At the end of the 9th chapter, we had arrived at the docks of Freeton. We were met by guards, some in the livery of Freeton and some in the livery of the Council of Divinity. The guards took us to see the same guy we met when we first arrived in Allaron, the friend of Liam’s, who was a captain when last we saw him—but in the meantime he’s become a general. He told the guards to stand down & then took Liam away to talk. Some other council members took us to the cathedral. (The north & east gates were on fire?)
It’s a huge cathedral, w/ a wing for each major god. The guards took us to the Erathis wing and told us that Liam would return once he’d been briefed.
We decided to talk to some people and headed over to Sehanine’s cathedral. There was a Deva standing at the podium, who consulted a tome, the Moon Chronicle, which tracks all of her followers. He told us the last known entry in the tome for us was in Allaron … ten years ago.
We told him what happened at the Keep and he told us to wait there & wandered off toward the cloister. He motioned to the guards and then 15 guards approached us, drawing their weapons. The told us to surrender our items.
Suddenly, Liam comes storming through the doors, sword drawn, yelling “Ambush!” w/ more guards following him. He veered towards the library and we all followed after him, running toward some big stained glass windows. Yonah, Kelissa, & I (though it was mostly Yonah) toppled a pair of bookshelves in the way of the guards who were following behind us.
Liam ran headlong right through the windows and grabbed a metal flag pole outside of them, sliding down. Yonah and Kelissa jump through the window and grab the pole too. Fergis tripped on the edge of the window and fell, but Yonah grabbed him and lowers him safely with her as she slid down. I jumped after them and slid down too. We land on the roof of the common area of the cathedral. The only ways down were to climb the walls or jump into the moat.
Most of us successfully climbed down the wall but Fergis and Liam both fell into the moat. Yonah dove back into the moat and pulled the two of them to shore.
We all scrambled for the north gate, heading into the burnt areas. We found some streets blocked off and/or guarded. We found a house that we could use to circumvent the guards and get over the wall. We headed north out of town. As we walked, Liam explained that we were being blamed for the portal opening, and that we are wanted for the destruction of the city of Winterhaven. We talked and decided the Council of Divinity must’ve become corrupted—our divine powers are intact, so the gods must know that we’ve not turned against them. Liam tells us that he learned that Avandra’s followers have left the Council.
We eventually found a defensible place and made camp for the night. We all shared the same dream:
We’re sitting in a circle, in positions that reflect the deities we are connected with, all of us facing outward. Behind Liam is a man with metal towers on his shoulders. Near Dillius is a woman with coin purses. Near Gareth and Yonah, a red-haired woman w/ a gown of leaves. To the right of Dillius is a dragonborn male dressed in silver. Near Jalfred, is a dwarf with a hammer. Behind Kelissa is a man with fiery hair & a crown of sun rays. Behind Krusk is a female Halfling w/ a cup of wine.
Each of the gods’ images backed up, sort of like a ghost separating from a body. Liam’s man is suddenly crushed underneath o pile of rubble; Erathis turns and walks away; the Halfling walks back into his image and walks away, as does the dwarf. The image of Pelor turns and burns the elven woman into dust. Sehanine’s image sheds a tear and then walks away. Dillius’ avatar approaches the large fat man (?) and shoves gold coins in his mouth until he turns to gold and melts into the ground. The rest of the avatars mere into images and leave. The man who sent Fergis to us rises from the ground, looks confused b/c he has no image of his god, and sinks back into the ground.
The circle we were sitting around becomes metal, spins, then melts and pours into Fergis’ tattoos.
Rays shoot out of his body at all of us:
• We are each granted the power to spend a second wind whenever we’re unconscious as a minor action.
• Each of us has our god’s symbol tattooed into our forearms. We each get a +10 to all social checks when dealing w/ someone who follows our god.
We headed west for 3 days and found an old cathedral in ruins, devoted to a god who no longer exists. It’s marked with a symbol like a black widow’s hourglass.
Inside, it’s old & musty, full of empty bookshelves. We spend 4-5 hours searching the place with extreme care and found nothing at all.
Questions:
• Why was there no Raven Queen apparition in the dream? (Raven Queen is Goddess of Opportunity, controls death & winter. She came upon her power as result of an earlier war between the gods, & she overthrew the previous god of death.)
• Avandra’s followers have left the Council. Why? Can we find them? They are supposedly based on the Isle of Freedom.
• Dream & events before it show schism between the Gods and the Council. Can we find some trustworthy council member?
• Huge black pillars in the distance
• Point Nicholas is the largest mountain, far to the west of us.
While we sleep something attacked us. They are Shadar-Kai—they seek new experiences & rush of sensations. They are bound to the Raven Queen, who extended their lives, but then they experience malaise from living for so long in the Shadowfell, so they go off seeking adventure. There are 5 of them & we fight and kill them.
They’ve disturbed the rubble on the floor, and we find a new version of that same black widow symbol underneath all the rubble & dirt. When we step on the symbol, the floor depresses and underneath it there is a book.
__________________________________________________
The loot:
600 GP
2 potions (+2d6 healing)
2 katars
1 gloom blade
1 spike chain
5 sets of black armor
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Journal Day 9
Enemies:
Pain (actually a swarm of insects that forms into a woman’s body)
Woe (a golden woman, susceptible to fire)
Burden
Fear
Bone dragon
A Vortex from Shadowfell
Ice devil
Zombie hulk
___________________________________
I launched a fire arrow at Woe. As the arrow flew, time slowed down and the portal reopened. 2 individuals standing there: a human w/ his hand on the portal and a dwarf, who stepped through the portal and then became solid. He touched the dragon which burst into motes of light & disappeared; then he touched the ice devil, which melted away. His body was totally covered in tattoos, which glow with a golden light. Then time restored to normal.
An epic battle ensued. We all took serious damage. Burden kept raising more minions to battle us. Dillius at some point found Kalarel’s book of rituals and used it to dispel the shadow creatures of the vortex & zombie hulk. Fergus took control of Burden somehow & forced him to attack his allies, and Pain killed Burden to stop his attacks. I managed to hit Pain with a Sun Hammer and she burst into flame and died. We all dealt out some good damage to Fear, but finally Dillius finished him off with a Stirring Shout. But we were all in tough shape at that point and Woe was left. She was dealing some serious damage. I was brought down to 0 hit points, but managed to take a healing potion and then to launch an Evasive Strike at her, making a critical hit and killing her.
We found that the Rift was permanently closed.
Fergis told us he was sent her to help by the Raven Queen to fight against Death. He is a Revenant, a race of beings created by the Raven Queen. She brings their souls back to life, making them appear just as they did in life. They are not undead, but reborn individuals, generally treated as any other race. The tattoos that cover his body are an ancient language. We somehow (??) know there is a temple related to that language somewhere near Freeton.
When we got back outside, everything was different, barren and dead. The sky was gray and the sun dim. Very far in the distance there were wide swaths of blackness in the sky, pillars maybe a mile high. We saw no animals or signs of life anywhere. It reminded us of Splug’s Tale of the 9.
We went to Winterhaven. There was nothing moving or alive there. There were signs that the city was simply abandoned, in something of a rush. It was a complete ghost town. We gathered rations when we could find them. The magic shop was packed up and locked and Padraig’s mansion was packed up, locked and boarded.
We went to the scholar’s tower and found at least many of his books left behind. We spent a bit of time going through them and found a ledger of people who’d entered the town. Based on what we can gather from the ledger, we seem to have been gone for at least 3 years. We also found some scholarly text on the Shadow Realm and looked for info on the Keepers of the Nine: tales of the world’s last days, destruction and disasters. We found some prophecy scrolls that describe 9 portals, each corresponding to a different catastrophe, and once each have been triggered, the world is destroyed. Each portal has a keeper, typically someone from the Council of Divinity.
We spent another day searching Winterhaven and found nothing especially worthwhile, and no other signs of life. We went to the River Freenik not far away and built a boat to travel to Freeton. The water of the river is gray—no algae, no fish, no bugs, no life at all. As if all life has just stopped.
For a full day of traveling on the river, there were still no signs of life. The next day, we began to see vague signs of lige. By the third day, we started to see birds and small animals. On the 4th day we approached Freeton.
In the distance, still see those deep black pillars in the sky. As we approached the city, we saw that it was on fire, or at least big chunks of it are. There are some fortifications and we can see people there, fighting to defend the city.
We pulled up to the docks of the city and the guards approached.
___________________________________________________
The loot:
6000 GP
Safewing amulet +2 [Fergis]
Goggles of the Book Collector (+3 to monster knowledge check)
Pain (actually a swarm of insects that forms into a woman’s body)
Woe (a golden woman, susceptible to fire)
Burden
Fear
Bone dragon
A Vortex from Shadowfell
Ice devil
Zombie hulk
___________________________________
I launched a fire arrow at Woe. As the arrow flew, time slowed down and the portal reopened. 2 individuals standing there: a human w/ his hand on the portal and a dwarf, who stepped through the portal and then became solid. He touched the dragon which burst into motes of light & disappeared; then he touched the ice devil, which melted away. His body was totally covered in tattoos, which glow with a golden light. Then time restored to normal.
An epic battle ensued. We all took serious damage. Burden kept raising more minions to battle us. Dillius at some point found Kalarel’s book of rituals and used it to dispel the shadow creatures of the vortex & zombie hulk. Fergus took control of Burden somehow & forced him to attack his allies, and Pain killed Burden to stop his attacks. I managed to hit Pain with a Sun Hammer and she burst into flame and died. We all dealt out some good damage to Fear, but finally Dillius finished him off with a Stirring Shout. But we were all in tough shape at that point and Woe was left. She was dealing some serious damage. I was brought down to 0 hit points, but managed to take a healing potion and then to launch an Evasive Strike at her, making a critical hit and killing her.
We found that the Rift was permanently closed.
Fergis told us he was sent her to help by the Raven Queen to fight against Death. He is a Revenant, a race of beings created by the Raven Queen. She brings their souls back to life, making them appear just as they did in life. They are not undead, but reborn individuals, generally treated as any other race. The tattoos that cover his body are an ancient language. We somehow (??) know there is a temple related to that language somewhere near Freeton.
When we got back outside, everything was different, barren and dead. The sky was gray and the sun dim. Very far in the distance there were wide swaths of blackness in the sky, pillars maybe a mile high. We saw no animals or signs of life anywhere. It reminded us of Splug’s Tale of the 9.
We went to Winterhaven. There was nothing moving or alive there. There were signs that the city was simply abandoned, in something of a rush. It was a complete ghost town. We gathered rations when we could find them. The magic shop was packed up and locked and Padraig’s mansion was packed up, locked and boarded.
We went to the scholar’s tower and found at least many of his books left behind. We spent a bit of time going through them and found a ledger of people who’d entered the town. Based on what we can gather from the ledger, we seem to have been gone for at least 3 years. We also found some scholarly text on the Shadow Realm and looked for info on the Keepers of the Nine: tales of the world’s last days, destruction and disasters. We found some prophecy scrolls that describe 9 portals, each corresponding to a different catastrophe, and once each have been triggered, the world is destroyed. Each portal has a keeper, typically someone from the Council of Divinity.
We spent another day searching Winterhaven and found nothing especially worthwhile, and no other signs of life. We went to the River Freenik not far away and built a boat to travel to Freeton. The water of the river is gray—no algae, no fish, no bugs, no life at all. As if all life has just stopped.
For a full day of traveling on the river, there were still no signs of life. The next day, we began to see vague signs of lige. By the third day, we started to see birds and small animals. On the 4th day we approached Freeton.
In the distance, still see those deep black pillars in the sky. As we approached the city, we saw that it was on fire, or at least big chunks of it are. There are some fortifications and we can see people there, fighting to defend the city.
We pulled up to the docks of the city and the guards approached.
___________________________________________________
The loot:
6000 GP
Safewing amulet +2 [Fergis]
Goggles of the Book Collector (+3 to monster knowledge check)
Journal Day 8
We went further into the depths of the keep and found a room with a towering statue of a warrior in plate armor and a pair of crouching dragons. When we entered the room, the doors behind us slammed shut & bolts slid in place locking the door. The statue lifted slightly off the ground and began spinning around, with its sword sweeping in wild arcs. I jumped on the statue’s back and found a panel to deactivate it but before I could actually do so, I got thrown off its back, landing near one of the dragons, which activated and hit me with a breath weapon attack. Kellisa managed to get onto the statue & disarmed it permanently, though.
There were four cherub statues surrounding the door out of the room. When Liam walked between them, a translucent wall went up between them, trapping him inside and the room started filling up with water. The rest of us put our backs into it and toppled the other statues over, breaking the spell and releasing Liam from the trap.
Beyond the door, we found stairs down to a natural cave, which opened into a huge expanse, maybe a mile in diameter. We were in the Underdark, the world beneath the earth’s crust. We saw a huge cathedral covered in jet black gargoyles carved from obsidian or onyx.
Inside the cathedral, crimson streams of blood trailed along the floor, spilling down into a grate in the floor. The blood was supplied from a dais where 2 men with ram skull tattoos covering their faces were chanting and carving up bodies. Bodies of brutally mutilated, bloody humanoid men, women, and children littered the floor around them. In the pit, the blood dripped down around a series of chains that led deep into the darkness.
The men at the dais didn’t see us, so we tried to sneak around closer to them, but as we turned the coner, there was a dark-creeper—a Halfling shaped humanoid made of shadow—waiting around the corner for us. He charged at Yonah and then a half-dozen feral-faced vampiric humanoids came at the rest of us. When we destroyed the dark-creeper, it exploded and everyone in the party except me was blinded temporarily. Then 2 barbarians and the pair of underpriests burst through the doors and attacked. We eventually fought them off. On the dais we found a ritual book, a shroud of gloaming, and a suit of hide armor.
We descended the chains into a nightmare. Blood poured down into a pit, a yawning black portal dominated the north wall with something straining against the portal from beyond. Blazing runes were inscribed in the floor and a giant statue of Orcus was in the corner, with two more smaller statues of orcus next to a small pit. A deathlock wight stood near the pit (causes fear, reanimated the undead, serve as powerful sgts & lts to more powerful undead. Very intelligent, pulls back the flaps of its face to cause terrible fear in its enemies). 2 skeletal warriors stood to the side.
Kalarel, a human in heavy armor with a rod stood at the altar, chanting a low droaning prayer from the book opened before him. More mutilated, disemboweled bodies were chained to a series of black pillars.
We managed to surprise Kalarel, and I launched a powerful ranged attack on him but my shot was just wide of the mark, even after I tried using my elven accuracy and an action point to aid the attack. Then Liam charged at him, but as he crossed the threshold near him, the bodies on the columns screamed out in agony and moved to shield Kalarel. They were pale reavers, semi-substantial intelligent undead creatures that can become insubstantial & pass through solid objects. They attack with their hair, through which they suck blood and rejuvenate themselves.
A bunch of them swarmed in front of Kalarel and we were unable to fight our way through them all before Kalarel completed the ritual. The portal was activated. A blazing light flashed out from it, and Kalarel and all the other enemies in the room were blasted into nothingness. Our party was all thrown against the far wall.
4 horsemen, the same 4 who had been flying over the city of Allaron, rode in through the portal and dismounted. Their steeds returned through the portal. The 4 horsemen were deva, with red skin & black markings: they are Woe, Fear, Pain, and Burden. 1 has pure white eyes & bears a shield, another has glowing red eyes, another has metallic silver eyes and also bears a shield, and the 4th has pure black eyes with blue swirls within it (the same color as that cloud which attacked us earlier) and a laugh that I somehow remember from the depths of my subconscious. The fourth has a shield with a coat of arms that’s a modified version of the symbol of Orcus and as he breathes his breath frosts in the air.
The first step forward and says in an unnatural voice, “We are Death.” The third greeted Dillius and Liam and said, “I know who you are.” The second greeted Yonah, calling her sister. We looked around and figured out that Splug was missing, and the second told us “He has returned to his master.”
The first then told us that we have two choices, “Join us or die” but another interrupted, pointing out, “If they join us, they’ll die anyway.” Though Dilius mumbled something about looking for the easiest way out, we told them that we would never join them.
The 4 spread out and each yelled out calls to their minions to come.
______________________________________________
The loot:
Bracers of Escape [Dillius]
Ritual book w/ 3 pages (last sight visions, explorer fire, transforming enchantment ??) [Dillius]
Shroud of Gloaming (+2 fort/ref/will & bonus to stealth) [Gareth]
Sylvan hide armor +2 (bonus to athletic & stealth) [Yonah]
Footpad friend’s dagger [Kellisa]
Holy Gauntlets [Liam]
Cloak of Resistance [Dillius]
Bracers of Defense [Kellisa]
Boots of Free Movement [Liam]
Mindiron Bracers [Yonah]
XP:
3117
There were four cherub statues surrounding the door out of the room. When Liam walked between them, a translucent wall went up between them, trapping him inside and the room started filling up with water. The rest of us put our backs into it and toppled the other statues over, breaking the spell and releasing Liam from the trap.
