OAWYM: When Treasure Attacks

Game Date: 7/29/2017
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 35
Module: Scourge of the Slave Lords, Queen of the Spiders

System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Meece (Daniel) - Goblin Arcane Archer
Ulmack (Gary) - Halfling Monk
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Half-Orc Paladin

The Session:
After being asked to retrieve a book from a monastery, we fought several zombie monks and took a short rest.  Once we felt ready to continue, we explored more of the monastery.  We looked into a couple of empty rooms, finding a dorm and a kitchen, before reaching a much larger throne room.

The room had a river of lava separating us from a throne and two chests.  (This world's architects are crazy.)  But before we could think of going that direction, there were nine more zombie monks facing us.  Ulmack and Halbeard managed to kill one before the monks got a turn.  On Val's turn she used Turn the Unholy, causing four of the remaining eight to flee.  Then Val took more damage, lowering her maximum HP, down even more from last session.

Once we finished off the four, we went after the other four that had fled, and killed them one by one.  It was like shooting fish in a barrel.  We took another short rest in the dorm area, and headed back to the throne room.  We used our various flying items to get over the lava, and examined the new area.  Val checked out one chest while Ulmack looked at the other.  Val's chest was locked, and Ulmack's was a mimic.

Ulmack thwacked the mimic, and Val ran over to finish it off.  Val used her Detect Undead and felt a strange presence coming from the throne.  A red mist coalesced on the throne, and became a robed Elf vampire.  Meece used his winged boots to fly to the other side of the lava, attacking from range.  The vampire used Charm on Halfbeard, so we now faced two opponents.  The vamp tried to charm Val as well, but she was immune.

Halfbeard attacked Val, and brought her down to 1 very quickly.  Only her Half-Orc Relentless Endurance kept her on her feet.  We hit the vampire a few more times, attacking Halfbeard whenever the vampire was out of range.  We finally did enough damage to the vampire that it dissipated, turning back into a mist and escaping through holes in the throne.

Defeating the vamp didn't end Halfbeard's charm, so we had to take him down to 0.  Then we tied him up and healed him.  He was angry, but we managed to talk him into a truce.  (The Charm finally wore off 24 hours later.)  Then Val smashed open the remaining chest and found the book we'd been sent to find.  Back to town.

Once we gave our questgiver back his MacGuffin, he arranged passage for us on a merchant ship.  We hid aboard the ship until we were out of Iron Circle territory, and eventually made it back to Sarthel.  We managed to claim part of an old Iron Circle barracks to call our home base while we waited on more opportunities.  We have been given the title "The Knights of Sarthel."

A few weeks later Dame Gold requested our presence.  A barbarian prince had come to plead for help. His homeland was being invaded by giants.  The barbarians suspected that a greater force was behind the giants' actions.  He wanted assistance in defeating the giants, and to find out what was behind the attacks.  We agreed to travel to his homeland and assist their efforts.  And thus begins the next module.  We ended the session there, traveling to the prince's country.

OAWYM: Monky Business

Game Date: 7/15/2017
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 34
Module: Scourge of the Slave Lords
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Meece (Daniel) - Goblin Arcane Archer
Ulmack (Gary) - Halfling Monk
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Half-Orc Paladin

The Session:
After winning last week's epic battle, we took an extended rest.  During Val's watch, she became aware of a goblin trying to get into her backpack.  A few threats followed, but the goblin promised to help us get into the city, so we let him live.  And so Meece joined the party.

During the trek towards town, we saw some stone giants mining rocks, but we gave them a wide berth and avoided the fight. The next day we reached the city.  We entered through a sewer grate, and Meece led us though the tunnels.  Eventually we exited through a manhole cover.  We paid a beggar for info on places to hide out, and he directed us to the Thieves Quarter.  He also gave us a small ivory carving of a horse head. 

We wandered around town for a while, went into a few taverns, and finally found an inn with a sign that looked similar to our horse carving.  We asked the manager a lot of questions, and we were told to "seek out the knowledge that never dies."  We stayed overnight and bought some clothing.  The next morning we checked out the docks, but there was too much military activity for us to book a private ship.

We kept looking around town, and got spotted by some slavers.  They tried to give us some orders, but we bluffed our way out.  We kept exploring and wound up at a mapmaker's shop.  We told the mapmaker we wanted to get on a boat out of town.  He offered to arrange it in exchange for a side quest.  We need to head to an old monastery, and find a history book.

We left Dame Gold and the rest of the rescued slaves in a safe house, and we traveled to the monastery.  We had to walk up thousands of steps up a mountain until we reached the giant front doors of the building.  We pulled open the doors and entered the front room.  There were four giant pillars in the room, and we soon saw movement coming from them.

We faced several monk wights, and one wraith.  Meece took to the air using his flying boots, and started firing magical arrows from a distance.  Halfbeard used his invisibility to get a good first hit in.  Ulmack did an especially good job of punching multiple targets.  But these undead monks hit hard, and each hit lowered our maximum hit points. 

Val managed to kill the wraith by critting with an OA and adding Divine Smite.  Then she used her Turn the Unholy power to make two of the wights flee out a side door.  Then we kept hacking away, until we finally finished off the remaining wights.  Once the battle was over, Val did some healing while we waited to see if the two fleeing wights were going to return.  They did not.

We ended the session there, trying to decide whether to chase down the wights, explore more rooms, or take a short rest.  Most of us are currently at full health, but our max hp won't be restored until the next long rest.

OAWYM: Desert Strike

Game Date: 7/1/2017
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 33
Module: Scourge of the Slave Lords
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Karzen (Daniel) - Eladrin Artificer
Ulmack (Gary) - Halfling Monk
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Half-Orc Paladin
Velris (Graham) - Half-Elf Warlock

The Session:
We've defeated most of the slave lords, and now we're backtracking through the tunnels to make our way back home. After fighting our way through a large gate, we entered a tunnel that split into two directions.  The smaller tunnel was occupied by seven slavers, who Velris took out with a fireball (his fireball-spewing staff turned out to be the savior of the session).  There were three doors in the hallway, leading to some empty barracks. 

On the other end of the hall was a door leading back to the larger hallway.  Velris peeked through the door and killed another group of slavers with a fireball, and the remaining slavers fled in a panic.  We chased them and picked them off one by one.  Halfbeard tried to take the long way around and attack them from the other side, but sadly we'd finished them off before he got there.

