Dragon's Demand: Big Bad Wolf

Game Date: 2/22/2014
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Dragon's Demand, Session 5
System: Pathfinder
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Ranger
Lilith (James) - Tiefling Paladin
Raz (Matt) - Human Sorcerer

The Session:
We were down two players today, so we didn't accomplish quite as much as we usually do.  Tanith spent the session consoling his sister over Erevel's death.  The rest of us were quickly presented with a new job.  We are to enter the home of the dead wizard Hunclay, deactivate any magical traps, defeat any arcane guardians, and catalog his possessions so they can be sold at auction.  We agreed to take the job, but decided not to do it right away.

Raz spent the evening identifying the magical items we'd found in the Kobold quarry.  The small box was a "Phylactery of Faithfulness", which alerts the wearer if they are about to take an action that is against their alignment or religion.  She gave it to Lilith.  One of the cloaks was a "Cloak of Resistance" (+1 to saving throws), which went to Halfbeard.  The other cloak was a "Cloak of Fangs" (+1 saving throws and a bite-based melee attack) which she kept for herself.

While Raz was doing that, Halfbeard and Lilith visited a gnome named Bassy, who was the town's historian.  They asked her about the dragon scales we'd found.  Bassy said they looked pretty new, which was worrisome news.  One of the kobolds we'd encountered mentioned serving the Great Lord Aeteprax, a dragon who had been defeated centuries ago.  If this dragon was somehow back in business, that could be a problem.  Bassy told us that Aeteprax's bones were buried at Tula's Crypt, so we might check that out at some point.  Later we informed Lady Origena of the scales, and she was also concerned.

But rather than visiting Hunclay's home or searching the tomb, this session we decided to go wolf hunting.  A couple of sessions ago we learned of a wolf pack that had been killing livestock, and (despite some reservations) we decided now was the time to take the job.  Halfbeard in the lead, we set out into the woods to track them down.  The ranger's tracking rolls started off pretty good, but quickly got worse.  Eventually it was the wolves that found us.  Despite some great perception rolls, the wolves managed to get pretty close before we saw them.  There were three total; two normal size and one extra-large dire wolf.

Lilith rushed to the front, and was promptly knocked to the ground.   She tried to get back up a couple of times during the fight, but each time she was immediately knocked back down.  She took a lot of damage, and quickly used up all her healing powers.  Once she hit zero, Raz fed her a healing potion, but she didn't stay above zero long.  Halfbeard stepped up and tanked for a couple of rounds, but soon found himself making death saves as well.  It finally came down to the dire wolf and Raz.  Just as she was about to be ripped to shreds, Raz fired off the magic missile that took the last of the creature's hit points.

The enemy finally defeated, Raz found herself alone in the forest, with two dying teammates.  She fed them the party's last two healing potions, which kept them from dying, but still didn't bring them back to consciousness.  Raz looked around and saw a cave nearby, with shallow water flowing through it.  She dragged her companions into the cave, leaving her fatigued.  Then she beheaded the dire wolf so we'd have proof of our kill.  Resting beside her friends in the soggy cave, she heard some skittering noises deeper in the tunnels, but Raz stayed where she was.  Soon she drifted off to sleep.

Halfbeard and Raz awoke several hours later.  Halfbeard had healed a couple of hit points from resting, but he was still very close to zero.  Lilith, however, had vanished.  Halfbeard sneaked through the cave passage and looked around the corner.  The tunnel ended in a chamber where he saw some chests, Lilith's prone form in one corner, and a large crablike lamprey monster.  We really wanted to help Lilith, but we didn't think we would survive a fight with Halfbeard being so close to death.

So Raz and Halfbeard headed back to town, with the intention of returning to the cave as soon as possible.  We turned in the wolf head, and used some of the reward money to buy healing potions.  Halfbeard drank enough potions to get back to full health, and we kept a few more on us to prepare for the upcoming battle.  Next we sought out Tanith to accompany us.  We ended the session there.  Next session we'll head straight back to the cave.  Hopefully that creature won't have eaten Lilith yet.

XP Rewards:
Raz, Halfbeard and Lilith each earned 1067 xp, bringing them up to 4361.