Beyond the door, we found stairs down to a natural cave, which opened into a huge expanse, maybe a mile in diameter. We were in the Underdark, the world beneath the earth’s crust. We saw a huge cathedral covered in jet black gargoyles carved from obsidian or onyx.
Inside the cathedral, crimson streams of blood trailed along the floor, spilling down into a grate in the floor. The blood was supplied from a dais where 2 men with ram skull tattoos covering their faces were chanting and carving up bodies. Bodies of brutally mutilated, bloody humanoid men, women, and children littered the floor around them. In the pit, the blood dripped down around a series of chains that led deep into the darkness.
The men at the dais didn’t see us, so we tried to sneak around closer to them, but as we turned the coner, there was a dark-creeper—a Halfling shaped humanoid made of shadow—waiting around the corner for us. He charged at Yonah and then a half-dozen feral-faced vampiric humanoids came at the rest of us. When we destroyed the dark-creeper, it exploded and everyone in the party except me was blinded temporarily. Then 2 barbarians and the pair of underpriests burst through the doors and attacked. We eventually fought them off. On the dais we found a ritual book, a shroud of gloaming, and a suit of hide armor.
We descended the chains into a nightmare. Blood poured down into a pit, a yawning black portal dominated the north wall with something straining against the portal from beyond. Blazing runes were inscribed in the floor and a giant statue of Orcus was in the corner, with two more smaller statues of orcus next to a small pit. A deathlock wight stood near the pit (causes fear, reanimated the undead, serve as powerful sgts & lts to more powerful undead. Very intelligent, pulls back the flaps of its face to cause terrible fear in its enemies). 2 skeletal warriors stood to the side.
Kalarel, a human in heavy armor with a rod stood at the altar, chanting a low droaning prayer from the book opened before him. More mutilated, disemboweled bodies were chained to a series of black pillars.
We managed to surprise Kalarel, and I launched a powerful ranged attack on him but my shot was just wide of the mark, even after I tried using my elven accuracy and an action point to aid the attack. Then Liam charged at him, but as he crossed the threshold near him, the bodies on the columns screamed out in agony and moved to shield Kalarel. They were pale reavers, semi-substantial intelligent undead creatures that can become insubstantial & pass through solid objects. They attack with their hair, through which they suck blood and rejuvenate themselves.
A bunch of them swarmed in front of Kalarel and we were unable to fight our way through them all before Kalarel completed the ritual. The portal was activated. A blazing light flashed out from it, and Kalarel and all the other enemies in the room were blasted into nothingness. Our party was all thrown against the far wall.
4 horsemen, the same 4 who had been flying over the city of Allaron, rode in through the portal and dismounted. Their steeds returned through the portal. The 4 horsemen were deva, with red skin & black markings: they are Woe, Fear, Pain, and Burden. 1 has pure white eyes & bears a shield, another has glowing red eyes, another has metallic silver eyes and also bears a shield, and the 4th has pure black eyes with blue swirls within it (the same color as that cloud which attacked us earlier) and a laugh that I somehow remember from the depths of my subconscious. The fourth has a shield with a coat of arms that’s a modified version of the symbol of Orcus and as he breathes his breath frosts in the air.
The first step forward and says in an unnatural voice, “We are Death.” The third greeted Dillius and Liam and said, “I know who you are.” The second greeted Yonah, calling her sister. We looked around and figured out that Splug was missing, and the second told us “He has returned to his master.”
The first then told us that we have two choices, “Join us or die” but another interrupted, pointing out, “If they join us, they’ll die anyway.” Though Dilius mumbled something about looking for the easiest way out, we told them that we would never join them.
The 4 spread out and each yelled out calls to their minions to come.
______________________________________________
The loot:
Bracers of Escape [Dillius]
Ritual book w/ 3 pages (last sight visions, explorer fire, transforming enchantment ??) [Dillius]
Shroud of Gloaming (+2 fort/ref/will & bonus to stealth) [Gareth]
Sylvan hide armor +2 (bonus to athletic & stealth) [Yonah]
Footpad friend’s dagger [Kellisa]
Holy Gauntlets [Liam]
Cloak of Resistance [Dillius]
Bracers of Defense [Kellisa]
Boots of Free Movement [Liam]
Mindiron Bracers [Yonah]
XP:
3117
Journal Day 7
When we stopped last, the ghost of Sir Keegan had just risen from his
sarcophagus and demanded that we state our business or prepare to die.
We answered that we had come to Shadowfell to insure that the rift
remain closed. When I told Keegan that we had heard stories about
what transpired in the Keep, but were not certain what had really
happened, Keegan replied that he had failed at his responsibility,
because “Orcus’s vile taint soaked through the rift and influenced my
dreams,” undermining his sanity and driving him to murder his wife,
children, and compatriots.
Keegan interrogated us about our plans and experiences. At first it
was difficult to convince him that we were telling him the truth, and
we each needed to play a part in the conversation. Yonah was
particularly effective in intimidating him when it looked like he
might distrust us so much that he’d resort to blows. Eventually we
convinced him that we were serious in our plans to destroy Kalarel,
and he offered his own sword to us, saying that he hoped we would
redeem his eloquent weapon with out exploits. He further advised us
to seek Bahamut’s boon at the altars and he might aid us in our quest,
and then he burst into a cloud of dust. We once again inspected the
dragon statues we had found, and realized that whoever bears one gains
a +2 to defenses against the foe who attempts to reopen the rift.
We decided to search the room further, when from Keegan’s dust some
foul creature from the netherworld coalesced and attacked us. None of
us had ever seen anything like it and couldn’t identify it at all, but
it was a creature from the plane of shadow. It attacked mainly by
surrounding us in clouds of smoke that attempted to dominate us, and
with necrotic ice or lightning attacks. The sound of the creature’s
laughter stirred some dim memory from my childhood—was this creature
involved in my parents’ deaths?
It was probably the most powerful single creature we had fought,
especially because of its power to dominate, but we eventually
defeated it. From out of its howling core, dropped a pair of items
when it was destroyed: a belt and a suit of platemail armor.
Since we had completely cleared out that level of the dungeon, we
prepared to descend down to the level where Kalarel had gone. At the
bottom of the stairs, we found 4 hobgoblins standing watch over a
door, with a Deathjump spider the size of a horse in a cage nearby.
[Deathjump spiders were tamed by the Drow and are used mainly by the
followers of Lolth.] As we came down the stairs, one shouted out
“shadow seeks shadow” and I replied with the password we had gleaned
from Balgron: “life fails in the dark.” They asked us what business
we had with Kalarel and, remembering the note we found back in the
blue slime’s chamber, I told them that we had been sent by Chief Krand
of the Blood Reivers, so they escorted us to their war chief.
They brought us to a big room and then went to fetch their chief. When
he came, we told him that we were there to see Kalarel, bearing a
message from Chief Krand. He was skeptical, but we totally bluffed
our way through the conversation, until he was finally convinced that
we were in fact an elite guard for Kalarel and one of the dragon
statues we had found was the new symbol for the Blood Reivers. The
War Chief then told us that we couldn’t talk to Kalarel because they
weren’t certain where he was—he went deeper into the dungeon and
hasn’t been seen for some time. The Chief said they’ve been waiting
around with nothing much to do and wondering when they would receive
further orders. The Chief asked us, then, whether Krand had sent
orders along to them. I thought for a second and then told him that I
wasn’t supposed to say, but we were there to evaluate Kalarel and,
based on what he had told us, we would be exercising extreme prejudice
in our … uh … critique of Kalarel, and I ordered him to gather up his
men and return to the Blood Reivers for further assignment. He seemed
surprised but called in some of his men and ordered them to gather
their gear.
We spent a couple of hours standing around scowling at the hobgoblins
as they prepared to march. At some point, one of the hobgoblins went
up to scout out the way and returned with news that the soldiers
guarding the entrance to the keep had been killed. The Chief turned
to us suspiciously, so I told him there was obviously an assault
underway so they needed to move on the double to get out so that we
could make sure that Kalarel was dealt with before the enemy arrived.
So the Chief and his men stormed out of the keep.
We avoided fighting 23 hobgoblins and the deathjump spider by bluffing
our way through that encounter.
We followed the hallway to where the Chief had indicated Kalarel had
disappeared. There were a pair of double doors with a board nailed
across them with “Closed” written on it in common. Yonah smashed the
door down and we found a short hallway that was remarkably clean and
free of dust. This warning wasn’t enough to make the battle with the
gelatinous cube in the hallway any easier, really. It was hard to see
in the failing light in the hallway and we tried to retreat away from
it, but ended up fighting both it and a pair of corruption corpses
(humanoid zombies in pools of their own rotting flesh, which were
difficult to fight because if you got close to them, they smelled so
fetid that it made it next to impossible to focus on fighting).
Once we had killed the cube and the corruption corpses, we found
another small room with a check inside it bearing the image of
Bahamut. Inside the chest were children’s clothes, a wooden toy
sword, a hairbrush, a pair of amulets, and some jewelry.
____________________________________________________
The loot:
10 gp
Medallion worth 250 gp (inscribed Drystan Keegan)
Platinum bracelet worth 200 gp (inscribed Ceinwin Keegan)
Hairbrush inset w/ mother of pearl worth 5 gp
Retribution Longsword +2 [Liam]
Ironskin belt (gain resist 5 to [some kind of?] damage) [Yonah]
Deathburst Rimfire Plate Armor +2 [Liam]
Safewing amulet +1 (if fall, drop slowly & land on feet, no damage
from fall of 10’ & fort/ref/will defenses +1)
XP:
1808
sarcophagus and demanded that we state our business or prepare to die.
We answered that we had come to Shadowfell to insure that the rift
remain closed. When I told Keegan that we had heard stories about
what transpired in the Keep, but were not certain what had really
happened, Keegan replied that he had failed at his responsibility,
because “Orcus’s vile taint soaked through the rift and influenced my
dreams,” undermining his sanity and driving him to murder his wife,
children, and compatriots.
Keegan interrogated us about our plans and experiences. At first it
was difficult to convince him that we were telling him the truth, and
we each needed to play a part in the conversation. Yonah was
particularly effective in intimidating him when it looked like he
might distrust us so much that he’d resort to blows. Eventually we
convinced him that we were serious in our plans to destroy Kalarel,
and he offered his own sword to us, saying that he hoped we would
redeem his eloquent weapon with out exploits. He further advised us
to seek Bahamut’s boon at the altars and he might aid us in our quest,
and then he burst into a cloud of dust. We once again inspected the
dragon statues we had found, and realized that whoever bears one gains
a +2 to defenses against the foe who attempts to reopen the rift.
We decided to search the room further, when from Keegan’s dust some
foul creature from the netherworld coalesced and attacked us. None of
us had ever seen anything like it and couldn’t identify it at all, but
it was a creature from the plane of shadow. It attacked mainly by
surrounding us in clouds of smoke that attempted to dominate us, and
with necrotic ice or lightning attacks. The sound of the creature’s
laughter stirred some dim memory from my childhood—was this creature
involved in my parents’ deaths?
It was probably the most powerful single creature we had fought,
especially because of its power to dominate, but we eventually
defeated it. From out of its howling core, dropped a pair of items
when it was destroyed: a belt and a suit of platemail armor.
Since we had completely cleared out that level of the dungeon, we
prepared to descend down to the level where Kalarel had gone. At the
bottom of the stairs, we found 4 hobgoblins standing watch over a
door, with a Deathjump spider the size of a horse in a cage nearby.
[Deathjump spiders were tamed by the Drow and are used mainly by the
followers of Lolth.] As we came down the stairs, one shouted out
“shadow seeks shadow” and I replied with the password we had gleaned
from Balgron: “life fails in the dark.” They asked us what business
we had with Kalarel and, remembering the note we found back in the
blue slime’s chamber, I told them that we had been sent by Chief Krand
of the Blood Reivers, so they escorted us to their war chief.
They brought us to a big room and then went to fetch their chief. When
he came, we told him that we were there to see Kalarel, bearing a
message from Chief Krand. He was skeptical, but we totally bluffed
our way through the conversation, until he was finally convinced that
we were in fact an elite guard for Kalarel and one of the dragon
statues we had found was the new symbol for the Blood Reivers. The
War Chief then told us that we couldn’t talk to Kalarel because they
weren’t certain where he was—he went deeper into the dungeon and
hasn’t been seen for some time. The Chief said they’ve been waiting
around with nothing much to do and wondering when they would receive
further orders. The Chief asked us, then, whether Krand had sent
orders along to them. I thought for a second and then told him that I
wasn’t supposed to say, but we were there to evaluate Kalarel and,
based on what he had told us, we would be exercising extreme prejudice
in our … uh … critique of Kalarel, and I ordered him to gather up his
men and return to the Blood Reivers for further assignment. He seemed
surprised but called in some of his men and ordered them to gather
their gear.
We spent a couple of hours standing around scowling at the hobgoblins
as they prepared to march. At some point, one of the hobgoblins went
up to scout out the way and returned with news that the soldiers
guarding the entrance to the keep had been killed. The Chief turned
to us suspiciously, so I told him there was obviously an assault
underway so they needed to move on the double to get out so that we
could make sure that Kalarel was dealt with before the enemy arrived.
So the Chief and his men stormed out of the keep.
We avoided fighting 23 hobgoblins and the deathjump spider by bluffing
our way through that encounter.
We followed the hallway to where the Chief had indicated Kalarel had
disappeared. There were a pair of double doors with a board nailed
across them with “Closed” written on it in common. Yonah smashed the
door down and we found a short hallway that was remarkably clean and
free of dust. This warning wasn’t enough to make the battle with the
gelatinous cube in the hallway any easier, really. It was hard to see
in the failing light in the hallway and we tried to retreat away from
it, but ended up fighting both it and a pair of corruption corpses
(humanoid zombies in pools of their own rotting flesh, which were
difficult to fight because if you got close to them, they smelled so
fetid that it made it next to impossible to focus on fighting).
Once we had killed the cube and the corruption corpses, we found
another small room with a check inside it bearing the image of
Bahamut. Inside the chest were children’s clothes, a wooden toy
sword, a hairbrush, a pair of amulets, and some jewelry.
____________________________________________________
The loot:
10 gp
Medallion worth 250 gp (inscribed Drystan Keegan)
Platinum bracelet worth 200 gp (inscribed Ceinwin Keegan)
Hairbrush inset w/ mother of pearl worth 5 gp
Retribution Longsword +2 [Liam]
Ironskin belt (gain resist 5 to [some kind of?] damage) [Yonah]
Deathburst Rimfire Plate Armor +2 [Liam]
Safewing amulet +1 (if fall, drop slowly & land on feet, no damage
from fall of 10’ & fort/ref/will defenses +1)
XP:
1808
Journal Day 6
When we stopped at the end of day 5, we had 2 paths left to us: a
hallway off the chamber where we confronted the blue slime and the
stair, which Splug told us led down to Kalarel. We decided to follow
the hallway before going further down, on the rationale that we didn’t
want to leave anything behind us once we headed down.
We found a chamber full of kruthiks, which are a species of chitinous
reptilian hunters that form hives undergound. They are methodical
hunters, destroying all the prey in an area before moving on to the
next. They butcher their kills and carry treasure back toehir nests.
Strange tracks that look as if they were made by spikes are sure signs
of a kruthik horde. They communicate with one another through a
complex series of insectlike chitters and hisses. They hatch from
eggs, grow into young, then enter into a hard cocoon to change into
the next larger stage. They take the scent of their own dead as a
warning, so slaying enough kruthiks in an area might drive the
remaining hive elsewhere. The kruthik arise from the Tiefling empire,
where mages infused worldly reptiles with fiendish blood. They
probably had a way to control the kruthiks then, but if so that
technique was lost with the fall of the Tiefling empire.
We killed off the hive and searched the lair, finding a big pile of
useless gear, some gold & silver, a small chest holding 5 amethysts,
magic boots of climbing, and a magic bow and arrows.
The experience from that battle with the kruthiks was enough for me to level up
There were no other exits from the hive, so we circled back to the
stairs down to Kalarel.
At the bottom of the stairs, everything was pitch black. Hallways
stretched in 2 directions: down one there was faint light and Splug
saw some zombies standing about in the room. Krusk wanted to go
exploring down the pitch dark passageway, in the hopes that whatever
was that direction would be surprised by our presence & we wouldn’t
squander surprise on the zombies. I wanted to go ahead and attack the
zombies with the element of surprise and then move on to the next
threat, rather than risking wandering blindly into a trap and losing
surprise anyway. But Krusk wouldn’t listen to me and just started
down the dark hallway, so I followed. After a few steps, Krusk
stepped on a terror rune inscribed on the floor, which he couldn’t see
because of the dark, and the rune both set off an alarm screech and
set off a reaction of fear in each of us that forced us to run at full
speed away from the rune, right into the room full of zombies.
