Paragons of Waterdeep: Endgame

This post covers sessions 18 and 19, the last two of my Paragons of Waterdeep campaign. I fully intend to have a "sequel" campaign, hopefully with the same great players using the same characters.

Our heroes settled back into the city of Waterdeep. As they sought to sniff out what hidden groups may be pulling the strings of small-time thugs in the city, they eventually made their way to a house bequeathed to a former PC (Vorath, a wizard whose player, Glenn, had to leave the group around session 6). Using the strange pass phrase that Vorath taught them ("Happy half-orcs have halitosis") they were able to pass the powerful wards and enter the house. Within they found a goodly number of scrolls with all manner of spells inscribed on them, as well as chest and crates guarded by protective spells.

While exploring their new base of operations, they chanced to glance outside and see many robed figures prowling the street. As the party watched, the figures incinerated several citizens and left a young girl unconscious on the street. The party decided to not fall into the obvious trap. It was clear the robed figures did not know the exact location of the group, so they were obviously trying to lure the party out.

The next morning, the cleric Oisin went out to investigate. He discovered that the girl had been taken into the nearby home of a wealth merchant. The cleric went to the home and a servant let him in, leading him to an upstairs bedchamber. There, the merchant and his wife were sitting beside a large bed, in which lay the young girl from the street. When Oisin moved to administer healing, the girl sprung out of the bed, and she took on a horrible aspect: her skin became like scales, her features twisted into a horrible fanged face, and her hands grew black talons. The cleric fled from the room and back down the stairs. While nearing the front door of the merchant's house, a robed figure moved toward him from the living room of the house.

Oisin was able to exit the home relatively unscathed, and his fellows in the party saw his hasty movement. As the party rallied to the cleric's side, the two lizard-like beings attacked. The party fought off the beings (who had the ability to breathe gouts of flame), and one of the things sprouted a pair of leathery wings and flew off  over the rooftops. The heroes managed to slay the female, but when they did so she returned to human form. When the other residents of the street came out of their homes to see about the cause of the disturbance, they saw what looked to be a young woman slain by a group of well-armed individuals. The alarm was raised and the city guard quickly came to investigate.

With the guard contingent came Marn, the apprentice of Khelben Blackstaff. He saved the party from being taken into custody. Marn then spoke with them at length about how Khelben knew the nature of their enemies: the lizard-like assailants were devotees of the infamous Cult of the Dragon, who worship dragons as gods and seek to help their "deities" become the rulers of Faerun (if not the entirety of the world of Toril). He also told them that Khelben had decided to form a new secret group of his own called the Paragons of Waterdeep. The party would effectively be the "founding members" of this new group, the purpose of which would be to help protect the city from incursions from groups such as the Cult of the Dragon, the Shadow Thieves, and others.

After this, the party regrouped and gained information from Marn about recent suspicious activities in Waterdeep's City of the Dead, a massive and ancient cemetery. The party set out to investigate. Once there, they followed signs of magic and evil intent to a large mausoleum dedicated to warriors who have died in battle. Not long after entering the burial place, they were ambushed by a horde of kobolds who were hiding within.

As they fought the diminutive lizard folk, a great rush of wings could be heard from outside. A black dragon landed just outside the entrance to the mausoleum, ridden by the lizard-like man who had flown away after their previous battle near the party's hideout. The party fought hard and fought well, and were able to slaughter the kobolds and cause the dragon and its scaly rider to flee.

And that's where the campaign ended. Suffice to say that the characters had uncovered a significant Cult of the Dragon foothold in the city. After their victory, they were praised by Khelben, their reputation for skill and bravery firmly cemented in the estimation of the archmage of Waterdeep.

As I said at the beginning of this post, I do want to someday run a sequel campaign. I love the Castles & Crusades system, and I had a great time running it. The group that I've gamed with for well over a year is composed of great people and I hope to game a lot more with them for a long time to come. This campaign was the first one I'd run in many years, so it definitely helped me knock off some rust from my GMing abilities. I learned a lot about what I like and don't like when it comes to gaming at this point in my life. It was a vital experience for me in my current return to the hobby. In all, a really rewarding experience!

Now, it's on to the next great adventure!

My Castles & Crusades House Rules

I thought I'd share my house rules for my Castles & Crusades campaign (Paragons of Waterdeep), in the spirit of...well, sharing. I've also included the rules I currently use from the Castle Keeper's Guide, which aren't house rules per se but I wanted to show them as well. Please let me know what you think, and please share your own house rules for your preferred game system if you care to do so.

HOUSE RULES

Hit Points: max at first level.

Wizards: can use HPs to cast spells if they have cast all their prepared spells (1 HP for each level of spell).

Counterspell: a wizard can counter another wizard’s spell by casting a spell of the same level as the target spell. The countering wizard can make an INT check in order to determine the level of the spell to be countered (as long as the spell is of a level that the wizard can cast). The countering is an automatic success, with both spells cancelling each other out.

Clerics: can select one spell per level that they can spontaneously cast (i.e. use a spell slot currently filled by a prepared spell). This selection of spontaneous spells can be changed every day when selecting spells for the day.

Reversible Spells: reversible spells for wizards do not need to be memorized in reversed form (i.e. a spell can be cast in its reversed form “on the fly.”)

Fighters: Bonus to Hit starts at +2 at level 1 (to give them a leg up over the BtH of Fighter "sub-classes" like ranger, barbarian, and paladin) and improves by one each level thereafter. In addition, Fighters have the Cleave ability (stolen from ACKS, replaces Combat Dominance). Whenever a Fighter kills or incapacitates an opponent with a melee or missile attack, he may immediately make an attack against another opponent within 5' of the target he has just dropped. Fighters may make a maximum number of cleave attacks per round equal to their level. When making cleave attacks with missile weapons, Fighters are limited to a maximum of 2 with a crossbow, 3 with longbow, and 4 with composite bow, shortbow, slings, or thrown darts, daggers, or javelins.

Two-Weapon Fighting: roll two damage dice, keep whichever you want. Forego extra dice roll to get +1 defense for round (declared at beginning of round).

Shields: can be used for shield bashes (declared at beginning of round). Gives extra dice roll for damage (1d6 for bucklers or small shields/1d4 for large shields) but sacrifice AC bonus for round. Instead of inflicting damage on a successful bash, the attacker can choose to stun an opponent. Defender must make a CON save or be stunned (cannot take actions for 1 round). Large shields can also give their bonus to certain saving throws (such as breath weapons).

Natural 1 and Natural 20 (combat only): a natural 1 is always a miss and a “fumble,” the effects of which are up to the GM. Natural 20 is an automatic hit and does maximum damage. GM may also allow for some “fantastic effect.”

Hold Action: during combat, a player can hold their action for use later in the round. However, held actions not used in a round are lost at the end of the round.

Injury before Action: if a wizard is injured during the casting of a spell, they must make a CON save or have their casting fail.  Also, if a character with a ranged weapon is injured while aiming, they must make a CON save or have their aiming disrupted.

CASTLE KEEPER'S GUIDE RULES

Fate Points (p. 277): players get three Fate Points to spend per game session in order to influence the game in some way. The following is a list of the most common uses (once per round).

·         Down But Not Out (3 points): a character that would normally die at -10 HP is stabilized at -10.

·         Fortune’s Fool (1 point): can be used to reroll an attribute check or attack roll. Can also be used to force a reroll of an attack against a character.

·         I Just Made It (2 points): automatic success on saving throw.

·         Might Blow (1 point): once per game session, a player can use this to turn an attack roll into a natural 20.

·         Providence Smiles (1 or more points): character asks GM for a “plot break.” The GM may overrule the request, and the point is not spent. Alternately, the GM may require the player to spend more than one Fate Point. Can only be used once per game session.

·         You Missed Me! (2 points): a blow that would have hit a character misses instead.

·         Sound the Charge (1 point): double movement rate for one round.

Checks against Prime Attributes (p. 234): against opponent with applicable prime attribute(s), +6 is added to player attribute check(s).

Action Description “Bonus” (p. 235): when attempting an action that requires an attribute check, a player’s description of their character’s actions may earn the player a bonus to their roll.

Combat Maneuvers (with modifications, p. 256):

Firing into Melee: on a roll of 1-3, a character hits a friendly. Roll another to-hit to see if the friendly takes damage. Chance to hit friendlies is eliminated if a player takes time to aim. Aiming and firing in the same round confers a to-hit penalty of -4. Aiming and waiting until the next round to fire lowers penalty to -2. Waiting another round eliminates penalty.

Called Shot: performed at a -8 penalty, but a hit means automatic critical (full damage). Taking rounds to aim lowers penalty by 1 for each round taken.

