Timberlands Campaign, Session 15: It's A Recap!

March 2, Caudex Annales, 71 AUP
The party regrouped in the idol chamber, descending one at a time through the trap door above. The choices were forward into the chamber with the recently-expired leeches, or backward into the room with the intellect devourer. Everyone felt curious enough about the latter direction to backtrack, but moved carefully through the room with the half-dozen odd nozzle fixtures in the walls, sensing a trap. Walking through the room one at a time didn't seem to set anything off, however.

The room beyond was full of dead rats, the aftermath of the swarm used to drive off the intellect devourer. (The massively powerful fire elemental warrior had dispatched it with a single blow upon entering.) The room didn't "detect" as a trap in any formal sense (i.e., a trigger), but the presence of multiple pipes, valves, and faucet apertures around the perimeter left little doubt that it was intended to be flooded and drained in a controlled way.

Sure enough, the moment everyone was inside the room, the heavy entry door sung shut. Shayna made a dash for the entrance in bird form, but was caught inside even as the door slammed over one wing, pinning her in place. The room rapidly began to fill as water poured from the pipes.

Drainage issues are a common dungeon design problem.

The dwarves attempted to bash through the bulkhead of stone, while Brand the elemental warrior pushed into the room beyond. The dungeon-bashing attempt made some moderate progress (a small exit hole that allowed a single person to crawl through at once), but the unoccupied far-corner room turned out to present a bigger problem -- the enormous vaulted ceiling was a starfield of unfamiliar constellations enchanted with some kind of ritual magic, and disembodied chanting in an ancient language echoed from the walls. Brand entered and promptly went insane, charging back to attack his own party (with all his ridiculous damage output).

The entire party took down the enraged newcomer, fortunately with no casualties, but unfortunately only after lots of fire-generated steam had turned the room into a sauna above, and the culintary equivalent of hot rat-carcass soup below. At that point, however, the increasingly flooded room filled with strange fog, and the party realized they were not alone. A detection spell reveled the presence of a towering water elemental (in actual fact, a marid in wave-form). Effectively blinded by the obscuring fog, the party staggered around through waist-deep water in an attempt to defeat the creature and/or shut off the water valves. The elemental was quickly cut down to size by dragon-breath, and the closing valves gradually reduced the flood to a trickle.

At the conclusion of the battle, the party backtracked toward the other direction (but only after the dwarves had set off the acid gas trap in the room beyond!) The leech room was drained using a bag of devouring (wait, why didn't they just use that in the first place?!?), and the party detected some kind of illusion-magic altering the apparently smooth appearance of the bare walls. Closer inspection revealed hidden alcoves containing more lurking chuul ambusers! The creatures put up fierce resistance, leaving the party worn and exhausted -- and wondering who would go through so much trouble to transform the lower levels into an overengineered deathpit, and why!

Roster

• Edward Sir Dame Winsley, 5th-level dandy mystic (Andrew)
• Jeeves, 1st-level butler-paladin
• Zelmar
• Anatolia
• Frigodria Dawnbringer, 5th-level paladin (Reba)
• Insanely OP flaming slayer demigod Brand (Kyle)
• Grurdev Onyxvault, 5th-level dwarven lightbearer (Sion)
• Need to check about henchmen here also (two, I think)...
• Viserion, 5th-level young white dragon (Zac)
• Adonirim, 3rd-level mage
• Shayna, 6th-level shaman (Kim)
• Saltbeard, dwarven pirate (Trefor)

Mercenaries and followers:

• Aksel Steelheart, 9th-level vaultlord
• 10 dwarven lieutenants:
• 4 5th-level vaultguards
• 3 4th-level vaultguards
• 2 3rd-level vaultgaurds
• 2nd-level vaultguard
• 18 fire dwarf infantry
• ~ 90 light-infantry pirate survivors from the defeat of the Charybdis crew in the Saberstrath campaign

Not appearing in this adventure, but potentially available now that everyone is back in the area:

• Ur khla lu khbea, 4th-level gladiator (Jonathan)
• The very young white dragon, Namazu, reporting back on the frost giants
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th-level summoner
• Sir Robin

Retiring, unless they somehow resurface:

• Zalgesh
• Jarrus Velt, 5th-level thief
• Thorvald, 6th-level spy (Zac's Mom's PC, not a henchman)
• Togast, 6th-level skinscribe (Juston is happily married)
• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan

Casualties

Brand the overpowered fire elemental, put down by the rest of the party under influence of madness

To be continued, treasure/experience when if you're ever finally out...

Timberlands Campaign, Session 13: Duelling Club

March 2, Caudex Annales, 71 AUP


This is a short placeholder for the session right before my vacation which I never wrote up. The short version is that Viserion got into the White Tower with the Chancellor, the tower went into a security lockdown, and a state of open battle broke out between forces loyal to the Chancellor (including his personal dire troll detail) and forces contolled by the Unspecified Evil Entity.

Or maybe all of them were just in such a deep state of paranoia that they started fighting one another spontaneously for no reason at all. It was hard to tell. Regardless, after a protracted wand battle with a bunch of apprentices, everyone eventually took shelter in Master Wainskirtle's office and opted to return to the dungeon on his advisement, rather than participate further in the fear-driven guerrilla warfare in the hallways.

Timberlands Campaign, Session 14: The Monsters That The Monsters Are Afraid Of

March 2, Caudex Annales, 71 AUP
After regrouping, the party pushed farther into the depths of the White Tower Academy dungeons. The upper level control stations had been locked out, making it inevitable that the only solution to the infestation of water-planar creatures in the depths would only be eradicated by a frontal assault. The party elected to split into two groups, with the amphibious lizardmen exploring ahead to find and unlock the local control station, returning permissions to Master Wainskirtle in the control room above, while everyone else waited.

