How to Make Friends and Influence Deities - 10/22 session recap

The party lashed the barrels of liquor together and used Tenser's Floating Disc to haul them back to town. They collected their reward and heard a tale about the priest of the temple and how he had gone mad many years ago and buried himself alive in a show of faith. This was also to protest his lack of congregation, who had abandoned him over the years due to the arduous trip into the mountains.

Business arrangements were made with the caravan leader, who agreed to sell the spare weapons and armor that they had looted from the dead kobolds. He was unwilling to take the portrait, however, and he had no idea who it depicted.

The party also spoke to the local sheriff and asked if there was a bounty on kobolds. The answer was no. They inquired about becoming paid deputies (or mercenaries) and the sheriff told them that there was no money for any more guardsmen.

After a night in town, the party returned and ventured deeper into the cave temple of Ul-Barat. Squeezing through tight spaces they emerged in a wide chamber. In the center was a ring of eleven rectangular pillars that was about forty feet in diameter. At the center of the ring was a low cairn of stones large enough to be the resting place of a human-sized creature. At the back of the chamber was an alcove with an altar.

After a search for traps, Ander and Boreas moved up to the altar to inspect it. Thoric walked up to the cairn and surmised that this was the priest who had gone mad and buried himself. He spoke to the priest, telling him that he was a failure, that Kobolds had desecrated his temple. This did not elicit any response from the stones.

Around the altar, Boreas found the remains of a magical lab. The pieces were not destroyed, merely the remnants of what must have been a more complete magical setup. There was also a portal circle on the ground behind the altar. With a quick incantation, Boreas discovered that there was a magical scroll hidden under the heavy capstone of the altar. Only a small corner of parchment stuck out. With Ander's help lifting the capstone, he was able to retrieve it. At that moment, the cairn of stones began to move.

Thoric immediately attacked it, and Xakoraki commanded Ander forward to assist in the fight. The creature rose up to a standing position, and it was clear that this was the mad priest. He had become one with the cairn that had buried him. No longer human, he was mostly elemental at this point. He raised his rocky fists and slammed them into the ground, sending out a shockwave that knocked all three of his attackers down. After a short fight, the priest was about to fall apart. Thoric had a perfect shot with his hammer, and he opted for a killing blow. It fell into chunks of inert stone, and a rumble resonated throughout the entire cave.

The rumbling did not subside, but became pronounced, a full earthquake. Rocks began to fall from the ceiling, and the party made a run for it. Thoric put on a burst of speed at the end and was the first to emerge from the temple before it collapsed. Fortunately, his companions also made it out, though there were several injuries from falling rocks.

Boreas examined the parchment with Thoric, and they determined that it was a ritual of Linked Portal, with a destination already inscribed. A clue to be sure, but what to do with it?

How to Spring Traps - 10/15 session recap

The players looted the bodies of the kobolds and found a magic shortsword and set of leather armor. There was also a chest against one wall that contained something magical. Boreas prodded the chest open with his staff, and found no traps. When he moved to stand over the chest and extract the loot, the unstable rock wall beside it collapsed on him. He jumped out of the way, and Xakoraki was able to pull the chest out before it was buried in the rubble. Inside the chest was a set of leather 'blooodcut' armor, which was often worn by dragonborn troops of the empire.

The party debated whether they should go ahead and take the casks or liquor back to town, and whether Boreas should use his Tenser's magic disc to carry them. In the end they decided to clear the "upper" levels more fully before doing anything else.

They returned to the entrance and followed the right-hand passage. It was a narrow, winding fissure with five small alcoves off on on side, each one about 20 to 30 feet from the next. Thoric seemed to think that the alcoves were predominantly natural, but a few of the alcove floors had been leveled to match the passage. Boreas found no secret doors in them. Then Thoric started hearing faint whispers from down the passage.

Carrying a sunrod made it difficult to explore the source of the whispers in a stealthy fashion, but Boreas did create a ghost sound about ten feet ahead of the actual party in the hopes of fooling any enemies. Down some carved stairs and around a curve, the passage opened up into a low room with wide natural columns scattered around that held up the ceiling. Everyone but Ander had to stoop over a little, and it was a little claustrophobic.

Ander moved into the room and up against a column, and Xak followed him. No kobolds were to be seen, and no one could hear whispering anymore. Thoric decided to walk into the center of the chamber, and sure enough, he found the kobolds lying in wait. They sprung forward to the attack, naturally.

After a lengthy fight in which Boreas was almost eviscerated and Xakoraki spent most of her time trying to bash a lone kobold minion, their foes were vanquished. Three were kept alive as prisoners and tied up. One of the kobolds had a magical shield, and the party found evidence that they had been digging a hiding spot for a fair amount of gold and silver.

The party fast-forwarded to the next fight, and vanquished five more kobolds who were guarding some magical treasure. There was an Orb of Sanquinary Repercussions and an Axe of Terror. Thoric found some slightly rusted Exalted chain main on a partially buried dwarf corpse. And there was also an amulet of protection (which wasn't mentioned during the session somehow). There was also a portrait of a dragonborn noble in repose on a divan, but Xakoraki did not recognize who she was.

We left the party tired and almost out of healing surges as they pondered how best to get back to town to rest before tackling the lower regions of the temple.

