the Kyri Chronicles - last updated 22 Oct

[Plane Sailing]

Nah, it was a stupid white, not even mature yet

the backstory to this liddle dragon is that in the unseasonably cold winter it was able to extend its range down into the lowlands, where it was starting to meet a range of interesting food (and avoiding confrontations with frost giants looking for a guard up in the mountains where it had been growing up).

As such, it had never really come across humans, let alone ones that could be a real threat to it... and with its 8 INT and the white dragon description as straight-forward aggressive"...

Not to mention it is a cool death for the dragon! much better than being nickle & dime'd to death by magic missiles.

- I would add that I made one serious mistake in the running of the dragon. I completely forget about its spell resistance (Doh!) which would have eliminated about half of the magical damage it took on average. Still, I had the desired effect - the weakest form of dragon, only as big as a horse, and it nearly totalled the party.

All that and just CR7

 

[Darklone]

All that and just CR7

Yeah, the dragon CRs....

Kill them!!

 

[Plane Sailing]

There is a tremendous celebration in the village at the safe return of the heroes. Some of the old timers start looking at Trajan (“that young scamp”) in a new light now. A group of men make their way back up the valley to see the body for themselves. The skull is mounted on a pole and the village decide to rename their humble community “Dragons End”.

Amongst the few treasures recovered from the back of the cage there was a masterwork axe, short handled but with an exceptionally broad blade. A suit of chainmail that while broad across the chest was decidedly short in the leggings, a couple of backpacks, one of which contained a small chest with 6 carefully wrapped and exquisitely carved stumpy figures and a letter from one Jorish Baral, a mastercraftsman from Bridlerest. The other contains a small fortune in gemstones.

As strange as it seems, the evidence is that one of the recent victims of the dragon was one of the half-mythical dwarven race. But nobody has had contact with the dwarfs – or seen them – for many years!

Putting two and two together, the company reason that the dragon must have ambushed the dwarf and a courier, eaten them both and brought their goods back here. Apparently this mastercraftsman had been commissioned to produce these exquisite carvings, and this was a meeting to hand them over for payment.

Syl is all for dividing up the “loot” straight away, but Trajan is particularly concerned about that. He reckons that this doesn’t count as genuine loot, since Jorish is actually owed the payment for his work, and the dwarves haven’t got their artwork. K’tan, always mindful of his mission to avoid the threat of the mind flayers points out that dwarfs would be a valuable ally in any future battles, with their unparalleled knowledge of the roots below the mountains – and that this might be an opportunity to get “in” with them.

Eventually Syl is shouted down, and the decision is made – they will journey down to Bridlerest, a large city of artisans situated on the silverlode down towards the sea. There they will return the artworks and money to Jorish, and perhaps see if they can get a link into the Dwarves (perhaps acting as couriers themselves)

The route there will take them past the temple of elemental evil, where they have a score to settle with the hobgoblins and their leaders. Furthermore, they will pass a wizards tower where, 50 years earlier, Anne Marie had commissioned a pair of magic boots as payment for services rendered. Hopefully she will be able to pick them up before they progress further East along the river.

First though… the temple!

 

[Darklone]

Hehehe

"Ehm, good day sir, I just passed along the way and thought if you perchance know anything about the magical boots I ordered at the wizard who lived here some decades ago..."

Nice

 

[Plane Sailing]

The party make their way down the north side of the river silverlode, taking their normal precautions against the cold. A weeks careful riding brings them to the forest of twisted trees which hides the old temple of elemental evil. Planning their attack more carefully this time, they make their way to the edge of the clearing, then Dala cast invisibility on every member of the party.

They sneak past the guards at the outer wall, but as they reach the huge doors into the temple proper guard dogs start barking.invisibly they charge past the guards, jostling past them as the alarm is raised. Dala is last to enter, and he turns around and casts a web across the entire doorway while the others pound up the temple atrium. Trajan and Lysander take the lead, while Anne-Marie veers off to the left to prevent flanking, and K’tan and Dala veer to the right to get a clear field of fire. Syl sneaks quietly towards the rear.

On the dias at the rear of the temple is that armoured priest who defeated them before and his lieutenant, armed with a double sword. There is no sign of the Blessed though. The sound of booted feet echo throughout the temple and Lareth the priest starts casting his defensive spells while his bodyguard Grathak takes up a guard position.

Lysander is first to reach the altar rail, and he is taken by surprise as a dire ape lunges out from a stairwell at him, guided by its sense of smell and hearing. Luckily for him the raking claws miss, and he dodges past it into the sanctuary.