We killed the zombies, and then another group of zombies that had been
down the dark passageway, who came after us when the alarm sounded.
Then we found a secret door the led into an armory and I think we
killed a few more zombies [I paused to read stories to the kids, so am
not 100% clear on what happened.] There was a suit of worthless,
tattered armor along the wall and a plaque, which spoke the words to a
riddle. We answered the riddle and the worthless armor transformed
into some cool magical hide armor covered in vines.
We rested in that armory, since it was a readily defensible room, and
then set out again. We found a long hallway, shaped like the nave of a
cathedral, with a row of sarcophagi spaced along the walls, each
adorned with some indecipherable draconic script. The other end of
From some of the sarcophagi, we could hear faint clicks and noises,
which I thought probably indicated that there were skeletons inside.
Kelissa and I decided to pause and carefully inspect these sarcophagi
before moving any further into the room. Krusk decided instead, to
just grab one of them and open it up. A bunch of skeletons came
pouring out and attacked. We killed the first wave, but more kept
coming at us.
At the apse of the hallway, there was a huge dome with the image of
Bahamut carved into it. Bahamut is the God of Justice & Honor, the
first of the metallic dragons. He is Lawful Good. Though there are
rumors that it is disrespectful to call him by name, which is why many
refer to him only as The Platinum Dragon, these rumors are false. His
followers resist evil, protect the weak, and offer aid to those most
in need; they also revere Tiamat, even though he is the opposite of
Bahamut, because of his draconic qualities. His paladins are
quintessential paladins. His followers were the first to recommend
the creation of the Council of Divinity. There were 2 big tables in
the transepts, inscribed with words celebrating Bahamut, ending in the
phrase “I need only kneel and offer Bahamut my praise,” so Yonah knelt
and praised Bahamut and the skeleton assault ended.
In one of the tables, we found a secret compartment with 8 small
silver and platinum dragon sculptures.
We found a doorway at the end of the hall that led to steps up to
another large stone sarcophagus, this one carved with the image of a
warrior in plate armor with a sword laid across his chest with the
point at his feet. This seemed to clearly be the burial place for Sir
Keegan. Draped over the sarcophagus was a cape, which turned out to
be magical.
We opened the sarcophagus and Sir Keegan’s skeleton burst out, saying
“The Rift must never be reopened! State your business or prepare to
die…” He prepared himself to attack, but before he did I said, “We
are here to ensure that the Rift is never reopened” and he stopped to
listen.
And that’s where we stopped for the night.
____________________________________________
The loot:
59 gp
216 sp
5 amethysts w 50 gp/ea
8 small silver & platinum dragon statues w 60 gp/ea
2 healing potions
Boots of spider-climbing [Krusk]
Lightning longbow +1 [Gareth]
Firestorm arrows +1 [Gareth]
Life vine hide armor +1 [Krusk]
Cape of the Mountebank [Kelissa]
XP:
644 for Gareth, Kellissa, and Krusk.
322 for everyone Yonah, Liam, Dillius, & Jalfred.
_________________________________________________
GM Update:
David,Gareth - Host, MVP (for suggestion of Bahamut's solution) - 500xp
Tiffany, Kellisa - Conditions and Beads, There before me - 400xp
James, Krusk - Initiative Tracking - 200xp
Totals:
David, 1144xp
Tiffany, 1044xp
James, 844xp
Liam, 322xp
Michael, 322xp
Stephanie, 322xp
Thomas, 322xp
hallway off the chamber where we confronted the blue slime and the
stair, which Splug told us led down to Kalarel. We decided to follow
the hallway before going further down, on the rationale that we didn’t
want to leave anything behind us once we headed down.
We found a chamber full of kruthiks, which are a species of chitinous
reptilian hunters that form hives undergound. They are methodical
hunters, destroying all the prey in an area before moving on to the
next. They butcher their kills and carry treasure back toehir nests.
Strange tracks that look as if they were made by spikes are sure signs
of a kruthik horde. They communicate with one another through a
complex series of insectlike chitters and hisses. They hatch from
eggs, grow into young, then enter into a hard cocoon to change into
the next larger stage. They take the scent of their own dead as a
warning, so slaying enough kruthiks in an area might drive the
remaining hive elsewhere. The kruthik arise from the Tiefling empire,
where mages infused worldly reptiles with fiendish blood. They
probably had a way to control the kruthiks then, but if so that
technique was lost with the fall of the Tiefling empire.
We killed off the hive and searched the lair, finding a big pile of
useless gear, some gold & silver, a small chest holding 5 amethysts,
magic boots of climbing, and a magic bow and arrows.
The experience from that battle with the kruthiks was enough for me to level up
There were no other exits from the hive, so we circled back to the
stairs down to Kalarel.
At the bottom of the stairs, everything was pitch black. Hallways
stretched in 2 directions: down one there was faint light and Splug
saw some zombies standing about in the room. Krusk wanted to go
exploring down the pitch dark passageway, in the hopes that whatever
was that direction would be surprised by our presence & we wouldn’t
squander surprise on the zombies. I wanted to go ahead and attack the
zombies with the element of surprise and then move on to the next
threat, rather than risking wandering blindly into a trap and losing
surprise anyway. But Krusk wouldn’t listen to me and just started
down the dark hallway, so I followed. After a few steps, Krusk
stepped on a terror rune inscribed on the floor, which he couldn’t see
because of the dark, and the rune both set off an alarm screech and
set off a reaction of fear in each of us that forced us to run at full
speed away from the rune, right into the room full of zombies.
We killed the zombies, and then another group of zombies that had been
down the dark passageway, who came after us when the alarm sounded.
Then we found a secret door the led into an armory and I think we
killed a few more zombies [I paused to read stories to the kids, so am
not 100% clear on what happened.] There was a suit of worthless,
tattered armor along the wall and a plaque, which spoke the words to a
riddle. We answered the riddle and the worthless armor transformed
into some cool magical hide armor covered in vines.
We rested in that armory, since it was a readily defensible room, and
then set out again. We found a long hallway, shaped like the nave of a
cathedral, with a row of sarcophagi spaced along the walls, each
adorned with some indecipherable draconic script. The other end of
From some of the sarcophagi, we could hear faint clicks and noises,
which I thought probably indicated that there were skeletons inside.
Kelissa and I decided to pause and carefully inspect these sarcophagi
before moving any further into the room. Krusk decided instead, to
just grab one of them and open it up. A bunch of skeletons came
pouring out and attacked. We killed the first wave, but more kept
coming at us.
At the apse of the hallway, there was a huge dome with the image of
Bahamut carved into it. Bahamut is the God of Justice & Honor, the
first of the metallic dragons. He is Lawful Good. Though there are
rumors that it is disrespectful to call him by name, which is why many
refer to him only as The Platinum Dragon, these rumors are false. His
followers resist evil, protect the weak, and offer aid to those most
in need; they also revere Tiamat, even though he is the opposite of
Bahamut, because of his draconic qualities. His paladins are
quintessential paladins. His followers were the first to recommend
the creation of the Council of Divinity. There were 2 big tables in
the transepts, inscribed with words celebrating Bahamut, ending in the
phrase “I need only kneel and offer Bahamut my praise,” so Yonah knelt
and praised Bahamut and the skeleton assault ended.
In one of the tables, we found a secret compartment with 8 small
silver and platinum dragon sculptures.
We found a doorway at the end of the hall that led to steps up to
another large stone sarcophagus, this one carved with the image of a
warrior in plate armor with a sword laid across his chest with the
point at his feet. This seemed to clearly be the burial place for Sir
Keegan. Draped over the sarcophagus was a cape, which turned out to
be magical.
We opened the sarcophagus and Sir Keegan’s skeleton burst out, saying
“The Rift must never be reopened! State your business or prepare to
die…” He prepared himself to attack, but before he did I said, “We
are here to ensure that the Rift is never reopened” and he stopped to
listen.
And that’s where we stopped for the night.
____________________________________________
The loot:
59 gp
216 sp
5 amethysts w 50 gp/ea
8 small silver & platinum dragon statues w 60 gp/ea
2 healing potions
Boots of spider-climbing [Krusk]
Lightning longbow +1 [Gareth]
Firestorm arrows +1 [Gareth]
Life vine hide armor +1 [Krusk]
Cape of the Mountebank [Kelissa]
XP:
644 for Gareth, Kellissa, and Krusk.
322 for everyone Yonah, Liam, Dillius, & Jalfred.
_________________________________________________
GM Update:
David,Gareth - Host, MVP (for suggestion of Bahamut's solution) - 500xp
Tiffany, Kellisa - Conditions and Beads, There before me - 400xp
James, Krusk - Initiative Tracking - 200xp
Totals:
David, 1144xp
Tiffany, 1044xp
James, 844xp
Liam, 322xp
Michael, 322xp
Stephanie, 322xp
Thomas, 322xp
Journal Day 5
We prepared to enter the secret passageway into Balgron the Fat’s chambers. We decided that we should go in as stealthily as possible, and we decided that we some of us should go stay with Jalfred, who had stayed above ground when we entered the keep, so Kelissa, Liam, and Dillius went back to the surface. Splug remembered that he had left some of his gear back in the torture chamber, so he and Krusk went and got his suit of leather armor, holy symbol of Sehanine and a dagger. It turns out that Splug is a cleric/rogue and given how he comported himself for the rest of that day, quite a fine one. He has expressed interest in staying on with us at least until we finish dealing with Kalarel’s cult. When we first took him with us, I must say that I expected him to betray us the first chance he got, but then in very short order he had a number of opportunities in which to do so and he remained loyal, indeed he went above and beyond the call of duty.
(Our original agreement was for him to work for us in return for us sparing his life and returning the vial of his blood that Balgron held. That agreement, I think, is insufficient now. We should discuss it as a party, and discuss it with Splug, but I would be in favor of some much more generous pay to him—I am thinking something like giving him a half-share of whatever coins we find [i.e., by the end of this 5th remove of adventuring, the three PCs and Splug found 599 gp, so each of the PCs would receive 171 gp and Splug would receive 86.]) I am open to other suggestions for how to remunerate Splug, should he continue to adventure with us, perhaps more of a flat-rate: at the end of our adventures in the keep, once we’ve foiled Kalarel’s plan, we pay him 200gp or whatever.)
Once Splug returned with his gear, we went through the secret door right into Balgron’s sleeping chamber, which was separated from a larger room by tapestries. We heard one goblin guard on the other side of the tapestry wall, so we decided that Yonah should grab and intimidate Balgron while the rest of us tried to jump the guard and kill him before he could sound a general alarm. We were successful. We tied up Balgron and began questioning him. He tried to lie but when Yonah applied a little physical pressure he very quickly broke down. He told us:
• Kalarel is indeed in the lower level, performing a ritual, and is guarded by many undead.
• We’ll need a password to get into the lower level. After much pressure, he said the password is: “Life fails in the dark.”
When Splug said smthg about taking the symbol from around his neck, which he could use to raise his goblins from the undead, Balgron freaked out and managed, within an instant, to shrug out of the ropes that we had bound him with, tumble out of the bed and through the tapestries, then to get halfway down the hallway. For such a big creature, he moved with incredible speed. We chased after him, and he ran straight through the locked door at the end of the hallway without so much as unlocking the door, let alone opening it.
Yonah charged willy-nilly through the door and after him, and ran right into a large group of goblins who had by that time been alerted that we were coming. It was a pretty nasty fight for just the four of us, but we eventually turned the tide and were taking them down, when Balgron snapped the symbol from his neck and smashed it on the ground and all the goblins we’d killed were raised from the dead and rejoined the battle. At one point, all four of us were badly bloodied, but eventually the only enemy left was Balgron and he was backed into a corner and seriously wounded. I raised the idea of trying to capture him to question further but before any of us really had a chance to even decide, Splug sank his dagger into Balgron’s chest with a killing blow. When Balgron died, a blast of black energy burst out of him, knocking us all flat, and then a ghost reflection of him rose from the body and was sucked screaming into a magic pit that opened beneath him.
We took an extended rest in Balgron’s chamber and then set out to explore those last caves on this level before heading down to the lower levels. We found a wide natural cavern full of rocks and debris, and then were attacked from some vicious Rats of Unusual Size, followed quickly by an attack from an ochre jelly. The rats were no trouble at all, but that jelly was a tough bugger. He was an amorphous jelly who could shift easily through the hazardous terrain and used a tremor sense track us. When he was bloodied, he split into two separate jellies, and then split again.
We found no treasure at all in the room but we did find a secret door that led to a small shelter stocked with a bedroll, rations, and a few other supplies. This seemed to be a little shelter for Balgron, where he could escape to and hide.
As we were talking amongst ourselves, one of us mentioned the rift and Splug chimed in that this rift in Shadowfell is probably one of “The Nine,” a prophecy that speaks of 9 seals created to keep at bay a supernatural disaster that would destroy the world. There were 9 Keepers appointed to stop those rifts from opening.
There were two exits apparent from the jelly’s cavern, a set of bronze double doors and a long hallway. The bronze doors were greened with verdigris and fungus, and scratched into the fungus were the words “Stay out. Really!” in the common tongue, so of course we decided we should go in there first. We found behind the doors fungus coated stairs the led down to a well of water with a small island in the center of it. We were soon attacked by a Blue Slime, a creature a lot like the ochre jelly but which usually lives in water, which used acid sprays as its main attack. The slime absorbed a helluva lot of damage but we eventually destroyed it, though when it died it erupted with a spray of slimy acid.
We searched the island and found some coins, a potion of healing, some magical chain mail armor, a potion of healing, and a wooden message cylinder.
Inside the cylinder were three sheets of velum:
• A map that showed the kobold lair region, Winterhaven keep, and a burial site (S of Winterhaven but west of the kobold lair)
• A message: “Remember, don’t wet the nodule unless Kalarel is not receptive to my offer, then wet it only from a distance and immediately turn and run. Water will bring the creature out of dormancy and it will consume everyone it can reach.”
• Another message: “Greetings, Kalarel, I have recently learned of your activity in the area and I have an offer for you. During your time in this region, if you capture humanoids we’re eager to buy them. We have Durgar allies in Thunderspire in need of slave stock. If you’re interested, send an envy back to me. My messengers will show you the way. Signed, Chief Krand of the Blood Reivers”
It would seem that this message tube was never really opened, since the note to the messenger remained with the other note. My guess is Chief Krand sent this Blue Slime as an assassination attempt on Kalarel, but this messenger one way or another triggered the slime in this well.
We had taken a fair amount of damage by the end of this encounter so we decided to stop there for the night. We’ve earned an extra action point for facing 2 encounters without an extended rest.
________________________________________________
The Loot
13 leather armor
50 javelins
club
crossbow & 20 bolts
8 short swords
5 spears
2 sunrods
2 days trail rations
waterskin
aleskin
599 gp
157 sp
Magical Items
Key of Ghostly Walking (can attune the key to a specific lock & then anyone holding the key can pass through the door without opening it or unlocking it) [Kelissa?]
Bracers of Archery [Gareth]
Potion of healing [Gareth]
Mithril chain mail armore +1 [Jalfred]
(Our original agreement was for him to work for us in return for us sparing his life and returning the vial of his blood that Balgron held. That agreement, I think, is insufficient now. We should discuss it as a party, and discuss it with Splug, but I would be in favor of some much more generous pay to him—I am thinking something like giving him a half-share of whatever coins we find [i.e., by the end of this 5th remove of adventuring, the three PCs and Splug found 599 gp, so each of the PCs would receive 171 gp and Splug would receive 86.]) I am open to other suggestions for how to remunerate Splug, should he continue to adventure with us, perhaps more of a flat-rate: at the end of our adventures in the keep, once we’ve foiled Kalarel’s plan, we pay him 200gp or whatever.)
Once Splug returned with his gear, we went through the secret door right into Balgron’s sleeping chamber, which was separated from a larger room by tapestries. We heard one goblin guard on the other side of the tapestry wall, so we decided that Yonah should grab and intimidate Balgron while the rest of us tried to jump the guard and kill him before he could sound a general alarm. We were successful. We tied up Balgron and began questioning him. He tried to lie but when Yonah applied a little physical pressure he very quickly broke down. He told us:
• Kalarel is indeed in the lower level, performing a ritual, and is guarded by many undead.
• We’ll need a password to get into the lower level. After much pressure, he said the password is: “Life fails in the dark.”
