Big Skull - 4/15 session recap

There was no skull on the floor of the dungeon. Don't even ask about it.

A long corridor faced the party. Two alcoves were on the left hand wall. A body lay near the end of the hall, just short of a large chest. Each alcove was floored with a pressure plate. Two areas on the floor were covered by large metal gratings, set flush into the stone floor. An electricity trap, in Ander's estimation. He jammed it as best he could.

The party ventured over the zapping zones, and Boreas reached out to check the body. A small spark jumped between him and the body, and it jerked. The man, as they could see now, breathed in sharply, but lay still for a moment, blinking his eyes. He wore slick leather armor, several daggers, and a triangular amulet with three softly glowing points at the corners. Soon he sat up and started answering the questions that were asked of him.

His name was John Oldhamshire, and he said that he had infiltrated this place to discern the source of the goblinoids. He did not believe that renewed habitation was caused merely by reproduction, though he allowed that some of that was happening as well.

He politely declined to give any information about his origins or employers, but he asked if he could continue his mission with the party. His initial plan was to sneak in. But considering that he had run afoul of traps already and the party was making better progress through the use of concentrated force, John figured his mission would be better served by tagging along. Without much discussion, it was agreed that John could join them.

The chest had no traps, and the lock gave way easily. Five magic items were in the chest, which were then distributed amongst the party.

They returned to the large room with the tentacled bugbear corpses and explored one of the corridors that led out of the room. This led to a set of rooms with several pressure plates scattered here and there, as well as some recessed metal poles that appeared to be able to act as bars to a cage. Ander was able to disarm the traps for the duration of the exploration, and nothing bad happened.

Other bones were found in a corner, however, and they appeared to be from a large four-legged animal of some kind. No further encounters or treasure were found in this room.

So the party went back to the large room and tried the other exit through which the single hobgoblin had escaped. There was yet another trap in this winding corridor, a scything horizontal blade about two and a half feet off the ground. It was discovered that the blade only deployed when a weight equivalent to a humanoid creature was standing on a pressure plate in an alcove just before the trap. One of the hobgoblin bodies was dragged over to perform this guard service, and the party settled in for an extended rest in the large room.

May Cause Blindness - 4/9 session recap

Despite last week's decision to charge forward, the party decided to take a 5-minute breather on the stairs of the temple. Healing surges were spent, and encounter powers regained. Then they traipsed back to the fight.

The hobgoblins were arrayed in a line formation, shields interlocked. Kylian ran in and proceeded to duel a single hobgoblin for the entire battle. Thoric blasted his enemies with beauty and granted Kylian some spare hit points. Ander ran in and blinded several of them with a barrage of shuriken, and Xakoraki followed in order to take up a defensive position in the corner. Boreas used his new Spectral Ram spell to blast an enemy out of formation. Then things got serious.

Two bugbears joined the fray from behind pillars in the room, but something was not right about them. Each wielded a mace in one arm. The other arm was a mass of long tentacles. One grappled Ander from a distance, and the other failed to grab Boreas. Boreas retreated to a safe firing distance at that point, but everyone else remained locked in melee combat.

Ander was able to break free from the tentacle, but later Xakoraki was squeezed by a successful grabbing attack. Combat continued for a few rounds, and blows were exchanged. As the first hobgoblin fell, the rest became more determined. They used more powerful moves, which brought Kylian almost to his knees. Thoric healed him fully with the radiance of Linitheriva, however.

Xakoraki was not as lucky. She stepped forward to finish off a hobgoblin, and the two at her back bludgeoned her into unconsciousness. Ander knocked one of her attackers unconscious with the hilt of his short sword, but its tentacles continued to writhe. Boreas blasted it with spell, and it expired.

Kylian was victorious in his duel, and the other bugbear was brought down by Thoric's warhammer. The remaining hobgoblin fled deeper into the dungeon while Thoric stabilized Xakoraki. Kylian then healed her by laying on hands.

The party then backtracked to one of two side corridors that they had passed on the way. It was a short hallway with a small room at the end. Upon seeing chests in the room, Xakoraki, Ander, and Boreas moved into the room to check for traps while Kylian and Thoric stood in the hallway. Unfortunately, the trap was triggered by the floor surrounding the chests. There was a click, and a low rumbling sound that ran along the ceiling of the hallway. Thoric and Kylian looked up reflexively, and caught a dusting of fine powder on their upturned faces. Their eyes and noses started to burn, but after a while it subsided to a dull sting and ache. The chests were not trapped, and contained 2500 gold pieces plus two healing potions.

