Heroes of Spittlemarch

[Radiating Gnome]

Battle in Troglodyte Central

The Heroes charged into the central room, the one they would have to blow to seal off the mines. There were four troglodyte guards loitering in the room, picking through some trash, while in the distance slaves worked listlessly on a tunnel.

While Pah and Uri puked their guts out (the stench of Troglodytes takes a little getting used to), Urk and Bangrah made quick work of the trogs, and the party moved quickly, hoping to move fast enough to surprise the trog encampment. It nearly worked, too.

The passage they chose, the middle of three that lead into the trog camp, was just wide enough for them to pass single file. The party raced town the passage, through several turns, and ran out into a small alcove which opened up into the wider main cavern. There were a handful of trogs around the campfire there, as more deeper in the cavern, as well as many non-combatants.

Pah was in the lead, followed closely by Urk. Pah stepped to one side once she’d entered the room and tried to make herself as inconspicuous as possible, while Urk screamed and charged directly into the first group of trogs.

Uri stepped into the chamber and started to spread web around liberally. He managed to gum up a lot of the trogs in the area, and for once not trap Urk in the web, a rare bonus for the party. Bangrah also charged into the room, moving a bit further out to engage some trogs that had taken up defensive positions with an annoying stack of javelin. With Wowar (his lizard pet) at his side he tore into the trogs, only to see more, including a leader, moving in from the northern wing of the cave system.

Pah, largely forgotten in the face of much bigger threats, began the laborious process of hiding and moving silently – a tough challenge made possible by a lot of skill and elven cloak and boots – to try to get into a sneak attack position on the spellcaster trog that was coming to join the fray.

Urk managed to finish the five he’d been working on, with a little help from Uri, and went chugging towards the trog adept on his stubby little legs.

The Adept saw him coming. A quick dash of Urk’s favorite spell (Hold Person) left Urk paralyzed and vulnerable. The next round the adept attacked the now-immobile great axe in the dwarf’s hands, still smeared with gore – with a shatter spell. With a nasty grin he prepare to take a shot at the dwarf’s skull in the next round.

But Pah had finally made her circuit around the trog, unnoticed in the heat of battle. She close to point blank range, leveled an experimental “science” pistol at his kidneys, and . . . missed.

Urk, on the far side of the Trog, managed to look very scared, but Pah managed to save his life anyway, by drawing the Adept’s attention. Round after round, Pah backpedaled, fighting defensively, taking only a few hits, but hits that threatened to knock her out. Then, finally, the hold person wore off and Urk was back in action. In moments he’d dropped the remains of his axe, drawn his longsword (Shatterspike, from you-know-where) and gone after the Adept. Now flanked. The Adept was in real trouble, and took off running.

Meanwhile, in the other end of the room, Bangrah and Uri were finishing the last of the other trogs. Both had taken a beating in the process, but it appeared that they had killed or driven off the last of the trogs, killing the last few by burning the webs that had imprisoned them, then finishing them with quick missile fire.

The trog adept ran for a secret door, easily escaping the slow dwarf and halfling, who were both just as happy to see him take off running.

An eerie calm settled over the trog cavern. Dead bodies and the last singed webs littered the room. Uri and Pah began searching for the secret door the the Adept had used to escape, with an eye out for treasure, while Urk poked through the bodies and whined about the loss of his axe. Bangrah went for a swim, retrieving the body of the dead elf, dragging it up to shore and tying it to Wowar, so he could keep his hands free for fighting.

Uri and Pah found the secret door after some persistent searching. They opened the door, and were greated by the sound of armor-shod boots in the passage ahead. Uri, true to form, tossed a web into the mouth of the passage to seal it up, and started hollering for help.

At about the same time Urk and Bangrah discovered more Trogs pouring into the room from the south. Each round a few more entered the room, tossing javelins and charging at the battered dwarf and lizardman, who tried desperately to hold the line.

Pah and Eli smelled the smoke first. Someone on the otherside of the web was burning their way through, and that wasn’t good. They backed off a bit, then a little more, then turned and ran when they saw the armed men and trogs pour through the last of the web, lead by Anathe, their dragonpriest nemesis.

The party was left with one passage, the central one, through which to escape. With the Dwarf and the Lizardman trying to cover them, they tried an orderly retreat. Then Bangrah fell.

Pah was at his side in moments, giving him a healing potion, while Urk did his best to cover them. Uri was out of web spells, and could do little more than lead Wawar into the tunnel as the vanguard on their escape. When the moment to run came, Pah was the last one into the tunnel, tossing a pair of tanglefoot bags at the ground to delay pursuit.

With a quick few seconds to regroup and get their breath, the began the bolt for the exit. They followed the winding passage single file again, which eventually returned them to the Central Chamber.

Where Eldgrim was waiting for them.

When the report of the attack had come to him, Eldgrim acted quickly, rallying the trogs who had fled, bringing in his personal guard and some of his more devoted followers, including Anathe. He sent two parties around the two flanks, forcing the heroes into the center, where he was waiting for them.

Eldgrim’s first action was his breath weapon. Uri and Urk were badly burned. Wawar had already run by, and was not in the cone of effect. Pah, towards the back, thanked the gods of third edition for her evasion ability, which saved her from any damage at all (and a damn good thing it did, as she was the one carrying two kegs of "science"[gunpowder] in a bag of holding). But Bangren was not so fortunate. He failed his save, taking the full brunt of the Half-dragon’s breath.

Urk got mad. He let out an incoherent yowl and charged Eldgrim, while Pah and Uri headed for the exit. Pah took a few rounds to plant her charges while Urk fought Eldgrim, but the round she finished setting them, Eldgrim knocked Urk out with a devastating blow.

Uri had one spell left. He stepped forward and touched Pah, making her invisible. She blinked out of sight, and Uri turned and ran for the surface. Eldgrim took a moment, savoring his apparent victory, and prepared to finish off Urk. But in that time Pah had reached Urk’s side, and slipped him a potion of healing. Urk, still prone, grabbed up Shatterspike and announced his recovery with a feeble swipe at Eldgrim’s legs. Eldgrim, looking at the now-visible halfling and the conscious dwarf, made an effort to finish the dwarf once and for all and . . . rolled a 1, then blew his roll to avoid a fumble, and tossed his sword across the room.

Pah and Urk took Eldgrim’s momentary delay [going to retrieve his sword] as a last, desperate opportunity to escape. They stumbled for the exit, Pah lighting the short fuse on the kegs on the way out.

A few seconds later they were knocked down by the explosion that shook the room and brought down the ceiling. Uri helped them make their way out of the field of falling rock.

*********

They took a few rounds to chug what potions they had left, then made their way up to the second level of the mine, where they found the Lizardfolk were already evacuating the children. They were whisked out the secret passage, as promised, and fell to the ground in an exhausted heap outside the mines.

Next time: Romper room.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Out of the Mines, into Romper Room

The party managed to escape the mine system with their new allies, the Lizardfolk, along with the hostage children of the slaves that the Lizardfolk had been guarding. Once outside the mine system, the Lizardfolk turned the children over to the heroes and began their long walk back to the swamps that they call home. The Lizards considered the death of Bangren a high enough price to have paid, and were not interested in being much more help to the characters.

As the lizardfolk filed away, the children, who had been cowed and well behaved around the imposing Lizardfolk, started to perk up and ask questions. A chorus of “who are you, where is my mommie, what happened to him (Eli), why are you so short, can we have something to eat?” and so on. Within minutes of the departure of the Lizardfolk the clearing the party was standing in with the children was boucing and lively as a halfling street festival. The children had been cooped up in the dark for weeks, and were enjoying being out in the open air.

A few took an interest in Eli’s corpse, and it was all that Urk could do to keep them from playing with him like a puppet. Uri and Pah ran themselves ragged trying to keep the children from wandering too far into the woods, while trying to determine what their next move would be. Just when it seemed like they would lose all control of the situation, a shadow passed over the clearing. It was a dragon, one of Sear’s children, it’s scaly hide already pierced with several small arrows. The children, swept up with dragonfear, flew to Urk’s side, all trying to be the closest one to him. But the dragon keeps going, flying off out of sight in moments.

The appearance of the Dragon gave the three heroes enough leverage with the children that they were able to get them moving towards Castle Spittlemarch in a fairly orderly, quiet fashion.

After a short hike, the party was met by a team of four halfing scouts – they remembered one, Owen, from the keep. They compared notes, and Owen and his scouts returned to the Dragonpriest’s camp, outside the mine system, where the slaves are still cowering, despite the vastly depleted enemy forces, refusing to rise up against the dragonpriests until they know their children were safe. Owen and the other halflings refused to help babysit the children, snickering to each other at the trouble the three heroes were having.

The party continued on towards the keep. The scouts sent word on ahead to the keep, and the party was met by a priest and a few servants on the road near the keep. The servants took the children on ahead towards the keep, while the priest tended to the party’s wounds as best he could.

The party learned from the priest that the besieging army, made up mostly of mercenaries, had packed up and left when they heard that the mine was sealed and there would be no payment for them from the Dragon’s hoard. The small contingent of Dragonpriests and their supporters left in a hurry trying to avoid being captured by the Baron’s forces. This had left the pretender and a few followers, who also hit the road, running for shelter somewhere, hoping to regroup.

The players entered the keep. At that point, things were still fairly subdued – there had been no news from the mines about the slaves, so victory did not seem complete yet. The party was taken to the chapel, where priests began to prepare Eli’s body to be raised.

Soon, while those preparations were made, the news that the slaves were free, and the last of the dragonpriest forces were on the run, the whole story became clear – the actions of the Heroes in the mines had set in motion the chain reaction that dismantled the forces of the Dragonpriests in the area. The Baron ordered that Eli be raised with the last, rare, true resurrection scroll that the baronial family had, in a secret store room. This scroll was very old, having been scribed over a century ago, and kept as a hedge against the death of an heirless member of the Baron’s line. There was a great deal of protest, but the Baron insisted. In a few hours, Eli was back, in a bad mood. He smelling a little better, although his nervous flop sweat would always have that swampy rot smell to it, for the rest of his life.

The Baron declared that there will be a feast the next day – a great celebration in honor of the heroes of Spittlemarch. The party, exhausted, slept until it was time to dress for the feast.

At the feast, the party was honored, and given gifts by the Baron.

Eli was given a familiar-looking Bow (actually Avaros’ bow, on loan. More on this later).

Urk is given an enchanted Axe (+1 Keen greataxe).

Pah is given a pair of small, well-made pistols. (I made a switch from the rules in the DMG for gunpowder weapons to those for privateer press’ Iron Kingdoms setting. Pah was given a pair of enchanted, +1 small pistols – small enough for her to train with and use reasonably, although they did slightly less damage (actually about the same on average, but at 2d4, it’s max isn’t quite so hight).

