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<blockquote data-quote="Rybaer" data-source="post: 1126" data-attributes="member: 118"><p>Session #6 – URG’s in the Woods (abridged)</p><p></p><p></p><p>Now that Shadykin had been returned from his imprisonment in a stasis field created by Gills Dralan, one of the nefarious Black Hand wizards, and the remains of his old school cleared out of undesirables, the group had to decide what was next on their agenda. The ultimate goal of their journey, as outlined by Lord Stephen, was to make contact with other cities in an effort to return with lost knowledge and establish trade routes. Shadykin’s school, no more than a week’s ride from New Selmar, proved it could be an excellent resource of magical power and knowledge. Lady Shele, who had spent much of the last two decades wandering this part of the land, told them of a small, unnamed village about a day and a half’s journey to the north, still within the bounds of the Ironwood Forest. Everyone agreed to go check it out before returning to their trip East to Kisty’s home city of Water Break. Kisty chose not to join the others on this little side trip, instead offering to help Shadykin sort through the ruins of his school.</p><p></p><p>While camping en route to the small village, the group was beset upon by some stealthy manner of creature. It was Zalman’s owl familiar Hooty, hunting in the area, who noticed their silent approach. When the others were aroused, they prepared to receive their assailants. Then the arrows started flying – they were being attacked.</p><p></p><p>Boaz, being one of only two who had darkvision, charged in the direction of the bowstring twangs. Rurik did his best to follow behind. Amblin, while blind, used his sense of sound as best as possible and tried to move up. Nigel slipped through the woods, trying to get close enough to get a mark on one of their assailants. The fight was quick and ended with the two assailants fleeing into the night after launching a few more arrows. The group chose not to pursue, being unfamiliar with the terrain and unable to see very well. They doubled up watch for the balance of the night, but were not disturbed again.</p><p></p><p>The next day, they made it to the village by late mid-morning. The found a disturbing scene with a smattering of bodies lying about and signs of struggle everywhere. A quick survey of the crude dwellings indicated that the attack had likely been within the last three or four days. One of them spotted a young boy, watching them from behind a building. He was human, at most 8 years old, and clearly in shock. He wouldn’t speak immediately, but he also didn’t flee. Amblin got the boy to warm up to them by getting him to play with his dog for a bit. Finally, the kid told them of how their village was attacked one evening, just after sunset. He couldn’t identify the assailants, though he was pretty sure they were bigger than most men. Those villagers they hadn’t killed outright were taken off to the east. Nigel found the trail with no difficulty. Leaving the dog with the kid in the village, they set out to find what had happened to the villagers.</p><p></p><p>They followed the trail through the woods for almost two hours before coming upon a small stone building almost completely overgrown in the deep woods. Just as they came within sight of it, they spotted a figure watching their approach from the doorway to the structure. It closed the door behind it as it retreated back into the building. No one had gotten a good enough look to identify it. Cautiously, they approached.</p><p></p><p>The building was about 10’x15’ and almost 10’ tall with steeply sloped slab stone roof. The door was also stone, and under the vines they could just make out an engraved symbol – Erythnul, god of Slaughter. Hmmm…that didn’t sound very good. Rurik, servant of Moradin, was particularly displeased with this discovery. While they knew nothing that they would find within this building was likely to be very nice, they couldn’t leave knowing that innocent folk had been dragged back here. So, in they went.</p><p></p><p>As they opened the door, the attack they expected was not forthcoming. It was dark, musty, and quiet. The stone building merely housed a long stairway down. Drawing out several of the Continual Flame torches they’d acquired from under Shadykin’s school, they slowly descended. </p><p></p><p>The stairway opened upon a large square room. A closed door in the opposite wall was the only apparent exit. Along either side of the room, a series of stuffed trophies were on display. Among these trophies were a number of game animals (deer, elk, and boar), worgs, an ogre, several elves and humans, and a centaur. Grizzly, to say the least. They half expected the trophies to animate and attack.