In the left wing of the temple hobgoblin children scatter away from Anne Marie and towards a back room from which a horder of elite hobgoblin warriors erupt. They charge at her with their two handed swords, and move to surround her. Anne Maries combat reflexes kick in, and she wounds several of them as they try to strike her – but between her reflexes, her monkish intuition, her expertise and the mage armour which Syl cast upon her before they entered… they can’t touch her. Then she starts unleashing a whirlwind of blows back with her rapier darting and pricking them.

Trajan and Lysander make it into the sanctuary at about the same time, and they become visible courtesy of an invisibility purge which was cast earlier. Dala casts a lightning bolt at the dire ape which badly singes its fur. The ape charges towards the now-visible mage, but to his intense relief (and my great surprise) misses him. Lareth, the priest, casts a searing light at Dala but misses badly and fatally scorches his own dire ape (!).

Anne-Marie is hit by one of the greatswords and recognises that she is in a precarious position, even though she is still holding the attention of the majority of the hobgoblins. She calls out to K’tan “Blast me!”. He responds with a cone of sound which Anne Marie evades completely but which takes down half of the hobgoblin fighters. “Again!” she shouts and although her teeth are rattled by the next blast the remainder of the hobgoblins go down.

Back on the main dias, a tricky fight is underway between Lareth with his enchanted quarterstaff and Grathak who keeps moving to make flanking opportunities against Trajan, the double sword biting viciously when combined with his sneak attacks.

Against her better judgement, Syl is persuaded to join in the fight, attempting to work around to a sneak attacking position herself.

Casting defensively, Lareth launches a confusion spell at Dala, who is dumbfounded and wanders off into the cloisters for the rest of the battle. Lareths armour is protecting him well from Lysanders assaults, and he joins in the concentrated efforts to take down Trajan.

Suddenly there is a couple of well placed blows, and Trajan is down! The ringing sound of a huge gong sounds throughout the temple as Lareth quickly casts “Death Knell” and reaches forward...


... to be continued!

 

[Plane Sailing]

Re: Hehehe

"Ehm, good day sir, I just passed along the way and thought if you perchance know anything about the magical boots I ordered at the wizard who lived here some decades ago..."

Nice

I was quite pleased with Anne-Maries manner of introduction, because she makes a great "foil" for introducing snippets of geography or other information that she remembers from (what seems to her) a couple of months ago - but which may have changed greatly in that time!

I've managed to get behind on my writeups, so even after the temple is finished, and the death has been mourned over (did I say death? slip of the tongue, obviously ) I've still got to write up the two mind-numblingly horrible sessions at the wizards tower and the start of "The Standing Stone" adventure...

Ah, chores, chores

 

[Plane Sailing]

Once again, the grace of Asura saves Trajan’s life by the merest whisker, as his spirit resists the evil drain upon his remaining life. Syl attempts to step into the breach and takes an uncharacteristic melee swing at Lareth, but fails to get past his magical protections.

Lysander finally manages to take down the double sword wielding Grathak, but Lareth takes the opportunity to thrust back with his quarterstaff at Syl – and it strikes her temple with such force that she drops like a stone, with the audible *crack* of her neck breaking!

Anne-Marie charges up towards the sanctuary and vaults into combat with Lareth, and Lysander likewise turns his full attention on the evil priest. Lareth decides that descretion is the better part of valour and to their astonishment turns and runs right up the wall behind them! Their attacks of opportunity miss, and as Lareth sprints across the ceiling to the main doors they are running across the floor, keeping up with him – until he gets to the webbed doorway, which he simply slides through… the webs seem unable to adhere to his cloak, and he escapes into the night.

It is going to be another hour before those webs evaporate, so the company decide to check on Syl, bring Dala out of his confusion and see what can be sorted out.

 

[Piratecat]

Shortest update ever - what, you trying to match me!

Lord, I love dire apes. It must be my pulp roots, but there's just something about giant gorillas that fills me with glee.

 

[Darklone]

Syl again???

Nah! That's not fair!

She's really the groups whipping boy, ehm girl, isn't it? Darn, can't your strong boys look out for the nice girls?

 

[Plane Sailing]

Shortest update ever - what, you trying to match me!

Lord, I love dire apes. It must be my pulp roots, but there's just something about giant gorillas that fills me with glee.

Hi PC - glad you're still reading!

Hey, I was on the second page, and I don't think anyone ever bumps ME ... hence a short update

(in truth I had a short gap at work this afternoon and was able to put a little bit more in)

One of the things about Dire Apes which is great is that they can turn out much worse than they look - although I'm betting that this one will have lulled them into a false sense of security since I think it only managed to lay one paw on one person before being finished off by its own boss (of all things!)

- next, a little interesting negotiation with hobgoblins, and then we're off to see the wizard...