Of course the waiting members soon become bored, and wandered upstairs (and directly into a
purple-worm ambush!) to investigate the trolls who had been described as living on the fifth level. They were conspicuously absent from their chambers, with evidence of a battle between them and some other force of many-legged creatures. Deeper into the southwestern areas of the level, the party found an elaborate laboratory: great glass vessels full of mundane and magical beasts being altered by some kind of blue fluid, cast-off bodies with skulls oozing the same blue ichor, and a ritual circle with the unfortunate victims of magical sacrifices -- including a slowly regenerating troll, pained by mutilations to the point of burning anger. He could tell them little, beyond the savage nature of the attack, and the existence of a trap-door passage leading to the lower level somewhere beyond the flooded hallways.

Surprise! No one expects the cthulhu-lobster inquisition!

Returning throuth the lab, the vanguard encountered a chuul, a huge sentient crustacean patrolling on behalf of some greater master. The creature put up a dreadful fight before being subdued. Beyond that, the party found a pack of hellhounds guarding the private chambers of a disagreeable stone giant. After a short struggle, the party secured the area and sent Shayna down the verticle shaft to investigate.

Meanwhile, the two lizardmen met numerous guardians along the way forward: a wyvern, another intellect devourer, and a partially flooded chamber populated by nasty little leeches. After nearly perishing, the two retreated to the sealed shrine of an idol depicting some kind of betentacled fish-monster flailing a throng of miserable humans. There they waited... until the serendipitous arrival of Shayna from above!

Roster

• Edward (run with it) Sir Dame Winsley, 5th-level dandy mystic (Andrew)
• Jeeves, 1st-level butler-paladin
• Zelmar
• Anatolia
• Frigodria Dawnbringer, 5th-level paladin (Reba)
• Insanely OP flaming slayer demigod (Kyle)
• Grurdev Onyxvault, 5th-level dwarven lightbearer (Sion)
• Need to check about henchmen here also (two, I think)...
• Thrassian witch (Will)
• Viserion, 5th-level young white dragon (Zac)
• Adonirim, 3rd-level mage
• Shayna, 6th-level shaman (Kim)
• Ur khla lu khbea, 4th-level gladiator (Jonathan)

Mercenaries and followers:

• Aksel Steelheart, 9th-level vaultlord
• 10 dwarven lieutenants:
• 4 5th-level vaultguards
• 3 4th-level vaultguards
• 2 3rd-level vaultgaurds
• 2nd-level vaultguard
• 18 fire dwarf infantry
• ~ 90 light-infantry pirate survivors from the defeat of the Charybdis crew in the Saberstrath campaign

Not appearing in this adventure, but potentially available now that everyone is back in the area:

• Saltbeard (Trefor)
• The very young white dragon, Namazu, reporting back on the frost giants
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th-level summoner
• Sir Robin

Retiring, unless they somehow resurface:

• Zalgesh
• Jarrus Velt, 5th-level thief
• Thorvald, 6th-level spy (Zac's Mom's PC, not a henchman)
• Togast, 6th-level skinscribe (Juston is happily married)
• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan

Casualties

Will's Thrassian, badly drained by a persistent leech

To be continued, treasure/experience when you're finally out...

Timberlands Campaign, Session 12: Get Out of my Head!

March 1-2, Caudex Annales, 71 AUP

By this time it was late at night. The party gathered back up at the Dream Arena chamber. Mahlon Dreadwhit continued to rant about the secret dice-roller controlling everyone's actions until he was given a good hard nap, and the party decided to investigate the machine to see what might be lurking inside of it. Nathalia Bonare (now acting headmistress of Starchapel) reassured everyone that it was totally safe. The party was cautious, requesting that the destination be set to a version of the conference room upstairs, and that Dreadwhit be placed inside of the dream to test the flow of magic across the boundary between the Dreamlands and reality. When Dreadwhit initially remained unconscious, Shayna volunteered to entered the dream as well.

She arrived in the Dreamlands to witness a lecture by the ill-favored scholar in front of a bunch of disinterested students. At the end of the dream, as the room faded back into mist, she could hear a distant murmuring voice. The voice grew louder as she ventured beyond the boundaries (to the great alarm of Nathalia, who quickly lost the ability to track locations), but seemed to be speaking no recognizable words. In order to bypass the loss of tracking, the party decided to send in another member with a crystal ball. This seemed to work -- the magic of the crystal ball functioned just as successfully as a manifested object in the Dreamlands, and the paired set could work as a two-way communication system. Nathalia joined the dream with a tongues spell in order to interpret the language, which seemed to consist of overlapping instructions intended for a large number of different persons, a sort of psychic switchboard.

Unfortunately, the presence of multiple eavesdroppers was detected, and the source mounted an attack directly against the minds of the dream visitors. Nathalia failed to defend her mind, and quickly fell under the influence of some dark power. Even after being awakened (and then subjected to both the "normal" and "lizardman" versions of dispel magic) she continued to emit a string of apocalyptic rantings of the most disturbing sort. (Lizard version: Smash mage against another solid object!) In an act of desperation, the party decided to throw a protective helmet on her head (of the sort used to block out ESP attempts, thinly coated with lead/gold). Somehow it worked! The distant source was unable to penetrate the lining.

