Throne of Iuz
After a
month's R&R in Greyhawk City, a
gnomish cleric Linske Ostoff arrived at Argoth's house in the River Quarter
seeking Mebrien and Rothgar. Mebrien and Argoth entertained her while Odric
went to fetch Rothgar from
the inn he was staying at near the Temple of
Moradin. Linske informed them that having heard of their recent exploits she
needed their help to find her father. Milo
a merchant had disappeared along with his caravan of goods on his way
from Highfolk to set up a new shop in the town of Chendle, Contrary to the
advice of his colleagues he had taken the old Irongate road through the Vesve
forest and never arrived at his destination. She offered the party a reward of
her greatest treasure ( a cloak of minor displacement) if they could find her
father.
After much
academic research on the Vesve Forest area in the bars of the River Quarter,
sourcing their information from dodgy barkeeps and even dodgier grizzled
dwarven mercenaries and apprentice bards, the party decided
the best
course of action was to take a boat to Chendle and back-track along the
Irongate Road. After a pleasant cruise, and pausing only briefly to purchase
basic supplies the party set out on the long (and uneventful) walk
to Irongate.
Arriving at Irongate they discovered Milo and his caravan had never reached the
town and decided to hire a tracker to help them on the stretch or road to
Highfolk where he most likely disappeared. They were
pointed in
the direction of Old Bob the Tracker whom they hired and set out on the road,
after 3 days of being irritated by Old Bob's annoying hacking cough Rothgar
eventually cast Cure Disease on him getting rid of the spore
infection
that had crippled the tracker for months. About 20 miles south of the elven
settlement of Flametower Bob found the remnants of the caravan, burned out and
hidden in the forest. Using his wily tracking skills he
identified
that the caravan had been attacked by Orcs (probably of the Hant tribe) and
that captives had been taken. The party set off in pursuit.
In a
clearing in the forest the found what was obviously a huge old elvish burial
mound, carved in the form of a serpent
on top of which was an orc encampment. The orcs were obviously all veteran
troops and were sending out
regular
patrols and even had air support in the form of troopers riding tamed chimera.
After briefly considering a frontal assault, the party decided to ambush a
patrol to gain intelligence first. Odric using his ring of invisibility
followed a patrol to establish the patrol route and then an ambush was prepared.
Late in the
afternoon the ambush was sprung, Rothgar and Mebrien sacrificing the element of
surprise by stepping out and politely requesting the patrol surrender. As the
orc captain charged him, he cast Holy Word, as the rest of
the party
leaped to the fray. The combat was short lived as the entire orc patrol (and
Argoth) with the exception of the Captain was paralysed, blinded and deafened !
As Odric coup de graced his helpless opponents, and Rothgar an Mebrien
despatched the Captain, Barri grappled helpless orc troopers to the ground,
hogtied them and dragged them off to the bushes. The party then began a short
lived attempt to interrogate the prisoners, short lived because they quickly
realised nobody spoke orcish!!!
Next morning
after casting Tongues, Rothgar began the interrogation again. Two of the orc troopers proved to be of
stern stuff and refused to talk the third caved in almost immediately and began
to sing like a canary! The party were able to ascertain that the orcs were
camping at the burial mound prior to launching an assault on Flametower; that
General Grauss was their commander; that there was "important stuff"
in the Serpent Mound; that King Bog the Chosen of Grummsh was in the mound and
that there were prisoners being held in the jail cart.
After obtaining what intelligence they could
from the orc trooper, and Argoth reconnoitring the site invisibly from the air,
the party decided it would be appropriate to warn the elves in Flametower
(about 60 miles away) that the
Hant forces had occupied the Serpent Mound and may be massing for an attack. So
they set out across the forest looking for the road and a couple of days later
arrived in Flametower. Sending Mebrien ahead to gain an audience with the guard
captain, they passed on the information, and then headed back. Missing the
turn-off for the Serpent Mound they arrived in Irongate and hired Old Bob the
Tracker again to lead them there!
After pondering their actions again the decided that parley was the best
option, and after Argoth rigged up a white flag, stepped out into the clearing
around the mound. As one of the orcs in the air patrol swung his
chimera down and began shouting to them in orcish, Rothgar realised in horror
that he's forgotten to prepare "Tongues" again and nobody spoke
orcish. While Rothgar ran through the gamut of his known languages Argoth
surreptitiously readied an action... preparing a scroll should things turn pear
shaped. The Orc trooper rapidly running out of patience as no-one was answering
him swung into action his chimera unleashing it's breath weapon,
saw it did so Argoth's readied action went off and the whole party were
mass-teleported back to Irongate!
