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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kenobi65" data-source="post: 12340" data-attributes="member: 1515">Session  #3 - 3/16/016/23The Burrowers believe that they were not originally residents of this land -- their teachings tell them that they were brought here from a land far across the sea (a "land of warm hills, soft winds, and fair skies," according to their teachings).  The reason for their transplantation is lost to them, but their teachings do promise that, one day, beings from their old homeland will come and redeem them.The teachings are crystal clear on one point: the Burrowers were to never rise up on just their two feet: it is strictly taboo for a Burrower to ever lift both hands from the ground and stand upright.  The Burrowers understand Draco society and religion fairly well, and comprehend that breaking their taboo would result in the death of the offending Burrower, and perhaps the death of all Burrowers.  Senki confides that most Burrowers suspect that walking upright was something that the Burrowers were able to do in their old homeland.  She also suspects that the senior Dracos (the brighter dragons, at least) may recognize that the Burrowers are, in fact, a two-legged race.  However, as the Burrowers serve an important function in the Draconic cities, the Dracos have not tried to destroy the Burrowers.Burrowers are the drudges of Draconic society.  They clean, they perform menial tasks, they keep the basic functions of the cities working.  In order to do this, they have a series of tunnels and crawl-spaces that honeycomb Tun-Kashila (and every other major Draconic city, for that matter).  The combination of low social status, very short physical stature (crouched over, a Burrower is shorter even than a kobold), and keeping to the tunnels and crawl-spaces until needed leads to Dracos generally ignoring Burrowers, even if they're in the same room.While the Burrowers' oral traditions tell them that the "Upright Ones" (i.e., the party) are to be the Burrowers' redemption, this is a matter of some debate.  The Burrowers are willing to give the party any aid they can, but they are concerned that, if the Dracos were to learn that the party used their tunnels, that they would be killed in retribution.  Some of the elders suggest that they might be able to convince the Dracos that the party forced their way into the tunnels, but this is not a universally-held belief.Also, even if the entire population of Tun-Kashila's Burrowers were to be emancipated (via the Gateway), they believe that there are Burrower colonies in other Draconic cities.  Senki, in particular, is concerned that, if their colony were to vanish in the wake of Winterhawk's rescue, these other colonies might be destroyed, again in retribution.  However, these Burrowers do not have solid evidence of the existance of other colonies, just their oral traditions.Senki summons Cerila, a Burrower scout, to tell the party about the general.  Cerila tells the party that the Burrowers observed Avranath, the green dragon baron of Tun-Kashila, return to his throne room with a fair-haired human woman nine nights ago (late in the night of the 14th / 15th).  The Burrowers have several tunnels that lead into Avranath's throne room, and have quietly observed all that has happened to her.  At that point, the woman was unconscious, but the baron's draconian lackeys quickly revived her.  The dragon was in a fit of rage, and the draconians had to frequently restrain him from simply killing the woman outright.  He interrogated her and threatened her, but she would tell him nothing.  Eventually, Arvanath had his lackeys manacle Winterhawk to the wall of the throne room, where she has remained ever since.(Cerila also confides that Arvanath is not the brightest of dragons -- the Burrowers have a nickname for him, in Gnomish, which roughly translates to "Stupid-Boy.")Seven days ago (in the afternoon of the 16th) , Tanalkazir showed up.  She is an older, higher-ranking dragon, the mother of Avranath, and the one-time baroness of Tun-Kashila.  She berated Avranath at length for allowing the "abominations" to destroy the shipyards.  Tanalkazir briefly interrogated Winterhawk herself, even using magic to attempt to coerce the general, but to no avail -- the human woman simply would not respond.  Tanalkazir then berated Avranath even more, accusing him of damaging the woman in his rage.Tanalkazir then told Avranath that his only hope for redeeming his status would be to successfully learn how Winterhawk's army managed to get to Virdea without being noticed.  However, she warned him, he was not allowed to kill or maim Winterhawk until he could extract this information, and then have it deliberated upon by the Virdean Council.  After delivering these orders, she departed.Even angrier now, Avranath then lashed out at his draconian lackeys, killing two of them in his fury.  He ordered the rest of them to work day and night to find a way to force Winterhawk to divulge her information.  "Anything is permissible," Arvanath told them, "so long as it does not leave a mark."The draconian sorcerers and clerics tried their own enchantment magics on the general, but, again, she managed to resist them.  So, they have spent the last few days concocting potions intended to force a victim to tell the truth.  However, the Burrower drudges who were left to brew the potions added a few extra ingredients -- thus, although the potions did make Elena sick to her stomach, they did not have the desired effect.Senki then summons Hewdos, the chief of the Burrowers' Tunnel Guild.  