Twelve Days 'Til The Hammer Falls

Twelve Days 'Til The Hammer Falls, Session #1

The 21st day of Autumn in the 99th Year of Ashes.

The citizens of Redstream are having a night of revelry in the Wolfsbane Tavern, celebrating a resounding victory repelling a goblin raid. The merrymaking is interupted, however, by a direly wounded dwarf bursting through the front door, pleading "Help me...my brother...twelve days...'til the hammer falls..." before collapsing unconscious.

The rogue Thyssen slips out of the tavern and scouts around the building while the wizard Lorus tries to help the dwarf with the aid of a priest of Karral named Terrimal. While Terrimal is attempting to heal the dwarf, Thyssen finds a goblin spying in through a window. He incapacitates the creature and brings him inside the tavern for questioning. Unfortunately the goblin manages to kill himself before the others can stop him.

Thyssen and Lorus help Terrimal to get the dwarf back to the temple for further attention. While Terrimal attends the dwarf, Thyssen ventures out into the forest to seek one of the rangers patrolling outside the village to track the dwarf's tracks back to where he was attacked. While Thyssen is out searching, Lorus learns that the dwarf's name is Duugrim and he is on a quest to clear his brother's name of treason before the execution in twelve days. He believes evidence might be in the hands of a temple of Vella, Goddess of Night. He was ambushed by goblins on the way to Redstream to seek help finding the temple. The goblins that attacked him were not the ordinary kind of goblins that had raided the village earlier...they were more cunning in their attacks and some weilded long poles with venomous snakes fastened to the ends. The dwarf was direly poisoned before he could fend off his attackers. Unfortunately, even with Terrimal's healings it would days before Duugrim would be up to venturing out into potential trouble, but with time being of the essence Lorus volunteered to venture to the temple of Vella in his stead. The dwarf still wants to go, but Terrimal convinces him to get some rest before making rash decisions.

Thyssen returns to the village with the young ranger Erik after Duurgrim and Terrimal have retired for the evening, but Lorus finds them. Erik leads Thyssen and Lorus into the forest, easily following Duugrim's bloody trail back to the place where he was attacked. Erik, unfortunately, isn't able to track the goblin's tracks well enough to find them but ascertains that they probably went westward, which Thyssen notes means that their paths may cross on the way to the temple of Vella, which also lays west. The trio return to the town to get what little rest they can before sunrise.

In the middle of the night, goblins sneak into Lorus' and Thyssen's rooms and attack them. Thyssen wakes before his attacker can strike, defending himself admirably while crying out an alarm to rouse the other patrons in the inn. Lorus fares less well, being stabbed while still blissfully in reverie. He does manage to fire off a spell that wounds the creature considerably but he is felled with the second blow. Fortunately, with the patrons of the inn becoming active the goblin flees rather than taking time to make sure his victim is dead. The goblin that attacked Thyssen also flees after being thrown out the window. Both make it away while Thyssen finds another patron who is able to stabilize Lorus.

PCs:

Thyssen, 3rd level rogue
Lorus, 3rd level wizard

Twelve Days 'Til The Hammer Falls, Session #2

The 22nd day of Autumn in the 99th Year of Ashes.
11 days until the hammer falls.

Leaving the fallen Lorus in the care of another villager, Thyssen goes over to the Temple of Karral to check on Terrimal, the priest, and the dwarf Duugrim. At the temple he hears panics cries of pain and anguish coming from within. Thyssen picks the lock and enters the temple to find the temple clergy abuzz assisting Terrimal in calming and containing Duugrim, whose eyes have been cut out.

After getting Duugrim under control, Terrimal and Thyssen discuss the possible reasons that the goblins would have taken Duugrim's eyes rather than killing him outright, the priest postulating that they had some motive to torment the dwarf, wanting to savor his suffering. While they have this discussion, they are joined by the the human Solana and the gnome Krin, who were attracted to investigate the commotion that had been coming from the temple. After quite a bit of further discussion, Thyssen, Solana, and Krin agree to set out to go to the Temple of Vella in Duugrim's place.

A few miles west of Redstream, the trio spots a strange humanoid creature lurking in the shadows of the thick forest canopy. The creature, refusing to leave the obscuring darkness, warns them away and after failing attempts to get the creature to parlay the trio finally decides to move on before provoking the increasingly belligerent creature further. They did gather that the creature had been transformed into what it now was, however, and clearly was unhappy with its current state. Thus the group decided they'd come back at a later time to investigate more and see if they could help the poor beast.

It isn't much longer after that when Thyssen spots a moon symbol which Solana identifies as a waysign used by Vella's followers to guide the faithful to the temple. With that, the trio is able to find the temple with ease.


The present PCs:

Krin, 3rd level bard
Solana, 3rd level cleric
Thyssen, 3rd level rogue

Twelve Days 'Til The Hammer Falls, Session #3

The 22nd day of Autumn in the 99th Year of Ashes.
11 days until the hammer falls.

