New Character!
- Fred (iCYxFRESH), plays Troll, a Tiefling Warlord of questionable gender.
Fred, envious of the tremendous fun the group was having, joins and creates a Warlord creatively named Troll. The adventure picks up early in the morning but had to pause for a quick break (about 8+ hours) so that Fred can go on a date.
Since the group is very understanding, and would gladly trade places with Fred (i.e. on a date with an actual girl), we re-energize by sleeping. Billy, however, has other friends and leaves. Fred returns after paying P120 for a tricycle ride to my house, and we play til morning (because he has to go meet his girl, again).
The story so far:
Crono (the rogue) approaches the stirring thing and notices it's actually covered by a blanket. Lo and behold, beneath is Troll (the warlord) tied up, gagged, bruised, and with a sore behind. Troll struggles to remember why he ended up there, and, after the DM reassures him that he did not engage in S&M action with the gnome, recalls what has transpired.
Troll's tale
Troll is actually one of the Defenders chosen to escort Staul into Winterhaven. Things were going fine and dandy until they leave for the dragon burial site, where, some days later, they are ambushed by a gnome with fellows in dark clothing along with a kobold troop. They were quickly overpowered, and as Fred was being tied up, he hears the gnome talking with Irontooth, the kobold leader. Fred was to be made as a sacrifice for Kalarel's ritual, while Staul would be taken by a hungry Irontooth.
After Troll tells his story, the group opens the silver box, finding inside it a blackened ram's horn that radiated strong evil. Reading Staul's notes, they discover that the horn was a cut-off piece of an avatar of Orcus, Prince of the Undead. This malicious avatar was released from a portal near Winterhaven in the Scourge War, where it was defeated by a valiant company of Defenders named Knights of Bahamut. The fleeing summoners managed to salvage the broken off piece of the demon's horn, probably in the hope of resummoning it later. However, the Knights of Bahamut built a keep over the portal, swearing to keep guard over the partially sealed portal. How the horn came to be buried in a dragon's burial site is unknown.
Outer Kobold Lair
Troll then decides to team up with the horseless Horsemen, and they set off for the kobold lair. As they prepare to assault the unaware outer guard, Troll boisterously argues with the rest, blowing the surprise attack. Fred gets his first taste of D&D action, and finds his Jacob (wolf pack) tactics work really well with Arbeen's backstabs. Daven's wizard continues to miss, but luckily, his Cloud of Daggers have unavoidable damage, and he sweeps off most of the minions.
Here my memory seems to get muddled. I think Fred and Billy leaves after that encounter so the former can meet up with his girlfriend while the latter does something (I don't remember) for someone he fervently wishes would be his girlfriend. Fred comes back later, probably happy, and we continue playing, but Billy doesn't, since his fervent wish probably is still just that, a wish. I hijack the body of Billy's cleric, Jim Castillo, and control him in the next encounter for the sake of story continuity.
Inner Kobold Lair (or How Daven Died)
The group enters the cave behind the cliff waterfall and is promptly greeted by javelins aplenty. Out of bravery (or dumbheadedness, your pick), Daven rushes his wizard Jace to the forefront to clear the kobold minions with his trusty Cloud spell. He and Crono, Arbeen's equally brave (or courageous, your pick) Rogue, are quickly surrounded by numerous kobolds while the team's frontman, Aaron's 7 foot tall Dragonborn dude lags behind. They all fell kobolds left and right but more keep on coming.
Eventually, the dreaded leader of the kobolds, Irontooth, arrives, and, along with an acid-lobbing wyrmpriest, his dual axes give the players reason to dread. Soon, the cleric's healing prayers and the warlord's inspiring words run out, and the players wounds aggravate. One by one, snickety sharp axes deal mortal blows to the Horsemen, and one by one, they fall.
First to kiss the cave floor is, of course, the brave wizard. Daven has failed his first death saving throw* when the Dragonborn Fighter flops down. He fails his second saving throw by the time the Cleric sizzles down from an acid orb. The rogue Crono, sly lil bastard that he is, was down to 3 or so Hit Points and was flinging javelins or some such from behind a wall near the cave entrance/exit when the wyrmpriest decides to go out for fresh air and maybe a short stroll and a snack. He gives the Rogue a thump with his wooden stick on his way out and down goes the halfling.
*Characters reduced to 0 or less Hit Points become unconscious and need to succeed at death saving throws in order to stay alive. 3 failures and the character dies. Yep, dedz.