The party notified Alaric Wainskirtle, the Seadom Hall master, and recommended that he put on a tinfoil hat of his own. (He's ex-military in a fantasy world, so being awakened in the middle of the night and having someone recommend cranial protection against mind-control rays is perfectly plausible.) They attempted to do the same for the other two masters... and found that Enoch Teacandle, the gnome from Dunston Eyot, had gone off to explore the dungeon on his own.

At this point, a portion of the party finally decided to investigate the dungeons. (Ed.: Took you long enough!) Zelmar stayed behind to monitor Teacandle's activities with his crystal ball. The late-night crew in the bulwarked control room waved them through security, carefully opening and shutting the doors to allow access. Just beyond they found some very suspicious orcs on the upper level, who waved them past. In other portions of the first level, they found usual sorts of creatures acting unusually -- goblins cowering in a corner, pit vipers dropping from the ceiling, the rest of the orcs huddling together on high alert. After surviving a rolling-ball trap, they met a strange (but apparently honorable) entity, born of fire and ascending from some extraplanar rift on the lower levels.

Meanwhile, the other members of the party (Zelmar, Shayna, and Anatolia) decided to catch up. Zelmar, in a moment of bad judgment, decided to come alone ahead of the others. Having the advantage of being able to speak orc allowed him to discover that the orcs were suspicious that their own leader was under some evil influence. Zelmar agreed to help them confront the subchief. This resulted in a tense staredown, followed by the alarming revelation that the chief's skull had been compromised by the presence of an intellect devourer.

The intellect devourer ripped apart several orcs, and showed surprising resistance to physical damage. Fortunately, Zelmar was able to drop a damage-over-time spell that slowly wounded the skittering brain. Unfortunately, he was paralyzed almost immediately afterward by the psionic assaults of the nasty little brain parasite. The devourer shrank down, crawled into his mouth, and began burrowing through the soft palate in order to access the tastiest bits of the cerebral cortex. Tragically, the creature expired at roughly the same time as Zelmar, leaving him dead with a nasty-looking brain monster corpse clogging his half-eaten face. (Adventuring, it's such a glamorous life.)

Shayna and Anatolia arrived a while later to witness the carnage. They dragged Zelmar back into the control room, whereupon they discovered another unpleasant secret: the night crew in the control room consisted of three doppelgangers, who were looking to eliminate witnesses. Anatolia and Shayna powered up with spells and dispatched the faceless horrors. Zelmar was beyond recovery, so the others pushed forward to find the rest of the party.

The survivors regrouped by the stairs to the lower levels and did a bit of scouting. The path followed by Teacandle seemed to lead to the sixth and lowest level, which was damp and filled with the sound of flowing water. The party sent lizard swimmers ahead down the flooded tunnels, only to fall victim to an ambush from a puddle behind them that ended up being deeper than anticipated -- deep enough to contain a skittering maw. Only the timely intervention of the mysterious fire-lord saved the exhausted party from an untimely demise. At that point, everyone decided it might be best to retreat from the dungeons and regroup.

Roster

• Edw...ina(?) Sir Dame Winsley, 5th-level dandy mystic (Andrew)
• Jeeves, 1st-level butler-paladin
• Zelmar
• Anatolia
• Frigodria Dawnbringer, 5th-level paladin (Reba)
• Mysterious fiery stranger that one-shots everything (Kyle)
• Grurdev Onyxvault, 5th-level dwarven lightbearer (Sion)
• Need to check about henchmen here also (two, I think)...
• Someone new (Will)
• Viserion, 5th-level young white dragon (Zac)
• Adonirim, 3rd-level mage
• Shayna, 6th-level shaman (Kim)
• Ur khla lu khbea, 4th-level gladiator (Jonathan)
• Slarus (Austin)
• Thorvald, maybe?!?

Mercenaries and followers:

• Army o' skeletons (400+ at this point), with a few abominations as champions

• Aksel Steelheart, 9th-level vaultlord
• 10 dwarven lieutenants:
• 4 5th-level vaultguards
• 3 4th-level vaultguards
• 2 3rd-level vaultgaurds
• 2nd-level vaultguard
• 18 fire dwarf infantry
• ~ 90 light-infantry pirate survivors from the defeat of the Charybdis crew in the Saberstrath campaign

Not appearing in this adventure, but potentially available now that everyone is back in the area:

• Saltbeard (Trefor)
• The very young white dragon, Namazu, reporting back on the frost giants
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th-level summoner
• Sir Robin

Retiring, unless they somehow resurface:

• Zalgesh
• Jarrus Velt, 5th-level thief
• Thorvald, 6th-level spy (Zac's Mom's PC, not a henchman)
• Togast, 6th-level skinscribe (Juston is happily married)
• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan

Casualties

Zelmar, paralyzed and chewed up by a tiny brain that crawled into his mouth

To be continued...

Teacandle's Notes

Lost Dwarven Kingdom of Kilndelve (see Grimrigg for details)

Location: Great Barrier Range, far east of Kargau

Story: Dwaves excavated into liminal zone with the underworld, balrog’s legion poured out, tried to lure in venerable dragon to fight them, turned out that the dragon was old friends with the balrog, dwarves ran off

Dragon - Venerable? Must be enormous by now...

