D&D 5E Rhenny's Princes of the Apocalypse Campaign Logs

This kicks off our new campaign. This session was really a prelude to the adventure. I wanted to give the PCs a way to bond and develop their characters before we actually got to Red Larch. I had everyone speak a little about his or her character to start the session, and then I asked the entire group to come up with a little story to explain where they all met and how they got to know one another. We decided that they all were in Triboar and started from there.

PCs (1st Level)

Pate the Half-Elven Bard (in possession of a map that shows the Sumber Hills perhaps an area where an elemental node exists)
Zeed the Arakocra Rogue (fearful of hippogriff riders who have attacked in the area – also hopeful to find more Arakocra in the Dessarin Valley)
Hundar the Half-Orc Fighter (Tracking Gar Shatterkeep, who sunk the ship Hundar sailed on)
Turytopple the Gnome Paladin (A gnome trying to fight evil)
Kippipop the Gnome Sorcerer (Looking for mystery and lore)
Namfoodle “Foo” the Gnome Rogue (Trying to find riches)

The Gnomes in the group had some history together. Tury was shipwrecked and ultimately found Kippipop’s Gnome village. Those two fell in love and decided to travel the world together, setting out for adventure with their good friend Namfoodle. They met with Pate, Zeed and Hundar in Triboar. Pate was playing for the crowd in the “Silver Horn Tavern” and Foo was quickly inspired to whip out his harmonica to play along. He wasn’t so bad, so Pate took a liking to the little fella. All the while, Tury worked to create a mechanical hamster that could keep time with a little symbol. Unfortunately, Hundar, accidently on purpose, stepped on the prototype and crushed it. This influenced both Tury and Kippipop to follow him around and talk his ears off. Kippipop and Tury bantered about adventures and plans for the future when they noticed a birdman swoop down from the sky. Zeed, the Aarakocra, joined the group and they all traveled south toward Red Larch. All of the adventurers had also shared that they experienced strange anomalies with the weather over the past few months…surging tides, freak windstorms, wildfires, even some earth tremors.

After a day and a half on the road, they came to a ruined stone structure that looked like an old toll booth. There were two cloaked, larger humanoids in the road. One of them held a stick with a flag on the end, with the flag down on the ground near its feet. When the group got close enough, one of the figures spoke with a guttural voice and asked for 2 gp toll per person. Zeed was able to see under the cloaks to tell that these figures were Half-Orcs. Hundar spoke Orc to them and tried to intimidate them into letting him pass. They were taken aback and let Hundar through. Pate spun a tale and convinced the toll keepers that he had aided their kind in a battle against goblins a long time ago. Miraculously they believed him and let him pass, but they were unsure, and the group heard them say something about how the boss wouldn’t like all this. Then Kippipop stepped forward and hugged one of the Half-Orc’s legs and talked about hugging and kissing instead of paying a toll. At this point one of the Half-Orcs turned to the other and said this was getting too silly. They realized that the group was trying to get past without paying. That’s when they twitched and went for their weapons. The Half-Orc with the flag raised it up into the air as if to signal others and then the fight started.

It was Foo who took an arrow in the chest, fired from a light forest area 40’ to the east. Luckily other arrows from that direction missed Hundar, Pate and Foo again. Kippipop who was standing near a Half-Orc, clapped her hands and a small thunder pop lightly hurt those around her. Unfortunately, it was her allies, Foo and Hundar, not the Half-Orcs. Zeed took to the air and fired an arrow down upon one of the Half-Orcs, hurting it badly. Pate tried to viciously mock one, but it would have none of that. Soon, the group realized that there were other foes firing arrows from the trees. Turytopple was hurt by a Half-Orc’s battle axe, but soon the party took down the Half-Orc foes.

Hundar ran towards the trees. The others followed in turn. It was hard to spot the goblins that were firing arrows and hiding in the trees, but Hundar was able to cut down two eventually. Foo took down another, but the fourth one ran deeper into the forest. Zeed took to the air and was able to find the fleeing goblin. It looked as if it was running toward a cave. Zeed was able to overtake the goblin and land before it with rapier drawn. The little goblin ran right into Zeed and the rapier went clean through its chest. Zeed could see the cave, but realized he was pretty far from the rest of the party so he took to the air and flew back to them. Meanwhile, the others found some silver on the Half-Orcs, and a necklace with a tooth on it that they gave to Kippi.
The group, thinking that these were bandits who perhaps had a hideout in the cave, traveled into the forest. Tury wanted to smite evil so he urged the party forward. With Hundar and Tury in the lead, they marched right into the cave. Inside they saw 4 goblins, 1 goblin chief and 2 half-orcs. Since the group was not sneaking in, the foes reacted and came at them. The battle was fierce. Kippipop tried to sleep the goblins and caught 2 of them. Tury strode right in and confronted them directly. When he was in their midst, he dodged and juked to keep the foes from hitting him. Pate was able to make one of the Half-Orcs laugh uncontrollably for a few rounds. The others attacking as they could, missing a good number of times, and hitting some. The other goblins woke their sleeping brothers before engaging the party, and the entire battle lasted nearly 30-45 seconds.

During the fight, Kippipop made the sound of an owl bear growling which kept the boss back an extra round since he feared moving toward the “strange magic.” A few rounds into the battle, Kippipop was slashed brutally by one of the goblins and she went down. Soon after, Pate was knocked down by one of the half-orcs. The others battled on, but it was looking bad for the party. Zeed eventually took one goblin down. He had a hard time seeing in the dim lighting of the cave though. Foo also took one down. Tury dodged and weaved, but when Kippi went down, he moved toward her to guard her from more injury, attempting to bind her wounds as best he could. He ended up spending nearly 3 rounds holding her and applying pressure to her open would, and eventually he stabilized her. Hundar harnessing his second wind, hacked a few of the foes, but he too took a mighty blow that should have laid him low but for his half-orc resilience. Then, with one blow he took down the goblin chief (critical hit doing 21 points of damage). This turned the battle in the party’s favor. Zeed attempted to bandage Pate, but could not do it. Lucky for Pate, he stabilized on his own (with inspirational encouragement from one of the others) and did not die.

After killing the last foe, the group was able to take a few hours rest. Pate and Kippi both regained consciousness and everyone bandaged themselves as best they could. It was a tough first few days on the road.

The group found that the goblin leader was wearing a nice chain shirt, which Tury took, they also pocketed some gold and silver, and found a scroll. Pate read over the scroll and could tell that it was magical. It could be used to cast a cure wounds spell and a lesser restoration spell. The group also found a crude map. Kippipop and Foo looked it over. It was a map of the Sumber Hills with Rivergard Keep marked and circled. In one corner of the map was a strange symbol. It also said, “Grimjaw pays for stuff.”

The group posted watches through the next night and used the cave for shelter. They were able to rest uninterrupted.

Comments

1600 xp (1000 for the monsters and 600 for roleplaying and story awards) - the PCs are nearly 2nd level. They will be able to level up after a little more play next session.

The fight in the cave was very dangerous. I thought the group would go down, but they were able to use inspiration a few moments to avoid catastrophe. Hundar's class and race abilities really saved them too. It was cool seeing the Arakocra fly and overtake the fleeing goblin. That helped the group find the cave and eventually get the treasure and the map that they found.
Kippipop and Turytopple had terrific interplay roleplaying their Gnome couple, while the others formed bonds based on other ideas each of the players had. Since the group has traveled together and has fought together, and nearly died together, they are beginning to adhere and feel a bond with one another.

My play summary does not do justice to the roleplaying. We spent about 45 minutes in the beginning setting up the PC relationships and "bonding". I like how that got us going.

You may notice how sometimes PCs don't do what's optimum in a situation. That's awesome. I really like when players roleplay and choose an interesting action rather than the "right" action. In one situation, Kippipop did her thunderclap cantrip with friendlies near her. That's why she's called Kippipop. Another time, Zeed hit a goblin in the cave with his first attack, but decided to use his off hand and not sneak attack because he thought the goblin was really injured. Unfortunately, he rolled a 1 for damage and the goblin had 2 hp. Needless to say, his other attack missed so he couldn't take down the goblin, and it was that goblin that slashed Kippi and took her down. Additionally, Turytopple ran to try to use medicine skill on Kippipop (his wife) spending 2 or 3 rounds out of action just to save her from dying. (He had already used his lay on hands on himself during the first fight).

Interestingly, the dodge action worked really well as long as there were enough PCs going on the offense. Once Kippi and Pate went down, defense had to turn to offense. Oh...also, Pate actually rolled his death save with inspiration and averted rolling a "1" which would have killed him.

Session 2 (About 2 ½ hours of play…including a quick level up time)

PCs (1st Level – Leveling up to 2nd Level)

Pate the Half-Elven Bard (in possession of a map that shows the Sumber Hills perhaps an area where an elemental node exists)
Zeed the Arakocra Rogue (fearful of hippogriff riders who have attacked in the area – also hopeful to find more Arakocra in the Dessarin Valley)
Hundar the Half-Orc Fighter (Tracking Gar Shatterkeep, who sunk the ship Hundar sailed on)
Turytopple the Gnome Paladin (A gnome trying to fight evil)
Kippipop the Gnome Sorcerer (Looking for mystery and lore)
Namfoodle “Foo” the Gnome Rogue (Trying to find riches)

The party spent the night in a bandit cave they cleared and got a good night’s sleep. The next day was a crisp and clear spring day making it a great day for travel so the party continued on their way south toward Red Larch. After nearly a day of travel they could see the town before them. They also saw an ominous black cloud move quickly over the Sumber Hills over the town and a fierce rain began pelting them. Without warning, the rain turned to hail, and as the group trekked closer to Red Larch, the hail got bigger and bigger. Tury put his shield over Kippi to protect her as Kippi studied the strange storm. She knew it wasn’t magical, yet it was strange that the weather would change so quickly and become so violent. Hundar, Foo, Pate and Zeed all began running toward Red Larch seeking refuge as they all got battered by the now painful pieces of hail. Tury did protect Kippi, but he got banged up and nearly lost his footing (hit twice down to 1 hp), so he continued to run and use his healing magic to bolster his step. Pate, Hundar, Zeed and Foo all got hit, but they were all able to make it to the Helm at Highsun, a two story tavern that seemed crowded and lively.