Offensive Focus (declared at beginning of round): confers a +3 to hit and -6 to AC for round

Fighting Defensively (declare at beginning of round): -2 to hit, +2 AC

Full Defense (declare at beginning of round): no attack, +4 AC

Paragons of Waterdeep: Session 17

As seen at the end of our last session, our intrepid band of adventurers was summoned to Waterdeep by the archmage Khelben Arunsun. The Blackstaff sent a High Forest elf and a pride of griffins to fly the party back to the city.

The group was flown to Khelben's tower, where they were reunited with Marn, the apprentice who had helped them use a portal to teleport to the High Forest way back in the campaign's first session. The apprentice was glad to see them, but related how he had been reprimanded by the archmage once Khelben discovered Marn had used the portal. As a result, Marn had been under a sort of probation since the party left the city nearly a month before (the party left Waterdeep on the 3rd of the month of Tarsakh, and had returned on the 28th).

Marn asked the party to turn over the small orb in the black iron box that the Shadow Thieves had ordered them to take into Waterdeep. The apprentice assured them it would be in good hands, as would the party (who expressed concerned at the threat of the Shadow Thieves making a move against them, or even worse killing their friend Keseim). The group was also introduced to an elven wizard named Celcifer (the character of our newest player, Mark) and told that the elf was assigned to accompany them about the city, to help keep them safe.

From there, the party was free to do as they pleased. Cleric of Lathander Oisin decided it would be prudent to return to the Spires of the Morning, Lathander's great temple in the city. He was eager to return and report on the results of their quest (NPC cleric Leela, whose faith had faltered in the face of a friend's death and grievous injury, was also eager to return). The group received a chilly reception from Oisin's fellow cleric Rorik, who listened to their tale of success against the undead in the High Forest with much skepticism. The cleric told them he would report their news to the high priest, Dawnmaster Asperis, and then walked quickly away.

From there, the party headed to the market to trade in some of the treasures they had accumulated and purchase new gear. Milo in particular was interested in upgrading his gear, and haggled with a jeweller over three large gems he had recovered after the group's fight with a bull-like construct.

In the market, the group noticed they were being tailed by a group of unsavory-looking characters. Oisin and Kale recognized the thugs were being led by Taim, a ruffian that they had encountered in the first session. The group decided to lead the thugs to a secluded street and then make a move against them.

The party was able to overcome the thugs, and they questioned Taim as to why he was following them. The man told them that he and his cronies had recently started receiving messages on scraps of parchment from an unknown source. These messages (which were being left in the thugs' supposedly secret hideouts) had ordered the thugs to start harassing certain individuals in Waterdeep in exchange for coin, and the mysterious benefactor had indeed paid them well for their services. The night before the party returned to Waterdeep, Taim received a message that warned of the group's arrival. The note also commanded Taim and his cronies to keep an eye out for the party.

The group suspected that Taim and his gang might be pawns for the Shadow Thieves. In order to discover who was giving the orders to Taim, the party decided to set up an ambush. They would stake out one of the hideouts and see who, if anyone, would turn up.

To be continued...

Paragons of Waterdeep: Session 16

(Note: we had a gamer named Mark stop by and ask to join in on our Wednesday night adventures. Me and the gang gave him a warm welcome, and he agreed to take on the role of NPC elven fighter Otiver for the session. Player Jamie stopped by to let us know he had landed a good job, and we cheered the good news before he and his girlfriend headed out to celebrate. So Bill, Pam, and newcomer Mark picked up the adventure.)

At the end of the last session, the party was retreating from a surprise assault by several assassins in dark cloaks. Our heroes managed to kill one of their attackers but they were in turn suffering serious wounds. When the party slipped back outside the farmhouse that they had entered, they found that a half-dozen men who appeared to be common drovers had taken NPC Leela hostage, and were also threatening to kill the party's comatose wizard Keseim (Leela was eventually released).

The man holding a knife to Leela's throat addressed the group in smarmy tones, telling them that they had better agree to become unwilling couriers for the Shadow Thieves. The guild of thieves had been pushed out of Waterdeep a century before, and was now making a move toward total domination of the city. The party was handed a black iron box and told not to open it, but rather to carry the box into Waterdeep and wait to be contacted by another Shadow Thieves agent. If the group didn't cooperate, the guild would kill the wizard Keseim. The party watched helplessly as the Shadow Thieves agents left with the unconcious wizard.

Trying to hold their anger in check, Kale and Oisin decided to investigate the farmhouse (along with Milo the rogue, who I used as an NPC with Jamie out of the game for the night). Mark decided that Otiver was going to stand guard outside. Before the rest of the party could explore much of the house, they heard the sound of monstrous roaring from outside. They came outside to find Otiver locked in mortal combat with a nine-foot-tall, twisted-looking bear. It was obviously the beast that had been killing cattle and had killed Mrs. Winterburn.

The party was able to fight off the beast. After dealing a goodly amount of damage to the thing, it faded from existance before their eyes. The Shadow Thieves were using the summoned bear-thing to terrorize the area, and it seemed they had no qualms about sending the thing after the player characters despite a stated desire to use the party as unwilling smugglers!

After the battle, the group turned once again to investigating the farmhouse. They discovered Old Man Willets in a bedroom, laying face down in a pool of blood. The old man was still barely alive, and they began questioning him while trying to keep him alive. The stubborn greybeard refused to talk at first, but moaned about how he was betrayed. Finally, as death neared, he revealed that he was more than just a cattle farmer: he was in fact a wizard from Cormyr, though one of modest power. He had been working for the Shadow Thieves for some time, helping them to spread their influence across north-western Faerun.

The orb in the black iron box had been Willets' most recent acquisition. The artifact had come from the east through a trader. Willets had shown the orb to the Shadow Thieves, hoping to use it to curry more favor. Instead, they had decided to kill him for his efforts, for reasons unknown (perhaps they had decided that he had reached the end of his usefulness).

It was then that a young man came into the house calling out for his father. This was Willets' son, Gregor. When he came upon the party standing around his father's bloody body, he was of course instantly devastated. Then he attempted to cast a spell at the party, but Otiver (Player Mark) moved quickly to interrupt the spell. The party explained what had happened to Gregor, and he cursed his father for not revealing more about the dealings with the Shadow Thieves. That was when Old Man Willets drew his last breath.

After mourning the death and laying the old wizard to rest (with proper rites led by Oisin the cleric, who has had to preside over far too many such funereal rituals), the party asked Gregor to inspect the communication scroll from Mrs. Winterburn's room. When the young man read the runes, a golden face appeared above the scroll and spoke in fond tones for a moment. But when the face realized that it was not being summoned by Mrs. Winterburn, it quickly grew angry and demanded to know who was using the scroll.

When the party tried to explain, the face said that it knew who they were, saying that they were the group responsible for a certain apprentice disobeying the rules of the Archmage of Waterdeep, Khelben Arunsun, also known as The Blackstaff! The party quickly realized that were in fact speaking to that powerful wizard. The archmage told the part to wait for the arrival of an ally of his, then broke the contact.

Not long after, the sound of great wings could be heard outside. When the party investigated, they saw several gryphons wearing complicated saddles landing in the yard. Astride one of the majestic beasts was an elven female of the Summer Green clan, allies of Kale's own clan. However, this elf, who called herself Jana, was not known to the ranger. Jana asked the party to mount the gryphons and accompany her to Waterdeep. The party did as requested, and in no time took to the air and began a flight toward the City of Splendors.

To be continued...

Paragons of Waterdeep: Session 15

(Note: this session included Jamie and his rogue Milo, Pam and her elven ranger Kale, and Bill and his Lathanderite cleric Oisin. Much to our sadness, Player Wes seems to be tied up with important life matters, so will be away from our table indefinitely. We hope he can join us again sometime in the near future. Until then, a seat is always open for him!)

After our intrepid band of adventurers took their meals at the Watchful Knight Inn in the frontier outpost of Beliard, they turned in for a good night’s rest (the first time sleeping in beds for some time). Despite the meager accommodations, the cots on which they slept felt like feather beds.

The next morning found them strolling to the common room for breakfast (while back in a room an NPC, Leela the cleric who has lost her faith, took care of Player Wes’ wizard character Keseim, who was still under some sort of sleeping curse). At once they noticed that the wizened and irascible proprietor, Mrs. Winterburn, was not at her usual perch on a stool behind the bar. Instead, her halfling servant Yollo was bustling about the common room, trying to serve the patrons there as best he could. The halfling, however, was unused to running a business, so was greatly flustered, as were the cook and the barmaids.

The group managed to get Yollo’s attention, and he told them Mrs. Winterburn had not come out of her room that morning at her usual early hour. When the halfling went to check on her, he found her door unlocked. While her bed showed signs of having been slept in, the old woman was nowhere to be seen.