Balrog - opened gate to underworld, probably still open

Artifacts: Axe of the Dwarvish Lords - conveys leadership of dwarven clans; Bow of the Great Eagles - incredible range, friendship with all eagles?; Seal of Chaos - maybe worn by Balrog, gates in fiends, sounds redundant to be honest

The Ransomed Maiden, sunken prize ship off Birkenstrand

Location: 50 miles south of Birkenstrand, initially along coast

Story: Flagship of anti-piracy fleet was captured by pirates, cursed with undeath by captain’s wish as he walked plank so they could never touch his spear, attacked by dragon turtle on the way back to port

Dragon Turtle still guarding wreck? Those things live for centuries...

Shining Spear - destroys undead that view its brilliance or something like that, sounds useful right about now

Flooded Mass Grave

Location: North of Hainburg

Story: Proud queen murdered by her own doppelganger after gift sent by invading army, commander of army betrayed by underlings, rebels defeated, died alone in dismal swamp

Barrow Wights (lots)

Diadem of the Imperial Warmistress - can also be used by bladedancers

Treasure map to Great Axe of the North - would have been useful against those frost giants

Cursed Hero’s Cairn

Location: Between Halheim and Kargau

Story: Eternally regenerating hero enchanted with sleep, buried alive while resting at sinkhole of evil during a single night, body eaten alive slowly by gradually expanding rot-grub colony, became wraith, really bad-tempered about having spent several decades being constantly eaten alive ("I mean, I would be!")

Deathbound Wraith

Shield of the Empyrean Heavens - protects against evocations when invoked while stationary, only way to face down a death knight's fireballs!

Wandering mummy-worm “The Mendicant”

Location: Anyone’s guess

Story: Giant purple worm fed and charmed into protecting town, devoured all attackers, eventually army sent to capture town, worm devoured thousands of them before killed, then embalmed and raised

Purple Worm Mummy

Corselet of the Imperial Warmistress (might require refitting with new laces/boning)

The Mountain’s Root, stone troll colony

Location: Mountains east of Hochgrube

Story: Long tunnel to heart of mountain, center of mountain in permanent darkness, full of edible but unpalatable mushrooms, trolls keep pit full of thousands of captive humans to convert the mushrooms into edible meat (the brutes!)

Stone Trolls (lots)

Bracers of the Imperial Warmistress - deflect missiles with your wrists, bet that looks awesome

....at the end, Teacandle appends a personal note indicating that he'd be very interested in any reports about the location of the Boots of the Imperial Warmistress, which are red and strappy and unexpectedly great for jumping despite three-inch heels.

He also indicates that if the party doesn't have any use for this kind of gear, he can locate what he describes as "an interested and motivated buyer".

[DM note: As God is my witness, I rolled all these items randomly off the Heroic Fantasy table.]

Timberlands Campaign, Session 11: The White Tower Mystery

March 1, Caudex Annales, 71 AUP

The conference schedule in disarray after the unexpected (and unexplained) gargoyle attack, the party decided to investigate the rumors of a spy in the Academy. Since every headmaster had made some version of the same report, there were all kinds of promising leads to explore. Sister Anatolia went into a trance to determine a plausible culprit... and got a strange vision of shifting colors in response to what should have been a yes-or-no series of questions about the traitor's identity. The colors settled out to "black" in the case of all the headmasters, save for the gnomish artificer Enoch Teacandle. [Note: This isn't a custom class, just setting flavor for a mage focused on magical engineering. He's not a tinker gnome; his body armor was built for him by dwarven machinists.] Shayna decided NOT to enter the Dream Arena, despite some coaxing from Eldred's assistant Nathalia.

First, the party visited Chlodwig Vance and his monkeys. His office contained the logbooks of all spells cast in the tower, and he was able to confirm that only spells cast during a limited block of time (second watch on Thursday) featured tainted spell signatures suggestive of malign influence. The next occurrence was expected early Friday morning, on March 3rd -- though he warned them that staking out the halls in a visible way had thus far prevented the incidents.

The second candidate for interview was Alaric Wainskirtle. He expressed general exasperation with the badly run administration of the tower, but also communicated suspicion that something strange was going on -- fatigue among the researchers was widespread, and suggested that the problem was more than a single rogue agent. Meanwhile, Jeeves scanned the entire building (slowly) for "evil", finding nothing in particular, but a sort of general sense of malaise hovering around the upper floors where Alaric and Eldred had their offices.

The dwarven contact introduced in Alaric's letter arranged a meeting at the local tavern, purchasing an enormous quantity of food and drink (presumably on a travel expense account). He promised the party wealth, artifact, and fame if they could clear the occupiers of the dwarven fortress at Kilndelve. Afterward, a random interview of a tavern patron indicated that the tower staff had been working unusually long hours... somehow without being aware of any shift in their schedules.

Then they went to chat with Enoch Teacandle, who seemed a little too gung-ho to demonstrate the auto-wand feature in his juggernaut armor. Teacandle indicated that he had been wearing the armor nearly full-time, and that he rarely went into the tower dungeons himself, preferring to order monster parts off the open market. Plenty of other researchers, particularly the Dream Arena project, had been spending substantial time down there, "in search of squid tentacles, that sort of thing". The Dream Arena required a steady supply of fuel, apparently.

On the way down the stairs, Zelmar was accosted by a strange scholar in the metaphysics department, who indicated that he was working on something top secret and could reveal "the truth" about some kind of conspiracy. The party was in too much of a hurry to stop, but agreed to come back later. (The name given, Malon Dreadwhit, was identical to someone they had been warned to avoid in one of the letters.)

Believing that the time had come to confront Eldred about the nature of his suspicious project, the party ascended to the 9th floor -- only to find that Eldred had already been murdered by an assassin. The knife had a strange substance on the blade, and there were drops of water on the floor. Testing of the water indicated that it contained some kind of biological agent inimacable to life and health.

