Week 8: The Black Sun Also Rises

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Mike

As the party entered the darkened chamber, they were swiftly met with the stench of death emanating from a spectral black sun, rising up from the floor of the room. The source of the smell shambled forth two meet them; two rotting corpses led by two slavering ghouls emerged to feat on their living flesh. The ghouls rushed forward, slashing at Bolrin and Ahbwan with their claws. As one connected with a weak spot in Bolrin’s armor, he felt necrotic energies seep into his body, depriving him of the ability to move. The zombies shuffled up to join their ghoulish leader, striking at the immobilized Bolrin. Thanks to his armor, he managed to aptly defend himself from their strikes; Ahbwan, on the other hand, fared less well, doing all he could to dodge the ghoul’s attacks.

Thankfully, Jyunkan was able to buy the party some time, using his psionic powers to tear the zombies through the aether, depositing them far away from his allies. Myrymma too lent her strength, blasting the zombies with arcane fire. Regardless of their coordinated attacks, the party had been caught unaware by these undead fiends, and a great number of their attacks seemed to miss the mark. Thankfully, Branka was able to call upon the spirits for aid, providing her companions with renewed life.

After Bolrin was able to move again, he worked to reposition himself in a better position to deal with the undead threat. In doing so, however, he stepped within the dark sun. As he did so, a wave of necrotic energy swept over his body, draining him of some of his life’s energy. However, the zombie he was fighting seemed to be renewed by these same energies, turning to strike at Bolrin with renewed vigor. The mighty Bolrin, however, was unfazed, and dispatched his shambling foe with little concern.

Ahbwan, on the other hand, had been backed against the wall by the remaining ghoul. Having been immobilized by his claws, the ghoul then set to work ripping into Ahbwan’s flesh with his slavering jaws. Despite his best attempts to defend himself, Ahbwan fell beneath the ghoul’s attacks, lapsing into unconsciousness. Thankfully, his party members rushed to his aid; while Myrymma and Bolrin finished off the ghoul, Branka healed her fallen companion.

Now that they had a chance to investigate, they noticed that the black sun was slowly rising from the floor, where they could faintly make out an inscribed runic circle. As they could not enter the necrotic sun to investigate further, they decided to enter to room to the east to continue their search for Thurann. As they entered the room there, they did in fact find Thurann, though not in the state they expected. He was lying on the floor, being dragged down a long hallway by a think skeletal hand. As the party rushed after him, a blue energy field, like the one they found containing Zerriksa in the basement, appeared, blocking off the hall. The party tried to find a way through, but were unable to locate a way to penetrate the barrier.

Remembering the barrier that enclosed Zerriksa, our heroes decided that someone must be generating the field nearby, and set out to find that person. Taking the lead, Myrymma and Toby ventured off down a somewhat shaky looking hallway; unfortunately for them, the hallway had been weakened after a long time of neglect, and collapsed under their weight. They managed to climb from the rubble, and the party moved into the next chamber.

As soon as they entered the room, a demon was pulled from the abyss, summoned to protect the chamber. The demon raged at the party, shouting something in abyssal at the party, specifically Jyunkan. Despite raging at the group, the demon was held back by some sort of arcane means. As Ahbwan scouted the room, he was noticed by a pair of disheveled men who were waiting in a hallway to the north. They ran around the corner and commanded the demon to attack, defending the crypt.

Bolrin took charge, rushing in to bash the demon and defend his companions. Unfortunately, the disheveled men rushed in to attack the party. As they ran in, they shifted form, changing from human form to the form of a large rat. These were-rats quickly attacked, and as they bit Bolrin and Branka, their wounds immediately began to fester. As one of the were-rats latched onto Ahbwan, Bolrin lashed out, challenging the were-rats to face his might. While he managed to force the creatures to face him, Myrymma and Jyunkan set to work defeating the were-rats. As they quickly fell, the party turned its attention to the raging demon. As Jyunkan turned to attack the demon, it again shouted to him in abyssal. The combined might of the group proved to be too much for the demon; even as the last of his strength was sapped from him, Ahbwan managed to loose a stone from his sling, destroying the creature. As he crumpled to the ground, the demon uttered one last thing in abyssal.

Although our heroes know a young boy’s life depended on them, they were sufficiently weakened by the days exploits. They decided that it was necessary to take a rest. Hopefully, they will be able to reach Thurann in time and save him from The Lord’s clutches.

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Week 7: The Fall of Sinruth

Posted on November 7, 2010 by Mike


As they spent a little time to collect themselves following their exploits to rescue the villagers of Brindol in crypts of Rivenroar, the party steeled themselves for what they knew would be a major upcoming encounter with Sinruth. The directions that the goblin prisoner (the same prisoner who’s eye was eaten by Myrymma) had given them told them that Sinruth waited for them up the stairs past the ettercaps. Our heroes went forth, knowing this deadly foe awaited them, and prepared themselves for the assault.

