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Rhenny's Princes of the Apocalypse Campaign Logs
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<blockquote data-quote="Rhenny" data-source="post: 6882228" data-attributes="member: 18333"><p>Session 15 – Travel Upriver, Getting Into Rivergard Keep and A Noisy Battle.</p><p></p><p>The party spent the night at Bethard’s farm near Goldenfields. When they woke up, they had breakfast and decided to head up river to see if they could find traces of the Crushing Wave cultists who had just attacked Goldenfields. On their journey, they stopped at the Bargewright Inn. The establishment was moderately busy. While ordering food and drink, the adventurers asked around to try to find out more about the Crushing Wave cultists. Pate found that one man told of pirates and traders along the river, but that was all they had noticed lately.</p><p></p><p>The adventurers departed the inn and made their way up the river while Zeed, the Aarakocra, decided to fly over the river to Womford to try to sell the swords he took from the last group of cultists they encountered. Zeed found a merchant who dealt with a variety of goods and saw a light crossbow and bolts that he wanted. He sold the merchant the swords and added a mere 16 gp to pick up the crossbow and the bolts. Then he flew up river to find his friends.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile the others saw a boat on the river about 400 yards ahead of them. The boat was manned by 4 men rowing and two others. They looked like non-descript commoners or merchants straining to make time against the current as they rowed upstream. Foo crept up stealthily to scout and see if he could find out more about this boat. From the distance, he could not see much more so the group decided to hail them. Tornade stepped close to the river bank and shouted out for help. He told the man that they were chasing some men who did horrible things to Hundar’s sister. Hundar was a bit confused about this considering he had no sister, but then he realized that Tornade was just making up a story. One of the men on the boat spoke back and told Tornade that they had to make time and get to the keep before nightfall. He pretty much dismissed Tornade. Then Pate ran ahead and got even closer to the boat by standing out on a small land outcropping. His persuasiveness made the man reconsider. The man told them that his name was Shoalar. He needed to get to the keep faster so he agreed to let the party on board if 2 of them would pick up oars and row with his men. Pate volunteered and the party climbed aboard. Zeed, flying overhead finally found his friends and circled above.</p><p></p><p>As the group rowed up river, they spoke with the men. Shoalar was a merchant, or so he said. The other guy on the boat seemed to be a lightly armored warrior named Pike. The group learned that Shoalar did business with a guy nicknamed “Jolly” inside Rivergard Keep. He told them that it was funny because Jolly was not a very Jolly fella, but he did pay them for goods so they didn’t mind. </p><p></p><p>While Hundar and Foo rowed (since they were the strongest of the group), they both caught glimpses of pendants that hung from around all of the mens’ necks although they were tucked under the cloaks and hard to see. After about an hour, Hundar unwrapped Windvane so that the men could see it. This made their eyes gleam with greed. Pike got frustrated and said to Shoalar, “Let’s just take them.” That’s when all of the men drew their weapons and began their attack. Luckily, the party was suspicious so they were not surprised. </p><p></p><p>The battle against these men was quick since the group focused on taking down Pike and Shoalar first. Taking only minimal wounds, Hundar, Pate, Tornade, Foo and Zeed took out the leaders and Hundar told the others that the ship belonged to them now. The other men dropped their weapons and surrendered easily. Then the party opened a trunk to find a river chart, a potion, three small malachites, and three Dwarvish tomes. They also found 13 gp which they decided to give to the crew members for their help.</p><p></p><p>Before getting too close to Rivergard Keep, the party stripped Shoalar and Pike of their necklaces and other items, and ditched their bodies in the river. Then they saw that those necklaces each had the symbol of the Crushing Wave cult inscribed on them. That’s when Foo remembered a map they found about 3 weeks ago before they even came to Red Larch. The map showed the location of Rivergard Keep and it had the same Crushing Wave cult symbol on it. It also said, “Grimjaw pays well” written on it. </p><p></p><p>The crew members, fearful for their own lives, offered to give the adventurers their clothing and their necklaces so that the party could impersonate them and get into Rivergard Keep. They gave Pate and Tornade the procedure for arrival at the keep, and just at nightfall, they arrived. When the party did what the crew members said, show the pendants and wave their hands like waves on the water, a guard signaled to the near tower. Then the gate opened and they could row into a small harbor within the keep walls.