October 20-23, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP
After some deliberations over strategies and priorities, the party decided to begin by opening the tunnel to the western timberlands beyond the Great Barrier Range. The choice between the High Pass Tunnel and the Deeps was resolved somewhat trivially when none of the liberated prisoners could recall anything about the Deeps -- including where to find the entrance. Conan the Librarian, now functioning as the notional lord of the newly captured tower and thus under its protection, offered to follow as far as the tunnel, but no farther.
On the first day of journey, the party encountered several giant beetles, which scuttled away from the unnatural column of marching skeletons. The following night was more eventful; a huge warband of close to 60 goblins encircled the camp, threatening to raid out of the darkness. Parlay with the goblins revealed their weakness for greed, and the party was able to buy them off for a few gold pieces each, throwing 250 or so into the forest to be scooped up by the greedy hands of the would-be ambushers. Conan instructed the goblins to scout the path and report back, if they wanted any more gold. The few goblins too slow to claim a share of the treasure promptly began squabbling and tussling with the others, and the threat was neutralized.
The entrance to the tunnel was itself unguarded except by a few odd inscriptions around the perimeter, but the party had been given advance warning of multiple checkposts inside. Illusion spells cloaked the frontline in the guise of a dark elven hunting party, with Boudicca's spider glamoured to appear as a drider. Sure enough, within the first ten minutes the party found a sign advising preparation for a customs inspection. Confident in the quality of the illusion, the party marched forward through the checkpoint, speaking imperiously to the watchpost captain on duty. As the party marched forward, the guards increasingly stared in confusion at the endless array of skeletons (not so unusual), the pair of young white dragons (more unusual), and the saurian gladiators. At the sight of D they snarled, and one of them remembered thedwarf and lizard fighting team from the arena of Emru-Marol -- the one shortly before the great clone-invasion slaughter at the fall Spider Festival. But the display of force left them suspicious but unwilling to throw away their lives.
Midway through the tunnel, the party encountered a drow noble patrol of three priestesses of House Aleval and two arcanists, along with their bodyguards. While equally deceived by the illusion, they were far less intimidated. Indeed, the impudence of drow from a rival house seemed to inflame them. When the party refused to stand down, they turned back to lodge a complaint with the west-end watchpost at a crisp march. When they realized the party was matching pace, they began to break into a run.
At this point, Zelmar teleported directly in front of them, initiating a battle. Fortunately the party managed to flood the tunnel with dragon breath before they could volley off any spells of their own. Zelmar cut down the sole surviving elf-at-arms.
The violence in the tunnel alerted the far end to the possibility trouble. As the party stepped forward, Shiek the assassin spotted some irregularities in the floor and and ceiling -- a complicated multi-part trap. No one could disarm the magical trigger mechanism, so Herrohnin sent ahead a skeleton to set off the trap. A portcullis gate slammed down on top of the skeleton and multiple large rocks from the ceiling dropped just behind it, into a hidden pit revealing itself beneath the paving as floor suddenly gave way.
By this time, the guard post was on full alert. Herrohnin sent a squad of skeletons to move the rubble evenly into the pit. As they were finishing their work, a nervous bolt came whistling past one of the skeletons on work detail. The party barked a challenge at the drow, who gave no response. As they stepped forward (Zegzinu bashing down the heavy gate) everyone was totally unsurprised to encounter an ambush in waiting, on both sides of the tunnel: a priestess and arcanist on each side, and lots of guards with crossbows at the ready.
Skeletons charged up to tied down the guards, and both dragons moved into the intersection to lay down frost clouds. The south alcove went down quickly, but the north alcove had more than sufficient time to bathe the tunnel in pyrotechnics. Both dragons and a lizard went down hard, and it took a dedicated second wave of advance into the side tunnel to root out the defiant drow.
Finally the party reached the west entrance. Conan, Zegzinu, and D turned back to defend the tower, and the remaining party members exited out into a high twisting road that led back down through the mountains into the uncharted timberlands below.
Roster
- Herrohnin, 5th level summoner, and his scads of spooky scary skeletons
- Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th level summoner
- Zegzinu, 5th level gladiator
- the last henchlizard
- Sir Robin Silverblade, 5th level spellsword
- Kilor Graniteback, 5th level machinist
- Shiek, 4th level assassin (custom Thrassian class)
- Zelmar Krackiss, 5th level fright knight
- Viserion, 3rd level (4 HD) white dragon
- Boudicca and her spider familiar
- Conan the Librarian
- D
- The very young white dragon, Namazu
- Shiek, lame in both legs
- Zegzinu's final henchlizard
Both dragons went down to fireballs, but recovered without a scratch!
Treasure
All the usual drow stuff that fades away in light: priestesses come with a +3 set of chain, shield, and mace, and most other drow have +2 versions.
Experience
Intimidated: 6 giant stag beetles
Deceived with illusion: 7th-level drow priestess [1490 xp], 5th-level drow fighter [500 xp], 8 3rd-level drow fighters [8x80 = 640 xp]
Bribed: ~50 goblins [50x5 = 250 xp]
Killed: 7th-level drow priestess [1490 xp], 4 6th-level drow priestesses [4x1070 = 4280 xp], 3 6th-level drow arcanists [3x1320 = 3960 xp], 5 5th-level drow fighters [5x500 = 2500 xp], 7 3rd-level drow fighters [7x80 = 560 xp]
Total: 15,670 xp
Total experience from treasure: 0 xp
Total experience from kills: 15,670 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 15,670 xp
Total experience per member: 1306 xp
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