After
stopping by their home in Dagger’s Falls to retrieve some treasure, the party
agree to accompany Algon to Marsember to report back to his superiors at
Morningmist Hall. Joining a trade caravan, the journey along the caravan
route is uneventful, save when they come to the town of Tilverton, whereupon
they discover a detachment of purple dragons who informed them the town was
utterly destroyed some weeks ago by powerful magics and unknown enemies –
and the site of the town was no longer safe. After resting nearby for the
night, the journey to Marsember continued uneventfully.
Marsember
After
Algon had reported to Morningmist Hall and returned the Testament of Jade
to the temple, he was told he should retain First Light, the High
Morninglord also issued a credit note for 10,000 gp to each of the
comrades as a reward. A shopping frenzy then ensued over the next couple of
weeks as weapons and equipment were renewed and upgraded. During this time
Algon was approached by Ulric Kestrel, a young acolyte of his order who asked
him to attend his aunt when passing through Arabel as she had expressed
an interest in meeting the heroes of Myth Drannor and had a proposition that
might be of interest.
Arabel
Heading
to Arabel they found the city still in a frenzy of reconstruction following its
occupation by Nalavara’s army last year, like the rest of the city the Lady
Kestrel’s manor house too was in a flurry of reconstruction. Once ushered into
the Lady’s sting room the party heard her proposal – she had obtained a map
that detailed the whereabouts of Nalavara’s lair and more importantly her hoard!
She wished the party to recover the horde, and for the good of Cormyr return
50% of the treasure to the Crown to aid the reconstruction after the war and
the events at Tilverton. Of the remaining treasure 25% to go to her to aid the
rebuilding of her estates and the businesses and farms, restoring the
livelihoods of those who depended on her, the remainder to be divided
amongst the party. Algon readily agreed to thus aid his country and the others
too, readily agreed. Lady Kestrel advised that they must go to the nearby town
of Eveningstar to meet an old friend of her deceased husband’s - Gurrand Rannar
– who had the map and gave them her signet ring that they might identify
themselves to him.
The
Lady Kestrel warned them that the Freedom Warriors as bunch of political
malcontents led by ambitious and capricious nobles who wished to overthrow the
regency of the young king were likely to cause trouble – which was bourn out
that afternoon, when heading out into the streets looking for an inn, they
witnessed some thugs attempting to “requisition” a wagon carrying relief
supplies into the city. Incensed by the actions of the so-called Freedom
Warriors the party intervened, and keeping casualties to a minimum managed to
send the revolutionaries packing!
Next
morning after purchasing supplies the party set out on the two-day trek to
Eveningstar, towards late afternoon on the first day they saw smoke rising
ahead of them. Investigating they discovered a small homestead surrounded by
fire and cries coming from within – outside the building, laughing as if the
whole thing was a geat joke was Arroch, a cleric of Talos
Nym,
incensed at this behaviour immediately fired a volley of arrows at the cleric,
while Algon shucked his pack to retrieve the Decanter of Endless Water. Arroch
retaliated by commanding the two fiendish dire-wolves he’d summoned to round up
the family into the homestead, to attack the party. Arroch then cast a flame
strike targeted on Nym (who evaded it’s effects) but which also managed to
damage Nystrae, Senella, Ramas and Randall. As Randall and Senella took on the
dire-wolves, who vanished when slain, Algon headed to the burning homestead
bearing the decanter like a fire-hose, only to be attacked by four fire medium
elementals. Having despatched the dire-wolves Randal joined Nym in launching
volleys of arrows at the evil cleric, while Senella began to move swiftly
towards him, warhammer in hand. Nystrae after healing herself, moved to support
Algon, healing him too. Arroch cast another summon spell, as Rams moved across
the field towards the homestead, casting create water in an attempt to quench
the flames that were leaping around the doorway.
