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    Canonfire :: View topic - Quest for Giant Goreblade
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    Quest for Giant Goreblade
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    Master Greytalker

    Joined: Aug 09, 2001
    Posts: 655


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    Tue Jun 25, 2013 9:04 pm  

    CAMPAIGN JOURNAL - Quest for Giant Goreblade - 8

    Cast of Characters:
    Berenn: Half-elf Priest of St. Cuthbert /Ranger
    Elrae: Human Bard
    Emyn: Human Paladin of Trithereon
    Gotrek: Dwarven Battlerager
    Hepla: Human Mage (kind of a witch)
    Isilme: Dark elf Bladesinger/Song Mage/Priestess of Eilistraee
    Noot: Human Thief
    Taki of the Hill People: Human fighter
    Thorgrim: Dwarven Cleric/Fighter

    Starday, 8th Fireseek, CY 581 (cont)

    Isilme flies around the compound, checking out the stocks. When she sees it's just a human, she flies off to follow the warriors. The men leave the compound, and they head into the city, towards where you encountered Agnar. Seeing that the party isn't there, they begin to search the village and then move towards the crossroads inn and the ferry crossing. Isilme flies directly there, and finds the party at the ferry, awaiting her return. Berenn and Elrae have already gotten the griffons, and everyone is ready to cross. Still invisible, Isilme gives her report.

    "If we have the time to cross the river we should, rather then fighting with our backs to the river, otherwise we need to prepare our defense," Hepla suggests.

    "Let's get everyone across and when they try to cross, sink the boat half way with them on it," says Emyn.

    "I suggest two paths we can chose from Berenn," says Isilme. "We give them what they want and expect to see....an illusion of us either somehow dying or just to distract them, or we find a way to hit them while they cross the river chasing us?"

    Everyone likes the idea of an illusion, so they opt for that. The ferrymen take you across the river. It's not really that big, but it's a good crossing. You are now on the south side of the river. It's well into night, and with only a sliver of a moon, it's pretty dark.

    Soon you see torches, a long line of them, coming down the hill from the village. The ferry is about midway back across the river.

    Isilme will switch rings use the ring of water walking instead of fire resistance for this part. She casts fly on herself again, then casts spectral force, an illusion of the party fighting a group of drow warriors and mage. She makes it looks like the party was stuck there waiting for the ferry and were ambushed by a group of drow. (Knowing both drow and the party well she thinks she can make it convincing) for simplicity sake, everyone is fighting on the ground. It will go back and forth, when the group of warriors get close enough the drow mage will disintegrate the party, give their victory cries and depart in the darkness.

    While the party hopes it works, Berenn has them prepare for it to fail. If they do not fall for the illusion and all come across at the same time, the party can attempt to sink the ferry with them on it. Hepla and Isilme should have their most catastrophic spells on standby. Hopefully most of the pursuers can't swim. If they come across in smaller groups, wait until the ferry is heading back and ambush them.

    The men eventually reach the ferry crossing and stop, bu only for a moment, watching Isilme's illusion. Then one of the leaders yells for them to charge the illusions. "Kill them all!"

    Isilmes illusions "finish off the party" with a disintegration spell as planned (with proper screams cut off abruptly) then the drow will run off seeming to vanish with darkness spell.....They can hear the drow Mage say "you will soon regret meddling in our affairs humans!" before he vanishes.

    The men fan out, and their leaders set them to investigating the area while a couple of them go inside the inn. Utilizing her invisibility and flying powers, isilme stays well out of the way and tries to listen in and what info they gathered and what they are doing next, story they bought off on, etc. Soon the leaders come out, and you see one man looking down at the ground very intently, much like Berenn when he was tracking.

    Staying at range, she casts Message. Then she casts suggestion on the tracker. "These tracks are leading you nowhere, clearly the party was disintegrated in the fight with the drow!" Then she waits a moment and gets ready to use her Wand of Highfolk.

    After studying the tracks, the man gets up and reports as Isilme "suggested." The other leaders seem ok with his explanation, and they all return to the village. Isilme flies back to the party. She reports everything in detail, including what happened at the house.

    "Where to now oh noble party leader?" she asks Berenn with a smirk. "Shall we punish agnar, continue on to find his brother, or rescue this lord rexor? .... Seems we are "dead" - for now!"

    Thorgrim shrugs. "Let's just move on. You fooled them. Let's not waste your efforts by going back."

    "Given we just avoided fighting that army, it might make more sense to pursue our true goal, Gotrek," says Emyn. "Unless the orcs make you nervous...?"

    "What orcs?" replies Gotrek with almost a growl.

    "Why the orcs in the Pomarj, of course!"

    "Oh," says Thorgrim. "Dem orcs."

    "That's the first dwarf I have ever seen," replies Isilme, "that went behind the back all sneaky like and got someone else to kill for them, afraid to face the one threatening them head on! I thought dwarves had family honor! He's as bad as the dark elves I left behind! I hope gotrek smashes his face in on the way back!"

    Isilme suggest we get the he'll out of here and march the night through. Utilizing flight and pass without a trace spells or just good old ranger "brush out the tracks" know how. "Let take advantage of the fact everyone thinks we are dead and get well away!"

    Berenn agrees. "We can rest once we have put some distance between us and this village." Berenn will do his best to cover our tracks and catch up on Ra. "Hopefully the next town will be a little bit more hospitable."

    Berenn covers the party's tracks, as Isilme flies back and sees that the men all return to their barracks. She sees no sign of Agnar. She files back, catches up with Berenn, and then they both rejoin the party, which has continued on for a couple hours. After a couple more, you can stop and make camp.

    During the second watch, taken by Berenn, a fog begins to move in off the water. By the time he is supposed to wake the next watch, it is very heavy. Visibility is down to about 60', actually only about 10' by torchlight. Gotrek is on the third watch, and he hears a strange, dragging sound. He quickly wakes Berenn.

    "He calls out, "who goes there? Berenn, I smell a fight. Wake the group!"

    Gotrek smells a foul, salty stench. Berenn wakes up, as does Hepla, who apparently is a pretty light sleeper. She immediately throws up at the smell.

    The nose knows. And so does Gotrek!

    Two men suddenly appear behind Berenn, who is standing drawing his blade. A hand grabs his arm, holding it dead still. Gotrek sees forms appearing all round the camp. He glances behind himself, and sees a bloated man reaching for him. He slams the arm away with Bonecrusher [12], and backs away as a few more forms appear.

    The rest of the party is awakening, but only those with infravision can see. What they see are a couple of dozen men surrounding the camp, men who give off no heat at all. They seem to be some form of zombies.

    The zombies aren't that loud, especially now that people are waking up and probably talking/shouting/etc. You didn't set a fire, mainly because nobody said so but also because you may be close to the village and were trying to lay low. The fog is very thick, and visibility is 50' at most. In some places perhaps less; fog is weird that way. Infravision still works out to 60'. [actually, I think that was a mistake. oh well.]

    Those with infravision can clearly see the zombies surrounding the party, while those without can only see the two that are closest, attacking Berenn and the one that Gotrek just hit with his hammer. Berenn is grappled.

    Rnd 1:

    Hepla takes out her Continual Light Crystal and tosses it on the ground. Everyone can now see, but infravision is now useless. Also, visibility is cut to 20' from the glare of the fog.

    Isilme casts Gust of Wind, and blows a section of fog away. It covers a 10' wide path and blows all the fog away for as far as she can see. A couple of zombies are revealed, about 50' away, moving towards you. They immediately move back into the fog to the left and right. The Gust causes the fog to the sides to swirl around, and as the gust ends, the fog begins to fill the area once again.

    Emyn calls upon Trithereon for aid, using his summoning ability [Mon Sum II]. Three spherical little creatures with bristly grey hair, two bulbous eyes, and a 3' long tail appear out of the fog and fly at three of the zombies. The each latch onto a zombie with their fanged mouths, and their tails start swatting the things, causing small sparks of electricity to flash with each hit.

    Berenn is able to free himself from the zombies incredibly strong grip, and throws it back into the other one, knocking both off-balance as he draws his sword. With his other hand he reaches for his holy symbol.

    Gotrek hits the zombie again [11]. "Why won't these things die," he hollers!

    It attacks back with a cutlass, but misses. Gotrek then hits it again in the head [14], splattering bone and brain everywhere. It drops to the ground dead, again.

    Thorgrim calls upon the power of the dwarven gods to force the creatures back, but nothing happens. "Damned, milk-drinking, troll-barf!" he swears, as he takes out his pick. "Guess we do this the easy way!"

    Noot can no longer see beyond 20' so he slips over to Berenn and stabs one of the zombies he just knocked back [4]. It turns its dead eyes towards him and swings at him with a hooked hand, hitting him in the arm [4].

    Meanwhile, Elrae draws Snowfang as he fires magic missiles into a zombie. They shriek through the fog and slam into it [19] but it just keeps coming. In fact, all around they are now emerging from the fog.

    "Form circle!" shouts Taki, as he slams his maul into an approaching zombie [14]. He takes a chunk off its face off, as the thing swings a rusty cutlass, missing him.

    [OOC: I think that's everyone. You guys back into a circle as follows: Berenn, Noot, Taki, Thorgrim, Gotrek, Elrae, Isilme (who is also next to Berenn). That leaves Hepla in the center. She didn't say what spell she was casting, so I didn't cast anything. Gotta be specific!]

    Rnd 2:

    [OOC: Berenn, Elrae, Emyn, Isilme, Hepla, and Noot are all affected by the horrible stench. They suffer -1 to all rolls and to ac until they get over it. I have the rounds figured out, so it's no big deal. Just know you are sickened by the creatures.]

    Thorgrim holds, awaiting the zombies. Noot tumbles back into the center of the circle, taking up a defensive stance by Hepla, who levitates the zombie that attacked Noot. It is now floating harmlessly, 10' above the ground. Elrae fires another burst of magic missiles [14], dropping the zombie he had hit previously. The three volts are latched onto the zombies, and their electrically charged tails stab into the zombies, making them jerk uncontrollably. They seem quite affected by the electric shocks!

    Isilme, invisible, is actually in the center of the circle. She summons a swarm of insects, and Berenn sees hundreds of beetles and centipedes crawling out of ground, swarming over the zombie in front of him. They bite it continually [3], but it seems to ignore them.

    Gotrek starts to sing, awaiting the coming of the zombies. Emyn wonders what those strange things he summoned are [they are actually Volts], but when he sees their affect on the zombies, he smiles gravely and thanks Trithereon. He then awaits the zombie advance. Berenn attempts to turn the zombies in front of him, but to no avail. Taki waits impatiently, anxious to smash these unnatural things, but unwilling to expose his friends by breaking the circle.

    Finally, the zombies advance. The zombies grab at the volts, attempting to pull them off or rip them apart. The one attacking Berenn misses. Another moves up, underneath the levitating zombie, and attacks as well, missing.

    A swarm of them advance on Taki, who hits the first as it approaches [14]. Four are attacking him, though only one hits him with a hooked hand [8]. Taki swings his maul a second time, shattering a zombie head like a melon, leaving only three.

    Four advance on Thorgrim, who misses with his pick. They all hit him [6] [9] [7] and [3].

    Four attack Gotrek, who hits the first [13]. They all miss him. [Good AC!] He attacks back, hitting the same one again [11]. It just keeps coming!

    Three attack Elrae. The all hit him [5] [7] [5].

    Finally, the last one attacks Emyn, though they both miss.

    [OOC: too bad I don't have any of my old maps saved. I need to start saving some, to have something to post here for visuals!]

    Rnd 3:

    Thorgrim grunts at the blows. "Maybe from now on," he shouts, "we will sleep inside my Daern's Fortress." With that he hits the zombie between himself and Gotrek [10], splattering brain all over the singing battlerager! The zombie falls to the ground.

    Gotrek laughs, "Nah, what's the fun in that!" He swings his hammer, hitting another zombie with his hammer [12].

    Meanwhile, Isilme keeps concentrating on the swarm, driving them to attack the zombies which take another [4] and [3]. Noot remains next to Hepla, in case any zombies get inside the ring.

    Berenn ignites Bonefire and hits the one ahead of him [15]. The flames snap a few insects, but he notices that the zombie's flesh just kinda hisses as the flames burn off water from the bloated corpse.

    Emyn hits the zombie attacking him [7] as Hepla drops the levitating zombie atop the one below it. [each takes 4 damage and are both knocked to the ground].

    Elrae steps back and unleashes a Cone of Cold from Snowfang. The three zombies in front of him seem to freeze solid, their bodies suddenly expanding outward grotesquely as their waterlogged corpses rapidly freeze. [OOC: Damage was [68] [38] and [66]; guess they don't like cold either!]

    Taki hits again [18] killing another.

    Three zombies attack Taki, one hitting him [4]. Three attack Thorgrim, hitting him once [9]. One tries to pass between Taki and Thorgrim, both of whom take attacks of opportunity against it. They both hit, doing [15] and [11]. The zombie approaches Hepla, but Noot stands bravely between them. He stabs the zombie in the face with his short sword [7], and the things falls back to the ground dead.

    Two attack Gotrek, missing, and Gotrek swings back, hitting one [11]. One moves up further, failing to hit Gotrek, and then turns towards Elrae.

    The one fighting Berenn hits him back [6], while the two on the ground yet claw at him ineffectually.

    Meanwhile, the volts continue their attacks on the three zombies. One of the zombies falls, killed by a volt's electric tail.

    The battle continues, with both the party and the zombies trading blows. The volts finish off the two they were still attacking, when Hepla, having seen them, lets loose a lightning bolt along the zombies fighting Taki and Thorgrim. They take [42] [46] [42] and [24]. All are blasted apart by the lightning bolt and are dead.

    Noot hits his zombie again [5] and Taki steps up, delivering a powerful blow from his maul [22], driving the zombie to the ground like a spike and killing it instantly.

    Thorgrim hits again with his pick [10] as Gotrek hits with his hammer. Elrae hits with Snowfang [14]. Emyn hits his zombie [12] and the three volts come and attack it as well, two latching on to its back [2] [4]. The zombie falls to the ground as they deliver their electric shock tails.

    The zombies in the swarm take their last damage [4] [2]. One falls, devoured by the insects, while the other crawls at Berenn. Isilme and berenn both hit it with their swords, choping it into two parts which they kick back into the fading swarm.

    Elrae takes another hit [6] and Thorgrim is hit as well [10]. Thorgrim then hits his zombie again, finishing it while Gotrek finishes off the other one with a wicked blow from his hammer. There is just one left.

    Gotrek stops singing, just before going berserk, and he and Thorgrim both hit the zombie [12] [13]. Taki moves over and hits the zombie as well, smashing it to a smelly pulp. Hepla flies out into the fog, doing a quick circuit of the area, but sees nothing. She lands, reporting that she doesn't see any more.

    Thorgrim takes out his Daern's Fortress, and erects it nearby. "Let's shelter therein, and figure out our next move."

    [Final combat notes:
    Name: hp/hp's left spells and spells used
    Berenn: 57/ 51 Spells: 5,4,2 Used: 0/0/0
    Elrae: 43/12 Spells: 3,3,1 (4/4/2 when holding Cittern) Used: 2/0/0
    Gotrek: 92/92
    Hepla: 21/21 Spells: 6,5,3, 2 Used: 1/1/2/0
    Isilme: 28/28 Spells: 7*/4*/4* Used: 1/2/4
    Noot: 35/31
    Taki: 75/55
    Thorgrim: 60/20 Spells: 5,5,2 Used: 0/0/0
    Emyn: 67/67

    I'm not sure how accurate this is, as I'm pretty sure more damage was dealt. However, it does give further indication of the party's levels and toughness. I think they must be about 6th-7th level now. ]

    Emyn checks to ensure Isilme is fine. He releases the volts back to whence they came. He'll stand first watch at teh fortress door.

    "Not necessary, lad," says Thorgrim. He knocks on the steel door. "Nothing is openin' this baby but me!"

    Isilme wipes the undead goo from her sword with a look of disgust and mumbles an apology to the elvish blade. She heads towards the tower "I will sleep to regain my spells."

    Hepla, before going to sleep pops out a half dozen zombie eyes of differen colors and puts them into an old potion flask. As she passes Gotrek she says,"Can't pass up the good parts."

    "We should watch for disease," says Emyn.

    "Gutshaker kills any disease," says Gotrek, draining a mug of the stuff taken from Thorgrim's Portable Hole.

    You try to burn the bodies, but you find that they simply will not burn. They are so unnaturally waterlogged that they just won't burn. That explains the limited ability of Bonefire to affect them. Anyway, no big deal. You don't find any evidence of disease, so it's all good. You go back to sleep, recover wounds and spells, and awake in the morning with no ill effects.
    Master Greytalker

    Joined: Aug 09, 2001
    Posts: 655


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    Thu Jul 04, 2013 3:24 pm  

    Part 9

    Sunday, 9th Fireseek, 581 CY
    You awake in the morning and find the fog cleared in your area, though you still see it clinging to the coast just beyond a low rise to the east. The air is much warmer this morning, and as you prepare for your journey, you are happy for the relief from the cold. Berenn uses the invisibility and the griffon to ride back and check your trail, and he reports back that nobody is following. You travel on without any interruption for the rest of the day. In the afternoon, as you are walking along a small causeway through some marshland along the water, a slight breeze picks up and the fog begins to return. It slowly flows in from the water, wrapping around you in a cold blanket. Soon, your visibility is reduced to about 50' and Berenn is forced to bring his griffons down again.

    Taki keeps a sharp eye out towards the water.

    "Let's be careful here," says Emyn. "This is an ideal location for an ambush." He picks up the pace and readies his lance.

    Isilme takes off the ring of fire resistance and puts the ring of water walking on.
    She will move out to about 100 feet (I can't remember what distance elf stealth kicks in, but that range) and do lazy circles around the party as we move peering ahead with her superior infravision. Blade in hand.

    She never sees anything except waves on the water. Before it gets dark, you come out of the wetlands. The road winds over towards the coast where you come across another small fishing village.

    Isilme says " We should alter the appearance of one of us and make inquires as to our quarry. A large party will draw attention and put us back in the same position as before. I don't think a wandering bard would draw much suspicion and people are eager to talk to their kind. I think this is where Elrae will shine! We should just hang back in the misty bogs here, hidden, maybe find a good spot that will provide cover for our tower."

    The fog is really thick now, so moving back away from the village a bit should not be a problem. You can set the tower up pretty much anywhere and be hidden tonight!

    Gotrek looks in the direction of the village, wondering how good the ale would be...

    "Why don't go with Elrae," says Taki. "You can watch his back."

    Why don't we send Emyn and Isilme instead," says Thorgrim, "as Gotrek stands out like a sore thumb." Thorgrim takes out his portable hole, inside of which is a barrel of Gotrek's Gutshaker. "We'll wait here and have a drink!" he says, producing the barrel.

    Emyn calls the thief over and says, "Come on Noot. Let's go with Elrae. Maybe we can get into a bar brawl. Just for practice, of course."

    Nevermind. Isilme just quietly follows behind the party as they head into town.

    Elrae, Noot, and Emyn walk down to the village, with Isilme following invisibly behind. You find the village to be a rather small one, about half the size of Foxvale Hill, nestled into a small semi-sheltered cove. Mostly it is fisherman's huts, though a handful of builldings in the center of the village seems workshops of some kind. There is a small harbor, with shallow-draft fishing boats tied up alongside very makeshift piers.

    Elrae goes into town claiming to be Ewen McNaughton, a wandering minstrel from the free city of Greyhawk.

    You see some fishermen hurriedly laying out their nets, anxiously looking at the fog as they finish their work. The rest of the doors are all shut, and you see crude red scythe painted upon all the doors. There seems to be an inn in the center of the village.

    "Mmm, red scythe, that doesn't look inviting." Elrae, I meam Ewen will head towards the inn in the center of the village.

    The inn has the same mark, and the door is locked. A local comes up, "Aye, ye mus' be new 'round here?" He raps on the door, "Open up," he says, "It's Aelfryd and some travelers." The door opens, and you enter into a very plain looking inn. There is a good fire burning in the center of the small common room, and a half-dozen man sit around various tables drinking and eating. "Come in," says the man who opens the door, "and you're likely in fer the night. Can't risk them drowned ones coming in."

    Isilme will levitate to stay out of the way. She uses her sword to detect lies with people Elrae speaks to, and reports the lie to him via the message spell. She will also cast ESP and see if she pick up anything of interest.

    [OOC: Is there any spell Isilme is NOT casting? ]

    OK, you go into the inn, The Gull's Feather, and also learn that the village is called Clearwater Point. The tables near to the fire are taken, so you must sit back away from a bit. Still, the room is warm, and the innkeeper seems friendly enough.

    Meanwhile, back outside, Hepla comes back from collecting herbs. Nobody even noticed she had left. Hepla comes in with whatever she found and lays the herbs on the floor to dry. She then goes to Gotrek and Thorgrim, who are drinking, and says to them, in fairly good Dwarf, "I am going to check around a little, be back in 15 minutes." She then steps out, casts Fly on herself, and goes up till she can just see their camp and looks around for anything unusual. If she finds anything she will return and report it right away, otherwise she will return in 10 minutes. She flies off, proud of her increasing knowledge of the dwarven language!

    Thorgrim stares at Hepla, then once she leaves he looks over at Gotrek. "Didn't know she spoke dwarven," he says. "But why would she have to leave to check out her backside?"

    Gotrek laughs, spitting out Gutshaker. "And why would it take 15 hours?"

    Back in the inn, Elrae plays a tune as Noot and Emyn sit down for a drink. He plays decent enough that he gets a free drink when he's done, and gets a few claps and nods from the fishermen who then go back to their meals.

    Emyn talks to the people about the drowned ones while Elrae is playing. Emyn says, "Drowned ones? Might those have been those wet zombies that are hard to kill? We chopped up 20 or so back on the road yesterday."

    One of the men looks at Emyn incredulously. "You three?"

    "We can handle ourselves," he replies, "though as an Avenger of Trithereon, I was able to summon some help. They didn't like teh lightning from the creatures I summoned at all and they hated the ice magic good Elrae used."

    Elrae asks the inn keeper "What do you know about the drowned ones. They aren't the same type of undead we have back in Greyhawk. And what's up with all this fog? One can barely see past his cock in such soup."

    Elrae gives Emyn a dirty look. "Who's Elrae?"

    Emyn says, "No, the little guy is Noot. Elrae is the singer."

    "The drowned ones sometimes come in with a thick fog," says the innkeeper, "so the villagers paint the sign of Nerull in blood on their doors to keep them away. Fog's been pretty thick of late, but nothing uncharacteristically strange. Comes in for a few days, leaves for a few days."

    "I thought yer name was Ewen?" says the innkeeper. "Eh, none a me business what ye call yerself anyhow." He fills your mugs before walking off.

    [OOC: Isilme probes the surface thoughts of the people, seeing nothing but fear of the drowned ones. Nothing strange, no lies.]

    Emyn says, "Why not set up bear traps for them in the village? When the sun burns the fog away, you could simply kill them with arrows or pikes."

    "What's a bear trap?" asks one of the villagers.

    "What's a bear?" asks another.

    "It's a big desert lizard, idiot!" says still another.

    Isilme casts forget on the innkeeper, singing as softly as she can so as to not be noticed. He stands there for a moment, looks around, then asks, "What was I doing?"

    "Bringing us another round, good man," says Noot. "In thanks for the wonderful songs of Ewen, Bard Extraordinaire!"

    "Ah, yes," he says, and sets you all up again!

    Elrae plays a few more songs, and in the end does well enough that you don't even have to pay for your meals. Everyone is pleased to have such a talented bard to regale them with tales of adventure. If you want to simply write a few questions down, I'll answer them. You also will get a few rumors too, once I figure them out!

    "Thanks kind sir," says Elrae. "Any chance you saw a group of dwarven mercenaries coming through here?"

    "Yeah," replies a fisherman name Marl. "They came by yesterday. The stopped just long enough for a meal and an ale, then continued on their way. They were intent on marching right through the night, despite the fog. Business in Highport they said, but were otherwise pretty mum."

    [Isilme OOC: woot! We can catch them! Only a day behind. Quit $%&#ing slacking and taking sleep and beer breaks and get these @#$%ers BEFORE they reach highport!]

    [DM OOC: If anything, they've probably gained a bit of ground by traveling through the night. You find out from the villagers that Highport is only a few hours walk from here.]

    Elrae draws Snowfang with a flourish, spins it around as he "creates" the blue light from the blade. He detects no evil from Snowfang, and the patrons are ok with you leaving, especially considering you have a great mage with you as well in Noot.

    Noot, to start a conversation, asks about the fishing and sailing, telling them that he spent a number of years at sea. He then asks about Highport.

    Highport was once a human city, but the land and town have been overrun by humanoids - orcs, goblins, kobolds, ogres, and gnolls. Looted, burned, and ill-kept, the city has become a base for human outcasts wishing to deal with these unsavory creatures.

    Highport was, in the time of their grandfathers, a great market city, but that was before the humanoids overran the Pomarj. The city was ignored for a long time, but eventually the humanoid armies turned their attentions to Highport. Aided by other cities of the Wild Coast, as well as by forces from as far as Greyhawk and across Wooly Bay from Onnwal, the city held out for years, the humanoids, always lacking patience, breaking themselves against the city's walls. Eventually, however, the city could not stand against near constant attacks. It's walls were breached and the city sacked like none before.

    It sat in ruins for years before any serious attempt at rebuilding began. Even with humanoids, the need for trade continued, and Highport once again began to grow, attracting many unsavory types. It is now ruled by a combination of human and humanoid lords. "Who really knows?" say the fishermen. What they can say is the city is quite dangerous, full of evil men and humanoids, none of which care a wit for decent folk. The villagers never travel there, but work through various merchants whose ships travel the coast trading with the various towns and villages. Because they supply food for the city, they are "protected" from marauding bands of humanoids, though sometimes they do come through the village and cause problems nonetheless.

    When they have all they feel is worthwhile, they return to the group. The party is discussing staying the night in the tower, just on the outskirts of the village (Thorgrim's idea), or pushing on through the night (Isilme's idea).

    "You want to head out at night?" asks Thorgrim? "Through the fog?"

    "We fought and defeated the demon queen herself and we are scared of a little fog?" she replies. "Pah! Maybe its time to pop open this wine bottle while you ladies rest your feet" she giggles.

    "Personally," says Emyn, "I would prefer to not have to charge on horseback with my lance in the fog at night. Just because I know I can defeat drowned ones doesn't mean I want to ride headlong into a tree or worse, some foul monster we should approach on better terms. And let me ask, if we do catch these dwarves, what exactly do you propose to do with them? I once saw a dog run after a wagon. When he caught the wheel in his teeth, he took the drubbing of his life as the horses bolted."

    "Hrumph!" exclaims Thogrim as he gets to his feet. "Then let us be away!" After hearing Emyn, and maybe because of the Gutshaker, Thorgrim falls back on his ****. "Er, mayhaps we should stay a while."

    "Taki is not afraid I will go where the party leads," he says. "Long as they can walk."

