2017 Sessions

Session 13--2017.03.11Snogmaul (Peter D.) BEGIN SESSION March 11Snogmaul (Peter D.) What to do with the drow enchanted items? Some party members think know that some people say the Drow do not exist. Common sense tells us that asking about trading stuff from Drow will draw a lot of attention. We know the Drow exist. We also know that the Drow will have agents on the surface and that the Drow will not like us having "their stuff."Snogmaul (Peter D.) Crow suggests that maybe we want to trade it back over to our Drow contact. It seems unlikely that we could get anything other than "getting off of the Drow hit list." Store three items in our vault in the estate. We have a long rest at the estate. It is a pretty safe trip between the mining area and the estate. We go to the surface to meet with Crass. We go to see Crass on Tier 1 where his office is. We tell him "We killed 8 umber hulks," with a reward of 2000 GP each. Ashlyn also tells him that we fought and killed a Dryder that was controlling the hulks. There were also a lot of phase spiders. We killed most of them but there are still some. Crass says that as long as the miners are in groups they should be safe from the spiders. We are "staying in the good graces of the mining company." We also came across some evidence that the dryder may have stolen the adament (sp) ore. Ashlyn shows the sample to Crass. He asks for testing material to check if it actually adament. He confirms it is what we say it is. We believe that the umber hulks took the ore. Crass asks if we know how much we are talking about. Crass says he would be interested in recovery. "Do you think you could secure the passage long enough for my crews to get the ore," asks Crass. "We got the sample from where the Dryder was," says Ashlyn. Vargas and Ashlyn are suspected of not being totally forthcoming regarding the ore.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Crass says, "It is property of the mining company." Crass says that he "would prefer to have his men bring back the ore." We are to let him know when we have secured the path to the ore. Vargas wants to be notified when the refined ore is available for purchase. Crass will notify us. Total payment for the job just completed was 26000 GP in trade gems. Crass also tells us that we should contact Erika Stonehammer the blacksmith.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Ashlyn goes to the Beserker bar and leaves word she wants to meet with Groma regarding a retrieval fund/job. Then we all go to the blacksmith. She is capable of having enchantments placed on items. She tells us that she wanted to see us because she has been getting requests for armor. Cras has been needing the stuff for his workers. She has some blood iron. The land sharks harassed the hill giants that brought the blood iron in. Erika tells us that the land sharks plates can be made into armor. They have the ability to sense other creatures up to a quarter mile away. Back towards the parripets (sp); maybe 3 or 4 days journey. Ashlyn asks how much per plate. She responds with shield sized would be 2000, smaller plates down to 500 GP. Some could be tower shield size would be very unusual and be worth 5000 GP.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Rod of Rulership goes to Vargas due to his bonus in persuasion. Most likely to be talking to others. Maybe even giants that we want to bypass. The helmet may come from Illythid and would be used by a trusted slave to control lesser slaves. She will make a brass covering and will cost 50 GP and 3 days. Vargas will also take the helmet.Snogmaul (Peter D.) While at the Guilded Garden, Ashlyn is informed that Lady Sylvia wants to have dinner with her. At dinner, Sylvia is in the dining room alone. She has some news and some questions. The House is pleased with your progress and she will be his local contact. The question: What did you find? Ashlyn says that we found the source of problem for the miners. She tells about the umber hulks, the dryder and the ore. Based on the tests, it was okay ore. She asks, "How many crews they lost? Will they be resuming operations?" Ashlyn passes on that he (Cras) will be contracting more work from the blacksmith. Sylvia wants some of the operation shut down. Something about a hobgoblin force down deeper. The miners need to be kept from the hobgoblin operatives. Sylvia suggests that we do this under the cover of "regular adventuring." We are to get "half of any relics/enchanted items." We would get all money. There may also be some records and books. If amongst the collection we find these items we may read them over and then pass them on to her. The tribe count numbered 30. We need to verify that all are accounted for. They may have some unusual resources. The Fist of Magluviate (goblin god) cleric and a set of trained hell hounds. They may also have caged monsters, like a troll. A fairly resourceful tribe. Sylvia wants to make sure the tribe does not outlive its usefulness. There is no urgency as long as Cras does not resume his work. The hobgoblin lair is on tier 10 between spokes 3 and 4. Possibly near rib 5.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Brother Lucius checks on the house where the weretiger attack took place. One of the bartenders is living there now. The family asked him to look after the house until there return. We are offered room in the house should we like to use it.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Vargas is going to do a show in 3 days! He might use the helmet (to read audience members' thoughts in the future). Also includes a light show. On the third day the show and gets 20 GP for the two shows. He upgrades the show with some of his cantrips; maybe mirror image.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Crow goes to a taxidermist's trophy shop and embalming to see about getting the dryder head stuffed. The shopkeeper looks it over and then asks Crows if we had cut into it yet? He says, "No." We will split the recovered of poison. Dryder is going to have a "fear" expression; clearly it feared us just before we killed it. He will keep one of the venom sacks and then will give Crow the venom from the other sack. Crow suggests there might be something to be done with the land shark. We need to return with a whole specimen. Dryder poison vial; 3 does , DC 16 con save and dmg 2d8; introduced via weapon attack. Entrance is where you go to the Hollow Sage. He can pull poison out of specimens. More to this guy than we know.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Drombar or his ax is needs to be with us when we go after the hobgoblins. (note for the future)Snogmaul (Peter D.) At Beserker, Gromba will meet Ashlyn in the evening of the second day. Give her 2000 GP as a bond for our retrieval should we disappear for more than 30 days; all player character names and descriptions. We need to check in with her so we don't inadvertently engage her services. (The players do not have to actually do the check in.) Ashlyn makes a special note of Crow and his malringer status.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Shade and Vargas are upgrading there living arrangements.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Ashlyn tells the party about the hobgoblins as we head out to get land sharks. It is entering the rainy season. The party goes shopping for healing potions etc prior to leaving.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Ashlyn purchases a wagon with two draft horses. Each could carry 500 lbs. They could pull about 1600 lbs in the cart (people and stuff). The horses cannot dash while pulling the cart. Brother gets two extra horses; gets rope and block 'n' tackle is bought by Crow; Shade bought a horse; Snogmaul is in the wagon; also Vargas gets a horseLegend's Dad (John S.) ashlyn is matt rightSnogmaul (Peter D.) We will have to depart from common roads; land sharks are off the main path; due west is our heading; traveling in the day time; Crow is flying at walking speed and will distance scout; he is about 120 ft above us; we are on the open plain; only Crow notices some dark spots on the ground, 20 ft long and 5 ft wide off in the distance, could be scorch mark from fire dragons; maybe a 1/2 mile to the south of our current location; Ashlyn is asking if anybody wants to turn backAshlyn (Matt M.) SOP First watch: Orestes and Vargas 2nd Shade and Crow 3rd watch Ashlyn and Snogmaul Last watch Ashlyn and LuciusAshlyn (Matt M.) <@U0D4TS341|deckofmanythings> pinned a message to this channel.Legend's Dad (John S.) crow is mark, rightLegend's Dad (John S.) you guys could just type "yes" occasionallySnogmaul (Peter D.) it is starting to get dark and we need to find a place to camp for the night; there is a small rise to the north and to the south there is a small hollow; we go to the hollow; Ashlyn will meditate while Snogmaul drives the wagon the following day; during the fourth hour we hear a roar in the distance; during the fifth hour hear something woosh by above us; we stay quiet; all of us hear a roar and it is a lot closer and wakes the rest the party! sounds like a lionSnogmaul (Peter D.) we armor up under the cover of silence spell cast on us; Snogmaul moves outside the radius of the spell as he is armored already, Vargas joins Snogmaul; Snogmaul hears a flapping sound to the west and Vargas hears and maybe sees something in the sky probably something dragon like; we hear the roar again along with a hissing sound and a little baaing; we see an enormous creature and it is breathing fireSnogmaul (Peter D.) the chimera breathes fire and Vargas takes 9 pts dmg and Snogmaul takes 18 pts dmg; and Vargas responds with hellish rebuke doing 13 pts dmg, not clear if it was affected; Vargas follows up with twin chromatic orbs of lightning for 21 pts of dmg; Brother Lucius fires magic missile for 14 pts of dmg; Crow fires a burst of four poison arrows for 9 pts dmg, miss, miss, miss; Snogmaul casts catapult and misses and then he hides; Shade casts eldritch blast and misses; the chimera moves to attack with goat ram on Ashlyn for 20 pts dmg; the chimera is on the groundSnogmaul (Peter D.) Ashlyn and the chimera are now 120-140 away from the rest of the group; Brother fires magic missile and does 10 pts dmg; Crow fires chain lightning doing 46 pts dmg killing it blowing into pieces! Wow!Snogmaul (Peter D.) The heads are in great shape and we can take it back to town with us.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Vargas knows that chimera hunt like dragons and treat their kills like lions do; the chimera will stash their kills someplace to finish eating later; we could find the lair where loot might be; in a day or two with our fliers we could figure out where the lair would likely be; Crow is interested in searching; Snogmaul, using Vargas' boots, and Crow fly off to search; we determine the range to the south and east and now know those edges during the first day; it rains that nightLegend's Dad (John S.) What's the current goal?Legend's Dad (John S.) Of the party, I meanSnogmaul (Peter D.) the second day we find nothing, unable to tell where the northern edge is, Snogmaul rolled a 1; the rain continues harder and it is getting more slushy; on the third day Crow sees a sign of a lair, casting of bones out in the grasses; Snogmaul smells something like sulfur and then heads toward it, in the hollow of a hill, something has been gouged out and a hollow, been dug out; something big; Crow waits and tries to hear something else; are chimera solitary thinks Snogmaul, probably areLegend's Dad (John S.) (Other than leveling)Snogmaul (Peter D.) get trophies for the bar seems to be our new goal; we were supposed to be hunting land sharksLegend's Dad (John S.) So you set off looking for land shark trophies and instead encountered things that are dragon-like, and it turns out to be chimeras? That's got my thumbs upSnogmaul (Peter D.) Snogmaul and Crow return to the camp and the party heads to the lair; there is evidence of prior kills, some animal and some humanoid; some dwarvishLegend's Dad (John S.) FYI, having read this for awhile.... Never 100% trust what Crow saysLegend's Dad (John S.) Crow has other agendasAshlyn (Matt M.) Are you mixing up Ashlyn and Crow?Legend's Dad (John S.) NoLegend's Dad (John S.) Crow is like 70%Legend's Dad (John S.) Ashlyn is like 10% true agendaLegend's Dad (John S.) It's all so obvious from the notesLegend's Dad (John S.) AND from the playersLegend's Dad (John S.) Mark likes to be a little slyLegend's Dad (John S.) But Matt likes to be double spy of any groupAshlyn (Matt M.) We're going to vote to kick out Crow based on this new information you've given usLegend's Dad (John S.) lolLegend's Dad (John S.) Matt is ALWAYS the cylonLegend's Dad (John S.) Mark just always SEEMS like he's the cylonSnogmaul (Peter D.) among the collection: loose coins totalling 16 gp 65 silver and 40 cp, brass mugs with jade inlay worth 200-300 gp each; there is a bond that is for payment to Erika for cash and an enchanted item in exchange for "+3" hammer; Thorsen clan dwarves; seems like the group of dwarves was on its way to complete the purchase; there is also a commerce pouch with coins (these in treasure slack)Legend's Dad (John S.) I'd love to hear how sneaky Andre rates MattSnogmaul (Peter D.) Snogmaul is mapping the area and the location of the cavern/lairSnogmaul (Peter D.) experience = .2 new level 6.9Legend's Dad (John S.) Ooooo Snogmaul is an awesome person to do thatLegend's Dad (John S.) It's like his forteLegend's Dad (John S.) Unlike sneaky, failing Ashlyn. Using her own, private mages to send Messages. So sad. Failing.Crow (Mark W.) Ermagad 6.9 :confounded:Loyal Opposition (Celeste Y.) **sad trombone**Crow (Mark W.) maybe if we did moar role-playing we'd get more experience, just sayin...Crow (Mark W.) <ducks>Orestes (Robt. G.) MOAR!GM (Kyle B.) 5% band performance, +10% difficult crowdBr. Lucius (Jim Y.) You're right Mark! We'd probably get a lot more story exp if we didn't keep slowing things down with time-consuming combats!Br. Lucius (Jim Y.) <looks for the face-palm>Loyal Opposition (Celeste Y.) :facepalm:Session 14--2017.05.6Snogmaul (Peter D.) BEGIN SESSION, May 6Snogmaul (Peter D.) The party is heading west. Crow is "eye in the sky" and sees something that looks like a half dozen guys surrounding a horse. Crow passes on his observation. Crow suggests rescuing the "horse." We head toward the other group. As we approach they spread out into a skirmish line and they seem to have super heavy crossbows at the ready. Behind the skirmish line is a horse that is tied with multiple ropes. The guys have banners and kite shields; seem to be Malringers. Snogmaul holds in place. At about 100 ft we are hailed. The speaker asks who we are. Crow speaks and says he is "Crow son of (bla)." The other group's speaker says that his group is also hunting. Crow approaches with long bow in hand. The other leader says that Wyvern are out here. We thought it was eating our horses (brought for bait). The leader is Ilyana (drake flayer, status). Ilyana is missing horses and 6 of her crew. Missing malringers are bonded and so if we come upon them in any state they can be returned to be brought back to life.