Rise Of The Snakemen [Forgotten Realms]

[Brakkart]

Ash's First Letter

To my Dearest Aunt Kirianna

I am writing to you on this the eighth day since I left the family home on this mission for our beloved Sune. I have spent the last eight days checking the Bloody Cutlass daily for any word of the Gondsman Zamtap and the party he travels with. I talked with the bartender every day hoping for news of their arrival.

The bartender seemed a good sort but he always looked at me strangely when I asked for my brandy. Midafternoon this very day the party I have been awaiting arrived, but not to the warmest welcome I’ve seen.

As I was walking down the road to the Bloody Cutlass I saw someone who was a mirror image of me exit the tavern and then blur into the crowd. The Gondsman Zamtap followed from inside the tavern only to have a fireball erupt around him. Following this various assailants appeared to attack Zamtap and the party he travels with. I rushed into the combat to aid those I have been sent to help. The combat was over fairly quickly thanks to my new friend Jebodiah, who I believe was the one person who swung the battle in our favour. The cleric of Gond himself proved to be as inept in combat as he was back at the temple of Gond when he was still studying, fleeing from the melee into the tavern to heal his own wounds he exposed the partys mage, an air Genasi by the name of Aeron Greycastle to an overbearing assault by the would be assailants strongest combatant. Struck down by one blow Aeron would surely have died if not for the timely intervention of the Dwarf Barbarian Jebodiah.

Anyhow the fact that we won the battle with no fatalities on our side was luck as far as I can tell. How this party has accomplished what I have been told is beyond me, their inability to work as a unit will be their undoing.

One of my first aims is to try and work on their combat effectiveness, and form them into a fluid unit. How well I will manage in this task I can’t say as I’ve never tried to teach others how to work together in a fight before.

After the combat was over I used my divine gift from the Goddess Sune to heal Jebodiah who bore enough wounds to bring him near death. When Jebodiah was a little healthier, we both entered the tavern for what I believe to be a well deserved drink.

As the rest of the party re-entered the tavern, Zamtap approached the bar where both Jebodiah and myself were downing our respective drinks. As he approached the bar Jebodiah started to question as to who had attacked them, But Zamtap seemed to ignore the person who had saved the entire party and instead asked me if I was the one sent by his temple.
It's good to know exactly where you stand with people, but Zamtap’s attitude needs to change. I reluctantly gave him the pistol and components his temple had sent for him, along with a verbal dressing down.

The party which seems to have no name has agreed to stay here for the next several days to perform personal errands and tasks which they deem important. As such I shall remain here until they continue on their journey.

Yours Lovingly

Your nephew

Edward Hamilton

DM's Notes:

This is how Dan/Ash has decided to write his journal, in the form of letters sent back to his aunt on Lantan (who is also a priestess of Sune).

 

[Brakkart]

DM's Log of Session Twenty Three

After eight uneventful days in Calimport, the group were finally ready to depart, having made good use of their time in the city. Zamtap had hired a bench in the back of a jewellers shop and made a few magical brooches using the tools there, as well as buying a Bag of Holding to carry around the increasing number of bits and pieces of the project he is working on, filling it with gears and mechanical joints and the like. Though he was somewhat stymied when he tried to buy a large quantity of alchemists fire, running into a city ordance law dating back to the time of the Shoon Imperium against selling anything more than a limited quantity of any incendiary to one person.

Gylippus had spent his time in the way that he liked best, profitably, having sold or fenced off several items that the group had been carrying around for a while. He loaned money to Zamtap, scribed scrolls and paid to have his rapiers magic enhanced again. Aeron bought himself a headband to boost his already considerable intellect still further. Both Jebodiah and Ash were moved to make donations to temples, both giving over 200 gold pieces to the temples of their respective gods (Clangeddin & Sune respectively). True to his womanising form, Ash used his powers to cure a whore of her wasting disease, taking payment for the deed in her bed for a few days, and still finding time to pen a letter to his aunt.

The party were the toast of the Bloody Cutlass for the time they stayed there, the Innkeeper having had Garx stuffed and mounted upside down to the ceiling of the taproom, the mounted Phase Spider drawing in considerable extra business, to the extent that when the group mentioned that they were heading towards Chult, he asked the group to bring him back some dinosaur heads for additional decoration, seeing a lucrative line of business in luring adventurer types to his establishment.