We picked up a wagon and some horses, and led the rescued slaves out of the dungeon.  At this point we had ten former slaves as followers, plus Dame Gold.  We needed to travel through the desert to head back to the dockside town.  On the second day of our trek, we saw a large hobgoblin raiding party, with slaves of their own in tow.

We attempted to set up an ambush.  We placed ourselves in strategic locations and prepared for a fight.  We faced at least fifty hobgoblins, though most of them were low level.  Val failed a stealth check, causing the hobgoblins to investigate.  Then Velris fired off a fireball, and the battle was on.

It was a long, difficult fight, and we almost didn't make it.  Velris had the most kills, by taking out the weaker hobgoblins with fireballs.  But the hobgoblin captains were heavy hitters.  Ulmack went down several times, with Val healing him each time.  Then Halfbeard and Karzen went down as well.  The rescued slaves helped out, but they were too weak to do much.  It took them the entire battle to take out two enemies. 

It finally came down to Velris and Val.  Val kept some of the strongest Hobgoblins occupied, since they had trouble getting through her Cloak of Displacement.  Meanwhile Velris worked on crowd control.  When Velris finished off his opponents, he went to help Dame Gold, who was making death saves by this time.  Val finished off the final Hobgoblin with a Divine Smite.

After the battle, we healed our wounded and counted survivors.  Unfortunately Karzen didn't make it, having failed three death saves.  Dame Gold is still alive, along with four of the rescued slaves.  We looked for a safe place to take a long rest, and ended the session.

OAWYM: A Climactic Battle

Game Date: 6/24/2017
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 32
Module: Scourge of the Slave Lords
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Karzen (Daniel) - Eladrin Artificer
Ulmack (Gary) - Halfling Monk
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Half-Orc Paladin
Velris (Graham) - Half-Elf Warlock
Xevrick (Graham) - Elf Mystic

The Session:
Last week we escaped our captors, but we weren't out of the woods yet.  Separated from our equipment, we made our way through a burning town of escaping slaves.  We equipped ourselves with the armor and weapons of some slaver guards.  There was one way out - a vessel manned by several high-ranking slavers.

Xevrick was absent last session, and it turns out that he'd been sold to a drow, to be her pet.  The drow and Xevrick were on the ship, along with a monk, a thief, a cleric, a mage, a half-orc assassin, and a few more enemies.  There were more foes on the docks, including an armored ogre.  We came up with a few possible plans.

We decided to take out the magic users first.  We used some invisibility scrolls we'd found last session to sneak on board.  Val and Karzen headed for the cleric, while Byzun and Halfbeard headed for the mage.  Most of us made some pretty good stealth checks, but Byzun tripped and turned a few heads.  We rolled initiative, and most of our party rolled badly.

The drow went first, casting Faerie Fire in the area around Byzun.  The cleric then cast a Zone of Silence in the same area.  Xevrick went next, hitting his drow boss with a psychic blast and causing her to lose concentration the Faerie Fire.  The mage turned himself invisible before Halfbeard and Byzun could reach them.

The cleric used a powerful Earth Dragon channel divinity power, which took out all of Karzen's hit points.  The drow used a levitation power on Xevrick, but it ended up doing more good than harm.  Xevrick fired off a spell downwards at the drow, the monk, and the assassin.  It killed the monk and the drow, ending the levitation.

The mage cast a spell on Val, causing her to see a large bat-like monster.  The ogre made his way onto the ship, and beat Xevrick down to zero.  The cleric teleported away, using a Word of Recall spell.  After all this time Halfbeard was still invisible, and closed in on the mage.  Halfbeard rolled well, used his action surge, and took out the mage in one turn.

We noticed that the dockside guards were busy fighting off more slaves, and things were starting to look up.  Then Byzun went down.  Val healed Karzen, and Halfbeard finished off the ogre.  Val killed the half-orc assassin, and started looking for more allies to heal.  Unfortunately, both Xevrick and Byzun had failed three death saves before she could reach them.  Halfbeard killed the final enemy, ending the battle.

About fifteen slaves (including Dame Gold) joined us on the ship, and we sailed away.  Our lost possessions were in the cargo hold, so we reequipped ourselves, leveled up, and took a much needed long rest.  Xevrick's and Byzun's players rolled up new characters, who were among the slaves we rescued.  Ulmac the halfling monk and Velris the half-elf warlock officially joined the party.

The geography of this island is weird and I'm not sure I really understand it.  Apparently the island is inside a giant volcano.  We sailed our ship to the outer edge of the volcano, left the ship, and headed for the tunnels that hopefully exit the volcano.  There were about eighty guards in the tunnels, so we discussed other possible plans for a while.  We could possibly use a Plane Shift spell, or fly people out the top of the volcano one at a time.

But we figured it was our mission to destroy the slavers, so we might as well go with the plan that kills the most of them.  We decided to confront the guard tunnel head on.  We faced a gigantic door surrounded by arrow slits.  Velris invisibly approached the gates and peeked through the arrow slits.  He saw two worried guards discussing recent events.  He killed them through the arrow slits using Warlock spells, then used a Passwall spell to open a hole in the wall.

We charged the gate, going through the opening and killing everyone within.  There were about fifteen enemies, but half of them were lined up in a row, making them a perfect target for a Lightning spell.  These enemies were very outclassed and we had no trouble finishing the rest off.  We ended the session right after the battle, but we could hear reinforcements approaching from down the hall.  We'll have to deal with that next week.

OAWYM: The Great Escape

Game Date: 6/10/2017
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 31
Module: Scourge of the Slave Lords
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Karzen (Daniel) - Eladrin Artificer
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Half-Orc Paladin

The Session:
The entire party has been captured, tortured to death, raised, and tortured some more.  We spent days, maybe weeks, in separate cells, knowing nothing but pain. Time lost all meaning while the slavers broke us over and over.  Finally we heard one of the commanders say, "The Earth Dragon has awoken."  We blacked out and woke up in a cave, together again for the first time in a while.

There were hallways in all four directions.  Every once in a while the floor would rumble.  We were each at one hit point, clad in nothing but loincloths.  We had no spells prepared, as we would have used them up while resisting torture, and our captors never let us sleep more than three hours at a time.  We're all under the effects of an "Ordeal" from having been tortured and raised, so we have -4 to most of our d20 rolls until we get a few long rests in.

We found a scroll tube on the ground.  Inside there was a note telling us to seek out the Water Dragon.  There were also a few spell scrolls inside.  We took a short rest to spend a few hit dice, and looked for something to use as weapons.  Halfbeard found a few rocks, and took off his loincloth to use as a sling.  And that image is now burned into my mind forever.