    The party then sleeps for the night, which passes uneventfully.


    Last edited by ragnar on Thu Jul 18, 2013 2:13 pm; edited 1 time in total
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    Thu Jul 11, 2013 8:29 am  

    Part 10

    Moonday, 10 Fireseek, 581 CY

    You awake in the morning to another day with heavy fog. Visibility is perhaps a thousand feet, but beyond that it's just whiteness. The air seems a little bit cooler with an ever so slight breeze blowing east.

    Thorgrim likes Noot's idea. "From the sound of things, this Highport isn't going to be too friendly." He looks at Gotrek, "Though more'n like you'll fit right in."

    "I would not send the paladin into town again,” says Isilme. “He's likely to give the whole party away if the last visit was any indication"

    "Yeah," says Thorgrim, as everyone is getting ready to go. "Best we strip him of his armor and disguise him as a mute beggar."

    Isilme fully rested casts invisibility on herself again. “Time to do some scouting ahead,” she says. “Whats the plan, Berenn?”

    “I will take Elrae and fly out ahead and scout out the surroundings of the Highport,” he answers. “We will report back to the party once we have a lay of the land. No need to walk into a trap.”

    You can get a general layout of the city. The orc/humanoid areas are pretty obvious as the buildings are very ramshackle. The human areas are pretty well rebuilt from the destruction of decades ago. The outer walls have been rebuilt, and they are quite formidable. There is what looks like a military district to the NW, and there are numerous open areas with either tents or other shanties. A ruined inner wall once enclosed the port area, and many warehouses dot the place. The city seems to be mostly asleep. You see quite a few ships docked in the ports, but when you go to take a closer look you see something large take off from the top of the tower to the NE, right along the bay. You bank away as it flies out to sea. Rather than push your luck, you return with what you saw.

    http://wiki.griffcrier.com/images/b/b0/Highport.jpg

    Hepla, after serching through her backpack, reports that her washerwoman outfit is back in storage so she has no disguises with her. She can go into the village and try to get something but that would mean waiting till a shop opens, and that, except by the boats, might be hours. She can try by the boats as they leave if the party wants.

    "Maybe there is a sewer entrance?" says Emyn.

    Berenn returns and reports what he saw. “The wizard might have been able to warn Kilrak with magic, but I don't think it is a good idea to divide the party. We can let Elrae and Hepla talk our way into Highport, the rest of us should keep our heads down and remain quiet.

    "That should work or, failing that, a good bribe,” says Emyn. “If not, we can try to come in via sewers or the sea?"

    Noot scruffs himself up a little bit and starts to act like an out of work sailor.

    Thorgrim laughs. "You guys remember Derry? That one hated getting dirty. He'd a not wanted to go in no sewers."

    "I have heard you speak of this Derry the halfling. I can appreciate his concern. At three feet tall, he might end up drinking sewage. I imagine dwarves might have an issue cleaning teh foul from their beards as well."

    There is one other option,” says Berenn. “Isilme and I could scout around the exterior via invisibility, maybe there is another way in.”

    "It's just a city," says Thorgrim. "It ain't like we're sneaking into the Temple of Evil! Let's just go have a look. Just keep yer holy symbols hidden."

    “I like this idea,” says Taki. “All this sneaking around don’t suit me any way.”

    You approach the gate and find it manned by a handful of orcs. They don't have the wild uncivilized look normal to orcs, and are wearing very good scale mail. They lean lazily on spears, with secondary weapons hanging from belts, either maces, morningstars, or swords. A thinner and taller one looks at Noot, spits, and laughs. "Yah, there lots a work fer ya....on da slave ships!" The others laugh, and one slaps him on the back for his great sense of humor.

    He doesn't seem to care that you enter the city, that is until he sees Thorgrim and Gotrek. He steps up in front of them, looking down at the dwarves. "We got 'nuff a ya dwarfs here," he says, slamming his spear butt into the ground. "You goes away fer we skin ya and eat ya." He then turns and laughs at the other guards.

    "That right?" says Gotrek. The half-orc leans down so it can look right in Gotrek's eyes, and just as it's about to speak, Gotrek head butts him. The half-orc stumbles back, and Gotrek kicks it in the groin. As it doubles over, he then punches it in the temple, knocking it out. "Anyone else got something to say?" asks Gotrek.

    The orcs drag their leader out of the way, but not one says a word as the party continues into the city.

    The Suss Road (that's the road you entered on apparently) passes through the center of this orc district. The buildings are all run down, and the entire area smells pretty bad.

    "Methinks Derry would have preferred the sewers," says Thogrim, wrinkling his nose.

    You see some orcs fighting in a nearby clearing, though weather for sport, practice, or something else you can't tell. Others are standing around watching and laughing, but with orcs, that doesn't necessarily mean much. There is another road that intersects the one you're on, about 100' feet from the wall, which runs along the perimeter of the city.

    "Let's find a place to have a drink in one of the human sections of town” says Emyn. “Surely the arrival of the dwarves will have been noted. They should be easy enough to find."

    You shortly pass out of the orc area, and enter an area even MORE run-down. It is populated by goblins. A group of goblin young swarm around the party calling for alms. Luckily, you are on horseback, and the goblins cannot reach your pockets. Gotrek seems to barely be able to control himself, surrounded by all these humanoids. Elrae looks in disgust from the goblins. How many moons ago it was when he first fought a band of goblins with Gotrek and Derry, their first adventure together?

    The party spurs their mounts, and push through the goblins. Off to the right, some orc females point and laugh, as the goblin young chase after you a bit.

    When we are down to 1 goblin child Hepla, while still ridding, will ask, in common, "Your persistence can earn you a silver if you know where the dwarves who came in yesterday are." She will hold up one silver piece.

    The goblin jumps up and down, grabbing at the coin. "Me knows, me knows," it squeaks. "De go big Kha-Ghul, in Brah house." Seeing Hepla's confused stare, it points back towards the NW. "Dat way!"

    "Clever Goblin," Hepla says," Clever enough to keep his mouth shut." She tosses him the coin and rides on. When out of sight she will tell the rest what she found out. "Soon they will know that we are looking for them and they will probably come looking for us, we just have to catch them then."

    After a while you come to a large open area to your right. It is full of tents and other flimsy shanties. Through the center of this area runs a ruined wall, with a semi-ruined tower in the center. There are various carts around it, as well as a crude crane, and you hear the rapping sounds of hammers on stone. Somebody seems to be in the process of rebuilding the tower.

    Hepla rides up to tell Gotrek what the goblin said.

    "Kha-Ghul is a high chief. Brah is great." Gotrek looks over that direction. "They must be inside that inner curtain wall," he says, pointing up atop a low hill with a castle atop it.

    "We're not in Hommlet anymore," says Thorgrim, shaking his head.

    Taki leans in close to Thorgrim and says "We should clean out the lot of them humanoids."

    "I miss the warm comforts of my wife right now,” says Elrae. “ Shall we head towards the inner curtain wall."

    "And say what?" asks Thorgrim.

    "Say we have an urgent message for Kilrak, from his twin brother,” replies Elrae. “Bluff our way in and give that little bastard the payback he deserves for trying to set me up."

    “We need to recall that we are circled by goblins and orcs not to mention the 50 dwarf soldiers,” says Taki. “We need a decent plan before we attack.”

    "I can set them to fighting among themselves, I am sure it's not uncommon," you hear Islme whisper in disgust. You all look around, but she’s invisible.

    Noot, remembering the death of his parents, is all in favor of doing anything to get rid of any and all orcs. Gotrek overhears, and seems to be sweating. Taki, seeing that Gotrek is about to go into rage, starts picking out targets, he also mentions to Thorgrim and our paladin friend that we need to work together if this fight starts.

    "A city full of evildoers, orcs, goblins, gnolls, and who knows what else?" muses Thorgrim. "Maybe we should find a place to hole up, then let Isilme finally use that wand she's been carrying around." He looks around at the dilapidated city, "Long as it's a secure place."

    “Do we have a plan,” asks Isilme, “or are we just killing things?”

    "Well," says Thorgrim, looking around and then glancing uneasily at Gotrek. "I don't mind bad odds, but takin' on a city?" He shakes his head. "That sounds plain dumb to me."

    Taki says "I was just trying to make a plan as I think we are just minutes from Goterk losing it"

    Berenn notices that the party has stopped moving and swoops down, dismounts and sends Ra and Thoth back into flight with instructions to just circle us for now; they will be called if needed.
    After hearing what the party has to say and watching Gotrek shake his potion of speed, Berenn decides on the following. "We can't bring the whole town down on us at once. I suggest patience. Let us see if Kilrak will come out of the inner city and perhaps outside the city."

    Hepla says,"If it was worth a silver to that goblin to tell us where they are it should be worth a gold to tell them where we are. I am sure we are being watched even now. Find lunch and a secure spot and let them come to us. They will probably send the orcs and goblins first, then the dwarves, then the leaders. If we could find those sewers we could go under them while they are attacking and get right to the leaders. I can polymorph a few of their bodies to look like some of us, then they will think us dead."

    "If they get that excited about one silver maybe we could distract them with a few hundred silver and some copper by throwing it out in the street?" says Taki.

    Isilme says " yes but outside the city we can't use these orcs as pawns. If our target is here we can get his mercenary troop busy while we target him. Divide and conquer."

    “Yes,” adds Taki, “but we’ve a dwarf getting near to raging. Let’s get him settled down outta the street first, then decide.”

    OK, you continue on from where you stopped, by the open tent shanty area. You pass through another orc area, and then along more shanty-towns before moving into a much better looking district. A large road curves around to the left, skirting this section of town and heading towards the coast. You pass through this section, much more "civilized" with various shops and such as you would expect. You eventually come into another large open circular area, though this one is devoid of tents.

    It is a market square, in the process of being rebuilt. Off to the right is the ruined inner wall, and a large camp is set up there, where you can see that man men are at work dismantling more of the wall and breaking the stones up for use as cobblestones. About half of the area is already paved, and gangs of dirty-looking men are hard at work on the rest. They must be slaves, as you see overseers around them with whips to push the slackers.

    Also to the right is another tower, though this one has been completely rebuilt. The wall immediately beside it has been rebuilt as well, and a new wall encloses the area around it. A banner flies from the tower, though you cannot make it out as it is hanging limply in the nearly still air.

    The road passes through the center of the square, where it meets two others in a Y. One branch heads left, towards the coast, while another heads right, through the large gap in the old wall. There is a large inn just on the edge of the square to the left of the road as you enter the open area, the Glad Goblin Inn.

    The party goes through the doors into the inn, and finds a large, very nice place. Sure, it's not the Spruce Goose Inn of Verbobonc, but you are amazed at how nice it is. You enter into a large common area, loaded with tables. A good sized fireplace is just to your right, with a bunch of small stools around it. It looks like there is a semi-private room towards the back, and hallways to the right lead to other rooms. There is a second floor which you can see through the large open vault. A railed balcony goes around the entire common room, and you can see many doors up there to other rooms. A small bar is ahead and to the left, butting against an open part of the wall. Through there you can see into the kitchens, and the smell of the food is excellent. There are numerous tables and chairs, with about a dozen people scattered about in groups of 2 or 3, all eating breakfast. Three goblins come and go carrying trays of food and drink to the customers.

    They are all human. Most look like merchants, though a couple are clearly warriors by their weapons and armor. In fact, one thing you notice now that it's getting later is the various races, while they live in separate areas, do intermingle. Walking through the square are orcs, kobolds, goblins, even a couple bugbears. The smaller races tend to go about in groups, while the larger races don't seem to have any problem, alone or in groups. However, most still seem to be armed, despite appearances.

    Isilme uses her ESP, but doesn't pick up anything interesting, just surface thoughts about regular stuff. One merchant, however, does seem preoccupied with the quality of slaves being sold recently. He hopes there are finally some good buys.

    Noot says he'd be better off down by the docks. If the rest of the party is good with staying here, he can slip on off to some of the seedy dives frequented by sailors. He says he'll come back in a few hours, and report anything he finds out.

    The rest finally enter, and as they do Isilme picks up nothing to indicate anyone knows the party at all. She senses a little casual interest from the warriors, but nothing special.

    The goblins come around and ask to take any orders. They speak pretty good common.

    Assuming you all get something to eat, you can discuss plans. Meanwhile, Noot slips out to go check out the docks. Disguised as a sailor, he fits easily into the area. He follows the main road down towards the docks (past area 3). That last tower he notes has been repaired as well, and a large beacon set in the top to act as a lighthouse. This entire section is very well maintained, and all the normal shops and businesses can be found along the main road. He notes the coming and going of humanoids as well, so keeps up his "disguise" as a sailor as he approaches the docks. When he gets to the waterfront, he immediately notices that about half of the original piers are completely ruined. There are yet seemingly derelict ships tied up to them, so from the sea they would seem to be in use; however, from here it is obviously a trick to confuse those who would approach from the sea. He notes that all the piers in this "human" section of the port are in operation and there are seven ships currently berthed, six merchant ships and one war galley.

    Noot finds about half-dozen taverns: The Fisherman's Casque, The Bottle, The Tavern of Fishes, The Soaring Harpy, and the Sad Harlot.

    In The Bottle, Noot fits right in with a bunch of sailors. He finds that they are from the galley sitting on the large quay, The Ghoul. They just dropped off a load of slaves for the market, as well as a priestess of the Earth Dragon. They mention that she played a sweet flute, and then make some crude jokes about playing her with their flutes, or something like that. From the descriptions, she seems to be the one who fled Elredd by ship.

    Noot finishes his ale excuses himself and heads back to join the others.

    ***

    Meanwhile, back at the Glad Goblin….

    Isilme whispers to hepla, “Maybe we should ask about all the new construction too. Are there a suspecting a war? Where is all this new influx of wealth coming from? Did they get a new leader? This place has been around a long time, to suddenly start shoring up and repairing it suggests bigger things are going on.”

    "Why don't you use your 'charms' on one of the merchants?" whispers Thorgrim when Isilme is next to him. "One without a guard, "he adds. "Then get him up to his room and milk him for information."

    Isilme looks around for merchant that looks wealthier and most and might be in the know, maybe even one selling items for the rebuilding directly. She uses her ESP to help locate a good target and attempt to charm him. Isilme has her choice of merchants to charm, if she desires. ESP didn't help with the charming; it just probed the surface thoughts. You didn't pick up anything useful, during the duration of the spell, except that none of the people in the inn were interested in the party. One merchant was concerned with the quality of the slaves he was going to buy. That's the only one that stood out.



    Also, Hepla charms one of the Kobold severs, and gets a room upstairs. She'll grill the Kobold after he shows her to a room.

    The Kobold, a young pup named Bytor with a chipped horn, tells Hepla that Sturm Blucholtz is the new leader, after the deaths of the two rival orc chieftains last year.

    Much money has since made its way into the city, which has steadily been undergoing a rebuilding effort. This is only in the human areas, for that is the center of trade in Highport. Most the money is coming from the slave trade, which has really increased since Sturm took charge.

    Kilrak and the other dwarves have been here before, about a year ago. They then disappeared, marching north until last night when they returned. They went straight to the Stormkeep, Sturm's stronghold.

    Nobody has been looking or asking about you.

    Hepla says,"Bytor, what a wonderful name you have. Is Sturm an orc, dwarf or what? Who would Sturm's chief rivals be? Is there anyone around here who is a good herbologist?
    After we have goten all we want out of him she will SLEEP him later telling him how great he was.

    Bytor doesn't know that much. Sturm is a man. He doesn't know of any rivals he may have. There's an apothecary down the street. There are shamen with the various humanoid tribes too. He also doesn't know of any other way into the keep.

    “We should probably take a look around this keep discreetly and see if we can find a way in,” says Berenn. “We could slip into the keep at night and try to locate Kilrak.”

    When the questioning of Bytor is done and he is sleeping, Hepla asks for someone to go with her to the apothacary down the street. She has no problem going alone but knows its safer going in pairs. She looks at Taki, trying to look small, and says,"Wanna come?"

    Taki nods. “I will come with you to protect you from the evil that is here. Perhaps, if we see a weapons shop along the way, bwe can stop and see what they may have for sale.”

    Hepla and Taki will head to the Apothacary, stopping at a weapons shop if they see on. Taki will now try to look large and mean to keep the riff raff away. "You do this very well, Taki," Hepla says. Once at the apothacary she will ask them if they recognise and know the properties of the herbs she found, and if they have any unusual herbs for sale. She will also ask about any nearby weapons shops.

    Nobody bothers Hepla with Taki hovering over her shoulder. She goes to the apothacary, and he tells her what those two herbs are. [OOC: you have the herb files still, right?] Afterward, you ask around for a weapons shop. There are a few in town, but the best weaponsmith is in the Stormkeep (area 7). The largest is at the Temple of Hextor (area 12). There is a smaller weaponsmith down by the docks, but he works mainly with the weapons of sailors. There are also blacksmiths in the various humanoid quarters, specializing in their own weaponry, such as it is.

    "A Temple of Hextor?” asks Emyn, showing up as they are leaving to the weaponsmith. “That is hardly the kind of place we should seek assistance. More likely they'll take poor Hepla here and use her for some horrible sexual torture than help her."

    “What makes you say that?” asks Taki, unused to the ways of these city folk.

    “It is quite simple. They offer pain, siffering and death," says Emyn. "Any weapon forged there would surely contain a taint of evil."

    Hepla says, "It is Taki who wants to go there, I would go along to help protct him just as he went along to protect me. But there are other weaponsmiths if we want to go to a different one."

    Taki says " Ok I really did not need a weapon I am good with turning in and getting a fresh start in the morning, do we have a plan to see about the ax."

    You return to the Glad Goblin. By the time you get there, everyone is finished except Isilme. You find that the party has taken rooms upstairs, the two on the top right. One has 6 beds, the other three. The girls can have the small room, plus one other person, while the rest stay in the large room. They are all upstairs when you get back, and one of the kobolds takes you to the room.

    Berenn asks about griffons, but the kobolds don't even know what you mean. Flying horses that eat other horses makes more sense to them. They have no idea what to do about them, and they go get the innkeeper. A small goblin with a big smiles comes up. "Me Bungk, at your service," he says, "what can I do for you."

    Berenn asks if there is a place where he can stable his griffons. Mebungk doesn't think so. He's never heard of anyone flying such wild beasts. "Now there are some harpies in the old Sea Tower," he says. "They was brung in to deal with the Stirges in the old ruins, which ain't worked, but now they're here ta stay."

    Isilme is still questioning the merchant she charmed. She learns that most slaves are brought in by ship, and they are taken to the stockades (area 18). Sturm doesn't seem to have anything to do with it, other than to collect his cut in taxes, which are rather high. The merchant plans on attending the auction later today, as a new load of slaves was just brought in. He doesn't actually deal with Sturm at all, and has never even met him.

    The current politics are pretty simple. The orcs used to run things, and reasonably well for orcs. The human population was ruled by Lord Kevram Bilarro, last of his line. His family had ruled Highport for decades, and somehow remained after the original sack of the city. Rumor has it there were strange enchantments on the Stormkeep that kept out the humanoids. The Bilarros made a deal with the orcs, and an uneasy peace fell on the city. They were left to give a civilized face to the city, which the orc chieftain saw as a way to gradually rebuild. Eventually, Highport became the principal route for trade from the Pomarj to once again flow, meager as it was. This continued for many years, with the humanoids in the city gradually becoming less barbaric. Sturm showed up a few years ago, and eventually became Captain of the Guard. When the orc chieftain, and a couple of sub-chiefs died mysteriously, Lord Bilarro took control of the city. He died shortly thereafter, fell from his own keep. He had no heir, so Sturm took over, renaming the fortress the Sturmkeep. His takover was easy enough with the dwarf mercenaries he had hired. The city's been rather peaceful since.

    The slave trade really expanded once Sturm took over. When the dwarves left, there was talk that things may go bad for him, but nothing happened. The city prospered with much newfound wealth flowing into the city, and many people began to arrive to settle in the ruined city. Building programs were begun, at least in the human areas, and real prosperity seems to be returning, at least in part. You can certainly make your fortune in Highport, if you don't run afoul of humanoid trouble. However, if you stay out of their areas, that's not a problem. The various races live together rather well, passing through their respective districts when necessary, and usually without incident. Of course, that's not always the case.

    There is no talk of war. He doesn't know Agnar, though he has heard of Kilrak, leader of the dwarven mercenaries that had worked for Sturm in the past. He doesn't know anything about a lord who was locked up. [OOC: that is referring to the lord you learned about in Foxvale Hill, which is a few days from here. Anyway, I think that answers everything.]

    Noot then adds a note. He says the sailors from The Ghoul said they took some of the better slaves to the temple, whatever that means.

    Isilme asks the slaver if he has dealings with this temple or knows anything about it.

    He doesn't know anything about any temple. "There is a Temple of the Earth Dragon down by the docks," he says. "That could be what your friend is talking about. I never heard of them dealing in slaves though."

    The merchant, Motho, bridles a bit that you call him a slaver. "I am a merchant," he says, "a simple purveyor of goods."

    He explains that slaves may be brought here from anywhere, but most come by ship. Slaving ships prowl the waters, and pirates often take crews captive and resell them here as well. Most of the slaves are sold off to buyers from the Pomarj. Who they are, he doesn't know as that's not his part. This merchant works for an orc chieftain who needs slaves for his gold/electrum mine in the hills a few days travel inland. He comes here to buy supplies, and also to buy slaves, when available, for the mines.

    The party spends the next few hours (weeks in real time!) discussing their next move. Taki offers to just up to the gate and say he heard they was needing men at arms and try to get a job then find a place to let the rest of you in after I have scouted the place out a bit.

    "Kilrak don't know us," says Thorgrim. "Gotrek and I could go looking ta join his mercs?"

    Taki steps back clearly upset that he once again could not help, or that his idea was not heeded.

    Thorgrim goes over and looks up, WAY UP, at the big warrior. "Nay, friend," he says. "'Twas from you the idea came."

    “I actually like the idea of Thorgrim and Gotrek hiring on as mercs,” says Berenn. “They would be able to move around Sturmkeep easily and get some good intelligence. I don't think we should be thinking about collapsing the whole system though. Removing Sturm would cause more damage than he is doing (See Iraq). The rest of us could scout around the temples and maybe check out the slave operation.”

    “We should get all the intelligence we can,” adds Noot. “Aand remember our main mission to find the blade. We don't really need to bring down this town since they seem to be more or less living in a state of peace and are not really getting in the way of our objective. I like the idea of a couple of disguised mercenaries -- as long as you have an escape plan.”

    "Yeah, kill everyone!" says Thorgrim. He then smiles, "Joking. Was thinkin' more a Hepla and Isilme gettin' us outta any trouble."

    Thorgrim figures, when Gotrek meets the guy he could offer to buy the axe, or just fight him for it. "Kilrak has no greater claim over it," he says defiantly. "And if he's thrown in with orcs and such, well..." He trails off, leaving the rest unsaid, but Gotrek just nods grimly. "Now, this slave trade," he adds. "That sounds bad. Orcs and other humanoids taking goodly people slaves? I don't know 'bout the rest a you, but that doesn't sit well with this dwarf."
    "We must stop this foul trade even if it means our lives. I will call upon my church to bring holy vengeance upon these foul oppressors.!" vows Emyn.

    "Sorry me boy," says Thorgrim. "Nobody stopped the orcs from taking over the Pomarj a hunnerd years ago, and they all got bigger problems today." He shakes his head, "No, I'm afraid we're on our own."

    As they continue talking, Isilme questions their overall goals, especially the goal of taking the axe from Kilrak. “Again, he’s as much right to it as Gotrek.”

    “There was a drow name on that letter you found in Kilrak's quarters,” says Thorgrim. "More reason to not like him," says Thorgrim. "Orcs and slavers is bad enough, but a dwarf who consorts with Drow." He then looks at Isilme, an embarrassed look crossing his face. "No offense."

    Isilme laughs and says " Trust me, that regular Drow 's skin would crawl having to consort with common dwarves. No offense of course. Luckily we are of a different sort, and I hope to use my lineage to our advantage later."

    "I will be checking out the temple lead, I think I will have my "merchant" friend here introduce me to a ship captain who is rumored to deal choice "trade goods" to them. Perhaps Noot would like to join me? Any idea when we should meet again? I assume the rest of you will be clearing out the ruin so Berenn has someplace to put his steeds? Be careful, find a way to seal you ears to negate the noise, as a song mage I know very well the power of a harpies song charm."

    "Maybe we should go check on of the other abandoned towers and leave the harpies alone?" wonders Thorgrim. "We don't want to draw too much attention to ourselves."

    [DM OOC: Also, that smacked a bit of "knowing" the slaver series. First, be careful of using your knowledge of the modules when you shouldn't. I know that's hard, if not impossible; just consider it. Also, what I'm doing is WAY different, so even if you DID have good knowledge of the slaver series, it would only give you a short outline of what's going on, and in fact give you many false details.]


    Eventually, the party decided to split up. [Yeah, that’s always a good idea!] Gotrek and Thorgrim are going to go to the Sturmkeep, to seek out the Deldukr and hire on. Berenn and Elrae go off to find a place for the griffons. Everyone else is heading to the docks, to check out this temple. As you see, I also found it necessary to warn the party about some of their meta-gaming. Not only was it not welcome, but the more they do it, the more WRONG they will be. Can't say they weren't forewarned.....


    Last edited by ragnar on Thu Jul 18, 2013 2:15 pm; edited 4 times in total
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    Sat Jul 13, 2013 5:40 pm  

    Part 11

    Berenn and Noot:

    Across the plaza, beyond the buildings, you see a couple of ruined towers, just poking up above the rooftops. You could probably check one of those out, to see if you could use the rooftop or upper levels. Otherwise, there's really nothing that stands out. The griffons are not the easiest of mounts when you consider keeping them in a city, especially as they love horse meat and horses are usually afraid of them. Anyway, the towers are the only places that make sense.

    Berenn will head for the nearest tower and explore it. “If anyone wants to come along, they are welcome,” he says.

    Only Elrae tags along, as he is the other one who's been riding a griffon. You make your way through a small alley heading away from the square and wind around a bunch of small ways, eventually coming upon the crumbled remains of an old wall. You follow it along to your left a bit, to where you see an old watchtower. The wall looks to have been about 20' high, and the tower extends another 20' beyond that. A lot of debris is scattered around the base of both the wall and tower, and the area around the tower doorway is completely blocked by a large pile of huge stones.

    Berenn and Elrae move into the tower which is pretty well ruined. You enter a small 20' room, and from the ceiling a dozen or so forms quickly descend upon you. Stirges!

    Hurray! Berenn draws Bonfire and prepares to defend if the stirges come near. Berenn will not charge on the chance Elrae wants to use cone of cold.

    Elrae casts Color Spray at the stirges, and pulls out his crossbow of speed. Unfortunately, the stirges drop on you faster than you can cast spells. It is like a cloud of little dark shapes filled the room, and you can't really see anything as they slam into both of you. You don't really know how many there are, but you are both covered with the nasty creatures.