As they mounted the stairs past the ettercap chamber, they noticed an inscription denoting the area they were entering as the Von Adrez-Kauthin crypt. The large room they found at the top of the stairs was home to a number of goblins, as well as two larger drakes. Most notably, however, was the large hobgoblin dressed in spiked armor standing at the entrance to another room to the west. He stood taller than most of the hobgoblins the party had previously encountered, and his extravagantly spiked armor with a large symbol of the red hand on his chest demonstrated to the party that this was most likely Sinruth, feared leader of the Red Hand. This fact was proved certain when he commanded his goblin minions to hold the intruders while he finished preparing for them. He then retreated to the adjoining chamber while his goblin cronies threw themselves at our heroes. While a robed goblin that rushed in from a room to the south caused them some headaches, the majority of the goblins posed little threat. The slender necked drakes spewed acid at Bolrin and Ahbwan from across the room, but they were quickly outmatched by the duo’s superior melee strength.

As the last goblin fell, the party heard the rattle of chains and a cry for help from the room to the south. Within, Branka found Jalissa, priestess of Ioun, chained to a sarcophogus, along with a leather satchel containing a leather armor chest-piece. The natural leather piece of armor was attuned to the spirits, and thus enhancing Branka’s abilities. Jalissa was able to inform Branka that she had recently been separated from Thurann and placed in this room, while he was taken to the room to the north to be brought to what she had heard the goblins refer to as “the Lord.”

Our adventurers debated whether or not they should pursue the last prisoner, or to “strike while the iron was hot,” in the words of Ahbwan, and take down Sinruth before he had a chance to further fortify himself. They eventually decided to take the second option and defeat Sinruth before he could muster more forces to assail the party with. They followed him into the to which he fled and, instead of finding Sinuth, instead found a number of tall, thin stones, which seemed to glow a faint blue. Upon closer inspection, the party could make out humanoid features that seemed to claw their way out of the stone. While the rest of the party inspected these strange features, Ahbwan rushed to a door to the north, figuring that Sinruth lay in wait for them there. He didn’t even need to get that far, as Sinruth rushed out to meet them. He quickly set to work with his long spiked chain, wrapping it around Ahbwan’s neck and pulling him into a more advantageous position. Bolrin then rushed in to help defend his comrade, challenging Sinruth to face him alone. Branka called on her spirit companion Ursia to aid them as well, as he appeared near Sinruth to rake his spectral claws into Sinruth’s flesh. Myrymma and Jyunkan both added their considerable ranged powers to the battle, with Myrymma exploiting the fact that Sinruth was not very mobile in his heavy spiked armor, while Jyunkan drew on his Psionic energies to move Sinruth into prime melee position.

Expending much of their energies to strike hard and fast, the party soon appeared to have Sinruth on the ropes. However, with a huge explosion of energy, Sinruth climbed right back into the fight. Following a particularly brutal hit from Ahbwan, Sinruth ran to the center of the room and let loose a roar, shattering the stone columns that stood around the room. He then spun his spiked chain around his head, pulling the shards of stone from the broken columns into a brutal whirlwind around his body. Left in place of the columns were a number of floating, glowing blue crystals that seemed to emanate an unnatural cold. The column nearest Sinruth was drawn directly to him; the shards of stone fused with his armor, and the crystal from the heart of the carved pillar nestled into his helmet. He lashed out brutally to all combatants he could reach, dealing massive damage with his newly enhanced powers. Jyunkan tried to use the crystals against him, moving one into Sinruth’s close range. Instead of weakening him, however, this seemed to give him even more strength, and as Ahbwan leapt over Sinruth to remove this new source of power, the crystal infused his body with more unholy cold. Thankfully, however, Myrymma’s arcane fire was enough to burn through Sinruth’s defenses, and with one final whirlwind with his chain, he fell defeated.

As they searched the now silent room and the adjoining chamber, the party found a number of very interesting items:

  • The pair of heavily ornamented gauntlets stolen from the Hall of Great Valor in Brindol were in fact being worn by Sinruth.  While not meant for a Hobgoblin’s hands, he made ample use of them.
  • In the adjoining room, the party found a magical orb attuned to psionic energies that Jyunkan has taken to enhance his abilities.
  • In the sarcophagus in the next room, the party also found the gilded dragoncrest helmet that Sinruth had his horde steal from the Hall of Great Valor.
  • Lastly, Sinruth himself had a number of documents in his pockets, showing good ambush spots around the countryside and delineating the plan of attack for the raid on Brindol.  He also held a letter, embossed with the symbol of a stone arrow, from someone known as “The Emissary,” laying out the intricacies of what could be some larger plot.