Still all good things must come to an end, and the group boarded Tisiphone and set sail across the Shining Sea towards Tashluta. All went peacefully for two days, Captain Baeran's warnings about encountering the Rundeen proving to be unfounded. It was in the early evening though of Nightal 1st when the lookout in the crow's nest called out "Land Ahoy", only to be met with a stern rebuke from the Captain who pointed out that they were more than a day from land. It was then that the "sandbank" started moving towards the ship at speed, and as it got closer, so it became obvious that it was a Dragon Turtle.

The group immeditaly began casting spells to fortify themselves in various ways, as the creature surged towards them and rammed the prow of the Tisiphone, the impact making everyone aboard totter a little, and knocking Ash clear off his feet. Aeron rushed to the side railing, grabbing it to steady himself and he exhausted the Turtle with a well placed ray, though it did not deter the monsters attack, as it swam around the side of the ship, reared its beaked head up out of the water and blasted most of those aboard with scolding hot steam, catching Aeron, Jebodiah, Zamtap and Ash in the blast, though only Zamtap seemed to be seriously wounded by the attack. Gylippus, withdrew to the stern of the ship, keeping himself out of range of the creature, yet ensuring he could see it clearly, and magic missiled it. Seeing how little effect the missiles had on the huge turtle, Aeron decided that someone would have to take the fight to the beast, and cast Fly on Jebodiah, Ash lending a hand to bolster the dwarf by healing his burn wounds from the steam blast.

Jebodiah swigged back a healing potion also, and then launched himself through the air towards the turtle, smacking its head with his axe, but getting bitten in return, and then swatted with a large webbed claw too. Ki and Ash shot the creature with crossbow and pistol, as Aeron used another ray on it, this time sapping its strength. Gylippus had less luck though, his attempt to blind it failing. Jebodiah swooped back down, axe crunching down against the turtles shell and cracking it badly, the creature responding with claw and bite, both inflicting further wounds on the flying dwarf. On the ship, both Ki and Ash fire again, and having healed himself from the effects of the steam blast, Zamtap casts Wield Skill and draws his own pistol to join in the missle assault. Aeron cuts loose then with a Scintillating Sphere, his most powerful offensive spell, blasting the rear of the turtle to make sure he does not catch Jebodiah in the explosion, and seeing the turtles attacks lessening after the rays that Aeron had cast, Gylippus follows suit, also enfeebling the huge turtle.

At which point, suffering from his wounds, Jebodiah flew straight up and out of the turtles reach, its beak snapping up after him, but narrowly missing his boots as he swigged back another healing potion. Ki's crossbow bolt bounced off the turtles shell, as it dived out of sight and feebly swam away to recover from its wounds and live to hunt another day.

In the late afternoon on Nightal 3rd, the Tisiphone pulled into the great caldera harbour of Tashluta, and Captain Baeran informed the group that he would be staying in port a couple days in case they should need to depart again, but after that he would be heading back north. The party paid a boy on the docks for some information about the city, learning its rough layout and the names of the prominent temples. Deciding that the House of the All Seeing Eye, a vast temple to Savras is their best bet to find information on the Yuan-ti, the group decided to head there tomorrow, stopping at an Inn for the night, choosing to take up residence at The Crushed Coils, it having a reassuring name. Ash uses his charm and good looks to seduce one of the serving wenches.

Nightal 4th dawned with a light rain washing the filth from the streets of the city, the group glad that they picked an Inn halfway up the cladera slope, realising now why the locals regard down by the docks to be the worst parts of the city. Making their way through the city, they come to the largest temple to Savras in all the Realms, and gain an audience with High Seer Damai, one of the senior priests, who listens to the partys entreaties about what the Yuan-ti are up to, but remains sceptical and insists on a suitable donation before he will scry on Esau Enoch whish the group eventually agree too, handing over the monies to pay for a casting of Greater Scrying. Alas, it proves fruitless, as try as he might Damai cannot force his spell through the snakeman scientists considerable force of will. The party ask him to try again tomorrow, but this time they intend for him to scry on Shan Hsi...