You're welcome.

The four tunnels were pretty much identical, but we saw a bit of light in one direction, so we headed that way.  While walking down the tunnel, we were attacked by a sandling - basically a sand elemental.  We tried to run past it, but encountered a will-o-the-wisp.  Both creatures would have been easy under normal circumstances, but without armor or weapons not so much.

We ran back in the direction of the first chamber, while the sandling and wisp fought each other.  The enemies did not follow us.  Then we picked a different tunnel.  We found a pool of crystal clear water.  It did not detect as magical, and we each drank some.  It was the best thing we'd had in days.  Halfbeard dove in and caught some fish and clams, and we ate well for the first time since being captured.

It looked like there was a larger underwater cavern behind the pool, so Val dove in and got attacked by a giant crayfish.  The party helped her out, with Byzun delivering the killing blow.  We found that crayfish is good eatin'.  We also found some sharp seashells that could be used like daggers.

Next we came to a room full of large mushrooms and fire beetles.  We tried running past them to the next hall, but a fight was inevitable.  We made short work of them and moved on.  We managed to use material from the giant mushrooms and beetles to make clubs and shields.

In the next hallway, we fought a roper.  Luckily it was much smaller and easier than the ones we encountered a few sessions ago.  After Halfbeard killed it, he found some valuable gems in its gullet, one worth about 5,000 gp.  Now that Halfbeard had a club, he no longer needed a sling, so he... (Val: "Please put the loincloth back on, please put the loincloth back on, please put the loincloth back on") ...fashioned his loincloth into a bag to hold the gems.  ("Dammit.")  Then he tied the bag into his beard so he could keep his hands free.

After a few more tunnels, we saw a way out.  There was a large cavern full of bats, with an exit at the opposite end.  Unfortunately, there was a 20-foot wide pit between us and the cavern.  Byzun cast light on a rock and dropped it to check the depth, and found it was hundreds of feet deep.  We used one of the scrolls we'd found earlier to cast Spider Climb on Val, and had her climb around the pit.  Then we used some rope made of roper tentacles to help the rest of the party across.

...at least, we tried to.  As Karzen made his way across the rope, he failed his athletics check, badly.  He fell, but was quickly caught by a sticky line from another direction.  He was snagged by a cave fisher, basically a web-spitting scorpion.  The fisher pulled Karzen into an alcove up above us, and attacked him.  Byzun threw a few cantrips at it and Val tried throwing a rock.  Halfbeard used a goading attack on the fisher, causing it to climb down and target him instead.  The dwarf then quickly finished off the cave fisher and knocked its body into the pit.

Once we all made it across the ravine, we looked for more cave fisher alcoves.  There was one on our our side of the pit.  Val was still under the effects of Spider Climb, and Karzun convinced her to climb up and check it out.  She peeked into the lair, and got hit in the face with a fisher attack, taking her down to four hit points.  She climbed back down, healed herself a little, and we went out the exit.

We came out in the forest.  We knew about where we were, having crossed this island last session.  From here we could get to the compound, the shantytown, the keep, the docks, etc.  However, there was a lot going on.  Apparently the volcano had recently erupted.  We could see a lot of fire and smoke in one distance, an injured drake in another, and a fog of yellow vapor over the compound.

We walked around the vapor and into the shantytown, where the slaves were overthrowing their slavers.  The slaves told us that the keep was destroyed and the slave lords were trying to leave.  They pointed out where we could find Dame Gold, and helped us equip ourselves with armor and swords from some guards they'd killed.

Now dressed in guard armor, we went around a corner and were almost attacked by another group of slaves.  One of them recognized Val; it was someone she'd danced with at Dame Gold's party more than fifteen sessions ago.  The slaves gave us more information, as well as a few spell scrolls which we used to heal up the party a little.

At the docks in the distance, we saw one ship carved like a dragon, which we are hoping is the "Water Dragon" we were told to seek earlier.  We ended the session there.  We're considering heading back to the keep to get our lost items, and/or pursuing the surviving slave lords.  Either way, there's a good chance we'll finish up this module next session.

Reminder: Next week is Free RPG day, so our normal campaign will resume on 6/24.

OAWYM: Prison Bound

Game Date: 6/3/2017
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 30
Module: Scourge of the Slave Lords
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Halfbeard (Gary, subbing for Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Karzen (Daniel) - Eladrin Artificer
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Half-Orc Paladin
Xevrick (Graham) - Elf Mystic

The Session:
Last week we were rescued by some Leprechauns.  Among their number was an Eladrin Artificer named Karzen, who joined our party.  He has a large mechanical panther as a companion. 

We went through a few more hallways.  Val set off a spike trap while opening a door, taking a few points of damage.  A few halls later we reached a very large room with columns supporting a high ceiling.  In the center of the room was an Ankylosaurus.  On the far side of the room was a throne, upon which sat a large undead gnoll. The throne was flanked by six gnolls and six ghouls.  Shortly after the battle started, five more gnolls appeared from behind some columns.

It looked like it was going to be a hard fight, but nothing was what it appeared to be.  Karzen shot the dinosaur, which broke an illusion, revealing it to be a rust monster.  Xevrick then killed the rust monster before it had a chance to harm anyone's equipment.  Karzen later hit the undead gnoll, which turned out to be just some robed guy.  The rest of the gnolls and ghouls also turned out to be easier than they looked.

Twice the boss tried to hit us with spells, only for Byzun to stop them with a counterspell.  Halfbeard dealt the killing blow to the boss, and we spent a couple of more rounds mopping up the remaining foes.  We searched the room, and found a secret door.  We took a long rest to level up, and went through the door. 

It led outside.  We found ourselves high up on the mountain, on a path that wound around and downward. We looked up and saw a watchtower on the mountain's peak.  We used a combination of flying and climbing to reach the watchtower, then we climbed/flew some more to get to the top.  As we peeked over the top of the tower, we saw two guards.  Xevrick hit both of them with psionic blast, doing 36 damage.  Turns out they only had 4 hit points.  Oh well, there's no kill like an overkill.

We waited until morning so we could see better, then climbed back down.  The path eventually led to a guarded door.  On the right side of the path was a cliff wall, and the left side was a long drop (anyone remember the computer game Test Drive?)  We spent a long time deciding whether to walk to the door, climb down and back up, or climb up and back down.  Finally we just took the direct route.

