the Kyri Chronicles - last updated 22 Oct

[Plane Sailing]

On returning to the moathouse the cold of the month of Ironwater starts to really grip the region, and everyone is glad of the extra warm clothes they puchased before leaving Knightsbridge. As they near the rise of land before the moathouse they notice a plume of smoke rising. Dismounting and creeping towards the crest of the hill they spy over the other side a group of Ogres around a large campfire, with a humanoid figure cooked on a spit.

The ogres charge to engage them, and in a short but brutal battle the ogres are eventually killed. M'ir makes very effective use of his new ability to recall pain on the ogres, and many died with vicious bruises around their heads in addition to the deep scimitar cuts they bore. Azrin calls upon Asura to heal the wounded, and then they all investigate the remains of the camp. The poor victim seems to have been a foreign spy from Morannon sent to this area, and a map is found on him showing the location of the moathouse, an old temple across the river in Morannon and the small town of Rastor much further inside the borders of the neighbouring country.

After rest and recuperation, the party decide that they ought to return to the Moathouse dungeons and check out the remaining unexplored corridors for hidden evils. They have no problem in getting down into the tunnels, but accidentally set off a trap which seals their exit with a portcullis. They decide to worry about that later, and press on into the complex.

After a very short while they come across a very large crypt, with a musty smell and a palpable sense of evil in the air. The walls are surrounded by sarcophagus lids, and as they enter and start investigation the room is filled with deafening noise as a score of the lids are pushed aside and ghouls lurch forward into the room, ready to feed.

Trajan is paralysed by a ghoul despite his immense fortitude DMnote: You can tell that this was Crails player, right?, but when Lysander and Azrin start calling upon the holy power of Asura to turn the creatures, one after another they disappear in the midst of searing holy energy. DMnote: I completely forgot about the unhallowed nature of the crypt which gave +4 turn resistance. You win some, you lose some

 

[Plane Sailing]

Behind one of the sarcophagus lids is a rough-hewn tunnel, winding its way deeper into the rock. The party follow it, and wander through a series of tunnels for about half an hour before realising that they might be lost. They start marking junctions with arrows, and then as they come across the junctions *again* with barred arrows, and arrows with circles around them Dmnote: nightmare for me, annotating a tiny map! and wandering more carefully.

After another hour, and with much backtracking, they come across a strange, cold and evil chamber. The floor of the chamber is carpeted in cool mist, and in the middle of the chamber is a strange stone altar composed of black rock marbled with purple veins, and a three-sided pillar, each side of which seems to be carved with a masked Illithid like figure. A search of the pillar reveals a secret compartment containing a small drum, bells and other things.

Trajan looks across seriously at Lysander. "I DON'T think we ought to try using these things in front of this altar!"

Stowing away these items carefully, they continue attempting to find their way out of the maze. As the hours draw on they get worried as more and more of the routes that they take seem to lead back towards the altar chamber, but finally they hit upon an untried route which leads them back to the ghoul crypt. Out at last!

While checking for other exits from the moathouse they find one corridor that ends in a blank wall is actually blocked by a magical wall of stone. Finding hammers and other implements they manage to break down the wall and start off along a long, long tunnel.

They hear the sound of squawking ahead of them, and two pairs of small and evil eyes ahead of them resolve into two small cockatrices. Taking them by surprise, Trajan leaps forwards and in one smooth motion draws his scimitar and slices one of the beasts in two - a powerful exhibition of the Quickdraw focus skill which the hermit had been teaching him before he came down into civilisation. Lysander and the others quickly dispatch the other cockatrice. They note how much less of a problem the beasts are than the first time they met them with the neophyte Azrin, all those months ago!

Walking a further half a mile along this tunnel they come to a bush-covered cleft in stone, and emerge to find themselves on the other side of the river, looking back across the frozen water towards the ruined moathouse.

I wonder what will be the best way of getting the horses?

 

[Plane Sailing]

With no way back through the tunnels, and a bit of experimentation with old tree branches, they decide that although the ice wouldn't support horses, it will support people - One at a time they skate and slide across the frozen river, and then return to their horses. They need to set off upriver to the border keep. It would be less than days journey normally, but with snow no the ground and more falling every minute it looks like a long slog.

As hour after hour drags on, the cold is getting increasingly hard to resist. The horses in particular are suffering, and it takes all of Trajans animal handling and M'irs wilderness lore to keep them all going. Finally, the keep appears amidst the swirling snows, and with great relief the company negotiate their entry into the tower.

