Session 4: Plunging into Depths Unfathomed

4th Weekend of July

I really wanted to finish the first adventure this session so I left off some encounters since the group doesn't need more XP at this point. Also, there are 6(!) guys playing tonight so it's probably going to be a walk in the park. Or more like a dip in a shallow pool. Or maybe a plunge into something a bit more... denjerasu.


The story so far:

There is a palpable air of malevolence stirring under the Horsemen's feet as they tread downstairs into the lower level of the dungeons. It seems Kalarel's ritual is going along nicely.

They are greeted by 2 heavily armored hobgoblins asking aloud, "Password?" Of course, our warmongering heroes have no clue what those guys are talking about, since they killed every living and non-living thing* that they met since they got here. Which is, of course, exactly what they did. Hobgoblins charged in from everywhere, punctuated by a large jumping spider that pounced on Troll and almost, almost, knocked him out. These gay guys are tough bastards.

They get bottlenecked at the entrance, and the hobgoblins' phalanx formation proves tough to crack. Eventually, Josh's dual wielding fighter Vizuviouz knocks off a few, Jace drowns some in a cloud of paper cuts and the rest mop up.


Baiting the Warchief

Hobgoblin Warchief

They next wander into what turned out to be the hobgoblins' barracks. The hobgoblins, being a curiously hospitable race, throw them a welcoming ambush party hosted by their Warchief who leads the fray, bellowing friendly taunts about selling these gate crashers as slaves later. Vizuviouz, who probably trained with straw dummies, puts his training to good use, albeit as the dummy. He buckles under the assault, knocked out in the first round of combat without ever taking an action.

Troll revives him and tells him to back off for a bit. Tough bastard that he is, he tanks the damage but couldn't return the favor with his measly +5 bonus to attack. So he gets creative and challenges the heavily armored hobgobs to be real men and fight them without armor. Well, the hobgobs aren't falling for such an obviously gay trick to see their underpants.

Carlo's drow Elros has his own squidly trick, spouting a cloud of darkness that engulfs several enemies. Juno blockades a room of hobgobs all by himself. Crono struggles to get combat advantage, but when he did, things quickly went south for the bad guys. Their HP, not their pants.

Another roomful of hobgoblins, this time led by a warcaster who thumps his staff a la Gandalf, was beaten in similar fashion.


The Trap Room

Everyone was mustering their resolve as they peered into the next room's dark depths and found a huge shadowy shape hidden in the umbra, believing it to be Mr. Boss Orcus himself, awaiting them.

Duh. If they met Orcus at this stage, they'd be wiped out from a single sneeze.

Juno ignites a sunrod which illuminates the shape to be a tall statue holding a two handed sword en guard. The doors slam shut and lock when they step under its reach, and suddenly it swings the massive blade in a wide arc.

Elros spots an access panel that underneath it and Crono attempts to disable the statue while ducking under the blade every time it passes by. Jace and Juno meanwhile tiptoe across the room and manage to get hit by the blasts from tiger and dragon statues.


Kalarel and The Thing in The Portal

Beyond the trap room they find a pit with four chains bolted to the floor beside it, all dangling down into the depths below. One by one they descend and all succeed on their Athletics checks except for... take a good guess. Jace! He slips, fumbles, panics a bit, then falls headlong into the darkness. Juno makes a brilliant attempt at trying to save Jace from his second death but alas, he doesn't catch him.

Jace plakdas into a shallow pool, his now open eyes greeted by skulls and bones filmed in vivid red. But he's Jecebel so he's not hurt much, and as the rest of the gang climb down into the pool of blood, they notice low, incessant chanting from an altar dominated by a figure clad in chainmail holding a skull-capped rod and wearing a horned helm. Kalarel.

Kalarel, Leader of Cult of Orcus

Behind them, the portal glows menacingly, the visage of something horrid and formless struggling against the dark and murky substance of the rift. Opposite it on the other side of the large hall is a huge statue of Orcus himself, looking eager to welcome his avatar into the world. Kalarel is livid at the disturbance, as he's near to completing the ritual, and orders several skeletons and a deathlock wight to keep the interlopers busy. Stopping the ritual would need either Kalarel's defeat, or a successful skill challenge in reversing the ritual's effects.

The heroes handily destroy the skeletons but the wight just keeps on reanimating them. The thing in the portal lashes out with a shadowy leash, pulling nearby characters into its maw, promising oblivion. The tide of battle turns when the wight falls, and Kalarel is forced to teleport to the defensive magic circle in front of the portal. Juno follows him, yet recklessly positions himself too close to the portal. Kalarel gives him a mighty shove, slam dunk! The Dragonborn plunges into a greater darkness than that which the wizard fell through.

Speaking of which, Jace has just incurred the second fail in the skill challenge right before that, making his next attempt the Do Or Die! (again) roll. Uncharacteristically, he manages to pull it off, and the thwarted avatar sucks Kalarel into the portal, spitting Juno out moments later along with Kalarel's horned helm stuck to his belt.

It's no surprise that Jace doesn't get any congratulations for being the Hero of the Day, in stark contrast to Troll's miraculous 20 in the kobold cave, but the Horsemen return victorious in their first adventure and are greeted with much accolades by the folks of Winterhaven, showering them with flowers and praise and water (cause they stink).


What's Next?

The Horsemen are paid handsomely and commended by Lord Pedro (he even lets them keep the horses to save them from the embarrassment of being horseless horsemen) for their services to the town and he hopefully inquires if they found any captives in the dungeons, as several townspeople have gone missing. He had believed that either the kobolds or the goblins have taken them under orders of the cult's leader, but the Horsemen had found no one they didn't immediately want to kill.

Instead, they showed Lord Pedro the message scroll they found after defeating the blue slime, a letter from Chief Krand of the Bloodreavers in Thunderspire offering to buy humanoids that Kalarel might be willing to sell...