Later that evening the party confronted Nathalia, who seemed deeply surprised. By that time, the body had already vanished.

Finally, Zelmar, Merda Strega, Herrobrin, and ??? made a late-night visit to Malon Dreadwhit. Cackling with glee, he bustled them into his office to reveal his secrets. But first, he demanded they open a box for him. The box turned out to contain a phase tiger. A weird phase tiger that kept blinking in and out of the ethereal plane, and wanted revenge! The cat warped around the room, and split into several smaller and equally deadly kittens which mauled the two spellcasters badly. Malon Dreadwhit, indifferent to the carnage, triumphantly opened a second box to reveal a DEAD phase tiger. Zelmar, having survived the ordeal, grabbed Dreadwhit under one arm and bustled him out of the room.

Roster

• Edw...ina(?) Sir Dame Winsley, 5th-level dandy mystic (Andrew)
• Jeeves, 1st-level butler-paladin
• Zelmar (...is he a henchman now? I'm a bit confused...)
• Anatolia
• Frigodria Dawnbringer, 5th-level paladin (Reba)
• Herrobrin, 6th-level summoner, and his scads of spooky scary skeletons (Kyle)
• Grurdev Onyxvault, 5th-level dwarven lightbearer (Sion)
• Need to check about henchmen here also (two, I think)...
• Merda Strega, 6th-level witch (Will)
• Viserion, 5th-level young white dragon (Zac)
• Adonirim, 3rd-level mage
• Shayna, 6th-level shaman (Kim)
• Ur khla lu khbea, 4th-level gladiator (Jonathan)
• Saltbeard (Trefor)

Mercenaries and followers:

• Army o' skeletons (400+ at this point), with a few abominations as champions

• Aksel Steelheart, 9th-level vaultlord
• 10 dwarven lieutenants:
• 4 5th-level vaultguards
• 3 4th-level vaultguards
• 2 3rd-level vaultgaurds
• 2nd-level vaultguard
• 18 fire dwarf infantry
• ~ 90 light-infantry pirate survivors from the defeat of the Charybdis crew in the Saberstrath campaign

Not appearing in this adventure, but potentially available now that everyone is back in the area:

• Slarus (Austin)
• The very young white dragon, Namazu, reporting back on the frost giants
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th-level summoner
• Sir Robin

Retiring, unless they somehow resurface:

• Zalgesh
• Jarrus Velt, 5th-level thief
• Thorvald, 6th-level spy (Zac's Mom's PC, not a henchman)
• Togast, 6th-level skinscribe (Juston is happily married)
• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan

Casualties

Herrobrin, slain by quantum phase kitties (and calling upon his crowning moment of awesome to drag the souls of all his skeletons into the abyss along with him)

Merda Strega, both legs destroyed by phase kitties (at least there's a floating disc around here somewhere that's suddenly available)

Magical Items

None

Valuables

None

Experience

For Zelmar and... the other survivor of the phase tiger fight...

Killed: quantum phase tiger [820 xp], 2 quantum phase kittens [2x410 xp]
Total: 1230 xp

Total experience from treasure: 0 xp
Total experience from kills: 1230 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 0 xp
Total experience per member (Zelmar and ???): 615 xp

Timberlands Campaign, Session 10: "Tracker's off scale, man!"

February 22-28, Caudex Annales, 71 AUP

The party parleyed for a bit with Baron Burgrave Duke Rictovarius, the new master of Hemmelmark (or what was left of it). Rictovarius was immensely disappointed over the loss of the weapons and armor in the personal possession of the various undead commanders, speculating that they must have been of exceedingly great power. (He was specifically interested in the presence of plate mail or swords, but seemed totally unfamiliar with the iron crown.) Additionally, he expressed concern about the failure to locate and destroy any essential binding items such as lich phalacteries or mummy-lord canopic jars. The leadership of Hochgrube immediately began preparations for a massive excavation operation, including sending for slave labor and taskmasters from the south as well as sufficient guards and necromantic overseers to cope with any reconstituted undead not permanently killed by the cave-in.

Meanwhile, the party received a summons to the White Tower for an academic conference, the apparent result of Shayna's diplomatic aerial tour of the coast. After several days of uneventful travel the party arrived at the village surrounding the tower, and worked their way around to the covered loading bay area below the cliffside entrance. After a cursory scan for cursed artifacts, the supervisor waved them through, remarking on the fine quality of their collection of gems for magical research purposes.

The tower was already bustling with new arrivals, as arcane authorities from the entire coast had been filtering in over several days. The receptionist at the desk (a blue-skinned fey with a diaphanous gown) assigned them to rooms and passed along the conference agenda, which started the next morning on the open-air skydeck level of the tower, 14 floors above. She also passed along a set of private letters, one from each of the headmasters. Upon opening them in private, they revealed a curiously coordinated message: Each headmaster suspected another of the high-ranking wizards of being untrustworthy, passing along classified information to some outside organization.

The conference featured presentations by each of the college headmasters to a colorful assortment of several dozen thaumaturges, magicians, and theurgists, with some introductory remarks from the chancellor. The presentations featured the following speakers.

• Chancellor Typho Lock (miniatured in some research mishap, carried in a purse by a dire troll): A general overview of the rival factions active in the Green Pass region where the party began, including the acolytes of Orcus (currently still at war with Durnovar), the necrolytes of Nergal (including Lord Varghoulis and the Black Legion) and their masters in Nerigos (the probable culprits in cursing the region with undeath and winter), and the necromancers of Sutekh (the allies of Rictovarius currently occupying Hemmelmark).
  