    Elrae feels the stings of five stirges! Total damage: 9
    Berenn is hit by four stirges! Total damage: 7

    Elrae's color spray is disrupted and he drops his crossbow as he's trying to take it out. Berenn tries to stab one that has attached to his face and skewers it with his sword, killing it.

    The attached stirges begin to drain blood from Elrae and Berenn. Elrae cannot concentrate to cast any spells and takes 10 damage [2,1,3,3,1]. Berenn takes 9 [2,1,3,3].

    Elrae takes out a dagger and stabs at one, piercing it through the brain and killing it. Berenn does the same, killing and removing another.

    More attack! Elrae is hit by another stirge [3] while Berenn is hit by four more and takes 7 [3,1,1,2].

    Berenn now has 7 attached to him while Elrae has 5. Neither of you can really see, and there are more flying around trying to latch on to you.

    [DM OOC: Damn, stirges can be tough!]

    The stirges continue to drain blood from the two of you. Elrae takes 9 more [3,1,2,1,2] and Berenn takes 16 [3,3,1,3,1,3,2].

    Elrae draws Snowfang and cries “Cryo”, invoking it’s Cone of Cold power. In the enclosed space, the cone wraps back around and engulfs the entire tower room in frost. All the Stirges are dead. Elrae and Berenn both make saves. Elrae takes 17 more, and is down to -5. Berenn takes 17 and is down to 1!!!

    Ice now coats everything, and the structures groans under the strain.....

    Berenn crawls over to Elrae, keeping an eye out for more stirges, or worse. He drags him out of the frozen room, back outside, and casts a CMW on Elrae, bringing him back to 3 hp. He also cures himself back up to 9 with a CLW. He then gives Elrae his potion of extra healing, which the bard quickly downs while Berenn searches for his Rod of Health.

    [Berenn OOC: At least we are not dead. No more creeping around towers after this one.]

    “Damn me for giving away my ring of warmth,” laments Elrae as the two return to the inn to await the others.

    ***

    To the docks:

    Isilme heads to the docks, invisible of course. She is hoping Noot will go also and blend in a bit and gather intel to help her locate the ship with the most successful or most connected slave trader ship captain, or one who is rumored to have delivered exceptional slaves to the temple.

    Noot tells her that The Ghoul is the ship which just brought in slaves this morning. It is the only galley at the docks.

    Taki heads off towards the docks to be handy if he is needed to back up them that has gone after that slavers, while Hepla casts Fly for extra mobility.

    I will assume that Noot would rather not slip around with invisibility, so he will just do his best imitation of a sailor and prowl around. Hepla, Taki, and Emyn will go in search of the weaponsmith that has a shop down there. Isilme can get that fly spell from Hepla, to go along with her invisibility, and flies for the docks. I think I described The Piers, as the locals call this district, but I'll do so again:

    The Piers is the collective term for the city's sprawling warehouse and shipping district. Most of its streets are cluttered, claustrophobic and generally unsettling for most people. Rangers especially despise the place.

    Some of the buildings here are made from stone, but most are made from wood harvested from the surrounding woodlands. Exposure to the corrosive, ever-present sea air has ravaged many of the buildings to the point that most are near the point of collapse. That inevitible occurance has been postponed in many cases by the addition of new, but still inferior, wooden supports.

    Bands of thieves, pirates and other cutthroats fill the Wharf like vile human rodents. Blood is spilled nightly in bar fights that can quickly grow to include more than 200 combatants.

    About half of Highport's original piers are completely ruined. The local authorities have towed derelict ships into place on these piers to use as additional storage space, as well as to confuse would-be attackers about which piers are actually viable. The remaining piers either survived the Night of the Blood Spear or have been rebuilt since that time. The piers are almost exclusively used for trade, with only one near the eastern part of town having facilities for making repairs.

    The Ghoul is easy to find, it's the only galley presently docked in Highport.

    Noot continues to root through the district trying to take the pulse of the area. He sticks to the shadows and tries to blend in as much as possible.

    Isilme decends quietly upon the Ghoul and looks to see what type of activity is currently going on. She heads to the fore part of the ship topside to see if she can locate the captain, and then checks on the aft side rear of the ship looking for the captains quarters, listening and watching for any leads to the captain, slaves, or general attitudes aboard ship.

    The Ghoul

    The Ghoul is a small galley, though clearly a warship and plenty strong enough for what is supposedly does. It has an overall length of about 75' and a beam of about 15', with 15 oars per side. It has a raised poop and forecastle, with closed doors entering each. On the foredeck is a small ballista while the poopdeck has a large drum as well as the stearing oars for the rudder. The rowing banks are exposed to the weather, and you see that there are seats for two men per oar. There are small wooden shields placed along and above the gunwale to offer the rowers protection. In the center of the ship is a single mast, about 40' high. The bow is painted to look like an evil, black face with leering eyes, and a long ram projects from it just at the waterline. There are about two dozen men working about the ship doing various sailor things, from working at ropes, to washing the ship.

    Isilme slips by the captain, who is still yelling at his men. Inside is a short hallway with doors to either side and an open door straight ahead into a large cabin.

    Noot is watching the mayhem on board the ship while looking for opportunity to lend Isilme a hand.

    Isilme finds herself in the captain's cabin. It contains a decent bed, a very nice wooden table and chairs. A writing desk, armoire, a couple of chests, and sundry items for personal hygiene.

    Isilme does a quick sweep of the cabin looking for any important documents or maps left out. She will also check the writing desk. She has to fight back thoughts of ending of the life of a surface elf turned to the slave trade. Inside the deck, she does, indeed, find some interesting items: the ship’s log, an account ledger, and a map.

    Ship's log: Written in elvish, you scan through it and see that The Ghoul just left Elredd a few days ago, and it mentions picking up the priestess Tarya. It was definitely the ship which carried the fugitive advisor from Elredd. It also mentions other places that the ship has prowled Woolly Bay for some time. It regularly runs up and down the Wild Coast, from Highport, to Elredd, Safeton, Hardby, even Greyhawk City on occasion. It also sails south rarely to Blue and to Scant. You find two other references, one to Sevant's Tower which seems to be far to the north, and the other to Foxvale Hill [the village where you encountered Kilrak's brother].

    You also find an account ledger. It is a sheaf of yellowed parchement, about 100 pages and bound in red ribbon. Each page is covered with columns of crabbed writing. The first part is crew payments, listing each man by name, their pay, and then has a spot for them to make their marks. The second part seems to be supplies. The last section is the selling of slaves, and this is what really interests you. The first columns are items (people), the second receiver of payment (three names pop up constantly: Rhoankin, Markessa, and H'shyon). The third columns are amounts received. You quickly tally things up and see that the ship doesn't make a huge profit, after paying the crew, but the captain has been doing pretty well.

    You also find a map of Woolly Bay.

    Meanwhile, the rest of the group [Taki, and Emyn, and Hepla] have been walking to the Ghoul. They pass many commercial wharves, watching the sailors and fishermen tend to their boats and supplies being carried to and fro by porters, bringing items to the warehouse district. You follow the street along the docks, towards the long wharf where the galley is berthed. It's about 100' long, and certainly nothing like you've ever seen before. To the left, beyond the nearest buildings, you see the top of the Temple of the Earth Dragon's central spires. As you get close to the galley, you notice that a fight has broken out aboard it's deck, though they all seem to be sailors. You don't see Isilme anywhere, but you can assume this is her handiwork.

    In your immediate area, there are three other ships which are not burned. As Noot said, about half the docks are destroyed, with derelict ships left there. He heard that they are left to deceive any potential foes from the sea as to which docks are in service and which are not. Isilme slips from the ship, and as she leaves, she notices the ship's captain casting a sleep spell which makes the rest of the fighting sailors fall asleep. She flies over to where she spies the rest of the party, watching from a distance. There she reports what she found, and together everyone returns to the Glad Goblin. After a brief period of planning, they decide to go investigate the slave auctions next, as the merchant mentioned a new shipment came in today.

    To the Slave Auction:

    Everyone except Emyn heads for the slave auction. Emyn stays in the inn and starts drinking. He knows if he goes to the slave auction, he'll lose it. You cross the round central plaza and head along a road paved in red bricks. It winds up the slight rise towards the south. After a few hundred feet you pass through this rebuilt area and enter another run-down area that quickly ends in open fields. You see the walls of two great compounds rising ahead of you, to the right and left. The compound to the right is the slave stockade, while that to the left is a military barracks. In fact, you see a large central barracks and a couples smaller ones. There is a lot of traffic along the Slave Road, as this road is called; in fact, as you are watching, a small caravan leaves the slave stockade, about two-dozen slaves guarded by about fifty orcs, and turns right headed out the southern gate.

    Taki walks around the auction area trying to look like he is interested in buying slaves and trying to hide his disgust for all of this.

    Hepla, with Taki plan to do a once over walking around the slave auction. If anyone asks what she is doing she will say, "Looking for an elf to buy, I understand they are tasty."

    There are no elves anywhere; the slaves are all humans. The stockade is guarded by orc warriors with crossbows. There is a large open yard in front of a raised platform from which slaves are auctioned, a small smithy for the chains and collars, and a big building with many smaller rooms in which the slaves are sorted and detained. You watch as about a dozen slaves are sold in succession. Bidding starts at 5gp, and most slaves go for under 50gp. Nobody really questions you as you move about the place and watch the auctions. The last couple of slaves, relatively strong looking young men, are bought by a large gnoll; from the look of the couple other gnolls with him, they do not have good intentions. After about half an hour, the auctioneer announces that the day's auction is over and most people begin to leave.

    Isilme Messages to hepla, “Buy one of the slaves so we can question him. Preferably one who looks in fair health and still has his wits about him.”

    Hepla goes to the auctioneer and says, “I came late and need a slave for tonight, someone to satisfy me, TONIGHT. Otherwise I get mean. Any chance of a private sale?”

    The man introduces himself, "Ah, no worries My Lady," the man says, smiling and revealing a nasty, crooked toothed smile. "Let old H'shyon take care of ya." He looks back at some prisoners just being brought out, about a half-dozen. "This last bunch just come in this mornin'." He shakes his head, "They isn't much, why they didn't sell. Too old, and a couple half-crippled. Still, one may do fer ya. Take a look, but then we gots ta put the rest up again."

    You look at the hazzard folk being brought forward. Two old women, two old men, a man with only one arm, and a young boy who is about as sick and gangly looking as you've ever seen.

    Hepla looks at the people, her heart breaking for them, but she says, "I see why they did not sell, still add together they should do, I'll take the lot, 25 gold and you don't have to feed them tonight."

    Hepla does look over at Taki and says, "My big friend here is paying for these; let’s not make him mad." She goes over and gives Taki a hug and whispers to him, "I don't have the gold with me, but play along and I will repay you."

    Hepla buys the whole lot, or is about to when another man comes up, calling to H'shyon. "Wait," he says. "You can't sell them all!"

    "Why not Rhoankin?" he says, looking at the tall, thin man. "You couldn't sell them this morning," he says, waggling a finger at him, "and I just got as good a price as for any!?

    "I promised one to Jukko," he says. "You know how important it is to him."

    H'shyon thinks about it for a bit, rubbing his chin. "For 5gp he can have the boy."

    "What? That gangly thing? He isn't worth 4 silvers!" exclaims Rhoankin.

    "He is now," says H'shyon with a laugh. "He's the last one. Tell him to take it or leave it."

    Rhoankin nods, "Fine, fine. But you tell him. He's coming right now."

    A short fat hobgoblin priest, wearing grey-green robes under which can be seen scale mail of the same color, approaches. His conical hat bears the bloody axe, which Isilme recognizes as the symbol of Maglubiyet, god of Goblins.

    Hepla gives a deep bow of (feigned) respect to the priest, "My lord high priest, it is an honor to meet you, I great you in the name of my friend and of my slaves that I just bought. If you have buisness with H'shyon we will not be getting in your way, It has been our pleasure to run into you this day." She then tells Taki," take our six slaves to the forge and have their chains removed, we did not buy H’shoyon's chains so he should have them back, that is the lawful thing to do."
    Then to the slaves she says, "Move along! If anyone even thinks of running trust me, Taki will take care of you."

    Bowing again to the priest she says, "A pleasure doing business."

    She pays up and they leave.

    Taki looks at the slaves with as a mean a look as he can muster and heads them back away from the area.............he keeps a look out that the goblin does not get upset about us taking all the slaves but is prepared to crush him if needed.

    As you leave with your slaves, you hear the hobgoblin priest yelling and arguing with the two slavers. Isilme sees the priest eying Hepla as she leaves, his red eyes burning with undisguised hatred. You make it unmolested back to the inn, with your slaves.



    ***

    Just before dark, Berenn and Elrae make their way back to the tower. You bring Emyn this time, as he stayed behind at the inn, and the others have yet to return.

    With the Rope of Climbing, you make your way back up the tower. Berenn finds that the tower is now clear of stirges. The way to the top is clear, with a little bit of work, and you can safely bring the griffons to the tower, keeping them hidden on the top.

    With the tower cleared, you can all come back. Berenn will have to find a way to get the griffons, but a fly spell would probably do it, and then he can lead them back. You can probably keep them there, if they stay quiet. You need to get some food for them, as they eat a lot.

    Berenn will tell the griffons to stay here and he will bring them a pig each a day. No hunting within the city. He will come back tomorrow and check on them in the morning.

    [OOC: I just read an old dragon article on flying mounts. It was pretty cool. One thing about griffons, they eat a lot. I've assumed they find what they need hunting, and if you have them spend their days away from the city, we can assume the keep doing that. If they stay in the tower until you're ready to leave, then you'll have to supply food, maybe a pig a day or so.]

    ***

    Back at the Glad Goblin:

    Once back at the inn and all are safe and sound, Taki back tracks to where they bought the slaves and makes sure the hobgoblin and his friends was not following them he has his maul in one hand and his Iron Bands in his other (to throw at the hobgoblin if needed). As soon as he leaves, he sees a small goblin, watching the inn from the shadows.

    Taki makes his way towards the small goblin in a long round circle hoping to get real close without spooking him or her. The goblin notices him, but doesn't realize that he saw him in the shadows. It watches carefully as Taki move off the other way and disappears down another street. Taki easily slips back around the square, and comes out behind him. He fails to sneak up to him, and the goblin hears when he comes around the corner behind him.

    Taki immediately throws his Iron Bands and they wrap instantly around the goblin, holding him firm. Leaving the bands on him, Taki picks up the goblin and takes him back to the party. When the innkeeper notices, Taki snarles.

    “He’s my sex toy, and none of your business!”

    The innkeeper blanches, then runs off hurriedly.

    [DM OOC: I'm sure they would be as speechless as I am!]

    [Berenn OOC: Wow! I am mean ... just ... wow!]

    Hepla asks the slaves their stories, especially what they did before slavery. She examines the kid to see if she can figure out how to help him. “Maybe he is just weak,” she says.

    The are all from Carnakh, a fishing village north of Safeton. They seem nothing more than simple people, and Emyn does not detect evil when he returns. There doesn't seem anything wrong with the boy (he's about 7) that you can cure.

    As you are doing this, Taki comes in with a goblin over his shoulder, wrapped up in his Bands of Billarro.

    She will continue to question them, hopefully the food arrives. When Taki comes in she will look up and say,"Other room, we don't want to scare these people." Once others are there she will go down to the innkeeper and ask for a discount clothing shop in the area.

    Hepla asks the innkeeper if he has another room that her "slaves" can sleep in. Hepla heads back upstairs and tells her people that the food is for them. She asks if any are familiar with any weapon use. She then goes to Taki to see how he is doing with his Goblin.

    Taki has the goblin in the smaller room. Hepla returns, having rented out the next room for the slaves.

    ***

    Meanwhile, Isilme has followed the hobgoblin priest. He was very upset because he didn't end up getting a slave, even though he had already made a deal with one of the slavers. He had the little goblin with him, sent him off to follow the party, then he continued on his way. The goblin went north, trailing the party, and the hobgoblin priest went south, walking down the Slave Road towards the Slave Gate (the main southern gate to the city.)

    Isilme flew down just above the hobgoblin and sung her siren’s song, charming him. A lot of Q&A ensued, which I’ll sum up:

    Isilme has the HOBGOBLIN (man that just looks intimidating) walk to somewhere quiet and more secluded off to the side somewhere and asks him lots of questions - if thats not possible she will have him walk to the Griffon tower and spend time catching up with her good friend:

    1. What does he know of The Ghoul, its business, the people on it - Captain, ect. [Nothing]

    2. Everything about he knows about the Earth temple, also what it does with the slaves, why are the best slaves sold there before market? [He doesn't really know much of what goes on within the Earth Temple. It is new, it's priests appearing only last year. They took over the old temple of Kelanen, slaying its priest. It is favored by Sturm, and has become the primary faith of the city. The Earth Dragon dwells under the Drachensgrab Mountains and the Pomarj is Its landHe doesn't really mind them. The high priest, a half-orc named Nofosh has drawn away many orcs, which has caused much resentment from the shamen of The One-Eye [I know, don't laugh!]. The goblins pay homage to the Earth Dragon, though they retain their loyalty to Maglubiyet.]
    ]

    3. what was he planning to do with that slave? Tell me about his temple and its position in this society, are they worried about the humans, upset the way things are going with Sturm, ect. [The slave was for tonight's sacrifice. It is the night of the new moon, and Maglubiyet requires a blood sacrifice.]

    4. Everything about The Sturmkeep and Sturm. [He has never been in the Sturmkeep, but rumor has it that great magics protect its walls, which were never breached when the city was taken.]


    5. She mentions all the names she has run across to see if he knows any of them (agnar and friend, imprisoned lord, people in the ledger, dwarf mercenaries, ect) [nothing]

    6. Also does he do any business with any of these people or places in the questions or know them personally? [No]

    “A sacrifice tonight?,” she says. “You dont say? Rest here while I get us that sacrifice to please the god good friend, your god and temple will be so pleased! It is the least I can do!”

    She casts sleep on the Hobgoblin. When the HOBGOBLIN falls asleep she will cut its throat, search the body and feed it to the Griffons. She finds a pouch with an assortment of coins: 5gp, 15sp, and 25cp.

    "As promised, your god has received his sacrifice,” she says. “Enjoy his company worthless scum!"

    She will then head back to rejoin the party at the Inn and exchange information she learned and report her plan to observe the ship this evening, maybe do something crazy if opportunity presents itself.

    After Isilme exchanges information with the party she heads to the docks, she’s not letting a moonless night pass her by without some fun! She gives Berenn the money to help feed the Griffons: 5gp, 15sp, and 25cp and mentioned they might not be too hungry tonight.

    “If you guys want to come with to mess with the Ghoul or do some kidnapping I am all for it,” she says.

    Emyn will join Isilme, saying, "Maybe for once you will let me protect you?"
    “We need to find out why the priest sent the goblin after Hepla and the rest,” says Berenn. “We should probably just charm him when we are done and convince him he did his job and give him some false information to take back. Otherwise, he might be missed.”

    The goblin looks around fearfully. "Plleeesssss, no kill Rnaxg," it says. "Me friend. Me helps you I will. Yes, Yes!"

    "How can you help, goblin?" says Emyn. It doesn’t really sound like a question.

    “By feeding the griffons, of course!” says Isilme.

    Emyn draws his sword and stabs teh goblin the the chest. "There. Feed teh griffon. I tire of this foolishness. One less goblin to enslave the innocent."

    Hepla says, "That was my plan B, but what is done is done." She searches him to see if he had anything worthwhile.

    “I guess that solves the food problem for now,” says Berenn. “We just can't be seen hauling two corpses out of the inn. We should look for a back way out and take the "food" out that way. We can stop by the tower on the way to the docks.”

    After the innkeeper brings food for the slaves, the party decides to wait for Thorgrim and Gotrek to return from the Sturmkeep, where they are trying to sign on with the Deldukr.

    To be continued….


    Last edited by ragnar on Thu Jul 18, 2013 2:15 pm; edited 1 time in total
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    Sun Jul 14, 2013 9:21 am  
    Into the Sturmkeep

    Part 12

    Gotrek and Thorgrim go to the Sturmkeep. Once they leave the human area, they see a large swath of ruined buildings extending to the right. Many are burned or collapsed. What's out there is anyone's guess. (looking out at the white area on the map marked with the 9). In fact, all the pure white areas are generally ruined sections of town. They pass through two large complexes (18 and 19 on the map). The one to their right is the slave market with a large stockade full of slaves as well as the auction block. To the right is a large barracks area, with human and humanoids, guards for the slave caravans that head from Highport into the depths of the Pomarj. They see a couple of temples, though they cannot tell to which God or Gods they are dedicated (6 and 10) as they procede through the crossroads and climb the slow grade towards the Slave Gate. Just before the large gatehouse, manned by men and orcs they turn right, heading up the hill to the Sturmkeep. There's another strange temple off to their right, amidst a bunch of ruined and shabby buildings (area 14).

    They reach the gate to the keep, and are not allowed inside the keep. However, guards go off to check with the dwarves, and a couple return with the guards. Clearly tough and seasoned warriors, they look you over. Their uncertain looks deepen as they notice that Gotrek is another battlerager. Thorgrim seems dour, but he has the look of a warrior as well. They shrug and figure to bring you to their captain. The guards at the gate let you in, and the dwarves take you into the Sturmkeep.

    The first section are quarters for hobgoblins, and their barracks are unusually well-kept. You see many warriors drilling and practicing at arms in various open areas. The next section (where the 7 is) is the mansion of the current lord. There are other buildings around, all the normal stuff you'd find in a keep: blacksmiths, carpenters, etc. They take you to the far side, where there area basically open fields, barracks, and stables. There you find a large open area with a dozen tents all laid out in an organized grid in the manner of a dwarven army. The dwarves take you to the central command tent.

    Outside you are met by an old scraggly dwarf. He wears dwarven plate armor in excellent shape, has a warhammer hanging from his belt, and carries a plain helmet in his hand. You take immediate notice, however, of his beard, or lack of one. He face is horribly scarred, and obviously he cannot grow one due to the damage. "Urgal," says one of the dwarves sharply, "These two wanna join up."

    As the dwarf looks at them, Gotrek stops, nearly stumbling as he recognizes the name. He knows him only from stories told by his adoptive father, the dwarf who took him in after Gotrek's clan was wiped out by Giants. He is Urgal Firebeard, standard bearer for clan Delgrim and Gotrek’s own uncle. But his family were all supposed to be dead!



    Gotrek looks at Urgal, and kneels, with his head bowed. He holds the warhammer, Stonecrusher in front of him, in a gesture of respect. Silence fills the air, as it is obvious the Battle Rager is crying! Urgal looks around in confusion, and is about to say something when Gotrek says:

    "Urgal Firebeard. Urgal Delgrim. I have come here looking to fulfill a quest. Never did I think I would find my past as well."

    Gotrek stands tall(for a dwarf), an imposing figure in his armor, beard, tattoos, and eye patch.

    "I am Gotrek. Dwarf. Battle Rager. Justice of Clangeddin. And a Delgrim. Greetings, Uncle."

    He kneels again, awaiting a response.

    Urgal Delgrim stands there mute as the other two dwarves look back and forth, dumbfounded. Finally, he steps up to Gotrek, lifts him back up to his feet, and embraces him. Thorgrim can see the tears in the old dwarf's eyes as he mutters something you can't understand. He holds Gotrek out, looking him over. "I thought ta be last o the clan," he sobs. "Ah never thought to see another, much less me own nephew."

    Gotrek gives him a fierce hug in return. After a few minutes, Urgal turns to the other dwarves. "Dismissed you rotten sons of goblin whores!" They salute, then turn on their heels and walk off, wondering at what they just witnessed. As they leave, Urgal puts his arm around Gotrek. "Come inside lad," he says we've much to discuss." He then notices Thorgrim for the first time. "Bring yer friend too."

    Together you enter the command tent, which you find sparsely furnished in the dwarven way. He motions you to come in, and offers a couple chairs near a large table. "Sorry I have nothing to offer," he says, but we can make fer a taven later."

    "Never fear says Thorgrim, taking out his portable hole. He opens it, retrieves the barrel of gutshaker, and pours out mugs for each. "Be prepared I always says."

    They each take mugs, toast, and the Gotrek tells Urgal his tale. He tells Urgal his life story, the short version. Thorgrim sits back and observes, drinking sparingly and letting the two dwarves become acquainted.

    When Gotrek is done, Urgal is quite pleased. "You father, your blood father," he adds, not to offend, "he would be pleased too. Thrval Blackhunter was his name. He was a great warrior, who led the Deep Delvers of Clan Delgrim."

    Gotrek looks at Thorgrim confused. "Tunnel Rats," says Thorgrim. "They seek out the vermin of the small caves, kobolds, goblins, jermalaine."

    Gotrek snorts, thinking that doesn't sound so great.

    "Nay," says Urgal, refilling his mug. "They go where most fear to tread, often alone, into deep dark places." He takes a drink, then looks Gotrek in the eye. "Very respected was your father, the toughest of the Delvers. I can see his fearlessness in you, though you clearly have the hot temper of yer mother. Her name was Gilora, which means..."

    "Fiery Protector," finishes Gotrek. "What happened to her?"

    "She fell standing over you," says Urgal evenly. "Yer father had disappeared, fending off goblins in the lower mines. How they got in our halls, I'll never know. There were dozens, and ogres, and orcs besides." He shakes his head, "terrible," he mutters. "Yer father, his element was the tunnels. He was below. I promised to watch out fer ya. I failed. The last thing I saw was a huge formorian...." His voice trails off. "I thought ye dead too, along with the rest of our kin."

    Urgal tells how he and the rest of your clan were driven back into the deep halls. "The lower mines were overrun, and soon goblins poured into the forges in endless numbers. I could only assume your father died in the tunnels. With enemies from above and below, there was no longer any escape, except maybe the Glanvir River, which ran through the center of the Morbeck, the farm hall. It was a fast moving underground river, which no dwarf had ever successfully navigated, but provided an endless supply of water to the hold. Both ends were sealed with stout bars, so we destroyed the downstream barrier. The women, children, and a select few braved the river, provided with some potions from the temple, while the rest of us held off the assaulting hordes."

    "I carried the standard of the Clan, and held the position at the Glanvir alongside Torbir Souldkeeper, Champion of Moradin. Yurorr Riddlemaster, Narrack Steadyhammer, and Thdris Heartwall, the last of the Hearthguard, stood by us as well. Thdris would not abandon the hold, no matter what. King Therl Oathfather, led the rest in a sortie, throwing the humanoids back in confusion and giving the women and children time to brave the river. Torbir could not stand to guard the rear, and he charged after the king. Once the women and children were gone, Narrack and Yurorr did as well, seeing no point in guarding an empty chamber. Thdris and I were last. We stood our ground."

    "The battle soon came to us, and we could only assume everyone else was now dead. Thdris fought as if endowed with the powers of the gods themselves, and we held the chamber, at least for another few minutes. But we were two against many, and the outcome was never in doubt. She fell, beneath an avalanche of trolls. I planted the standard of the king along the river bank and cried the call of Clan Delgrim."