With Sinruth dead, the party was now free to rush after Thurann, the last of the surviving captives. As they moved to the chamber to the north, they were faced with a choice of three different passages. They continued straight ahead, finding some sort of scrying pool, showing them a number of different locations within the crypts. A staircase to the west wound around to a large room with a etherial sun of shadow rising from the floor. As it seemed to imperceptible inch higher, four undead creatures emerged from its depths to assail our brave adventurers.

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Week 6: Let’s go fishing

Posted on November 7, 2010 by Mike


Continuing their search through the depths of Castle Rivenroar, the party entered a darkened chamber with another Vencnian altar flanked by a number of large statues. At the base of the altar cringed a human woman, dressed in rags with a feverish light an fear in her eyes. The source of her fears was soon exposed, as a number of diseased rats streamed from the shadows. Thankfully, these lowly creatures were no match for the adventurers, and they quickly dispatched two of them before, out of the shadows, stepped two gnomes, quickly striking at the unprotected backs of the party. Myrymma, remembering what these shadowy creatures were capable of in the past, quickly turned her attention to this new threat. As the rest of the party went to aid her in dispatching the gnomes, one of the rats managed to clamp its diseased teeth onto Jyunkan’s leg, creating a wound that would soon start to fester and boil, as the disease the rat was carrying passed into his system. Despite this setback, the group was able to quickly eliminate the rest of the threats.

With the bodies of the rats and the gnomes still leaking the last of their life’s blood out onto the stone floor, our heroes rushed to aid the lone woman lying before the altar. After a quick inspection, they realized that she was Mirtala, one of the prisoners taken from Brindol during the raid. They noticed a number of bite marks on her, closely resembling the newly infected bite Jyunkan was nursing. The rats clearly had been used to torment her, infecting her with their disease. In the depths of her fever, she was not able to provide the party with much more information. The returned with her to Adronsius and Sertanian, entrusting her to their care.

As they explored more of the dungeon, they once again came upon the group of ettercaps that they had been told guarded the path to Sinruth. These spider like creatures got the jump on the party, quickly spewing streams of webbing all over them. These webs held the party fast, while the ettercaps appeared unimpeded by the sticky webs. Thankfully, Ahbwan was able to avoid being trapped by the webs, and channeled his psionic abilities to seemingly fly around the ettercaps and strike where they were weakest. Thanks to his strength, the ettercaps were quickly dispatched, and the party was free to observe their surroundings. Along with a strange three pronged boomerang, they found a body wrapped in webs with the symbol of the Brindol crest on his armored chest. As the body was quite fresh, our heroes were able to deduce that this was the body of Kartenix, the captain of Brindol’s guards. Kartenix was also the father to Alys and Thurann; the former had asked the party to save her father and brother (who had also been taken).

Rather than proceeding deeper into the crypts, the party decided to enlist the aid of the gnome they had recently captured to, well, tantalize the drakes they had discovered in the lower chamber. Myrymma, having completely subdued the gnome, named Toby, to her will, attached him to a rope tied to a spear, creating a makeshift fishing pole. As she dangled the gnome down the hole in the floor, Ahbwan and the rest of the party were able to maneuver behind the drakes. As the drakes snapped at their “gnome on a rope,” the party struck hard and fast, quickly killing the large scaly beasts. Myrymma descended the rope to join the party, and they explored the chamber, finding a small antechamber to the east. Within, they found a wizened old woman trapped within a glowing blue field of energy. Her words were silenced by the field, but the group could make out that she was asking for help. Unable to find a way to disable the energy field, the party looked around the rest of the chamber, finding a suspicious statue. Pressing down on the sword in the hands of the statue, Ahbwan was able to trigger the mechanism to reveal the room hidden behind a false wall. Within, another gnome, this one glowing with blue energy stood among a number of books strewn all over the floor. This one gnome was no match for our heroes, and as he fell, so did the magical field holding Zerriksa, the town alchemist, in place. She told the party that she had been imprisoned our of fear that she was a witch and assured the party that this was not so, a fact that some members of the group didn’t fully believe. Before returning with Zerriksa to the other Brindol citizens, the party looked through the scrolls the gnome was reading. Within, they found a number of accounts from the end of the First Brindol war, specifically describing the steps the Rivenroar family took near the end of the war to dabble into a means to find life everlasting. A full investigation into the meaning of these documents would have to wait, as a more pressing matter stood at hand: Sinruth, leader of the Red Hand.

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Week 5: You can’t hit what you can’t see

Posted on October 24, 2010 by Mike

After a night’s rest in the goblin camp inside Castle Rivenroar, the party decided to push on further into the depths of the castle following Adronsius’ directions to rescue the other prisoners. As they proceeded, they entered another family crypt, this time for the Von Erdstadt family. The crypt appeared to be deserted, but a gnome hiding in the depths of the shadows triggered a trap originally set to protect the tomb. As he did, two flaming elementals were ripped from the elemental chaos and rudely deposited into the tomb. Naturally, they were quite upset at this and immediately attacked our adventurers. Branka managed to summon her spirit companion to block one into an alcove, while Bolrin charged to keep the other locked into position. While the party worked to eliminate the current threat, the gnome and his companion moved, undetected, to strike where the party appeared to be weak. Myrymma was not a fan of their attack, and unleashed a sonic burst to knock them away. However, as soon as she did, the gnomes faded back into the shadows, disappearing from view.

