Green Pass Campaign IIIb, Session 15: Murdersquatters on the Doorstep

October 4-5, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP

The party recuperated for a week at the watchtower, then headed back to the trail and turned north toward the pirate camp at the northwest end of the valley -- the same one that had been signaled by the tower. Wild animals prowling during the night were repulsed by the army of skeletons.

Upon arrival they found the pirates girded for battle behind a wooden palisade wall. The pirates sued for parley, and managed to coax a delegation of party members (basically, everyone but Herabrin, Kilor, and Sky) to join them inside the keep for a fine feast of rum, salt pork, rum, hard tack, rum, scurvy-prevention oranges, the tears of freshly-flogged captives, and punch. ("What kind of punch? Rum punch?" "No, this kind of punch." *pow*)

During the dinner, a certain air of tension was detected between the drow and the pirates, which the party elected to magnify by insulting the drow. The pirates were thrilled at the prospect of strangers making trouble with the haughty dark elves, and laughed and jeered at the jibes. Infuriated, the priestess demanded the right of satisfaction by combat.

The party quickly obliged, setting up a nearly all-reptilian squad of three saurians and a small white dragon. The priestess was lucky enough to freeze half the party with a quick hold person spell, but then the dragon neatly polished off her guards in retaliation with a blast of ice crystals. The remaining party members slowly chipped away at the house priestess through her armor until she dropped. The remaining drow fled, hiding in their tents. The pirates, satisfied that they had found a set of new stronger allies, immediately turned against the drow (the party set a bounty for their capture) and began to recommend potential targets (mostly their business rivals) in the region for the party to eliminate.

Roster

• Zegzinu (2 henchlizards)
• Conan the Librarian
• Zelmar the Fright Knight
• Talyn, another lizard
• Sky the archer
• Skittles, yet another lizard
• Kilor Graniteback, Dwarven Machinist
• Shiek, Thrassian Assassian  Thrassin Assassin Thrashin' Assassin
• Herabrin and his scads of spooky scary skeletons
• The very young white dragon, Namazu

Casualties
None

Treasure and Experience

Coins: - [=>  0 gp]
Gems/Jewelry: - [=> 0 gp]
Trade goods: - [=> 0 gp]
Magical items: -

Total nonmagical treasure value: 0 gp
Shares: 12
Gold per share: 0 gp

Killed: 7th-level House Despana priestess [1840 xp], drow 5th-level lieutenant [500 xp], 3 drow 3rd-level fighters [240 xp]
Freaked out by dancing skeletons: 2 grizzly bears [400 xp]
Manipulated: pirate king [1000 xp], 8 pirate lieutenants [1120 xp], 280 pirates [2800 xp]

Miles traveled: 40 [460 xp]

Total experience from treasure: 0 xp
Total experience from kills: 7900 xp
Total experience from exploration: 460 xp
Total experience: 8360 xp
Total experience per member: 697 xp

(Note: Henchlizards get half-shares of treasure and experience. Namazu takes a full share, because dragon.)

Green Pass Campaign IIIb, Session 14: The Same Thing, But With Dragons

September 28, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP

Caught between two opposing enemy forces, the party elected to fall back and handle the smaller one first. After doubling back to the dragons' cave, the party arranged an ambush just outside the lair. Using the cave entrance as a choke-point, the party aggressively ganked all three of the gophers dragons as they attempted to clear the exit tunnel, one at a time, before they could take to the sky. Only one of the three dragons survived long enough to breathe a frost cloud.

In short order, a group of bounty hunters arrived, just as the party was staking out ambush positions on either side of the ravine. As it turned out, they seemed totally unaware that the party had been involved in trashing the Emru-Marol spider festival, and only wanted to 'recruit' the famed 'Undertaker' as a professional gladiator. They were even willing to compensate the party for his services. (D was totally insulted about 'John Cena' being left off the bounty notice.) Despite having lots of extra saurians to spare, the party was unwilling to sell Zeg into a life of bondage -- even awesome arena-dominating bondage as an ultimate-fighting celebrity -- and declined the offer. The beautiful spokeswoman revealed herself as a hag, and a cloaked figure behind her pulled up its hood to reveal a face full of brain-slurping tentacles.

