Rhenny
Adventurer
We finally got a chance to continue our campaign after a month and a half off for holidays, etc.
It felt good.
Session 13: Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle Campaign (WARNING: Mega Spoilers!!!)
Cast of Characters (5th Level)
Eyeta – Female Human Fighter
Kat – Female Human Wizard
Vale – Male High Elven Rogue
Erebus – Male Human War Cleric
Ivan – Human Monk sent by Isteval as reinforcement, left and returned again.
The party had finished resting with the Orcs and Half-Orcs on the ground floor of Ironaxe Hall. Just before they moved to ascend the stairs to the 2nd level, an Orc approached Erebus. This was the Orc that Erebus had revivified a few hours ago to gain the trust of the Orc Shaman and the others. He grunted his name…Vlathka, as he clapped both of his hands down on Erebus’ shoulders. In broken common, he said, “life debt.” Then he took a diamond earring from his left ear and gave it to Erebus. He also reached into his coin pouch and gave Erebus an iron coin and said, “Dwarf vaults.” Although Vlathka would not travel with the party, he did say he’d keep Erebus in mind and help him later if he could.
Examining the coin, the group felt as if it may be a coin that could open a Dwarven vault that they had already seen in the Toolmaker’s room, so before going upstairs, the group went back to the Toolmaker’s room. Vale inspected the vault and saw that it had a knob that would not turn, but a small coin slot next to it. After searching for traps, he asked for the coin and then inserted it into the vault. When the mechanism clicked, Erebus stepped forward and turned the knob, which unlocked the vault. Then he opened the door and saw only a small metal cube about 5” square. It seemed to have shifting sides and pieces that turned in different ways. Ivan thought it was some sort of puzzle box. Katka took a look at it and gave it a few turns. After a minute playing with it, she took a break, unable to solve it. Erebus grabbed it from her and gave it a go. After he twisted and turned the pieces, a noxious cloud of gas issued from the cube. Erebus’ constitution was strong enough to ward off any ill effects, although he felt a drowsy haze rush over him momentarily. Then Katka took it back and tried to play with it once again. It took her 2 more minutes to finally solve the puzzle, which opened the cube. Inside there was 30 pp and another iron coin. The group split the platinum and gave the iron coin to Erebus, since he had the last one too.
Then the group ascended the stairway to the 2nd floor. Up the stairs, with Vale in the lead, sneaking ahead, the group found a large room with an unfinished rune on the ground. Katka knew that this was one of those runes that the Red Wizards had made to help support the crumbling ceilings in Ironaxe Hall, but this one was unfinished. Since there was no noise and everything seemed quiet, she took a few minutes to inspect the runes. After about 10 minutes, she felt as if she might be able to finish the runes if she only had some Malgar root paste infused with ruby crystals. Perhaps the Red Wizards in Ironaxe hall had this ingredient, but for now, Katka had to leave the runes unfinished.
As quietly as they could, the party traveled slightly west and north through the halls of the fortress. They came upon some sleeping chambers. Vale and Ivan crept up to the door and listened. Ivan heard the sound of deep snoring. Vale opened the door quietly and found 2 sleeping shield Dwarves and 2 Orcs (strange bedfellows indeed). Not wanting to disrupt their sleep, Vale stepped out and closed the door. The group decided to leave the Orcs and Dwarves alone, realizing that they were not a threat.
Searching to the north, Vale scouted ahead again. As he moved up, the party heard the distant sound of boots marching and sliding on the stone floor to the north west. Vale snuck up to the corner and peered to the west. He saw a horrible sight. Walking towards him (about 40’ away) a red wizard, visibly upset, turned north into another corridor about 20’ from Vale. 6 wights trailed behind him, and 6 wraiths floated after them. This procession scared the Elf, but he kept his cool and the monsters did not see him.
