Session 9: Siege of Bordrin's Watch

2nd weekend of August 2010

The tale continues...

The Jonas Brothers are once again a trio, since Adam's Son failed to make an appearance in the next sessions. They journeyed to Overlook, a thriving dwarven city to the west, near the Stonehome mountains that serve as a border between the civilized Elsir Vale and the barbaric orc lands.

A call of arms was sent by the ruling council in Overlook to ask aid from adventurers in the defense of Bordrin's Watch, a fortress guarding the pass in the mountains where massive orc tribes have been seen gathering.

Homecoming of Sorts

While Justin was his usual buoyant self on the journey, he turned a bit melancholy and subdued once the group reached the large city of Overlook. He deftly guided the others through the streets of the city, offhandedly confirming the queries of Urza and Shark regarding his pre-adventuring life. He explains that though he was engaged in questionable activities and shady dealings during his younger years here in Overlook, he is adamant about having turned a new leaf and following a path as straight as the lines in a music sheet.

Overlook

All around the city are other mercenaries, adventuring groups and would-be adventurers all answering the call of arms. While passing some time in the Pickled Imp tavern, whose bar is elegantly decorated by a preserved imp in a jar and whose ale is simply the best in all of the city, they hear lots of talk about the best group of adventurers who answered the summons, the Hor- I mean, the Farstriders. This group seems to have battled kobold armies and even dragons and uncovered relics and stuff. Really awesome dudes and dudettes, they all say.

They congregate later inside the High Hall where the Council of Elders addresses them. The Farstriders were indeed present, but the bigger surprise was the ex-Jonas Brother paladin Erdan standing in their group.

Elder Cadrick briefly explains the situation to them, that indeed, the feuding orc tribes have been united by a strong chieftain and are now preparing to assault Bordrin's Watch (Aaron: "Huh? Borderwatch?"). Most of the groups will be led by guard captain Durkik Forgeheart to bolster the defenses of Borderwatch (for Aaron's sake) while they need a volunteer group to evacuate a monastery deep in the mountains who might not yet be warned about the orc horde.

Of course, all heads and eyes turn towards the suddenly glowing showoff, Urza.

Not to be outdone, the leader of the Farstriders raise objections, asking for the most glorious and most dangerous mission there is. Elder Cadrick assures him that they have already been assigned to that.

The Elder next tells the Jonas Brothers theirs, which is to go to the Monastery of the Sundered Chain and warn the monks there and help them evacuate. With little preparation, they head for the mountains.

The Monastery of Sundered Dwarves

A grueling hike up the rugged slopes lead them to the tall gates of the Monastery of the Sundered Chain, where they smell burning meat and stinky sweat. Entering the open gate, they witness orcs huddled in bonfires eating roasted flesh that alarmingly looks like dwarf legs. Seems they're too late..

Monastery entrance

After rudely dispatching the orcs who was rather enjoying their outdoor lunch, they venture inside to find gore and blood aplenty, splattered along the floor where several bodies of both dwarf monks and orcs lie. The half-orc Shark, who has abandoned that brutal way of life, flies in a rage at his blood-cousins and dispatches, too, the witch and her guards in the main atria of the monastery.

They descend into a worse nightmarish scene, where orcs and orogs (a stronger and more intelligent half-orc half-giant) were feasting upon the bodies of monks killed in their chambers. Seems the Jonas Brothers are really too late...

Moradin's holy symbol

They follow the trail deeper into the monastery which ends on the other side of the plateau. Down narrow and steep steps are more orcs on their way up. Felling (literally) these, they discover a cave by the foot of the slope that seems to be the forge hearth of the dwarves, where they could practice smithing in worship of their deity Moradin. However, the cave is occupied by a bunch of orcs and a large orog who seems to be their leader. This one is torturing the lone surviving dwarf and demanding he reopen a tunnel.

Using the rainbow magic he put to such good use in the last encounter, Urza once again demolishes the minions with ease. Shark uses his brilliant tactical expertise and superior strategic cunning to charge straight at the nearest enemy-looking enemy. Seconds later, all that's left is the plate-armored orog leader who unmercilessly punishes the stupid adventurers who deigned to surround him. With its bastard sword sweeping in wide arcs to slash at the three, he puts up a good fight yet still goes down at the incessant musical debacle of the Jonas Brothers.

Orog

They then see if the fallen dwarf is still alive...

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...

Session 6: Rescue

5th Weekend of July 2010

Aaron was very disappointed with his Paladin so he rolled a new one. Seems he really likes being big and strong and mindless since he went for a half-orc barbarian. Fey wanted to try D&D so we made him a Ronin.

New Characters!

• Aaron plays Shark, a Half-Orc Barbarian, still with a greatsword, and still with a penchant for rushing in swinging it.
• Fey plays Adam William's Son, a small Human Ronin (Fighter) who washed into shore looking for his papa.

The tale unfolds...

After surviving the cave bear, Erdan, understandably dissatisfied with his place in the Jonas Brothers, decides to separate ways and start his own band. Before Urza and Justin had time to react, in comes Shark, ready for his audition and passing through his incredible talent of tree drumming. Though the half-orc is butt-ugly, it's ok since he'll be behind the drums anyway and won't take up the limelight of the charismatic duo.

Goblins - Paving the Way for Level 1 Characters since 1975

Adam's Son has ventured far in hopes of finding his papa, why, we don't know, but he ends up in Brindol just in time to help defend it against the Red Hand raid. Councilmember Eofram sends him after the Jonas Brothers, since he seemed a more reliable fellow for the job than the bungling stooges.


Battlechants at Rivenroar

Underneath the catacombs of Castle Rivenroar, the Jonas Brothers encounters goblins, hobgoblins, gnomes and other assorted creatures all wearing armor marked with a crimson Red Hand. Room after room of these unlucky robbers/kidnappers were battered down by the incredible singing and battle prowess capitally led by Shark, compounded by Justin, and punctuated by Urza. Once Adam's Son applied his foe-stopping comma marks, the rescue sentence became very simple. With TimberBieberLake's arcane harmonies, the sentences transformed into lyrics worthy of an epic ballad.

Mirtala

Sertanian

They find the first captive, Sertanian, the Hall of Great Valor's castellan, locked in a jail. He tells them of Mirtala the cook who's somewhere below a spiral staircase, and warned that Kartenix, the captain of the guard, might be in trouble since he said he'll be attempting to escape.

The old man certainly wasn't kidding, as they find the captain's body stiff and bloated from ettercap venom. Mirtala was almost catatonic with shock and feverish from the bites of dire rats which had constantly tormented her captivity. Both spider-men and giant rats were of course no longer breathing by that time.

Ettercap

Climbing the stairs up to the next room is a typical display of Jonas Brothers tactics: Urza plays pinball with a group of hobgoblin minions, bouncing rainbow colored bolts on their skulls, Shark charges in wading with his big sword, bouncing off the felled goblin hexer to the next target, and Justin jauntily bounces on his feet as he sings a bouncy tune while throwing a few heals here and there. They find the saucy Jalissa, an acolyte of Ioun, chained in the next room and while the barbarian and sorcerer was busy goggling their eyes and snapping their jaws shut, Justin was already beside the distressed damsel with lockpicks, soothing words and warm smiles.

Jalissa

Searching for the remaining 3 captives got increasingly difficult, as the bite-happy ghouls in the next room demonstrated. Shark was paralyzed and rendered useless by the ghouls' numbing claws, and if it wasn't for Justin's valiant sacrifice, the group would have succumbed to the undead teeth and nails.

Ghoul