Game Session Recaps

[frenzied67]

Highlights of Episode Twenty Four
Erath, Melad 10th, Watersday CY1031

In the morning, Leiya and Hubert crossed the bridge to deliver the relic, possibly having to stay at the church for a day or two.  This left Jolrael, Enkili, and Riardon to their own devices, so they discussed what they should do.  Eventually they decided to find out if the Chained Heart (Chained Wings) slavers were operating in Anstarre.  After convincing the others to hunt the slavers, Jolrael decided to hunt down a sage who could help him find out what creature belonged to the fur and feathers that were found where the messenger had died. 

With a few well directed questions, the sorcerer learned that a man named Gorvenal Commons had the knowledge that was needed.  Meanwhile, Riardon began to make inquiries among the street beggars to find out where a local thieves guild representative could be found.  In time the beggars brought a woman and her entourage into the alley to facilitate a face to face.  Jade was a lieutenant in the local underground and she accepted Riardon’s tribute/bribe for him to work their territory.

Enkili developed the bright idea to draw the Chained Heart’s logo onto parchment, then seek out the homeless and beggars to see if they knew the symbol.  Soon the fighting man noticed someone paying a little too much attention to him, so he confronted the young man.  Instead of offering a bribe, Enkili thought to intimidate the young beggar.  Predictably the man ran off.  Knowing he could run the man down, Enkili chased after, but the beggar ran him into an alley full of his friends.

By pure accident these friends were the people Riardon had been making an agreement with, and the Rogue was still in the same alley.  For a bribe of one platinum the criminal element agreed not to punish Enkili for his hubris.  Instead of quietly slinking away afterwords, the Mandagan showed Jade and her friends his drawing.  Jade and a few of her followers recognized the symbol, and were immediately defensive.  They were reassured when Enkili blurted out that they were not friends with the slavers.  In an aside that Enkili was not meant to overhear, Jade informed her main enforcer that the symbol belonged to the people who had stolen his sister.

Again blurting their intent to fight the Chained heart and free the people in chains, Enkili swayed Jade into offering them a reward if they should find word of two guild mates of hers; plus she also promised to reach out to, and work with the criminal guild running Solare, the capitol.  She seeks Jubb and Serca, two thieves stolen away from Anstarre.  Deeper inland, Leiya and Hubert received their reward for bringing in the relic, which included greater potions of healing for each person in the group.  The priests also informed her that in a wood to the west of the city, lights and sounds at night were disturbing the locals.  One investigator sent to scout this out had already failed to appear and was feared dead or captured.

Gorvenal Commons, the Sage of Anstarre turned out to be a man who was either too theatrical, or assuredly stark raving mad.  Jolrael handed over the beast’s feathers and told the tale of how they had been acquired.  The cost turned out to be 25gp, but a perceived slight made Jolly have to pay 30gp to smooth ruffled...uh… feelings.  After a production of waving the feather, smelling it, and eventually tasting the light item, the sage tendered his answer that an owlbear was responsible for taking the messenger; one that was possibly trained and working for an intelligent master.  Gorvenal soon indicated that he would pay handsomely for a sample of owlbear blood as it was a reagent for one of his concoctions. 

Before leaving Solare, Wellborne Huxley had told Jolly that if he found an item of magical interest, then he would trade Jolrael a book of magic for it.  The sorcerer told the sage that if he got the blood sample, then he would want a magic item to trade for it; so Jolly could get his book.  Gorvenal showed him a magic plate called the Waverley Plate that produces one meal a day and a possible rumor each night.

Coming back together late in the afternoon, the party shared their experiences and knowledge with each other, and after a brief discussion, they agreed that they could check into the lights and weird noises in the Elmstep Woods that night.

With a few hours of light remaining in the day, the party arrived in the wood and began to sniff around, trying to find clues.  They found the path of a man with soft soled boots heading to a pool in a clearing.  As Enkili almost found out the hard way, the rim of the pool proved to be thin and crumbled easily under his feet; the evidence showed the missing investigator fell into the pool and vanished.  Jolrael made a stone glow with magical light and tossed it into the pool.  The stone drifted down into an underwater shaft and sank beyond sight.

Sensing that this pool was the focal point for the mysterious lights and noises the group broke up and sought cover in the brush, hoping to ambush whatever showed up.  After several hours it became really dark, then two glowing globes rose up from the depths and began to dance around the pool.  When both Leiya and Hubert gasped from recognition, the lights blinked out, vanishing for a moment.  Before figuring out anything else, or sharing any knowledge or guesses, the orbs reappeared in front of Hubert and Enkili.