When Splug said smthg about taking the symbol from around his neck, which he could use to raise his goblins from the undead, Balgron freaked out and managed, within an instant, to shrug out of the ropes that we had bound him with, tumble out of the bed and through the tapestries, then to get halfway down the hallway. For such a big creature, he moved with incredible speed. We chased after him, and he ran straight through the locked door at the end of the hallway without so much as unlocking the door, let alone opening it.
Yonah charged willy-nilly through the door and after him, and ran right into a large group of goblins who had by that time been alerted that we were coming. It was a pretty nasty fight for just the four of us, but we eventually turned the tide and were taking them down, when Balgron snapped the symbol from his neck and smashed it on the ground and all the goblins we’d killed were raised from the dead and rejoined the battle. At one point, all four of us were badly bloodied, but eventually the only enemy left was Balgron and he was backed into a corner and seriously wounded. I raised the idea of trying to capture him to question further but before any of us really had a chance to even decide, Splug sank his dagger into Balgron’s chest with a killing blow. When Balgron died, a blast of black energy burst out of him, knocking us all flat, and then a ghost reflection of him rose from the body and was sucked screaming into a magic pit that opened beneath him.
We took an extended rest in Balgron’s chamber and then set out to explore those last caves on this level before heading down to the lower levels. We found a wide natural cavern full of rocks and debris, and then were attacked from some vicious Rats of Unusual Size, followed quickly by an attack from an ochre jelly. The rats were no trouble at all, but that jelly was a tough bugger. He was an amorphous jelly who could shift easily through the hazardous terrain and used a tremor sense track us. When he was bloodied, he split into two separate jellies, and then split again.
We found no treasure at all in the room but we did find a secret door that led to a small shelter stocked with a bedroll, rations, and a few other supplies. This seemed to be a little shelter for Balgron, where he could escape to and hide.
As we were talking amongst ourselves, one of us mentioned the rift and Splug chimed in that this rift in Shadowfell is probably one of “The Nine,” a prophecy that speaks of 9 seals created to keep at bay a supernatural disaster that would destroy the world. There were 9 Keepers appointed to stop those rifts from opening.
There were two exits apparent from the jelly’s cavern, a set of bronze double doors and a long hallway. The bronze doors were greened with verdigris and fungus, and scratched into the fungus were the words “Stay out. Really!” in the common tongue, so of course we decided we should go in there first. We found behind the doors fungus coated stairs the led down to a well of water with a small island in the center of it. We were soon attacked by a Blue Slime, a creature a lot like the ochre jelly but which usually lives in water, which used acid sprays as its main attack. The slime absorbed a helluva lot of damage but we eventually destroyed it, though when it died it erupted with a spray of slimy acid.
We searched the island and found some coins, a potion of healing, some magical chain mail armor, a potion of healing, and a wooden message cylinder.
Inside the cylinder were three sheets of velum:
• A map that showed the kobold lair region, Winterhaven keep, and a burial site (S of Winterhaven but west of the kobold lair)
• A message: “Remember, don’t wet the nodule unless Kalarel is not receptive to my offer, then wet it only from a distance and immediately turn and run. Water will bring the creature out of dormancy and it will consume everyone it can reach.”
• Another message: “Greetings, Kalarel, I have recently learned of your activity in the area and I have an offer for you. During your time in this region, if you capture humanoids we’re eager to buy them. We have Durgar allies in Thunderspire in need of slave stock. If you’re interested, send an envy back to me. My messengers will show you the way. Signed, Chief Krand of the Blood Reivers”
It would seem that this message tube was never really opened, since the note to the messenger remained with the other note. My guess is Chief Krand sent this Blue Slime as an assassination attempt on Kalarel, but this messenger one way or another triggered the slime in this well.
We had taken a fair amount of damage by the end of this encounter so we decided to stop there for the night. We’ve earned an extra action point for facing 2 encounters without an extended rest.
________________________________________________
The Loot
13 leather armor
50 javelins
club
crossbow & 20 bolts
8 short swords
5 spears
2 sunrods
2 days trail rations
waterskin
aleskin
599 gp
157 sp
Magical Items
Key of Ghostly Walking (can attune the key to a specific lock & then anyone holding the key can pass through the door without opening it or unlocking it) [Kelissa?]
Bracers of Archery [Gareth]
Potion of healing [Gareth]
Mithril chain mail armore +1 [Jalfred]
Journal Day 4
While the rest of us were dealing with Irontooth and the kobolds, Dillius, Liam, and Krusk explored town a bit. Dillius told me when we returned that he spoke with the townspeople and found that Lord Padraig [I was misspelling that earlier] is generally well-liked amongst the townspeople. He also heard stories of an abandoned keep nearby, which has been laying in ruins for a long time but recently people have been hearing stories of noises & strange goings on in its vicinity. Liam and Krusk told me that they spent most of their time with Padraig and learned that he is descended from royalty of the empire of Narath. His family has been in the lower classes of nobility for as long as anyone can remember, one of the few families that have been consistently recognized as true and honest. Liam felt like he got a strong read on the lord’s personality and believes him to be honest and a good lord of the town, doing his best to govern responsibly, though sometimes nonetheless a little misguided—perhaps overly fixated on history & slow to change. He determined that Padraig is typically quite skeptical of adventurers, but seems to recognize that we can really help Winterhaven in a time of need and has accepted us readily. Padraig is taking our warnings about Allaron seriously and is doing what he can to beef up the town’s defenses, though his resources are limited. Along those lines, he did hire Liam and Krusk to spend a day training the Winterhaven militia. Liam worked out a deal with Padraig to buy & sell at his shops at very good rates.
When we returned to town, we filled each other in on what we’d accomplished and then went down to the inn for dinner. During dinner, a bard in town sang the sad tune “Darkness Falls,” about a man clad in white waiting for the 4 horsemen of death. In the song, he fights them off and defeats them and we’re told the hill on which the battle took place will always glow in his memory. It was a very moving tune.
We went to Padraig’s shop in the morning and sold all the gear we had brought back from the kobold lair, then purchased enough healing potions for every member of the party to have 2. We’re purchasing them at cost b/c of the deal Liam worked out, but we might consider purchasing the ritual from the shop as well for 75gp so that our ritual casters can create healing potions in the future. Selling the gear and buying the potions amounted in a net loss of 203 gp. The shop also sells bags of holding (one that can hold 100 lbs while weighing only 1 lb would cost us 500 gp).
While the rest of us were at Padraig’s shop, Dillius went searching for more information about the keep and met up with the scholar in Padraig’s employ, Valthrun, who promised to do further research and get back to us with more information. Dillius said that he developed some good rapport with Valthrun, and I expect that this relationship he’s developed will pay dividends.
We met with Padraig and he paid us for having killed the kobolds and we showed him the letter from Kalarel that we’d discovered on Irontooth’s body. We asked him about this keep we’d heard rumors about and he directed us to speak with Valthrun. He had very little else to say.
We decided to further investigate Ninaran, who it turns out is a female elf ranger not a male, while giving Valthrun time to carry out his research but Valthrun was waiting for us at the inn with more information.
Valtrhun told us that the old empire of Narath built this keep, not, as so many had assumed, to watch for marauders from the north. It was built atop a rift that connects this plane of existence to the Shadowfell. [The Shadowfell is one of the alternate planes of existence, a plane of shadow, the fey plane of darkness. Many think of it as an evil plane, and while it is not entirely so, it does possess many dark and dangerous beings.] This rift connects specifically to a shrine of Orcus located in the Shadowfell. The Narathians fought back an enemy that escaped from it, and then sealed the rift off and built this keep to guard over it and contain the threat. That seemed to be the end of the story, but now it seems like goblins have inhabited the site.
Then 80 years ago, Sir Keegan, who had been in charge at the keep, set into motion the events that would lead to its downfall. Perhaps the Rift’s influences were too strong to resist or maybe Keegan was driven insane by a demon or monster. We’ll probably never know, but at midnight one night he snapped for some reason and began to murder the inhabitants of the keep, starting with his own wife and children, then his own soldiers. He was too powerful for any one soldier to defeat but eventually they managed to mass against him and drive him into passages beneath the keep and then dispatch him. Then the keep was abandoned and eventually forgotten. An earthquake toppled the towers and many of the walls. Rumors have persisted of treasures buried beneath it, but few have dared to explore the place. Sir Keegan’s ghost supposedly still haunts the keep, roaming the corridors beneath the ruins. [I missed the transition, but …] Valthrun made a point of saying that some ghosts can be reasoned with.
If servants and cultists of Orcus are active in the area, Valthrun told us, then there is little doubt that they are working to open that rift to allow a tide of undead to engulf the area and there is no one to aid Winterhaven except us.
Valthrun told us that he would get the message to Lord Padraig that we were heading straight to the keep in an effort to stop Kalarel from opening that rift. Then we headed to the keep.
Nothing grows at the Keep of the Shadowfell, but someone has tampered with the ruins, clearing a path to a staircase that leads down into the darkness. Kellisa and I scouted down the stairs, moving silently, and observed that the stonework on the stairwell was quite fine—probably Dwarven. We could quickly smell the unwashed bodies of goblins and saw the flickering torchlight at the bottom of the stairs, so we went back and got the rest of the party and we moved down the stairs.
Goblins are cowardly, wretched creatures, interested in taking slaves and often enslaved by others. They tend to live in communal caves, only their leaders ever have private rooms, and their dens are usually riddled with fairly simple traps.
When we came within view of the room, we saw a goblin across from us taunting us. I suspected a trap in the room, and warned everyone not to rush too quickly in, but then Krusk moved into position and quickly looked the room over, finding no signs of traps. So Yonah charged at the goblin and fell into a pit full of rats who attacked her. A number of other goblins, sharpshooters with crossbows fired at us from the shadows. They got a few pretty good shots in but we managed to dispatch those goblins in relatively short order. We found two sets of stairs branching off from that room and one hallway that led further north. We decided to explore that hallway, to clear out the rest of this top level before descending any deeper into the ruins.
At the end of that hallway, we found another door and could hear goblin voices behind it. We debated at first setting up a trap to lead the goblins out and ambush them but decided instead to just burst through the door and surprise them, and I believe our tactics worked quite well. The room was some sort of torture chamber, and inside there were 4 sharpshooter goblins, a larger goblin with a spear, and a nasty looking hobgoblin leader. Before he could even react to our attack, I hit the hobgoblin with my hunter’s bear trap attack, dealing a grievous blow. Yonah charged another goblin and used her thunder ram assault on him and the hobgoblin, knocking him into the fire pit with the thunder clap. One more blow, and he was finished off before he could even mount an attack. Meanwhile, Liam bullrushed the goblin with the spear into a massive iron maiden behind him, and pounded the door into his body a few times, keeping him trapped in the box and unable to attack until he was dead. Krusk killed the goblin asleep in the corner before he could even wake. One of the other goblins grabbed a hot poker from the fire and tried to mount an attack but in his surprise and haste, he missed Yonah wildly and impaled himself with the poker, dying instantly. Yonah knocked the final goblin to the ground with her earthgrasp attack, and I tried to question him about the other goblins in the dungeons—though the rest of the party seemed intent on just finishing him quickly—but he stupidly attempted to wrest himself from the ground and the skin was ripped from his body by the earth holding him pinned and he was dead.
The hobgoblin was wearing a pair of magical boots.
However, we heard the imploring voice of another creature coming from the side of the room containing a row of locked cells. In one we found Splug, a talkative and not entirely unintellligent little goblin. He agreed to help us defeat the goblins in this keep in return for his life, and in return for allowing him to take back a flask which the goblin leader holds. It took a fair amount of intimidating and pushing him, but he eventually said that this vial contains his own blood, held in order to compel his body to continue to do ghastly things even after death. He seemed quite upset at the idea and was emphatic that he wants that vial back. I promised him that if he truly serves us well and helps us through these ruins, and if this vial seems to be what he says it is, that we will allow him to leave with possession of it. My suspicion is that there is little chance he will actually follow through on his end of the bargain—the first time a fight or other situation gives him the opportunity, he will betray us. However, in the meantime, he seems to be giving us some good information.
He says the goblin leader is named Balgron the Fat, and he and a group of his elite guards, he says, lie in the room not far from the torture chamber, behind a pair of large iron double doors. When pressed, he told us that it’s pretty much impossible to open those doors silently; however, there is another way into the chamber, through Balgron’s escape route, hidden behind a secret door. That door branches off a passageway at the end of one of those flights of stairs we had not yet explored.
He also told us that an elf woman has been seen in the goblin tunnels. She passed through and down the other set of stairs, which none of the goblins ever go down because there is something really bad down there, but he doesn’t know what. Ninaran seems, indeed, to be that spy. I look forward to running into her again.
Irontooth had also been seen in these ruins, where he met with Balgron and bossed him around.
We went in search of this secret door. My eagle eye spotted it as soon as came around the corner, but Splug indeed pointed it out correctly to the party. He is certainly not trustworthy, but he does seem to be providing useful information, at least so far. The passageway continued down past the secret door into what Splug told us would be an excavation chamber, in which he warned us there would be some sharpshooters and some drakes—which are kin to dragons, used as guard animals. We listened to the goblins arguing with each other about having spent weeks digging without ever finding anything at all useful, and we decided to take these guards out before proceeding into Balgron’s chambers. That turned out to be a nastier fight than it should’ve been. We were getting tired and were more lax about strategy than perhaps we should’ve been. Nonetheless, we killed these guards without taking too terribly much damage.
We found a suit of magical armor on one of the bodies—Deathcut leather armor, which Kelissa is now wearing.
At the end of that battle, Yonah and I had just barely attained enough experience to move up to level 4.
There is one natural cave opening that leads off away from this escavation area and we heard squeaking down that tunnel. Splug tells us that the goblins have sent soldiers down those tunnels but none of them has ever returned alive, so they just stopped going down that way. The question is whether we check out those tunnels first, or just go after Balgron down that secret door. I’m guessing the latter, since whatever is down those tunnels has evidently shown no sign to date of wanting to come up out of them to challenge the goblins. We can take care of Balgron and then learn what threat lies down those caves.
_________________________________________________________
The loot:
[Padraig paid Kellisa, Gareth, Yonah, & Jalfred 150 gp for clearing out the kobolds. So that’s 37 gp each, and we’ll add the 2 gp remainder into the pot for day 4.]
-203 gp for healing potions
171 gp
(so for the day, we’re at -30 gp)
2 short swords
4 leather armor
5 crossbows & lotsa bolts
2 spears
10 javelins
Goblin stompers [Dillius]
Deathcut leather armer +1 [Kellisa]
Climbing claws [Kellisa – found last time, but I mistakenly left off list]
Experience:
All 6 of us in the keep received 475 XP. Jalfred received 238
When we returned to town, we filled each other in on what we’d accomplished and then went down to the inn for dinner. During dinner, a bard in town sang the sad tune “Darkness Falls,” about a man clad in white waiting for the 4 horsemen of death. In the song, he fights them off and defeats them and we’re told the hill on which the battle took place will always glow in his memory. It was a very moving tune.
We went to Padraig’s shop in the morning and sold all the gear we had brought back from the kobold lair, then purchased enough healing potions for every member of the party to have 2. We’re purchasing them at cost b/c of the deal Liam worked out, but we might consider purchasing the ritual from the shop as well for 75gp so that our ritual casters can create healing potions in the future. Selling the gear and buying the potions amounted in a net loss of 203 gp. The shop also sells bags of holding (one that can hold 100 lbs while weighing only 1 lb would cost us 500 gp).
While the rest of us were at Padraig’s shop, Dillius went searching for more information about the keep and met up with the scholar in Padraig’s employ, Valthrun, who promised to do further research and get back to us with more information. Dillius said that he developed some good rapport with Valthrun, and I expect that this relationship he’s developed will pay dividends.
We met with Padraig and he paid us for having killed the kobolds and we showed him the letter from Kalarel that we’d discovered on Irontooth’s body. We asked him about this keep we’d heard rumors about and he directed us to speak with Valthrun. He had very little else to say.
We decided to further investigate Ninaran, who it turns out is a female elf ranger not a male, while giving Valthrun time to carry out his research but Valthrun was waiting for us at the inn with more information.
Valtrhun told us that the old empire of Narath built this keep, not, as so many had assumed, to watch for marauders from the north. It was built atop a rift that connects this plane of existence to the Shadowfell. [The Shadowfell is one of the alternate planes of existence, a plane of shadow, the fey plane of darkness. Many think of it as an evil plane, and while it is not entirely so, it does possess many dark and dangerous beings.] This rift connects specifically to a shrine of Orcus located in the Shadowfell. The Narathians fought back an enemy that escaped from it, and then sealed the rift off and built this keep to guard over it and contain the threat. That seemed to be the end of the story, but now it seems like goblins have inhabited the site.