Thoric performed some medical diagnosis, and determined that he and Kylian were diseased. If they were unable to shake off the infection, they would become permanently blinded, perhaps only in a few days.

A Paladin and a Cleric Walk Into A Dungeon... 3/2 session recap

The party continued on to the other side of the temple of Yama. Boreas discovered a pressure plate on the floor, and Ander noticed the nozzles facing him on the opposite wall. Ander took a javelin and prodded the plate from around the corner, and the resulting blast of flame caught his arm on fire. After putting out the flames, he proceeded to carefully jam up the pressure plate with dirt and small rocks. As he was doing so, Boreas noticed a hobgoblin peer around from an alcove down the long hallway. Before he could get a spell off, the hobgoblin fled down the hall away from the party.

Several rounds of nothing then occurred. No one was willing to move past the trap with someone still standing on it, and the player in front was unwilling to move forward to open up room.

Boreas blasted down the corridor to try and catch the hobgoblin, who he suspected was at the end, just around the corner. He heard a yelp and a curse, indicating a successful hit.

The party finally got moving, and despite Kylian and Ander's best attempts, they failed to find the next trap. Kylian was engulfed in flame, but Ander was able to dodge it. Kylian then continued forward to battle with a hobgoblin in a second alcove. He was still on fire as he fought.

Ander charged to the end of the hall and around the corner to attack the first hobgoblin. Xakoraki followed him. They pushed the enemy past two other side passageways, and engaged him with precision teamwork. Ander eventually knocked him unconscious and then returned to help his other three companions in their ongoing battle against a single, cornered hobgoblin. Xakoraki took the opportunity to finish off the unconscious one at her feet.

Kylian stood, on fire, in a protracted duel with the other hobgoblin. Thoric kept him healed up, but it was taking forever to whittle down the opponent. Boreas kept hammering his foe with spells, and all but one were turned aside by the hobgoblin's shield. After several rounds, the fire finally burned out on Kylian, and he was able to deliver a fatal blow.

What Ander had seen while separated from his party was a well-organized phalanx of hobgoblins in a large room. He reported this to the rest of the party while Xakoraki hid in one of the two side passages. The other group did not attack the party immediately, so they decided to attempt a short rest. After a few minutes of this, a hobgoblin poked it's head around the corner. Boreas attempted to blast it, but failed. It retreated. The party had to restart their rest since it was interrupted. A few minutes later, the hobgoblin took another peek, and Boreas started to cast a spell. It retreated again. The short rest was once again interrupted.

The DM finally explained that they could not rest this close to a known enemy force. After some discussion, the party decided to go ahead and push through to the next encounter. Since it was running late, we went ahead and called it a night. Next week we'll start that encounter.

Refugee Displacement - 3/19 session recap

Xakoraki said she'd stand guard at the stairs in case anything came from behind, and the rest of the party continued onward. Boreas discovered a dart trap, and Ander disabled it. Ander then discovered another dart trap by stepping on it. He borrowed Boreas' staff, and triggered it twice more. At this point they heard a battlecry that was cut short as the goblin realized that none of the party was in sight yet.

The party sprung into action and attacked two goblin defenders. Kylian battled against one of them, and pushed it back into a room. As the goblin fell dead, Kylian noticed that the room was filled with cowering goblin women and children. Ander, Boreas, and Thoric wounded the other goblin defender, and Ander forced it to surrender. He then raced to the living area to keep his companions from executing anyone.

Once again, Ander convinced his party members to let the creatures go with a face scar. One of them, the smartest female, asked to be allowed to gather the other goblins further in the dungeon. She was allowed to get them. As she left, Ander proceeded to carve his mark into the face of a youngling. The screaming from the youngling brought the female running back, and some more discussion took place. Then she ran off again.

Meanwhile, Xakoraki was standing guard. She saw the first of the marked goblins fleeing for the stairs and almost hacked them down with her axe of terror. But at the last second, she noticed the bleeding facial wounds on all of them, and let them pass with a muttered curse.

After allowing the goblins to flee, the party continued deeper into the goblin section of the dungeon. They came across a wider hallway with a chest at the far end. Ander and Boreas moved forward, searching for traps, and came across a pressure plate about midway down the hall. Ander was able to temporarily disable it, but cautioned his companions to step lightly. The chest at the end did not radiate any magic, and did not appear to have any traps. The lock seemed to have been broken off long ago, and when they opened it they only found 50 copper pieces scattered in the bottom.

