Sal had to leave halfway through the 1st encounter, but managed to come back for the 2nd encounter.
In this session the party recovered treasure from the guardhouse by the courtyard and checked out a number of rooms in the main building, discovering the northern bedroom area full of young hill giants, a central great hall where the sounds of revelry could be heard, and a southern area where the kitchen and the guest quarters are found. They explored the southern area in this session.
First, the party fought the hill giant cooks and their slaves in the kitchen, defeating them without too much trouble. Then, the party headed over into the guest quarters area, where they found an emissary of the Clawed Gauntlet, the master vampire Zeras. He had with him two bodyguards, large undead constructs known as boneclaws. Engaging the vampire, the party was faced with the boneclaws and a number of ogre guards who came out of a room behind them when the party attacked.
This encounter proved to be more difficult, but in the end the party beat Zeras, preventing his escape, and easily scattering the ogres. Afterward, the party recovered some treasure from a chest in the guest quarters and a letter which confirmed what Canis had suspected - the Clawed Gauntlet had used zombies in Falconian livery to attack the hill giants and bait them into going to war with Falconia. The letter also stated that the fire and frost giants would be ready to aid "us" (the "us" being undefined) soon. The letter had not been addressed, as the party interrupted Zeras while he was writing it. We stopped here.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Friday, June 22, 2012
Session #59: Steading of the Hill Giants, Part 1
Extra-long session this week.
The party returned, having rescued Sangria, and learned that she had been used for an "Elemental Messenger" ritual - that is to say, she was used to communicate with the king of the fire giants, Snurre Iron-Belly. She could not remember what message she communicated, but she did note that she felt the presence of another dwarf - Seamus - being used to communicate with the frost giant leader.
After dealing with Sangria the party received their monetary reward from Lady Heathlana, and learned a number of things. First, she sent them after the Coterie because she is a follower of the Raven Queen, and the Coterie had attacked a church of the Raven Queen - for that she had them destroyed. Second, Cyrus has been brought back by the Raven Queen as a form of undead called a revenant; he maintains his personality, more or less, but he realizes that he only lives so long as it takes for him to fulfill the purpose vested in him by the Raven Queen, and the experience of dying has changed him considerably. Third, Lukash is performing some sort of ritual to enable him to provide the party with a way of reinforcing themselves in a pinch (OOC: to temporarily replace party members who are unavailable).
Also, the party was given a new task by Sir-Commander Canis Wolfswift and his father, the Duke-General Theron Wolfswift. They have found a way of ending the stalemate with the hill giants - by having the party, the only people strong enough and clever enough to handle this situation, infiltrate the steading and either make peace with or destroy the hill giants' chief, Nosnra.
The party set out on a many-days journey to the steading, and spent quite awhile staking out the place to figure out the best method of entry. After retiring to a cave and fighting a group of hill giants and bugbears who'd followed their tracks, they finally decided to sneak in the next night by climbing up the steading and moving across it. They jumped down into a courtyard, and were soon attacked by trained bulettes and their hill giant masters. The battle proved difficult, but the characters prevailed in the end, and this is where we stopped for the night.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Sessions #57 & 58: The Ritual
Two-part recap this time since my post for Session #57 didn't show up.
The party headed to Gravestone Hill Abbey, where they found a priest, Father Dameron, in disguise - the priest turned out to be a follower of Vecna in disguise, with two doppelganger assistants. The party defeated them then headed down and found a dwarf paladin being subjected to a ritual by another follower of Vecna - they freed the dwarf, despite their mistrust of dwarves in general, and defeated the follower, Lis the Vile, and his skeletal minions. They learned that the dwarf, Hefeweizen, was here looking for his sister, who had gone missing.
Heading deeper into the secret tunnels below the abbey, the party was subjected to a powerful sleep spell which trapped them all in a nightmare. They each had to navigate the nightmare and the dangers within to escape - Deckard was confronted by a room of unusual shadows which attacked him, Hefeweizen was trapped in a pit full of snakes and spiders, Vorgym was forced to navigate a cave full of swarming bats, Amnon had to contend with a haunted house full of ghosts, and Shivra was pursued around a field by a scarecrow.
One by one, the party escaped their nightmares and found themselves in a cave. Sangria was being subjected to a ritual by a lich, accompanied by a brain in a jar they recognized - Lazlow Dirgwyn, back for a third time. Sangria seemed to be possessed by some sort of fiery disposition, her eyes burning like flame, her hair flickering in the air as if it were fire, and her mouth moving as if she spoke wordlessly to something. The party attacked Lazlow, and were confronted by a number of nightmare incarnations corresponding to what they'd fought in the shadows. The battle proved immensely difficult, and by the end they were nearly defeated, but Lazlow's lich form was shattered, the nightmare incarnations were dispersed, and the brain in the jar was crushed. The brain in a jar turned out to be the lich's phylactery, its destruction destroying the lich for all time, it would seem.
The party managed to rescue the unconscious Sangria, upon which the hold of the strange ritual was broken, and we stopped there for the night. The Coterie is defeated - what will be next for the "Heroes of the North" and their new dwarven companion?
The party headed to Gravestone Hill Abbey, where they found a priest, Father Dameron, in disguise - the priest turned out to be a follower of Vecna in disguise, with two doppelganger assistants. The party defeated them then headed down and found a dwarf paladin being subjected to a ritual by another follower of Vecna - they freed the dwarf, despite their mistrust of dwarves in general, and defeated the follower, Lis the Vile, and his skeletal minions. They learned that the dwarf, Hefeweizen, was here looking for his sister, who had gone missing.
Heading deeper into the secret tunnels below the abbey, the party was subjected to a powerful sleep spell which trapped them all in a nightmare. They each had to navigate the nightmare and the dangers within to escape - Deckard was confronted by a room of unusual shadows which attacked him, Hefeweizen was trapped in a pit full of snakes and spiders, Vorgym was forced to navigate a cave full of swarming bats, Amnon had to contend with a haunted house full of ghosts, and Shivra was pursued around a field by a scarecrow.
One by one, the party escaped their nightmares and found themselves in a cave. Sangria was being subjected to a ritual by a lich, accompanied by a brain in a jar they recognized - Lazlow Dirgwyn, back for a third time. Sangria seemed to be possessed by some sort of fiery disposition, her eyes burning like flame, her hair flickering in the air as if it were fire, and her mouth moving as if she spoke wordlessly to something. The party attacked Lazlow, and were confronted by a number of nightmare incarnations corresponding to what they'd fought in the shadows. The battle proved immensely difficult, and by the end they were nearly defeated, but Lazlow's lich form was shattered, the nightmare incarnations were dispersed, and the brain in the jar was crushed. The brain in a jar turned out to be the lich's phylactery, its destruction destroying the lich for all time, it would seem.
The party managed to rescue the unconscious Sangria, upon which the hold of the strange ritual was broken, and we stopped there for the night. The Coterie is defeated - what will be next for the "Heroes of the North" and their new dwarven companion?
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