Test Drive

Most of our party wore Iron Circle robes, while Halfbeard and Val pretended to be prisoners.  A guard stopped us halfway to the door, and Xevrick used a Jedi mind trick to convince him it was a prisoner transfer.  The doorway led us back underground.  After a bit of traveling, we came up through a hole, and found ourselves on an island.

The island had two major buildings - a well-guarded compound and a castle.  There was also a shantytown, some docks, and a volcanic crater.  We took the road to the compound first, but it looked too difficult to attempt.  We kept walking until we reached the castle.  Once again, we were stopped by guards.  Our act wasn't quite as convincing this time, but it got us in.

They took Val and Halfbeard to the dungeons, where they tortured them to death and resurrected them for more torture.  Meanwhile, they interviewed Xevrick, Byzun, and Karzen, using a Zone of Truth spell.  The spell meant our party had to word their answers very carefully.  It helped that Xevrick and Karzen joined the party after we became wanted, but Byzun had to be especially careful with his responses.

Our party presented themselves as bounty hunters, who were turning Val and Halfbeard in for a reward.  The Iron Circle interviewers offered them a position in their organization, and gave them exquisite rooms to stay for the night.  Later that night, Byzun, Xevrick, and Karzen tried to sneak downstairs to find the dungeons.  They found guards waiting outside their rooms, who were instructed to keep them from wandering.

Xevrick distracted one guard while Byzun and Karzen tried to sneak down the hall.  They were stopped almost immediately, and the fighting started.  At first it was just four guards, but more kept coming.  They took out a few guards and made their way down to the next floor, but higher level reinforcements kept them from getting much further.

After a long battle, Byzun and Karzen went down, and Xevrick surrendered.  We ended the session there, with everyone captured.  Reminder: Halfbeard and Val are currently under the effects of a Resurrection Ordeal: -4 to Attack rolls, Saves, and Ability Checks.  This penalty will be reduced by 1 after each long rest.

OAWYM: Everybody Must Get Stoned

Game Date: 5/27/2017
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 29
Module: Scourge of the Slave Lords
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Robb (Daniel) - Human Rogue
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Half-Orc Paladin
Xevrick (Graham) - Elf Mystic

The Session:
Continuing through the dungeon we entered last session.  We went through a few more halls until we reached a room containing five gnolls and three hyenas.  We made short work of them and continued through the door on the other side.  After a few more hallways, we went down some stairs and reached an unusual room.

The room was filled with some sort of weird goo that reminded us marshmallow creme.  There was a one-foot-wide path above the goo, leading from one side of the room to the other.  Halfway through the room was a wall of lightning.  We considered several possible ways of getting through the lightning wall.  Robb and Halfbeard decided to backtrack a bit to see if we'd missed any side passages, while the rest of us stayed in the room and pondered the puzzle.

Robb and Halfbeard encountered a little guy who turned out to be a Leprechaun named Darby, who agreed to accompany them back to the rest of the party.  Meanwhile, Xevrick tried walking through the lightning wall, taking some damage but not having any additional trouble.  Val and Byzun followed.  Then Halfbeard, Robb, and Darby reached the room, and followed us through the lightning wall.

Darby panicked at the lightning and fell into the goo.  Halfbeard jumped in after him.  It turned out the goo was not dangerous, and you could even breathe under there.  In fact, that was the real solution to the puzzle - the lightning wall didn't damage you while under the goo.  While down there, Halfbeard found a magic sword sheathed in an invisible scabbard.

We exited up the stairs on the far side of the room, and Xevrick used magic to clean the goo off everyone.  A few halls later, we found an empty room with only one interesting feature.  In the center of the room, a rope hung from the ceiling.  Most of the party stood in the hall while Byzun pulled on the rope.  The floor folded away, revealing a pit of corrosive liquid, and a secret door opened on the far wall.

Between Byzun's winged boots and Halfbeard's flying broom, we managed to get the party through the secret door.  A couple more halls, and we found a room containing two statues of ropers.  Well, we thought they were statues, but they were actually real ropers with stoney skin.  Byzun started the battle by casting Reduce on one roper. It lessened his damage slightly, but these were still some tough opponents.

Each roper had five attacks per turn - four tentacles with a very long reach, and one bite.  They could also petrify their opponents, a fate which befell several of us.  Val was the first to get petrified, followed by Byzun.  Xevrick tried to stay out of their range and attack with spells, but he misjudged the distance and got petrified as well.  Robb took lethal damage and failed three death saves.

Darby summoned a rainbow bridge, and yelled for us to flee with him.  Only Halfbeard was still standing at that point, but he managed to pull the petrified Byzun with him through Darby's portal.  The Leprechauns restored Byzun and allowed them to rest for a couple of days in their realm.  Then they assembled a Leprechaun rescue party (we all got to build Leprechaun characters for this one battle), and everyone came back to our plane. 

By this time one of the ropers had wandered off.  The rescue party blasted the remaining roper with their most powerful spells, taking it out quickly.  Then the Leprechauns used restoration spells on Xevrick and Val, returning them to normal.  Unfortunately, it was too late to do anything for Robb.  They let us hang out with them for a while, and offered to sell us their wares.

As soon as we all felt ready to continue adventuring, we ended the session.

OAWYM: Working In The Salt Mines

Game Date: 5/13/2017
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 28
Module: Scourge of the Slave Lords
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Robb (Daniel) - Human Rogue
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Half-Orc Paladin
Xevrick (Graham) - Elf Mystic

The Session:
Today we left town using a Passwall spell, and proceeded to follow the path of the slave traders.  We rested during the day and traveled mostly by night.  Late on the second day we discovered we were being tracked by several ogres.  Xevrick tried talking to them, but we ended up in combat.

The first round they threw javelins at us while they drew closer.  Six of them stood in a nice row, allowing Byzun to throw a lightning bolt.  They didn't have very high AC, so it wasn't a particularly long fight.  Once they were all defeated, we found their lair and spent the night.  During one watch we saw a kobold in the back of the tunnels, but we let it be.

We kept traveling.  The next night we had some very bad weather, but we made it through.  The next morning we saw some stones in the shape of an arrow.  We followed the arrow and soon found another one.  The arrows eventually led us to some cracks in the base of a mountain, big enough to enter.

Xevrick turned into a bat and explored some of the passages, while we entered another crack.  Eventually we ran back into each other, and Xevrick showed us a large room he'd found.  We saw some big strips of meat, being prepared like jerky.  We were walking down one hallway when we set off a pit trap.  Byzun and Xevrick failed their saves and slid down an 80 foot tunnel, landing in a large mound of salt.