As they left the hallway, Kylian triggered the pressure plate, which had finally come loose due to the traffic. Spikes shot from the floor in a wave-like motion heading from the ends of the hallway towards the center. Boreas escaped by teleporting past them, but Ander took damage. Thoric was nible enough to escape harm. Kylian was safe in the center. When he left to rejoin the party, however, the trap triggered again, and he was pierced in the foot.

The rest of the area consisted of a twisty passage, another goblin living area (now vacated), and a refuse pile that doubled as a mushroom farm. The party could find no secret doors, and concluded that they had cleared the goblin portion of the dungeon.

Everyone went up to 7th level! Hooray!

A Tale of Two Encounters - session recaps for 3/4 and 3/11

I'm keeping it brief today.

The party emerged from the woods and saw the temple in the middle of a swampy area. Ander walked up to parlay with the visible defenders, but was attacked instead. Goblins with mucky arrows attacked from hiding, and hobgoblins with shields and maces attacked on the pathway of dry land. Boreas took a lot of damage for once, but the party triumphed over the goblinoids.

After a short rest, the party ventured into the temple. They were hit with spear traps from the walls, but Ander disabled one of them. Goblins attacked from one side of the corridor, and a hobgoblin attacked from the other side. All of them were slain.

Comparative Theology 101 - 2/26 session recap

The party returned to town after their visit with Vrisana Pajul, and having nothing better to do, they went to the Sagebrush Inn for a drink. Thoric was focused on adding art to the outside of the Inn, so he asked permission to do some decoration. It was granted, and he went outside to begin a mural of sagebrush, pine, and desert roses.

The other party members immediately noticed a well armed and armored dark elf eating by himself at a table. Ander immediately went over an introduced himself, and Boreas and the stranger exchanged nods. The man waved them over, and all three of them took a seat. He introduced himself as Kylian, a follower of Peshtem. Ander seemed heartened by the shared choice of religion. Kylian said that he wandered the lands, helping those who were down on their luck, and that fate had brought him to this place recently. He had helped a woman and her son into town as they fled from goblin raiders, and he planned on seeking out the goblins and vanquishing them after he got a meal and night's rest.

The party said that they were on the same mission, and that perhaps they should join forces. This idea seemed to appeal to everyone, and thus a new party member was added. They all settled down to drinks of frothy fermented cactus juice and hard cactus liquor. Dinner consisted of cactus salad, crunchy cactus, sauteed cactus, boiled cactus with sage, piney stewed cactus with sage, and iguana on a stick. Xakoraki took offense at the consumption of iguana, but it didn't keep Ander from wolfing it down.

After picking up the maps the following morning, the party set out towards the abandoned temple of Yama that was rumored to be the source of the goblin raiders. The first day was hot, dry, and dusty. At the end of it, they had made it to the treeline of a thin pine forest. After clearing the ground of pine needles, they started a campfire and settled in for the night. They were soon approached by five well-armed men who stood at a respectable distance and asked if they could approach.

The men all bore shields with the symbol of Jocham, the protective aspect of Dravatadatman. They said that they were patrolling the borders of the land, both to protect the people from the goblins, but also to protect the truce. Their leader introduced himself as Gurti. Kylian told him that he was following Peshtem's will in seeking out the source of the goblins in order to destroy it. Thoric spoke up and said that it was also the will of Linitheriva that the ugliness of goblinkind be exterminated. Gurti called them unbelievers*, but said that he would not hold it against them.

The party agreed to let the group camp beside them for the evening. Nothing interesting occurred that evening, and in the morning the party prepared to move on. Gurti queried them again about their intentions in the truce zone, and Kylian's diplomacy convinced him that the party would not do anything to disturb the truce. Gurti mused that even though they were unbelievers, their mission was just, and he granted them Jocham's blessing.

Once they were into the pine forest, the air grew still and hot. The trees were thin and short enough to admit plenty of sunlight, and the ground was dusty beneath their feet. The shrill tone of cicadas was constant, and small flies harried the party. The smell of pine sap was thick, which was nice. But the occasional prick of pine needles began to wear on the travelers. Towards afternoon, the air became more humid and more oppressive. By late afternoon they found a tiny trickle of a stream which they used to refresh themselves. As the sun began to set, they decided to make a cold camp. Fatigued, they ate their rations and settled down for the evening.