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Crow explains that the other party is hunting for Wyvern. He goes on to explain they have lost some guys and bait horses. The bounty typically is 5 to 20,000 is paid by the Duke (of Malring). There are seven in the hunting party. We are not willing to use our horses as bait. On a nature roll, Crow knows that the bait horses were not good riding horses. Old nags are used as bait. Brother Lucius preserves the chimera heads via a spell. Crow also knows that Wyvern young attack randomly; while the mature adults are more canny. An old wise wyvern will likely stay clear of a large party. Ilyana says that there is at least one old wyvern and she may have found a mate. Worse yet it may have young. Malring is trying to operate farms in this area to supplement their food sources.Snogmaul (Peter D.) The wyvern may be in the parapets. Side note: it is a week to two to Malring. Crow has been gone from Malring for about a year. Ilyana also mentions that if we cannot come back to Malring right away she will give us a promissory note. She says that we are to injure the wyvern just enough to convince it to return to its lair. Ilyana is concerned that Crow should be seen flying and following it. Ilyana suggest 100 ft or more from the staked horse. Ashlyn will be with our horses and wagon, 200 ft from the bait. Crow and the other Malringers are about 150 ft away in a circle with the bait . Snogmaul is 60 ft away and casts an illusion that he is a boulder. Shade is 120 from the bait horse. The time is... midday.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Wyvern's have a tail that sting. We are waiting all day and it does not show up. We are sitting around the campfire and we are talking. We find out that it has been raiding farms in the area. When the farms are guarded the wyvern does not attack. The primary target is a female, may have a secondary male, and there are quite possibly offspring. Older Wyvern have a lot of venom and it is very dangerous. Look out for wings, claws and teeth, but the tail is the worst; stinging damage and poison. We share watches. The hunters have "no smell" used to mask the smell of our party.Snogmaul (Peter D.) The hunting party has been out here for a month. Day 2 of the stake out... Attack using weapons that make it bleed. Many magic attacks will cause bleeding. Snogmaul gets a perception check of 27 and Brother gets a 22 and they notice there is something in the sky, moving between the clouds. Very high flight path. Nature checks, Snogmaul thinks "Wyvern don't fly high. It would also have to have great eyesight. It must also must have a very low body weight to really big wings." Brother tells the two people beside him.Snogmaul (Peter D.) The wyvern is making its first pass and some of us get to attack. Snogmaul fires an arrow from his short bow and hits for 6 pts dmg. Maulringer fires and arbalest and does 15 pts dmg. Ilyana fires her arbalest for 24 pts dmg. This happens as the wyvern dives in for the prey. Shade hits the horse with eldritch blast for 6 pts dmg. Vargas casts meteor and cause explosions to either side of the wyvern to encourage it to move on. Vargas casts ray of frost to slow the wyvern. The hunting party gears up and heads out.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Ashlyn follows on foot, a very fast foot. She leaves a trail for the rest of the group to follow. The wyvern does not fly as high as it was when it arrived. Crow is flying to make seeing easier and unobstructed. The wyvern is going to keep going to the foothills of the parapets. We have never seen nor heard of a wyvern this big. The wingspan could be 100 ft across. The horse is dead for sure. Ashlyn is going to have trouble following it due to terrain, hills.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Evening is coming. Something is just below the surface of the earth and it is following Ashlyn at a pace of 40 ft. Ashlyn attempts to "pass without a trace" and the creature goes right by her. She sees a fin go flashing by just 20 ft away from her. And she returns to the cart and the rest of the pary.Snogmaul (Peter D.) The sun goes behind the mountains. We will have to resume in the morning. Snogmaul thinks about land sharks and Vargas also knows. Land sharks attack until killed. The sharks also like wee folk and animals like horses. Snogmaul says, usually the sharks are solitary unless it is the springtime when mating happens. We are in the "bad time." The land sharks were actually created not born, says Vargas. Therefore, they may not actually mate. So land sharks and owl bears are similar. There are many similarities between tarrasque and land sharks. Snogmaul in the cart pulled by horses is not happy. Land sharks are active in both day and nighttime.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Brother Lucius passes on what we know about land sharks to Ilyana. Ilyana votes to camp on the soft earth. Shade advocates for camping on the rocks. We set up camp in the rocky area. Ashlyn returns and finds us setting up camp. She recounts how she avoided the bulette. The party eats and rests. She casts pass without trace all creatures within 30 ft of Ashlyn.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Crow gets a stealth check of 36 and Snogmaul gets a 37. Brother Lucius and Orestes miss their stealth check. Fortunately there were no land sharks. Nobody got et during the night, including the horses.Snogmaul (Peter D.) The malingers are ready to head out and have located the trail. Both Crow and Vargas are flying. Ashlyn is driving the cart with Snogmaul riding. Late in the morning we hear, then see a land shark furrow off to our left. Snogmaul yells to the hunting party to alert them to the impending land shark. He then pulls a weasel from his Bag of Tricks, which he dismisses. Orestes flies toward the shark and casts shatter. DC13 to not shatter and it does but still takes a total of 5 pts dmg. The land shark closes in on the horse team drawing the cart; uses a double move. A second shark closes in from the right and it leaps from the earth and tries to land on Brother Lucius. He uses a charge and saves and move to an adjacent space. He also takes bludgeoning dmg for 15 pts. Lucius' horse is hurt for lots and is squished with guts splattering (more than twice its HP). Vargas is firing twin electrical orbs for 26 pts and 12 pts.Snogmaul (Peter D.) The malringers move to engage the shark attacking Brother Lucius. Blades out and shields up! Four attacks and they miss. Crow drops down to the ground and attacks four times, action surging and double attack on the shark next to the cart. He misses three times and hits once. He does 14 pts dmg. Ashlyn hits once and misses once for 12 pts of dmg on the shark next to the cart. Beacon of Hope is cast by Brother Lucius on all malringers and PCs. (retcon: malringer did 11 pts dmg to the shark on Lucius from earlier). Ilyana uses her long spear on the shark near Lucius doing two attacks for 14 pts of dmg.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Shade dodges. Snogmaul does 13 and 12 pts of dmg with the Cartographer's Quill to the shark (cart). Orestes does Fist of Unbroken Air and the creature near the cart 10 pts of dmg. The sharks attack! One tries to bite Crow and misses. The other shark attacks Shade and misses. Shade riposte and hits for 7 pts dmg. Vargas casts haste on Crow. The malringers all attack with their long pointy spears! They all hit for a total of 38 pts dmg and it dies! Yeah! (over 100 pts of dmg) Ashlyn shouts out that she is willing to share the 50 GP bounty for the killed land shark. (LOL) The third shark leaps out of the ground. Two malringers are knocked to the ground taking 28 pts dmg each. The third shark attacks Shade and bites him for 30 pts dmg. Ouch!Snogmaul (Peter D.) When what should happen... but a fourth land shark bursts forth and squishes two more malringers with one being knocked prone taking 26 pts dmg and the other taking 13 pts dmg. The shark bites the prone malringer and does 30 pts dmg. He is not dead. Whoa! Crows is hasted and makes two attacks and a spell. The first attack is a crit for 21 pts, second is for 13 pts, moves five feet (and is attacked by a land shark for 21 pts dmg) and casting chain lightning for 49 pts dmg killing the shark by the cart and seriously hurting the last two sharks.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Ash teleports under one of them, rolls a crit, missed with second attack, but hits for 14 damage, then disengages 309' away. Brother cast Mass Cure Wounds for 35 hp of healing. "Nice," says Orestes. Brother says, "Now stop getting hurt." Ilyana missed. Shade dodges. Snogmaul 11 pts dmg and 22 pts Orestes checks for other incoming sharks. Vargas casts Scorching Ray for 18 pts dmg. The malringers stab it and kill the last one. Hurray! Lots of harvesting to be done.Snogmaul (Peter D.) The agreement said that we would get 500, 1000, and 2000 gp for plates of the sharks. Our efforts garners us 12 shield size plates and 32 smaller (8 medium and 24 small) with the help of Ilyana (natural 20 for harvesting). Brother Lucius casts guidance on Ilyana. Super! In trade small is common magic, medium is uncommon, and large is rare.Snogmaul (Peter D.) We take the afternoon to do the harvesting and it is about nightfall. Snogmaul searches for a place to camp. The party is satisfied with the location Snogmaul finds. The location has limited visibility to the left and right. Good view of forward to the plains and above.Snogmaul (Peter D.) At night, during the watch of Orestes, he sees some stars go away and then come back. He watches a little more closely and it seems to be a wyvern. He looks and he is sure it is circling the carcasses. Vargas sees only stars 'cause Orestes did not get Vargas' attention. Orestes wakes Crow. Orestes also tells one of the malringers on watch at the time. On the second watch; Shade sees nothing, Crow sees something with horns flying above, not as big as a wyvern. Crow decides that it could be the male wyvern. Ilyana confirms it is a male wyvern. She is hoping that there are not hatchlings.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Morning comes. Pancakes, fruit and coffee is served during the morning briefing. Ilyana shares info with us. The mated pair will fight to the death when protecting the nest. We are not to attack the eggs because it will drive the wyverns into a frenzy. The horns of the male are weapons. The wings of the female able to buffet and knock warriors to the ground. The adults will pump you full of venom. The little wyverns still have poison that can kill. We should kill the adults as far away from the nest as possible. She suspects that the lair is a cavern of some sort. We should keep them from flying.Snogmaul (Peter D.) We find a couple of places that could be wyvern lairs. We see a bloody stain at the top near a spire. Crow will rise to get a better look. The wyvern is curled up and resting. Crow checks for horns and determines there are no horns. Crow reports to Ilyana. How to get there? Eggs possibly hatched already. The malringers have climbing gear. The wyvern nest is 200 ft up.Crow (Mark W.) Ilyana asks Crow "How did you do that? You appear to be a warrior but you can fly and summon lightning! If the Duke had such as you in his service, I'm sure I would have heard of you before now." Crow considers his answer and says "My friends and I are adventurers, exploring the Undertower. On one of our sessions I came into possession off an item that allows me to use those powerful magics. This came about whilst I was on a mission the Duke is aware of to avenge the destruction of my family."Snogmaul (Peter D.) Experience: 5% for role play about back story stuff, 5 % for quest completion of land sharks, 10% for actual fight with land sharks, 5% for tracking wyverns and planning for the fight; level gain will actually take place at the end of the wyvern fightSession 15--2017.06.10Snogmaul (Peter D.) Begin Session June 10Snogmaul (Peter D.) We are at the rock spire which has the nesting wyvern at the top. The next is 200 ft up. It is cloudy with a chance of rain. It is afternoon and the light is generally behind the spire. (We begin by setting up miniatures. Kyle seems to think we will need them.)Snogmaul (Peter D.) initiatives: Ashlyn 16, Brother 13, Crow 21, Orestes 5, Shade 4, Snogmaul and Vargas both at 10Snogmaul (Peter D.) Crow flies to an elevation of 230 ft and then verbally taunts the wyvern. The wyvern takes the bait and flies to attack Crow. Crow is able to see a half dozen hatchlings. Crow reacts by firing a chain lightning. He does (10d8 dmg) 50 pts of dmg with a dex save for half dmg. The wyvern takes dmg and three of the six hatchlings die. "Charge attack" by the wyvern on Crow tail first and hits. 17 dmg piercing and poison dmg of 18 (half of the 37 rolled). Two maulringers attack successfuly for a total of 18 pts dmg. Orestes can't do anything, passes. Shade moves to be nearly under the creature. The wyvern calls to her mate and an answer is heard. The answering wyvern can be seen moving in after it drops something to the ground. Snogmaul fires his shortbow and misses. (17 to hit misses)Snogmaul (Peter D.) Crow falls 225 ft and then uses fly to stop 5 ft above ground level. And then he prepares to engage in melee. The maulringers reload their weapons. Ashlyn shadowsteps and then dodges toward the spire. Brother Lucius moves toward Crow and cures 10 hp on Crow. He then readies fireball. Snogmaul hides and then fires his shortbow and hits for a total of 22 pts of dmg. The wyvern returns to the nest without attacking. Orestes readies "shatter." Shade moves toward the spire and then readies eldritch blast. Everybody sees the second wyvern. It will be here next round.