Rise Of The Snakemen [Forgotten Realms]

[Brakkart]

Not killed anyone yet? You're slacking, mate.

Best to all down there.

C'mon mate, you should know that it is far more satisfying to let the players become attached to their characters, and then kill them!!

Just kidding, if they die, they die, I'm not going to make any special effort to slaughter them though, but if they make mistakes, I'll make sure they pay for them.

Hope you are doing well in Southhampton, see you at Gen Con mate.

 

[Brakkart]

DM's Log of Session Five

After one hell of a hectic morning, the group decided to rest at their new Inn, as they reasoned that investigating (breaking and entering), Broca House's compound would be a lot easier after nightfall. All that is except Aeron, who headed out to purchase some scrolls of Mage Armor, so that he might omit that particular spell from his day's selection in favour of more offensive magics.

On waking and eating, Zamtap announced that he would not be joining them, excusing himself to attend the High House of Gond in the city, for some festival or other. He told the group that he would meet up with them in a couple days time at Kelvin's Thorp, a village a day or so's travel along the Trade Way between Baldur's Gate and Waterdeep.

Bereft of their primary cleric, the group nevertheless decided to go ahead with their mission, and set off through the streets drawing little to no attention at that time of the evening, the streets filled with the throng of thirsty Gate's folk seeking one tavern or another. Reaching Balduran Avenue, they ducked into the shadowy cover of an alleyway, and observed their target, the large walled headquarters of Broca House across the road. Surrounded by a 10' high brick wall, topped with imbedded shards of glass and nails, with a three storey building visible beyond, and a couple other rooftops as well, plus clearly seen lighting in the yard, it was a daunting prospect.

Undeterred though, and following Gylippus's strategy, the group decided to wait out the rest of the evening, and spy the joint. Aeron took the opportunity to walk around the block, and check out the back side of the compound, to find that the rear faced onto The Circle, a circular road surrounding the Ducal Palace itself. He duly reported back to the group that stealth was of the utmost concern, as any undue noise or flashes and they would be up to their necks in Flaming Fist guards before they knew what had hit them. The others had also noted that a patrol of the Fist went down Balduran Avenue every 15-20 minutes, leaving them with a narrow window of opportunity in which to get over the wall.

Their reconnaissance done, the party waited until 1am to make their move, the streets having cleared of revellers by then, as well as most of the lights in the compound itself having been turned off. Darting from their hiding place, they crossed the broad expanse of Balduran Avenue and Ki made an attempt to hurl a grappling hook up to the top of the wall. Alas, his attempt was pititful and shaking his head in disbelief, Aeron simply grabbed the hook from his hands, and levitated to the top of the wall, using the ability given him by his genasi heritage. Placing a bundle of the cloaks the group had taken from their assailants in the Inn that morning over the spikes on the wall, they all clambered up the rope and dropped quietly into the yard on the other side, removing the cloaks and hook in the process, so as to leave nothing visible from the street as to their unlawful entry into the premises.

Sneaking about, they quickly assessed the layout of the place, noting only three guards outside. While Noob headed off after one, Aeron and Gylippus decided to bring the others low via Sleep spells. Unfortunately, while Aeron's spell worked perfectly, the humans mastery of the arcane arts was somewhat lacking, and his had no effect on the guard he had targetted, who upon noticing his companion slump to the ground, called out an alarm.

Deciding that haste was of the utmost importance now, the group surged towards him, Jebodiah at the forefront, as missiles fired by Elena and Ki bounced off the guards shield and the wall behind him. Noob meanwhile, used several parked waggons as cover, whilst peppering the other awake guard with arrows, but to little effect.

Charging into the guard, the dwarf swiftly laid him low, even as a doorway in the main building nearby opened, a series of guards bustling out, to be met by an onslaught of axe, swords and spells, three of them being put to sleep as Aeron worked his magics to great effect. Amazingly, the noise of battle did not bring the entire household running, and whilst they fought well, the guards were soon ovewhelmed. Gylippus ran to help out Noob as the guard he had been harrying, had finally spotted him and closed to melee. Between them they finished him off, even as the rest of the party did away with the sleeping guards.

Entering the main building of the compound, they investigated the room the guards had come from, finding little more than bunkbeds, and a table and chairs, the groups intrusion having disturbed a games of cards and dice. Scooping up the coinage on the table, they also dragged the bodies into the room and went through them for anything of value, Noob being extremely thorough in this. As he busied himself with the wealth, the rest peered in room after room on the ground floor of the building, putting a chair under the door handle of the servants quarters, and then taking the opportunity to butcher a half dozen men in their beds as they slept, after seeing the weapon belts and such in their bunkroom, and recognising them as more of the assassin type of Fang's that they had done battle with several times before.

They also found an office, and after searching through it, discovered one locked drawer. A quick Detect Magic from Gylippus determined that it radiated a faint abjuration aura. Figuring this to be an Alarm spell, the group conferred and decided on a fairly ruthless course of action. Reasoning that if they opened the drawer, it would call down the rest of the compound on them, they decided to wipe out the remainder of the household before doing so, so that none would be left alive to answer the alarm.

