PHDungeons Nentir Vale homebrew

[PHDungeon]

Here's a journal from Bella. It takes place directly after the journal I posted above.

Session 22: Pain is a Teacher

The last thing I remember was sinking into a warm darkness and then there was a bright light. The light hurt to look at, pain coursed through my body. It cleared my addled mind. Most believe that pain is a thing to be avoided, but an assassin knows the truth. Pain is life. When I was pulled to the light, I did not resist even though it hurt me.

My eyes opened and they were filled with blood. Through a red hazed I looked upon the injured form of the final harpy. A bolt blossomed in its eye. I had made the shot so quickly that I didn’t fully realize that it was my hand that held the crossbow. Frost expanded from the wound and its head had exploded in icy shards. The immediate area was clear of enemies, but death still loomed over us. There was only one thing to do.

My arm falls listless to my side, I lay my crossbow lay upon the ground. I pick myself up, my body screaming in agony. I lift the strap over my head and my quiver falls. I drop the bag of holding, and finally strip off my chocker and my bracers.

I wipe the blood from my eyes and take a final look at my companions. We were all spent. Rathnir, the red dragon, watches from outside, and his fortress is surrounded by open plains. There was no escape, unless I could convince our final foe to retreat into his lair. Limping to the door I concentrate and become the hag, letting my armor form into her clothes. I would play the part of his minion, whose body lay dead at my feet. At the moment I cannot remember if it was my own hand that killed her. In foresight I gather some of Torfinn’s equipment from my bag, step into the light and walk towards the beast.

Rathnir’s eyes narrow as I come out of the gatehouse, immediately I slip into the role of the hag from what little I observed of her.

“Lord Rathnir, the adventurers who dared to insult you by invading your lair are dead. Though I am the only survivor, we are victorious.”

Rathnir’s eyes narrow and he leaps down flying gracefully despite his bulk. He lands in front of me, his breath smelling of carrion. With the dragon this close my fear is not an act. Any sane person would be terrified, and I was, but in order to survive I kept tight control of it. He scrutinizes me, as an owl looks upon a mouse. I involuntarily flinch when he opens his mouth to speak, his mouth filled with razor sharp teeth.

“I would have their treasure, bring it to my horde and hurry. Since you are the sole survivor perhaps you need my assistance in this task.”

I stammer out my response, “On no my master, I would not dream of having you soil your claws in such a menial task. Please allow me to take your new treasures to you. Here look, look, your patience will be rewarded”

With this I present him Torfinn’s staff. Lord Rathnir takes it in his massive claw to examine it, plucking it delicately from my shaking hands. All I can do is wait and try to remember how to breath while I am at the mercy of this beast. After what seems like an eternity he returns his ancient gaze to me. I can tell that he is looking for some kind of trick. Although my story is believable, it is unlikely. Finally with a huff he takes to the air with such force that I allow it to knock me to the ground. He flies back to the vantage point from which he watched the fight.

“Fine. But hurry with my new acquisitions.”

With that he returns to his lair and I return to my companions. I have only one thing to say to them.

“Run”

 

[PHDungeon]

This is lengthy journal by Bella recapping the final session of the heroic tier portion of our campaign, including the battle against the deadly red dragon Rathnir (with a little twist).

It begins the morning after the heroes fled from the Androsax manor. That night they holed up under piles of rubble from the collapsed ceiling of a small church that they found in a ruined village, which was located at the base of the hill that the keep sits on. Rathnir spent the night flying over the countryside searching for the heroes. He inspected the village, but only from the air, and they had hid themselves well enough that they escaped his notice. Thus, they were able to take a much needed extended rest.

Party Members

Bella (level 10 changeling rogue with a pinch of sorcerer)
Derren Androsax (level 10 human fighter)
Bjorn (level 10 human cleric of Thor)
Turak (level 9 minotaur warden)
Deryl Androsax (who joins in the action for this session, level 9 human sorcerer).

Session 23: Breaking the Ice

In the ruins of a temple we awaken, our jailer still vigilante in his fortress. We start preparing for the inevitable confrontation. There is a determined set to my familiar’s eyes, Cullen had failed me yesterday; he would not do so again. I think as I wait for the homunculus to rematerialize in my pocket, the dragon is a formidable opponent and the terrain does not make stealth easy; he has nothing to be ashamed about. Several tense hours pass and then we hear Rathnir take to the air and pass over us. Cullen returns with the news. Somehow Deryl has followed us here and is making her way down the river to the south.

Derren is through the door and running before I can completely relay the information. Reluctantly, we follow.

When we arrive on the scene it is surprisingly serene. We find Deryl standing in the river having a polite conversation with our enemy. As usual, Derren’s arrival smashes the tranquility, the dragon turns toward our fighter and the young noble engages in the only form of diplomacy he has ever been even moderately successful. Turak and Bjorn are not far behind and soon we have the dragon completely surrounded.

I stay back, not needing the same proximity as my allies to be effective. From behind a rock cropping I fire bolt after bolt into the fray. I managed to clip its wing, ensuring that it could not escape through flight, especially with Turak in the fray. I watch the battle progress, and it is just as difficult as we imagined it would be. The dragon’s breath rains down upon them again and again. It’s tail sweeps among my companions periodically, throwing each to the ground. I can see them tiring, but I also know that ultimately we are going to win.

Then I see them. Two white dragons flying gracefully toward us. They land in the middle of our battle. One of them calls out to our foe.

“Rathnir, [Other Dragon] sends his regards. [Drew, little help here, fill this in].”

The white dragons surround Rathnir and the red dragon focuses on the now bigger threat. We all take it easier now that our new allies have joined the fight. The enemy of our enemy is our friend. Already weakened, soon Rathnir falls to the assaults of the other two wyrms.

One of the whites addresses Bjorn.

“We have come to kill Rathnir and take his hoard.”

Bjorn looks them in the eye.

“One out of two ain’t bad”

And with that his hammer descends on the dragon’s head.