DM's Notes:

Well after re-equipping themselves and spending the loot they gained from the orc pirates, the group are back on the move. I threw in the Dragon Turtle as a nice challenge, it being only a little above the groups CR, but as it was going to be the only encounter of the trip I was sure that they could handle it, and it was a nice boost to their experience.

I like the way Tashluta is described in the Serpent Kingdoms book, it was really easy to picture what it looks like (I basically just thought of it as a larger version of Cauldron from the Dungeon magazine Adventure Path, but with half the city gone and a harbour in its place). The party won't be there long, and won't be attacked there either (cos they were starting to get nervous about cities, having been attacked in every one thus far, figured I'd cut them a break in this one... they'll get plenty attacked soon enough!).

 

[Brakkart]

DM's Log of Session Twenty Four

Before leaving the temple though, Jebodiah pays for a scrying on his mother, being worried about her as he left home without any annoucement, simply vanishing from the Citadel to find his way in the world. He is relieved that the scrying works, and he watches in the bowl for a while as she works running the family brewery, though he can see by the lines in her forehead, that she is worried about something or someone.

As the others head back to the Crushed Coils for the day, Gyllipus ducks intoan alleyway and uses his hat of disguise to shift appearance. For the next couple hours he keeps watch on their Inn in a variety of guises, looking to see if anyone else is observing the place, having gotten fed up of being attacked in cities. Though he is as sneaky as can be, his surveillance proves fruitless, and eventually he gives up and heads inside for a drink with the others.

Nightal 4th dawned bright and sunny, and the party roused themselves and headed back up the sloping streets towards the House of the All Seeing Eye, Aeron, Ash, Zamtap and Gylippus having taken to casting Endure Elements on themselves each morning to ease the sweltering heat of the tropics. The group locate Damai and this time their donation is rewarded with success, the High Seer easily able to scry on Esau's oriental bodyguard, he seemingly never more than a dozen feet from his pureblood master. they watch in a mizture of fascination and horror as they see the scientist inspecting a chamber filled with the large glass tubes they saw at Wolfhill House, each containing a growing Megaloman clone, there being at least a hundred in the room they see.

As the scrying continues they see Esau and Shan walk out onto a balcony, overlooking a plaza amidst the ruins of a vast jungle city, sat on the shore of a lake with mountains in the distance. Damai is able to recognise the place, having scryed it in the past, as Ss'inthee'ssaree. What troubles them more is what they can see in the plaza, hundreds of Megalomen, organised into regiments and training. Remaining with the nefarious pair, they see them enter a laboratory where a large lizard with bony plates running down it's back (which Damai identifies as a type of Dinosaur called a Stegosaurus), is strapped down and clearly being experimented upon, Esau injecting fluids into it. Damai mentions that the Yuan-ti have adjusted many of the dinosaurs of the Black Jungles with a process called Ti-Khana, which gives them some Yuan-ti properties, and a more vicious mindset.

Breaking the scrying eventually, he outlines that the group have a near impossible mission to reach the city by the only route he knows of, through the jungles, stating it would take at least a couple tendays to get there, and they would be relentlessly attacked the entire time, gylippus summarising everyones feelings when he states unequivocally "To the hells with that idea!" It is then that Damai admits that there may well be another who might know of a better route, though he is somewhat chagrined to admit that one not in Savras's service might know more than he, he suggests the group travel to the ruins of Procalith to consult the Seer there.

As they are leaving the temple, intent on getting to the docks before the Tisiphone sets sail, the group are met by an old man escorted by a half dozen armed and armoured guards. He introduces himself as the Farseer, the high priest of the temple. Having been told about what was seen in the scrying bowl, he states that he will do what he can to persuade Tashluta's leaders to get the city ready for an attack, and he gifts the party with a chest of coins and a half dozen healing potions, to give them what aid he can spare, wishing them the best of luck on their quest.

Rushing down to the docks, the group manage to get aboard their ship before it sets sail, and they inform Captain Baeran that they need to head east down the coast towards Procalith. Arriving there in the evening of Nightal 6th, the ship anchors off the coast and the party row ashore in the lifeboats, camping out in a wrecked plaza, with no weapons worn or on show, as Damai had instructed them.

