Players in Attendance: Chris Rocco (Pendrynn Hamut), Jason Jurisch (Froimos), Dustin Haugen (Barack Tenderfoot), Jason Alway, (Kurok Stonehammer),Greg Sallee (Davros)

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Recap: The Dragonslayers, after having wiped out a village of Bullywugs and lost their horses to the swirling toxic vapors of the Mist Fens, redoubled their efforts and discovered the wandering island of the Marsh Wizard. Careful scouting identified a Forgeworks in one of the island’s shallow valleys, with the sounds of hammers on metal and the red glow of the massive central forge lighting up the night sky. Bypassing the factory, the party moved further up the island’s central hill, when a rare strong wind cleared the mists away to reveal a moss and vine covered  stone fortress crowning the hill.  After fruitless searching for access from the basement, our adventurers pulled out their grappling hook and decided the best plan of attack was from above. As our party soon discovered, attacking a wizard’s fortress is not a simple task.

~~~

A slim robed figure hunches over a mountain of plate steel illuminated by the dim blue light, “Averast, hand me those tongs, and that cog as well.” The marsh wizard’s assistant dutifully follows his masters orders, searching out the requested items from the laboratory table piled high with metallic parts, bubbling alembics and hastily scrawled blueprints. “hopefully this will fix up that nasty clicking problem with the right arm.” Closing the access panel on the massive armored figure, Balthazar Grandy, steps up to the large stone altar rising from the center of  circle of burning tapers, standing before an ancient stone arch. Atop the altar is a crumpled humanoid form, completely covered by an unnaturally shimmering cloth. Sliding the blanket off reveals an intricately detailed small golden box with several thin gold wires connecting it to the still warm and well preserved corpse. “It looks like the transfer is complete, tis time to see how well those combat abilities have meshed.” Gently disconnecting the golden tendrils from the remains, Balthazar walked it across the room to the hulking form of his ultimate creation. “I’ve waited for this day for quite some time, the master will be pleased to know that his army will be stronger than even I had believed possible.”

A silver bell on the heavily laden table began to chime a series of short rings, someone had triggered the alarm from the throne room above!

“You”, the marsh wizard directed one of his three metal mastiffs, “summon my troops from the forgeworks, tell the commander to activate all reserves and send them immediately!” The iron dog bounded away, disappearing down the spiraling stone staircase. “Averast! Activate the red portal, I’ll be needing you to complete a critical mission for your master. I’m going to give you an important treasure that you must immediately bring to the tower of flames, K’raggargh will know what needs be done with it.” The marsh wizard flexed his thin bronze fingers fingers and pushed against his temple, activating the hidden latch. With a barely imperceptible click, a small rectangular cover slid aside revealing the interior of his bronze skull. Small golden gears, counterweights, and a tangled web of fine wire surrounded the four golden squares located directly in the center of the Marsh Wizard’s right temple. “Ahhh..wha?” the wizard muttered as he pressed down on one of the squares; it silently elongated and slid out into Balthazar’s hand revealing it to be a slender rectangular rod of gold inscribed with spidery magical runes. MEMORIES. “I’ll need you… uh.. short one, to bring this to.. bah, what was I going to do..” Averast grabbed the rod, “I am aware of my orders master, you must prepare for battle, the fortress is being being attacked!”

The Marsh wizard closed the access port in his skull protecting the three remaining rods labeled ABILITIES, PERSONALITY and COMPULSION. As Averast bolted for the stone arch, he stopped to withdraw a small red crystal from a velvet bag hanging from the arch. Placing it into an identically shaped depression on the arch, a shimmering red curtain of energy snapped into place with a loud “CRACK!” Averast stepped into it and disappeared. The marsh wizard reached into one of his many pouches and pulled out a small bronze globe, giving it a twist, he tossed it into the stairwell, where an expanding ball of darkness began to form, sucking up all light that touched it’s surface.

“Having a few problems are we?” a deep voice asked from the heavy iron cage in the corner of the room. The dark skinned and heavily muscled orc questioned from within his prison, “It sounds as if your bill is due wizard! Free me and I promise not to kill you in revenge for your dark deeds against my people!”

Ignoring the trapped orc warlord, the marsh wizard drew his wand from his belt and moved over to begin the incantations to wake his inactive bodyguard.

~~~

Day 10 – Midnight, Iounsday, the 22nd of Tyden – On the top floor of the Fortress of Mists

Fourth Floor – Throne Room and Balcony

“The open top floor of the Mist Fortress is buffeted by brisk winds, driving away the wispy vapors of the fens. A curved and crenelated balcony extends out from  the covered throne room; the blue light of the sconces and the flickering firelight thrown from the large stone braziers combine to cast odd hues of light about this empty room. A pair of large ornate looking rugs and intricately crafted statues balance out each side of the room. A large stone throne sits directly across from the circular staircase descending to a lower floor.”

• The party finishes off the Resounder and Champion in the fortress throne room.
• Lifting one of the rugs, a pressure plate trigger can be easily identified, this must be what triggered the animation of the Metal Men.
• The magically inclined members of the party sensed a large buildup of dark energy coming from nearby and slightly below their current position.
• Poe, from his position in the rear of the party, noticed that the hammering sound of the forge had stopped. Looking in the direction of the Forgeworks, approaching lights and the sound of heavy tromping gave warning to the group that the Metal Men are on the move  towards the Fortress. Using the spyglass situated here, the group could see that these forces were comprised of a large host of heavily armored Hammerers, Launchers, Arbalesters and are and led by an imposingly ornamented commander.
• Sounds of movement could be heard from down the spiral stairwell.
• Barack sneakily descended to scout out the next floor.

Third Floor – Living Quarters, Study, Guest Quarters

“The staircase opens to a well lit sitting room. Four large statues guard the corners of the room, illuminated by the same sconces filled with glowing blue pebbles providing full illumination for the room. A large circular rug covers the center of the room, along with a couch and several dusty chairs facing a table littered with a handful of scattered papers. A large set of double doors are located on the west wall, and two smaller separated doors on the east wall.”

• Barack sneaks into the room, being especially wary of the statues and the rug. The rest of the party descends the staircase once Barack indicates the coast is clear.
• After many a wary glance at the statues, the party can see that they’re not inanimate metal men like the statues in the throne room, they’re actually solid iron cast statues without any articulation or ornamentation. (Thus unlikely to spring to life anytime in the near future.)
• Searching the first door on the east wall, Barack found a darkened guest bedroom with a large amount of cobwebs. “The pebbles in these sconces are either completely extinguished, or are barely radiating the faintest of blue light. There is a bureau littered with parchments bearing letters of an unidentifiable and slightly wicked looking script, as well as bed that is completely free of linens and blanketed only by a fine lattice of cobwebs.”
• Moving to the adjacent room, “The door opens up to a dimly lit library with the walls almost completely covered with dusty wooden shelves that are sparsely populated with dusty tomes. In the middle of the room, several chairs are arranged around a table that is topped with several scrolls, as well as what seems to be a deck of cards.
• Master Bedroom – “Opening the doors to the master bedroom, you see a large bed, made up and slightly dusty. Flanking the bed are two short nightstands. A rug adorns the floor in front of the doorway, a cozy sitting area with two chairs in a table are tucked away into a corner of the room. A steel banded chest, and a heavily constructed sturdy dresser round out the furniture in the room.”

• Barack discovers a pressure plate under the rug and avoids the trigger, but ends up activating a whirling blades trap as he attempts to pry open the chest, which is actually the trap in pre-triggered disguise. The party launches themselves into the fray to rescue their threatened brother.
• While trying to disarm the trams (while it actively attacks him!) Barack disconnected a hose that actually sped up the blade mechanism, the whirling blades moving so fast as to become a mere blur. Axe blows, hammer smashes, and arcs of eldritch energy from the Dragonslayers reduced the intricately constructed machines into a pile of cogs, gears, pulleys and sharp metal bits embedded in the walls of the room as the machines literally ripped themselves apart under the violent assault. 
• Loot: Deck of Cards, Local Area Map, Potion, Gold.
  
• Experience for “disarming” the whirling blades trap – 67 XP (Players not present receive half experience)
• A wall of blackness occupies the stairwell halfway down to the next floor. After investigating it for a while, it seems to be convex, as if it were spherically shaped. It isn’t solid, and simply consumes any light inside it, resulting in a pure pitch black.
• Barack scouts ahead again. Steps into the wall of darkness, and promptly all lights are snuffed out, as if he went blind. Barack had to feel his way down the staircase, being careful not to trip.

Second Floor – Portal, Lab and Library

“Stepping out of the pitch black, the bright lights of the laboratory assailed Barack’s eyes, raising tears of pain. Sweeping his eyes across the expanse of the room, Barack saw two doors on the east side, bookshelves, a laboratory table, a large stone arch decorated with mystical symbols, and standing before it, an altar with an unmoving body on top of it, encircled by a ritual ring. In the southwest corner of the room, a large orc looks to be trapped in a cage, to the northwest, a large mirror stands in the corner. Standing before him was a massively powerful looking metal man, four times his height, covered in heavy plating and thick steel cables. The rogue had barely enough time to duck under the gigantic double bladed war axe that whooshed loudly through the space occupied by his head not seconds before.”

