Sunday, 9 August

The party continued their pursuit of the kobolds up the east road, but after a few hours, night fell and the party made camp. As they rested, three gray wolves approached, obviously hungry and looking for their first meal of the week. The party gave the wolves some of their food, which was (ahem) wolfed down. The wolves stayed with the party, helping with watch duty during the night.

The next morning, the wolves left, and the party continued north. Soon, they came across an kobold outpost: a raised platform on either side of the road, and a camp a bit further back amongst the trees. A massive battle ensued, with the PCs emerging victorious. Apart from a bit of treasure, the PCs found a metal cage and evidence that the kobolds and Diana were only a few hours ahead.

Pushing on, the party arrived at a deep chasm, with a narrow, rickety bridge spanning the hundred foot gap. At each end of the bridge, kobolds stood guard. Quickly dispatching the minions at their end, Torrok moved across the bridge to take on the kobolds on the other side, who were frantically trying to cut the ropes. Aleela and Maul stayed on their side of the bridge, making ranged attacks on the kobolds, while Vistra tried to move across, but his fear (of heights or of spilling his beer) prevented him from getting very far.

They kobolds were slain, and the PCs followed the path from the bridge to an old mining camp. Long abandoned, the buildings were falling down. As they entered the middle of the camp, kobolds attacked from the various buildings, fighting a desperate -- and ultimately futile -- action to keep the party from entering the mine.

Entering the mine, the party first encountered a pit trap, and while climbing over it (and, in some PCs' cases, out of it), they were attacked by four kobold skirmishers. Beating the dog-lizards, the party continued down to the second level of the dungeon, where they encountered more kobolds defending a crude barricade. The party bashed their way through the barricade and the kobolds, before finding another pit trap the hard way, and two more skirmishers guarding the ladder to level three.

Finally, in a grand chamber on the third level, the PCs caught up with the kobold leader and Diana. The girl was tied to an altar, with a kobold wyrmpriest performing some ritual over her. Four minions and two dragonshields rushed to engage the PCs. At the other end of the room was a great stone arch, carved in the likeness of chains surmounted by an eye. Within the arch, a shadowy figure watched through an arcane portal.

The minions and dragonshields were no match for the PCs, who quickly removed the wyrmpriests protection, and were able to put paid to the foul priest before he could complete his ritual. The figure in the portal didn't appreciate this: there was a monstrous roar, an impression of size, age, wings, teeth, flame and fury, and the portal disappeared leaving the stone archway.

Sunday, 9 August

[Took a break from Eric's Blood Sun campaign, and ran the first session of my Broken Chains campaign.]

The Party

• A'Leela Baelenti, paladin of the Raven Queen (Shane)
• Maul, goliath cleric of Kord (Tim)
• Torrok, goliath barbarian (Eric)
• Vistra, dwarf invoker of Moradin (Cam)

The Adventure

The story begins, as such stories often do, in a tavern in the town of Westhove, on the eastern shore of the island of Westhove. As night falls, various people -- mainly townsfolk, but a few adventurers -- have gathered in The Wind and the Waves for good food, good drink, and good company.

The bonhomie was rudely interrupted, when the walls of the inn erupted in magenta flames. As the burning timbers of the inn started to collapse, the player characters attempted to leave, although only Torrok made it out unaided.

As they emerged from the inn, the characters found the town square in chaos. Around them, as many buildings in the town burned, the townsfolk were fighting desperate battles with kobolds. Facing the characters was a group of seven of the dog-lizards: a slinger [level 1 artillery] perched on top of the fountain, with two skirmishers [level 1 skirmisher] and four minions [level 1 minion] arrayed before him. Spotting the new threats, the slinger pointed a wand at the paladin as she sprang to the attack, and called out "Ignite!" Unfortunately for the kobold, the wand had been totally expended, and the party was able to press their attacks without fear of combustion, which they did, eliminating the kobolds without sustaining too much damage.

As the tumult died, the party noticed that the rest of the kobolds had also left, leaving the townsfolk to put out the fires, tend to the wounded, and mourn the dying. Maul searched the kobolds' bodies, finding a scrap of parchment with the portrait of a young human girl. A'Leela helped with the funerary rites, Torrok helped with the fire-fighting, Maul healed the critically wounded, and Vistra mourned the loss of beer.

As dawn broke, the characters started trying to find out who the girl on the parchment was. Maul and Torrok located the mayor of Westhove, who identified the girl as Diana, the daughter of the innkeeper. The innkeeper confirmed this, begging the party to find his daughter. He told them that she was with her betrothed, Erik the blacksmith's son. At the forge, they found the blacksmith mourning over the body of his son. Spending most of the day canvassing the town, A'Leela found a townsmen who had seen kobolds dragging Diana away towards the East Gate.