The brief respite the dragons had provided in our battle against Rathnir had left us with enough strength to still be confident against our new foes. The red dragon had weakened them, so most of their threat was diminished. I grew overconfident. Hoping to blind them I crept from my hiding spot and advanced into the melee. I looked into the eyes of the dragon and for a moment I remembered yesterday and staring down Rathnir. Fear threatened to overcome me, but I mastered it. Each of my bolts struck true and the mighty wyrm balked under my assault. Unfortunately it only lasted a moment as somehow the dragon shook off the affect. Its eyes turned toward me and focused, wrath plain within them.

As my vision filled with the dragon’s claw I remembered my fear.

My body is wracked with pain as I once again retreat from the beasts reach. I watch as Turak keeps the dragon in place as I fire bolt after bolt into its thick hide. With the four of us working together one of them relents, breathing it’s last as Turak’s hammer drops upon its snout. Its companion decides that perhaps Rathnir’s hoard was not worth his life and tries to escape. The mighty minotaur would not have that, twisting his horns into the dragons soft underbelly and throwing it to the ground. It soon realizes that it has no choice but to stay even though it will mean certain death. It tries valiantly to at least take one of us with it but it was not meant to be. Soon all three dragons are corpses at our feet.

Leaving the bodies we made our way to Derren’s ‘manor’. Just inside we found what we had fought so hard for. Rathnir’s hoard was a beautiful thing to behold. My fingers shook as I ran them through piles of gold and gems. Finally, following Derren as he blundered across the countryside had paid off and as an added bonus he was leaving us to rule over his new manor.

We returned to Fallcrest. The winter months would be busy for me. The bodies of the ice wyrms provided excellent ritual components for upgrading my crossbow. I also crafted a backup crossbow that was not magical or ornate. I created enchanted, personalized ritual books for myself, Bjorn and Deryl. After that there was nothing preventing me from mastering every ritual in Flagg’s book.

After these initial preparations Deryl and myself when to Grimmsburg using the Linked Portal in my tower. Besides shopping, we also had business to attend to. With Derren no longer in our party Bjorn was insisting that the young Androsax girl either stay with him or return home. With the mystery of the mark still with the girl I would rather keep a close eye on her. A compromise was reached. I would become Deryl’s guardian. It was surprisingly easy; her parents seem frightened of her and eager to have her far away. I could see regret in her mother’s eyes as we walked away but also acceptance. Deryl is a sorceress and far more powerful than she could comprehend. She is no longer the girl that ran off with her brother months before. Honestly, when her mother hugged her awkwardly goodbye it was like her own daughter had become a stranger to her.

The more unpleasant business was my meeting with Starke. I am unsure if he was dropping hints that he knows of my true nature but one thing is certain, he grows more paranoid as the days pass. Fortunately, he isn’t making any accusations and still considers me valuable enough to not attempt to kill me. He has let me go, but the meeting has made me aware that I must usurp him soon as I can now feel the bladed pendulum above my head.

Finally the Academy here has proven to be most enlightening. It is where Deryl and I spent the remainder of our days in Grimmsburg. I was able to find several useful rituals: One created by Tyjon the Mad that allowed me to turn my bag of holding inside out and hide it within a extra-dimensional space; another that has enabled me to mask the magical aura’s of my equipment, and a high level ritual for fighting underwater. I did not only find rituals here but some martial tomes as well. They showed me methods of loading my crossbow faster and shooting farther.

On our return to Fallcrest I find I have little time for socializing. I am at the shooting range almost every day. With time I learn to draw a bolt from my quiver and fire it at my target faster than blinking. As each bolt strikes home I feel the coldness within me flowing into my weapon. The crossbow was already a potent weapon, but in my hands it was becoming deadly; it’s frost enchantment more pronounced when I fired it. During these sessions I garnered much attention from the men of the town. They were content to watch and none dared approach me, apparently my frigid disposition had gotten around.

My crossbow is a variation of a hand crossbow, a highly specialized piece of equipment. Duplicating it and attempting to distribute it would bring Starke’s always vigilant eye down upon me, a meeting that I was not yet willing to provoke. The hand crossbow itself however requires less training than a bow and can therefore be effective in the hands of almost anyone. The walls of Fallcrest need to be better defended; perhaps I can approach Lady Malkalhay on commissioning the creation of crossbows for her militia. I should talk to Teldorn, the local dwarf blacksmith, surely he knows how to create them. I would even offer my services to any willing to train in the use of the weapons. It was time that the people of Fallcrest leaned take care of themselves and rely less upon us.

On that note, Vesna’s men seemed to be settling in. The many misfortunes of that had befallen the city had left many widows. They are poor farmers, but right now in these dark times soldiers are needed. As I walk through the streets I now feel more confident that when next we leave for whatever reason, perhaps we will not return to tragedy.

Time will only tell.

 

[PHDungeon]

The next portion of this campaign journal recount the paragon tier of the characters adventures. We've had some new changes to our player roster. The player who was running Derren has unfortunately left us to move out east. The player who is running Vesna has joined us full time and will essentially be his replacement. The current party now consists of

Bella (level 11 changeling rogue with a touch of arcana)

Deryl Androsax (level 11 human, sorceress/wild mage)

Vesna Surtursdottr (level 11 human, warlord)

Bjorn Thorskirk (level 11 human, cleric of thor)

Turak (level 11 minotaur, warden)

Derren Androsax has retired to his new manor just north of Fallcrest with his new bride Briannah (Vesna's sister). The characters have endured a long cold winter in Fallcrest, but spring has finally come again. They have been called south to the town of Moonstair, which is located along the Nentir river about halfway between Fallcrest and the city of Grimmsburg. Their mission is to deal with Skalmed the troll king before he can rebuild the fallen troll kingdom of Vardar, crush Moonstair and march on Grimmsburg. The next few sessions will detail events of the King of the Trollhaunt Warrens adventure. This will be first published scenario used in this game (of course it will see some modifications).

The following is Bella's first paragon tier journal.

Session 24: Decent into Darkness

Leaning back at my desk I look over my notes on the dissected dragons eye. Its mysteries have proven to be more complex then I had first anticipated. Cullen is curled on the desk as I absentmindedly stroke his quartz skin. He purrs contentedly, like a cat. Turning his head he smiles up at me. I look down at him, having read and re-read my notes countless times. Something catches my eye, in the center of Cullen’s form, something that was not there before.

