March 13, 2010: One Trick Pony

== Dramatis Personae ==
* Mungo - shifter rogue 6 (Westerling/Brighton County)
* Vitrano - deva avenger 6 (Malringer)
* Bim - deva artificer 5 (Malringer?)
* River - shifter warden 6 (Westerling/Brighton County)
* Kava - dragonborn paladin 6 (Westerling)
* Kristof - human wizard 6 (Westerling/Regis Vale)
* Aria - warforged bard 6 (Westerling)
== Vertans Hold ==
This huge, old fortress is hexagonal in shape, with 30' towers flanking a 20' gate house. Being a fortress in an area rife with dragons, drakes, many other forms of flying nastiness, it is entirely roofed over. Other towers jut out from the roof deeper into the keep, which is several hundred feet across. As we approached, we could see that the gate was open(!?!?) and we could hear the voice of Saint Admiral Akbar ringing in our heads.
Additionally, we could see something glinting in the windows of the towers, moving in a way that indicated some form of mechanical contrivance. Timing things carefully (HA!) we rushed the gate, Vitrano and Kava in the lead. As they passed through the first portcullis, magical voices boom the challenge "Password!" from either side, as the portcullis' fore and aft slide closed, trapping Kava, Vitrano, and their mounts. Arbalesters (8) fired down on Kava and Vitrano.
Aria and Bim dismounted and approached the outer portcullis. River had her lizard climb the left hand gatehouse tower, and attempted to enter a window there. Mungo had his lizard climb above the gatehouse and drove a piton to loop a rope around to use the mounts to pull the gate open. Somewhere in there, arcane ballistae (8) fired on the members of the party outside the gatehouse with bolts and blasts of lightning. The firing ports in the towers allow for more than a 180 degree firing arc. Firing ports appeared in the walls to either side of the gate house, and arcane ballistae fired into the gatehouse as well. Cristoff captured Aria's lizard and withdrew to relative safety, just outside the range of the arcane ballistae. Bim's horse chose to flee in the direction of Vertanville.
Vitrano teleported into the right gatehouse and engaged the arcane ballista there. Kava lifted the outer portcullis. Bim and Aria entered the gatehouse. Bim tried to wriggle through the inner porcullis, but failed and got stuck (oh noes!). Mungo attempted to ride farther out onto the roof, to avoid the tower engines, but blundered into the range of the support towers deeper in, however he did spot a (Mungo sized) hole in the roof. River crawled through the window into the left tower, marked the two engines there and dove into the stairwell down, after seeing that there was no control panel for the portcullis' and that the gallery above the gatehouse was lined with arbalesters. Both large engines attacked her. Kava told Cristoff that the gate would be closing soon, so Cristoff rushed the gate after the six of the engines attacked mounts and such, and two attacked River. He dismounted and made it through the gate.
Kava dropped the gate and crossed to the other. Vitrano continued to battle the engine in the right tower base. Arbalester fire triggered Bim's Cape of the Mountebank, allowing him to teleport through the gates. Aria raised the portcullis allowing Cristoff and some mounts escaped into the keep. Engine fire killed Cristoff's horse. River made her way downstairs and engaged the engine in the left tower base. Mungo dismounted and dove for the hole in the roof.
Vitrano disabled the engine in the right tower, and he and Bim climbed to the second floor, where they found the controls for the portcullis', two arcane balistae, the gallery full of arbalesters, and the two arcane ballistae from the left tower. Bim went down under a hail of arbalester fire. Kava and Aria finished saving the mounts from the gatehouse through prodigious feats of strength. In the other tower, Cristoff and Mungo tried to help River defeat the engine there, and Mungo eventually finishes it off.
Vitrano dragged Bim to safety. Four arbalesters followed down the stairs, but everyone rallied behind Kava and destroyed them on the stairwell, ending this phase of the battle.
After a short rest to recover, we cleaned out the second floor quickly thanks to Kava's invoking Wrath of the Gods, then the two top floors after another short rest.
We quickly recovered the mounts that had run off (River, Mungo, and Bim) and searched the towers.
In the towers, we found the remains of a colonel of the Empire, with no damage to the front of his head, but every appearance that the back of his head had exploded outwards. All told, we found another eleven bodies, with similar injuries.
Treasure
He also had a list of passwords, a suit of +2 Mirrorsheen cloth armor, and 1000 gp.
Experience
20%, bringing us to 95% of the way to 6th.
February 20, 2010: Comfortable In One's Skin
April 03, 2010: Christening the Party
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