Having found a lead, the party decided against visiting an old ranger outside the South Gate, and follow the kobold's trail north. Thanks to Torrok's tracking skills (aided in no small part by the rest of the party), they followed the tracks (that appeared to be following game trails) into the Shatanti Hills that lay north of the town.

The Flutemaker

The trail eventually stopped dead at the edge of a clearing. In the clearing stood a hut, and sitting outside the hut was a wizened old man carving wood. Approaching the old man, the party discovered he was carving flutes; indeed, hundreds of flutes were hanging from the verandah and walls.

The party talked to the old man for a while, and he presented a gift of a flute in the shape of a panther-like creature, before showing them where the kobold's trail continued.

The Watchtower

Following the tracks, the party eventually came across an old road, at a bend which curved from west to north. The kobold tracks headed north, and the party followed.

By mid-afternoon, the party arrived at a T-junction, with the road going east and west. At the head of the junction stood the ruins of an old watchtower, which only had three levels above ground remaining. Atop the watchtower were goblin sharpshooters, who promptly opened fire on the party. One was dispatched when the barbarian and the invoker knocked it off the top of the tower, and the other was captured by the paladin.

Making the prisoner an offer it couldn't refuse, the party tried to use the goblin to get the rest of the goblin garrison to open the door, but the doorkeeper spotted the barbarian, slamming the door shut. Busting down the door, the party entered into the underground barracks and storage areas, fighting off the goblins until they eventually defeated them all (taking another one prisoner), and found that the kobolds had passed only a little earlier, taking the east road. A'Leela let the two goblins go with a warning, promising the wrath of the Raven Queen if they ever returned.

In the cells in the tower, the party also found a goblin locked up. Unlike most goblins, this one was dressed in fine clothes, looked (and smelled) like he'd had a bath recently, and very politely asked the party to set him free. He introduced himself as Match, and explained that he'd helped himself to various items from his chieftain's treasure horde. Unfortunately, the combination of some of the magical items he'd tried on meant he couldn't take any of them off -- and one of those items caused him to behave in a very ungoblinlike way! With nowhere else to go, Match tagged along with the party as they left the tower and headed up the east road.

Sunday 12 July 2009

After resting, we decided to try the brass key in the gargoyle door. As a precaution, E'bor used mage hand to float the key into place, which caused a blast of freezing cold. Still the wrong key.

With nowhere else to go, and not willing to try our chances with an enraged carnage demon and two gargoyles, we searched the rest of the complex. We found that the block trap that had slid across the passageway as we entered had reset itself. In the clay scout's pedestal, we found an iron key with a dragonshard. We tried this new key in the gargoyle door, which caused the door and the key to disappear. The next door -- circular -- was opened with the wood key (after the brass key caused activated a burst of flame). The final door -- diamond-shaped -- had the phrase "Let he who would enter speak his name" written above it. Putting the brass key into the door didn't do anything, until someone finally said "Gutannis".

Beyond the final door was a 30' diameter circular chamber. Opposite the door were five stone gargoyles, each holding a chest. Painted on the wall was a mural of a strange desert world: lightning illuminated dagger-sharp mountains, while three large scorpions dominated the scene. According to E'bor, magic emanated from the chests and the painting.

Baxter -- natch -- skipped up to one of the statues. The chest it was holding wasn't locked, and didn't appear to have any (mundane) traps, but as soon as he tried to open it, the scorpions vanished from the painting, and three stormclaw scorpions appeared in the room [level 1 soldier]. One grabbed Baxter and stung him, rendering him near death. The rest of the party engaged the scorpions, eventually defeating them and rescuing the rogue from Death's clutches. However, before we could do anything, the imp appeared and attacked E'bor, before fleeing.

Taking a quick rest to recover, the party decided to put up bedrolls over the doorway, so we'd have some warning if the wretched imp tried returning. In the chest Baxter tried to open, we found a variety of potions. In another chest was an orb emanating a strong magical field. When E'bor touched it, he was flooded with images from around the world -- the Orb of Annata!
Fardrak opened another chest, and was attacked by a fire warrior, which proved no match for the party. The chest itself was empty.

The fourth chest contained a wand of psychic ravaging +1, which Tirah took, while the last chest contained treasure (400gp, 3 amythysts worth 25gp each, and an 80gp sapphire).

Having found what we had come for, we started to leave the dungeon. The imp, however, had other plans. It hovered over the parchment in the demon room, and threatened to shred the parchment (and thus releasing the demon), unless we left all our equipment behind. Realising that its guarantee of safe passage was meaningless, the party attacked. E'bor cast sleep, catching both the demon and the imp, then Tirah cast blunder, causing the imp to fall into the demon's circle. The party started running, while the demon was able to escape its circle. The two gargoyles flanking the pedestal animated, and attacked the demon, letting the party escape. As we left, we deliberately triggered the block trap, giving us at least several hours head start.
We headed back to Threshold with the Orb, handing it over to Horin Milnar at the Council Buildings, before heading to the Lonely Tankard for some much needed rest.