Uri is given a cloak woven of enchanted spider silk (Cloak of Arachnia).

Two of these gifts (cloak and pistols) came from Solen, while the axe came from the Baron and the bow from Avaros (as noted above – the bow is very special, and is only a loaner).

Then a Bard stood up and sang the Ballad of the Heroes of Spittlemarch, something he’d written himself. It was obvious, as the rest of the people in the great hall sing along to the chorus, that they’ve heard it before, and it has captured their imagination, despite the fact that it’s clearly awful. The bard had done very little research – there was little sign of what had actually happened in the ballad, and the verse was so bad it had clearly been written quickly, probably over drinks.

Next time: The Ballad of the Heroes of Spittlemarch.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

The Ballad of the Heroes of Spittlemarch

FYI, I know this is awful. It's meant to be.
******

The Heroes of Spittlemarch

Dark clouds gathered in Spittlemarch
Brought by the kin of the dragon

Great lizards and small, evil all
And it seemed that all hope was gone.

What would become of poor Spittlemarch
What would become of poor Spittlemarch

But four heroes came to the keep
Answering the Baron’s call for aid

Four from afar, most seemed quite short
But of no sterner stuff could they have been made


And they were the heroes of Spittlemarch
And they were the heroes of Spittlemarch.


Kin to the stag and the twig
The Elf, master of blade and bow

Struck fear and death into dragonkin
And arrows that laid dragons low

Call him Dragonbane of Spittlemarch
Call him Dragonbane of Spittlemarch

Brother to the roots of the mountains
The Dwarf swung his axe with great fury

Cut a path through the dark ones
With blows that no weapon can parry

Call him the Reaper of Spittlemarch
Call him the Reaper of Spittlemarch

Shadow and light, beauty and danger
The halfling lass and her science

Skulked in the shadows and Roared out
With fear drove dark minions to penance

Call her the Thunder of Spittlemarch
Call her the Thunder of Spittlemarch

Thunder’s brother, and kin to weaver
A halfling lad that bound evil in web

He filled the mines with his weaving
And turned the tide of evil to ebb.

Call him the Spider of Spittlemarch
Call him the Spider of Spittlemarch.

They went to Dragon Mountain
To face the ancient evil called Sear

Her servants and priest. Led by her son,
Eldgrim, a villain who ruled with evil and fear.

They were the doom of fair Spittlemarch
They were the doom of fair Spittlemarch.

The four who knew no fear did come
And brought new hope to the people

Dragonbane brought his great longbow
And Reaper swung his great axe

Spider trapped the minions of evil
And Thunder brought down the mountain.

They are the heroes of Spittlemarch
Thank the gods for the heroes of Spittlemarch.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

R&R

After a few weeks of rest, training, and relaxing, the party had begun to wear on their hosts, the Baron and his family, who were hard at work trying to rebuild Spittlemarch. The characters had finally reached 6th level, and were training – Pah took a level of fighter for the extra feat and the combat bonuses, Uri is getting very interested in item creation, etc.

[I am using the Iron Kingdoms rules for small arms for Pah’s pistols, so she needed the Exotic Weapon (small arms) feat, as well as the skill Craft (small arms) to reload the pistols. She also took ambidexterity, so she can shoot with either hand, although if she were to shoot both hands at once she’ll still have the penalties for fighting two-handed.]

At one point, there was a break-in – someone snuck into the PC’s chambers in the castle and stole Pah’s old pistols and the last of the old gunpowder that she had. The party searched their chambers and the keep for some sign of what had happened, but didn’t come up with anything. In the end they went to Solen, who used some high level scrying, etc., to show them in a magic bowl the pistols in their current location, in the saddlebags of the henchman and valet of the Bard who had been on hand to write the doggerel that was still being sung in taverns around Spittlemarch. They scried on the pair long enough to determine that the were approaching a small city called Brindinford.

Solen was very upset – he was concerned that the secrets of his “science” end up in the wrong hands, so he pushed the party to pursue the Bard and valet (named Hewit and Fiver, respectively).

While they were there, Urk asked Solen to show him Anathe, their old nemesis. Anathe was walking in the underdark, single file, as part of a line of figures, mostly drow, that also included Eldgrim, who definitely looked much the worse for having a mountain dropped on him, but who was apparently still alive. Anathe sensed that he was being scried, and tried to turn the tables on Solen, so Solen broke the connection, but while the connection was fading, Urk made a series of obscene gestures for Anathe’s benefit. Urk also announced that he had decide to name his new axe Anathema.

Eli also had personal business in Brindinford. He has always wanted to join an order of elven archers called the order of the shooting star (it’ll be a prestige class that borrows heavily from the Order of the Bow, and a bit from Arcane Archer.) Avaros is a member, and has given Eli a letter of introduction to his master Maravos. That, and the bow Talia (which Maravos knows) will hopefully convince Maravos to take Eli into the order and begin his training.

Talia is an intelligent, talking, +1 Mighty Composite Longbow (+2 str). She’s lawful good, speaks several languages, and grants her user the free use of Mobility and can detect evil at will. Obviously, such a rare bow will have to be returned, but Avaros is sending her with Eli as an observer, and she will offer an evaluation of Eli’s fitness for the order when Eli meets Maravos.

The party gathers their gear, saddles up quickly, and heads off to Brindinford in pursuit of the Bard and his flunky.

Next Post: the party starts The Speaker in Dreams

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Brindinford (speaker in dreams part 1):

The heroes entered Brindinford, trying to fight their way through the throngs in the street. Although there were a lot of halflings in the crowd, it was still quite difficult to see very far in this crowd, as the tallest member of the party was the elf, Eli, who as something just over 5 foot. It was going to be a long search (they are still looking for hewit and fiver).

It also became clear fairly quickly that looking for a bard in the middle of a city-wide festival was also going to be a bit of a challenge as well. After just a little asking around they’d been given several false leads, although it did seem that the song of their exploits had made it’s way top Brindinford. They heard their song sung to them in several taverns, and had several locals buy them drinks, but other than the song there was little or no sign of Hewit and Fiver.

A few hours hours after beginning this search - and after some shopping with the local merchants (Pah’s player read the fine print on her character sheet, and discovered that she was proficient with blowguns - so suddenly she had to buy a blowgun, and wanted poison. She was able to buy a simple blowgun, but not the poison so far.)

Pushing their way through the crowd, suddenly they heard a commotion ahead, but could not see what was going on. Eli jumped up on top of a merchant’s cart to try to see better (while the merchant swore at him) while the two halflings hid behind Urk, who struggled to force his way towards the commotion against the tide of people running away. Eli tried to make a jump from the cart he was on - where he did not have a good view of what was going on up ahead - to the next cart up the road, but didn’t jump far enough, falling to the ground and catching his chin on the cart he’d meant to jump to.

Eventually they came to a place that was clear enough that they could see what was going on - a handful of dire rats and ratmen were attacking merchants and a few guardsmen in the area. The party jumped into action.

In a few rounds of quick action several of the rats and ratmen were webbed up, while the leader and a few other ratmen raced forward to attack the party. The ratmen who charged only fought long enough to protect the ratmen who had been trapped in the web - when they ran off, on the far side of the web spell, the ratmen and their leader split up, running down small alleys, all far faster than the heroes were able to go.

The characters had noticed that the only weapons that had made scratches on the ratmen had been magic weapons, like Urk’s axe. This was enough to convince them that what they were facing was Wererats. But as most of the party was quite slow, pursuit was out of the question. Eventually the town guard turned up, questioned the players as well as the merchants and guardsmen they had saved. In the process it came out that the players were the heroes of Spittlemarch. That turned into a rousing chorus of their theme song (which is really starting to get old by now) and then the players were allowed to go on about their business, armed and unfetter with peace-bonds -- or any real leads, for that matter, except for some odd rumors about bloody murders going on in South Gate area.

In south gate them came upon a bad street theater performance, which was thankfully disrupted by an attack of strange, savage, blind humanoids, swinging huge stone axes and expressing their displeasure with the performance. This time the heroes managed to kill a few of them before the rest took off running. With a little examination and asking around a bit, they were able to determine that these creatures were Grimlocks. Eli tried tracking the grimlocks, but lost the trail almost instantly.

Talking to the guards, who eventually turned up, and a bit more investigation, left the party fairly sure that the grimlocks were in one of the many abandoned warehouses in this part of town, but they had some trouble deciding which one. So they started a systematic search.

Eventually, deep in the early hours of the morning, they got it right. The party threw open the 20’wide loading doors on one end of the warehouse, and saw the Grimlock nest on the far side of the building, in and around a 7’ high platform. In side there were four grimlocks and a larger female grimlock that looked like trouble.

The party started to get ready to face the grimlocks coming off the platform, but then the fight got interesting - Felga, the female grimlock, cast a spell, and the whole warehouse went dark.

They were not sure what to do. Eli paused. Pah tried to pull back, looking for some sort of position where they could fight outside the pool of darkness. But Urk wasn’t going to let a little lack of visibility get in his way. He charged headfirst into the center of the darkness, hoping to find something that he could hit with his axe.

The grimlocks were happy to oblige. The lone dwarf was quickly surrounded by four grimlocks, all slapping him around with their big stone axes. Felga was not apparently taking part in the ‘dogpile on the dwarf’ right away, but a few rounds later she stepped in and took a cheap sneak attack before pulling out again. Urk, battered but not affected by her poison, fought on, hollering for some help from his companions.

Of course, the other three were not idle. Uri tried casting glitterdust, but it had no effect. Eli circled around the edge of the building, sticking to the inside wall, hoping to find some visibility. And Pah pulled a crossbow out of her bag of holding, and started plinking away at the noise she was hearing, without much effect.

Things started to look up momentarily when Uri got the bright idea to cast a web spell centered on Urk. It sounded crazy at the time, but Urk managed to make his saving throw and stay active while two of the grimlocks failed, cutting down the threat to Urk. Then Uri took his cloak of arachnia on a spin going up the wall and even across the ceiling to try to find a safe place to cast from.

What he didn’t know was that Felga was still out there looking for trouble. She cast spider climb on herself and joined Uri on the ceiling. While he was up there trying to figure out what he might do next, she closed in and reapplied some poison to her axe. Just when he though he was in a safe spot, just above where he thought the platform had been, she attacked.

Pah and Urk were finally taking out some of the grimlocks (some had freed themselves, so in effect Urk continued to face two, missing a lot thanks to the darkness.

Eli had circled to the far side of the room. He was luckily in the right place at the right time. Uri had been attacked by the female, who hit him several times - he’d failed his poison save, then been hit a few more times, been knocked unconscious, and fell into the ragpile that was the grimlock nest. Eli was there to give him a quick potion and bring him back to consciousness, but the next round Felga dropped down to the platform and started to smack Eli around with her axe, and he had to defend himself.