Within an hour of full sundown, a group of hobgoblins and goblins was seen approaching the camp with torches. Everyone was quietly awakened, and the party was able to ambush the foul creatures. The hobgoblins quickly assembled an organized line of defense, but Boreas' area-affecting magic started wearing them down quickly. Ander blinded several with shuriken, and Xakoraki and Kylian stepped up to engage them in melee. Ander slipped behind their defensive line and was able to break up the phalanx that they created with their shields. He received a muck-tainted arrow in his shoulder for his efforts, but the battle was mostly a rout. Xakoraki took a few hits, but after less than a minutes of fighting, three hobgoblins and one goblin lay incapacitated. The remaining five goblinoids sprawled dead around the campsite.

*It should be noted that even in the face of divine magics from other good clerics, the followers of Dravatadatman believe that this is still the work of their god. Peshtem is merely a bastardized version of Jocham the Protector, and Linitheriva is an off-base version of Dhali the Teacher. It can also be noted that western followers of Dravatadatman believe that he is a spiritual god whose will is carried out by his people, and that his clerics are merely those who are closest to his true intentions. Eastern followers of Dravatadatman believe that his clerics are the physical incarnation of his five holy aspects. Naturally, both sides believe that the other side blasphemes against them.

A Moment of Clarity - 2/18 session recap

Xakoraki spent some time scaring the living daylights out of Hondro, who sat up that night, shivering and jumping at every little scratching sound from the mesa door. Ander relieved him of watch duty, but Xakoraki had scared him so much that poor Hondro was reluctant to close his eyes. After some coaxing, and a promise that Ander would wake him in case of a zombie outbreak, he finally fell asleep. He was only able to get a few hours of rest before jolting awake with a scream, however.

Boreas and Thoric escorted Nunpar and a band of militia back to the mesa the following morning. The militia leader was brought up to speed on the situation, and he seemed less scared than the two teens. When asked, he provided them with the location of the magister, and that her name was Pajul or something.

The party had a discussion about where to go next. Ander wanted to walk back to Shandrapur across the desert. Thoric wanted to slay goblins with extreme prejudice, and a discussion arose about how bloodthirsty he was for a follower of Linitheriva. Eventually it was suggested that perhaps the party could visit the magister directly, and then decide on a course of action. They visited town first, and Ander commissioned a copy of both a local and a regional map from the scribe's shop.

The next morning, the party made the five mile journey south across arid scrublands to the magister's tower. It was a simple sandstone structure built on top of a natural rock outcropping. As they neared the tower they felt a building electrical pressure against them. They stopped, and a voice asked for them to identify themselves. They were permitted to approach, and a young woman in a white, loose-fitting garments appeared from around the base of the rock. She introduced herself as Vrisana Pajul, the local magister. After a few introductions, Thoric explained that they were looking for Orvalion. He asked if she knew anything about him.

She said that she was not surprised that Caelbhan had hired them for this task without explaining anything about it, but that she would be willing to talk to them further. She invited them to climb the stairs at the back of the rock and enter there. She then vanished. At the top of the stairs they found a simple door in the side of the tower. They knocked, and she bade them enter. She had laid out some cups, and she conjured some water into a pitcher to serve them.

She was apparently satisfied that she could trust the party, and she told them that Caelebhan was seeking Orvalion for the same reason that she was; Orvalion was the last known protector of the first dragonstone. All of the other dragonstones that had been located during the rebellion had self-destructed upon capture, but the very first one had been created with no such failsafes. It was the prototype for all of the others. Orvalion, as part of the original Parthanak lineage, was its protector before the fall of the empire. He has since disappeared, and understandably so.

Vrisana explained that she, and many others, were extremely interested in the whereabouts of the dragonstone. For her part, she said that she probably wanted the same thing that Orvalion did, which was to destroy it so that it could never be used against dragons or dragonkin again. She suspected that Caelebhan wanted to keep it "safe", and out of the "wrong" hands, but that he himself wanted to study it. She had already researched a bit into how to destroy it, and she guessed that Orvalion was doing the same thing in the places that the party had tracked him. She made the party an offer : If they could convince Orvalion to come share his research with her, she would pay them double what Caelebhan had offered. She also sweetened the deal by saying that she could also offer them a chance to study a teleportation ritual so that they would no longer have to rely completely on the whims of others for such travel.

Thoric asked her if she had come into contact with Thorium like Caelebhan, and she said that she had not. She also said that there was no known cure for his condition, at least not one for which he was willing to pay the price.