At this point Milo and Kale investigated the room, while Oisin (accompanied by NPC elven fighter Otiver) asked the patrons for any clues that might be gleaned (this questioning produced nothing of note). A search of the proprietor’s chamber at the back of the inn yielded no sign of struggle, but Milo and Kale did find a seemingly blank scroll hidden in a secret compartment in Mrs. Winterburn’s wardrobe. Oisin and Otiver joined Kale and Milo in the room, and Oisin cast Detect Magic. This allowed him to see arcane runes written on the scroll. Bereft of their wizard, no one in the group could read the scroll.

It was then that screams were heard from the common room. The party rushed back to find the common room filling with worried and angry townsfolk, and the barmaids wailing in anguish. A young cattle drover had come to the inn, breathlessly telling how he had discovered the bloody remains of Mrs. Winterburn just north of the town. Apparently, the mysterious beast that had been killing cattle had moved on to human prey. The party went to investigate, and they were followed by a large group of locals.

When they arrived at the scene, they were aghast at the state of the corpse. Mrs. Winterburn had been torn to shreds. The ground surrounding the remains was a churned mess of bloody mud, with no clean tracks to be found. There were also no tracks of any creature discernible leading to or from the site. There was speculation that some flying beast was responsible.

Oisin decided to call on Lathander’s aid in speaking to the spirit of the dead woman. Announcing his intentions to the crowd raised some murmurs of disapproval from some of the more superstitious locals, while others gasped in awe of what was about to happen. The cleric was able to contact Mrs. Winterburn. She revealed that she was a former student of Khelben Arunsun, Archmage of Waterdeep. She left her apprenticeship many years before due to lack of desire to rise high in the ranks of the Blackstaff’s service, in addition to having fallen in love with a man. She left Waterdeep and settled in the relative backwater of Beliard, where she raised two sons (Aron and Bran), whom she now mourned for treating them poorly when they became men (they subsequently left the outpost years ago).

Though Winterburn had left the Blackstaff’s tower, she had not left his service. She used the communication spell written on the scroll the party had found in her wardrobe to contact him, and vice versa. Khelben sometimes asked her to keep an eye on the situation in the region, particularly when it came to the potential activities of organizations such as the Shadow Thieves (a guild that had been pushed out of Waterdeep years before), the Zhentarim, or others.

Though it seemed that Winterburn had been one of the Harpers, the semi-secret organization dedicated to the cause of justice across the Realms, she said that she was not a part of that group. With regard to her death, the spirit did not know what attacked her, but she knew that it had seemed to step out of thin air, as if it was a summoned creature from another plane. She had been out investigating the recent cattle mutilations the night before when the creature set upon her suddenly.

Meanwhile, due to his focus on his conversation with the dead, Oisin was not aware of the rising tensions surrounding him. An angry contingent of rough-looking men, led by a local ruffian named Rand, pushed through the crowd and began threatening the party for disturbing the spirit of the dead woman. Kale, Milo, and Otiver stood their ground and drew weapons to defend Oisin. There was a tense stand-off before Rand and his thugs turned and left, but not before Rand warned the party that their business was not finished.

The people that remained were sympathetic to the party’s desire to put Mrs. Winterburn’s spirit and body to rest. The party and the townsfolk brought the woman’s remains to the back of her inn, where they buried her as Oisin said Lathanderite last rites.

Not long after they returned to the inn’s common room to discuss their next steps, a commotion on the street outside the inn brought them to the windows to look outside. Rand and a larger group of cronies were out in the street, armed with weapons as well as torches and oil. Rand called for the group to leave Beliard, or he and his men would burn them out.

The party readied for possible battle, and Kale took a warning shot that took the torch out of one of the thug’s hands. This, plus the appearance of obviously skilled adventurers ready for battle, caused several of Rand’s men to flee. Rand retreated once more, swearing that he would return with even more men next time.

The party then decided to go and visit one of the nearby farms that had experienced cattle mutilations, in the hope of getting more details on the nature of the creature they were dealing with. They also decided to pack up all of their belongings (and put the sleeping Keseim in a wagon with Leela) and prepare to leave the town on short notice. They also wanted to avoid having the inn become collateral damage in the escalating conflict with Rand.

When the party arrived at the farm of Old Man Willets, a group of six drovers told them to go on up to Willets’ home beside a large barn. The group knocked on the door to the house, but there was no answer. Fearing something foul had happened to the man, they went through the unlocked door with weapons ready. Inside was a large room filled with farm implements and riding gear.

Before the group could advance to the door across from them into the next part of the house, four cloaked and hooded figures stepped out of a shadowed corner of the room. Each bore a wavy-bladed kris knife forged from some reddish metal in each hand. These strangers attacked immediately, and the group soon found themselves hard pressed in combat. Their attackers scored several hits, and the bite of their blades seemed to cause a strange weakness in those they struck.

The party managed to kill one of the attackers before deciding that they needed to retreat, after the NPC Otiver was gravely wounded (and Milo was stabbed and failed a save against a Strength-draining effect). The group began a fighting withdrawal, backing out through the door they hand originally entered through. Once outside, they were greeted by a disturbing sight: Leela (who had stayed outside with Keseim) was being held by one of the drovers the group had met earlier. The man, with his five fellows behind him, was holding a dagger to Leela’s throat.

To be continued…

Paragons of Waterdeep: Session 14

Session 14 was the first session of 2012, and I found myself with three of my four regular players, which was great! Due to the holiday season and various other reasons, we’ve been missing some game nights, so it was nice to have most of the gang back together.

So therefore, this session was something of a regrouping adventure. After the group shook up the nest of troglodytes under an abandoned elven tower in the High Forest and were subsequently overwhelmed, they retreated back to where they had left the rest of their party. On the way, they met up with Player Jamie’s thief Milo. Together, they found that the rest of the party they had left behind had gone west to return to the Spring Dawn clan. The players (Pam and Bill in addition to Jamie) decided to take their splinter group and return to the clan as well, as they felt they had done all they could in their effort to divert the Autumn Blade clan’s raids.

Their journey back to the clan was uneventful, and it was a happy reunion once the party rejoined the Spring Dawn encampment. Kale the elven ranger was once again reunited with all of her fellow Daughters of Mielikki, the clan’s elite group of rangers. And Leela (an NPC), the cleric Oisin’s fellow Lathanderite, was there to greet them. She seemed in much better spirits, somewhat more recovered from her traumatic injuries suffered when fighting an ankheg in a previous session.

The party discussed the future of the clan, and quickly realized that a new leader (or voantir) had to be chosen soon. There was some difference of opinion among who should take on the position. None of the surviving family of the last voantir were willing or prepared to assume the mantle. Though the members of the group had traditionally sworn not to take any role in the politics of the clan, the Daughters of Mielikki (Kale included) thought that the current circumstances called for a break with tradition. The obvious choice would have been Breonna, the leader of the rangers who had been de facto leader of the clan since the voantir’s death.

But Breonna was reluctant, and some of the other rangers thought others among their number might be better serve. This included Kale, who found that several of her sisters would support her should she choose to seek the position. There was some more discussion and eventually a vote, and Breonna was designated as the choice. She left the group to speak of the decision with the dead voantir’s family.

With the clan now in a much safer place, and with the promise of a new and stronger leader, the PC’s decided it was time to head back to Waterdeep. They decided they would head west to the City of Splendors, from which they had been absent for almost a month. The next morning, after the announcement to the clan of the truth of the voantir’s demise and the ascension of Breonna as the new leader, the party departed. They made their way to a small trading outpost called Beliard. The rough settlement boasted only one inn, The Watchful Knight, the largest of the wooden structures in the outpost.

The inn’s proprietor, a grizzled old human woman, was quite vociferous about her distrust of elves, so she kept a squinty eye on Kale. The old woman insisted that elves had stolen her child as an infant and has left an elven child as a changeling. Kale was none too pleased with the old woman, but her anger was somewhat placated by a halfling named Yollo. The halfling is the proprietor’s helper, and showed the party to their rooms. Along the way, Yollo regaled them about a recent spate of cattle slaughterings. He told them of large and strange tracks found near the carcasses, and then left them to unpack their belongings and then take meals in the inn’s common room.

To be continued…

Paragons of Waterdeep: Session 13

We had our “lucky 13th” session smack dab in the middle of the holidays, so not surprisingly only one player was able to show up. Bill arrived and was ready to go. He ran his Lathanderite cleric Oisin, as well as his wife Pam’s elven ranger Kale. The party wizard, Keseim (Player Wes absent), was still conveniently unconscious after being drugged by an arrow tipped with some sleep poison. The rogue Milo (Player Jamie absent) stormed off in a huff due to the fact that he was denied the chance to further pummel the Autumn Blade elf captive. He wasn’t seen for the rest of the session (again, conveniently ;-).