Urk and Pah finally finished the Grimlocks they were fighting, and Urk tried to run around the area of the web spell to come to Eli’s aid. Of course, navigation was still difficult in the dark, and he managed to run through some of the web and get himself caught for a few rounds.

Uri, after chugging down a few more potions, got the idea that there might be some help for the party in the chest they’d seen just before the lights went out. He though he remembered it beneath the platform so he dropped down to the lower level and started to paw around for the chest. Meanwhile Eli was taking a beating. Urk and Pah eventually made it to his side on the upper level of the platform, and the three pressed their attacks on Felga.

After a round or two of being backed up against the wall by three opponents, Felga felt the need to get out of that situation and go back to taking advantage of the darkness. She tried to bolt past the three heroes to open ground. Each took an attack of opportunity on her, all missing, except Urk, who made a powerful backhand stroke that caught her in the spine, cutting her nearly in two. (He got a critical hit; in the end he did a total of 35 points of damage to her with one blow. She had 33 hit points at that point).

Uri, down below trying to open the chest he’d finally found, suddenly felt much more sick, and collapsed, shivering, sweating, and barely able to lift his head (failed his save, lost even more strength, down to a strength of 2).

Uri’s friends, pawed around, trying to find him, following his trembling voice, and pulled him and the chest out into the moonlight outside the warehouse, where they gathered the meager loot they’d taken from the grimlocks and carried Uri away to find help.

Next time: Things will get better soon in Brindinford, really. Honest. For sure. No doubt about it.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Brindinford Part II. A Bad day for Uri.

(note: I’ve recently discovered I’ve been spelling Irk’s name wrong – it’s Irk, not Urk. Stupid illiterate dwarves. Eventually I’ll try to go back and make the changes to the previous posts, but for now bear with me.)


The Party pulled themselves out of the dark warehouse into the street and took a few minutes to take stock. They were battered and mangled, exhausted after a night of searching warehouses for the Grimlocks and the eventual battle, and it was a few hours before dawn. They had some interesting loot but no real time to identify it. And Uri was weak as a kitten (Pah preferred the term pussy, and spent a lot of time meowing at him). They decided to look for some help.

There were two temples that they knew of in town. A shrine to Heirnomous and a temple to Pelor. Based on their old friend Norham, who was a priest of Norham before he ended up sunk to the bottom of the Nyr Dvy, they decided to head for the shrine. (imagine the road trip scene from Animal House – “hey, it’s Otis, he loves us . . . “)

So Irk picked up Uri and the four heroes started their hike to the to the shrine. As they go close, they saw that the shrine was surrounded by a thick cloud of fog. A bit closer, and they heard a woman’s voice calling for help from inside the fog. And then it got very quiet.

The party was in no mood to charge into the fog in their condition. Irk and Eli carried Uri to a spot close to the edge of the fog where they could find a little cover, and Pah stalked quietly, slowly into the fog.

Pah snuck up to the wall of the shrine and still couldn’t see anything, but heard some shuffling nearby, and stalked a little closer. A few steps deeper into the fog she spotted two robed figures trying to carry a woman in plate armor, struggling with her weight. Pah pulled a pistol from her belt, placed the muzzle against the lower back of the robed figure closest to her, and pulled the trigger.

Sneak attacks do a LOT of damage when you’ve got 5 levels of rogue. The robed figure was splattered all over the woman in armor he had been trying to carry and his partner.

Outside the fogbank, Irk heard the shot go off, made an excellent listen check and managed to close with the fight and take a swipe at the other robed figure. Eli, the elf with the big ears, didn’t hear quite so well and ended up running up to the side wall of the Shrine and not having any opponents in sight. And Uri, well, Uri slumped against a rain barrel, wondering when his homespun tunic got so damn heavy. (Pah says Meow)

The remaining sorcerer, already nearly dead after Irk’s axe stroke, spun to face the dwarf and shot a color spray at him, but Irk shook off the effect. Then Pah took a shot with her other pistol, finishing the sorcerer.

The mist cleared in a few minutes, and the party was able to take stock. They were standing outside the shrine of Hieronemous over the bodies of two dead sorcerers in odd robes and a sleeping, gore-splattered woman – well, more girl than woman – in plate armor. They roused her, and she immediately started asking for Amien, her mentor and trainer, and the master of the Shrine, but she was no where to be round.

The party talked to Torea, the paladin they’d rescued, and managed to get some information out of her. She recognized one of the dead sorcerers as someone who had been around the scene of a murder, the Reality Wrinkle, that Torea and Amien had tried to investigate the previous day. They didn’t know much, but had a bad feeling about the murder. And now they were attacked in the night and Amien was missing.

She wasn’t able to help Uri, and was only able to offer a little lay-on-hands to help with their wounds. All things considered, the party still wanted some help, so they decided to head off to the temple to Pelor.

When they arrived at the temple it was still a few hours before dawn. They pounded on the doors, eventually waking an acolyte who came and let them in to the temple. He was eventually convinced to go wake the high priest, who turned up in a wrinkled robe and bad hair to see what he could do for the party.

He talked to them a little, lamenting the terrible things going on in the city. He offered them what he could – a few healing spells and a single lesser restoration to help Uri get up on his feet again. (Meow, says Pah). Then the priest sends them on their way, telling them that the have a lot of preparations to make for the next day – the Baron was going to make a speech, and they needed to be ready to respond to the new directives he was going to give. The party could return after the speech for more healing, if they wanted.

And so, about an hour before dawn, they stumbled back out into the street, looking for an inn where they could get a room. And the finally managed to get some sleep.

The next day, right around noon, they all shuffled into the main tavern room in the inn and tried to figure out what sort of loot they had from the night before. Uri worked on trying to figure out what was on the scrolls they’d found. After a while they were approached by a young halfling in simple monk’s robes. He was a young man who, for a while, had been living with the halflings in and around Brindinford, but he wanted to be an adventurer, and when he heard that the Heroes of Spittlemarch were in Brindinford, and he decided to try to join them, to follow them, if he could. He was especially interested in the one they called the Spider of Spittlemarch, whom he eventually swore to serve faithfully. (Basically, Uri took the leadership feat and took a 4th level halfling monk cohort).

With Minimonk, the new cohort, carrying Uri’s scrolls and luggage, the party headed off to hear the Baron’s speech and then make their way back to the temple of Pelor. Traffic was moving slowly, but all heading for the Baron’s keep, and the party fell in and made their way. And then they heard a deep voice calling to them from a nearby alley.

“Hey there, Heroes of Spittlemarch. Wecome to town.” And then things got cold.

The party was ambushed – a cone of cold flashed out from the alley and took the whole party. No one fell, but no one was happy about it. They turned and charged towards the alley, but the figure was already gone, apparently around the corner. They seemed to remember catching a glimpse of a huge humanoid figure, but he seemed to be already gone.

They found themselves in a series of alleys. Uri, feeling aggressive now that he was up to a strength of 7 after a night’s sleep, charged down one of the alleys looking for trouble. And he found it, when a pair of assassins stepped out of the shadows.

The two assassins flanked Uri and both tried sneak attacks on him. One rolled a 20, and one rolled a 1. The one that rolled a 20 did a critical, and did enough extra sneak attack damage to make it deadly. (In our campaign we use a set of fumble house rules, which came into effect in this case. The Assassin who rolled a 1 rolled to avoid the fumble and failed that roll, and had to roll on the fumble table. He ended up thrusting a bit high at Uri and stabbing the other assassin who had been lunging forward for his own attack at the same time. The other assassin, wounded by his partner, was fortunate to make his saving throw against his partner's poison. Uri also made is save, but the thrust he suffered was enough lay him low (just below 0 hit points).

The rest of the party charged into the alley to try to keep up with Uri. Pah spotted the Ogre Mage on top of a building looking down at the party, and took a shot at him, scoring a critical hit. Irk and Eli used withering missile fire to put down the assassins standing over Uri’s bleeding body while Minimonk charged in to try to get some healing to his new master, whom he’d known for all of half an hour. It took a few rounds of sorting around in his master’s pouches looking for potions of healing, but he did manage to get Uri back on his feet.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party was having some fun. A cleric and summoned devil thing (Lemure) came out behind the party and attacked. The Ogre Mage was spraying the street with intimidating but ultimately useless fire from his huge longbow. And a trio of rogues appeared with crossbows to continue to make life interesting.

The Lemure shrugged off a shot from Pah’s other pistol thanks to its damage resistance. Pah was being pressed by attacks from the Lemure and cleric. When Irk came to her aid she slipped back out of sight to reload.

Things took another bad turn when two of the rogues closed with Uri and Minimonk. The rogues set up flanking attacks on Minimonk, taking the cohort out of the action in a single round. Uri stayed in the fight, whipping out a wand of shocking grasp and preparing his hand for a game of tag. He managed to give one of the rogues a good shock, but the next round the two managed to flank him and take him out of the action AGAIN.

Irk and Eli managed to take out the Cleric and Lemure, and Irk closed with the two rogues while Eli took a few shots at the Ogre Mage. Pah returned with a loaded pistol in time to be attacked by a flaming sphere, as a new opponent, a sorcerer, stepped out of the shadows. She managed to evade the ball of flame, taking a shot at the sorcerer and ducking for cover. The ball chased after her, and she did get a bit singed, but wasn’t too badly hurt.

Eli turned his deadly archery on the rogues standing over Uri and Minimonk, taking the rogues out then charging over to administer some healing, enough to stabilize the two and bring Uri around. As there was still an Ogre mage and a rogue with a crossbow shooting at the party from the roof, Eli returned to his bow, trying to put down those threats, while Uri complained that he hadn’t been healed more. (Pah says Meow)

Pah reloaded and charged down the alley where the sorcerer was taking cover. She took a shot, missed, and was peppered with Magic Missiles, enough to spook her into taking cover again.

Eli finally managed to do enough damage to the Ogre Mage that he dropped out of sight.
The Sorcerer cast obscuring mist to cover his escape, but didn’t know that charging in blind is Irk’s specialty. Irk charged down the alley, coming out the other side in another open area, where he could see the sorcerer chugging a potion.

Meanwhile, Pah slipped back out of the fogbank and set about reloading. As she was loading she was treated to a big surprise – the Ogre Mage, still badly wounded but very much alive, stepped out of the fog bank behind her and started to swing at her with his Huge Greatsword. Over the course of several rounds Pah tried to put some hurt on the big guy, while he slapped around at her, always managing to hit just where she’d been, missing over and over.