After a night's rest (and making sure Argoth learned "Tongues" the
party hired Old Bob again and headed out to the Serpent Mound, this time as the
orc guards swung down to intercept Rothgar cast "Tongues" on Mebrien
who
advised the Hant trooper that they'd come to pay the ransom for the prisoners!
He advised the party to head on up to the first watchtower, where they were met
by an orc sergeant who led them to the tent of General Grauss.
Grauss appeared an affable chap (for an orc) although his taste in décor (white
furs and assorted severed heads perhaps left a little to be desired) and after
Rothgar had ascertained that the eight surviving captives were
still alive (if somewhat battered) agreed a price of 2000 gp each for them. The
agreement sealed with a cup of hurlg, the party retrieved Milo and the other
captives and headed back to Irongate. Along the way Milo was able to
tell them that the orcs were up to something big in the mound, king Bog himself
was there and it somehow involved Iuz and a throne. From Irongate the party
left Milo and his comrades with the locals and "Air Walked" to
Chendle to do some research.
While their hired sage researched The Serpent Mound (an ancient eleven burial
mound), king Bog ( an awakened titanic toad who'd taken over the local orc
tribe in the defiled glades), and The Throne of Iuz (nothing),
Mebrien, Rothgar and Argoth briefly flirted with the idea of hiring mercenaries
to assist in assaulting the Mound. Barri (ever practical) hit the local bars
and suggested going back to Greyhawk and collecting the
50,000 gp owed to them. Eventually they
decided to head back to the Mound and prepare their next
action.
Having
determined on a plan for assaulting the Serpent Mound, our brave Adventurers
launched it into operation ( after a brief detour to gather additional
information from the rescued gnomes in Irongate). Argoth quaffing potions
of invisibility and having
wind-walk
cast upon her spent an afternoon scoping the place out, identifying primary
targets and locating any additional prisoners. At a brief discussion round a
cold cap that night the final details of the assault were hammered out.
Invisible and wind-walking the party would head up to the summit of the
mound and assemble in the open pavilion from which to launch their final
assault.
Next
day at noon the attack began - unfortunately as no plan survives contact with
the enemy - when they arrived at the pavilion they discovered some kind of
ceremony being enacted, a priest of Gruumsh leading some of the faithful in
prayer (which seemed to involve shouting a lot and waving weapons in the air
!). Out of contact with each other the party had to decide on the best course
of action. Argoth headed for a nearby watchtower having decided to take out the
orc encampment's air support from there. Rothgar , from the edge of the
pavilion cast a Firestorm at the tents in front of him, at which point he
became visible. Barri, seeing her fellow dwarf stuck close. Mebrien stayed
invisible to better suss out the situation. As the air was filled with the
screams and stench of burning orcs, Rothgar dashed into the pavilion casting
Holy Word! The orcs within had no chance and were instantly blinded, deafened
and paralysed! Argoth simultaneously launched hew patented wand of fireballs
/wand of lightning bolts combo against the orc air-cav and their chimera
mounts. Mebrien spotted General Grauss emerging from his tent sped across the
field of burning tents and appearing before him demanded his surrender! Barri,
still invisible moved across the camp to a more tactical position.
Rothgar,
satisfied, quickly wind-walked across to the western side of the camp and again
fire stormed the orcs sleeping in their tents as Argoth continued to take out
the air support. As Grauss and Mebrien settled into a one-on-one Barri sped to
aid the Paladin, moving invisibly into a flanking position.
Rothgar
having sown chaos and flaming death in the western half of the camp headed back
to his comrades, as belatedly the orcs in the watchtowers started ringing alarm
bells. Those orcs who hadn't been unfortunate enough to burn in their beds
began to swarm out of their tents straight into Argoth’s wand of fireballs...
Rothgar casually flamestriked a couple of other tents while Mebrien and Barri
swiftly despatched the general and a few of his troopers who tried to aid him.
As
Argoth and Barri began despatching the wounded and dying orcs (ignoring the
somewhat ineffectual attacks from the surviving orcs in the watchtowers),
Argoth and Mebrien headed for the top of the serpent mound to
better survey the camp. Odric, still invisible, waited patiently in case of
further trouble. From the vantage of their high ground Mebrien and Rothgar
spotted a group of Hant troopers in the eastern part of the camp who'd rallied
and led by 3 stone giants were moving to attack the intruders. Battle would one
more be joined and the crows would feast mightily today !