Dragon's Demand: Farewell Erevel

Game Date: 2/15/2014
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Dragon's Demand, Session 4
System: Pathfinder
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Erevel (Daniel) - Elf Rogue
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Ranger
Lilith (James) - Tiefling Paladin
Raz (Matt) - Human Sorcerer
Tanith Tularn (Thomas) - Human Cleric

The Session:

Today we continued our exploration of the kobold caverns beneath the quarry.  We were guided by Nighttail the Glib, a kobold from a rival clan.  Erevel led the way down the next tunnel, carefully checking for traps as he went.  After turning a corner and reaching a T-junction, our Rogue encountered two kobolds. It was a bottlenecked fight, with the party crammed into a tight hallway, so only those in front experienced much of the action.  At one point Erevel fumbled, causing himself to bleed.  A quick heal check kept him from losing too much blood.

After the battle we searched the room.  There was a pool of water containing some snapping turtles, which we avoided.  We found a door to the kobold armory, where Lilith obtained a Cold Iron Masterwork Longsword.  A bit later we ran encountered an old kobold priest, who warned us about a "great scaly beast" before he died.  From his body we took a box with trailing ribbons, which detects as magical, but we haven't figured out what it does yet.

Down some more hallways we passed a dire rat enclosure.  Nighttail mentioned these rats had been bred to be extra powerful.  We took her word for it and passed on by; no sense starting any unnecessary battles.  We came to a room with a stone bridge, flanked by two pits.  We could see some holes along one wall, and knew it had to be some sort of trap.  Erevel crawled forward to look for triggers.  The holes then opened up, from which hidden kobolds used their slings against us.  Erevel dropped down beside the bridge, on the opposite side from the slingers, hanging onto the edge to avoid getting stoned.  He tried to shimmy the rest of the way across, but fell into the pit. Luckily it wasn't very deep, and eventually he managed to climb out the other side.

Meanwhile, the rest of us ran across the bridge, went around the corner, and fought the kobold slingers directly from their hiding place in a side passage.  Lilith blocked off the passage so no kobolds could escape, and the rest of us fired around her until all the kobolds were defeated.  We then went down another hole to go even deeper into the dungeon. 

The next room had two short tunnels to choose from, both opening into larger chamber.  Erevel sneaked down the left tunnel, and the rest of us followed.  From the lead, Erevel saw a kobold cleric and two skeletons, standing by a statue.  Though Lilith wanted to stick to our usual strategy - blocking off the tunnel for another bottlenecked fight - Raz got impatient and charged to the head of the party.  This brashness cost her a few hit points when the squishy sorcerer suddenly found herself tanking.  Luckily she managed to withdraw before getting too hurt.

Half the party continued fighting the skeletons in the left hallway, and the other half ran around so they could attack from the opposite tunnel.  Tanith used a fear spell on the cleric, who then fled down another hallway.  Once the skeletons were destroyed, we examined the statue.  It was an idol of "The Infernal Duke Vapula", who I don't know, but it certainly sounds like one of those Names To Run Away From Really Fast.  We beat up on the idol for a few minutes before continuing.

Nighttail requested that we not disturb the kobold nursery, which she called "The Room of the Future."  We happily obliged, and walked on by.  Down the next tunnel, Erevel found and disabled a tripwire.  The tunnel finally opened up into a room containing the cleric, three kobold guards, and their chieftain: the evil sorcerer Roaghaz.

Lilith turned in one of our Pathfinder bonus cards to give herself a super-high diplomacy check.  She told the three kobold guards that if they joined us, they would be spared when Nighttail took over the kobold clan.  While they didn't immediately rush to our side, they did spend the next round mulling it over instead of attacking us.  Meanwhile Erevel attempted to use diplomacy on the kobold cleric, but didn't have much success.

During the fight, Roaghaz used a web spell, which kept some of us (mostly Halfbeard) from moving very far into the room.  Meanwhile, the cleric used a powerful "Channel Negative Energy" power which damaged all of us, and killed his own guards.  This dropped Erevel, and Raz spent the next round trying to keep him from dying.  A couple of rounds later the cleric used the power again, killing Erevel and nearly dropping Raz.  Lilith finished off the cleric, leaving only Roaghaz.