Uri, having taken another potion and gotten back on his feet, tossed a Melf’s Acid Arrow at the Ogre mage. Suddenly near collapse again, and taking real damage he wouldn’t regenerate, the OM cast darkeness on the spot and headed back down the alley. A few seconds later Pah heard him collapse to the ground as he took another round of damage from the acid arrow.

Irk closed with the Sorcerer, who had just drunk a potion of fire breath, and managed to singe him a bit before the big axe made little pieces of him. And the others finally finished the last rogue, who had been sniping from the rooftop. Irk charged into the dark alley where the Ogre mage had fallen, waving his axe around, trying to hit something, when he heard a voice above him. “I’d get my affairs in order, if I were you,” said the Ogre Mage. “We’ll meet again, and I will kill you.”

A few seconds later Pah was at his side. “What did he say”

“He said ‘I’m a dick’,” replied Irk, looking up into the darkness expectantly.

Irk was not about the let things end that way. While the rest of the party slumped to the ground for a little rest, Irk tried to scale the wall to get up to the rooftop and pursue the Ogre Mage. It was a tough climb, but Irk was mad enough to punch holes for hand and foot holds in the plaster wall and managed to get to the roof fairly quickly. Up there, out of the darkness, he could see a cloud of gas that was roughly Ogre Mage shaped drifting away. Irk chased it to the edge of a rooftop, shouted some imaginative insults about the size of the Ogre Mage’s penis, and then returned to the party.

* * * * *
They gathered up the loot the could from the bodies scattered around the alley, cleaned themselves up as best they could, got Minimonk back on his feet, and then hit the streets again, heading for the Baron’s speech.

There was a huge crowd outside the Baron’s keep – roughly half the city was there. After a few minutes the Baron stepped out onto a balcony to give his speech. Pah spotted another dark figure standing behind the baron, although none of the others could make him out. Pah tried to fight her way forward, shouting that the Baron needed to look out, he was in danger, but before she got close enough to be heard, the Baron started his speech.

I’m not going to retype the Baron’s speech right here. But for those of you who don’t know it at all, he basically turned everything on it’s head. He outlawed the worship of Pelor, declared martial law and an abrupt end to the festival, sealed the city gates and forbade people to carry weapons in the street.

As he finished his speech, a huge skeletal, scorpion-tailed figure appeared on the roof of the tower, and the party got a bit spooked.

They got quiet, and decided to race to the Temple of Pelor for help before things got bad, but when they got close enough to see the temple, they saw a huge column of flame, 20’ wide, rising from the temple, through the shattered roof, and up into the sky.

They decided not to go in.

Instead, they made their way back to the Shrine of Heironemous, which they found abandoned. They shut themselves in, closed the doors, and hid.

And that’s where the session ended.

Next time: And you thought THIS week was bad . . .

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Brindinford part III: Pah has a bad day. Irk has some fun.

The party of intrepid short folk spent the night in the apparently abandoned shrine of Heironemous. As the night wore on they saw some very frightening patrols drift by the shrine – militia, often (but not always) accompanied by the big skeletal scorpion-tailed devil thing, shadowy figures skulking around in the shadows, and even a pair of Barghests. It was ugly. But nothing seemed to take an interest in the shrine, or in what stayed indoors, so the party was safe over night. And thankful for the small amount of healing that afforded them (including one more point of strength for Uri).

They found themselves in a tight spot. Although they’d leveled overnight, they found themselves badly in need of healing, and with only a handful of potions between them which they wanted to try to save to ward off death. But with the shrine’s occupants missing, and the temple of Pelor now a flaming pillar of radiant eeeeevil portal thingy, they didn’t know where to go. But Minimonk had an idea.

Before joining the party and dedicating his life to following Uri (for some mysterious reason no one has yet figured out), Minimonk was traveling with the riverboat Halflings who were moored just outside the city. If they hadn’t left yet, out of fear of the evil things afoot in Brindinford, the party might get some help from the spiritual leader of the group, a cleric of Yondalla named Dentheira.

Given everything they might try to do in the city (check out the former temple/gate to hell, go visit with the Baron, investigate the Reality Wrinkle, and didn’t we run into some wererats earlier?) they decided to check out the Reality Wrinkle and then go to the halfling barge village and see if they could get some help.

Because they knew they were not permitted to carry weapons in the city, they ended up stuffing most of their weapons into Pah’s bag of holding (a tight fit, but they made it). Each tried to secret a few light weapons about their bodies, with varying degrees of success. Then, looking as much like an average group of villagers (if an average group of villagers could be imagined in heavy armor and in torn, blood-splattered clothing) they stepped out into the street.

Once they were all outside the shrine and moving across the square things got weird. Space and time seemed to warp – everything got very wiggie, and then two huge worm-things with seven tentacles surrounding a sphincter-ish mouth appeared, one on either side of the party, and attacked.

Everyone wanted the bag. Irk, who was carrying the bag, fished out his greataxe and tossed the bag to Eli. Minimonk, who still had only a bare handful of hit points from the day before, ran like mad for the shrine. Pah pulled a hidden pistol out and shot at one of the worms – hitting it, and getting it’s attention. Eli caught the bag and fished out his longsword. And Uri cast Melf’s Acid Arrow, which made absolutely no impression at all on the worm. Then the worms lashed out.

The two worms primarily targeted Irk and Pah, the two figures that were closest and posed the most apparent threat. While Irk chugged a potion of enlarge (becoming BIG IRK) and spent a few rounds fending off tentacles and hacking away at his worm, Pah’s struggled was much more . . . odd. She would be attacked, get hit by a couple of tentacles, get grappled and picked up by the worm, then on her turn make her escape artist roll to escape the worm’s grasp before being stuffed in it’s maw. Then it would attack and grapple her again, starting the cycle all over again. Eli moved to the side of the worm, and went to work with his longsword and shortsword, and eventually managed to distract the worm from its frustrating efforts to eat Pah. As Pah scampered to Safety BIG IRK finished off his worm and moved over to help Eli finish the second.

As the Battle raged on, Minimonk spotted a robed figure standing on the roof nearby, but before they could try to mount a short-legged pursuit the figure retreated from view. And, a few moments later, the corpses of the worm-things disappeared as well.

No one had died – not even close – but no one was feeling very good. They decided at that point that their first stop should be the halfling barge village, and off they went. On the way they spotted a skulking assassin, confronted him, and killed him in a matter of moments. And then the passed through an arch and saw before them the collection of halfling houseboats that made up the barge village.

There was obviously some sort of commotion going on – the Halflings were all crowded onto a central boat, where an elderly female and a young foppish male were arguing with some members of the crowd. Listening in the back for a short while, they were able to pick up the basics of the debate. Apparently many of the members of the community wanted to try to leave, but the couple of boats that had cut themselves free during the night had been attacked by some fiendish beast in the river. Those who wanted to leave thought that if the whole community took off at once most might survive, and that was worth the risk. But Dentheira wouldn’t accept that as a solution, arguing that Yondalla would care for them, that she had prayed and Yondalla would send help.

So Irk cleared his throat. “You say you’ve got a problem?”

After the usual round of introductions (and an brief chorus of ‘the Heroes of Spittlemarch’ in the background) they struck a bargain. Dentheira would cast what healing spells she could to patch up the party. Then they would deal with the river monster, and they would be rewarded with some potions she had been saving for a rainy day. So the party moved to the outermost rafts and took a look around.

Every once in a while they could see the ridged back of a Loch Ness Monster-ish but red-eyed and clearly evil beastie swimming around in the murky water.

So the Heroes of Spittle march decided to try something new. They made a plan.

What they most wanted to do was try to get flanking attacks on the creature – to take advantage of Pah’s sneak attacks. But that presented a problem – a flanking attack would be very difficult to arrange with the existing arrangement of houseboats. The party decided to remove one of the boats, creating a rough C shape, that, if they could lure the beast in there, would afford them an attack from two opposing sides. Irk set about cutting one of the houseboats free, until he was stopped by one of the Halflings. “What are you doing, that’s my home.”

“We need to make space here,” said Irk.

“But that’s my home, everything I own is there.”

“We need to do this. Trust me.”

“No, you can’t, that’s my home.”

Irk started to hack at the ropes again. The Halfling tried to stop him, so Irk punched him, knocking him out with one blow. Before things turned ugly, Uri and Eli stepped in and settled things down, explaining that the plan was NOT to just cut the boat out and let it go, but to try to tie it a bit further out in the river, creating a space and something they could swim to if they ended up in the water. With the understanding that the boat would be tied and not just cut free, the Halflings settled down and went back to watching the players work.

Pah and Eli, both with sneak attack ability, waited on one side of the gap, while the others dangled a big hunk of bloody meat in the water, trying to draw the Beast. And, sure enough, after a little coaxing it took the bait. Most of the party (especially Irk) that had armor or heavy equipment that would interfere with swimming left that armor behind.

The snaky head of the beast broke the water as it lashed out and snatched at the bait. The party opened up with a surprise round of missile fire at the beast.

Most of the shots they fired at the beast did very little damage – and the poison Pah had treated all of their crossbow bolts with made very little impression at all. But Pah’s sneak attack shot with one of her pistols did make a nice hole in the back of the beast’s neck, and that got its attention.

While the party tried to plink away at it, the beast turned on Pah, lashing out with its huge mouth, taking an impressive chunk out of her. The Young halfling warrior Modeir, who had been making eyes at Pah for a while, was also on hand with a crossbow, adding his shots to the fray. The beast seemed intent on Pah, which had her very scared. Irk pulled out his axe and moved around to a place where he could attack it, but was appalled at the poor penetration he was getting. When it nearly killed Pah with a bite, Irk bellowed “It bit Pah,” and took a running leap, burying his greataxe in the beast’s back and using that as a handhold – which he needed, as the beast, peppered with Eli’s deadly archery, chose that moment to dive for the river bottom to try to escape. Irk, who has been beefing up his ride skill while no one was looking, made a very impressive ride test to hold on to the axe and remain on the Beast’s back.

With a massive constitution, Irk has the ability to hold his breath for roughly 8 years. And he was quite capable of holding on to the beast’s back while it raced along underwater, trying to escape the trap it had found itself in. The problem Irk found himself in was that he was not able to do much damage to the beast. He had a pair of throwing axes – one masterwork and one +1, but between doing half damage with a slashing weapon underwater and the beast’s damage resistance (5/+2) he wasn’t able to break it’s skin several rounds in a row, and eventually the beast stopped swimming and snaked it’s head around to try to bite him off it’s back.

There rest of the party was at a loss for a few seconds, but quickly adapted to the change in plans. Pah and Uri snagged a halfling canoe and started to row out towards the churning water that was Urk’s underwater fight with the beast, while Eli moved up the riverbank to try to get a clear shot at the thing.