After finding the Temple of Vella, Thyssen, Solana, and Krin take a
few moments to look things over before approaching the door. "Shall
we knock?" Solana asks, as she gives the door several thumps with
her staff. Within, there's the sounding of a gong and a pleasant
disembodied voice informs them that the lady of the house will be
ready to see them shortly.

While the trio waits, they spot the arrival of Slade, an initiate of
the Brotherhood of Ash. They try to engage him in conversation to
ascertain his purpose for being there, but they are soon interupted
by a handsome young man in black silk robes opening the temple door,
saying "Good morning, travellers. The lady will see you now."

Thyssen, Solana (leading her horse, Sir Zepherous, with her), Krin,
and Slade follow the priest into the temple. Before entering
through a second set of doors, the priest turns to Solana. "Your
horse may come, but if it befouls the sacred room I'm afraid we'd
have to sacrifice it." Solana chooses to command Sir Zepherous to
stay.

Beyond the second set of doors is a very lovely ceremonial chamber
with a raised platform at the far end. Three black robed men are
tending to a lovely middle aged woman, Alanala, who reclines on an
opulant chair, one rubbing her feet, another fanning her with a
gigantic feather, and the last filling her glass with wine. "Good
morning." She says with a warm smile. "Forgive the casualness...I'm
unaccustomed to visitors by day."

As Solana and Krin begin to exchange pleasantries with the
priestess, Thyssen draws his rapier and whirls to face a viper that
he spotted slithering in behind them, slowly making its way along
the wall. As the snake quickly escapes through one of the cracks in
the stone walls, Thyssen speaks out at Alanala. "Ahh, so the venom
bites came from here. I guess it isn't odd that the dwarf is dying
on the way to THIS temple."

The priestess rises, her eyes narrowing. "Would someone like to tell
me what these accusations are about?" the party tells her of
Duugrim, the dwarf who had been attacked by snake wielding goblins
on his way to find the Temple of Vella

Alanala denies any wrong doing, stating that they'd done nothing
aside from rescue Duugrim's brother, Kuudrim, from the deep lair of
a beast that they make sacrifices to and healing him to good health
before letting him go along his way. When told of Kuudrim's
conviction of treason and Duugrim's quest for proof of his
innocence, the priestess offers to give a written testimony that
Kuudrim had gotten healing from the temple. Though likely not
enough alone to prove his innocence, it would give a little more
credence to his side of the story. She expresses regret that she
cannot travel to the Council of the Red Hammer to better speak on
the dwarf's behalf, but a drastic increase in goblin activity in the
area has her uncomfortable to leave her post, though she says thus
far the goblins have given neither her nor her followers any
trouble.

Solana asks about creatures who could have lead Kuudrim away from
his patrol with their voice, as the dwarf claims was the case. In
answer, Alanala tells her that one of the priests who visited at the
last full moon ritual told a similar tale, though she hadn't
believed it. "Hannit has always been a bit of a tall tale teller so
I didn't pay him any mind at the time, but he mentioned that he had
been called away from his fellow clergy men by a haunting female
voice. He said he was lead into the middle of a large band of
goblins, which looked poised to strike. He claimed that he began
casting a spell and they fled. He was quite gratingly boisterous
about intimidating an entire band of goblins alone, so I paid him
little mind. I didn't believe him, but maybe there was something to
it after all. Hard to believe though...he described about a dozen
of them, each on large riding beasts."

The party decides to turn their investigations elsewhere, bidding
Alanala farewell and promising to return again. Thyssen bows his
head slightly. "I apologise for my outburst earlier, but the snake
made too many uncomfortable coincidences."

"It's quite alright...they make me uncomfortable too...always
lingering about." The priestess responds. "We've had quite an
infestation of them lately. But they've been elusive to catch and
haven't caused any harm, so we've gotten in the habit of ignoring
them."

After the group leaves the temple, the four decide to return to
where they had encountered the strange beast before finding the
temple, wanting to interrogate it. Unfortunately, the creature (an
orcish seeming creature with writhing serpents growning from his
head), became instantly belligerant with them, enraged at their
return. It attacked, cleaving a deep wound in Thyssen's horse,
Jimmy, but was quickly brought down by Slade and Thyssen.
Unfortunately, the creature was more fragile than it looked and was
quite dead.

Thyssen found the creatures small cache of treasure...mostly coins
and a single potion that Solana was able to identify as faintly
magical but none were able to deduce what it was. Thyssen tried to
get Krin to drink it, but Krin refused adamently. "Sonny, don't be
silly. I'm boisterous, not stupid."

Following that, Solana and Thyssen got into a long arguement about
what to do with the creatures body. Solana wanted to behead the
creature and bury it while Thyssen wanted to feed it to the pit
beast that Alanala told them about. Ultimately, Solana refused to
go with them as Thyssen, Krin, and Slade left to take the body to
the pit.

The present PCs:

Krin, 3rd level gnome bard
Slade, 3rd level wood elf monk
Solana, 3rd level human cleric
Thyssen, 4th level high elf rogue