So, the party and their elven warriors were indeed saved by elves from an allied clan: the Summer Green clan. These newcomers, led by a ranger named Arilyn, revealed that their clan had been recently under attack by supposedly demonic forces from the eastern portion of the High Forest. This was worrisome, as the demon-controlled Hellgate Keep lies at the easternmost portion of the forest. The evil denizens of that fiend-ridden city had been responsible, in part, of the ancient elven realm of Eaerlann. However, small contingents of Summer Green elves, such as the one that had come to the party’s rescue, had managed to slip south when they heard that the Spring Dawn clan was in trouble.

After some debate as to what to do next (return to Kale’s clan, or track down the Autumn Blades and take the fight to them), the party decided to send a splinter group north to track down the Autumn Blades and test their strength. This group included the Summer Green elves, some elven warriors (led by the sometimes bumbling elven NPC named Otiver), Oisin, Kale, and Kale’s fellow Daughters of Mielikki rangers Karis and Rel. So this group struck out to see if they could hit back against their enemies.

After traveling for several hours tracking the very obvious movements of the Autumn Blades (they were obviously not trying to hide their tracks), the group came to the ruins of an elven-built watchtower. The Autumn Blade’s tracks led to the gaping entrance of the tower. The rangers snuck up to the tower and listened for sounds from within, but heard nothing. The group, convinced that the Autumn Blades were hiding within, decided to rush the interior of the tower and take the fight to their enemies.

The opening salvo of their attack would be a sonic attack spell cast by Oisin the cleric. When Oisin send his spell screaming through the entrance, the impact made the entire tower ring like a gigantic bell. Not long after, the sound of screeching emanated from the tower. This was followed by the emergence of two lizard-like humanoids from the tower’s entrance, which the group quickly identified as troglodytes.

The elven warriors who had taken up positions just outside the entrance cut the two creatures down quickly, with the help of arrows fired by the rangers. Then the warriors rushed into the tower as the first wave of the group’s attack. They were greeted by a ruined interior, at the center of which stood a spiral staircase leading up. Next to the staircase was a gaping hole in the floor. It was from this hole that more troglodytes began to clamber in what would become a flood of monstrous humanoids. The group fought valiantly, but was soon overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Several of the Summer Green clan elves were killed before the group was able to make good their retreat. The troglodytes gave up the chase quickly, seemingly unwilling to stray too far from the confines of the tower.

The session ended with the party heading back to where they had left the remainder of their companions.

To be continued…

Paragons of Waterdeep: Session 12

Player Bill (running his Lathanderite cleric Oisin and Player Pam’s elven ranger Kale) and Player Jamie (running his rogue Milo) were in attendance for this session, in which we saw what happened in the aftermath of the skirmish with the elves of the Autumn Blade clan. After tending to the wounded and checking the dead, attentions turned to an Autumn Blade prisoner that had been trapped in the wizard Keseim’s web spell (by the way, Player Wes wasn’t at the session, so Keseim had conveniently been hit by an arrow coated with sleep-inducing toxins, and thus snoozed through the session).

After a somewhat lengthy debate between Oisin and Milo on how to question the prisoner (the conversation between a cleric of a lawful god and a rogue was, of course, a highlight of the session), they seemed to settle on the old “good cleric, bad rogue” routine. However, this seemed to degenerate in Milo taking over most of the questioning process. Oisin wanted no part in Milo’s increasingly, um, “persuasive” tactics. Said tactics included threatening the elf (who gave his name as Elashar) with climbing gear, namely pitons and hammer. As the questioning progressed (with Milo trying to pry information about the Autumn Blade’s intentions, movement, and numbers from the captive) and Elashar remaining tight-lipped and mocking, Milo drove pitons through the toes of elf’s boots, narrowly missing toes. While all this was going on, Oisin joined Kale and the other Daughters of Mielikki with the group (Rel and Karis) on a walk around the camp’s perimeter, to keep an eye out for another assault by the Autumn Blades.

Meanwhile, Milo’s questioning was whipping the Spring Dawn warriors into a frenzy of blood lust and revenge. The Autumn Blades, after all, had been bitter enemies of the Spring Dawn clan for many years. Milo finally became so frustrated with the prisoner that he suddenly insisted on fighting Elashar one-on-one. The elf was untied, and what followed was a down-and-dirty fist fight in a circle of cheering elven warriors. The combatants exchanged blows, while the crowd shouted and rooted for Milo to beat the Autumn Blade to a pulp.

All of this commotion soon attracted unwanted attention, however. As the fight progressed, Kale and her fellow rangers were the first to hear distant crashings through the trees. Eventually, an ettin, two heads grinning wickedly and wielding a large club, came barreling into the camp. The freakish giant smashed a couple of elven warriors with his massive weapon before the elves began to fight back.

Despite the new threat, Milo and Elashar continued their duel. Not long after the appearance of the first ettin, a second ettin appeared from the trees to cause more havoc. Despite the surprise and ferocity of the ettin attack, Oisin and Kale (along with the other Daughters of Mielikki and the elven warriors) led the group in overcoming the giants.

Around the time the second ettin attacked the group, Elashar began to back away from the contest with Milo, trying for a fighting retreat of sorts. Milo tried to snare him with a grappling hook (one of the rogue’s favorite tricks) but the elf was too nimble. Then Milo hurried to catch up with the Autumn Blade, but just as he did so an arrow suddenly protruded from the elf’s shoulder. As Elashar slumped into Milo’s chest, the rogue looked up to see yet another elf step from the trees. This newcomer, who had shot Elashar with the bow she held in her hand, wore a cloak pinned at the shoulder with a silver brooch worked into the image of a sun rising behind a blade of grass.

To be continued…

Paragons of Waterdeep: Sesson 11

Our heroes and their allies battle hostile elves and their lupine pets!

(The Wednesday Night C&C group at All Things Fun hasn't met in about three weeks, due to Thanksgiving as well as some conflicts in my schedule. Therefore, we haven't had a session of my campaign for a few weeks. I'm definitely suffering from RPG withdrawal! I sort of expected this time of year to slow us down, but I've used the time to keep planning all sorts of diabolical stuff for my players to encounter. At any rate, session 11 was pretty intense. Read on below...)

At the end of the last session, the party had reunited with elven ranger Kale's wood elf clan. Her people were still migrating westward through the High Forest, with the goal of getting away from the recent depridations of undead humanoids. Kale, along with Lathanderite cleric Oisin, human wizard Keseim, and Milo the rogue, found the clan was in a haggard state. Everywhere they looked, upon entering the temporary clan encampment, there could be seen worried and/or wounded elves.

They were reunited with Breonna, the leader of the elite rangers called the Daughters of Mielikki (of which Kale is a member) and the current (temporary) leader of the clan since the death of the former leader/voantir, Elaya. Breonna confirmed that the vo'an, being burdened with protecting the clan's non-combatants and the slow progress through the dense forest, was being harried by ambushes and hit-and-run attacks by their enemies, the elves of the Autumn Blade clan.

The party quickly decided to help the vo'an by creating a diversion. They selected volunteers from among the clan's warriors, ten healthy and five injured fighters. The injured fighters were to be a part of a plan to trick the Autumn Blades into attacking what would appear to be a weakened group of stragglers that would lag behind the rest of the vo'an. Also a part of the plan would be two other Daughters of Mielikki, Rel and Karis (good friends of Kale).

The next day the group began to set their plan into motion. Then, as the vo'an began to move again, the party's group began to slowly lag behind the main body of the vo'an, in the hopes of luring at least some of the Autumn Blades away from attacking the vo'an proper.

The party's group came to a halt, and they waited to see if any Autumn Blades would take the bait. Sure enough, it wasn't long before there was movement detected in the trees surrounding the group. Then, a pack of feral wolves leaped upon the party, and battle was joined. The group fought off the wolves for the most part, and the beasts retreated into the wood again. Then there came a volley of many arrows that slammed into the party's group. This was followed by at least a dozen Autumn Blade archers stepping into sight.

What followed was a pretty intense combat, aided by using Player Jamie's wet erase grid and our mix of paper minis (some I recently downloaded from the internet as well as a good number that came with the "Black Box" version of D&D that I've had lying around for ages...it was pretty cool to finally break those out for some gaming) as well as glass beads and even counters from Jamie's copy of the D&D 4E Monster Vault! The image at the top of this post was taken during the height of the action!

The battle was great, with our group's usual combination of great tactics, clever usage of spells (props to Keseim's player Wes!), and their skill in acting in concert and maximizing their class abilities (for instance, C&C rangers are pretty deadly, even at low levels).

The party and their allies fought off the Autumn Blades, who retreated into the wood after having a significant number of their people killed or wounded. That's where the session left off, with four of the party's elven warrior's killed.