Inside, the dimly lit, wood paneled taproom was astir with what seemed like 40 or 50 patrons. The place was crowded and loud and there were no empty tables at all. The patrons looked quickly toward the party as it entered, but their revels at happy hour were not broken so they went back to their drinks, their games, their conversations. With a quick scan of the room, it was Hundar who noticed one table where a few humans and a half-orc female warrior were trading stories and rolling dice. Pate slipped into the room and headed straight towards a musician who was playing a lyre. Pate was not impressed.

The party moved up to the long bar at the back of the establishment and Tury got the bartender’s attention by flipping a gold piece up on to the bar. He ordered hot drinks for everyone in the party, and the bartender, a rotund man, called to another as he helped other patrons. The other man, started talking to Tury and the group. He was one of the owners, Garlen Harlathurl, and as he spoke the party learned that the weather’s been acting strangely for about 2 weeks. Another patron, sitting next to them, chimed in and said that Mintra Mahndyvvewr’s grandaughter, Pell told some strange story about a ghost she saw out by an old tomb. Then Garlen mentioned that lots of new folk had been coming to Red Larch, boarding at Mother Yanlantah’s down the way. He said they were rowdy folk who drank hard and sometimes a bit too loud for his own liking. With that, Tury noticed that Garlen was looking at one of the tables with a snear. After a little more small talk, learning about the Swinging Sword Inn across the street and some other places of interest like Mandyvvewr’s Poultry down The Long Road, everyone heard the crashing of glasses in the middle of the tavern. It seemed that one of the serving girls had dropped a tray of glasses right near the table with the rude men Garlen was talking about earlier. She picked up some of the broken glassware and then stormed right by the party behind the bar, muttering under her breath how those guys need to keep their hands to themselves. When Tury heard this, he asked his pal, Foo, to sneak over toward that table to give a listen to what those rude men were on about. Foo disappeared into the crowd and got close enough to hear them talking about their work at the mines and their desire to stay close to the black earth. One of them teased another for pinching the serving girl’s bottom, and they all laughed pigishly.

Before too much longer, the ground began to shake and everyone in the Helm got quiet. The tremor felt more like a small earthquake, and after a few seconds everyone could hear a grinding outside the front door and a high pitched cry for help. It sounded like a little boy. Hundar was the first to bound out of the tavern, hurdling patrons, tables and the like. When he got outside he found that the storm had passed, and the sun was setting, but there was a 20’ crater in them middle of the road. He ran up to the edge, but lost his footing as the ground around the edge crumbled away. He tumbled down some of the crumbling dirt into a pit 20’ down. At the bottom he saw that the pit opened up into a larger cavern. He also saw a frightened little boy who said he was just going to the Helm to find his daddy when the ground just gave way beneath him.

By this time, a crowd of people all stood around the sink hole in the road and the rest of the party was trying to look down into the hole. Tury got out a rope, fastened it to a hitching post near the tavern and then lowered it down the hole. The others got close and noticed that three of the townsfolk were trying to push everyone back away from the hole. One even came up to Tury and told the Gnome to move back. Tury could tell that the guy seemed to want to keep everyone from seeing what was in the hole. He even caught the guy looking over to a few other men that were trying to keep people back. Kippi and Tury gave that fella an earful of Gnome speak, and Tury was able to convince the guy to let him pull up his companion who had fallen into the hole. With that, Hundar, little boy in tow, climbed out of the hole and released the little fella, who promptly ran off to find his dad.

Tury, without missing a beat, told Kippi to stay up top while he went below to check out the area under the sink hole, which looked like a more open cavern area. Then Tury went down the hole. Kippi did not stay up top. She slid down, and so did Foo and Hundar. Zeed, the Aarakocra, and Pate the Bard, stayed behind (because they could not play longer, etc.).

Down below, the party found a tunnel leading far to the north and a stone doorway to the east. Curious, Tury led the way toward the stone doorway. When the group got closer they saw some used black cloaks hanging on pegs near the doorway. Foo checked the door for traps and locks and was surprised to find that the doors just pushed open, no locks, no traps. Then Tury pushed the doors open and led the group down a long man-made corridor until he came to two Dwarves carved in stone blocks looking at each other on opposite sides of the longer corridor. Foo checked them out and could not find any traps or hidden features, but they all noticed that there was a 6” gap on either side of the stone. Tury put his shield in one of the gaps and used it to leverage the stone, which pivoted and revealed a hidden passage to the south. The party moved down the passage and began to smell a horrible odor. Tury and Foo could tell that this odor was worse than any out house they had ever visited. Foo took the opportunity to sneak ahead to scout, and he found a hole in the ground where the odor was most rank. This undoubtedly was a latrine so the party backtracked and went to the other stone door on the north.

They wound their way up another small tunnel behind the other pivoting door, and Tury was the first to come to a 20’ x 20’ chamber. In the middle of the room there was a pile of corpses and two giant rats were feeding upon them. Tury could hear the scuttling of claws on stone in other parts of the room, but before he could really say much, Kippi moved right into the room and fired a frosty ray at one of the rats in the corner of the room. Since she was now exposed, three rats attacked her, but miraculously none of them could bit her. Then the others joined the fray and began to take down the rats. Hundar had some horrible luck, swinging wildly and missing a number of times. Foo got bitten once, but right after, he made some chittering noises to speak with the rats. Lo and behold, Foo got the rats to back away. Kippi was impressed by this, she too could speak with animals, and she realized that her friend was actually talking to the larger rodents. Hundar didn’t care. He kept on swinging, but couldn’t hit any of the rats. Tury took this time to inspect one of the corpses. That’s when he noticed that a strange symbol was carved into the forehead of the skull, a triangle shaped rune with a single line in the middle of the triangle, perpendicular to the base. Kippi fired her frosty ray once again, and froze one of the rats in place while Foo continued to speak with the rats to get the others to back away even more. Then he tried to befriend the most injured rat, and the rat seemed to take a liking to the Gnome. Hundar, not understanding all of what was happening, and angered by his inability to hit these creatures, swung his warhammer at the friendly rat and smashed it to a pulp. Foo was devastated by this, but Tury promised to make him a mechanical rat. So, before moving on, the party took 10 minutes to let Tury construct a mechanical rat for Foo to keep.

During that time, Hundar heard some shouts back from the way they had already come. People were searching for them. “Which way did they go?”

Hundar told the others and then worked his way back to the bend in the tunnel to see if he could see anyone there. He couldn’t make anything out although he could still hear some conversation behind the pivoting stone Dwarf door. The party decided to head back to see who had come after them. When they got close to the door, they saw the flickering of torchlight beyond. Hundar charged out to find 6 humanoids in robes…two with torches and scimitars, the others with scimitars as well. The cloaked humanoids said that they were “The Bringers of Woe” and nobody but the “Believers” should be there. They were going to make sure that the intruders would never leave. Hundar was hit badly by one of the men (crit double sixes!) Three others engaged as others fired crossbow bolts. Hundar stood his ground as Tury came to help…then Kippi and then Foo. Kippi tried to put the “Bringers of Woe” to sleep, but only 1 fell. Tury got hit with a crossbow bolt right in the chest (another crit), and then Foo stepped in to stab and kill one of the foes.

That’s were we ended for the night….mid battle.

Comments

After the party saved the little boy, I awarded them 300 xp, which got them each to level 2. We spent about 10 minutes leveling up and then kept playing. I like how easy it is to level up in 5e (especially with Fantasy Grounds character sheets in the FG gametable).

Hundar had horrible luck, missing nearly every attack he made.

Kippi’s sleep spell kind of fizzled, only rolling 15 hp worth of sleep.

The group did a lot of roleplaying and found some important information in town and in the dungeon.

Pate’s player was not around tonight, and Zeed’s player had to bow out early, so we just had those two PCs stay in town.

Session 3 – The Tomb of Moving Stones

PCs (2nd Level)

Pate the Half-Elven Bard (in possession of a map that shows the Sumber Hills perhaps an area where an elemental node exists)
Zeed the Arakocra Rogue (fearful of hippogriff riders who have attacked in the area – also hopeful to find more Arakocra in the Dessarin Valley)
Hundar the Half-Orc Fighter (Tracking Gar Shatterkeep, who sunk the ship Hundar sailed on)
Turytopple the Gnome Paladin (A gnome trying to fight evil)
Kippipop the Gnome Sorcerer (Looking for mystery and lore)
Namfoodle “Foo” the Gnome Rogue (Trying to find riches)
Pate and Zeed remained at the sink hole in the street while the others had been gone underneath for about an hour.

The party was exploring the corridors beneath the sink hole, in mid combat with 6 Bringers of Woe, robed men wielding scimitars and light crossbows. The Bringers of Woe told the group they would never let them leave this place alive because they were not “Believers.” At one point, two of the Bringers of Woe tried to push Hundar to the east, down a corridor they had not traveled yet, but Hundar stood his ground. Tury was hurt by one, but Foo and Kippipop avoided taking damage. Tury kept telling Kippi to stay back, but Kippi kept on running up to be with her husband. They bantered at high speed, simultaneously showing their excitement, their irritation and their love. In between sentences, Kippi used her ray of frost to slightly freeze some of the foes. Hundar smashed them with his warhammer, and Tury fought with rapier. Foo alternated between short bow and rapier/dagger combination. He also chased down a fleeing Bringer of Woe so that it could not escape.

At one point, Tury was hurt pretty badly (3 hp) so he had to use a healing spell on himself as he stood against two Bringers of Woe. Kippi helped out with a sleep spell, but only put an injured one of the foes to sleep. While they were fighting, one of the Bringers of Woe yelled out, “Grund, get ready number 1.” Then later, he yelled out, “Grund, get out here and help us take out these intruders.” At that point, Grund, a half-orc, came running down the east corridor about half way to the party. He seemed confused and asked the Bringers of Woe what he should do. One Bringer of Woe was able to run from Hundar and eventually make it to the door about 100’ to the east. He told Grund to take care of them as he disappeared into the next room. Hundar charged closer to Grund, and tried to intimidate Grund saying that he and Grund were the same race, he should not fight “or I’ll break you.” (something like that). Grund seemed affected by that so he ran back to the east. Tury, Kippi and Foo finished off the other Bringers of Woe to the west and started back to the east when they heard a clanking of chains and the slamming of a metal cage that had dropped from the ceiling to trap Hundar in a 10’x10’ rusty iron cell.