With this in mind, they headed to the stairs to the upper level, and with Elena and Jebodiah in the lead, headed up to the second level, and straight into two well armoured guards posted in the corridor. Rushing them, battle was joined in the corridor, as any pretense at stealth was thrown to the wind, with wands, arrows, axe and cutlass being brought to bear against these new defenders. The house guards were competent enough fighters, but against this sheer wave of attacks, were soon overmatched, even with the addition of a third defender to their ranks, as an archer joined them from out of a guest bedroom. With many doors facing them, the party continued to move through the house, intent on eradicating the threat posed by the Yuan'ti's minions entirely...

DM's Notes:

Well the group finally raided Broca House, and in style too. I will admit to being a bit caught off guard at their strategy. I had truthfully expected them to break in, battle a half dozen guards or so, find the office, yank out the drawer, grab the contents and leg it out of the compound post haste. The idea that they might seek to eliminate the entire stronghold before seeking to open the drawer had not crossed my mind. I will have to keep in mind in future this ruthless streak that my players possess. Still, I can't fault their tactics (and my dice rolling for Listen checks for the rest of the household sucked!!), so the group do well and truly have the drop on the cultists. Still I doubt Buckman will be too happy at their methods, even if they do return with incriminating evidence.

 

[Fraggleonacid]

Yeah, if the drawer hadn't been trapped, in ways that are hard for a group of our level to determine, then we might have gone for the cut and run. Unfortunately the trap added to the locked gates would appear to make a quick getaway problematic; what if the drawer doesn't contain what we are looking for, but does contain the weekly wages? We open the drawer, trigger the alarm and have to fight the entire compound all at once, with the likely bonus of involving the Flaming Fist, when all we have for 'evidence' is a handful of looted cash in our pockets; how would that look? It just struck me, I can't speak for everyone else, that the way we went about it was more, rather than less, likely to ensure our survival and give us time to obtain our objectives. It is also worth bearing in mind that the longer the rest of the town remains in the dark about what we've been up to, the better chance we have to make our getaway - especially if we find nothing (which, in character, we have to retain as a possibility). The only way this will happen is if we bump off all the significant members of the Costa; which I will admit is a more than a bit ruthless. Just as well Gylippus is CN really; what's everyone else's excuse...?

 

[Brakkart]

DM's Log of Session Six

Whilst the party paused and bickered for a minute on which door to try next, Noob joined them from the bottom of the stairs, as Elena took charge of guarding the escape route, and he immediately set about picking the lock, failing three times before Gylippus pointed out that searching for traps might be a handy idea. Stepping aside, Noob yielded the lock to his companion who promptly found and activated the trap, activating a mechanised wall scythe that sprang out and sliced the pair of them badly.

Fed up of this delay, Jebodiah expediated matters by putting his foot through the door, followed by the rest of him... straight into a volley of magic and missiles as arrows and spells slammed into the dwarf. Grimacing, he and the rest of the group gathered in the corridor outside looked into what could only be a temple to Sseth. A large square room draped with hangings adorned with snake motifs. With no windows, the chamber was lit by numerous oil burning braziers mounted on the walls. Facing them were a pair of soldiers and a thug of the type they had battled before. However, the temple had a mezzanine level at the rear, over the altar, reached by a set of stairs at the side, and standing up there was an archer and a half-plate clad guard, as well as the richly robed form of Janesh Broca himself.

Wasting no time in their assault, the group poured into the room, led by Ki and Jebodiah, the pair launching themselves into the unfortunate thug first, the man hardly having time to lay a blow before being brutally hacked down by a multitude of blows, as he was surrounded with Gylippus joining in the fray also. From the shattered doorway, Aeron grinned and engaged into a duel of sorts with Broca, each seeking to outdo the other. Whilst Janesh was able to haste his archer bodyguard, the benefit was delayed by an electric loop dropped on him and the archer both.

The guard stayed blocking the top of the stairs, using his bow to keep Aeron pinned down, and Broca drew a wand, and launched a fear effect at Gylippus, it taking hold of his mind and causing him to panic and flee the room. Seeing their attackers reduced in number, the soldiers advanced on Jeb and Ki, as Noob began a duel of his own, trading arrows with the now recovered archer, at least until he too was sent scurrying for the doorway by an enervation spell which drained away much of his ability.

The soldiers, though they fought well, were really no match for the monk and barbarian though, and were soon dispatched, though not before Ki had sustained grevious wounds from a sword blow and a shower of magic missiles from Broca's second wand. Outside in the corridor, Gylippus fled past Aeron and down the stairs, passing Elena also, who headed up to see what was going on, while the rogue huddled in a corner and whimpered at terrors unseen to any but him. Momentarily distracted, Aeron was shot twice by the archer and collapsed in the doorway bleeding profusely.

Jebodiah then hurled himself up the staircase, snarling in battle rage as arrows and magic missiles alike slammed into him, and he threw himself into combat with the guard, shoving to try and get past him. Ki used an altogether nimbler approach and artfully dodged and rolled past the brute in half-plate to flank him, only to get viciously slashed by the archer who waded into melee to aid the guard. Deciding that survival was of the utmost concern, the monk duly ducked and rolled back past the guard, down the stairs and ran for the doorway, a badly wounded Noob following suit, as downstairs Gylippus snapped out of his fear induced trance and ran back towards the fight.

