"Allow me to demonstrate", she says, and she does a Harrow reading.

The Choosing:
Ashe - The Survivor
Sarek - The Sickness
Haroldur - The Teamster
Nineve - The Brass Dwarf

The Spread:

The Waxworks ------The Trumpet ---- The Cricket
The Lost ------------The Fiend ---------The Betrayal
The Hidden Truth ---The Crows --------The Eclipse

~Ashe

*The Harrow deck is also from Paizo's Pathfinder stuff. We're trying it out as a storytelling mechanic - hopefully it'll be cool.*

Episode 4: 4/26/08

(We have just converted to the Pathfinder rules set, which is put out by Paizo, because like most other D&D gamers, we think 4th edition is totally lame.)

The Party:
Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger-rogue/1-1
Haroldur, human cleric/2
Nineve Floret, human knight/2
Sarek, human wizard/2

After the excitement dies down a bit, we hear goblins yelling to each other from the north side of town. Since we were heading that way anyway, I go out to do a little recon. I find 3 goblins holding a human female hostage. I also notice 3 goblin archers peeking through the windows of the 2nd story of the inn - an inn we'd have to pass in order to get to the goblins with the hostage. This is obviously a planned ambush. I return to report my findings, and Nineve is confident that the ambush poses no real threat, so we decide to attack. As Nineve rides out into the street, the goblin leader yells in broken common that we must surrender to him or he'll kill the hostage. We're not particularly concerned about a random female commoner, so Nineve charges forward. The goblin finishes off the hostage just as Nineve and her horse close the distance and slam into him. Haroldur and Tamklar rush (relatively speaking) down the street into the fray, while I, still unseen, try to snipe a goblin sniper. Unfortunately, I'm too far away to do any serious harm, so I run forward and hop into the inn building through a broken 1st floor window. Tamklar, still trundling bravely onward, is getting peppered with arrows from the goblin snipers when a pair of goblins riding an enormous spider lunges toward him from an adjacent burnt ruin. He slams into the spider with his hammer, and Haroldur is right behind him, channeling the dread power of Wee Jas into the spider and making it bleed. (Nice trick!)

Tamklar finishes off the spider and faces down the goblin riders, while Nineve finishes off the leader and starts chasing down his fleeing lackeys. Meanwhile, Sarek strides calmly into the inn, unnoticed in all the commotion, walks up behind a goblin sniper, and using a death touch granted to him by Wee Jas, suddenly turns the sniper into a lifeless husk. (Wow!) We clear out the remaining goblins and I find a cache of human prisoners, which includes Alastair's retarded stable boy, Jimmy.

Jimmy was quite skittish at first, but with some gentle coaxing I find that Alastair's been missing for about a week. However, his assistant Brolan was captured in the goblin attacks, and has most likely been hauled off to the mines. We wrap up with the villagers, and head off to the goblin mines, with Tamklar leading the way.

As we approach the mines, we notice the entrance is blocked by greenery which Tamklar says is new. We walk up to the mine entrance and we're attacked by plant zombies and a yellow musk creeper (that we mistook for harmless greenery earlier)! During the fight, Nineve is hit by a cloud of spores & compelled to stand in the plant! Fortunately, Sarek and I finished off the creeper before it has a chance to eat her brain. We mop up the rest of the plant zombies, and enter the mines. Tamklar knows these mines like the back of his hand, so he attempts to guide us through carefully, so as to avoid any more confrontations with zombifying plants.

Unfortunately, Sarek stumbles at just the wrong moment and we are surrounded by musk zombies and their parent creeper. Haroldur walks right up to the creeper, as if inviting the spores-to-the-face that he then receives. The plant almost kills him trying to dig out his brains while he stands there, completely transfixed. Luckily, we dispatch it just in time. Haroldur now has the intelligence of Jimmy the stable boy, and is barely capable of speech. As such, he insists we press on despite the fact that Sarek has been out of spells for several hours.

We continue on, but Nineve's incessant stomping attracts another group of creeper zombies. We mop 'em up and veto Haroldur's "chop 'till we drop" agenda. Tamklar finds us a nice, secluded area to rest up in. After the break (elves NEVER nap!), I'm feeling much less poisoned, and Haroldur seems to be regaining his wits, albeit rather slowly... The next morning, we're all feeling stronger from our experiences!

We quickly find the point where the miners first encountered the goblin menace, and find ourselves in the middle of a goblin and zombie creeper patrol. We dispatch them and take a goblin hostage to lead us to the captive villagers. As the goblin leads us down the passage, I notice a black crow flitting just ahead of us. When I aim my bow at it (because crows don't hang out in caves!), it squawks "Treasure!" and flits down the corridor. We eventually come to a large cavern with an underground lake and some really cute, fat purple creatures that I recognize as ferocious, deadly cave squiggs!