</p><p></p><p>The doorway out led to a short hall that ended in a T. At the intersection, the hall extended both left and right another twenty feet to doors. Directly in front of them was another door, along with the clear blood trail indicating the prisoners had been taken this way. Two long desiccated orc corpses lay on the ground to the left of the doorway. They cautiously opened it, fearing a trap, but again nothing happened.</p><p></p><p>Beyond was a long, dark hall that sloped downward. They eased their way down this until it leveled out and widened into a sort of antechamber. Hundreds of weapons, shields, and other bits of armor adorned the wall in front of them. More trophies, it would seem. A large, stone double doorway was also set in the wall. Crude depictions of hunting scenes were engraved in the stone all around the door. The trail led directly through them.</p><p></p><p>Weapons at ready, they opened one of the doors and slipped inside. The chamber beyond was so long that their torchlight failed to illuminate its inky depths. It was forty feet wide and lined with wide stone columns. Very faint sounds could be heard from the darkness far ahead. Then the hail of arrows erupted.</p><p></p><p>Several of the group were hit in the first volley, easy targets standing out in the open with torches aloft. They scattered to both sides of the room, seeking shelter behind the columns. Nigel finally got a bead on one assailant – a bowman also taking cover behind a column a bit further down the room. Bow fire was exchanged in both directions as the companions slowly started to work their way down the room one column at a time. Boaz and Rurik, not predisposed to ranged tactics, charged down the left side of the room and were quickly upon the first of many undead gnolls. The foul beast was dressed in ancient hardened leather armor. It dropped its longbow and reached for a longsword and hand axe that had been propped up against the backside of the column. Amblin started a similar charge up the right wall of the chamber under the covering fire of Nigel’s bow and Zalman’s new wand of magic missiles. Crossfire from other bowmen hidden further back in the dark caused everyone to become greatly concerned about the wisdom of their tactics (or lack thereof).</p><p></p><p>Eventually, most of the URG’s (undead gnoll rangers) engaged in hand-to-hand combat. While this was the favored form of combat for most of the companions, they were distraught to find that the two weapon fighting style of the URG’s was equally deadly and they were taking as good a beating as they gave. In the midst of the heated melee, several arrows from the far end of the chamber continued to pluck away at them. A small horde of zombies then moved toward the fray – clearly former villagers. Rurik had already tried turning some of the URG’s, but met with only limited success, so he chose to stick with his trusty axe. Zalman saw the approaching horde of zombies as an excellent opportunity to try out one of the news spells in his repertoire, compliments of Shadykin: Fireball.</p><p></p><p>At least eight of the zombies were obliterated and several others scattered in the fiery concussion. During the brief flash of light, they spotted a large group of villagers clustered together at the end of the chamber around a large stone sarcophagus. Three UGR’s were standing among them, launching a steady hail of arrows that were withering down the companions. Zalman targeted one of the big URGs at the end of the room and launched his magic missile wand. It returned the favor with a few targeted arrows.</p><p></p><p>As the URG’s in the middle of the chamber were finally dispatched, the three remaining URGs left the cover of the motionless villagers and charged, drawing longswords and axes. Of the three, one charged Boaz and the other two (one of whom was considerably taller than all the others had been) charged Zalman. Boaz, who had already single-handedly dropped half a dozen of the URGs, finally fell to a nasty critical hit from the URG lieutenant’s longsword. Rurik, the closest, knew that even Moradin’s healing could not save his friend from such a terrible wound.</p><p></p><p>For the first time, one of their own members had fallen fatally in combat. And, judging by the strength of the three remaining URGs and the severity of the remaining party’s injuries, they were afraid he wouldn’t be the only one to go down.</p><p></p><p>The URGs clearly had enough intelligence and sense of tactics to know to go after the spell-slinging wizard first. Zalman found himself severely outmatched as they brought their weapons to bear on him. Amblin and Nigel threw themselves recklessly at the two URGs attacking their friend while Zalman did his best to stay out of their way and launch a couple magic missiles whenever possible.