The chieftain was tricky.  He cast Mirror Image, so our next few attacks only took out his illusions.  Then he hit Raz, Lilith, and Halfbeard with Glitterdust, blinding them for a few rounds.  His next spell fumbled, accidentally releasing a nausea-inducing Stinking Cloud.  Tanith made the final hit that finished off our foe.

Noooooooooooooo!

Looting all the bodies and searching the room yielded a fair amount of treasure.  We found 1895 gold, a Wand of Web with four charges left, a Scroll of Glitterdust, a magic cloak we still haven't identified, and a few more items.  We also found some large reptilian scales.  We considered having Erevel raised, but Halfbeard (who knew him best) told us Erevel wouldn't have wanted that.  Nighttail helped us free some human prisoners the kobolds had been holding, and we headed back to town.  We gave Erevel a decent burial and called it a day.

Our share of the gold is 461.25 gp each.  We each earned 1294 xp, bringing the survivors up to 3294.

Dragon's Demand: Party Go Down The Hole

Game Date: 2/8/2014
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Dragon's Demand, Session 3
System: Pathfinder
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Erevel (Daniel) - Elf Rogue
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Ranger
Lilith (James) - Tiefling Paladin
Raz (Matt) - Human Sorcerer
Tanith Tularn (Thomas) - Human Cleric

The Session:

The Party

Last session we found the body of the missing wizard Hunclay, and learned that he was responsible for the destruction of the mage tower.  On the way out of the ruins, we found a pair of notched daggers on a corpse.  We immediately headed back to the treasure room so we could try them in the locks we couldn't open last week.  Success!

There were seven treasure chests.  All told they contained 18500 copper pieces, 4000 silver, 115 gold, 14 platinum, and a teak case containing 30 emeralds.  We spent a good while figuring out how to get everything back to town, made arrangements to convert the copper into silver, and deposited a lot of it in the bank.  Our quest-giver, Lady Origena Devy of Belhaim, rewarded us with an additional 500 gold.  All told, we had 1276.5 gold (2553.6 gold each) and 30 gems (6 gems each).

We poked around town, did some shopping, and collected a few more rumors.  We'd now completed enough sidequests to reach level 2.  After spending some time leveling up our characters, we turned in for the night.  The next morning we set out on our next quest, to drive the kobolds out of the local quarry.

Kobold Quarry

We approached the quarry, and saw six kobolds walking around outside near some caves.  We considered ambushing them, but instead decided to approach and ask to speak to their leader.  They told us their leader was too busy to talk to us.  Raz tried to intimidate them, but that just provoked them into attacking us.

Six kobolds shouldn't have been much of a challenge for our party, but we just sucked in this battle.  Fortunately the kobolds didn't do much damage, but we made up for it by damaging ourselves.  At one point Tanith fumbled and got tangled up in his gear.  Raz fumbled a Ray of Frost spell, giving herself an ice cream headache.  In all the chaos, two of the kobolds managed to get away.  We pursued them into the tunnels.

The Hand of God Adds Tunnels

Erevel led the way, checking for traps.  When we came to a fork, Halfbeard used his tracking skills to pick a tunnel.  At one point Erevel found a pit trap and guided us around it.  Eventually we reached a large room with a pile of vegetables and excrement in the middle.  On top of the mound was a leather sack.  At first we thought the sack was the lure for a trap, so we gave it a wide berth.  Then, in one alcove, we spotted a bound kobold. We spoke to her.

The kobold prisoner was named Nighttail the Glib and she was from a rival clan.  The sack belonged to her, and the pile of refuse was there for other kobolds to throw at her.  Seeing as we had a common enemy, Nighttail offered to help us.  She promised to give us a wand of Cure Light Wounds in exchange for our help.  She also had a pet dinosaur named Hack, who was being held in the next room.

Meeting Nighttail

As Nighttail led us through the tunnels, she mentioned that some human prisoners were being held in one of the rooms.  We'll take care of that after we defeat the kobold leader.  Down another hallway we saw a couple of kobold guards in front of a doorway.  There was a lot of straw on the floor, so Halfbeard tried to trick the guards by throwing an everburning torch at the straw at their feet.  These torches can't actually start fires, but the kobolds didn't know that, and one of them panicked and fled around the corner.  We killed the other one in short order.