These creatures shot lightening into the fighter and boy, severely hurting Hubert.  Hubert’s first action was to do a fighting withdrawal and run for safety.  Enkili was unable to connect with his attack, but Jolrael zapped Hubert’s attacker with a beam of ice (frostbeam) that slowed that creature down when it could move again.  Riardon struck the being with his arrow, driving it deep from the surprise he generated.  Leiya charged into Enkili’s tormentor, calling out that it was a “ghost”.  She granted Hubert some protection from physical attacks with a spell then slapped the monster nearest her with a light cantrip that burned like white fire (Word of Radiance)…. 


We’ll see you all again in 21 days time to finish out this combat, as our next game will not take place until July 18th!

Highlights of Episode Twenty Five
Erath, Melad 10th, Watersday - Melad 11th, Windsday CY1031

Riardon soon adopted a fire and move tactic, moving around the battlefield, but the corpse lights countered him by turning invisible and closing on him or Jolrael.  Hubert was pursued all the way too Leiya and Enkili’s side, where he used his protective skills to help either the fighter or the priestess.  Leiya set herself up to use her Shield of Faith, and Spiritual Weapon spells to their best effect.  Jolrael used his Thunderclap, Aganazaar’s Scortcher, and Ray of Frost spells, zapping a newly arrived willow-the-wisp that tried to chase him.  The sorcerer would hit them with a spell that knocked them back, then move away; or hit them with a spell and fly in a short hop out of danger, then move.  Eventually the sorcerer ducked into the pack of his friends when his list of spells ran low.  Enkili used his battle maneuver trickery to land hits on the ghost lights, but as with all the damage the party dealt (except light and force damage), the willow-the-wisps shrugged most of it off.

Twelve seconds into the bout, the party heard a familiar lute and voice out in the dark.  Their old friend, Blaylocke the Dwarven Bard trotted out of the night with his lute and joined his friends in their battle.  His music buoyed the spirits and abilities of his friends, and he was able to ply his bow and strike true.  When the first willow-the-wisp died, a fourth rose out of the depths.  The undead changed their tactics to turn invisible then try to swarm the rogue or sorcerer.  Leiya managed to drop two with a light spell and an assault by her spiritual weapon which was the turning point in the battle.  The last willow-the Wisp did not choose to run off, it continued to attack all alone, and kept the party at bay.  It took over a minute to stop the undead monster as it struck, turned invisible, moved to go after Jolrael, before the group was able to down it.

After much party argument, the group returned to town and slept.  The next day, they reported their progress to the church, then returned to the pool.  Using ropes they swam down and recovered several bodies, mostly skeletal.  The freshest corpse was the clerk they had tracked to the pool, and his was the only remains that carried treasure.  His 12 gold coins were returned to his family, but the party was rewarded by Melwen’s church for ending the menace to the region.  Now the party had to choose where to go next, they could return the way they came, exploring Ulfang’s tower and hunting owlbears along the way.  They could cut overland and follow the coast to The Freehold, or they could catch a boat and sail to said city.

Highlights of Episode Twenty Six
Erath, Melad  Windsday 11th – Midweek the 12th CY1031

Enkili, impressed by Hubert’s maturation, gifted the young warrior 10 platinum pieces so he could purchase his own weapons.  Hubert bought himself a mace, a shield, a rapier, a sling and possibly a handax.  The beaming youngster joined the team at the wagon, and they all set out back down the road to Elfton.  Their first night they stop at the Four Stags Inn and stayed the night with the riffraff.  The next day Wolf payed off the stable hands to watch the mules, wagon, and horses.  Then he payed off some locals to help the stable hands watch the groups belongings.  Before they set out for Ulfang’s Tower the group discovered that the shifty innkeeper had also paid some men to watch the stables, because they were paying customers the group hoped.

Still the party decided to wait until there was a break in the rain before they made the two hour walk to the tower.  When it did let up, the group slipped and slid for the next four hours before they found the tower.  Ulfang the Black’s tower was possibly eight stories tall but very dilapidated, sagging and tilting almost alarmingly.  Inside the conditions were damp and crumbling.  Holes in the floor and ceiling meant that Blaylocke’s stonecunning would prove valuable.  A central column proved to be the shaft where stairs up and down were placed.  Blaylocke suddenly remembered an old song and the lore behind it.  He informed the party that Ulfang had been a necromancer whose cruelty knew no bounds, Ulfang had killed many people by the time someone poisoned him to death.