Irk gave up with the hand axes, and pulled his crowbar out of his pack. Using the crowbar like a blunt spear, he jammed the crowbar into the existing axe wound and tried to wiggle it around a bit, which further aggravated the beast. With the beast continuing to peck at him (roughly 10 hit point pecks), Urk finally had to give up. He pulled his axe free and kicked for the surface, and the beast swam away.

Urk spotted the canoe approaching him, and swam (slowly) towards it while Pah and Uri paddled towards him. As he was nearing the boat the water churned and rippled behind him, and Evil Nessie’s head broke the surface again, poised to take a final bite out of Irk. But Minimonk and Modeir on the Barges, and Eli on the shore, were covering him, and an arrow and two crossbow bolts flashed out in the nick of time. The last couple of shots finished the beast, which collapsed in the water, it’s corpse gently bumping up against Irk as he clung to the side of the tiny halfling canoe. “You call this a boat?”

The halfings rejoiced. Irk was towed back to the houseboat village, the beast’s body was butchered for trophies (several of the PCs wanted teeth for keepsakes) and the houseboat that had been cut out was recovered without damage. Four potions of cure moderate wounds were produced, and quickly poured down Irk and Pah’s throats. And then a low-key feast was arranged in honor of the heroes.

Dentheira offered to house the heroes for a while, and over dinner they talked about the fights they had been having and some of the problems they were facing. Dentheira explained to them the need for well-enchanted items, powerful enough to cut easily through the hide of the beasts they were fighting – something none of their existing weapons seemed able to do (they had a collection of +1 weapons, but in many cases so far had needed +2 or better). This was going to be a problem, but Uri had an answer. As a 6th level wizard (as of the level they had gained the night before) he was able to create +2 weapons. It would take several days, but he could make one, given the expensive supplies and a masterwork weapon to work with. And the debate went on about what weapon made the most sense for him to enchant, and what they had on hand. It was eventually decided that he would work on a +1 battleaxe that they had recovered from Felga’s body (the Grimlock leader). Working with the existing enchantment on the axe would shave a little time and money off the procedure, and it was something Uri was capable of working on (the other two main enchanted weapons the party had, Shatterspike and Irk’s +1 Keen Greataxe already were enchanted beyond Uri’s abilities, so he was not able to build on those enchantments). He needed the party to head for the main shopping district in town to try to find the supplies he would need to complete the enchantment. Minimonk would travel with the others.

In the morning, while finishing her watch, Pah noticed a rat that was not acting much like a rat – just sitting in the shadows watching the halfing barge village. She pointed it out to Dentheira, but when approached the Rat disappeared into the shadows.

Modeir, who was obviously smitten with Pah, asked the party for permission to travel with them to prove his mettle. “Short help is better than no help at all,” said Irk, which was becoming a party motto.

The party rested for the night, were treated again with another round of healing from Dentheira, and then the group – without Uri but with Modeir – headed into town for their shopping trip. The day was mostly uneventful – the caught and killed another skulking assassin on their tail, did their shopping with some terrified shopkeepers, and headed back for the halfling village. On the way then ran in to a group of four terrified militiamen, this time without eeevil escort.

“H-h-hey, what are you doing with those w-w-weapons,” the leader stammered.

“What weapons?” said Irk, pretending that the axehandles under his tunic were not plainly visible.

“Those. Come on. You can’t be in the street with weapons.”

“Look, every time we go out into the street, we get attacked. We’re going to carry weapons.”

“You can’t. Now we have to arrest you.”

DM’s aside: Playing with Irk’s player is fun for many reasons, but this is one of the best. There are moments like this where this mild-mannered, award-winning poet, college professor and chair of an English department, works at a role-playing problem like this for a few minutes, trying to talk his way out of a situation chewing on fingernails and furrowing his brow. Then, like a break in the clouds, he remembers who he’s playing. A smile spreads out over his face, and he presents Irk’s answer to every debate. “I hit ‘em.”

Irk smiles. “I hit ‘em.”

While the rest of the party rolls their eyes (actually, Minimonk tried to get in on the action but missed) Irk bursts into action, tossing fists around like they’re going out of style. With a surprise action and a regular action, Irk knocks out three of the militiamen before they can react. The fourth turns and runs away, screaming for help.

“Nice,” said Eli, who didn’t mean it.

Moving on, they returned with their shopping to the village. Pah spotted a rat again, and spooked it into disappearing. They gave the supplies to Uri, who was prepared to begin enchanting the axe, and then the group headed out again, this time to see what they could find out at the Reality Wrinkle.

The party arrived at the Reality Wrinkle, and odd and distorted bookstore, and crowded into it’s small front room. There they met the Shopkeeper, who was glassy-eyed and vague. “Can I help you?”

“We were wondering if you knew anything about the odd things that have been going on in town?” Asked Irk.

“Odd? Really?”

“Yeah.”

Pah chimed in. “hey, do you have any books about sparklies?”

“Sparklies?”

“Yeah, sparklies,” she said, showing him the necklace she was wearing.

“Ah, yes, sparklies. Well, you see, we are sort of magic book shop, not a jeweler’s book shop – so not, not really.”

Irk pulled a book from his pack – something he’s been carrying around since Sunless Citadel(a very long time ago). “Can you tell me what this book is about?”

The Shopkeeper took the book from Irk and started to page through it, making a lot of “um” and “ahah” noises as he flipped through the pages. Finally, after a few minutes of very careful investigation, he passed the book back to Irk. “No, I’m sorry. No idea.”

Irk, to his credit, demonstrated a second diplomatic option. “How much would it COST for you to have an idea.”

While the rest of the party watched the shopkeeper poking through the book, Pah got bored and slipped through the curtain that separated the front of the shop from the back. In that room she saw more shelves full of books, a couple of doors and a staircase leading upstairs. From the door under the stairs she could hear an odd humming. She crept forward and, finding the door unlocked, opened it.

And, of course, big ugly badness hopped out. She was faced with an amorphous mass of toothy mouths and bulging eyes. The mouths were making a terrible chanting noise which confused Minimonk and Pah, but the rest of the group rolled into action.

Pah, in her confusion, attacked the nearest creature, which was the Gibbering Mouther. She drew her pistols and shot at it, making a terrible racket and only hitting it once. Irk grabbed the shopkeeper by the beard (remember, Irk has beard envy) and started tearing bits of it out, threatening to kill him if he didn’t call off the monster. The others charged into the back room while the beast bit at Pah, chipping away at her and offering a replay of the grapple-and-escape-capades that the party watched while Pah was being mauled by the Worm monsters. Modeir drew his short sword and closed with the beast, trying to prove himself, while Eli peppered it with arrows. A robed figure appeared on the stairs, drawing some of that fire away.

Irk dragged the shopkeeper into the back room, still threatening him and trying to convince him to call off the beast. When the poor shopkeeper finally confessed that he was not able to, Irk decided to test his newest feat. “I have throw anything, right?” He waited for a break in the grapple-and-escape-capades and then tossed the shopkeeper into the Gibbering Mouther, which quickly chomped away and engulfed him, while missile fire from Minimonk and Eli finished off the robed figure on the stairs and the mouther.

While they checked out the body of the robed figure on the stairs for anything worth recovering, they heard a lot of movement upstairs.

And that was where we had to stop the game session.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Brindinford Part IV: Not a plans kind of operation

We left our heroes last time on the ground floor of the Reality Wrinkle, listening to movement upstairs as the residents prepared for attack.

One lone voice spoke up. Minimonk, not feeling particularly safe without Uri along for the ride, suggested “maybe we should go back to the halflings now?”

Irk just looked at the halfling for a long moment, then hefted his axe. “I’ll go first.” And he hit the stairs at a run. Eli followed close behind, and the rest hurried to keep up.

Irk charged up the stairs and into the main room on the second level, where two sorcerers were waiting for him. Their spells went off, and the festivities began in earnest. Their opening gambit was a Melf’s Acid Arrow and Glitterdust. Irk shrugged off the blindness, but started taking damage from the acid. Right behind him on the stairs, Eli was blinded by the Glitterdust. He threw his back up against the wall and yelled for the others to go on by, while he stashed his bow and drew his long and short swords. Apparently he was less dangerous blind with swords than his bow.

At any rate, what should have turned into a simple matter of Irk introducing two sorcerers to his axe, got more complicated quickly, as a stream of elementals started pouring down the stairs from the top floor of the building, cutting off Irk from the rest of the party, and facing Minimonk, who was the next member of the party to make it to the top of the stairs (ducking deftly under Eli’s blind blades).

At the bottom of the stairs, Pah and Modeir stood. Pah tucked one pistol under her arm and began reloading the other. Modeir listened to the sounds of fighting, Irk’s steady stream of profanity and Eli’s fumbling on the stairs. He was obviously struggling with the decision to head up the stairs, not really wanting to go, but also not willing to appear afraid in front of Pah, who he seemed to have more than a crush on.

“Well, get up there,” Pah said.

Modeir gulped and charged up the stairs.

Soon, Irk was taking a beating. He continued to hack away at the sorcerers, while they stepped back each round and peppered him with Magic missiles. Between that and the acid arrow, he was taking a beating. He finished one, the other tried another glitterdust, and managed to blind him this time, but it didn’t buy the hapless sorcerer any more time against Irk.

The fight on the stairs raged on as well. Minimonk stood his ground round after round, trading near (and not-so-near) misses with the earth elemental, while Eli slipped by to help out from behind, and then Modeir slipped by to add his blade to the fight. By this time a total of four earth elementals and two air elementals were in the room making space very tight. Pah did her best to get into the action, but was repeatedly unable to tumble into a position where she could strike. A third Sorcerer had come down the stairs as well, who traded damage with Eli but was eventually put down.

Then, while the fight with the small army of elementals was going on, there was a large thump on the floor above. No one had much idea what it was, but it didn’t take long to find out that it was another big worm thing with tentacles and a sphincter mouth. It slithered down the stairs a bit – just showing it’s head – and the first thing it encountered while the party was cleaning up elementals was poor Modeir, standing at the foot of the stairs and still trying to help Minimonk with the earth elemental. It was a matter of seconds before those brutal tentacles tore Modeir into little pieces. Tiny, mangled, lumpy, little pieces.

This death, however, did make room for Pah to finally enter the room. She ended up, of course, in the one place she did not want to be – standing right over Modeir’s corpse and facing the tentacles herself. She took a shot at the worm, avoided being grappled by the biting tentacles, took another shot, and tumbled out of the way again, as Irk, finally having cut his way back to the party, closed with the worm.

Irk chopped away at it, everyone else did what they could, and a few rounds later it was a final shot from one of Pah’s pistols that finished the worm.

The group took stock, standing amid piles of dirt, dead sorcerers, and the worm’s corpse, which returned to it’s own plane a few moments later.