• Eldred, Starchapel master (old and withered, rides a floating disk of force, whispers remarks to his assistant Nathalia): A brief history of the Timberlands region (the current map) in pre-human times, when it was ruled by a doomed empire of humanoid amphibians who went into deep stasis by drying out and becoming dormant. They are long dead due to the change in climate, but prone to returning as mummies. Starchapel seemed less concerned about the necrolytes and their agenda, and more concerned that the old empire would renew its attempts to summon an avatar of its own froglike god from a forgotten temple. Starchapel believes in knowledge as the key to victory, and requests the aid of the party in helping to test their "dream arena", a device to extract information from the residual traces of ancient dreams that endure in the extraplanar Dreamlands.
  
• Enoch Teacandle, Dunston Eyot master (gnome, met the party earlier, pastel-orange suit of full-sized mechanical armor): A quick mention of his own-going literature search for any artifacts related to previous wars against the undead. He invited the party (or anyone else) to visit him later for a more detailed overview of the uncovered lore. Dunston Eyot believes in artifacts at the key to victory.
  
• Chlodwig Vance, Quaffmere headmaster (childlike, bald and roundfaced, easily distracted, three monkey familiars): A short overview of powerful ritual casters who might be persuaded to counterspell the rituals of the High Council of Nerigos, the presumed architects of the undead invasion. Possibilities included The Outcast, an anonymous dark elf wizard powerful enough to defy the matrons and retain residence in the underground city of Emru-Marol, and a couple of the Undying Lords from the east side of the Barrier Range who specialize in necromancy and/or frost magic. Quaffmere believes in high-level ritual magic as the key to victory, although Vance was upfront about the fact that any permanent solution would necessitate destroying the high council itself.
  
• Alaric Wainskirtle, Seadom Hall master (physically imposing, military demeanor): A plea for allies to compensate for the currently overstretched condition of Durnovar. Wainskirtle suggested making contact with the leaders of Woldwatch (elves and other nature-oriented neutrals on the far side of the Barrier Range), as well as recovering the celebrated Axe of the Dwarvish Lords, which would rally the scattered dwarves who used to dwell in the rift valleys of Hojenhold Vale -- since conquered and occupied by both a balrog (released from the deeps, dug too greedily, yadda-yadda) and a dragon (initially hired to fight the balrog, but they turned out to be an old friends and divied up the treasure). Seadom Hall believes in diplomacy as the key to victory.

The conference was cut short by the arrival of a flotilla of gargoyles, who went straight for the top of the tower. The assembled mages launched a barrage of fireballs and other evocations at them, but an elite core of the gargoyles landed on the towers to attack the tower masters. The party, as the only real melee fighters available, stepped forward as a last line of defense, just barely rescuing the chancellor from being carried off in his purse. (He seemed very grateful afterwards.)

As the attendees broke up in the aftermath of the excitement, the party was invited down to the 10th floor for a tour of the Dream Arena. Nathalia met them and invited them to test the device, an arrangement of cots connected by organic vine-like tendrils to a central machine. The party was initially suspicious, as Nathalia reassured them that the residual dream fragments left on the Dreamlands were completely unable to affect them in the real world, and that even if a powerful entity from the Dreamlands did notice their presence and attempted to assault them with mental attacks, they could still be extracted relatively quickly.

Nathalia initially requested that they scout the capabilities of the Herald of Tsathoggua, an emissary of the frog god which had ravaged the countryside centuries ago in anticipation of the true avatar's long-delayed arrival. The party mostly declined the offer, but Shayna volunteered to enter the Dreamlands to conduct some aerial surveillance.

Roster

• Edw...ina(?) Sir Dame Winsley, 5th-level dandy mystic (Andrew)
• Jeeves, 1st-level butler-paladin
• Zelmar (...is he a henchman now? Is Anatolia here? I'm a bit confused...)
• Frigodria Dawnbringer, 5th-level paladin (Reba)
• Herrobrin, 6th-level summoner, and his scads of spooky scary skeletons (Kyle)
• Grurdev Onyxvault, 5th-level dwarven lightbearer (Sion)
• Need to check about henchmen here also...
• Merda Strega, 6th-level witch (Will)
• Viserion, 5th-level young white dragon (Zac)
• Adonirim, 3rd-level mage
• Shayna, 6th-level shaman (Kim)

Mercenaries and followers:

• Army o' skeletons (400+ at this point), with a few abominations as champions

• Aksel Steelheart, 9th-level vaultlord
• 10 dwarven lieutenants:
• 4 5th-level vaultguards
• 3 4th-level vaultguards
• 2 3rd-level vaultgaurds
• 2nd-level vaultguard
• 18 fire dwarf infantry
• ~ 90 light-infantry pirate survivors from the defeat of the Charybdis crew in the Saberstrath campaign

Not appearing in this adventure, but potentially available now that everyone is back in the area:

• Ur khla lu khbea, 4th-level gladiator (Jonathan)
• Slarus (Austin)
• The very young white dragon, Namazu, reporting back on the frost giants
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th-level summoner
• Anatolia (at chapel with Zelmar)
• Sir Robin (badly injured)

Retiring, unless they somehow resurface:

• Zalgesh
• Jarrus Velt, 5th-level thief
• Thorvald, 6th-level spy (Zac's Mom's PC, not a henchman)
• Togast, 6th-level skinscribe (Juston is happily married)
• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan

Casualties

None

Magical Items

None, although the mage tower loading dock foreman seemed interested in the treasure from the crypt

Valuables

None

Experience

Killed: 7 margoyles [5600 xp], 9 four-armed gargoyles [3600 xp]
Total: 9200 xp

Total experience from treasure: 0 xp
Total experience from kills: 9200 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 0 xp
Total experience per member: 1022 xp

Total experience per henchman: 511 xp

Timberlands Campaign, Session 9: Smash and Grab

February 21, Caudex Annales, 71 AUP

Art by JLazarusEB

The party returned a week later looking to eliminate the crypt bosses once and for all. The area seemed almost completely deserted. The entry chamber contained a trap (disarmed), the main hallway a series of half-destroyed statues (smashed), the rear chamber a set of four stone coffins (smashed), and also a series of glowing pillars (also smashed). In the middle of smashing the pillars, a rearguard in the entry chamber made the uphappy discover that the ice sculptures in the initial chamber (the only non-smashed objects still remaining) were actually ice zombies, and that they were underneath a trio of weird vampire-like slimy things. The party regrouped to eliminate the zombies and drive off the vampires.

From there, everyone broke up. Half the party when into the tunnels to locate and extract the treasure (which still contained a vast quantity of coin, though no magical items). The other half explored beyond a secret door that led to a laboratory and ritual chamber. The laboratory contained a selection of reagents (gems and such), as well as many evil-looking tomes. The gems were pocketed, and everything else was set aflame. All was going well and most of the treasure chamber had been relocated to the entry area, when the other party decided to move beyond into the ritual chamber.

The ritual chamber was clearly the source of the area's reputation as a sinkhole of evil. The altar splintered and shattered under the blows of outraged dwarves, cracking into pieces. Unfortunately, the remainder of the crypt went continued cracking apart along with it, and the structural integrity of the entire complex was rather obviously compromised and rapidly deteriorating.

Meanwhile, the undead leaders, realizing that they were under assault, rushed forward to engage the intruders with an army of skeletons. A frantic chase down the tunnels began, with periodic opportunity strikes as the pursuers came into range of the pursued. Ultimately everyone from both groups made it out alive, just at the crypt collapsed into rubble... collapsing on top of both the undead antagonists and a massive pile of coin.

Roster

• Edw...ina(?) Sir Winsley, 5th-level dandy mystic (Andrew)
• Jeeves, 1st-level butler-paladin
• Frigodria Dawnbringer, 5th-level paladin (Reba)
• Herrobrin, 6th-level summoner, and his scads of spooky scary skeletons (Kyle)
• Grurdev Onyxvault, 5th-level dwarven lightbearer (Sion)
• Merda Strega, 6th-level witch (Will)
• Viserion, 5th-level young white dragon (Zac)
• Adonirim, 3rd-level mage
• Shayna, 6th-level shaman (Kim)
• Ur khla lu khbea, 4th-level gladiator (Jonathan's character)
• Nakab Duli, peasant-with-an-arbalest

Mercenaries and followers:

• Army o' skeletons (400+ at this point), with a few abominations as champions

• Aksel Steelheart, 9th-level vaultlord
• 10 dwarven lieutenants:
• 4 5th-level vaultguards
• 3 4th-level vaultguards
• 2 3rd-level vaultgaurds
• 2nd-level vaultguard
• 18 fire dwarf infantry
• ~ 90 light-infantry pirate survivors from the defeat of the Charybdis crew in the Saberstrath campaign

Not appearing in this adventure, but potentially available now that everyone is back in the area:

• Slarus (Austin)
• The very young white dragon, Namazu, reporting back on the frost giants
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th-level summoner
• Zelmar (injured)
• Anatolia (at chapel with Zelmar)
• Sir Robin (badly injured)

Retiring, unless they somehow resurface:

• Zalgesh
• Jarrus Velt, 5th-level thief
• Thorvald, 6th-level spy (Zac's Mom's PC, not a henchman)
• Togast, 6th-level skinscribe (Juston is happily married)
• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan

Casualties

None, amazingly

Magical Items

None, tragically (all buried while being equipped by their owners)

Valuables

Jewelry (22): 16,118 gp

1 pearl-studded silver (2000)

2 opal-studded silver (3000, 2000)

3 carved jade (800, 800, 1200)

6 wrought gold (500, 600, 700, 700*, 800, 900)

4 wrought silver (200, 500, 500, 500)

3 wrought bronze (110, 160, 90)

3 wrought horn (10, 22, 26)

* engraved headpiece (see right)

Gems (26): 116,250 gp

flawless facet cut blue diamond (10,000)

2x flawless face cut diamond (8000)

flawless facet cut ruby (8000)

flawless facet cut emerald (8000)

3x facet cut star sapphire (6000)

2x facet cut star ruby (6000)

6x flawless diamond (4000)

3x black pearl (2000)

amber with preserved scarab (1500)

amber with preserved mantis (1500)

amber with preserved frog (1500) #

star sapphire (750)

star ruby (750)

opal (750)

topaz (500)

# this object radiates faint magic under a detection spell

Experience

Killed: 8 empowered hoarflesh [640 xp]
Driven off: 3 tsathar vampire [5520 xp]
Buried alive: The Leech King, Deathbound Wraith [4200 xp], Gorric Eyesuck, Thrassian Deathchanter Draugr [2540 xp], Lector Brekexachrrip, Tsathar Mummy Lord [4200 xp], Talus Reckard, Lich [6000 xp], Amoth-Suthekhan, 9th-level sorcerer of necromancy and retired grandmaster of the Necromancers of Sutekh [2500 xp], 3 wraiths [570 xp], 2 hangbui [130 xp], 24 skeletons [312 xp]
Total: 22,832 xp