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Top of the round: Crow uses his second wind and gets out his long bow. All maulringers are ready to fire when a wyvern is in range. Ashlyn gets ready to shadow step toward the spire. Everybody except Crow has the benefit of Beacon of Hope from Brother Lucius. Snogmaul hides (gets a 13) and then readies to fire the short bow. Orestes follows Ashlyn. The second wyvern is nearly upon us, but high above us. It is a male as it is horned.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Top of the round: Crow lands on the ground and poisons some arrows. Ashlyn continues to move up the spire and also prepares to dodge should she need to do so. Brother prepares to shoot the wyvern with wand of magic missile. Snogmaul attempts to hide again and gets 16. Vargas continues to do as he has done after he moves to be in the middle of the maulringers. Orestes and Shade continue to prepare their spells. The male wyvern spots Ashlyn on the cliff side. The male wyvern attacks with his horns and Ashlyn dodges. Ashlyn takes 14 points of piercing dmg. Brother fires a magic missile for 13 pts damage. Orestes casts shatter and the wyvern takes half thunder dmg for 6 pts. Snogmaul fires the short bow and does 18 pts dmg. Shade hits with Eldritch blast and does 9 pts dmg. Vargas is out of range and so holds position.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Crow moves to within 100 ft of the male wyvern and fires four arrows: rolls a 1, a 2, a 2 and a 10 with a total of 17. He does 5 piercing and 8 poison dmg if the wyvern did not save. Ilyana fires and hits doing 18 pts of dmg to the male wyvern. Ashlyn uses her martial arts skills to attack and hits with a 14. She does 5 pts of dmg. She then does a flurry of blows and gets two more hits, 8 and 9 pts of dmg. Then she uses "stunning strike" and the wyvern is stunned after missing the third save. It takes a little falling dmg. Other attacks will be at advantage now. The maulringers fire and all six hit the wyvern. The arbelists (sp) do a total 59 pts of dmg and it DIES! It tumbles further down the spire side.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Snogmaul moves forward and hides behind another rock. Ashlyn and the rest of the party see the female wyvern fly off with the three hatchlings!Snogmaul (Peter D.) Now what? Tracking the injure wyvern? Check out the nest? The horses could be bait. Or we could send the wagon with the loot back to town. Orestes hands off a potion of climbing. Ashlyn climbs to the top of the spire.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Crow flies to the top of the ridge to see what he can see. The female wyvern flies up higher and higher then flies through a pass to the right. He also sees where the edges of the rock fall and now knows the best route to the top. He can tell the party which way to go and it has clear visibility to help us avoid being surprise attacked.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Ashlyn, Shade, Orestes, and Vargas go to the top of the spire. And they find... the three charred wyverns, lots of "wyvern filth." There seems to be some equipment. Search levels: dive into poop, use a tool to dig, or nope. Orestes, Shade, Vargas and Crow decide to be "all in." Ashlyn goes nope, then half ass.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Orestes finds a gold ring, pair of large bracelets, gem stone pendant; 250 gp each for the 4 itemsSnogmaul (Peter D.) Ashlyn finds a box of turquoise figures 250 gp value, a gold bird cage 250 pg value, long sword (very well made and it may be enchanted), and a pouch with 90 ppSnogmaul (Peter D.) Crow finds a very well made mace, possibly blood iron and could be enchanted, pouches of coins 400 gp and 250 gp and 500 silverSnogmaul (Peter D.) Shade finds fabric possibly some sort of mantle with runes, 1000 cp in a pouchSnogmaul (Peter D.) Vargas finds several coin purse 500 gp, 150 gp and 1000 sp, traveling cash box with 2500 spSnogmaul (Peter D.) Maulringers find nothing except a lyreSnogmaul (Peter D.) Brother Lucius uses "locate creature" to find the wyvern. No searching needed! Yeah! We attack.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Ashlyn casts pass with out a trace (plus 10 to stealth checks). Crow consumes anti-toxin. It is now around 4 PM and it is sprinkling.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Brother Lucius 15Snogmaul (Peter D.) Ashlyn 10Snogmaul (Peter D.) Snogmaul 6Snogmaul (Peter D.) Shade 9Snogmaul (Peter D.) Crow 15Snogmaul (Peter D.) Vargas 5Snogmaul (Peter D.) Brother Lucius is going to fire ball the mama if the wyvern is present. Ashlyn casts silence on the group. We are moving forward within a 20 ft radius of Ashlyn.Orestes (Robt. G.) Go team go!Snogmaul (Peter D.) Brother casts is fire ball for 23 pts dmg to the female wyvern. We don't see the hatchlings at this point but suspect they are under the female. Crow flies to land in front of the wyvern and attacks using an action surge. (uses a chip) Crow hits for 13 pts and 16 pts and misses and misses and 15 pts!!! Wyvern DIES!!! Wow Crow! Our team maulringer wins! Crow has never skinned a creature, gets a little magical assistance, and perfectly skins the wyvern (natural 20). Well done. He is now "Drake Flayer Crow."Snogmaul (Peter D.) The hatchlings are dead.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Ashlyn runs to catch the wagon en route and tells that group they should wait for the rest of us. We all gather the next morning. We do some calculations to determine the value of the creature parts we have collected. The value for wyverns: hatchlings, female wyvern, male wyvern 35000. Bulettes was 44000 gp. The total of wyvern loot (read cash value) is 4000 gp give or take.Snogmaul (Peter D.) we trade away the lyre and mace. boomSnogmaul (Peter D.) Ashlyn, Crow, Shade and Brother Lucius head towards Malring. The rest of the party returns with the cart to Undertower.Snogmaul (Peter D.) It is very difficult to get to the Duchy of Malring. Guides lead people to the city and travelers are blindfolded so that they cannot know nor tell the way to Malring. There are ballista towers built into the cliff walls along the way. There are also magic users that can defend against air assaults. There are rings of defense in the city proper. There may be 30% of the population that is warforged. This is higher than before. A warforged could be a spirit from a raised person. The duke may have discovered the way to create warforged.Snogmaul (Peter D.) In Malring proper, there have been some serious attacks. There is also some new construction that seems to be replacing damaged buildings. Malringers hate dragons, period. There were two times when the dragons almost wiped out mankind. A human fought an ancient dragon to collapse. And humanoids and dragons made an agreement. The second time was when Malring wiped out dragons in certain areas. There are some that say the Malring made deals with demons to fight dragons. The duke has been around for quite awhile. The duke has not been seen out of his armor. There is even rumor the duke himself may be warforged. The party is brought before the Duke of Malring. The duke does not sit on his thrown.Snogmaul (Peter D.) When seeing the duke there are two more hunters, Ilyana plus eight. The two "extras" are warforged; they may be the fallen hunters. The duke is known to fight. He is dressed for battle in full plate. The duke engages Ilyana and Ashlyn in conversation. The duke asks to be shown Ashlyn's moves. Ashlyn shadow steps a few times and then takes a strike with her quarter staff at the Duke's back of knee. She is successful. 9 pts of dmg and the duke's knee gives some.Snogmaul (Peter D.) full name: Lady Ashlyn Winterbloom, Lady of the Court of Shadows of Undertower, Drake FlayerSnogmaul (Peter D.) The duke congratulates Crow achieve the status of Drake Flayer. Crow explains that he used sword and a magic artifact that casts spells. The duke says that we must keep secret the magic items that can harm dragons. The duke himself does not even want to know more about the artifact. Breaking a command of the duke results in being removed from the list of those that could be brought back.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Experience: two medium fights 10% each; wyvern quest complete 5%, role play 5%; for a total of 30%Snogmaul (Peter D.) 7.45 Experience LevelSession 16--2017.07.01Snogmaul (Peter D.) BEGIN SESSION - July 1, 2017Snogmaul (Peter D.) follow-up to audience with the Duke of MalringSnogmaul (Peter D.) the duke points out that Crow travels with a "dragon", asks to be advised of progress; the duke also says that he knows what Crow is looking for; there may be some ways in Undertower for dragons/dragonkind to the parapets; the duke goes on to say that Malring is not trying to get rid of ALL dragons, just those in the parapets; Crow looks for advice regarding dealing with things in the future; nothing concrete is given; Crow withholds info about the other rings our party has; Crow is finishedSnogmaul (Peter D.) in the Duchy there are more warforged moving about the city; Brother Lucius moves about the town and heals injured people, especially those involved in combat in defense of the duchy; Brother goes to the temple area and the locals are impressed, mostly people with religious powers are "in the field"; Crow looks to produce armor out of the dragon hide/scales he got; Ashlyn looks to make bracers from dragon scalesSnogmaul (Peter D.) Shade spends a day searching the town for "the guild" but does not have much luck; Ashlyn looks for someone to enchant her bracers; Illyana says that the kingdom of the west usually does enchanting for the Duchy and she goes on to suggest that Ashlyn ask the Duke;Snogmaul (Peter D.) At the Feast of the Duke; Celebration of a Successful Drake killSnogmaul (Peter D.) The party if active but no one is overdoing it, drinking yes but just some, dancing yes but just some, all in attendance carry melee weapons and crossbow, even those that are serving food; charisma checks with Brother and Crow find out from people who have been on the front line there have been recent attacks from the air and they are working to find underground passages; (red dragons and one even knows some spells) usually Malringers are the aggressors but in this case the dragons are coming to the fight; the one that is a spell caster is likely an older dragons; it could be a powerplay for the old red dragon, it is not obvious where there the lair is; it might be to the south, Malringers are moving south even digging to find tunnels or active volcanic passages; Vargas meets a person using his natural charisma; the person may be part drow and part draconic, she is wearing Malringer gear; she sizes up Vargas and then asks why you would "risk coming here?" Vargas says that his party is here and that he is searching for something here in Malring. He hints at the Shadowfell to see if the "person" responds in a knowing fashion. She questions if Vargas is in fact related to the shadow that defend the scaled city. She goes on tell Vargas that he nothing to worry about from the duke and maybe he should even swear fealty to the duke. In the future, Vargas may be under suspicion by others in the duchy.Snogmaul (Peter D.) There is a moment of recognition for the Drakeslayers! Yeah! The party is spending the night in a couple of rooms. Ashlyn and Crow may now add "drakeslayer" to the end of their names when introductions are made in Malring. This will be used to their benefit when interacting with locals. At the feast some of the party see that not everyone can be a "malringer." This opportunity may not come again. So, Shade says "nope," Crow already is, Brotgher Lucius says no, Ashlyn says no, and Vargas says no. "We are friends of Malring as Malring is to us."Snogmaul (Peter D.) Illyana does let Ashlyn know that the working enchanters are employed by the duke in the production of warforged. The deliveries come and go Blackvault for the enchanted. FYI: There is a river from Vertenhold (sp) almost all the way to Undertower. There is a stone giant that seems to be working for Malring at one of the guard towers. He has a pile of throwing rocks beside him. Some of the group remembers that stone giants did not buy in to the whole pax titanicus. Stone giants may choose individually to follow or not the guidelines of the pax.Snogmaul (Peter D.) The group that went to Malring; this group has a small nature incident (encounter with wolves)Snogmaul (Peter D.) The trip back to Undertower: Snogmaul and company - - - Snogmaul guides the caravan back to Undertower. Snogmaul gets advantage on future rolls when traveling between Undertower to the Duchy of Malring. In addition to that Snogmaul has maps of the route plus notes about dangers and beneficial points of interest. (that would be perception, stealth, and nature checks)Snogmaul (Peter D.) Snogmaul looks for a courier to deliver a packet of maps and notes to the Svirfneblin in the Copper Hills in the northwest, they are the foothills of Parapets. There is no copper there, just the color of the grass there. He withdraws to a private room/building and changes his appearance to that of a hill dwarf (known as Spruce). The notice says the travel time by horse about 3 days ride to the Copper Hills; pay 600 GP. No hire of couriers that showed up. Snogmaul then turns over the scales etc to Erika Stonehammer for the bounty. (4525 GP per person for the scales.) There is a bearer bond for enchanted item (+3 hammer) and cash. The bond was written by Clan Lord of the Thorsen Clan. The Malringers return home.