• Combat with the Marsh Wizard, his Juggernaut bodyguard, Iron Defenders and the repeater crossbow turret.
• The marsh wizard taunted “Defeat me if you will, I have prepared the means for my master’s army, my work is complete!”
• The battle started with Barack tumbling through the room to engage the marsh wizard directly.
• As Pendrynn attempted to follow the agile halfling, the massive metal juggernaut smashed him full in the center of his reinforced breastplate sending him careening back into the darkness of the stairwell.
• Froimos followed soon after, shouting encouraging words and pointing out the weak spots on enemies.
• Kailithe steered a searing ball of flame about the room, toasting the automatic crossbow turret that had been peppering the party, unfortunately, his focus on maneuvering his ball of fire led him distractedly into the path of the juggernaut, who quickly pounded the wizard into unconsciousness.
• Kurok stepped in to strike many decisive blows against the juggernaut after manhandling (er, dwarfhandling?) it about the room. After becoming bloodied by the warriors relentless assault, the thick cables attached to the juggernaut disconnected from his body with a torrent of hissing steam.
• Through the obscuring mist, the party saw 4 metallic snakes emerge to join the fray. Pendrynn, recovering from the powerful blow he received rushed back into the battle, destroying several of the jugger-snakes in a din of radiant light. Seeing that the rogue was best upon by many foes, he taunted away the fire elemental soldier that was attacking the trapped Barack.
• Surrounded by the hissing metallic snakes, Froimos did his best to fend off the snapping jaws, but was unable to keep up with the quickly darting enemies. Soon enough he felt a painful sting on the back of his leg, where one of the snakes had buried it’s fangs in the meat of his thigh. A hot painful warmth began to spread from the site, a sure indication of a poisonous bite.
• Davros blasted away at the Iron Defenders and landed a massive vampiric embrace against the Marsh Wizard, bolstering his self-confidence and his stamina. After dodging the juggernaut bodyguard’s stone shattering blows, the rogue tumbled across the room to decisively shut down the Marsh Wizards offense, despite being trapped in a cage of lightning for a short period of time.
• Poe dashes around the roomy, bringing Kailithe and Froimos back from the brink of death through prayers to the Raven Queen while while fending off incoming crossbow bolts and the long reach of the marsh wizards bodyguards.
• The marsh wizard’s body popped up again later in the battle after a lengthy period of self repair, only to be blasted into submission yet again.
• Combat Experience for Fighting the Fortress of Mist Defenders (The Throne Room and the Laboratory) – 550 XP (Players not present receive half experience)
• After the battle the fire on the laboratory table was put out and the room was thoroughly looted. Loot: Polyglot Gem, Nail of Sealing, Magical Blanket, Goggles, Adamantine and Mithril Rods, Spellbook and Ritual Scroll and the personal belongings of the ex-Marsh Wizard, pouch of crystals hanging from the arch (including black, red, green and blue shards)
  
• The party spoke to the trapped orc in the corner who threatened them harm if he wasn’t released. Stone Bear indicated he was a member of the tribes of the south and when questioned as to his people’s motives against the town of Blackfield, he simply indicated that his tribe only wanted to stay on their land and reclaim that which was taken from them. The party left him in his cage.
  

.

Players in Attendance: Chris Rocco (Pendrynn Hamut), Jason Jurisch (Froimos), Dustin Haugen (Barack Tenderfoot), Jason Alway, (Kurok Stonehammer), Erik Rehpohl (Kailithe Solace Guard), Paul Brazelton (Poe), Greg Sallee (Davros)

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Recap: When we last saw the Dragonslayers of Blackfield, they were surrounded by a horde of Bullywugs, lost and delirious deep in the Mist Fens. Barack had recently captured a young wolf and was leading it around on a rope,  Pendrynn’s horse was killed during the battle with the feral Warg Rider and the pack of Grey Wolves and Poe was leading the group in seeming circles due to the fickle intentions of the feather of his deity, the Raven queen. Several members of the party were becoming affected by prolonged exposure to the swamp’s toxic mists.

Date: Mid-afternoon on Morsday, the 21st of Tyden, at an unknown location in the Mist Fens and surrounded by Bullywugs and their trained attack reptiles.

~~~

Day 9 – Morsday, the 21st of Tyden (Afternoon)

• Mud Lord Fribbert invited the party back to his village, conversing with Kailithe, he indicated that the party should wait in the village, “Four Days, Meet God” he croaked. The Dragonslayers probed for more information about the god, mostly, it came back with varying degrees of the statement, “Meet god, four days, no leave, god house four days, metal men bad, no kill, tower move, meet god, god happy, four days” etc.. Fribbert doesn’t seem interested or inclined to answer other questions and settles down in front of his hut in a meditative pose.
• The Bullywug “village” can be accurately described as a “Cesspool layered on top of a ruined settlement.”Five wooden huts previously stood on this sodden territory as some kind of hunters camp, only one remains standing (mostly) with the four others in various states of collapse, incineration or submersion. There is debris, refuse and filth everywhere. The Bullywugs seem to bring out the worst in their environment, and the stench is almost unbearable.
• There are two idols/altars present in the village. One is made out of armor bits and spare metal parts in the shape of a Metal Man, with his feet wrapped up by a vicious looking stone snake. Around the base of this statue, can be seen offerings of metal bits, food, and junk. The party discovered a wrecked rider box in this refuse. The second idol looks  to significantly older and constructed from chiseled stone in the form of a hunched Slaad. The offerings around this idol look to be of higher quality with bits of dead animals, scraps of adventuring gear and even sweet smelling bog leaves.
• Bullywugs seem to be ambivalent towards violence against their kind. Several times, the party has seen them maim one another without any significant reaction from their fellows. A bullywug mucker began to stab at one of the party’s horses with his spear. After several requests to stop, Davros and Froimos blasted/chopped the offender into bits, their fellow bullywugs barely noticed.
• Kailithe set about clearing the flat ground of one of the collapsed huts through prodigious use of repeated thunder waves, sending the scrap lumber flying like toothpicks in the wind.
• Pendrynn was bound and determined to cleanse the village of it’s offensive Slaad God, and proclaimed, “Erathis! Cleanse this land of it’s unholy blight!” and smashed his weapon into the ancient idol.
• The village erupted in violence! All of the bullywugs within sight of Pendrynn croak angrily and rush him! The rest of the party springs into action!

• Deep into the battle, a group of reinforcements descend on the picketed horses and spook them out of the village, they bolted in many different directions, disappearing into the mist.
• Davros Summoned his imp, further curses in the name of his patron “Helios” caused the rune on his hand to emanate a different color than he had previously seen.
• Several members of the party seemed to feel better after delivering a powerful hit to a Bullywug combatant, almost as if nature approved of the removal of the frog men from existence.
• Combat Experience for surviving the Bullywug Village Massacre – 300 XP (all players)
• After the battle, the party departed from the village and attempted to track several of the fleeing horses, they were unable to follow the tracks for long and it seems that the fens swallowed any trace of their equine companions (not to mention the equipment they carried in their saddlebags).

Day 10 – Iounsday, the 22nd of Tyden

• Leaving the Bullywug Village massacre behind, the Dragonslayers set out to locate source of the metal men, once again trusting in the divine direction of Poe’s holy token of the Raven Queen. It seemed to be pointing unwaveringly in a very specific direction, the party must be close to their destination.
• More suffer from swamp delirium.
• The party finds their way to dry land, in the form of an island, jutting out of the mucky swampland.
• Following the sounds of hammers on metal, the Dragonslayers locate the Forgeworks. After scouting and observing it, they could see various metal men moving between the two smaller buildings and the larger open centered forge. 5-7 heavily plated Hammerers seem to be working at the forge constantly, the large metal sledge on their right arm quickly arcing down on sheets of red hot metal, the impact tossing aside a shower of sparks. Walking wheelbarrows seem to be hauling materials and coal from one of the side buildings to the forge proper. The party decided to bypass the Forgeworks to head for the hill behind it, where the feather was ultimately pointing, discovering the Fortress of Mists.
• Exploration Experience for discovering the Fortress of Mists – 100 XP (all players)
• Barack scouted ahead and found a hidden and barred cellar door, pries enough of it open to get inside and finds a desolate and abandoned basement with no access to the upper floors. Barack used his magical hand mirror to look through the ceiling of the room, allowing him to see into the room above. It seems to be a large room with a long table in the center. Bright blue lights glow from sconces mounted on the walls and there doesn’t seem to be any movement in the room.
• Not finding any other access to the Fortress, other than the barred, reinforced and potentially magically sealed front door, the Dragonslayers decided on a “Death from above” approach and broke out their grappling hooks.

• In the falling darkness, the team successfully climbed to the top of the Fortress. Barack saw that there was an open balcony facing in the direction of the distant Forgeworks  (with a nice telescope to view it) and two open air doors leading to the illuminated interior. Two ornate rugs sat on the stone floor of the chamber, a throne and two statues of metal men are illuminated by a combination of glowing blue braziers and two open fire pits.
• Pendrynn walked into the room and onto one of the ornate rugs on the floor, with that, a shrill alarm could be heard, and the statues in the corners of the room began to move.
• Fight! (where we left off..)

Players in Attendance: Chris Rocco (Pendrynn Hamut), Jason Jurisch (Froimos), Dustin Haugen (Barack Tenderfoot), Jason Alway, (Kurok Stonehammer)

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Recap: Last episode, we saw the Dragonslayer Cohort tying up their visit to Port Flume, traveling on to Burrowdown Vale, home of the halfling farmers. Their caravan was attacked on their final leg of the journey, just north of Korba Pass, by a large undead Landshark (Bulette) and metal hammerers raining from the skies. Our heroes fought off the ambush, defeating the metal champions Sarpodon and Myrmidon, and limping the caravan back to the gates of Blackfield in the dark of night.

Date: Early Morning, Iounsday, the 12th of Tyden, 617 S.R. in the Elder Council Chambers, Town Hall, Blackfield.

—

The party used the remainder of the day to tie up loose ends and prepare for their foray in the wild. The elders stressed that it is both an honor and a challenge to be named as a candidate of the title “Hunter of Blackfield” and that they’ll have to not only survive for at least a month outside the city’s walls, but to prove their mettle and tackle any of the concerns listed on the Messenger Scroll of the Elder Council. Also, the council continues to urge secrecy as to the challenge issued to the Dragonslayers, as it is the tradition of the Trials as well as for their own safety.

• Everyone is issued horses/ponies and full rations/water if the party wants them. The elders warn that horses might be a liability in certain terrain, and they are quite valuable to the town, so be careful with them!
• Everyone is issued pay for the remainder of the month, in advance. (37 gold each for Hunter pay) and will be paid/accrue 75 gold on the first of each future month.
• If the party had special requests for items, Turley Tunhill handled it at Bits and Bobs (within limits). Everyone is issued a basic mess kit and will be assumed to have it if they have their backpack. (Bowl/Utensil).
• Pendrynn dropped off a letter for Lisette Tunhill, talked to Elder Worthwords about a matter of legal records behind Mir’s petition to leave Blackfield. Alicia seemed nervous to be communicating about the subject, however Pendrynn ended up talking her into looking into it while he’s away. He then went to the Temple of Erathis and talked to Sage Corvara about being sent from the town on a quest to become Hunters, seeking what aid he could find. Corvara mentioned that Mir was still angry with the Dragonslayers (as are many of Erathis’ faithful) and that there is the potential for a Moonmeet at the end of the month.
• Barack took the time after packing his gear to meet with his “Boys” in their newly rented shelter. Toad was happy to see him, and gave a thorough report as to how busy and productive the Boys had become. Barack conveyed with all seriousness that they needed to stay sharp and train for the trials that would be coming. He also took the time to gift toad with the medal he earned during the Commencement Clash. Toad was overwhelmed, but promised to keep the boys in shape and training hard.
• Before heading out, Pendrynn played one final prank on Talon cohort by hiding a slab of the rotten Bulette meat under their barracks.