As the party were spread out across the field of battle the attacking Hant
forces split up - the 3 stone giants headed for Argoth, Barri and Mebrien each
accompanied by a small group of Hant troopers. A fourth group of orcs, led by a
battle-raging commander were ambushed by Odric. A vicious combat ensued flowing
across the burning camp the stone giant monks using the combined advantage of
grater reach and flurries of blows to deal out some punishment while their orc
trooper cohorts pretty much bit the dust one by one. Argoth in particular found
herself hard pressed and tumbled away to relative safety pursued by one stone
giant, till Mebrien after dispatching her opponent came to her aid. Barri
proved his usual engine of destruction moving his way through stone giant monks
and orc troopers with his customary aplomb and the cry of "cleave"
echoed across the fray. Across the field of battle (or should that be
slaughter) Odric although surrounded by foes swung his military pick with
unerring precision as orcs fell around him. Rothgar on the other hand was
having a bad day... the favour of Moradin seemed to have left him as he
variously tripped, stumbled and threw very expensive magic weapons away taking
an inordinate amount of time to dispatch two orc troopers.
When their foes lay vanquished, dead and dying the party regrouped near General
Grauss's tent and the healing wands were put to good use. Argoth, as is
the way with rogues, immediately headed for the general's tent to loot what was
lootable, pausing only to strip the general's corpse along the way. Argoth also
found some scrolls that finally once deciphered by Rothgar, identified the
Throne of Iuz and it's function - it is a minor artefact created by foul magics
drawing on the power from a corrupted elven shrine... it's purpose one Iuz sat
on it was to allow the demi-god to focus his corrupt power and extent the area
of the Defiled Glades across the whole of the Vesve Forest making it
uninhabitable to all those save who hold allegiance to Iuz. Once the
healing was completed the party briefly discussed retiring to refresh and
replenish spells, but Rothgar argued cogently that they should press forward
their advantage so, onwards they went into the depths of the Serpent mound.
Inside the mound they found a long twisting passage either side of which were
alcoves in which niches had once contained the remains of elven notables their
remains now desecrated and strewn casually across the floor. The elven
inscriptions defaced with orcish crudities. At the end of the passage lay a
huge room, obviously one a place of worship now defiled by the loathsome
titanic presence of King Bog. Near the king was the Throne itself, glittering
with precious gemstones and reeking of evil. Standing next to the throne was an
orc druid and his dire-bear companion.
Immediately the party launched into action Mebrien and Barri charging forward,
Argoth moving to a position to use her wand of magic missiles and Rothgar
dropping a Blade Barrier on top of the huge toad. King Bog however, moving with
surprising speed for one of his immense bulk evaded the worst of the blade
barrier and began moving forward. The orc druid wild-shaped into a huge plant
dripping with acid and launched to the attack - his dire-bear companion
assisting. As Barri and Mebrien joined in combat they were somewhat discomfited
to see two of the nearby columns supporting the roof twist and reform into huge
stone warriors wielding great swords.
King Bog, pausing briefly to snap at Argoth, continued to head for Rothgar, who
trusting in Moradin, stood his ground. As the titanic toad snapped and
attempted to trample the dwarf under his massive weight. Argoth retaliated
using her wand (with seeming little impact) on the enormous one-eyed beast. At
the other end of the temple Barri and Mebrien were for a time hard-pressed but
eventually Mebrien struck a telling blow and falling to the ground the huge
plant reverted back to the form of the orc druid. Its master slain the
dire-bear withdrew from the combat leaving the two caryatid columns. As the
stone figures dolled out punishment to those desecrating the temple of their
elven creators. Barri and Mebrien fought back unaware that with each blow
they were risking their weapons to the column's magical "break
weapon" ability. Their weapons and they however proved to be made of
sterner stuff and they turned finally to aid their comrades and turned to
see...
King Bog heaving his massive bulk off the twisted and broken body of Rothgar...
As the party rushed in to avenge their fallen comrade King Bog, seeing the last
of his followers had fallen and being badly wounded teleported away. Leaving
the party to claim the day !
Argoth used a scroll of Raise Dead to bring Rothgar back who then took charge
of destroying the Throne utterly, even, to Argoth’s chagrin, to the last
glittering gemstone !