After checking out the ground floor, the party voted to head up the stairs to continue their poking around.  Leiya cast a light spell on Enkili’s helmet, Jolrael cast light on Leiya, and then he reversed his headband to reveal his permanent light spell.  Some members dispersed to the left, and half split to the right.  Jolrael, looking through a crack in the wall, noticed a damp back pack lodged in the rubble on a bad section of floor.  Wolf, thinking the party was climbing rubble up to the second story, tried to go up the stairs to meet up with them, but he had no light source so backed down the stairs to watch for trouble.  Wolf began to get a creepy feeling that something above was watching him.  In the east, Leiya and Blaylocke moved over rubble into another chamber.  Meanwhile, Rieardon, Enkili, and Jolrael made a plan to traipse out onto the bad floor to recover the mystery pack.

Highlights of Episode Twenty Seven
Erath, Melad  Midweek the 12th CY1031

Tying a rope around Jolrael, Enkili and Riardon tried to anchor the young sorcerer as he edged out to the soggy backpack, Jolly himself had a precautionary Feather Fall spell at the ready too.  In the other half of the tower, Blaylocke Anvilarm and Leiya found a room full of rubble, and the bard decided to crawl out on it looking for anything of interest.  Moving slow, Jolrael reached the back pack and lifted it, and stone started to grumble.  Getting back to the Elf and the desert man, Jolrael looked back in time for the floor to collapse where he had just been.

Shortly after calling out reassurances to Wolf (who was still guarding the stairs with Hubert) and Leiya, Blaylocke found several patches where his floor had collapsed through to the story below.  He of course instigated a collapse after crawling to safer footing, but no one discovered that the Dwarven Bard was alright for several moments.  Enkili was trying to find another vantage to see if he could see where Blaylocke had fallen, when he found the Dwarven man stepping out of a cloud of dust north east of where he had gone into the room.

After a careful exam of the second floor, the party assembled and made their way to the next story.  The third story also seemed to be constructed as a circle within a circle, but three aged and broken barrels greeted them at the landing.  As Riardon and Blaylocke were peeking around the corners, Enkili moved ahead to examine the barrels.  Three people sized spiders popped out of cover or off the ceiling, attacking the group.  In the next 24 seconds of intense combat, five or six more great Dane sized arachnids threw themselves into the fray.

Hubert took a lot of damage, as did Jolrael.  Poor Riardon took several bites as well, two of them critical in nature.  In nearly half a minute of fighting, the heroic party eventually dispatched the spiders.  A thorough search of that floor netted 1pp, 2gp, 3ep, 23sp, four gems (a carnelian, citrine, onyx and a zircon) as well as x cp.  They all took a short rest and healed up from the damage they had taken, almost all their light sources extinguished during this rest, but 6 improvised torches were fashioned for later.

Highlights of Episode Twenty Eight
Erath, Melad  Windsday 11th – Midweek the 12th CY1031

Lighting torches or casting light cantrips, the party made sure they could see before traversing to the story above.  With Blaylocke and Riardon leading the way up, they made sure the steps were sound and free from traps for those trailing them.  On the third floor the group hesitated, checking the ceilings and trying to trigger a response from any creatures who may have been nearby.  Finally Blaylocke chose to move onto the landing, Enkili followed the bard as close as his own shadow.

Twenty feet in, unwholesome lights swirled about, lifting bits and pieces of armor from the rubble until three full suits of armor were completed.  Two more ill illumined armored suits quickly entered from the north, unholy lights blazing where eyes should have been.  Leiya rushed off the stairs and tried to use her holy powers to disrupt or scare off any undead.  None of the suits of armor were affected by her attempt, which informed her that the undead were not in the party’s presence.

Charging in, the two northernmost animated suits rushed in at Jolrael.  Blaylocke was pressed by one, and Enkili charged a fourth.  Riardon hit the fifth animated armor with a damaging cantrip before that armor attacked him and Hubert.  Deafening his friends, Jolrael cast Thunderwave blasting two animated armor’s back and making the floor very unsound in a square pattern.  After a lackluster start, Enkili finally started to chop away with his blade, Dandân Ve Panje; crushing one suit of armor, then moving around to flank Blaylockes foe.

Before the animated armor was defeated, Hubert was seriously injured and knocked unconscious.  Enkili interposed himself before the injured young man, but Jolly used Lightening Lure to pull the last suit of armor onto the unsound section of floor.  This lone suit of animated armor managed to strike out at the sorcerer before the floor gave way, crushing the armor once and for all beneath the rotten stone of the tower.  Spent, the party explored the 3rd floor then decided to make camp in the late afternoon.