Alone in the temple, Jebodiah gritted his teeth and battled on, felling the guard and advancing to stand over his corpse to take on the archer in melee. Noob dragged Aeron out of the doorway, and then quaffed a potion. Leaving Aeron to the care of Elena, Noob drew his dagger and headed back into the room, shaming Ki into doing the same, neither willing to let the dwarf die alone. They were joined by Gylippus who ran in with them and the trio headed up the stairs even as Jebodiah slew the archer. Seeing his guards slain and his foes closing in on him, something snapped in Broca and fixing his claw bracer to one arm, he charged into Jeb, slashing at him and viciously wounding him, dropping the dwarf into a pool of blood, even as he was cut down by the remainder of the group as they surrounded him.

In the corridor Elena used the last of her magics to barely restore Aeron to the land of the living, while Noob poured a couple potions down Jeb's throat to bring the dwarf back from the brink of death. The group then set about looting the bodies of the slain cultists, finding a set of keys on Broca, that on testing, were found to unlock the drawer in the downstairs office without tripping the alarm. Grabbing a ledger and the letter stashed in the drawer, the group headed out into the streets, back towards their Inn.

DM's Notes:

Well that fight took a little longer than expected, using up the entire gaming session pretty much. Still the experience gained for the past couple weeks means the entire party are now 4th level (with some nearing 5th), and so they are roughly about where I want them level-wise for chapter 2 of the campaign (this raid was the end of chapter one). Next weeks session should be a lot less combat-intensive, and give the players more time to actually play their characters as oppossed to simply using their stats.

As you might notice, neither Zamtap or Elena really make any contribution this week, as Gareth and Dan were not present for the session, both having let me know this in advance thankfully. This made the fight very touch and go at some points, even after I reduced the amount of bad guys (removing the priest that would have been there also).

 

[Brakkart]

Player Handout

This is the letter that the party found in the alarmed drawer. Again I used the Script font for presentation when printing it out:

Broca Coster
13 Balduran Avenue
Baldur's Gate

To Janesh Broca
Concerning the shipments to my laboratory at Wolfhill House, cease them at once. I have succeeded in completing phase one of our great enterprise, the results have been sent on to Serpentes via teleportation. Redirect your efforts at securing needed supplies towards Hlondeth. D will have need of as much fluid and the other ingredients as you can procure.

I have not as yet packed up my laboratory, as I believe there are still advances and discoveries to be made in my research. Since I have scaled back (pardon the pun!), the scope of my research, I will no longer require such large quantities of goods, and my needs can be easily met by our agents in Waterdeep.

Esau Enoch
2nd Eleint 1372DR

 

[Brakkart]

Zamtap's History

Zamtap –born 19th Ches the year of the Behir on Lantan

Born the third son (of 5 children) to a craftsman, his parents were and are a craftsman and his wife, at home working in metal weather it be for simple amour, weapons or just decoration. The family worshiped at the main temple to Gond in the city, and Zamtap learned some of his father’s trade. His elder brothers did also and it seems the larger family business already of several generations (and thus lots of cousins and the like) may grow, His siblings are all married with children and so the family line is secure so he feels no sense of having to continue the family line, and thus has thrown himself into his work. Keeping in contact is only feasible through passing messages at the gatherings of Gond’s worshippers. The messages must travel via portal to Lantan. His father is still working and running the shop, and the family has pulled together.

The wider family has held a grudge against the shadow thieves since they forced the family (in the form of two Zamtap’s uncles and their young wives) out of Athkatla. It is unclear to the family why the thieves chose to drive them back to Lantan. The grand old man of the family a priest of Gond (the grand uncle of Zamtap’s father, who died of a heart attack shortly after Gond’s departure) determined via divination that the shadow thieves were in charge of the group demanding “protection”, a new concept to the foreign craftsmen and women. Fortunately the thieves didn’t fix the doors shut but felt they had made their point to the other upstanding businesses.

In the year of Shadows when he was 16 and coming up to chose his path in life, Gond came to live in the temple for a while. The presence of his god fired the young man to pursue the priesthood. He was accepted into the priesthood after the deity was restored to the heavens. He was allowed to study the scriptures of Gond and train him in craftsmanship at the High Holy Crafthouse of inspiration in memory of his great-grand-uncle. There he met many Techsmiths, and their Gondsmen. This became his goal to gain enough knowledge and experience to become one of these Techsmiths. He tends to have a delight for one of the wonder bringers gifts – smoke powder and would like to create it but hasn’t had the alchemical training to enable this. He carries a pistol which he relies on the gifts of Gond to use.

Eventually earlier this year he was deemed to be good enough to be a traveling priest of Gond to gather knowledge wherever it lies, uncovering it by experimentation if necessary, but his brief is a watching and listening one. The balanced nature of the priesthood of Gond (as magic and technology are merely two ways to get things done), means he has been trained to keep on his feet mentally, and use both with equal ease. He has also been trained to use a hammer for more than metal working, and to use the defensive equipment that may come his way.

