PC Group - Stonehell 18-21/9/47 - The hidden arcane lair
Bandar, half elf Warlock 1 > 2
Arkae, Amazon Fighter 2 > 3
Cain, human Paladin 2 > 3
Aeris, High Elf Wizard 2 > 3
Nemesis, Amazon Fighter 5
Newly arrived at Stonehell, the warlock Bandar seeks a lost warlock(?) lair in Stonehell Dungeon's first level, and recruits a party. Meanwhile Trystan the Bard answers the call of Bratanic brothel armour and heads west to new adventures...
Journeying to the dungeon 18/9, the group encounter bugbear muggers in the canyon, who demand a gold toll. The party give them some and promise more later. Venturing down they explore the halls near the entry, find kobolds repairing a chamber, then battle and kill cannibal berserkers and recover some kobold bones. The kobolds escort them to the kobold market where they buy a bunch of slaves including kobolds, goblins, 2 human pilgrims & an elf. Bandar senses the hidden lair nearby. They decide to return to the surface with the freed slaves. In the canyon they fight the bugbears, Aeris is killed by a single blow. The goblins leave, the kobolds ask to stay with the party as the survivors return to Selatine with their dead and the pilgrims. Nemesis recognises a familiar dwarven warhammer among the loot of the dead bugbears. They also have plenty of gold, and a Moonsword.
Arkae, Nemesis & Cain ride to the Vaults of Belaras and get Aeris Raised in return for the magic hammer, returning next day to Selatine. 21/9 the group again enters Stonehell, travels to the Kobold Market. Arkae locates a secret door in the midden that finally leads into the long sough arcane refuge. Battling weird oozes, they smash a sinister mirror. Then they encounter a hovering orb, fight zombies and skeletons, discover a shrine to St Math demigod of magic & lore, and finally the hidden bedchamber where Aeris finds an invisible box containing spell scrolls of levitate & confusion. Then it is time to leave.
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18/9/47: Bratanis;
It's never a good sign when you wake up and the horizon is bright red.
The adventurers wake up to a red sky in the morning, as they hear warnings of raiders outside the village, in the nearby farms. Which are, of course, on fire.
Reacting quickly, they head to the farm, taking volleys from a manticore circling around Bratanis.
As they arrive, Tristan the bard turns up, to pick up his 'quick release' armor from Drizztana.
They team up to save the farmers, and soon find out that a large hobgoblin patrol burnt down the farm.
And that manticore is clearly scouting for a large force...
The penny drops - Bratanis is about to come under siege by the large hobgoblin army.
With only a window of a day before the battlelines form, they are pulled in for an audience with the ruler of Bratanis - Lady Thuvia. As the farms burn in the distance, she asks for help in getting a caravan of all of Bratanis's gold (3000GP) out of the area, to hire dwarven mercs.
Before the caravan is ready, the adventurers delve into the tunnels below Bratanis to make an escape route for civilians (through water weirds and mushroom men). Using mushroom man spores to talk to the water weird, they find a very small portal to the elemental plane of Water, with a coral palace visible through the 2 inch portal. Rumours of sultans of the deep are heard.
Heading out from Bratanis, the adventurers head to a broken tower where they heard rumours of ogres. Sneaking round the ogres, they climb into the tower, slicing up black pudding(s), integorating trapped hobgoblin scouts, and reactivating a helmed horror.
With Drizztana controlling it from inside as the battery runs low, they rout the ogres, and head back to Bratanis.
Feeling confident, the adventurers arrive just in time to guide the caravan out of the area, to get the mercs to fight off the hobgoblins. The adventurers have a robust discussion, but decide not to run off into the sunset with the gold.
That's when they run into the ambush.
It turns out that Adhf's secret service wasn't happy about the bank job which was carried out 2 weeks ago.
Hypnotic patterns enchant Tristan, leaving the less charming members to do the talking.
Who proceed to mention heads exploding, clearly indicating they did the bank job...
Thankfully around this time Tristan breaks out of the enchantment, and Uther and him talk the situation down, with Uther explaining the situation in Bratanis while in a zone of truth.
The adventurers talk their way out with only two of the party getting glowing marks of detection on their faces.
However, Adhf's secret service 'volunteer' to escort the caravan to the mercs, without the party.
The adventurers were not optimistic about the caravan getting there.
EXP:1200exp
1 partly functioning helmed horror (with a few minutes of charge, and no control mechanisms).
No caravan.
Situation: About 10 hours later, a hobgoblin army supporting by manticores, a handful of ogres and other monsters besiege Bratanis. The hobgoblins start building siege weapons.
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