True to their bloodthirsty reputation, they attack viciously, severely wounding myself and Nineve. We defeat them, but their gnashing death throes tear chunks of flesh from my body, rendering me unconscious. Fortunately, I fall next to Haroldur, who heals me immediately. As I'm getting up, I spot a goblin scout spying on us from a nearby ledge. In a flash, I draw my bow and kill the scout... I think everyone else just thinks I'm paranoid. It's not my fault they have crappy perception....Speaking of which, the goblin captive has capitalized on our moment of distraction and made his escape. By the time we notice he's missing, he's long gone.

Just as things are settling down, that crow appears on Sarek's shoulder, squawking again about treasure. Suddenly, the crow disappears and up ahead on the sandy shore of the underground lake, an imp appears, rolling around and laughing maniacally, promising treasure. The imp vanishes as quickly as he had appeared, but we can hear him giggling to himself down the hallway. We follow the winding passages to a goblin dining area and another squigg. I snipe two of the goblins before they have a chance to react, then the rest of the team mops up the survivors. In the midst of the gore, the imp appears again, reveling in the bloodshed, and he and Sarek share a special, evil moment. Then, the imp vanishes again and continues muttering off down the hallway.

We proceed to a recently abandoned common area, with hastily discarded food and cards scattered about. I use my Improved Sift ability to replay the immediately preceding events. I see the goblins lounging around, carousing, when a red-robed goblin with a staff bursts into the room and barks at the others to quit screwing around and get ready to defend against the intruders. She storms out of the room, and the goblins scatter like quail. Thus forewarned, we manage to avoid being surprised during the planned ambush. Sarek makes quick work of the fight by successfully casting Tasha's Hideous Laughter on the red-robed leader. That imp appears again, and is positively giddy. His name is apparently Hezzrak, and it seems the red-robed goblin leader was his master or something. I didn't really have time to listen to the story, as he was sitting there expostulating right in the middle of the skirmish.

We kill about half of the goblins, and the remaining ones, realizing that they've lost the advantage, suddenly become very helpful. They are easily convinced to lead us to the captive humans.

We are brought to a cavern with a barred gate corralling about 30 dirty, half-staved villagers. We ask if Brolan is among them, and a tall, bookish-looking middle aged man with huge, round, cracked spectacles steps forward, blinking. I have Haroldur mend his glasses as we discuss Alastair, the goblins, and our options. Brolan tells us that he hasn't seen Alastair in several weeks, but he managed to salvage most of his employer's notes before the goblin attack. The goblins confiscated everything, of course, but Brolan is relatively certain he can lead us to the cavern where they are kept. The villagers beg to be released, and express a great deal of fear regarding the "thousands of goblins!".

We quickly decide that Tamklar will lead the villagers out of the caves, and can make preparations to collapse the cavern entrance from the mines once we're out. We part ways and Hezzrak appears, emerging from Haroldur's pack, proudly claiming it as his own. He winks out of sight and flits down the corridor, singing to himself.

Brolan accompanies us as we continue down the passage and come to a large door standing ajar. Hezzrak is lounging in front of it, eating something slimy. He indicates the treasure is through the door, then disappears.

We pass through the doors and find ourselves in a chamber lined with 6 sarcophagi. Haroldur discovers that the center of the room is trapped (spikes!). When we enter, 4 of the skeletons emerge and attack us. We fight bravely, but the skeletal guardians prove to be formidable foes. Haroldur gains control of one of them, evidently called "One-Eye"(by Hezzrak), and it joins our entourage. Eventually, we manage to slay the other 3 skeletal guardians. Hezzrak jabbers throughout the combat, talking to the skeletons and calling them by name. He gives me 2 to 1 odds on the skeletons, a bet I take for 10gp (he totally owes me!). When the first guardian falls, he seems upset, yelling "Slim! Noooooo!" He flies over and cradles the skull, sobbing until he becomes bored with it and tosses it discompassionately over his shoulder. As we focus our attacks on the next guardian, Hezzrak brags that we'll never beat Champ, he always wins... when they play chess?!? (Aren't skeletons unintelligent undead? I decide at this point that the little guy is seriously unhinged.) Indeed, Champ proves to be a challenge, but we at last manage to take him down. At this, Hezzrak flies over and screams "Checkmate, bitch!" over and over, and kicks Champ's skull across the room. The guardian he calls Bonehead falls shortly thereafter, but Hazarak hardly notices...

From all the goblins and creepers, we've found some loot:

a silver whistle engraved with tiny spiders
a teak bowl (10 gp)
earrings (50 gp)
scroll (D) Bull's Strength
MW heavy steel shield
ornate wooden box (75 gp)
MW breastplate
jade idol (100 gp)
2 scrolls (D) Lesser Restoration
potion - Shield of Faith +3
a small chest containing 150 sp
scroll (A) Light
bag of onyx (50 gp total)
wand of CLW
tiger eye turquoise (25 gp)
scroll (D) Silence
a pouch containing 30 pp
MW studded leather armor
climber's kit
crystal of screening, Least

Of course, there's no time to divvy loot now...