    "Whur A Faeyn!" he cries, startling both Gotrek and Thogrim. "It means Wake the Iron," he says, and was the Delgrim Battle Cry for centuries. "Those were the last dwarven words spoken in Delgrim, the Hall of Eternal Steel." He looks odd for a moment, near embarrassed. "I was almost immediately knocked back into the river by a thrown boulder," he says. "Musta been one a the giants. Me arm was broke, and I plunged underwater. I thought fer sure I were dead, until I awoke in some lost cavern. I don't know how long I was under, how far I was taken, or how long I'd been unconscious. Alls I know is, I was alive, and I had this...."

    He goes to chest lying under his cot, taking a key out from around his neck. He opens it and pulls out a rolled up cloth. Laying on the table with care, he slowly unrolls it. There, lying on the table, is a dwarven battle standard.

    Gotrek looks at Urgal. "Have you ever thought of going back to the Hall of Steel?"

    Urgal look away, his eyes seeming to stare far passed the tent wall. "I did, once."

    He comes back and extends his mug to Thorgrim who fills it without comment. "I don't know how far the river swept me, nor how long I lay on the cavern floor where I awoke. I ate fungus growing along the banks until I regained enough strength to move, and set out to find the others. I spent months looking, probably a year, and never found a trace. By the time I found my way to the surface, I was clear across the Lortmils, in the Ulek states. I set my feet moving north, and never looked back. There was nothing left for me there but death."

    Gotrek's muscles seem to grow bigger, and he begins to grind his teeth. His eyes start to bulge. He regains control of himself.

    "I would go back and seek vengeance. I would go back to the Hall of Steel and plant our banner in the soil where it belongs, once more. And no orc, hobgoblin, troll, or giant would ever remove it while I still breathed. By Clangeddin, I swear it! Whur A Faeyn! I just need one thing from you, Uncle."

    He seems strangely silent, though your battle cry does seem to spark something within him. Still, he looks at Gotrek hesitantly. "What is that?"

    Gotrek looks so intensely at Urgal, that his uncle steps back. "Clangeddin has sent me on a mission. A quest to find a weapon of vengeance. A weapon to strike fear in our enemies every time they hear the word Delgrim. I need you to talk to Kilrak. I need you to hand Giant Goreblade over to me."

    Gotrek pauses.

    "And Uncle, I will get it one way, or another. Please help me."

    "Kilrak's axe?" he says incredulously. "The only way you'll ever get Goreblade from him is to pry it from his cold, dead fingers." He looks at you gravely. "Are you prepared for that?"

    Gotrek looks around him. He sees a nervous Thorgrim puffing his pipe, eyeing his long lost uncle.

    Gotrek grunts. "Uncle, whatever it takes. It will be done. Kilrak has a choice. Give me the axe, or die. Simple enough."

    Gotrek pauses, and looks Urgal in the eye.

    "Uncle. Please trust me. I do not want to shed dwarven blood. But I will do what is required of me. This is not some desire for a weapon. I was instructed by our God to find it, and use it."

    The banner that Urgal holds in his hand flutters as a breeze picks it up ever so briefly, as if struggling for life. He looks around in the closed chamber, amazed.

    "Why?" he asks. "Kirlrak is a mighty warrior, and he has led the Deldukr well." He looks uncertain, even confused. "We have fought many battles together," he says, "across dozens of nations. I've been with him from the start, and he has proven a skilled leader, though violent." He laughs a bit, eying Gotrek. "Expected in a battlerager, but it's no cause to betray him."

    "He is up to no good,” says Gotrek. “His brother and a mage tried to have a group of soldiers waylay us on the way over here. We used an illusion on them, to think the ferry sank, and us all dead. He lied thru his teeth about who he is consorting with. And do you know who that is?"

    Urgal shakes his head. Gotrek spits on the floor. "A drow priestess. DROW!!"

    Gotrek growls.

    "When have we ever worked with one of those underworld demons?" says Gotrek. “They are planning something. Something big, and something bad." Gotrek pauses, watching his uncle. "Even then, you say he has proven himself to be a valiant ally. Summon him here. Let's see what he has to say."

    Gotrek turns to Thorgrim. "Do you think we should get some, or all of the group back here as well? Perhaps by now they have found out new information."

    Urgal looks quite troubled, but he has been with Kilrak for many years, nearly as long as Gotrek has been alive. He can't just cross him. Thorgrim reveals to him his nature as a priest and crusader, and gives him his word all you say is true. Urgal calls a guard and sends him to Lord Sturm's chambers, to summon Kilrak back for urgent Deldukr business. "He can't refuse that," he says. "We'll soon get to the bottom of this."

    In a few minutes the guard returns. "Neither Lord Sturm nor Kilrak are in the Sturmkeep," he replies. They apparently rode into town a few hours ago. Nobody knows where they went.”

    Urgal looked back at Gotrek and Thorgrim, a grim frown appearing.

    Gotrek grins, a low growl emitting from his throat. "Over his dead body, huh? That sounds like something I might enjoy. Stonecrusher here has served me well. But it is the axe I fight best with."

    “W should retire to the inn, before Isilme goes off again,” says Thorgrim, more to Urgal. "See the rest of us, and you can judge the truth of matters."

    Urgal agrees, and together the three of you leave, with Urgal leaving another dwarf in charge until he or Kilrak returns. You make it to the inn, before anyone leaves.

    [DM OOC: Now the entire party can participate!]

    [Well, that’s it for the meeting of the two surviving dwarves of Clan Delgrim. I like to add personal touches, and I’m thankful to the player of Gotrek for rolling with the new development so well. It was a very fun bit of role-playing. Anyway, the dwarves all returned to the party, which was still in the midst of discussions regarding what they should do. I will return to them in my next installment.]



    229/


    Last edited by ragnar on Thu Jul 18, 2013 2:16 pm; edited 1 time in total
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    Mon Jul 15, 2013 10:34 am  

    Part 13

    Cast of Characters:
    Isilme: Dark elf Bladesinger/Song Mage
    Berenn: Half-elf Priest of St. Cuthbert/Ranger
    Elrae: Human Bard
    Gotrek: Dwarven Battlerager
    Hepla: Human Mage (kind of a witch)
    Thorgrim: Dwarven Cleric/Fighter
    Emyn Frel: Avenger of Trithereon (CG Paladin of Trithereon)
    Taki: Human Fighter

    NPC: Urgal, Dwarven Fighter (Gotrek’s uncle)

    Noot is off to procure clothes for the slaves, to get them out of the city. Meanwhile Berenn takes the dead goblin to the tower. Nobody will seem him moving stealthily with his cloak. It’s dark now, and Taki rests while they formulate their next moves. Berenn and Noot return about the same time.

    “We should be heading to the docks to hatch Isilme's plan for getting back at the slavers,” says Berenn. “Isilme seemed intent on going this evening. If she has a change of heart, I will defer to her since it is her plan. It might be better to wait and hear what the dwarves have to say and no one is going to miss the individuals we have eliminated.”

    Emyn will go to speak with the slaves we rescued. Noot joins Emyn and distributes the clothing to the slaves. While they put on their new clothers, Emyn takes them aside one by one and asks them about what they know about the slave trade here in the region and about any of the goings on in Highport. They don't know much, except that about two-dozen slaves never made it to the market. They were taken off separately, before the rest. They were the strongest of the men and women, including some captured warriors. Even an elf. They seemed VERY pleased to have captured an elf.

    "We may be gone for a bit,” says Hepla. “Get some rest, but one of you needs to be awake at all times to keep watch. If we are not back by noon tomorrow, take the food and get out of this town. Go home or someplace safe. Hopefully, we should be back soon." She then waits downstairs while the questions are being asked, orders a sandwich type meal for those of us who are going out, then slips into a private area and puts on her stolen outfit, unless it has something distinctive about it then she will take that off first, and wear it and a hat or bonnet. Her regular clothes will go into her backpack.

    Emyn asks the slaves what they know of the elf and the slavers. “Surely you had a chance to learn a bit about them during your confinement.”

    “Actually, not much,” one replies. “Any talking was immediately rewarded with a beating.”

    “They were not from our village,” says another. “That's all we know. We were then handed off to some orcs.”

    “Their shields had an emblem of a coiled dragon emblazoned upon them,” says one of the youths.

    Emyn thanks them for their help and tells them that if they need aid to seek out a Church of Trithereon. “Tell them Emyn Frel sent you and you shall be given aid.” Emyn then goes downstairs and takes Elrae aside, telling him what he learned.

    "Mmmm,” says the bard. “The coiled dragon is probably some dragon spirit or actual dragon that folks around here worship or use as a sigil. I wonder if their sigil is the dragon under the mountain. Legends have it, thousands of years ago, there lived a giant dragon under a mountain in these parts who guarded vast treasure. It wasn't a good dragon either. If maidens weren't sacrificed every moon the dragon would wake and shake the ground and spew forth fire and death. Now that sounds like earthquakes and volcanoes to you and me, but around these parts these primitives probably still believe that it's a dragon causing the eruptions."

    “Or it’s really a dragon,” says Taki dryly.

    "Sacrifices? Sounds ominously like this earth dragon temple,” says Emyn. “Let's infiltrate it and see what we can learn."

    About this time, the doors open and Thorgrim, Gotrek, and another dwarf enter the room. Gotrek buys a round of drinks and introduces Urgal, his uncle. The entire party gathers together while the dwarves fill them in on what happened in the Sturmkeep. Isilme has contemplated much while waiting and hearing what the slaves had to say. Now hearing from the dwarves, she changes her plans just a bit.

    "We left Hommlet for Gotrek to find this giant Goreblade so we could pursue Lareth afterwards and he has found it.....well and good....let him challenge the Dwarf and prove himself the better man and be done with this foolishness. My blood burns to bring just vengeance and solve the riddle of that vile human priest of the Demon Queen of Spiders - LARETH!

    Why you concern yourselves with the lawful slave commerce in this kingdom is beyond me. None of you stopped the execution earlier when you didn't agree with it, so why are we so quick to try and change the order of things here?”

    "My charge as a Bladesinger is the protection of the Drow, and as a follower of Ellistrae, to give them the opportunity to change their wicked ways and step back into the world of sunlight. As such, I might be interested to meet and find this other Drow who walks in the light and manipulates the world of men. But beyond that, I neither care nor feel the need to change the comings and goings of this pathetic town full of vermin."

    Emyn says, "Isilme, you are treating the symptoms but not the disease. If we truly want to put an end to this slavery, we need to strike at the center of this abomination. That begins with tracking down both this Markessa and Edralve. The best place to begin is to go to the Temple of the Earth Dragon. If we chop off the head of the snake, it can bite no more."

    "As i stated before,” she replies, standing up. “I care not to change legal trade or alter the current laws of the land. I find it strange that a paladin of the most tolerant religion I have met would usurp the authority here."

    She walks away, frustrated, then returns. “I think it's unwise to attack the temple without the information the captain could provide. Seems like everyone WANTS to run into the temple blind. The ship is an easy target because it's limited, and we can potentially gain the layout of the temple and access through trickery without fighting every cleric and orc in town.”

    "I am no paladin, hemmed in by laws and rules,” says Emyn, also standing. “I am Avenger of Trithereon. Better no law than a system the preys on the weak and then justifies it through rules."

    "If this is true, why did you not save the man at the execution when you disagreed with their cruel methods? All I see is that you pick and choose whose laws you will change when you disagree."

    Berenn intercedes, calming the two and getting Emyn to sit. “I agree with Isilme, the boat is the easier target and will perhaps give us some insight into what is going with this slave trade.”

    "There is wisdom in going to the ship first,” says Gotrek.

    Even Taki whistles at wisdom coming from the battlerager!

    “Any information we gather, makes us that much stronger. The Temple is not going anywhere, and we can go there after. And I bet Kilrak will be there as well.”

    Taki asks this "If we stir up a mess with clerics and slavers won’t that make getting this axe we came for that much harder? Also if we go after the axe first then we have dwarves down on us and won’t be able to go after the slavers and clerics?"

    Hepla says,"Perhaps we can do both, some can go to the temple and gather info, while others can take the ship, if we do this then I think Isilme is best at information gathering. I should probably go to the ship since Isilme can message me and I her. Someone should go with her and the rest of us the ship.”

    She nods at Taki, “Good ideas.”

    Isilme shakes her head. “That would defeat the purpose of capturing the ship’s captain or 1st mate.”

    [I posted a LONG DM OOC post, so I’ll include it here. It gives extra info as well as insight into how I run things.

    DM OOC: [OOC: just a few notes to make. First, Kilrak has no greater claim to the axe than anyone else, except that he has it. It's no different than Snowfang or any other item you guys have. Well, maybe the sentient swords have a bit of a say, but you get the idea. Gotrek could have either made him a deal or challenged him for it. No problem there. Now that you have evidence of him being a "bad guy" consorting with slavers, humanoids, and even a drow, well, Gotrek will have no problem taking it from such an undeserving scoundrel.

    Second, the law in Elredd. That guy was convicted by his own admission of a terrible crime. He was punished according to the LAW, and not just their law. That was one example of standard practices in OUR world for many years. Don't try and put too much of a modern perspective on things; the characters live in a VERY different world. We may tend to have more of a relativistic outlook, but they probably wouldn't, or at least it would be rare. In their world, good and evil are much more palpable. Heck, they've already faced a summoned demon, sent another demon queen back to the Abyss, come face to face with two Gods (St. Cuthbert and Iuz). They will certainly feel different than we do about all this. Really, the only part of the whole thing that was different was making the smithy choose the punishment and enforce it himself. That was blatantly stolen from Game of Thrones, when Ned Stark killed the deserter: "If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And, if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die."

    Third, I don't really think you can consider this slave trade "lawful." Sure, it's the law of the land in the Pomarj, a land ruled by humanoids who savagely invaded a hundred years ago and killed everyone, but that hardly makes it "lawful." Remember, in the minds of the party the humanoids are animals at best, and probably evil. Plus, if they contented to just war amongst themselves and makes slaves of each other, I would agree, it's an internal matter and maybe leave it alone. On the other hand, we aren't Star Fleet! Anyway, that's not what they do regardless. They send out raiding parties and slave ships and make slaves from the free, goodly people along the Wild Coast and beyond, bringing them back for sale and who knows what end. There is nothing "lawful" about that, and it is certainly a quest worthy of the great Heroes of Hommlet. In my opinion Emyn should be VERY interested in stopping this, and he’s role-playing accordingly.

    Fourth, Isilme now has evidence of a dark elf behind the scenes in this slave trade. Further, she has specific evidence that an elf was taken in this last bunch of slaves, though she wasn't brought to the slave auctions. Isilme has a duty as a bladesinger to do something. "Special Hindrances. To offset their abilities, Bladesingers suffer some severe penalties. Not only must they attempt to advance the cause of elvendom somehow at all times, they must also lend aid to any elf in need. Unless the elf is proven to be an enemy of the elven way of life, the Bladesinger must sacrifice life and limb to save that elf's life." I didn't put that elf in the story to "force" Isilme's actions, it just worked out this way. I only want to remind Tempus that Isilme now can't turn away from trying to help without personal consequences.

    Finally, I left things VERY open before you guys decided to go after the axe, about what adventure you chose. I'm just following your decision to come this way. Now it's melding together with the old Slave Lords series, which will be fun to do. I further plan to move on to other series if you so choose, like the giant series, but you really should not be in too great a hurry to follow Lareth to the giants. You aren't strong enough game-wise. Gotrek's axe will certainly help too, don't forget about that. On the other hand, if you guys, as a party, don't want to go through the Slaver Series, then we don't have to do so. There is always a sense that the DM "pushes" you along a pre-determined path, and I try to not do that, though it is hard to avoid, especially in this format. I have LOTS of other adventures we can do instead, though I do believe this one is pretty cool, and I have put quite a bit of work into making it better. Still, it's up to you guys. Anyway, that's all I could think of at the moment.]

    “I am going to the temple,” says Emyn, “with or without the party. That is where there is the greatest chance to learn more about and maybe get rid of some of those slavers.”

    “I am going to the temple too,” says Taki, who then storms towards the door. He is mad and ready to scrap and will make no bones about his stomping towards the temple with his maul over his shoulder and his iron band ready for throwing.

    Gotrek and Thorgrim stop him, and Thorgrim offers the big man a drink to calm down. “We should hear from Urgal first,” he says, and Taki nods reluctantly.

    You can tell he is uncomfortable with the thought that Kilrak is somehow involved. "We came here last year to clear out some orcs from the hills nearby," he said, "then moved back up the coast to Elredd. Lots of work along the Suss Forest." He scratches his beard, "Never had any notion t'was more to it than that."

    "Good Urgal,” says Emyn. “What do you know of Edralve or Markessa? I've heard those names. Also, what of the Temple of the Earth Dragon? They've been sacrificing people, as we understand. Do you know how they connect into the slaving?"

    As to your questions, he doesn't know of either. He does know the location of the Temple of the Earth Dragon. It is down by The Piers. He has never been inside, and he doesn't know much about it. It was very run-down when he was last here in Highport, more of a ruin than a true temple, and most of the worshippers were orcs or half-orcs.

    "Uncle,” says Gotrek. “We are going to take down this Temple. It is evil, and I can't let it stay here." He clasps Urgal's forearm. "It would be my honor to fight by your side, with just you, or all of my kin. We would welcome any aid you feel like making. It is nigh time the world once again realizes the fighting prowess of the dwarf, and their hatred for all creatures dark." Gotrek looks him in the eyes and whispers something in his ear.

    “I am going to avenge our blood, and my father. Though this is not the Hall of Steel, the battle begins now! Whur A Faeyn.”

    Gotrek pulls back, and in the middle of the Tavern he roars:

    “Whur A Faeyn!!

    We can reclaim our lands. Start the Delgrim clan all over again. You are surrounded by dwarves as hungry as myself to go back home. Let's do it! What say you, Uncle?”

    "Kids," he says, but you can see he's stirred. He grasps Gotrek’s hand and agrees. "Let us settle affairs here, then look to Delgrim."

    “"Thank you master Urgal,” says Emyn. “I would be glad to stand by your sides to defeat evil and restore your lands to you and your people."

    Hepla goes upstairs and gets the sickly kid, after convincing them who she is, she is surprised at how fast they recognize her. [She put on a disguise.] She brings him down and says, "excuse us please but here is an example of what the slavers have done and were it not for big Taki here he would have been tonight's sacrifice at a Goblin temple. Where is the honor in what they did and what they were going to do? The temple we talk about fighting is even worse. O.K. Kid(never got his name) tell the dwarves your story, don't be scarred I will protect you."

    “Bralm,” he says. “My name is Bralm. He tells of how they were from this small fishing village. The ship came from the sea, dozens of men came ashore and kidnapped about half the village. You know, typical bad slavery tale. Urgal is certainly not happy with that, and since there are other potential circumstances, he agrees to go with you to "investigate." At the least, he doesn't believe the Deldukr should be involved with Sturm any longer, nor in the Pomarj at all, except to slay humanoids which they are very good at doing.

    Hepla tells them that there are more stories like Bralm's, if they were to need more. Then she tells Bralm to grab dinner for himself and the others and go back to the room. She walks him back and returns and says ,"So when do we start?"

    Hepla bows to Urgal, and says, in dwarven, "my apology master dwarf, my name is Hepla, and I have the honor to call these other two dwarves my friends." Of course, her dwarven is terrible, and she says something completely different! She then giggles and says, looking at her friends, "bet you all recognized me."

    Thorgim laughs when she stumbles right out of the gate!

    Hepla says, in common, "I hope I pronounced that correctly, my vocabulary still needs work."

    The dwarves roar with laughter, except for Gotrek who seems caught up in the seriousness of the situation. "Nay lass," says Thorgrim with a wink. "Never once suspected!"

    “I think everything is intertwined,” says Gotrek. “I see the logic in going right towards the temple, but also going for the ship. How about we let a small contingent of our new dwarven allies take over the ship, and we go to the Temple? The root of evil is there, and most likely Goreblade as well.”

    "Greetings and well met Urgal!” says Isilme. “I am Isilme, Elvish Bladesinger and longtime companion of Gotrek. Welcome!"

    "As to our next action, I WILL have that captain’s head, first, before that ship leaves. Any elf willing to sell his own people into slavery is not worthy of my protection and truly evil. I should be happy to reward his crimes with death."

    She then retakes her seat. “I think we should take the ship first; it's a softer target, and it can gain us great information if we capture the captain or his first mate. We might even be able to use them to get the layout of the temple or enter by subterfuge. They know a good deal about what is going on here and the key players as evidenced by the ships log. We will also be cutting out the avenue through which everyone escaped us last time!”

    Tonight is the night of the Dark Moon, a night when many of the vermin here practice unholy rites to their gods. We would do well to be wary, and consider the slaves they keep."

    If the party is going to split, or hit the temple first, I will insist we head off to save the elvish slave that was taken; any action we take could potentially risk the lives of the slaves, especially the elvish one. The key factor here is we don't know what we are walking into with regards to this temple, or even its general layout, and this bothers her greatly.”

    “If we take the ship,” interjects Noot, “what are we going to do with it? Do we have any targets along the water? Otherwise, perhaps we should just destroy it and be done with it.”

    Hepla points out that there are many wrecked ships that can be burned, in order to provide misdirection and confusion.

    Gotrek spits. "Let's make a decision, before evil decides to abandon this place."

    Thorgrim shrugs. "Bah! 'Tis just some floating wood. But if you want the captain, let's just go get him."

    “As I stated before,” says Emyn, “I will scout the temple, regardless of what the rest of the party does.”

    "Bah, the temple is just a stone lying in the dirt" says Isilme, who then laughs. “Emyn, you’re going to forsake your vow of protecting me the very first time we run into battle? I expected more of a legendary paladin of Tritherion.”

    Emyn replies, "If you didn't run off into danger constantly on your own, I might take that more seriously. But I will hold to my oath to you, even if we are going to the wrong place."

    "Enough talk!" bellows Gotrek.

    “We should take the ship out first,” says Berenn. “It is a smaller target and perhaps it burning in the harbor will provide a distraction to get us into the temple where the rest of our objectives may be waiting for us. I have no intension of keeping a slaver ship intact so someone else can use it after we are gone.”

    Taki nods, “So are we off to the ship?”

    “Yes, we are,” says Emyn. “Let's burn it with righteous fire.”

    When everyone else agrees, Berenn says, “Good. Let’s head for the docks then.”

    Having decided to assault The Ghoul, the party heads down to The Piers. Isilme is out ahead again, flying and invisible. Berenn gets Ra, and uses the griffon to fly overhead. With the new moon he is pretty well cloaked in darkness. Noot slips ahead and blends into the waterfront scene. Everyone else just moves on down along the road.

    When they reach The Ghoul, they see two men atop each of the raised sections fore and aft, with a lantern hanging in each section. The doors into those sections are shut. There are numerous people along the street behind you, mostly sailors moving to and from the various taverns, prostitutes, thugs skulking in dark alleys, you know, the usual. Any obvious disturbance may attract attention. Noot keeps to the rear, sword at the ready. He will try to take out anyone who attempts to sneak up on the party.

    Isilme, flying invisibly above, will cast Phantasmal Force, to create an illusion of the ship, with everything fine while Gotrek stridess up the gangplank. He clearly plans on killing anyone in his path.

    A sailor walks over and sneers at Gotrek. "Outta here, dwarf," he says, "Fore we make ya shark bait!"

    Gotrek sees a couple dozen men sleeping on the deck. He shrugs, and smashes sharkbaitboy with Stonecrusher.

    Gotrek knocks out the sailor and charges aboard as Thorgrim and Berenn cast silence 15' r on the fore and aft castles. Hepla casts sleep, and the sleeping sailors stay asleep. Emyn charges up the aft castle while Gotrek charges the fore castle, and both are quickly able to subdue the sailors there. In less than a minute you have control over the entire deck. The sleeping sailors are easily dealt with. You can bind them with the abundant ropes lying around. While you do this, you can investigate the doors to the fore and aft castles. Isilme flies down to the top of the mast, sitting there as she continues with her "all is well" illusion.

    Without going crazy on description, there are doors going into the fore and aft castles. Atop the forecastle is a small ballista, while atop the aft castle is a large drum. These are the more unique items. Everywhere else are the kinds of things you'd expect to find on the deck of a ship.

    “Elrae, Emyn, and I will take the aft castle,” says Beren. “Thorgrim, Gotrek, Hepla and Taki take the fore castle after we have made sure the deck is secure and everyone on it is incapacitated. Isilme will be our eyes in the sky. The idea is to do this quickly and quietly. Take the captain and 1st mate alive is possible, everyone else is expendable.”

    Both doors are unlocked. You open the forecastle door and find a short, narrow corridor. It has a door to each side and one straight ahead. The aft door opens into another similar corridor, though a bit wider. There are doors to each side, and one at the far end. Narrow steps go down from the center of the corridor into darkness. The guys in the aft castle find the two side doors locked. The end door turns out to be a kitchen. In a bunk in the corner is sleeping the cook. They quickly grab him and tie him up. Meanwhile, the guys in the fore castle find the doors all unlocked. Noot has rejoined those up front, and he listens at the doors, hearing nothing. The two side doors open to officer's quarters. The left one is empty, but the right one has a sleeping man in a nicer bed. You quickly take care of him as well. That leaves only the captain, in the fore stateroom. Noot checks the door, which he finds to be unlocked.

    Hepla suggests one of the guys yell out,"Captain, fire on deck." See if he comes out.

    Gotrek looks around at the tight quarters. He withdraws, to let Noot and the spellcasters more space.

    "I will be right here. Just yell if you need me!"

    Gotrek stands near Taki.

    Noot yells, “FIRE ON DECK! FIRE ON DECK! FIRE ON DECK!”

    The warriors all stand back, while Hepla casts Minor Globe of Invulnerability and stands just beyond the door.

    The captain throws the door open, and you see he is an elf, dressed in loose clothes and holding a wand. He is surprised to see Hepla standing in the hallway.

    [Isilme OOC: Ooc: gotta love a party full of fighters that is always ready to run into anything regardless of the consequences, yet when we get to the bosses door everyone steps back leaving hepla the Mage alone in the hallway!]

    Hepla casts Magic Missiles, sending a volley streaking into the captain’s face. He is hit by a succession of four missile, which strike him in the chest [15], staggering him and knocking him backwards through the door.

    The captain points at Hepla and a series of magic missiles fly into Hepla, only to explode harmlessly against her globe. She then rushes forward and leaps on the captain. They begin to struggle, and she realizes that the elf is much stronger, and easily slips away from her attempt to bite his hand. Taki runs up behind her and slams his maul down on the captain's arm, which shatters under the impact [16]. He screams in pain, dropping his wand, and reaches for his broken arm with his free hand.

