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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kenobi65" data-source="post: 12329" data-attributes="member: 1515">Session #2 - 2/9/016/17Other than the party, the only people already at Gateway Base are the skeleton crew of troops that was left there to guard the supply cache and the Keystone.  Jehan, a ranger, leads this skeleton crew.As the night wears on, however, several members of Efreet Team make it to Gateway Base.  There, they tell a horrific tale.  They had succeeded in their mission to destroy the shipyard, and were beginning to retreat to the safety of the jungle.  As they moved back, they were attacked by a green dragon, accompanied by a large group of draconians.  The dragon breathed its toxic gas on Winterhawk's army, and many of the soldiers died on the spot. Weakened, but still defiant, Elena Winterhawk and several of her officers regrouped and made their stand.  The draconians, many of whom were apparently spellcasters, rained lightning and fire down on the humans, and most of the officers fell, too.  Finally, the dragon itself appeared to cast a spell on Winterhawk, and she fell unconscious.  Then, the dragon swooped down and grabbed the general with one of its foreclaws.  The dragon and its draconian guards flew back towards Tun-Kashila, while a large group of kobolds and lizardmen moved out from the city towards the shipyards.  The few survivors fled into the jungle, and have made their way back here while trying to evade the roving search bands that have spread into the jungle.The party discusses what to do next.  They believe that, in order to re-activate the Gateway, they will need to rescue General Winterhawk and bring her back to the Gateway.  The party discusses with Jehan the idea of moving the Gateway Base (so that the Dracos would have more difficulty in finding it), but the young ranger seems to be incapable of making a decision.  Additionally, the other survivors are fairly panicked by the notion that no one at the Base can re-open the Gateway and get them home.6/18Shortly after dawn, a very haggard pair of survivors stumbles into Gateway Base.  Lieutenant Genevieve Firehawk has suffered a severed right arm (cut off just below the elbow by a blow from one of the draconians).  Her wound was healed by Kerrith, a young cleric of St. Cuthbert who then accompanied her back to the base.  However, Kerrith is low level, and was only able to stop the bleeding of the wound -- he could not regenerate the lost limb.Genevieve elaborates on the story told by the other survivors. After Kerrith had revived Genevieve, the two of them searched the battlefield.  They found where General Winterhawk had made her stand, and there discovered a broken Gateway Key as well as the general's sword, dropped when she fell.  She says that both she and Winterhawk were carrying Keys, devices that would allow them to open the Gateway from any location.   Based on the fact that it looked as though Winterhawk's key was ground under a boot heel, Genevieve guesses that, when the tide of battle had turned against them, Winterhawk broke her own Key just before the dragon knocked her out.  Genevieve attempted to trigger her Key once she and Kerrith got away from the battlefield, but she discovered that it had been broken during the battle.  She shows the pieces to the PCs, but the enchantment is gone, so it impossible to repair.Genevieve agrees with the party that the only remaining way to re-open the Gateway is to retrieve General Winterhawk.  Genevieve recommends that the party go to Tun-Kashila and see if they can locate the general, rescue her, and bring her back to the Base.  From here, she would be able to use the Keystone to re-open the Gateway.Genevieve describes the terrain as well as she can to the PCs -- it appears that the party will need to travel through the jungle for three days, then along the river for another two days before reaching Tun-Kashila.  She then gives the party a sword that she had been carrying on her back: the Silver Scalpel, a beautiful, enchanted bastard sword that belongs to General Winterhawk.  She suggests that the party bring it with them to return to the General, but, in the meantime, that someone in the party might as well use the sword.  As she says this, she refers to the general as "my mother," causing a few eyebrows to raise.  Zeebee is elected to use the Scalpel.The party decides to stay at the Base through this day, and depart the following morning.  They go through the Base's supplies, and stock themselves up for the trip.  Meanwhile, Genevieve has taken charge of the Base, and brought the survivors under control.  She agrees with the party that it would be a good idea to move the base, and will lead the survivors to move it one day's march to the southwest. 6/19The party departs Gateway Base, heading towards the northwest.  Late that day, as the party moves along, several party members notice a deep rumbling coming from underground.  Suddenly, two gigantic insects (ankhegs) burst out of the ground and attack the party.  Ming-Jeh, Phadian, and Zeebee team up to kill one of the giant bugs, with Zeebee severing its head with a single blow from the Silver Scalpel (this leads Zeebee to state that this is a fine weapon, indeed).  Then, Magnus, Ian, and Ulfgar finish off the other one, which Whitefire had successfully slowed down by Entangling it.6/20The party continues to travel through the jungle.  Around mid-day, the party stumbles upon a Draco search party: a group of a half-dozen lizardfolk, led by a draconian.Whitefire quickly casts an Entangle spell.  