Session 7: Dark Dwarves, Horrible Halflings, Terrible Trolls

2nd Weekend of August 2010

The story so far:

The Horsemen surprisingly spare duergar smith Urwol's life. Urwol repaid their mercy by sparing no threats of vengeance and destruction from his brothers Rundarr and Murkelmor awaiting them in the other chambers of Horned Hold. After a brief and ineffective interrogation, the Horsemen tire of his threats and re-repaid him by not sparing his life after all with a quick shove into the yawning 300 feet deep chasm.


Another Life is Not Spared

The Platinum Dragon's symbol

Rather than crossing the narrow bridge into the larger part of the Hold, the Horsemen proceed to a connecting corridor leading to the kitchens and mess hall. They stealthily skulk around for a while but manage to raise alarms as they crossed the room with the ovens. A jumpy Crono hurls a shuriken at the startled figure who opened a door to peek at the noise the group was making. The halfling rogue realized too late that the figure was a helpless and innocent slave, struck dead when the shuriken hit it in the back of the head, creating a pool of spilled innocent blood. Crono, a devout worshipper of lawful good Platinum Dragon, just shrugs it off and skulks off to flank the approaching enemies.

Duergar scouts materialize from the gray walls and divide the group, paving the way for their champion Rundarr, who manages to whack several characters unconscious with his +2 flaming warhammer. The 4 feet tall angry duergar swelled to large proportions when he got bloodied, but it only signaled his impending end. Troll delightfully picks up the burning weapon while Crono tries to say sorry to two other slaves scared of the belligerent little dude.

Duergar flavors

Since the Horsemen doesn't really care about the details of their quest, they neglect to ask these two if they are the captives taken from Winterhaven that they're looking for. They send the absent Aaron's Juno and Josh's Lone Wolf to escort them back to the Seven Pillared Hall along with a keg of ale to ease their way.


Priest of Asmodeus

The remaining Horsemen debate for a while which bridge to take across the windy chasm: the wider one ending in reinforced doors slitted for arrow fire, or the rail-less narrow one. Briefly haunted by the image of a falling Jace, they nevertheless choose the latter, ending in an unoccupied room filled with debris. They slowly but not silently slide open a door leading to what seems to be an infirmary, with the healer shouting in anger at the disturbance of his work.

Asmodeus' symbol

He turns out to be a cleric of Asmodeus, deity of power and tyranny, and manages to lengthen his allies's lives. Two crossbow shaped homunculus fire a rain of arrows at the characters to defend their guarded area. Though they suffer many wounds, Elros, Crono, Jim Castillo, Troll and Jace inflict much more.

After Jim happily frees his evil counterpart of its +2 holy healer's mace and healer's brooch, another brief debate ensued about whether to keep the sick unconscious duergar alive. It seems the Horsemen are subtly developing a conscience as they spared this one's life.

We'll see if this will develop into true heroic valor, or if it's just a fluke.


PS.

Troll's malingering acts of lasciviousness and debauchery led to him contracting a disease. Specifically, he got afflicted with a fever and his dingdong turned green.

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.

Session 4: To Thunderspire

4th Weekend of July

The story so far:

Lord Pedro of Winterhaven quickly asks for the Horsmen's aid in tracking these Bloodreavers and rescuing any of his people taken captive.

After a day of preparations in town, the Horsemen journeys to Thunderspire, an underground labyrinth connected to the rest of the Underdark. Located beneath the mountain of the same name, it was once a grand minotaur city, but is now just a fairly large outpost for delvers and miners and traders of Underdark goods.


To the Seven Pillared Hall

Thunderspire entrance

They reach the entrance without any trouble but, being adventurers, they quickly and happily find some. Along the passageway to the main cavern of the underground complex, they hear conversations about some people selling some people. They quickly form a plan: they tie up the Dragonborn Fighter and try to sell him to these guys so they can gather clues on this obvious slave trading activity.

Problem is, Juno knows how to brawl and bash and cleave and pose menacingly, but not act. His huge greatsword still on his person didn't help either. So the horsemen default to what they do best and just brawl and bash and cleave. They rescue a halfling named Rendil Halfmoon from the hobgoblins, who were indeed members of the Bloodreavers. Rendil, who had no love for slavers, was snooping about when the hobgobs caught him, so he offered free board and lodging for his rescuers at his family's inn at the Seven Pillared Hall.


To the Chamber of Eyes

Rendil was quite happy to introduce his saviors to his family in the Halfmoon Inn. He asked the Horsemen if they needed directions in town and what their business in town is. He does like snooping around.

The Horsemen tells him of their mission and he directs them to Orontor, one of the Mages of Saruun who keep a semblance of order in the Hall. Orontor approves of their actions and asks them to further investigate the Bloodreavers, since he has suspicions that a colleague of his, Paldemar, is somehow connected with the rampant slave trading that the Mages are supposed to prevent. Rendil guides them partway to the supposed lair, the Chamber of Eyes.

Chamber of Eyes

They were hindered into further exploring the Chamber beyond the first hall by a locked door. Crono tries to pick it but fails. A balcony to the north promises entry, but even with Juno hoisting the halfling up there, they fail. Finally, Juno forces the door open, upon which the guards inside signal an alarm and file out into the balcony armed with crossbows.