The next day is the second holyday of Ironwater, and Lysander, Trajan and Azrin spend the day in prayer and meditation. The group wait another day for the snows to fall, and then cross over the border into Morannon here and travel down the river to find the location of the secret door they had used three days earlier - and hopefully locate the "temple" which was marked on the map carried by the foreign spy.

Looking around the site, M'ir opens himself up to the psychic impressions which have been left in that area, and he gets a very clear vision of a tall and beautiful man exiting the secret passageway, both angry and relieved. He is seen casting charms over it, and then striding off to the North West.

Setting off through the crisp snow, they come across some frozen woodland, full of dead, bare and blackened branches reaching towards the sky. Leading their horses single file through the clearest trail, they are ambushed by a party of three hobgoblins who are defeated almost as soon as combat is engaged. They have very little of worth on them, except for some simple silver wolf-head pendants which Trajan keeps.

Pressing on into late afternoon, under the darkening skies they become aware of a great clearing in the woods ahead of them. Creeping up closer, they can make out in the centre of the clearing a partially ruined curtain wall surrounding a huge, charcoal grey temple, with arched buttresses and walls which are covered in obscene designs, gargoyles and fiendish creatures. The air here is chill not with the fresh crispness of the snow, but the dank and bone-wearying cold from beyond the grave.

While surveying the temple environment, Azrin becomes aware of a shimmering patch of air near them - not an invisible person, but the tell-tale sign of someone scrying them! After a short discussion the company decide that they can't to anything about it and so ignore it (!) while they make their plans to assault the temple DMsnote: Could I believe them happily continuing to plan when they *knew* they were being scried upon? No I couldn't! Still, it leaves them to blame for the debacle which follows...

 

[Little_Buddha]

???

Ummmmm... Could any of your players shed light on this clearly... unwise... course of action? Extenuating circumstances?

 

[Plane Sailing]

Regrettably none of my players frequent the ENboards - or at least if they *do* they are doing it secretly, hoping to pick up hints

They had never been the subject of scrying before, and couldn't think who would be scrying them anyway; they certainly didn't associate it with the temple or an old enemy of theirs. Heh.

 

[Plane Sailing]

They are not facing the front gate of the temple, and have no intention of going directly in that way. They creep up together to a low point in the broken down wall, and start climbing up it. Everyone except Azrin and K’tan get over the wall without too much difficulty, and so they decide to press on with their investigations and let the other two catch up when they finally get over the wall (!)

DMnote: Pardon? You are going to split up and leave those two weaker characters noisly attempting to scramble over a wall while the rest of you go off scouting? O-kay

The inside courtyard of the temple has a few trails amidst the snow-covered brambles. Lysander, M’ir and Trajan follow one of the trails up towards a ruined building to the rear of the main temple. Mostly destroyed, their searches inside reveal a trapdoor into a cellar. A thin, ghostly wail issues forth.

Jumping down into the cellar they see three hobgoblins preparing to defend themselves against the other side of the floor. Two weary looking hobgoblin warriors before a wizened elderly hobgoblin female. The hobgoblins look quite badly beaten up and willing to parley, so Lysander talks to them.

Apparently two new powerful humans, a man and a woman have recently moved into the temple, crucifying the old leader and exiling this adept and her guards. The newcomers are cruel and ruthless. The man wears ochre robes and a strange holy symbol. The woman always keeps her face hidden in a deeply cowled robe - and is continually muttering about the “things from the furthest Abyss”, “the tentacles, the tentacles” and “the day is coming, the door will swing wide and then… mwahahahah”. Certainly sounds a lot like the Blessed, who escaped from Knightsbridge several months ago. As to the male priest? Just another enemy.

Meanwhile, after several noisy attempts Azrin and K’tan have finally scrabbled to the top of the broken down curtain wall. They sigh, smile at each other… and then are surrounded by a hail of flaming arrows...

 

[Plane Sailing]

Nearly a dozen flaming arrows are fired from near the main doorway of the temple; caught flatfooted both of them are hit several times and tumble down the outside of the wall once more. Azrin is bleeding seriously, but takes the risk of calling upon Asura to cure light wounds and he is stabilised. Azrin then proceeds to heal himself while K'tan draws upon his power to heal his own fierce wounds.

Back in the cellar, Trajan asks the hobgoblins about the significance of the wolf-head pendants - but the adept has never seen them before. It dawns upon the group that they may be scrying tokens, used by the leaders to check up on patrols that go missing. Trajan quickly buries them under a small pile of rubble.

The Adept is willing to use some of her magics to help them in an assault on the temple - she hates and fears the new leaders of the hobgoblins and longs to see them eliminated. She will cast an obscurement to fill the temple for them. Lysander accepts the deal and they leave the cellar together, making their way back round near the wall. They find a wounded and exhausted pair, and Azrin warns them of the magical flaming arrows fired at them.