Lifting him up I look closer. It is like a dark imperfection inside the crystal. It is like a shard of darkness.

“Cullen, what is that?”

“Ah, you notice Mistress. As you increase your prowess I also change and grow. Soon you shall be able to alter my form to better serve you. In my new form we will be brought closer together. Although this will mean that I will not be able to scout afar for you anymore, you will be able to see through my eyes, eyes that will be able to pierce the veil of shadows.”

I roll my eyes, a little exasperated.

“Cullen, that’s what I have been working on. I was even able to find the plans for goggles in the libraries of Starke’s compound. I currently lack the components and though I loathe admitting it, the skill, to create them. The components are quite rare and they will take time to gather.”

Cullen grasps my finger and looks into my eyes pleading.

“Ah, but mistress, once you alter my form you will not need the item. Surely, you see the value? I only wish to serve you better mistress.”

He is of course right; dark vision without the aid of an item would be a boon to any changeling. So many of my enemies seem to possess it, and it would make impersonating them easier. However, giving up Cullen’s ability to safely scout afar would be difficult. Even though I do not make use of it often, it is a proven asset.

“I will consider your words with great care. I loathe sacrificing your current form’s abilities rashly.”

Cullen bows his head.

“That is more than I could hope for; my mistress is most wise.”

Weeks later, as I stand in the pitch darkness of the Troll Haunt, I cannot help thinking of this conversation. Of course without my familiar’s ability to scout we probably never would have found our way into here. The Dark Light ritual has proven to be less than effective in the field. Although no one can see it from outside its sphere of influence, from within it is clearly visible. I am also finding the fact that it remains tied to me to be less than ideal. I cannot see beyond its feeble light but enemies can still see me. Standing here now, blind, my decision is made, as soon as I am able I will take Cullen’s offer. Assuming we survive of course.

Winter had just been relenting into Spring when Moonstair’s call to aid came. Apparently a new troll king had risen near them and was causing trouble. Bjorn’s soft heart made it impossible for him to refuse. I would have preferred to remain in my tower, but my craft is expensive, and the venture could be lucrative. It would also give me a chance to field test some of my new rituals and besides, the rest of them would die without me. It looked like it would be up to us to play the role of heroes again and slay this troll king before he could lead his armies against Moonstair and possibly Grimmsburg itself.

After some unpleasant information gathering involving a local hag we found the Troll King’s, a large hill deep within the swampy mire that is known far and wide as the Trollhaunt. After some very fortunate scouting from Cullen we found an unguarded sinkhole in the top.

Our siege has so far proven to be effective, but less than ideal. We started by dropping into the sinkhole, and unfortunately into a group of trolls and their odd one eyed, vicious pets (Nothics). Luckily, seeing a beautiful woman literally dropping amongst them deep in their closely guarded compound caught them by surprise. I was able to blind one of the trolls with a well placed bolt and find cover while the rest of my companions followed and kept them busy.

We were able to deal with them relatively easily. Unfortunately, Vesna pushed one of them into a subterranean river that seems to run through their warren before we were able to finish him off. He disappeared downstream into the darkness with the swift current. Now I can feel our time running out the longer we stay here. Eventually that troll will claw his way out of the river. The place is infested with trolls. Re-enforcements will be coming, and we will have to find and kill their king, then leave. Quickly.

 

[PHDungeon]

The journal's fallen a little behind over the course of the summer, but I now have a number of player journals ready to be posted, so I'll be posting many over the next week or so as I try to get caught up.

Bella's Journal: Session 25 – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

After our initial assault on the Troll Haunt, we made our way deeper into their caverns. We found the trolls’ forge; it was a crude affair manned with pitiful looking grimlock slaves. Their slave master was a formidable looking troll with a dangerous looking, four legged, drake that breathed fire (redspawn fire belcher). His charges looked like they were going to attack us at first but they wisely held back. It wasn’t long before the troll was dead and his pet learned the true meaning of dangerous. In the end it was cowering in a corner when we put it out of its misery.

After the battle the slaves were more than willing to tell us in what direction to go to reach the Troll King in exchange for their lives. They were pathetic creatures and I could not see any threat from them that we couldn’t deal with. In a rare show of mercy, I decided that they did not need to die.

I took the lead. Having realized the limitations of my dark light ritual, I listened as hard as I could as I crept forward. I sent Cullen ahead to give me warning should anything come close to entering my light. The hall opened up to a large chamber and Cullen and I heard one troll up ahead, but I managed not to alert it to our presence. Deeper within we could hear many others, so I pulled back to confer with my comrades.

After hearing my report Bjorn wanted to get a look himself. Unfortunately he was lacking my finesse and he stumbled forward along with Turak. The only way he could have been louder is by singing a drinking song as he went, which would not have been unusual. The troll I had detected earlier spotted them and the inevitable battle began.

For once we didn’t advance into the room rashly but focused on the threat before us. Bjorn used a sun rod in the middle of melee to light up the cavern. Even though I had heard a large group, only a single troll appeared to re-enforce his ally. We wisely remained where we were and focused on the first troll and it fell quickly to our combined assault.

A second troll walked into the light, and I could see our warlord looking at it, twitching to charge the thing, but I cried out and stop her attack. I looked to our minotaur friend and nodded my head toward our new enemy. Where I would be cautious, the cow looked eager. He knew an ambush was ahead but he also knew that he could take it. With a roar of challenge he charged and was bombarded by the projectiles from the waiting horde.

A small cliff rose up before us, and the room we were in appeared to be a long tunnel that curved in on itself. Up on the cliff trolls howled and hurled rocks down at us. Turak and Vesna were able to pull the ranged attackers from their safe perch fairly early negating their advantage. Bjorn advanced into the melee while I remained back and fired into the group. One by one they fell, and Deryl burned their bodies with fire magic to make sure they would not regenerate. It was not long before we were surrounded by their charred, dead bodies.

We quickly made our way up the switch back dirt ramp. Re-enforcements were coming and they were not trying to be stealthy about it. Grimly we hid among the caves rocks waiting for them to come. The battles we had faced today had been taxing. We were weary and the day’s challenges looked to be far from over.