    Hepla kicks the wand out into the corridor while the Taki and Gotrek subdue the captain. There were a total of 5 awake men on deck and another two dozen sleepers. One officer and the cook were asleep in their bunks, and the captain is currently detained. He surrenders, with the obvious threat of getting his skull bashed in, and you take him prisoner. There are perhaps another 50 plus sailors and one officer unaccounted for, likely on shore. The rowing area is above decks. It's not a huge trireme or anything. There's nobody else on board. The captain has a chest, inside of which are found a spellbook, a set of navigational charts, and a few smaller boxes with coins: 100pp, 1000gp, 1000sp. Casting detect magic in the captain's cabin reveals a few things. The wand is obviously magic, and you also find a dagger, longbow, scroll, and 4 potions. Since you have the captain captured, I will tell you what they are. A Wand of Flame Extinguishing, +3 dagger, +2 Longbow of Distance, Scroll of Communication, Potions: Phasing, Magic Enhancement, Clairvoyance, and Scrying.

    [Thus the party successfully took The Ghoul and captured the captain. The interrogation will follow…..]
    Master Greytalker

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    Thu Jul 18, 2013 2:18 pm  

    Part 14

    http://memberfiles.freewebs.com/18/65/87296518/photos/undefined/zoom%20in%20of%20warehouse%20district%20and%20The%20Piers.JPG
    This is my zoomed in map from CC2, so you can see the area.

    The party has taken The Ghoul and captured the Captain, whose name they learn is Giran. They also have the 1st Mate (charmed by Hepla). I lost some of these posts, so I have to recreate some of them.

    The map so far, showing the galley at the long wharf.

    The temple is the large building complex in the center. That's not exactly what it looks like, but basically in the right shape. There appears to be a large courtyard in the center. There are two wings pointing towards the shore, and the main entrance is just inside the east wing (you can see what is a path going to the building from the road.) A portcullis blocks the way. There are double-doors at the end of the west wing. The building is all stone, very well-built. This is basically what you can see from the coastal road. There is another road which runs along the east side of the building, back towards the center of town. To the west of the Temple are other buildings, kind of run down. There is no light anywhere. A group of orcs (about a half-dozen) are moving amongst the run down buildings, and then enter one. it.

    “What do you know about the dark elf, Edralve?” asks the invisible Isilme. “Is there more than the priestess around?”

    “I don’t know anything ‘bout no drow,” he replies, looking around and wondering who spoke. “an if I did, I wouldn’t say nuthin’!”

    Isilme appears before him, hovering in the air and leveling Maerthorlear at him. He gasps when he sees the dark elf floating before him. “Now, answer our questions and you just might find mercy, maybe.”

    “What do you know about Kilrak?” asks Gotrek quickly.

    The captain only glances at Gotrek, afraid to take his eyes off Isilme. “If you lie,” she says, “I’ll know, and I’ll be very displeased.”

    He swallows, and then answers glumly. “He’s just a stupid dwarf mercenary,” he replies. I’ve never met him, and don’t know anything about him.”

    Isilme nods that he has told the truth, at which Gotrek asks about the Earth Temple, it’s layout, defenses, traps, etc.

    “I’ve only been into the common areas,” he answers. “Never anywhere else. Only those associated with the Earth Temple go further. There are three portcullises that block the main entrance, and then you enter the common area with a large fountain. Passed that I have never ventured. As for defenses and traps, I can only say the place is full of orcs and half-orcs. The high-priest of the Earth Temple is a half-orc named Nofosh. Oh, and they have a Basilisk somewhere, or so I’ve heard.”
    “Where are the slaves kept?” asks Berenn.

    “They are taken inside, but I don’t know where,” he replies. He seems to be relaxing a bit.

    “What about the priestess you picked up in Elredd?” asks Elrae. “Who was she and where’d she go?”

    “Nothing. I was ordered to pick her up and bring her to Highport.”

    Emyn is about to ask another, when Isilme quickly interjects, “And the elf slave? What happened to her?” she asks, pushing Maerthorlear threateningly close to his neck.

    “The elf and more fit slaves were taken by orcs from the Earth Temple,” he says. “They must be there. I really don’t know anything about what happens here. I just take slaves and sell them here, where there’s a steady market. What Markessa does with them ain’t my problem.”

    “It is now,” says Emyn, putting a hand on his own sword.

    “What of this Markessa?” asks Isilme, continuing with her own questions. “ What do you know about her and her organization?”

    “Nothing, really,” he stammers, fear of the dark elf returning to his face. “I don’t know much and don’t answer to her anyway. She is an elven warrior/mage and she runs everything in Highport. I only seen her once, when she hired me. She gave him the Scroll of Communication, and she has the other page.”

    “What scroll?” says Hepla, suddenly interested. She pick up the scroll, “This one?”

    “Yeah,” he says. “You write on it, and the writing appears on it’s twin page, which Markessa has. Then she writes back, and her message appears there,” he adds, nodding at the scroll.

    “Is she one of these supposed Slavelords of which we’ve heard rumor?” asks Berenn.

    “I don’t know, probably, yes,” he stammers. “There are supposedly twenty Slavelords who secretly run the whole operation, though some rumors say they are ruled by a higher power themselves. They have a secret city somewhere deep in the Pomarj, hidden in the mountains.”

    “What else can you tell me about this Markessa,” asks Isilme, pressing both her questions and her blade.

    “Nothing, I said,” he almost cries. “She’s beautiful, and just as deadly. You can see it in her eyes. She looks at you like a butcher looking at a piece of meat.”

    “Then why do you work with her?” asks Isilme. “How’d an elf get in with slavery, selling your own kind. That’s almost worthy of a dark elf, not of your kind.” She flashes an evil smile that implies she actually approves of that aspect.

    Captain Giran shrugs, “Everyone has to make a living,” he says. “Like I said, it’s nothing personal.”

    “It is to those you take,” says Emyn. “And to me.” He edges closer. “Now, one last question. Why should we keep you alive?”

    “Why would you kill me?" he asks. "You board my boat, attack my men, break my arm," he holds it up sadly. "You steal our money and possessions? Now you threaten to kill us? You're no better than the Slavelords you seek."

    "If we were the slave lords,” says Emyn, “you'd already be dead or worse. I am giving you a chance to redeem yourself."

    "In that case," he says, drawing himself up a bit. "I'll take it."

    Berenn stands back, arms crossed and acting as if he really doesn’t care. “I believe burning the ship will provide a distraction to get into the temple. Everyone here is expendable.”

    Captain Giran looks even more uncertain. “Please, let us go. The Ghoul will sail tonight and never return to these waters.”

    “We got what we need,” says Nott. “I see no practical reason not to let them go.” He has his eye on the magical black dagger sitting on the table.

    “I agree,” says Hepla. “Killing everyone would be a waist.” She then tells the captain that she will curse him and his ship if they are not gone in an hour or if they ever come back here again. She will then take out one of her blue candles, cut off enough so it will burn one hour, set it in the captain's candle holder and light it, she will tell him that blowing it out will not change anything.

    The captain seems to believe what Hepla has done. He claims he needs the rest of his men, but Noot says he does not. "You can row with 30 men, just not as well,” says Noot. “Enough to begone and not bedevil anyone else."

    The captain gives a bit of a sneer, but one step forward from Taki with his maul makes him quickly smile. "Of course, you are right. We shall make ready immediately." He then looks to Hepla. "My charts and spellbooks? May I have them back?"

    Hepla looks at the rest of the party and says,"I can understand the charts, my friend Noot will look them over and see if we need to copy any of them. As far as the spellbooks, I'm unclear as why you would need them for sailing, Unless you give me a real good reason they will be part of the wages of war and become ours."

    "You will go, and without the spellbook,” growls Gotrek. “I initially agreed to letting you and your men go, but now I am doubting myself." He takes a step towards him. "I swear by Clangeddin, if I you ever cross my path again, and up to your old tricks, I will kill you before you can blink."

    "You just be grateful you've got yer life," says Thogrim. "Stinkin' slaver. You go, now."

    Berenn grabs the captain by the throat, "Mark my face well captain, for the next time you see it, it will be the last thing you ever see. Take your ship, your men and leave. Attempt to raise an alarm and I will bring fire down on you and all on board." He throws the captain backwards. "You have five minutes to awaken your crew and get underway. You are being watched." Berenn pulls the flame strike scroll from his pack and prepares to use it. "Your time starts now ..."

    After looking around, he decides it is best to not press his luck any more. He awakens the rest of his "scurvy dogs" and they prepare to make way. When the crewmen ask about the rest of the crew, he tells 'em to shut up and get going.

    You guys leave the ship as it dips oars. Noot casts off the lines, and the ship pulls slowly away from the dock.

    Isilme suddenly flies forward, her sword removing the captains head as his back is turned to her, all in a deft stroke! As the body drops to the floor, she kicks the head overboard. "Thus ends any traitor who would harm his own people. THIS is the justice of the ELVES! She points her sword at the officer. "Take this ship, these sailors, and your life, NEVER to be seen selling slaves again…or you will be next.”

    Hepla nods to the charmed man. "You just made captain, use the title to save your shipmates' lives, a blue candle of curse burns in his cabin, if it goes out and you are still here, you and your new boat will be at the bottom of this harbor. Now, move it, captain."

    Everyone is shocked, none more than the first mate, and the trip over themselves as they hurry to obey. The party leaves the ship, taking ALL Captain Giran’s stuff, and then leaves. Isilme stays hovering in the air above the ship as they finally cast off and begin to depart. Once the ship is clear of the dock and angling towards open sea, she then flies across the open water, landing next to the party along the coast road.

    The map so far, showing the galley at the long wharf. The temple is the large building complex in the center. That's not exactly what it looks like, but basically in the right shape. There appears to be a large courtyard in the center. There are two wings pointing towards the shore, and the main entrance is just inside the east wing (you can see what is a path going to the building from the road.) A portcullis blocks the way. There are double-doors at the end of the west wing. The building is all stone, very well-built. This is basically what you can see from the coastal road. There is another road which runs along the east side of the building, back towards the center of town. To the west of the Temple are other buildings, kind of run down. There is no light anywhere. A group of orcs (about a half-dozen) are moving amongst the run down buildings, and then enter one.

    The party divides up the items they found. Noot takes the +3 Dager, which he renames “Black Knife.” Isilme takes the Scroll of Communication, while Hepla takes the Wand of Flame Extinguishing. The bow goes to Berenn, while the others split up the potions. There were also some other items which they had found on the way, and they were divided as well. [can’t recall what they were.] They let Hepla have the Cat Medallion, which doesn’t radiate magic anyway.

    “It looks beautiful on you,” says Emyn, blushing.

    Hepla blushes a little too, when he says it looks good on her. She then says, "Let’s be moving; the rest of the crew could be returning, and we don't want to be standing here when that happens. That officer never dreamed he would be head of the ship that fast (giggle). On to the temple."

    "what is it about this party and evil temples?" isilmes laughs as she casts invisibilty on herself again and tells the party to hold while she flies up to get a good aerial view of the temple and a closer look at it's defenses.

    “It is imperative I rescue the elf that was sold into slavery by that Traitor,” says Isilme. “I am sworn to defend or avenge any of elvish blood. Emyn will you join me in my assault to rescue my kin?"

    “I pledge my sword to your task and your safety,” he replies solemnly.

    Hepla looks at Urgal and says,"I hope that begins to convince you of what is going on. You heard the former captain's answers. What do you think now?"

    "Slavery in Highport is nothing new," he says. "Still, I have said I will investigate things with you, and I shall."

    Soon Isilme returns, reporting the results of her aerial scouting. The entire temple is a couple hundred feet wide in a rough square. There are four open areas now that Isilme has flown overhead. Along the west wall of the west wing is a long rectangular section which is a graveyard, with a square mausoleum in the middle. There is a long rectangular garden in the center of the east wing as well. There is also a very large open area in the center of the complex, with smaller wooden buildings built within it. There are clearly a couple of barracks, kitchen, and such, and she saw some orcs milling about inside. There is another double door in the west side of the west wing as well. That the only other door she could see.

    In additions, there is a small courtyard about 50' in from the main entrance, with a rectangular fountain in the center. A large dragon idol, maybe 20' high is on the south end of it. There are 2 orcs guarding this courtyard, though you can't reach it with the portcullis dropped. You also notice there's another portcullis on the inside part of what is clearly an entrance tunnel. But basically, there's the main entrance with the portcullises, a double door at the north end of the west wing, and another double door in the west wall of the west wing which is open.

    Btw, in case you haven’t figured it out (right!) this is the temple from A1. Here’s a link to the map, if you care to check it out. http://www.rollforinitiative.org/slavers-series/

    “Did anyone spot the orcs going into the run down building?” asks Gotrek.

    The others nod, and they agree to go clear them out. “Don’t like enemies in my rear,” says Thorgrim.

    Hepla and Noot sneak up on the building. Noot tells her to hang back, but she just giggles. “This is too fun!”

    As they sneak up to the building, they hear the sounds of orcs from inside. There is a window with flickering light coming from within. Peeking inside, Hepla sees a half-dozen orcs inside eating and drinking. You notice thye are not armored, though they do have swords and axes and such.

    “No more pussyfooting,” growls Gotrek. “ Someone cast silence spell on these abominations of nature, and let's dispatch them quickly.”

    Hepla says, "This is a great chance to try out the new wand. You get in position to rush the house. I will, from the window, extinguish any fires in there, as they go to relight you come in, led by those with infravision and kill them. The window should still give you a little light. Try to keep one alive for questioning.”

    The building Hepla saw orcs enter is the right hand small building, just to the NW of the Temple's west wing. In that area there's some ruined buildings just north of the two small buildings, between them and the road. There's also a larger building further to the west. All the other buildings on the map (in this temple area and the warehouse area further west) are now official. If you have any further questions, let me know. In terms of scale, it's about 25' between the corner of the NW corner of the temple and the NE corner of that small building.

    "I only need ta know one thing," says Thorgrim. "Where they are."

    The area is pretty dark. There is light coming from in the orc building, but not a lot. The windows are just open with a cloth hanging over it, because the shutters are broken. That's why you could see inside. There is light coming from the west side of the Temple's west wing, as well as light inside the complex (inner courtyard and the paved courtyard with the fountain. There are also the lit torches in the front, flanking the portcullis and lighting up the cobblestone square there.

    “Ok, let's kill these orcs first,” says Gotrek. “We can't keep them alive behind us. It is dark. Throw a silence spell over them, and be done with it.”

    Thorgrim picks up a pebble and casts Silence upon it. He then moves up to the door with Gotrek, Taki, and Berenn. Hepla can stand by the window, prepared to throw a spell inside (or put out the light) if desired. He looks at Gotrek and nods. Noot checks the door for traps and examines the locks, if it opens, he gets out of the way.

    Gotrek bashes the door in (silently) and Thorgrim throws the pebble into the room, where it sits on the floor and encompasses the one-room building in silence. The building is roughly 20x30. You come in and an orc sees you and shouts, but no sound comes forth. You enter from the middle of the south wall. There are two orcs sleeping on mats along the west wall and four orcs sitting around a table eating. The orc facing the door sees you, but the others just look up wondering at the silence, then look to the orc who's standing and yelling (silently!)

    Gotrek moves into the room and swings his axe, taking the head off the orc sitting in front of him before he even looks back. Shocked looks cross the faces of the other orcs as they turn. Taki strides quickly into the room as the left orc is standing up, and swings his maul, hitting it in the chest. The orc flies across the room, landing on the two sleeping orcs. Berenn steps into the doorway, firing his bow and taking the standing orc right in the right eye, dropping it. The other orc flips the table over at Gotrek, rolls back, and comes up with a short sword in hand, only to have another arrow from Berenn suddenly sprout from the center of its chest. As it looks down confused, Gotrek leaps the table and plants his axe in the orcs shoulder, nearly choping through to its stomach. The other orcs push their comrade off themselves and roll over to see Taki standing over them with his maul. They stay on the ground and raise their hands in surrender, shouting noiselessly.

    Taki begins kicking their weapons away from them and getting them tied up and gagged, while the rest of the party enters the building. Isilme remains flying above, invisibly keeping watch to be sure nobody notices anything. Everyone enters, and she flies down as Emyn stands just in the doorway, looking disappointed.

    “I didn’t kill one orc,” he says from just outside the silence, his shoulders sagging a bit.

    “We aren’t done yet,” says Isilme.

    The two then enter and shut the door. The party is disgusted with the state of the building. Cities generally have a stink of **** and filth to them, but this area, whew! The orcs just squat anywhere it seems, and the pile of dung just outside the front door is disgusting. Inside it isn't much better, and you wonder how even orcs can live like this. But, you are all in the small building now.

    Thorgrim puts the pebble in his portable hole for now. "It'll only be good for another 10 minutes," he says. "What's the plan now?"

    “Time to question these buggers,” says Taki, slapping his maul against his palm menacingly.

    The orcs quickly being to talk. They just live here, part of the Black Tongue tribe which inhabits this area. They are not part of the temple. You learn that they have lost some of their warriors to the Temple forces, as maybe half the orcs have gone over to the worship of the Earth Temple, including these. They have never been inside, except to the temple proper. That's through the main entrance which is closed. They tell you that the double doors on the north go to a guardhouse. The doors to the west (which are open) go to the stables. The south doors go to the barracks and such, as that's where the orcs come and go most of the time.

    Taki looks up from guarding the orcs, "Great we killed these orcs for nothing." He walks off.

    Thorgrim walks over. "Nay lad," he says. "Killn' orcs is never fer nothin!" He and Gotrek then kill the two orcs before they even know it’s coming.

    [Thorgrim OOC: You've also learned a bit about the inside now. You know what's beyond some of the doors now, including the open western doors leading to the stable.]

    "You sir are right,” says Taki. “It is just I have not been of much help in this quest, and I am ready to do more of my part."

    “Let's infiltrate through the stables,” says Goldie. “Usually there are service doors from stables into other areas of any complex and they are not typically well guarded.”

    Hepla shrugs, unconcerned. “The stable entrance sounds good to me, probably smells better then here."

    Isilme scouts out the open doors to the stable. Noot slips through the shadows around the south side, verifies that the doors are locked, and apparently barred from the inside. There's no way for him to open them. He returns along with Isilme (still invisible). She reports that it is indeed a stable. There is also a nice coach just inside the doors. There are 6 horses in the stable, along with four orc guards. There is also the driver of the coach, who is sitting on the bench sleeping. There is a tiled corridor headed east from the NE corner of the stables.

    As she describes the coach, Urgal tells you that he recognizes it as the coach of Lord Sturm. “It seems he and Kilrak are here.” He looks at the others grimly.

    [The party is now preparing to enter the Temple of the Earth Dragon in Highport. I think they still have failed to put together that this is now shifting into A1, but so much the better. I also made my own map which may have kept the more astute ones from recognizing it. I have my own Highport map that I’ve been working on as well, which now that I think about, I should probably post here. I always thought Highport had more potential for fun play than just about any city. Yeah, when I get a chance, I’ll post what I’ve done and then get back to work on The Highport Project!]


    Last edited by ragnar on Wed Jul 31, 2013 11:21 am; edited 1 time in total
    Master Greytalker

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    Mon Jul 22, 2013 9:11 am  

    Part 15

    http://memberfiles.freewebs.com/18/65/87296518/photos/undefined/Temple%20of%20the%20Earth%20Dragon.jpg
    This is my map, using the A1 map as a background and Maptools to alter/add to it. I also flipped it sideways, so it will show up better on a screen.

    You move up in the darkness, and the party flanks the stables to right and left of the door. Isilme slips inside, invisible. There is a coach with two horses in the entryway, facing out. A coachman sits atop it, bored, while a half-dozen orcs guard the various exits, four in the rear, by the two doors, while two are by the double-doors. None seem very alert. Another four horses stand idly in other stalls. Isilme flies into the stables, which are about 20' high, and casts Sleep, causing three of the rear orcs to fall to the dirt floor asleep, as well as affecting the coachman. Taki rushes in and slams the orc just inside the doorway with his maul, driving it to the ground with a crunch. The horses panic with Taki's rush into the stables. One rears and kicks Taki [4]. Gotrek kills the other orc by the doors, but and tries to rush in; however, the horses with the coach, panicked by Taki, rear around and block the way. Nobody can get passed the horses now.

    Emyn enters, slips around the horses, and cuts them lose from the carriage. They bolt out through the open door knocking Gotrek down in the process. Taki slips around the side of the horse and the coach, but by the time he reaches the other end the orc is gone.

    The orc turned to flee as the horses bolted, and Isilme casts Phantasmal Force of blank wall. The orc stops, suddenly wondering where the wall came from, when Taki comes around the coach and slams it in the back with his maul. He hears the orc's spine crack under the blow, and it slumps to the ground. Isilme continues to keep the spell up, until the party enters.

    Berenn tries to calm the horses, but they bolt right on by and take off to the right, back to the road and around the corner. The rest of you quickly slip into the stables, shutting and barring the doors behind you. There are three sleeping orcs and the coachman, still fast asleep on his bench. The party kills the three sleeping orcs, and then they throw the bodies into the hayloft above the stalls. They wake up the coachman, and find that he is just that, coachman for Lord Sturm. He drove his lord and Kilrak here about three hours ago. He's been waiting ever since, and fell asleep. Seeing as the party disposed of the orcs, he has no idea anything happened.

    "Where are my horses?" he asks, looking around.

    "Sounds we are at the right place,” says Taki. “Mr. Coachman can you tell us what is past these doors? also what was your master doing here?"

    He looks at Taki. "Damn, you are a tall one!" He then thinks for a second. "Lord Sturm?" he asks. "Don't know. I'm just a coachman. Do you know where my horses are?"

    "Mr. Coachman I want you to live a long life so convince me that you know nothing least you fall victim to my maul."

    He looks around at the others present, then back at Taki. "Nothing about what? he says, looking worried. "Whatever it is, I know nothing!"

    "Just tie him up and throw him in the loft," says Thogrim. "He's just a peasant."

    Taki does as ordered, and when he returns Taki says "I guess we can move on into the temple now that we know those we are looking for are here. Do we think the dwarf allies would like to know their leader is here? Maybe they could storm the front while we attack from here?"

    Thorgrim considers that and then looks to Urgal. "What do you think?"

    Urgal thinks about it, then says that would probably not be a good idea. "I don't know much about Highport," he says, "but I know the humanoids here believe in this Earth Temple. If we attack openly, we could have the whole city up in arms!"

    Gotrek spits. He looks at Urgal, and grins. He says, " Uncle. This is the beginning of our fight. This is where we take the first step to regaining our glory. And I will lead the way."

    Urgal will not move against Kilrak without absolute proof, nor bring the Deldukr to a battle against an entire city of goblin and orcs, a battle in which they will all assuredly perish. He will follow your lead into this Temple, to seek out the truth behind Kilrak. After that, he will do what must be done, as his honor demands.

    “We should let Isilme scout around and perhaps find us a path of least resistance into the temple itself,” proposes Berenn.

    Isilme and Noot scout out the corridor. It is 5' wide, and goes about 20' where it turns left. There is a door on the right, just before it turns. The door is unlocked. The hallway continues straight for quite a ways, while a side passage opens to the right about 20’ down. That passage goes about 50' before turning right where there are stairs going down. To the left, just before the stairs is another door, also unlocked. The hallway running north skirts the cemetery that Isilme scouted out, wrapping around it before it ends. There are double doors to the left and right. The right doors are unlocked, while the left doors, leading to the cemetery, are locked. This entire temple area is lit by torches in wall sconces. There is no light coming from down the stairs

    In relation to what Isilme scouted from above, somewhere off to the right of the stairs is the courtyard with the fountain, and somewhere south of the stairs is the large central military courtyard. Isilme can't be exactly certain where they are, though she reasoned out the cemetery easy enough.

    After Isilme and Noot return, Berenn says, “I would like to check out the cemetery if we can open the doors.”

    “I would prefer we avoid the cemetery right now,” says Emyn. “It seems an unlikely place to find a meeting of slavers.”

    Thorgrim agrees, "The last place we be findn' the living will be there."

    The rest of the party agrees, so they move off down the corridor. They bypass the doors, and head all the way down to the stairs. Hepla takes out her light crystal, holding it up as the party descends the dark stairs They are 5' wide and end in a 5' corridor. It is tiled for about 15', with walls of fit stone and sturdy ceilings, 8' above. After that, the passage becomes rough dirt, and it is obvious that the finishing work is ongoing. To the left and right the passages continue into darkness. The one to the left has a branch going to the right about 30' down. To the right, the passage turns to the left, disappearing into the darkness. The only light is from Hepla’s dim crystal, so Elrae casts Continual Light upon Taki’s maul.

    http://memberfiles.freewebs.com/18/65/87296518/photos/undefined/Temple%20of%20the%20Earth%20Dragon%20Sewers.JPG.png
    This is the full map that the party will EVENTUALLY reveal. Just thought I'd put it here so you can follow the action!
    “So much for being sneaky,” says Taki.

    The passages are so narrow, that the party has to advance single-file. The party begins going to the left, and Taki takes a look down the side passage. It goes about 30' before opening into a chamber of sorts. He starts that way, followed by the rest of the party. Before he reaches the chamber, rushing up towards Taki are four things that look like misshapen orcs. You are still all in the 5' passage, as these things came out of the chamber, rushing towards you. Everyone else is strung out in a line along the 5' passage. I don't see the need for a map, because it's fairly easy to describe. In the side passage going south is, from bottom to top, Taki, Gotrek, Elrae, and Berenn. Standing in the intersection is Hepla, and going in a line back towards the stairs are Noot, Urgal, Thorgrim, and Emyn. Isilme is still at the top of the stairs, trying to stay out of the party's light and be sneaky invisibile.

    Taki smiles, knowing he will have to handle things alone. However, towards the rear of the party, Emyn is just down the stairs when another group of strange humanoids rushes up the other passage.

    A quick sleep spell from Hepla drops all of the humanoids to the south, and one from Isilme does the same for those coming up from behind. All of them are sound asleep, and looking more closely at them, you see they are strange versions of half-orcs. They all seem bred from various races: goblin, kobold, even some gnoll. You've never seen creatures like them. They are wearing dirty hides, and have very crude clubs and spears. Only one carries a true weapon, though even it is just a crude orc morning star.

    "Abominations, all of them,” says Elrae.

    The party is disgusted, and slays all the strange creatures. They keep alive the one with the morning star for interrogation. Hepla cuts the little fingers of two of them and puts them in her supplies.

    “You are a twisted little bitch aren't you?” says Berenn, shaking his head.

    “Some of these abomonations might have uses in potion making,” she replies. “Waste not want not.”

    Looking at the last creature, nobody really knows what the thing is. Obviously it's part orc, but the other part, well, it's strange. It's only about 4 1/2' tall, with big pointy ears, a too large mouth, tusks, and deformed hunchback. It's skin is also kind of blue-tinted, though it's covered with the course black hair of an orc. You slap it awake, and it calls itself Jeb.

    Berenn asks him what he knows of the layout of the temple, where the slaves are kept, guards/traps....and what his role is here, what kind of clan was this? “Perhaps we will let him live if he Proves useful,” he says.

    “We are the Children,” he says. “You will all die down here.”

