OAWYM: Axe of Rage

Game Date: 7/16/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 3
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Malcer (Graham) - Human Warlock
Marcella (Lanessa) - Human Bard
Tamir (Other Matt) - Human Fighter Archer
Thokk (Daniel) - Half-Orc Barbarian
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Half-Orc Paladin

The Session:
Last session we defeated the evil Necromancer and recovered our employer's stolen box (which turned out to contain a scary-looking magic skull).  We took a long rest, walked back through the temple, and into the goblin cave.  The cave now contained several skeletal orcs, feasting on the goblin corpses.  Outside the cave, there was a skeletal horse and rider, a Tiefling mage, and a Wererat.  We rolled initiative.

The skeletal orcs surrounded us right off, but they weren't that hard to defeat.  At one point Malcer used burning hands to hit several at once (and Val).  The skeletal rider was pretty rough - he hit hard, and had some great movement.  Last session Thokk picked up a cursed battle axe, which now caused him to go berserk and attack his own party members.  We probably faced more danger from him than our enemies this session.

Val eventually used Turn the Unholy on the skeletal rider, who rushed out the door (provoking multiple OAs), and we never saw him again.  The Tiefling also eventually fled.  The Wererat was immune to non-magical weapons, but to his surprise we found ways to damage him anyway.  We kept him alive and asked him some questions.  All he could tell us was that they had been hired to retrieve the skull.  We let him go, and returned to our employer.

We rode on to Fallcrest, where we met up with a trade guild called "The White Lanterns" (no, not these guys). We asked them about the skull we'd retrieved.  They told us it was one of three necromantic skulls.  None of them were very powerful on their own, but when put together they would become a powerful magic artifact. They had planned to take this skull South to the city of Sarthel, but now that they knew others were trying to steal it, they wanted a new plan.

They decided to send a very public decoy caravan North, while secretly sending us to Sarthel with the skull.  Byzun joined our party, and we left town the next day.  We traveled for five days without incident.  As we approached the outskirts of the Harkenwold region, we saw smoke in the distance - there was a farmhouse in distress.  As we got closer, we saw several brigands and a pair of wolves threatening the owner of the farmhouse.  Tamir recognized their clothing as belonging to "The Iron Circle", slavers who worship Asmodeus. 

We took them out pretty quickly.  Byzun cast Shatter on two, and Malcer hit four (and Val) with burning hands.  Thokk went berserk again, and Val had to grapple him to protect the final brigand (who had surrendered).  Marcella used a Calm Emotions spell to end Thokk's rage.  While Malcer and Val looked the other way, the party killed the surviving foes so they wouldn't report back to the Iron Circle.  The farm was owned by a middle-aged Half-Elf woman.  She said these Iron Circle guys pass through occasionally collecting "taxes", and last time through they killed her husband.

We asked the woman more questions about the area.  She told us to avoid Harken village, as it's been fully taken over by the Iron Circle.  However, we might find allies in the village of Albridge.  Marcella gave the woman a few gold pieces, and we prepared to journey to Albridge.  We ended the session there.