A small party of trolls entered the chamber from a narrow corridor. We struck hard and fast and fortunately for us were able to keep them pinned. We could see the Troll King screaming impotently from behind their ranks. We were able to keep the front line bottle necked in the tunnel and dissect it at our leisure. Turak held his ground in the mouth of tunnel they were coming out of, ensuring that they could not spread out around us.

Finally the Troll King stepped over the corpses of his minions to engage us. His one red eye evaluating each of us. His he raised his giant axe and brought it down upon Turak again and again. His end however was inevitable. There were five of us and only one of him. He was determined to go down fighting and cut into us with terrible savagery, but as I said- his end was inevitable. Finally, with a final brutal blow from his maul, Turak ended the king’s foul life.

Or so we thought.

In his dying breath he mocked us and his body disappeared. Frustratingly, it wasn’t over and we would have to travel deeper in the warren in order to end this menace.

 

[PHDungeon]

“Mistress…”

It had been a long day. I lie curled up in my tent in an uneasy rest. We are far from home in a cold cavern in the Fey Wild. This was where we finally defeated the Troll King and his stench still permeates the room.

“Mistress…”

Our exploration of the King’s Throne room had revealed that his throne was a portal to the Fey Wild that Deryl was able to activate. It was here that we discovered a group of hags trying to revive the Troll King in a giant stone cauldron.

They didn’t succeed.

“Mistress….”

For most of the battle I kept out of harm’s way, my companions were not so fortunate. Both Bjorn and Turak were the victims of domination by the hags. They used the cauldron as cover so I was having difficulty getting a clear shot. In the end however we were able to interrupt their ritual and defeat them before we had to face the Troll King a second time.

“Mistress…”

I open my eyes and see Cullen flying in front of me, but I barely recognize him. He is no longer translucent crystal, but black and covered in scales. His form bulges out uncomfortably in places in a way that would be painful in a living being. His eyes look into mine, pleading.

“I apologize for awakening you Mistress, especially after such a trying day but it would seem that our powers have grown and I require your assistance to complete the transformation.”

Groggily I prop myself up and look upon the sorry state of my familiar. He really is a mess.

“It is I who should be saying sorry Cullen. You have been a loyal servant and a true friend. I do not say it enough. Without you this mission probably would have been disastrous. Allow me to repay you for all your hard work.”

With that I reach out and reshape his body with my hands and my magic. His ethereal flesh moves like smoke and clay and takes shape by my touch. I find that I am not in complete control of the transformation, Cullen’s body takes shape almost on its own. His obsidian scales glitter in the darkness, his eyes are pools of unending night. His wings are now those of a bat and he melds with the shadows as he hovers before me. When I finish he resembles a small but majestic black dragon.

Cullen flexes his new body, clearly pleased with my work. As I altered his form I could feel our bond changing. We were more closely linked, no longer would Cullen be able to scout afar. I wouldn’t say I liked the idea, but for what was promised it would be worth it.

“I thank you my Mistress, may I continue to serve you as well in this form as I did my last. Now please rest Mistress. As I said it was a trying day and if this were not so important I would not have waken you.”

With that he slips into my pocket and disappears.

I snuff out the light in my tent, ready to sleep and have a start of surprise.

My tent does not go dark, but is in hues of black and white. I can now see in the dark. I look around marveling at the new sense. My sorceress abilities are not flashy or indeed potent. This however is one of the greatest gifts they could give me. My eyes now pierce the veil of shadow. Now I can see just as well as my enemy, no longer will they be able to use darkness to hide. My bolts shall descend on them like rain.

Curling up I return to my dreams, content.

 

[PHDungeon]

A journal from Vesna, daughter of Jarl Surtur of Grimmsburg.

Over the years, I have traveled far in trade and on errands for my father, and I have always had an adventurous soul; yet even I am home sick after the atrocities I have faced and the wasted places I have visited in the past few weeks.

In the interest of keeping peace within my father's borders I have joined with Bjorn cleric of Thor, Bella the sorcerous rogue, and a minotaur named Turoc to try to put an end to the evil forces attempting to poison our towns and cities with their vile cults and sacrifices. Having helped to dispatch a dragon in Fallcrest I wrongfully underestimated the difficulty of our next task during which we lost a potent ally named Torfinn to the vile sludge that wells up from the earth as a sure sign of the presence of unspeakable evil.

By Odin how I miss my long boat and my men; would that I could spend one night in their loud and caring company, or even a good nights sleep in my old room in Grimmsburg, or my own homestead. The gods know I spend little time there, but I do actually maintain a household near Grimmsburg run by my younger sister. She was widowed at a young age so I took her in, and I have counted on her trusty eye and hand in running my affairs while I am gone.

In recent days we traveled to the Trollhaunt near the town of Moonstair to deal with rumors of a gathering troll army led by a “Troll King”. Our last fight with the trolls and their king was exhausting and infuriating, let me explain:
After having delved deep into their king’s warren, we found a weapons forge, and we fought several troll guards slaying them all. I was able to shove one into the water just as it was about to take a fatal strike at Bella. I was not sure what to make of her at first, but I have growing respect for this woman as she is a very strategic archer and has seemingly mystic powers somewhat beyond my understanding. I will continue to observe closely, for there is only one thing I value above honesty and prosperous trade, and that is learning; knowledge is a tool and a safeguard in today’s world.

Once we reached the inner caves we faced not just more troll guards but their king. One of his eyes was a magical glowing orb, and when we had brought the troll king to the brink of death and suffered many blows and cuts in doing so, his body vanished in flame taking the magical orb with it. Just before he vanished the Troll king laughed spitefully and revealed that he had sent troops to Moonstair, and that while we fought here in the dank tunnels they were sacking the town. This angered me greatly; all those innocent people, farmers, bakers, inn keepers, wives, children hard working people, my father's people, my people, and yet I may not be able to protect them. Still I will continue and succeed or die trying. I have left my loyal servant Thom and a ship full of my best warriors behind in Moonstair to protect the town. I pray that they will be able to bolster the town’s defenses enough to stave off the raid. Meanwhile, I will fight evil in any form; that is my sworn oath. We shall seek out the troll king, and see that he is dealt with once and for all, so that he no longer poses a threat to my people.