Towards morning, Gylippus and Jebodiah are on watch when a strange man, looking for all intents like a 3' tall dwarf with white hair, bald on top and bare of chin, dressed in red walks into view, smiling enigmatically, and asking them their business. There is some bargaining for a few minutes as the Seer does not wish to name a price, insisting that the group pay what they think is a fair price for the information they seek, this conflicting with Gylippus coin-counting nature, he not wanting to pay any more than he must, especially when the only currency that the Seer will accept is magic. Eventually though, the roguish wizard settles on handing him one of the brooches Zamtap made recently, and gains the location of Dowinn's Lode, an abandoned gold dwrf mining colony, a half days travel away from the ruins, the halls of which stretch under the Delphin Mountains, and emerge in the jungles only a couple days to the north of the city they seek.

Having woken by now, Aeron decides to hand over a wand, wanting to know what lives in the old dwarf halls, learning only though that the lower level that exits into the jungles is home to Troglodytes and Trens, the Seer claiming ignorance of what dwells in the upper levels, stating that his area of expertise are the jungles and the Yuan-ti who live there, not dwarves. Having heard about the fabled Rod of Auglad from Captain Baeran, Ki hands over a potion to try and purchase the location of the artifact, but learns only that it is somewhere within the city, and it was placed there, centuries ago by the Magister of the time.

Before leaving, the Seer gives the party one last piece of information, charging nothing for it. It states that the Yuan-ti are more active now than they have been for centuries because their god thrashing against his chains, has invigorated them, and this has awakened their masters, the dreaded sarrukh, who created the snakemen in their image.Leaving them with that thought to mull over, the Seer vanishes, some amongst the group hearing the sound of scales sliding over stone as the real creature departs, it having used a projected image to address them.

Making preparations to depart, the group let Baeran know that they will not be needing his services anymore, and they sell him the horses and pony that they had been transporting on the ship, knowing that they will be of no use to them underground or in the jungles.

DM's Notes:

A no combat session this one, but heavy on the roleplay from all my group, for which I am justifiably proud. I got a few laughs as I decribed just what the "Seer" looked like, obviously modelling him after Dungeon Master from the old D&D cartoon, choosing that image both for the obvious comedy appeal, but because my players had been joking a while back about putting me in that outfit, so figured I'd work it in somehow.

Dowinn's Lode is a hybrid, the name taken from the MUD I build, where it is the name of the evil dwarf town, while the maps for the place are coming from the 2E adventure Axe of the Dwarvish Lords (with a slight adjustment to the compass, so West becomes North, East becomes South, and some minor tweaking to the maps to fit them together in the way I want). So with that in mind, the next few sessions will be a good old fashioned Dungeon Crawl as they make their way under the mountains, through halls infested with monsters (and probably a few traps) in what I hope will be a fun homage to the Mines of Moria.

 

[Brakkart]

The Party With No Name

Figured it was about time that I posted the current stats for the group, as it's been a few sessions since the last such post, and there have been some changes:

Alastair Gylippus CN Human Rogue3/Wizard3
Gareth Zamtap N Human Cleric6 (Gond)
Dan Edward "Ash" Hamilton LG Human Paladin6 (Sune)
Phillip Aeron Greycastle NG Air Genasi Wizard6
Tony Ki Tendragion LN Human Rogue3/Monk2/Ranger1/Thief Acrobat1
Matt Jebodiah Bugman CG Dwarf Barbarian3/Fighter3

What with Richard leaving the group, Mark never showing up (not seen him in a month at least now with no explanation as to why, hence why I've now removed him from the group list), and Dan's character dying, plus almost everyone gaining in level since the last time the group stats were posted, the unnamed party now looks quite different.

Ki has chosen a prestige class eventually, and Jebodiah, Gylippus and Zamtap are either one or two levels from taking the classes they are aiming towards.

 

[Brakkart]

Adjusted Book list

This is a revision of the book list allowed for use in the campaign, both expanded and reorganised. As before the DM reserves the right to ban the use of anything from any book, though the only existing ban is on oriental themed classes from the Complete series, as well as the Warlock class.