As the party, now recomposed, circles around to the front entrance of the temple there is a puff of noxious green smoke and a foul, slimy and betentacled creature appears in their midst, similar to one of the summoned creatures fought in the weird bookshop back in Knightsbridge. A choking acidic miasma surrounds it, and while they attempt to hold their breath both Trajan and Lysander strike at the creature. They cleave it in two, but the powerful acids which spray out over their swords cause both of their unique weapons to corrode terribly, and become useless. Cursing, they draw secondary weapons and turn to the temple doors...

 

[Plane Sailing]

Goodness me, the rate of posting on the storyhour forum has increased some - it looks as if stories don't stay on the front page unless something is posted every day!

Since I've nearly caught up with the real life position of my campaign and it is run approx once a month... I'm going to have to do some hunting to find this on the boards each time

 

[Plane Sailing]

Preparing themselves, the party burst the doors in and their allied hobgoblin adept casts obscurement to fill the vast hall, then scurries away. Lysander, Trajan, M'ir and Azrin make their way into the obscuring mists, while K'tan secures the doorway just in case...

No sooner than they have entered than they hear strange chanting from the other end of the hall, and some more strange alienist creatures appear amongst them - the slimy tentacled creatures with sucking lamprey-like mouths which have also been seen before. Trajan is quite badly wounded by one which drains much of his strength before it can be killed.

While the party are attempting to deal with the summoned critters, suddenly into the midst of the fighting a confusion spell explodes; randomly targeted into the mist it only catches a couple of the party - but Azrin succumbs. Looking around confused he sees Trajan as one of his enemies and whips out the wand of burning hands and shoots him in the back with it, and then steps forward to attempt a stunning blow, which misses.

After a couple more rounds of confused fighting, the evil priest dispels the mists and the Blessed casts flame arrow on a group of ten prepared hobgoblin archers. The arrangement of the columns in the temple means that they cannot concentrate their fire on just one foe, so five shoot at Trajan, five at Lysander. The hobgoblins fire is astoundingly accurate, landing three hits apiece on the heroes and Lysander is even critically hit. The magic fire makes the arrows even more deadly than normal and suddenly the frontline fighters are looking to retreat. Both reduced to single-digit hit points. As one they call upon Asura to heal their wounds, and then they start moving back using the pillars as cover.

There is a laugh and a shout from the black-armoured and ochre-robed priest, who spins his cape around his head and then a cloud of webs shoot out and form over the entire entranceway of the hall, ensnaring all of the heroes. While they struggle to free themselves (except for the confused Azrin) the hobgoblins continue to take potshots at them, and the blessed starts launching magic missiles. Lysander is able to struggle free of the webs and makes his way back to the entrance, and with K'tan wonders what to do next...

Trouble for our heroes - will they escape? Tune in tomorrow for the next exciting episode!

 

[Plane Sailing]

Apparently the two chief villains decide to have a "sporting" competition, and the priest launches a searing light spell at Trajan, wounding him even more, while the blessed launches a pair of firebolts at M'ir - both of which hit, neither of which he manages to save against and evade... and M'irs charred body drops to the floor.

The webs are engulfed in flames, ignited by the magic spells; Trajan grapples the confused Azrin and bodily carries him out of the front door. As Lysander and K'tan prepare to recover M'irs body two groups of hobgoblin warriors appear from the wings of the hall and charge toward the door. With the entire company virtually at deaths door they decide that the only option they have is to run for it, and they escape out the main entrance and round to where their horses were tied up. Heedless of the sound, they mount up and ride for their lives out of the forest.

Meanwhile - M'ir is not actually dead.

The hobgoblins notice that he is alive but fading, so the ochre-robed priest calls upon dark forces to prevent him bleeding to death.

Captured by the hobgoblins he is placed in a cell for later interrogation and sacrifice. Recognising that he doesn't have much hope unless he escapes, M'ir uses up his "dimension slide tattoo" to appear the other side of the barred window of his small cell, and then he carefully creeps away into the night, to attempt to rejoin his friends...


DMs note: what a fiasco - routed by the Hobgoblins (with some heavy magical help). Trajan and Azrin want to go back to try and "take them", but Lysander alone seems to recognise that at the moment the company is simply unable to match the temple in a frontal assault. They decide to return to Knightsbridge to lick their wounds, recover and plan

Next game this Sunday - and they will be taking a side trek into "Of Sound Mind" by Piratecat. Will the magic rub off?