Then 80 years ago, Sir Keegan, who had been in charge at the keep, set into motion the events that would lead to its downfall. Perhaps the Rift’s influences were too strong to resist or maybe Keegan was driven insane by a demon or monster. We’ll probably never know, but at midnight one night he snapped for some reason and began to murder the inhabitants of the keep, starting with his own wife and children, then his own soldiers. He was too powerful for any one soldier to defeat but eventually they managed to mass against him and drive him into passages beneath the keep and then dispatch him. Then the keep was abandoned and eventually forgotten. An earthquake toppled the towers and many of the walls. Rumors have persisted of treasures buried beneath it, but few have dared to explore the place. Sir Keegan’s ghost supposedly still haunts the keep, roaming the corridors beneath the ruins. [I missed the transition, but …] Valthrun made a point of saying that some ghosts can be reasoned with.
If servants and cultists of Orcus are active in the area, Valthrun told us, then there is little doubt that they are working to open that rift to allow a tide of undead to engulf the area and there is no one to aid Winterhaven except us.
Valthrun told us that he would get the message to Lord Padraig that we were heading straight to the keep in an effort to stop Kalarel from opening that rift. Then we headed to the keep.
Nothing grows at the Keep of the Shadowfell, but someone has tampered with the ruins, clearing a path to a staircase that leads down into the darkness. Kellisa and I scouted down the stairs, moving silently, and observed that the stonework on the stairwell was quite fine—probably Dwarven. We could quickly smell the unwashed bodies of goblins and saw the flickering torchlight at the bottom of the stairs, so we went back and got the rest of the party and we moved down the stairs.
Goblins are cowardly, wretched creatures, interested in taking slaves and often enslaved by others. They tend to live in communal caves, only their leaders ever have private rooms, and their dens are usually riddled with fairly simple traps.
When we came within view of the room, we saw a goblin across from us taunting us. I suspected a trap in the room, and warned everyone not to rush too quickly in, but then Krusk moved into position and quickly looked the room over, finding no signs of traps. So Yonah charged at the goblin and fell into a pit full of rats who attacked her. A number of other goblins, sharpshooters with crossbows fired at us from the shadows. They got a few pretty good shots in but we managed to dispatch those goblins in relatively short order. We found two sets of stairs branching off from that room and one hallway that led further north. We decided to explore that hallway, to clear out the rest of this top level before descending any deeper into the ruins.
At the end of that hallway, we found another door and could hear goblin voices behind it. We debated at first setting up a trap to lead the goblins out and ambush them but decided instead to just burst through the door and surprise them, and I believe our tactics worked quite well. The room was some sort of torture chamber, and inside there were 4 sharpshooter goblins, a larger goblin with a spear, and a nasty looking hobgoblin leader. Before he could even react to our attack, I hit the hobgoblin with my hunter’s bear trap attack, dealing a grievous blow. Yonah charged another goblin and used her thunder ram assault on him and the hobgoblin, knocking him into the fire pit with the thunder clap. One more blow, and he was finished off before he could even mount an attack. Meanwhile, Liam bullrushed the goblin with the spear into a massive iron maiden behind him, and pounded the door into his body a few times, keeping him trapped in the box and unable to attack until he was dead. Krusk killed the goblin asleep in the corner before he could even wake. One of the other goblins grabbed a hot poker from the fire and tried to mount an attack but in his surprise and haste, he missed Yonah wildly and impaled himself with the poker, dying instantly. Yonah knocked the final goblin to the ground with her earthgrasp attack, and I tried to question him about the other goblins in the dungeons—though the rest of the party seemed intent on just finishing him quickly—but he stupidly attempted to wrest himself from the ground and the skin was ripped from his body by the earth holding him pinned and he was dead.
The hobgoblin was wearing a pair of magical boots.
However, we heard the imploring voice of another creature coming from the side of the room containing a row of locked cells. In one we found Splug, a talkative and not entirely unintellligent little goblin. He agreed to help us defeat the goblins in this keep in return for his life, and in return for allowing him to take back a flask which the goblin leader holds. It took a fair amount of intimidating and pushing him, but he eventually said that this vial contains his own blood, held in order to compel his body to continue to do ghastly things even after death. He seemed quite upset at the idea and was emphatic that he wants that vial back. I promised him that if he truly serves us well and helps us through these ruins, and if this vial seems to be what he says it is, that we will allow him to leave with possession of it. My suspicion is that there is little chance he will actually follow through on his end of the bargain—the first time a fight or other situation gives him the opportunity, he will betray us. However, in the meantime, he seems to be giving us some good information.
He says the goblin leader is named Balgron the Fat, and he and a group of his elite guards, he says, lie in the room not far from the torture chamber, behind a pair of large iron double doors. When pressed, he told us that it’s pretty much impossible to open those doors silently; however, there is another way into the chamber, through Balgron’s escape route, hidden behind a secret door. That door branches off a passageway at the end of one of those flights of stairs we had not yet explored.
He also told us that an elf woman has been seen in the goblin tunnels. She passed through and down the other set of stairs, which none of the goblins ever go down because there is something really bad down there, but he doesn’t know what. Ninaran seems, indeed, to be that spy. I look forward to running into her again.
Irontooth had also been seen in these ruins, where he met with Balgron and bossed him around.
We went in search of this secret door. My eagle eye spotted it as soon as came around the corner, but Splug indeed pointed it out correctly to the party. He is certainly not trustworthy, but he does seem to be providing useful information, at least so far. The passageway continued down past the secret door into what Splug told us would be an excavation chamber, in which he warned us there would be some sharpshooters and some drakes—which are kin to dragons, used as guard animals. We listened to the goblins arguing with each other about having spent weeks digging without ever finding anything at all useful, and we decided to take these guards out before proceeding into Balgron’s chambers. That turned out to be a nastier fight than it should’ve been. We were getting tired and were more lax about strategy than perhaps we should’ve been. Nonetheless, we killed these guards without taking too terribly much damage.
We found a suit of magical armor on one of the bodies—Deathcut leather armor, which Kelissa is now wearing.
At the end of that battle, Yonah and I had just barely attained enough experience to move up to level 4.
There is one natural cave opening that leads off away from this escavation area and we heard squeaking down that tunnel. Splug tells us that the goblins have sent soldiers down those tunnels but none of them has ever returned alive, so they just stopped going down that way. The question is whether we check out those tunnels first, or just go after Balgron down that secret door. I’m guessing the latter, since whatever is down those tunnels has evidently shown no sign to date of wanting to come up out of them to challenge the goblins. We can take care of Balgron and then learn what threat lies down those caves.
_________________________________________________________
The loot:
[Padraig paid Kellisa, Gareth, Yonah, & Jalfred 150 gp for clearing out the kobolds. So that’s 37 gp each, and we’ll add the 2 gp remainder into the pot for day 4.]
-203 gp for healing potions
171 gp
(so for the day, we’re at -30 gp)
2 short swords
4 leather armor
5 crossbows & lotsa bolts
2 spears
10 javelins
Goblin stompers [Dillius]
Deathcut leather armer +1 [Kellisa]
Climbing claws [Kellisa – found last time, but I mistakenly left off list]
Experience:
All 6 of us in the keep received 475 XP. Jalfred received 238
Journal Day 3
When we resurfaced from the sewers of Allaron, we were a couple miles
outside of the city’s walls. The city was still in flames and we
could just make out those flying horsemen and dragons continuing their
assault within the walls.
We regrouped and weighed the possible options for proceeding. There
was broad agreement within the group that we should try to track down
the member of the Council of Divinity and that yew tree, to try to
find out more about the situation we’ve walked into. However, we had
virtually no leads to follow. Jalfred recalled that the nearest
outpost for the Council was located in a town named Winterhaven, but
he wasn’t certain where that town might be. Yonah and I knew that
there was some sort of town to the north, so we decided to head that
direction.
We were all battling exhaustion, but we wanted to get far enough away
from the city that we could camp as safely as possible before we
stopped for the night so we pushed on for a couple of hours. That
night, I dreamed the Melora came to me and talked with me about our
adventures in the city, told me she was pleased with my efforts, and
kissed my cheek. When I awoke, I felt suffused with newfound powers
and understood that from this point forward my path forward includes
studying the path of the invoker in addition to continuing to develop
my ranger skills. The rest of the members of our party reported
somewhat similar dreams, where they were visited by the figures who
had been in their previous dreams, each of whom offered counsel and
guidance.
We passed the night otherwise without occurrence and then continued
north for a full day. Near twilight, we came upon a body in the
roadway. On further investigation, we found that it was a man wearing
the robes of the Council; his throat had been slit runes were burned
into his chest as part of a ritual sacrifice to the Demon God Orcus.
His body had been lying there for about 2 days and was surrounded by
kobold tracks.
When I searched the area, I found his journal in the brush not far
from his body—his name was Marlin, a priest of Pelor who during his
time in Winterhaven had discovered evidence of a very dangerous
deathcult headed by a priest of Orcus by the name of Kalarel. He had
been heading to Allaron from Winterhaven to seek guidance and
assistance from the larger Council.
We traveled on after a brief rest, when we were attacked by a group of
kobolds (5 minions, 2 shield-bearers, and a slinger). The slinger had
a series of nasty bullets with various effects (fire, poison, & one
that can immobilize the target with some sort of glue). We managed to
defeat them without too much difficulty. (We found 34 sp on them and
gear that we later sold for 75 gp.)
We camped one more night and then reached Winterhaven a little before
lunch time. The 2 guards at the front gates of the town pointed us
towards Raften’s Inn. Salvana, the innkeep, welcomed us and rented us
three rooms. Dillius, still upset about having charged into the midst
of the dragon battle and taking so much damage stomped off to his room
to mope, and Liam and Krusk needed to recover further from the battles
and to train to acquire the next level. We left them upstairs and
went back to gather information.
Salvana told us that there were 2 Council members in town, Marlin &
Peter. Peter left a few days before to go to Varick, a city further
north from here, and should be back soon. Elian, an older man who
works at the inn, told us that there have definitely been much more
serious kobold attacks very recently in the area and complained about
the increases in taxes to fund the increased militia that Lord
Paydrake has taken on. He indicated that pretty much all the capable
young men have been absorbed into the militia or wounded by the kobold
attacks. He also complained about the damage done to the town’s trade
because of the attacks. We also tried talking to Ninaran, but he
refused to be drawn into conversation. Lord Paydrake came into the
inn for lunch and we went over to talk with him—he was polite enough
and asked us to come to his manor house for a conference.
We had a little time to kill, so we went to the marketplace and found
Bairwin’s shop. He was a real blowhard, full of lies about his
adventures all around the world, but he also paid a decent sum for the
gear we sold and indicated that he has some magic items for sale.
Once we get a little more treasure, his shop will be worth a further
visit.
Then we went to Paydrake’s manor house. It is a walled keep within
the city, a very old building that predates the fall of the Empire,
with a few buildings including a barracks for guards and a large
house. When we told Paydrake about the kobold ambush, he underscored
to us what a serious threat the kobolds have suddenly become. He
showed us on a map where he believes the kobold lair to be located, to
the south and east of the town, and asked us to do what we could to
deal with the threat. He offered us a decent reward—gold, plus we can
keep whatever we find in the lair. We told him about events in
Allaron, which completely surprised him, so he indicated that he’d
send word to the Council and the leadership in Varick. We asked him
about Marlin, and he told us that he was not particularly close with
many people in town, except for a hunter named Ninaran.
We returned to the inn and, over Jalfred’s objections, I talked to
Ninaran about Marlin and his suspicions about the death cult. He
seemed relieved to hear that someone else believed there was such a
cult and indicated that he’s been watching the town’s members,
worrying that there are spies amongst them. He knew about the kobold
lair too and encouraged us to check the place out.
We spent the night resting and then set out in the morning for the
kobold lair. Before we could get there we were ambushed by another
group of kobolds (3 dragonshields, a wyrmpriest, and a skirmisher).
This was a much tougher fight than the earlier one had been. Yonah
took some very serious damage, was briefly knocked unconscious in
fact. Once we’d taken out the other 4 kobolds, the skirmisher made a
break for it and managed to hide in the foliage. We had a devil of a
time tracking him down, but then Yonah flushed him out into the open
by intimidating him. Unfortunately, he managed to flee into another
copse of trees and to hide himself quite well again, but we once again
found him and finished him off before he could escape completely. On
the bodies, we found 5 gp, 23 sp, a dragon figurine carved from
obsidian with the symbol of Orcus carved into its bottom, 3 short
swords, 3 dragonshields, a light shield, and 2 suits of hide armor.
Not too far from the kobolds we found the skeleton of an adventurer.
In a rotting pouch at his waist we found a couple of healing potions
and on his skull we found a Stag Helm, which gives a bonus to
perception and protects against surprise.
That second ambush provided enough experience for Yonah, Kelissa, and
myself to level up again, so we stopped to rest a bit and regroup.
Then we set out once again for the kobold lair. We managed to sneak up
on the lair and give ourselves time to scout out the defenses outside
the lair. It was a large cave behind a waterfall, and in front of the
cave were a dragonshield, a skirmisher, a slinger, and 10 minions.
The dragonshield was stationed within some sort of glowing rune
circle, which we later recognized as some sort of arcane field of
power that improved the effectiveness of any attack originating from
within the circle. We snuck into very strong defensive positions,
well all of us except for Jalfred, who almost ruined the whole plan by
stumbling into a pile of rocks, but I managed to catch his attention
and get him moved into position. Our opening salvos were simply
brilliant—Kelissa was able to help me set up a surprise attack and I
hit the dragonshiled with a pair of forceful blows, followed by
Jalfred’s lance of faith attach and Yonah’s strike with her javelin,
and he was dead before he even knew what hit him. Then, before any of
the other kobolds could even begin to respond, I launched my Hunter’s
Bear Trap at the slinger and killed him outright with a single arrow.
When the kobolds finally managed to realize that they were under
attack, they stood around confused and arguing with each other about
the source of these blows. Kelissa and I took out the skirmisher
quickly, while Jalfred kept tripping over his own feet and launched
attacks aimlessly into the trees around us, and Yonah waded right into
the minions and wiped out 6 of them with a single blow of her thunder
assault. We finished the last few minions easily. When we were
moving into position and readying our attack, I was afraid that this
battle was going to be a tough one, but in this instance our strategy
worked to perfection and the four of us just coordinated our moves and
implemented our attacks beautifully, and the fight went down with none
of us receiving any more than a scratch.
Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for our last confrontation during
this outing. We snuck up to the opening and I scouted a bit into the
passageway, and saw a pair of minions just inside, in a position where
I couldn’t get any closer without tipping them off to my presence. I
killed them both with a surprise attack, hoping that no other enemies
were nearby; however, a skirmisher was just a little further inside
the cavern. He stepped out to investigate and I attacked him, doing
some serious damage to him but without managing to kill him before he
could sound an alarm. Instantly, we were fighting 3 skirmishers and
another 8 minions. Yonah once again launched her thunder ram assault
and took out 5 minions with a single blow. However, within another
few seconds, a horn blasted out and a battle-scarred goblin charged
out of the depths of the cavern, wearing a chainmail shirt and
wielding a pair of battle axes. More kobolds scurried around him,
another wyrmpriest & dragonshields (total enemies: 10 minions, 3
skirmishers, 2 dragonshields, wyrmpriest, & goblin Irontooth).
The four of us were quickly engulfed in a fierce battle, finding it
difficult to maintain strong defensive positions against so many
opponents. In the midst of the battle, I attempted to take out one of
the dragonshields and missed terribly on my attack—so terribly that I
was very, very close to taking out Jalfred; however, my elven accuracy
allowed me to recover enough that I avoided that tragic accident.
At first, the fight seemed to be going well, but as we wore down
Irontooth, he went into a berserker rage and his attacks became much
more potent. The kobold priest managed to heal the other kobolds too
and launched a breath attack on the group that did some serious
damage. Soon, every member of our party was bloodied and things
looked grim, but then Jalfred’s holy symbol shone and a voice spoke to
him, saying that we would be rewarded for our perseverance and all the
members of our party were partially healed. We were still
hard-pressed in the combat, even with that burst of healing.
Irontooth charged Jalfred and landed a pair of devastating axe strikes
that left him unconscious and bleeding profusely, though as he went
down, he managed to trip up the dragonshield, who had been attempting
to charge me, and the kobold fell on his own sword, finishing him off.
I maneuvered over and administered the life-saving healing potion to
Jalfred and he recovered enough to reengage the combat.
Irontooth was seriously bloodied and in a mindless rage, frothing at
the mouth and charging around the cave swinging his axes. I managed
to fire a pair of arrows into Irontooth’s face just as he prepared to
charge me. Before he died, he shouted out “Kalorel and Lord Orcus,
prepare my way!” With Irontooth down, the tide of the battle turned
until all were dead except the priest, who tried to flee through the
waterfall and down the streambed, but I took him down before he could
manage to effect his escape.