In the quiet of Ches, he left the island on a galleon, on this he was asked to heal one of the mercenaries on board. While talking with Zamtap the soldier of fortune suggested that if Zamtap wanted to travel he may as well be paid for it, thus he should get a job as a guard. After seeing how his funds were disappearing he asked if the man could pass a recommendation to potential employers. The mercenary duly passed on the recommendation, and Zamtap was hired in Calimport and due to the nature of being a caravan guard he has traveled but so far but only on the trade way, and only with small caravans. He has not the experience and reputation yet to get the bigger cross continent protection jobs and would like to see Tantras where two gods destroyed each other, and he has started to hear things about survivors of ancient Netheril being back with a flying city. In Athkatla, Zamtap signed on with 5 others as extra protection for a caravan belonging to guild merchants. They had their own guards but some rumor had them worried.

 

[Brakkart]

DM's Log of Session Seven

Making their way back to the Inn, the party found it locked to them at 2am, and so snuck into the stables attached to it and crashed in a couple of empty stalls. Zamtap meanwhile concluded his part in a ceremony designed to dedicate a new mechanical clock intended for the cities main marketplace, and was offered a cloister room to spend the night in. Accepting, he gratefully slipped into the oblivion of sleep.

Everyone was woken only a few hours later, Zamtap for morning prayers, the others by the stableboy bursting in on them, and then promptly making his excuses seeing the amount of blood most of the group were covered in. They made use of the horse trough and scrubbing brushes to clean the worst of it off themselves, and gathered their things from their rooms, setting out then into the city. Noob and Gylippus went off to sell the various loot they had gathered during the night, Elena headed to the temples to buy a supply of potions, whilst Aeron, Ki and Jebodiah made a beeline for Buckman's store, to report their success to him.

Zamtap declined an offer to take part in any more of the dedication festival, as several more inventions were to be commended in the days that followed, saying that he had stayed in one place long enough and that as a travelling priest he should really be off to see more of the world. With the well wishes of the temple ringing in his ears, he headed back to the Blushing Mermaid to meet with the others (making only a short stop at the Temple of Mystra on the way to purchase a healing wand), only to find upon arrival that they had already left. After a quick conversation with the stableboy, he gathered that at least some of them had gone to talk to Buckman and he decided to head there also in the hope of catching up to them, somewhat alarmed by the boy's graphic description of how bloodied his comrades were.

Reaching Buckman's store as it was opening, the wizard, monk and barbarian were shown inside and up to their eastwhile employers office, whereupon they explained their activities of the previous evening and handed over the letter that they had recovered from Broca House. Buckman grew increasingly pale as they related the massacre of the cultists, and he dropped a bag of coins onto his desk, telling them it was payment for sorting out the theieves who had plagued his business. He then re-read the letter and growled, seeing the part about Waterdeep, and he asked the group where they were headed. Aeron replied that he did not know about the others, but that Waterdeep was his home and he intended to follow this trail to there.

Glad to hear it, Buckman asked the others to go and continue what they had started, he not wishing to start losing supplies from his Waterdeep store to fuel the Yuan-ti's plans. At that Zamtap arrived at the store and was sent upstairs to meet with the others, who brought him up to speed on what had transpired in his absence, along with some earnest pleas from Jebodiah for healing which the cleric duly granted, patching up the dwarf to the best of his ability.

Buckman being well connected informed the group that he had little fear of reprisals for the slaughter from the Flaming Fist, as afterall most of the wizards in the city he knew by first name, and wizards commanded much power and respect as many served in the citys defence force. He also told the group about Esau Enoch, a man wanted in most of the cities along the Sword Coast for unspeakable crimes as he fancied himself a scientist. Authorities had on numerous occassions discovered his grisly laboratories, but never the man himself.

Too he told them that Wolfhill House was a well known ruin, located in the Mere of Dead Men north of Waterdeep, and that it was supposedly haunted.

With that additional knowledge to ponder, the group bade him goodbye and they set out for Kelvin's Thorp, meeting Elena, Noob and Gylippus enroute to Kelvin's Thorp, the lady pirate complaining the whole way that they should have taken a ship. Reaching the village at just past nightfall, they opted for the first tavern they came too and staggered into The Greasy Ferret, each of them slapping down 1 silver for a bed in one of the two large bunkhouses and heading straight to bed. Well all apart from Zamtap, who made sure he had a few beers first.

Woken early the next morning by a bell clanging as one of the caravan masters awoke his men for an early start on the road, the group groaned and made their way into the tavern for breakfast, only to be informed that the tavern didn't serve it, as the vast bulk of their customers were from caravans that usually had a cook waggon with them. Muttering curses, the group split up with several of them knocking on villagers doors and offering them coin to join them for breakfast. Elena and Jebodiah had a different idea, and they joined the queue for cooked breakfast at a cook waggon and getting themselves a free breakfast of bacon and eggs as the cook had not yet had the time to memorise who was in his caravan, it only having left Baldur's Gate yesterday.

Walking over and joining them, Zamtap put forth the idea of hiring on with the caravan as guards and before the others really had time to discuss this he headed to the caravan master, a big man who having already donned his half-plate was pulling on a tabard... a yellow and black tabard, bearing a familiar looking Z insignia. Immediately wary, Zamtap succeeded only in annoying the man, before heading back to the others. He did not drop the idea of signing up with the caravan though,but Aeron was having none of it, and the rest of the group breathed a collective sigh of relief as the caravan moved on out of the village, leaving them behind.

