PHDungeons Nentir Vale homebrew

[PHDungeon]

The following sessions begin to integrate some of the story from the Revenge of the Giants adventure- with significant changes to better fit this campaign and my style of dming.

PCs
Melek: Level 12 tiefling Wizard/Warlock
Bjorn: Level 12 human cleric of Thor
Bella: Level 13 changeling Rogue/sorceress
Turok: Level 12 minotaur warden
Vesna: Level 12 human warlord

This is Melek’s next journal:

After finishing off Stark and taking over ownership of his fortress we all thought it necessary to attend to some quick personal business. I managed to pick up a couple more very useful rituals and even a minor magic item. The Jarl was quite generous in rewarding me by having the Scarlet Stone Academy further enhance my enchanted amulet. I’m quickly discovering that being a hero defending the city pays very well. And it all is presumably Odin's will. At the least, I've seen no omens suggesting that I should change course. But I must admit that the most satisfying aspect of serving the city is proving to all those bastards at the academy that I am a very powerful hero with connections to the local powers. I bet that they now wish that they hadn't expelled me on mere suspicion so that my recent glories would be better reflecting on the Academy. Hopefully I'll eventually gain enough power that I'll be able to properly avenge the dishonor they have caused me.

I joined with my companions visiting some drip or other that they'd previously adventured with. His name was Derren Androsax, a local noble of a languishing house. Apparently, his sister had also adventured with Bjorn and company, and she had been claimed by Loki’s fire shortly before I met them. They rightly felt it their duty to bring this news to the Androsax scion. We found him sparring with his brother at his family’s estate in the noble district. He took the news about as well as could be expected, though he brother was quite upset and berated Derren for entrusting the girl’s care to Bella. Fools. What did they expect would happen if they left Bella to care for a child? I can’t imagine a woman less fit to be a mother.

I also learned that Derren had married Vesna’s younger sister Briannah, the High Archavist of the Skaldsholme library, an impressive feat. One that I’m surprised this lad was able to accomplish, for he is clearly a buffoon. However, he does seem to love her. He was quite concerned for her health. Apparently, she was kidnapped by cultists last summer, and the experience was quite horrific and traumatizing for her. She has now refused to go back north with the Androsax lad, which is clearly where he wants to be, and she has shut herself in the library, devoting herself entirely to researching the foul cult that abducted her. I fear that such a path can only lead to further pain and suffering. Derren is certainly worried about her, and seems to think that Vesna might be able to help her, though I can’t see her being very good at such a delicate task.

Ideally, we would have liked to spend more time attending to personal business and resting from our recent adventures, but the threat to Thunderholme Abbey was most pressing, and the others finally agreed that the time had come to investigate, an agenda I had been pushing for days. Well, some of us agreed to this course of action. Bella was far more concerned with cementing her position as Starke’s replacement and Vesna was more interested attending to her family and preparing the city for war. No surprise there.

Thus, Bjorn, Turok and myself decided to do some reconnaissance on our own. First we used a linked portal ritual to travel to an arcane curio shop in the town of Saltmarsh, which was the closest major town to the abbey. There we met one of my former teachers- a buffoon and apparently a coward. The people of Saltmarsh were well aware of their proximity to an army of giants and were preparing for the worst. It looked like he was going to save his own loot and flee without even trying to defend the town. Oh, he may have planned on making a token appearance on the wall but he was clearly going to look after himself first.

The Jarl of the town, one Harald Bloodhair, was a very different matter. He had sent off a large expedition under his son to investigate what was happening at the Abbey and to provide support. They had not yet returned and the Jarl feared the worst. The Jarl asked us to try and recover the lad’s body and his ancestral sword. We agreed to the task, as it certainly doesn’t hurt to have more friends among the jarls of the north.

Although we had little hope at this point, we set out fairly late that afternoon on summoned spiritual giant eagles- one of the rituals I had learned. There was something incredibly exhilarating about flying through the air and seeing the world laid out below. All our petty troubles and squabbles were put into perspective. Apparently neither of my companions agreed or shared my pleasure. Minotaurs belong on the ground. You'd think a cleric of Thor would appreciate flying through the sky. You would however be wrong (admittedly there was no storm, but one can't have everything). Our flight covered about 20 miles.

We got to the Abbey and unfortunately found more or less what we expected. The Abbey had fallen. The Abbey itself sat on a narrow spit of land, sandwiched between the sea and the Dawnforge Mountains. We first flew up to the sacred cave on Stormspire Peak. The abbey was built at the base of this mountain centuries ago because the mountain was sacred to the gods and believed to be a place where one could more easily communicate with them and discern their will. The priests had for ages been making the trek up the peak along a treacherous trail to the sacred cave where they would attempt to commune with the gods. We found some foul ceremony had been performed here involving a huge pile of naked corpses and the bloody symbol of The King the Crawls painted on to the rock face. The entrance to the cave itself had been collapsed. Our small hope that there might be survivors inside was quickly squashed when Turak called upon the mountain’s spirits to carry him beneath the earth and up into the cave. He found the altar smashed and desecrated, but no survivors.

We then went down to investigate the ruins of the abbey. There was a small band of scavengers poking about the rubble- a few Orcs, together with a handful of Hill Giants led by a female Hill Giant shaman. Not surprisingly, violence ensued. Despite our numbers being low we managed to fairly efficiently defeat them. For the first time in a long time my Stinking Cloud was very useful, as were the healing prayers to Thor cast by Bjorn. By Thor, can that man keep a party alive and healthy through a battle. Praise be to the son of Odin. Of course, Turak was also the fierce killing machine one would expect. He fearlessly lunged into battle against a pair of towering hill giants, hewing and smashing with his maul and goring with his horns when the opportunity arose. Still, I'm quite certain that I did at least my share as well- the Stinking Cloud did its job wonderfully at keeping the enemies separated, blind and choking to death. We received our share of injuries, but thanks to the gods and spirits we were able win the fight and heal our wounds.

After the dust of battle settled all of the giants and orcs were dead except for two hill giant prisoners. One was the shaman, and both readily succumbed to my Arcane Mutterings.

We more or less confirmed our expectations. We learned that the giants are led by an Earth Titan called Volgrum- the same one who destroyed Turak’s home. Their army consists of several hundred giants and several hundred orcs. The giants are mostly hill giants led by the mate of our shaman captive, but there are also said to be some stone giant clans among them. They had razed and pillaged the abbey and taken several captives. It is possible that Jarl Bloodhair’s son survives, and it is all but certain that his sword is in the hands of some high-ranking giant or even Volgrum himself. It was made plain to us that their plans are to descend on Saltmarsh in a few days.

We also found out that the giants had looted some kind of magic item/relic (or part of one) from a hidden chamber underneath the Abbey. Perhaps the survivors of the Abbey will know more. We investigated the chamber, but found no real clues to tell us what had been stolen. Certainly both Bjorn and I had not known the chamber existed, but clearly the giants had been aware of it, and it may well have been one of the primary reasons they had targeted the abbey.

Being of no use to us anymore, we then separated the shaman from her head.
After that we again mounted our eagles and took to the sky. We flew north into the mountains in search of the giant army. They did not prove to be difficult to locate. Under the cover of night, we quickly scouted out their camp from the air. It occupied a high mountain valley with but a single pass leading up to it. There was a steading at the far end of the valley, which was built directly into the mountainside. We are pretty certain that it holds their leaders, and is where Volgrum will be found. The reports we had gotten from the captured shaman were true- there were hundreds of them, enough to easily crush Saltmarsh and threaten Grimmsburg.