Hundar didn’t like this. He used all his effort to smash the bars on the eastern side of the cage as hard as he could (used his action surge too). Two hits from his warhammer broke the cage open so he was able to move further to the east. Unfortunately, that separated him from the rest of the party. The others were just about to move up when another cage fell from the ceiling right before the other cage. Now there were two metal cages blocking their path so Tury inspected the cage. Kippi was amazed at what was happening and quite transfixed by the way Tury babbled about the design and mechanisms he though might run this strange cage trap. She just sat and watched her husband figure out what to do. Foo stayed back a little near the Dwarven statue doors that the party had gone through earlier and Tury threw some rope to the top of the first cage to try to snag the top of the cage so that they could try to lift it from the top and bottom. Foo caught the other end of the rope and pulled. He was able to pull it up and then he wedged the end of the rope through the statue to hold the first cage up. Later, they tried to raise the next one, but they had a little more trouble at first. Eventually, Foo hoisted this one up about 3’, enough for Tury and Kippi to crawl under and scuttle closer to Hundar.

Hundar ran into the next room and got behind the Bringer of Woe who had been working chains to drop the cages. That Bringer of Woe told Grund to attack, and Grund, very confused, decided to take one swing at Hundar. He hit Hundar, but only grazed him. It seemed as if Grund was attacking half-heartedly. Hundar didn’t waste any time. He smashed the Bringer of Woe and crumpled him into a heap. Then he tried to calm Grund.

In that room, Hundar saw an 8’ standing stone in the middle of the large chamber, a pile of rocks only 10’ from him with a small boy pinned under them, face down. He took some time to speak with Grund and get him to put his mace away. Speaking in Orcish calmed Grund and the two sat down together next to a door on the eastern side of the room. When the others came in, they didn’t know what to think. Hundar had moved to the boy and was calling for Grund to help him remove some of the rocks. At first, Tury thought that Grund was an enemy, but after seeing Grund obey Hundar, he realized that they were now allies. Together the party started taking rocks off the boy. Namfoo noticed that there was an inscription on the standing stone in the middle of the room that read, “Displease not the Delvers.”

The party found that the boy was alive, and as soon as the party neared, he asked for water. Tury placed his hands on the boy’s shoulder and restored some of his health by using his divine gift. Then Kippipop gave the boy some water. Feeling better, the boy told the group that he wanted them to leave the rocks on him. He was being punished by his dad. Hundar tried to intimidate the boy, and Tury tried to soothe the boy. It was kind of a little battle of minds. The boy told Hundar his name was Braelon, but then he started to get frightened. Tury’s gentle approach calmed the boy and got him talking. Braelon told them that his dad was Ratharr, one of the towns’ people of power, a “Believer.” The dad was a co-owner of a knick-nack, used equipment shop called Vallivoe’s Sundries. Vallivoe was not a believer though. From Braelon and Grund, the party found out that the Believers were a secret society of power brokers in the town. They also found out that Marlandro Gaelkur (the barber), Illmeth Waelvur and some others that Grund could not name were “Believers,” and they often come down here for meetings and to read the moving stones. There was a chamber to the east that had moving stones, but Braelon said he never saw it. He said that the Believers were starting to think more about listening to the stones and praying to Earth gods because the stones were sending them messages that helped them predict strange occurrences, like the earthquake that opened up the sink hole.

Tury and Hundar had a conversation about what to do with Grund and Braelon, and after Grund and Braelon chimed in, Tury gave Grund 5 gp and told him that he and Braelon should get out of here and hide. Grund said they could hide by the market place where he sold pickles. He knew a good spot. Braelon told the party about the tunnel that led to the Wagoneer’s shop basement. With that, Foo scouted the way back alone to make sure that there was no trouble lurking in shadows. He saw that there were still townspeople in the street above where the sink hole opened, so he hid in shadows and snuck up the northern tunnel until he found the door to the Wagoneer’s shop. He listened to the door and then jimmied the door open to see that there was nobody in the shop basement. It was after hours and presumably nobody was working. Tury asked Kippi to write a note for Grund that told Pate and Zeed and anyone else who might read it that Grund was very helpful and was doing the right thing. He was not a Believer and should be treated well. Grund took the gold and the note and he and Braelon exited the Tomb of the Moving Stones.

The party members looked around the room a bit and decided that they would continue to the east to delve further into this mystery.

Comments

I like the way this part of the adventure was written, the trap cages, the roleplaying of Grund and Braelon. Of course, I changed a few things to keep the game flowing (there are so many NPCs and locations in the town, it is hard to keep it all straight and know which NPCs are at which place, etc.)

We played for about 2 hours. The one battle with the 6 Bringers of Woe (well…5 during this session because we started mid-battle with 1 already dead), took longer than I expected. The entire thing went 14 rounds. It was neat how I had the foes run away and that forced the party to split up a bit. Foo went east, Hundar went west, the others stayed in the center. Then, when Hundar was under a cage, wham! The Bringer of Woe that took Grund’s place by the chains dropped a cage on him. When the others were under cages, I decided to drop a cage randomly since the foe didn’t know where they were. The cages were an interesting obstacle. (I also only dropped 1 cage per turn…the book says he can drop 2, but since it wasn’t Grund operating the chains, and I didn’t want to trap too many PCs, I made the Bringer of Woe only drop 1).

Again, I have to compliment players for roleplaying. The Gnomes and Hundar are really starting to establish a party dynamic that includes a few very specific personalities with some light conflict, but also some excellent teamwork. I’m trying to encourage the bonding of PCs, so I’m hoping that as they adventure together, each PC bonds more and more with each other.

Session 4 – “Baragustus and Larrakh”

PCs (2nd Level)

Pate the Half-Elven Bard (in possession of a map that shows the Sumber Hills perhaps an area where an elemental node exists)
Zeed the Arakocra Rogue (fearful of hippogriff riders who have attacked in the area – also hopeful to find more Arakocra in the Dessarin Valley)
Hundar the Half-Orc Fighter (Tracking Gar Shatterkeep, who sunk the ship Hundar sailed on)
Turytopple the Gnome Paladin (A gnome trying to fight evil)
Kippipop the Gnome Sorcerer (Looking for mystery and lore)
Namfoodle “Foo” the Gnome Rogue (Trying to find riches)
(Zeed’s player was not present and he had stayed above…Kippipop’s player did not play this session, and Tury’s player came in toward the end of the session).
The party had just helped Braelon and Grund leave the dungeon, and they were resting when Pate the Bard joined them. Pate and Foo investigated a large stone door to the east and found a 4” crack to the right of it. Foo gave Pate some string so that Pate could put his hand inside and tie the string on to a small lever. As the two tried to decide how to pull it, they both stepped back. The indecision was getting to Hundar so he came forward and pulled the string. They all heard a clicking sound, and then when Hundar pushed on the doors, they opened.

The group walked into another 50’ square room. In the middle of the room they saw a statue of a Dwarf, propped up by a wooden frame. On the ground before it there were coins and gems and a dagger. Again, Pate and Foo moved cautiously. As they inched closer, Hundar strode in and just collected the treasure from the floor, not worried about any trap or other misfortune. To the bold, went the spoils. Eventually, Hundar split the coin with his companions, but he kept the dagger and the gems for now. All could see that the dagger had a blue leather grip, a star motif, and the blade was still caked with dried blood. Inside this room, the group took a short rest and Tury, Hundar and Pate were able to bind up some of their wounds and catch their breaths with the additional aid provided by Pate’s inspirational music.

Eventually, Pate and Foo moved closer to an eastern door, and they could hear a raspy, jittery voice on the other side. Foo could make out a voice in common saying, “Grund? Is that you?” Immediately, Pate tried to imitate Grund’s voice, but he failed miserably. The voice on the other side could tell it wasn’t Grund and it asked more questions. Hundar grunted back in Orcish. That seemed to make the voice on the other side worry more, but eventually Hundar convinced the voice that he was Grund and that he was with friends. Baragustus, the voice on the other side of the door, decided to clear away some debris that he had placed as a barricade on the other side of the door so that the others could push through the door. When he saw that the half-orc was not Grund, he got very frightened. He blabbed about “The Believers”, the travelers that the others had killed, and the Black Earth Cultists, the priest named Larrakh, and the way that he had been reading the stones in the next room. The party found out that Larrakh and another cultist were in the next room, and when Hundar said that they would kill the cult priest, Baragustus ran away.

For a lot of this, Kippipop and Tury were babbling back and forth with each other, keeping behind the rest of the group. Once in a while, Pate, Hundar, even Foo would ask them to be quiet so that they could be more stealthy. The Gnomes would acquiesce for a short time, but resume their chatter moments later.

After Baragustus ran, Hundar burst into the next room and saw a huge underground chamber 120’ x 100’ with 20’ ceilings. Inside the room were 10-12 standing stones, much like the rocks of stonehenge. Most interestingly, they were all hovering about 1” from the ground. Hundar could tell that there was some scuffling in the south, so he ran down there. As he rounded a large set of stones, he saw a Black Earth Cultist wearing chain mail that had rocks encrusted into it. He also wielded a nasty morningstar. Hundar ran back to his friends at the door so as to not engage immediately.

Then they heard the cultist ask Larrakh for some light. The priest in the south east told the cultist to come closer so the cultist moved back. Taking this opportunity, Foo, Pate and Hundar moved into the room and took cover behind different standing stones. Foo and Pate tried to hide in shadows behind some of the large stones, but Hundar moved forward without fear.

Soon, the group saw light from the south east, and then the cultist, who now had a glowing bright shield, moved up to some stones that were in front of Hundar. The cultist tried to shove them into Hundar, and since they were hovering, his running push sent them toward Hundar with some force. Hundar was able to brace himself and catch the stone, averting being bashed and trapped. Then he bounded further to the east to try to find the priest, Larrakh.

Pate and Foo snuck around from different sides and eventually engaged with the cultist. Tury also joined in as Kippi hid and watched in case the group needed some wild magic.

Hundar found the priest, but he could not connect as he swung his warhammer at his foe. To open, Larrakh grasped Hundar with a chill touch spell, doing cold necrotic damage. Then, unconcerned, and feeling very confident, Larrakh stepped away from Hundar to position himself to cast a spell at the entire group. Hundar saw an opening and smashed the priest with a very punishing blow (crit), but the priest stayed on his feat and muttered some divine magic that only affected Foo, making him move much more slowly.

