Session 2 (Part 2)

2nd Weekend of July 2010

The story continues...

When the Horsemen finally untie Staul, he takes back his +1 amulet of protection from Jace's now-dead body (who won't be needing it anymore, since he's dead), removes his wife's picture from its locket and hands it back to the group to show his appreciation for his rescue from being kobold stew (or bbq, or whatever these kobolds do to their food). On their way back to Winterhaven, he then recounts what happened to him.


Staul's story

Staul

Staul has discovered from his sources in Winterhaven, namely an old farmer named Elian and a much older scholar named Voltar, that the rumored relic he was searching for would probably be connected to Orcus, the Prince of the Undead (cue suspense music). Orcus' avatar was released from a portal north of town back in the Scourge War, but was defeated by the now-legendary Knights of Bahamut. Though the fallen avatar was hurled back through the portal from whence it came, a piece was salvaged (the horn the Horsemen recovered) and taken away.

Staul lectures the Horsemen that usually, re-summoning works better and faster if there's a strong connection between the worlds that would be connected by the portal (Orcus in his world, and his horn in this world), and that if obviously evil men (and kobolds, and gnome, etc) are looking for it, then it only means that they want to reopen the portal for Orcus.

Orcus

Staul says that he need not say how terrible Orcus or even his avatar is (not bad-terrible or crappy-terrible, but horrendous-, merciless-, and disastrous-terrible), and that they would have to stop this Kalarel fellow from completing the ritual of reopening the portal. They, meaning of course, the intrepid and enterprising young adventurers named the Horsemen -1.

Upon returning to town, the Horsemen are in a hurry to collect the promised gold from both Lord Pedro and Sister Linore. Lord Pedro would meet them later with Staul, while Sister Linore reinforced Staul's assessment of the impending threat. The priestess of Avandra also took notice of the mangled body that Aaron's Dragonborn was dragging along and commented that it might be dead and would they be so kind as to properly dispose of it in a nearby trash can, preferably one marked non-recyclable, since it was starting to smell and might disturb the other dying people in the temple's ward.

However, the hero of the day, Troll, continues in his Action Hero role and asserts that bringing the dead wizard back alive would help in stopping Kalarel. He convinces Linore of the wizard's assets (i.e. meatshield) and she tells the group she will ask Avandra's intervention and inform them later via email.


Resting in Winterhaven

After recharging themselves at the Silver Unicorn, the Horsemen -1 meets with Staul and Lord Pedro. They agree to thwarting Kalarel's plans by going to his likeliest location: Shadowfiend Keep, which the Knights of Bahamut built to guard over the portal. Staul would love to help, but he's old and offers to send aid by travelling to the nearest Defenders of the Alliance HQ. Troll also convinces Lord Pedro to lend them horses to hasten their quest. So when they later went to the Temple to find Jace brought back to life, not only did Troll remove the -1 from the group's name, he also made them true Horsemen.

Troll, the sassy but charming Tiefling that he/she is, also flirts with the amicable male proprietor of Blair's Emporium, Blair.Smiles, winks, compliments, etc were exchanged in the brief but passionate haggling, along with gold coins that traded for potions of healing and a belt of giant strength among others.

I should note that since his character died, Daven was busy sleeping. When I was telling the others how Linore sadly informs the Horsemen the good news, Daven literally woke up and joined the table all smiles. He showed his appreciation by casting Burning Hands in a later encounter, burning more than Arbeen's Rogue's hands. Some time in the next part Fred nods off and dozes in his chair. Billy didn't return so I left his Cleric back in town, communing with his deity.

Level Up!

The characters reached Level 2 here after getting XP from completed quests. I made a mistake in giving too much though, as some would later level up again on Sunday, which never happened before in all my years of playing D&D.


Shadowfiend Keep

Shadowfiend Keep

They arrive at the ruins of Shadowfiend Keep to find the dungeons guarded by goblins. Much goblin-slaying ensues and the Horsemen clean up the first few rooms easily. They sneaked up on a sleeping fat goblin and after butchering the poor helpless dude, they find 2 keys on his person. One opens a chest containing a +2 magic wand which Jace happily takes (though it didn't improve his spell hit % any way) and the other probably can open a locked door they passed by. (Hint!)

They were able to explore natural cave areas where the Dragonborn Fighter constantly got chomped on by giant rats, slammed stickily by a large splitting ochre jelly, and gnashed by clawed, insect-like kruthiks. But he's a tough mofo and Aaron just mocks/brags/sighs-in-relief the DM whenever a monster rolls badly in its attack.

It's Sunday evening when everyone decides to call it a day. Since the encounters were too easy I'll jack up the next monsters in the next rooms next week. (Hint!)