Pah took Modeir’s death harder than that the others, thinking more kindly of him now that he was dead than she had while he was alive and mooning over her. The party did their best to gather up the bigger pieces of his body to return them to his mother.

While they looted the bodies, they heard a pounding and the sound of broken glass coming from upstairs. Pah snuck upstairs to take a look. Peeking around the corner up there, she saw more trouble. There was a screen of earth elementals standing guard over another pair of elementals carrying the unconscious body of a woman in a breastplate, a fifth earth elemental that was trying to pound a hole in the wall (trying to make an exit where there was none) and the lead Sorceress overseeing it all. Pah gulped, pulled out her pistol, and took a shot at the Sorceress, over the heads of her screen of elementals.

The rest of the party charged up the stairs, and despite the difficulty of the shot (lots of cover from intervening elementals) they managed to pick off the Sorceress before she was able to do much, and made short work of the elementals as well.

They found themselves standing on the top floor of the now-empty house, all battered within an inch of their lives. They had some loot to carry, a dead body (or most of one) and the woman, who seemed mostly unconscious. They gave her their past potion of cure light wounds to try to revive her – and it did help get her on her feet, but she was till deeply altered, babbling gibberish. They put her on a leash and lead her out of the building.

Once out on the street she seemed to recover her senses, and it wasn’t too long before she was able to talk to them, and tell them her name. Alein. A paladin, she was the one to operated the now-abandoned shrine the party had hidden in the night after everything went to hell in Brindinford.

She didn’t have much to tell – she’d been trying to investigate some odd doings in town, then one night the shrine was attacked and she’d been the prisoner of the sorceress ever since. They told her about rescuing her apprentice, who was not missing, and the attack at the Shrine. And she had one more question.

“Have any of you seen a big white warhorse hanging around?”

“Uh, no,” said Irk.

“Well,” said Minimonk, “We did eat something last night that tasted a bit like horse.”

“That is not funny,” Alein insisted, waving a finger at Minimonk while the rest of the party laughed. “You’re a bad man.”

Anyway, on the way back they ran into a small group of militiamen that Irk scared off with a quick “boo.” And they limped back onto the Halfling raft village.

They took stock there. Alein was able to heal them a little, they drank the last of their potion stash, but things were definitely grim for the battered heroes. They decided to lay low for a while and try to recover.

They poked around with their loot a bit. They managed to figure out a few items without bothering with identify spells. In one case, Pah was making a simple jump from one raft to another, wearing a ring she’d claimed that was carved with a frog motif, and instead of jumping to then next raft, she jumped over the entire raft and ended up in the river beyond. The others quickly tossed a rope to her as the current pulled her by, and she started experimenting more carefully with the powers of that ring.

Later that night, Minimonk, on guard duty, saw some motion on shore. He snuck over to a position where he could get a closer look, and saw something very disturbing. A band of seven humanoid figures, in the darkness, were gathered and talking, gesturing at the halfling river village. While he was watching a huge, familiar figure – the ogre mage – stepped out of the shadows and began giving orders.

That was enough for Minimonk. He slinked back to the party, woke them up, and reported what he’d seen. They quickly decided to alert Dentheira, who set some halfling lookouts. They managed to find enough silver daggers around for each member of the party who was without an enchanted weapon to have something to fight with. Uri was still working on the battleaxe, and was not available.

There was a lot of discussion about what to do, including an attack on the group of villains while they were plotting their attack.

“That’s the Ogre Mage, we almost killed him last time,” said Pah.

“There’s a LOT of stuff we’ve ALMOST killed,” said Minimonk. “That’s like our stategery.” [sic – read this as “stra-tee-ger-ee, as Saturday Night Live’s Will Farrell said it as George W. Bush]

Thanks to Minimonk spotting the Wererats gathering early, the party had enough time to get in position to meet the wererat attack. There were seven wererats in all, and they raced into various gaps on the edge of the halfling village, where they were met by the hiding heroes.

The two center areas were covered by Irk and Alein, who managed to hold their ground against a pair of wererats each, although putting the rats down was slow going. On the upstream flank Eli managed to stay hidden while the leader of the wererats went past him. He struck from behind, which got the leader’s attention, but in a moment another rat appeared behind Eli and he found himself flanked and in very dire straits.

The Downstream end, where Minimonk and Pah were waiting, was the one gap that was not attacked with two rats – a single wererat attacked that flank, and Minimonk, sniping down from the rooftop, actually managed to hurt him with well placed silver-tipped crossbow bolts. Pah took a double move to take huge bounding leaps to try to move to the other flank to assist Eli, but was not able to reach him before he was reduced to 0 hit points by the rats. It looked grim for Eli, who decided to play dead. Pah, armed only with a dagger, showed up just in time to prevent a coup de grace, but was herself in bit trouble facing the pair of rats that had laid Eli low.

At that moment, Minimonk, who had just finished the rat on his end, was turning to try to lend aid to the rest of the party, when the Ogre Mage suddenly appeared right behind him (had been invisible). The Big Beefy One cast Charm Person on Minimonk. Minimonk blew his save.

Irk, who had finally finished the two who had attacked him, climbed to the roof where Minimonk and the Ogre Mage were talking, tried help Minimonk, but things were going badly up there. The Ogre Mage told Minimonk that the attack was a trap, that the Ogre Mage could take him to safety, if MM would come with the Ogre Mage. Minimonk was allowed a second save, as this was an unlikely request, but he failed again, and right before Irk’s startled eyes he jumped into the Ogre Mage’s waiting arms. Irk was able to take a swat at the Ogre Mage, but then the villain swept Minimonk up in his arms and flew away, over the wall and back towards the baron’s keep.

And then the cavalry arrived (can you say deux ex machina? I knew you could). Pah was in real trouble, Eli was in not shape to help, Alien was still struggling with her opponents. A pair of arrows streaked out of the darkness, taking the Wererat leader out. Then another pair took out the other rat facing Pah. In moments the tide shifted against as the remaining heroes turned to help Alien and finish the last of the rats.

The Mystery archer appeared while the party finished the rats, giving a potion of healing to Eli and introducing herself. She was Maravos, the tutor and member of the Order of the Shooting Stars that Eli had come to Brindinford looking for. While Eli rested against the wall of the houseboat, Maravos and Talia, Eli’s borrowed bow, exchanged notes about Eli. Apparently the bow had been along as an observer, evaluating Eli’s fitness for the order. And, with the exception of his bad habit of getting knocked unconscious in combat, Talia gave him a favorable report.

But it wasn’t all good news. Most of the party was in very bad shape. Pah had been bitten, and was feeling feverish. Dentheira confirmed that she had been tainted by the bite, had contracted Lycanthrope. Dentheira was able to provide a dose of Belladona, which flushed the disease from her system, although it sapped Pah’s strength considerably.

Uri said, “Meow.”

Another ugly discovery. In the closing moments of the fight, Pah had made an excellent spot check, and had noticed a residence near the river – a house that overlooked the halfling encampment. She saw movement, one of the curtains in the upstairs window being let go, falling closed again.

The party waited for dawn, and the meager healing that Dentheira and Alein could provide. Dentheira held back a couple of spells she needed for her son Modeir’s funeral. Bolstered slightly, the party made a quick investigation of the house across the street.

The door was open. They stalked into the house, and in the upstairs bedroom the found the entire family dead on the floor, killed in a gruesome way – their skulls had been crushed and their brains had been sucked out. None of them had seen anything like that before, but a crystal Pah wore around her neck, loot from a battle fought long, long before, grew warm in the room.

[the crystal is a bit of loot from a fight with the local leaders of a cult of psions who were trying to drum up a religious furor against magic users. A fight that occurred long before the events detailed in this story hour. The crystal is a psionic item of some sort – no one around is able to tell much more than that. Pah has decided that it’s pretty, turned it into a crude necklace, and has been wearing it ever since.]

The investigators returned to the halfling village, and they compared notes. Mavaros and Dentheira were able to offer some additional information. To begin with, Maravos, an Elf who has been around for long time, was the only one who had seen this sort of thing before. The crushed skulls and missing brains meant one thing to her. Mind Flayers. And the warmth of Pah’s crystal seemed to support that.

Maravos was not cheerful. “This is very bad. The mental powers of mind flayers are formidable. A mind flayer behind things here in Brindinford would explain a lot – the variety of allies the villain has drawn to his service, all charmed powerfully to do his foul bidding. It would also explain the Baron’s behavior. And, obviously, some sort of infernal pact is involved as well.”

“But what makes it all that much worse is that the Ogre Mage managed to abduct Minimonk. The mage and his master will take his mind apart, charm him powerfully into their service. You must assume that they know all of your abilities, and your plans, as intimately as Minimonk did.”

“That’s all right,” said Uri. “We’re not exactly a plans kind of operation.”

What the party needed most, at that point, was to regroup. They took the following day to hide out and wait for Uri to finish his work on the axe. And heal. And feel sorry for themselves. Eli and Maravos spent the day talking about archery, the order, and the philosophy behind it all. Uri took breaks now and then to Meow at Pah. Irk fidgeted. And they all were on hand for Modeir’s funeral.

At the end of the day Maravos explained that she needed to leave. She gave Eli a small handful of enchanted arrows and wished him luck, but someone needed to go and report to more powerful figures, so that if the party was not successful someone could come and do something about the growing evil in Brindinford. She wished the party luck, and slipped off into the night.

And, with a nervous watch set, the party slept through another night.

Next time: Minimonk, Minimonk, wherefore art thou, Minimonk.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Brindinford V: Half a Season of Buffy?

The second morning dawned grim and gray. The funeral of the blowhard Modeir, despite Pah’s efforts to cheer everyone up with odd, anachronistic lyrics that seemed like an ode in his honor (“Keep your Modeir running/Head out on the highway”), and the abduction of Uri’s Pal Minimonk, left everyone feeling a bit down. Morning came, and a few of the outlying rafts had apparently cut free in the night, making a run for safer territory. The streets of the city were becoming more and more dangerous, as there seemed to be a gradually growing infernal population. It became clear that the gate between worlds had to be closed.

For that, they needed a cleric. They had two choices for Clerics. Dentheira, the ancient halfling healer and community leader who could barely hobble around with a cane, and Alein, the paladin. Luckily, Alein had a score to settle and didn’t mind the idea of trying to close the gate. So the party got healed up, geared up, and headed off to the temple.

En route they met a Bargest patrol, but managed to dispatch the beasts without difficulty. Irk was just getting used to the newly-enchanted +2 axe, and as he could use that one handed he liked that he could use a shield at the same time. Uri had a few new spells he wanted to try out. Pah’s guns were loaded, although she was concerned that without enchanted bullets she was going to be of limited use to the party. Eli had a small handful of arrows and Shatterspike. It would have to do.