~~~~
Day 1 – Midnight, Meloren, the 13th of Tyden

After departing in the middle of the night through Blackfield’s Dig Site gate, the party spent the day exploring the immediate terrain surrounding Blackfield, located the collapsed exit tunnel of the AoE, located Blackfield’s small disguised fields & gardens and foraged from them before heading north and camping. The party enjoyed a sumptuous dinner of fresh vegetables and several amazing tasting hearty mushrooms that Kurok managed to spot as they rode.

Barack ranged ahead as a scout/lookout for the main party.

That night, the party decided that they would prioritize the investigation of the “Metal Men of the Mist Fens”.

The party set up three watches of 3 hours apiece. (DM Note: I’m assuming this is the official watch order unless I hear otherwise.)

1st Watch – Pendrynn and Kurok, 2nd Watch – Barack and Froimos, 3rd Watch – Poe, Davros and Kailithe

~~~~
Day 2 – Bahmsday, the 14th of Tyden

The party continued their trek north into the hilly lowlands where they searched for the entrance to Shyssal’s Lair and the Goblin caves. They found the entrance grate broken open, and signs of the cohort that followed their Namesake foray into the dragons lair. The lair itself was empty, the ice long since melted; a miasma of mold and death hung in the air.

The party ransacked the already destroyed lair, but were fortunate enough to discover a rotten pouch of gold under the partially decayed remains of one of the goblins they had killed.

Before departing the area, Froimos camouflaged the entrance to the cave with several twigs and brush.

Midway through the day’s ride north, the party discovered a small spring, refreshed themselves and their horses and refilled their waterskins.

That evening, the party wrote on their messenger scroll with updates of their progress for the Elder Council. Penndryn could be seen writing on a piece of parchment around the campfire as well.

~~~~
Day 3 – Pelsday, the 15th of Tyden
The party awoke to a mild southerly wind, the beginning of a light haze the telltale sign of the beginning of the fens to the north.

The entire day was spent skirting the periphery of the Mist Fens to the North West.

The party camped out on a hilltop.

~~~~
Day 4 – Morsday, the 16th of Tyden

Another day wrapping around the mist fens. The party moved apace despite diminished visibility and made excellent time.

~~~~

Day 5 – Iounsday, the 17th of Tyden

After another heavy day of riding, the party began to approach the range of hills that held the compromised Coal Caravan Camp One.

Barack spotted a small cave in a low hill, the party clustered around as he headed in, allowing his glowing short sword to illuminate his way. The low entrance opened into a small warren, littered with fur and dirt. A low mewling sound drew Barack’s attention to a small wolf pup cowering in the corner. Planting his sword in the dirt, Barack pulled out a sack and tried to capture the pup, as it growled, snapped and resisted his advances.

Meanwhile, outside the cave, the Dragonslayers began to hear the echoing calls of howling wolves. Davros and Poe gathered the horses rains, as the rest of the party readied their weapons and scanned the drifting mists.

Led by a feral looking goblin riding a brutishly large alpha wolf, the pack of wolves crested the neighboring hill; snarling and howling, the wolves bore down on the party’s position. Pendrynn mounted his horse and charged directly at the wolf rider. He was promptly enveloped in sea of gray fur and snapping fangs.

Shouting orders to Poe and Davros to guard the horses, the Warlord Froimos rushed forward to aid the Paladin, Kurok’s short legs pumping furiously to keep up with the lanky half-elf. Poe yelled a warning into the cave that they were under attack.

As Pendrynn rushed the goblin wolf rider, he shouted invocations of Erathis, blasting away at his foe with holy light, flinging him off his mount.

In the cave, Barack pulled out his crowbar, slamming it into the loose dirt of the cave wall, he used it as a hook to hang up the bagged and subdued wolf pup.

his horse soon fell beneath him, its throat torn out by the wolves. His horse collapsing  from underneath him, Pendrynn managed to leap off at the last minute, avoiding being pinned beneath his mount.

Froimos shouted, “Here’s where to hit them men!” and proceeded to bifurcate the entire front half of a wolf in a single gristle-spewing chop of his golden great-axe.

Davros and Poe worked on keeping the horses under control and with their backs (and hooves!) to the lone harrying wolf who was away from the pack. Nipping at the horses flanks, he didn’t see the approaching rogue until being cracked unconscious with the hilt of Barack’s short Sword.

Combat XP awarded – 150 XP for Kurok, Penndryn, Froimos and Barack. 75 XP for Poe, Kailithe and Davros

When the party mounted up to move on, Pendrynn shared Poe’s horse, as his had fallen prey to the wolves during the battle.

Barack attempted to feed the captured wolf pup but was only nipped and growled at.

~~~~
Day 6 – Meloren, the 18th of Tyden
The party, having recuperated from their fight with the gray wolves, pressed on deep into the heart of the Mist Fens. The terrain irregularly shifted between small bars of dry ground to ankle deep mud to waist deep brackish water.

The thick fog bubbling up from the murky water promptly dropped visibility to anywhere between 5 to 30 feet. (DM Note: -2 to Perception checks and Ranged Attack checks.)

Poe felt a tickling in the back of his brain and noticed that his black feather began to twitch rhythmically in a specific direction. Bringing this to the party’s attention, they determined they should attempt to head in the direction it seemed to be indicating. Sound reasoning, considering the lack of identifiable terrain features and lack of visibility.

After finding a relatively solid surface to hobble the horses, the party set up  camp and attempted to drive away a bit of the fog with a fire and a good nights sleep.

~~~~
Day 7 – Bahmsday, the 19th of Tyden

Poe’s feather seems to be pointing in a new direction. The party ends up exiting the northeastern edge of the fens, frustrated and tired at the waste of their day, they turned and plunged back into the fog.

Fate frowned on the party and left them with no suitable ground to camp. The party pushed on through the night, visibility almost zero due to the darkness and soupy vapors.

Barack swore that he saw a flash of movement off in the distance, but wrote it off to the his eyes playing tricks on him.

Barack turned back from his scouting to discover that he was separated and lost from the party. Hearing him blow on his whistle, the rest of the Dragonslayers pulled out their signal horn and responded with a low blast. After several alternating whistles and responses, Barack was reunited with the party and promptly thereafter, the entire group roped themselves together, to avoid becoming separated.

~~~~
Day 8 – Pelsday, the 20th of Tyden

Doggedly following the imperceptible movement of the icon of Poe’s deity, the party found a large patch of ground capable of supporting their horses. The group settled in to their soggy camp, lit a fire and used the remainder of the diffuse daylight to rest, cook up some grub and feed their mounts.

Determining that it would be unwise to travel the Mist Fens in the dark, the Dragonslayers enjoyed the rest of the evening around the campfire, regaling each other with their perspective of the battle with the gray wolves.

~~~~
Day 9 – Morsday, the 21st of Tyden

Waking the next morning, Froimos and Penndryn begin to show signs of some form of delirium, visibly shaking and acting nervous. (DM Note: -2 to Perception and Skill Checks)

Kurok however, was SURE he saw something out in the mists. A pair of yellow orbs, flicking in and out of view.

Drawing weapons and putting their backs to the horses, the Dragonslayers peered sharply at the outline of the figure slogging towards them, a strange “Froaking” sound coming from it. “Don’t look now men, but they’re all around us” Kurok mumbled under his breath. Indeed, the party could see several shapes approaching from all directions.

Holding their attacks, the party watched as the Bullywugs crept forward in the muck; accompanied by giant barrel-sized toads they prodded forward with spears.

Kailithe thought he could translate their primordial croaking into something resembling coherent thoughts. Much back and forth about friend or foe ensued..

A robed Bullywug stepped forward, accompanied by a massive Alligator like creature. He pointed at the plate-mail clad Pendrynn and let loose a series of throat-rending warbles. “Metal Man?” Kailithe translated a vociferous “No!” and waved at Pendrynn to remove his helm.