They were backed against the wall, surrounded by ten gnolls.  The rest of the party gradually joined them, and the fight was on.  Halfbeard flew into the room on his broom, divebombing a gnoll on his way in.  Most of the party spent the fight slowed, but we still prevailed.  The gnolls were no match for us.  After the fight, we explored several tunnels down there, but most of them led to dead ends.

The final tunnel led to a large cavern.  We saw a door on the opposite end, and we sent Robb in to investigate.  As he sneaked through the room, a couple of "piercers" (living stalactites) dropped from the ceiling and attacked.  We looked at the ceiling and saw hundreds of them writhing up there.  They were more annoying than dangerous, but we still didn't want to fight our way through that many.

Byzun threw a fireball at the ceiling, dropping a bunch of them.  We made our way to the door, only to find the door was fake.  But from that angle we did see another tunnel we hadn't seen before.  We ran for that tunnel, taking a few more hits from the piercers, and took a short rest once we were safe.  We ended the session there.

OAWYM: Riddle of the Sphinx

Game Date: 4/29/2017
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 27
Module: Scourge of the Slave Lords
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Robb (Daniel) - Human Rogue
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin
Xevrick (Graham) - Elf Mystic

The Session:
Last week we finally met Hassan Gold, a.k.a. Geoff the Bard, Werewolf/McGuffin.  Our mission was to either cure his lycanthropy or finish him off.  We thought we'd cured him last week, but a rules clarification revealed that he's still cursed.  Shortly after meeting him we were attacked by an innkeeper couple, and Geoff sided with them.  We were confused as to whether Geoff was attacking us of his own volition.

So today started with the fight.  The innkeepers were a couple of pushovers, with Byzun and Halfbeard each dropping one on their first turns.  As they died, they reverted into their true forms - Jackalweres.  We weren't out of the woods, though.  Geoff continued to fight us, and some howls outside turned out to be reinforcements - two wargs and six wolves.

It still wasn't a tough fight.  Val and Halfbeard took out most of the wolves, while the rest of the party worked over Geoff.  When everything was finally defeated, we kept Geoff alive for questioning.  We asked him if we could help cure him.  He told us that he needed 10,000 gold to pay a Sphinx for a cure, but he also said he wanted to keep the gold and stay a werewolf.

We found a trapdoor behind the bar, which hid a chest containing gold, silver, copper, a map tube, and a potion of sending.  There wasn't nearly 10,000 gold in the chest, unfortunately.  We considered just killing Geoff and getting on with our lives, but we still weren't quite ready to give up on curing him.  We had to decide whether to head for the Sphinx and try to reach a deal, or head back to the Elf Village and see if they could cure lycanthropy.

The Sphinx was closer, so we headed that way.  We took all of Geoff's possessions, and force marched him naked to the Sphinx's ruins.  As we neared the site, we saw a lot of activity.  Many people were working on rebuilding the ruins.  We marched into the area and asked to be taken to the Sphinx.  The Sphinx's servants gave us a place to stay for the night, and the next morning they led us up the steps of the main pyramid.

We offered our services in exchange for a cure.  The Sphinx offered us a quest and a riddle, or perhaps the riddle was part of the quest, or perhaps the quest was to answer a riddle... the details were fuzzy.  We did learn that failure meant we would become the Sphinx's servants.  We discussed our options at length. Did we really want to help this creature?  We'd seen signs of Graz'zt around the site, and we didn't want to help anyone evil.

After we spent lots of time talking, Halfbeard got bored and said, "Gimme the riddle already".  The rest of us joined him, because we're that kind of team.  The Sphinx told us that in order to prepare for the quest, we had to willingly submit to a ritual.  That turned out to be the Sphinx's betrayal - the ritual turned out to be a geas which compelled us to leave the ruins and forget everything we'd seen there.

We found ourselves traveling back to the Elf Village, not quite sure what had happened to Geoff, but pretty sure we'd killed him.  At least, we convinced ourselves that it was the most likely thing that had happened, since Geoff was no longer with us, and the geas kept us from wanting to go back to find out more.  We decided it was time to leave the island and find Dame Gold.

We'd heard Dame Gold had been kidnapped.  We decided to use the potion of sending to find her.  We waited until we reached the docks, then we sent this message: "We found Hassan.  We had to kill him.  What is your location and status?  Is a rescue possible?"  She replied, telling us the name of the city and her captors.  She was being held in Suderham, a hidden city ruled by the Iron Circle.  We knew the general location, but we would have to search for it when we got there.

We booked a ship, and disembarked in a rowboat near a small coastal town.  We're wanted fugitives, so we had to be careful.  Robb searched around the seedier areas for contacts, looking for ways to find Suderham.  He learned there was a path south of town, rumored to lead to the hidden city.  But because of the slave trade, you needed special permission to leave through the South gate.

We discussed several options. Fly over the wall.  Tunnel under it.  Forge some papers.  Pretend to be slaves.  Take a rowboat farther down the coast and work our way back to the path.  We finally decided to wait until late night and use a Passwall spell to leave town.  There may be further discussion, but so far that looks like the plan we'll put into action when we play again next week.

OAWYM: Mystic Spiral

Game Date: 4/22/2017
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 26
Module: Scourge of the Slave Lords
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Robb (Daniel) - Human Rogue
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin
Xevrick (Graham) - Elf Mystic

The Session:

Today we continued our exploration of a dungeon we found by accident.  We finished a long rest in a small room, and Robb unlocked the next door we found.  It opened into a large room.  There was a shallow creek running across the floor, a throne in one corner, and a troll.  The troll was trying to find a way to reach a hole in the ceiling.  We could see part of a rope which had broken under the troll's weight.

A few sessions ago we had a bad experience with trolls, but this time we only faced one.  We rushed him.  On the troll's turn, he did a large amount of damage to Halfbeard, but we managed to take the troll down in just over one round.

After the battle, we examined the throne.  It looked like it was encrusted with jewels, but they turned out to be colored glass and semi-precious stones.  There were some ashes in the seat.  Val chopped off a piece of the troll and tossed it onto the throne, and it burst into flames.  We decided not to sit in it.

There was another door on the back wall, locked with a complex wheel mechanism.  It wasn't too complex for the party rogue, and we looked into the next room.  It was an octagonal chamber, containing a huge throne and eight connected cylinders.  Seven of the cylinders were broken, but the remaining one held the body of an elf.