    "Not before you,” says Gotrek, as he bashes his head in with Stonecrusher. "I am not going to be wasting my breath talking to this scum."

    Elrae nods his approval, and Taki says, “Lets move along."

    “Well, so much for getting any real information of maybe an actual guide,” says Isilme. “You guys really think the slavers meeting is going on down here with the inbred vermin?"

    “"Maybe you could do your scout thing while we muscle thru this evil pit," says Taki.

    The party gathers back up at the foot of the stairs, while Isilme and Berenn move out to investigate these tunnels using their infravision. Here's what they find:

    The passage to the right loops around to a large area, about 25'x40'. The ceiling is about 8' still, and supported throughout with extra. There are about 30 of the creatures you just killed in there, all alert, ready for a fight, and looking your way. Lucky for Isilme she was invisible. There are 4 other tunnels, all about 5' wide, heading off in different directions, as well as the long curving passageway going to the SE. The other chamber down the side passage, where the creatures rushed Taki, was a small sleeping area for half-dozen of the things. There are a few more small tunnels, only about 2 1/2' wide and about 6' high going off to the top right, and a larger one links up to that long passageway. The left passage continues passed the side passage, and ends with a small dismal chamber with a spiral staircase in it heading up. There are a dozen of the things there too, and they are busy chopping up a body with crude axes. It smells like a butchershop.

    After they return, Hepla says, "We could spend time down here killing the 'children' but I have to agree, I doubt any type of leadership is here. The staircase up might be worth looking at. I'm not even sure we should waste too many spells on them, unless some stronger ones come along."

    “I can't let these butchers continue their handiwork,” says Gotrek.

    [Gotrek OOC: Sorry guys. That is not Gotrek. If you want to throw some sleep spells on the groups, be my guest. But I am attacking.]

    "While you guys are down here butchering cockroaches,” says Isilme, “I will be doing something useful like finding the prisoners or the slavers." Isilme then leaves by going back up the stairs the party originally came down.

    [Isilme OOC: funny thing is, had we just waited in the stables, the lord and dwarf would have come to us....we had his carriage.]

    [Berenn OOC: There was no guarantee either would come to us. What lord walks to the stables to get into their carriage? The carriage comes to him. There is also no guarantee they would cooperate if either showed up.

    [Isilem OOC: (we had the oportunity to charm the driver) Thing is we *know* the **** will eventually have to show up at the carriage wherever it ends up. I don't think anyone was caring if they wanted to cooperate!]

    Gotrek charges down the passage towards the large room, singing his warsong, but as he enters a net falls from the ceiling, completely covering him and making him tumble to the ground in a heap. Hepla and the rest who followed move up and find themselves blocked by the entangled Gotrek.

    Hepla quickly casts her sleep spell, dropping two of the creatures. 5 of the things set up and stab at the entangled Gotrek, hitting him once [6]. Elrae has to hold his color spray, unable to cast through Hepla and Gotrek. Emyn calls upon Trithereon, and summons aid. Two large scorpions appear in the midst of the creatures. Gotrek curses as he struggles with the net, only entangling himself further. Everyone else finds they are helpless to do anything, as there isn't room to move down the narrow passage.

    Elrae follow Hepla's lead, and they both squeeze against the wall, allowing Emyn to push through. He gets up to Gotrek and the net, and is immediately hit by a spear [6].

    Taki moves around the other way, all the way back through the other sleeping chambe, followed closely by Thogrim. They try to take the creatures in the rear, but just around the corner of that chamber, Taki runs into a handful of the creatures, barring the way with spears. One stabs him [3].

    The ones around Gotrek stab at him, and he takes another hit [3] as he struggles in the net. Towards the rear, you can see the other creatures fighting the scorpions.

    Hepla casts a quick grease spell, making the area just beyond Gotrek slippery. All of the things in the area slip and fall. Emyn slays the one next to him, then step around Gotrek to attack the one on his other side. It promptly stabs at Gotrek, hitting him again [4].

    Taki meanwhile hits one of the creatures, bashing its head in. Thorgrim steps up beside him and kills another.

    The next round Berenn uses his Flame Strike scroll, and the center of the chamber erupts in brilliant flame, igniting the oil and incinerating everything there. The support beams for the ceiling as well as many of the overhead supports are instantly destroyed and the rest catch fire around it as the entire place is covered in flame. A very ominous rumble begins. The rest of the party back out, and Emyn can only grab the net and pull, dragging Gotrek back up the passage before the entire place begins to collapse. A cloud of dust rolls outward through every passage, completely obscuring vision. Nobody can see anything, clear back to the stairs and beyond!

    Even where Taki and Thorgrim are, the collapse spreads into that corridor, burying the remaining creatures ahead of them. They are barely out of the collapse, though also groping blindly in the dust. Any torches are out, and though Taki's maul still provides light, it's useless right now. Everybody groups their way back along the passage until they reach the stairs, then begin to scramble up.

    Taki says "We had best be ready for what will be waiting for us as we have made a lot of noise.”

    [Isilme OOC: how many times do we use fire spells in underground temples before we realize it brings it down on top of us?]

    Hepla, who picked up her whip before running, and is still trying to get her hearing back, says,"Wow, giggle, children go boom."

    "At least we destroyed those ugly orcish half-breeds,” says Elrea. “They were disgusting."

    Noot goes upstairs first, followed by Elrae. While they are standing there, choking on the cloud of dust that billowed upstairs as well, and down the hallway, the door flies open. Noot catches a glimpse of a startled orc. The orc draws a shortsword as the dust wraps around him, nearly blocking your views of each other.

    [OOC: you can't see more than 5' in the cloud, so Noot and the orc can barely see each other. For a moment Noot and Elrae caught a glimpse of other humanoids in the room, before the dust flowed in there as well. It's not a bad here, but still pretty thick. Everyone else is groping around in the dust cloud, eyes shut to keep out the dust, and trying not to breathe it. Emyn is trying to get Gotrek out, but it's pretty hard to do without vision.]

    Noot pulls out his sword and dagger, and stabs the orc in a rage, driving into the room as both weapons bury themselves to the hilt in the orc's belly. Elrae fumbles his way into the room, Snowfang before him. Isilme comes up to the stairs, casting a Gust of Wind back down the passage and driving away all the dust. The rest of the party is revealed except for Urgal, Thorgrim, and Taki, as they are the other direction. Everyone else can move freely.

    The orcs get up as the dust flies into the room, two tripping over their stools and landing at Noot's feet. There are two more, and they draw swords themselves. One stabs at Elrae, missing badly and tripping, falling to the ground.

    Noot stabs the orc by the table, which just stood up, and is then hit in return [2]. Elrae now sees he's facing a half-orc with a wicked scar across his face revealing his teeth in a perpetual sneer. Elrae stabs with Snowfang [9] and the half-orc lunges forward with its longsword, piercing Elrae in the abdomen. He takes a wicked stab wound [21] and stumbles backwards towards the door, falling to the ground. The last orc scrambles over to Elrae and grapples him.

    As the dust clears, Isilme can now see in the room and about half-way down the hall. She fires the wand of wonder into the room. It's not hard to clear Elrae, as he's prone and bleeding badly. Eight fiery globes fly from the wand and strike the half-orc, seemingly causing a great deal of damage. Isilme turns visible as she moves past the door, to the corner. She hears shouts from further down the hallway and the sounds of booted feet moving closer.

    Downstairs, Emyn gets Gotrek out of the net, and the pissed off dwarf finally gets to his feet. He feels he has looked bad in front of his uncle, Urgal. He means to make up for it.

    Isilme casts Phantasmal Force down the hallway, making it appear that the entire building collapsed there, blocking the way completely. In the room, Noot jumps up on the table and hits the orc behind it [1]. The orc flips the table over, sending Noot tumbling across the room. His expert roll avoids any damage, and he comes up on his feet in the corner.

    The half-orc doesn't even bother looking at him, stepping up to Elrae instead and stabbing him again while he is on the floor [8] as the other orc pins his arms.

    Urgal rushes into the room, leaps over Elrae, and bowls the half-orc over, knocking him backwards where he trips over the upturned table and falls to the floor.

    Hepla fires magic missiles at the orc holding Elrae, blasting a series of smoking holes in the things head. It slumps over Elrae, who struggles to flip it off himself. As Hepla kneels next to him, Taki comes bounding up the steps, followed closely by Gotrek.

    Hepla pulls Elrae out into the hallway and checks him, noting the bad stab wound to his abdomen. Elrae shrugs her off with a smile, and is about to get up when Taki steps over him and moves into the room. Ahead of him, he sees the half-orc grab a stool and throw it at Urgal, hitting him in the face. The dwarf just smiles a grim smile, flips the table aside, and kicks the half-orc in the face. As he spits out teeth, Taki steps up next to Urgal and brings his maul down on the half-orc's head, smashing it like a melon.

    Fight's over, for now....


    Last edited by ragnar on Wed Jul 31, 2013 11:36 am; edited 2 times in total
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    Wed Jul 24, 2013 11:56 am  

    Part 16

    [The party made a fiasco of their attempt to infiltrate the dungeons beneath the temple, and have been forced back to the ground floor. Though they’ve taken care of their immediate threats, they are trapped with more guards rushing to the scene, due to the massive collapse caused by Berenn’s Flame Strike.]

    Isilme can hear orc voices on the other side of her llusions, talking about the collapsed area. Then another voice, more commanding, orders them to go around while telling other guards to go back to their posts. Meanwhile, Berenn and Thorgrim use their spells to heal the party’s wounds, especially Elrae.

    "Well,” says Isilme’s voice from the hallway, “if you wanted everyones attention around here you got it, what next? I can make it look like this rubble is settling and sliding and create a large opening here again.....then Gotrek and company can rush out! This way I can support you with falling rubble, ect in my spell area of effect"

    OOC: This way Gotrek can redeem himself with his uncle! Plus I know how much you guys love to beat things down! I got your back!
    All I ask, is that maybe we keep someone who knows something ALIVE so we can get a guide!

    Emyn comes forward, sword out to stand with Taki and Urgal. When the time comes for the fight, he'll be ready. Gotrek smiles at the drow. And starts to sing.

    Isilme drops her illusion as Elrae fires a crossbow bolt down the hall, killing the orc guarding the intersection which leads back to the stables. Gotrek charges down the hall and seeing the orc suddenly sprout a crossbow bolt in the chest, he ignores him and turns left, going through an open door. He is followed by Emyn, Taki, and Urgal. The room is a long barracks, with beds for about 20 guards. There's nobody in there right now.

    They head back out, and Gotrek turns left, towards the stables. He goes through the door to the south, singing. He finds a square guardroom, with one orc still there. The orc turns to him just as Gotrek hits him in the face with his hammer, knocking the orc sprawling. A hallway continues away from him, up a short flight of stairs, and he follows it around a corner. There is an open door to the left to a small landing, and he goes out there, seeing steps going down to a dirt floor. He is in the inner courtyard.

    [I altered the map a bit, by making that alcove a landing for stairs going down into the inner courtyard. I also changed the courtyard quite a bit, rebuilding a lot of the ruins. If I can find my map and post it, I will, just so you can see what I did. Anyway, Gotrek is entering the inner courtyard, from the niche just to the right of the long room with the pit and the board going across it.]

    There is a stone wall to the south, and another to the east, dividing this building from the yard. There is a large double door in the building which is wide open. There are 4 orcs in the room, all looking out into the yard. One turns back just as Gotrek appears at the top of the stairs, the others close behind. Meanwhile, Noot went over to the stables, and there he finds another two orcs, talking by the coach.

    Gotrek, Emyn, and Taki charge down the stairs as the orcs scream a warcry and move to intercept them. Berenn moves out onto the landing, taking out his bow. Elrae tries to get by him to use his crossbow, but cannot, so he stays in the hallway, Hepla and the rest behind him. Gotrek pushes one orc back into his friends, as Taki and Emyn come flying down the stairs, Taki actually leaping to the ground from half-way down. The orcs face off against them. One runs out into the yard, and Berenn fires an arrow at him, but misses badly. It runs around a corner and yells for help.

    Urgal moves to the corner of the hall, and there see another guardroom, this one with four orcs in it and a couple more on the stairs across the way. They turn to charge him with a snarl. [This is the long room which has a pit in it and a board crossing it. I eliminated the nonsensical pit, and made it just a guardroom.]

    Meanwhile, Noot sneaks around behind the coach, getting ready for a surprise backstab.

    Gotrek goes for the one orc running away in the yard. He is hoping, by Clangeddin, the dolt leads him to more of the scum! He knocks his way passed the orc in front of him, making for the one that just left the building. He takes a hit from the orc as he does so [6], but he reaches the orc in the courtyard just as it turns to face him. With a cry, he bashes its face in, killing it instantly. Just beyond him is a huge gaping sinkhole, freshly opened up from the collapse downstairs. About two dozen orcs are gathered around, and another couple dozen are beyond them, scattered around the courtyard.

    Emyn and Taki both fight the two orcs in front of them but miss. Emyn is hit for [5]. Berenn fires two shots into the orc Gotrek knocked down, killing it and pinning it to the earth. Hepla hears Urgal fighting down around the corner, and he moves that way.

    Noot moves over to the orcs in the stables, and as soon as one is not looking at the other, he backstabs that orc, killing it instantly. As the other turns around, Noot sticks his sword through the orc's belly, dispatching it just as quietly. He then drags the bodies over to the coach, throwing them inside.

    Isilme is staying at the T intersection, so she can see each way and guard the rear.

    Taki and Emyn both miss. Berenn can't get a shot, so he moves down the stairs. About half-way down he can get a shot out the open doors at an orc, and he takes it. His arrow strikes true, sending the orc tumbling backwards into the sinkhole.

    Elrae comes out on the landing, looking for a target, but can't find one. Hepla moves down the hall to check on Urgal. When she comes around the corner, she sees him fighting 4 orcs in the entrance to another guardroom. They can only come at him one at a time, and already two have fallen. She readies sleep, but doesn't cast unless needed.

    Isilme moves into the stables, and sees Noot putting the bodies into the coach.

    Outside in the open courtyard, Gotrek charges into the orcs, cursing as one goes down with an arrow in the chest. “That one was mine!” He then attacks the next one, killing it easily before going into a rage.

    The orcs atack Taki and Emyn. Taki is hit by a ferocious sword strike [14] to his chest. The blow breaks a rib and stuns him for his next round. He also loses his second attack this round. Emyn then hits and kills his orc. A bunch of orcs charge into Gotrek, but can't get through his defenses. He then enters his killing rage!

    Gotrek cuts down another orc, as the four around him all attack, missing. He then kills another.

    Emyn now has two orcs in his face, and he kills one with his sword. The other misses. Berenn fires an arrow, hitting the orc that just hit Taki, and Elrae hits it with a crossbow bolt, putting the thing down. Emyn is missed by the other orc. Taki takes another [4 damage] from his badly bleeding wound.

    Urgal kills another orc, and Hepla decides to wait, seeing that he seems to have everything under control. Meanwhile, Isilme begins to fly up over the compound. Unfortunately, her fly spell is about to expire. She can see the whole length and breadth of the courtyard. There is an open door opposite the sinkhole. There are buildings all along the west side. There are two more doors in the SW corner and a couple into the buildings to the west. Those buildings are all new, with solid stone walls walls with tile roofs. There are lots of orcs in the courtyard!

    Across from the courtyard is a small room on the top level (looks like about 30' square and it's not shown on the map but it's about 20' SE from the far SE corner of the courtyard.) and with a balcony running around it. She decides to land on the tower to the SE, where there is a small balcony.

    Lots of orcs move up, virtually surrounding Gotrek with more coming around his flanks and going after Emyn and Taki. Inside the building, another moves up to Emyn while one comes inside and charges Berenn on the stairs.

    Gotrek laughs, as foam spouts out of his mouth. THIS is what he was made for. To kill these vermin, and their ilk. He swings the Warhammer again, as green blood and brain go flying. He continues on..........

    Emyn shouts, "THorgrim! Taki needs help!"

    Taki gets up and tries to continue fighting, but he’s obviously quite hurt. "Taki!” yells Emyn. “Drink your potion of extra healing before you bleed to death!"

    Berenn leaps off the stairs, evading a swipe by the orc in front of him and landing behind Taki where he kneels down, swings off his pack, and fishes out his Rod of Health. (He can use it next turn.)

    Elrae fires his crossbow at the orc on the stairs, missing badly, the bolt flying across the room. Behind him, Thorgrim grumbles something about bards hogging all the fighting.

    Taki hits and kills the orc in front of him, but takes another [4] from the earlier wound. Emyn also kills the orc facing him.

    Down the hallway, Hepla has no problem with Urgal hogging the fighting. She watches as he kills another orc, then waits as one steps up to him, then hits and kills that orc as well. With only two left, she turns and heads back down the hallway towards Thorgrim, feeling kind of useless.

    Gotrek swings wildly at the nearest orc, stumbles over a dead body, and loses his grip on Bonecrusher which goes flying down the sinkhole. The orcs swarm him again, with more moving up. One slips and falls. One to his right hits him in the back [? He's raging so doesn't get his damage revealed anymore]. The others all miss. Most of the rest seem to be watching the combat between Gotrek and the orcs surrounding him, not moving closer. A couple orcs on the other side of the sinkhole run back out through the door, while a couple others stand there watching as well. The door behind Gotrek opens, and a handful of orcs file out, looking around to see what's happening. They stop and watch Gotrek when those across the sinkhole point towards the rest of the party in the building.

    Inside, the orc on the stairs charges up and bowls into Elrae, carrying him right off the landing. The two tumble into a heap on the backside, Elrae landing on top and taking only [3]. The orc takes [5]. Thorgrim sees Elrae and the orc tumble off the landing, steps out, and leaps off, landing next to them.

    Meanwhile, Isilme lands on the balcony as her flying spell ends. From there she can see most of the combat taking place in the courtyard. She is about 30' above ground level now, and about 30' from the SE corner of the courtyard.

    Berenn heals Taki, and the big man instantly feels the pain subside. Elrae fires magic missiles at the orc fighting him, killing it. Then he gets up, ready to help out. Urgal finishes off the two orcs left fighting him. Hepla moves out onto the landing, doesn't see any orcs, so she moves down the stairs beside Berenn. Taki and Emyn charge out the open doors, catching the orcs there in the flanks and killing two of them. Meanwhile, Noot returns, coming out on the top of the stairs to see what's going on.

    Isilme uses her Wand of Highfolk, and the group of orcs at the far end of the courtyard begin to argue amongst themselves. It quickly escalates into a full brawl.

    Gotrek bashes an orc with his shield, then drops it, taking out his axe as the remaining orcs all attack him, with one hitting him from behind [?]. Other orcs move over to attack Emyn and Taki, but miss.

    The orcs overbear Gotrek, throwing him to the ground under a pile of them! He then breaks free, throwing one down the sinkhole, though he is still on the ground.

    Taki lays into the orcs grappling with Gotrek, and slams one in the side of the head, splitting it open and spraying Gotrek with orc brains! Emyn also hits an orc, severing a shoulder and arm and half its side.

    Thorgrim runs to the edge of the sinkhole and leaps over the corner of it, landing next to Gotrek who barely recognizes Thorgrim through the haze of his rage.

    Hepla cast Polymorph Self, changing into a small dragon.

    Berenn moves out next to her, donning his pack once again and readying his bow. Elrae follows them, as does Noot and Urgal.

    The orcs give up their attempt to grapple with Gotrek, with the other warriors now appearing. All the orcs miss, as Isilme uses her wand to get more orcs to fight amongst themselves. Another group of orcs comes out of the door at the SW corner of the courtyard, moving up from the south.

    Hepla flies forward, exhorting the orcs to surrender. They point and yell something, but none flee. Taki mentions backing off, but Emyn doesn't respond so he just keeps bashing orcs. They each kill another as Gotrek, bites and claws his way to his feet before taking the head off an orc. All the orcs miss you guys, though Gotrek takes another hit [?]. Thorgrim takes out another orc as well.

    Berenn fires at the two arcs across the sinkhole, missing, and they fire back, hitting him [2] and Elrae [1]. Elrae has his sleep spell ruined, and stands there frustrated, Snowfang in hand. Two more orcs emerge from the door across the sinkhole and take up positions to fire bows as well. [There are now 4 orc archers across the way.]

    To the south, Isilme uses her wand again on the new orcs. They see the other orcs fighting and charge into them. Other orcs are now joining in against their own comrades up by the sinkhole, and the whole area is starting to degenerate into a confusing mess. Orc leaders seem powerless to get them to stop fighting each other.

    Noot hides in the shadows, then slowly starts to slip around the rear wall, around the edge of the sinkhole, and towards the orc archers.

    Hepla casts sleep on the four orc archers, and they all drop asleep, one falling into the sinkhole. Gotrek, Taki, and Emyn, all kill orcs facing them while Thorgrim advances into the heart of the orcs and attacks, killing one himself.

    Berenn fires arrows across the sinkhole, taking out another orc, while Elrae sheathes Snowfang and takes out his crossbow.

    Noot carefully creeps through the broken wall section along the edge of the sinkhole. His going is very slow, both because he’s in shadows, but also on account of the dangerous footing.

    Content with the discord she has sown, Isilme checks out the balcony, finding a door to the inside, but finds it locked. She then looks around for any other balconies or anything, but sees none. This seems to be the high point of the temple complex.

    The orcs move up to the attack, and swing at Emyn, Taki, and Gotrek but all miss. About half the orcs have turned around and are fighting amongst themselves now. Five surround Thorgrim, and three orcs hit him [5] [21] [7]. [Man, one was a rough x3 critical!]

    Hepla lands near the sleeping orcs, presuming they are at a little distance from other orcs, polymorphs into a troll and begins picking up sleeping orcs, breaking their necks and tossing them at the fighting orcs. Meanwhile, Isilme pours her vial of acid in the lock. As her acid starts to work on the lock, she notices the southern end of the courtyard is completely walled off. Inside the area, from out of a covered section, rambles a creature out of legend. A Basilisk! It rears its head back and roars. The good news is the beast doesn't seem to have a way out of its enclosure.

    Hepla-Troll throws the sleeping orcs into the pit, as the two nearest ones flee. Berenn shoots one in the back, dropping it. Thorgrim kills one next to him, and Gotrek kills another. Taki and Emyn both kill the orcs next to them. The orcs attack back, and only one hits Thorgrim [5]. About half of the other orcs kill each other, fighting in the center of the courtyard.

    Isilme forces the door, and knocks over an orc priest who was apparently about to go outside. He shakes his head and looks around, wondering what just happened. [She’s still invisible.] Isilme sing her charm, but it fails against the priest. He gets up and casts some kind of spell, the effect of which isn't obvious to her. Isilme then casts phantasmal force of a halfling scooting past the priest and twisting a magic ring to jump off the balcony and float down like a feather. He looks a lot like Derry and even sticks his tongue out at the priest on the way down.



    Urgal rushes out behind Taki, and kills another orc fighting Gotrek, just as Gotrek hits and kills his last foe. Thorgrim also hits another, killiing it.

    Emyn and Taki then move up against the last line of orcs, just turning back towards the party after fighting their enraged companions.

    With Sweetness, Elrae fires finally, hitting and killing the other orc that ran from Hepla. With his second shot he hits another, and a shot from Berenn brings it too down.

    The last two orcs turn and run, but are cut off by the last two charmed orcs, and the four of them start to fight.

    Unsure of the whole Hepla-Troll thing, Noot slips back around and makes his way next to Berenn and Elrae.

    Emyn attacks the orcs, killing another. He takes a shot in return [6]. Gotrek and Thorgrim both kill the last orcs facing them, after the orcs miss, then Gotrek rushes up alongside Emyn.

    Unable to get a clear shot, Elrae moves across to the far side of the courtyard, just as Hepla turns back into a small black dragon. The giggle gives her away though. Berenn moves up next to Thorgrim and heals him with his rod, curing 16.

    Meanwhile, Urgal moves around everyone to attack the last two orcs who are fighting amongst each other.

    The next round, Gotrek and Taki kill the last two next to them, as Urgal kills the other. All the orcs are dead.

    In the mean time, Noot moved over to the nearest building from which the orcs emerged and checks it out. It's a barracks. Rather than waste time rumaging through a bunch of orc junk, he just comes out to report what he found.

    Thorgrim was healing himself, as Hepla does her best dragon shrug and changes back to her own form. Everyone else takes a moment to rest, wiping the blood from their weapons when suddenly, taking the hillman totally by surprise, Gotrek lands a wicked blow against him with his axe [19].

    [OOC: Gotrek fails his wisdom check! He turns and attack the nearest person which unfortunately is Taki. ]

    Hepla looks at Gotrek and, staying out of his range says,"Gotrek, its me, Hepla, these are your friends." If that doesn't stop him she will polymorph into him and say in dwarf<Stop that, yee will only be hurting yee friendes.>

    "Gotrek!!!" shouts Elrae. "It's us, your friends. Calm down, you've killed all the orcs." Elrae then sings a relaxing song in dwarvish to bring the battlerager out of his state.

    Gotrek is STILL enraged! A few people yell at him, then Elrae starts to sing, but Gotrek just growls. Suddenly he starts to lift into the air. Hepla is standing in the background, arm outstretched, raising the raging dwarf into the air where he cannot harm anyone.

    Emyn and Berenn move over to Taki as well, and Noot seems to just appear out of nowhere behind Hepla.

    "Does that happen a lot?" he asks.

    She giggles in response, "Oh, once in a while."

    The next round Gotrek fails his Wisdom check again, and struggles futilely against his weightless floating!

    Thorgrim comes over checks out Taki's wounds. He uses another cure spell on him.

    Upstairs, Isilme casts her illusion, and the priest rushes out on the balcony following "Derry". She notices that he is a half-orc, in case I didn't mention that before, and he bears the symbol of the Earth Dragon which you've already seen and recognize.

    The priest looks over the railing, ready to cast a spell, while Isilme casts Strength. She then rushes up and shoves him over the edge, becoming visible, but watching with satisfaction as he falls on the tiled roof below with a crack, and starts rolling down. Unfortunately, he rolls off to the left, towards the Basilisk den.....

    Everyone's now caught up! Down in the courtyard, Gotrek finally makes his check, and comes out of his rage. "OK, you can let me down now!" he cries. Then you hear the crash of broken tiles, and looking up you see Isilme standing on the balcony, illuminated by the light coming from the door. You briefly see a shape on the rooftop before it rolls out of sight, followed by a scream that abruptly cuts off.

    Isilme quickly secures a spider silk rope to the railing and throws it down so the party can get up and waves to everyone. She then draws her sword and stands off to the side or finds a good hidden spot to attack any coming in from the door the priest used. The room is very roughly furnished, with nothing of seeming value. Isilme pockets two potions which are sitting out on a small table; she doesn’t find anything else. There is an open door beyond which are stairs headed down.

    “Where’s Bonecrusher?” asks Hepla as she lowers Gotrek.

    "Down in the sink hole I believe,” says Elrae, wiping dead orc from his hair.