The robed Bullywug waved his staff in the air and dozens of additional bullywug warriors stepped forth from the mists surrounding the party. The Mud Lord waved at the Dragonslayers and croaked a terse “FwallLLooW!”

~~~~

DM Notes:

• Alway, I need an updated character creator file for Kurok
• Before the next adventure, I’ll need to level up the remaining characters, issue pre-departure gear and hand-out pay.

Herein lie the desires of the Elder Council of Blackfield directed to the attention of the Dragonslayers Cohort, Hunters of Blackfield

__________________________________________________

~ Investigate the Mist Fens, find the source of the Metal Men and the secret behind the Rider Boxes

~Scout out the threatening forays of The Orc Tribes in the highlands to the southeast.

~Exploration: It’s been nearly 150 years since Blackfield has updated their local maps, and even then they were spotty at best. Any information about the local features, topography, resources and threats are much welcomed.

~Elder Wordsworth: Special request for a fresh gizzard from a red dragon. A replacement is needed for the ignition system of Blackfield’s flaming outer walls.

~Spelunk deep into the new underwarrens revealed in the Dig collapse.

~Investigation into the higher incidence of Portals appearing across the countryside not associated with a nearby portalstorm. Where do they come from? Are they a threat? Where do they lead?

~Track down the Ambassadors of Erathis outside the city walls and determine if the’re a threat to Blackfield. If so, take measures to thwart any future plans for breaching Blackfield’s defences.

Note: I’m releasing this post in it’s incomplete form as I’m in danger of it never being posted, since the holidays slammed down hard after our last game. Also, I’ve rewritten this post several times only to have it lost to the void while attempting to post it. C’est la vie. Let me know if any of this is not how it actually happened.

Players in Attendance: Chris Rocco (Pendrynn Hamut), Greg Sallee (Davros), Jason Alway (Kurock Stonehammer),  Erik Rehpohl (Kailithe Solace Guard), Jason Jurisch (Froimos), Paul Brazelton, (Poe)

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Recap: When we last saw our plucky team of adventurers, they were stepping through a portal into the dark realm of the Shadowfell. They were on a rescue mission for Tristan, the proprietor of “Findings”. He had fallen prey to the interference of dark magics while scrying for information about the metal men of the Mist Fens. The gang bested several ethereal and tentacled Fell Taint in order to free the wizard and draw him back through the rapidly collapsing planar portal. After their return, the Dragonslayers were assigned to Coal Caravan duty. They spend the better part of 2 weeks training on the proper operation of the heavy caravan pullers, practicing firing the rapid fire ballista mounted on a turret in their rear, and all the skills to keep them alive during the dangerous trip north. On the first night’s rest, the party bedded down at camp 1 and were surprised by a bellowing undead cave bear. While the Dragonslayers battled the massive mound of shambling fur and muscle, several hidden automata popped out of the ground and began to disable the caravan couplings. The party eventually defeated the cave bear and the automatons. Barack gave chase to the leader of the attack, a “Robed Metal Man” and his two walking arbalesters, but was unable to catch him before being lost to the darkness.

Date: Daybreak, Meloren, the 3rd of Tyden, 617 S.R. one day’s ride north of Blackfield on the Coal Caravan.

—

Departing Camp 1 – At the first light of dawn, the caravan had already been rearranged to compensate for the loss of one of the coal wagons. The stink from the (currently not-moving) carcass of the undead cave bear a reminder of the previous evening’s sudden violence. Sergeant Hurrel (of Charger Cohort) blared out hurried orders to the group, hoping to get underway immediately as Camp 1′s location had clearly been compromised. The caravan rumbles to life and begins to increase it’s momentum as it rolls towards the Sootway leaving a wake of crushed bushes and deep ruts in the ground; any semblance of stealth abandoned to the five winds. Oriented north, the land train thunders to life and begins to pick up speed.

The Cabor River – Above the ever present mechanical creaking of the coal caravan wagons, the sounds of rushing water can be heard in the distance. As the wagons draw closer, the flat blue expanse of the Cabor River can be seen on the horizon to the north. The Sootway crosses the Cabor at it’s widest point, just downriver of a series of rapids. The river’s wide slow flow allows the caravan to ford across here with minimal danger.  20 miles to the west, the Cabor originates from the outflows of Lake Levain, hidden by distance and a hazy wind.

The caravan drivers wrestled to fight the pull of the river and maintained control.

Camp 2 - As darkness begins to fall, a rising ridge line can be seen approaching on the northern horizon. Visible to the far north is the remains of a partially ruined tower. The caravan stops in the shelter of a shallow valley nestled low in the center of three hillocks. (Guards set up on the ridge above.) The party levitated one of their turrets to the top of a hill to provide better covering fire, however the evening passed quietly.

Dragon Attack – The afternoon of the final day’s northern trek, the caravan is surprised by the sudden appearance of a Brown Dragon, which smuch up behind them hiding in their massive dust trail. Poe, manning one of the rapid fire ballistae was the first to see the threat and raise the alarm.

It flew over, settled on a middle coal cart, attacked the middle puller horses, Kailithe used his magic magic disc to launch himself into the middle car, Kuroc bravely attempted to walk across the overloaded coal cars to get into the action, the brown dragon was shot quite a few times by Poe, attempted to derail the caravan (passed control check), and mauls a horse (trampled) before being driven off falling behind the caravan. Everyone involved in the battle earn 300 XP.

Port Flume - The pinnacle of civilized achievement, the WEATHER WORN brown granite face of Port Flume’s outer walls quarried from the dwarven mines to the north and ferried down the river form an imposing obstacle. Topping the crenelated turrets can  be seen large weapons of war, onagers, catapults and scorpions. The city is massive and could be seen approaching as far as an hour’s ride away from the gates. As the caravan draws closer to the city, a large forest can be seen to the west, dead plains fading to sandy dunes to the east, and tons of black smoke rising from the city.

• Entering the gates – Check-in at the gate (Collects all the names of the people coming in)
• Travel through the Market Tierce-Large well organized blocks of businesses and clean wide streets.
• Unloading at port Flume-The caravan pulled into a massive warehouse where a pile of laborers began to decouple the wagons and shovel out the coal into their storage silos. The party is scheduled to leave in 3 days and move on to the
• Travel into the Bowery tierce-The disorganized nature of building in the bowery is quite evident. Anywhere there is space, someone has slapped up some driftwood, cloth or leftover construction materials to create shelter. Much of the tierce itself is jutting out over the Anwar on a series of rickety piers.
• Party checks in at Riverbeds – Pendrynn receives a locked codex box+ring (package left at the Inn for nearly 20 years and the note “Let your heart guide you to your legacy.” Pendrynn inevitably opened the box using the code “Freedom” and found a note and a shiny dagger covered with Erathian symbols. “May this weapon grow with you and your legendary deeds. – Love Brogan Hamut”
• Flotsam (Shop) & Jetsam (Pub) - The party discovered the presence of a black market in Flotsam and the Challenge Board outside the pub and near “The Hold”.

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  – Pub Atmosphere

• The party made their way down to the drinking establishment known as “The Hold”, a floating derelict cargo that was partially run aground on the beach and lashed to a nearby pier.

• Gambling – Several members  of the party played some “Dicing with the Devil” and won some cash.
• Several members of the Dragonslayers decided to participate in no-holds barred combat in “The Hold” a pit dug into the beach.Some laid down lucrative side bets as well.
  • Barack fought “Vance”, a well scarred veteran guard and won!
  • Kurock fought “Etrius”, an agile halberd wielding speardancer, unfortunately, he lost the match.
• Barack received a bottle to hand-off to Shamus O’Halloran in Burrowdown  with the Promise of a 10 gold payoff.

The party has 2 half-days remaining in Port Flume before leaving for Burrowdown.

Players in Attendance: Chris Rocco (Pendrynn Hamut), Greg Sallee (Davros), Dustin Haugen (Barack Tenderfoot), Paul Brazelton (Poe), Erik Rehpohl (Kailithe Solace Guard), Jason Alway (Kurok Stonehammer)

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Recap: The Dragonslayer Cohort, returned to town having dealt with the Ambassadors of Erathis, were awoken in the night by a massive thunderclap and lightning. A giant beam of coruscating electrical energy is spearing down from the sky and impaling the magic shop Findings. The group grabbed their gear and reacted by rushing to the scene to lend aid. Floating insubstantial creatures comprised of a jumble of waving tentacles and toothy maws could be seen floating out of the building, the team leaps into action.

Date: Midnight, Morsday, the 21st of Rouenne, 617 S.R. Outside of Findings in the Town of Blackfield.

Kurok came running towards the assembled party, with a wicked looking new warhammer in hand. The remaining Taint outside the shop finished absorbing the life force of the fallen civilian and floated back into the shop.

The party carefully crept back into the shop and found that the other Fell Taint had retreated into the portal.

Barack found a hastily scrawled note pinned to Tristan’s office door with a letter opener; it looks to have been written by Kailithe and indicated that he’s through the portal in pursuit of a captured Tristan. The group decided to enter the portal, stepping through one at a time with the rogue leading the way.

The group stepped out of a jet black portal opening onto a barren desolate expanse dominated by black sand and looming obsidian shards violently thrust from the ground towards the sickly purple-gray sky. A pervasive sense of sadness and depression seeps into the periphery of the party’s consciousness. Several of the party members recognize this locale as the plane of existence known as the Shadowfell, a repressive realm of darkness and death.

In front of the portal, the party sees a large purple Fell Taint (Thought Eater) holding the unconscious form of Tristan in thick ropey tentacles. Several green Fell Taint (Lashers) can be seen floating in the opening directly ahead. The eerie silence is pierced with words of magic coming from behind an outcropping of obsidian to the left of the portal. Kailithe is revealed to be alive and in battle as a spear of fire lances from the dark sky to impale the form of the Fell Taint Thought Eater, causing him to drop Tristan’s limp form in a sandy heap.

The party bursts forth with a flurry of deadly activity to aid the embattled wizards.

• The Thought Eater reels under an unrelenting barrage of arcane and divine energy from the Wizard and Paladin. This all allowed Barack to maneuver himself to an excellent position to deliver the finishing blow in the form of a wickedly fast shuriken throw directly through the monster’s open maw. The Thought Eater’s translucent skin splatters apart as it quickly deflates to a puddle of purplish ooze.