We have since returned home and must now decide what to do. We need to find out more about the relic that was stolen if at all possible, I believe we should launch some kind of attempt to kill Volgrum. Turok is all for this idea. Alternatively, we might try and set up an ambush of the entire army, but that seems like a course of action that would result in the loss of many skanzi lives. Whatever course of action we take, we must decide on it quickly, for the giants will soon be on the move with a titan marching at the front of their army.

 

[PHDungeon]

The Steading of the Hill Giant King:

Melek's journal:

Well, as the man who fell off the Giant Eagle said on the way to meeting the ground, "So far, so good".

I'm really not at all sure what possessed me to go along on this mission to assassinate an Earth Titan, especially given that it was surrounded by an army of Giants. I suspect that "possessed" may actually be the right term for it. Whatever fey power it was that had recently allowed me to learn rituals and gave me insight into the ways of nature may well have been behind it. Or perhaps it was my longing to prove my worth and redeem myself that was responsible. Or maybe my desire to revenge myself on the destroyers of the only home I've experienced for the last dozen years. At any rate, I really don't expect to survive this particular adventure. At least I got to say goodbye to my little sister before leaving.

We still do not know what it was that was hidden under the Abbey. Apparently the Abbey is quite ancient and built upon the ruins of buildings older still. It is interesting that the titan seemed to know of the contents. Whatever it is, I suspect it must be of significant importance.

In all Councils of War one has to pretend to pay attention to people of much less intelligence than oneself. But a council of war where almost all of the participants are hung over is definitely a joy to be experienced. This was the case at the council I attended just before we left Grimmsburg. Both Jarl Sutur and High Cannon Ericson were thoroughly hung over from the great feast that had taken place the night before- the one we had missed out on to do our scouting of the abbey. Fortunately, there was not really that much to discuss, so their condition hardly mattered. The outcome of the council was no surprise- send us off on a nearly hopeless mission to slay the Earth Titan. Presumably they're hoping that we at least do enough damage to slow thing and its army down. Or maybe the Gods will be with us and we'll manage to slay the Titan before we ourselves perish at the hands of a horde of enraged giants.

Dean Danzig's inspirational speech left little doubt that he is a Wizard and not a Bard. A very intelligent man it is true, but he clearly leads the college because of his intellect and power and not because of the force of his personality.

So it was that Bjorn, Turak and I, this time with Bella as well, used a linked portal ritual to once again travel to Saltmarsh. After informing Jarl Bloodhair that we intended to destroy the titan, we proceeded to the giants’ steading on the backs of more summoned Giant Eagles. We landed on the roof under the cover of darkness and a conjured storm. We were able to make our way through a smoke hole into the rafters of the steading with little difficulty. The giants were quite obviously very bored, and after seeing how the giants treat their goblin "allies," I've determined to not allow myself to be captured- better to die in combat than to be used as the ball in one of their crude games.

Inside the steading, the giants were very obviously not expecting much trouble, but, unfortunately, were mounting a reasonably good watch. There were well over a dozen giants in the part of the steading that was constructed outside the mountain and an unknown number within whatever chambers and tunnels they had carved into the mountain itself.

Belladonna and her familiar scouted ahead somewhat, revealing that our quarry was mostly likely somewhere within the mountain itself, though she did not explore deep enough to determine exactly where. There was only one open gate leading from the steading structure into the deeper chambers that had been cut into the mountainside. A pair of stone giants and several hill giants were in the common hall that held the gate. Fortunately, all were in a drunken sleep- all but one stone giant. Several more hill giants were lurking in nearby chambers, but they too were for the most part sleeping.

We decided upon a plan that has the small virtue of being less awful than all of the other plans we considered. Belladonna would sneak up to the door, and I would then change places with her by the magic revealed to me by my Fey mentor. Then, between that magic and some divine magic granted to Bjorn we would, with a great deal of luck, be able to silently get everybody into the hallway inside the mountain. From there we would be able to bar the gate and seal out the giants that infested the main portion of the steading.

Unfortunately, luck was not with us. I'm a Wizard and a Warlock, well known for my arcane prowess. Unfortunately, I'm less famous for my stealth. Belladonna fulfilled her role perfectly and got me to the door. But as I tried to open it I managed to make enough noise to rouse a Hill Giant. I'd had the foresight to use my Hat of Disguise to disguise myself as an Orc and that was enough to fool the idiot of a Hill Giant. Unfortunately, the Stone Giant wasn't quite so stupid as to believe that an Orc would come into the steading to empty a chamberpot. All hell broke loose.

In the ensuing fight we managed to slay a couple of giants in the steading proper and make our way into the mountain, barring the door behind us. The giants started to try to batter open the doors, but they were well constructed of heavy logs and designed to withstand their massive kind. The task was not proving easy for them and would take time.

The ruckus we had created drew the attention of several giants residing inside the mountain, and we soon found ourselves in battle with the Hill Giant Chief, a small band of his giant allies and his pet dire tiger. All the while, the giants in the steading proper continued to batter at the doors. The fight was reasonably quick. It took a little time before the Hill Giants thought that it might be better to unbar the door than to fight with us and a little longer still before they remembered that there was a second smaller but completely undefended door at the other end of the U shaped hall that would also allow their allies to enter. Though through tremendous effort on Bjorn’s part we had been able to keep them from unbarring the main door, there was nothing we were able to do to stop a pair of them from getting to the smaller door. As they were throwing off the bar to that door, and as the other giants finally battered down the main door, we finished off the Hill Giant Chief. It had taken many of our most potent spells and resources to win the fight, and we were in no condition to take on the massive force of enemies that was suddenly surging towards us. I urge my allies to rush ahead of me into a tunnel leading even deeper into the mountain. I hung back and cast a stinking cloud spell that I hoped would slow down the giants. I then fled into a tunnel, concentrating on sustaining my spell and moving it along behind me to cover our retreat. I wasn’t at all certain if it would be enough to deter our enemies, but it helped that the giants immediately discovered the body of their dead chief, for at that point a huge argument erupted among them about who would take the chief’s place. Still, I could hear several giants pursuing us into the wide tunnel, which was clearly sloping downward deep into the earth. I kept moving down the tunnel, maintaining the spell and praying to Odin for his blessing.

 

[PHDungeon]

The final battle with Volgrum the Titan, in which one of our most beloved heroes perishes.

Bella's journal...

Session 33: Hero is a synonym for Suicidal Idiot

My back rests against the cold stone wall of the cavern. My heart is thundering in my ears as I take deep breaths and try to calm myself. Had the giants followed us we surely would have died, however Melek’s stinking cloud spell and their natural laziness has benefited us with a brief respite. I quietly thank Odin for this blessing.

The situation is dire.

A Stone giant and his minions await us in a giant cavern below. There are no signs of any exits. There is also the added worry that the giants above, perhaps fearing later reprisals for allowing us down here, will come down to join the fight. These are only the visible threats. I have no doubt that several surprises await us in the coming fight. As long as the giants remain above we stand a chance, but I do not like the odds.

Moments ago, I had grimly suggested that we cast a link portal while we can and get out, perhaps to try again another time. I was flatly turned down and heard Melek mutter something about cowardice under his breath. The teifling believes that now is the best chance we have at accomplishing what we came to do, unfortunately the others agreed. I knew I could have run right then, started casting the ritual while they fought the enemies below. No one could have stopped me. Not being a hero, part of me wanted to leave these fools to their fate. Yet I decided to stay. Bjorn is having a negative effect on my sense of self-preservation.