Player Books

3.5 Players Handbook
3.5 Dungeon Masters Guide
3.5 Monster Manual
Complete Warrior
Complete Arcane
Complete Divine
Complete Adventurer
Player's Guide to Faerun
Races of Faerun
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting
Magic of Faerun
Faiths and Pantheons
Champions of Valor (out Oct 2005)
Frostburn
Epic Level Handbook
Aurora's Whole Realms Catalog
Official WotC Errata

Dungeon Masters Books (in addition to those listed above)

Serpent Kingdoms
Ssethregore: In the Coils of the Serpent Empire
Monstrous Compendium: Monsters of Faerun
Lost Empires of Faerun
Underdark
Shining South
Silver Marches
Lords of Darkness
Unapproachable East
Pool of Radiance: Attack on Myth Drannor
Champions of Ruin (out May 2005)
Waterdeep: City of Splendors (out June 2005)
Book of Vile Darkness
Dragon Magazine
Dungeon Magazine
Monster Manual II
Monster Manual III
Fiend Folio
Slayer's Guide to Yuan-ti
Slayer's Guide to Kobolds
Slayer's Guide to Lizardfolk
Slayer's Guide to Troglodytes
Draconomicon

 

[Brakkart]

DM's Log of Session Twenty Five

After several hours of trekking up an old mountain trail that wound its way up into the Delphin Mountains from Procalith, the party finally spotted the entrance to Dowinn's Lode, a fortified gatehouse built into cliffs on the far side of a dirty lake, crossed by a single stone bridge, the causeway ending at the cavernous opening in the cliffs that was the entrance hall itself. Above the gate loomed a set of enclosed battlements.

Deciding that they were not going to be lucky enough to get inside without a fight, Ki opted to go first and headed across the bridge, only to be ambushed by the Darktentacles lurking in the lake, its rubbery tendrils lashing out towards him. Seeing this threat emerge, Ash, Jebodiah and Zamtap moved towards their comrade, the priest chanting a prayer on everyone to bolster them for the battle to come. As the group walked out onto the bridge, so the kobold archers inside the battlements, loosed a volley of arrows at them, though only one struck home, lightly wounding Ash. Aeron walked up behind Jebodiah and boosted the dwarf's already considerable strength... and then things got really nasty.

Two fireballs erupted around the clustered group in quick succession as the kobold sorcerors lent their aid to the battle, the blasts hitting almost the entire group, though having very little effect on Aeron, he having cast several protective magics on his way up the trail towards the old dwarf hold. Hurting badly, Ki retreated back across the bridge, the Darktentacles following as best as it can, hauling some of its bulk up out of the waters and onto the edge of the bridge. Angry and hurting, Zamtap let loose with a Sound Burst on the kobolds, but the spell had little effect, killing a single archer and only slightly wounding one of the sorcerors and a sargeant. Seeing how ineffectual his spell was, and hurting badly from the fireballs himself, he headed back off the bridge also.

Thinking tactically, Ash laid hands on Jebodiah, healing him of much of the fire damage and the dwarf then hurled himself at the Darktentacles, charging into it with wild abandon. Standing alone in the middle of the bridge, made Ash a tempting target and sure enough every kobold archer launched arrows at him, though all either missed or clattered harmlessly off the paladins armour plating. Deciding to show the priest how an offensive is done, Aeron grinned and launched a Scintillating Sphere at the gatehouse, the blast shooting back through the arrowslits and annihilating six of the archers in one go, as well as badly wounding a sargeant and the unharmed sorceror. Both of the kobold sorcerors decided then to swig potions, one drinking a vial to bolster his charisma, the other gulping down healing fluid. As more arrows harmlessly bounced off Ash's armour, Ki ran back across the bridge towards the entrance to the Lode, now that the vast majority of the archers had been dealt with.

Jebodiah's battle with the many limbed Darktentacles was not going so well though, the creature easily grappling him and starting to crush the life out of the barbarian. Seeing his stout friend in peril, Ash charged into the melee, hacking away at the monstrosity, though failing to distract it enough for it to release its grip on the dwarf, Jebodiahs struggles proving not equal to the task of freeing himself from its clutches. Seeing Ki advancing towards the gatehouse, the few remaining kobold archers attempted to bring him down with their arrows, but fail to even hit him. Seeing the Darktentacles as the most pressing threat, Aeron launched a volley of magic missiles into the beast, and was answered in turn by both sorcerors launching volleys of the same into him, the missiles impacting harmlessly on his Shield though.