At that, Noob decided to buy a horse, and the others, all flush with coin from the monies that Noob and Gylippus had divided out, followed suit. Heading to the large stables, each purchased a suitable mount, saddle and tack and as a group they set off, soon passing the Zhent traders and heading towards Waterdeep, many days ride away.

After four days of easy travel, things got more complicated a few hours after passing the spur in the road that led east towards Scornubel. A thundering noise approaching the road from the east alerted them, and the group spurred their mounts to a gallop, intending to outrace whatever it was that as yet remained unseen by the crest of a ridge. Unfortunately, while they were able to stay on a moving horse, neither Ki or Zamtap possessed any real skill at horsemanship and their mounts steadfastly refused to speed up. Just then the source of the noise burst over the crest, a large pack of scaled draconic centaurs, led by a brute with a battleaxe who upon seeing the group snarled out "Thats the ones we are looking for, kill them all!!". With that the Dracotaurs roared and thundered down the slope towards the two groups.

With no time to waste, the groups dismounted and sent their mounts packing, as they took up defensive positions, those that had ridden ahead racing to try and make it back to the stragglers before the Dracotaurs reached them and overwhelmed them. Taking it upon himself to draw the attention of the uncoming creatures, Jebodiah snarled and ran straight for them. As Gylippus and Noob drew the attention of a couple of the approaching beasts on one flank, so the other six , including the chieftain charged into the others, the chief giving into his battle rage as he slammed into the dwarf, battleaxe tearing a gaping wound in the small barbarian. With two Dracotaurs bearing down on her, Elena grinned as Aeron empowered her with a bulls strength and she leapt at her opponents, dancing amongst them, their attacks meeting thin air again and again, as her cutlass slashed here and there, swashbuckling at it's finest.

As Ki and Jeb battled without much success, one of the creatures that had been been going for Noob and Gylippus, spotted Aeron spellcasting and ran around the outside of the battle to get at him. Seeing the creature thunder towards him, the air genasi grinned and sailed skywards, his natural ability to levitate serving him well and putting him beyond the creatures reach... or so he thought until a ball of fire was spat up at him, narrowly missing him, even as he shouted out "They can breathe fire!!" to warn the others of the new development.

Gylippus and Noob meanwhile were fighting a guerilla style battle away from the others, having drawn off one Dracotaur from the pack, harrying the creature with arrows, making use of some trees to keep it from charging them. Proving successful they soon felled the creature and moved to help out the others, even as Elena's luck finally ran out and after felling one of the Dracotaurs that she was battling, the second landed a series of blows on her. Still, she remained standing and with a nimble step, moved in and finished off her second opponent.

Aeron had been only momentarily distracted by the Dracotaur underneath him hurling a spear up and through his left leg, and he gritted his teeth as he dropped Gedlee's electric loops onto his foes, stunning them. With his opponent finally vulnerable, Ki eviscerated one Dracotaur, freeing himself and Zamtap to rush to the aid of Jeb, who was standing fuelled solely by sheer force of anger by now. As Ki drew the attention of the chieftain, the cleric did his best to patch up the dwarf, even as the remaining Dracotaurs encircled them. Things looked bleak for the trio, as their companions raced to reach them, in time...

DM's Notes:

I had wanted to use Dracotaurs ever since seeing the preview of MM3 on Wizard's website. I figured they would work great in this campaign as cavalry mercenaries of the Yuan-ti (wishing to keep with a scaled theme). Plus they look mean as hell, as evidenced by the players comments when showed a picture of what it was that was closing in on them!

The party are now into Chapter Two, en route to Waterdeep and thence to Wolfhill House. I owe a debt to Jason Kuhl for this stage of the campaign, as much of it is adapted from his adventure "Slave Vats of the Yuan-ti" in Dungeon issue 69. The whole party was there this week, and thus I felt justified in throwing a bigger battle their way, if only to foreshadow that as tough as Broca House was to take down, they have really only begun to face the scope of the threat they are up against. and I got to include a brief encounter with some of my favourite bad guys, the Zhents, who will probably turn up again at some point. They are too good as villains to leave on the sidelines.

We are taking a break for a week, as next weekend is Gen Con UK, and many of us will be attending that instead.

 

[Brakkart]

Apology

Sorry for not updating this story hour in the past week. We had a session last friday and then I promptly went and lost my notes as to who did what to whom and when. Which made writing up an account of the session understandably somewhat problematic. However, after talking this over with Dan at work today I believe I have the rough outline of events worked out, so I will attempt to write up last week and tonights session logs and get them on this thread in the next day or so.

I'll also be sure to keep a better track of my notes in future, so that my few readers will not be denied their weekly update of scaly-related shenanigans.