The spell encompasses the entire group of Dracos, although some manage to break free.  The draconian is one of those who breaks free; after doing so, he flies towards the party and uses his chlorine-gas breath weapon.  Ulfgar and Whitefire are in the range of the hideous gas, and, while Ulfgar suffers its full effects, Whitefire manages to dive behind a tree at the last moment.  This particular tree does not seem to be affected by the caustic gas (which surprises Whitefire a great deal, given that all the surrounding vegetation is scorched).A moment later, the draconian falls to the ground, felled by a combination of magic missiles (from Phadian and Magnus) and a pipe-bow shot from Zeebee.  Ian casts a Sleep spell, which drops some of the lizardmen.  Several lizardmen charge party members, only to miss in their attacks.  Ming-Jeh impresses the group by swatting a pipe-bow bolt out of the air a moment before it would have hit him.  Eventually, all the lizardfolk are slain.  In searching the dead, the party finds a pair of potions and a magical quiver.Whitefire examines his tree further.  It appears to be a variety of lime tree, and is completely unscathed from the draconian's breath weapon.  The druid quickly harvests several dozen small limes from the tree, and explains to the party that he believes eating the limes may give the party members some degree of temporary resistance to these breath weapons.  Needless to say, the rest of the party eagerly takes the limes.6/21Late in the day, the party reaches the river.  Ian looks for any sign of boat traffic on the river, in hopes that the party might be able to sneak into the city using this as a cover.  Unfortunately, he finds none.Whitefire spots a crocodile in the river, and proceeds to speak to it.  He learns that the croc does not like to go too far down river, as the water gets polluted near the Dracos' villages.  The crocodile further explains that the Dracos like to hunt for crocodiles, so he tries to stay out of their way.6/22 - 6/23The party proceeds north, following the east bank of the river.  During their travel on the 22nd, they break out of the heavier jungle, and begin to have to move more carefully.  In the afternoon on the 23rd, Nivek hears something behind the party: they turn and see a search party of kobolds and a draconian bearing down on them.Sleep spells from Ian and Magnus make short work of many of the kobolds.  The draconian sorcerer uses his gli-fai to shoot a beam of reddish energy at Phadian.  The party focuses its missile attacks on the draconian, who is hanging back and using his own missiles and spells.  During the fight, the draconian is struck by a throwing-stone, which apparently came from behind him.  The party fells the draconian with magic missiles; as they begin to stand down, the draconian stands back up (he was apparently just playing dead).  However, he does not appear to be immune to mundane missiles, and soon perishes in a hail of crossbow fire.  The party discovers that the draconian was wearing a Brooch of Shielding, which explains his immunity to the magic missiles.  They also find several more potions, a magical dar-fai that was wielded by the lead kobold, and the draconian's weapon, a kal-gli-fai.The party then looks for the source of the thrown stone.  Several small humanoid figures proceed to come out of the brush.  They look like gnomes, but they walk on all fours (on the knuckles of their hands as well as on their feet).  In thickly-accented Gnomish, they introduce themselves to the party, and welcome them as "those that were prophesied of."  They lead the party to a concealed tunnel entrance, then down into a series of tunnels.The group travels for some time in the tunnels -- as the party members are considerably larger than their gnomish guides, there are many tight spots in the tunnels for the party.  After what seems to be several hours of travel, the group arrives at a large underground settlement of these gnomes, all of whom move about on all fours.  All of the gnomes crowd around the party, and are very joyous at their arrival.The party is led into a cavern, and given food and drink.  After a few minutes, several elderly gnomes enter the room.  The leader of these elders is a venerable gnomish woman named Senki.  Senki tells the party that the "Burrowers," as they call themselves, have been expecting the party for several days, ever since a female human captive (clearly the general) was brought into Tun-Kashila.  She further explains that the Burrowers do not know how they came to be in this land, but that they do believe that they originated from elsewhere.  Their holy texts make it clear that they are to never rise up on their two feet, for that would bring doom upon them all from the Dracos.  Their holy texts also have told them that, someday, heroes who boldly stand on two legs would come to this land.  The texts command the Burrowers to provide these heroes with any help they need, as the heroes will fight the Dracos and, eventually, emancipate the Burrowers.Senki says that the Burrowers are the drudges and servants of society in Tun-Kashila.  They have tunnels and crawl-spaces that honeycomb the city, as well as the surrounding countryside.  They use these tunnels to access any place in the city, where they are expected to perform all the Dracos' menial tasks.  It is from these tunnels that they have observed what has happened to General Winterhawk.  The general is still alive, but has endured much.</blockquote>

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