When the gnomes attacked again, the party was ready for them, and quickly dispatched of one of them. The other was scared into submission by the frightful drow, yielding to her power. In short order, the two elementals were slain, and the party was able to further interrogate their new captive. The gnome had been instructed to wait at his location and guard the prisoner being held in the next room. He also was able to provide the party with better directions as to where they would find Sinruth. As the party questioned the gnome, Jyunkan investigated what awaited them around the corner in the next room. The sound of long, thin legs scraping on the stone floor informed him that a group of ettercaps that one of the goblins had mentioned most likely were lying in wait for them there. That same goblin had mentioned that Sinruth was holed up past the ettercaps; therefore, the party decided to investigate a few other areas first to try and find some of the other prisoners. The first place they went was to the adjoining room where the gnome had said he had been ordered to guard. There they located Sertanian, mostly unharmed, locked in a cage. Next to him was an empty cage where he reported that Kartenix had been kept until recently.

Having deposited their prisoner in one of the cages, the party escorted Sertanian and Adronsius back to the goblin lair. There, they told the villagers to lock the doors behind them and to only open them if they heard a special knock. After securing these two, the party travelled up the other corridor to see what else awaited them. At the end of a long hallway (the same hallway in which Jyunkan fell down a large hole), the party came upon the Rivenroar family crypt. The crypt currently was occupied by a number of hobgoblins, chatting to one another, and not paying attention to the monk that was sneaking up behind them. Ahbwan leapt from concealment, striking out at one of the hobgoblins and catching him by surprise. He was quickly backed up by his companions and, despite reinforcements from a higher level of the castle, the party made quick wok of their foes. As the last goblin fell, Ahbwan began to investigate a number of the sarcophagi in the room. As he couldn’t move the lid off of one of stone coffins, Jyunkan channeled his psionic powers to lift it for him. The sarcophagus was empty, save for a small bag of gold, and looked like it had been disturbed fairly recently.

The party also noticed a pair of altars in the corner of the room which recently had been devoted to Bane. Underneath this new dedication, Myrymma recognized that the altars had originally had been there in worship of Vecna. On one of the altars sat a small stone carving of a snake. When Ahbwan picked up this idol, it began to shimmer, and wrapped itself around his forearm, quickly fading onto his skin like a tattoo and granting him its power.

Bolrin too was investigating the room, as his party members were doing the same. However, while they found altars to evil gods, bags of gold and magic items, Bolrin managed to use his acute sense of smell to find the gaping latrine in the corner of the room. Never doubt a dwarf’s keen sense of smell.

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Week 4: I’ll just leap over this hole and…

Posted on October 17, 2010 by Mike

After claiming the sword from the statue in the Von Jallach Crypt, the adventuring party pushed forward to the next chamber. There they found an ornery dwarf, beaten and bruised, chained to the wall. Adronsius, the town blacksmith, had been imprisoned there by Sinruth’s men after being brought to Castle Rivenroar with the rest of the prisoners. As the party looked for a way to free him forcibly from his bonds, Myrymma figured that a key must exist somewhere and returned to the other room to search. She found the key on the body of the sneaky gnome that had ambushed them during their battle with the drakes, and used it to unlock Adronsius. Grateful for his freedom, he told the party of his capture and transport to Castle Rivenroar with the other prisoners. Upon being brought to the castle, he and the other captives were moved from room to room, harassed by the goblins and their cronies. Adronsius told of abuse at the hands of their captors, but that none of the other prisoners were treated as harshly as he. He doesn’t remember where any of the others are being held, with the exception of Jelissa: she was being held “down the stairs, straight across the entry chamber, turning left in the room that smelled of goblin, then left again in the room with the crackling sound, around two right corners, then through a room that smelled of the dead, then up the stairs to a room with a sticky floor, left and up another set of stairs, then through a dusty room and left through a door.”