Vale made it back to the party to report. The group decided to try to follow the ungodly procession. Vale took point and snuck into the north hall and into a large room. It had a completed rune in the middle of the room, and there was a passage on the west side and a passage on the east side, stairs that ascended to still another level of Ironaxe hall. It seemed as if the Red Wizard and undead went that way. Vale also noticed that there were 4 vaults on the northern wall of this large room. After listening unsuccessfully for the Red Wizard and his undead compliment, Vale came back to the party and reported. They decided to try to follow the foes.
As they all moved down the west and to the north, Katka tripped a little and made more noise than the rest. This drew the attention of two wights that were down the west corridor. The party engaged with one of the wights and then the other. Although it took 4 rounds to deal with these monsters, the party prevailed, only Ivan suffering some wounds, luckily not the ones that drain life. (He succeeded on his Con save). Interestingly, during the battle, the trailing wight used a bow, so Ivan (who was a little tipsy…he likes to drink and has fallen off the wagon so to speak) tumbled forward and pulled the longsword from the wight’s scabbard so that it could not use it in battle. That gave it the chance to use its claws instead. Realizing the danger of the claws, Ivan focused his ki and went defensive. Eyeta jabbed at the wights with her magical longspear and Erebus used “Dragonthumper” to deal some nice damage as well. Vale used sneak attack and disengage to great effect, but his blows didn’t cut as deeply as he would have liked (resistance to normal weapons). Katka found that her Chill Touch didn’t do much damage to the creatures, but at least it protected her from attack, and unfortunately she fired an fire bolt that missed the mark as well.
After the battle, Erebus healed Ivan with a cure spell and the group decided to check the area where the wights came from. This door was much more ornate than the others they had seen, and it had a key hole. It was locked. Vale made short work of the lock, and opened the door to see a living chamber, and King Korin pacing and circling in the middle of the room. Ivan saw the lavish furnishing, a desk, a great axe hung above the desk, the king himself, hunched over, with white beard, looking like an owl. He also caught a glimpse of a golden jewel on a chain around the king’s neck. It seemed as if it was a small golden chest that the king would touch and fiddle with every so often. The king was babbling incoherent nonsense, but was surprised when the group walked in. Ivan tried to ask where the booze was as the others entered. The king only responded with nonsense. After a minute or so of questions from Ivan, Katka and the others, Korin seemed to become more coherent. Katka spoke with him and found out about Derwin’s hammer and the Red Wizard who visits him pretty often to try to find out how to find that hammer. All Korin said is that he hid the hammer where nobody will find it. Korin’s moments of clarity faded soon, and he started babbling incoherently again.
Katka called Vale aside and asked if Vale could steal Korin’s necklace from around the king’s neck without the king noticing. Vale raised his eyebrow and nodded, yes. Ivan, had actually begun doing flips to entertain the insane king, and the king was pretty far gone in his own mind, so Vale had no difficulty unlocking the clasp and taking the golden necklace from the king. When Vale tossed it to Katka, Katka caught it and could sense that something was magical about it. She tucked it into her robe pocket. The king didn’t even realize that it was missing.
(end of session)
It was nice to get a full party together after a long time without playing.
We played for about 2 ½ hours. A lot of interaction and exploration. Not much combat, but the group was glad that they did not encounter the Red Wizard with his 6 wights and 6 wraiths.
In my campaign, since the party had done some really interesting parlay and the cleric used revivify to raise a dead orc so that he could gain the Orc's trust against the Red Wizards, I decided to make the Orcs and the Dwarves neutral or more favorably disposed to the PCs than the adventure seems to suggest. I figured that the Orcs and Dwarves don't like the Red Wizards around. They are scared of them, and if directly commanded or approached by one of the Wizards, they'll do what the wizard says, but they won't actively go out of their way to help or protect them. In their heart of hearts, they want the wizards to go so they can continue living their weird and wacky in-bread existance. (The cross breading is so weird. If I had to run this adventure again, I'd change that part of it and make the Orcs evil and the Dwarves more or less slave labor for the Orcs - I'd make all of the half-orcs just normal half orcs - but...for now, I'm just rolling with what WotC has given me and having a good time).