 

[Brakkart]

DM's Log of Session Eight

...As one, several of the Dracotaurs breathed fire, bathing those between them in the inferno, as apparently even reptilian centaurs like their meals to be cooked. Not waiting around for another dose of the same, Ki darted out through the legs of one and nimbly made his way around to the chieftains rear, but his blade met with tough scales, barely making a scratch. From on high, Aeron drew one of the wands that the group had taken from Broca's corpse and rained magic missiles down on two of the beasts, feeling one that was already greviously injured.

Zamtap then snapped out of the stunned trnace he had been in, having succumbed to the deafening effect of one of his spells, and imediately placed hands on Jebodiahs back, bolstering him with as much healing energy as he could muster. Newly, invigorated the dwarf snarled and threw everything into one collossal blow, slamming his axe down into the chieftain, blood and scales hewn apart in the blades ruinous passage, but to his utter astonishment, the chieftain remained standing, albeit barely. vowing revenge, the chieftain returned the blow in kind, hacking the barbarian down, the lifeforce leaving Jebodiahs ruined body.

The sight of the dwarf dying seemed to galvanise the others, Elena charging in and cutting another of the lumbering beasts down with the aid of Gylippus, and Aeron blasted the chieftain, finally dropping him. At this the last of the Dracotaurs morale finally broke and he ran for the hills, only for a vengeful Noob to shoot arrows at his back, Zamtam fired off a pistol shot but the bullet ricocheted off the creatures hide, and then Aeron brought it down with another use of the magic missile wand.

As Noob set about looting the bodies of the Dracotaurs, so Elena and Zamtap both tried to revive Jebodiah, but to no avail. Over the splitting up of the meagre wealth their ambushers had been carrying, the party decided to backtrack a few hours to the village of Talbott, whixh they had passed through earlier in the day, as there was a small temple to Lathander there, in the hope of getting their fearless comrade returned to life. Tying what was left of the dwarf over the back of his pony, the party set off back the way they came.

Arriving back in the village, the group carried Jebodiahs corpse to The Morning's Glory, a small chapel dedicated to the Morninglord, and the only religious building in the village. After a lengthy discussion about what the group wanted, whether the dwarfs soul would be ameanable to returning to life, and how the group were going to pay for such a deed to be done, it was agree that in exchange for the ceremony of raise dead to be performed, a tithe of 700 gold pieces was to be paid (which was promptly handed over), and a task must be done by the party.

The task set to them however, caught more than a couple by surprise. They were to slay a small red dragon, which had only recently arrived in the area. Brother Geven of Lathander wanted the creature destroyed before it began preying on the villagers, outlying farms and livestock. A local ranger by the name of Soren knew the location of the creatures lair and was willing to take the group to it. After a fair bit of discussion amongst themselves, the group finally agreed to the priests terms and were told that he would restore life to the dwarf in the morning.

The party paid for room and board at The Wizards Alm's, the only Inn in the village of Talbott. Over a few drinks and an evening meal they learned that the village was named for the reclusive wizard whose tower soared above every other building in the settlement. It turns out that the wizard did not so much found the village, as merely built his tower and other people started to settle around it, as they figured that it was likely to be safer in the shadow of a mages tower than simply building their house just anywhere. Over the past fifty years the settlement had grown to more than two dozen buildings, yet the mage himself was rarely seen, but apparently somewhat amused at the village that bears his name.

The morning of Marpenoth 4th, saw the group return to the temple to witness the calling back of Jebodiah's spirit from the Fugue Plane. The party welcomed him back from beyond the pale, and helped the still severely injured dwarf back to the Inn, where upon Zamtap and Elena used a good potion of their magics to restore him to health. Deciding to wait until tomorrow to go battle the dragon, so that all can have full magics, Aeron spent the day summoning a familiar, gaining himself one of the village cats as a companion. Gylippus meanwhile, spent the day in casting an identify spell to determine the properties of a wand the group recovered from the Dracotaurs, finding out that it can cast Summon Monster II.

It was on Marpenoth 5th that the party strapped on armour, readied their spells, said their prayers and rode off in the company of Soren early in the morning to beard the dragon in its den. After a half hours ride, the ranger led them to a small cave in the side of a hill, mounds of earth and rocks piled up messily in front of the opening, proof of recent and ongoing excavations. Leaving the ranger with their horses, the party cast a few spells amongst themselves and advanced into the tunnel that led into the interior of the hill.

Making their way steadily along the twisting tunnel, they spotted a side spur and Gylippus departed down it to investigate. Not waiting for his return, Zamtap pushed ahead of the group to where the tunnel opened out into a vast cavern, and Jebodiah advanced further ahead of the others still, out into the open of the cave and there he saw it, down the far end of the cavern, a large red scaled beast nestled atop a pile of treasure... a thunderous voice boomed out from that end of the cavern:

"NONE MAY ENTER THE LAIR OF SULPHACITEZUS. DROP EVERYTHING YOU OWN AND RUN, AND PERHAPS I WILL SPARE YOUR WORTHLESS LIVES!!"

On hearing this, Jebodiah backed up a couple steps, around the corner and out of direct sight of the dragon. Just a shame he had not seen the halfling crouched behind the big rock nearby, who promptly stepped out, eyeing both the dwarf and the priest of Gond, grinned and doffed his hat to them, breaking the illusion granted by it, as the dragon roared a cone of flame over the pair of them. Caught totally by surprise, neither was able to dodge the searing flames, and while Jebodiah remained standing, he was greviously burned. Zamtap collapsed to the ground from his wounds.