Molyg the Polyp, illithid bounty hunter

The ensuing battle on the frozen ice of the stream bed was relatively lopsided. A dire troll (under the cloak of invisibility) set up a perfect shot on D, only to fall on his face. The hag never successfully got off a spell. The mind flayer spent most of the battle levitating over the battlefield, and failed to accomplish much using his psionic mass domination, due to some timely saves against mind control. (Plus, full-blooded Thrassian custom classes can fly!) After being grounded, the illithid ended up jaunting back to the astral plane away from certain death.

The bounty hunters had no particular loot of any value, and nothing in their possessions (including the public "wanted" notice) indicated who their employer might be. After resting in the cave (and dispatching Bob, who could resist his evil urges no longer), everyone returned to the tower to plot the next course of action.

Roster

• Zegzinu (2 henchlizards)
• D
• Zelmar the Fright Knight
• Talyn, another lizard
• Leone, who spen the entire session as a polar bear
• Shane, who immediately fled into the mountains without explanation
• Sky the archer
• Skittles, yet another lizard
• Kilor Graniteback, Dwarven Machinist
• Shiek, Thrassian Assassian  Thrassin Assassin Thrashin' Assassin
• Herabrin and his scads of spooky scary skeletons
• Bob the Wolfman

Casualties
Bob, due to the full moon blowing his cover
Leone, slain by the party while polymorphed

Treasure and Experience
Dragon's hoard:

• 2 crates of armor and weapons, worth 225 gp each and weighing 10 stone each.
• 2 crates of hydra parts, worth 300 gp each and weighing 5 stone each.
• 1 sets of engraved teeth, weighing 1 stone per 100 set. (30 gp)
• 2 sets of engraved teeth, weighing 1 stone per 100 sets. (90, 100 gp)
• 1 sticks of rare incense, weighing 1 stone per 100 sticks. (15 gp)
• 2 sets of engraved teeth, weighing 1 stone per 100 sets. (70, 30 gp)
• 8 sticks of rare incense, weighing 1 stone per 100 sticks. (21, 22, 19, 19, 17, 25, 16, 21 gp)
• 6 glass eyes, lenses, or prisms. (24, 48, 4, 5, 49, 82 gp)
• A piece of jewelry constructed from wrought silver worth 700 GP.
• A piece of jewelry constructed from shells worth 90 GP.
• A piece of jewelry constructed from shells worth 60 GP.
• A piece of jewelry constructed from porcelain worth 400 GP.
• A piece of jewelry constructed from wrought silver worth 500 GP.

Coins: - [=>  0 gp]
Gems/Jewelry: see above [=> 1750 gp]
Trade goods: see above [=> 2577 gp]
Magical items: -

Total nonmagical treasure value: 4327 gp
Shares: 12
Gold per share: 361 gp

Killed: hag [3100 xp], enchanted polar bear [440 xp], dire troll [1300 xp], 4 4th-level fighters [320 xp]
Driven onto the ethereal plane: mind flayer [1600 xp]

Miles traveled: -

Total experience from treasure: 4327 xp
Total experience from kills:  6670 xp
Total experience from exploration: -
Total experience: 11087
Total experience per member:  1008 xp

(Note: Henchlizards get half-shares of treasure and experience.)

Green Pass Campaign IIIb, Session 13: Take The Dragon, Leave The Hoard

September 25-28, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP

After a week of rest and recuperation for Zelmar, the party reorganized with a mostly new contingent of heroes and lizards (mostly lizards). The addition of the slow-moving monsters (without any similarly sized mounts) reduced the party's speed to a crawl. It took four days to return to the pirate camp and follow their map up the mountain ravines to the site of the reported dragon ambush. The weather turned foul in an unnatural way, from thunderstorms one night to an ice storm the next day. The night's rest was interrupted by a dragon circling their camp, and by a strangely disquieting sensation of being observed by some kind of scrying magic.