He also asked Vrisana about the goblin infestation that had been plaguing the town. She was vexed with this problem, since the townspeople had come to her a couple of times for her help with it. She was not inclined to deal with it herself, but she was willing to pay the party to take care of it, should they be so inclined. The reward was limited to free teleportation and access to learn the teleportation ritual themselves, but no fixed sum was discussed.

The party then set off for town for resupply and to pick up Ander's maps.

Unlife, Revisited - 2/12 session recap

Having fought their way to a choke point at which they could hold off the lurching horde of zombies, the party decided to retreat. All of the territory that they gained last session just vanished in the wink of an eye as they fled to the elevator for a five minute rest. All so that they could get their encounter powers back. The room re-filled with zombies as the doors of the elevator closed.

During their rest, they mused on the fact that the barracks on the ground floor of the mesa was large enough to house an army of at least a thousand. They then estimated that they had only destroyed around seventy undead so far. The odds weren't good for simply killing all of them in a massive battle.

Afterwards, they ventured back down again to face the horde. This session was much like last session, except that Ander decided to make a dash for the control closet on the opposite side of the room while the rest of the party fought the never ending tide of undead. He found a way to raise the iron door, and everyone else retreated when it had opened enough. Ander himself waited until the last minute before sending the iron door back downwards. He then made an acrobatic leap to the ground and slipped out before the zombies could overcome him.

Beyond the iron door was a large wooden door with a sally port. Xakoraki unbarred this smaller door and was met by a teenager swinging a mace. "Die, Zombie!" She easily ducked the attack, and after a few confusing moments, the party emerged from the door into sunlight. Facing them were two scared teens. Boreas used his mage hand to drop the bar on the inside as the door shut behind him, hopefully slowing any zombies that made it through before the iron door fully closed.

The teens were named Nunpar and Hondro, and they explained that they were guarding Kopatri, the cursed mesa, as part of their coming-of-age trial. A thousand years ago, during the infernal invasions, several villages and an army sought refuge in the mesa as the horde of demons and devils surrounded them. A curse was laid on the mesa that turned people into undead when they died. Eventually reinforcements arrived, but not before the stores of the mesa had been exhausted, and everyone inside had perished. The place has been guarded ever since, in case the undead ever break free.

Ander and Xakoraki stayed at the mesa with Hondro while Boreas and Thoric traveled with Nunpar to the village. They met with the village elder who listened to their tale. When asked, he mentioned that he had seen what he thought was a dragon circling the mesa, perhaps a few years ago. Thoric came to the conclusion that Orvalion must have traveled to and from the mesa by riding a dragon.

They tried to subtly ask for a reward or resupply, but the village elder said that there were shops in town. When pressed, he said that he could do them a favor if they would do him a favor. He sent everyone else out of the house and told Thoric and Boreas of his proposal.

He explained that his tribe, The Jalakampathra, has a long-standing border dispute with a neighboring tribe, the Devratetlanak. A truce was declared many years ago, and a certain region between the two tribes was proclaimed off-limits to both sides. The problem is that there is a goblin-infested place within the truce zone, and the goblins have been raiding more boldly in recent years. The dragonlords used to fly by occasionally to scour the surface with dragonbreath, thus keeping the goblinoids in check. But after the rebellion, things have been getting steadily worse. He asked the party to cull or root out the source of the goblins, and in return he would tell the local magister to teleport them back to Shandrapur.

How Many Are There? last two session recaps

The party ventured down the grand staircase to find a barricaded double door at the bottom. After setting up for ambush, they unbarricaded and opened the doors. Chained to the floor on the other side were three undead warriors, still wearing their nice armor and weaponry. The chains were long enough to allow them to engage the party, and a quick combat ensued.

A few magical trinkets were looted from the chained guardian zombies, including an amulet that did not seem to be fully functional yet. There was also a leather map of the mesa keep that indicated a secret room in the servant's quarters.

Moving down to the kitchen level, the party wandered into a zone of intense cold that was emanating from several chillborn zombies. After they had engaged these foes, an imp the size of a human attacked from above and then disappeared again. The imp continued to harass the party during the combat, but eventually fell to their attacks. As he faded away he rasped, "Finally, after a thousand years! Release!"

Single zombies popped out here and there while the party continued to explore the kitchens and servant's quarters. They found the secret room easily. It was a small closet with a single lever mechanism. They left this for later, and went to check out the main elevator.

There followed a discussion about the nature of Thorium, a metal which Thoric revealed to the party as being both antimagic and toxic to non-dwarves. He put forth the theory that Caelebhan had handled some Thorium, perhaps during his fight against the dragonlords, which was why he was withered and losing his hair prematurely. He hypothesized that Caelebhan was seeking some remedy for his illness that perhaps Orvalion could provide. He also suspected that some amount of Thorium was in the mesa, since there was an anti-magic effect negating the teleportation circle.