Faced with the temple and several doors to choose from, the party selected one of the smaller side doors on the wing. The lock had to be picked, which Pah managed after a few tries, and then Irk led the way into the belly of the beast.

The party was faced with a hallway, a couple of doors, and another passage that clearly led to the main temple.

“Well, let’s get in there,” said Irk.

“Wait,” said Eli. “Shouldn’t we clear out these rooms first.”

Pah fidgeted with a cocked hammer. Uri twiddled a finger in his ear. Alein, an NPC, was characteristically devoid of opinion. Irk looked longingly at the door to the main temple room, with it’s big pillar of fire and untold horrors. “Nah,” he said. “Let’s do it.” And so he led the way.

The main temple was dominated by the big fire. It was pretty damn hot. Oh, yeah, and there was an Osyluth, the big ugly devil thing that had appeared on the roof after the Baron’s speech a few days that seemed like decades before. The infernal creature started a spinetingling wail.

Irk wasted no time waiting for formal introductions. He charged the Osyluth, nearly laying it low with a single massive blow (rolled a critical). Alein, next through the door, moved in close enough to try to channel the power of Heironemous into the fire to try to close the portal. The heat burned exposed flesh, heating her armor, but she pressed forward, holy symbol threatening to melt in her hand.

Eli, worried, asked “How long can it take to close a hellmouth?”

Uri answered him. “Half a season of Buffy.”

The others stopped and looked around for a minute, wondering what the hell he was talking about. Then they got back to work.

The Osyluth fled from Irk, returning to the center of the great fire to hide, and called out into the abyss, bringing forth a cousin (probably an in-law) to help face the rest of the party.

Things got a bit interesting after that. The new Osyluth traded blows with Irk, while the wounded one, still within the fire, sensed the weakening of the gate and turned to face Alein, settling in to lash at the paladin with bite, claws, and tail, trying to drive her back before she could finish closing the gate.

At the same time, responding to the wail of the devils, the rest of the temple perked up. A pair of hell hounds crashed through a door to one side, and a evil cleric on another, engaging the members of the party that were still in the hallway waiting to enter the room (Uri and Eli). Pah had slipped into the main chamber and was skulking around the edges of the fight, looking for an opening.

Alein did her best, trying to close the gate, but between the fire, the heat in her armor, and the onslaught of the Osyluth, she had to pull back, stepping back to the doorway where she, to quote Wulf Ratbane, touched herself in her special way. The Osyluth, relieved that it had driven her back before the gate was closed, threw up a wall of ice to keep her out.

In the hallway, things had started out looking pretty grim. Eli had pushed himself to the front, drawing his sword to protect Uri from the hell hounds, only to fall prey to a cause fear spell cast by the cleric. Eli turned and ran like the wind, as only a light-footed elf can run. Uri, on his own with a couple of hell hounds and a cleric to deal with, fell back on a trusted friend, web. He managed to immobilize the cleric and one of the hounds, and set about dealing with the other, with a couple of shocking grasps, and a little help from Alein, who ran back from the ice wall to help deal with the threat. The trapped hound breathed on the web in its frustration, and the web began to burn away. Alein and Uri dealt with the other hound and then the cleric in a few rounds.

Eli eventually stopped running, turned around, and started running back.

While Irk was fighting the devil-in-law in the main room, Pah heard movement from a balcony above. She bounded up there, thanks to her ring of jumping, and was faced with the high priest of the temple, who had just cast a protection spell on himself of some sort. She took a shot at him, and he turned and came after her, swinging his huge flail around his head and smashing the rail behind her with a terrible blow. Not one to hang around someplace where she wasn’t wanted, Pah took a shot with her other pistol and jumped back down to the ground.

At about that time Irk had hacked his way through the Osyluth-in-law and was looking for a way to get at the one hiding in the fire. Irk took a few rounds to hack a passage through the ice wall, only to find that Alein was not on the other side of the wall. The evil high priest jumped down to the main floor and engaged Irk, while yet a third Osyluth appeared nearby, although this one seemed to be behaving oddly.

Pah lept back up to the balcony to try to spot more trouble coming. Uri appeared on the other side of the temple, spiderclimbing up the wall over the ice wall. From his perch he exchanged fire with an enforcer (Named Farji) that appeared on the balcony opposite Pah.

Irk, frustrated with the Osyluth in the fire that was doing its best to make his life difficult, picked up the corpse of the one he’d killed and tried to toss it at the one that was still living. (Irk’s player prefers a very loose interpretation of the feat Throw Anything). He missed, but enjoyed the effort anyway. Then he turned to face the high priest.

The Priest cast Hold Person on Irk, a spell Irk was painfully familiar with, but somehow this time he was able to shake off the effect and close with the Cleric, raining heavy blow after blow on the evil priest. The priest exchanged a few blows, then backed off to cast a spell, and was caught in a sleet storm spell cast by Uri from his perch above.

An area of driving sleet took over the southwest section of the room, making movement and visibility difficult at best. Pah took advantage of the sleet for cover, moving to a spot near the wall where she could be easily out of sight and reload her pistols under the cover of her cloak. Irk, standing just outside the area of sleet, waited for the third Osyluth or the Priest to come out. The Osyluth was the first to move, stepping out of the sleet apparently unaffected. Irk hefted his axe and took a swing which passed right through the beast, scattering it in a puff of pixilated smoke (it had been an illusion). Meanwhile Farji dropped down to the main floor to try to help, where he fought Eli and eventually Irk.

The surviving Osyluth, the original, still flying around the room and mostly hiding in the hellmouth, saw an opportunity to go after Uri up on the wall, It raced up to Uri’s position and started pounding on him. Uri managed to get off an acid arrow before being knocked unconscious and nearly killed by the beast, which would have escaped back to the healing flames of the hellmouth if it had not been for Eli with his bow and the lingering burn of Uri’s acid arrow.


Alein, having made the circuit through the eastern wing of the temple, up to the second floor and out onto the balcony, dropped down to the ground level and returned to the work of trying to close the hellmouth.

Davros Hellseeker, the high priest, had spent about four rounds slipping and falling around in the sleet storm. His visibility was practically nil, but he’d heard the death throes of the Osyluth and decided it was time to get out of there. He managed to find his feet and blindly made his way to the temple’s main doors. He bolted out into the street and started running for the Baron’s keep.

Pah heard the door, and slipped over to it to investigate. Outside the door she saw the priest running for the hills, and fired a parting shot at him, hitting him, although it was not enough to slow him down it did give him something to remember her by.

Alein, meanwhile, poured the last of her energies into the Hellmouth, finally managing to close it before passing out due to severe burns and other wounds. With the Hellmouth closed the others were able to treat her wounds, and Uri’s and stabilze both of them, while Irk finished Farji. Then an eerie silence took over the temple. Without the roaring of the Hellmouth, and the screeches of the Osyluths, it seemed uncannily quiet.

It had been an ugly, long, confusing battle. Uri was mangled. Alein was in no condition to continue. Irk had taken a beating, although he was still ready for action, and Pah and Eli were still in pretty good shape, but the party decided not to take any chances and returned to the Halfling community, where they delivered Alein to Dentheira’s care, found a few potions for Uri, and headed back out to the Baron’s keep.

The streets were also quiet, and the party saw no sign of the infernal patrols that had made life difficult for the past few days. From time to time they saw frightened militiamen in the distance, heading for their homes, staying out of the way of the party and jumping at shadows.

When they came to the Baron’s manor house they spent some time outside, peeking in windows and seeing what they could from outside the walls. The could see the Ogre Mage and the high priest talking in front of a fireplace. On a balcony they saw Minimonk going through his Kata with an eerie calm. And there was no sign of the Mind Flayer.


They settled down to make a plan of attack, and we stopped for the evening.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Brindinford VI, Endgame (?)

Brindinford VI, Endgame (?)

When we last played over a month ago, the party was making plans to enter the manor house of the Baron of Brindinford to try to kill the various bad guys in the place, including the Mind Flayer behind the mess, his Ogre Mage and evil priest henchman, and hopefully not kill the two charmed figures, the Baron himself and Minimonk.

The manor house itself was a two story sturdy stone building, with a three story tower on one end. The roof of the main house was topped with a crenellated catwalk, and there was a parapet on top of the tower. The heroes decided that the two characters with items that granted them spider climb (Uri and Irk) would climb to the top of the building, lower ropes for the other two, and then the entire party would enter the house through the top floor of the tower.

What they DIDN’T do is take any sort of precaution to insure that they were not heard by the Mind Flayer and his minions. It was Minimonk himself who heard the noise on the roof and altered Axom, the Mind Flayer, to the presence of the party.

The party moved to the door of the tower, and found it locked, but easily picked. Before actually opening the door Pah drank a potion of invisibility and a potion of non-detection. Her plan was to sneak down into the main house ahead of the rest of the party and try to disable one or more of the targets with poisoned darts from her blowgun, which would help even the odds a little.

They opened the door and found the Baron’s bedroom. There was a huge bed, an armoi presumable full of clothes, a coatrack with an odd leather long cloak or coat, and a full length mirror. And, cowering in the room was a well-dressed but bedraggled noblewoman and two children. The three frightened nobles watched as the party pushed into the room.

Pah was VERY interested in the leather coat/cloak and pulled it off the coatrack, forgetting that she was invisible for a moment and this would make for an interesting show for the nobles. She put the coat on, but it did not resize to fit her, as most magic items will, so she began to investigate it further. It was a strikingly well-made coat – the stitching was far finer and more even than any tailored work she had ever seen before. It was black and leather and smelled good and had these cool epaulets on the shoulder and on the collar there were silver insignia – a square, in which there were a pair of ‘s’s shaped like lightning bolts. (DM’s note: yes, Nazi SS insignia). In the pocket of the coat she found a booklet of folded paper – all printed in a strange language she did not recognize, but again printed by a hand that was much smaller and more regular than any she had seen before. She took the papers, and left the cloak, which Irk took from her and began to investigate himself.

The Baroness was trying to comfort her children. All three were clearly terrified. “Who are you?” she asked.

Irk looked at her. “I’m not going to tell you that.”

The Baroness nodded. “He’s in my mind.”

That stopped everyone cold. Pah stuffed the papers into a pouch without another thought and started to head down the spiral staircase to the lower levels of the house.

The Baroness looked the three remaining party members over. “He wants me to tell you something.

This would be when the three heroes on this floor started to panic. Pah’s panic would come in a few minutes.

The Baroness continued. “He says you shouldn’t have come.”

Irk had heard enough. He stepped forward and punched her for all her was worth, knocking her through the doors of the armoire, where she ended up, very unconscious, in a pile of robes and gowns and broken cabinetry. The two children began to scream bloody murder.