The others had a tough time injuring the cultist, but eventually, Foo shot an arrow at him and Pate was able to stick him twice with his rapier, the last attack skewering the cultist’s heart (a crit).

Tury made it up to Hundar who was now engaging Larrakh. That’s when the priest shattered the stone behind them and caused Tury to hit the ground unconscious, perhaps with a shattered eardrum. Hundar kept his feet, but he was badly hurt. Foo moved toward them in slow motion, but eventually he was able to fire an arrow at the priest, hitting! Unfortunately, that did not break the priest’s concentration. Kippi, upset that her husband had fallen, rushed up to him and stabilized him immediately as Pate came up to him and sang a song to cure some of the fallen Gnome’s wounds.

Larrakh tried to open a secret door, planning an escape, but Hundar grappled the priest. Soon after, Hundar tried to move Larrakh away from the door, but he lost his grip. Foo hit the priest with another arrow, and that one broke his concentration so the spell on Foo subsided. Tury tried to attack the priest, but could not penetrate the splint armor Larrakh wore. Then, Larrakh stamped on the ground and caused an earth tremor. Hundar avoided catastrophe, but Tury could not. He was knocked down to the ground once more, unconscious and bleeding out. Kippi stabilized her spouse once more, and Pate was able to get Tury up on his feet again. Although both Hundar and Tury could not take the priest down, Hundar wedged himself between Larrakh and the secret door the priest had opened. The priest tried to run, but with his last swing, Hundar connected smashing the priest’s head with a mighty blow (crit). Larrakh crumpled to the ground, dead.

The party was able to rest for a little while. Now that Larrakh and his guard were dead, the Tomb of the Moving Stones seemed a little more peaceful and quiet. After finding 45 gp on the priest, and his splint mail armor (slightly damaged from Hundar’s warhammer attacks), the group followed the tunnel and found themselves out on the streets of Red Larch, not too far from the sink hole that revealed the underground hideaway. It was about 10 pm and most of the town people had dispersed from the hole, but there were still some, including Constable Harburk, making sure that nobody else would get hurt.

Comments

PCs will be 3rd level next session (they need 95 xp….we’ll begin with some roleplaying that can earn them the needed xp).

For most of the last battle, Kippi and Tury were not in it since their player’s were not there, but toward the end, Tury’s player joined in…just in time to be knocked down to 0 hp twice.

Throughout the session, Pate sang, and gave Hundar Bardic inspiration on 2 occasions.

I thought that Larrakh would be able to escape, but Hundar’s critical hits were massive. The extra half-orc damage on crits paid off.

Session 5 – “Helping Constable with “The Believers” and Checking out Pell’s Ghost Tale”

PCs (3rd Level)

Pate the Half-Elven Bard (in possession of a map that shows the Sumber Hills perhaps an area where an elemental node exists)
Zeed the Arakocra Rogue (fearful of hippogriff riders who have attacked in the area – also hopeful to find more Arakocra in the Dessarin Valley)
Hundar the Half-Orc Fighter (Tracking Gar Shatterkeep, who sunk the ship Hundar sailed on)
Turytopple the Gnome Paladin (A gnome trying to fight evil)
Kippipop the Gnome Sorcerer (Looking for mystery and lore)
Namfoodle “Foo” the Gnome Rogue (Trying to find riches)
Part I (1 hour of play)

The party emerged from the Tomb of the Moving Stones and saw a small group of people around the sinkhole near the Helm at Highsun and The Swinging Sword. One middle aged man approached them and told them that he was Constable Harburk and he asked what happened down in that hole.

Hundar, without saying a word, trodded toward The Swinging Sword Inn and went inside to find a place to sleep. The others spoke with the Constable. Foo took the lead and told Harburk about “The Believers” and the “Bringers of Woe” and the dead bodies they found, and the boy and the half-orc the “rescued”. Harburk seemed genuinely shocked. He told them how some of the town folk had gone missing recently, and even heard a rumor about a delegation from Mirabar that was supposed to make it to Goldenfields, but had been missing for over a month. He wondered if any of this was connected. He thanked the group for their bravery and took Pate, Tury, Kippi and Zeed to help him round up some of the town folk who were named as “Believers.” Harburk also said that he’d go down the sinkhole to take a look at the dead bodies to see if he could identify any. After this, Foo decided to follow Hundar into the inn.

In the Inn, Hundar walked directly to a corner of a dining area and plopped himself down. When the innkeeper, Kaylessa spoke to him and asked if he wanted a room, he mumbled something about the sinkhole and fighting down there. Kaylessa had heard the commotion outside and realized that this Half-Orc was one of the adventurers so she shrugged her shoulders and let Hundar sleep.

Foo came in and spoke with Kaylessa and found out more about the strange events plaguing Red Larch and this region. She also mentioned how Mitrhra’s granddaughter, Pell had been telling about a ghost she saw only a little to the west. She said others didn’t believer her, but Kaylessa did. Then Foo arranged for a room, which Kaylessa rented him for a discount (only 1 gold for 2 days). Foo also asked if Kaylessa had any toy stuffed bears and a blankie so that Hundar could sleep comfortably. She actually did have a few stuffed animals that she saved for when Pell and other children came around. Together, they covered Hundar with the blankie and Foo put the teddy bear right next to the brutish warrior. Hundar stirred in his sleep, grabbed the teddy and threw it in Foo’s direction, but it just hit the floor with a small squeak.

In the morning, all of the adventurers gathered and Kaylessa gave them good directions to the place where Pell had seen the ghost. Hundar, Foo and Pate would scout it out while the others helped Harburk with “The Believers.”

Hundar, Foo and Pate spent only an hour and found a dark hole in the side of a hillside. Foo could see that there was a stone door inside the hole that was ajar. Hundar pushed it open more and with that metal cans toppled from above the doorway, making a clatter. A goblin emerged from bushes near the opening and pointed a shortbow at Hundar. He warned the adventurers to leave. He said that was their cave and there was a ghost inside. The goblin called for another (Geeraugh), and a huge figure crashed through the bushes behind the goblin (Mougra). The half-ogre and the goblin seemed to be in business together.

As the group decided what to do, Foo told Hundar to “take care of the big one.” Then Foo darted into the bushes behind some rocks and disappeared. This alerted the goblin and the goblin fired at Hundar, but his arrow did not hit the mark. Pate stepped behind Hundar and started to sing a inspirational tune for Hundar. The half-ogre charged forth and threw a javalin at Hundar, but the missile flew past its mark and hit the side of the hill. Hundar approached the half-ogre and politely said he was now going to smash him with his warhammer. Hundar took out a lot of pent up anger on the half-ogre, smashing him twice with his weapon (action surge and a crit on the second attack). That was enough to knock the half-ogre unconscious, but Hundar did not kill it; he merely knocked it unconscious. With that, the goblin basically gave up and the party helped him drag his unconscious companion to their camp. Then they told the goblin that they were going to go inside the cave. The goblin was upset since he and his partner were eager to attempt the cave exploration themselves, but he realized he could do nothing but care for his fallen partner. He knew he was outmatched by this party.

Comments

We had a lot of fun roleplaying the interactions with Constable Harburk, the scene in the Swinging Sword Inn, and during the encounter with Mougra and Geeraugh.
I forgot how fun the game can be even with just 2 players.

Since many of the players could not play, I had most of the PCs remain in Red Larch to help with the Constable. The group is building good relationships with the town folk.

Part II (1 ½ hours of play)

At the camp just 40’ away from the stone door in the hill, Mougra, the Goblin, tended to his unconscious partner, Geerhaugh, the half-ogre. Still morning, Hundar, Foo and Pate walked into the opening in the hill, Hundar in the lead, moving past the large stone door that he had already pushed open. Inside a 30’ hallway, all was quiet. Hundar walked ahead, followed by Foo and Pate as the hallway opened into a 30’ by 30’ room. The group saw a black stone table in the center and a rusted iron door in the middle of the south wall. They all inspected the table and found that there were rust stains on the tabletop; perhaps iron objects once rested there. Since there was nothing else of note, Foo checked the iron door for traps and found none. Then, Hundar moved up to the iron door and gave it a kick. It didn’t open so he kicked again. For over 30 seconds, Hundar kicked the door and finally it burst open. That’s when a ghostly warrior, with armor and spectral sword materialized right next to Hundar, with its sword pointed at Hundar’s neck.

The specter told the group to leave this place. It would let no one disturb his master, noble Longfellow. When the group hesitated, and Hundar told the specter to stand down or suffer the consequences, the spectral warrior started to hack at Hundar, but Foo and Pate moved more quickly. In the fight, Foo, Hundar and Pate did damage to the creature, but its incorporal form resisted much of the damage. Hundar dodged an attack, but Foo wasn’t as lucky. He felt the icy cold spectral chill of the phantom blade pierce his body, but was able to resist the additional life drain that might have weakened him further. Using an extra burst of energy, Hundar made two attacks at the creature (action surge), and with his second warhammer blow (crit!), laid the specter to rest.

Inside the next chamber, a 20’ x 20’ chamber, the group saw a stone coffin and an iron chest. Again, Foo checked for traps and found none, so Hundar decided to bring his warhammer down upon the lid of the coffin multiple times to try to break it open. Foo, not trusting what might be in the coffin, hid in the corner of the room, while Pate stood just outside the doorway. When the stone crumbled, it revealed 4 rusty swords placed atop a skeletal body. The swords immediately took flight and spun dangerously in the air. Hundar dodged a number of attacks as Pate and Foo moved in to combat these flying blades too.

After about 4 rounds of combat, only a few swords remained. That’s when the group felt a tremor. Foo could tell that the epicenter was not right upon them, but it seemed close. Then the tremor stopped. The adventurers faced the two remaining swords, but because they moved so quickly, they were hard to take down. Foo and Pate both got nicked by the blades. Then, from outside, the party heard screaming. Hundar asked if Foo and Pate could handle the swords alone if he ran out to investigate. The rogue and bard assured him that they could handle it so Hundar ran, dodging another attack as he left.

As Hundar ran outside, he saw Mougra, the goblin, running inside, asking for help. Mougra screamed that horrible creatures burrowed up and attacked. He feared for Geerhaugh and his own life. Outside, Hundar saw two very large insect creatures. One was feasting on Geerhaugh and the other sensed Hundar and moved towards him, spitting a stream of acid right on the Half-Orc. It burned horribly, but Hundar took it.