To be continued...

Paragons of Waterdeep: Sessions 9 & 10

At the end of Session 8, the party had just emerged from the sinister depths of a ruined temple, having defeated the evil being that dwelled there. Before they had a chance to regroup after their flight, a mysterious figure addressed them, saying “Welcome back, friends.”

The cloaked figure introduced himself as Doomguide Abelurd, a cleric of Kelemvor, the current god of death. The group discussed the recent events in the High Forest with Abelurd, who told the party that he was lured to the region due to strong emanations of undeath. Kelemvor abhors undeath, seeing it as an invasion upon his domain. In this Abelurd and the Lathanderite cleric Oisin found common ground, albeit from differing motivations.

From information imparted by the group and the location of the ruined temple, Abelurd surmised the possible identity of the being the group had just defeated. He told them they may have encountered a man named Ungotha, who had been a cleric of Myrkul centuries before, when the temple had still been active. Legends stated that Ungotha had turned to the worship of Velsharune, god of undeath, betraying his vows to Myrkul.

It was then that the elven wizardess Tanara awakened. She told the group that she had attempted to open the cave portal to Waterdeep through which the party had arrived days before, but was unable to do so. After that attempt, she decided to investigate the temple, and was overcome by the malevolent power there. She confirmed that the evil being in the temple had called himself Ungotha. There was no longer any doubt that Ungotha had made some pact with Velsharune to attain some sort of undead state.

It was then that the group noticed that Milo the rogue had disappeared (conveniently, since his player Jamie was not able to attend Session 9 ;-). A quick search of the area by Kale the elven ranger discovered his tracks, heading north.

It was decided that Tanara and Abelurd would head southeast to Evereska, the last major elven city on the continent. Tanara revealed that she is from that city. Now that the mystery of the portal stone and the location of Kurthrad’s tower was clarified, she felt it was time to return home and discuss her findings with her peers. Once she was ready to return to investigate the tower again, she would seek out the party’s assistance.

As for Abelurd, he said that his temple is located in the city of Westgate, far to the east on the Sea of Fallen Stars. He had decided to entreat his god to search for the spirit of Ungotha, and so doing gain confirmation of the vile necromancer-priest’s final demise.

The centaur NPC Narcoth volunteered to take the dwarf warrior Murzod’s body back to Mithral Hall. He then headed off to the northeast to find the rest of the party of dwarves that had gone on ahead.

This left the remaining party—Oisin, Kale, Keseim, and the elven fighter Otiver (NPC) to decide their next move. They chose to seek out Milo while they headed after Kale’s clan, in order to rejoin her people as they moved westward.

Kale lost Milo’s trail at a river, and while searching for it the party was attacked by bugbears. After making short work of the foul folk (C&C rangers are especially deadly against humanoids!), they rested for the night. They set off early the next morning, once Kale finally rediscovered Milo’s trail.

After hours of travel, the trail turned abruptly north into the depths of the High Forest. The party warily entered the trees. Keseim cast detect magic, and spotted emanations about 30 feet up a tree. As they cautiously approached, a huge winged form burst from the canopy above. It was a harpy, and it descended upon them in a fury. As the party fell into battle, a second harpy joined the fray. This second creature began to sing an eerie dirge, which most of the part was able to resist…except for the wizard Keseim! He was overwhelmed with the urge to climb a nearby tree in order to get closer to the harpies.

The rest of the group was able to kill the harpies. Keseim, no longer enchanted, continued to climb the tree to discover Milo tied with vines to a stout limb. The magic Keseim had detected had come from the magical dagger Milo had found in the ruined temple.

Milo was freed and the group enjoyed a short reunion before continuing onward. They rode hard across rough terrain, and by nightfall they reached the last location of Kale’s vo’an. The group made camp and settled in for the night. It was during Kale’s watch that she began to smell the scent of rot nearby. She woke the group to investigate. They finally noticed several sacks tied high up in some trees surrounding the campsite. Cutting down the sacks, they group found they contained the mutilated and dismembered bodies of elves. Kale recognized them as members of her clan.

Kale was familiar with the use of dead bodies to lure creatures in the High Forest. Someone (probably her clan’s sworn enemies, the Autumn Blades clan) had created an ambush. This tactic worked, as the group was suddenly attacked by a wyvern. A protracted and difficult fight ensued, but they were able to drive off the beast.

The next morning, Oisin used a spell to speak with the spirit of one of the slain elves. The spirit confirmed that they were indeed slain by Autumn Blades, and also told Oisin that a large force of Autumn Blades were pursuing Kale’s vo’an. This motivated the party to quickly resume their westward journey, in the hope of reuniting with the vo’an before the elves were overrun by their enemies.

During their rush to gain ground, the party barely avoided riding into an ambush set by a small force of Autumn Blade elves. They group decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and decided to avoid confronting a larger group of foes. Oisin cast a darkness spell over the party, and they rode onward. Since Oisin was the only one in the group able to see out of the darkness, he guided them as best he could verbally. There were a few close calls where PCs almost toppled from their horses, but the party was able to elude their pursuers (though Keseim was struck a grazing blow by one of many arrows that were shot by the Autumn Blades despite the darkness spell).

They group then encounter two of Kale’s fellow rangers, Karis and Aravel, who confirmed that the Spring Dawn clan was indeed being harried by the Autumn Blades. The group moved onward and finally reunited with the vo’an.

To be continued…

Paragons of Waterdeep: Sessions 7 & 8

At the table for these two pivotal sessions were Wes and his Calishite wizard Keseim, Pam and her elven ranger Kale, Bill and his cleric of Lathander named Oisin, and Jamie’s rogue named Milo. We picked up where we left off at the end of Session 6, with the group back in a hidden glade high in the Star Mount range in the High Forest. The group had just returned through a portal from the location of an ancient tower that was once the dwelling of an elven wizard named Kurthrad, who called himself “The Artificer.” They had fought against some of the constructs that dwell in the tower: a bull-like abraxus that expelled deadly green gas and some animated suits of armor.

Their centaur NPC, Quiron, was poisoned by the abraxus’ noxious exhalations. They had dragged him back through the portal, but he lay unconscious, his breathing shallow and his skin a deathly pallor. Narcoth, the other centaur NPC, told the group that a warrior of their tribe should die by a weapon’s touch, not slowly fade into death. That would be dishonorable. So he told them that he would put an end to Quiron’s suffering, whether they agreed or not. Indeed, he would fight the party if they tried to stop him. The party said they would not interfere, so Narcoth went about the task of ending his fellow’s life, and, as befits the traditions of the centaur people, they would leave his body for Nature to reclaim.

Afterward, the group discussed their next move, and decided that they would need to soon return to the ruined temple of Myrkul and attempt to finish off the evil force within. But they knew they would need some help, and decided to attempt to find the group of dwarves from Mithral Hall that they had met in the High Forest.

They came down from the mountains, and as they headed northeast, some of the group (except for Kale) began to hear the faint sound of a woman’s voice. The voice seemed to come from everywhere, and they heard whimpering as well as the words “…temple…pain…” As they stopped in confusion, they spied a small form emerge from the High Forest: it was Murzod the dwarf, one of the dwarves they had decided to seek out. When he approached the group, he said that he had been journeying with his fellows to Mithral Hall when he began to hear a woman’s voice, and his feet turned of their own accord back toward the east. The call had been leading him in the general direction of the ancient temple to Myrkul, a place he had not been before. The group took this as a sign that their fates crossed paths at the site of the evil temple, so they moved in all haste to that dark place.

Once at the ruined temple, they headed inside with some hesitation and preparation. But they encountered nothing but bones of orcs, gnolls, and goblins. They toyed with the idea of opening the door inscribed with the words goblinoid words for “Bad Here,” but ultimately decided to pass it by. When they came to the room where they slew a goodly number of evil humanoids, including the gnoll chieftan Gritznak, they decided to break up the bones they found there in an effort to cripple any animated skeletons that might form from them. As they broke up the bones, that’s when the temple seemed to breathe. Then bones began to swirl around the room in a storm of sharp fragments. The party managed to avoid getting shredded and fled down the nearby staircase to the lower level of the temple.

They were greeted by a dark corridor lined with doors at the bottom of the steps. As they slowly advanced, torches in hand and listening at doors, they began to hear moaning from somewhere ahead…and then the skittering of claws. This was followed by someone suddenly wailing “Gods, they’re coming back! Please, save me, oh gods of mercy!”