The Orb of Annata

When Tim's character touches the Orb of Annata a rush of cascading scenes erupts onto the surface of the orb.

… grey armoured horsemen cloaked in wolf skin furs are locked in brutal combat with a group of living trees and goat men. Swords and flaming brands slash left and right in a desperate melee. A great warrior surges forward and raises his sword high, the sword flares to life and beams of radiant light lance out towards his foes ..

…a strange many spired edifice of blackstone rises from brackish mist shrouded waters. Cloaked figures approach the structure and a hidden door swings wide spilling forth an emerald light from within …

… city walls blackened by fire stretch out to either side of a fortified gateway. Here and there it is broken in places by large rocks embedded in the shattered stone. A squad of graceful hunters pad through the open gateway. Bestial faces set in grim determination, they run across fertile fields, where others of their kind toil side by side with human men and women …

… grey ash floats through the air and blankets the ground and fire blackened trees like dirty snow. Large packs of charcoal black hounds scour the fire barren lands. Smoke and fire escape their open jaws and their eyes burn like smoldering embers. In the distance plumes of black smoke rise from the flame crowned peak of a huge volcano. Rivers of burning rock flow like fiery arteries down its jagged slopes. Striding through the wasteland a huge giant with charcoal skin, bronze metal armour and flaming red hair moves towards a rocky outcropping. A cloud of ash billows up from the ground as a huge dragon lands atop the outcropping. The rock smokes and slag's under its claws, waves of heat roll outward from skin like burning coal and wings of fiery fire …

… a cloaked hooded figure, wearing worn leather armour, carries a blanket wrapped body along a white marbled corridor. Cobwebs and dust are broken and disturbed by his passage. Emerging from the corridor, the man enters a large chamber dominated by the marble statue of a robed women, her arms outstretched and raised towards the ceiling. Tongues of blood red veins spread upwards from the hem of the robe, marring the pure alabaster stone. Blue fires burn in small braziers sitting atop black stone pedestals spaced evenly around the walls. Moving slowly forward he lays the body with gentle care before the statue. Despite his care, the loose blanket falls away from the head to reveal the partially burnt face of a man. As the man steps back and bows his head, the statue begins to glow with a pale sapphire radiance ...

Brad

Sunday, 21 June

Finally, we arrived at the tower -- or rather, its ruined remains at the top of a hill. It appears the tower was destroyed about 70 years ago. We found tracks leading up the hill -- human and goblin. The human tracks led to bodies (presumably of the group sent three days ago), all with sting wounds to the neck. We buried the bodies, and followed the goblin tracks, which led up the hill.

As we neared the top, the ground shook (the same earthquake that squad 1 experienced while in the goblin tunnels). The ground at the top collapsed, and a group of goblins emerged, coughing from the cloud of dust, and looking anxiously behind them. We hid, and watched as the goblins drew their weapons and watched the hole. Suddenly, an imp [level 3 lurker] appeared near one of the goblins, and lashed out with its tail sting. The goblin fell down dead, and the rest fled down the hill (and past the party), while the imp disappeared.

Cautiously approaching the ruins, we found a staircase spiralling down into the hill. After waiting for an imp attack (which never came), we descended the stairs which ended at a 40'x10' corridor. Along the walls of the corridor were mosaics of runes, which appeared to be completely random (at least, Arcana and History checks weren't sufficient to discern any meaning). We did find a 10' section of one wall outlined with cracks. We pushed on it, but the wall pushed back! We dashed past the closing section, and found ourselves in a 30'x30' room. Two doors were on each side of the room, two goblin bodies in the centre of the room, and at the back was an alcove with a horned statue.

Baxter approached the statue, which leapt at Baxter, revealing itself as a clay scout [level 2 lurker], a type of homunculus. The battle started badly, as the clay scout kept redirecting our attacks onto its enemies (us!) that were adjacent to it. But once we moved away and made ranged attacks, we took it down, although it was E'bor who did all the damage (with acid arrow and magic missile). After defeating the scout, we searched the side rooms, finding more goblin bodies. Tirah triggered a trap, resulting in a net containing bits of armour falling on her. However, the minor indignity (and damage) was made up for with a sack containing a large amount of treasure.

We continued exploring the dungeon, finding a trapezoidal door with a gargoyle carved in it. In the gargoyle's mouth was a keyhole. In a sideroom, we found a lectern with a parchment, with two gargoyles on either side, in front of a 10' circle of runes. In the centre of the circle, screaming in rage, was a evistro or carnage demon [level 6 brute]. Deciding discretion was the better part of valour, we quietly closed the door.

