Session 5: Tank Powah

5th Weekend of July

The story so far:

The Horsemen follow the fleeing goblin's path cautiously, expecting readied defenses from the Chamber of Eye's next rooms. They were not disappointed when the courageous frontman Juno opened a side door in a narrow corridor, and deftly dodged the descending warhammer aimed at his scaled head.


Reaping Bloodreavers

Duergar

What followed is an awesome display of durability, tenacity and plain stoneheadedness as the Dragonborn fighter dammed the corridor and singlehandedly took the assault of gray-skinned, spike-bearded and generally angry duergar (or gray dwarf). Another hobgoblin warcaster dishes out some knockdown pulses until the Bloodreavers leader himself, Chief Krand, charges into the fray, only to be foiled by the fighter who stops Krand's every attempt to run for its life when the battle went sour.

They find a key on Krand's mangled body which opened a chest full of the slavers' profits. You'd think that some of them would hesitate to keep such ill-gotten gains, but no, the Horsemen really likey goldie pieces. They also find a purchase contract detailing the sale of Winterhaven slaves to a Murkelmor Grimmerzhul, which is like a neon arrow sign for what to do next to accomplish their mission (find and rescue missing people from Winterhaven).

Warning! Explicit content! Skip to next paragraph if you are under 18 years of age.

They proceed to the unexplored rooms and find other slavers unaware that their leader is dead. Troll orders the rest to leave one goblin alive for questioning, then proceeds to inflict a most terrible, horrible, unspeakably vile, morally depraved, lewdly nefarious sodomy upon the poor defenseless green creature. Having satisfied his urges, Troll pushes the abused goblin off a balcony, which lets the latter hold its breath til it died, escaping the future molestations of the troublin (troll♥goblin) tiefling.


To The Horned Hold

The group returns to the Seven Pillared Hall in order to find out about Murkelmor Grimmerzhul and along the way they rescue Rendil again, this time from a pack of rabid and hungry hyenas. The halfling tells them the Grimmerzhul Clan owns a trading post in the Hall but has a base somewhere in the labyrinth, which is the more likely location for any slave trading activities.

They ask the mage Orontor but while he commends the group's annihilation of the Bloodreavers, he doesn't know the Grimmerzhul's base, and is generally miffed that the Horsemen have gotten no news of Paldemar's activities.

Gendar

After patching up his wounds and bathing, Juno avidly suggests checking out a magic items shop, so they visit the Deepgem Company (which Arbeen thoroughly disliked) but find only gems for sale. They could sell their gems but Arbeen's rogue Crono inexplicably keeps tightfisted control over the party's jewels. He just can't let go.

Rendil suggests checking out Gendar's Curios next, where Elros meets a fellow outcast drow, the proprietor Gendar himself. Though Gendar has an extensive collection of enchanted weapons and armor, it's his information the group bought. For the very cheap price of 200 gp, Gendar gave them a map to the Grimmerzhul's base, Horned Hold.


Breaking the Hold

Horned Hold

The Horned Hold was once a Minotaur stronghold in a massive cavern separated by a 300 feet deep chasm. The Horsemen waste no time in forcing their way in, with Juno wading through the longspears of orc defenders as soon as Crono unlocks the portcullis. Through some confusion on my part about reach weapons and opportunity attacks and marked enemies, the players manage to combo off the Combat Challenge skill of the fighter, triggering free attacks that I knew was too good to be legit.

They head inside the Hold's smithy and were warmly greeted by the fire-flinging duergar clansmith, Urwol. The players take advantage of my unfamiliarity with the monsters skills so Urwol's area affecting spells are only minimally effective, as highlighted when the drow Elros used his Cloud of Darkness right before the angry smith used his best hot-iron manipulation. They knock him out for later questioning.

Which is a mild surprise since they just usually kill unscrupulously.