It felt good.
Session 13: Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle Campaign (WARNING: Mega Spoilers!!!)
Cast of Characters (5th Level)
Eyeta – Female Human Fighter
Kat – Female Human Wizard
Vale – Male High Elven Rogue
Erebus – Male Human War Cleric
Ivan – Human Monk sent by Isteval as reinforcement, left and returned again.
The party had finished resting with the Orcs and Half-Orcs on the ground floor of Ironaxe Hall. Just before they moved to ascend the stairs to the 2nd level, an Orc approached Erebus. This was the Orc that Erebus had revivified a few hours ago to gain the trust of the Orc Shaman and the others. He grunted his name…Vlathka, as he clapped both of his hands down on Erebus’ shoulders. In broken common, he said, “life debt.” Then he took a diamond earring from his left ear and gave it to Erebus. He also reached into his coin pouch and gave Erebus an iron coin and said, “Dwarf vaults.” Although Vlathka would not travel with the party, he did say he’d keep Erebus in mind and help him later if he could.
Examining the coin, the group felt as if it may be a coin that could open a Dwarven vault that they had already seen in the Toolmaker’s room, so before going upstairs, the group went back to the Toolmaker’s room. Vale inspected the vault and saw that it had a knob that would not turn, but a small coin slot next to it. After searching for traps, he asked for the coin and then inserted it into the vault. When the mechanism clicked, Erebus stepped forward and turned the knob, which unlocked the vault. Then he opened the door and saw only a small metal cube about 5” square. It seemed to have shifting sides and pieces that turned in different ways. Ivan thought it was some sort of puzzle box. Katka took a look at it and gave it a few turns. After a minute playing with it, she took a break, unable to solve it. Erebus grabbed it from her and gave it a go. After he twisted and turned the pieces, a noxious cloud of gas issued from the cube. Erebus’ constitution was strong enough to ward off any ill effects, although he felt a drowsy haze rush over him momentarily. Then Katka took it back and tried to play with it once again. It took her 2 more minutes to finally solve the puzzle, which opened the cube. Inside there was 30 pp and another iron coin. The group split the platinum and gave the iron coin to Erebus, since he had the last one too.
Then the group ascended the stairway to the 2nd floor. Up the stairs, with Vale in the lead, sneaking ahead, the group found a large room with an unfinished rune on the ground. Katka knew that this was one of those runes that the Red Wizards had made to help support the crumbling ceilings in Ironaxe Hall, but this one was unfinished. Since there was no noise and everything seemed quiet, she took a few minutes to inspect the runes. After about 10 minutes, she felt as if she might be able to finish the runes if she only had some Malgar root paste infused with ruby crystals. Perhaps the Red Wizards in Ironaxe hall had this ingredient, but for now, Katka had to leave the runes unfinished.
As quietly as they could, the party traveled slightly west and north through the halls of the fortress. They came upon some sleeping chambers. Vale and Ivan crept up to the door and listened. Ivan heard the sound of deep snoring. Vale opened the door quietly and found 2 sleeping shield Dwarves and 2 Orcs (strange bedfellows indeed). Not wanting to disrupt their sleep, Vale stepped out and closed the door. The group decided to leave the Orcs and Dwarves alone, realizing that they were not a threat.
Searching to the north, Vale scouted ahead again. As he moved up, the party heard the distant sound of boots marching and sliding on the stone floor to the north west. Vale snuck up to the corner and peered to the west. He saw a horrible sight. Walking towards him (about 40’ away) a red wizard, visibly upset, turned north into another corridor about 20’ from Vale. 6 wights trailed behind him, and 6 wraiths floated after them. This procession scared the Elf, but he kept his cool and the monsters did not see him.