</p><p></p><p>Inside, they saw a landing and a loading dock on the east, and a gated riverway that went into a 20’ tall bank of land directly to the north. There was also another boat already at the loading dock to the west, so they had to row to the landing to wait for it to leave. On the other boat were three other men all unloading boxes and crates. After about an hour, one of the men on the boat looked over at the adventurers and he could tell that they were imposters since he was the bandit chief. The bandits and their chief fired crossbows at Tornade and injured him. Then, Hundar told his crew members to row their boat close to the other boat. Zeed took to the air and attacked, while Foo fired his shortbow and hid. Pate viciously mocked the bandit chief to no avail. (He had heard worse by far). When the boats were adjacent, Hundar jumped onto the other boat and attacked, but not before the bandit chief slashed Tornade with his scimitar. While the party was engaged on the boat, the lone guard on the wall signaled to the tower and the gate closed. Now the boats were trapped inside the keep. </p><p></p><p>As the party fought, the noise alerted others inside the tower and they started out. There were a number of Crushing Wave Cultists along with a priest and a blue skinned fathomer who hexed Hundar and damaged him with an eldritch blast. Hundar leaped across the boats to athletically land on the west side where the landing was, closer to the foes coming from the tower. Then the priest fired magic missiles at Hundar riddling him with small wounds that he could not resist with his toughness. Tornade seeing that the priest might be trouble, enchanted him with a crown of madness and made him attack one of the cultists. Foo, Zeed and Pate took care of the bandit chief. Tornade stepped up to the two bandit foes and thunderwaved them off the ship, dead as they splattered against the dock, while Hundar stood alone versus the cultists, the priest and the fathomer. Tornade was also able to continue to concentrate on the crown of madness which kept the priest a little occupied.</p><p></p><p>Soon after another magic missile barrage, this time hitting Pate as he neared the edge of the near boat, the group saw another few cultists running down stairs toward Hundar, and another priest at the top of the stairs. This one conjured a sleet storm directly over all of the boats making it impossible for those on the boat to see. The ice on the ground also made the area treacherous. Tornade and Zeed both slipped and fell as they tried to get out of the storm. Tornade ran up to the wall eventually and decided he’d try to run up the stairs to the north and work his way around. Zeed flew up and out of the storm and was able to see the others outside. Foo tried to jump off the boat to the smaller one docked at the landing, but he slipped and fell into the water. Pate was able to jump off of his boat and land on the smaller one by the landing, then emerge from the storm. </p><p></p><p>Hundar took a few hits from the cultists and then the new priest held him with a spell. This was a frightening moment. Pate was able to make the fathomer laugh uncontrollably for a number of rounds which kept Hundar safer than he would have been and the others attacked to try to bring down the cultists and the priests. Tornade ran around, but still had quite a ways to go. Zeed downed the initial priest with help from Pate and Foo, who had swum from the water to the landing. Hundar broke the hold before he could suffer too badly and then he stabled and killed two of the cultists using Windvane. </p><p></p><p>Seeing that his forces were in trouble, the priest at the top of the steps dispatched his initial sleet storm and created a new one on the land that engulfed Hundar, Pate, Foo and Zeed. Then he ran up the steps toward one of the buildings of the keep. Tornade had made it around by then so he stood between the priest and the buildings. He lobbed a lightning orb at the priest and did some damage, but the priest kept on coming. The priest peppered Tornade with magic missiles nearly downing the Air Genasi sorcerer, but Tornade was able to lob another orb which hurt the priest badly. </p><p></p><p>After Hundar killed the fathomer who was still laughing on the ground, he ran out of the sleet storm after the priest. Meanwhile, the sleet storm dissipated after the priest took damage from Tornade’s spells. Zeed, Pate and Foo finished off the other cultists. Zeed went over to the tower door and looked inside. Inside he saw a windlass that controlled the river gate, and a few beds and curtains with an area hidden behind. He crept behind the curtains to see a private resting area with bed and chest. </p><p></p><p>At the same time, Foo and Pate ran up the stairs to get closer to Hundar and Tornade. Just when it seemed as if the priest would escape, casting blur upon himself and running to a door of a nearby building, Hundar stabbed him in the back, and killed him. Unfortunately, Hundar yelled bloody murder as he did it so he could hear a commotion inside the building directly ahead.</p><p></p><p>That’s where we ended. Cliffhanger.</p><p></p><p>Each PC got 700 xp. It seems like the noise has now alerted at least one more room full of cultists. Tornade is pretty hurt, down to 5 hp, and Pate is also pretty hurt at 18 hp. Hundar is at 25 hp and has used his second wind and his action surge. Foo and Zeed are unharmed as of yet, but Zeed is in the tower now just about ready to open the chest he found.