• The lashers that were heading towards Kailithe were headed off by the dwarven warrior and the holy knight of Erathis/Bahamut. Short as he may be, Kurok, was able to run under the form of the floating lasher and proceed to disassemble it through a series of well placed shield bashes and decimating hammer blows. His immediate threat dealt with, Kurok quickly spun around searching for more free targets. Pulling a hand axe from his belt he hurled it with perfect accuracy, dropping an injured and fleeing lasher to the ground with a messy splash.
• Pendrynn fared equally well with his lasher, despite being in the unforgiving position of having the lasher whipping at his head with long spike tipped tentacles, he managed to deliver several well placed attacks to the underside of the beast. It seems to have distracted the lasher enough to allow Davros to flank the beast, directing his flying demonic Imp pet to attack the floating Taint from above it gave him the time to blast it to pieces with powerful blasts of eldrich energy.
• Several of the brown Fell Taint (Pulsars) that had fallen back into the portal from Findings floated up from behind an outcropping of black rock and proceeded to blast away at the members of the party. As the group scrambles for protective cover, Poe called upon the name of the Raven Queen to aid him, manifest a Guardian of Faith to interpose itself between the Pulsars and the Dragonslayers, driving the Pulsars away with its blinding divine aura.

Barack, Kurok, Poe, Davros, Pendrynn earn 250 XP, Kailithe earns 325 XP for combat with the Fell Taints and for rescuing Tristan.

After the party dragged Tristan’s paralyzed form back through the portal, they administered healing to him and he began to regain control over his limbs. Tristan vigorously thanked the party for their aid and recapped the story of how he was magically attacked while scrying the Mist Fens. He was doing this as a favor for the Elder council in regards to the “Metal Men” references the Dragonslayers discovered in Grumbles journal. He explained that while he was scrying, he saw a large metal tower on an island through a gap in the mists. Suddenly, an involuntary portal was manifested directly on top of his scrying crystal, and he was pulled in to the Shadowfell via several large tentacles. That’s all he remembered until being rescued by the party.

After making sure Tristan was all right, the group retired to their barracks and got some rest, Barack stayed behind to be sure Tristan was safe for the evening.

During morning muster, the group was given their orders. 5 days – training for Coal Caravan Duty, then a following the coal caravan route to Port Flume, Burrowdown and finally returning home after the 10 day trip.

Later that day, the custom crafted Dragon daggers were delivered, Pendrynn paid 30 gold to have his plate armor rushed to be available before departure and customized to be covered in etched symbols of Erathis and Bahamut. Additionally, he went to the temple of Erathis to have his shield painted with Erathite symbols. He sensed that some members of the temple were more distant than he had previously experienced.

After reporting to the wagonhouse on the Dig grounds, the group were trained in the use of the coal caravan puller wagons as well as what to expect during a typical Coal Caravan trip.

• Tactics and Organization
• steering/braking
• Weapons System (Ballista)
• Horse Enhancements (Feed)
• Route and Camp Sites – 3 Days to Port Flume, 1 day to Burrowdown, 1 day holdover, 3 days to return to Blackfield.
• 3 Pullers, 4-5 men on each wagon (Driver, 2 gunners, spotter/guard), 6 coal wagons
• Speed 10 (5mph), but effectively 20, because of the magically fortified horse feed allowing them to stay moving upwards of 20 hours per day before having to rest the horses.  Can do a speed boost up to 10 mph for up to 10 minutes before having to slow to half speed to rest the horses. This allows the caravan to move 100 miles per day.

The party was brought out to the field behind the Dig upper grounds where they were run through ballista training.  Poe and Pendrynn did the best (awarded 25 XP for becoming proficient using the ballista) and were assigned to be gunners on the middle and rear pullers in the Coal Caravan. Rule: Being proficient with the light repeater ballista will add +5 to attack rolls.

The next day, the Dragonslayers were given a lesson in driving the coal caravan pullers. Barack and Davros were found to be most proficient (awarded 25 XP for becoming a proficient driver) and were assigned as drivers on the middle and rear pullers in the Coal Caravan. Rule: Being proficient as a coal caravan puller will add +2 to any control checks while driving.

After the full week’s training, all members of the group earned 50 XP for learning how the coal caravan works.

During evenings off and before departure:

• Barack speaks to his most trustworthy underling, Ferris, “You’re in charge while I’m gone, keep your ears open, let me know what happens around here”; he then proceeded to give him 15 gold to feed the rest of the gang.
• Barack buys acid from Tristan on a 20 gold advance for his Impure residuum holdings (Tristan is holding the box, which has a symbol of Erathis on it).
• Pendrynn could be seen hanging out in the town hall’s codex poring over a heap of legal scrolls.

Date: Morning, Iounsday, the 2nd of Tyden, 617 S.R. At the wagon barn in the Town of Blackfield.

The party departs town on its northern trip to Port Flume via the sootway. It takes a while to get up to speed, but eventually, the wagon train is moving at full speed across the countryside. The Sootway road bed is made up of gravel and castoffs from the Dig, forming a heavily packed roadway capable of supporting the massive weight of the caravan.

They drove past saw the shattered remains of the coal wagon the Dragonslayers passed by several weeks ago, which at this point had been stripped down to a mere skeleton of it’s former self. It looks as if scavengers had been picking at the bones of the wagon’s carcass, leaving behind only minor bits of now rotten wood and fine chunks of coal and black dust.

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Continuing north, the caravan rolled through Korba pass; wildlife could be seen scattering in front of the thunderous approach of the Coal Caravan along the hills looming high on either side of the Sootway.

After nearly an hours travel, the party makes it through the claustrophobic pass and is greeted by a flat expanse of scrubby plains that seemed to fade into a gray mass to the north. The word is passed back from the lead puller that the Mist Fens are the cause of the gray, and for everyone to stay on their toes and alert when passing into the fetid swamp.

Getting comfortable on the Pullers was proving to be a nearly impossible task for most of the Dragonslayers, as every surface of the puller was vibrating from the speed and inertia of rolling down the packed gravel road.

As the caravan pushed into the eastern edge of the mist fens, a constant lingering mist bubbled up from the stinking muck reducing visibility to a mere twenty feet.

In the deepest part of the fens, Poe swore he could see several sets of green orb like eyes in the distance, beyond the mist line. They were always just barely out of sight, and soon were left in the distance as the pullers continued to haul the massive caravan onward.

After nearly 20 hours on the road, the caravan pulled off the Sootway. A member of Charger cohort in the rear puller dropped a knotted mass of ropes, chains and irregular wooden pieces behind each of the wheels in an attempt to mask the caravan’s trail. Slowly rolling towards a series of low hills, the caravan eventually pulled into the hidden cave entrance of Camp One.

While resting in shifts, Kurok and Poe heard something large and loud moving outside the rear cave entrance.

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Poe manned a ballista in the rear covering Kurok as he moved towards the dark cave entrance. He quickly found himself face to face (or more like face-to-midsection) with the source of the noise, a massive cave bear. In one smooth action, the dwarven warrior shouted a cry of alarm, and thumbed his warhammer off his belt into his readied hands.

• Combat ensues, other people wake up and leap into action
• Barack awakens in a flash, tumbling off the back of his puller in a graceful acrobatic bundle, running to aid the dwarf in combat. The forms of the other Dragonslayers could be seen dragging themselves hastily from their improvised sleeping arrangements and dropping to the ground from their pullers, weapons in hand.
• Poe noticed movement from behind the closest puller and swung the ballista around to cover the area, ready to loose a shot at a moments notice. He could see a glint coming from what looked to be several sets of small armored legs.
• The combination of Kurok unleashing a nearly continuous tide of swinging iron and shield bashes interspersed with distracting backstabs from the rogue chops up a series, the Dragonslayers began to notice that despite the massive amounts of damage the cave bear is taking, it isn’t bleeding at all.
• Kurok shouted a dwarven epithet and swung his hammer with all his might into the jaws of the bear when suddenly, a massive thunderclap emanated from the head of “The Last Word” blasting shards of teeth away in arcing fragments. The noise in the camp is deafening as the thunderclap echoed off the cave walls. Impressive!
• Kailithe swore that he heard one of the growls coming from the cave bear sounding very similar to goblinoid cursing.
• From the dark, large crossbow bolts nearly the size of those used in the repeater ballista arced in through the cave entrance, peppering anyone visible through the cavern entrance.

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• Pendrynn and Kurok were beaten to the ground under the unrelenting attacks of the cave bear and the stinging hits from the ranged attacks in the dark. As they crumpled to the ground, Poe rushed forward, a quick prayer to the Raven Queen knotted rent skin, reset cracked bone and refreshed his cohort brethren enough to get them back on their feet and back into the fray.
• Kailithe saw two small forms near the back of another puller. he whispered a quick cantrip enchanting a small rock with bright glowing light as he hurled it in their direction. The light illuminated the duo enough that the wizard could see a small metallic creature the size of a large hound accompanied by a short metallic humanoid as they hacked and chewed away at the the wagon’s coupler. Kailithe decided he’d have none of this and summoned up a flaming shpere of fire next to the creatures, forcing them away from the wagon and melting off small globs of their iron skins. The ball of fire distracted them enough for the wizard to summon powerful thunderclaps of force against them, rattling them to pieces.
• A second pair of constructs were found mangling another wagon’s coupler. Upon discovery, they spontaneously self destructed into a pile of gears, cogs and metal bits which soon started to smolder and dissolve.

All members of the group earn 250 XP for surviving combat at Camp One with the undead Cave Bear and constructs.

After the battle:

• Barack ran into the darkness in pursuit of whatever was firing into the cave. He could a large dark shape flanked by two smaller shapes retreating quickly to the south. Pushing himself to to catchup, the halfling was able to get close enough to see the attackers in greater detail. The larger figure was that of a metallic man wearing red robes covered in with arcane symbols and wielding a staff. The two shorter creatures appeared to be oversized crossbows that had sprouted legs and moved under their own power. The retreating shapes put on a surge of speed and disappeared into the black.
• A shout went up from the members of charger cohort to check the wagons for damage. It seems that the cave bear was to serve as a distraction as the smaller constructs disabled or destroyed the coupling mechanisms on several of the coal wagons.
• The party notices a golden box under the matted fur of the bear’s neck. It’s a rider box, with a needle inserted in the bear’s spine and brain stem. Kailithe and Poe worked together to analyze the arcane signature emanating from the box. It does indeed contain a soul, but to Kailithe, the emanation feels different than the one he discovered in the Rider box pulled from the neck of the Blazing Skeleton.