 

[PHDungeon]

DM Note: We had another change in our player line up. Deryl’s player had to leave the game and a new player took her place, so we had to write her out of the story and bring in a new character. After destroying the enchanted, formorian, stone cauldron and thus preventing Skalmed the Trollking from returning to life, the heroes took an extended rest. During this rest Deryl’s magical dagger burst into flames and the flames consumed her. The heroes awoke to witness this event and she seemed to be in no pain. Soon her entire body was gone and only the dagger remained behind. All the arcane power had been drained from it. The adventurers were left to speculate the cause, and they decided that Loki was likely behind the event.

Soon Afterwards the heroes were introduced to Melek the tiefling warlock/wizard. The following is the first journal from Melek’s player and introduces this new character.

Melek’s Journal:

Well, that has to count as amongst the most eventful few days that I've ever spent. Let’s see: Make a new pact with a new entity, leave the Feywild, return to Grimmsburg for the first time in years, learn that the one place that I really consider home is under siege, and witness a failed coup attempt that is pretty much guaranteed to lead to an immensely damaging civil war.

I shudder to realize that this still puts the week in, at best, third place on the "eventful weeks that I have spent" scale.

But I should probably start from the beginning. I traveled with a group of clerics of Thor from Thunderholme abbey to the town of Moonstair. Our mission was to bolster the town’s defenses, as it was apparently threatened by trolls. After arriving, I learned that the town boasted a mystic portal to the Feywild, and I volunteered to lend my support to a diplomatic mission sent to that realm to garner aid from the mysterious eladrin.

In the feywild I joined an eladrin war band that had become aware that trolls were entering into their realm through some means of their own. They suspected it was linked to our own problems with trolls in midgard, and myself and several good clerics of Thor pledged our aid in finding a means of sealing their access to the fey realm.

Well, that ended up in a complete disaster. We ran into more trouble than a band of pointy eared stuck up snobs could handle, even with my help. Several of them had already died when the rest of them abandoned me to my fate. I managed to fight my way out but soon found myself wandering in the swamps, sick and injured. My last real memory was collapsing in a circle of standing stones that I'd hoped would take me home.

Then we have dreams and images and sounds. I know that in my delirious state, I made some form of Pact with some kind of Fae lord. I really, really wish that I knew more. I guess that I didn't have much choice in the matter. It was that or perish. And I'm pretty sure that my soul hasn't been sufficiently redeemed as of yet, so perishing really was NOT an option.

At least I gained something in the bargain. I seem to have an instinctive knowledge of at least some of my newfound abilities. The Fey step and Eye blink are pretty standard Warlock fare, I've seen them in action before. But how the heck the Pact caused my Winged Horde spell to now be real burning damage as opposed to illusion I do not understand. Darn useful, mind you.

When I awoke I found that I knew the way to a strange formorian cauldron that trolls coveted. Certainly this information must have been gifted to me by the fae that I have made my pact with. That seems a pretty obvious hint as to what I'm expected to do. Wonder if other "suggestions" will be this clear? At any rate, I headed off to where my horns were leading me.

It was soon obvious that somebody had been there ahead of me. Corpses of trolls and various fell beasts littered the ground. As I advanced cautiously, I heard the sounds of people talking ahead. Given that stealth is hardly my strong point I called out. Fortunately for me, they didn't automatically attack the "Evil Devil". Even more fortunately, one of them was Bjorn, a Cleric of Thor that I recognized from Thunderholme Abbey. The rest were the usual motley assortment that makes up an adventuring band. Why do I detect the hand of the Norns in this?

With the help of Bjorn vouching for me I was able to join the band. It turns out that they needed my help to get out of the Feywild as the ritual required Arcane Fire together with a good knowledge of Arcane magic, and the sorceress who had brought them there had mysteriously vanished.

This seems a good place to give my impressions of my new companions:

Bjorn, a Cleric of Thor. What can one say about a Cleric of Thor? Brave, Trustworthy, Perceptive, generally dumb as a brick, and a good person to have by one’s side, as long as one doesn't have to listen to him TOO much.

Belladona – a highly skilled archer- almost certainly a Rogue by profession. I've met her sort many a time before- very, very, very good at killing things. My first impression was that she was something of a coward, but I'm not sure that is true. She definitely likes to stay way back from things and disappear at a moments notice. I have no idea whether or not she can be trusted. In my experience, people like her fall into 1 of 2 categories. Category 1 will betray ANYBODY at the drop of a hat. They tend to either die quickly or rise in power quite quickly. Category 2, choose who they betray with some care. They keep faith with at least some allies (at least as long as the allies aren't a major impediment). Only time will tell which she is. For the moment, I'm going to trust her no more than she is likely to trust me.

Turak - A minotaur. Not exactly sure what he can do, but I think he has some sort of ties to the primal spirits of the land. He hits stuff fairly hard with his massive maul and tends to knock things down a lot. Even more than Bjorn he seems to think with his weapon. Obviously, he’s a little bit of a savage. Still, he accepted me with no problems at all and that has to count for a lot, definitely worth cultivating his friendship. He also seems to eat only hay and mushrooms. I wonder what that is all about?

Vesna - A female viking warrior. She’s the daughter of the Jarl of Grimmsburg, and very, very definitely somebody worth cultivating a relationship with. She also seems to have a reasonable head on her shoulders, far better than I'd expect most viking shield maidens to have.

At any rate, I performed the ritual, and we all returned from the Fey Wild into a troll infested cavern, which afforded me the opportunity to see something of my new companions abilities.

They're all quite powerful, at least as powerful as I am. But they seem to be insanely prolifigate in the use of their abilities. It would appear that they believe the old saw "Never use a hammer to do a job when you've got a sledgehammer available", and they're quite bloodthirsty. Belladona attacked a sleeping Dire Bear. Yeah, he might have gotten involved but one can hardly be certain, and when some of the trolls tried to surrender the decision was made to kill them all anyway, which I had no problem with, actually. Trolls are vermin and should be exterminated. I was just a little surprised that my new associates agreed.