Following Adronsius’ directions, the party proceeded back through the Von Jallach Crypt, through the chamber with the flaming braziers, and through the doors marked “Rivenroar and other Families.” As they entered the next chamber, they came upon a nest of goblins and hobgoblins. Cots strewn around the periphery of the room gave the impression that this part of the castle had been used as a barracks for some of Sinruth’s troops. Said troops were currently in the midst of a loud discussion, and were quite upset to be interrupted by the party. They charged to attack at the first sight of our heroes, and were soon reinforced by two goblins with crossbows from another room. As the party quickly dispatched a number of the smaller hobgoblins, a mysterious robed goblin rushed into the room from the west. He quickly drew a hex in the air, filling the room with an acrid smoke, blinding the party and protecting his comrade-at-arms. As the rest of the party battled the new threat, Jyunkan severely injured one of the goblins wielding a crossbow, causing him to flee from the room. While pursuing his quarry down the adjoining hall, Jyunkan failed to leap over a gaping pit in the floor. He fell into a cavernous chamber below, landing on a suspicious red mushroom. As he looked around the chamber, he noticed a number of other mushrooms of varying colors and sizes. Unfortunately, he was also noticed by two hulking drakes from the other side of the room. As they charged across the chamber to consume their next meal (In this case, it’s not Digiorno, it’s delivery), Ahbwan leapt down the hole to aid his companion. With his help, Jyunkan managed to avoid becoming these creatures next snack.

Up above, Myrymma, Branka and Bolrin set about defeating the rest of the goblins, a task they managed in short order. When only one of the smaller, crossbow wielding goblins was left, Myrymma managed to frighten it into submission. As Ahbwan and Jyunkan watched the goblin they had chased down the hall fall into a second hole (and listened to him become a light snack to the creatures below), Myrymma brought his captive to the edge of the hole Jyunkan had fallen into. He began to question the goblin about Sinruth’s activities here at castle Rivenroar. The goblin was able to point the party in the right direction, but continued to state that “The Red Hand would never fall!” Upon recounting some of the other aspects of the denizens of the castle, he began to quake in fear as he mentioned “The Lord.” Myrymma, attempting to procure more information from his captive, ripped the remaining eye from his head and, there in front of the rest of the party, consumed his foe’s ocular orb. Instead of shocking him into giving up more information, the goblin, weak as they are, collapsed and gave up his life. Myrymma dropped his corpse down the hole, providing another appetizer for the beasts below.

Having fought a number of battles this day, the party decided that they should ensure the safety of the area before resting the night. To that end, Branka led the party to investigate the adjoining chamber. Within, the party came upon a crackling portal that looked out onto a portion of the Shadowfell. Beyond a swampy expanse, the party could see a dark town with a large black tower rising from the center. A bright river of crimson lava flowed down a nearby mountain and met the town at a point that was obstructed from the party’s view. Upon further inspection into the arcane nature of the portal, the party figured that it was a portal set up for one way transportation from the Shadowfell into the Castle and, as such, could only be closed from the other side. As they inspected the portal, a large black ooze slid through from the shadows. Focusing their attacks on this threat, the party did not notice two vengeful shades that appeared from the dark recesses of the chamber. The ooze was dealt with readily; however, the shades posed a much greater threat. They seemed to float in between worlds, and the party’s attacks had little effect on them.

After finally vanquishing the shades, the party retreated to the chamber that Sinruth’s goblins had been using as a base. Tired from the day’s exploits, they retired to the dirty cots spread around the room to rest and reflect on the experiences they have had. Adronsius, thankful to the party for his rescue, agreed to help secure their location and take the first watch for the party. When they awake, rested and stronger, they will have many more challenges to face in Rivenroar Castle.

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Week 3: Von Jallach Crypt

Posted on September 30, 2010 by Mike


After entering the back of Rivenroar Castle through an entrance that Ahbwan located on the side of the cliff face, we find our party locked in combat with a group of goblin and hobgoblin guards. Jyunkan, having drawn the attention of the two smaller goblins toward the back of the room through his display of psionic prowess, was promptly brought down by a salvo of crossbow fire. As he fell, it was up to his teammates to finish off the guards. While Ahbwan and Bolrin polished off the two larger hobgoblins, Myrymma started to seek revenge on the foes that had dropped her companion, Jyunkan. Branka worked to restore Jyunkan to health while her spirit companion attacked the goblins. As the hobgoblins dropped to the floor, Bolrin charged the remaining enemies, running right into the path of one of the flaming orbs launched by the moving braziers. After extinguishing himself, he managed to corner the last surviving goblin with Branka’s companion. As they whittled down the goblin’s defenses, Ahbwan made a running leap, landing on Bolrin’s shoulders to deliver another attack to the goblin. After Myrymma let loose with another attack of arching arcane fire, all the goblins lay dead at the party’s feet.

While taking a moment to compose themselves after battle with the goblins, the party realized that what they first took to be a booby trap was actually a feature often put into the entryway of wealthy family crypts. The passage of flaming orbs from one brazier to the other is used to demonstrate how brightly each life shines in its passage, but that each must come to rest eventually. They realized that this must be the entrance to the family crypt below the castle, and that people most likely used the passage to visit those interned therein. The doors leading to the east and the west both were emblazoned with a family name; to the west, the door read “To Rivenroar and Affiliated Families” to the east, “Von Jallach Crypt.” To the north, the door was blank, and the air beyond it felt more cool and damp than the room the party was in. Without much to go on, the party decided to travel through the door to the east, toward the Von Jallach Crypt.