The battle starts typically enough. Melek and I creep forward and survey our foes from the shadows of the tunnel we are in. The tunnel opens into a large cavern, but the ground is 30 feet below us and there is a ramp descending into the cavern along the wall to the right. The cave itself has only a couple of occupants- a stone giant and two small grey skinned humanoids. I think they may be called Norkers. I had already been watching them for a while. The giant had been hard at work chiseling a symbol of the dreaded Elemental Eye into a massive roughly “Eye” shaped stone that was resting on sturdy stone plinth. He had heard the giants shouting to Melek further up the tunnel, and when that had happened he and his two assistants had hurried to duck behind the altar. Their skins blended in well with the stone, but I had seen them and warned my companions.

There are a couple of other features in the room I should mention. One is a second altar. This one centered on a particularly ghastly looking stalagmite covered with symbols of Torog and surrounded by a pile of rotting corpses. The other thing I notice is a large pile of treasure, likely taken from the abbey, piled at the back end of the cave.

I spot an excellent place to hide behind a large stalagmite, but my concentration is broken by Turak and Bjorn giving a great battlecry and charging down the ramp. I am rendered speechless for a moment, but I quickly realize that their foolish act will not only draw our enemies to the ramp but also give me the distraction I need to reach cover.

Acting purely on instinct, I leap off the edge and use the wall to slow my fall, rolling along the ground at the bottom with only slightly less grace than I had intended. Fortunately, it is only a minor injury, and I am able to reach my cover.

To our misfortune, we discover that the Stone Giant is trained in rune magic, and he is able to cast a spell on both the cleric and the warden as they reach the bottom of the ramp. A glowing, arcane rune glides through the air, hovering over the pair, and its dark power freezes them in placer. Melek decides to remain on the ramp rather than risk the drop, this proves to be an unfortunate choice on his part, for the ground suddenly begins to quake around him and two elementals of earth and stone rise up out of the ground to surround him. From two ledges on opposite ends of the chamber strange, rock creatures reveal themselves and start throwing stone projectiles at my companions. It does not look good for us, but when does it ever look good for us?

It is both fortunate and unfortunate that the Stone Giant decides to walk forward to battle our immobilized melee fighters. If he had decided to throw stones they would have been helpless to retaliate. Moving in gives both Turak and Bjorn a chance to hurt their enemy before shrugging off the effects of the magic.

Then it happens, from the back of the cavern a section of wall shifts and walks forward. The creature is massive and looks like a walking hillside. It is Volgrum the Earth Titan. In his deep rumbling voice he starts shouting to us that he will see that we die here in glorious battle, but that our souls will not go on to Asgard. Instead, he claims that Torog will take them. I can’t help but wince when he says the name of the dark god. It is said to be very dangerous to attract his attention, for he is trapped in lightless caves and tunnels deep beneath the earth, which means that he is free to interact directly with mortals, making him that much more dangerous than most gods.

I put thoughts of Torog out of my mind and focus on the task at hand. I target my bolts upon the Stone Giant first. Luckily, he has already been wounded enough for me to able to take him out with a few shots. Melek had cursed the giant, and when he falls it enables the teifling to teleport away from the elementals. Perhaps Melek was addled by the bruises he had sustained from the elementals, for I cannot believe it when he runs up to Turak and Bjorn to engage the Earth Titan. If that be bravery I want no part of it.

From my quiet corner I rain death upon our foes. Seeing the danger in the unreachable stone men who continue to pummel my companions, I focus my fire upon them. In the center of the cavern the huge altar of the Elemental Eye provides some cover for my companions. I am able to destroy most of the Titan’s forces leaving the Titan himself our only difficulty. Turak had been holding his own against his massive foe, bravely engaging it directly with his mighty maul. Time and again the titan smashed him with his fists or sent him sprawling across the stone floor. Thanks to Bjorn’s healing powers he still managed to live, and with the help of the Thor’s blessings, the spirits of the earth and Melek’s arcane power, they had been chiseling away at the dreadful titan.

The battle is just turning in our favor when tremors start to shake the cavern. They emanate from Torog’s shrine, and I watch horrified as the floor opens up and a chasm starts snaking its way across the ground. The altar falls away as a gaping hole forms beneath it, and I watch as the hole grows wider and wider at an alarming rate. I can feel the hunger of the King that Crawls, and it seems as if he wants to devour the entire cavern.

Not wanting my escape route cut off I scurry across the battlefield to the base of the ramp. As I make my way up to the relative safety of the tunnel mouth I fire bolt after bolt at the Titan. We did not finish him however, and the chasm appears to be making its way towards him. It is as if Torog is seeking out his servant. The titan’s face is hard to read, but I can see what looks like fear on it. And when the chasm reaches him, the ground itself opens up and swallows our enemy. He manages to catch onto the edge, but Melek blasts him with a spell and forces him to lose his grip, and I watch as our mark plummets down into the darkness. It is time to get out of here. Melek appears to agree with me, for he comes running up the ramp soon after I reach the top. Bjorn and Turak however do not. They instead run to the treasure pile at the back of the cavern as I provided cover fire against the couple rockmen that remain up on their ledges. As fast as they are able, they grab what they can and start run back. I know that Bjorn was looking for that mysterious relic taken from the abbey, and Turak was looking for the tablets stolen from his labyrinth. Neither of the artifacts seem to be there, for they come back with only a belt and some chainmale.

Unfortunately for them the chasm never stops growing, and it cuts them off from escape. There is no way to reach the bottom of the ramp, so they made their way towards us. Fortunately, Melek has the presence of mind to fix a rope so that they would be able to climb up.

It was then the unthinkable happens. Bjorn slips and falls into the widening fissure. He throws his hammer and grabs onto the edge in desperation and catches himself. Hanging over certain damnation he screams at us to run. Believing that he could pull himself up and still make it to the rope we follow his command. Melek is able to recover his hammer with his mage hand spell, and Turak climbs up the rope. Just as the minotaur gets to the top, Bjorn, trying to scramble up the loose earth, loses his grip and falls.

I have a moment of shocked silence as I watch my longest and truest companion fall into the darkness. We do not have time to contemplate his fate, as the danger has not passed. The fissure is still widening and we have to get out of this cursed place.

We realize when we reach the upper level that the giants have the same idea and we are able to escape in the ensuing chaos. Melek calls the spirit eagles and I watch our fourth eagle fly into the distance bereft of its charge instead of watching the giants’ fortress sink into the earth. Torog’s wrath is terrible, for not only does he swallow up the steading, but he takes with it the entire valley and along with that they entire giant army. It is a terrible sight to behold, and I almost feel pity for the giants. We watch for several moments. and then with heavy hearts we fly back to Grimmsburg.

 

[PHDungeon]

Melek's Journal- Answers to Questions.

After getting onto the backs of the giant eagles we watched for awhile as the entire valley collapsed into earth, pulling with it the whole of the giant army. Oh, I'm sure that there will be a few survivors, but that particular threat is vanquished. One could almost feel a little bit of pity for them. Well, if they hadn't destroyed Thunderholme Abbey one could.

We proceeded from the valley back to Saltmarsh where we told the populace the "good" news- the giant threat was no more and that, unfortunately, the Jarl’s son was almost certainly dead. At least we'd managed to find the lad’s ancestral sword and return that.

There was a lot of muttering from the townspeople. Many of them don't really believe that we did what we said we did. It doesn't really help when your choice of spokesman is a Minotaur, a Tiefling or a Crime lord. And our coming back without even the body of the only person in our group that they probably trusted with an outlandish story didn’t make it any better. I'll give Jarl Bloodhair credit; at least he gave us a reasonable reward (albeit one far below the actual value, I'm sure) for the sword that we recovered.