Winter is coming here!

Arriving at the location, the party discovered that the dragons had dug out a makeshift lair, pulling the treasure into a series of tunnels below the ground. In fact, the 'caves' were more like open-air crevices covered over by a thick layer of ice from above, and footing was treacherous. Worse, the corpses of the slain pirates were still standing where they had perished under the frost breath of the dragons, and when approached, some of them seemed to be writhing and twitching under a thin layer of ice, animated as "hoarflesh" (ice zombies).

The party cautiously moved past the frozen battlefield and descended under the ground. The translucent ice allowed for dim lighting, and the audible steady breath of some large creature indicated that they were close to trouble.

In the first chamber, they found a single small dragon, Namazu, about 12 feet long -- younger than most of the party. She at first appeared entirely disinterested in the invaders, inviting them to fight her sister and brothers deeper in the tunnels, but showed a sudden interest in negotiation when the party revealed that they were willing to share some of their spells with her, to improve her meager repertoire. She also reassured everyone that her larger siblings had no magical talent, were unable to speak common, and indeed were really rather stupid, despite being a bit larger. She also helpfully informed the party that they were being tracked by another comparably-sized group of adventurers.

The party coaxed Namazu into participating in a plot to trick her larger siblings into launching a raid on the main pirate camp. The pretense was that she had developed "new magic" that would protect them from counterattack, and Zelmar gave her a small teleport effect to allow her to make a surprise entrance.

Unfortunately, the ruse went poorly (reaction check: 3) and instead the larger dragons decided to simply go on a rampage. Their roaring cracked the ice and released the ice zombies, and then they took off on patrol, combing the path from the air and then doubling back on the ground. Zelmar dropped a fear wall in front of them, and they were sufficiently spooked to hightail it back to their lair for the next 15 minutes or so. Meanwhile, the party worked to rescue the unconscious Namazu (who had been knocked unconscious by her enraged older siblings) and beat down the hoarflesh.

So in the end, the party fled carrying one of the dragons, but made no attempt to recover the treasure.

Sort of a reverse-Clemenza move, I guess.

Roster

• Zegzinu (2 henchlizards)
• D
• Zelmar
• Talyn
• Leone
• Shane
•  Sky
• Skittles
• Kilor
• Shiek
• Bob the Wolfman (plotting treachery) [inactive]

...and introducing four liberated prisoners for next week (whose names I need to record!)

Casualties


Treasure and Experience
Once again, the party made it through a session without killing anything, and without recovering any treasure, which would mean no gold or treasure-based experience. Dragons themselves are worth a small fortune when sold as captives, though, so I guess I can count that as "treasure" for experience purposes.

Coins: - [=>  0 gp]
Gems/Jewelry: - [=> 0 gp]
Trade goods: -
Dragons: One very young white dragon 1000 gp * 23 hp [=> 23,000 gp]
Magical items: -

Total nonmagical treasure value: 0 gp
Shares: 11
Gold per share: 0 gp

Killed: -
Surrendered: -
Feared with a spell that can't possibly be 1st level yet somehow is (hax!): 570 xp

Miles traveled: 36 [11.5*36 = 828 xp]

Total experience from treasure: 23,000 xp
Total experience from kills: 570 xp
Total experience from exploration: 828 xp
Total experience: 24398 xp
Total experience per member: 2218 xp

(Note: Henchlizards get half-shares of treasure and experience.)

Green Pass Campaign IIIb, Session 12: Bad Puppy!

September 17, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP

Intent on establishing a base of operations for the region, the party decided to take the Styxx crew's tower by force, relying on the element of surprise.