As they proceeded through the stone door and up the stairs into the tomb, the party noticed a strange blue glow emanating from the floor. When they reached the top of the stairs, they entered a family crypt with a number of alcoves lining the walls to store the deceased. On the floor, there lay a large square of tiles, 4 wide by 4 tall, each with a glowing glyph inscribed upon it. However, the party did not get a lot of time to investigate as two swarms of small, reptilian creatures spewed forth from two of the alcoves. A multitude of snapping teeth and lashing talons, these groups quickly mobbed the party, knocking Ahbwan onto the ground and slashing at his face. Occupied with their efforts to defend their companion, the rest of the party did not notice a gnome, cloaked in darkness, until he tried to stab Jyunkan in the back. Lashing out in anger, Jyunkan blasted the gnome into one of the alcoves with a barrage of psionic energy. Even as he was blasted away from Jyunkan, the gnome again faded from sight.

Branka, meanwhile, used her spirit companion to rush to Ahbwan’s defense. She communed with the spirits to learn more about the strange glyphs on the floor. However, the spirits she reached in the chamber were filled with rage and jealousy, anger and greed. As her spirit shielded Ahbwan from further attack, Bolrin summoned all his strength to slice into the other group of drakes, thinning their number significantly. Again the gnome struck from the shadows, this time slashing at Myrymma’s face. Surprised by the attack, Myrymma cloaked the area around her in shadow, blinding her adversary. However, the gnome was still able to deliver a scathing attack against Myrymma as she channeled arcane fire to scorch her foe. Jyunkan, still furious at being ambushed by the gnome, again unleashed a great torrent of psionic energy, felling the gnome and dragging him onto one of the glyph tiles, which then pulsed with light and an arcane power. Soon after, the party had finished off the drakes and were left with the mystery of the tiles on the floor.

Upon closer inspection, the group realized that one square was glowing a bit less brightly than the others. Branka recognized these glyphs as glyphs of warding. These glyphs were commonly used by wealthy families to protect both their bodies and worldly possessions from intruders Not one to look much before he leaps, Bolrin lead the charge, stepping on tiles that seemed to glow less brightly than others. As he stepped on certain tiles, their glyphs would glow more brightly for an instant, and then extinguish their light. When Ahbwan attempted to aid him, he stepped on a tile that instead of just extinguishing, jolted his body with a strange necrotic energy. The party worked together to help identify a safe path through the tiles, pointing out that some spelled out “Von Jallach” in an aged phonetic language often used by wizards and the like. In addition, a number of tiles were engraved with words; “Life,” “Death,” “Spirit,” “Essence,” “Rebirth,” and “Un-death” adorned various other tiles. Brolin boldly followed a path spelling out the name of the family crypt, and, when he finished, a dim glow in an alcove on the north wall began to glow much more brightly. Illuminated within was a simple stone statue holding a metal longsword. At first reluctant to touch the glowing statue, Ahbwan’s natural curiosity eventually got the better of him and he lifted the sword from it’s stand. As he did, the tiles spelling out the Von Jallach name lit up in order, followed by the tiles reading “Life,” “Death,” “Spirit,” “Essence,” and “Rebirth.” As those tiled dimmed, the tile reading “Un-death” glowed more brightly than the rest, and then all the tiles winked out.

As Ahbwan investigated the sword, he realized that within it was contained the power to channel psionic energies in defense of one’s allies. Not a master of swordplay, Ahbwan quickly grew unimpressed by the sword and returned it to it’s stand. Bolrin, on the other hand, decided that he was in fact very fond of swords, and that he would add this one to his collection. As he got the feel for his new weapon, the party gathered themselves to move through another door in the east wall. We leave them here, wondering what challenges await them as they venture further into the crypt below Rivenroar castle.

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Week 2: Let’s all follow Bolrin…

Posted on September 23, 2010 by Mike

Morrik in the stockades

After leaving their meeting with councilman Troyas, the party returned to the square where they had fought the Ogre the night before outside the Antler and Thistle.  There, being guarded by two of the town’s finest guards, was the captive hobgoblin that Troyas had told them about.  He was locked in the town’s stockades, and it was clear that many individuals had come by to pay their respects already; rotten vegetables covered his face and littered the ground at his feet.  The group began to question the hobgoblin, named Morrik, for information about the location of the townspeople taken during the raid.  Although things started nicely as Myrymma tried to convince Morrik that they would be able to lend him some form of aid, Jyunkan and Bolrin took a much more aggressive approach to the interrogation, trying to scare the information out of him.  Meanwhile, Ahbwan managed to lift a small gold coin with the word “Rivenroar” imprinted upon it.  Upon further questioning, the party learned that Sinruth, leader of the goblins who raided the town the previous night, had made the old castle of Rivenroar his base of operations in the area.  Morrik informed the party that Sinruth had been raised on tales of the old Red Hand of Doom, and had organized his own group of goblinfolk to follow in their stead.  He commanded that his group, known as the Red Hand, raid the town to take prisoners to give to some evil entity within castle Rivenroar.  While unable to tell the party much more about the layout or attributes of the castle, Morrik was able to draw them a basic map to guide them to castle Rivenroar.