    She says,"If you point it out to me I still might have time to get it. giggle, I like turning into a dragon, its fun." If she can she will turn into a black dragon, fly down and return with the weapon in her claws. She then will fly to Isilme then turn back to herself.

    Hepla flies down and finds Bonecrusher, then comes back up. She gives it to Gotrek, who picks up his shield. He actually doesn't look too bad, and it seems all the wounds were superficial. Meanwhile the party is climbs up the rope, with Isilme warning them not to look towards the Basilisk as they come up. Berenn uses his Rope of Climbing, and Hepla just flies, carrying Noot who doesn't weigh much. Soon the party has gained the upper level, where the priest had his quarters.

    Isilme gathers her spider silk rope and closes the doors to the outside.

    "These crazy fools keep Baskilisks as pets! Even Drow don't do that!" She then casts invisibilty on herself again.

    "When we are done here, we should find a way to kill it. People could be harmed if it gets loose."

    Hepla says, "There is a baskilisk here? Where? Oh, over there. Wow, if I had known I would have changed into one, that would have scarred the orcs. I had ,giggle, planed to become a medusa next, but we ran out of orcs."

    "Does anyone have a mirror?" asks Elrae, dying to peak out the windows.

    "I imagine Hepla does,” replies Emyn. “She's too beautiful not to have one."

    "The baskilisk is currently nicely fenced in, why mess with it right now?" says Isilme. "We better hurry and catch the dwarf and town leader before they leave! I fear for the elvish slave as well."

    “We don't need a stoned basilisk,” says Noot. “We do need to get that dwarf before he causes any more trouble.”

    Overruled, thinks Elrae. "OK, let's get that dwarf bastard."

    With a short pause to catch their breaths, the party then prepares to investigate the rest of this tower......
    Master Greytalker

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    Wed Jul 31, 2013 12:14 pm  

    Dang, no comments is weeks? Did my game get boring? I even started to add maps! :)
    Master Greytalker

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    Wed Jul 31, 2013 5:27 pm  

    Part 17

    The stairs go down, and end up in a hallway, with a door on either side as well as a door straight ahead. The area is all dark, the only light coming from Taki's maul.

    "Well," says Isilme, invisible again. "I dont think we should head back as that would lead us back to the main front gate we left behind. So we should take the door that leads us forward. Moving towards the other end of the complex. Lets open that door in the hall.
    We could have Noot or Isilme scout the door opposite these stairs if you want options?"

    The door to the right is locked, the one to the left is not. The door straight ahead is locked from this side.

    "Best to not mess with the barred door if its keeping people out of here for now," says Isilme. "We should have Noot check the locked right door for traps then pick the lock. If he can't pull it off I can pour acid in the mechanism."

    Noot moves over to the lock, and easily picks it. While he does this, Taki and Emyn share Taki's potion of extra-healing. Seeing their states, Berenn using the Rod of Xodal on them both as well.

    "I love that rod," Emyn says. Then blushes realizing what he's just said.

    You hear Isilme say "yuck. Probably raised by priests."

    Emyn chuckles and says, "I walked into that one. At least I didn't spend half my life as a wizard's plaything. I am certain he had you shine all sorts of things."

    Urgal shakes his head and looks at Gotrek, who is just starting to get over the weakness from his rage. He just shrugs.

    Noot opens the locked door, beyond which you find a small sleeping room. There is a table, desk, chair, armoir, blah blah blah. A screen partitions off the back corner, and you can barely see a bed protruding past. You hear loud snoring from the bed. Noot sneaks over and finds an orc sound asleep in the bed. The opposite door leads to another similar room, but it is empty.

    Thorgrim goes and grabs the sleeping orc, who you find out is an underpriest of the Earth Dragon. There are three priests total, he says, along with about 100 orc guards. Since you've killed about 50 so far, that accounts for about half! Upstairs is the quarters of Nofosh, High Priest of the temple. The room across the hall is that of another underpriest. From quick descriptions, you figure out the priest Isilme killed upstairs was not the high priest, but the other acolyte. He must have heard the commotion and went upstairs to warn the high priest or to just take a look from up above. You also find that beyond the locked door at the end of the hallway is the actual temple itself.

    [The party questions the orc priest, finding out the following information. There is a secret area beneath the temple. He hasn't been there yet, but he knows that you can reach it from the stairs that you came down, as well as from a spiral stair from where they feed the Broken Ones. They are the humanoid hybrids that live beneath the temple.

    He doesn't know anything about Kilrak or Markessa, or the Slavelords or anyone else. He knows that slaves are sometimes brought into the complex, that they are taken downstairs, and they do not return. He doesn't know anything about the elf prisoner from The Ghoul. The stairs he speaks of are the stairs that you originally went down.]

    Isilme sings her charm into the orc priest's ear. Once he falls under her spell, the party decides to enter the temple proper. Opening the door, they see it has a raised dais with a large dragon statue. There are also fountains in the corners. There's nothing all that special about it. Unlit torches are in wall sconces, so the only light is from Taki's maul. There is a passage heading out from here towards the open courtyard with the fountain.

    Isilme asks the priest, "Is the baskilisk the earth dragon, and what are you using it for?"

    "Of course it's not the Earth Dragon itself!" he says. "The basilisk is a symbol of the power of the Earth Dragon."

    "How can we get to the underground areas," says Emyn, to Isilme and the charmed priest.

    "I think we collapsed that," says Thorgrim, glancing at Berenn.

    "Clearly there is another way down," says Isilme. "That spiral staircase where the creatures were cutting meat was way down the hall, I think this direction." She points away from you.

    The priest nods. "The Feeding Stairs," he says. "Where the guards feed the Broken Ones."

    "Take us to the feeding stairs," says Isilme.

    The priest leads the way down a hallway, lined with alcoves to either side. It looks like there were once statues there, but they are all gone. He pauses and works a small lever, unsetting a pressure plate trap in the center of the hallway. He then leads the party down to a double door.

    "Beyond this is the courtyard of the dragon," he says. "From there we will go around the gardens to the Feeding Stairs."

    "Do you know where meetings are usually held here when dignitaries like the town overlord and his dwarvish bodyguard visit?" asks Isilme. "If so, let's head there!"

    "They meet downstairs," he says. Based on his description, you figure they go down the stairs you went down earlier, where you collapsed the underground cavern. Since he's never been down there, he doesn't know where they go after that.

    Contiuing on, he opens the door into the courtyard, and there you find yourselves confronted by another group of orcs. This courtyard is a large open area, nicely tiled with a rectangular fountain in the center. Another statue of the Earth Dragon sits at the south end, spraying water out its mouth into the fountain. There are corner fountains around the courtyard, a couple on the long left and right walls, and stone benches along the walls, between the fountains. At the north end is a large gatehouse to the outside, and you see a triple set of portcullises blocking the passage. There are doors to the left and right, both open. The one to the left leads out to the courtyard with the sinkhole, where you battled the orcs. Through the door to the right is a hallway. To the left and right of the portcullis are rooms as well, with orc guards. There seem to be about two dozen guards in here. Some heading out to the left towards the sinkhole and some just coming in from the right.

    The priest wishes the orcs luck in dealing with the intruders, and they continue out towards the open courtyard with the sinkhole. Isilme snaps a couple shots of the Wand of Highfolk as they are heading through the doorway. She can hear the sounds of fighting erupting outside. Once all the orcs have filed passed, the priest then leads you through the hallway on the right, around the garden and down a long hallway. It eventually leads to the stairs heading down.

    There is a trap door that has to be pulled aside to reveal the stairs down. The priest explains that it's mainly to keep the smell out. Thorgrim pulls the door over, and you immediately see the stairs spiral down to a dirt floor. The light from the room illuminated downstairs, and you see a half a body, no telling what race it was, all chopped and torn up. There's no sign of anything alive down there.

    "Is there something in the garden?" asks Isilme.

    "Nuthin' in the garden but plants," he replies.

    "Does this temple have a treasury and where is it? I am afraid these rebelling temple troops may try to steal it!"

    "The treasure of the temple is stored safely in the temple itself, in a secret chamber. Nofosh also keeps an extra stash in his room."

    Hepla polymorphs into a likeness of the Earth Dragon, from the statue they passed. The priest immediately drops to his knees before Hepla. Taki keeps a good eye on the priest making sure he does nothing stupid.

    Taki looks at the party and asks "Are we going down there?" He wrinkles his nose at the awful stench.

    " Yup. Just hold your breath," laughs Berenn.

    "Wait here," says Isilme. She then casts Fly again, and flies down into the catacombs.

    Hepla turns back to herself and says to the priest,"Just remember who I really am, the more you help these people the more you honor me. Understand?"

    The priest nods, but hardly dares look at Hepla who turns away, barely able to contain her smile.

    Isilme returns in a few minutes, telling you that the stair is definitely the one you saw before. She followed the other tunnel which curved around until it ran into a really large chamber, about 4 times larger than the other one. There were about half-dozen small exits from it, but it was FULL of those hybrid creatures. There were at least a hundred of them, many being females and children. She could hear the sounds of work from somewhere beyond, and what sounded like a strange form of orcish, but mixed with other languages. There were only about a dozen warriors in the chamber, but she noticed that they looked even stranger, with pincer claws, weird tails, just strange as if they were not bred with other humanoids but with some kinds of creatures. One seemed to sense her so she decided it were better to report back.

    Emyn asks the priest, "What sort of work is being done down there?"

    He doesn't really know what happens below, being just a beginning acolyte.

    "Well," says Isilme. "Let's go secure the temple treasure." From the priest, she learns there's a switch built into the back of the statue which opens a door in the rear wall. He doesn't know where Nofosh keeps his stuff.

    You head back to the temple, and there you find the secret door, just like he said. In the treasure room are various chests full of coins. Most are coppers and silvers, though there is one coffer with gold. You take the coffer, placing it into Isilme's chest. As you come out, you find another orc standing in the far side of the temple, in front of the corridor with the empty niches.

    "Traitor," he says, pointing a staff at the charmed priest." The priest falls to the floor, crying his innocence. "Defilers of the Earth Dragon," says the priest with the staff. "Now you shall face His wrath." You then hear a grating sound from the left, and looking there, you see the statue of the Earth Dragon begin to move, it's head turning towards you.

    Hepla quickly begins to change form into the dragon again. As she's changing form, Hepla realizes that the other priest is dead.

    Thorgrim quickly hits the dragon with his pick [12]. Taki hits with his maul, which just bounces off, stinging the warrior's hands. Gotrek hits with Bonecrusher [10].

    Berenn fires an arrow at the priest, but it bounces off him as if he were solid stone.

    Elrae backs up to the far wall, throws his crossbow over his shoulder, and draws Snowfang.

    The Dragon Statue attacks Thorgrim, hitting him with a claw [10], knocking Thorgrim across the room. It hits Gotrek with another claw [7]. It bites down on Taki, who barely manages to roll out of the way.

    Urgal steps up next to Gotrek. "Whur A Faeyn!" he cries, swinging his warhammer which just bounces off the beast.

    Emyn rushes out of the treasure room and charges the priest who hits Emyn in the arm with his staff first. He feels the tingling through his arm, and it feels as if it were on fire, but then the pain suddenly goes away. [Nice save!] Emyn hits the priest, but his blow just bounces off.

    Isilme slips over to the doorway of the secret room [she was still inside with Noot and Emyn] and casts Summon Swarm. All around the priest, crawling insects start to appear, biting at him. Though they don't seem to affect him, he does seem disconcerted by the swarm.

    Noot hides in the secret room.

    Isilme cries out to Elrae, "Surround the statue with an Ice Dome!"

    "Get clear," he yells to the fighters. As soon as Gotrek, Urgal, and Taki step back, Elrae points Snowfang at the thing and summons a dome of ice around it. As he does so the Dragon Statue rears back and breaths, and you see a cloud of gas begin to issue from its mouth just as the ice dome forms. Taki gags on just a small whiff which he breathed, his knees buckling as he drops to the ground. The dwarves fare a bit better, and Gotrek grabs Taki, checking to make sure he's ok.

    "Not as bad as Gutshaker," he says, shaking his head. Gotrek slaps him on the shoulder with a grin. He then gets up and tries to give Bonecrusher to Urgal, but Urgal shugs. Seems his weapon is enchanted as well, but apparently not enough.

    Emyn steps up to grapple the priest but misses, and the priest hits him back with his staff. Again the same feeling shudders through Emyns arm, but again he seems to fight off the ill effects. [BTW, forgot to do damage last time he was hit, and it was only 2] This blow is VERY solid [13]. The priest backs up into the hallway, out of the area of effect of the insects which start to bite Emyn, doing [5] more. [Total of 20!]

    Berenn curses, and takes out his dispel magic scroll from his backpack. Meanwhile, Hepla casts grease in the corridor beyond the priest, who immediately slips and falls. Thorgrim gets to his feet, casting a quick CLW on himself. [7]

    "Someone torch that evil greasy priest!" yells Elrae.

    "Someone set him on fire," Hepla says to those near the priest. "And get that staff from him, even if you have to break his hand.". She turns back to herself and runs over with her dagger drawn.

    Isilme creates an illusion of a wall of ice, just beyond the priest. He stands up and tries to make his way out, then recognizing he's blocked, he backs into an alcove.

    Emyn charges through the swarm, but slips on the greased floor beyond, falling down. Hepla turns back into herself, moving over towards the priest but stopping short of the insect swarm. Meanwhile, Elrae casts Melf's Acid Arrow, and launches it at the priest. It flies past him and sticks into the far wall, acid dripping down from it.

    Thorgrim goes to follow when there is a terrible slamming sound from within the ice dome. The entire thing shudders under massive blows, and you see cracks forming across its surface. Taki, Gotrek, and Urgal back up, preparing for battle. Noot takes out his Rod of Smiting, thinking it may be useful against this construct.

    "Hell yeah Noot, smite that statue with your rod!" yells Elrae, discouraged that his acid arrow missed.

    Emyn tries to get across the greased floor, but slips again. Berenn also moves up, but holds on the edge of the insect swarm, the nasty spiders seeming quite uninviting. The priest then casts a dispel magic, which eliminates the swarm, the grease, and the wall of ice (which is actually Isilme's phantasmal force, but he didn't know that.) Hepla's polymorph ends as well, and she frowns as she fishes around her pack. She sees the scroll of Iron Body, and a broad smile crosses her face.

    [Hepla's potions of Scrying and Astral Form are destroyed, though she won't know that until later. Damn, Astral Form was cool! oh well]

    Isilme was just in the process of manipulating her illusion when he dispelled it, so she is essentially done this round too. Suddenly the Ice Dome shatters under the massive blows of the golem trapped inside. Shards of Ice fly in all directions, pelting everyone in the room. Thorgrim takes [3], Taki [8], Gotrek [5], Elrae [10], Hepla [5], Berenn [12]. It also stuns everyone for the rest of the round, so we can move to a new round!

    The priest holds forth his staff, invoking in a strange language, and shards of stone erupt from the floor, shooting out in all directions. Emyn takes [4], Hepla [6], Berenn [5], Thorgrim [3], Taki [1].

    Hepla reads her scroll of Iron Body, but there is a magical backlash when she casts it as it's way beyond her ability. It does affect her as it should, turning her body to Iron with all the correct effects; however, there is a loud, blinding flash which knocks her back to the ground seeming to knock her out!

    Berenn steps back to check on her. Her eyes are open, but he cannot tell if she is ok or not as she is totally formed of Iron. He turns back to deal with other enemies.

    Elrae casts another Acid Arrow, and this one flies unerringly to his target, hitting the priest in the chest [5]. You see the acid burning his vestments.

    Emyn gets up and moves forward to attack, effectively trapping the priest in the alcove.

    Meanwhile, Isilme casts her Audible Glamor of the sound of troops approaching the hallway from the courtyard yelling elvish war cries and yelling "kill ALL the priests in the temple". The priest and Emyn both glance that way, though the priest can't see anything around the corner and Emyn doesn't see anything either, so he assumes it's Isilme. "Your end is nigh, fiend," he says.

    Thorgrim attacks the statue from behind, but misses, badly. Taki tosses aside his maul and draws his 2-handed sword, then awaits the beast. Gotrek rushes forward, swinging Bonecrusher but missing. Urgal, steps up next to Gotrek, crying out in dwarvish as he swings his warhammer which shatters against the dragon statue! He stares down at his broken hammer, when a mighty blow from the dragon knocks him back across the room [18]. Another claw attacks Taki, hitting him for [9]. It also bites at Gotrek, but misses.

    Noot slips out of the treasure room, sneaks up behind the dragon, and uses his Rod of Smiting, hitting it in the back. Though he barely touches it, the stone of the dragon shatters on impact, leaving a large broken hole where the rod touched it [20].

    "Wow," says Noot.

    Seeing Noot's results, Elrae swings around his pack, digs out HIS Rod of Smiting, and rushes over to Urgal. "Take this," he says. "It seems the thing is not so impervious after all." Urgal nods, takes the rod, and rises.

    Noot attacks the dragon statue again, missing. Thorgrim attacks as well, his blow just glancing off the thing.

    Isilme flies invisibly into the alcove across from the priest and resets the hall trap that he disarmed earlier. Berenn attempts to use a Stone Shape spell upon the dragon statue, but the spell has no effect.

    Gotrek just hits it again with Bonecrusher, sending off more chunks of stone [12].

    The dragon then claws at Noot, hitting him for [10] and knocking him back into the treasure room. Another claw swipes at Taki, hitting him for [7], but it's the bite that is dangerous, and it reaches its large head down and finally latches onto Gotrek with a massive chomp! [30] The beast bites down right over Gotrek, who is only saved by his shield. As the thing tears away, it rips the shied from Gotrek's hand. He can see that his shield has been pierce by a couple of huge stone teeth, and has bent right in the middle. It will be useless after this. [So much for the +2 shield!]

    The priest reaches out to Emyn, attempting some kind of touch spell but he misses due to Emyn's defensive stance, and Emyn attacks back with his sword, hitting the half-orc for [13].

    Taki takes a great swing with his two-handed sword, hoping for better results. He swings at the dragon, but almost loses his grip on his sword with his wild swing [no attacks next round].

    Finally, Noot uses his Ring of Blinking, disappearing and reappearing 10' further back in the treasure room. [that didn't work out so well.]

    Thorgrim and Gotrek both take their second attacks and miss. [Taki didn't get his second attack because of his fumble!]

    Elrae takes out his crossbow, and readies it using his +3 bolts. "Let's see if THIS works!"

    Noot decides that standing up next to that thing is not a great idea, so he slips over towards the door and peeks out. He sees Throgrim attack the thing again, missing, but Gotrek just wades back in, hitting the thing with his hammer two-handed [15].

    The dragon bites at Gotrek again, him again [28]. Luckily, he avoids any extra damage this time. The dragon also claws at Taki, hitting him twice [10] [5].

    Berenn steps up behind Gotrek, using his Rod to heal him [15]. [I don't think he can heal anyone but Noot now, as everyone's used it today. You can only take Berenn's Rod 1/day!]

    Emyn hits the priest again. Scoring an excellent critical, he does [26] and cuts off the priest's arm, blood fountaining out all over Emyn.

    Isilme turns off the trap, steps into the hallway, and casts Haste. "Everyone run!" she yells.

    Hearing Isilme, Taki backs off, picks up the unconscious-seeming Hepla, who is incredibly heavy now, and moves to the corridor. He finds he is much faster all of a sudden. Thorgrim too backs off.

    Urgal swings with the Rod but misses. "Run boy," he says to Gotrek. "Get to safety."

    [Everyone is now under Haste except Noot, hiding in the treasure room.]

    "Make sure the priest is dead!" yells Isilme, "and everyone back to the spiral staircase!"

    Everyone runs away down the corridor except Gotrek and Urgal. They look at each other and both shout together, "Whur A Faeyn!" as they smite the dragon golem. Gotrek smashes it [11] and Urgal bangs it with the rod [16].

    The dragon claws Urgal, claws Gotrek [5] and bites Urgal, tossing him away like a rag doll. He lies in a heap in the corner. Gotrek hits the thing again [14] and misses with his third swing as Noot slips out of the treasure chamber and grabs Urgal. He's still alive, but barely, and Noot patches him up best he can.

    Noot drags Urgal away, pulling him to the entrance to the corridor and calling for help. Hearing him, Thorgrim turns and runs back down. In the room he sees Gotrek.

    "Get out of there!" he yells to him, but the dwarf seems beyond listening. For Gotrek, he is amazed that he will likely find his end, and he's not even in a rage. After all the times he's nearly died in his berserk rages, this seems downright amusing. He starts to laugh as he hits the dragon again [13].

    With Gotrek's last blow, the dragon statue's neck cracks straight through. It rears back to bite him, and the entire head just keeps going, snapping off and flying against the rear wall. Gotrek rolls out of the way, as the stone behemoth collapses across the floor, just where he had been.

    Thorgrim helps him to his feet, shaking his head at the tough battlerager. Gotrek's laughter becomes a growl, as he sees his Uncle hurt. He goes over to him.

    In the fountain chamber where the party had fled were four orcs, but Taki and Berenn quickly killed them, moving fast thanks to the haste spell. Guards in each of the rooms to the sides of the portcullis rushed out, four from the left, two from the right. Elrae sang them a lullaby, putting five of them to sleep as Berenn hacks the sixth down with Bonefire. Through the open doorway to the left, the party can hear the sound of fighting in the courtyard where the orcs are still battling thanks to Isilme's Wand of Highfolk.

    The party retires down the corridor, making their way to the Feeding Stairs. Hepla begins to come around too. She can speak, but her movements are so clunky that she cannot cast any spells which require movement components, only verbal components [I have been pretty much ignoring material ones!]. She also only moves 3" and weighs in now at about 300 lbs. It was all Noot could do to drag her 10' when she was stunned! She doesn't know what went wrong, though she knew there was a chance of something bad happening as the spell was well beyond her ability. Anyway, she is stuck in Iron form for now, without any idea what happened or how long this will last.
    Master Greytalker

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    Fri Aug 02, 2013 1:09 pm  

    Part 18

    Godsday, 11 Fireseek, 581 CY
    I was thinking, perhaps it's time to officially begin the "next day?" It's sometime after midnight; you really have no way of knowing exactly what time it is. Nevertheless, it is "officially" the next day, and you have been up for something near 24 hours now.

    Thorgrim uses his portable hole while you're waiting for Isilme and Noot to return, giving Gotrek and Urgal some Gutshaker. Urgal takes a swallow, then slams Gotrek on the back. "Sure'n you boys have stones!" he says. "These old bones haven't had this much fun in years!"

    All the dwarves also have high praise for Noot, who went into combat with the dragon golem with but a rod, hoping it would work. "Stones, indeed," says Urgal.

    "Aye, stones alright. As much as dear old Derry, Clangeddin bless his soul!"

    Gotrek takes another swig, in homage to Derry.

    "To Derry!" says Thorgrim. "And to our newest honorary dwarf, Noot!"

    Isilme and Noot rejoin the group at the spiral stairs. "I will press on to save the elf," she says. "If you choose to head to the griffon tower and rest, can you please cast the fly spell on me, Hepla? My powers are near exhuasted."

    "I'd be happy to do so, but I cannot," she says. In her Iron Body, she is simply too clumsy to manage to cast just about anything.

    Thorgrim laughs, knocking on her iron body, "Fact is, lassy, maybe you should lead the way!"

    "I...will...go...with...you...Isilme," Hepla says.

    The party goes down the stairs, and find themselves in the chamber where the hybrids were chopping up a body. It is impossible to tell exactly what it was now. Isilme levitates to the ceiling and follows the party by pushing herself along. First chance she will use the Wand of Highfolk on any of inbred creatures.

    Hepla takes the lead and wanders into the large chamber with all the weird creatures, heavy footfalls causing dust to trickle from the ceiling. The creatures in the chamber rush to and fro, the females grabbing the young and running away through other exits. The handful of males, just as strange as the others, maybe even more so, come rushing up and attack Hepla, their crude weapons banging off her. She takes a swing, and knocks one clear across the room. As the other creatures wonder what to do, the rest of the party wades through them, scattering them like chaff. Soon there is nobody in the chamber but the party, the rest of the creatures having run away or perished. There doesn't seem to be anything worthwhile in here, just lots of garbage and rubbish. The place smells horrible, worse even than the smell in Highport's streets, and they have piles of dung all over!

    There is a treasure room, more of a niche really, to the SE, wherein is found the following, all loose: CP: 4000, SP: 3000, and two Potions. There is a wounded creature within, which they spare, and Berenn uses the Rod of Xodal on it, healing it completely. Afterwards, it is most helpful.

    It tells you that Nofosh and stinky men would come down and pass through the now collapsed room. As long as they had the symbols of the temple, they were allowed passage, but the way is blocked now. You can go around, through sewers. The Chosen were forbidden to go there, but some did. "Many big uglies," he says. He will show you the way, if you leave his people alone.

    Thorgrim promises that the rest of The Chosen will be left alone, in peace, that the party is seeking only the slaves. The little beasty agrees to show you south, to the sewers. With that, he takes you down the passage to the south, and you turn right at the side passage going west.

    He take you to a large sewage pit (room #2). The sewage is about 6" deep here, but he warns you that you must move along the north edge or fall into the central pit. Lucky for you, you have an amiable guide, and he leads you around the top edge. The sewage seems to be rising, as the passage north collapsed. The incoming sewage from the rest of town comes from the south, and you can see the place is backing up now.

    He leads you around the chamber, and you enter the large storm sewers of Highport. These tunnels are 20' wide arched passageways of brick and stone, covered with mold and slme. Along one side is a 5' wide stone ledge. The ceiling is formed of stone blocks, and arches support it every 10 feet. The ceiling is 7' high at the sides and 10' in the center. Water drips from the cracks in the stone and calcification has formed tiny stalactites hanging from the ceiling. In some places, small plant roots hang down from above.

    The remainder of the passage is filled with runoff mixture of sewage and water, 6" below the level of the ledge. The water depth is impossible to say without testing it. Garbage floats sluggishly at the surface, not revealing much in the way of current, which generally goes towards the ocean to the north.

    http://cache.wists.com/thumbnails/2/c0/2c0c6e62679b75a0542177955f548565-orig

    Gotrek looks around, impressed by the tunnels stonework. He rubs his hand across some of the granite, and grunts in admiration.

    "Men!" snorts Thorgrim. "They waste their good stonework on sewers, then live in squalid wooden huts." He shakes his head and prepares to move along the tunnel.

    "This reminds me of my past," says Noot. "I've been in sewers before." He looks in his pack. "Oops! Looks like there are some potions here. Berenn, can you take a look at these. Then lets get moving. Sewers are great secure transportation corridors."

    Thorgrim looks at the potions. "Where'd you get..." his question trails off as Noot smiles and shrugs.

    Taki offers to take the lead with his light maul.

    Hepla says,"Someone...who ...can...use...my ...wand...figure...out...potions." she does not dare use it herself for she fears breaking it. Here's what the potions are: Oil of Etheralness, Potion of Lightning, Potion of Strength, Potion of Wisdom, Potion of Magic Resistance.