Growling obscenities, Jebodiah charged the grinning dragon, his axe though doing really very little to it, as he discovered that Dracotaurs and Dragons are indeed two very different beasts. Noob advanced steadily down the tunnel, he had been trailing the party and moving slowly, staying against one wall and being all but invisible. Elena darted forwards and ran to the far side of the rock pillar that the dragon was behind, inching her way around towards the beasts rear, while Gylippus and Ki headed towards its front, hoping to do away with Sulphacitezus before he got an opportunity to breathe fire again. Aeron dragged Zamtap out of sight down the corridor and forced a healing potion down his neck, and then headed back to the fray. Restored to consciousness the Gondsman wasted no time in healing himself, staying well down the tunnel away from the battle for the moment.

Annoyed at the sheer number of foes it faced, the dragon took steps to whittle down the group, and teeth, claws, wings and tail descended in a furious flurry of attacks on Jebodiah, the dwarf succumbing to massive wounds and for the second time in a tenday, his spirit departed his flesh for the afterlife. Elena darted around behind the dragon, even as Ki and Gylippus both reached the front of it, giving the beast many foes to have to deal with, and catching it in a pincer. Sadly while the group were more than able to hit the beast, few of their strikes really seemed to do much to it. At that point, Aeron grinned and dropped a Gedlee's Electric Loop on the creature, amazing even himself when he stunned it, and Noob reached the cavern, bow in hand, and he began pumping arrows into the young wyrm's neck.

A vicious tail slap smashed Elena to the ground, and rakes of its claws and teeth tore into the monk and rogue before it, but they remained standing, even as their weapons found their mark, ripping great rents in the beasts hide, Aeron adding a blast of magic missiles in for good measure as Noob continued to remain unseen, shooting from the nearby shadows. Zamtap even arrived back and blasted a shot from his pistol at the creature, but with no effect. Roaring in pain and anger, Sulphacitezus could yet feel his health beginning to wane, and he acted in haste, moving back over the prone form of Elena, inhaling as he went in order to send a second cone of fire at the group. Not about to let that happen, both Ki and Gylippus leapt at the beast as it tried to withdraw and their twin strikes brought the crimson terror crashing to the ground.

The euphoria of victory, tainted by the death of Jebodiah, the party conferred and decided to try their luck in asking for a second raise dead, having accomplished what by any standards was a remarkable feat. Gathering up the small hoard of gold, art and magic items from under the illusionary red dragon that had fooled Jebodiah, the party packed their saddlebags full and rode back towards the village, returning only three hours after they had left, noon not having yet arrived, the dwarves pony once more bearing its masters corpse to the temple, as well as the head of the dragon!

On seeing the severed head of the beast, Brother Geven was overjoyed and immediately agreed to call Jebodiah back from the dead the next morning, for no additional fee. He simply glad to see that the village would not suffer the depredations of such an evil creature. The group wearily retired to The Wizard's Alms to sink a few cold beers for the rest of the day!

DM's Notes:

Well thats a first for me, killing the same character twice in the same session! I had created Talbott intending to have the players stay there and have the dragon attack the village and draw them into going to find and slay the beast that way, but I think this actually turned out better, and was a stronger motivation for them to do battle with Sulphacitezus. I'll just have to stage a draconic night attack on a village/town some other time. Amongst the treasure recovered by the group is a nice dwarven waraxe named Stormcleaver, that I placed for Jebodiah as if he is going to go charging everything that comes along, he might as well come into a weapon that will give him a slightly better chance of felling whatever beast it is. I didn't count on him dying again though, so at present Noob is carrying it.

 

[Brakkart]

DM's Log of Session Nine

Dawn came to Marpenoth 6th and with it the power of the Morninglord flowed through the ruins of Jebodiah's body, mending broken bones and rendering the corpse fit for his soul to once more inhabit. Waking on the altar again, he was greeted by Elena who thanked Brother Geven and helped her comrade through the village to the Inn, whereupon she used her wand to restore him to full health, Zamtap looking on but not offering any healing himself.

The group decided to set off back on the trail the next day, several of them nursing hangovers anyway from the drinking session the night before. Taking the opportunity to study Broca's spellbook, Aeron takes the day to copy Protection from Normal Arrows into his own spellbook from that tome. Meanwhile downstairs, the Innkeeper announces that he will be sending the dragons head to Baldur's Gate to get it properly stuffed and mounted and wanted to know the groups name so that he might have it put on a plaque under the head, commerating the heroes victory.

This immediately produced a lengthy argument, as Gylippus was insistant that the group did not need, or indeed want a collective name, as such an appelation would make them easier to locate. coming down for dinner in the midst of his scribing, Aeron weighed in that he liked the name "Serpent Guard" for the group, but his suggestion met with no approval from the others, and he took his meal back up to his room to carry on writing in his spellbook. When the debate finally subsided, it had been decided, not to decide on a name for themselves. Thus was The Party With No Name born!