Close Encounters of the Kobold Kind - 10/8 session recap

The party headed into the temple of Ul-Barat. A swarm of needlefang drakes knocked Boreas down and started ripping him apart. A combination of attacks and several rounds finished the swarm, but not before several wounds were received. Thoric moved forward and was assaulted by the swarm's handlers and a larger guard drake. After an initial bottleneck, the party pushed forward and gave the kobolds what for. Xakoraki went down under the assault, but was brought back to consciousness by Thoric. The party regained it's composure and finished off the attackers. Ander knocked one unconscious, carved the symbol in his face, and interrogated him before setting him free.

There was a bed of silver and gold in the temple's offering basin that the party confiscated, as well as three gems on the three kobolds.

Three exits were available, but only one led downward immediately. The party decided to take it. Ander started to lead, but couldn't see anything. Boreas ended up taking the point with his elven vision. After several downward twistings, the stairs turned sharply into a large, low natural cavern with about a dozen kobolds.

One of the kobolds was a caster of some sort, and another seemed to be a better fighter than usual. Ander tossed a shuriken at the latter, but the fighter interposed one of his companions. Boreas threw two spells in quick succession at the caster, hurting him pretty badly. Thoric ran forward into the semi-circle of his enemies and immediately became the target of their javelins. The rest of the party moved up, and the kobolds closed in around them. The fighter gave his caster a potion, which healed him a bit, and then started looking for combat advantage. This never happened, however, as Xakoraki took the opportunity to breathe a massive cloud of acid over the grouped kobolds (and party). As nasty as it was for her companions, it finished off about a half-dozen kobolds. Boreas killed kobolds in pairs with blasts of thunder while the party finished off the caster and surrounded the remaining fighter. Ander was hoping to take him alive, but Xakoraki's axe took off his head in a final blow.

The stolen casks of liquor appear to be in this cave, and there are piles of equipment and bedding lying around in various places. The kobold fighter's leather armor seems much nicer than average, and there is some other treasure here too. We'll get to that next week.

Bridge Over the River Aiiieeee! - 10/1 session recap

Our heroes dithered over where to sleep for the evening in Tregynon, and settled on the comfort of an inn. In the morning they set out to track the alleged kobold thieves, but were unable to find any tracks. They did find the mountain path however, and started following it.

After two hours of hiking, they came across a fork in the path with a tumbled cairn that once pointed the way to the temple of Ul-Barat. The marker was lying on the ground pointing at neither path. One was less steep and headed roughly eastward. The other was steeper and more northward. The party chose the steeper path.

After about an hour, Boreas thought he heard faint singing of a woman. The singing receded, and none of the other party members heard it. An hour after that the party came to a rope bridge across a ravine. There was a sturdy bottom rope and two handrail ropes in a V formation. As they stood contemplating the challenge ahead of them, a pot of stinking goo smashed into the rock face beside Ander. They looked across and saw a kobold with a sling cursing his bad aim.

Ander threw a shuriken, and Boreas fired a ray of frost at the attacker, and both hit. The kobold, bloodied, took cover. Two more kobolds peeked over the rim of the far wall and hurled missiles at Ander. One hit, smearing him with foul-smelling stuff, and the other bonked him in the head pretty soundly with a rock.

Xakoraki headed across the rope bridge, and got almost halfway across. Thoric wasn't as lucky, however, Dwarves are not known for their acrobatic prowess, and he promptly fell and became entangled in the thin netting connecting the handrails to the main rope.

Ander dropped out of sight when he took too much damage, and Thoric continued to fumble on the bridge. Boreas fired off some more frost magic, but missed, and Xak made it across into an ambush. Four kobolds surrounded her, each with a candle strapped to the end of a javelin. They each took a large mouthful from their flasks and spit it out past the candle flame, creating minor fireballs which scorched Xakoraki pretty well. Boreas was pelted with rocks, and failed to move gracefully across the bridge. Ander, realizing that he would not receive any healing or sympathy from Thoric, somersaulted onto the bridge and started across it. The bridge swayed with the weight, making it more difficult for them to keep their balance.

Xakoraki cut one of the kobolds in half with her greataxe, but one dodged between her and the bridge and started sawing at the handrail with a dagger. Before he could sever it, however, Boreas turned him into an ice sculpture. Ander leaped over Thoric and joined Xakoraki in melee combat against the remaining kobolds. Thoric finally found his feet, and started attackhing his foes with the burning beauty of Linitheriva. He also managed to heal up both Ander and Xak. Boreas stepped back to catch his breath a moment, then continued with his magical assault. Xak proved to be an inspiring warrior, and she and Ander teamed up to finish off the remaining kobolds. Ander seemed to favor merely beating them unconscious, but Xakoraki was having none of that, and buried the blade of her axe in the last unconscious kobold.

The party rested for a moment and then continued up the path with Ander scouting ahead this time. After about 30 minutes, he found a widening of the path and a stone archway carved into the rock face. The path continued past the tunnel off to the east, and Ander climbed down below the lip of the path to edge unseen past it. There was nothing on the other path waiting for him, and he saw nothing in the entrance of the tunnel from his perspective. He moved up closer to the archway along the rock face, and beckoned for his companions to join him on the other side of it...

The party went up to level 2!