    Isilme uses her Ring of Water Walking and walks along, invisible. She goes down and around the turn there is an intersection. The main sewer goes left and right, in a Y, with three smaller sewers joining the larger one from the left about 30' away. The line to the right continues out of sight. There is a stone bridge crossing the sewer at the Y. It is about a 3' wide arching stone bridge with no side rails, and it goes to a ledge just like the one you've been following. There is also a ledge continuing along this side, down the left branch, which ends where the three small sewers start. There are 4 orcs across the bridge, as well as two on the near side, walking towards the direction the party is waiting.

    Isilme uses the Wand of Highfolk, and all 6 orcs begin to argue amongst themselves. Soon one hits another, and then it turns into a straight fight. While she smiles inwardly at her handiwork, the party hears the sounds of fighting just up ahead. The dwarves, ahead of the party and in the dark themselves, move forward along the ledge. They turn the corner and see the orcs fighting ahead of them. Gotrek growls and rushes forward, and before Isilme can stop them, Gotrek sets off a trap. An entire section of the ledge pivots, dropping Gotrek to the right, into the sewer channel. He immediately plunges fully under the sewer water, which is about 6' deep. Thorgrim barely stops in time to keep himself from falling in as well. Gotrek roars and curses as he splashes into the water.

    One of the orcs tries to point towards the dwarves, but is quickly stabbed in the back by another, while another gets knocked off the bridge as it tries to move across to fight the two on the near side. They are trying to move to the last two on the far side and fight them, and none now seem interested in the dwarves. Thorgrim reaches down and is able to grab ahold of Gotrek, pulling him up to the ledge.

    Isilme mumbles something about "damn impatient dwarves always rushing in for the kill"
    but then laughs when she realizes this has probably saved her more than once.

    Once everyone gets past the trap she says she is going to scout "north" as it at least does not pull us any further away from the collapsed area of the temple. "I hope we find the slaves soon! The elf had better be in good health or they shall pay dearly!"

    The stone pivots back, and everyone can easily bypass it by staying to the sewer wall. Isilme moves back and finds the orcs are down to just two. Another dies, and a crossbow bolt from Urgal takes the last one in the throat. The party can hang out on the far side of the bridge, as Isilme scouts ahead to the north. The sewer continues north, where there is another sewer entering from the left. Beyond it, the far wall is collapsed. Water and sewage seep through small holes here and there, and most of the sewer channel there is filled in, with the ledge covered in slim. The sewer continues to the right, where it is partially collapsed there as well. The water still seems to flow through an opening, as a little current is visible continuing on. Isilme quickly spots a secret door in the left wall, obvious where the pivoting wall has scrapped away the slime on the top of the ledge.

    Noot comes up and checks it for traps, finding none. The door opens easily, by pushing on one side. Beyond is a nicely worked stone corridor. To the right it quickly turns into the unworked passages similar to the ones they first found when they came down the stairs. However, to the left there is a newly built flight of stone steps, heading up to a level above. The area beyond the short flight of steps is a large well-lit chamber.

    Berenn checks around and finds many tracks from the unworked section going up the steps the chamber beyond.

    Isilme says "It appears the unworked tunnel would be heading back towards the area we collapsed, and this was the final destination." Isilme takes off the water walking ring and puts it away, replacing it with her Ring of Fire Resistance again. On a whim, she will attempt to focus her innate ability to cast "darkness" on Taki's continual light Maul and temporarily cancel it out, to see if she has shaken off whatever kept her from using her innate detect magic earlier. Again, she finds she cannot do it.

    [OOC: She has started to lose her drow racial abilities, having been away from the Underdark too long. Of course, she doesn't know that, so she's frustrated, as is the player! Also, it seems I posted the stats, so you can see where the party stands:

    Berenn: 57/ 39 Spells: 5,4,2 Used: 5/4/2
    Elrae: 43/29 Spells: 3,3,1 (4/4/2 when holding Cittern) Used: 3/2/0
    Gotrek: 92/30
    Hepla: 21/21 Spells: 6,5,3, 2 Used: 6/0/1/1
    Isilme: 30/30 Spells: 7*^/4*/4* Used: 5*^/4*/4*
    Noot: 35/30
    Taki: 75/38
    Thorgrim: 60/42 Spells: 5,5,2 Used: 5/5/2
    Emyn: 67/30

    NPC's:
    Urgal: 100/40

    They're pretty banged up.]

    "We should really hole-up somewhere," says Taki.

    Isilme is going to rescue the elf lady," says Emyn resolutely. "I cannot stand idly by and let her go into danger, regardless of my wounds. I would lay down my life if it secures her safety."

    Gotrek snorts, but Emyn just continues. "Time is also of the essence here. If we heal up, everyone we want to catch will flee."

    [Gotrek player OOC: It is not in Gotrek's nature to go hiding either, and that is why he is not doing it. But come on guys, show some common sense!]

    "Use...rod...Hepla...go...with ...Ilisme," says Hepla. [OOC:she is talking this way because every word is slow to be spoken so she is trying to say things using the fewest words.]

    Taki drinks his Potion of Healing, while Berenn uses the Rod of Xodal to heal all the wounds he can. Then the party heads up the stairs and into the chamber above. This broad, long room is filled with two rows of cages whose bars reach from floor to ceiling, 10' overhead. Each cage has a door with a heavy locking mechanism in it. On the floor of the cells are straw and wooden bowls. About half the cells hold a man or woman, although each could hold more. Walking down the central corridor between the cages are 5 orcs and 3 humans. One human is wearing scale mail and wields a tower shield and javelin (think Roman centurion.) The other two humans, a man and a woman, look like merchants, while the orcs all have the symbols of the Earth Dragon. The man is pointing at the prisoners, and one of the orcs, holding a large set of keys, makes his way over to them, to open cage doors. The other orcs are in position to both sides, to keep any prisoners from running away. There are in the center of the row of cages.

    Taki leads the way, throwing his Bands of Billaro, which immediately capture the human warrior, holding him tightly. Gotrek charges into the room, with Thorgrim and Urgal close behind. As they rush forward, Elrae plays a tune on his cittern, putting all the orcs to sleep. The male merchant just about craps his pants, but the female raises a hand and strands of sticky webbing fly from her outstretched fingers, completely blocking the way between the rows of cages and capturing the three dwarves in its strands.

    Taki pulls his dagger and tries to cut the web away from his friends. As he does so, Berenn moves up with Bonefire, lighting the webs on fire. They instantly burn away, freeing all three dwarves, but causing some slight burns. Gotrek takes [2], Thorgrim takes [5], and Urgal [4].

    Isilme rushes silently up the back side of the cages, to get behind the wizard. As the dwarves charge her, a blast of concussive force erupts from her hands, blasting down the area between the cages. The more resistant dwarves all make saves. Gotrek takes [12], Thorgrim [14], and Urgal [12]. Taki takes [15] and Berenn [14]. All but Gotrek area blasted backwards 5' and fall to the ground. Gotrek continues forward and swings at the magicuser with his axe, missing badly. The remaining man turns to flee.

    The magicuser acts fast, a burning jet of flame erupting from her fingertips and searing Gotrek [15]. She smiles and says, "Burn in hellfire dwarf!"

    Gotrek swings his axe, hitting the magicuser [15]. She reels backwards, and Gotrek's second blow takes her head clean off her shoulders!

    "You first," growls Gotrek.

    The chamber at the top of the broad steps is only 5' higher than the one with the cages. The ceiling there is 10' hight. Mounted along the length of the ceiling area a series of pistons and springs and other strange machinery. Coming down the stairs are 4 more orcs. Isilme snaps her wand towards them as they rush down the stairs. The first two cut down the fleeing merchant, just as the rear two orcs attack them from behind. Taki and Emyn both rush forward and finish wade into the orcs, quickly ending the fight. The roman style warrior curses up a storm, still locked in the Bands, when Hepla walks up to him. Though shorter, her iron appearance stops the man's struggles. Meanwhile, Noot checks the two doors out. Both are locked, though he doesn't hear anything.

    Hepla puts an iron hand, gently for her, on his throat, and says, "Do...we...want...a...prisoner?"

    "At least to ask some questions," answers Berenn.

    Isilme curses "we were probably close to saving the elf before we collapsed the underground! Elrae, detect magic in the room for any goodies. Then we should let these slaves out of the cages. " [OOC: Isilme will attempt to charm the warrior (-3 to save) She wants to know about the elf. His business here, his name, involvement with the slavelords, ect.]

    Berenn heals himself for [15] while Elrae detects magic. The wizard had a set of Bracers,a ring, and a dagger, while the warrior's javelins are magical as well.

    The warrior is charmed by Isilme, who then asks all those previously mentioned questions. He isn't really sure about who is talking to him though and is confused, since she's still invisible. He is the guard of the merchant, Alvas. The wizard was the apprentice of Markessa, who just left about an hour ago. They were organizing a slave caravan for Markessa when the temple was attacked. Half the slaves were already prepared for departure, so they hurried them out while quickly getting this last bunch ready to travel. Markessa took the elf captive with her, and Sturm and Kilrak left as well, though not with the caravan.

    "Where was they going? says Taki. "Tell us quick least I have the bands of iron around you crush you to mush."

    "They can do that?" asks Noot quietly to Hepla.

    She shrugs. "I...don't...know...but...he...doesn't...either!"

    He tells you of a secret tunnel out through the sewers, which is how they take the slaves from here. He has never been there, but the merchant was given a map by Markessa's apprentice. Searching his corpse, you find the map. The caravan was heading into the hills, to Markessa's stronghold. The previous one left just after the collapse.

    "My good friend, are they waiting for your merchant and these slaves to arrive before the caravan leaves, or are you supposed to catch up with them on the trail?" Isilme thinks of having Elrae pretend to be the merchant. "That would at least get us back on the surface safely and the slaves outside the city gates to disperse or I guess we could just cut em loose on the surface too."

    Hepla gets up, walks over to a cage and, with a giggle tries to pull the bars apart, not the door barrs but the side bars. Hepla bends the bars easily, actually snapping one of them right out of its anchor point in the ceiling. Hepla giggles and says,"Let...them...out?"

    Noot's already working on the other cages, using the keys he took from one of the orcs, after he slit all their throats. Together, he and Hepla free all the slaves. The warrior then leads the way to the secret exit. The tunnel through the sewers actually comes out beyond the walls. It is secret, known only to those working directly for Sturm and Markessa. This way, nobody ever sees the comings and goings of these "special" caravans.

    Hepla, before they leave the cage area, takes off two cage bars that she can use as weapons. She will also look for any load baring walls that she can weaken so that the building could be brought down easier. She will ask the dwarves for help identifying those points that bare the most weight and if anyone(Taki especially) wants to help she will be glad to let them. With a little help, she identifies them, and she begins to smash them apart with her iron thews. They quickly find yourselves in jeapeordy of the entire place coming down on your heads. The dwarves advise you to stop before you get killed.

    The party makes a hasty exit, following the warrior through the sewers. They pass some orc sentries, but Elrae bluffs their way by them. As they pass, Hepla grabs them and crushes their windpipes.

    She gigles, looking at Gotrek. "So this is what it's like," she says.

    The sewers gradually grow smaller as the group moves away from the water, but then they follow a side passage which winds up, away from the sewers. Construction is very new. This passage leads up to a small cave on the side of a rocky knoll. A barred gate blocks the way out, but it is easily opened by Hepla, who really in enjoying this, and the party steps out into the night.

    Isilme sends the warrior on his way. "Dearest friend," she says. "I fear your very soul is in peril! The gods have spoken to me! You need to make a pilgrimage to the temple of Tritheron and spend the time traveling reflecting on the hardship you have put these poor people through by being a part of the slave trade and helping those in need on the road to make up for these deeds. When you arrive make an offering on the altar. This should save your soul. Go now, it is very important! " He nods and leaves, thanking her for her help and concern.

    With about 6 hours before sunrise, the party chooses to rest. Berenn scouts out the route back to the city, basically just around this small knoll. The gates are all locked up tight!

    Urgal looks at the city, focusing on the citadel. "I would like to go confront Kilrak now," he says, to nobody in particular. Gotrek walks over to him as Urgal continues. "If he isn't with the Deldukr, I shall reveal what we discovered. They may be mercenaries, but they are still dwarves." He turns to Gotrek, "The only other time we were here in Highport, we had been hired to fight orcs. It will NOT sit well to know their leader has secretly been working with slavers selling slaves to these same orcs, and worse. "

    Thorgrim walks up, puts a hand on Urgal's shoulder, and says, "I will go with you."

    Gotrek nods, "As shall I." They look over at the party, and see Noot putting his hand over his face and shaking his head.

    While the rest of the party sleeps, Berenn heads back to the city with the three dwarves and Hepla, wrapped in a cloak. Using his Rope of Climbing, he helps get everyone over the wall in a dark, unguarded place. Berenn heads off to get Ra and Thoth, while the dwarves and Hepla make their way to the fortress.

    The guards at the gate seem to have been doubled, but Urgal gruffly orders them to step aside and they do so. They don't seem too interested in the dwarves, though the strangely clunky figure in the cloak certainly makes them begin to talk amongst themselves. Urgal tells them to shut their traps if they know what's good for them, and you continue inside the Sturmkeep. You make your way along the road to the dwarven camp, right up to the command tent. Around you the dwarves are quickly breaking camp and preparing to move, and when you get to the tent, the two guards are still at their post.

    "Where's Kilrak?" asks Urgal of the two guards.

    "He is with Lord Sturm," says one. He points back the way you came, "In the manse."

    Urgal tells him to summon the axes, then moves inside. You follow, wondering what he means. Inside, he asks Thorgrim for some Gutshaker, and by the time four more battle-hardened dwarves show up, he's already downed a mug, and prepared one for each of them. Handing them drinks, he introduces Gotrek and Thorgrim, and then reveals what you found in the Temple of the Earth Dragon. The four dwarves all look grim, well, more grim than normal, as they finish their drinks.

    Since she was not introduced, Hepla feels that she is his ace-in-the-hole, the mysterious cloaked figure. "Let them wonder," she thinks, as she stands as still as a statue.

    As the dwarves are considering, the tent flap swings open and in strides Kilrak. You immediately recognize him as he looks just like his brother; however, he is a gruff dwarf, armored with heavy plate mail and armed to the teeth, bristling with weapons. He has a hammer and dagger hanging on his belt, a crossbow over his back, and wields a massive dwarven waraxe, which rests over his shoulder. His red braided hair hangs down his back to his knees and he seems to have more scars than skin showing.

    He walks in, and the four other dwarves back off a bit, their grim looks quenched like coals upon which was thrown a bucket of water. Yet, their ire remains, and their hands rest on their axes.

    "Where in the Hells have you been?" demands Kilrak. "And who are they?" he adds, glaring at Gotrek, Thorgrim, and Hepla."

    "We've been having a cozy little tea party with some friends of yours," says Thorgrim.

    Gotrek spits at Kilrak's feet. "I am a dwarf. What are YOU?"

    Kilrak stares at Gotrek, sizing him up, then looks around at the other dwarves. "What is this?" he says sternly.

    "This is where you leave the Deldukr," says Urgal coldly.

    Kilrak laughs, a deep resonant bellow, but stops quickly when nobody moves. He glares at Urgal, who simply stands there, one hand on Boneripper. "And who are you?" he nearly rasps, poking a finger at Urgal. "I created the Deldukr," he shouts. "I am the Deldukr!"

    "No longer," says Urgal evenly.

    "Why you..." starts Kilrak. "I brought you in when you were alone! I gave you a purpose!" He turns on the other dwarves. "I gave you ALL a purpose! A life of glory, of honor..."

    "HONOR?" shouts Urgal, his temper rising. "Is it honor to slink around in back alleys and sewers like a filthy kobold?" He steps up to Kilrak, "Is it honor to use your own kin, your own brothers, to further your ends?" Kilrak actually takes a step back as Urgal continues, "And is it honor to work for slavers, selling men into the hands of orcs?"

    "You are a traitor to your race," says Gotrek. "Prepare to die."

    Hepla looks at Kilrak with anger in her eyes, just waiting for him to challenge her presence there, but he doesn't seem to even notice.

    Kilrak looks at Gotrek, "Fine, to the Pain! [sorry, just couldn't resist!] But seriously, let me explain. No that would take to long, let me sum up. [oh I'm killing myself! OK, really, I'm ready now.]

    Urgal puts a hand out holding Gotrek back, which is pretty hard considering he's almost in a rage already, with spittle flying with practiced ease.

    "You may have forged the Deldukr," says Urgal, "but is with their own blood that it is steeled." He looks Kilrak in the eye, holding Gotrek back with an extended arm. "You yourself made the law," he says. "Let the Axes decide." Both men lock gazes, then Kilrak turns his head to the other four dwarves. Their grim faces revealed nothing, and everything, and Kilrak knew it. With a barely perceptible nod, he took his axe from his shoulder as Urgal stepped back.

    "Let the Axes decide," he said, and slammed the axe into the ground, burying it half a head deep. He stepped back and waited, watching the four dwarves. They each had a pair of axes, and one by one they pulled them out, crossed the axes over theirs chests, and turned their backs on Kilrak. Kilrak stood there, open mouthed and disbelieving, seeing the last 50 years of his life coming to an abrupt end.

    "The Axes have spoken," said Urgal, stonily, though with perhaps just an edge of sadness. "Go, brother," he continued. "As stone endures."

    Knowing there was nothing to be done, and there was no way to continue to lead the Deldukr given what had just happened, Kilrak spat in Urgal's face. "Only one of our names will endure, old man, and it will not be Delgrim. You will fade away and be forgotten like the rest of your cowardly clan." He then reached out to take his axe....

    Hepla lets the cloak fall from her body as she steps forward and says, "Do...no...more...dishonor...to...this...proud...axe...or...this...gathering...of...noble...dwa rves." She then takes one of her 10' iron bars, bends it in two, and jams one end into the floor on either side of the axe, she stands there and says, in dwarf "For...honor."

    "Urgal. We are not quite done yet!" says Gotrek.

    Plate mail creaks, as Gotrek's body and muscles swell. Groans of pain emulate from the armor. But right now, Gotrek does not care. Eyes bulging, past memories flashing by, and glories yet to be attained sing to him. If Death comes here, he will take It down with him.

    Urgal motions the other dwarves back, then looks at Kilrak. "I think you better pick up your axe," he says, removing the bar that Hepla stuck around it and motioning her back as well. "You're gonna need it."

    "Clangeddin!!" cries Gotrek. "Clan Delgrim!" "Witness!!"

    Then Gotrek goes berserk........

    Gotrek goes into a rage as Kilrak grabs up Goreblade, going into a fighting stance and singing his own battle song. Everyone else moves away, giving the two dwarves room to fight. The weird thing is that both dwarves seem to have gone into an instant rage somehow.

    "Whur A Faeyn!" cries Urgal!

    Gotrek hears nothing now, but the clash of weapons in front of him, and a voice driving him further into rage. He does not fight this urge, for he knows the source. If he survives, Gotrek knows from this day forth he will be the personal bane of the scum races. And they will soon realize it as well. Revenge. Kill scum. Regain lost family glory. All in one pie. Gotrek is hungry!

    Gotrek and Kilrak both slam into each other simultaneously, dealing massive blows that shock everyone around. They both then hit each other again, continuing a savage dance that takes them across the tent and right through the tent wall. The whole things begins to come down, and the dwarves inside quickly try and get out. Hepla finds herself unable to move fast enough, and she is enveloped in the folds of the collapsing tent. She stands there, frustrated that nobody understood what she was doing and now frustrated that she can't see!

    Outside, Gotrek and Kilrak both come to their feet, staring madly across at each other. Dozens of other dwarves stop what they are doing and turn to watch, moving closer, but keeping their distance as they watch the two battleragers attack each other.

    As the dwarves get out of the tent, they see Kilrak land another blow on Gotrek, who shrugs it off as his axe clangs off Kilrak's shoulder. They exchange blows back and forth for a couple of minutes, with neither landing anything too deadly. Hepla finally gets out of the tent, and sees a massive dent on the side of Gotrek's armor, blood pouring from it. It is evident that Gotrek doesn't feel a thing.

    Over the last round more dwarves have come over to watch, perhaps all of the Deldukr is watching. Urgal and the four other captains pass the word to do nothing, so the dwarves form a very wide arc around the combatants and just watch the deadly flow of combat.

    Gotrek swings wildly, and Kilrak knocks Gotrek's weapon away. It flies off about 10' to the left. Grinning madly, Kilrak wades in, but Gotrek leaps back out of the way, rolls over, and comes to his feet. Kilrak now stands between Gotrek and his axe. Even through his rage, Gotrek can feel the blood flowing from his wound, and he knows it must be a bad one. [very bad time for a fumble!]

    Gotrek charges in and grabs ahold of Goreblade. He and Kilrak lock fierce gazes as they wrestle for it. Meanwhile, a group of orcs approaches the battle. Hepla is ready to help in any way she can, but feels that she dares not interfere with this battle, she does keep an eye on the orcs. As they approach, a handful of dwarves peel off to intercept them. After a few words, something about dwarf business, the orcs shrug and leave, a few looking over their shoulders as they leave and just feeling lucky the two dwarves are fighting each other and not them!

    Hepla walks over and asks the dwarf who talked to the orcs what they wanted.

    "No part of this fight," he says, turning back to look.

    Gotrek suddenly head butts Kilrak, smashing his nose in! He wrenches Goreblade from Kilrak's grasp, kicking the dwarf backwards away from him. Though most of the dwarves seemed to have been cheering on Kilrak to start, gradually word spread through them of what had happened. Now there are at least as many cheering on Gotrek. When he takes the axe, he is barely conscious of Urgal's shout, "Whur A Faeyn!"

    Kilrak snarls incoherently as he draws his dagger and hammer. Gotrek charges against Kilrak, who ducks inside Gotrek's blow and stabs him in the side with his dagger. It goes right through a joint, just above Gotrek's waist, drawing a grunt from him. Hepla sees more blood pouring from the wound as Kilrak withdraws the blade. Another hammer blow bounces off Gotrek's helm, as Kilrak thrusts his dagger at Gotrek again. The blade hits him squarely in the breastplate, snapping off at the hilt. Gotrek swings at Kilrak again, this time landing a telling blow against the dwarf's chest and sending him reeling backwards to the ground. [looks like the fumbles have evened out, and then some!]

    Both dwarves are obviously reeling from massive injuries, seemingly fighting right at death's door. Gotrek then hits Kilrak another massive blow, knocking the dwarf back again. Kilrak rolls away, his hand falling on Gotrek's lost axe. As Gotrek charges in again, Kilrak tries to block the blow with Gotrek's axe, but Giant Goreblade shears right through the parry, sending magical shards flying as Goreblade bites down into Kilrak's chest!

    Kilrak grabs ahold of the axe, pulling himself towards Gotrek, and spits blood into his face. Kilrak's eyes roll back in his head, and he opens his mouth to speak, but no sound comes out. Gotrek kicks him away, yanking Goreblade out of Kilrak's chest. Blood bubbles up through the rent in Kilrak's breastplate as he slumps to the ground.

    Gotrek's rage leaves him, and he slumps to his knees, blood dripping from his wounds and pooling up at his feet. Hepla runs to him, iron step slamming the ground, and prepares to administer first aid to stop the blood flow. "Good...fight," she says.

    As Hepla helps Gotrek over to Thorgrim, a gasp comes from dwarves. She turns back to see Kilrak, back on his feet and stumbling towards Gotrek's back, stabbing at him with the broken haft of the axe. A loud thrump comes from the side, and a heavy crossbow bolt slams into Kilrak, entering right through the rent in his breastplate. He stares, disbelieving, before falling backwards to the cold, hard ground, the broken shaft slipping from his dead fingers. Hepla and Gotrek look over, and there they see Urgal standing there grimly, his heavy crossbow leveled at the now dead battlerager.

    Back at the party's camp, Elrae suddenly wakes, startled. "I had this wonderful dream that Gotrek killed that bastard Kilrak and got his Goreblade. I shall write a song about it."

    [Thus ends the Quest for Gotrek's Goreblade. Well, it wasn't his until now, but what the hell. The title added incentive all along! The fight between the two battleragers was pretty good, and Kilrak actually had him at one point. Hepla player had sent me PMs about intervening, but she never took any action. Those two did massive damage to each other, and it was a good think Gotrek drank his potions of healing just before the fight. The party now could rest completely, gain EXP, and prepare for The Slavers.]
    Apprentice Greytalker

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    Sat Aug 03, 2013 3:24 pm  

    This continues to be great reading, and I really like how you make the adventure yours & weave it into your campaign. Please keep 'em coming.
    Master Greytalker

    Joined: Aug 09, 2001
    Posts: 655


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    Tue Aug 06, 2013 9:12 am  

    Thanks. I think my campaign really started to come together during this adventure. The whole time leading up to the Moathouse was about learning how to play via a forum. Temple of Elemental Evil let my players really explore their characters, while I as DM got more comfortable with mapping, images, side-treks and private stuff, etc.: all the nuts and bolts, as it were.

    In the Quest for Gotrek's Goreblade (which was TOTALLY a lead-in to the Slaver series, which I played up as something totally different to keep them from figuring it out!) a lot of these things began to gel in a cool way. The role-playing improved greatly, as there were many more opportunities for it than just straight fighting. Some story lines became more personal, which also helped this. I personally enjoyed adding in Urgal, Gotrek's uncle. That was by far my favorite part of the story. I also liked the Deldukr; those mercenary dwarves have a lot of potential. I'd actually like to eventually make a short write-up about them to post. Just need to find the time.

    Anyway, I'm pleased that people like it. I wasn't ever sure the game would really work online, and it's been the best surprise for me in years. I otherwise couldn't play at all! I never considered that I would eventually be able to share them where others, especially fellow Greyhawkers, could enjoy them. It makes the entire experience that much more rewarding.

    I have about another year or so worth of adventures to go through and post. They are all in their raw form, but I slowly am putting them together as these summaries. Even my players are coming back and reading them now! I hope you guys continue to enjoy the exploits of the Heroes of Hommlet, as they sometimes call themselves. Stay tuned for the next adventure...

    The Slavers!
    Master Greytalker

    Joined: Aug 09, 2001
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    Sat Feb 01, 2014 9:25 am  

    The adventure continues in The Slavers!

    http://www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=5689
    Novice

    Joined: Jun 06, 2014
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    Fri Jun 06, 2014 12:18 am  
    Giant Goreblade

    I remember the old days the quest was really hard i had a hard time doing the quest and spend almost a day but in the end i got the Goreblade.

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    Last edited by orihara on Mon Jun 09, 2014 2:44 am; edited 2 times in total
    GreySage

    Joined: Jul 26, 2010
    Posts: 2695
    From: LG Dyvers

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    Sat Jun 07, 2014 9:28 pm  

    Congratulations on your successful completion of the campaign, orihara. Smile

    Now, get over to the Welcome to Canonfire! forum and introduce yourself properly. Wink

    SirXaris
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