As
the decanter spewed water into the air, Algon and Nystrae engaged the
elementals, and Nym was confronted by another two summoned dire-wolves and
withdrew, Arroch prepared an action. As Senella got close enough she charged
swinging her warhammer furiously, as she neared the cleric, he reached out his
hand and touched her – casting harm. Senella’s blow landed,
wounding the cleric grievously, however, stout-hearted as she was the doughty
dwarven fighter was unable to withstand the evil cleric’s power and fell to the
ground. As Ramas called to the Stagdale family within the homestead leave the
building via the route he’d cleared, Randall faced up to the two dire-wolves
that had been attacking Nym. Nystrae, cast a searing light against the
cleric of Talos. As the volley of scorching rays seared into him Arroch called
out a curse of Talos upon them and fell to the ground, slumped across the body
of Senella.
While
Ramas evacuated the grateful family from their home, Randal and Nym swiftly
despatched the summoned dire-wolves and Algon and Nystrae the elementals. With
the fire elementals gone Algon was able to finally extinguish the flames,
saving much of the house, much to the gratitude of the Stagdales.
Realising
Senella was beyond their help and they had insufficient funds to have her
raised, the remaining party rested that night with the Stagdales and mourned
their fallen comrade. Next morning a simple service was held and Senella’s body
once again committed to Clangeddin Silverbeard in a simple grave behind the
Stagdale’s farmstead, the Stagedale’s youngest daughter offering to ensure that
the grave was well tended.
Eveningstar
After
arriving in Eveningstar the party made for “The Welcoming Hand” a large inn,
and after an excellent meal asked the barkeep where they might find Gunnard,.
Fortunately Gunnard had taken rooms in the same in and one of the servants led
them up to Gunnard’s room. Gunnard was a little puzzled to see them, especially
when they professed to have come from Lady Kestrel, however after some
persuasion he believed them and revealed that his confusion was due to that
fact that another party had presented themselves the day before as coming from
Lady Kestrel and he had passed the map to them! However all was not lost
–according to the map the dragon’s lair
was near a goblin stronghold in the mountains – probably the source of
Nalavarra’s troops, when Gurrand had passed through the town of Tyrluck in the
Stormhorns recently he had spoken to a man named Valen of the Peaks who claimed
to know the location of a hidden goblin stronghold. If the party could track
down Valen the might be able to find the way. Heading down into the common
room, they were met by an elven Duskblade who introduced herself as Asheera,
and had been sent to warn them by Lady Kestrel that the Freedom Warriors had
sent a rival adventuring group to thwart the party – on hearing that her
warning was too late Asheera offered to help in any way she could. The party
accepted her offer gratefully.
Very
early next morning the party set of for the Stormhorns, as they moved closer
and closer to the mountains the devastation that plagued Cormyr became clearer
as they came across signs of a recent battle between Purple Dragons and one of
the goblin raiding parties that still plagued the country. As Asheera and
Nystrae searched the corpses for any signs of life, Ramas and Nym witnessed a
curios sight as the hillside nearby suddenly faded in mist and for a second or
two they saw a shimmering and the image of huge cavern. Asheera found a single
survivor, who although close to death was revived by Nystrae’s healing. He
transpired to be a young officer, who told them that the evening before the
detachment set up camp and the goblins
had attacked from nowhere, they had swarmed all over the camp before a warning
could be raised. After being given some food and drink the young officer headed
off to Eveningstar to report.
That night as they settled down near the
roadside the party saw a small group of Purple Dragons marching wearily down
the road towards Eveningstar. Battered, bloodstained and weary the troops began
passing by, when suddenly they turned and charged the party, revealing
themselves to be wights! Fortunately, Nystrae, the Hunter of the Dead, and
Ramas managed to turn them before they could wreak too much havoc.
Tyrluck
Next
day the party arrived safely in Tyrluck, which like many others of the villages
they’d passed was in the throes of reconstruction, as they headed in to the
only inn, “The Old Man’s Face”, Nystrae bringing up the rear was called to by
name by a shadowy figure lurking at the side. Somewhat surprised to be thus
addressed she went over cautiously. Standing there hidden in the shadows was a
slight woman dressed in leather armour, swathed in a cloak that shrouded her
face in shadows and made her difficult to see. She introduced herself as Leena
and warned Nystrae that a group was waiting for them in the mountains, she had
been a member of the group for a short while, but finding she had made a poor
choice in companions had left at the first opportunity.