On Marpenoth 7th, the group saddled their horses, made their goodbyes and rode northwards out of Talbott, once more bound for Waterdeep. The next few days passed uneventfully, with no notable encounters, save for a slight slowing of the pace as they rode along a stretch of the trail where they could see the ruins of Dragonspear Castle from. On Marpenoth 10th the party rode into Daggerford and made their way to the Daggerford Inn. Deciding on spending some of the money they had gained of late, they booked rooms for three days, checked their bags in, and then the group promptly split up and headed to the various stores, all except for Aeron who stayed in his room, having bought plenty of special inks and such back in Baldur's Gate, and decided to add the spells Ray of Enfeeblement and Alter Self to his growing repertoire.

Gylippus, found his way to Oleg's Weaponforge and after some inquiry, handed over the gold to have his rapier enhanced with magic, the half-orc smith getting right to work on it, letting him know that it would be ready to collect in a couple days time, he not getting much in the way of business. Zamtap however, went to a rival smithy, the famed Derval's Bright Blade where he stumped over the funds to buy himself superior quality breastplate, a large shield and a new warhammer. Elena visited several temples, and purchased herself some new potions, while Noob, Ki and Jebodiah kept the barmaid in the Inn busy, ferrying drinks to their table! In the couple days that followed, Gylippus also purchased some inks and set about adding Ray of Enfeeblement to his own spellbook, scribing it across from Janesh Broca's.

On Marpenoth 13th the party bade farewell to Daggerford, rested and re-equipped and spent an unpleasant day riding past the stinking mounds of the Rat Hills, the massive refuse tip of Waterdeep. Making camp for the night beside the Trade Way, they decided to enter Waterdeep in two seperate groups, several hours apart, not knowing whether word of the massacre at Broca House in Baldur's Gate would have reached the City of Splendors as yet, and not wanting to take any chances. They agreed to meet at noon at The Yawning Portal on the 15th, as that was a tavern where adventurers were the norm, and they could easily blend into the crowd.

The 14th of Marpenoth dawned and at noon Zamtap, Jebodiah and Aeron were the first to approach the Gate of the South, one of the many huge fortified entrances to the great northern metropolis. thinking it a good idea to disguise his air genasi heritage, Aeron cast an Alter Self on himself. The trio passed easily into the city, handing over the gate toll on the way in, and they made their way to the Safehaven Inn on Slop Street, taking rooms there, it being a fairly low key place to stay. They resolved to wait there until the next day, much to the dwarfs aproval, as the place served really quite good ale.

Towards late evening, Gylippus, Elena, Ki and Noob approached the same gate, with Gylippus also in disguise and following Elena's lead they made their way into Dock Ward, and took up residence at The Sharkman's Revenge, a new tavern named after the assault the sahuagin had launched on the city in 1369DR, it being late at night when they get there, they head straight to their rooms for rest.

Having agreed to meet at noon on Marpenoth 15th, the party made their way through the streets towards the tavern, apart from Elena and Jebodiah, who each made a significant detour. Elena headed to the Harbourmasters offices on the dockfront, and inquired into whether her old ship the Fardale had been in port recently. To her surprise, the clerk went and fetched a book on known pirate vessels and she suddenly found herself under scrutiny, only narrowly managing to bluff her way out of a prolonged stretch in the cells, giving a false identity in the process.

Jebodiah meanwhile after a few inquirys found his way to the small temple to Clangeddin Silverbeard and paid his respects to the Dwarven Lord of Battles, donating a thousand gold pieces to the shrine to the amazement and appreciation of Brant the very old warpriest who tended the shrine. Receiving a couple potions of healing "to help keep you on your feet lad" after telling of his recent double brush with death, Jebodiah headed on his way to the Yawning Portal, meeting the others already gathered there and sitting down at a corner table to discuss what they should do next.

Aeron put forward the idea of heading to a temple of Oghma to see if they could research the couple leads they had, and Zamtap and Gylippus agreed to go with him, the other electing to stay put and drink beer. On the way to the temple, Gylippus vanished, and went off to wander about the city for a while.

Reaching The Font of Knowledge, the remaining pair headed inside and contacted a Binder, handing over funds for a search and copies to be made of anything that would turn up. They were immediately in luck with regards to their questions about Wolfhill House, the priest of Oghma finding them an old journal recovered from the house by an adventuring group who had visited there a few years ago. Though heavily damaged by water, a few of Hezekiel Wolf's entries were still legible and the priest and wizard pondered over the meaning of the things written by the long dead builder of the house. they also paid for a map to the house, as well as inquiry into Serpentes, as they had no real idea what or where it was, other than both of them were certain it was a place somewhere, that was in some way connected with the Yuan-ti. They were told to come back in a few days time.

The pair made their way back to the Yawning Portal, Gylippus arriving a short time later and related what they had found to the party, telling the others of the strange growth effect that seemed to blight the house, Aeron muttering about cursed wild magic areas being a stain on the Weave all the while.

DM's Notes:

A session without a single combat encounter, a first for this campaign. The party are now in Waterdeep, and pursuing inquiries prior to setting out for Wolfhill House itself, so Chapter Two of the campaign is well under way. Also Matt gave me his characters background to post, so the experience points from that will go a long way towards him regaining the couple levels he lost.