We were all dripping with our own blood and the blood of our enemies,
pushed to the edges of our endurance.
Irontooth had a pouch on him which contained a small silver key and a
message. The key opened a chest in the treasure chamber (which showed
signs of having contained far more treasure—but much of it had been
removed quite recently). Inside was 500 gp, a magical medic’s
warhammer and a magical broadsword that does extra damage to dragons
and reptilian monsters. The scroll read:
“Irontooth, my spy in Winterhaven suggests we should be on the lookout
for visitors to the area. It probably does not matter—in just a few
days I’ll completely open the rift. Then Winterhaven’s people will
serve as food for those Lord Orcus sends to do my bidding. Kalorel”
When we returned to Winterhaven, the townspeople were acting strange
and unsettled. Salvana was distant and taciturn, Ninaran acted like
he didn’t even know we had returned.
I suspect that Jalfred was right about talking to Ninaran—he seems to
me to be the prime candidate for Kalarel’s spy in Winterhaven. He
seems able to hunt and move around outside of town without worrying
about the kobolds, and he knew about Marlin’s suspicions and could
have set up the ambush that killed him. Then for him to act so aloof
when we returned to town, it’s very strange, though perhaps he was
simply drunk at the inn. Yonah doesn’t trust Lord Paydrake, but I
suspect that if he were the spy, then he wouldn’t be mounting any sort
of effective defense against the kobolds. It could just be someone in
Paydrake’s employ, or maybe one of the other townspeople was much
better at keeping tabs on us than we know. But right now, my money is
on Ninaran as a spy for Kalarel.
______________________________________________________________________
Loot:
74 sp (18 each for Gareth, Kelissa, Yonah, and Jalfred, r. 2)
599 gp (149 each for Gareth, Kelissa, Yonah, and Jalfred, r. 3)
Stag Helm (bonus to perception) [Gareth]
2 healing potions
Medic’s Warhammer [Jalfred]
Scalebane Broadsword [Krusk]
a dragon figurine carved from obsidian with the symbol of Orcus carved
into its bottom
6 short swords
6 dragonshields
light shield
2 suits of hide armor
Sling
3 special sling bullets
chainmail shirt
2 battle axes
XP:
(I sent an email to Ron asking to confirm my XP count, but assuming
what I have in my notes is correct & not taking into account any
potential xp bonuses, here’s the tally.)
Jalfred, Kelissa, Gareth, & Yonah each receive 691 XP.
Liam, Krusk, and Dillius receive half that sum, so 345 XP each.
I believe that means that Dillius & Liam once again level up to 3, and
Krusk is very, very close to doing so.
outside of the city’s walls. The city was still in flames and we
could just make out those flying horsemen and dragons continuing their
assault within the walls.
We regrouped and weighed the possible options for proceeding. There
was broad agreement within the group that we should try to track down
the member of the Council of Divinity and that yew tree, to try to
find out more about the situation we’ve walked into. However, we had
virtually no leads to follow. Jalfred recalled that the nearest
outpost for the Council was located in a town named Winterhaven, but
he wasn’t certain where that town might be. Yonah and I knew that
there was some sort of town to the north, so we decided to head that
direction.
We were all battling exhaustion, but we wanted to get far enough away
from the city that we could camp as safely as possible before we
stopped for the night so we pushed on for a couple of hours. That
night, I dreamed the Melora came to me and talked with me about our
adventures in the city, told me she was pleased with my efforts, and
kissed my cheek. When I awoke, I felt suffused with newfound powers
and understood that from this point forward my path forward includes
studying the path of the invoker in addition to continuing to develop
my ranger skills. The rest of the members of our party reported
somewhat similar dreams, where they were visited by the figures who
had been in their previous dreams, each of whom offered counsel and
guidance.
We passed the night otherwise without occurrence and then continued
north for a full day. Near twilight, we came upon a body in the
roadway. On further investigation, we found that it was a man wearing
the robes of the Council; his throat had been slit runes were burned
into his chest as part of a ritual sacrifice to the Demon God Orcus.
His body had been lying there for about 2 days and was surrounded by
kobold tracks.
When I searched the area, I found his journal in the brush not far
from his body—his name was Marlin, a priest of Pelor who during his
time in Winterhaven had discovered evidence of a very dangerous
deathcult headed by a priest of Orcus by the name of Kalarel. He had
been heading to Allaron from Winterhaven to seek guidance and
assistance from the larger Council.
We traveled on after a brief rest, when we were attacked by a group of
kobolds (5 minions, 2 shield-bearers, and a slinger). The slinger had
a series of nasty bullets with various effects (fire, poison, & one
that can immobilize the target with some sort of glue). We managed to
defeat them without too much difficulty. (We found 34 sp on them and
gear that we later sold for 75 gp.)
We camped one more night and then reached Winterhaven a little before
lunch time. The 2 guards at the front gates of the town pointed us
towards Raften’s Inn. Salvana, the innkeep, welcomed us and rented us
three rooms. Dillius, still upset about having charged into the midst
of the dragon battle and taking so much damage stomped off to his room
to mope, and Liam and Krusk needed to recover further from the battles
and to train to acquire the next level. We left them upstairs and
went back to gather information.
Salvana told us that there were 2 Council members in town, Marlin &
Peter. Peter left a few days before to go to Varick, a city further
north from here, and should be back soon. Elian, an older man who
works at the inn, told us that there have definitely been much more
serious kobold attacks very recently in the area and complained about
the increases in taxes to fund the increased militia that Lord
Paydrake has taken on. He indicated that pretty much all the capable
young men have been absorbed into the militia or wounded by the kobold
attacks. He also complained about the damage done to the town’s trade
because of the attacks. We also tried talking to Ninaran, but he
refused to be drawn into conversation. Lord Paydrake came into the
inn for lunch and we went over to talk with him—he was polite enough
and asked us to come to his manor house for a conference.
We had a little time to kill, so we went to the marketplace and found
Bairwin’s shop. He was a real blowhard, full of lies about his
adventures all around the world, but he also paid a decent sum for the
gear we sold and indicated that he has some magic items for sale.
Once we get a little more treasure, his shop will be worth a further
visit.
Then we went to Paydrake’s manor house. It is a walled keep within
the city, a very old building that predates the fall of the Empire,
with a few buildings including a barracks for guards and a large
house. When we told Paydrake about the kobold ambush, he underscored
to us what a serious threat the kobolds have suddenly become. He
showed us on a map where he believes the kobold lair to be located, to
the south and east of the town, and asked us to do what we could to
deal with the threat. He offered us a decent reward—gold, plus we can
keep whatever we find in the lair. We told him about events in
Allaron, which completely surprised him, so he indicated that he’d
send word to the Council and the leadership in Varick. We asked him
about Marlin, and he told us that he was not particularly close with
many people in town, except for a hunter named Ninaran.
We returned to the inn and, over Jalfred’s objections, I talked to
Ninaran about Marlin and his suspicions about the death cult. He
seemed relieved to hear that someone else believed there was such a
cult and indicated that he’s been watching the town’s members,
worrying that there are spies amongst them. He knew about the kobold
lair too and encouraged us to check the place out.
We spent the night resting and then set out in the morning for the
kobold lair. Before we could get there we were ambushed by another
group of kobolds (3 dragonshields, a wyrmpriest, and a skirmisher).
This was a much tougher fight than the earlier one had been. Yonah
took some very serious damage, was briefly knocked unconscious in
fact. Once we’d taken out the other 4 kobolds, the skirmisher made a
break for it and managed to hide in the foliage. We had a devil of a
time tracking him down, but then Yonah flushed him out into the open
by intimidating him. Unfortunately, he managed to flee into another
copse of trees and to hide himself quite well again, but we once again
found him and finished him off before he could escape completely. On
the bodies, we found 5 gp, 23 sp, a dragon figurine carved from
obsidian with the symbol of Orcus carved into its bottom, 3 short
swords, 3 dragonshields, a light shield, and 2 suits of hide armor.
Not too far from the kobolds we found the skeleton of an adventurer.
In a rotting pouch at his waist we found a couple of healing potions
and on his skull we found a Stag Helm, which gives a bonus to
perception and protects against surprise.
That second ambush provided enough experience for Yonah, Kelissa, and
myself to level up again, so we stopped to rest a bit and regroup.
Then we set out once again for the kobold lair. We managed to sneak up
on the lair and give ourselves time to scout out the defenses outside
the lair. It was a large cave behind a waterfall, and in front of the
cave were a dragonshield, a skirmisher, a slinger, and 10 minions.
The dragonshield was stationed within some sort of glowing rune
circle, which we later recognized as some sort of arcane field of
power that improved the effectiveness of any attack originating from
within the circle. We snuck into very strong defensive positions,
well all of us except for Jalfred, who almost ruined the whole plan by
stumbling into a pile of rocks, but I managed to catch his attention
and get him moved into position. Our opening salvos were simply
brilliant—Kelissa was able to help me set up a surprise attack and I
hit the dragonshiled with a pair of forceful blows, followed by
Jalfred’s lance of faith attach and Yonah’s strike with her javelin,
and he was dead before he even knew what hit him. Then, before any of
the other kobolds could even begin to respond, I launched my Hunter’s
Bear Trap at the slinger and killed him outright with a single arrow.
When the kobolds finally managed to realize that they were under
attack, they stood around confused and arguing with each other about
the source of these blows. Kelissa and I took out the skirmisher
quickly, while Jalfred kept tripping over his own feet and launched
attacks aimlessly into the trees around us, and Yonah waded right into
the minions and wiped out 6 of them with a single blow of her thunder
assault. We finished the last few minions easily. When we were
moving into position and readying our attack, I was afraid that this
battle was going to be a tough one, but in this instance our strategy
worked to perfection and the four of us just coordinated our moves and
implemented our attacks beautifully, and the fight went down with none
of us receiving any more than a scratch.
Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for our last confrontation during
this outing. We snuck up to the opening and I scouted a bit into the
passageway, and saw a pair of minions just inside, in a position where
I couldn’t get any closer without tipping them off to my presence. I
killed them both with a surprise attack, hoping that no other enemies
were nearby; however, a skirmisher was just a little further inside
the cavern. He stepped out to investigate and I attacked him, doing
some serious damage to him but without managing to kill him before he
could sound an alarm. Instantly, we were fighting 3 skirmishers and
another 8 minions. Yonah once again launched her thunder ram assault
and took out 5 minions with a single blow. However, within another
few seconds, a horn blasted out and a battle-scarred goblin charged
out of the depths of the cavern, wearing a chainmail shirt and
wielding a pair of battle axes. More kobolds scurried around him,
another wyrmpriest & dragonshields (total enemies: 10 minions, 3
skirmishers, 2 dragonshields, wyrmpriest, & goblin Irontooth).
The four of us were quickly engulfed in a fierce battle, finding it
difficult to maintain strong defensive positions against so many
opponents. In the midst of the battle, I attempted to take out one of
the dragonshields and missed terribly on my attack—so terribly that I
was very, very close to taking out Jalfred; however, my elven accuracy
allowed me to recover enough that I avoided that tragic accident.
At first, the fight seemed to be going well, but as we wore down
Irontooth, he went into a berserker rage and his attacks became much
more potent. The kobold priest managed to heal the other kobolds too
and launched a breath attack on the group that did some serious
damage. Soon, every member of our party was bloodied and things
looked grim, but then Jalfred’s holy symbol shone and a voice spoke to
him, saying that we would be rewarded for our perseverance and all the
members of our party were partially healed. We were still
hard-pressed in the combat, even with that burst of healing.
Irontooth charged Jalfred and landed a pair of devastating axe strikes
that left him unconscious and bleeding profusely, though as he went
down, he managed to trip up the dragonshield, who had been attempting
to charge me, and the kobold fell on his own sword, finishing him off.
I maneuvered over and administered the life-saving healing potion to
Jalfred and he recovered enough to reengage the combat.
Irontooth was seriously bloodied and in a mindless rage, frothing at
the mouth and charging around the cave swinging his axes. I managed
to fire a pair of arrows into Irontooth’s face just as he prepared to
charge me. Before he died, he shouted out “Kalorel and Lord Orcus,
prepare my way!” With Irontooth down, the tide of the battle turned
until all were dead except the priest, who tried to flee through the
waterfall and down the streambed, but I took him down before he could
manage to effect his escape.
We were all dripping with our own blood and the blood of our enemies,
pushed to the edges of our endurance.
Irontooth had a pouch on him which contained a small silver key and a
message. The key opened a chest in the treasure chamber (which showed
signs of having contained far more treasure—but much of it had been
removed quite recently). Inside was 500 gp, a magical medic’s
warhammer and a magical broadsword that does extra damage to dragons
and reptilian monsters. The scroll read:
“Irontooth, my spy in Winterhaven suggests we should be on the lookout
for visitors to the area. It probably does not matter—in just a few
days I’ll completely open the rift. Then Winterhaven’s people will
serve as food for those Lord Orcus sends to do my bidding. Kalorel”
When we returned to Winterhaven, the townspeople were acting strange
and unsettled. Salvana was distant and taciturn, Ninaran acted like
he didn’t even know we had returned.
I suspect that Jalfred was right about talking to Ninaran—he seems to
me to be the prime candidate for Kalarel’s spy in Winterhaven. He
seems able to hunt and move around outside of town without worrying
about the kobolds, and he knew about Marlin’s suspicions and could
have set up the ambush that killed him. Then for him to act so aloof
when we returned to town, it’s very strange, though perhaps he was
simply drunk at the inn. Yonah doesn’t trust Lord Paydrake, but I
suspect that if he were the spy, then he wouldn’t be mounting any sort
of effective defense against the kobolds. It could just be someone in
Paydrake’s employ, or maybe one of the other townspeople was much
better at keeping tabs on us than we know. But right now, my money is
on Ninaran as a spy for Kalarel.
______________________________________________________________________
Loot:
74 sp (18 each for Gareth, Kelissa, Yonah, and Jalfred, r. 2)
599 gp (149 each for Gareth, Kelissa, Yonah, and Jalfred, r. 3)
Stag Helm (bonus to perception) [Gareth]
2 healing potions
Medic’s Warhammer [Jalfred]
Scalebane Broadsword [Krusk]
a dragon figurine carved from obsidian with the symbol of Orcus carved
into its bottom
6 short swords
6 dragonshields
light shield
2 suits of hide armor
Sling
3 special sling bullets
chainmail shirt
2 battle axes
XP:
(I sent an email to Ron asking to confirm my XP count, but assuming
what I have in my notes is correct & not taking into account any
potential xp bonuses, here’s the tally.)
Jalfred, Kelissa, Gareth, & Yonah each receive 691 XP.
Liam, Krusk, and Dillius receive half that sum, so 345 XP each.
I believe that means that Dillius & Liam once again level up to 3, and
Krusk is very, very close to doing so.
Journal Day 2
We exited the mausoleum into the chaos of a city under siege, and saw
just a short distance from us a pair of well-armed individuals. It
seemed clear that they, like us, had been sent into this area by the
city guard to hunt kobolds, and like us, they discovered much greater
danger than they or the city guard might have expected. They were a
dwarven cleric named Jalfred and a half-orc ranger named Krusk.
The pair had just finished beheading a creature, which Dillius tells
me was a Lesser Aspect of the God Orcus! This is especially troubling
news because so far as we know, there has been no known manifestation
of any of the gods for a very long time (thousands of years?), so for
Orcus to have a foothold on this plane, even if only as a lesser
aspect, bodes poorly indeed.
Later, Jalfred and Krusk explained to us that they had had dreams very
similar to the ones that brought our group together here in Allaron.
They joined up with a barbarian who had also had a similar dream and
had woken near the city, and they were subsequently sent into the
graveyard to help deal with the kobold problem, but at some point,
this barbarian figure was possessed—horns sprouted from his head, his
eyes glowed red, and Orcus’s insignia was magically burned into his
chest—and attacked the pair. They managed to kill him and then to
perform a ritual to destroy Orcus’s vessel entirely.
We were impressed with this accomplishment, and took our shared dreams
as a sign that we are intended to work together—besides, given the
dangers on every side of us, we all needed whatever additional safety
numbers might bring us—so we decided to combine our forces.
We made our way back to Liam’s safe house in Allaron’s center, hoping
to find the representative from the Council of Divinity and to get
further guidance about how to protect this tree that our dreams spoke
of. The Council member was waiting for us when we arrived but he
seemed quite unsettled, panicked even. He told us that he had
prepared a ritual to take himself and this tree out of immediate
danger and was insistent that there was no time for us to talk,
because he absolutely needed to get the tree out of the city. Because
we had been advised so firmly by the devas in Melora’s grove in the
city square to trust this man, we handed over the tree to him. He
gave us what he described as the only assistance he could offer: a
Vengeful Javelin +1, which we disbursed to Yonah, and an Amulet of
Resolution +1, which we disbursed to Krusk. And then he spoke a few
words and disappeared with the tree.