We warned them to be very careful in visiting the valley and advised the Jarl to post some sentries there. Who knows what may come out from the pit?

We then returned to Grimmsburg with our news. I expressed to Canon Wulgrim my concern that the King that Crawls may now be in possession of Bjorn’s soul. He promised to see if he could find out if this was true, but he didn't seem particularly optimistic that he'd get a clear answer. In fact, he didn't really seem all that concerned either, although perhaps I do him an injustice by that.

In Grimmsburg we found our numbers augmented by a Priest of Odin. One that I'd never met before. His name is Corvin, and he is an Androsax. He is the brother of Deryl, the girl consumed by Loki’s fire and Derren, the man in Grimsburg that Bella treated with such contempt. It’s far too soon to know much about him, but there seems to be a certain tension between him and Bella. I think that he might blame her for the loss of his sister, since she had been in Bella’s custody at the time of her demise.

After a brief respite to recover from our injuries we decided that what we needed most was more information.

We (including Wulgrim) traveled back to the chamber under Thunderholme where the relic had been held. There I cast a ritual called Whispers of the Edifice that allowed us to question the room itself. From the room we learned that the Abbey itself had been built over the secret room, a room holding one fifth of an ancient artifact known as The Divine Engine of Odin.

At Canon Wulgrim’s request, we then proceeded to fly back to the remnants of the giant stronghold. We found a massive sinkhole where the valley had once been. It was very deep, and the bottom was covered by a thin, putrid mist. There were no signs of any portal to hell or strange creatures coming out of the ground, but I could feel the touch of a malignant god at work, and we could hear the keening calls of what may have been those suffering in his torture dens rising up out fissures at the bottom of the terrible pit.

When we got back to Grimmsburg, we decided it was time to, basically, hit the books and see if we could determine what was going on. So we went to the Skaldsholme Library where we found Briannah, the head librarian and an old associate of our group and the sister in law to our newfound ally, to be in great, great distress. Driven nearly insane by the turmoil of past abuses inflicted on her by cultists, she was totally neglecting herself in the quest for knowledge about the Cult of Elemental Eye. She claimed to be researching the cult, so that she would better know her enemy. I hope that is true. It should also be noted that she is a younger sister of Vesna and daughter of Jarl Surtur. I wonder if the jarl is aware of how bad her condition has become.

Spearheaded primarily by Corvin, we actually managed to get her into something approximating reasonable shape, while simultaneously using the library to research the Divine Engine and the tablets that had been stolen from Turak’s people. The process took many long weeks, and it reminded me of my days back at the Scarlet Stone Academy. Odin helped us with the Hand of Fate pointing to the more useful books.

There was much to be learned about Odin’s Divine Engine. We discovered that it was a powerful artifact created by the gods during the Dawn War to imprison a mighty primordial known as Y’mir. Y’mir is said to be creator of the giants and was a terrible enemy of the Aesir. They used the device to imprison Y’mir in the Elemental Chaos, and after the deed was done, Thor shattered the engine with his hammer. It broke into five pieces, and the pieces were scattered to the five planes. The one that ended up on Midgard was hidden beneath Thuderholme abbey for safe keeping. The fragment that found its way to the Astral Sea was recovered by the Aesir, and is now said to be stored in Odin’s treasure vault. We could not discover the locations of the remaining three fragments. We believe one is somewhere in the Elemental Chaos, another in the Feywild, and the final shard is in the Shadowfell. Whether that is true to this day, and where exactly they are, we don’t know.

We also learned that the King the Crawls was involved with the creation and use of the engine. In fact, during the Dawn War, he was known as the Savior, for he was a mighty god, and it was with his aid that the Aesir were able to push Y’mir’s horde of giants and titans back from the gates of Asgard and defeat Y’mir himself. According to the legends, there were several nights of great feasting after Y’mir’s defeat. During this time Odin grew jealous and angry towards the Savior, for he felt the god was flirting with his wife Friga. Odin summoned Loki the trickster, and together they concocted a plan to at the same time put the Savior to good use and rid themselves of his presence. Odin approached him with an offer. He told the Savior that he could join the ranks of the Aesir if he passed one final test. He would have to travel to the depths of Midgard and defeat the primordial known as Gargath. To aid him in this task the Odin gave him an enchanted sword that would give him the power to single handedly best this deadly foe. The Savior agreed, for he was a lonely god, his great beauty, perfect health and skill made the other gods jealous of him, and few wanted to be in his presence. He saw Odin’s offer, as a great opportunity to gain acceptance among his peers. Thus, he agreed to the quest. He confronted Gargash, and the pair battled their way through the depths of midgard. It was a long, arduous battle, and the Savior only barely bested his foe. When he drove his god forged blade into the primordial to land the killing blow, the curse Loki had hidden in the blade was triggered. It trapped the Savior in the depths of Midgard, preventing him from ever being able to return the Astral Sea. He would never have his place among the Aesir. Over the ages the Savior’s anger and bitterness at this treachery transformed him into the The King that Crawls. Clearly, he still harbors a grudge against the gods to this day.

It seems quite possible that the King that Crawls is behind these events, though we saw clear evidence that the giants were also affiliated with the Cult of the Elemental Eye. Perhaps these enemies of the gods have made some kind of an alliance. Perhaps they seek to reforge the divine engine. Perhaps they believe that by freeing Y’mir they can have their revenge against the Aesir and/or free the Elemental Eye.

We decided it would be prudent to seek out the stolen fragment. For a while the Hand of Fate told us that the piece of the artifact and the Golden Horn tablets were both somewhere north of here. But before we could organize an expedition to go north the Hand indicated that they were elsewhere. Where “elsewhere” is, we are not sure, but we suspect it is no longer on Midgard.

We have decided that for now we will try find at least one of the remaining fragments. If the King that Crawls is in fact trying acquire them so that he can reforge the Divine Engine, than ensuring that they stay out of his hands can only be a good thing. Using the Hand of Fate, we were able to determine that going to the Fey Wild is at least an option with a possibility of success. There I may be able to make contact with my fey patron, and hopefully find a means of locating a fragment of the engine.

 

[PHDungeon]

We've had another new addition to the group. This character is an Elf by the name of Ardyn, who happens to be a two weapon fighting ranger.

The party currently consists of:

Bella (level 14 changeling/rogue/sorcerer)
Melek (level 14 tiefling wizard/warlock)
Corvin Androsax (level 14, human/cleric)
Turak (level 14, minotaur/warden)
Ardyn (level 14, elf/ranger)


Session 35 – Wolfsbane

I am no fool.

I know that those that I have been traveling with are involved in events that will affect the whole world. If they do not succeed it will allow chaos and darkness to swallow the land. I have seen them fight and I believe that without me, they will all die. So even though I have responsibilities here in Grimmsburg, I will join them.

Melek has proven to be resourceful in discovering a vague idea of where the fragments of the God Engine have disappeared to. It would seem that our ‘destiny’ is dragging us into the Feywild. I’m relieved for even though I have an affinity for cold I prefer a more temperate environment than the North.

It would seem I am the last of our original band, everyone else either dead or retired, but mostly dead. Corvin foolishly blames me for the loss of his sister Deryl back in the Trollhaunt, but I care little for his opinion. There was honestly nothing that could be done. He does not seem to realize that this is a dangerous path we walk, and it is being watched by the gods, not all of them the good ones. He will learn that lesson though, and probably sooner than later.