Both kobold sargeants took aim at Ki, injuring him, and the rogue changed direction then, charging into the Darktentacles also in an effort to rescue Jebodiah, as the creature was starting to head back towards the murk of the lake, his blow causing the creature to release its grasp on the dwarf and flee underwater, but to no avail, a vengeful Zamtap sending a Spiritual Warhammer to bludgeon the creature to death under the surface. Both Ash and Jebodiah breathed a sigh of relief, and swigged back healing potions, even as more arrows pinged off Ash's platemail and shield..

The group then sruged forwards across the bridge, Aeron in the lead, with Ash, Jebodiah and Ki in close pursuit, a web cast by one of the sorcerors failing to materialise as it was badly targeted, though the other sorcerors Magic Missiles struck home, doing what the archers arrows could not, and wounding Ash. Activating his healing brooch, Zamtap advanced back across the bridge, grinning as arrows bounced harmlessly off him.

The two sorcerors now clearly the greatest threat to the group, Aeron turned his attention on them, and stunned one with a Gedlee's Electric Loop, the other sorceror and both of the kobold sargeants retreating into the upper level of the gatehouse then, out of sight and range of the group as they abandoned the battlements and headed to the second line of defense, though not before the sorceror blasted Zamtap with another fireball, dropping the priest in the middle of the bridge, only the regenerative magic of his brooch keeping him from passing to the Fugue Plane. Seeing their priest down, both Ki and Ash raced back across the bridge, Ki intent on reaching him to see if he was dead or not, while Ash attempted to draw the kobold archers attention. Inside the gatehouse, Jebodiah advanced down the entrance hall, being pelted with rocks from murder holes in the ceiling as he headed towards the still intact third and fourth portcullises, the first two having been long since broken open.

In the entrance of the gatehouse, Aeron launched a volley of Magic Missiles at the stunned sorceror, being answered in turn by a fireball as the rival spellcaster snapped out of his trance. Out on the bridge, Ki tapped Zamtap with his healing wand, but the touch had little effect on the priests considerable wounds, while Ash did his best to provide a distraction at a safe distance from the rogue and fallen priest. Inside the gatehouse, Jebodiah set about the task of making the third portcullis less intact, Stormcleaver clanging again and again into the sturdy bars as he stubbornly cut his way through, being pelted the whole time from above to the sound of kobold laughter and taunts.

Casting Horizikaul's Boom on the sorceror still at the battlements, Aeron smiled in satisfaction hearing the kobolds death scream. Ki tapped Zamtap again with his wand, restoring the priest enough to wake him, he then drinking a healing potion and standing up. Seeing the gondsman up on his feet again, Ash headed back to where Aeron was stood in the entrance of the gatehouse. Growling at the annoyance of trying to work whilst being pelted, Jebodiah took a break from hacking at the bars and drank a healing potion of his own, while Aeron took advantage of a murder hole opening above to cast another Gedlee's Loop on the sorceror up there, stunning him. Both Ki and Zamtap healed their wounds and headed back across the bridge towards where Aeron and Ash were gathered. Deciding to copy Aeron's tactic, Ash drew his pistol and shot up a murder hole, killing a kobold above, but suffering as a basket of rocks was dropped on him, as did Jebodiah as he drank yet another potion of healing...

DM's Notes:

Well this was a hell of a session. I honestly didn't expect the group to do as much running back and forth as they did (and this pattern continues in the next session!), and had expected them to get into the hold proper this session. Maybe I overestimated them, or the dice just weren't on their side this time, but the assault on Dowinn's Lode parte one sure was a lot of fun to run. Having said that, the group were minus Gylippus this week, and thus lacking in spellpower (and sneakiness), leaving Aeron to take on two sorcerors singlehanded (which credit to him he did very well).

 

[Brakkart]

DM's Log of Session Twenty Six

Standing in the entrance to the gatehouse, Aeron watched the ceiling carefully, and when one of the murder holes opened he cast Steel Dance on his twin daggers, and sent the blades soaring up through the opening with the instruction to attack anything that moved up there, with much screaming and cursing being heard below as the startled kobolds above suddenly found themselves in melee with the enchanted blades. With the kobolds above distracted for a while, Gylippus, Ki and Zamtap raced across the bridge into the relative safety of the gatehouses entry hall, as Jebodiah continued to batter his way through the third portcullis, finally chopping through and being saved a repeat of his labours, as Zamtap stoneshaped an opening around the side of the fourth portcullis.