Meanwhile, back in the burial room, Pate was able to take down a sword. Then he turned to Foo and asked Foo if he could handle the last sword. Foo assured Pate that he’d be fine, so Pate ran outside to see what was going on.

Hundar and Pate faced off against one of the horrible insect creatures, which Pate knew was an ankheg. Hundar was very lucky, dodging a number of attacks from the acid dripping mandibles of the first creature. He also smashed the ankheg badly (Crit!). The second creature continued to consume Geerhaugh, so Hundar and Pate did not have to face them both at first, but before they could kill the first one, the other one finished eating and moved to strike Hundar. Hundar was able to dodge once more, and when Pate conjured a cloud of daggers on the first creature, he killed it.

Meanwhile, back in the burial room, Foo was having trouble with the last flying sword. The sword would swoop down on him, cut into him, and then fly around up high, so that the Gnome had a very tough time connecting with his rapier and dagger. (no bonuses or special effects, just bad dice rolling). After a few rounds, the flying sword hit hard (crit) and Foo went down, a bloody mess. Mourgra saw this so he yelled out to the others, “your Gnome friend has gone down!”

Pate looking at Hundar and the remaining ankheg, decided to run to aid Foo. But, in the time it took Pate to get to his friend, the flying sword made another devastating attack on the unconscious Gnome. (Yikes…auto-crit..2 failed death saves…luckily Foo made his other death save). With no time to spare, Pate staunched Foo’s wounds and made Foo conscious again, but then he heard screams of agony from outside.

Outside, Hundar fought the remaining ankheg, this one a bit larger than the other. The creature bit Hundar and crushed him, grappling him as acid dripped down over his body. Any normal adventurer would not have been able to withstand the pain and damage, but Hundar clung to life (Half-Orc resilience…fighting with only 1 hp left). Hundar slammed his warhammer down on the creature and the carapace began to split, but it was far from dead. Before Pate could get there and act, the creature bit again, and crushed Hundar in its maw. Hundar went unconscious, but Pate ran up from behind and brought him back to consciousness. Hundar ushered forth his resolve (second wind) and smashed the Ankheg again (crit!). The carapace split some more, but it still would not die.

Foo, who was still on the ground inside the burial room, crawled out the door of the room and then bolted for the outside. He noticed that the flying sword would not leave the room. Outside, he saw that Hundar was still held in the ankheg’s mandibles, bleeding and burning from acid. Foo moved up for a sneak attack, and hit the mark. His rapier pierced the creature’s body and finally it fell. As Foo got in close, he saw that the larger ankheg had an iron collar on with the same Earth Cult symbol they had seen on the dead bodies they found in the Tomb of Moving Stones, the cloaks of the “Bringers of Woe” and on the defeated earth cult priest’s robes.

Exhausted, the group rested and tried to heal as best they could. By this point, Pate was out of spells (and everyone used at least 2 if not 3 HD of healing with Pate singing a song to help them mend).

Inside the burial room, Foo inspected the iron chest, no trap, but locked. With ease, behind his back, Foo unlocked the chest (crit success!). Inside they found a soggy, unrecognizable book and some ruined clothes. Foo saw that the chest had a false bottom and when he pulled it open, he found 2 rings, a locket with a half-elven woman’s picture etched on the inside of it, and a pearl. Pate said that he could use the pearl to help him identify magical items, so the group gave it to him. They also let him take the jewelry.

Within an hour, Foo, Hundar and Pate made it back to Red Larch to the comfort of the Swinging Sword Inn. They had lunch and told Kaylessa about their adventure. She was relieved that they ahd dealt with the threats and lived to return. Later that day, the others returned to the inn and the entire party had a large dinner together so that they could share stories and rejuvinate.

After sleeping the night, Pate gathered the group’s loot and detected magic. He found that the dagger that Hundar had found in the Tomb of Moving Stones was a magic dagger (+1) that made no sound when it cut or stabbed. It also could shed 10’ of light when the word, “Rezur” was spoken. Hundar gave the dagger to Foo.

Comments

Again we only had 2 players (Hundar and Foo). Since things were a little too easy (these guys are 3rd level and this is only a level 1 part of the adventure), I added more flying swords into the scenario and had the ankhegs attack as the PCs were fighting inside the burial chamber. (This was reprisal for defeating the Black Earth Cultists inside the Tomb of the Moving Stones).

This really pushed them to the edge. If Mougra, the Goblin, had not run away from the ankheg and into the chambers, the others would not have known that Foo had gone down inside the burial chamber. Since the flying sword was still attacking (I ruled that they would attack while any creature remained in the room, but they would not leave the room), Foo would have been killed in 1 more round.

Very exciting.

Hundar and Foo seem to be forming an interesting relationship. They make fun of each other, and Hundar even threatens to maim or kill the Gnome, but in the end, they are watching out for each other.
I think when Hundar gave the magical dagger to Foo it was symbolic. I don't think Hundar can express joy and gratitude with words. Half-orcs are not so open with their emotions, unless the emotion is anger. lol
By the way, Half-Orc crits (for a Champion fighter that crits on a 19 or 20), and the half orc resilience, really make a difference.

Session 6 - “Shallow Graves and the Lord of Lance Rock”

PCs (3rd Level)

Pate the Half-Elven Bard (in possession of a map that shows the Sumber Hills perhaps an area where an elemental node exists)
Zeed the Arakocra Rogue (fearful of hippogriff riders who have attacked in the area – also hopeful to find more Arakocra in the Dessarin Valley)
Hundar the Half-Orc Fighter (Tracking Gar Shatterkeep, who sunk the ship Hundar sailed on)
Turytopple the Gnome Paladin (A gnome trying to fight evil)
Kippipop the Gnome Sorcerer (Looking for mystery and lore)
Namfoodle “Foo” the Gnome Rogue (Trying to find riches)

The party got back together at the Swinging Sword Inn, and in the morning, they spoke with Kaylessa. Pate warmed himself to her and offered to play on evenings when he was in town, and Kaylessa was so impressed with his instrumental prowess that she took him up on the offer. She liked the idea that one of the new heroes would be a regular feature at her place so she even let the bard and his companions stay in one of the bunkrooms upstairs for at least the next few weeks.

At breakfast, the party overheard an old man named Larmon tell about a shallow grave he found just the other evening while he was letting his sheep graze east of the town near the Sumber Hills. They also saw and heard a priest of Lathander speak to Kalyessa about the missing delegation from Mirabar. He had seen them a few 10 day back in Beliard, but they never made it to The Summit Hall to the south. He was a bit worried because he knew that the Dwarves in the Mirabaren party even talked about stopping at Red Larch.

Since Zeed, Tury, Kippi and Foo were going to continue helping Constable Harburk with the “Believers” proceedings, Pate and Hundar struck up a conversation with Larmon to find out more about the graves. He told them were to go, but he didn’t want to go back so soon. Fresh graves gave him the hibby-jeebies.

Pate and Hundar set out to investigate at about 8 am. They found the grave site in a few hours, but to their surprise the graves seemed to be dug up. After inspecting the open hole, they found a few bits of ripped cloth about 100 feet from the graves, along with a trail of blood, scratch marks, more tattered clothing and even a few bones here and there. They followed the trail to a cave opening on the edge of the Sumber Hills, and they boldly ventured inside.

Inside the dark part of the first cave area, the duo saw a body in the middle of a tunnel leading deeper into the cave. Hundar moved up to it and gave it a gentle kick. The body tried to grab on to the half-orc, but Hundar pulled his boot away in time. Then the shambling corpse rose and attacked. The zombie was slow and pretty ineffective against Hundar and Pate, and soon, even after the zombie fell and rose a number of times, the duo finally laid it to rest.

Moving deeper into the cave, the duo was surprised when rocks tumbled down upon them from above another cavern entrance. Hundar made it past the falling debris, but Pate got struck by it. Then two zombies jumped down to attack the adventurers. This battle was a little more difficult, mostly due to the fact that the zombies just would not go down. Pate struck one through the eye with his rapier, and Hundar smashed it with his warhammer, but on multiple occasions, the zombies would keep up the fight. Eventually, the adventurers overcame them and were able to see a rock in the room with dried blood atop it. The blood trailed to the west and through a very narrow tunnel that had jagged protrusions on the walls, and blood splashed upon the very same walls.

Carefully, Hundar and Pate moved deeper into the tunnel area. After about 120’ of winding they came to a star shaped cave and to their surprise they saw three zombies in there doing some dances. One was dressed like a bear, another was dressed like a woman with make-up and lipstick too, and the third was dressed as a jester with bells on his outfit and shoes. Hundar braced himself in the tunnel entrance and waited for the zombies to attack. The zombies hesitated, but then the one dressed as a bear moved in. During the fight, a few of the zombies tried to drag Hundar to the center of the room, but Pate’s musical inspiration helped Hunder escape their grasp. Hundar got hurt a bit, but Pate began casting thunderclap to injure the zombies. Hundar also took up a new tactic. He dropped his shield and warhammer in favor of a great axe he had found earlier. When he started to get the feel for the great weapon, he started putting the zombies down more reliably, although it wasn’t easy. After this battle, the adventurers heard a voice from somewhere deeper in the caves uttering, “how dare you interfere with the Lord of Lance Rock.” The duo could not tell exactly where the voice was coming from. Pate healed Hundar and then they continued through a westerly tunnel.

After winding around from west to north, Hundar and Pate peered into a very large cave. There were three stone slabs only 20’ from the mouth of the cave, and each of the slabs had arms, legs and hands of humanoid creatures littering them. On the third slab rested a cloaked figure. Pate charged the cloaked figure, and Hundar followed. When Pate struck it, he found that it was another zombie. Just then, lots of the hands on the tables began crawling toward Hundar and Pate. Five of the living hands attacked; Hundar had his hands full. Throughout the fight, Hundar suffered a number of small wounds and Pate was battered substantially by the zombie. Using his thunderclap, Pate took down a number of the crawling hands. That’s when the duo heard bone scraping on the ground from the north, and the voice from earlier threatened that he would soon add these foolish adventurers to his body of work.