We freed the elf, who was still alive but couldn't remember how he got there.  His name was Xevrick, and he spoke to us using telepathy.  We examined the room while Xevrick tried to remember his past.  We learned that the room was designed to harness the power of psionics, and it had something to do with the demon lord Graz'zt.

We decided to leave the dungeon through the hole in the previous room's ceiling.  We used a telekinesis spell and the broken rope to get everybody out.  We made our way to the nearby Elf village.  Once there, Xevrick met up with the village elder/historian, and caught up on some history.  It turned out Xevrick had been put into suspended animation over 6,000 years ago.

While Xevrick took a trip down memory lane, the rest of us traded with the elves and updated our equipment. This village had a lot of uncommon items in stock, and some decent prices to boot.  We'll have to remember to stop back by every once in a while, assuming we ever come back to this island once we complete our sidequest.  We spent about two weeks of downtime in the elf village before we continued our trip. 

We traveled for a few days in miserable rainy weather.  Eventually we saw a sign that said "Wayfarer's Rest", and a bit later on we found an inn.  The owners were a very nice couple, and they went out of their way to make us feel welcome.  Despite their hospitality, we were suspicious.  This was not a well-traveled road; how in the world did they stay in business?  Before we could talk too much about it, we heard howls outside.

Val accompanied the bartender to close the gate.  Shortly thereafter, a traveling bard banged on the gate, and we let him in.  He introduced himself as the Jeffrey the Troubadour, but after we talked for a while we discovered the he was, in fact, Hassan Gold.  To recap - twelve session ago, Dame Gold hired us to find her brother Hassan, and deliver him a potion to cure his lycanthropy.  Failing that, we were to kill him.  We've long since lost that potion, so we knew we were on an assassination mission.

We asked Hassan about his lycanthropy, and he showed us his bite.  However, he claimed he'd managed to keep the disease at bay so far.  Xevrick has the ability to cure diseases, which he promptly used on Hassan.  A bit anti-climactic, but we'd been off the rails for a while so it was nice to actually accomplish something.  Now cured, Hassan started asking us about Dame Gold.  We began to explain that she'd been kidnapped, when the owners attacked us.

The barmaid used some sort of gaze attack, and Hassan cast slow on us.  Note, we're not 100% sure who's on whose side, but we're pretty sure the gaze put Hassan under the barmaid's control, and that's why he's suddenly turned on us.  But we can't take anything for granted.  We ended the session there, ready to roll initiative.

OAWYM: Breaking Through The Firewall

Game Date: 3/25/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 25
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Halfbeard (Daniel, subbing for Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Robb (Daniel) - Human Rogue
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin

The Session:

After resting up at the logging camp, we continued our trip to the second ruins site.  After a day's travel we set up camp for the night.  During Byzun's watch, he failed a spot check and we were ambushed by five trolls. Or were we?  After a tough battle, we found out that four of the trolls may have been a hallucination brought on by the stench of Halfbeard's underwear.  Or something.  Moving on...

We reached the ruins the next day.  We looked around and saw some draconic runes engraved on the old buildings.  We took another rest, after which we heard more troll noises.  We took refuge in a tunnel that turned out to be an animal den.  Robb watched from the hole, and saw about fifteen trolls scouting about.  They found our campsite and destroyed it.  We decided to stay put for a bit.

Since we had time to kill, we explored some other tunnels that branched out from the back of the den.  Two of them led to stone rooms.  We crawled through one, and entered the remains of a wine cellar.  The wine bottles were labeled in draconic.  We put a few aside to give to the elves later.  Down one hallway we found a meat locker, still stocked with meat, kept cool through magic.  Some of the meat came from large lizards, and some came from a six-legged cow.

In another room Val triggered a pit trap and hurt herself on some spikes.  After pulling her out, the party locked the trap and explored the room.  We saw a chair designed to accommodate someone with a tail. There were some empty bookshelves but not much of interest.  We didn't see any other exits from this area, so we headed back to the tunnels, through the den, through another tunnel, and into a stone hallway.

This hallway had a secret door, and some stairs going down.  Robb tripped a collapsing stair trap but managed not to fall in.  He reset and locked the trap so the rest of us could follow.  We found a room with a dining table, a buffet table, and an armoire.  Why the hell does this spellcheck not recognize armoire?  Robb unlocked the armoire, accidentally triggering a trap that hit the party with lightning.  We all saved for half damage.

The armoire contained some ruined pieces of silverware, and sixteen gems worth 50 gold each.  Down another hall we entered a huge lounge room with three doors on the opposite wall.  The first door led to a hallway, but we decided to hold off on that one.  The middle door was made of steel, and locked.  Robb opened it and saw a cell filled with ghouls.  We tried to close and lock it again, but they managed to push it open.

It wasn't a bad fight.  Val planned to try out Turn Undead for the first time, but she was last in initiative, and half the ghouls were dead by her turn.  After the fight, Val noticed that they were ghouls of elves, which normally isn't possible.  We opened door number three, and saw an altar to Tiamat.  There was another door in that room, which led to a T-shaped hallway.  We put off going that way and went back to the first of the three doors in the lounge.

Robb sneaked down a hall and looked around the corner, where he saw a flesh golem.  God damn it, spellcheck, golem is a perfectly common word.  The party tried to tiptoe away, but we're not all as stealthy as Robb, and the golem came after us.  We waited for it in the lounge, and Byzun put a wall of fire across the doorway.  We fought it in the doorway until it finally burst through the fire wall.  We knew the golem didn't like fire, so Byzun concentrated on fire spells, eventually delivering the killing blow.

We ended the session there.  We have three possible directions to explore next session - the flesh golem's hallway, and both directions from the T-junction.

OAWYM: Another One Bites The Dust

Game Date: 3/18/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 24
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Malcer (Graham) - Human Monk
Robb (Daniel) - Human Rogue
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin
Tatio - Malcer's Companion

The Session:
Last session we fought a buttload of orcs.  This session, for variety's sake, we fought a buttload of orcs.

After our victory last session, we bedded down in the ruins to recover.  In the middle of the night, a swarm of giant bats came out of the well in the center of the ruins, but they didn't bother us.  A few hours later they returned to the well.  Once we were all well-rested, we looked around the ruins for clues.  We considered going down into the well, but decided to come back another day.  We left the ruins and rode on to the logging camp.