After hiding in the caravan carts and covering them, several members of the party rode up the winch-drawn cable in the back of the first wagon -- with D sitting on top, cloaked by invisibility.

Upon reach the top, D sprang out and charged the unsuspecting mage... and somehow managed to stumble and miss on the rocky ground (natural 1!)  A magical spell cloaked the entire area in darkness (the party had an alert spell active to provide visibility), as the party desperately worked to intervene in time to save him from the guardian hell hounds. Conan's djinni carted multiple lizards up the side of the cliff, and the mage soon dropped to a sustained and much more professional dwarven assault.

The hell hounds inflicted terrible fire damage as the battle raged, and the captain (Gustavus) directed his obedient air elemental to protect him from direct assault. He did not, however, anticipate being aerially hassled by the djinni, who disrupted control of the elemental long enough for it to run amok and finish off several hell hounds.

When the battle finally swung in favor of the adventurers, the captain elected to charge up the tower, using a giant enchanted lens to send a bright beam of light (shuttered to create a coded message warning of the tower's fall) to the presumed location far to the northwest. The party quickly smashed down the door and apprehended him for interrogation.

He revealed:

• the Styxx main camp had a much larger force of pirates, numbering in the hundreds;
• several rival pirate crews were in the area (including the one previously dispatched by the pirates);
• caravans traveled back and forth multiple times a week;
• messages were sent back from the tower to the base camp on a daily basis;
• the message beacon lens could be used to communicate with the dark elves at the opposite end of the valley as well.

The dungeons contained a number of prisoners who were liberated and immediately volunteered to join the party -- replacing Boudicca, Grimdark, and one of the Saurians afflicted with lycanthropy (held in check by slow disease), who all elected to stay behind at the tower to create a permanent base of operations for opposition to the dark elves and their slaver allies.

Roster

• Zegzinu (3 henchlizards; one afflicted with lycanthropy)
• D
• Boudica
• Aeryn
• Conan the librarian (contemplating retirement)
• Grimdark (contemplating retirement)
• Zelmar
• Bob the Wolfman (plotting treachery) [inactive]
• Lavi [inactive]

...and introducing four liberated prisoners for next week (whose names I need to record!)

Casualties
D, lost several teeth;
Zelmar, joined the one-eyed club, because all the cool kids were doing it.

Treasure and Experience
Coins: 968 gp [=>  968 gp]
Gems/Jewelry: 0 [=> 0 gp]
Trade goods: 30 weeks of rations, 10 barrels of rum/grog/ale, 28 pirate blades (short swords), blacksmith's equipment and tools
Magical Library: 8000 gp of books in several shelves [=> 8000 gp]
Magical items: war hammer +1, suit of man-sized plate armor +1, ring of regeneration
Unidentified items, but described during interrogation: a lamp (used to summon/control the air elemental, requires incense made from sprite wings and fire salamander claws, recipe in library, requires Alchemy), a scroll (presumed cursed)

Total nonmagical treasure value: 968 gp (Note: The books are too bulky to carry and sell)
Shares: 7 + 3*1/2 = 8.5
Gold per share: 114 gp

Killed: 1 8th-level captain [600 xp], 1 12-HD air elemental [2100 xp], 1 6th-level mage [570 xp], 4 greater hell hounds [3160 xp], 28 1st-level pirate sailors [280 xp]
Surrendered: 55 1st-level guards [550 xp]

Total experience from treasure: 114 xp
Total experience from kills: 6710 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0
Total experience: 6824 xp
Total experience per member: 803 xp

(Note: Henchlizards get half-shares of treasure and experience.)