The group cautiously rounded a corner to see a flayed man chained to the wall of the passage. The flesh of his torso was peeled back to reveal his organs, and yet he still lived. The sound of claws grew louder, until a ghoul came out of the darkness ahead to feast on the exposed entrails of the man, whose wails became screams (can you tell it’s close to Halloween? ;-). The group sprang into action as several more ghouls rounded the corner and rushed at the party. Some blows were struck against the creatures before Oisin the Lathanderite turned the ghouls, causing them to flee back into the darkness. The group tried to talk to the unfortunate man on the wall, but all he did was rave about once being a part of a traveling group of performers.

They continued down the corridor and discovered three more flayed yet still living people, also former members of a group of troubadours that were captured by the evil humanoids that served the power of the evil temple. They pressed on through the gauntlet of these tortured souls, encountering two giant skeletons that were created from the bones of many different creatures. Once again, Oisin exhorted Lathander to make the undead flee, and the god answered, sending the things running before the party’s advance. The group then made similar short work of another pack of ghouls, using swords, arrows, and flame (the old flaming lamp oil trick!).

Their resources almost spent, the group passed a nervous night in the depths of the temple. They were able to rest and regain some strength before pressing on. They discovered the desiccated corpses of what looked to be a party of adventurers. Among the bodies they found an amulet, a well-crafted wizard’s staff, and a beautifully-made dagger, all of which radiated strong magic.

The party moved on, and came to a massive door of black iron. The front of the door was crafted to resemble a writhing mass of nude male and female bodies. As they approached the door, five twisted dog-like creatures—yeth hounds—with slavering jaws passed through the door as if they were as insubstantial as ghosts. The party engaged in a desperate battle once more. The beasts were not undead, so Oisin could not turn them. Milo the rogue used his newly-acquired dagger to good effect. His attacks on the hounds were devastating, causing the flesh of the beasts to burn. At one point, one of the hounds began to howl, and supernatural fear descended upon the party. The group was able to shake off the effects of the fear, however, and after slaying several of the hounds (which, as extraplanar creatures, faded into nothingness once killed), this caused the remainder to flee. Then the party steeled themselves and pushed open the massive door before them.

They entered a large chamber that was lit by guttering torches in sconces. The vaulted ceiling was lost in darkness. Along the walls were six giant statues of Myrkul. As was the case with all the other statues in the temple, they were carved into the “Grim Reaper” visage of the former god of death. However, the faces of these statues had been smashed off. At the other end of the room was a large stone altar, upon which lay the bound and unconscious form of Tanara, the elven wizard. And beyond her, on a dais, sat a dark-robed figure. Two yeth hounds sat at its feet, gazing balefully at the party with burning red eyes.

The party readied themselves for battle once more, and advanced slowly into the chamber. As they did so, the cloaked being stood slowly and welcomed them to his lair. He told them that he would use their blood and bodies to aid in the finalization of his resurrection and the continued growth of his army of the undead. He gave praise to a god named Velsharune, the god of undeath (who was never a friend to the gods of death, especially the current death god, Kelemvor). Velsharune was the source of the mysterious being’s power. The robed figure declared that the birth of an undead empire on the face of Faerun would begin with the sacrifice of Tanara.

The party decided to attack as the hooded figure began to advance toward Tanara with a large ceremonial dagger. An epic battle ensued, in which the robed being commanded yeth hounds as well as animated shadows to attack the group. Kale the ranger had a shadow drain her of strength at one point. The robed being cast arcane spells, one of which enchanted Murzod, who promptly turned and attacked members of the party. In the chaos of battle, the elven warrior Otiver (an NPC and clansman of Kale) struck Murzod a blow from behind, wounding him.

But the party had the divine power of Lathander on their side in the form of Oisin, who was able to turn many of the shadows summoned by their cloaked antagonist. This enraged the strange being, who pulled back its hood to show a fleshless head that revealed wet musculature and lidless eyes. The being cursed the cleric Oisin and the god Lathander, renewing his magical attacks. He summoned up a poisonous fog to choke the group, and flung bolts of green energy at them. Several of these struck the wizard Keseim at one point, almost killing him (took him down into negative hit points, but the cleric acted quickly to heal the wizard).

Slowly, the group turned the tide of battle, working well in unison until only the fleshless being remained. At that point, their opponent drew out a wicked mace that ended in a spiked metal head shaped like a skull. Then, he shrouded himself in magical darkness, and advanced on the group. A mighty blow from that evil weapon slew Murzod. Milo was also struck a grazing blow, and the touch of the weapon caused him to go blind!

The party attacked from all sides, desperately trying to damage an opponent that they could not see. Finally, Oisin challenged the being directly, causing their enemy to react in anger. The robed being strode from the shadows to deal a blow to the cleric. But it was Oisin who landed a crushing strike (Player Bill rolled a clutch natural 20 at that moment!), and at the same time the centaur Narcoth also struck with his enchanted scimitar. This onslaught brought the battle to an end, slaying their foe.

In the aftermath, the group only had time to heal some of their wounds and gather up the body of Murzod. Then the temple began to shake violently. They rushed through the dark corridors in a frantic race to reach the exit before the temple collapsed in on itself. They were able to make it back to the surface just as the temple withdrew back into the ground. The group had just collapsed to the ground in exhaustion when a nearby voice said, “Welcome back, friends.” The party looked up to see a dark figure standing in the shadow of the nearby woods.

To be continued...

Paragons of Waterdeep: Session 6

Apologies for the long time between session posts. On a good note, this session was more than a full house! We had Player Wes back from a long stint at a summer gig that kept him away from the table. And GM Rich, the founder of the group, was in town and sat in on my game as a player (he took on the role of one of the NPCs). In addition, Jamie Albrecht of For a Fistful of Coppers fame stopped by to get in on the action! As you can read on his blog, he recently moved into the South Jersey area. I invited him to join our gaming goodness and sure enough he jumped right in with gusto!

I don’t have much time to do a huge recap, but I’ll try to hit all the major points. So, when last we left our merry band, they had found the secret location of the tower of an ancient elven wizard named Kurthrad the Artificer. Not long after their discovery, a being with the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and the face of a bearded man stepped out onto the tower’s lowest balcony to confront them.

The wizard Vorath (an NPC, but once the character of a player named Glenn, who unfortunately has had to leave the group) had the temerity to start complaining to the creature, accusing it of trying to intimidate the party. The creature promptly caused the mouthy wizard to vanish. As quickly as Vorath vanished, another man appeared not far from where the wizard once stood. This newcomer was Milo, the rogue created by Jamie from For a Fistful of Coppers. Milo had once been a part of a group of adventurers who had found the tower. All he remembers is that he and his former group had climbed down from the sheer cliffs above the tower to reach it. He has no memory of what occurred after that. So he has no idea what happened to his former companions, and he has no idea how long he’s been in “limbo.”

It turned out that the strange being had been responsible for Milo’s predicament. As the group spoke with the being (which Player Wes’ wizard Keseim identified as a lammasu), they learned that the creature had taken up residence in the tower in order to keep what the lammasu called “the horrors” within the tower. Apparently, Kurthrad the Artificer wasn’t so benevolent, and had created all manner of diabolical constructs. So, the lammasu had made a mission of keeping the contents of the tower from escaping. It has also kept intruders from entering.

After some discussion with the being, during which the lammasu repeatedly told the group that they would not be allowed to enter the tower (for their own safety and, more importantly, sanity), the being agreed to protect the group as best it could until they could leave the small chasm in which the tower stood. As it turns out, the stone portal tablet the group had used to enter the chasm could only be used once a day. The lammasu told them that the evil power inside the tower was so great that it would take all of the enigmatic being’s power to keep the malevolent constructs in the tower overnight. With that, the lammasu returned to the depths of the tower.

Not long after, the massive iron door to the tower began to open with a screech. It was apparent that the lammasu had been unsuccessful in keeping the tower’s evil totally at bay! A metallic, bull-like creature emerged from the darkness within the tower, its hide gleaming gold. During the fight that followed, the rogue Milo attempted to entangle the thing’s legs with a grappling hook connected to a length of chain. He only succeeded in getting the hook stuck in one of the thing’s front legs. But Milo made the best of things, driving a spike through the chain and then into the ground. The group then decided to maneuver the bull construct (which Keseim the wizard identified as an abraxus) around the chasm until there was enough slack in the chain to allow them to finally entangle the thing.

During the battle, the abraxus began to emit a noxious green gas. The group did a decent job of resisting the effects, but one of their centaur NPCs, Quiron, succumbed to the gas and fell to the ground choking (the abraxus also gored the centaur pretty badly).

After a protracted combat that found the group struggling to penetrate the creature’s metallic hide, the group finally managed to trip up the abraxus and cause it to fall over. Once that happened, they made short work of it. Smashing open the thing’s skull, they plundered two large rubies and an even larger diamond from the head. The gems were obviously used in the making of the abraxus, and were apparently part of what focused the magical energies that brought it to life.