Before the skeletons arrived, Pate and Hundar dispatched the hands and the zombie. Then they fought two skeletons that moved toward them with short swords and shields. At that point, the necromancer poked out from behind some rocks and animated the fallen zombie; then he poked back into hiding. Hundar used his second wind, and was able to finish off the skeletons with Pate’s help. Then he charged for the necromancer. As he came close, the necromancer fired a sickly green ray that didn’t hit Hundar. Pate was able to see the necromancer and get off a hold person spell that worked! Then Hundar attacked and attacked again, hurting the necromancer, but not as badly as the Half-Orc had expected. Soon after, the necromancer broke the hold, and by this time, both Hundar and Pate were very weary. Fearing for his life, the necromancer, continued to control the zombie even after getting injured, and he disengaged with Hundar and moved to the west side of the cave. His zombie bashed at Pate and landed a serious blow (crit!). Pate was near unconsciousness and Hundar was not so far from it as well. Hundar was able to move up and smash the necromancer with his warhammer one more time before the necromancer reached out to touch him with his hands. Spell energy crackled (Vampiric Touch), but the necromancer was unable to grasp Hundar. The zombie missed Pate as Pate moved back to be more defensive. With what most likely would have been their last chance, Hundar swung a blow and crumpled the necromancer, who instantaneously burned to black ash on the ground before them. The zombie also crumpled.

Before searching the rest of the cave, the duo rested for an hour and restored their health as best they could. In the deeper part of the cave, they found a tapestry on a wall. They also saw a glowing orb resting on a hideous pedestal that looked like three claws grasping the orb. They also saw some more freshly killed bodies, the ones from the shallow grave. There was a Dwarf with the Mirabar coat of arms on his shield and tunic. There was a human fighter as well. There was an Earth Cultist dressed in the same rock encrusted leather armor that the group had seen earlier and they also saw a human male dressed in a robe of black feathers. All seemed to be killed by puncture wounds.

Behind the tapestry, Pate found a small stash of gold and silver, 4 gems and a wand.

As the duo exited the caves they caught glimpse of a large bird flying overhead. It looked as if it was a huge vulture with a human dressed in feathered armor riding it. It was up nearly 100’ and seemed to be moving fast to the east into the Sumber Hills. Pate tried to lay low and keep from being seen. Hundar threw a hand axe up into the sky, but the projectile was way off the mark, and the vulture nor its rider saw them.

Within an hour, Hundar and Pate made it back to The Swinging Sword. The next morning, Pate was able to find that the wand was a wand of magic missiles. The orb was a driftglobe. He kept both of those and gave the gems to Hundar as well as ½ of the gold and silver.

Comments

Only 2 players tonight, but I didn’t alter the encounters of the adventure (Lord of Lance Rock) until the last one. It was tough for two pcs and if the necromancer used magic missile in the end it would have been game over for the duo, but after suffering over half of his hit points from one attack, the necromancer played it more defensively. I also took 2 skeletons away (and didn’t have them fire bows).

You would not believe how many times the zombies died, but then kept going. My dice were on fire when rolling saving throws for them.

Both Pate and Hundar did very well with their talents and abilities and now the story of the cultists and the Mirabar party is unraveling a bit more.

Session 7 “Earth Cult vs. Feathergale Knights to the Spire”

PCs (3rd Level)

Pate the Half-Elven Bard (in possession of a map that shows the Sumber Hills perhaps an area where an elemental node exists)
Zeed the Arakocra Rogue (fearful of hippogriff riders who have attacked in the area – also hopeful to find more Arakocra in the Dessarin Valley)
Hundar the Half-Orc Fighter (Tracking Gar Shatterkeep, who sunk the ship Hundar sailed on)
Turytopple the Gnome Paladin (A gnome trying to fight evil)
Kippipop the Gnome Sorcerer (Looking for mystery and lore)
Namfoodle “Foo” the Gnome Rogue (Trying to find riches)

Hundar, Tury and Namfoodle were the only active PCs for this 2 ½ hour session.

Pate and Hundar told the rest of the group about the necromancer and the dead bodies they had found on their last scouting mission to toward the Sumber Hills. They believed that two of the dead bodies were from Mirabar since they still had Mirabar trade bars in their purses. The two other bodies were a human with a feather cloak and a human with rock encrusted armor, undoubted a Black Earth Cultist. The others told about how they helped Constable Harburk round up all of the “Believers” and question them. They also remembered more about the Mirabar Trade Caravan that went missing and feared that there were 3 or 4 more who they had not accounted for.

After speaking with Harburk, they learned that the feather wearing knight that Hundar and Pate saw patrolling near the hills was most likely a Feathergale Society Knight. Harburk told the group that they moved out here from Neverwinter about 10 years ago. They built a spire in the Desserin Valley and they patrol the hills and valley. Harburk said they never did Red Larch any harm, and he assumed that they actually helped make the paths, roads and trails near the hills more safe. After discussing what they had experienced over the 10 days they had been adventuring, the party realized that the Earth Cultists were their number one worry, but they wanted to travel to the Spire of the Feathergale Society to get more information.

Hundar, Tury and Foo, prepared to make the 30 mile journey into the hills to the Spire while the others stayed in Red Larch to help Harburk and the town. The next morning, Tury remembered that Grund and the boy Braelon, who they had taken out of the Tomb of Moving Stones, were still hiding in a hiding place that Grund knew near the marketplace. The party found them and told them how the constable believed that “The Believers” were manipulated by the Earth Cultist priest. He found that none of the townsfolk were responsible for killing the dead that the party found in the Tomb. He was planning to hold them in the butcher shop cells for a week to pay for their involvement. The party realized that Grund and Braelon seemed safe so they told them to go back to Braelon’s house, speak with the constable and visit Braelon’s father in his cell. They hoped that they could continue their lives and learn from this horrible experience.

The trio of adventurers traveled for 12 hours, pushing themselves to go further since they could see the Spire only 5 miles in the distance. As the night was falling, they heard the sound of battle ahead. Tury and Hundar saw Griffons with riders swooping down to attack something on the ground. Foo was busy playing his harmonica and was quite into it so he was oblivious until the others alerted him. The group moved forward to get a better view of the altercation and 80’ from them they saw 2 Earth Cult guards, and an Earth Cult Bullette Rider atop a Bullette. The Griffon riders were strafing the Earth Cultists, and all were injured to some extent. Tury ran to join the battle telling the Earth Cultists to leave the flying beasts alone. He babbled about wanting to ride the creatures, and how the Earth Cultists were bad, bad men. Hundar and Foo also moved forward.

The party was able to engage and after a number of attacks one of the guards went down. As the party fought the others, the Burrow Shark (Bullette Rider) jabbed his spear at Tury as he urged his bullette to jump around and try to grasp Griffon from the sky. Eventually, the party, with help from the Griffon Riders, did enough damage to make the Burrow Shark turn tail and burrow his bullette into the earth to try to escape. Tury ran, jumped down the burrow hole and slid behind the bullette. Hundar asked if Foo could handle the lone Earth Cult Guard that was badly wounded (much like he did in a prior encounter that ended in Foo’s unconsciousness), and Foo said…”sure.” Hundar also gave chase down the burrow hole.

Pretty soon, Foo was down, unconscious and bleeding out. The Feathergale Knights were able to take down the Earth Cult Guard, and then try to stabilize Foo as one of the knights used a potion on the fallen Gnome. Meanwhile, in the hole, Tury and Hundar gave chase as the creature and its rider burrowed further and further away. Each round, the two heroes would chase at full speed as the bullette continued to burrow. The Burrow Shark however was able to stab at the two heroes, but Tury was able to use his shield to block a few blows that would have hit Hundar. Unfortunately, Tury took a vicious blow to the gut and went down.

On top, when Foo spoke with the Feathergale Knights and they offered to fly him and his comrades back to their Spire whenever the other Gnome and the Half-Orc got out of the burrow hole. Foo liked that, and nearly went off with the knights right then and there, but something told him that he should join is comrades in the burrow tunnel so he told the knights to wait for them as he ran into the hole and slide down the tunnel.

Miraculously Tury stabilized and got to his feet (nat 20 on death save). He used his healing hands to bolster himself and then he ran after the bullette.

Well…as the party chased, the bullette kept burrowing. Hundar tried a few times to climb up the back of the bullette to get right up on its back with the Burrow Shark. Once he slipped and slid back down. Then he got atop the creature, but the Earth Cult Rider slapped him down. Finally, he got up on top of the beast and could withstand the Earth Cult Rider’s smashing attempts so he could ride along with the burrowing bullette.

Eventually, Foo could target the beast with his shortbow, and the group started doing damage to the horrid creature. Unfortunately, the Burrow Shark wielded his spear with deadly precision. After Foo fired a deadly arrow at the bullette, and both Hundar and Tury smashed and hacked into the creature felling it, the Burrow Shark slashed his spear and took Tury down again. Foo caught up to Tury and stabilized him, then disengaged. Then, the Burrow Shark took down Hundar and Foo (who had come back within melee range to fight the Burrow Shark), and made a mad dash to get out of the burrow tunnel. In a few rounds, Hundar stabilized and stood (another 20 on death save). Unfortunately, Foo’s life blood seeped from his body and he expired. Hundar dragged both the Gnomes out of the tunnels to find the Feathergale Knights above had finished off the Burrow Shark.

The Feathergale Knights had one more potion that got Tury on his feet, but they could do nothing for Namfoodle. Tury tried his best to tend to his friend, even casting cure spells, but his friend had suffered too much. The knights told them to get on to the Griffons with them and they could fly them back to Feathergale Spire. Perhaps their Lord Commander, Thurl Merosska would be able to help since the Half-Orc and the Gnomes did help the knights defeat the Earth Cultists.

Flying through the air for only a mile or two, Tury tried to sketch what he saw so that he could show it to Namfoodle when/if he ever came back. The Griffons flew into a lower level of the spire into a stable of sorts. The knights called for help and then summoned Thurl Merosska. When the Lord Commander entered, he told the group to take their fallen comrade up to a room on the 2nd floor. Then he got Barister, a cleric, to tend to Foo. Tury offered all of his coins to the Feathergale Society and Hundar gave up 4 gems. Tury asked if the cleric could save their friend. Hundar asked if they could save…the Earth Cultist’s platemail. Luckily it had only been about 40 minutes since Foo went down so Barister was able to revivify him. Namfoodle woke, weak and sore, and immediately took out his harmonica and played a tune. Tury was overjoyed. Hundar grunted and rolled his eyes.