In the inn, a somewhat damp
and unwelcoming place, the party soon found Valen who agreed to lead them to
the stronghold for 20pp - in advance! After a moderately uncomfortable night on
the stone floor in the back room of the inn (the common room was being
re-built) the party purchased some trail rations and set out following Valen
deeper and deeper into the mountains. As they journeyed more and more of the
rare villages they passed were either abandoned or had been destroyed. Eventually Valen led them up a blind
mountain pass, where at the end in a sheer rock face he pointed to a cave
mouth.
The
part entered the cave cautiously, led by Asheera as they got a short way in
however a fireball detonated around them, Nym and Nystrae evaded the
damage only to see two armoured figure charge out of the darkness at them one a
huge fighter in full plate swinging a greatsword, the other a female cleric of
Loviatar. As the fighter crashed into Asheera - the cleric cast a spell. Nym,
using her goggles of darkvision located the source of the fireball as another
one detonated around them – a wizard some 20ft back up the tunnel, and launched
a fusillade of arrows which thudded into their target. As Ramas healed himself
and prepared to launch a magical attack, he was distracted by the sudden
appearance of a fiendish giant preying mantis behind him. Asheera managed to
hit the fighter with a critical blow
from her longsword, adding further to the damage by loosing shocking grasp
through her blade as she did so, but scant moments later she fell, sorely
wounded by the furious blows from the fighter’s greatsword. Nystrae as her new
comrade fell cast darkfire and attacked the fighter. Nym launched
another fusillade of arrows at the wizard who managed to get off a magic
missile before dropping, Nym then stepped back, drawing her rapier to
engage the preying mantis, Ramas
launched a scorching ray at the fighter, then attempted to use his wand
of ghoul touch on the cleric, who retaliated by sundering the wand with her
morningstar. Eventually, though sorely pressed, both the fighter and the cleric
fell before the combined assaults of the party. Nystrae quickly checked out
Asheera finding her badly wounded but stable and once more called upon the
healing powers of her goddess. After stripping the bodies of all of value, they
continued their search of the cave, however it quickly became apparent that
this was a dead end.
The
party decided to rest the night in the cave, after hauling the bodies outside,
but their night’s rest was interrupted by the arrival of a couple of ettins
who’d had the same idea! After the
ettins were dealt with, the party rose early next morning and decided to go and
have a quiet word with Valen back in Tyrluck – Nym being particularly keen and
speculation on 1001 uses for a lock-pick that the manufacturers hadn’t dreamed
of - and headed off down the mountain
trail. After a few hours travel, they reached one of the villages they’d passes
on the way up and decided to stop for lunch. Chatting with the village “elder”
a young 18 year old girl, she told them that a couple of days ago the village’s
livestock kept in a hidden valley to
the northeast had disappeared, along with – according to the herder who’d
reported the loss – part of the valley. The village men-folk had gone to
investigate but had not returned and she was getting concerned. Algon
immediately volunteered their services to investigate – and after a simple meal
they were led back up into the mountains to the hidden valley.
On
arrival, they found the bodies of the village men-folk, cruelly slain some
beating signs of electrical damage, as they surveyed the scene the party also
spotted a cave in the mouth of which swirled a mysterious and otherworldly
mist. Before investigating the cave, Algon insisted that they return the bodies
of the slain back to the village and undertake the appropriate burial
rites. By the time that had been
completed it was late afternoon as they party returned to the valley to
investigate the cave. As Algon strode forwards, a huge reptilian figure emerged
from the mist towards him, it bore a greatsword in one hand and had the skull
of a dragon as a shield in the other, as it roared and banged it’s sword
against the shied, crackles of electricity discharged. Taking advantage of the
Bluespawn Godslayer’s display, Algon
immediately cast Bull’s Strength as Nym prepared her bow, Asheera, Nystrae and
Ramas prepared their spells.
