Kilndelve Campaign: Session 2

 April 5-6, Caudex Annales, 71 AUP

The party took a day and a half to travel to the gates of Kilndelve, the long-abandoned and goblin-infested dwarven fortress in the mountains. The road was narrow and poorly maintained after decades of neglect, and wagons needed to travel single file as trees encroached along the path.

As the convoy passed through a narrow choke in the forest, the trees themselves seemed to come alive as two strange constructs made of rotting vegetation came alive and moved to destroy the wagons. These necrotic shamblers were not exactly undead, but clearly their presence reflected the effect of some kind of unnatural energy in the region, either from the undead or from the occupiers of Kilndelve. The party struggled against the nightmarishly powerful shamblers before the dwarven leadership realized the threat and moved from the front the caravan to reinforce the party. While camping overnight to recover from injury, the party heard a sizable patrolling team of ogres, which Wendy lured away using aural misdirection tricks in raven form.

The party sent an aerial scouting force to the massive main gate, a 90-foot tall stonewrought monument. The bridge was pulled back by some sophisticated mechanism and inaccessible by foot, but several knotted ropes crossed the gap and would allow a brave climber to scramble across above the ravine and exposed rapids over 200 feet blow. Flying close to the eyes of the monument revealed arrow slits capable of passing a ballista bolt, as well as faint voices in the Saurian language (a patois of draconic and lizardman), but no obvious entrance that could be opened from the outside

The party advanced up the alternative path toward the "back door", a tunnel entrance buried under rubble that led to an upstream portion of the same underground river running under Kilndelve and out through the ravine. After a hard day of digging by dozens of workers, the doorway was cleared. (Fortunately, the elaborate riddle-lock intended to seal the door had never been completed due to the dragon attack that had produced the rubble in the first place.)

After a final "last chance to turn back" speech from Nick Grimrigg, the party descended down the long dark passage to the twisting river-caverns below.

Roster:

• Iulius Dubthach, 4th-level Nobiran monk (Andrew)
• Holly Steel, 5th-level bright cleric (Kyle)
• Robin Renaldee, son of Lucien, 5th-level sword master (Kim)
• Rena Arden, 5th-level illusionist (Will)
•  (Reba)

Mercenaries, followers, hirelings, riffraff, etc:

• Jorgen Cragback, 2nd-level dwarven fury
• Martin Cain, chanter
• Knock
• Wendy Usagi, 4th-level talking-raven-that-definitely-isn't-a-druid

Followers left back at refugee camp to contribute to maintenance/defense:

• Slade Harlow, 1st-level fighter
• Pertinax, a mule
  
• Uncle Harold the ape

Casualties

None, though the shamblers did substantial damage

Treasure

None

Experience

Killed: 2x necrotic shambler [3200]

Total experience from kills: 3200 xp

Total experience: 3200 xp

Total experience per member: 457 xp