She asks Hewdos to provide the party with a map showing them the routes they can take to get to where Winterhawk is being held.  Hewdos and his apprentice, Suram, return after about 2 hours with a map.  Hewdos is apologetic -- he says that they have numerous ways that a Burrower could get to Winterhawk, but many of the tunnels are simply far too small for humans to fit through.  In fact, the primary route that the Burrowers have been using to observe Avranath's chamber is impossible for humans to use.  Instead, he has laid out what he considers to be the only feasible route -- even so, it has several obstacles:1) Th party will need to climb a 30' cavern wall -- the Burrowers climb it using a light rope, but the existing rope is far too light for humans to use.2) The party will also need to pass through two open areas.  The Burrowers do this all the time, but the Dracos rarely, if ever, notice the tiny Burrowers.  Because the party would be much more obvious, Hewdos and Suram built a route that minimized these "open transits," but they couldn't eliminate them entirely.  The first one requires the party to cross about 50' of open space in the foyer of the Dracos' main military school.  The second one is a crossing of about 100' of open space in the back of a warehouse.3) There is a damp cavern that the party will need to go through.  While it is not out in the open, the caven is one of a series that the Dracos use for sewage.  Thus, there is a slow-moving stream of rather nasty water that the party will need to cross.Finally, Hewdos's route contains a exit that the party could use to get completely out of the city after rescuing the general.  If the party cannot backtrack to that exit, there is another way out: below the throne room is the "nursery," a chamber used by female dragons to lay eggs and rear young dragons.  The nursery is currently unused, as there is no female dragon in residence at Tun-Kashila.  Further, adult male dragons, such as Arvanath, are prohibited from even entering the nursery.  There is an entrance into the nursery from the tunnels, but it is currently barricaded (although the barricades could be removed if necessary).Senki and the other elders decide to send several of their scouts along with the party.  Bramir and Zek, the two scouts who originally found the party, will travel with them, while Cirila and Tahir will range ahead of the party.The party debates their strategy, particularly what time of the day they want to reach the throne room.  They eventually agree that they want to get to the throne room late at night, when there will likely be few inhabitants there.  As it is several hours of travel through the tunnels to get to the throne room, this would entail leaving from the Burrowers' cavern at mid-to-late evening.  Since the party's spellcasters have largely depleted their spells, the group agrees to wait until the following evening to depart.6/24After resting for the day in the Burrowers' cavern, the party leaves after dinner.  After a half-hour or so in the tunnels, they come to the "climbing wall."  The party sends one of the Burrower scouts up the wall with their rope, and the scout ties the rope to a piton at the top.  Slowly, the party climbs up the rope, although several members have some difficulty.  Whitefire decides that climbing would likely be hazardous to his health, so he climbs into his Bag of Holding and has himself hoisted up.Another half-hour or so of walking brings the party to the open passage through the foyer of the military school.  Two kobold guards are sitting in chairs in the foyer, passing the time.  After a brief conference, Ian casts Sleep on the two guards, and the party quietly moves past them and back into the tunnels.Another 45 minutes brings the party to the second open passage, through the storage room.  The advance scouts bring back bad news; there are five draconian soldiers holed up in the storage room, playing cards.  After scoping out the room, the party realizes that, if they move silently enough, they may be able to use the crates and barrels stored in the room as cover for most of their transit.  Although this would still leave the party with some open space to cross, the space is small enough that Phadian can cover it with an illusion, to make the party appear as a large group of Burrowers.With their Burrower guides, the party makes its way behind the crates.  Phadian casts his spell, and the disguised party begins to head for the safety of the tunnel.  However, just as the front of the party reaches the tunnel entrance, one of the draconian cardplayers sits up, sniffs the air, and says, "Hey, I smell something.  It's the same thing I smelled last week at the shipyards…abominations!"As the draconians and the party begin to react, one fast-moving draconian heads for Phadian (still disguised by his Silent Image) and breathes on him.  The party acts quickly: Ian successfully Charms one of the draconians, then Magnus uses Color Spray to knock two of them unconscious (unfortunately, one of the two was the charmed one).  Nivek considers Commanding one of the draconians to "sleep," but then realizes that he doesn't know how to say "sleep" in Draconic.  The remaining draconians are quickly slain.  When the charmed draconian comes to, Ian convinces him that a fight had broken out among the card-players, and that they had all killed each other.  After Ian counsels him to keep his mouth shut, lest he be charged with murder, the charmed draconian flees the room.  With the help of the Burrowers, the party arranges the dead draconians around the table, to look as if they had killed each other.  