A
second later the creature charged Algon delivering a furious blow with it’s
greatsword which hurt the paladin sorely, First Light healed him of some of the
damage, as the paladin launched his own assault, Nym let loose a volley of fire
arrows, which although the arrows themselves seemed to do little damage the
fire seemed to affect it. Nystrae launched darkfire at the beast as Asheera
sent a firebolt towards it and then the two closed to melee range. Ramas
too launched his most potent spells against it but for some reason seemed
unable to penetrate it’s magical defences. As the combat continued, the
creature continued to lash it with attacks from its fearsome greatsword each
hit of which was accompanied by a discharge of electricity. In turn Algon,
Nystrae and Asheera were sorely pressed by the beast till eventually the
combined onslaught of the party finally defeated it.
The City Of Grodd
Resting
briefly and casting healing spells, the party moved thought the mists into the
cave – as the mists reached out to them they felt a wrenching sensation and
found themselves in a long low cave - with no entranceway behind them. The cave
was full of pits at the top of which were iron scarecrow-like constructions
adorned with jewellery and other knick-knacks, as Nym’ eyes lit-up as she
appraised the wealth around her and began slipping the more valuable pieces
into her back-pack, Ramas and Algon examined one of the pits to find it
contained skeletons.
At
the other end of the cave the “doorway” carved with symbols of death, led to a
long winding passageway. As Ramas and the others waited for Nym to complete her
“investigations”, Ramas suddenly noticed one of the passageway walls suddenly
fade to mistiness and what could only be described as two shadow creatures,
vaguely cat-like emerge and disappear off down the passageway. As Nym joined
them and they set off down the passageway, Nym suddenly began to feel curiously
shaken – a feeling he was unable to shake off as they progressed. The tunnel
ended abruptly with an astonishing vista – a huge cavern much bigger that the
range of their vision, and nestling within it – a city! A city that bustled
with life – all of it goblin!
The
party spent several day exploring the cavern network around the goblin city,
trying to find a weak point in – however every entrance was guarded by one of
the solidly constructed guard-towers that appeared to be constantly manned by
watchful guards. The witnessed the death-rituals of an old goblin and saw the
people of Grodd go about their daily business – once they even saw a mind
flayer accompanied by grimlock thralls enter into the city from one of the
passages. Algon speculated that they had somehow been transported deep into the
Underdark. A couple of times as they circumnavigated the city and pondered how
to proceed the party saw misty gates forming a creatures from the Plane of
Shadow emerge. Twice, they were attacked, one by some kind of “shadow panthers”
and then by the more familiar shadow mastiff’s however, Asheera’s scorching rays proved particularly effective
against the creatures.
One
“morning” as they arose from rest they were greeted cautiously by Hurharoon, a
githzerai monk, who asked if they had seen any sight of Sheshestet, the
illithid he was hunting. After advising that they’d seen the mind-flayer enter
the city, Hurharoon relaxed and joined them for breakfast. He told them that
they were not in fact in the Underdark, or indeed anywhere on the Prime, but on
a demi-plane, the city was known as Grodd and that he, like them, was trapped
here as his plane-shift ability didn’t seem to function, although he’d noticed
that groups of goblins seemed to plane shift with ease from the city. After
breakfast he set off to hunt!
After
a few more day’s reconnoitring, Nystrae decided to ask for guidance from
Elistraee and received the following divination:
Seek
the place the Dragon lay
The
long years away
The
dragon’s eye will show the way.
Deciding that they had no option but to seek the
mysterious “dragon’s eye” in the city of Grodd they decided how best to
infiltrate the city. They briefly considered disguise, but without suitable
illusion magic quickly discarded that as an option. A sortie through the city’s
sewers was discussed but eventually it was decided to try an aerial
reconnaissance. Next night-phase, after resting, Nystrae cast air walk on
herself, Asheera and Algon and shrouding the party in deeper darkness they
began scouting the city at a height of around 60ft.
Strolling
over the city, Nystrae spotted what looked like a curiously shaped lake in the
central plaza in front of the palace,
that lake some 700ft long and 30 feet wide looked somewhat dragon-shaped. Moving lower, but very conscious of the
numerous goblin guards in front of the palace, the party closed to examine the
“head” of the dragon-lake. Deep below the surface glinting and glittering
lights could be seen. Asheera cast a detect magic and identified conjuration magic
– using her knowledge of the Arcane she deduced that they’d found the gate to
the dragon’s lair. They decided to
return to the others and formulate a plan.