</p><p></p><p>Rurik, with the fury only a dwarf can muster in combat, engaged the lieutenant URG who had just slain Boaz. Somehow, he managed to both survive and prevail against the undead monstrosity. Amblin and Nigel similarly managed to slay the other lieutenant while the ancient hunter-king beat Zalman into unconsciousness. While the URG king was a fearsome and deadly foe, he quickly fell once surrounded by the enraged threesome of Rurik, Nigel, and Amblin.</p><p></p><p>The fight was finally over. Rurik healed their wounds sufficiently for them to offer help to the villagers and then went off to administer last rights to his slain companion. The villagers were in bad shape – wounded, dehydrated, or already dead. There were few they could even rouse to consciousness. Rurik summoned water, which they forced down the throats of those still alive. He depleted the rest of his healing magic to get enough of the stronger villagers back to consciousness to help tend the others.</p><p></p><p>Before departing, they searched the remaining rooms in the complex. One was simply a storeroom for weapons and other basic gear. The other was a crude shrine to Erythnul. </p><p></p><p>The story eventually came out that a hunting party from the village had stumbled upon the old stone shrine a few days earlier. They could only assume that they must have disturbed the rest of whatever foul creatures resided within and were subsequently attacked. Boaz was given a simple burial near the village, heralded as a hero among the surviving villagers.</p><p></p><p>Two days later, the surviving villagers were strong enough to make the trip on foot over to Shadykin’s school. While this was a difficult decision to make, the villagers had finally agreed that they were now too few in number to safely live on their own out in the dark woods. Shadykin’s school, while in a bit of a shambles, was still built like a small fortress and would afford them protection from the elements and roaming beasts common to this area. The old gnome was very happy to have them move in – offering protection and shelter in exchange for their services in helping rebuild.</p><p></p><p>One of those captured by the URG’s was not, in fact, a native to that village but rather was a simple traveler and wandered from an elven community not too far away. His name was Robyn Steele, an odd elf but a pleasant enough sort. He offered to show them the way to the elf village, a week’s journey to the east – the direction they wanted to head to get to Water Break. Two weeks of rest later, they took him up on the offer, mounted their horses, and said their good-byes to Shadykin and the others.</p><p></p><p></p><p>-Rybaer</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rybaer, post: 1126, member: 118"] Session #6 – URG’s in the Woods (abridged) Now that Shadykin had been returned from his imprisonment in a stasis field created by Gills Dralan, one of the nefarious Black Hand wizards, and the remains of his old school cleared out of undesirables, the group had to decide what was next on their agenda. The ultimate goal of their journey, as outlined by Lord Stephen, was to make contact with other cities in an effort to return with lost knowledge and establish trade routes. Shadykin’s school, no more than a week’s ride from New Selmar, proved it could be an excellent resource of magical power and knowledge. Lady Shele, who had spent much of the last two decades wandering this part of the land, told them of a small, unnamed village about a day and a half’s journey to the north, still within the bounds of the Ironwood Forest. Everyone agreed to go check it out before returning to their trip East to Kisty’s home city of Water Break. Kisty chose not to join the others on this little side trip, instead offering to help Shadykin sort through the ruins of his school. While camping en route to the small village, the group was beset upon by some stealthy manner of creature. It was Zalman’s owl familiar Hooty, hunting in the area, who noticed their silent approach. When the others were aroused, they prepared to receive their assailants. Then the arrows started flying – they were being attacked. Boaz, being one of only two who had darkvision, charged in the direction of the bowstring twangs. Rurik did his best to follow behind. Amblin, while blind, used his sense of sound as best as possible and tried to move up. Nigel slipped through the woods, trying to get close enough to get a mark on one of their assailants. The fight was quick and ended with the two assailants fleeing into the night after launching a few more arrows. The group chose not to pursue, being unfamiliar with the terrain and unable to see very well. They doubled up watch for the balance of the night, but were not disturbed again. The next day, they made it to the village by late mid-morning. The found a disturbing scene with a smattering of bodies lying about and signs of struggle everywhere. A quick