Domain Assets
Tower, medium round (40' high, 20' diameter, wood doors, floors, stairs) [22,500gp]

Green Pass Campaign IIIb, Session 11: Backtracking

September 15-16, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP

After some new arrivals and departures, the modified expedition roster now included:

• Zegzinu (and 3 henchlizards)
• D
• Bar Helm
• Boudica
• Aeryn
• Conan
• Bob the Explorer Wolfman (inactive)
• Grimdark (inactive)
• Lavi (inactive)
• and Zelmar Krackiss, a mysterious stranger who is (spoiler alert) a disguised Fright Knight in human guise

Greater Hellhound (Dave Allsop)

Torn between investigating the dragon-infested pirate treasure trove and the mysterious tower, the party eventually settled on scouting the tower first. An attempt to camp overnight below the tower attracted the attention of a disciplined group of greater hellhounds which staked out the top of the cliff several hundred feet above the campsite. Scouting by wing (Zelmar) and spider-crawl (Boudica) revealed that the tower itself was patrolled by guards, and the hellhounds seemed to be reporting back to it periodically.

In accordance with the longstanding party practice of throwing the element of surprise to the wind in favor of issuing ambiguous threats, the party decided to brutally murder the captured pirate captain and drop his corpse on the tower doorstep, while under the cover of invisibility. The hellhounds, being undeceived by invisibility, barked up a firestorm that resulted in a volley of angry arrows and doubled security details for the tower.

Unwilling to attempt to scale the sheer cliff under the scrutiny of a fiendish welcoming committee, the party instead retreated back down the river tower the path, with vague ideas of tricking/convincing the white dragonlings into helping them.

On the way down, they encountered a supply caravan of over sixty guards transporting several weeks worth of supplies (read: booze). Being outnumbered by only six to one, the party decided to charge suicidally into battle.

The lizards took the brunt of the damage without complaint during the initial charge, but then the guards began swarming around the outside of the formation, flanking into the rear. By the time the officers had been eliminated, both Bar Helm and Aeryn had been overwhelmed, and only sanctuary prevented the same fate from befalling Conan and Boudica.

After forcing the surrender of the caravan, the party decided to turn around yet again, this time relying on stealth and deception. Everyone hid in the covered carts, with the sole surviving lieutenant nervously continuing back to the cliff where (according to his description) the entire caravan would be drawn up the cliff face using a giant mechanical winch, one cart at a time.

Not to be confused with a wench!

Casualties
Bar Helm, spine broken at the neck by guards;
Aeryn, damaged knee (carrying capacity reduced by 6, cannot force march);
...and Bob is quietly succumbing to lycanthropy, not that anyone has noticed.

Treasure and Experience
Coins: 8000 electrum, 11,000 silver (=> 5100 gp)
Gems/Jewelry: 19 gems, 9 jewelry (=> 1814 gp)
Trade Goods: 1 crate sprite wings, 3 crates armor/weapons, 4 crates pottery, 33 bottles of fine wine, 5 barrels liquor, 1 jar dye, 4 jars lamp oil, 12 rolls cloth, 37 animal horns, 2 teabags (3014 gp)
Magical items: shield +2, sword +2, oil of sharpness (+1 to weapon, lasts 8 hours), wand of device negation (prevent use of one other wand/staff/rod for one round), ring of water walking
Unidentified items: suit of chain mail, wand, sword, bolt case with 9 bolts, 2 potions, 2 scrolls

Total nonmagical treasure value: 9928 gp
Shares: 7 + 3*1/2 = 8.5
Gold per share: 1168 gp (all as electrum/silver/jewelry)

Killed: 1 5th-level captain (200 xp), 6 3rd-level lieutenants (300 xp), 5 1st-level guards (50 xp)
Surrendered: 55 1st-level guards (550 xp)

Total experience from treasure: 9928 xp
Total experience from kills: 1100 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0
Total experience: 11028
Total experience per member: 1297 xp

(Note: Henchlizards get half-shares of treasure and experience.)

Green Pass Campaign IIIa, Session 10: Home Stretch

Placeholder for the escape from Green Pass session.

Green Pass Campaign IIIa, Session 9: We Shall Not Pass

This is a placeholder for the Footman's Notch session.