Knowing that there are paths to the Feywild in Moonstair we returned there. Someone new, an elf named Ardyn, has joined us. He had served the Jarl as a warden, and apparently spent much time hunting orc bands in the Nentir Vale. Apparently, he had heard of our deeds, and wanted a chance to join a band of adventurers foolish enough to take the fight to the Norland’s most dangerous enemies. I couldn’t help notice that he carried a weapon with a frost enchantment. With my ability to make these weapons more effective, we will fight well together.

We waited until the moon was full in the sky, then using a circle of standing stones near Moonstair we arrived in the Feywild. We sought out the place where Melek made his pact with his fey patron. Melek again made use of his Eagle’s flight ritual, allowing us to search miles and miles of Feywild swamp from the air. Eventually, we located an island in the middle of the swamp that was speckled with crumbling stone menhirs. It was here we landed, for according to the tiefling it was the spot where he had first encountered the Maiden of the Moon.

We made camp on the island, and we waited until the moon was full in the sky. At some point I fell asleep. In fact, we all did. Everything became dreamy haze. I recall seeing a woman appear to us. She was a beautiful eladrin with eyes like the moon and long flowing silver hair. She held in her hand a slender silver sword. I recall her saying to us only a single phrase: “Slay my enemies and find what you seek.”

I remember little else. When I woke up we were no longer on the island in the swamp. Instead, we were on a cold, windy mountainside overlooking a forested valley. The moon was still full and in the sky. We could hear the howl of wolves down in the valley. On the opposite side of the valley, a moonbeam shone down illuminating some sort of fortified gatehouse type structure built into the side of a mountain. A winding road led up the mountain from the forest to the gatehouse. It was pretty clear that this was our destination, though we had no idea where we were or what the place was.

We contemplated waiting until morning, but decided to press on. Thus, we entered the dark alpine forest. The trees were towering giants, and a bed of needles carpeted the forest floor, leaving little opportunity for smaller bushes and plants to grow. It made walking relatively easy. All around us we could hear the howls of the wolves. As we went the howls started to get closer. The beasts had picked up our scents, and soon we were beginning to catch glimpses of them moving among the trees. I tried to scout ahead but it proves fruitless. We are still ambushed in a clearing by the foul beasts. They came at us from all sides, hunting in a pack. Some were hulking dire wolves, others were smaller werewolves that had assumed a deadly hybrid form.

It is the first time I was able to witness Corvin in a fight. He was much different from his brother- quiet and introspective and he seems to have only some of the Androsax foolishness. He does however possess his brother’s bloodlust and he throws himself into battle. I watch as he is brought to within an inch of his life several times only to be drawn back by the will of his god. He will only have himself to blame for his death.

The elf proved to be just as effective as I though, ruthlessly cutting into foes with his twin scimitars. Working together we were able to make quick work of our enemies, for what he started I could finish.

I drew back and fired from the shadows, taking cover behind a large log. The darkness of the woods swallowing me so effectively that the wolves could not see me. They passed me for easier prey, that being the fire hurling tiefling. Melek remained in the middle of the clearing when the wolves closed in, and as a result he was savaged by them. Fortunately, Turak was his usual self. He came to Melek’s aid, crushing skulls with his mighty maul. We made quick work of them.

In the end, I was the only one who left the battle without a scratch, and the others were thankful for Corvin’s healing magics. Undaunted we continued, and now we stand at the foot of a cliff ready to enter a massive fortress. It is going to be a long night.

 

[PHDungeon]

DMs Note: My player’s journal missed one key event that I will fill in here. After being attacked by moon-frenzied werewolves in the valley, they continued on to the far side of the valley. They made their way up a steep mountain trail, and at the end of the trail, half way up the mountainside, they discovered the entrance to a stone fortress, which was carved into the mountainside. A pair of giant stone doors stood open. Beyond the doors was a large entry room guarded by hulking, armored Cyclops and a pair of fey dire wolves. On the opposite side of the room was another set of stone doors that provided the only visible means of entrance to whatever was deeper in the mountain.

The heroes quickly assessed the situation and decided to approach with violence. Without any attempts at diplomacy, they attacked the Cyclops. I believe this was done primarily because the Lady of the Moon had said to them, “Kill my enemies and find what you seek.” Clearly they had taken these words to heart. They fared well against the Cyclops, but were also fired upon by hobgoblin archers who had taken up positions behind arrow slits that were carved into the walls of the entry room. The hobgoblins fired into the room with the benefit of full cover, which made them difficult to remove and a dangerous threat to the heroes. As usual the heroes prevailed, but they had sustained a beating and retreated back out to the ledge for a short rest. By the end of the session, they had not yet made it into the fortress.

Melek’s journal:

After killing the immediate door guards and failing to win entry into the rest of the fortress, we decided to retreat a little to regroup, bringing one of the cyclops’ bodies with us for further interrogation using a Speak with Dead ritual.

After resting a little, we discussed what questions we should ask of the dead Cyclops. We eventually decided that we should ask only questions that would affect our actions. The first (and by far the most important) question was "Where is an alternative entrance?" It revealed to us that there is another, smaller, hidden and less guarded door a few dozen feet above out heads. Perhaps we should have looked further before asking the question? No, not really. It is night and we're in terra incognita. Better to use a little magic than to needlessly risk scouting.

The second question was "What are the defences that we face?" The answer was that 50 hobgoblin archers and 20 Cyclops are stationed in the gatehouse- gatehouse to what? We don't know. Nor do we know how far it is to the next set of defenders.

At any rate, somewhat restored we decided to foray into the smaller passage. We got up to the passage with no difficulty at all. Turak seems to have decided to take on the role of clown, racing a rope of climbing up the cliff side for no apparent reason. I'm starting to think that he has become quite unbalanced- still, he more than admirably fulfills his part in combat. If he is touched in the head that is probably of little import right now.

Bella scouted ahead. The passageway led into the area above the entrance chamber, the area from which archers could fire down on us through murder holes or drop rocks and the like on our heads. There were a handful of hobgoblins up here but between Bella, Arden and myself we managed to quickly and quietly slay them. We then peered down through the murder holes, and we were able to get a feel for where we were. The entire place is essentially a gatehouse, guarding a portcullis to a passageway leading deeper into the mountain. There is a side portcullis as well. The devices are worked from the second floor (the floor where we currently are).

How far it is from here to the next location is very unclear- hopefully far enough that we can deal with the remaining guards in the gatehouse before reinforcements arrive.

We decided to continue our assault and headed down a flight of stairs to a series of hallways that were located behind the arrow slits that accessed the entry gauntlet. We were within their fortress! We almost managed to take out another handful of hobgoblins quietly before raising the alarm. Suddenly horns were blowing and more hobgoblins and cyclops warriors were pouring into the halls to confront us. Luckily, the halls were fairly narrow.

At that point, a fairly long drawn out and chaotic battle ensued. We put down another squad of hobgoblin archers with little difficulty but quickly ran into some cyclops. A battle between Arden and Turak on the one side and some cyclops on the other side started at one end of the corridor while we heard reinforcements coming at us from behind. No sooner had we dealt with the Hobgoblin reinforcements coming at our rear than the door in the middle of the corridor burst open and a couple of Cyclops attempted to split our party in twain.

Turak once again showed his mettle in this combat, essentially single handedly taking on two Cyclops. Admittedly, only one at a time was able to get at him but it was still an impressive accomplishment. His actions definitely make me question his sanity, though. He seems convinced that Arden is his imaginary friend. I suppose it makes sense from one point of view. Arden is very abnormal in size and stature for an elf. Unlike the normal frail and willowy sort he is a big hulking elf. Exactly as a Minotaur WOULD imagine an elf to be.