Vale made it back to the party to report. The group decided to try to follow the ungodly procession. Vale took point and snuck into the north hall and into a large room. It had a completed rune in the middle of the room, and there was a passage on the west side and a passage on the east side, stairs that ascended to still another level of Ironaxe hall. It seemed as if the Red Wizard and undead went that way. Vale also noticed that there were 4 vaults on the northern wall of this large room. After listening unsuccessfully for the Red Wizard and his undead compliment, Vale came back to the party and reported. They decided to try to follow the foes.
As they all moved down the west and to the north, Katka tripped a little and made more noise than the rest. This drew the attention of two wights that were down the west corridor. The party engaged with one of the wights and then the other. Although it took 4 rounds to deal with these monsters, the party prevailed, only Ivan suffering some wounds, luckily not the ones that drain life. (He succeeded on his Con save). Interestingly, during the battle, the trailing wight used a bow, so Ivan (who was a little tipsy…he likes to drink and has fallen off the wagon so to speak) tumbled forward and pulled the longsword from the wight’s scabbard so that it could not use it in battle. That gave it the chance to use its claws instead. Realizing the danger of the claws, Ivan focused his ki and went defensive. Eyeta jabbed at the wights with her magical longspear and Erebus used “Dragonthumper” to deal some nice damage as well. Vale used sneak attack and disengage to great effect, but his blows didn’t cut as deeply as he would have liked (resistance to normal weapons). Katka found that her Chill Touch didn’t do much damage to the creatures, but at least it protected her from attack, and unfortunately she fired an fire bolt that missed the mark as well.
After the battle, Erebus healed Ivan with a cure spell and the group decided to check the area where the wights came from. This door was much more ornate than the others they had seen, and it had a key hole. It was locked. Vale made short work of the lock, and opened the door to see a living chamber, and King Korin pacing and circling in the middle of the room. Ivan saw the lavish furnishing, a desk, a great axe hung above the desk, the king himself, hunched over, with white beard, looking like an owl. He also caught a glimpse of a golden jewel on a chain around the king’s neck. It seemed as if it was a small golden chest that the king would touch and fiddle with every so often. The king was babbling incoherent nonsense, but was surprised when the group walked in. Ivan tried to ask where the booze was as the others entered. The king only responded with nonsense. After a minute or so of questions from Ivan, Katka and the others, Korin seemed to become more coherent. Katka spoke with him and found out about Derwin’s hammer and the Red Wizard who visits him pretty often to try to find out how to find that hammer. All Korin said is that he hid the hammer where nobody will find it. Korin’s moments of clarity faded soon, and he started babbling incoherently again.
Katka called Vale aside and asked if Vale could steal Korin’s necklace from around the king’s neck without the king noticing. Vale raised his eyebrow and nodded, yes. Ivan, had actually begun doing flips to entertain the insane king, and the king was pretty far gone in his own mind, so Vale had no difficulty unlocking the clasp and taking the golden necklace from the king. When Vale tossed it to Katka, Katka caught it and could sense that something was magical about it. She tucked it into her robe pocket. The king didn’t even realize that it was missing.
(end of session)
It was nice to get a full party together after a long time without playing.
We played for about 2 ½ hours. A lot of interaction and exploration. Not much combat, but the group was glad that they did not encounter the Red Wizard with his 6 wights and 6 wraiths.
In my campaign, since the party had done some really interesting parlay and the cleric used revivify to raise a dead orc so that he could gain the Orc's trust against the Red Wizards, I decided to make the Orcs and the Dwarves neutral or more favorably disposed to the PCs than the adventure seems to suggest. I figured that the Orcs and Dwarves don't like the Red Wizards around. They are scared of them, and if directly commanded or approached by one of the Wizards, they'll do what the wizard says, but they won't actively go out of their way to help or protect them. In their heart of hearts, they want the wizards to go so they can continue living their weird and wacky in-bread existance. (The cross breading is so weird. If I had to run this adventure again, I'd change that part of it and make the Orcs evil and the Dwarves more or less slave labor for the Orcs - I'd make all of the half-orcs just normal half orcs - but...for now, I'm just rolling with what WotC has given me and having a good time).
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