NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 4722899" data-attributes="member: 99">Ok so let me see if I can catch up before our session tomorrow...First, as I think I've mentioned before, I try and take care of a lot of the expositional stuff between sessions by e-mail or in our ENW group.  This helps set up the action in the session with minimal delays.  Not to say that we try and minimize the roleplaying.  Just take care of some of the minor stuff outside the session.I failed to manage any of that before last session.  Very busy work week, cut short by me driving up to DC for the (awesome) DC Game Day.  Then I had my daughter all day on Monday so I didn't get any of that stuff out of the way.  Hardly the end of the world but I knew it would take a bit of a toll on the pacing.Anyway, things led off with a meeting with Zhomkar.  Turns out that Zhomkar is persona non grata in Opkhar now because his "diversion" took the lives of a couple of the royal guards that he was trying to draw away to let Zanne inside the New Palace to warn the king about the changeling.  As a result Zhomkar asked the PC's to introduce him to Tornear because he wanted the goblin airship captain to give him a lift back to Semma.  Zhomkar reasoned that, if the real Lord Harrix was killed in Semma and the "gift" substituted for the Lamia then the gift must have been stashed in Semma somewhere.  He intended to go find it if possible.  In any event he wanted to carry word of recent events back to Vond.The PC's made the introduction and Zhomkar in turn paid Harrix's remaining debt to Tornear.  He also copied down a few rituals to give to Mialain and gave the PC's some money and told them to buy themselves some decent clothes because they'd gotten a summons to come before King Klo at the New Palace.  The PC's did this, their old clothes having become quite worn in their various adventures.King Klo received them warmly and thanked them in front of the court, giving them each a gift of a magic item.  Astavian got a Horned Helm, Zanne got some Catstep Boots, Eshik got a Belt of Vigor and Mialain got an Amulet of Health (modified version that protects vs. Mist rather than Poison).  Afterwards there was a private reception at which the PC's noticed the gryphon-riding Black Moon guy they had fought on the bridge and learned that his name was Rhazul.  The didn't see what precipitated it but the did see him leave in a bit of a hurry.  Astavian badly failed a diplomacy check to inquire about Rhazul's possible connection to the Black Moon and came just short of offending the king.  The PC's were invited to stay in the New Palace for as long as they were in Opkhar.That brought up the notion of how long they DID want to stay in Opkhar.  It was generally agreed that they wanted to go back to try and confront "Blackbreather" the dragon they had fought.  Also of interest was the purple, metallic powder they'd found in the Black Moon outpost.  Zhomkar had told them that their best bet for an answer on that would be the Dwarves of Karak Tor to the east.  But in order to get to either of those locations they would need aerial transport.  Tornear would be their best option for that as he already knew how to get to the dragon plateau.  But Tornear was tied up for the moment hoping to profit by helping ferry goods back and forth to Semma since the bridge was out.  So they had a bit of time to kill.A course of action suggested itself in the form of the High Priest of the Dweller, the state religion of Opkhar.  He came to Mialain and asked her about the glass book she carried that glowed so brightly sometimes.  There was a place in the nearby coal mines that had been discovered long ago that came to be known as "The Maw of the Dweller".  It was a tunnel that led deeper into the plateau but none who had ever ventured there had returned to tell the tale.  But their holy book said that "only those who walk in the light of the sun will be spared" or something like that (the exact translation was a bit unclear).  Turned out that some of the coal miners had gone missing in that part of the mines recently and now all of the coal miners were effectively "on strike", fearing to venture into the mines.  King Klo finally ordered some of his royal guards into the mines to discover what was causing the miners to disappear.  They had not returned either.  The PC's offered to go in and check things out.They were given directions and found a pulley lift that could lower them down into the shaft that was clearly labelled significantly in words the PC's couldn't understand.  Down they went.  The bottom was not only dark but...wrong somehow.  A feeling similar to that inside the desecrated Temple of Pelor lingered there.  This malignance began to settle into the PC's as soon as they got there.  Mialain drew out the Book of Glass and it glowed as bright as the sun, banishing the darkness and evil.  They found a dirty stream flowing with sludgy water full of coal dust.  Following it they discovered an underground lake.Eshik spotted something in the water that turned out to be an iron ring with a chain extending from it.  But before he could fully examine it a cold hand shot from the water to grab him on the wrist.  Zombies began to emerge from the lake in a wide arc and the battle was joined.  They came wave after wave and, during the fight, a pair of bounding ghouls moved in to flank them.  When the dust settled they had destroyed over a dozen of the zombies and sent the ghouls fleeing.But something grabbed Zanne's attention about the ghouls.  They seemed familiar somehow and she finally made the connection that they were the same pair of male slaves they had rescued from the dragon plateau.  Last the party knew those men had planned to get jobs working in the coal mines.  They followed where the ghouls had fled and discovered a cave some 30 feet off the floor.  Yelling from below they managed to coax one of them to the cave entrance.  All it would say was "The taste.  Once you taste that taste..."And that's where we wrapped up the session last week.From a mechanics standpoint there isn't a whole lot to comment on this session except to say that 4e REALLY supports my typical encounter design style, which could best be described as "throw the PC's in over their head, certain that they will figure out a way to overcome terrible odds".  I threw 14 level 2 zombies and 2 level 5 ghouls at a party of 4 3rd level PC's.  And they did fine!  Nobody even used a Second Wind!  I was impressed.More exploration of these caves coming up this week.</blockquote>

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