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Snogmaul hangs out at the Guild House to find out rumors and info. There may be some investment being made from the Burning City. There have been purchasing agents in town. They are frequenting the shops. The main market for items brought up from Undertower seems to be from the outside the Undertower area. The Guild Master thinks that Crass Adament may be making a power play for city control. Snogmaul pays his dues, 500 GP.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Shade checks in with the Guild Master to find out if there has been any changes with regards to giants. He is happy with Shade and Snogmaul and the money they have been bringing turning over.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Ashlyn shows the bearer bond to Erika Stonehammer. Ashlyn keeps the bond and Erika tells Ashlyn that she will inform any Thorsen clan member that Ashlyn has the bond.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Ashlyn is looking a courier to take a note to the Thorsen Clan; 100 GP for delivery is offered. Money paid upon return of Thorsen clan member with the courier. Someone shows up, a female, and claimed she rides with a bodyguard; usually goes to the Burning City. Ashlyn says that she hires four couriers and the first back gets paid. The rest are out of luck. Brother Lucius spots somebody out of the ordinary, possibly a thieve's guild member. Ashlyn hires just the female and backs out on the four courier plan.Snogmaul (Peter D.) While we are waiting for armor to be made for our party members we hear that a formal town should be built. Crass comes to Brother Lucius and asks for his approval for reconstructing Three Pace Pavilion and All Faiths in stone. Now at the perimeter of the town guard houses are also built. The town guard is being hired from the Blood Gold district, ie they are mercenaries. An election for mayor will be held on the summer solstice, about two months away. The guild master is approving of the plan to build up the town. The name of the Tarrytown.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Snogmaul makes the trek to deliver the letter/notes/map package to the Svirfneblin Copper Hills. He is attacked on the way there by four abberations.Legend's Dad (John S.) whoaLegend's Dad (John S.) snogmaul vs. 4 abbies?Legend's Dad (John S.) must be dinner timeOrestes (Robt. G.) Abby normal.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Speed combat; Snogmaul took four hits, survived and combat ended.Snogmaul (Peter D.) The party stays in Tarrytown for about 50 days. The election is coming up and we are not willing to hang around town any longer. We have committed to adventuring but cannot decide what to do. We are in discussion.Legend's Dad (John S.) Jim hasn't thrown a spear at the mayor yet?Legend's Dad (John S.) Jim must be getting patience in his old ageSnogmaul (Peter D.) Kyle, reminds the players that there are hobgoblins and high level pets working for them on level 10 tier. House Marvad gets a cut of half the magic we recover and we get half the magic and all of the cash. House Marvad wants this job done to gain favor with _________ .GM (Kyle B.) Correction: party keeps all cashSnogmaul (Peter D.) Crow goes to see Crass and asks if there have been any problems. Crass responds that there have not been any problems lately. There are some exploratory teams going to tiers 9, 10, and 11.Orestes (Robt. G.) Moar updates. MOAR! :yum:Snogmaul (Peter D.) Snogmaul does research, reading, and map making while the rest of the character gain renown in various groups. The party comes to find Snogmaul and we are all going to do some recon on tiers 9, 10 and 11. We take the shaft down from the Barrigan Estate down to tier 9. We come out near rib 3 between spokes 2 and 3. Go over to 3 and then head out spoke 3 and take a look down the ribs either direction. In particular we are looking for passages for the miners to take. It does not look like anybody has been here. It is dusty, Snogmaul sees some interesting patterns in the dust. There is a curvy path in the dust. A giant snake??? Brother recalls that things came through after the terrasque. Some records in the Estate describe that snakelike with tennacles, "the stone came alive, pulled people back into the wall." Something this big is going to be hungry. It may also be other-worldly.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Snogmaul pulls a boar out of the the Bag of Tricks. The boar is about 15 feet ahead of the party. As we approach spoke 3 we are seeing the "tracks." At the junction of spoke 3 and rib 3. A giant creature from the ceiling with 4 tentacles and a beak attacks the boar; then a similar creature bursts forth from the floor. The boar is dead! Ahhhh. Roll initiative.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Brother 13Snogmaul (Peter D.) Crow 15Snogmaul (Peter D.) Shade 14Snogmaul (Peter D.) Snogmaul 20Snogmaul (Peter D.) Ashlyn 4Snogmaul (Peter D.) Vargas 19Snogmaul (Peter D.) Snogmaul fires two bolts doing 12 and 11 points dmg to the top creature. Vargas casts fireball puts the closest edge just in front of the party and flowing to the back wall of the intersection. The fireball does 27 pts dmg and the top creature drops to the ground. The bottom creature tosses aside the boar piece it had. Creatures to either side. Another creature against the back wall also falls dead. And then... the corridor is actually larger than we thought because a giant creature is filling the space. It reaches forward with four tentacle (20 pts dmg) and then it stabs (12 pts dmg) with a tail and a beak attack fails against Shade. Crow attacks using action surge and successfully attacks twice 15 and 16 pts dmg to the creature that has Shade in its grip. Shade "dodges."Snogmaul (Peter D.) More creatures come forth... five smaller ones come forward to attack Brother x2, Shade, and Crow x2. All the "little ones" miss. Brother Lucius casts fireball hoping to catch any creature that has yet to move forward and the big one and the small one on Shade is now crispy. The creatures take 27 pts dmg from fire. We hear no additional responses to the fireball. Ashlyn shadow steps to the large one, attacks and then moves away. She hits twice for 19 pts dmg total, bludgeoning damage and it seems resistant. Snogmaul gets a sneak attack on one of the small ones on Brother Lucius and does 25 pts dmg with his crossbow. It is dead. Next Vargas whips out his magic rod and says, "Obey me!" Vargas tries to charm four creatures... "Look at me," says Vargas. He then says, "Attack the creature on Crow!"Snogmaul (Peter D.) The creatures attack and the one on Crow is dead; killed by the large creature after it let go of Shade. Crow attacks twice with his sword for 11 and 15 pts of dmg. Shade (nothing currently eating him) attacks the small one on Crow and misses. The small creature misses Crow. Likewise the one on Brother misses. Brother Lucius casts sacred flame and the creature saves taking no damage. Ashlyn shadow steps to the small one on Crow and hits twice does 19 pts and down it goes. Ashlyn returns to the place she started. Snogmaul fires a crowbow bolt on the small creature and kills it with 27 pts of dmg. The giant creature returns to "stone." They were gricks. They are abberations with ties to other realms.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Experience: 5 for Malring story and role play, 10 for Tarrytown story and role play, 10 for the above fight for .25 total; our new level 7.7Session 17--07.22.2017
Snogmaul (Peter D.) correction: all party members are renown 2 with Adament Mining Co.Snogmaul (Peter D.) We are resuming on spoke 3, rib 3, on tier 9. Snogmaul will scout ahead 90 feet ahead of the party and 30 feet ahead of Ashlyn. We are heading down spoke 3 toward rib 2. Proceeding in the dark, using infravision and sneaking. Snogmaul gets to rib 2 intersection and notices that it looks less savaged. There are some signs of a fight, more this area was evacuated prior to large scale fighting as happened on other tiers and spokes. The rooms and containers are empty but not smashed open. There are frequently stairs that connect one tier to another; what is unusual is to find a route that connects multiple tiers like the central shaft or the shaft in "the manor." More wealthy "homes" would be more likely to have access to multiple tiers. There seem to be structures that would likely have access points to tiers. We decide to explore a house. The furniture is gone as well as most other items. There is a "grand" staircase that goes to tier 8. A typical dwelling would need to 4 floors to roughly equal one tier increase. Little sign out front says "Iron Manse" and there is a working smithy, a small home version. There is a small anvil.Snogmaul (Peter D.) We find some artwork that was not taken, statues. Ebonsmith is etched in the base. We go up. This upper floor is appears to be a much more small and unassuming home. At this point we head back down to the ground floor and then head in the direction of the main shaft.Snogmaul (Peter D.) We again notice that more prestigious homes/shops are closer to the central shaft. There is also is/was a central lift. As we approach rib one we notice some light coming from the central shaft. Ashlyn catches a quick glimpse of "snaky" things; Snogmaul saw nothing. Ashlyn moves up to Snogmaul to warn him. Then Snogmaul "messages" Drombar to hold position. Rib one wall/buildings on the shaft side are collapsed while the outer wall side homes/shops are mostly intact. The spoke is about 50 feet wide and the ribs are about 40 feet wide. (perception checks) an enormous reptilian head pokes into the tier. and something behind us as well is spotted by those that got 20+Snogmaul (Peter D.) Initiative: Crow 19, Drombar 14, Orestes 23, Shade 11, Vargas 22, Snogmaul 16, Ashlyn 7, Lucius 8Snogmaul (Peter D.) Orestes moves up and casts "force of wind" causing 17 pts of bludgeoning damage to the creature in the shaft that poked its head and it is knocked into the central shaft and it fell down the shaft. Vargas casts something that causes six little spinning orbs start circling Vargas critting and two fly off doing 6 pts dmg. to the second one in the shaft. Coming out of the wall from behind us bursts a hydra. The hydra in the shaft; three heads are going after Orestes and two attack Snogmaul with one hits for 9 pts dmg. Snogmaul is attacked for 13 pts of dmg. Another head hits Orestes for another 10 pts dmg.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Snogmaul makes an arcana check and finds out that fire damage prevents regrowth of heads; so fire dmg at least once a turn. Snogmaul fires a bolt and does 24 pts of dmg. Snogmaul immediately fires a second bolt and does another 12 pts dmg. Drombar uses "protection" to help Orestes making all attacks on Orestes at a disadvantage. Drombar then attacks for 10 pts dmg. Shade casts True Strike. Brother Lucius casts magic missile with a wand doing 9 pts dmg. Ashlyn shadow steps to behind the hydra and does 9 pts dmg and then uses one chi point to stunning strike; the hyrdra has advantage against being stunned (any mind affecting spell). Then Ashlyn moves to the edge of the shaft.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Hydra number two (behind us)! This one is a little different, crawling close to the ground with 5 heads! Two hits... 6 and 12 pts dmg from biting. Crow takes the dmg and then has to make a con save and misses (even after using "lucky". An additional 6 pts of dmg from poison. Orestes hits with a staff and does 6 pts dmg. He follows up with two strikes of his hands for a total of 14 pts dmg. Vargas casts Agnazar's Scorcher 14 then saved for half, so 7 pts dmg. Another head fall... 3 heads left on the hydra near the shaft. Now it is time for the hydra! Two heads on Orestes and one on Shade. Orestes takes 6 pts dmg and Shade 15 pts dmg from a bite. Crow uses his ring to due 30 pts lightning dmg and then does an action surge (two attacks) for 15 pts and using lucky does another 14 pts dmg with his sword. Snogmaul fires a bolt and misses. Drombar moves "protection" from Orestes to Crow as he moves to the rear hydra. Drombar takes three attacks with only one hitting for 13 pts dmg. He then does 7 pts dmg with a blow from his axe and then a second hit for 9 pts dmg.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Shade casts wall of ice and attempts to push the hydra to the side wall next to Ashlyn and the creature takes 33 pts cold dmg. Brother Lucius uses burning hands it takes 6 pts dmg, so fire dmg prevents the rear hydra regrowing heads. Ashlyn does 8 pts dmg after shadow stepping. Her second attack misses. She then disengages. The hydra at the back attacks doing 8 pts to Crow and Crow "lucky" successfully saves against the poison. Brother takes 25 pts dmg and then misses both con saves against poison 18 dmg. Crow to Brother, "Heal us before you die!" Orestes then attacks for 6 pts dmg. Vargas fires off twin chromatic orbs for 12 and 12 pts dmg. And then 5 pts meteor dmg. (all to the poison hydra). Vargas attacks with another meteor 7 pts to the front hydra. So both hydras have now taken fire dmg. Two attacks miss Shade and he repoistes doing 11 pts dmg. The attack on Snogmaul only does half dmg after he uses uncanny dodge for 4 pts. Crow misses twice. Snogmaul uses sneak attack to do 22 pts dmg and then 8 pts dmg. The front hydra goes down!!!Snogmaul (Peter D.) Drombar does 18 pts dmg to the rear hydra with a cleaving blow from his axe. Shade misses his one attack. Brother casts beacon of hope, on everybody except Ashlyn (again). Mass Healing Word and those that have been damaged get back 13 pts. Ashlyn moves 30 feet toward the rear hydra, strikes twice and then continues down the hall. 7 pts and 7 more pts dmg. All three heads attack Shade (with a 22 AC) and one hits. But before that he repoistes and misses. 