Before they set out, Alys returned to wish the party luck on their travels.  She asked them to do what they could for her younger brother, Thurann, and father, Kartenix, both of whom had been taken the night before in the raid.  She also warned the party of the dark past of the Rivenroar family.  During the war against the Red Hand of Doom, family Rivenroar abandoned the defense of Elsir Vale.  Many say they turned away from their peers in order to seek some sort of personal gain, but no one knows for sure.  After the war, they were shut out from the Vale, and their castle sealed up.  Alys cautioned the group once again, wished them luck, and took her leave.

Our heroes then set out north of Brindol following the crude map Morrik had provided them.  All went well at first until Bolrin took the lead.  Holding the map upside-down, he led them straight into a nest of nasty insects in a rocky canyon.  Four of these bugs swarmed the party, a number attacking Myrymma straight away.  As he tried to move into a better position, Jyunkan stumbled upon one of a number of tunnels that the bugs had burrowed through the canyon, the ground giving way beneath his feet.  The bugs were quickly upon him as well, and only some timely healing from Branka and her spirit companion were sufficient to keep him standing.  As Myrymma tried to stave off the initial attack, she moved too close to the insects’ hive, causing four more smaller bugs to join the fight.  Striving to right her mistake, Myrymma gathered her powers and felled a multitude of the crawling menaces in one fell swoop.  While Branka and Ahbwan set to work on one of the adults, Bolrin was locked in combat with the other, neither of them landing a blow.  Ahbwan’s Crane kick to the backside of the creature put it in a prime position so that Branka could command her companion to finish it off, and Myrymma and Jyunkan lent their arcane and psionic powers to kill Bolrin’s foe.

As they tended to their wounds, Jyunkan pointed out to Bolrin that he had the map the wrong way, and the party again started towards Rivenroar.  Though the last part of their trek was arduous, they encountered no more threats on their way to the castle.  As the crested one of the larger foothills in the Giantshield mountains, they were finally able to see their destination.  Set on the edge of a huge sloped outcropping of rock, Castle Rivenroar was built into the side of the rock.  A number of small paths led along the cliff face, underneath the elevation of the castle, leading around to it’s rear.  Although the path of the goblins appeared to lead back down one path in particular, the party decided that it would be a wise idea to take a rest and try to surprise the goblins during the night.  While the party slept Jyunkan volunteered to keep watch.  As the day faded into night and Jyunkan sat up alone, he began to notice that the night was eerily quiet.  He could tell that the typical wildlife was absent from the area, and had been for wuite some time.  He was able to sense an evil force emanating from the castle behind him, and surmised that whatever controlled that power was also driving creatures away.

Upon waking, the party prepared themselves to confront Sinruth’s troops.  Ahbwan scouted the goblin’s trail and sneaked down the path they had taken to try and scout out their location. As he followed the path along the cliff side, he soon came upon a large cavernous opening. Inside the opening, he found a large metal door. He pushed inside and was able to make out a number of goblin guards in a chamber with three doors, the central door flanked by two large braziers. He returned to inform the rest of the party what he had learned, and they gathered themselves to do battle. As they entered the room, the two hobgoblin soldiers drew their swords, and battle was joined. Bolrin moved into range and lashed out at one of the hobgoblins, striking him not only with his sword, but with a psionic blast that confused his target into slashing out at his fellow hobgoblin. As the rest of the party began to arrange themselves for the fight, one of the smaller goblins in the back of the chamber slowly creaked open one of the doors. This appeared to trigger some mechanism and the party heard a faint rumbling. Soon after, the two large braziers slid along a track towards the party and a ball of fire sprung from one of the braziers, arcing across the room to come to rest in the other.

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Week 1: Raid on Brindol

Posted on September 19, 2010 by Mike

Raid on Brindol
As the curtains rose on our heroes, we found them all gathered at a tavern in Brindol called the Antler and Thistle.  Each had come to the area for their own reasons, but all had heard of bands of monsters causing some havoc on this frontier.  At the moment, all of our protagonists were cooling their heels in one form or another at this tavern.  While Jyunkan worked the bar, Ahbwan  made conversation with him while trying to get used to the customs of the area.  Bolrin, on the other hand, did not have this problem, boasting loudly of his previous exploits to a group of cardplayers and buying drinks for, well, everyone. Branka enjoyed a hot meal while observing Bolrin’s antics.  Meanwhile, from the darkest corner of the bar, Myrymma watched all of the goings on in the tavern while keeping to shadow.