Thurl Merosska told the group that they would be his guests so they could spend the night resting and recovering. Tomorrow he invited them to a feast that they had been planning for their 10th anniversary. He was fascinated by the tale that his knights told about how the Half-Orc and the Gnomes fought with them against the Earth Cultists. He especially liked how the adventurers jumped down the burrow hole to follow the fleeing bullette.

As the party rested, Tury looked over the Black Earth platemail with Hundar. It was certainly big enough for the Half-Orc to wear, but it was very badly beaten up, old and worn. It also had a Black Earth Cult symbol on it. Hundar put it on anyway, knowing full well that any substantial hit upon it could render it unusable.

Comments

This was an added encounter that I felt would help move the story along with Earth Cultists and Feathergale Society members so that the party could see more of the rivalry between the two factions.

The encounter turned into a 23 round battle. The players were rolling horribly. Lots of misses (AC 17 and 18 was tough for them tonight), and lots of “1” on death saves, while the Burrow Shark smashed them with a number of Crits (felling Tury and Foo on crits).

I actually started the Black Earth guards at 24 hp, the Burrow Shark at 60 and the Bullette at 60 as well to simulate their battle with the other knights before the party arrived. Then when the Griffon’s got hurt a little bit, I had them pull back and be more defensive as the party fought on the ground.

At one point it looked like the party was in good shape. 1 Guard barely standing and the Burrow Shark and Bullette fleeing. Tury, playing to character jumped down the hole and then everything started to go south.

It was a great story, and now the party is in pretty good with the Feathergale Society.

Let’s see what happens next time.

Session 8 “Guests of the Feathergale Society and a Manticore Hunt”

PCs (3rd Level)

Pate the Half-Elven Bard (in possession of a map that shows the Sumber Hills perhaps an area where an elemental node exists)
Zeed the Arakocra Rogue (fearful of hippogriff riders who have attacked in the area – also hopeful to find more Arakocra in the Dessarin Valley)
Hundar the Half-Orc Fighter (Tracking Gar Shatterkeep, who sunk the ship Hundar sailed on)
Turytopple the Gnome Paladin (A gnome trying to fight evil)
Kippipop the Gnome Sorcerer (Looking for mystery and lore)
Namfoodle “Foo” the Gnome Rogue (Trying to find riches)

Hundar, Tury and Namfoodle were the only active PCs for this 2 hour session.

The party spent the night resting in one of the knight’s rooms in the Feathergale Knight Spire. At first, Hundar wanted to stay up and keep watch, but after an hour or so, he decided to sleep as well. The group felt that they were safe in the spire.

The next morning there was a knock at the door. Tury called out to ask who it was and he heard a female voice. A knight named Savra Baleabranta introduced herself and invited the party to breakfast. Foo, recovering from death (having been revivified prior to their sleep), slept in while Tury and Hundar went with Savra to the great hall. They sat at the large table joining a few knights and they noticed that Barister, the cleric who revived Foo, was there too. After talking a bit, Tury got Barister to check on Foo. Barister walked into the room and shut the door. Inside, he had a private conversation with Foo, and soon after walked out a few minutes later. He told the others that their little friend would be fine with a little rest.

After a few hours, Savra invited the party to ascend the spire and visit the garden at the pinnacle. On top, they saw a telescope pointed down to the east, and from the edge of the pinnacle the party felt the wind rush past them, the sun warm their bodies, and could see all around the Sighing Valley. Immediately, Tury wanted to look into the telescope. His urge to investigate and tinker drew him towards it. Unfortunately, the eye piece was too high for him to look into, so he asked Foo to boost him up. Foo, still weak from his ordeal, didn’t really want to do it, but Tury was very convincing. When Tury looked through the telescope, he saw that it was pointed across the valley to the east into a pass cut by a river. He also saw a couple of cloaked figures near an opening in the canyon ledge. The cloaks were not like the ones the Believers or the Bringers of Woe wore, nor were they like the rock encrusted armor that the Black Earth Cultists wore. They seemed to be lighter, white and sky blue. The figures looked as if they were keeping watch. Since the power of the telescope was not great enough to make out more detail, Tury took out some of his tools and started to tinker with the lens. Savra saw this and immediately intervened. She told the gnome that he should not do that unless the Lord Commander gave authorization. Tury blabbed about the cloaked figures and asked Savra about them. Savra told the group that they were not a concern.

After Tury pressed more, Savra told them that they were allies who worship an air god. Tury could tell that Savra was uncomfortable speaking about them, kind of like she was torn – should she have said anything or should she have kept it to herself. Just then, a few other knights came up to the spire. They walked the perimeter and one shouted and pointed to the south east…”The Manticore is up! Alert the others.” After the other knight ran down the stairs, the party heard a horn blow from within the spire. Then the others, Savra and the other knight, ran down the stairs. The party followed.

At ground level, many knights were gathering and saddling their mounts, some giant vultures. Thurl Merosska was there and he greeted the adventurers and asked if they wanted to join their hunt. Tury was most eager. Foo and Hundar also accepted the invitation. After a very quick pep talk, some instructions on how to fly the mounts, the Lord Commander took the ring from his finger and said, “whoever strikes the killing blow and brings back the head of the manticore shall have this ring.” Before leaving, the Lord Commander also fitted each of the heroes with a special backpack. Hundar refused to take it, but the gnomes strapped the packs to their backs. He told them that they could pull a cord on the pack if they started to fall, and a contraption inside the pack would inflate a balloon that would slow the fall. Tury was fascinated by the contraption so he volunteered to ride on the same mount as Foo so that he could tinker with his pack while they flew. With that, the group took off. Foo and Tury rode upon a griffin together, Foo at the reins. Hundar took one of the giant vultures.

The hunting party flew for 10 minutes and encountered some cloud cover. Hundar struck off away from the other knights and seemed to be controlling his mount rather well. Foo followed a little less adroitly. Eventually, Foo spotted the manticore and pointed so that Hundar could see it. Hundar took his vulture higher and controlling it like an experienced flyer, was able to surprise the flying manticore. The party soared, banked, dove and Hundar was able to do tremendous damage to the beast. When Foo and Tury got close flying the griffin, the manticore slashed out at the griffin and did some horrible damage to the mount. Seeing this, Tury used his shield to try to protect the griffin on subsequent attacks, he also wrestled with his urge to pull the cord on Foo’s backpack. He was being protective of his friend, but he was also dying to see how the contraption worked.

After the first few passes, the party did substantial damage to the manticore so it banked way and got lost in the clouds. After a few more moments of flying and searching, they eventually spotted it, but when Hundar flew his giant vulture toward it, a volley of tail spikes came directly for them. Hundar pulled hard on the reins to maneuver the vulture so that he’d be the target of the spikes. Two of the spikes flew by him, but the third hit the vulture in the neck. Foo and Tury got in some attacks, and Foo, muttering a secret prayer, was able to use his awesome dexterity to fly the beast and attempt to attack simultaneously, but he was unable to injure the beast. Then, the party saw one of the Feathergale knights break though the clouds and blow a horn. That’s when Hundar made a final pass and cut the manticore down with his great axe.

The hunting party convened and they landed where the manticore had fallen. Hundar chopped its head off and received accolades from the other knights. The others urged the heroes to return to the spire so that they could tend to their mounts, and even though the heroes wanted to explore to find the manticore’s lair, they agreed that they should return the mounts. Tury, feeling bad for the mounts that had taken damage, used his healing hand to begin the healing process for both the griffin and the vulture.

Back at the spire, Thurl Merosska congratulated Hundar and gave him the ring. That’s when Hundar called out the three knights who they had encountered the day before. To Hundar, the knights had abandoned the fight they were having with the Earth Cultists when Tury, Hundar and Foo ran down the tunnel made by the fleeing bullette and its Earth Cult rider. He called them cowards. Then he challenged them to a non-lethal fight. The Lord Commander, allowed the fight to take place upon at the pinnacle of the tower. He told them to fight with wooden clubs while the rest of them got ready for the anniversary feast.

Well, Hundar and the three Knights went up to the top of the spire to fight with wooden clubs. At first the three knights gang attacked Hundar, but then one of them told the others that he'd fight the half-orc alone. After trading blows...lots of misses too...many trip attempts and swinging clubs, Hundar finally bested the knight. Tury and Foo watched. They could tell that the knights were trying to be honorable. Valax, the one that fought Hundar, even tried to concede and give victory to Hundar, but Hundar slapped him down nonetheless. The others helped up Valax and mumbled..."we'll see what Lord Merosska says about these guys...the half-orc especially." Then everyone went down to clean up and attend the feast.

Comments

It was interesting to run flying combat. I was shocked that none of my players rolled so poorly that they fell from their mounts.

The half-orc’s critical hit against the manticore made that fight pretty easy. Although, one more hit to either mount that the heroes were riding could have sent them plummeting to the ground from 60’-100’ in the sky. The gnomes had the balloon packs, but the half-orc didn’t, certainly a risk that the player knew about, but his character refused the pack since he was too proud.

Exp: 400 xp each PC

If you are one of my players…don’t read this:

When Barister spoke with Foo, he told Foo about the god that he worshiped, the great air god, Yan-C-Bin. When Foo asked how he could repay Barister for reviving him and saving his life, the cleric asked Foo to consider worshiping or praying to Yan-C-Bin. Foo felt that the cleric was sincere. All the religious talk made Foo a little uncomfortable, but he agreed to think on it.

When Foo was flying the griffin, he did mutter a secret prayer to Yan-C-Bin.

Now...it seems that many gears are turning. I am rally interested to see how this plays out.

Session 9 – “The Feast at the Spire, and Bad Blood Brewing”

PCs (3rd Level) About 1 1/2 hours of play.

Pate the Half-Elven Bard (in possession of a map that shows the Sumber Hills perhaps an area where an elemental node exists)
Zeed the Arakocra Rogue (fearful of hippogriff riders who have attacked in the area – also hopeful to find more Arakocra in the Dessarin Valley)
Hundar the Half-Orc Fighter (Tracking Gar Shatterkeep, who sunk the ship Hundar sailed on)
Turytopple the Gnome Paladin (A gnome trying to fight evil)
Kippipop the Gnome Sorcerer (Looking for mystery and lore)
Namfoodle “Foo” the Gnome Rogue (Trying to find riches)

This session Pate and Zeed came back, along with Hundar and Tury. Namfoodle’s player was not available so Foo spent most of the time in bed recuperating from his death and revivification the day before.

