Just ran session #8 today (that's five sessions of Dragon Mountain so far), and I was a bit off my DM game because I was tired. One of the players uploaded the session log this time...
[sblock=Session #8]
Having successfully rescued Miri and Zolar, our band of adventurers sought vengeance against Clan Blood. Zolar was in no mood for argument and he walked through the temple blasting down each door that he came to.
Raphael and Ardell rushed after Chief Galatak, determined to catch him. Raphael was quicker down the hall and triggered another of the stone pillar traps. Ardell rushed to Raphael’s rescue, kicking with all of his might, but this trap was a bit different. The stone and walls were covered in flammable oil and Ardell’s kick of plate armor upon stone served only to ignite the oil.
Raphael, smelling smoke and knowing intuitively that a stone oven was not the best place for a bard, threw his strength into the stone and toppled the trap dousing some of the fire in the meantime. Tristan lagged behind to deal with some of the kobolds that Zolar’s door blasting had unveiled.
As Lily passed through the fire laden corridor, she surrounded herself with frigid ice. This was more than the oil fueled fire could withstand and Lily’s passage quickly doused what remained of the fire.
Ardell charged forward, drawing his sword against the kobolds that stood in the way. With each slash of his righteous blade, the party was bolstered and their wounds began to heal.
Methodically, the party laid waste to the kobolds. As they closed in upon Chief Galatak, Miri charged through the doorway of his guarded room only to have it slam shut behind her. The door was magically sealed and Miri was alone when Galatak summoned a fire elemental to finish the job. Caught between a band of kobolds on one side and the fire elemental on the other, Miri began to seethe with anger. As her rage boiled over, she knocked the elemental to the ground and stared down Galatak.
Lily began to shift her essence to earth and with no more than a gesture passed through the stone walls around the arcane lock. A welcome sight to Miri, Lily met the fire elemental with cool eyes before bringing her frost magic to bear. Miri and Lily dispatched the elemental with ease and turned to face the other adversaries.
Zolar was also raging as he found the kobold wizard was infringing upon his mage hand patent. The two mage hands arose from the casters and they struggled with the kobold’s staff, firing off random (and luckily inaccurate) shots in different directions. While the back and forth was nearly an even match, Zolar’s will won out and he snatched the staff from the kobold wizard. Ever the gracious winner, Zolar rapped the staff on the kobold wizard’s head twice while smiling and stating “I got your staff, I got your staff.”
Meanwhile Tristan’s worg Vitejie had been ambushed by stealthy kobolds and, combined with the other attacks he had sustained throughout the dungeon, was now bleeding out. He yelped as the hits rained upon him in the narrow corridor, setting his fur on fire, and he squeezed himself tighter as he tried to back away. Tristan, hearing his friend’s cries, came rushing to the Vitejie’s defense. Tristan launched himself into Vitejie’s saddle, activating its magic, and issued a divine challenge to the kobolds attacking Vitejie, killing the first outright and devouring its life essence. As the kobolds backed away to gain a better tactical advantage, Tristan administered potions to Vitejie, curing his wounds.
Seeing the true threat, and knowing what divine wrath would befall them should they attack Vitejie again, the kobolds focused their attention on Tristan. As they began to bleed him, Tristan’s eyes glazed red and he let his inner vampire lose. His wounds began to heal on their own and one by one he drained the blood of each of the kobolds that had attacked Vitejie. The last stood shaken and turned to run, but Vitejie’s powerful jaws snapped the kobold in two.
As the other kobolds also began to break ranks, Kirito cut down those that tried to flee. As one kobold ran past Kirito lobbed his head clean off, leaving it to land at the feet of the remaining creatures. What little resolve they had remaining broke as Kirito fixed his attention on them.
On one of the corpses Tristan found a letter written in draconic and prepared with a paralyzing runes spell. As he read the words out loud and reached the out of place word “rune” a puzzled look came over his face and his limbs froze. The party looked on in shock but before they could react Tristan’s superior will and years of iron discipline overcame the spell affecting his body and he finished reading the scroll. He discussed the scroll with Zolar as if nothing had happened.
Having rescued Crusher from his captors, Raphael engaged once more in their banter. They quickly picked up where they left off and Crusher told the party of merchant bazaar used by traders of the Underdark. Zolar cast a ritual to bolster the weaker of the party, using life essence from those who had been so far unharmed and then Tristan and Zolar set about preparing their disguises.
Raphael decided that it would be much easier if he and Crusher were to infiltrate the bazaar on their own, separate from the rest of the party. I believe his exact words were “If a party of exactly the size of those now running rampant through the mountain show up with no one having seen them before, I don’t think it’s going to matter how much like hobgoblins we look. Better if Crusher and I separate and see what we can find out on our own. I’ll go as a drow emissary. You’ll vouch for me, right Crusher?”
Tristan, freshly fed, let his lower fangs grow over his upper lip and pulled out his disguise kit, applying the necessary changes to appear as a hobgoblin. He mounted Vitejie thinking of the irony of how the worg would help Tristan pass for the creature that he had rescued Vitejie from, and the party set out toward the market.
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I'm looking forward to running the PCs sneaking thru the underground kobold market next time - we need a break from the extreme minion-bashing. What kinds of fun merchants, goods, or situations might they find in the kobold market? Be creative
My inner rat bastard DM can't help but smile!