After that, the party had no choice but to trust in the promise of the lammasu to protect them overnight. The night was indeed uneventful. In the morning, however, it became apparent that the lammasu could no longer protect them, as the door to the tower once again opened, and out came five animated suits of armor.

Keseim the wizard began chanting the runes on the portal stone while the rest of the group, including their welcome new addition Milo, fought off the latest wave of constructs. The portal opened after three rounds of chanting by Keseim, and the group beat a hasty retreat (they had to drag the still-unconscious body of Quiron the centaur through).

The session ended with the party gratefully once again in the hidden crevasse from which they had teleported the day before. All in all, a good session that was sort of combat-intensive, as opposed to the session before it, which had been very heavy with regard to roleplaying. Most importantly, I was running a table full of the best players I’ve had the pleasure to game with in a long time! The next session is this Wednesday! Can’t wait!

To be continued...

EDIT: I forgot to mention that at one point during the session, Milo the rogue and Kale the ranger climbed up to the balcony on which the lammasu had appeared. Once there, they were struck by a wave of supernatural dread against which they had to fight mentally, lest they go mad! They vacated the balcony not long after that experience, suffice to say...

Paragons of Waterdeep: Sessions 4 & 5

(This post contains the events of two sessions. I’ve done this because I have limited time to write this recap, but I don’t want too much more time to go by before getting this recap done.)

The party left the encampment of the high elf wizard Tanara, in order to return to the elven ranger Kale’s clan with news of what the group had discovered in the ruined temple of Myrkul, former God of Death. They were escorted by the White Owl tribe centaurs that had been helping Tanara, some of whom had accompanied the party to the ruined temple.

Once they were out of the mountains, they were met by another contingent of White Owls, led by a rather confrontational centaur named Oriseus. After some heated words with the two centaurs that had insisted on accompanied the party into the depths of the temple (Narcoth and Quiron), Oriseus banished them from the White Owl tribe. At that point, the party negotiated with the centaurs and managed to retain possession of the centaur-provided elk mounts they were using, for as long as it took for the party to return to Kale’s people. Once that was settled, the centaurs left the group to their own devices. Now tribeless, Narcoth and Quiron pledged themselves to the service of the party.

The party pressed on west, skirting the northern edge of the Star Mounts, between the mountains and the southern edge of the High Forest. At one point, they saw smoke from the trees and heard raucous voices. While they debated over whether or not to investigate, they heard screaming and sounds of combat. The ranger investigated and found a camp of dwarves fighting with a giant insect-like creature. Kale, seeing that three of the dwarves had already been killed by the creature, decided to take a chance and fired an arrow at the thing. This only served to make it angry at Kale, and it promptly chased her.

As Kale ran from the creature, she called to her party to warn them. The group prepared for battle. During the fighting that followed, the Cleric of Lathander named Leela (an NPC) was sprayed by a caustic substance spewed by the creature. The rest of the group watched in horror as her armor, clothes, and skin began to be eaten away by the fluid.

Also during the melee, one of the dwarves came out of the forest raving about how he didn’t want the party to “steal his prize,” and used a strange steel rod to fire a projectile (with a loud crashing sound the likes of which the group had never heard) at Quiron the centaur. The dwarf, of course, was using an arquebus, a very rare weapon in the Realms. The projectile took off half of Quiron’s ear, and the dwarf was reloading when his fellow dwarves wrestled him to the ground.

The party managed to kill the insectile creature, which turned out to be an ankheg. The dwarves had come from the dwarven city Mithral Hall to the High Forest to hunt big game, and had managed to capture the ankheg. But it had escaped its bonds when it was in their camp, killing three of the ten dwarves before Kale fired her arrow. The leader of the dwarven hunting party, Kalek, was bound by his fellows for firing upon the centaur. His second in command, Murzod, stated that his leader had gone too far. The dwarves intended to escort Kalek back to Mithral Hall for reprimand.

Leela was stabilized and saved from death by Oisin the cleric, but she was badly scarred by the acidic breath of the ankheg. The party rested overnight with the dwarves, and then moved out the next day with the promise of reuniting with the dwarves again if possible.

The going was not easy with the injured Leela. They stopped for a rest the next day, and she showed signs of a deep sadness born not only of her near-death experience and disfigurement, but also of the loss of her friend Nestor in Myrkul’s temple. During the rest, Kale and Leela heard a melodic piping noise that had a strange influence on them. Kale was able to easily shake off this influence, but Leela rose and began to walk toward the forest in a dream-like state. The party was forced to restrain her, and she fought them weakly as the group hurriedly moved on to the west. The group surmised that the strange music was that of a satyr somewhere in the nearby woods.

Finally, the group reached the vo’an of the Spring Dawn clan. Kale was very happy to be back among her people. She and her compatriots were welcomed warmly, especially by Kale’s fellow Daughters of Mielikki, the elite corps of rangers of which she is a member. The leader of the Daughters, Breonna, asked the party to join her in a private tent in order to discuss their journey. Rel and Karis, two other Daughters, also accompanied them. There, the party relayed all of the events that had befallen them since Kale went to Waterdeep.

Breonna, Rel, and Karis were concerned about the events at the ruined temple, but praised the group for their efforts. There had been more attacks by undead humanoids since Kale left, but they had been repulsed. But, not without a heavy cost. The leader of the clan, the voantir Elaya, had been injured during the attack and was near death. She was being ravaged by the plague that the undead seemed to carry. This lent a somber edge to the reunion.

Breonna feared the ultimate demise of the voantir, revealing that there was some dissension in the clan. There were three individuals in the clan that were making known their dissatisfaction with the voantir’s leadership. It was the voantir’s decision, for instance, to send Kale to Waterdeep to seek aid from human clerics. This did not sit well with many in the clan, as seeking help from outlanders is considered a sign of weakness.

The Daughters of Mielikki are traditionally aloof from political matters of the vo’an. But while Breonna was struggling to retain that detachment, others in the ranger sisterhood (including Rel and Karis) were pushing for unprecedented action: they believe it is a time for the Daughters to intervene and keep the clan from fracturing.

The Daughters suspect foul play was involved in the voantir’s injuries. They noticed elven tracks outside the vo’an that seem to indicate what would normally be considered unthinkable: an elf leading infected humanoids toward the vo’an. Even in the face of this evidence, Breonna was still reluctant to take a direct role in the growing political rifts in the clan.

After this grim discussion, Breonna left the group in order to inform the voantir that the party had arrived. There was limited access to the voantir at the request of her family, and Breonna was going to petition to have the party given permission to see the ailing leader.

It was then that Rel and Karis told the party that the Daughters of Mielikki had captured a human wizard who had wandered into the vo’an two weeks prior. The group was taken to the tent where the prisoner was being held, and they were introduced to Keseim (Player Wesley’s character). Keseim hails from Calimport, decadent capital of the southern nation of Calimshan. After some verbal sparring, in which Keseim seemed to excel, the group convinced the wizard to help them in their efforts (his other alternatives could have included indefinite captivity, or worse…)

Keseim and the wizard Vorath compared spellbooks, and Keseim learned a comprehend languages spell from Vorath. It was then that Kale remembered the rubbing of Tanara’s key stone tablet, which would supposedly open a doorway to the hidden tower of an ancient elven wizard called Kurthrad the Artificer. She showed Keseim the rubbing, and he was almost able to read the two remaining runes that Tanara was unable to decipher. He felt confident that once he had mastered the ability to cast the comprehend languages spell, he would be able to translate the last of the runes.

The group got much needed rest that night, with Leela being handed over to the care of the clan’s druids. The next morning, Breonna told the group that they were to be allowed to see the voantir. But when they arrived at the leader’s tent, they heard the sounds of weeping from within. They went in to discover the voantir had died suddenly. Breonna moved quickly to try and convince the family to keep the voantir’s death a secret for as long as possible, so as to prevent an immediate coup. Breonna told Kale and her group that before she died the voantir expressed gratitude for the party’s efforts, and had wanted to talk to them about the next steps on their quest to rid the High Forest of the undead humanoid plague. Now, the decision was left up to them.

While Breonna worked to decide how best to hold the clan together, the party deliberated their next move. They decided to head back east toward the ruined temple of Myrkul, but first they would have Keseim decode the key stone tablet’s runes and bring the information to Tanara.

Breonna returned to the group to tell them she had reluctantly decided to act as temporary leader of the vo’an, while telling the clan’s people that Voantir Elaya was still alive and giving orders through Breonna. The leader of the rangers had decided to lead the vo’an west, toward the very fringes of the High Forest and further away from danger. It was understood that this would make the safety of the vo’an further away from the party should they survive, but the safety of the clan needed to be preserved.