In searching the room, the party finds quite a bit of monetary treasure on the card table -- they leave a little bit behind to support their ruse, but take most of it with them.The party moves through the tunnels for another half-hour or so.  The Burrower scouts tell them that they are approaching the "damp cavern," so Cirila and Tahir range ahead to scout it out.  After a half-hour passes, with no sign of Cirila or Tahir, the party cautiously moves forward.  They find that the "damp cavern" is a long, narrow cave; the closer end of the cavern is dry, but the far end contains a fetid pool.  Ulfgar can clearly see the footprints of the missing scouts, heading into the center of the cavern.  Despite this, Ulfgar decides to slowly move forward along the west wall, using his darkvision to peer ahead.  He moves as far as the pool, but does not see anything unusual.  Eventually, the party decides to use a sunrod for light and move into the room, following the Burrowers' trail.  As they approach the pool, they can see something floating in it.  Upon closer examination, they can see that it is a Burrower body.  Meanwhile, Ulfgar again has moved off by himself to the west, searching that area.As the main body of the party stares in shock at the floating body, a large sewer-dwelling otyugh shambles out of the stream to the east and attacks.  It strikes Ming-Jeh with one of its tentacles, and begins to constrict the young monk.  As the party begins to pepper the foul beast with missiles and spells, a smaller otyugh pops out of the western stream, right next to the hapless Ulfgar, and begins to pound on him.The larger otyugh suffers several crossbow wounds, as well as a Dazzle spell, before Zeebee manages to splash into the pool and finish it off with the general's sword.   Meanwhile, Ian helps Ulfgar out with a couple of well-placed crossbow bolts, before the angry ranger hits the smaller otyugh with both axes, killing it.In the aftermath of the melee, the party discovers that it is indeed Tahir's gnawed-upon body floating in the pond; they can only assume that Cirila had already been eaten by the otyughs.  At the back of the cavern, the party follows the tunnel as it leads up and out of the slimy water.The party spends another hour or so working its way through the tunnels, until they reach a small chamber.  The Burrower scouts quietly explain that this chamber overlooks Arvanath's throne room.  A cunningly-woven tapestry covers a hole between the spy chamber and the throne room; while individuals in the chamber can see activity in the throne room, those in the throne room see the tapestry as opaque (and thus, cannot see the spy chamber).  The chamber is about 10 feet above the floor of the throne room.  As the party peers out, they can see General Winterhawk, apparently unconscious, manacled to the far wall, near the passage to the nursery.  More importantly, they see Arvanath sitting in another corner of the room, yelling at two draconians and a kobold.  He complains that they are completely incompetent at potionmaking, and had better figure out some new method for extracting information from the human, and quickly.  He then announces that he is going for a nighttime hunt, to clear his head, and flies out of the cavern through a "chimney" in the ceiling.This leaves the two draconians, the kobold, and the general in the room.  A moment later, Arvanath's booming voice can be heard from the top of the chimney: "And have someone check the sewers!  They're backing up again, and I can smell them in the throne room!"  For several moments, the three Draco lackeys look stunned.  Then, the draconians begin to berate the kobold, who slowly slinks towards the unconscious Winterhawk.The party quickly formulates a plan.  Phadian casts a Silent Image in front of the spy chamber, intending to use it to make that space appear to be empty.  Then, several party members quietly drop from the spy chamber into the throne room.  Ian quaffs a potion of Invisibility and begins to move towards the kobold (who is farther away from the spy chamber than the draconians).  Nivek, having used Change Self to appear as a draconian, moves out of the cover of the Silent Image, and successfully Commands the draconian sorcerer to "sleep."  Magnus hits the draconian soldier with a Shocking Grasp, and the melee is on.Thanks to the element of surprise, the Dracos are never even able to react.  The kobold attempts to hit Ian with a Magic Missile, but the ex-monk successfully punches the kobold, disrupting the spell.  Nivek manages to unlock Winterhawk's manacles; he and Ian then revive the tortured general.Meanwhile, as Whitefire moves towards the doorway out of the throne room (to a guard room), the door opens, and a surprised draconian guard yells out an alarm.  The guard moves into the room, and is quickly engaged in combat, first by Whitefire, then by several other party members.  The guard is dispatched, and the doors locked.After several healing potions and spells, and a long pull on a waterskin, Winterhawk thanks the party for their rescue.  She quickly tells them that she knows an incantation that will open the Gateway to their present location, but that the party will need to give her five minutes to cast it.  At about this point, alarm bells begin to sound in the halls outside the throne room.  From up in the spy chamber, Bramir and Zek call down to the party, and tell them to head for the nursery.  The party, along with General Winterhawk, thus race down the ramp into the nursery.</blockquote>

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