As can be surmised, this little pack of trolls was no match for us. Vesna went down at one point but she was back up a couple of seconds later due to Bjorn’s divine intervention. Bella hung back and sniped, exceedingly effectively. Note to self- never go against her unless really, really necessary. Turak bellowed and charged and hewed mightily with his maul, and against trolls my fire magics were a quite welcome and a useful addition.

Apparently Belladona is also something of an arcanist. After the battle, she threw a portal ritual and there we were in Grimmsburg, in teleport circle located in a tavern owned by the notorious Victor Starke. Apparently Bella works for Starke.

We next headed over to the home of the Jarl for a touching family reunion. It turns out that my companions had found a letter in the troll caves indicating that somebody wants the Jarl and Starke at each other’s throat. This person seems to think that this will weaken the city enough to make it easy prey for the trolls. It also turns out that Thunderholme Abbey is under siege by giants who are being led by an Earth Titan, and Turak believes that it is the same titan that destroyed his clan labyrinth. In my opinion that threat is pretty clearly our highest priority.

While conversing with the Jarl, I also got to meet Dean Danzig of the Scarlet Stone Academy again. I admit to mixed feelings about him. At the time, I blamed him for letting them expel me just because I was a Tiefling. But now that I'm older and at least a little wiser I see that he probably saved my life by getting me away from the vengeful family of that poor fool who died in the lab accident. And I guess that under the circumstances I can't complain TOO much.

I went off to see my family while the rest got involved in some diplomatic mission trying to arrange a treaty between Stark and the Jarl, a mission that turned out to be rather, uh, a failure.

Meeting my family again was about exactly as much fun as I expected. Father is still a raging who is convinced that I've thrown my life away. His reaction on seeing me wearing the symbols of Odin and Uller was priceless. My brother Leucis looked like he'll be hiring my sister Akta to kill me some time soon rather than have me as a rival for the family business (no matter how many times I tell him that I have NO interest in business he never believes me). And unfortunately Killista was out of town with her troupe. At least I got to see mom, which was nice.

The next day we had a big meeting between Stark and the Jarl to see if they could come to some kind of arrangement. The meeting took place at the Jarl’s Hall. Starke arrived in a massive iron carriage pulled by clockwork stallions and accompanied by a half dozen constructs called warforged. The warforged were originally created by my ancestors in Bhal Turath to battle the empire of Arkosia, and as far as I had known the secret of their creation had been lost. It seems that Starke had managed to discover that secret.
Starke acted very, very strangely. He didn't even try and to negotiate, he just presented the Jarl with a rather absurd ultimatum. The Jarl was to give him 1/2 of what he owned, so that Starke could build an army of warforged that would be under Starke’s exclusive control. In return, Starke would use the warforged to defend the city, and the Jarl could retain his title as the Jarl and continue to rule the city. There was no room to negotiate. When the Jarl didn't pretty much instantly agree (the whole meeting took maybe 10 minutes) Starke attacked with a really impressive, exploding, clockwork pigeon. I'll give Bella credit. She reacted instantly and managed to shoot the pidgeon down while the rest of us were gawking. I guess she showed which side she is really on. Given the resulting boom, I'm pretty certain that the Jarl wouldn't have survived a direct hit.

Even more suprisingly, Starke then drank a potion and disappeared. He didn't follow through with the attack; he just left. However, he warforged were ready to finish the Jarl off and they moved in to do just that.

I then tossed up a Wall of Fire to stop them. I gotta give Bella credit again- she didn't bitch when she got slightly singed by the fire. The warforged made their way through the fire anyway but were quite damaged in the process. As a result, mopping them up wasn't a big deal. They're reasonably tough but not a whole lot more than that, and they make Vikings look smart .

According to Bella, Starke had a look of surprise and awe on his face when she shot the pigeon and it exploded. I’m not at all sure what that means. The whole thing makes little sense. Maybe Starke has gone mad? Maybe he thought that he was negotiating? If he'd intended to kill the Jarl then why didn't he carry through while we were all reeling from the explosion? Did he WANT to start a civil war? Maybe he was surprised when the pigeon went boom? Nothing really fits. I strongly suspect that we're missing at least one vital bit of knowledge.

Not that it really matters all that much. Now we have a civil war. So much for the Jarl sending troops to relieve the Abbey. I hope that the rest of my new associates still decide to save the Abbey. Turak and Bjorne are likely going to be in favor. But Vesna is likely to want to stay here with her father. I have no idea what Bella is going to want. Presumably she's high on Starks hit list right now.

Hmm. I wonder if this was all some sort of ploy to get Bella really trusted? That sounds like something my father would plan- probably not but worth keeping in mind.

 

[PHDungeon]

This journal picks up where his last one left off. The heroes have returned to Grimmsburg after defeating Skalmed the Troll King. They have discovered tensions high between Victor Starke and Jarl Surtur. In the last session “Starke” (there is some debate among the Pcs as to whether the man even was Starke) had a meeting in the Jarl’s hall and gave him an ultimatum. When the Jarl didn’t readily accept, Starke tried to kill him with a devastating, exploding, clockwork bird, and then used magic to make an escape. Bella foiled the attempt, by shooting the bird down before it reached the jarl, though it still caused great injury to him and many of his men. It seems that the fight is not yet over…

Melek’s Journal:

After having defeated the immediate threat, we only had a very small respite before the sounds of combat came from the courtyard.

Rushing outside, we found a large number of warforged fighting the troops of the Jarl. Alongside the warforged were a number of clockwork hounds as well.

We rapidly joined the battle and were fairly instrumental in ending it reasonably quickly and efficiently. One average warforged is superior to a viking warrior, even one who is a member of the Jarl's personal guard, but is no match for my new companions or for myself.

I was relatively ineffective in this fight since the warforged and my viking allies were too interspersed and since the Warforged are likely immune to my most damaging magics. Still, "relatively ineffective" hardly means useless. Fortunately the monstrosities were foolish enough to attack my flaming aura in an attempt to kill me, and do much harm themselves in the process.