You can stir the air with a spoon at this point, the suspense was so thick now that everything, the entire Horsemen's survival, depended squarely on the shoulders of the Tiefling Warlord, Troll. He and Irontooth, both greatly wounded, were locked in final battle when Troll swings his falchion... and misses! Irontooth returns the blow in kind... hits! Somehow Troll is still alive and there's still hope left.
It is at this moment in the encounter that Daven has to succeed at his third saving throw else Jace dies. As you may have guessed from the subtitle, yes, Daven fails, and Jace perishes amidst great fits of laughter from everyone else. He awaits his final fate by taking a nap.
Troll rolls the dice, in the last desperate attempt at survival, and there is a moment of silence when all eyes stared unbelievingly as the 20-sided die rested on the 20. An automatic critical hit! Troll's falchion disembowels Irontooth and cuts him up into many pieces just to be sure. The hero of the day revives his unconscious teammates and gets many many thanks and whoops in return. Except of course for Jace, who died and who probably wouldn't have died if Fred hadn't missed his first attack.
Inside the cave they find Staul, who, bound and gagged, showed incredible relief in his eyes upon seeing his rescuers. The Horsemen however ignores him and goes for the treasure chest beside Irontooth's bed, finding lots of gold and a suit of +1 dwarven chainmail which Troll happily dons.
The Horsemen has accomplished its first mission but they are faced with more dilemmas: What is this ritual that Kalarel hopes to finish with the Horn of Orcus? Who is this Kalarel and what is his cult's true purpose? Should the Horsemen finish what they seem to have started and thwart Kalarel's plans? Should they finally stop counting the gold coins and untie the scholar? How should they bury Jace's cold but brave corpse and how do they divide his possessions and his share of the loot among the rest of the still-alive members?
Join us tomorrow for Session 2 (Part 2)!
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| Irontooth |
First to kiss the cave floor is, of course, the brave wizard. Daven has failed his first death saving throw* when the Dragonborn Fighter flops down. He fails his second saving throw by the time the Cleric sizzles down from an acid orb. The rogue Crono, sly lil bastard that he is, was down to 3 or so Hit Points and was flinging javelins or some such from behind a wall near the cave entrance/exit when the wyrmpriest decides to go out for fresh air and maybe a short stroll and a snack. He gives the Rogue a thump with his wooden stick on his way out and down goes the halfling.
*Characters reduced to 0 or less Hit Points become unconscious and need to succeed at death saving throws in order to stay alive. 3 failures and the character dies. Yep, dedz.
You can stir the air with a spoon at this point, the suspense was so thick now that everything, the entire Horsemen's survival, depended squarely on the shoulders of the Tiefling Warlord, Troll. He and Irontooth, both greatly wounded, were locked in final battle when Troll swings his falchion... and misses! Irontooth returns the blow in kind... hits! Somehow Troll is still alive and there's still hope left.
It is at this moment in the encounter that Daven has to succeed at his third saving throw else Jace dies. As you may have guessed from the subtitle, yes, Daven fails, and Jace perishes amidst great fits of laughter from everyone else. He awaits his final fate by taking a nap.
Troll rolls the dice, in the last desperate attempt at survival, and there is a moment of silence when all eyes stared unbelievingly as the 20-sided die rested on the 20. An automatic critical hit! Troll's falchion disembowels Irontooth and cuts him up into many pieces just to be sure. The hero of the day revives his unconscious teammates and gets many many thanks and whoops in return. Except of course for Jace, who died and who probably wouldn't have died if Fred hadn't missed his first attack.
Inside the cave they find Staul, who, bound and gagged, showed incredible relief in his eyes upon seeing his rescuers. The Horsemen however ignores him and goes for the treasure chest beside Irontooth's bed, finding lots of gold and a suit of +1 dwarven chainmail which Troll happily dons.
The Horsemen has accomplished its first mission but they are faced with more dilemmas: What is this ritual that Kalarel hopes to finish with the Horn of Orcus? Who is this Kalarel and what is his cult's true purpose? Should the Horsemen finish what they seem to have started and thwart Kalarel's plans? Should they finally stop counting the gold coins and untie the scholar? How should they bury Jace's cold but brave corpse and how do they divide his possessions and his share of the loot among the rest of the still-alive members?
Join us tomorrow for Session 2 (Part 2)!
astig ang climax! bolsaye!
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