At one point in the fight Arden was in quite significant danger, bellowing that nobody was allowed to hurt his imaginary friend, Turak charged in to save him.

The fight was hard but all of us pulled our weight. I managed to slay most of the hobgoblins in short order, their puny minds no match for the fiery little pixies I summoned to assault them. I was of some use against the cyclops as well, although the lion’s share of killing them was performed by Arden, Bella and Turak. Corvin meanwhile wielded the divine power of Odin with grace and efficiency, managing to keep us all on our feet despite the best efforts of the Cyclops. He is also a valiant and worthy fighter, holding the line against the Cyclops as a true warrior. All of us except, of course, Bella took significant
damage from the Cyclops and their Hobgoblin allies but it was nothing that we could not handle.

Eventually, we managed to clear the area of our enemies and threw up a makeshift barrier to keep out the Cyclops reinforcements who were advancing on our position. If my count is accurate we have now slain 11 Cyclops and well over 40 Hobgoblins. If we make the quite questionable assumptions that the Cyclops was speaking the truth AND that no reinforcements have yet arrived from another location that means that we still face about 9 Cyclops and perhaps a dozen or so hobgoblins to deal with.

We have retreated back upstairs for the moment. At the very least we need a short rest to recover some of our abilities. Ideally we'll have sufficient time to take a much longer rest. But whether or not we seek that luxury and whether or not we are granted it are matters to be discussed soon.

We're all (well, except for Bella) coming fairly near to the end of our rope. Certainly both Arden and I are quite wounded right now , although we're still in fighting fettle. Some of our powers have been expended but we still retain many more of them. I'm sure that we can still succeed IF all that we face are the original inhabitants of this guardhouse. The alternative of trying to rest for long carries the huge risk that reinforcements will arrive. But it might still be the wiser plan.

 

[PHDungeon]

Bella's journal

Session 36: The Easy Way

We bypassed the stronghold with all of our usual diplomacy. Melech’s fey patron, the Maiden of the Moon, had guided us to this fortress, telling us to eliminate her enemies. We attacked immediately and started a siege. It has been difficult and only now cowering in a narrow passage with the stench of minotaur burning my nose do I think about how easy it could have been.

Once again I remind myself that Stark is dead and there is nothing threatening me anymore. Keeping my true nature as a changeling a secret is starting to hurt me. How much easier would this siege have been if I had been able to approach this fortress as one of their own? If we could have worked together to invent some story and just walked in?

Of course that is not what happened. Instead we opened with a warning shot, and had the door slammed in our face. We overcame the fortress the hard way, the six of us against an army. Outnumbered but fortunately not out classed.

After we cleared out the first room we needed a new plan. I used a speak with dead ritual to interrogate one of our fallen enemies. He directed us to a narrow passage built into the walls, perhaps used to look down at enemies. Climbing up we discovered that it was just big enough for a goblin but not the giant Cyclops. Quietly skulking forward we found our enemy waiting for us to try another frontal assault. Quickly and quietly both the elf and I eliminated them. Carefully exploring I discover we had taken this entire level and not alerted any of those waiting for us to try coming through the front door again.

Overconfident, we decide to try and take one side of the first level, and that is when the inevitable happened. In the first level were the archers, lined up along a hallway at murder holes. When we started our attack the rest of the fortress was alerted. Suddenly we were facing the entire garrison.

Cyclops and goblins poured from every direction and for every one that dropped two more would take their place. As the battle dragged on we started using the bodies of our fallen enemies as cover. Finally, after a long battle, things quieted down. We looked at each other. Everyone else but me was broken, bleeding and spent. There was only one thing we could do, we retreated to the small passage to catch our breath. All of us knew that this siege was far from over.

 

[PHDungeon]

Session #37, Melek’s journal:

After managing to defeat about half the Cyclops we decided that it was time to retreat from the remaining half and regroup a little, so we headed back upstairs and holed up in the small cave above the main entrance where the Cyclops would find it difficult to come and get us

After we'd gathered our breath a little, Ardyn revealed that he could bring us some help. Apparently he has a magical horn that can be used to summon an ally, even across the planar barrier. I wonder where he got something that interesting and powerful. I wonder if he realizes quite how powerful such an item could be.

I expressed some concerns about grabbing somebody from his nice safe location and dropping him into an unknown place in the Feywild to fight a large number of giants for no better reason than that they were in our way and we were told to kill the enemies of my patron. But apparently the ally won't mind being summoned and also will have no trouble killing random strangers because Ardyn wants him to. I'm not sure if I should be reassured or panicked by that. Probably both.

Still, we're hardly in a position to refuse any aid at this point and Ardyn seems determined so I decline to press the matter.

Ardyn blows a horn and pretty much instantaneously a wild apparition appears. He reminds me greatly of that character called Gollum that I saw in the Noh plays in the south, complete with the fish in his mouth.

That partly facetious remark aside, this new companion of ours is called S’mar and would appear to be a shifter, which, I admit, is a step up from being a full blooded werewolf. He's savage and, even by our standards, quite peculiar. All he wants to know is who to kill. He doesn't really care one whit for why. Fortunately, he doesn't seem to know of the Lady of The Moon. I'm not entirely certain, but I strongly suspect that she would hate him only marginally less than she hates the werewolves in the valley.

To give him credit, he seems to have no difficulties allying with a Minotaur and a Tiefling.

At about this point, one of the Cyclops calls out to us. They've come upstairs and want to negotiate. All of the following is done through Ardyn (he speaks Elven), so I might be missing some nuances, but the gist of it is that they want us to surrender (no doubt so that they can instantly kill us), and we want them to surrender (doubtless so that we can instantly kill them). Not surprisingly, both sides decline the opportunity to commit suicide. They bluster a little about having sent for help and that if we flee they'll track us down with their werewolf allies. Nice to know that they ARE allies of the werewolves. I admit that I'd been a touch concerned that they were actually enemies and that the gate was primarily to keep them out.

We at least gain a little information in the exchange. The gatehouse guards the entrance to Harrowthane, a city ruled by a fomorian. That little fact also means that we pretty much don't have to worry about where we need to go next. Doubtless the piece of the Engine is either held in the vault of the fomorian or he holds the next piece of the puzzle leading us to it.

Given the unfortunately quite plausible threat of reinforcements we decide that we should attack now. While that was doubtless their objective in sharing the information we really have little choice.

S’mar has access to some useful primal magic and manages to conceal our exit from the alcove with at little bit of mist. Not that the cyclops are unaware of our presence or anything but it does make it harder to hit us.

A large combat then ensues between the remaining cyclops with their hobgoblin support and ourselves. My Wall of Fire spell is quite efficacious in allowing us to deal with the giants in a somewhat piecemeal fashion as opposed to all at once. Not to mention considerably singeing several of them in the process. S’mar fights about the way one would expect, brutally but effectively with a pair of battleaxes. The rest of us conform to our usual tactics.

The giants seem to take it personally when Ardyn kills their leader while (I presume) taunting them, and they concentrate a lot of their efforts on him. We manage to keep him alive, but it’s a fairly close contest since he is almost completely exhausted and on his last legs [Out of healing surges in game terms]. I'm also reeling and am almost knocked unconscious at one point but manage to keep going.

It is a hard fought fight, especially when the Cyclops try to pour burning oil on us, but we manage to prevail without taking any casualties.