Eli, by now, was already running down the stairs after Pah, hoping to press the attack and not lose too much advantage of surprise, not realizing that the advantage had been lost when they scaled the wall in the first place. Irk too a long look at the two screaming kids, but in the end couldn’t bring himself to hit them, even when one stopped screaming and got very calm.

“Run,” said the child. “Run run run run run run run run run run.”

Irk did, to the stairs after Eli.

But Uri wasn’t going to let this go on much longer. He stepped forward and punched the tyke in the face, knocking him out. He turned to face the last of the children, but the sounds of screaming and combat on the lower floors convinced him that he was needed downstairs, and that there wasn’t anything left to protect by knocking children unconscious, so he ran downstairs.

When Pah snuck downstairs initially, while the others were upstairs having social interactions with the noble family in the bedroom, she found a dining area on the second floor of the tower, with a sideboard that held the family silver and china. She gave it a quick look, then returned to the task at hand. She decided to go downstairs one more flight to the ground floor to make her move.

The ground floor of the tower held a small kitchen, and like the other floors, a door that connected it to the main house. She quietly opend that door and slipped into the main house.

The main house itself consisted of two floors. The ground floor, where Pah was standing, held a reception room and meeting area, with fireplaces and plush furniture. This was the room where they’d seen most of the villains earlier, while observing the house. Closer to the tower the sitting room was separated from a sort of den or office by a wall, but there was a simple arch, no door that separated the two rooms.

The second floor was not complete. Over the office, closest to the tower, there was another sitting area, into which the door from the tower dining room opened. But there was a balcony which overlooked the main sitting room below.

Pah passed through the door and snuck over to the wall near the entrance to the main room, waiting for an opportunity to make a move, but things started to go badly for her. She couldn’t help but hear the commotion upstairs as the rest of the group ran down the spiral tower stairs. But then she heard the cleric, in the main room, starting to cast a spell. And then, all of a sudden, she could see herself again. She was visible.

That was when Pah started to panic. Minimonk stepped into the doorway and started to hit her with his club.

Finding herself holding a very flimsy blowgun and dart, facing minimonk, and behind him the Baron and the cleric, she decided that she wanted to be somewhere else very badly. She ran for the stairs, taking another blow from minimonk in passing, and started screaming “IRK!”

By then of course, Irk was busy. As was Eli.

Eli had been the first one down the stairs to the second floor, right about the time Pah opened the door on the first floor, he opened the door on the second floor. From the doorway he could see the Ogre Mage and the Mind Flayer, not at all surprised to see him. He took a single shot at the Ogre Mage by way of introduction, and waited for things to start happening. And they did.

First Irk, flush after his victory over the noblewoman, charged past Eli into the room, and engaged the Ogre Mage. The Ogre Mage, suddenly faced with two tough opponents in a straight line, fired off his Cone of Cold , which Irk managed to avoid the worst of, but Eli took full force. Then Eli stepped into the room where he could have a clear shot at the Mind flayer, and sent off three arrows in rapid succession, each striking home in the Flayer’s center mass.

Gaereth Axom, the mind flayer, was through playing around. Terror and charm had it’s place, but this was getting deadly. He sent off a telepathic command to the cleric to get up there and do some healing, and then stepped into a position where he could Mind Blast Irk and Eli without hitting the Ogre Mage. And he let them have a blast.

Once again, Irk managed to avoid the worst of it while Eli took it full force. While Eli was stunned, reeling and trying to get his bearings for over a minute, Irk fended off a glancing blow from the Ogre mage and then set to pounding on the big blue bastard with his greataxe, knocking him out of action.

Uri had appeared, and added to Axom’s troubles with an Acid Arrow spell, and then started shooting his crossbow from the cover he could find behind the stunned elf.

The Cleric, down on the ground floor, and having just flushed Pah out of hiding with an invisibility purge spell, got the message from Axom and cast Air walk so that he could climb up to the balcony and heal Axom on his hext turn. But Axom, seeing that Irk was finishing the Ogre Mage in record time, decided not to wait around for the dwarf to start pounding on him, and cast levitate on himself and skipped out into the air above the sitting room.

Right about them Pah charged into the balcony, followed by the Baron and Minimonk. Irk, not willing to let the Ogre Mage just regenerate for a few rounds and then hop back into action, spent a precious round pounding on the fallen figure, making sure it would be a few minutes before there would be any trouble from it again. Pah, having shed her pursuit at the door, where the Baron was trying to do something about Uri, moved forward to try to find a chance to use her poisoned dart. She saw the cleric had joined Axom out in midair at the far side of the room, where the cleric was healing the Flayer’s wounds while the flayer pulled out arrows and swore a blue streak. She moved around Irk, who was still pounding on the inert Ogre Mage, stepped up to the balcony rail, and took a shot with her blowgun.

Her dart hit the window behind the cleric and Axom. She swore, and Axom looked up. Seeing the crowd on the balcony, and the fallen Ogre Mage, he decided enough was enough. With a push off of the cleric, Axom positioned himself right next to Pah, where he could catch the entire party (and, incidentally Minimonk and the Baron) in the cone of his Mind Blast, and let loose with a second stunning blast.

This blast was devastating. Of the entire group of combatants on the balcony, only Uri and the Baron managed to make their saving throws. Everyone else was stunned and stumbling around. Actually, Eli, still stunned from the first blast, manage to make this saving throw, for what it was worth.

Things were going very badly. Uri, figuring that he needed to change the situation as much as possible, shut the door on the Baron (who was still standing in the doorway between the tower and the main house) and cast Sleet storm on the balcony area, providing concealment for the group. But the next round, the Cleric dispelled it, and the Baron crashed through the door, sending Eli sprawling (Eli had been standing near the door when the Baron crashed through).

While all of this was happening, Axom was worried. He knew that this party had managed to close the hellmouth, his gate to his infernal allies. Left with the Ogre Mage, who had fallen, the cleric, and a few charmed supporters, he didn’t think this was the best fight to try to stick out to the bitter end. He needed to make his escape. He sent off a quick command to the cleric, who cast shatter on the big window to allow the two to escape. Then Axom reached over the balcony railing and picked up Pah’s stunned form, carrying her off with him as he escaped out the window, with the cleric close behind. Axom figured Pah would make a nice snack before he left.

When the cleric dispelled the sleet storm Uri was able to see the Flayer disappearing out the shattered window, with Pah under his arm. By then the Baron was running around the balcony swinging his sword at the two standing figures, Irk (who was stunned, still) and Uri. Uri, to avoid a beating, ran forward, towards the balcony, and used his spider climb ability to perch on the wall where he would be safe. The Baron, left with just one target, started pounding on Irk, while Irk tried to figure out what was going on.

Uri, perched on the wall just under the roof, heard heavy footsteps above. He ran along the wall to the window, out the window and up the wall again to the crenellated rooftop walkway again. Once there he found himself standing on one end of the roof. On the other end, between Uri and the tower door, which was swinging shut, stood the cleric, who had unlimbered his huge flail, and was waving it around in front of himself. Electricity arced from the head of the flail to the roof. The Cleric beckoned Uri forward with his shield hand.

Uri, despite his victory over the baron’s child, didn’t feel like a toe to toe fight with the cleric, and cast web instead. The cleric failed his save and was cocooned between the crenellations on the walk, struggling to break free. Uri ran past him and through the tower door.

Uri crashed through the door with his crossbow in hand. There, in the bedroom, just in front of the mirror, Uri saw the mind flayer holding Pah, having attached three of his four tentacles.

“GIT YER HANDS OFF MY PAH!” Uri shouted, shooting at Axom with his crossbow.

That round, Pah managed to finally recover from the effect of the Mind Blast, and wriggled free from the Flayer’s tentacles. Axom closed in again, attaching two tentacles and grapping with her again, and Pah managed to get free..

Downstairs, Irk shook off the effects of the Mind Blast and found himself bleeding from a couple of wounds and facing the Baron. He punched the baron once (not enough to knock the baron out) and the ran for the stairs, following the sounds of Pah’s screaming, which was muffled one moment and clear as a bell the next.

Axom had had enough. He grabbed his coat off the floor by the coat rack and started to put it on, while he lashed out mentally. First he spoke into her mind. “We’ll meet again, my sweet. And I will taste your brain.” Then he reached out mentally and charmed Pah. “Protect me,” he said to her.

Uri saw trouble coming, and cast Web again, filling the tower, but not entangling anyone except the last standing noble child, who was still crying and screaming over her fallen mother and brother.
Pah drew a pistol and took a shot at Uri, but missed.

Downstairs, Eli of the fortunate saving throws, managed to recover from his initial stun. He heard the commotion upstairs and started to head up there. In the second floor of the tower he came upon Minimonk, standing there still stunned. Eli grabbed some rope and began to tie up the little monk to take him out of the action. Minimonk managed to recover from the stun a few rounds later, but Eli managed to get him bound and immobilized.

Irk reached the top of the stairs in time to see Axom step into the mirror, which suddenly was not reflecting the baron’s tower bedroom, bur another room, apparently far away, in which they could see two humans, dressed in odd grey uniforms and holding devices that he did not recognize. Irk charged through the mirror/gate, but was driven back when the two SS guards laid down a heavy hail of suppressive fire through the mirror, covering Axom’s escape. Bullets tore into the web in front of the mirror. Pah turned, drew her other pistol and took a shot at Irk. Irk hefted his axe above his head and smashed the mirror.

The Baron had been right behind Irk on the stairs, and charged into the room, but got hung up in the web. When Irk smashed the mirror it severed the connection between Axom and his charmed subjects, releasing Minimonk, the Baron, and Pah, and bringing the battle to a close.

Uri, the one member of the party able to move freely through the web, walked back out onto the catwalk, where the cleric was still trying to escape. Uri looked at him, struggling in the web, trying to swing his big sparking flail. Then Uri put one foot on the cleric’s chest, leveled his crossbow on the cleric’s left eye, and fired.

Irk, once he was satisfied that things were stable on the tower, returned downstairs to the slowly regenerating form of the Ogre Mage. He bundled the body up and dragged it outside. Passing the Baron, who was trying to sort out what had happened and what he should be doing about it, Irk said, “got any marshmallows?”

Irk dragged the Ogre mage outside, built a huge pyre beneath it. Standing over the battered body, which each round was getting a little closer to whole, Irk found an eye and looked into it. “Yer still a dick.” With that, he thrust a torch into the pyre.

Pah, sitting on the floor by the shattered mirror, tried to sort out what had happened and to get the unclean feeling left behind by having the Mind Flayer in her mind, and trying to suck out her skull. Tucked in a pouch, she found the papers she’d taken from Axom’s coat pocket, and wondered if he was going to miss those, wherever he’d gone.