Jebodiah moved around the fourth portcullis then to throw his weight against the huge stone doors that marked the entrance way into the hold proper, but to little effect. Aeron remained at the entrance to the gatehouse though, adamant that the party should retreat, and return the next day to continue breaking in when they were healed up. His words had little effect, as while Zamtap healed the groups wounds, Gylippus sent a fireball from his wand up through a murder hole, wiping out a good number of the kobolds above as they were no longer being slaughtered by the flying swords.

Jebodiah strained against the stone doors, grunting and shoving, but remained unable to shift them, even with Ki trying to lend a shoulder to the effort. Zamtap continued healing the dwarf, and Gylippus sent another fireball into the hall above them, killing more of the kobolds and ending the rain of rocks at last. He then ran to join Jebodiah, Ash and Ki, the foursome hurling themselves at the stone doors as one, and finally shoving them open, only to be met with a hail of arrows, as they saw that the doors opened in a small hall with a high ceiling, the walls on the upper floor dotted with arrow slits.

Falling back from the onslaught of arrows, the arrowheads exploding into flame on impact, the majority of the party finally heeded Aeron's calls from the mouth of the gatehouse to pull back and return tomorrow, starting to move that way. All that is apart from Ash and Gylippus, who headed into the storm of arrows, the paladin shielding the sneaky mage, as they made their way to a side door, where Gylippus got to work on the lock, as arrows clattered off Ash's shield.

Aeron though was having problems of his own, the remaining sorceror having returned with his apprentices, the trio blasting him with magic missiles constantly in an effort to bring his shield spell down. Deciding to flee before that happened, Aeron ran across the bridge and away down the trail, in his haste to get away forgetting just how long a range the Fireball spell has, the senior sorceror blasting him off his feet more than 200 feet from the gatehouse entrance, the genasi wizard remaining down, lifeblood seeping out. Seeing this from the entrance of the gatehouse, the others quickly realised that running wasn't an option, the sorcerors above would likely pick them off as they fled, so they headed back towards where Ash and Gylippus were, while Ki raced towards the fallen Aeron. The kobold sorcerors though didn't blast him, instead heading back to their quarters in the hold to rest.

Reaching Aeron, Ki quickly restored him to health with the use of his healing wand, the wizard quaffing a potion and the pair headed back towards the entrance then, even as Gylippus finished picking the lock and the party hastily cleared out of the murder hall and into a large section of tunnels and chambers, that from the defaced murals on the walls used to be the visitors quarters. Hastily building a barricade from wooden doors they tore from their frames and wood shaped together, the party settled down for a nervous nights sleep, badly in need of the rest.

DM's Notes:

Well they finally got inside, albeit with a lot of running back and forth and even more arguing. Phil was very determined to have the group back out of the gatehouse and rest down the mountain, and to be fair he almost got his way. It was only when he got fireballed on his way down the trail that the rest realised that it was an all or nothing attack, and returned to the front. Dan & Alastair worked well together and have since changed seats at the table so that they sit together, to better coordinate tactics.

They are inside Dowinn's Lode now, still a long way to go before they get out the south end of the hold though. I'm thinking most of not all of the group should gain a couple levels on negotiating their way through the Lode, which should put them at about 9th level for their attack on the Yuan-ti city.

 

[Kurzak T]

Awesome!

Two updates in a day!

Frontal assault is usually not a great way to go...

Just want you to know I'm really enjoying your story hour Brakkart, keep up the good work!

 

[Brakkart]

Two updates in a day!

Just want you to know I'm really enjoying your story hour Brakkart, keep up the good work!

Woo hooo!! Feedback and praise! Thank you, was beginning to wonder if anyone besides me and my players read this thread. As for the two updates, yeah its been a while since I posted anything, had 3 sessions worth to write up. Two down, one to go. Brain feels a bit fried after writing up the first two though, but I'll do my best to get the latest session log up tomorrow.

 

[Kurzak T]

I'm usually just a lurker/reader, but you've posted a lot without much feedback and I didn't want you to get discouraged. I enjoy this kind of adventure log format. It makes me feel like I was at the table with you guys.