Total experience from treasure: 132,368 xp
Total experience from kills: 22,832 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 155,200 xp
Total experience per member: 15,520 xp

Total experience per henchman: 7,760 xp

Timberlands Campaign, Session 8: Sorry, We'll Show Ourselves Out

February 13-20, Caudex Annales, 71 AUP

Having no interest in fighting an entire room of elite enemies with a divided party, the crypt infiltrators (E Sir Winsley, Jeeves, Setanta, Viserion, and Shayna) decided to make a break for the exits. The furious lich attempted a disintegrate spell on Setanta (unsuccessfully) as revenge for the theft of his artifact, and then a hold person spell on everyone in sight. The other undead leaders (a mummy lord, a deathbound wraith, and some kind of Thrassian deathchanter) made a hard rush at the escaping thieves.

Shayna held behind to cover the escape before shifting to crow form, giving her time to witness the arrival of the Grandmaster of the Necromancers of Sutekh, tunneling up from below on a giant mummified purple worm. Rather to his dismay, he found himself fighting (and perishing) alone as his erstwhile hero champions fled on foot, ignoring his demands for the crown. Meanwhile, the rest of the party encountered a solid wall of mummies and vampires opposing their exit, and pushed their way through to the surface, pursued by the angry wraith lord.

For a moment, it seemed like they were doomed. The mummies intercepted the escape of the party at the main entrance, and the wraith managed to seize the iron crown. But the ensuing contest of strength resolved in favor of Viserion, who reclaimed the crown and flew away with it, leaving the mummies to fall and the wraith to retreat back down into the crypt to lick his wounds (note: he survived with 2 hp, so he won't even need to spend 1d10 nights with his binding object to recover).

Meanwhile, Herrobrin's skeleton army liberated Hemmelmark, giving the party time to counsel Duke Johann to organize an evacuation before the wyvern riders from Rictovarius' forces could arrive to take control of the ducal keep. While the primary forces from Hochgrube moved into the looted and ravaged city of Hemmelmark, their necromancer allies slowly converted the now-disorganized undead, swelling the ranks of Hochgrube even further. The crypt entrance was placed under constant surveillance by Baron Burgrave Duke-elect Rictovarius, who strongly encouraged the party to go down into the crypt and finish off his dirty work -- but balked at the invitation to attempt a similar operation himself!

The magical cold snap gradually subsided into normal winter conditions and the skies cleared a bit, though clearly destroying the control sphere was not sufficient to undo the presence of the undead itself. Meanwhile, Shayna flew around to the neighboring cities in raven-form, seeking the aid of scholars at the White Tower Academy (who told her to come back on the following Tuesday) and confirming that the undead infestation was fairly widespread (covering most of the western half of the Timberlands, for a hundred miles or more to the north -- but not yet as far as the coastal cities.

Roster

• Edw...ina(?) Sir Winsley, 5th-level dandy mystic (Andrew)
• Jeeves, 1st-level butler-paladin
• Frigodria Dawnbringer, 5th-level paladin (Reba)
• Herrobrin, 6th-level summoner, and his scads of spooky scary skeletons (Kyle)
• Setanta, 5th-level runemaker (Sion)
• Merda Strega, 6th-level witch (Will)
• Viserion, 5th-level young white dragon (Zac)
• Adonirim, 3rd-level mage
• Shayna, 6th-level shaman (Kim)

Mercenaries and followers:

• Army o' skeletons (400+ at this point), with a few abominations as champions

• Aksel Steelheart, 9th-level vaultlord
• 10 dwarven lieutenants:
• 4 5th-level vaultguards
• 3 4th-level vaultguards
• 2 3rd-level vaultgaurds
• 2nd-level vaultguard
• 18 fire dwarf infantry
• ~ 90 light-infantry pirate survivors from the defeat of the Charybdis crew in the Saberstrath campaign

Not appearing in this adventure, but potentially available now that everyone is back in the area:

• Slarus (Austin)
• The very young white dragon, Namazu, reporting back on the frost giants
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th-level summoner
• Zelmar (injured)
• Anatolia (at chapel with Zelmar)
• Sir Robin (badly injured)

Retiring, unless they somehow resurface:

• Zalgesh
• Jarrus Velt, 5th-level thief
• Thorvald, 6th-level spy (Zac's Mom's PC, not a henchman)
• Togast, 6th-level skinscribe (Juston is happily married)
• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan

Casualties

Setanta, pinned down and mauled while trying to escape

Magical Items

The Iron Crown of the Sorcerer-Kings, snagged by Viserion before he flew off

Valuables

None (it's all still piled up in there in a giant heap)

Experience

Everyone entering the crypt
Killed: Malphus, ruinguard vampire [6600 xp], 4 mummies [1840 xp]
Total: 8440 xp

Total experience from treasure: 0 xp
Total experience from kills: 8440 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 8440 xp
Total experience per member: 1688 xp

Total experience per henchman: 844 xp

Herrobrin/Frigodria (platoon-scale battle, fast resolution)
Killed: 10 skeleton platoons [3900], 5 skeletal archer platoons [1950], 4 hoarflesh platoons [9600], 4 vampires [7360]
Total: 22,810 * 50% = 11,405 xp (mass combat share to leaders)

Total experience from treasure: 0 xp
Total experience from kills: 11,405 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 11,405 xp
Total experience per member: 5703 xp