8 biting dmg and a misses save for 10 pts poison dmg. Fist of Unbroken Air by Orestes and the creature takes 20 pts dmg, falling dead and pushed toward Ashlyn stopping just short of hitting her. Yeah!!Snogmaul (Peter D.) The heads will not regrow once the creatures die.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Brother casts Prayer of Healing and everybody gets 16 pts back, this takes about 10 minutes.Snogmaul (Peter D.) The party takes a short rest; one hour. Ashlyn is not touching the waste pile of the hydra waste, finds a scroll with Guidance. Brother and Vargas and Snogmaul each find a 100 gp trade gem. Orestes and Drombar find 5000 sp, 2600 gp and 140 pp. While Shade found 300 cp.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Now the "all in" people are stinky.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Vargas is using cantrips to clean the clothes of the "all in" people.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Crow looks into the central shaft. 450 feet up, more than hundreds of feet across, there is a heavy reinforcement at about level 20. There are claw marks where the tarrasque climbed out, major damage at each foot hold the creature made. Likely the "big lift" stopped at the reinforcement rings every 10 tiers. These are also where fortification happened against potential invasion. There may some repair work that took place on tier 10. Crow also hears just above him the flap of a wing. An enormous creature tries to grab him and misses. The creature flies off into the darkness. Crow quickly retreats back into the hall. It was some abberation, the gnome knows it is a Cloaker. It is very good at hunting and reproducing. It can blend into the stone. It will wrap up its victim. The victim can be damaged; half of the damage goes to the victim. Usually Cloakers are solitary. Crow suggests moving away from the shaft. Go back up the spoke says Crow. Drombar's axe is glowing, hobgoblins are nearby.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Orestes using his elemental ring casts wall of stone to seal off the main shaft from the spoke entrance. We head down rib one toward spoke four. We find, after a little while, a way down. It is in a shop, trap door hidden behind some junk. This may have been a garbage chute. The room/area has small creatures that we easily clear out at our current skill level. We take a long rest once the room is secured. Shade hoses down the stinky party members with his water ring. Brother Lucius will have dark vision again after the long rest.Snogmaul (Peter D.) We go down the chute and start following the tunnel. The tunnel meanders as it follows ore veins. We seems to be heading in the right direction, toward the hobgoblins. There are some dead ends and side tracks, again due to where the ore was and was not. We come to what might be a storage area. We may be below tier 10 now. This basement was not cleared out. There may have been many barrels of ale at one time. A couple might still have mead in them. We find a trap in the ceiling and there are molds etc that were growing in here. We try and lift the trap door. There may be something blocking the door on the other side. It could be barred or there may be something sitting on top. At tier 9 there was some wood. At tier 10 everything is metal and stone, except the barrels. Orestes walks through the stone trap door. There is an iron bar blocking the door. The bar is rusted and fused to the brackets. The room is dark and it is all stone. There are metal fixtures for lanterns or torches. There is a stone door out of the room. Orestes tries to quietly move in the room. He hears some distant voices. There are many voices. At one point it might have been a store room but now it is not in use. Snogmaul provides a vial of acid to Orestes to dissolve away the brackets holding the bar in place. He tries to lift the bar and move it clear. He fails to move it. Ashlyn casts silence and then Orestes is able to drag the bar out of the way. Party members below push the door open while Orestes pulls. We are all in the upper room now.Snogmaul (Peter D.) This room my be a storage room for a tavern; dry goods in the upper room we are now in and ale in the lower room we came from. Crow moves to the door and then Orestes passes through the wall next to the door. He is in a kitchen. There are a couple of hobgoblins. They are chopping meat (some of which has fingers). One of the hobgoblins looks up and seems to spot Orestes. Orestes "I accidentally went in the wrong room." The hobgoblins see Orestes exit and follow him via the door.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Initiative: Snogmaul 21, Ashlyn 22, Orestes 15, Crow 18, Brother Lucius 13, Shade 16, Drombar 3, Vargas 9Snogmaul (Peter D.) There are more than a half dozen that have entered the room we are in. Ashlyn shadow steps, strikes twice and does 6 and 5 pts of dmg. Then she will retreat to the back of our room. The two at the front look to be bigger and not as wild, professional in manner, possibly ranked officers. The ones in the back seem more like infantry. As she leaves the fight, she is attacked. They are attacking with a great sword/boar spear. It does 20 pts of dmg. Snogmaul casts Blur on himself and then fires a crossbow bolt and totally misses. Crow steps up and hits one of the front guys and hits with a 17 (using luck) for 15 pts of dmg. Crow's second attack misses. Using action surge he misses once and hits once for 14 pts of dmg. Down he goes! Commands are being shouted in the room and we hear a growling response. Two hell hounds come charging into the room as the remaining leader steps aside. The hell hounds breathe fire. Damage is 22 pts dmg. Brother takes no damage as does Snogmaul. Some take half damage. The leader shouts "Javelins!" and he ducks as they fly through the door. The leader hobgoblin attacks Crow with his massive sword and misses both times.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Shade fires an ice storm into the room with the hobgoblins with the javelins. The hobgoblins take 23 pts or half, 11 pts, if they save. Many hobgoblins go down. And some hell hounds also took some damage. The floor is difficult terrain. There were more than 20+ hobgoblins. It started at more than 30.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Wow! Shade!!! Nicely done. Orestes casts fist of unbroken air on the hell hound right in front of him. The creature has to make a strength saving throw and it misses. The hell hound is pushed into the other hell hound and it takes 13 pts of dmg and is prone. Lucius steps back to Ashlyn and heals her for 13 pts. Vargas casts chromatic orbs and hits twice for 13 and 21 for electric damage. The hobgoblins move into position and hurl javelins into the room at us. (This is the Fist of Neglubiate.) Crow is hit for 7 pts of dmg. And 9 pts of dmg to Shade. Drombar misses twice and then action surges and misses once and critical hits for a total 16 pts of dmg to the leader. (end of round)Snogmaul (Peter D.) Ashlyn shadow steps and then strikes with her staff and hits twice for 15 pts of dmg. She then goes to the back corner of the room. Snogmaul fires a crossbow bolt and does 20 pts dmg. The leader dies. Crow attacks the hell hound in the room with us and hits twice for 15 and 14 pts of dmg. The hell hounds all attack. Three hell hounds enter the room. Fire damage is 19 and 20 for two of the hounds. Shade goes down. Snogmaul evades all of it. Orestes saved once and missed taking 10 pts dmg. Brother took no fire damage. Drombar took 20 pts of dmg in total. Vargas took a total of 10 pts of dmg from the fire. Crow also took 20 pts of dmg after saving. Ashlyn and she took 10 pts of dmg. There are four more heavies on there way. There is one more hell hound in the outer room.Snogmaul (Peter D.) The front heavies throw javelins at Crow with great expertise and is critically hit for 13 pts of dmg. The four heavies are working together. Shade makes a death save. Orestes casts Shatter, DC 13 con save for the baddies. They take 12 pts dmg each or save to half. Then using his fist he hits twice for 18 pts of dmg against one of the hell hounds. Brother Lucius casts beacon of hope and mass healing word, 13 pts cured. Shade pops back up and now has 13 HP.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Vargas whips out his Rod of Obedience. All of the baddies, hell hounds and hobgoblins, are now on Vargas' side. Vargas walks forward to see what is in the next room. 4 leaders, 3 regulars and 4 hell hounds. The hobgoblins set up a defensive position at the door and windows.Legend's Dad (John S.) (lol I keep trying to whip out my rod of obedience, but they keep calling the cops)Snogmaul (Peter D.) Vargas finds out that there is a battalion of hobgoblins (possibly 500 in number), hell hounds, gorgons, war trolls and magic using leaders. They are organizing for an attack on the city. Vargas is getting us to move out the way we came. Orestes creates a wall across the room to block/slow pursuit.Snogmaul (Peter D.) We exit via the way we came. Orestes covers over the wooden trap door with a stone shape. We continue on using pass without a trace and do not go through the Barrigan Estate. We go back to Tarrytown. We go through the mining town. We stop to see Crass Adament and is working and has an apron on. Crow explains to Crass that we were on tier 10. Part of what Crow says is that we killed two hydras. Also that we encountered a platoon of hobgoblins. And after interrogation we found out there is a battalion. Their helmets had a cock-eyed crescent. It is unusual. The crescent is some unit in the Dawn Realm that is trying to take over the Imperium. Crass says "Those are Dawn Realmers. That cannot be good." Brother says that as a leader of the town, Crass should do something. Crass says that we can reach out to Dark Ember/Burning City or Titanicus. Crass says that tier ten is totally reinforced. We agree to meet Crass the next morning.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Shade and Snogmaul then heads to the Guild. The guild master is not the one from before. It is now a woman that used to be in collections. Shade says that we found hobgoblins coming to take the city. The guild master asks Shade to make to set up a meeting with the leader of the hobgoblins.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Ashlyn's contact is not here anymore. She gets the former contact's room at the Guilded Garden. Ashlyn does an investigation. In the ashes of the fireplace there is a guilded stamp in the shape of a crescent.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Snogmaul finds out that the Guild Master "left" sometime around 3 weeks ago. No one is sure since the Guild Master was not frequently seen by the rank and file. Ashlyn's contact left sometime in the last few days.Snogmaul (Peter D.) The past and current Emperor was and is from House Marvad. House Marvad exists in Dark Ember. Ashlyn has look somebody in the Woodvale. After doing some research, she goes Brother Lucius to let him know that she will be gone and return as soon as possible.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Ashlyn is going to Roma because she cannot trust a messenger. She is not worried about what we do. She will leave after we meet with Crass in the morning. Drombar suggests that we find out if the elementals in the Barrigan Estate will help us against the hobgoblin army. The elementals are likely not interested in a direct fight. Drombar is interested in getting protection from gorgons from an alchemist. Asked and answered; the alchemist cannot help.Snogmaul (Peter D.) Experience: 10% medium fight, fight 20% hard fight, 5% role play and follow up in town = 35% increase in levels. We are now level 8.05Br. Lucius (Jim Y.) Brother Lucius speaks to Ashlyn to learn more about her intentions for her trip & after hearing her plans, decides to write her a letter of introduction to the high priestess of the temple at Darkember. In the letter he introduces her as Lady Ashlyn Winterbloom, of the Court of Shadows of Undertower, member of House Marvad and that she is on a mission to alert House Marvad in Roma of a potential incursion of the Dawn Realm into the Harrowlands through the remains of Undertower. While he defers to the High Priestess's greater experience in the realms of politics, he humbly suggests that it may be to the Church's benefit to aid Lady Ashlynn in her mission. Meanwhile, I (Lucius) & my compatriots will attempt to turn back this Dawn Realm incursion. Details about the size & composition of the forces he believes we are facing are included in the letter.He explains that he thought the High Priestess should know about the potential Dawn Realm toe-hold in case he & his compatriots should fail to stop the Dawn Realm incursion despite his faith in Hestia's blessings. His concern is that should he fail, the Dawn Realmers may set their sites on the wealth of Darkember after getting the toe-hold. He does not expect the campaign against the Dawn Realmers to take more than a month, so if he does not send word of success by that time, she should assume the worst & take what preparations she deems prudent. Any help she deems to send to help protect Tarryton while he campaigns against the Dawn Realm Hobgoblins would be appreciated.Ashlyn Matt M. Marching Order `Ashlyn (120 feet ahead)``Snogmaul (60 feet ahead)``Shade or Drombar``Brother Lucius or Vargas``Crow or Orestes`Br. Lucius Jim Y. I thought we had Crow & Orestes protecting the party's backside. That'd protect Vargas & better place Lucius to aid more folks.Ashlyn Matt M. I was just repinning the Marching Order we agreed on back in 2016 that had fallen off of Slack.Br. Lucius Jim Y. OK. I'm still going to stick with the suggestion though. Up to y'all if you want to hear complaints about the mage being stuck in the back!Orestes Robt. G. I'm OK with flip-flopping the last two lines.Ashlyn Matt M. doneAshlyn Matt M.