</p><p></p><p>This combat encounter is now in its 9th round, and more cultists are on their way.</p><p></p><p>Good stuff.</p><p></p><p>This session was about 3 hours.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rhenny, post: 6882228, member: 18333"] Session 15 – Travel Upriver, Getting Into Rivergard Keep and A Noisy Battle. The party spent the night at Bethard’s farm near Goldenfields. When they woke up, they had breakfast and decided to head up river to see if they could find traces of the Crushing Wave cultists who had just attacked Goldenfields. On their journey, they stopped at the Bargewright Inn. The establishment was moderately busy. While ordering food and drink, the adventurers asked around to try to find out more about the Crushing Wave cultists. Pate found that one man told of pirates and traders along the river, but that was all they had noticed lately. The adventurers departed the inn and made their way up the river while Zeed, the Aarakocra, decided to fly over the river to Womford to try to sell the swords he took from the last group of cultists they encountered. Zeed found a merchant who dealt with a variety of goods and saw a light crossbow and bolts that he wanted. He sold the merchant the swords and added a mere 16 gp to pick up the crossbow and the bolts. Then he flew up river to find his friends. Meanwhile the others saw a boat on the river about 400 yards ahead of them. The boat was manned by 4 men rowing and two others. They looked like non-descript commoners or merchants straining to make time against the current as they rowed upstream. Foo crept up stealthily to scout and see if he could find out more about this boat. From the distance, he could not see much more so the group decided to hail them. Tornade stepped close to the river bank and shouted out for help. He told the man that they were chasing some men who did horrible things to Hundar’s sister. Hundar was a bit confused about this considering he had no sister, but then he realized that Tornade was just making up a story. One of the men on the boat spoke back and told Tornade that they had to make time and get to the keep before nightfall. He pretty much dismissed Tornade. Then Pate ran ahead and got even closer to the boat by standing out on a small land outcropping. His persuasiveness made the man reconsider. The man told them that his name was Shoalar. He needed to get to the keep faster so he agreed to let the party on board if 2 of them would pick up oars and row with his men. Pate volunteered and the party climbed aboard. Zeed, flying overhead finally found his friends and circled above. As the group rowed up river, they spoke with the men. Shoalar was a merchant, or so he said. The other guy on the boat seemed to be a lightly armored warrior named Pike. The group learned that Shoalar did business with a guy nicknamed “Jolly” inside Rivergard Keep. He told them that it was funny because Jolly was not a very Jolly fella, but he did pay them for goods so they didn’t mind. While Hundar and Foo rowed (since they were the strongest of the group), they both caught glimpses of pendants that hung from around all of the mens’ necks although they were tucked under the cloaks and hard to see. After about an hour, Hundar unwrapped Windvane so that the men could see it. This made their eyes gleam with greed. Pike got frustrated and said to Shoalar, “Let’s just take them.” That’s when all of the men drew their weapons and began their attack. Luckily, the party was suspicious so they were not surprised. The battle against these men was quick since the group focused on taking down Pike and Shoalar first. Taking only minimal wounds, Hundar, Pate, Tornade, Foo and Zeed took out the leaders and Hundar told the others that the ship belonged to them now. The other men dropped their weapons and surrendered easily. Then the party opened a trunk to find a river chart, a potion, three small malachites, and three Dwarvish tomes. They also found 13 gp which they decided to give to the crew members for their help. Before getting too close to Rivergard Keep, the party stripped Shoalar and Pike of their necklaces and other items, and ditched their bodies in the river. Then they saw that those necklaces each had the symbol of the Crushing Wave cult inscribed on them. That’s when Foo remembered a map they found about 3 weeks ago before they even came to Red Larch. The map showed the location of Rivergard Keep and it had the same Crushing Wave cult symbol on it. It also said, “Grimjaw pays well” written on it. The crew members, fearful for their own lives, offered to give the adventurers their clothing and their necklaces so that the party could impersonate them and get into Rivergard Keep. They gave Pate and Tornade the procedure for arrival at the keep, and just at nightfall, they arrived. When the party did what the crew members said, show the pendants and wave their hands like waves on the water, a guard signaled to the near tower. Then the gate opened and they could row into a small harbor within the keep walls. Inside, they saw a landing and a loading dock on the east, and a gated riverway that went into a 20’ tall bank of land directly to the north. There was also another boat already at the loading dock to the west, so they had to row to the landing to wait