• Kailithe gathered a small piece from each of the constructs, hopefully to be used in discovering their origin.
• The party conducted a thorough search of the cave to figure out how the constructs were able to ambush them from behind. They discovered a series of four shallow depressions in the very rear of the cave that looked like the automatons had been buried there, lying in wait to ambush the caravan. Pendrynn and Kurok continued to search for any other buried ambushers, but they didn’t find any.
• After much discussion, the party was able to rearrange the caravan and offload around half of the coal from the completely disabled coal car to the remaining serviceable cars. Unfortunately, this still results in leaving behind a coal wagon half-filled with it’s precious dark cargo.

Players in Attendance: Jason Jurisch (Froimos), Chris Rocco (Pendrynn Hamut), Erik Rehpohl (Kailithe Solace Guard), Greg Sallee (Davros), Dustin Haugen (Barack Tenderfoot), Jason Alway (Kurock Stonehammer)

Date: After nightfall, Pelsday, the 20th of Rouenne, 617 S.R.

Location: The party is currently engaged in law keeping at Sooties bar.

Barack moved to the roof to find the sleeping form of the assailant, swinging out the second story window and flipping onto the rooftop, he nearly tripped over the sleeping form of the assassin, felled by Kailithe’s well placed sleep charm. He flipped the body over and could see that it was indeed the form of a man, wearing dark and heavily dirtied clothes and shabby gloves. He unceremoniously tugged his shuriken out of the man’s chest, causing a minor splatter of blood to splash onto the tile rooftop. He pried open the snoring man’s eyes and saw that the retina’s still reflected an eerie blue/green light. Searching the body, Barack found nondescript dark clothes and a cloak, a dagger with a dark green substance dripping off it (as well as Jaron’s blood), a darkvision potion, a vial of poison, and a note in his pocket. After frisking the body Barack called for help and lowered the unconscious form into the second story window where Froimos was reaching to help.

Kailithe identified the languages on the note as being in Common, Elvish, Dwarven and an unintelligible final language (Abyssal).

Meanwhile, in the hallway, Penndrynn stabilized Jaron, cleansed the poison from his system and prepared him for the trip to city hall. The party then split up with Froimos and Davros remaining at Sooties taking statements and probing for clues from the onlookers and Wake-goers.

• Davros – Streetwise – The person attacked (Jaron Kerr) was potentially involved in the partial mine collapse
• Froimos – Attempted to scare one of the patrons into divulging information and only succeeded in making him shut his mouth tighter and feign ignorance..
• Davros – Diplomacy – The fight earlier in the evening started when Jaron was approached by several friends of Breann Finst who were on her work crew. These were the same individuals that the Dragonslayers walked home earlier in the evening. Neither of them were identified as the unconscious assailant.
• Froimos – Intimidate – Jaron was seen talking his assailant earlier in the evening, possibly looking nervous
• Davros – Streetwise- The assailant was identified as a member of the Temple of Erathis (as was Jaron) and was assumed to be dead as he went missing several years ago.
• Froimos – Streetwise – Jaron was stabbed by a poisoned dagger.
• Davros - Breann, and the rest of the members of her work crew (including Jaron)  had a connection with Separatists. Everyone on that work crew were known Expansionists and worshipers at the Temple of Erathis.

As the group organized themselves, the attacker woke up and struggled against his manacles. The party noticed that he looked uneasy when he spotted the still living form of Jaron. After being tied up and smacked around a bit by Barack and Kurock, he fell into step as the party hauled their unconscious cargo to Town Hall, moving through the darkened streets swiftly and with purpose. Moving into the dim halls of the town hall, they made their way to the jail cells in the back of the building, waking the grizzled veteran of Aegis company sleeping behind his desk guarding an empty set of cells.

Penndrynn dropped an amazingly detailed and hastily written report on his desk and asked where to deposit his prisoners. The jailer opened the heavy iron bars of the two most separated cells, where the group dumped the assassin, and laid Jaron down on the cell bunk. The dagger and poison were tucked away into the jailer’s drawer as evidence, to be produced the next morning before the Council of Judgment.

Kurock and Barack interrogated the assassin as well as the now healed (and sober) Jaron. The Attacker wouldn’t respond to any questions, clamping his mouth shut and merely observing as the group talked to Jaron. Jaron mumbled through his pain and trauma trying to respond to basic questions, but once the line of questions moved in the direction of the attacker or the note that he was carrying, he started to quiver and shake, mumbling incoherently. This scared Jaron immensely, and he promptly shut his mouth and refused to answer any more questions, even via the simple nod or shake of his head. Davros got the feeling that there was some powerful, yet faint energies at play preventing Jaron from communicating.

Eder Josia Navarro was awoken to deal with the situation. She collected an extensive story from the Dragonslayers, looked at the evidence, and gave the cohort an order to continue investigating the situation with all haste and having the blessings of the Elder Council.

Penndrynn went to the Wayhouse to check on the status of the Hylean Trade Ambassador, the front desk assured him heartily that all was well and the building was indeed very safe.

The group went to the Dig Foreman’s office to get a list of the members of Finst’s Work Crew, then proceeded to visit each of their homes. There they found buildings with open cupboards, partially emptied wardrobes, and broken crockery, sure signs of a speedy departure. More telling was the fact that valuables and fine clothes were very prevalent in the items left behind.

Penndrynn went to the temple of Erathis for clues, the Temple of Erathis and was told that none of the members of the work crew had stopped by. He poked around a bit and didn’t find any clues.

After heading down into the Dig, the group continued to ask for details.

• Breann and her work crew of Jaron +3 were supposedly working in the Giant’s Toe, but several other mine workers indicated that they were often seen heading in a different direction.
• Many people are coming and going in The Dig tonight. They were bringing supplies down into the mine to repair a part of Giant’s Toe where there is flooding due to the collapse.
• The group eventually sent runners back to collect Jaron, bringing him down into the dig. During the trip through town he remained uncommunicative, but proceeded to look even more nervous as an identical copy of the poem possessed by his would-be assassin was found tucked into his pocket.

On the 10 minute elevator descent into the Dig, Kailithe completed a ritual to comprehend languages, allowing him to translate the Abyssal portion of the note. Nearing the bottom of the elevator ride, Jaron began to shake uncontrollably and froth at the mouth.

When they pulled Jaron off the elevator, he stumbled around a bit, and after moving around10 feet off the elevator, gurgled, keeled over and died. The group sent him back up on the elevator, asking the miners there to have his body sent back to Town Hall.

The group searched the perimeter of the dig in the direction of Jaron’s tumble and found a small crawlspace tunnel. After collecting gear at the underground mine office, Penndrynn tied a rope around his waist and proceeded inside. After seeing that it was safe and that the Paladin was coming to the end of his rope, the rest of the party ducked into the claustrophobia inducing tunnel and followed.

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After an hours worth of knee-shredding crawling, the tunnel opened up into a natural cavern with three tunnels heading out of it. Without hesitation, they headed into the larger tunnel entrance to the right. After a half an hour’s journey, they  stumbled across a stinking partially rotten corpse of something vaguely insectlike. Beyond that point the group could see small irregular perforations in the walls of the tunnel, as well as a slight clicking noise coming from somewhere behind the rock facing. Kailithe braced himself and unleashed a violent blast of thunder into the perforated wall, collapsing it into a pile of rubble and twitching insect parts. The sound echoed throughout the cavern, and the Kruthiks leapt forward in attack.

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Our fearless adventurers charged into the Kruthik nest, and proceeded to lay waste to the smaller insects. Davros and Froimos secored their position as rearguards, sending arcane blasts and sweeping axe swipes into the unfortunate Kruthiks who tried to flank the party from the rear. Although they dispatched the beasts efficiently, they soon began to accumulate many small cuts from the flailing bladed arms of the insects that lashed out against any adventurer who tarried too long within the vile insect’s reach.

The others surged into the center of the nest, led by Kurock’s furious battle yell. They were met with a horde of fast moving Kruthiks who were emerging from all manner of holes in the walls/ceilings/floors and the major side caverns that could barely be seen at the distant edge of the dimly lit cavern. Barack continued to weave through the chittering forms of the Kruthiks, flanking and stabbing their weak points with well placed dagger strikes. Penndrynn supported the dwarven fighter in the front, laying hands on the wounded members of the party as well as praying for divine retribution on those Kruthiks attacking his friends. Kailithe continued to send bits of chitin and goo flying as the bugs exploded under his releated waves of thunder and flame.

 During the battle, Davros’ furious cursing of the Kruthiks led to the emergence of a gradually brightening glyph on the back of his right hand and a growing urge to unleash some form of pent-up energies. Despite their many kills, harder and larger waves of enemies continued to rush into the gore filled chamber. Kurock was overrun and brought down by a horder of hulking adult Kruthiks that came crashing in through the walls. On seeing the dwarf fall, Barack leapt into action, laid down a barrage of shuriken, blinding several of the critters. This heroic action bught him enough time to drop a smoke bomb, creating a protective screen of black smoke to cover him as he crammed a healing potion into the unconscious fighter’s throat. The party fell back to the cavern’s entrance under cover of spells and wild weapon swings, buying Kailithe enough time to send multiple thunder into the weakened perforated ceiling. A loud cracking and groaning signaled the start of a mine collapse as the party raced ahead of the rushing dust in a wild retreat. 

 All players earned 180 XP each for defeating (and escaping from) the Kruthik horde.

After a short rest back at the previous intersection the choking dust and sounds of a rumbling collapse slowly faded. After a through inspection of the remaining 2 tunnels, the Dragonslayers discovered that the left tunnel sloped slightly downward, after much contentious discussion, they decided to head “down” the tunnel.

An hours travel through an irregular tunnel led them to a dead ended cavern. The group began to carefully inspect the walls of the room and were happy to discover a secret door! They became less excited as they found a second hidden door, then a third.. Once the fifth secret door was uncovered, they began to scratch their heads on the nature of this room. After realizing the religious significance of “praying to the gods”, Penndrynn kneeling in the middle of the room and casting his face upwards noticed a strange symbol chiseled into the ceiling.