After
resting in the cave system for another “night” and reviewing their
recollections of their aerial reconnaissance of Grodd, Asheera suggested
infiltrating the city via the large quarry to the east and from there gaining
access to the sewer system in the nearby residential district to make their way
closer to the plaza and the Dragon’s Eye. Although no one was particularly
enthusiastic about the plan – Algon in particular was dubious of the benefits
of wading through goblin effluent – no one could come up with a better
plan…despite Ramas’s insistence that a frontal assault was best.
It
took the party half a day to make their way through the cave systems to the
eastern approaches to the city with Nym scouting ahead. At one point they came
across a party of goblin miners, but rather than provoke a confrontation,
waited till the night-cycle when the miners returned to the city. Arriving at
the point nearest the large quarry, Nystrae one again shrouded the party in
deeper darkness and moving silently lest they draw attention from the nearby
watchtower they gingerly lowered themselves down the 30ft slope using Ramas’s
Rope of Climbing. Traversing the base of the quarry unseen they moved up the
ramp on the far side finding it unguarded, and making their way to the nearest
block of houses gained entrance to the sewer grid via the nearest latrine
block. Although the sewers were unpleasant – to say the least – the party made
their way safely to the area near the plaza despite the attentions of some dire
rats and a couple of ochre jellies.
Emerging
from the latrine block near the plaza, the party were then faced with the
problem of how to cross the 250ft of open ground to the dragon lake without
drawing the attention of the goblin squads guarding the palace opposite. They
decided the best method would be to commando crawl across the plaza relying on
Nystrae’s deeper darkness to shroud them. As the group snaked across the plaza
attempting to move silently – unfortunately not being the sneakiest of parties,
some small noise drew the attention of the goblins across the plaza and a squad
was dispatched to investigate. To distract the attention of the goblins Ramas
cast ghost sound as the party slipped one-by-one into the lake and began
manoeuvring around the edge to the “head”. Arriving at the head of the lake
they could clearly see the gobbling troopers guarding the palace, and as they
watched a squad of reinforcements arrived and formed up no more that 20ft from
where they lay partially submerged in the lake. Seeing the “dancing lights”
below, Ramas, uncharacteristically impetuous, dived down and disappeared through
the portal, one-by-one the rest followed.
The Dragon`s Lair
Ramas
found himself standing on a hillside behind him a gargantuan carved relief of a
dragon head from whose left eye he’d just emerged. The sun was shining and
birds were signing in the nearby forest a river ran nearby disappearing off
into a patch of mist – the beauty of the scenery was spoiled only by mutilated
corpses of four humans, one with a hooked hand tied to posts in front of him!
As Asheera suddenly emerged from the dragon’s eye next to him Ramas stepped
forward and removed a note pinned to the nearest body as it was written in
elvish he passed it to Asheera who swiftly translated it as “so die all human
scum” although the expression actually used for “human” was an extremely
derogatory elven phrase roughly translated as “short-lived, ugly,
monkey-spawn”!
However
Ramas swiftly had something more to worry about than an insult to the human
side of his heritage as a huge mountain troll emerged from the forest and
charged them. Asheera swiftly moved to one side and cast a ray of enfeeblement
on the huge giant but this had the unfortunate consequence of leaving Ramas the
sole subject of the troll’s attention as the creature swung it’s giant club
two-handed at the unfortunate aasimar. A few seconds late a somewhat shocked
Nym appeared to see the huge creature beating Ramas to a pulp, unhesitating the
brave rogue drew his rapier and moved to engage drawing a blow from the
creatures mighty club that almost flattened him. As first Randal, then Nystrae,
and finally Algon emerged and joined the combat, the huge beast proved a
formidable foe – Asheera swiftly moved to heal Ramas who was on the point of
death, while Nystrae aided the almost as badly damaged Nym. Eventually however
the huge troll was defeated by a combination of continued melee attacks, fire
arrows from Nym and every fire spell the spellcasters could muster.
As
the creature finally fell, a cold voice called out from the forest in elvish –
“Very impressive – but ultimately futile” . The party had scant seconds to take
in what the voice from the woods said (at least those that understood elvish) -
when 3 arrows thudded into Randall.