survey of the crude dwellings indicated that the attack had likely been within the last three or four days. One of them spotted a young boy, watching them from behind a building. He was human, at most 8 years old, and clearly in shock. He wouldn’t speak immediately, but he also didn’t flee. Amblin got the boy to warm up to them by getting him to play with his dog for a bit. Finally, the kid told them of how their village was attacked one evening, just after sunset. He couldn’t identify the assailants, though he was pretty sure they were bigger than most men. Those villagers they hadn’t killed outright were taken off to the east. Nigel found the trail with no difficulty. Leaving the dog with the kid in the village, they set out to find what had happened to the villagers. They followed the trail through the woods for almost two hours before coming upon a small stone building almost completely overgrown in the deep woods. Just as they came within sight of it, they spotted a figure watching their approach from the doorway to the structure. It closed the door behind it as it retreated back into the building. No one had gotten a good enough look to identify it. Cautiously, they approached. The building was about 10’x15’ and almost 10’ tall with steeply sloped slab stone roof. The door was also stone, and under the vines they could just make out an engraved symbol – Erythnul, god of Slaughter. Hmmm…that didn’t sound very good. Rurik, servant of Moradin, was particularly displeased with this discovery. While they knew nothing that they would find within this building was likely to be very nice, they couldn’t leave knowing that innocent folk had been dragged back here. So, in they went. As they opened the door, the attack they expected was not forthcoming. It was dark, musty, and quiet. The stone building merely housed a long stairway down. Drawing out several of the Continual Flame torches they’d acquired from under Shadykin’s school, they slowly descended. The stairway opened upon a large square room. A closed door in the opposite wall was the only apparent exit. Along either side of the room, a series of stuffed trophies were on display. Among these trophies were a number of game animals (deer, elk, and boar), worgs, an ogre, several elves and humans, and a centaur. Grizzly, to say the least. They half expected the trophies to animate and attack. The doorway out led to a short hall that ended in a T. At the intersection, the hall extended both left and right another twenty feet to doors. Directly in front of them was another door, along with the clear blood trail indicating the prisoners had been taken this way. Two long desiccated orc corpses lay on the ground to the left of the doorway. They cautiously opened it, fearing a trap, but again nothing happened. Beyond was a long, dark hall that sloped downward. They eased their way down this until it leveled out and widened into a sort of antechamber. Hundreds of weapons, shields, and other bits of armor adorned the wall in front of them. More trophies, it would seem. A large, stone double doorway was also set in the wall. Crude depictions of hunting scenes were engraved in the stone all around the door. The trail led directly through them. Weapons at ready, they opened one of the doors and slipped inside. The chamber beyond was so long that their torchlight failed to illuminate its inky depths. It was forty feet wide and lined with wide stone columns. Very faint sounds could be heard from the darkness far ahead. Then the hail of arrows erupted. Several of the group were hit in the first volley, easy targets standing out in the open with torches aloft. They scattered to both sides of the room, seeking shelter behind the columns. Nigel finally got a bead on one assailant – a bowman also taking cover behind a column a bit further down the room. Bow fire was exchanged in both directions as the companions slowly started to work their way down the room one column at a time. Boaz and Rurik, not predisposed to ranged tactics, charged down the left side of the room and were quickly upon the first of many undead gnolls. The foul beast was dressed in ancient hardened leather armor. It dropped its longbow and reached for a longsword and hand axe that had been propped up against the backside of the column. Amblin started a similar charge up the right wall of the chamber under the covering fire of Nigel’s bow and Zalman’s new wand of magic missiles. Crossfire from other bowmen hidden further back in the dark caused everyone to become greatly concerned about the wisdom of their tactics (or lack thereof). Eventually, most of the URG’s (undead gnoll rangers) engaged in hand-to-hand combat. While this was the favored form of combat for most of the companions, they were distraught to find that the two weapon fighting style of the URG’s was equally deadly and they were