The party's response was hostile, as usual. Two phrases were uttered back-to-back : "Why are the dwarves hoarding Thorium?!" and "Why are the dwarves thording Whorium?" Thoric was able to convince them that knowledge of Thorium was not something to be given out freely. Not only was it a potent weapon against magic, but also a great danger to those who carried it. Better that it remain a somewhat secretive piece of information. The party grudgingly agreed, for the most part.

The main elevator was packed with zombies. Ander single-handedly neutralized them with a flurry of shuriken headshots. Before heading down, the party went back to the secret lever. After a bit of fiddling with it, they activated it, and heard a gurgling rush that merged into the sound of rumbling that persisted for about 30 seconds.

Curious, they scaled 500 feet worth of stairs to get to the top of the mesa. As Ander had suspected, the pool at the top was almost drained. Nothing else could be discerned about the pool, however, except that there was an inanimate skeleton in one corner. Heading down one level to the mage lab, they found that the stone pillar covering the teleportation circle had been raised again. Curiosity satisfied, they rested the night in the mage apartment.

In the morning, they headed to the elevator. It dropped with a sickening lurch, but did not injure anyone. The doors opened onto the gate room on the lowest level of the keep. A wide ramp led down into the entrance area, a full twenty feet below the level of the elevator. Along two sides, crenellated walls enclosed the room at the same level of the elevator. It appeared that in better days, this area would have afforded archers a clear field of fire on anyone entering through the gate. Since these were not better days, the room below was filled with zombies.

Boreas unleashed the fury of the elements upon a large area of zombies, destroying many of them. Many still remained active, however, including a fairly large zombie that looked much stronger than the others. Boreas moved to a better firing position along the crenellated section of the wall, and started to cast spells down at the horde while his companions remained a little further back towards the elevator.

The zombie brute charged Xakoraki and smashed her into the ground with his long, powerful arms. At the same time, zombies started pouring out from a doorway near Boreas, flooding his area of the wall with undead. Ander moved forward to help Boreas, and Thoric stayed back to help Xakoraki. The party was fighting on two fronts.

The brute smashed Xakoraki back down to the ground after she regained her feet, but Thoric healed her with his divine magic. Ander quickly realized that he was needed to repel the brute zombie, and left Boreas to continue his barrage of thunderwave spells. Thoric helped with his blessings as Xakoraki got back to her feet. Then she and Ander coordinated their attacks to bring down the brute zombie. While they were mopping up the crowd of regular zombies around them, the brute reanimated amongst them and attacked Thoric. It was hacked down a second time. Boreas continued his holding action against a seemingly never ending stream of animated corpses.

Eventually there was a break in the flow of undead, and the party caught their breath to assess their options. The approaching moans from the doorway told them that they didn't have much time before the next wave, and that they had better come up with a plan.

The Not-So-Dearly Departed - 12/10 session recap

After discovering that they were on top of a mesa from which they had no external escape, the party decided to venture downstairs. They were met with a horde of zombies along what appeared to be a residential hallway. The zombies were wearing tattered rags, but here and there one could see that these rags were once the finery of nobles. Gold-threaded collars and cuffs as well as various pieces of jewelry still adorned the ex-royalty.

There was little time to comment on the baubles, however, as the zombes shuffled forward to attack. Boreas was able to thin their ranks initially with area-effect frost spells, and Ander moved forward to engage them in melee. Some of the zombies were not mere shambling corpses, however. One of them wielded a sword and shield, and appeared to have been bulkier when alive. He moved forward and started a minor bottleneck. Other zombies had roiling cavities of decaying organs within their abdomens, and they ripped out hunks of themselves to fling at Ander from back amongst the other zombies. Ander was pelted with foul gobs of necrotic tissue, which weakened him. Xakoraki moved into melee and started granting her comrades the benefit of her tactical command. Thoric called upon the might of Linitheriva to strike down a few of the weaker zombies.

Boreas, a little anxious to unleash his arcane energies against the close-massed enemy, sent a thunderous blast into the melee. This destroyed a couple of zombies and damaged a few others. It also nearly felled Ander, who then dropped unconscious when the next zombie slammed into him.

There was a mad scramble to close ranks around their fallen comrade, and the party did a pretty good job of it. Ander, however, had a critical success on his recovery roll, and became conscious on his own. He merely took a one-round nap.