I find myself, even as I write this, wondering about what this
exchange with the councilmember means. We don’t even know his name!
I don’t really question our decision to hand over the tree to him,
though I can’t quite say that I’m certain we did the right thing
either. I certainly hope he wasn’t some sort of impostor. But even
if he was exactly what he seemed to have been, why did he rely on us
to fetch this tree for him. If he knew that there was such a major
threat lurking, why didn’t he offer us any warning before sending us
off to supposedly deal with just a troublesome group of kobolds? He
didn’t say anything at all about where we might go next to find him
again or to discover further allies in this larger battle between
forces that seem to be far beyond our ability to deal with as a party.
In any case, very soon after the man disappeared with the tree, there
was a deafening blast outside the house followed by swarms of zombies
surrounding the building and pounding down the door. We rushed up the
stairs and barricaded the door, looking for some means of escape.
Yonah smashed a window, and Kellissa and Krusk leapt from it into the
street and then tried to move a cart closer to the window to help the
less acrobatic party members escape, but they were unable to budge
that cart. Dillius and Liam tried to leap from the window and crashed
hard into the street. Meanwhile, Yonah blocked the door and I noticed
a secret door, which I opened but triggered a trap in the process—the
trap set off a huge explosion all through the sewer systems, but also
buried most of the zombies in the house. Yonah and I jumped from the
window too, and we made our way along a broad city street looking for
some access to the sewers through which we hoped to make our escape.
We were ambushed by three undead dragons as we made our way through
the streets—a white undead dragon of young age and 2 black undead
dragons of whelpling age. I hung back and fired arrow after arrow
into the dragons, while the rest of the party engaged in closer
quarters. Krusk and I focused our firepower first on one of the black
dragons and eventually I was able to place the finishing arrow into
its eye socket and the creature just disintegrated. Meanwhile, the
other pair of dragons dealt severe blows with their breath attacks on
the rest of the party, who just couldn’t disburse enough in the close
quarters to avoid being caught up in the bursts. Nonetheless, our
party dished out some fierce blows of our own and eventually it was
clear that the tide began to turn against the beasts. The small black
dragon seemed to decide to flee and launched into the air, but once he
got up just a bit he paused to unleash a last blast on the party, and
before he could make good on his escape, I sunk a pair of arrows into
his neck and he exploded in another shower of dust. The white
followed soon after, and when he was dusted he left behind his red
eyes, which we saw now were a pair of red gemstones.
Once the battle was completed a woman opened her door and motioned for
us to take shelter in her home. Inside were a huddled mass of about
30 peasants all waiting for some sign as to what they should do. Once
we had caught our breaths and checked our equipment, we told the
peasants to follow us to the nearest sewer entrance. We set off down
the street once again, but when we came into sight of the sewer grate,
those feckless peasants really panicked and rushed at the gate. We
had only just begun to try to calm them down when a group of skeletons
and zombies shambled toward us, so Kellissa and Dillius tried to deal
with the peasants while the rest of us set up a defensive perimeter to
deal with the undead threat.
One zombie managed to grab Liam and drag him most of the way back down
the street before I was able to finish him off with a few well-placed
arrows—only mistakenly hitting Liam once—unfortunately, such close
contact with the zombie proved most deleterious to Liam, who became
infested with some foul disease and began to rot quickly.
In the meantime, Dillius and Kellissa had a most difficult time
dealing with the mob of peasants and before they could manage to get
through them and to open the grate, a pair of poltergeists manifested
and killed some of the peasants, setting off a renewed panic and the
crowd fled into the skeletons and zombies, and met their deaths in
short order. We were able to deal with the poltergeists eventually,
though they proved tough opponents because they were only really
harmed by radiant or divine attacks, and the only member of our party
with such powers remaining to him, after that battle with the dragons
was Jalfred. After he’d landed a couple of powerful but not quite
deadly attacks on the poltergeists, the two of them teamed up on him
and landed a couple of grievous blows. Jalfred went down unconscious
and extremely close to death. Luckily, the rest of the party was able
to land a quick series of attacks that, while only partly effective,
were enough to kill the geists before their regenerative powers could
really kick in. We were able to rouse Jalfred and to administer some
healing to him.
Then we fled into the sewers. The rope that Krusk bore, which he had
found in his tent when waking in this ill-fated city, proved a very
useful guide as we made our escape, as it glowed brighter each time we
took a correct turn. Just inside the sewer, we found a suit of
Imposter’s Fine Mail +2, presumably belonging to one of the
poltergeist’s victims, or maybe belonging to the body that was
transformed into a poltergeist.
We finally made our way out of the city and got enough away to stop
and rest for a moment. I do not know which way we go next. The
nearest town is to the north, but should we go into another population
center? Our adventure here this day seems to have been, at best, only
a mixed success. I know we did what we could to protect them, but the
screams of those poor peasants who died because we couldn’t protect
them will haunt me for some time.
--------------------------------------------
The loot:
Vengeful Javelin +1 [Yonah]
Amulet of Resolution +1 [Krusk]
Imposter’s Fine Mail +2 [Dillius]
[Did Jalfred get a magic item that I missed being distributed?]
2 red gems worth 30 gp each
120 gp [The 5 original party members should each have 203 gp total
now. Krusk and Jalfred have 17 gp plus whatever they gained on their
adventures before joining with us. There is a remainder of 1 gp.]
Experience:
Each member of the party received 1430 XP for today's adventure.
Therefore, everyone except Krusk and Jalfred should have a total of
1775 XP. I don't know how many XP Jalfred & Krusk received before
they joined up with us (220?).
just a short distance from us a pair of well-armed individuals. It
seemed clear that they, like us, had been sent into this area by the
city guard to hunt kobolds, and like us, they discovered much greater
danger than they or the city guard might have expected. They were a
dwarven cleric named Jalfred and a half-orc ranger named Krusk.
The pair had just finished beheading a creature, which Dillius tells
me was a Lesser Aspect of the God Orcus! This is especially troubling
news because so far as we know, there has been no known manifestation
of any of the gods for a very long time (thousands of years?), so for
Orcus to have a foothold on this plane, even if only as a lesser
aspect, bodes poorly indeed.
Later, Jalfred and Krusk explained to us that they had had dreams very
similar to the ones that brought our group together here in Allaron.
They joined up with a barbarian who had also had a similar dream and
had woken near the city, and they were subsequently sent into the
graveyard to help deal with the kobold problem, but at some point,
this barbarian figure was possessed—horns sprouted from his head, his
eyes glowed red, and Orcus’s insignia was magically burned into his
chest—and attacked the pair. They managed to kill him and then to
perform a ritual to destroy Orcus’s vessel entirely.
We were impressed with this accomplishment, and took our shared dreams
as a sign that we are intended to work together—besides, given the
dangers on every side of us, we all needed whatever additional safety
numbers might bring us—so we decided to combine our forces.
We made our way back to Liam’s safe house in Allaron’s center, hoping
to find the representative from the Council of Divinity and to get
further guidance about how to protect this tree that our dreams spoke
of. The Council member was waiting for us when we arrived but he
seemed quite unsettled, panicked even. He told us that he had
prepared a ritual to take himself and this tree out of immediate
danger and was insistent that there was no time for us to talk,
because he absolutely needed to get the tree out of the city. Because
we had been advised so firmly by the devas in Melora’s grove in the
city square to trust this man, we handed over the tree to him. He
gave us what he described as the only assistance he could offer: a
Vengeful Javelin +1, which we disbursed to Yonah, and an Amulet of
Resolution +1, which we disbursed to Krusk. And then he spoke a few
words and disappeared with the tree.
I find myself, even as I write this, wondering about what this
exchange with the councilmember means. We don’t even know his name!
I don’t really question our decision to hand over the tree to him,
though I can’t quite say that I’m certain we did the right thing
either. I certainly hope he wasn’t some sort of impostor. But even
if he was exactly what he seemed to have been, why did he rely on us
to fetch this tree for him. If he knew that there was such a major
threat lurking, why didn’t he offer us any warning before sending us
off to supposedly deal with just a troublesome group of kobolds? He
didn’t say anything at all about where we might go next to find him
again or to discover further allies in this larger battle between
forces that seem to be far beyond our ability to deal with as a party.
In any case, very soon after the man disappeared with the tree, there
was a deafening blast outside the house followed by swarms of zombies
surrounding the building and pounding down the door. We rushed up the
stairs and barricaded the door, looking for some means of escape.
Yonah smashed a window, and Kellissa and Krusk leapt from it into the
street and then tried to move a cart closer to the window to help the
less acrobatic party members escape, but they were unable to budge
that cart. Dillius and Liam tried to leap from the window and crashed
hard into the street. Meanwhile, Yonah blocked the door and I noticed
a secret door, which I opened but triggered a trap in the process—the
trap set off a huge explosion all through the sewer systems, but also
buried most of the zombies in the house. Yonah and I jumped from the
window too, and we made our way along a broad city street looking for
some access to the sewers through which we hoped to make our escape.
We were ambushed by three undead dragons as we made our way through
the streets—a white undead dragon of young age and 2 black undead
dragons of whelpling age. I hung back and fired arrow after arrow
into the dragons, while the rest of the party engaged in closer
quarters. Krusk and I focused our firepower first on one of the black
dragons and eventually I was able to place the finishing arrow into
its eye socket and the creature just disintegrated. Meanwhile, the
other pair of dragons dealt severe blows with their breath attacks on
the rest of the party, who just couldn’t disburse enough in the close
quarters to avoid being caught up in the bursts. Nonetheless, our
party dished out some fierce blows of our own and eventually it was
clear that the tide began to turn against the beasts. The small black
dragon seemed to decide to flee and launched into the air, but once he
got up just a bit he paused to unleash a last blast on the party, and
before he could make good on his escape, I sunk a pair of arrows into
his neck and he exploded in another shower of dust. The white
followed soon after, and when he was dusted he left behind his red
eyes, which we saw now were a pair of red gemstones.
Once the battle was completed a woman opened her door and motioned for
us to take shelter in her home. Inside were a huddled mass of about
30 peasants all waiting for some sign as to what they should do. Once
we had caught our breaths and checked our equipment, we told the
peasants to follow us to the nearest sewer entrance. We set off down
the street once again, but when we came into sight of the sewer grate,
those feckless peasants really panicked and rushed at the gate. We
had only just begun to try to calm them down when a group of skeletons
and zombies shambled toward us, so Kellissa and Dillius tried to deal
with the peasants while the rest of us set up a defensive perimeter to
deal with the undead threat.
One zombie managed to grab Liam and drag him most of the way back down
the street before I was able to finish him off with a few well-placed
arrows—only mistakenly hitting Liam once—unfortunately, such close
contact with the zombie proved most deleterious to Liam, who became
infested with some foul disease and began to rot quickly.
In the meantime, Dillius and Kellissa had a most difficult time
dealing with the mob of peasants and before they could manage to get
through them and to open the grate, a pair of poltergeists manifested
and killed some of the peasants, setting off a renewed panic and the
crowd fled into the skeletons and zombies, and met their deaths in
short order. We were able to deal with the poltergeists eventually,
though they proved tough opponents because they were only really
harmed by radiant or divine attacks, and the only member of our party
with such powers remaining to him, after that battle with the dragons
was Jalfred. After he’d landed a couple of powerful but not quite
deadly attacks on the poltergeists, the two of them teamed up on him
and landed a couple of grievous blows. Jalfred went down unconscious
and extremely close to death. Luckily, the rest of the party was able
to land a quick series of attacks that, while only partly effective,
were enough to kill the geists before their regenerative powers could
really kick in. We were able to rouse Jalfred and to administer some
healing to him.
Then we fled into the sewers. The rope that Krusk bore, which he had
found in his tent when waking in this ill-fated city, proved a very
useful guide as we made our escape, as it glowed brighter each time we
took a correct turn. Just inside the sewer, we found a suit of
Imposter’s Fine Mail +2, presumably belonging to one of the
poltergeist’s victims, or maybe belonging to the body that was
transformed into a poltergeist.
We finally made our way out of the city and got enough away to stop
and rest for a moment. I do not know which way we go next. The
nearest town is to the north, but should we go into another population
center? Our adventure here this day seems to have been, at best, only
a mixed success. I know we did what we could to protect them, but the
screams of those poor peasants who died because we couldn’t protect
them will haunt me for some time.
--------------------------------------------
The loot:
Vengeful Javelin +1 [Yonah]
Amulet of Resolution +1 [Krusk]
Imposter’s Fine Mail +2 [Dillius]
[Did Jalfred get a magic item that I missed being distributed?]
2 red gems worth 30 gp each
120 gp [The 5 original party members should each have 203 gp total
now. Krusk and Jalfred have 17 gp plus whatever they gained on their
adventures before joining with us. There is a remainder of 1 gp.]
Experience:
Each member of the party received 1430 XP for today's adventure.
Therefore, everyone except Krusk and Jalfred should have a total of
1775 XP. I don't know how many XP Jalfred & Krusk received before
they joined up with us (220?).
Journal Day 1
I had been tracking the Kukznuk tribe of kobolds for some time, as
they had been acting a more organized fashion of late and had been
fouling water sources, when I met up with Yonah. We were ambushed by
a group of kobolds led by one who identified himself as Yuzdret, who
promised to “feed [us] to his master” the next time we meet, then
threw a gleaming orb which hit a tree and froze it solid. Behind the
screen of the orb attack and the onslaught of his kobold minions,
Yuzdret made his escape. That night, both Yonah and I had the same
dream in which a representation of Melora beckoned to us from a
crowded street, when a group of kobolds attack, followed by a vision
of a hot wind blowing into the city of Allaron, and fire blooming
along its path, while a massive tree grows within it. We are each
made of stone, and along with a group of other stones stand around the
tree protecting it from the blaze.
When we awoke, we heard a whisper on the wind that said “find him …”
and we were in separate tents in a clearing outside the city of
Allaron, along with 3 others: Liam, a half-elf paladin who had
received an assignment to be stationed in Allaron and had been on his
way there; Dillius, a human bard; and Kelissa, a Tiefling rogue. All
three of them reported that they had had similar dreams and had been
transported to this clearing as well.
We had, however, only a short time to converse with each other before
we were set upon by a group of kobolds. I found myself under an odd
compulsion to remain aloof from the fight, but the other four
dispatched the kobolds with relative ease.
Once the skirmish was completed, we noticed that a bag had appeared in
each of the tents where we had materialized. In each 150gp and some
of us found other items: in my bag there was an additional small bag
full of very rich soil, perhaps magical; in Dillius’ bag he found a
small gold-colored planting pot; and Liam found a detailed map of the
city of Allaron that seems to be magical in nature. We noticed a
cloud of dust approaching us and I was able to discern that there were
four men approaching on horseback, so Kelissa and I hid in the tall
grass outside the campsite and our comrades prepared for whatever
potential threat might be approaching. It turned out to be a patrol
of the city watch, and a couple of them were already known by Liam.
They told us that there had been troubles with kobolds around and
within the city for a few days now and escorted us to the citadel
within Allaron.
Once we arrived in the citadel, men there informed Liam that he has a
house at his disposal here in the city and asked for him to meet with
a commanding officer in the citadel. They offered to escort the rest
of the party to his house to await him, but we decided to split up and
scout out the city to find out what we could about the city. Dillius
evidently went to the Silvered Unicorn and performed. He returned at
the end of the evening, inebriated and mumbling something about a
wicked brawl and a badly out-of-tune lute. I suspect his evening did
not go so well. Kelissa said that she wandered through the streets
looking for information and heard from townspeople, when they weren’t
hurling insults at her because of her race, that some people are very
worried about these kobold threats, while others believe there have
been sightings of the walking undead, and still others think it’s a
simple crime spree not particularly different from any other uprising
of thieves. Yonah and I went to Melora’s grove. We found a deva
cleric there and spoke with him about the recent troubles in the city.
He told us that he was especially concerned that the kobolds were not
only attacking residents of the city, but capturing many of them and
dragging them off. I described to him my dream and he said it seemed
clear that Melora had called us to the city to protect something
within it, perhaps even something within her grove, and then promised
to meditate further on the meaning of this dream. He was deeply
troubled by this image of a hot wind blowing over the city. He told
us that we would be meeting with a representative of the Council of
Divinity and encouraged us to comply with that person’s request. After
that, Yonah and I went to the river to search for signs of kobold
activity, and found some tracks and signs but nothing that gave any
strong clues.
