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.