Hundar, Tury and Foo were on top of the Feathergale Spire Pinnacle. Hundar had just beat one of the Feathergale Knights senseless after the Knight offered to surrender when they were fighting with clubs in a non-lethal fashion. The three other Knights took their unconscious friend away muttering, “Let’s see what the Lord Commander thinks about these guys now, especially the Half-Orc.” While the three heroes were resting before washing and getting ready for the feast that Lord Merosska was having for their 10th Anniversary, Pate, who had traveled from Red Larch on his own, knocked at the front door of the spire. He was greeted by some Knights and eventually they escorted him up to the pinnacle to find his comrades. The group exchanged stories and caught up. Tury excitedly told Pate about the telescope and got Pate to take a look. Pate could also see two light blue and white cloaked figures across the way, seemingly guarding an area in a cavern. After a little time discussing this, they went down to their room to get ready for the feast. Foo, feeling exhausted, stayed in bed as the others went to the great room for the festivities.

At the feast, Pate played music that Thurl Merosska appreciated. He also told a great tale about the dead bodies he and Hundar had found after finding the empty shallow graves. Together, the group, along with Merosska determined that one of the Feathergale Knights had indeed gone missing, so the Lord was grateful to know where his dead body was lain. Throughout the evening and into the night, Merosska asked the party members to tell their tales. Hundar was terse, barely saying much. The Knights at the table were afraid to look at him, and to be honest, when they watched him eat, it turned their stomachs. Tury could not contain his exuberance about the balloon pack that he had modified, and he continued to babble about it and asked 1001 questions about the mounts and the riders, and if he would be able to ride a Griffon or Hippogriff or Giant Vulture again. Merosska seemed to tire of the Gnomes frivolity, so he asked one of his Knights to tell a tale as well. The party continued through the night. Pate tried to get in good, you know what I mean, with Savra Bellabrante, but she just afforded him the niceities that Lord Merosska expected of his knights. Barister, the cleric of the society was at the feast, but the knights that Hundar had called out as cowards, and had fought with on the pinnacle, were absent.

After the feast, all disbursed. Tury was excited about the telescope so he rushed to his room to find his tinkering tools. He wanted to work on the telescope, and he spent some time convincing Pate to sneak up there with him so they could do it. That’s when the group heard the fluttering of wings and scratching of talons outside the window. Pate looked out and saw their old comrade Zeed, the Aarakocra assassin. Pate let Zeed into the room and Zeed proceeded to tell them of his exploits. He had flown to the Sighing Valley to try to find a small group of Aarakocra. He found them and learned that those folk had been suspicious of the Feathergale Society for a few years now. They suspect that there is something evil about them, but they admitted that they kept their distance. Valon the leader, told Zeed that some nights, the Aarakocra would see humanoids fall from the spire, their bones left at the bottom for scavangers. Hundar was actually glad to hear this. He felt as if his dislike for the Knights was now somehow vindicated.

As Pate and Tury stepped out of the room door to go up to the pinnacle, they saw and heard, some of the Knights and Barister, who asked, “where are you off to at this hour?” Then Barister and the Knights told the group that they wanted to take Hundar up to the pinnacle so that he could speak his case to the Lord Commander. Apparently, his actions earlier met with some ire, even though, Lord Merosska had seemed perfectly unfazed at the feast. To all who listened, it seemed as if the disgruntled Knights had prepared a tribunal for Hundar, and it was not clear what the punishment for rejecting a Knight’s surrender would be. It seemed as if there was a chance that if his case didn’t go well, he would be tossed off the pinnacle.

When it seemed as if the party was stalling, Barister attempted to use divine magic to hold Hundar, but Hundar resisted. Then the Knights tried to grab him, and he hacked at them, as Zeed scored a very powerful sneak attack dagger thrust, knocking that Knight unconscious. Both parties fought, but each side was fighting non-lethal style. Barister used his divine magic again and held Tury, but Hundar still resisted. Pate tapped into the magical weave and got Barister to burst out laughing and rolling on the ground. This freed Tury from his paralysis, and although Zeed and Pate took some damage, the rest were holding their own. That’s when Barister called out for help, but before he could do anything else, Hundar laid him low, knocking him unconscious. When he was free, Tury went to the central doors that led to the stairway up and down. He worked at it furiously to jam it shut, spending over 10 seconds to make sure that it was shut tight. Soon after, three Knights were still engaging with the party, as two blue and white cloaked, monk-like humans sped into the room from nearby bedrooms. Three other initiates also joined the fray.

The session ended mid-battle with the party surrounded by foes.

Session 10 – “Knights at Night and an Escape into the Night”

PCs (3rd Level)

Pate the Half-Elven Bard (in possession of a map that shows the Sumber Hills perhaps an area where an elemental node exists)
Zeed the Arakocra Rogue (fearful of hippogriff riders who have attacked in the area – also hopeful to find more Arakocra in the Dessarin Valley)
Hundar the Half-Orc Fighter (Tracking Gar Shatterkeep, who sunk the ship Hundar sailed on)
Turytopple the Gnome Paladin (A gnome trying to fight evil)
Kippipop the Gnome Sorcerer (Looking for mystery and lore)
Namfoodle “Foo” the Gnome Rogue (Trying to find riches)

The session started with the party in mid battle in the Great Hall of the Feathergale Spire. 3 Feathergale Knights and the Cleric named Barrister had tried to escort the group, especially Hundar, up to the spire to stand trial because Hundar had beaten one of the Feathergale Knights after the Knight had surrendered when they were fighting a non-lethal duel before the great feast. Hundar had already been able to knock out Barrister, who had tried to cast hold upon him a number of times yet failed. 3 initiates and 2 monk-like Hurricanes entered the battle after Tury had been able to jam the doors to this floor closed so no-others could arrive.

The party had a tough time with the Hurricanes especially. They could use thunder force to injure the group, doing damage to nearly everyone round after round after round. Hundar ended up knocking out a number of knights as Tury protected him and the others continuing to tell the Feathergale foes that they had done nothing wrong and were unjustly accused. Pate used his healing and his vicious mockery, along with a failed attempt to make a Hurricane laugh uncontrollably. Tury deflected a few blows that would have injured Hundar, while Zeed moved back into the room that Foo was resting in to wake him up for help. Through the minute long combat, Pate, Tury and Hundar all went down unconscious or dying at one point or another. It looked as if they would all be overcome, but for Zeed and Foo who were able to sneak attack from behind. Toward the end, Zeed also was knocked down, bleeding out, but the Foo took down the last Hurricane, and the heroes barely managed to defeat their foes. Searching the bodies, they found a few healing potions on the cleric, along with 58 gp in the monk rooms and on their bodies along with their weapons and armor, feathered cloaks and other vestments. Pate was able to save Zeed with his healing songs, as the group pulled all of the unconscious foes into the bedrooms. Then, after looking out of the windows to see they were about 40’ up from the drawbridge on the cliff side of the spire, they had a brief discussion to decide their next course of action.

Zeed offered to slip out the window and fly above the tower to scout the Pinnacle. When he came back, he told the others that there were 8-12 of them on the top, including the Lord Commander. It looked as if they were setting up some sort of ritual around an alter. The Lord Commander, Thurl Merosska, was flanked by the others and it looked as if they were just waiting. Foo quietly opened the doors he had jammed shut earlier, and he found that it was pretty quiet in the stairwell. Zeed went outside to investigate the front doors of the spire where the drawbridge was, and when he came back he told the party that there was nobody outside the spire. It looked clear. After a few moments of discussion, Zeed flew back out and around the drawbridge as the rest of the wounded group snuck downstairs. On their way out of the spire, they had to fight just one Feathergale Knight guarding the inside of the drawbridge doors. After Pate’s vicious mockery would have actually killed the guard, Tury tended to the Knight and was able to spare his life. While the Knight was down and still unconscious, the group made their escape over the drawbridge and into the night.

Zeed told them that the Aarakocra camp he had found earlier was only 1 or 2 miles from the spire…which would take the group about an hour on foot since they had to traverse the cliffs and get down into the valley. The rest of the group had Zeed lead on.

They traveled for about 40 minutes when they group heard the sound of a hyena bark from ahead. Foo stealthed ahead and scouted the area. He could see two hyena faced humanoids, Gnolls, sniffing the air, baying and looking in his direction. He picked up a rock and threw it as far as he could to the north east. He was able to avoid their gaze so when the rock hit the ground, the Gnolls raced over to investigate. With that little diversion, Foo turned back to the others to report. Zeed decided to fly over the Gnolls and drop more rocks further away from the trail they had to walk along to get to the Aarakocra camp, and he was successful at drawing the Gnolls further way from the group. That done, he told the group to travel quietly to the south east so that they could reach the camp, and although both Hundar and Tury were a little more noisy than the others, the group avoided a confrontation with the Gnolls.

As they neared the Aarakocra camp, Zeed went ahead to announce their presence. When he returned, the others followed and they were able to meet Valon, the leader of the Aarakocra, along with Seerfa, Lafka, Mershaak and Belefont. Tury told them all about their experience at the spire, and Valon told the group that the Feathergale Society was up to no good. They had deep suspicions about them. They truly believed that something evil was at work with those folk, and they were not surprised to hear that the party nearly had to face some type of trial at the top of the spire. Valon and the others reiterated to the group that they had seen humanoids flung from the heights of the spire and their bodies were left to feed the scavengers down in the valley below. Tury wanted to send word back to Red Larch about what had happened. Valon agreed that Lafka and Zeed could return tomorrow morning, but for now it would be best if the adventurers rested for the night in a small hidden glade that the birdmen used for their own camp.

Comments

Now it seems to the party that the Earth cult may not be the only cult in these areas. The Feathergale Society seems to also have some that may be associated with an Air cult, and the group is very suspicious of what’s going on with the Feathergales and the feather cloaked monks that joined the battle (and the ones across the valley in a small cavern they had seen earlier through the telescope from the top of the spire).

Going over their notes, they now know of these locations in the Sighing Valley, which seem to be the haunt of the Feathergales. They also know of the Monastery to the south east where it seems the Earth cult is at, and they also know of a small keep on the Dessarin River, Rivergard Keep, where someone named Grimjaw “buys stuff.” (This information they found on a map about 10 days ago when they began their adventures)

The group has leveled up to 4th level.