After much analysis of the symbols and the referencing of Penndryn’s “Big Book of Religions”, the group identified the symbols for the god Moradin (a hammer), Ioun (a book with a sacred eye), Melora (A seashell), Evandra (a traveler’s pack) and finally Erathis (A breastplate with a half cog emblazoned on it.) They decided that the path of the Erathite symbol was the most appropriate course of action and headed through that hidden entrance.

All players earned 25 XP for solving the puzzle.

Coming to a T junction, the tunnel widened into a roughly 10′ tall circular cavern that looks to have been hand carved out of the bedrock. The Dragonslayers began to meander down the right path,when after only a few feet, Penndrynn and Barack heard a loud “CLICK” and a rumbling in the distance.

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The party launched themselves down the right tunnel, running with abandon as a large rock appeared heading in their direction from the left approach. The clattering of the group’s gear was drowned out by the ricocheting onslaught of stone that careened wildly down the tunnel in the groups direction. Kailithe fell to the rear of the runners and decided to blast a hiding spot in the side of the tunnel. After releasing a massive Thunder Wave against the hard rock wall, he crammed his body in the very minor indentation caused by the blast. The massive rock bounced and rocked over his hunched form, taking a fortuitous bounce, leaving the Eladrin Wizard with a sprained ankle and a few cracked ribs. The rolling ball was nipping at the heels of the dwarven fighter, who was frantically pumping his arms and churning his short legs as fast as he could. At the last moment the tunnel widened into a squared room, allowing Kurock to recklessly toss himself to the side. The giant ball of rock sailed through the spot his form occupied mere moments ago and crashed into the rear wall of the room, falling into a natural underneath it. The sound of it bouncing and careening into the depths echoed for what seemed an eternity.

The bedraggled party regrouped, and caught their breath before proceeding onward ..

All players earned 50 XP for surviving the boulder trap.

Players in Attendance: Chris Rocco (Pendrynn Hamut), Greg Sallee (Davros), Dustin Haugen (Barack Tenderfoot), Paul Brazelton (Poe)

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Recap: The Dragonslayer Cohort having been assigned civic duty on the streets of Blackfield are actively investigating the assault and subsequent death of the miner, Jaron Kerr. Following up on the clues from a cryptic poem, the group has been tracking a cabal of Erathite Separatists through the depths of the dig. They encountered a major setback as they strayed from the trail into a nest of lashing Kruthiks. Barely escaping with their team intact, the Dragonslayers fended off the bloodthirsty insects and pushed on. After solving a riddle of the gods and barely avoiding being crushed by a giant rolling boulder, the group has stopped for a much needed breather.

 The dark pit in the back of the small chamber they’re in still coughing up the distant fading booms of the boulder it recently swallowed. Kailithe slowly dragged his battered and crushed form out of the dark tunnel entrance, the blood dripping from his wounds magically wicking off his pristine white robes and dropping to the dusty ground. He’s had enough and has decided to head back to town, have his wounds tended to by the priests and share with the elders what the group has encountered thus far, Froimos and Kurock decided to escort the battered wizard back to the surface and promised they’d find Poe and send him back to reinforce the group.

Date: Near sunrise, Morsday, the 21st of Rouenne, 617 S.R. (It’s hard to tell as the party is currently underground)

The party is currently resting in an excavated cave, roughly 4o’ square, and dominated by a seemingly bottomless pit. The distant echoing sounds of the swallowed boulder continue to cough up from the hole in the ground. There are 2 exits. One leading to the long boulder tunnel and the other leading off into another tunnel. Footprints are visible in the thick dust on the floor leading from the boulder tunnel to the side exit.

• Davros pulled out his lantern and split a flask of oil between him and Pendrynn (3hrs each), Poe lit a torch
• Passive Perception: Barack 16, Davros 13, Poe 15, Pendrynn 13
• Passive Insight: Barack 10, Davros 16, Poe 20, Pendrynn 18
• Short rest, Barack spends a healing surge to heal.

He camped upon the glen before the last hill’s rise And drank deep droughts of bravery before pushing through the lies

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After a few minutes of walking, wispy strands of spider silk begin to become visible in cracks in the cavern walls. The walls of the tunnel begin to widen out (to around 50′ across) and the ceiling gradually slopes upward until being lost from sight (at around 30′). It almost looks like a darkened underground valley. The leafless limbs and trunks of scraggly night-trees come into sight and are scattered across the cavern, wispy strands of spider silk are gently wafting off their branches in the barely noticeable breeze.

• Shining a light source on the surface of the walls reveals thick ropey strands of spider silk covering many niches on the irregular rock walls. The slight breeze in the room seems to be coming from many of the niches, which on closer inspection look to be side tunnels. There are around 11 such niches.
• The valley/cave extends around 200′ long before the parallel cave walls wrap around to form the back of the cave.
• Near a small copse of Night-Trees in the center of the cavern there is a barely smoldering log in a campfire ring, a small stack of firewood, some blanket, a chest (containing some salted meat and fish) a small barrel and a bucket filled with a dark foul smelling liquid. Closer inspection of the barrel shows that it’s filled with the same foul liquid in the bucket.
  • PC’s must avoid an Attack vs. Willpower +5 or else they refuse to drink the toxic looking sludge.
  • PC’s must avoid an Attack vs. Fortitude +3 or else they can’t keep the potion down.
• Barack, after having plugged his nose and thought happy thoughts, successfully drank and keept the potion down, falling into a deep sleep which the party cannot wake him from. The group waited for an hour and he still stayed unconscious. Eventually, the rest of the group managed to drink the sludge and fall asleep. Poe being the last to do so couldn’t help but think that it wasn’t a good idea for the entire party to be unconcious and vulnerable to the environment. Bravely, he took the leap of faith in their interpretation of the poem, and crammed a scoop of the foul smelling goo into his mouth, the unconsciousness that followed was a welcome escape from the horrid aftertaste of sewage and ionized metal.
• The party all awaken to a hallucinatory/dreamlike experience of the room suffused in a dim blue light allowing them to see much better in the dark. The spider web covering one of the side tunnels is revealed to be an illusion. Hidden behind the illusion is a long, steeply sloped chimney with irregular, yet easily gripped handholds and steps. Faintly visible far up the chimney/chute can be seen a bright flickering light source.
• Due to the height of the steep chimney (and ease of handholds), the PC’s needed to roll an Athletics (Climb) Check DC 15 to see how efficiently they climb. If they failed by 5 or more, they don’t fall, but they are extremely tired by the time they make it to the top, and suffer -2 to their rolls for the next 10 mins.
  • Athletic Checks: Barack 14, Davros 19, Poe, 11, Pendrynn 6. They simply waited at the top of the chimney until they were rested up to avoid the tiring effects..

His journey neared its end as he saw a shaft of light Ascending the flight to freedom, his future looking bright The chimney begins to angle down to a gentle slope for the last 75′ feet. The  flickering light of torches is easily visible from this distance.

• PC’s passing a passive Perception Check DC 10 can hear the voices of people talking in the room ahead. If an active perception check is attempted, PC’s whose Perception Check beats a DC 15 can pick out the rough number of people in the room ahead (10+) and the fact that they’re speaking common.

The chimney exit opens into a large chamber packed to the gills with a large number of sacks, barrels, chests, stacks of rope, racks of weapons and other gear. Torch sconces illuminate the room with a dim flickering light. Within this room are a number of civilians from the town of blackfield. On the far side of the room, there is a wooden ladder extending into a hole drilled into the ceiling. You can see a barrel currently being hauled out of the hole from above, via a rope sling.

• Barack sneaks into the room and hides, listening to the group, figuring out that some of them are members of town, and on the list of miners on Finst’s dig team.
• Pendrynn recognizes one of them, a half-elf woman wearing a suit of platemail as Mir, paladin of Erathis. Mir sees the party. “Pendrynn, I didn’t know that you were a member of the Ambassadors of Erathis? What with all that mucking about with the pointless chivalry championed by Bahamut. *she spits* What point is bravery without the freedom to exercise it eh?” She looks around at the rest of the group warily, “So, are your friends coming with us then?”
• Pendrynn used diplomacy to convince her that he’s a part of the AoE, eventually succeeding.
• Barack searched around for high-value small items and ended up pocketing a small box covered in runes from in front of the reclining wizard.
• Mir continued the conversation with Pendrynn, ”I knew you’d be against citizens exercising their rights to freely leave the walls that hold them back. You too must be tired of watching your fellow Blackfielders endlessly toiling away in the dark corridors of the Dig until they die of lungdust at a young age; many of them never having set foot outside of the walls except through their brief and dangerous service in the militia. Are coal and violence all that Blackfield is to export? I’m glad you’re coming with us, let us spread the lessons learned within our walls to the fearless seafarers of the east, ride with the barbarian desert folk to the north, learn the mystical secrets of the elves to the east, and earn martial knowledge from the indomitable Budo warriors to the south. These are experiences that many of the town elders seek to suppress from the citizens of Blackfield, in order to keep them passive, productive and unquestioning. Giving up freedom for safety is a fools bargain, I’m glad you do not seek to perpetuate that ideal!”

The tunnel exit is located about a half-mile due south of town, behind the tailing pile and at the foot of a large hill in the bracken hills, blocking the exit from view of Blackfield’s walls. It is currently covered by a camouflaged mat of woven grass. A collapsible rope pulley is hidden here under a woven camouflage net, along with a stack of supplies already extracted from the staging area. Three families are stopped here, ready to depart once their escort is ready.  Dark storm clouds are starting to assemble overhead, snuffing out most of the dim morning sunlight.

• In order to disable the system, Barack poured acid on the shaft trip wire and hacked through the remainder. He’s noticed by Mir, who shouted a cry of alarm and pulled out her Morningstar.

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• The fight with the AoE went quickly with the Paladin Mir being smashed down fast.
• She organizes the surrender fo the rest of her group. Mir will offered the group a straight up payment of 100o gold if they’ll be allowed to depart in peace with a another 500 a month from now, if they’re not reported the exit is kept secret. If the PC’s take them up on this, and they’re found out, they’ll face the elders in judgment.