When we all rendezvoused back at Liam’s house, the representative of
the Council of Divinity was waiting for us, so we convened in the
dining room to hear his proposal. He informed us that the Council
believes the kobolds to be followers of Orcus, the Demon Lord of the
Undead, and that timed to coincide with the kobold attacks within the
city streets there has been a great deal of activity within the city’s
graveyard. He offered us a reward for whatever information we could
gather about the source or reason for these attacks, or for whatever
we could do to halt the attacks, and asked us to try to capture one of
the kobolds alive if possible.
After a bit of discussion about tactics and a few moments to rest and
reequip ourselves, we set out for the graveyard, a rather large area
in the southwestern (?) quadrant of the city. We entered the
graveyard and moved towards its center. I noticed some shadowy
movement near a large mausoleum and we paused to see if we could
pinpoint what was going on. After a moment, a group of kobolds
emerged from the brush to our east—they seem to have been expecting
us, and seem to have prepared an ambush for us, but we were able to
avoid being surprised.
The kobolds were led by Yusdret, and alongside him was another larger
kobold with similarly discolored skin—over the course of the combat it
became clear that he was some sort of priest. They had a pair of
shield-bearers with them, with white dragons emblazoned on their
shields, as well as a handful of minions. I reacted first and
launched a pair of arrows at Yusdret. One of them went wide of the
mark, but the other was headed straight for his heart when he managed
to parry the blow with his dagger, sending the arrow into one of his
minions and striking him dead.
Yonah charged into the midst of the enemies, slamming her hammer into
the ground such that the earth rose up and gnashed at our foes.
Kelissa moved around the perimeter throwing knives at the enemy, and
occasionally sneaking in for a hand-to-hand strike. Liam’s sword
dealt heavy damage to the enemy, and at one point he held his holy
symbol and threw a ball of radiant energy at the kobold priest,
dealing a monumental blow and leaving him dazed. Dillius spoke a word
and his lyre changed into a sword and he engaged in hand-to-hand,
briefly, but once he took some damage he pulled back and spoke another
word to convert his sword back into a lyre. He used a very powerful
attack on Yusdret, shouting stirring words at him such that the kobold
cowered with fear and all of us in the party felt our hearts soar with
renewed vigor. I hung back behind my allies and peppered the enemy
with arrows, downing the priest after he was dazed by Liam and when
Yusdret saw the numbers of his minions dwindling and turned to fled, I
fired a perfectly-placed arrow into his leg, leaving him hobbled and
bleeding profusely. He went down, unconscious, and we attempted to
capture him, but he roused himself and in a burst of lightning speed
tumbled out of our grasp and made as if to run away. Deciding that I
wanted no chance for him to escape, I placed two arrows into his side
as he attempted to escape, striking him dead. When the lone
shield-bearer was left, he tried to flee, but some trap within his
chest exploded, killing him instantly. Our enemy seems to know how
cowardly these kobolds are, and took steps to punish that tendency.
It seemed to me that our battle strategy worked exactly as we had
hoped it would. Our big bruisers, Liam and Yonah, kept the enemy
engaged and dealt out damage as they could. Dillius used his musical
(magical?) skills to heal the rest of us and to deal out damage as
opportunities presented themselves. Kelissa and I, protected from
attack by the others in our party, were free to deal out damage. That
said, I must admit that it looked bad for a few seconds there at
first. Liam, Dillius, and Yonah all took quite a lot of damage in the
initial rounds of combat—the kobolds swarmed around them and by sheer
numbers were able to deal out some damage, and then that priest had a
few powerful cold-based attacks and Yusdret was quick and quite
strong.
N.B.: Yusdret’s attack seemed to be far more effective if he could
land strikes with both his sword and dagger. The kobolds all seemed to
take additional damage from radiant attacks. Perhaps I should look
into finding some kind of fire-based weapon.
Once we dispatched all of the enemy, we found on the priest a holy
symbol with a fearsome representation of Orcus, so the Council’s
suspicions seem to be confirmed. There was a small blue sapphire set
into the symbol. He was also bearing a pair of red potions, which we
were not immediately able to identify. Yusdret bore 180 gp and a
dagger with an open hand inscribed on the pommel, which Dillius
identified as a Dagger of Magical Thieving +1. Kelissa claimed that
dagger, and was already testing out its balance and weight. I expect
she’ll draw both blood and howls of frustration from her enemies with
such a weapon.
After searching the bodies, we entered the mausoleum. Inside, we
found that what we had taken to be a coffin was instead a solid block
of stone, with carvings etched into it depicting a battle. We
couldn’t make any more sense of the carvings than that, however. In
the corners of the mausoleum were some very interesting items. A
shield with a ring of small swords set into its rim, which we
identified as a Razor Shield, and which Liam claimed as a defensive
weapon; a suit of hide armor with dozens of small pockets built into
it, which we identified as a Battle Harness +1, which I claimed for
myself—it seems to increase my already quick reflexes and items stored
within its pockets have less weight than expected and return to my
hand quickly.
Also in the room was a small willow sapling, which glowed with a
divine power. We decided that the sapling should be joined with the
pot & soil we had found earlier. Since I was the only one in the
party who recognized the sapling as a willow tree, which I knew to be
Yonah’s symbol, I took up the tree to pot it, but I was immediately
struck senseless. My comrades informed me that I was turned to stone
when I touched it, and that Liam was turned to stone when he tried to
grab me to pull me away from the tree. But Yonah was able to touch
the sapling without any harm or difficulty and when she potted the
plant in the soil, Liam and I were restored. Once the tree’s roots
were covered, it visibly grew slightly and then a wind stirred up in
the chamber and we heard whispered in its wake “you have found him.”
The tree then enveloped us in its glow and we were all healed and our
powers restored as though we had rested overnight.
However, we had no time to celebrate this discovery, let alone to
puzzle over its meaning, because within seconds we saw a red-hot glow
coming through the doorway into the building. We went outside to
investigate and found the city in blazes. There were people scurrying
in panic in all directions, but when we looked more closely we
recognized that it was not just people, but also shadows and walking
dead. In the sky, we saw multiple dragons, including more than one
undead dragon. My sharp eyes picked out, galloping across the sky on
flying horses, far in the distance, 2 individuals with eyes that
glowed.
The loot
Coins:
930 gp
Magical items:
a map, with some sort of magical ability to demarcate directions [Liam]
Pot, soil, and a willow sapling of some kind of strong divine power [Yonah]
2 potions (red, though still unidentified)
Dagger of magical thieving +1 [Kelissa]
Razor shield [Liam]
Battle harness hide armor +1 [Gareth]
Willow tree, small golden pot, bag of magical (?) soil
Other items:
5 tents
a necklace with the symbol of Orcus & a small, blue sapphire inset
XP
100 for everyone except me for the combat with kobolds in campsite
145 each for the rest of the encounter
100 each for various exemplary actions
they had been acting a more organized fashion of late and had been
fouling water sources, when I met up with Yonah. We were ambushed by
a group of kobolds led by one who identified himself as Yuzdret, who
promised to “feed [us] to his master” the next time we meet, then
threw a gleaming orb which hit a tree and froze it solid. Behind the
screen of the orb attack and the onslaught of his kobold minions,
Yuzdret made his escape. That night, both Yonah and I had the same
dream in which a representation of Melora beckoned to us from a
crowded street, when a group of kobolds attack, followed by a vision
of a hot wind blowing into the city of Allaron, and fire blooming
along its path, while a massive tree grows within it. We are each
made of stone, and along with a group of other stones stand around the
tree protecting it from the blaze.
When we awoke, we heard a whisper on the wind that said “find him …”
and we were in separate tents in a clearing outside the city of
Allaron, along with 3 others: Liam, a half-elf paladin who had
received an assignment to be stationed in Allaron and had been on his
way there; Dillius, a human bard; and Kelissa, a Tiefling rogue. All
three of them reported that they had had similar dreams and had been
transported to this clearing as well.
We had, however, only a short time to converse with each other before
we were set upon by a group of kobolds. I found myself under an odd
compulsion to remain aloof from the fight, but the other four
dispatched the kobolds with relative ease.
Once the skirmish was completed, we noticed that a bag had appeared in
each of the tents where we had materialized. In each 150gp and some
of us found other items: in my bag there was an additional small bag
full of very rich soil, perhaps magical; in Dillius’ bag he found a
small gold-colored planting pot; and Liam found a detailed map of the
city of Allaron that seems to be magical in nature. We noticed a
cloud of dust approaching us and I was able to discern that there were
four men approaching on horseback, so Kelissa and I hid in the tall
grass outside the campsite and our comrades prepared for whatever
potential threat might be approaching. It turned out to be a patrol
of the city watch, and a couple of them were already known by Liam.
They told us that there had been troubles with kobolds around and
within the city for a few days now and escorted us to the citadel
within Allaron.
Once we arrived in the citadel, men there informed Liam that he has a
house at his disposal here in the city and asked for him to meet with
a commanding officer in the citadel. They offered to escort the rest
of the party to his house to await him, but we decided to split up and
scout out the city to find out what we could about the city. Dillius
evidently went to the Silvered Unicorn and performed. He returned at
the end of the evening, inebriated and mumbling something about a
wicked brawl and a badly out-of-tune lute. I suspect his evening did
not go so well. Kelissa said that she wandered through the streets
looking for information and heard from townspeople, when they weren’t
hurling insults at her because of her race, that some people are very
worried about these kobold threats, while others believe there have
been sightings of the walking undead, and still others think it’s a
simple crime spree not particularly different from any other uprising
of thieves. Yonah and I went to Melora’s grove. We found a deva
cleric there and spoke with him about the recent troubles in the city.
He told us that he was especially concerned that the kobolds were not
only attacking residents of the city, but capturing many of them and
dragging them off. I described to him my dream and he said it seemed
clear that Melora had called us to the city to protect something
within it, perhaps even something within her grove, and then promised
to meditate further on the meaning of this dream. He was deeply
troubled by this image of a hot wind blowing over the city. He told
us that we would be meeting with a representative of the Council of
Divinity and encouraged us to comply with that person’s request. After
that, Yonah and I went to the river to search for signs of kobold
activity, and found some tracks and signs but nothing that gave any
strong clues.
When we all rendezvoused back at Liam’s house, the representative of
the Council of Divinity was waiting for us, so we convened in the
dining room to hear his proposal. He informed us that the Council
believes the kobolds to be followers of Orcus, the Demon Lord of the
Undead, and that timed to coincide with the kobold attacks within the
city streets there has been a great deal of activity within the city’s
graveyard. He offered us a reward for whatever information we could
gather about the source or reason for these attacks, or for whatever
we could do to halt the attacks, and asked us to try to capture one of
the kobolds alive if possible.
After a bit of discussion about tactics and a few moments to rest and
reequip ourselves, we set out for the graveyard, a rather large area
in the southwestern (?) quadrant of the city. We entered the
graveyard and moved towards its center. I noticed some shadowy
movement near a large mausoleum and we paused to see if we could
pinpoint what was going on. After a moment, a group of kobolds
emerged from the brush to our east—they seem to have been expecting
us, and seem to have prepared an ambush for us, but we were able to
avoid being surprised.
The kobolds were led by Yusdret, and alongside him was another larger
kobold with similarly discolored skin—over the course of the combat it
became clear that he was some sort of priest. They had a pair of
shield-bearers with them, with white dragons emblazoned on their
shields, as well as a handful of minions. I reacted first and
launched a pair of arrows at Yusdret. One of them went wide of the
mark, but the other was headed straight for his heart when he managed
to parry the blow with his dagger, sending the arrow into one of his
minions and striking him dead.
Yonah charged into the midst of the enemies, slamming her hammer into
the ground such that the earth rose up and gnashed at our foes.
Kelissa moved around the perimeter throwing knives at the enemy, and
occasionally sneaking in for a hand-to-hand strike. Liam’s sword
dealt heavy damage to the enemy, and at one point he held his holy
symbol and threw a ball of radiant energy at the kobold priest,
dealing a monumental blow and leaving him dazed. Dillius spoke a word
and his lyre changed into a sword and he engaged in hand-to-hand,
briefly, but once he took some damage he pulled back and spoke another
word to convert his sword back into a lyre. He used a very powerful
attack on Yusdret, shouting stirring words at him such that the kobold
cowered with fear and all of us in the party felt our hearts soar with
renewed vigor. I hung back behind my allies and peppered the enemy
with arrows, downing the priest after he was dazed by Liam and when
Yusdret saw the numbers of his minions dwindling and turned to fled, I
fired a perfectly-placed arrow into his leg, leaving him hobbled and
bleeding profusely. He went down, unconscious, and we attempted to
capture him, but he roused himself and in a burst of lightning speed
tumbled out of our grasp and made as if to run away. Deciding that I
wanted no chance for him to escape, I placed two arrows into his side
as he attempted to escape, striking him dead. When the lone
shield-bearer was left, he tried to flee, but some trap within his
chest exploded, killing him instantly. Our enemy seems to know how
cowardly these kobolds are, and took steps to punish that tendency.
It seemed to me that our battle strategy worked exactly as we had
hoped it would. Our big bruisers, Liam and Yonah, kept the enemy
engaged and dealt out damage as they could. Dillius used his musical
(magical?) skills to heal the rest of us and to deal out damage as
opportunities presented themselves. Kelissa and I, protected from
attack by the others in our party, were free to deal out damage. That
said, I must admit that it looked bad for a few seconds there at
first. Liam, Dillius, and Yonah all took quite a lot of damage in the
initial rounds of combat—the kobolds swarmed around them and by sheer
numbers were able to deal out some damage, and then that priest had a
few powerful cold-based attacks and Yusdret was quick and quite
strong.
N.B.: Yusdret’s attack seemed to be far more effective if he could
land strikes with both his sword and dagger. The kobolds all seemed to
take additional damage from radiant attacks. Perhaps I should look
into finding some kind of fire-based weapon.
Once we dispatched all of the enemy, we found on the priest a holy
symbol with a fearsome representation of Orcus, so the Council’s
suspicions seem to be confirmed. There was a small blue sapphire set
into the symbol. He was also bearing a pair of red potions, which we
were not immediately able to identify. Yusdret bore 180 gp and a
dagger with an open hand inscribed on the pommel, which Dillius
identified as a Dagger of Magical Thieving +1. Kelissa claimed that
dagger, and was already testing out its balance and weight. I expect
she’ll draw both blood and howls of frustration from her enemies with
such a weapon.
After searching the bodies, we entered the mausoleum. Inside, we
found that what we had taken to be a coffin was instead a solid block
of stone, with carvings etched into it depicting a battle. We
couldn’t make any more sense of the carvings than that, however. In
the corners of the mausoleum were some very interesting items. A
shield with a ring of small swords set into its rim, which we
identified as a Razor Shield, and which Liam claimed as a defensive
weapon; a suit of hide armor with dozens of small pockets built into
it, which we identified as a Battle Harness +1, which I claimed for
myself—it seems to increase my already quick reflexes and items stored
within its pockets have less weight than expected and return to my
hand quickly.
Also in the room was a small willow sapling, which glowed with a
divine power. We decided that the sapling should be joined with the
pot & soil we had found earlier. Since I was the only one in the
party who recognized the sapling as a willow tree, which I knew to be
Yonah’s symbol, I took up the tree to pot it, but I was immediately
struck senseless. My comrades informed me that I was turned to stone
when I touched it, and that Liam was turned to stone when he tried to
grab me to pull me away from the tree. But Yonah was able to touch
the sapling without any harm or difficulty and when she potted the
plant in the soil, Liam and I were restored. Once the tree’s roots
were covered, it visibly grew slightly and then a wind stirred up in
the chamber and we heard whispered in its wake “you have found him.”
The tree then enveloped us in its glow and we were all healed and our
powers restored as though we had rested overnight.
However, we had no time to celebrate this discovery, let alone to
puzzle over its meaning, because within seconds we saw a red-hot glow
coming through the doorway into the building. We went outside to
investigate and found the city in blazes. There were people scurrying
in panic in all directions, but when we looked more closely we
recognized that it was not just people, but also shadows and walking
dead. In the sky, we saw multiple dragons, including more than one
undead dragon. My sharp eyes picked out, galloping across the sky on
flying horses, far in the distance, 2 individuals with eyes that
glowed.
The loot
Coins:
930 gp
Magical items:
a map, with some sort of magical ability to demarcate directions [Liam]
Pot, soil, and a willow sapling of some kind of strong divine power [Yonah]
2 potions (red, though still unidentified)
Dagger of magical thieving +1 [Kelissa]
Razor shield [Liam]
Battle harness hide armor +1 [Gareth]
Willow tree, small golden pot, bag of magical (?) soil
Other items:
5 tents
a necklace with the symbol of Orcus & a small, blue sapphire inset
XP
100 for everyone except me for the combat with kobolds in campsite
145 each for the rest of the encounter
100 each for various exemplary actions
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