As
Randal dropped to his knees taking cover behind the smoking corpse of the
mountain troll, and reached for a potion, Algon immediately charged towards the
word, a split second later followed by Asheera. As the sound of a hunting horn
rang out from the forest, Nystrae moved to aid her fallen colleague.
Another
flurry of arrows whizzed past Algon as he finally reached the cover of the
forest – about 30 feet to his left Asheera did the same. As the two began
moving cautiously from tree-trunk to tree-trunk scanning the forest for the
assailant, they were joined shortly by Nystrae and Randall in the search. Another
flurry of arrows, one hitting Algon enabled them to ascertain the arrows were
coming from somewhere above ground. As the others anxiously scanned the canopy,
Randall shinnied up a tree to attempt to get a better view. The party searched
for some time but could find no trace of their attacker, who appeared to have
melted into the forest.
Recovering
their gear (and their other colleagues) the party decided to climb the hill
onto whose face the dragon head was carved, a short climb later they reached
the top – half of the hilltop was shrouded in mist but in the clear area, which
overlooked the dragon head they found an encampment but no trace of whomever
had camped there.
Form
this vantage point however they had a better view of the forest, noticing two
key features – a large clearing to the north in which there appeared to be a
tower and to the northeast a small lake. Climbing back down the hill they
decided to follow the river towards the lake.
As
they marched along the riverbank they suddenly came under attack again as
another flight of arrows whistled out of the forest – as they were preparing to
react a huge fire elemental appeared in front and began to attack Asheera, who
sorely damaged, dived into the nearby river. As Algon and Randall moved to
confront the elemental, they came under continuous fire from the archer.
Nystrae swiftly moved off to one side to better target whoever was attacking
them. As Asheera broke the surface of the stream, she barely had time to draw
breath before a huge fiendish spider appeared on the bank opposite and began to
attack her to which she responded by casting scorching rays.
Nystrae cast darkfire at the enemy spellcaster she could see at
the edge of the woods, who retaliated
by casting magic missile and Melf’s acid arrow before succumbing to the
darkfire. Randall and Algon disposed of the elemental and moved to confront the
archer who, laughing maniacally dropped his bow and drawing a longsword closed
to melee – a poor choice as he was swiftly dealt with.
Recovering
and healing their wounds the party continued on down the river, which
disappeared into the pervasive mist in this region. Algon unhesitatingly
marched into the mists followed by the others. As a wrenching painful sensation
wracked his body, Algon found himself standing in the forest – alone. After a
similar painful wrenching sensation, Asheera found herself standing back along
the riverside near the dragon head carving. Nystrae and Randall had similar
experiences finding themselves alone in the forest. Randall again climbed a
tree and spotted a small clearing to the north which he decided to investigate.
Nystrae, hearing the sound of running water to the east headed in that
direction. Asheera, after heading up the hill a way again to get her bearings
on the lake headed off in a direct line for the lake. Algon slightly disturbed
by a loud buzzing noise to the west decided to stand his ground and see if any
of his colleagues were nearby. In the clearing Randall, found the remnants of
what had once been a huge statue of a human figure – all that remained being
the lower jaw and mouth – but deciding to forego further investigation, climbed
a taller tree. This time he was able to get a bead on the lake and climbing
down headed that way. Nystrae in short
order emerged from the forest by the lakeside and sat down to wait.
After
some time Algon decided to investigate the buzzing sound and some way to the
west of his position he found a giant wasp’s nest, wisely avoiding disturbing
the insects he found Asheera a few minutes later heading towards him and the
two made their way together to the lake where they met up with Nystrae waiting
patiently.
A
short time later Randall emerged from the forest who told them that he had passed close by the large clearing
with the tower in it and at the foot of the tower was a large gorge. The party
decided to rest by the lakeside and investigate the tower on the morrow.
While
Asheera rested by the campsite and hunted for food and supplies, the rest of
the party set off bright and early, as it always seems to be bright and early
here, the heroes began the trek through the forest. Algon preceded the party
while the rest went cautiously still swathed in the deeper darkness supplied by
Nystrae. As the march progressed Ramas suddenly felt a sharp pain in has back!