• The group has a very frenetic active conversation, trying to figure their future course of action
  • 1. Release everyone but one to stand for the crime (Pendrynn supports this theory)
  • 2. Release them all, and cover up the escape (thus saving the families) and getting paid 1000 gold.
  • 3. Leave with them!  Go out and see the world?!
• Poe stepped up and said “The tunnel is being collapsed, your people are free to go, we don’t need your money but want to be able to contact you.” Mir indicated that all they need to do is to go to the temple of Erathis in Blackfield and say the words “Rou-Mors Seeks Freedom”.  Mir then collects her money and gear with her fellow guards and set off to track down the fleeing families.

When the sun shined upon his face Rou-Mors embraced his task To spread the civil word and in newfound glory bask

• The Dragonslayers loot the rest of the gear they wanted, then they tied 100 feet of rope to the cable and detonated the explosive pitons. The largest column of fire that they had ever seen lanced high into the sky, burning away the low cloud cover, while the earth at their feet rippled under the force of the blast. the massively loud explosion reduced the Dragonslayers’ hearing to exclusively that of a loud ringing.
• The group was met on the return to town by Charger cohort, they gave the group several horses and told them to report directly to the elder council.
• Heading back through the gates, they passed Talon cohort manning the gates (the Desand the rogue and Durgan the fighter, hastily donning armor and looking astonished to see the Dragonslayers coming into the gates from the direction of the explosion.)
• The group headed for town hall, to report to the elders. Seeing citizens panicking in the streets due to the pillar of fire popping up so close to town. Approaching the town hall the group can see the heavily armed members of Aegis Cohort guarding every entrance in their shining custom fitted platemail.
• The party was allowed in to speak to the Elders, where they told a story (lied) that the AoE had already left the area, and that they destroyed the tunnel exit. MORE DETAIL INCOMING
• Solving the mystery of the ambassadors of Erathis – 400 XP (This includes those members of the group that were present during parts 1, 2, or 3)
• Combat with the Ambassadors of Erathis - 150 XP (Applicable to Pendrynn, Poe, Davros and Barack)
• Saving the lives of 12 citizens of Blackfield – 300 (Applicable to Pendrynn, Poe, Davros and Barack)

A continuous peal of thunder preceded a massive lightning strike in town landing squarely on the magic shop “Findings”, the group springs into action! MORE

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• The group arrives on the street outside Findings, seeing the pillar of green lightning coursing into the building and throwing off waves of arcing electricity. They also see several insubstantial forms of wispy tentacles almost jellyfish-like floating in the area of the shop.

• Pendrynn rushed into the shop, Barack followed

• They’re attacked by floating semi-translucent blobs of tentacles and teeth, lashing and blasting at the party.

• Davros finally cannot resist the urge to release his pent up power. In a crack of smoke, fire and sulfurous smells,  an Imp appears next to him and says “Yessss… Master, what isss your ordersss?”  Davros ordered the imp to attack the fell taints, and it giggled with malevolent glee before leaping in and stabbing at the ghostly forms with its barbed and poisonous tail.
• One of the wounded fell taints floated over to a citizen peeking out of a window of the neighboring building, lashing out at him, then descending on him and feeding.

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– Fell Feeding (Scream – Male)

Players in Attendance - Jason Jurisch (Froimos), Chris Rocco (Pendrynn Hamut), Erik Rehpohl (Kailithe Solace Guard), Greg Sallee (Davros), Dustin Haugen (Barack Tenderfoot), Paul Brazelton (Poe)

DM Notes:

• Everyone can identify a specific knowledge skill that their character is proficient in that is not currently covered in the rules. (Personal history..)
• Clarification of prices on last adventure: Barack and Davros paid Nim to craft a dagger for them of their Dragon’s tooth incisors, they still owe 2 gold, paid on completion in a weeks time. Pendrynn already paid Nim 75 gold for a custom crafted suit of plate armor, completion expected in a month’s time (The 16th of Tyden).

Date: Bahmsday Morning, the 19th of Rouenne, 617 S.R.

Location: The party on the last day of their 3 day leave located in their barracks at Blackfield

———————————-

During their time off:

• Barack donated 27 gold, to his young allies on the street, increasing their awe of him exponentially.
• The cohort spent their last night of their leave out at Sooties (tavern/inn) drinking, listening to bar songs and playing Bar Games, specifically, “Sabotage the Dig”

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• Everyone earned 20 XP for learning a new game, Davros received a bonus of 10 XP for winning the game.
• (Davros won 3gp in the game of Sabotage the Dig, Froimos won 1 gold, and Barack and Kailithe split a gold each.)
• Barack played a prank on Talon cohort by sneaking into their barracks late at night, barely avoiding being discovered and successfully replaced Talon’s Cohort Banner with a new banner emblazoned ”The Ratslayers”. After returning to the barracks, he handed the banner off to Pendrynn, who ducked out to drape it across the roof of the well in Town Square.

The next morning, (19th of Rouenne) the team woke early and prepared themselves for their mission briefing in the muster room. Several members of Talon cohort gave the Dragonslayers the stink eye as they entered the room, it seems they have a good idea as to who pranked them the night prior. Sharp eyes could see that that Talon’s resident scout Desand was noticeably absent.

While Dragonslayers were in the mission briefing, it’s highly probably that Desand snuck out, tossed the cohorts barracks and filled Barack’s bed with horse manure.

After the briefing, Barack returned to the Talon barracks with his stinky bedding and found Durgan (The dwarven fighter) sitting outside with his ankle wrapped up and peeling vegetables. Barack was hoping to steal some clean sheets, but was engaged in an exchange of missiles comprised of potatoes and souled linens. (There were no victims..)

Pendrynn Suggested to the group that they take up collection amongst themselves to help out the bereaved family of Breann Finst (her Husband and two children aged 9 and 4). The cohort and gathered 25 gold, which Pendrynn planned to drop off at the Finst household later in the day.

Be midday, the Dragonslayers began their patrol and checked in at the towns three gates. They were told that there were no recorded visitors, aside from the Hylean Trade Ambassador Aaaden Wisdorf, (Elf) and his 2 aides/guards.

Pendrynn went to talk to his father for advice, who was embroiled in a card game with his veteran buddies, and ;eft feeling a tad disappointed. His father wasn’t exactly forthcoming on suggestions on how to do his job. (It seems he’s going out of his way to not show his new recruit son special favors.)

Froimos, Davros and Kailithe patrolled the city multiple times, on one pass, they managed to startle a boy (Tim) who was staring in a house’s window from the back yard, potentially contemplating breaking in. (The Pie cooling on the table inside being a potential target..) Froimos’ imposing presence and the diplomatic words of Kailitie managed to route Tim’s energies into more meaningful work. The Wizard paid the boy 2 coppers to track down Barack and relay a message to him,

Pendrynn showed up at the Finst household, he offered up the 25 gold to Stafan Finst along with his condolences. He also distracted the saddened children a bit by giving them several dragon’s teeth from his necklace and relaying the epic story of how they slew the foul beast.

Barack spent his day tracking the Hylean trade ambassador, who spent the majority of his day in the Town Hall, before heading directly to the Wayhouse. Barack spoke to the desk clerk at the Wayhouse to see if there was anything suspicious about the ambassador’s visit and found that Aaden was a regular customer who returned to the Wayhouse about 4 times a year.

The members of the Dragonslayer cohort regrouped slightly before sundown in order to prepare their plans for keeping the town secure in the evening. The second shift at The Dig was about to end, and Finst’s wake at Sooties was about to begin. The group planned to fan out across the town, covering the ground between the mine entrance, Sooties and “The Tailings” (the poorest part of town, home to many of the miners). Pendrynn and Kailithe planted themselves outside Sooties, observing the flow of traffic. Several uneventful hours passed.

The sound of smashing dishes alerted the Paladin and Wizard to the beginnings of a bar fight, and as they pushed their way into Sooties, they overheard several dirty miners shouting at an injured co-worker, “It’s your fault she died! You knew you shouldn’t have been working in that tunnel!”, followed by a the launching of a mug at the victim, Jaron Wisdorf’s head where it smashed open a bloody wound. A loud bellow from the paladin of, “Fight’s over, step back!” and the fight was promptly broken up. Kailithe and Pendrynn gave the the drunken fighters the bums rush out the door. Penndrynn checked on Jaron’s status, laid his hands on the miner and prayed for his wounds to be healed. He then walked the inebriated victim back to his house to be sure he made it home safely.

After the bar settled back down and the music started up again, Barack settled into a dark corner of the bar keeping an equally sharp eye on the wake goers and his pint of ale. It was getting very dark outside, candles and lamps were lit and the sorrowful miners continued with the wake for Finst. A loud thud and sounds of a thumping struggle  from upstairs launched Barack into action as he literally launched himself out of his stool in the corner, rebounded off the side wall and vaulted over the stair railing in an instant.

There he witnessed an assailant hunched over the bloody form of the drunk who was ejected from Sooties earlier that evening. The attacker was a dark hunched humanoid form with red/green eyes. Barack, without hesitation, whipped out a well worn throwing star and hurled it at the assassin. A meaty thunk and a muffled cough let Barack know that his weapon had found it’s mark. Surprised by the ferocity and speed f the response, the dark form bolted into a nearby room, slamming the door shut behind him. Davros scuttled up the front of the building and in the window at the end of the hall, just in time to see the assassin duck into the room, . Barack kicked in the door, and was greeted by an explosion, followed by billowing clouds of obscuring smoke. During the confusion, Pendrynn rushed up and laid hands on Jaron to heal him. The fact that he wasn’t getting up and looking worse gave him the idea that he was poisoned and he used divine mettle and laid hands on him while praying loudly to Erathis to stabilize him. Meanwhile, Davros climbed back down the side of the tavern to land out in front of the bar. Seeing Kailithe walking slowly around the corner (who was previously guarding the back door) Davros shouted at the wizard to be on watch for a shady assassin. At that very moment, a second story window shattered outward in a sparkle of glass and the dark assassin leapt onto the window frame, gripped the top of the window frame and began to flip himself around onto the rooftop. Kailithe, uttered a quick word of power and launched a bolt of buzzing dark energy at the form, and blasted him with a sleep spell. The assassin continued his slow rotation in the air and went crashing onto the ceramic tiles of the roof.

Final DM Notes: More cleanup to the story is coming, also, if you want to ask questions feel free to do so in the comments below.

• I need to hand out and have everyone pay for the whistles that you purchased. I’ll have them pulled aside for the next adventure.