We asked the lumberjacks if they'd seen any werewolves, but they didn't have a lot of information for us.  They did mention having seen Hassan Gold pass through a while back with some companions.  They allowed us to stay the night.  Later that night, we woke to the sound of orc war drums.  The orcs had surrounded the camp.

Our party picked an entrance and joined the loggers in defending the camp.  Halfbeard, Val, and Tatio stayed on the ground, while Byzun, Malcer, and Robb took positions up on the wall.  The camp faced about a hundred orcs, but a good portion of them were handwaved as being in combat with NPCs, so our combat focused on the ones attacking our part of the wall.  We personally faced two chieftains, two warlords on wolfback, an orc witch, twenty-something orc warriors.

Right at the start of battle, one of the wolf riders jumped up on the wall, taking down Malcer before he even had a turn.  Byzun managed to hit eleven orcs with a fireball, killing eight.  The chieftains climbed the wall and fought Byzun and Robb.  One chieftain in particular chased Robb all over the battlefield, while out-of-character we hummed the Benny Hill theme song. 

Byzun took out a few more orcs with an Ice Storm spell.  He also conjured a magic weapon, but so did the orc witch.  When we were finally down to a few enemies, Halfbeard rolled two consecutive crits to finish the last warlord.  His wolf mount tried to flee but Halfbeard killed it with an opportunity attack.  The witch also fled, but she actually managed to get away. 

Unfortunately, Malcer failed three death saves.  After the battle, we helped the loggers gather their dead, attended some funerals, and patched up some of the damage.  The head merchant was so grateful for our help that he gave us a letter of credit for 20,000 gold.  We rested up and ended the session.  Malcer's player is planning to roll up a Mystic for next session.

After the session, our brave DM attempted the Toe of Satan challenge - can he keep the world's hottest lollipop in his mouth for five minutes?  Let's find out:

OAWYM: Call the Orcan Army

Game Date: 3/4/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 23
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Malcer (Daniel, subbing for Graham) - Human Monk
Robb (Daniel) - Human Rogue
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin
Tatio - Malcer's Companion

The Session:
Last session we pitted a warship versus a slave ship, and ended up all wet.  Today we started with Malcer, Halfbeard, and Byzun climbing onto a sailing vessel while Val, Robb,and Tatio climbed to shore.  Malcer's group encountered a few Iron Circle sailors, but they were unprepared for a fight.  Halfbeard asked them where their captain was, and they pointed him in the right direction.

Halfbeard tried to intimidate the captain into surrendering, but he wasn't going to go down without a fight.  At first the other sailors just watched the altercation, but after a couple of rounds Val's group climbed onto the ship, and the sailors started to fight back.  It wasn't long before the captain and the four sailors were defeated.  More crew members emerged from below decks, but they surrendered right away. 

We ordered the crew to set sail, and even paid them for their work.  We spent four days sailing to the other side of the island, and docked at a town on the North side.  We ordered the crew to disembark, and sold the ship to a local merchant.

Now to our mission.  Several sessions ago, Dame Gold hired us to find her brother Hassan, in order to cure his lycanthropy.  Failing that, we were to put him out of his misery.  We are no longer in possession of the antidote, so unless we find another cure, we're probably going to have to kill him. 

We asked around town if they knew anything about Hassan Gold, and learned that no one had seen him in a few weeks.  Hassan was an amateur archaeologist, who had been investigating some nearby ruins.  Nobody knew which ruins he had most recently explored, but there were three sites in the area.  The closest was about one day's journey away.

We bought some horses and had our weapons coated in silver.  We headed out in the direction of a logging camp, and stopped at the ruins along the way.  We reached the ruins at night, under a full moon.  We saw what we first thought were some gnolls, and we called out to them.  They appeared to flee, and we started looking for a place to camp for the night.

Alas, it was a trap.  We were soon surrounded by a large number of orcs.  In total we faced 25 opponents: 23 orcs (including a chieftain and a cleric) and two krenshars.  Val spoke to them in Orcish, letting them know we were only looking for werewolves.  The chieftain complimented her Orcish and ordered his troops to allow Val to live.  Then they attacked.

It was a huge, harrowing fight.  Byzun started off with a fireball, which hit five and killed four.  A few rounds later he used another fireball to hit six, killing three.  As the fight went on, we started to form smaller groups.  Val faced three Orcs, while Malcer and Tatio fought seven Orcs and the two Krenshars.  Halfbeard took on the chieftain, Byzun faced the cleric, and Robb used hit-and-run tactics to snipe enemies from a distance. 

Byzun was the first to go down, and we started to get overwhelmed.  The chieftain was very powerful, and took Halfbeard down several times.  Most of us went up and down, getting healed for a few hit points only to go back down the next round.  The only party member to stay on his feet the whole time was Robb, who got chased around the battlefield by the chieftain. 

When Val went down, the Orcs actually went over to her to stabilize her, per the chieftain's orders.  Malcer spent most of the battle unconscious, until finally getting healed by Tatio.  Once up, Malcer dealt a death blow to the chieftain.  The last remaining Orc tried to make a run for it, but Malcer was much faster, and took him down.

The chieftain and the cleric had some nice loot.  Val picked up a set of lightning-resistant plate mail, Byzun acquired a Staff of the Magi, Halfbeard took a +2 breastplate, and Robb wound up with a Ring of Water Elemental Control. We ended the session there, intending to camp for the night.

OAWYM: Grounding The Warship He Walked On

Game Date: 2/25/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 22
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Malcer (Graham) - Human Monk
Marcella (Lanessa) - Human Bard
Robb (Daniel) - Human Rogue
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin
Virgil (Nick) - Human Fighter
Tatio - Malcer's Companion

The Session:
I missed a couple of sessions, during which the party continued clearing out a temple occupied by Iron Circle slavers.  After several more battles, they found a large amount of money and some legal documents.  Then fled the temple and returned to our safe house in Highport.  We spent some downtime studying the documents and deciding our next course of action.

We learned of a slaver caravan that had recently left Highport headed South.  We decided to track it down and rescue the slaves.  We started out on foot, then bought some horses in the first village we passed through.  Then we spent several days traveling on horseback.  At one point we spied a large group of Orcs in the forest, who were busy looting a wagon.  We managed to sneak by their encampment without being detected, and continued on.

Then we traveled through Goblin territory.  We expected a few fights, but they just asked us to pay a small toll.  They drew marks on us so later Goblins would know we paid the toll, and we made it through their land without incident.  Next we went through Gnoll territory, and had pretty much the same experience, although their method of marking us was a bit more disgusting.