Session 18--2017.9.16
Snogmaul Peter D. the party meets overnight to discuss the options; Malring, giants, mercenaries, The Guild, et al
Snogmaul Peter D. we move forward later that same night and send Vargas to present our idea to Crass, Brother Lucius and Crow also go to talk with him; Crass is really leaning toward outsiders, Brother Lucius suggests that we can stem the tide long enough that reinforcements will arrive in time; Crass is holding Lucius to his word that what he says we can do we can do; Brother also suggests that we may need something from Crass to help in our endeavors; we must get back to Crass by morning with a concrete plan that he believes will workSnogmaul Peter D. Brother and the three other elemental ring holders go to the elemental hall in the BarriganEstate to negotiate assistance from them. He begins with the fire elemental (Cinda), as this is Lucius' ring. The fire elemental desires "interesting" things to burn in return for help. Crow speaks with Keen Howl the air elemental leader. Crow asks for intelligence work. In return the air elemental wants to go out of the dungeon to move and blow things down. Watch and tell for a day and in return for each day go outside play time. This may take a few days of recon. Shade is going to talk with the water elemental, Evertide. The elemental wants to see a river that is nearby on the surface; down the river to the sea. Shade thinks this may be a very long time away for the water. He says they can go one at a time. Shade says they can drown any creature with the crescent helmet. Orestes speaks with the earth elemental Georg. Orestes asks if they would like to crush some stuff. The elementals would like to travel to tasty things upstairs or be able to roam downstairs. Georg asks if it will be dangerous. "What do you need done?" Collapsing a tunnel on some guys. Or maybe walling off an area so the hobgoblins can not advance. Mostly what we are interested in having the elementals doing is delaying the hobgoblins.Snogmaul Peter D. The ring holders return to the surface to meet with Crass. It is a few hours before dawn. Brother says that we have spoken to "our people." We will need some things in return like adamantine raw ore and some combustible materials. Crass would be interested in working a deal to have fire elementals come help his business in a future deal. Crass agrees to giving us a letter of trade to be used when we deal with alchemists and scroll makers or creators. Orestes asks for a couple of carts of raw ore, 1000 lbs of ore per cart, which equals 5 or 6 ounces. So 2000 gp value per cart. Orestes asks for other ore. Traces of mithril and iron and a bit of copper and silver. Then Crass goes off for an hour about volcanic geology. Basically Crass wants to keep his mining operation going.Snogmaul Peter D. Vargas finds Crass to be agreeable to the plan... but Crass is also very hesitant. He will sit on the letters to Dark Ember and to Titanicus. Crass figures it will take two days to get the letter to Malring. The answer time is unknown.Snogmaul Peter D. Morning comes: Ashlyn heads to Dark Ember via ??? Ashlyn is looking for a flying broom. There is one just outside of town and is directed to see a witch. Ashlyn finds the witch and she directs her to a grave. The grave is that of the witch's grandma. Ashlyn heads to the grave site. She looks for the sideways pentagram and finds it. She says, "I want your broom." A voice responds "Do you love anyone here?" Ashlyn places the +1 dagger on the grave. The voice asks, "Are you sure?" The broom rises out of the grave. Ashlyn returns to town with the broom. The young witch says that there is a curse on the old witch. The old witch, grandma, can get her revenge on someone if she has the means.Snogmaul Peter D. Ashlyn flys off after telling the rest of the party "bye."Funny To John That was the weirdest side story everFunny To John And yes, I've seen Kiki's Messenger ServiceSnogmaul Peter D. Snogmaul travels around town to see if there is anything going on. Has anyone heard about hobgoblins. There are rumors circulating about new construction in the mines. There seems like some increase security in the mines and less mining.Funny To John Snogmaul should disguise himself as a hobgoblin and see if anyone *doesn't* react.Snogmaul Peter D. Brother is going shopping in the Bazaar of Wonders. He is looking for something to protect against petrification. Darien at the Red Flask is Brother's first stop. He presents the letter from Crass. Darien asks what we are looking for exactly. Brother asks for something to protect against a gorgon. Snogmaul buys four potions of healing at 50 gp each.Snogmaul Peter D. Kraken's Ink makes scrolls on demand. Next stop, All Faiths. Brother goes asks about a scroll of at least 4th level spell of Enhanced Ability Bear's Endurance. There are four such scrolls. The keeper mentions that these were prepared some time back when there was disease going through town. For those caring for the sick. The need for the caregivers no longer exists. These are all at 3rd level spell casting. The Keeper says that they can be borrowed and returned if unused. If used, Brother can pay in service or cash.Snogmaul Peter D. Shade also is going to buy healing potions while we are in town.Loyal Opposition Celeste Y. I admit I thought the same thing :facepalm:Snogmaul Peter D. The party, minus Ashlyn, goes back down to the Hall of the Elements. The air elemental reports that not much is going on. "They" are looking out at the air. They are climbing up with rope. They have climbed 100 ft up (one tier). The air elemental suspects the group will reach the surface in a few days. The air elemental thinks there might be an air creature that is not aligned with us. There are some reports they are moving through the tunnels. Earth elementals have collapsed some tunnels which are then being dug through. There was a lift shaft that the earth elemental was sealed up and then the water elementals filled it killing some hobgoblins. There have been lead hobgoblins setting up a climbing route via ropes and hand holds up the main shaft. The harassing has delayed at least 5 days so far.Snogmaul Peter D. The air elementals have not reported any of the large-size creatures that are part of the attacking force. We have had no reports of war trolls or gorgons. They are likely using major tunnels, spokes and tier passageways. The air elementals are instructed to look for the larger creatures or passageways that are big enough. Start with tier 8 and then move down if nothing is found. The air elementals report at the end of day two. The air elementals report many digging teams. The earth elementals keep collapsing more and more stuff so that the digging teams have more to clear.Snogmaul Peter D. Day 3; the air elementals have continued to harass the hobgoblin lead teams. The elementals have been attacked by some flying creature. One of the small air elementals and it sneaked into tier 10. It amused itself blowing out candles and lanterns. It also reports that none of the big things are at tier 10. There are not as many hobgoblins as we thought there would be.Snogmaul Peter D. We travel upwards and meet with Crass. We let him know that we have slowed the main force. He says that he has not been attacked. He knows that nothing has gone through the first three levels. Vargas goes to the surface and changes into an eagle. He is looking for signs or creatures that could be part of the invading army from below. Vargas circles the town. He notices after an hour there is no reaction by the townsfolk. There are some buildings or pavilions that could house a large creature. A second hour of flying outside the town "proper." There is rolling grass and plains. It would be possible to hide a tunnel entrance among the natural terrain. There are no access points that could be for the large creatures we are looking for. He does find some a guy with a crossbow at a small hidey-hole. Vargas notes the location of the guy and his earthen dwelling. There is a small dwelling with stairs down into the earth. Vargas reports the above.Snogmaul Peter D. Climbing teams at spoke 4; we are on spoke 3 on tier 7; we encounter a couple detours due to collapsed areas and have to work around; Orestes asks an earth elemental to clear the area for us to make our way through; the opening is left open in case we need to come back this way; Snogmaul believes there no indication there has been something going on here for awhile; Snogmaul can see dim light coming from the central shaft; Snogmaul sees four teams hammering metal rungs into the central shaft wall; there are four hobgoblins at the entrance, armed with crossbows; by the way it is Day 4; we attackSnogmaul Peter D. Crow tells the air elementals to do a whirlwind; hopefully some will get tossed down the shaft; all four hobgoblins fail to make their saves; all of them going flying out the opening!!! The plan worked!Snogmaul Peter D. Vargas moves forward 40 feet, then readies witch bolt; Lucius moves up 20 feet; Crow moves ahead 30 feet and readies to shoot with a normal arrow; Shade moves 60 feet forward with a clankety clank; Snogmaul moves up 25 feet sneakily; Orestes moves up 60 feet and prepares for the "unexpected"; out in the shaft we hear shouting by some hobgoblins; Vargas moves forward 80 feet now 10 feet behind barrier; Lucius moves 40 feet; Crow dashes toward the barrier 60 feet; Shade moves 60 feet; Snogmaul dashes ahead 50 feet; Orestes charges ahead 30 feet next to a rubble filled passageway entrance; it is noisier then it is quieter in the main shaft; Vargas 30 feet to the edge and looks up and sees some rungs going up and there are hobgoblins fire crossbow bolts are fired for 17 pts dmg critical hit dmg; then two other crossbows bolts go flying by from below; Vargas casts shield which saves him from additional damage; Vargas casts a spell exploding a 20 foot cube of earth (erupting earth) causing it to be difficult terrain in the area of the two hobgoblins in the tier 6 opening; both hobgoblin take dmg 31 pts each; Lucius moves up another 40 feet; Crow holds position and says "fall back"; Shade moves to the barrier and if he sees a hobgoblin he will blast it with eldritch blast; Snogmaul moves to the barrier while still invisible; Orestes goes back 60 feet and tries to align himself with a nearby collapsed passagewaySnogmaul Peter D. We hear more shouting and a few chunks of rubble fall past our opening to the shaft; Vargas falls back 80 feet back; Lucius stays where he is and prepares to heal Vargas as he goes by; Crow holds position; Snogmaul fires a crossbow poisoned crossbow bolt and the hobgoblin but it saves against the poison for 11 pts dmg; 8 hobgoblins fire bolts and one hits for 13 pts dmg and Snogmaul uses uncanny dodge so he only takes 6 hp dmg; Crow and Vargas continue to move away from the central shaft; Brother Lucius now heals Vargas for 9 HP; we regroup and fall back past the collapsed areas and are recollapsedSnogmaul Peter D. Meanwhile; Ashlyn does get to the Burning City (we will find out more next session)Snogmaul Peter D. Experience: strategy 5%, role play for talking to Crass 5% and 10% for a small fight; we are now level 8.25Session 19--2017.11.11