Bella was her usual killing machine, sending in bolts of death from a distance, an effective (if rather cowardly) approach. Turak stayed inside to make sure that it wasn't all a distraction (or, at least, to make sure that the distraction would fail). Vesna spent the entire fight in the midst of the great melee, hacking and slashing at Starke’s warforged with her enchanted blade. Bjorn ended up coming into the fight before we did, having arrived from the Temple of Thor. He had been absent from the negotiations with Starke on other business, and his arrival was quite timely to say the least. Say what you want about Thor, but his priests can certainly fight, and do a fine job of inspiring and aiding their allies. Despite taking a couple of significant blows, I ended up the fight less injured than I was when I started thanks to Bjorn’s divine healing powers. He truly is in Thor’s favor.

The warforged were coming in from a teleportation circle inscribed on the floor of Starke's coach, an interesting (if rather expensive) way of getting troops into the castle. I'm still wondering to what end, though. Surely Stark couldn’t have expected such paltry numbers to win? Even if we had not been present the Jarl would have been able to easily flee. Of course, had we not been there, he would surely have been obliterated by the exploding bird and the majority of his personal guard would likely have been cut down, so perhaps I don’t give Starke enough credit.

Although I didn't hear it myself, Bjorn later revealed that he saw one of the Warforged collapse and whimper for his mommy in a child like voice. It seems highly likely that the souls of youths are being used in the construction of the monstrosities. Starke is a naughty man, deserving of punishment.

After the battle we did the usual stuff. I put out fires that had just happened to start in the jarl’s hall (amazing how often that happens near me), Bjorn and Vesna tended to the wounded, Turak took a piss and Bella disappeared.

Then came the discussion as to what we should do next. Apparently the teleport circle at Thunderhome Abbey is no longer functional. Unfortunately, that indicates that the Abbey has fallen. It certainly means that getting there will take longer and be considerably more dangerous.

Vesna seems obsessed with the idea of building her own Warforged. This makes me pretty nervous. Even if we can find the ritual and even if it is learnable by a non-artificer (both of which seem fairly unlikely) we'd be presented with the problem of getting the jewels and forging the bodies. Oh, yes, not to mention getting the souls into the bodies; I should consider that as well. And all that ignores the possibility that there is some ritual known only to Starke that can take control of Warforged.

Warforged helping to defend the city was a reasonable idea had some kind of accommodation could have been made between Stark and the Jarl, but it is too late for that.

I'll give Vesna credit though, she convinced the Jarl to train all the peasants and to get the local militias into some form of order. I'm not sure if she sees that as useful against Starke, but it will definitely help against the giants should they come at Grimmsburg.

After some discussion of alternatives that could not possibly work (eg, keeping Stark besieged), we decided that the only reasonable course was to try and go into Starke’s fortress and kill him. Bella knows a fair bit about the layout, so we have at least a small chance of success.

The Scarlet Academy is willing to give us some material aid, as is the temple of Odin. We're the only ones willing to risk our lives, though. Typical.

We have a cunning plan involving a passwall ritual, invisibility potions and the like. I bet they won't even survive our making it to his lair, which occupies the entirety of a man made island in the filthy district of the city that is known as the Styes.

We all seem to be going for different reasons. Bella seems to have been personally insulted by Starke attacking the Jarl the way that he did. Vesna, of course, wants to avenge an attack on her father. I’m not really sure why Turak and Bjorn are going along, I'd have expected them both to be off for Thunderhome, but I suppose they have some loyalty to Bella and Vesna. As for me, well I need to cement my relationship with my new allies. More importantly, sacrificing the souls of innocents to create warforged is just WRONG and has to be stopped, and the odds of Thunderhome not already having been destroyed seem low.

I just hope that my new associates know when to fight and when to run. Because running early, quickly and often might be the only way that we survive this, that or actually succeeding in killing Starke.

 

[PHDungeon]

This is Melek's 3rd journal:

You've got to love it when things go pretty much to plan. I just wish that happened more often.

We cast the ritual magic that would allow us to operate underwater and approach Starke’s island fortress from polluted waters of the Grimmsburg harbor. As we arrived, we were attacked by a small pack of oversized, clockwork eels, presumably created by Starke. These weren't really that much of a threat, and we quickly dispatched them before they could raise the alarm. Even with the ritual magic allowing us to fight underwater my vaunted fire magics were somewhat negatively affected but not to any huge extent, and I still managed to make myself useful in the battle.

Next, I cast a ritual to allow us to locate the Hat of Disguise that Starke frequently wears, in hopes that we could pin point his location in the sprawling complex. Fortunately, the ritual worked, and it appeared that Starke was not terribly far from us.

We then cast a passwall ritual that instantly created a tunnel into the compound, which we directed towards where we believed he would be found. The harbor water of course rushed into the tunnel. We were swept into the bottom level of Starke’s lair in a great flow of water. As anticipated, the water even knocked out at least one ward spell.

We found ourselves knee deep in water, in a room with a permanent teleport circle inscribed in the floor. Bella wanted to spend some time studying the circle, but when I pointed out that we had to get to Starke quickly she agreed.

After a quite short trip we found ourselves at a set of large doors. Our detection ritual indicated that Starke was likely behind them. The doors were made of metal and locked with a complex gear lock that was built right into the door. Bella then tried to use her thievery skills to open the doors. She failed miserably with the result being a large explosion, as she triggered an undetected ward. I thought I was far enough away but, alas, I was not. I suffered some injuries, but thanks to Bjorn’s healing powers, I recovered quickly.

As I mentioned, the door mechanism was an intricate puzzle of gears, so I gave Bella some tips on opening it. She ignored those tips and followed her intuition. Good thing the ward only went off the once. Still, the third time is the charm. Bella managed to open the door. Confronting us was a line of Warforged who somehow had been alerted to our presence (I wonder if the ward going off had anything to do with that ). Behind the warforged was a huge laboratory where Starke and a band of dwarven lab assistants were obviously trying to make a massive war forged, one at least as large as a giant. 4 people were strapped to tables showing us that life forces or souls are clearly part of Starke’s process.

Mayhem then ensued. Fortunately, my Wall of Fire spell gave the warforged an unpleasant choice- stay where they were and burn in my flames or fall back, thus allowing us access to the room. They chose the latter.