taking as good a beating as they gave. In the midst of the heated melee, several arrows from the far end of the chamber continued to pluck away at them. A small horde of zombies then moved toward the fray – clearly former villagers. Rurik had already tried turning some of the URG’s, but met with only limited success, so he chose to stick with his trusty axe. Zalman saw the approaching horde of zombies as an excellent opportunity to try out one of the news spells in his repertoire, compliments of Shadykin: Fireball. At least eight of the zombies were obliterated and several others scattered in the fiery concussion. During the brief flash of light, they spotted a large group of villagers clustered together at the end of the chamber around a large stone sarcophagus. Three UGR’s were standing among them, launching a steady hail of arrows that were withering down the companions. Zalman targeted one of the big URGs at the end of the room and launched his magic missile wand. It returned the favor with a few targeted arrows. As the URG’s in the middle of the chamber were finally dispatched, the three remaining URGs left the cover of the motionless villagers and charged, drawing longswords and axes. Of the three, one charged Boaz and the other two (one of whom was considerably taller than all the others had been) charged Zalman. Boaz, who had already single-handedly dropped half a dozen of the URGs, finally fell to a nasty critical hit from the URG lieutenant’s longsword. Rurik, the closest, knew that even Moradin’s healing could not save his friend from such a terrible wound. For the first time, one of their own members had fallen fatally in combat. And, judging by the strength of the three remaining URGs and the severity of the remaining party’s injuries, they were afraid he wouldn’t be the only one to go down. The URGs clearly had enough intelligence and sense of tactics to know to go after the spell-slinging wizard first. Zalman found himself severely outmatched as they brought their weapons to bear on him. Amblin and Nigel threw themselves recklessly at the two URGs attacking their friend while Zalman did his best to stay out of their way and launch a couple magic missiles whenever possible. Rurik, with the fury only a dwarf can muster in combat, engaged the lieutenant URG who had just slain Boaz. Somehow, he managed to both survive and prevail against the undead monstrosity. Amblin and Nigel similarly managed to slay the other lieutenant while the ancient hunter-king beat Zalman into unconsciousness. While the URG king was a fearsome and deadly foe, he quickly fell once surrounded by the enraged threesome of Rurik, Nigel, and Amblin. The fight was finally over. Rurik healed their wounds sufficiently for them to offer help to the villagers and then went off to administer last rights to his slain companion. The villagers were in bad shape – wounded, dehydrated, or already dead. There were few they could even rouse to consciousness. Rurik summoned water, which they forced down the throats of those still alive. He depleted the rest of his healing magic to get enough of the stronger villagers back to consciousness to help tend the others. Before departing, they searched the remaining rooms in the complex. One was simply a storeroom for weapons and other basic gear. The other was a crude shrine to Erythnul. The story eventually came out that a hunting party from the village had stumbled upon the old stone shrine a few days earlier. They could only assume that they must have disturbed the rest of whatever foul creatures resided within and were subsequently attacked. Boaz was given a simple burial near the village, heralded as a hero among the surviving villagers. Two days later, the surviving villagers were strong enough to make the trip on foot over to Shadykin’s school. While this was a difficult decision to make, the villagers had finally agreed that they were now too few in number to safely live on their own out in the dark woods. Shadykin’s school, while in a bit of a shambles, was still built like a small fortress and would afford them protection from the elements and roaming beasts common to this area. The old gnome was very happy to have them move in – offering protection and shelter in exchange for their services in helping rebuild. One of those captured by the URG’s was not, in fact, a native to that village but rather was a simple traveler and wandered from an elven community not too far away. His name was Robyn Steele, an odd elf but a pleasant enough sort. He offered to show them the way to the elf village, a week’s journey to the east – the direction they wanted to head to get to Water Break. Two weeks of rest later, they took him up on the offer, mounted their horses, and said their good-byes to Shadykin and the others. -Rybaer [/QUOTE]
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