We then quite quickly ransack the place. We obtain 1,000 gold which at least means that we'll have some of the local currency if we make it to the city. No maps or information is to be found, unfortunately.

We head down the major tunnel towards the city, which we believe is located in the Feydark. We hope to find a side passage before meeting the promised reinforcements. We succeed, albeit barely. As we come to a narrow stream coming out of a wall we meet up with a large force of reinforcements, far too many for us to currently fight.

We flee into the passage cut by the stream. S’mar was attempting to talk with the Dire Wolf hounds of the giants (it’s hardly the animals fault that we want to kill their masters), but his attempts went for naught when Belladonna decided to shoot them. I'm not at all sure why she did this as we were all fleeing anyway and even she wasn't going to be able to kill them quickly enough to do any good.

At any rate, we fled up the passage unpursued. It was too narrow for the cyclops and the wolves, and the hobgoblins were hardly going to come on their own.

After not too long a while, we came out into a cave where we could get some well deserved sleep. I admit to wondering if S’mar understood more than I thought abut my connections to the Maiden of the Moon and if I'd wake up dead. I suppose that I could have tried to stay awake but the truth of the matter is that I was exhausted and, if he and Ardwyn want me dead then one way or the other I'm sure that they'll succeed.

To my pleasant relief I instead woke up quite refreshed and rearing to continue on. I cast a ritual and we talked to some rats. They weren't a huge amount of help but basically told us that one of the 2 other passages out of this cave would lead us to the large worms and the other wouldn't. Both would eventually end up at the city (all passageways seemingly lead to Harrowthane)

We then spent the best part of day wandering through caverns both wonderous and magnificent and deadly and exhausting. I'd like to come back here some time when I have a lot more time and leisure to really experience their true beauty.

Of note was a cavern filled with mushrooms, mushrooms that send deadly spores if disturbed. Using our various means we all managed to get through more or less unscathed.

We eventually came to a large cliff face that we had to climb. Once again my wonderful physical abilities came to the front as, just inches from the top, I managed to lose my grip and plummet to the bottom. Fortunately I was able to Fey Step at the last second and so avoid a nearly certain death. The second time I climbed I managed to succeed in making the climb.

From the cliff top we can see an incredible large cavern with a small village nearby and a city in the distance. In the city are various people wandering about including eladrin, shifters, hobgoblins and cyclops. We start to consider the possibility of disguising ourselves. One Hat of Disguise will only go so far, especially since I don't speak elven.

At this point Belladonna speaks up and reveals a secret. She is actually not human but is really a Changeling. Well, that certainly has the potential of helping us. And it explains some things about her. It’s interesting that Corvin seems completely unsurprised by this new development.

It’s nice to know now that as a tiefling I'm actually one of the more respectable races in this party.

We then start to discuss tactics. If we are to have any chance of sneaking into the city we're going to have to disguise Turak. It’s not at all clear if we can convince him to use the Hat of Disguise. Even if we can, at best we'll not be obvious from a distance. Close up the fact that few of us speak elven is likely to become obvious.

 

[PHDungeon]

This is my first journal from Smar, the shifter ranger. It is also regarding game session 37.


I remember when Ardyn first taught me letters. I wouldn’t be able to write this without those lessons. I had not seen Ardyn in many a moon, until earlier today. Finally, Ardyn has called upon his turn to blow the Bloodbrother’s Horn. I was eating fish, freshly caught from a brook in the Winterbole, one moment; the next I was standing in a small cave looking out over the edge of a mountain. From deeper in the cave I heard a booming voice call out demanding surrender. Ardyn stood next to me, horn in hand. He and his companions were covered in bruises, cuts, and gashes. They looked tired, and desperate. It felt just like the good old days!

The fight was quick, but brutal. Ardyn’s companions are an impressive bunch: a human woman with a keen eye and a crossbow with which to use it—I saw her fell more than one of the brutes with a quarrel in the eye, magical frost spreading away from the wound. There is a large bull-headed man who seems to be able to speak with the spirits of the land much as I do—indeed, I saw him call upon a great swarm of spirits to hold two of the one eyed brutes in place. Then there is a man-demon capable of calling up flame—at one point in time he called upon a great wall of it in order to stop our foes from falling upon us in numbers. Finally, there is skanzi priest of Odin—he certainly bears the favour of his god, at least enough to close freshly opened wounds within minutes of suffering injury. I allowed the wolf in my veins to feast. Whoever the giant one eyed men my friend was fighting with were, they died quickly. I fell upon their leader, and Ardyn finished him off. Just like old times!

But two of Ardyn’s companions worry me. Odin’s people have not been kind to me in the past, nor I to them. It was not for nothing that the men of Nenlaslt called me Nenlasltagandr or Nenlasltahræzla. To them, I was the monster and the terror; they earned my brutality with this mistreatment of my people, of me. Meanwhile, I heard the man-demon say that he worships The Lady of the Moon. I have heard many of my people call her our enemy in the past. But Ardyn assures me that this Odin worshiper saved his life twice, and the man-demon tells me that they seek pieces of something called the “God Engine” to stop primordials from walking the Nentir Vally again. The spirits bear no love for the primordials. So, stuck in the Feywild as I now am, it seems me and my blood-brother will travel side by side again.
After fighting the one eyed giants we entered the caverns they were guarding. One of the one eyed warriors told us that these caverns lead to a great underground city. Then Ardyn’s companions killed him. Personally, I would have let him live. His people were fools for not surrendering when we first gave them a chance, after me and Ardyn felled their leader, but my bloodlust was sated; I saw no reason to kill this lone survivor after he dropped his weapons, he had done me no great harm. Still, it is too late to worry about it now. It was the bull-headed man that crushed his skull, and I trust that he did as the spirits bid him.

In the caverns we eventually came upon an underground waterfall created by a river that poured out of a smaller cave whose mouth was located on a ledge above us. Just as we did a massive patrol of reinforcements were heard rounding the bend. They were lead by a pack of wolves tracking for them. Me, Ardyn, and his companions, managed to scramble up ledge before the giants or goblins saw us. I saw many one eyed giants and hobgoblins entering the cavern bellow the ledge. However, the massive wolves that tracked for them caught our scent. They did something I have never seen another wolf do; they teleported up to the top of the ledge! I wanted to try and convince them that we were not their enemy, should not be their prey, but the woman shot quarrels at them. It is hard to convince a wolf that you are not its enemy when those you travel with attack it. At least we did not kill any of them. We left them at the mouth of the cave as we ran up the river. This passage was too small, too tight of a fit, for the wolves or giants to follow.

Currently we rest in a cave by the side of an underground spring. Soon we will rise, and then we will try and find a way through these winding caves towards this underground city. I wonder if a “city” will be anything like the town of Nenlaslt. If these strange giants and goblins are Ardyn’s enemies, I imagine that it might…

 

[PHDungeon]

This is Melek's journal for session #38 I believe.

Currently the party consists of:

Bella (changeling rogue with a touch of sorcerer, level 15)
Melek (tiefling, warlock/wizard, level 15)
Corvin (human, cleric of Odin 14)
Turak (minotaur, warden 14)
Smar (shifter, ranger (hunter) 14)
Arden (elf, ranger 14)

Most of us waited back at the entrance to the secluded cavern while Bella, Smar and Ardyn decided to scout out the Feydark city that sprawled out before us. They were all chosen for their linguistic abilities and not particularly for their diplomatic prowess.

