Session 8: Lords of Rivenroar

1st Weekend of August 2010

The tale unfolds..

The Jonas Brothers bicker among themselves for Jalissa's attention. Meanwhile, they assign Adam's Son to guard over the captives found so far, so it was up to the three to face the remaining threats of Rivenroar...


Unleash the Guardians

The predominantly-hobgoblin Red Hand of Doom counts a variety of creatures under its banner. Among them:

Wererat

Evistro

Wererats releasing a frenzied bloodthirsty Evistro (carnage demon), who was no match for the more frenzied and bloodthirstier Shark.

Gnome arcanist

Invisible gnome skulks and their leader, the sometimes invisible but still useless gnome arcanist. (I probably handled him wrong.)

A Happy Drake Family

Two large rage drakes stood guard over the door to the captive old lady Zeriksa. The Jonas Brothers basically bounced them around the field of weird mushrooms. Two spitting drakes drank from Urza's acid orb and spat acid as Shark drove his greatsword in them in an earlier encounter.


The Red Hand's Chieftain

After dispatching the ghouls, the Jonas Brothers followed Shark's intuitive dungeon exploration technique of always going left. It led them to a chamber filled with stone cold menhirs (rough stone monoliths) which became just a tad colder as the huge (for a hobgoblin) leader of the Red Hand of Doom, Sinruth, emerged from the door on the other side.

Sinruth, wearing the helm and gauntlets stolen from Brindol's Hall of Valor, fearlessly faced the trio alone, spinning his long spiked chain to pull his enemies against his spiked armor or to knock them prone then kick them for good measure. Much blood (and singing and dancing) warmed the floor of the chamber before the spinning menace was defeated. Sertanian collected the historic items while spitting on and kicking Sinruth for a little bit of vengeance.

The next room contained a large tomb which had a few other items of interest, one of which is a letter addressed to Sinruth from the mysterious Emissary. It contained praises of the Red Hand's strength, promises of bolstering their numbers and most importantly, orders to attack Brindol and obtain the symbolic war relics from the town's Hall of Valor and also capturing a few townsfolk to appease Sinruth's unliving allies in Rivenroar...


The King and Queen of Hearts

The merry Jonas Brothers later emerge from a long hall lined with columns into a large throned chamber filled with scattered bones. Seated on the thrones were the allies spoken of in the letter: a robed figure with flayed skin and a humanoid skeleton armed with a scimitar. The robed figure turned its head upon the intruders and commanded an attack.

The boneshard skeleton rose up to defend its master, along with lesser skeletons that reanimated from the remains on the floor. These kept reassembling themselves even though Urza's chaos bolt continuously blasted them apart. The master, a deathlock wight, sent answering bolts of necrotic energy to weaken the rabid Shark and even reformed its boneshard mate which the barbarian had hacked apart. Urza desperately rolled Arcana checks to figure out why these undead were staying undead and not becoming dead undead, but it wasn't until Justin thunderously and radiantly blew the wight with his powerful song and sword combo while its mate was also down that the undead in the room permanently stayed dead.

Etched into the walls is the history of the lords of Rivenroar, who seemed to be a dynastic family of once-powerful mages and merchants. Shark and Urza were gleaning these historic bits from the vivid fresco depicting the Rivenroars' achievements while Justin was taking down some interesting magical weapons and armors displayed on the opposite wall.


Heroic Welcome

With the Red Hand destroyed, the group went through the remaining unexplored rooms and rounded out the missing captives, Thurann, the guard captain's son, and Adronsius, the town alchemist. With all captives accounted for, they haggardly went back to Brindol dead tired (but still alive) and received a heroes' welcome for their amazing efforts.

A week's respite in town allowed for some R&R. Urza, excited by the prospect of cooking and eating literally anything, took lessons from Mirtala. Justin divided his time between learning from the alchemist in the mornings, stealthily seeing Jalissa (to mercifully spare his envious band members from broken hearts) in the afternoons and performing in the packed Antler and Thistle Tavern in the evenings. Meanwhile, the talentless Shark took up random bouncer jobs here and there.

All seemed well until the growing rumors of orc tribes amassing against the dwarven fortress to the west called upon and pressured our famous local celebrities to answer the official summons for aid. A crowd of tear-streaked faces bid them goodbye, while a more teary-eyed Jalissa gave Justin what could be their final kiss...