In the next room, we were confronted by skeletons [level 3 soldier] and decrepit skeletons [level 1 minion], one of which was carrying a wooden key in its ribcage. Destroying the skeletons, we took the key (which had a dragonshard crystal embedded in it).

In another room, filled with charred furniture, E'bor found a summoner's tome +1.

We tried using the wooden key in the gargoyle door, which resulted in a thunderous roar that caught Fardrak and Baxter. Obviously the wrong key!

Finding a secret door, we travelled down a narrow corridor, ending in a room filled with cobwebs. We burnt off the cobwebs, causing a potion of healing to fall and shatter on the ground. Another secret door revealed a wooden chest, which E'bor opened using mage hand -- just as well, as there was a huge gout of flame that would have incinerated anyone opening the chest themselves. Inside was more treasure, including a bronze key with a dragonshard crystal.

The story so far...

The squads were deployed as part of the Armies of Thay, arriving by flying ship at the city of Threshold.

Squad 1 was tasked with clearing out an inn (the Lonesome Tankard) from the goblins that held it, so it could be used for barracks. The goblins had barricaded the building, but with some creativity, we managed to gain entry to the ground floor, engaging the five goblins (sharpshooters [level 2 artillery] and cutters [level 1 minion]). Three were killed, two fled upstairs, where a hexer [level 3 controller (leader)] leading more soldiers provided cover, making assaulting the first floor difficult.

While half the squad kept the goblins busy, Caeron and Rohar scaled the outside wall of the inn, and gained entry to the first floor via a window. The goblins were surprised by the assault in their flanks, and withdrew from the staircase to meet the threat, allowing Brad and Percil to charge up the stairs and join in the fight. The goblin hexer fled to the second floor, leaving sharpshooters, cutters, and blackblades [level 1 lurker] to die under the weapons of the party.

After clearing the first floor -- and finding some human slaves in the process -- the party followed the hexer up to the second floor, where the trail led to a ladder leading down to the kitchen on the ground floor (which had been blocked with rubble, so could not be accessed from the ground floor). Lurking in the kitchen were two shadowhunter bats [level 3 lurker], which were dispatched relatively easily. Stairs led down to a cellar, and we found the goblins had tunnelled out from it, joining it to a network they had built underneath Threshold.

Entering the tunnels, we found bodies of some humans, and another two live slaves being menaced by a cave bear [level 6 elite brute]. A fierce battle raged, and it was only with superior (if belated) tactics, that the bear was finally brought low, although Caeron and Brad were close to death.

After resting back at the inn, the party was ordered to clear out a specified section of the tunnel network. Going back down to where we fought the cave bear (the pelt of which was being made into a trophy), we encountered another group of goblin cutters and blackblades. The greenskins were defeated, and amongst the loot were bracers of healing (though someone got tongue-tied, so we refer to them as the healers of bracing).

At this point, an earthquake rocked the tunnel network, and there was the sound of an explosion.

Continuing on, we came across another squad that had been caught by a cave-in, and were being attacked by goblins from an elevated position. Swinging to the rescue, we easily dispatched the goblins, and lowered a rope to get the trapped squad out. After brief introductions, the other squad (known as Havernard's Handful, sort of a one-third size "dirty dozen") returned to the barracks, while we continued on.

We came across two more bodies -- a human male and a warforged warrior -- where the explosion appears to have occured. The warforged's chest had been ripped open, and the bodies appear to have been searched prior to the explosion. On one of the bodies, we found a note:

Claiming the Heart of Osgiliath has doomed us all. We must inform the Council and take responsibility for ...

After meeting another three humans who were guarding an entry point into the network, we continued on, finally arriving in another cavern, where the hexer we had been chasing was holed up with more blackblades, sharpshooters, and cutters. After a huge fight, we finally cleared the last of the goblins from our section, and returned to the inn.

In the meantime...

While squad 1 was spelunking, squad 2 was defending the inn from a goblin counter-attack involving cutters and warriors [level 1 skirmisher], who had decided to fire the city. We beat them back, and a messenger -- Horin Milnar, Speaker of the Mage Council -- arrived with mission for us (of the "utmost urgency", of course). We were tasked with recovering the Orb of Annata from the tower of the wizard Gutannis (a wizard who studied the Planes and the summoning of small creatures), which was about 15 miles northeast of Threshold. Annata was apparently a powerful seer who lived two centuries ago, and her Orb was a powerful farseeing item. We were also warned that another squad had been sent two days before the invasion, but had not been heard from. Our mission: recover the Orb, and find out what happened to the others if possible.

The next morning, we set off. After a few hours, we were ambushed by goblin cutters and warriors, which were easily defeated. We later came across goblin bodies, which looked like they had been torn apart (and possibly chewed on). Who had perpetrated this soon became clear, as we were confronted by four grey wolves [level 2 skirmisher], which were defeated after a difficult battle.