The party pressed on down the corridor, absorbing gob after gob of horrendous filth as it was flung from the zombies at the far end. Thoric went down at one point, overcome by the rotting ugliness around him, but he was revived by his companions. The first gobber zombie exploded after taking enough damage, and the second one to fall exploded next to Ander, wounding him with high-velocity necrotic shrapnel. Xakoraki, who had spent much of the fight receiving infected wounds from the zombie with a sword, moved up and helped beat down the remaining foes. The last two exploded, and the party had a moment to catch their breath.

Thoric had only just begun to start the healing process on his companions when three ghouls came loping into the hallway at an alarming pace, screaming unnaturally. Our heroes quickly joined the battle, and Ander and Xakoraki formed a good front line. Xakoraki was clawed by her opponent, and the stench alone was enough to immobilized her. The third zombie, who seemed trapped behind his companions, surprised the party by climbing the wall and leaping behind Xakoraki. He then unhinged his jaw and latched onto her unprotected neck, stunning her completely. Boreas threw spell after spell, but most missed. Thoric, out of healing spells, stepped up to help remove Xakoraki's new parasite and provide flanking. Ander almost received the same treatment as Xakoraki, but was able to avoid having his arm eaten. Xakoraki dislodged one ghoul from her neck, only to have the other one bite into it from the other side. Things looked grim for a moment as she faltered and collapsed. Ander received a nasty bite to his groin, and it looked like he might fall. But Thoric was able to turn one of the ghouls with radiant light, causing it to run away. This opened up some flanking opportunities for Ander, who finished off one of the most damaged ghouls. Boreas kept unleashing spells into the remaining foes, slowing them and whittling their hitpoints down. Xakoraki was revived after a round or two, and the remaining ghouls were dispatched.

Horror-struck and bleeding the party made a quick retreat to the upper level, but not before looting the fallen nobles. There were gems and jewelry, as well as some gold. There were three magic items among the zombies as well [this is a correction from what I told you during the game]. The party barred the door at the top of the stairs and started an extended rest while appraising their loot. They also went up to level 5. Ding!

One Small Step... 11/12 and 11/19 session recaps

Ander continued to hound the one-eyed man in the town of Tregynon. Thoric finally took a different approach and left a message at the man's shop inviting him for a chat. Sure enough, the guy showed up at the bar and started up a conversation after Thoric bought him a few whiskies.

It turned out that this guy (named Enwyd)was about the only one in town who was willing to supply Orvalion for reasonable prices a few years back. Orvalion would come into town, buy supplies, and then disappear back into the mountains again. Enwyd also knew that Orvalion somehow befriended the local kobolds.

One day a few months ago, a man came into town asking about Orvalion, and Enwyd didn't have a problem telling him what little he knew. Then man then stabbed Enwyd in the eye and left him for dead. Enwyd has been a little shaky since then, and was spooked when Ander started spewing anti-dragonborn rhetoric. He was even more spooked when Ander started following him around.

Having obtained an eyewitness report of Orvalion's presence in the town, and having in their posession a scroll of Linked Portal and a portait of a dragonborn lady, the party finally decided to return to Shandrapur with their evidence. They hired on with Lars Allynwy again, and they didn't face any tax collectors or highwaymen on the way back.

Boreas and Thoric visited Caelebhan with their report and the portrait. They had resolved not to mention anything about the portal scroll, and managed to keep that a secret while talking with him. He paid each of them the 200gp he had promised, and refused to divulge his reasons for wanting to talk with Orvalion when Thoric once again questioned him about it. He did, however, tell them who the portrait depicted. It was a likeness of Kendrini Nabendu, servant to the Nabendu family of dragonlords. Later, Xakoraki was able to remember that she was reputed to be a spy and assassin for Nabendu. Caelebhan, however, said that he did not think that she had survived the rebellion.

After gathering some provisions and visiting the local temple of Linitheriva, the party headed out of town to the portal circle. There they cast the ritual on the scroll, and peered into a small stone room. They stepped through, and as soon as Boreas stepped out of the circle to check the hallway for traps, the ceiling descended upon them. The party managed to make it into the hallway before the ceiling met the floor, sealing off the magic circle with a massive block of stone.

The door at the end of the hallway was trapped with a glyph of lightning that Ander was able to carefully deactivate. Beyond the door lay a somewhat barren magical lab. Many books appeared to be missing from the shelves, but there were alchemical reagents intact and some spare ink and parchment stored here and there. Based on the dust, it seemed as if someone had been there within the past year or so.