for it to leave. On the other boat were three other men all unloading boxes and crates. After about an hour, one of the men on the boat looked over at the adventurers and he could tell that they were imposters since he was the bandit chief. The bandits and their chief fired crossbows at Tornade and injured him. Then, Hundar told his crew members to row their boat close to the other boat. Zeed took to the air and attacked, while Foo fired his shortbow and hid. Pate viciously mocked the bandit chief to no avail. (He had heard worse by far). When the boats were adjacent, Hundar jumped onto the other boat and attacked, but not before the bandit chief slashed Tornade with his scimitar. While the party was engaged on the boat, the lone guard on the wall signaled to the tower and the gate closed. Now the boats were trapped inside the keep. As the party fought, the noise alerted others inside the tower and they started out. There were a number of Crushing Wave Cultists along with a priest and a blue skinned fathomer who hexed Hundar and damaged him with an eldritch blast. Hundar leaped across the boats to athletically land on the west side where the landing was, closer to the foes coming from the tower. Then the priest fired magic missiles at Hundar riddling him with small wounds that he could not resist with his toughness. Tornade seeing that the priest might be trouble, enchanted him with a crown of madness and made him attack one of the cultists. Foo, Zeed and Pate took care of the bandit chief. Tornade stepped up to the two bandit foes and thunderwaved them off the ship, dead as they splattered against the dock, while Hundar stood alone versus the cultists, the priest and the fathomer. Tornade was also able to continue to concentrate on the crown of madness which kept the priest a little occupied. Soon after another magic missile barrage, this time hitting Pate as he neared the edge of the near boat, the group saw another few cultists running down stairs toward Hundar, and another priest at the top of the stairs. This one conjured a sleet storm directly over all of the boats making it impossible for those on the boat to see. The ice on the ground also made the area treacherous. Tornade and Zeed both slipped and fell as they tried to get out of the storm. Tornade ran up to the wall eventually and decided he’d try to run up the stairs to the north and work his way around. Zeed flew up and out of the storm and was able to see the others outside. Foo tried to jump off the boat to the smaller one docked at the landing, but he slipped and fell into the water. Pate was able to jump off of his boat and land on the smaller one by the landing, then emerge from the storm. Hundar took a few hits from the cultists and then the new priest held him with a spell. This was a frightening moment. Pate was able to make the fathomer laugh uncontrollably for a number of rounds which kept Hundar safer than he would have been and the others attacked to try to bring down the cultists and the priests. Tornade ran around, but still had quite a ways to go. Zeed downed the initial priest with help from Pate and Foo, who had swum from the water to the landing. Hundar broke the hold before he could suffer too badly and then he stabled and killed two of the cultists using Windvane. Seeing that his forces were in trouble, the priest at the top of the steps dispatched his initial sleet storm and created a new one on the land that engulfed Hundar, Pate, Foo and Zeed. Then he ran up the steps toward one of the buildings of the keep. Tornade had made it around by then so he stood between the priest and the buildings. He lobbed a lightning orb at the priest and did some damage, but the priest kept on coming. The priest peppered Tornade with magic missiles nearly downing the Air Genasi sorcerer, but Tornade was able to lob another orb which hurt the priest badly. After Hundar killed the fathomer who was still laughing on the ground, he ran out of the sleet storm after the priest. Meanwhile, the sleet storm dissipated after the priest took damage from Tornade’s spells. Zeed, Pate and Foo finished off the other cultists. Zeed went over to the tower door and looked inside. Inside he saw a windlass that controlled the river gate, and a few beds and curtains with an area hidden behind. He crept behind the curtains to see a private resting area with bed and chest. At the same time, Foo and Pate ran up the stairs to get closer to Hundar and Tornade. Just when it seemed as if the priest would escape, casting blur upon himself and running to a door of a nearby building, Hundar stabbed him in the back, and killed him. Unfortunately, Hundar yelled bloody murder as he did it so he could hear a commotion inside the building directly ahead. That’s where we ended. Cliffhanger. Each PC got 700 xp. It seems like the noise has now alerted at least one more room full of cultists. Tornade is pretty hurt, down to 5 hp, and Pate is also pretty hurt at 18 hp. Hundar is at 25 hp and has used his second wind and his action surge. Foo and Zeed are unharmed as of yet, but Zeed is in the tower now just about ready to open the chest he found. This combat encounter is now in its 9th round, and more cultists are on their way. Good stuff. This session was about 3 hours. [/QUOTE]
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