 Lilith chased the one that got away, but set off a dart trap.  Once we tended to her wounds, we went around the corner and saw a hole.  Lilith climbed down first, and the rest of us followed.  In the lower room we faced a single kobold.  We finished him off, and prepared to explore the tunnels further.  We ended the session there.

Here's where we left off.

Dragon's Demand: Good Baron Sarvo Wills It

Game Date: 2/1/2014
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Dragon's Demand, Session 2
System: Pathfinder
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Erevel (Daniel) - Elf Rogue
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Ranger
Lilith (James) - Tiefling Paladin
Raz (Matt) - Human Sorcerer
Tanith Tularn (Thomas) - Human Cleric

The Session:

Last session ended with us thwarted by a river of acidic slime.  We returned to town, rested, and spent the next morning getting to know our way around the village and collecting rumors.  We learned all the latest juicy gossip:  The baroness allowed kobolds to move into an abandoned quarry.  Dragons still live nearby, and have been stealing boars.  There are unmarked mine shafts in the hills, haunted by the ghosts of miners.  The town Druid hasn't been seen in a while, and his pregnant wife is missing.  A wolf pack has been killing livestock.  The town wizard might be a devil worshiper.

We bought some wooden boards and nails, intending to make a makeshift bridge for the acid river.  We went to see the Baroness for supplies, but spoke to his son Arnhold instead.  He wasn't extremely helpful, and might not have even been sober, but he did arrange a bit of healing for us.  Once we felt ready to press on,  and headed back to the dungeon.  First we made our way towards the room with the control lever, so we could make the ledge appear beside the acid river. 

As we approached the control room, a voice spoke to us through the door.  Just like last session, it told us it was starving.  This time, Halfbeard tossed some rations through the window, and the voice replied, "Good Baron Salvo wills it."  It wasn't the first time we'd heard this phrase, and we decided to keep it in mind this time.  This time we were not attacked this time when we used the controls.

We reached the river and used our planks to cross it.  It took some fancy footwork to cross unscathed, but eventually we all made it to the other side.  We tried to pull the boards after us, but damaged them in the attempt.  Next we walked down a long hallway.  At the end there was a small room containing illusory magic.  We heard instructions that told us to close the door behind us before using the pass phrase.  We briefly split the party, each group entering the room, closing the door, saying "Good Baron Sarvo wills it", and proceeding into the next room. 

The next room was much larger.  It contained a four-armed arcane servant, but it made no move to attack us.  There was a lever against one wall, which we later learned controlled a pit trap in the previous room.  Glad we knew the pass phrase.  We also saw a key floating in the air.  As we approached the servant, it instructed us to "present the crest for passage."  Halfbeard had found a crest in the previous session (not that the rest of the party noticed), which he now presented.  The servant stepped aside.  The floating key turned out to fit in the back of the servant.

In the next room there were several treasure chests, but we couldn't reach them because they were behind bars.  There were two slots on the floor that might have been keyholes, but none of our keys fit them.  As we pondered the situation, a ghoul came from an adjoining hallway and attacked us.  We finished it off in a round, and peered down the hallway from which it had emerged.  The hall was barricaded and filled with booby traps.

After making our way through the traps, we emerged in a cave with a low ceiling, making everyone except Halfbeard crouch.  We saw a large pile of rubble and a lot of kobold tracks.  Searching more closely, we found two kobold bodies and one crushed human.  We believed it to be the wizard Hunclay.  We found two keys on his body, so of course we tried them in the treasure room.  No dice.

As we re-entered the cave, we were attacked by three kobolds.  It was a weird battle because we were stuck single file in the hallway, and Halfbeard took most of the damage since he was stuck in front.  Raz managed to make one fall asleep, we took down another, and the final one decided to parlay.  We asked the kobold about all the rubble, and she told us the kobolds had been hired by Hunclay to destroy the mage tower.  We continued to speak with her for a while, until we felt we'd learned all she could tell us.  Then we grabbed Hunclay's body to take it back to town. 

We used some of the larger pieces of rubble to make a bridge across the acid river, and headed out of the dungeon. We will pick up the story in town next week.