Starke’s immediate counters of a cloud of toxic gas and some silly swarm of clockwork bees weren't particularly effective. Actually, that isn't at all fair to my companions, especially not to Bjorn. Starke’s attacks were plenty dangerous, and without his healing magics we would have all perished. Thor is especially good at keeping those doing his business up on their feet.

After some time hacking through the warforged that were still clustered near the entrance, we managed to force our way fully into the laboratory. Turak went into what was essentially single combat with a dwarven artificer, while Vesna and Bjorn were embroiled in combat with the warforged. Bella went after Starke, and I went after targets of opportunity as they presented themselves. A bunch of idiotic dwarven lab helpers were foolish enough to throw themselves into the fray to fight and to die, for we were showing no mercy to Starke’s allies.

The battle proceeded, as we were forced to waste time dealing with Starke’s minions. Then Bella pulled out all of the stops and tried to kill Starke with a flurry of frost bolts from her crossbow. She wasn't anywhere near as effective as she hoped, for his clockwork armor was damn tough to penetrate, but she did manage to significantly weaken him. Starke struck back with a massive blast of lightning unleashed from his armor, knocking both Turak and myself off our feet. It felt like it almost killed me, but I was somehow still alive. I found myself lying on the ground surrounded by Starke’s minions who were eager to kick a down tiefling. Fortunately, my shield was just enough to save my ass from their barrage of attacks, and soon I once again felt Bjorn’s healing powers wash over me.

I crawled to my feet, and it was my turn. I'm loathe to admit how much my diabolic heritage relishes putting the hurt on those already suffering. But it does. And it does so quite effectively. I cursed Starke and unleashed a storm of magical fury upon him. It was still not enough to kill Starke, but it was enough to make him regret his decision not to flee when he had the opportunity. Turak had finished off the dwarven artificer and was now upon him, and thanks to the aid of Turak’s spirit allies and a well placed bolt from Bella, Starke would not be making an easy escape.

Turak finished off what Bella and I had started. Bravely ignoring the crackling lightning that was now streaming from Starke’s armor, Turak strode forward, suffered the pain and put Stark out of his (and our) misery with a mighty blow from his maul.

The clean up after that was swift, as Bjorn and Vesna brought down the remaining warforged.

Then a very interesting thing occurred. In a room attached to the lab we discovered a sentient Warforged from the southern lands, a warforged whose existence dates back to the lost empire of my people. He had been locked in a cage by Starke, and presumably Starke had been using him to “reverse engineer” the lost art of warforged creation. It transpired that he'd been betrayed by Bella (imagine my shock and surprise) and sold by her to Starke. He wasn't happy about that, and wanted little more than to track down and kill Bella. He also seemed to automatically treat me with a considerable amount of respect and deference. Which, I must admit, made a very welcome change from the usual way that my kind are seen.

If time and opportunity allows I have to try and pick his brains, if he has such a thing. He'll have a unique perspective on so many things, combined with knowledge of many things long forgotten.

Fortunately, warforged don't seem to be all that bright and he bought into Bella’s that she had no choice, fearing for her life if she didn't deliver the warforged to Starke. While I don't really doubt that it would have made things uncomfortable for Bella, I'm pretty sure that she had lots of other options and did what she did at least as much for the riches that it gained her as from fear of Stark.

He wishes to return home. Unfortunately (albeit not surprisingly), he doesn't know the make up of any teleport circles there. And I certainly don't trust what the Scarlet Academy will do if they find out about him. Apparently they were also seeking him when Bella betrayed him. I’m not sure if they knew that he was sentient, and I’m not sure that they'd care.

It’s not clear what we're going to do with him. For the moment, at least, we don't have to worry about it. First we need to look through the fortress and make sure that there are no more significant enemies here, particularly on this level. We will also be sure to take the time to more thoroughly explore this lower level. Bella claims it is Starke’s personal sanctuary, and she thinks he likely stores many of arcane secrets and worldly wealth down here. We are eager to find all the interesting and valuable items before soldiers of the Jarl come in grabbing and smashing everything in sight.

 

[PHDungeon]

Unfortunately, I have not journal entries for this session. Here’s a brief synopsis: The Pcs spent the game session searching the lower level of Starke’s lair (the one they encountered him on). They found many hidden vaults and chambers where Starke stored various valuable raw materials and personal wealth, which they of course filled their bag of holding with. They encountered a number of traps and more construct guardians, including an iron golem that was guarding his main treasure vault. They were also able to find all the ritual notes Starke had written on warforged creation, which did indeed confirm that living souls had to be sacrificed and bound into each warforged to give the warforged sentience. Clearly this was why Starke had been buying up gemstones and slaves.

They also removed Starke’s custom clockwork armor and mask. Bella considered taking the mask, but decided against it when she realized that it would likely permanently fuse to her face. Beneath the armor and mask, they found that Starke was actually a tiefling. His tail had been amputated and his horns filed down, allowing him to wear the gear. They had also found Starke’s personal chapel, which was dedicated to the archdevil Dispater, indicating that Starke was secretly a devil worshipper.

Using Starke’s mask as proof of his demise, they made their way into the upper levels of the lair. With the help of the mask, the odd spell, crossbow bolt or blow from a hammer, they were able to intimidate Starke’s men with ease. Most fled or surrendered, but a few were stupid enough to fight and die swift deaths. The heroes also discovered more warforged on these levels; some had gone berserk and were slaughtering anyone in their path. These ones had to be put down. Others had gone catatonic or were writhing on the ground and insanely muttering to themselves. A rare few seemed to have retained sanity and become free willed. These ones were able to communicate with the heroes, and they demonstrated the potential to make useful allies. Unlike the warforged Karn, these modern warforged showed no particular deference towards Melek.

Victorious, the heroes reported back to Jarl Surtur. Bella remained behind to start the lengthy process of ensuring that she would be the one to fill the power vacuum that Starke’s death had created within Grimmsburg’s Underworld.

There next move is to go on a recon mission to Thunderholme abbey to see if it has in fact been sacked by giants or if there is a chance that it can still be saved.