They fairly quickly determined that we were in one ward of a larger city called Harrowthane. The ward filled the massive cavern it was constructed in, and it seemed that there were other wards in their own caverns, connected by well guarded tunnels. The ward was clearly one of the low rent districts, many of the inhabltants being obvious slaves. There was a mix of races, mainly goblinoids and shifters but a smattering of eladrin and even a human or two (albeit unarmed and unarmoured). What there was not were minotaurs and tiefilngs. Or anybody except hobgoblins and cyclops who sported a 10th the weaponry and armour that we carry. It didn’t seem like many Cyclops lived in this ward, and the ones that were seen looked primarily like guards who were there to keep the masses in line.

Our scouts managed to pick up a surprising amount by eavesdropping on the inhabitants. Not at all surprisingly, the news of the day was ourselves and our taking of the gatehouse. If nothing else, we have disturbed the peace and sleep of the fomorian King. Unfortunately, he has increased the guard around him and has put the city onto an alert status. While this is also not a surprise, it will make our mission harder.

The city of Harrowthane has two very obvious and significant opponents. The Fomorian king is named Bronnor. He also has some kind of sorcerous ally who obviously inspires great fear and terror in the populace. Her name is Kaleestra. Who or what she really is isn't yet known but she apparently raised the captain of the guard of the gatehouse as an undead monstrostiy as a means of getting information about us and as a punishment for his failures. Unfortunately, they now seem to know a great deal about us.

The King’s chief hunter Krevan and his warwolves have been dispatched to look for us. Everybody knows that they'll find us soon and tear us to bits since they never fail. Let’s hope that by the time they’ve gotten close to finding us we'll have managed to get out of here. I'm not an expert on these things but hopefully they'll also have trouble following our tracks through the city. Hmm. Sometimes I wish that Turak bathed more.

The city has one obvious gate leading towards a richer part of the city, known as the King’s Ward. Clearly, what we are looking for is going to be in that district. The issue is going to be in how to get through that gate. It is my understanding that most Cyclops can see invisible, and that some of them can even see through illusions, which will make sneaking by the guards much tougher. Not to mention, that even getting to the gate is going to be rather problematic.

After our usual amount of dithering and discourse we decided that the best plan was to head into the city in a couple of groups, disguised as well as possible. Turak would wear the hat of disguise pretending to be a hulking hobgoblin while I'd do what I could with a hood to hide my nature. Once we got close to the gate our cunning plan was to have Bella cause a distraction while I opened a Arcane gate between us and a distance down the tunnel. Hopefully they wouldn't notice us getting through and Bella would be able to follow later.

However, events occurred to alter that plan. It’s certainly unusual when that happens.

As we headed towards the gate, disguised to the extent possible, we were accosted by a gnome called Neblin. Apparently we had caught his attention, and he had managed to figure out who we were. He offered to help us for a price. Since none of us were particularly enamoured with our previous plan, and since we thought that we'd likely be able to kill him if he betrayed us, we decided to follow him.

He took us into the basement below a bar. The basement was not empty, in addition to some hobgoblin thugs playing cards, there was a huge bear resting in a corner, some wolves gnawing on bones and even some tiny pixies flying about and giggling with sing song laughter.

Neblin then informed us that he could get us into the inner city in exchange for a sufficient sum. Once we agreed he told us that he'd put us in touch with a friend of his, Sethrax by name, who could arrange for us to get into King Bronnor’s chambers. Sethrax is the apparently a member of the King’s inner circle of advisors.

However, Sethrax really, really likes people to be polite, and in order for us to even discuss things with Sethrax we were advised to give him a great many gifts of great value. We pooled what little resources that we had and came up with a smattering of reasonably valuable items, including my Fey Leaf sandles, a gorgeously crafted, crossbow from Bella, 500 slightly blood stained local gold pieces and some other miscellany.

While Neblin went off to arrange things we got a little bit of a rest in the tavern’s basement. Smar tried to befriend the wolves but didn't seem to have much success. They didn't eat him or anything, but they definitely didn't seem ready to adopt him into their pack. The rest of us ate and rested awhile.

Some time later Neblin came back. After altering our appearances with the aid of some ritual magic that he knew he led us off through some alleyways into an underground passage that led us eventually to the home of Sethrax. There he pointed the way and told us to enter. We stepped into a huge audience hall. Many Cyclops guards were waiting for us. None of them seemed bothered by our presence. When we asked how we'd recognize Sethrax, Neblin just laughed and said that we would. He then left us, informing that he'd meet back up with us at the bar. Thus, we waited until Sethrak deigned to show up.

Neblin was right, we recognized who Sethrak was when an elder green dragon descended to the balcony. We all decided that being polite was a good idea, although I think that Smar overdid things when he rolled over onto his back and exposed his belly (jest).

Sethrax took our tribute and deemed it acceptable. He then proceeded to talk to us in Giant (a language that ironically his cyclops guards do not understand). He wants the King dead so that he can replace him, and he is quite willing to provide us with the means of getting to the King if we agree to kill him. In exchange, he'll allow us to have any item in the king’s treasury. And he'll arrange things so we can safely leave Harrowthane. The details of that last point are rather sketchy. He doesn’t give us more than a moment to discuss matters, but we know that turning the offer down at this point would seem to be rather foolish so we all agree to his plan.

We then leave the presence and return back towards the bar. However, just as we are making our way through the alley towards the door that leads into the bar’s basement, we are ambushed by Krevan and his associates. Fortunately for all of us, we have some very perceptive party members, and our enemies fail to achieve surprise as they leap down from the rooftops into the alley.

As is so often the case, battle ensues. I manage to use my new spell Plague of Frogs to some effect. To my considerable surprise the most effective opponents are not the werewolves, vicious and powerful though they are, but a set of 3 pixies that are intelligent enough to fight from a long distance and to constantly go invisible. I've never encountered them before but either the stories of them being quite fragile are false or they are much tougher here in the feywild than are their counterparts back in the real world. The little creatures use tiny bows and arrows, and they fire with deadly accuracy. Their arrows are laced with an equally deadly poison. Despite the concentrated efforts of Bella, all three of the pixies survive the fight.

I spend a significant portion of the battle just trying to keep my comrades alive, probably saving both Ardyn and Bella at various points by pouring healing potions down their dying throats. I barely keep myself alive as the damned pixies frequently concentrate their fire upon me.

Smar was conversing with one of the werewolves at one point but whatever diplomacy he was trying failed. Which seemed to irk him somewhat judging by the ferocity with which he proceeded to attack them. Turak was put in a particularly tough position, as he spent the entire battle engaged with Krevan himself. Krevan was a giant werewolf that stood well over ten feet tall and could have easily torn anyone of us to shreds, anyone of us but Turak. With the help of Ardyn and Smar, the mighty minotaur was able to bring him down.

In the end, we manage to prevail over our enemies, although it is definitely close at a couple of points. All of our enemies, but the pixies are slain. Under cover of under cover of a primal mist summoned by Smar, we head to the entrance to the bar, intending to try and sneak inside. Alas, when we open the door to the bar we find that all the inhabitants, including the animals, had been slain. Unfortunately, our enemies clearly knew that we were here and our mist is unlikely to fool the pixies, who likely suspect we will take refuge here. They may be going to fetch help or are waiting to ambush us when we leave.

Having little other choice and desperately requiring a little rest to lick our wounds, we head into the basement anyway and shut and bar the door.

DMs notes: This fight was a close one. It was one of those really nasty battles that pushed them to their limits and forced them to spend almost everything they had. If I had been a little crueler with my tactics I could have made a kill or two, but I cut them a tiny bit of slack on this one. The pixies were particularly evil.