Next we reached a keep occupied by Hobgoblins.  Marcella used a disguise spell to make herself look like one of the Iron Circle officials, and we bluffed our way through the encounter.  Marcella explored the gatehouse a little bit, saw some luminescent spiders, and was intrigued by some footprints leading to a window.  We let the horses rest for a couple of hours and went on our way.

Eventually we reached the Southern port.  There were just a few buildings and a dock.  We saw three docked ships - a warship, a sailing vessel, and a galley slave ship.  We had our sneakier party members check out the buildings first, but didn't find much of interest.  Then we started looking at the ships.

Marcella decided to check out the slave ship, while Robb sabotaged the warship.  Robb stealthily made his way to the warship's armory, intending to ignite a powder keg.  Meanwhile, Marcella used another disguise spell in hopes of locating the slaves.  She found them in the belly of the galley, but some Orc guards stopped her and asked her why she was there.

Marcella tried to intimidate them, but that only initiated combat that much faster.  She started out by casting Thunderwave, which caused enough noise to alert the rest of the party back at the docks.  We made our way to the ship to see if she needed help.  Marcella quickly found herself surrounded, but managed to end the battle using a Charm spell.  The Orcs allowed her to leave in peace, but they wouldn't let her release the slaves.

Byzun, Val, Virgil, and Tatio climbed onto the upper deck of the ship, where they got into a fight with several guards and sailors.  Halfbeard stayed behind for a couple of rounds, but eventually made his way to the ship to join the fight.  Malcer kept failing his Athletics checks to climb aboard the ship, and spent a few rounds flopping about in the water.

When we were down to just a couple of enemies, several more guards and sailors arrived.  One of the newcomers was the ship's captain, a woman wielding a flaming longsword.  A few rounds later, even more enemies joined the fight.  Marcella found herself overwhelmed by guards, and was killed.  As a Revenant, though, she will come back to life in 24 hours.

While all this was going on, Robb was still on the warship.  He found a barrel of gunpowder, and used a candle as a fuse.  He lit it and ran, jumping out a window right as it ignited.  Back on the galley ship, Byzun cast a Fireball spell at the warship, killing a few sailors and damaging it further.  The warship knew it was under attack, and began firing its cannons at the slave ship.

We were down to three or four enemies on the slave ship, when we started getting bombarded by the warship's cannon fire.  It did massive damage to the slave ship, and everyone - friend and foe alike - started abandoning ship.  Halfbeard grabbed the captain's body as he jumped overboard, so he could loot it later.  Nobody was near enough to Marcella's body to grab it, so it went down with the ship.  As did the slaves, unfortunately.

The remaining enemies fled into the night once they made it ashore, and our party began to regroup.  We ended the session there. The slave ship is gone, the warship is damaged and burning (but still operative), and we haven't decided what to do next. Malcer has indicated he wants to board the sailing ship, but I think most of us would rather hide out on land somewhere.

OAWYM: More Stuff Happens

Game Date: 1/22/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 19
System: Shadow of the Demon Lord
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Malcer (Daniel, subbing for Graham) - Human Warlock
Robb (Daniel) - Human Rogue
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin
Tatio - Malcer's Companion

The Session:

When we left off, we'd been stopped by a room with a collapsed floor, had started backtracking through the dungeon, and ran into a party of orcs.  With poor attendance this session, we briefly considered fleeing back to the floorless room, but Halfbeard charged right in and we were committed to the fight.  We spent the early rounds fighting in the doorway, with Halfbeard taking most of the damage while the rest of us couldn't get in position to be of much help.

As each orc went down, the rest of us gradually worked our way into the room.  Melcer used a Font of Healing spell, which helped us a bit.  One orc fumbled, breaking his weapon.  Val finished off the last foe with some unusually high rolls (for her).  The battle won, we continued backtracking to a secret door we'd found near the entrance of the dungeon.

We still couldn't find a way to disable the trap, so everyone stood back while Val set it off.  A spiked plate thumped against the other side of the door, Val took a few points of damage, and we entered the room.  This room wasn't worth the hype.  It was pretty much empty, but we could tell that one brick wall was much newer than the others.  Halfbeard managed to remove a brick, but couldn't see much on the other side.  He could hear something moving around, however, so we decided not to break through that way. 

We went back to the collapsed room where we'd fought the ghouls, and climbed up to a higher level.  From there we could see a courtyard below.  Robb fastened a rope and climbed down into a courtyard, while Val prepared to follow.  Then a big lizard came around the corner, and we had to make will checks.  Val and Robb each took a point of insanity, and couldn't take our eyes off the lizard.

Robb climbed back up the rope.  The basilisk did not follow.  We climbed back down into the ghoul room, and went back to the room with the missing floor.  Robb used his acrobatic prowess to cross the room, carrying one end of a rope.  With both ends fastened to opposite sides of the room, the rest of us had an easier time getting across the rickety boards. Halfbeard fell right at the end, took some damage, and we pulled him back up.  Malcer also had a lot of trouble getting across, but he made it.

At the other end, we saw more hallways and doors to choose from.  We listened to a door on our left, and heard some conversations.  We went on into the room, which turned out to be the stables.  There were four men shooting the breeze.  Val started to talk to them, but a fight was inevitable.  As we fought three of the guys, the one in the back started blowing a horn and calling for help. He exited through a door in the back, and six more orcs came running to join the battle.

Meanwhile, Melcer was attacked from behind by an "Organ Filch", a creepy Jack-the-Ripper / Phantom-of-the-Opera -looking dude, wielding a scalpel. This was a pretty difficult fight, and we used up a lot of healing resources.  The good news was that the cramped room kept us from getting surrounded, so we rarely faced more than three enemies at a time.  Robb finished off the Organ Filch.  When we were down to three enemies, Melcer hit them with a Fiery Volley, taking out one and nearly finishing the other two.  Halfbeard killed the final orc.

We hid the bodies in the loft, made sure we didn't see anyone else coming, and continued exploring the hallways.  In the side hall, we found a couple of rooms that were empty except for some rubble, and another set of stairs down.  The main hall rounded a corner and ended with two sets of double doors, one on each side of the hallway.  We looked through one of them, and saw what looked like a cemetery, with a big mausoleum-type building in the middle.

We thought about checking it out, but we needed to rest before going much further.  We took shelter in one of the empty rubble rooms, and ended the session.