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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 4779649" data-attributes="member: 99">So...The party began their journey to the north toward Old Karak Tor.  The tricky part of this was the fact that Old Karak Tor lies along the western side of the plateau of Hluroth.  Hluroth had been an independant kingdom until just a few years ago when the elderly king died and the reign passed to his son.  The new king abdicated within a year and the kingdom became part of the expanding Arcanon Confederacy, a growing magocracy to the east.Part of the way that the Arcanon Confederacy held power was by regulating trade using its series of Linked Portals to instantly transport goods and people from place to place.  To maintain this monopoly they banned incoming traffic via airship without special permits.  The spire of Karak Tor adjoins the Hluroth plateau but had traditionally not been considered part of the Kingdom of Hluroth proper.  However the Arcanon Confederacy has been making overtures to the dwarves in terms of annexation (which the dwarves have roundly refused) and are clearly chafing at the fact that the dwarves allow trade via airship of goods that trickle into Hluroth.  Thus, the Arcanon Confederacy keeps a close watch on those entering and leaving the country via the dwarven spire.The group crossed the border into Hluroth on a road flanked by a pair of distant but imposing guard towers and felt themselves being watched.  They continued on to the nearest town and spent the night at an inn.  The innkeeper regarded them suspiciously and asked their business.  He was told that they were bound to a distant city to the north and were looking for Mialain's missing brother (which they are, just not at that destination).They continued to be looked askance at along their journey, probably due to the pair of dragonborn who were not common in the area.  In the next town they were directly approached by what looked to be a wizard who identified himself as "a Guildmaster".  He had with him a bodyguard of several bugbears who looked menacing and he insisted upon asking them a number of questions.  It was clear that he was suspicious of them but allowed them to continue their journey.  But they were clearly followed as they left town.In the next town, near where they needed to turn west into the Hlurothi Badlands where Old Karak Tor stood, they spent the night at the inn and awoke in some...intestinal distress.  They spent most of the night awake in or near the outhouse.  Worried that the food wasn't agreeing with them (either by coincidence or not) they left the inn and camped west of town for a couple days while they recovered.  Eating some of the Tree of Life fruit seemed to help considerably in settling their stomachs and recovering their strength.As they made their way into the badlands along a poorly tended trail, they noticed tracks preceeding them:  Those off booted feet accompanied by clawed tracks, roughly the size one would expect from a Bugbear.  There was further evidence that another group was ahead of them when they came upon the scene of a fight with some Gnolls where large hyenas were still chewing on the corpses of the Gnolls and a couple of Bugbears.  The hyenas attacked but were dispatched fairly easily.They proceeded to within sight of the Fortress of Karak Tor, a butte that stood in a river canyon with an old, stone bridge from the lip of the canyon to the top of the butte.  At the base of the bride was a group of Gnolls, standing around a fire, beating some drums and clearly up to no good.  The party approached and engaged them.They were able to get past the Gnoll Warriors and attack the drummers and the chanting shaman-type who was conducting a ritual.  They were continuously under fire from an archer with a powerful bow and took some considerable damage during this fight however.  Just as they disrupted the ritual a large, apelike demon clawed its way over the edge of the canyon.  It appeared angry at having been summoned and went after the Gnoll shaman.  At about the time the party finished off the Warriors and sent the Archer fleeing, the demon flung the shaman bodily into the deep canyon gorge.  The PC's focused their attacks on the beast with Astavian in the lead swinging his newly magical greatsword.  They finally killed it and then made their way across the bridge before the distant cackling of hyenas and Gnolls grew any closer.*******The journey into Hluroth was handled as a skill challenge.  It started off slowly as the players worked a bit to decide exactly how they wanted to proceed in terms of stealth or just acting like they belonged.  They finally opted for the latter course with a bit of deception about the exact nature of their business.  The challenge moved forward in sections, broken up by social interaction with the innkeeper and later the "Guildmaster".  Some failed perception rolls later ended up with them having food poisoning, which resulted in the challenge requiring some Heal checks.  They finally made it to their goal (The Badlands) successfully.The fight with the hyenas was one of those "I know this will be easy but sometimes it is nice to remind the players that this would have been a lot tougher just a short time ago" fights.  It was fairly quick, fun and served to underpin the ongoing plot that they were now behind somebody (according to the players, probably that damned Guildmaster and his Bugbear bodyguards).The fight with the Gnolls at the rim of the canyon was much tougher and more exciting.  It had some minions (the drummers) some Claw Fighters, a Huntmaster and even a Demonic Scourge.  Then there was the Barlgura of course.  It was a fairly tall order for the PC's but they managed to succesfully disrupt the ritual (a mid-fight Milestone) and that mostly took the Demonic Scourge out of the picture.  With the warrior types killed and the Huntmaster sent fleeing with about a dozen Hit Points left, they were able to group up on the Barlgura and kill it.</blockquote>

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