Snogmaul Peter D. On the road to Dark Ember, Ashlyn rapid transit (horse) from Tarry Town. House Telx has horses that "veil" the horse and rider. Cost: 200 gp one way. Or armored secured caravan 500 gp. She gets to Dark Ember, the Burning City. The walled city can be smelled due to the production that is going on. It is said that one third of the city is underground. There is the Council of 30 that controls the city. There is a chairperson of the council. The "Iron Hand" has been the chairperson for the last couple decades. Ashlyn goes to the front gate and says that she is staying a day or so. The gatekeepers do not ask a whole lot of questions and seem uninterested in her responses. Ashlyn goes to the House Telx stables and then to the Olympian Temple. Major figures in town subscribe to the Olympian pantheon. The city is built in defensive rings. Each ring has people checking as she passes through. Ashlyn is not able to figure out the specific purpose of the questions. The farther in she goes the wealthier the area seems to be. The outer rings seem to have plenty of city guards while the inner circles have private guards.Snogmaul Peter D. Alena is the high priestess at the Olympian Cathedral; there are shrines to each of the gods. acolytes are working in the various parts. Ashlyn asks to see Alynna and is directed to make herself comfortable. Around sunset nine or ten people come in surrounding Alena, of Hera. Ashlyn passes along the letter of Brother Lucius. Alena inquires as to how things are with Brother, Tarrytown and Undertower. Alena after reading the letter says that "this accelerates his mission." Alena says that some of the old remnants of the old order are still of use. Among these are the teleporting circles. Brother Lucius was sent to revive the teleporting area in Undertower. The reinforcements could go directly from Roma to Undertower. The needed circle could be on tier 20. There are working circles in Dark Ember and Roma.Snogmaul Peter D. The Dawn Realm is now has been subverted. Ashlyn should probably speak to someone in the Court of Shadows in Roma. Ashlyn says that she has no other business in the Burning City. Alena wants a favor from Tyvalt, but might ask Ashlyn if Tyvalt refuses. Alena says that Ashlyn should be very careful about dealing with House Telx due to the level of danger in associating with them. "They are not what they seem. There are leaders of that family that are rakshasa." Alena is a deva and is at war with the rakshasa. She goes on to say that Brother Lucius has proven himself a hero. Alena says, "That if you have or in the future get the ability to see through illusion when walking around Dark Ember it would be advisable." Alena will arrange transport in a day or so. Ashlyn asks if there is a way to get a message to Undertower. Alena knows of a person that can get the message through. Ashlyn passes on sending a message now.Snogmaul Peter D. Ashlyn notices the people coming and going. People make some pretty substantial, handfulls of gem stones. Does this = strong faith? The acolytes are carrying weapons and armored at night. An individual comes in cloaked and hooded and sits down by Hades shrine. After 30-60 minutes a pouch is placed in the offering bowl and then the figure waves a hand over it and the pouch disappears. After about another hour an accolyte speaks to the hooded figure. Then Alena comes over and speaks to the hooded figure. Bael Dustfall is the hooded figure. He provides transportation. Bael asks who will be paying for the trip. Bael says that he will take Ashlyn to Tyvalt. He starts walking toward the door and Ashlyn follows. Alena hands Ashlyn a letter.Snogmaul Peter D. Tyvalt is heading the Court of Shadows in Roma. Bael and Ashlyn enter the priests' meeting room. Bael does some magical casting and they head to Roma. They transport into a room with a large circle which is surrounded by 40-50 guys with readied crossbows and magic. A warforged examines the "credentials" of Bael. A messenger is sent to Tyvalt and shortly thereafter two nameless agents show up. Empress Euronya Celeano Kaerak Marvad is the current leader. Ashlyn presents her credentials to the agents. They escort her to Tyvalt. The circle might be within an arcane training and practice center, a college of magic as it were. There is a whole campus of arcane activity. aka the Colegea Arcana.Snogmaul Peter D. Ashlyn comes to a walled estate with enormous griffons. One talks and the gates open. Ashlyn goes through to the manor house. The guards enter a large sitting room. This is clearly a House Marvad estate. Ashlyn finds a glass and wine and has a drink. After an hour or so an older guy, with possible Norse blood. He likely was powerful fighter at one point. "Alright talk." Ashlyn respectfully bows and explains that she was to be on the lookout for the Dawnrealm. She has learned that the Dawnrealm has plans to attack Tarrytown and the Undertower. She also conveys the army (hobgoblin) is what we observed. Tyvalt says that an extra-planar leader has taken control of the Dawnrealm.Snogmaul Peter D. Tyval warns of the creatures we already know of but also yuan-ti that came up from the south lands. An oni may have been impersonating the House Marvad contact that Ashlyn had. The attacking force in Undertower may already be using the transport point in the Cathedral in Undertower. It is more important to secure the transport point rather than the invading force. Tyvalt waves transport fees or favor that Ashlyn incurred. Tyval says that we could consult the "mummy" - the dwarf in Tarrytown that was formerly an inhabitant of Undertower.Snogmaul Peter D. Tyvalt loans a gem of seeing (three charges per day) to Ashlyn. Once the current conflict is resolved, Tyval wants the gem back or a rare magic item of equal value in its place. Ashlyn asks, "How do I get back to Undertower as soon as possible?" Tyval says that he has it taken care of. Ashlyn also mentions that she has made contact with the Duke of Malring. Ashlyn has gotten closer than any Marvad agent has... ever. Ashlyn even tells that the group has "the rings of the elements."Snogmaul Peter D. Tyval passes Ashlyn two scrolls of "sending." He asks if she has "hero's blood."Snogmaul Peter D. Bael returns Ashlyn to the Burning City, but does not go himself. Ashlyn conveys that House Marvad will support the securing of the Deep Cathredal. Ashlyn will travel by broom. Go two hours, rest an hour until she gets home to Tarrytown. It works. She sees an armored House Telx caravan heading to Tarrytown.Snogmaul Peter D. Meanwhile back in Undertower...Snogmaul Peter D. Snogmaul sneaks to tier 11 and hears a couple of hobgoblins talking about using a lift for bringing up heavies. Cursed storefront is on tier 9 and the stone creature is on tier 10. Vargas polymorphs into an air elemental and does some scouting of his own. If the party is to go down there will need to be a good route. There is a tower, multi-tier building that goes from tier 7 to at least tier 14. It used to be library, possibly a fire, flood, and it has been damaged. The "building" is the parties best chance to go below without being attacked. The building is near spoke 4. It is now day 5 Ashlyn returns.Snogmaul Peter D. Meeting up we exchange info. Tier 20 hobgoblins are working on building heavy engine equipment to move the lifts. Spoke 3 lift would then be operational. This info is from the air elementals. The east lift. Snogmaul returns with his info. Dinnertime at the Barrigan Estate; good food and good conversation.Snogmaul Peter D. Andre to Matt, "Everything you have said has led to a greater problem."Snogmaul Peter D. The party checks in with Groma at the Berserker Tavern. Crow asks if we can speak to the Hallow Sage. And he goes on to tell her, Groma, we are interested in tiers 20-23, the Deep Cathedral. 100 gp per question and 500 gp per question if we are asking in secret, the rates are as stated. Crow says that Brother Lucius, Ashlyn, Crow, Vargas, and Orestes will go to see the Sage tomorrow morning.Snogmaul Peter D. The characters that are going to see the Sage go to a tent and Snogmaul follows them to a guarded tent. The group continues by going underground then moves to another tent and then walk across part of town and repeats this a couple more times. Finally the group ends up underground with the Sage. The party members ask questions of Groma, who in turn asks the Sage.Snogmaul Peter D. Ashlyn asks abou the location of the Cathedral and the Sage responds with tier 23, spoke 3 and 4, and rib 2 and 3 is the location of the Deep Cathedral.
Snogmaul Peter D. Orestes asks the location of the Ebon Smith Clan and the answer is below tier 45 and adds that the clan was crafting true steel and were working with the dark elves. Iron Keeners Clan location; most in tier 27, 28, and 29, no specific estate. Orestes asks about the location of Clan Crogan and the answer; spoke 6, 7, 8, and tier 30, 31, 32 and some on 33. Location of Clan Drakken; the answer is one vault and otherwise traveled, no one knows where the vault was, some guess tier 43 and some say tier 23, probably all lies, they were servants of the wyrms. Orestes gives a slight bow to the Sage and is concluded. Brother asks about acquiring the services of a warforged archivist. The answer: warforged were imperialists, some existed in the private libraries. Brother asks if there is a private library that has one and the answer is that there were some warforged in the College of Smithing, tier 19, spoke 6 and 7. Vargas asks the great wyrm fell from the shadow and went to the Scaled City. She visited here say the rumors. The answer is that wyrms never entered here. Crow asks about the structure from 7 to 14, possibly a library. How much deeper does it go? The Sage does not know of the library that is spoken of.
Snogmaul Peter D. Crow goes to buy potions, specifically potion of fire resistance. In stock 2 fires resistance, 1 lightning resistance, 2 poison resistance, 1 radiant resistance, and 2 thunder resistance, at 200 gp each. And we pick up our contracted 7 tremor sense potions, one for each of us. He asks that we report back to him how the tremor sense works... or doesn't. It lasts one hour.Snogmaul Peter D. Ashlyn fills her "water skins" with wine at the Gilded Gardens. We go to tier Barrigan Estate and then to tier 7. There are still creatures we encounter as we travel Undertower. They are just not worth noting as our abilities allow us to easily deal with them.Alden Ray C. By the time Funny To John and I are free, we'll be able to play with Andre's kids.Snogmaul Peter D. We go to rib 4 spoke 4 and are in the "library tower." There was definitely a fire and the structure was stone and survived. The contents was burned, books and all. Further down there was some huge amount of water. Some of the books got wet and then molded into nothing. The construction is interesting and there is not anything that made this building noteworthy. The stairways literally burned up the interior of the building. Possibly the water went down in an attempt to put the fire out. The stairs continue down past tier 14 and it continues to 17. We are not likely the first to go in this building. Others before us have looted. The oldest is on top with the newer being below. This construction was probably 3 generations worth work. Snogmaul draws it out so that Orestes can study the plans later. There is some aspect about the building that is arcane. Vargas takes a look at Snogmaul's map and info and it reminds Vargas of the Amulet of the Planes. This place was built before the sundering.
Snogmaul Peter D. The building continues on to tier 18; the stonework is rougher and there are two doorways; one to darkness and one to spoke 4. Nothing can be seen, even with dark vision into the dark doorway. Vargas casts light and the darkness envelopes it. Orestes hands Snogmaul an unlit torch and Snogmaul puts the end of it into the darkness. The darkness pulls the torch in and it is gone. Shade casts detect conjuration magic and finds the whole area, building is magic. Vargas uses his arcane knowledge and his best guess is the dark area is a gate. Our travel time about an hour since we walked down about 50 sets of stairs. Orestes may in the future cast wall of stone on the dark opening. We go into the tier. We have two tiers to go.
