October 17, 2009: Back to the Faded Legion Vault

Session Notes 10/17
== Dramatis Personae ==
* Mungo - Shifter rogue 4
* Vitrano - revenant (deva) avenger 4
* Zeneval - drow artificer 3
* River - Shifter warden 4
* Kava - dragonborn paladin 4
* Teodahr - elf ranger 4
* Aria - warforged bard 4
After a short rest, Mungo scouts the cavern but is sussed out by the Dragon who is in the back of the 
cave. "A Westerling! You would break the pact so easily?"
Mungo runs, and after a breif discussion, the party approaches to try to buy some time. We convince the 
dragon to give us safe passage, mostly by showing it the head of the purple we killed. 
Caustrex lets us go, with a nights rest and a bit of information. "Tell the duke that no Malringers may 
pass until he meets my price."
River: What is your price?
Caustrex: 10,000 crowns. And if you are allowed to enter the Duke's treasury, ask for the staff. 
(Skill challenge Moderate 10% - we pass).
== A Change of Allegiance ==
We proceed to Malring, lots of covered towers, and a gate across the pass. Malring seems to be somewhat depopulated. Lots of open tents, lots of ungaurded sites, the market looks sparse.
At the Duke's keep we are ushered into his presence. He's in his 80's, really old.
Duke: Ah dragonslayers. Good. Westerlings.
River: This one broke the pact.
Duke: Probably his fault, hmm, yes a male, definately his fault.
Gamma gives his report. (Quest reward 5%) The Duke says this is wonderful news.
River: How is all your men dying on Gamma's mission wonderful?
Duke: Ever since the KoW reestablished the pact with the dragons, it has been hell for my people. We are dying. There are many such caches of empire weapons, including these empty warforged shells. A warforged shell is hungry for a living spirit to animate it. There are many aged experienced warriors who would seek the opportunity to live on.
The Duke offers us 2000 crowns to hunt and kill Caustrex. River points out that the price is too low to void the Pact. The Duke offers to make us Malringers, all we have to do is renounce our fealty to the Westmarch. He also mentions that in all likelyhood, Caustrex only let us go to hunt us down later. River refuses, the rest consider.
He also offers to help us clean out the Faded Legion vault in exchange for the warforged shells. Any portable treasures would be ours. He describes how to overcome the vault defenses. Zeneval asks about the possibility of using a shell. The duke allows as how he'd be willing to deal. Zeneval asks about the Staff Kaustrex told us about. He twitches but most of us miss it.
The benefits of Malring Citizenship are:
* Free revivification
* Heroes of Malring get free room and board in the Duke's Fortress
* Free loan of neccesary magical items and expensive gear.
* No slave I in the Burning City (Harrowlanders hate Westerlings).
Hazards:
* Draconic Enmity
* Other stuff not defined.
Vitrano is raised as a Revenant. He awakens with a fierce drive to return to the vault and restore his soul. He and Zeneval swear fealty to Malring. Citizens of Malring get a mark on their wrist that is detectable by Malring's enemy. The Mark of Malring they are given is basically a Mark of Justice with many arcane ramifications if they violate the trust of the duke. I really admire the way John roleplays. We think they did this because they are Heroes, and because the duke is lending us 20,000 crowns worth of hippogriffs.
Skill challenge to ride back to the vault. 
River, Zeneval, Vitrano fail checks against stealth, perception or nature. We are spotted by a pack of Warwing Drakes, but refuse to engage.
When we arrive at the vault, we head in, driving through the outer areas. The cost is: 
Aria two surges and an action point 
Kava action point 
River Action point 
Zeneval action point 
Teodahr no cost 
Vitrano action point and two surges 
Mungo acton point
Achieve a milestone
Second set of encounters 
Aria two action points and a surge from River 
Kava action point two surges 
Teodhar Action point 
River action point and one surge (plus one for Aria) 
Zeneval ation point and a surge 
Vitrano one action point two surges 
Mungo lucked out (two criticals)
Achieve a milestone.
Moderate skill challenge (10%)
=== Breaching the Inner Vault ===
We make our way down the spiral staircase and enter the ante-room of the central chamber. Roll init. 
There are four heavily armored warforged standing behind a mound of bones.
Warforged and Wall of Bones Round by Round
(Standard Encounter +10%)
The doors to the next room have sigils requiring Arcane, Religion, and Theivery to disable, with Perception and Dungeoneering providing a +2 for a success.
River makes a Perception (22), Kava misses dungeoneering (11) 
Mungo nails Thievery (20), Teodahr misses. 
Zeneval makes an Arcana check (27), Aria misses but the +2 from River's perception offsets. 
Vitrano makes his Religion roll.
The traps don't trigger, but the alarm goes off. 
(Easy Skill challenge 5%)
=== Battle for the Inner Vault ===
Inside the room, we see the symbol on an extension of the floor, around it, below we see rows upon rows of inert warforged. The alarm is shaking the floor. On pedestals out in the room, are more warforged with the same crossbows on their arms, but with bolt magazines.
We try to shoot the pedestal guys but they have glasssteel shields that Mungo thinks may cause to drop. 
As soon as we step in the room the glasssteel panels drop, and the doors start to close.
Warforged and Stone Constructs Round by Round
The spirits disipate, the constructs become inanimate and the oppressive feeling we'd noticed disipates. We search the rest of the vault and find a "bunch of warforged", a lot of good quality weapons, and some valuables (1525 gp). We also find the equivalent of a level 6 items for every player in the game that can be exchanged with the duke.
(Hard encounter 20% + 5% story award)
== Experience ==
Caustrex Chat: Skill Challenge 10%
Ducal Interview: Sentinal Gamma story award 5%
Journey to the Vault: Failed skill challenge
Getting to the Vault: Moderate Skill Challenge 10%
Breaching the Vault: Standard Encounter + Easy Skill Challenge 15%
Inner Vault Fight: Hard encounter + Story Award 25%)
Total this session: 65%
== Links ==
Previous Session: September 12, 2009: Decision Point
Next Session: November 14, 2009 Hole in My Pocket
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