The party prepared to travel once again. They were able to enlist the aid of an elven wizard named Eanor and elven fighter Otiver (NPCs). So, provisioned and rested (and with elven-bred horses to ride, since the centaur-bred elk were released to return to the White Owls of their own accord), the group headed east once more, after farewells were said.

Oisin the cleric, Kale the elven ranger, the wizards Keseim and Vorath, the centaurs Narcoth and Quiron, and Eanor and Otiver made an uneventful journey back into the heights of the Star Mounts to the hidden crevasse in which Tanara was making her search for the hidden wizard’s tower. The party arrived to find nothing but the cold remains of a camp fire. There was no sign of any of the White Owl centaurs or Tanara. The party began to investigate the crevasse. Keseim cast a detect magic spell and spotted signs of an enchantment in a small stand of trees. Investigation revealed that the key stone tablet was hanging in a sack from a tree limb. As they cut the sack from the tree and retrieved the tablet, a strange rhythmic clicking could be heard approaching. The group prepared themselves for trouble.

They were shocked to see what looked like five halflings come charging from the trees. Except these halflings seemed to be made of some golden metal. The clicking was coming from them, but otherwise they made no sound as they approached.  A fight ensued, and the party was able to destroy the strange constructs with minimal injuries to themselves. The constructs proved to be very nimble but fairly delicate, so blows focused on their flexible joints did well to immobilize them.

During the fight, Keseim (who had finally deciphered the runes) read the key stone tablet and began to chant the runes in a precise pattern that would open the doorway to the hidden tower. Upon completion, a portal opened and the party hurried through. The centaurs, suspicious of magic, had to be convinced to go through, but they eventually did so.

The group found themselves standing before a 100-foot-tall tower in a small depression somewhere in the mountains. They faced a huge iron door, and a balcony 30 feet above them (with four more balconies at 10-foot intervals above that).

They were considering what to do next when a loud roaring filled the depression, echoing around them in an ear-splitting din. The group looked up to see a large creature with the body of a lion, the wings of a bird, and the face of a bearded man step out onto the lowest balcony. The beast said in a loud, booming voice, “Who dares enter my realm?”

To be continued…

Paragons of Waterdeep: Session 3

At the end of session two, our intrepid band was still in the sinister ruins of an ancient temple of Myrkul, former god of death. Oisin, Cleric of Lathander (Player Bill) was paralyzed by the bite of a watch spider. The elven ranger Kale (Player Pam) rushed to his aid, attempting to use her knowledge of natural poisons to neutralize or at least slow the toxin. Nestor the thief (NPC) looked under the now-destroyed bed (under which the spider had been hiding) to find what appeared to be a wizard's staff. Nestor then found a wizard, bound and gagged on top of the ruined bed. He unbound the wizard to find that his name was Vorath (Player Glenn). Vorath had come to the sunken stone structure in order to find magical artifacts, and had been captured by orcs and goblins several days earlier. The staff under the bed belonged to Vorath and it was returned to him after some hasty introductions. The wizard was shown the magical spear that they party had found in the room. He cast read magic in order to read the runes carved into its shaft. The runes read “Spear of the Healer.” Kale decided to put the spear in Oisin's hand to see what would happen, and the cleric immediately began to recover from his poisoning.

Once Oisin had recovered, the party tried to figure out their next move. It turned out that Vorath and Oisin are both from the village of Amphail, north of Waterdeep. Vorath's mentor, Bartok, had recently passed away and left him a small house in Waterdeep. The house is supposed to contain magical secrets and is heavily warded. Vorath was taught the pass phrase “Happy half-orcs have halitosis” in order to enter the house. The wizard had considered going to Waterdeep, but was tempted by rumors of the sunken stone structure in the High Forest’s Star Mounts.

While talking and debating, the group was interrupted by a loud rumbling and sounds of a group of goblins and orcs coming from the hallway beyond the door. With the door still barred, they waited for the humanoids to pass. They then gathered up the magical spear, a set of ceremonial bracers encrusted with small gems, and 200 gold pieces before proceeding down the hallway to the north. There were no immediate signs of the humanoids.

They passed a door with the words “Bad Here” in orcish painted in blood (Kale was able to translate) and decided it was best not to open it. They then came to a small room that was full of hay and smelled of animals. There was a stairway going down in one corner. The party noticed three unusually large wolves asleep in the room. Kale, Vorath, and Nestor crept over to the wolves in order to dispatch them quietly and quickly. Vorath took out the first wolf flawlessly, followed by Nestor who dispatched the next wolf with a rogue's precision. Kale's wolf, however, awoke before she could kill it. So Kale, Nestor, and Vorath put the beast down together in a short fight. Suddenly, the group heard the sound of more humanoids coming from the hallway from which they had come. They decided to stand their ground and fight.

A seven-foot tall gnoll barreled into the room, snarling in rage upon seeing the dead wolves and the party. The gnoll announced himself as Gritznak and immediately pulled a large scimitar before charging. Goblins and orcs streamed in from the hallway behind Gritznak. Oisin smashed into Gritznak with his morningstar while trying to avoid blows from the enraged gnoll. Nestor threw daggers, while Vorath let fly with magic missiles. Kale immediately slew the first goblin to close ranks with the party. A pitched battle ensued, with most of the party in tight formation in a corner. They group became worried as the room filled with humanoids. Orcs with crossbows began firing at them until the centaurs broke ranks to charge the orcs. Nestor slipped out in order to try to get behind Gritznak, while Oisin traded blows with the gigantic gnoll. Leela stepped up to the front lines helping to fend off the waves of humanoids while Kale cut down one goblin after another with sure strokes of her sword. Finally, with dead humanoids all around, Oisin was able to land a crushing blow to Gritznak's side. Kale immediately sprung to finish the gnoll chieftain off, nearly severing his head with a two-handed swing of her bastard sword. It was then that Nestor shrieked as he was stuck in the leg with a goblin blade.

With Gritznak down, the party quickly dispatched the rest of the humanoids. Kale and Vorath removed a magical ring, a gold necklace, and a few gold and silver coins from Gritznak's body. The gnoll’s scimitar was also discovered to be enchanted. However, Nestor was lying on the ground in agony. Oisin removed the sword from the thief’s leg, to find the blade coated in sickly purple and green substance. To the group’s horror, the substance looked and smelled like the liquid they had seen oozing from the undead humanoids they had previously encountered. Oisin and Leela tried using healing spells, including the “Spear of the Healer,” which did not work. Kale looked closely at the wound in order to see if she could identify and slow any sort of natural toxin. She quickly determined that the source was not natural, and Nestor's leg began to turn black around the wound. Kale became determined to amputate Nestor's leg. She wiped her bastard sword and prepared for a clean two-handed swing. But Leela jumped in the way, sobbing and protesting.

While the group began to argue about what to do for Nestor, Kale heard a change in Leela’s sobs. The elven ranger looked over to see a now-undead Nestor gripping Leela’s arm with tremendous force and attempting to bite the cleric. Kale swung her sword, easily removing Nestor's head. It was then that the party then decided to make their retreat. Before they could leave the room, they noticed the blood of the dead humanoids being sucked into the stone floor. Then, the entire temple began to shake and shudder. They quickly gathered up a stunned Leela, lit the hay in the room on fire, and made their way back to the entrance of the ruin. They were praying that a certain stone slab that had sealed off the passage back to the ruined temple’s entrance was now no longer an obstacle.

As luck would have it, the shaking of the temple seemed to have dislodged the stone slab, and the party flooded into the room containing the statue of Myrkul. They found five animated skeletons blocking their path. Oisin called out to Lathander and turned all of the skeletons, and the party ran out of the temple’s entrance. There they found the remainder of the centaurs, who ran toward the party. Suddenly, there was another rumbling from the structure, and portions of the ruin appeared to push up from the ground. The party and the centaurs decided to put as much distance between themselves and the temple. They traveled for some time before setting up camp. During the night, the centaurs made it plain that they thought the party had made things worse for the White Owl tribe by stirring up the evil of the temple.

The next morning, the party and the centaurs made their way back up the mountains to the hidden crevasse. There they once again met with the high elf wizard Tanara. They recounted the tale of the ruined temple and introduced Vorath to her. Tanara was of course troubled by what they had to tell her. She told them that, while they were away, she had found a rune-covered stone tablet buried in the ground. She was only able to partially decipher the ancient script, but thought the table to be some sort of teleportation device that would take her to the hidden tower she sought.

After some discussion as to what to do next, Kale insisted that it was time to return to her people in order to tell them of what had happened. She had been sent for aid and had also found the most likely source for the undead plague, and therefore had to tell her people. The rest of the party agreed. Before setting out, Kale took a rubbing of Tanara’s tablet to show to the leader of her clan. Then, the group set off once more, this time for a journey to Kale’s vo’an…

To be continued…