Snogmaul Peter D. Crow asks an air elemental to scout for us, creatures and stairs??? The elemental flies off. It comes back; no stairs, no hobgoblins. The big shaft was "empty." We proceed carefully down one rib and in front of one of the shops. There is an ogre made entirely made of clay, it turns so it is not a statue. Three of our group see there is a lot of debris, actually dead bodies in varying stages of decay. Wedged in the clay are bits of its past victims. Some victims are even stuck in the wall. Snogmaul pulls a dire wolf from the bag of tricks and tells it to approach the circle of carnage. The wolf is safe and Snogmaul moves up closer beside the wolf. Snogmaul is able to see the store signage which indicates the shop is an alchemist's shop. Snogmaul uses his arcane knowledge to tell the party that there are immunities. Golems can have traits generally but bonus traits. Norm for clay is "haste" and fuel by life force, they suck life energy out of the victim. Acid heals clay golems and they get advantage on many types of elemental magic. There is also some ability to stick into the walls. If the golem is standard then enchanted weapons will harm it but no other weakness. Non-magic weapons do no damage, likely. Life force damage can only be restored by greater restoration or similar magic. We decide to go around.Snogmaul Peter D. The wolf is sent across the street carnage area. It is taken out with three hits, all in the three in top teens. The wolf is dead. Brother wants to go back to rib 4 toward spoke 3. As we are heading toward rib 3 we can hear the distant clinking of metal. There is a lot of it; sounds like 20 people banging or dropping coins. It could be chains. There might be the cracking of a whip. We are NOW at rib 4, spoke 3.Snogmaul Peter D. We are several hundred feet away from the central shaft. We see a hubbub of work and bursts of fire. Vargas, Ashlyn, and Shade see mostly hobgoblins (maybe some larger over-seers) and can see that they are hauling huge lengths of chain. Some of the chains are moving by themselves.Snogmaul Peter D. Experience: exploration by Ashlyn 10%, investigation for Hollow Sage 5%, exploring the "library of the planes" 5%, investigation of golem 5% = .25 our new level 8.5Session 20 2017.12.9Snogmaul Peter D. We resume with the party on tier 18; rib 3, spoke 3. We are traveling using dark vision. There is motion ahead. The creatures are going in and out of an opening to the right. As it turns out, Vargas can NOT cast darkvision on Brother Lucius. Vargas can only cast the spell on HIMSELF for free. Ashlyn may or may not cast darkvision on Brother. Ashlyn casts pass without a trace on herself, Snogmaul casts invisibility on Ashlyn, and then she moves toward the building at the end of the spoke. She can see many hobgoblins in battle gear working. They are shouting back and forth about construction. The doors to the engine room 10 foot double doors, 20 foot opening. There are lots of chains of differing weights laying about. There is a smithy which is powered by a couple of hell hounds. The building goes from the central shaft outward about 100 feet. There is a troll carrying a huge gear. There are likely 20 hobgoblins. Six additional hobgoblins are "heavy hitters." There are also three commanders. The ceiling is about 20 feet above. There are several other hell hounds about with hobgoblins that are controlling them. There are also two war trolls. The shaft goes down about 2 tiers. Some of the chains go through the ceiling. This mechanism or engine is likely connected to a couple other similar mechanisms. Peering down, 100+ feet, there is some kind of "spider." It is hard to make out what the creature is. There are many gears, chains and pieces.Snogmaul Peter D. Ashlyn mounts the broom of flying and flies down the shaft to get a closer look at the "spider." The engine is driven by a coal powered furnace. But the system that is being used now is a group of chains that is some sort of mass. The weird thing is the new method of powering the elevator. Ashlyn uses her gem of seeing. She sees there is some sort of molten metal creature and an invisible humanoid creature standing on the floor. The cloaked figure is directing molten creature. A fleshy humanoid hand is protruding from the cloak. Ashlyn returns. In her assessment, they are nearly complete with their work. There were no access doors on tier 19. There might be a door on tier 20... or not.Snogmaul Peter D. Arcana checks all around on the chain creature; Snogmaul is the high with 24. A couple things come to mind. There are chain golems. That takes a lot of power. This type of secret is lost in the sundering. There are also chain devils. It has knowledge of things people are "chained" to in life. It is considered to be a mid-range devil. The trick with devils is to get the devils on the prime material plane. The ball of fire suggests that there is more than simple telekinesis. There are also djinn or efreet used by wish. All four of the above require direction, as could be with the invisible guy. A chain devil might require domination to keep it doing the activity it is being directed to do.Snogmaul Peter D. The battle mat is out, the minis are on the table and we are rolling initiative. Shade 6, Crow 13, Snogmaul 11, Ashlyn 10, Lucius 11, Orestes 9, Vargas 19! Snogmaul poisons three bolts in preparation for the fight. Eight rounds go by as we wait for one of the war trolls to come into the corridor. Crow casts chain lightning, targeting one hell hound and then two heavies and one commander. Crow does 46 hp dmg or 23 for save. One of the heavies dies. Right after the lightning, Vargas casts fireball centered on the troll and picking up six hobgoblins for 25 pts dmg, save for 12. The troll misses its save and five of the hobgoblins die. Crispy well done! "Ow," says the troll. Brother Lucius casts fireball from his ring doing 21 pts of dmg. The troll takes full damage, the commander takes 10 pts dmg, the hell hounds are immune, and two hobgoblins die. Ashlyn activates the gem of true seeing, mounts the broom and flies along the ceiling down the hall toward the open double doors.Snogmaul Peter D. Orestes moves forward 40 feet and casts gong of the summit (What is that?). The shattering noise does 15 pts of dmg, 7 for those that save. One hobgoblin dies and two others were effected, one being a commander. Team Hobgoblin goes! The hobgoblins move forward out of the room and down the hall. They form ranks. The second troll comes out of the room and both move down the hall toward us. Shade casts an ice storm and does 27 pts dmg killing seven hobgoblins right off and two more saved but still died. The war troll takes full dmg... and is still up (63 pts of dmg so far). Both commander hobgoblins shout out directions as they move forward (game mechanic, those under their command get a bonus. The other commanders and heavies move forward after coming out of the room. The hell hounds are unleashed! One of them charges Orestes. The one on Orestes attacks with its bite for 4 and then 10 pts fire dmg.Snogmaul Peter D. Vargas uses the rod of rulership to take control of the evil forces (with our "coins" we give disadvantage to the unwounded troll, and the two commanders). The hell hounds, two failed and two saved. The war trolls, both fail. Three heavies, all fail. The two commanders, both failed. Vargas commands the hobgoblins to fall back and guard the side passageways with the hounds. The trolls are instructed to hold position in the main passageway. Crow casts wind wall with two saving, one hell hound misses doing 16 pts dmg to those that missed their saves, half for those that saved. This means two more hobgoblins died; these were some of the group of hobgoblins that were not under Vargas' control. Brother moves up the hallway toward the open double doors. Snogmault moves up 25 feet. Ashlyn flies into the room and looks down with the gem of seeing to look at the invisible guy. Orestes uses a chi point to disengage and moves through the wall into a room with equipment storage. He then goes through another two wall and ends in the engine room. Orestes is flying. Vargas casts a shield spell and two hobgoblins miss their crossbow shots at Vargas. Two of the heavies try to convince them to stop firing. The war trolls move to the positions Vargas directed them to.Snogmaul Peter D. Shade moves up. Chains in the area of Orestes start moving and are reaching out to him. Both strike him; doing 11 and 10 pts of dmg. He is wrapped up or grappled and the escape DC is 14. There are barbs or hooks protruding from the chains. The "ball of fire and chains" seems to be directing the chains. One of the heavies in the doorway hurls a javelin at Orestes and misses. The main hallway is now clear except for the two war trolls. Vargas casts erupting earth with a save for half on the group in the doorway; the ground under the group of bad guys explodes into uneven terrain. The damage 37 pts for no save. One heavy dies and both hobgoblins in the hallway also die. Both hell hounds in the doorway took damage but did not die.Snogmaul Peter D. The commanders in the side halls fall back as instructed to do by Vargas. The commander in the doorway closes one of the doors. Crow fires arrows from his long bow and misses twice and hits twice for 6 and 13 hp. Brother Lucius moves forward to stand by Shade. Snogmaul pulls a giant elk out of the bag of tricks and then moves forward 25 feet. Ashlyn casts darkness in the 30 ft diameter sphere in between Orestes and the chain creature. Orestes then takes 22 pts of dmg from the barbed chains. He then tries to break free and does. Orestes then rises through the room of the engine room and pops his head through the floor of the room above. He is now in a small maintenance room. There is oil in the room. There is a small access door out of the room. He is taking a breather.Snogmaul Peter D. Shade moved forward up to the war trolls and stopped. He intends to move forward on his next turn. The chains in the little room Orestes is in start to grow barbsorhooks. The hell hound by the double doors is ordered into the engine room. The heavy near the doors closes the second door! Vargas orders the war trolls to fall back to the double doors. The hobgoblin commander questions Vargas as to why they are doing what they are doing. Vargas replies that the engine room has been compromised. The hobgoblins are to hold position and prepare in case they are needed. Brother Lucius, Crow and Shade are up even with the trolls. Snogmaul and the elk move 50 ft and are right behind the other three party members.Snogmaul Peter D. Ashlyn holds fast. Orestes exits the small room through a stone wall into an access tunnel and a stairway going down can be seen. It is a spiral staircase. He continues through the next wall and drinks a healing potion. The war trolls move as Vargas directed them to do. Shade moved up with the trolls to be near the doors. Vargas is also there.Snogmaul Peter D. The voice from the bottom of the engine room says to the hobgoblins, "Stay. I will inform him." And then the invisible guy casts a spell and leaves. VargasSnogmaul Peter D. Snogmaul moves up and readies to use the chime of opening. Vargas passes his coin to Ashlyn and she gets a 24 to pass without a trace or sneak. She had to do this due to the fact that casting the darkness spell caused the invisibility spell to fall. She is now hiding at the top of the room.Snogmaul Peter D. Readied actions: Shade prepares to charge in and attack the commander with his sword when the doors open. Vargas prepares to attacks the twin fire chromatic orb on the commander, Crow is going to attack the commander when the door opens, Brother Lucius casts spiritual weapon and prepares to attack. The trolls are to open the door when the chime sounds and the doors become unbarred. Snogmaul rings the chime of opening. The trolls open the doors. Shade attacks the commander and does not hit. The commander hits with a critical and misses his second and hits with his third attack. The commander does 12 and 16 and 11 pts of damage. The heavy attacks Shade with a great sword and hits once and misses once. The heavy does another 21 pts damage. The hell hounds attack with their breath weapon. Shade saves and takes 11 pts damage; 1 HP left! Crow saved and took 11 pts dmg. The second hound breathes for 14 pts dmg, 7 pts dmg. Shade falls! Oh no!!! Vargas opens fire on the commander. One orb hits and one misses. The commander takes 20 pts dmg. Crow swings and gets a critical hit on the commander!!! He does 22 pts damage. His second attack misses. The elk moves into the room. The elk attacks with its horns one of the hell hounds and does 10 pts of dmg.Snogmaul Peter D. Orestes moves into another crawl space room after checking to be sure there is not an animated chain active. The massive chain creature is moving up to our level which is 80 feet up, even with the landing which we are now fighting on. The heavy attacks Crow for 22 pts dmg. One of the hounds bites Crow and does some fire damage for 13 pts dmg. (But the hell hounds actually go before Vargas. The rolls were early. The hell hounds are at the top of the round.)Snogmaul Peter D. End of session; no experience due to ending in the middle of the fight