~Ashe

Episode 3: 2/23/08

The Party:
Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger-rogue/1-1
Haroldur, human cleric/2
Sigmund Gorn, dwarf fighter/2
Nineve Floret, human knight/2
Sarek, human wizard/2

We are about to set sail when Nineve is suddenly seized with the urge to buy a warhorse. She does her last-minute shopping, and we are finally underway. It takes the better part of the day to sail across the lake, but the journey passes uneventfully.

However, as we near the Kolbenberg shore, we notice that the boathouse appears to be on fire. As we get closer we can see the cause of the blaze - goblins! We disembark and they immediately open fire on us. We wade into the fray. About halfway through the battle, a shaved dwarf, who has obviously been fighting goblins inside the burning boathouse, emerges and joins us in the fight against the goblins (or, more likely, we're joining him). He fights bravely and after the immediate goblin threat has been eliminated, we learn his name is Tamklar.

Before much more information can be exchanged, he asks for our assistance and leads us through the burning boathouse to a very ill dwarven woman and a tiny dwarf infant. We rescue the dwarves from the burning building and move them to the safety of the Harkness. Tamklar explains that they are his wife and child. He has been shaving his head and beard in hopes of finding favor with the dwarven gods in seeking a cure for his very ill wife. Haroldur and I examine her and determine she is afflicted with Red Ache, but there's not much we can do for her.

We ask Tamklar about Alastair, and he's heard of him. However, he and his family fled to the boathouse when the goblins first attacked, and they haven't been in town or heard from any townsfolk since they went into hiding. His family will be relatively safe on the Harkness with the 6 soldiers guarding it, so he offers to take us to Alastair's house in town and help us in our search for him.

Alastair's house is a smoking ruin, but we search it and find an arcane scroll of light, and some variety of magical oil... No clues, however. The streets seem quiet, but we're cautious just in case. Adjacent to Alastair's house is a barn, and I sneak in to scout it out. Inside the barn, I find 2 goblins in the hay loft and a large spider on the ground floor. After taking a moment to confer with the party, I climb into the hay loft from the outside of the building and silently coup de grace the sleeping goblins. I also get one arrow off at the spider before he spots me and (thanks to his incredible speed and agility) is on me before my companions can open the barn door. The spider's fangs sink into my flesh and poison me, so as the rest of the party bursts through the door, I jump back out of the hay loft. Nineve shoots the spider right in the eye with her bow, and Sigmund finishes it off with his ranseur while I drink some antitoxin.

Moments later, goblin archers in the neighboring building attack, but Sarek's keen reflexes snipe them both before anyone else can so much as lift a finger! 2 more goblins appear in the window, and 4 of them rush out and charge the mounted Nineve, only to be cut down by Sigmund's ancestral hatred for all goblinkind. Nineve cuts down a goblin, and her horse brains another. The last goblin tries to run off and just ends up dying tired after Nineve and her horse chase them down. Sarek takes out another goblin in the window, but before he can finish off the last one, he somehow manages to knock himself out while reloading his crossbow... Sigmund charges upstairs for the last goblin, who sees him coming and promptly leaps out the window. Sigmund follows right behind him, however, landing on the poor goblin and killing it instantly. I enter the house and unlock a padlocked door on the ground level which is full of captive townsfolk. None of the townsfolk know where Alastair is, but they think there are more villagers being held in the northern part of town - perhaps he's with them.

While I'm chatting up the villagers, Nineve finds some strange icky yellow orc zombies around a mutilated corpse. Nineve and her horse tear into the zombies, but they're clearly not normal undead. After they are defeated, Sarek and I examine the corpses and determine that they are in fact plant creatures known as yellow musk creeper zombies...

Once the excitement dies down, we start to hear rhythmic chanting from the meeting hall. I sneak in to investigate. I find 7 goblins chanting crazily, while a leader shaman attempts to raise 3 corpses. However, I am spotted, so I lob a smoke stick in through the window to hopefully cover my escape. Goblins pour out of the meeting hall as the rest of the party moves in to meet the threat. Since most of the goblins are on the outside now, I jump through the smoky window into the meeting hall, just a the shaman finishes raising the first zombie. I try to tumble up to the shaman, but I trip and the zombie slams into me. Then, the shaman engulfs me in a fan of flame, and I'm suddenly alone and in very bad shape. I cut into the shaman, wounding him severely, and then tumble out the window to relative safety.

Meanwhile, the goblin mob outside has grabbed 2 of their number and poured potions down their throats, turning them into fanatics. The fanatics totter around the battlefield in seemingly random directions, haphazardly swinging huge spiked balls on chains. It looks quite dangerous, but I don't have time to notice much because the zombies are climbing out the window of the meeting hall after me! Haroldur comes to my rescue and heals me enough so that I can finish off the zombies and the shaman with little difficulty.

When all is said and done, we find:
a wand of animate dead with 12 charges
a scroll of lightning bolt
a pouch of clear quartz crystals
a MW small steel shield
and a scroll of identify (which we used on the wand)

~Ashe