Reaching round he withdrew a hand covered in blood – someone had stabbed him!
As he cried out incredulously, the party rallied round but were unable to find
the assailant. After a fruitless search they decided to press on.
Arriving
at the glade they headed straight to the tower, although Nym, swiftly scouting
the gorge notice a stone stairway down one side and what looked like the
entrance to a large cave below. Even a cursory glance at the tower showed it
was not constructed of natural stone and there were a large number of windows
in somewhat unusual positions, as Algon peered in through one he saw that the
tower had been built around a large tree.
Nym quickly examined the door which although locked was not trapped and
he could find no lock to pick! Ramas suggested that the door was probably
Arcane locked, and Nym moved round to examine the window as a method of entry
deciding that although they were narrow and curiously angled it might just be
possible for him to manoeuvre his way through.
As
the nimble thief wormed his way through the narrow gap into the room beyond,
and went to check out the door a voice called to him from the staircase. As Nym
responded and turned, the voice suddenly changed called Nym a “filthy
half-breed” its owner, an elf in armour bearing the holy symbol of
Shevarash moved across the room drawing
a longsword.
From
outside, seeing their colleague threatened Ramas cast a searing light, while
Randall fired his bow. Nystrae and Algon moved to the door to break it down. As
Nym and the elf cleric engaged in combat, Ramas feeling unseen eyes upon him
scanned the edge of the clearing, out of the corner of his eye he saw a shadowy
shape and cast magic missile. Randall following
suit, fired two arrows at the half-seen figure. A moment or two later a frenzied female elf bearing twin dagger
launched herself out of the shadows screaming obscenities at the human who had
the temerity to attack her.
As
Algon and Nystrae crashed through the door of the tower, the started elven
cleric backed up the stairway casting a blade barrier where Nym and Algon stood
– Nym with his thief’s reflexes avoided the spell easily but the paladin took
some damage from the whirling blades of force. As Randal and Ramas dealt
effectively with the frenzied assault on them, Nystrae cast a searing light
at the elf cleric, forcing him to retreat further up the stairs - Algon and Nym rushed up the opposite
stairway to the balcony there, but could see so sign of the cleric!
After
searching the tower and removing the magic items from the body of the assassin
the party decided to press on the gorge and cautiously made their way down the
incised stone staircase. As they approached the cave mouth, two wyverns held by
long chains attacked them. The wyverns proved little challenge to the
experienced adventurers but Randall warned the others not to be complacent as
there were bound to be more powerful guardians and the wyverns could be there
to lull the party into a false sense of security – prophetic words indeed
Gentle Reader!
As
they enter the cave mouth the huge cave beyond was split into two levels, the
back half of the cave being some 8ft higher than the front, approaching the
wall. Algon levered himself up to better see what was there, as he did so a
large clawed green hand swiped at him slightly wounding the paladin. A moment
later five large trolls leaped down from the upper level and attacked
viciously. As the party reacted to this attack the trolls were joined by a
sixth larger troll, this one clad in plate armour and wielding a greatsword – a
war troll!
Two
of the trolls went for Algon, two for Nym, and one for Ramas, the war troll
headed directly for Nystrae and Randall hacking into them with ferocious blows
that dazed the brave adventurers.
Despite the ferocious assault they bravely retaliated, Randall using his
blade and Nystrae hurting the war troll sorely with gouts of darkfire.
However
the war troll was a powerful foe indeed, and as he attempted to dodge the blows
of the troll Ramas watched out of the corner of his eye, in horror as first
Nystrae and the Randall fell before the war troll’s ferocious attack, and then
in even more horror as the creature move to him swinging his greatsword - the
last sight the son of the desert saw.
Nym
heroically tried to hold the two trolls attacking him, as his rapier danced,
but it appeared the two trolls healed as fast as he could damage them and he
too fell dying to gore-spattered floor of the cave.
This
left Algon standing alone, he managed to drop one of the trolls to the ground
but it’s four brothers gathered round him. Algon stood for a moment surrounded
by his enemies and holding forth First Light called out a challenge to
the war troll.
The
troll grinned ferociously and charged the paladin!
The
trolls feasted mightily that day.