Elros plays shooting gallery with the goblin sharpshooters, him doing his best to knock em down fast enough, and them doing their best to scrape the nimble drow while jumping to and fro to avoid the giant frost missiles. Meanwhile, Crono finally manages to unlock the front door and is rewarded by a hulking bugbear pouncing on him. Juno helps him out and when they tag team it to death, Elros and Jim have shot down all but one of the goblins, who then manages to escape to warn the rest of the Bloodreavers..

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...

Session 4: Deeper into the Keep

4th Weekend of July

Prior to the weekend, a lot of people got interested in joining the tremendous fun of geeking out with D&D, mostly through the coolness of this blog. I had to brainstorm a bit on how to incorporate the new characters into the story and thought up a really cool one involving stone replicas and devils and marshmallows, but in the end, I fell back on the classic "this guy knows that guy."

New Characters!

• Carlo (Macho Therapist) plays Elros, a Drow Ranger who rains frost arrows to rival the rogue's damage output.
• Josh (Jollibee) plays Vizuviouz, a dual-weapon wielder Longtooth Shifter Tempest Fighter. What a mouthful.

Billy was surprisingly not busy and was able to play in the morning. I made characters for Fey and Carlo based on what they'd like to play so we can dive in to the action quickly. Fey was supposed to play this really cool Swordmage who has elemental sword attacks, but sadly, higher powers than the DM's intervened with his availability to play. Carlo liked his archer dude and I think everybody was impressed with his average damage per round of 20 or so. I wasn't able to discuss with Josh his character beforehand, so when he showed up at night and we rolled up his swordie, he probably got disappointed in how it later turned out.


The story so far:

After days holed up in his room, communing with his deity Ioun, Jim emerged blessed with a +1 holy symbol slightly groggy from not eating, bathing, pissing, shitting, jerking off, etc, during the whole time. He finds that the rest of his group had gone ahead to Shadowfiend Keep to confront Kalarel. Staul asks him to aid his comrades, along with Elros, the dark-skinned brother of the elven hunter Ninaran. Staul then leaves to have a jolly good time in Lordaeron.


The Hunger Problem of Dungeon Dwelling

The Horsemen was about to retrace their steps to the locked door they had earlier passed when Jim Castillo and Elros found them. Since Aaron wasn't there yet, his Dragonborn Juno went to look after the horses that they parked outside the dungeon, because it's just dumb to call yourselves Horsemen if you ain't got horses. The group then stumbles into a blue slime lurking beneath a shallow underground pool, which bathes them in fart bubbles.

Rune of terror

They go back and enter the now-unlocked door which leads to dark corridors pervaded by low moaning sounds. No, not whimpering, Japanese-style moans; more like the moan you make when you're tired and hungry and bored. The very perceptive Elros scouts ahead with his darkvision, finding a rune-marked floor tile which he bravely steps on.

And, as Jace has previously illustrated, we know what happens to brave adventurers, don't we?

The Horsemen probably got a bit confused when they saw the dark elf screaming like a little girl headed in the opposite passageway. They follow him into a room where a very joyous welcome committee of zombies (about as joyous as starving wolves get when a flock of sheep stumbles into their cave) happily invites them in for lunch. And, similar to earlier encounters with similarly hungry rats, jelly, kruthiks and slime, the Horsemen decline the invitation, not quite keen to join a party where they are the lunch.


The Lovely Bones

They venture into a hallway lined with sarcophagi. Rattling, clicking noises seem to come from inside them and they pry each lid open, only to discover nothing inside. Just as they see the hallowed altars at the far end of the hall, the pried lids slam shut then burst open again, from which skeletons in various armor and weapons climb out. After dismantling the skeletal array, they discover the altars to be dedicated to the Platinum Dragon. So Crono offers a short prayer to his deity while Elros notices and loots several silver dragon statues from a secret compartment behind one. Nice combo.

The next room revealed a much larger sarcophagi than the others, with an equally larger skeleton climbing out of it. This one however, had a breastplate emblemed with a dragon, and more importantly, a voice, which then said, "The portal must never be reopened! State your intentions or prepare to die!"

You have to keep wondering why Daven was playing the intelligent wizard when he was all for attacking the dude and just taking its longsword. The backstabbing rogue and usually evil drow were quick to explain their benevolent mission, and together they successfully passed an impromptu interview via a skill challenge.

The skeleton introduced itself as Sir Leoric, the last Knight of Bahamut to guard the Keep before its ruin. Sir Leoric succumbed to the malevolent whispers of the evil from the portal and, became possessed of a terrible madness. He slew his wife and children, and, being the greatest warrior in the Keep, most of the guard battalion. The rest rallied forth and was able to trap him into the catacombs where he regained his sanity and realized in horror at the atrocity he has done. He begs the Horsemen to fulfill his mission of guarding the portal, which he now feels to be reopening, and gives them his +1 Aecris longsword.

They return to the passageways marked with runes of terror and, after being stumped on how to hurdle this impossible obstacle, tried to jump over them, which surprisingly worked (duh). Elros' spider senses detected a secret door with an illusory wall, and after destroying the hungry zombies inside, they get stumped for a while again by the following riddle:

A wondrous treasure,

Valued by all, sought by many.

Found in both victory and defeat,

Yet never at the bottom of a treasure chest.

It marches before you like a herald,

And lives long after you are gone.

Of what do I speak?

Jace finally shows his intelligence and correctly answers Reputation, getting rewarded with a +1 Black Iron scale armor he would later give to Juno. He tested its fire resistance when he later casts Burning Spray with Juno in the blast area.

It's evening (real time, not game time) by the time they venture down into the second level of the Shadowfiend Keep...