Unfortunately, the (mostly) peaceful time was interrupted by a number of goblins and hobgoblins that rushed into the bar, killing two of the patrons right away and shouting fealty to an unknown entity named “Sinruth” and “the Hand.”  While a number of the hobgoblins tried (without much success) to kill the bar patrons, in particular, a poor soul named Timmuns, they were met with much resistance from our five heroes.  Two of the goblins managed to set the bar alight, even catching the bartender and one of the patrons on fire.  As our champions set to work defeating the goblins, they were aided by a barmaid named Alys.  In short order, the rush of goblins were slain, and our adventurers set to work evacuating the remaining patrons from the bar.

As Jyunkan worked to help the bar patrons set up a relay line passing buckets from the well behind the bar, Kennsington, second in command of the city guard arrived to investigate what had occurred at the bar.  As his men set to work trying to quell the fires (and, more importantly, save the booze), Kennsington had a brief chance to tell the party that goblins had, during the raid on the tavern, attacked a number of areas in Brindol.  Unfortunately Alys’s father, the captain of the guards, was nowhere to be found in the chaos, and Kennsington was having trouble organizing the defense of the town.  Good thing that our heroes, then, were on scene to deal with the next threat: a full grown ogre pulling a cart with two more hobgoblins came around the corner by the bar, throwing flaming barrels of pitch at those gathered outside the bar.  Thanks to some quick thinking, Myrymma was able to set the pile of barrels in the back of the cart on fire, causing them to explode and severely cripple the ogre and his allies.  While Bolrin took the brunt of the ogre’s attack, some healing from Branka and support from Jyunkan and Ahbwan helped bring the ogre down.

Kennsington then recruited the party to help him investigate some of the other areas of the city where goblins had been reported, but upon arriving, they realized that as quick as they had come, the goblin hordes had fled the city.  While Ahbwan initially wanted to track the monsters into the night, Kennsington cautioned the party that to do so might lead to more troubles than it would be worth.  Instead, our heroes volunteered to help Kennsington patrol the city, putting out fires and healing the wounded late into the night.  They spent the night in the guard station, and were met by Alys when they awoke.  She led them to the Brindol meeting hall to meet with  Councilman Tryoas.  He filled the party in on some of the details of the history of the area from the past 30 years, as well as giving them information about the recent attacks on Brindol.  The party learned of the Red Hand of Doom, a group of monsters led by an aspect of Tiamat that almost conquered all of Elsir Vale about 30 years ago, but were repulsed by a group of adventurers. Over the years, the town council of Brindol grew jealous that these adventurers took all the credit (and most of the spoils) for saving the vale, and twisted the stories to make the adventurers seem less well intentioned than our group seems to be.

Troyas told the group that groups of goblins and other monsters had been raiding the farms surrounding Brindol over the past few weeks, but that none had been so bold as to enter the city gates; until last night, that is. During the night, not only were dozens of people slain, but that seven members of the town had gone missing, carried off in the night by the goblin hordes.  Among the missing are

  • an acolyte of Ioun
  • the castellan of the Hall of Great Valor
  • the town blacksmith
  • one of the cooks for Brindol’s meeting hall
  • the town alchemist
  • the captain of the guard
  • the captain’s son.

He has tasked the party with retrieving these individuals if they can, offering them 1000 gp for their safe return.  He then informed the party of the next place they should go to seek these individuals: during the night, the guards managed to capture one of the hobgoblins and have placed him in the stocks in the square across from the Antler and Thistle.  He recommended a brief interrogation of the prisoner to see if he would tell the group anything about the whereabouts of the goblin camp.

On their way out the door to the Antler and Thistle, a very worried looking man named Thompson informed the party that he worked as assistant to Sertanian, the castellan of the Hall of Great Valor to maintain a number of relics taken after the defeat of the Red Hand of Doom at the battle of Brindol.  Apparently, not only was Sertanian himself stolen in the night, but a number of  artifacts also went missing.  Upon hearing rumor that they were going to track down the prisoners, he has promised the party 500gp if they manage to retrieve all of the treasures.  Those treasures include:

  • An ornate dragoncrest helm
  • A ceremonial platinum longsword
  • Three shields, each bearing the insignia of the Red Hand of Doom, and each bearing a charred hole in the middle
  • A set of filigreed iron gauntlets
  • A battle standard with two clasped hands.

After receiving this request, the party continued off to interrogate the hobgoblin prisoner.

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Introduction

Posted on September 7, 2010 by David

We’re a bunch of friends from college, getting together online weekly to play some 4e Dungeons & Dragons. Most of us have never played before, so we probably are making stuff up as we go, but as long as we have fun, that’s all that matters.

This blog exists for us, not for you. So we do not apologize for boring you.

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