They ventured into another hallway and found a barred and magically sealed door, a regular door, and stairs leading upward. The regular door revealed a bedroom, which also appeared to have been used within a year or two. Nothing of value was in it.

Up the stairs they heard what sounded like open space and wind. Once at the top, they discovered that they were on top of a mesa with a sheer thousand foot drop on all sides. There was a large pool of water on top, and off to one side was a perfectly square pit about the same size as the room with the teleportation circle. They also found two extremely weathered skeletons up there, lying in pieces near each other.

Back to the sealed door they went, and they heard shuffling on the other side of it. They unbarred it, and Xakoraki opened it to find herself face-to-face with a lot of zombies. She breathed acid breath upon them, which felled all but three. Thoric stepped forward and turned the undead with the holy light of Linitheriva, and Ander and Xakoraki stepped up to smash the remaining zombies into the ground. The party emerged from combat untouched.

They took a breath and headed down a long stairway that turned twice to the right. At the bottom they were greeted by the sight of a long hallway that was completely filled with dessicated undead! We left them there until the next session.

A Lack of Moral Guidance - 11/5 session recap

Note from the DM : Ritual scrolls in 4th edition are usable by anyone, as long as you have the material components. Level doesn't matter. Ritual Casting feat (or class feature) doesn't matter. Anyone can use a scroll.

The Party decided to check out the path that led beyond the temple, and they headed eastward. The path continued to follow the northern rim of the east-west ravine, and after a while, the party started to hear a woman singing. Ander snuck ahead to check it out, and he was able to discern that there were two voices singing. As he rounded the corner, he came face to face with a harpy.

Ander was transfixed by the song, and was unprepared for the other harpy swooping down and slashing at him. The rest of the party rushed into assist, but they too were caught up in the song. All except for Xakoraki, who didn't give a damn about what some dirty bird-woman was singing about. Ander flung a burst of of shuriken at his attackers, blinding one of them. It shrieked so horribly that most of the party was dazed.

Boreas recovered fairly quickly and started hurling spells at one of the harpies. Over several rounds, he managed to damage her fairly severely, but she was able to fly away. Meanwhile, the other harpy took wing and flew over the ravine, singing another song. The allure was too much for the male party members, who were inexorably drawn to the edge of the chasm. Boreas and Ander caught themselves before falling over the edge, but Thoric lost his footing and fell, catching himself on the edge. Boreas continued to pour magical damage into his foes, and Ander tossed a few shuriken at his aerial target.

Thoric slipped further down the slope, and the party realized that he was in danger of falling entirely into the gorge. Xakoraki lowered a rope to him while the harpy retreated out of weapon and spell range. It flew away, cackling.

The party backtracked, and found themselves at the split in the path again. They decided to take the path they hadn't taken before, and two hours later they appeared to be approaching the harpies once again. Except this time they saw at least 4 in the sky, circling about half a mile away. Rather than engage an entire nest of harpies, they prudently decided to return to town.

Ander once again attempted to stir up animosity towards Xakoraki, but as he was doing this, he caught sight of the man with an eye patch looking at him as he was leaving the tavern. Ander dashed through the kitchen for the back door, only to find it barred and locked. The tavern keeper helped him open it, and Ander dashed out to stealthily follow the one-eyed man.

The man was somewhat furtive, and ended his journey at a door in an alleyway behind some shops. He went inside, and Ander heard the door lock. Listening at the door, Ander heard some movement for several minutes, and then after a longer while, deep breathing sounds, as of someone asleep.

The next morning, Ander asked the tavern keeper about the man with an eye patch, and the bartender said he'd seen him around town. He thought his name was Enwyd, and he thought he might own a shop somewhere in town. There was no other information on the man, however. The tavern keeper was also unaware of Orvalion.

They spoke with the owner of the magic shop as well, and he didn't know much except that Melchyn is the Magister of the town. The shopkeeper buys magical scrolls and such and sells them to Melchyn. The party was looking for a teleportation circle to use, and he said that Melchyn had the only one that he knew of.

So the party went to speak with Melchin at his mage tower. There was no door that they could see, so Ander hammered on the wall until a magic mouth showed up asking what the heck he was doing. He asked about Orvalion, but Melchyn didn't know much about him. He asked about a teleportation circle, and was told that he should use the road like everyone else. When pestered, Melchyn said that stupid laymen had now idea about how complex or expensive teleportation circles were, and that he should leave him alone.