Session #55: The End of House Trannyth

Technical problems abound in this session - as such, we only had time for a single encounter.

The party discovered that Dorian had killed his parents and returned his family to noble status, using disguised monsters to impersonate his family members. He had hired the Fangs of Zehir to kill the party because an organization known as the Coterie, a group with ties to the Clawed Gauntlet, wanted them dead so that their interference with the plans of the two organizations would cease. The fight then began.

It was a brutal encounter, and in the end, Cyrus lay dead. Due to the technical problems we really only had this encounter to get done, and after that we had to stop due to time constraints. The party is down to 4 characters as it stands - Cyrus' resurrection is in great jeopardy due to the warning he received from the Raven Queen about the return of his soul from the Shadowfell as many times as it has causing too much of a disturbance - and they have Dorian as their prisoner, ostensibly to interrogate.

Big things are about to go down...the characters have all but destroyed a Falconian noble house, and such an action is sure to carry consequences. We'll have to see what happens to them next time...

Session #54: Their True Nature

Some issues with the port number we've been using for all this time caused us to have to start quite late. Traver had to leave an hour before the end.

In this session, the party descended into the basement, sneaking past the guard patrols, and confronted Une Trannyth, who was summoning a blood demon. In the first part of the fight, the party faced Une, her dretch lackeys, and the summoned blood demon. They went down quite easily - the encounter took off in difficulty when Une revealed her true form, that of a night hag.

Une herself didn't prove to be very difficult, and the blood demon, once defeated, gave the party use of a healing surge - the vrocks that Une summoned, however, were quite a challenge, tearing into the party with their sharp talons and nearly killing Cyrus several times. In the end, the party defeated them, however.

After, they discovered that the Trannyths, aside from Dorian, had been killed - impostors, it seemed, stood in their places. They also discovered that House Millenbras would be coming to meet the Trannyths tonight to give them the Hand of Vecna. The party learned of the last hiding place where the Trannyths could be found, and headed down...it is here that we stopped for the night, saving the confrontation with the Trannyths for next time.

Session #53: Krista's Seduction

Phil never made it, so Amnon was played by Jordan in this session.

Looking to escape the patrols, the party headed into the manor, which, curiously, the trolls didn't seem to check. They went to hide the bodies first, concealing them in the brush by the wall. They found in the manor house a library, where they found several books on summoning - pages on summoning a blood demon and a vrock were found missing from one of the books. They also found two stairwells - one leading upstairs, where a woman could be heard singing, and downstairs, where they found a door.

After investigating the library, the party heard barking off toward the gate they'd entered through - the patrols had found the unconscious guards they'd hidden. They decided to head upstairs first, and there they found Dame Krista Trannyth, the daughter of House Trannyth's Lord Tramorn, singing a song about a princess who had been captured and was being kept prisoner in a tower. They took her hostage, and after assuring her that they meant no harm, they asked her about the Trannyths' plan to assassinate them. She told them she knew nothing of it, and urged them to stop her mother, who had gone mad and was summoning a powerful demon in the basement. She provided them with a key to to the basement, and asked one of them to stay with her - Vorgym volunteered, and he remained with her while the rest of the party headed back downstairs.

Once the party had left, Krista moved to seduce Vorgym, seeking to "repay" him for being her daring rescuer. Despite his trepidation, he gave in - and when Krista kissed him, she placed some sort of bewitchment upon him. She ordered her guards to attack the party down below while keeping Vorgym with her. Once the party defeated the guards below, nearly drawing the attention of another patrol, they headed up and confronted Krista and Vorgym. Vorgym was convinced by Amnon to let the party deal with Krista, though he was (and is still) unable to raise a hand against her in violence. The rest of the party attacked Krista, and she attacked back, showing that she was more than just a mere frightened girl. She escaped when the party bloodied her, to the sound of beating wings - afterward, the party heard the sound of a door opening and closing underneath them.

We stopped here; the party is now level 12, and everyone should be leveled up by this Wednesday. I will cover loot from this encounter before next week's session.

Session #52: Visiting the Trannyths

Traver left about an hour before the end of this session; didn't seem like we got much done but them's the breaks.

The party began the night by figuring out what they wanted to do - which was more difficult than it sounded. Admittedly all they really had to go on was that the Fangs of Zehir had been contracted to kill them, and that House Trannyth, a Falconian noble house, were the ones putting the contract on them. They headed to talk to the Trannyths, but were accosted by more assassins, led by another member of the Gravelstoke family. They defeated these assassins rather handily.

After the assassins had been dealt with, the party realized that they didn't really have a plan of action. They did some research about the family, learning of their recent past - they had been disgraced for conspiring with Albacoran pirates, and they had recently been reinstated as a noble house by Archduke Graeme; rumor had it that this reinstatement had been secured through the family's use of the dark arts. They also spoke with Iankul Glimmergaunt, House Kesselia's retainer, and learned something about each member of the family: Baron Tramorn Trannyth, head of the house, is rumored to be a great swordsman and very much of a recluse; the Baroness Une, as they had already heard, is rumored to be a witch, even among the nobles; Dame Krista is a flirtacious woman who has many suitors but has refused all of them; and Sir Dorian is the most public, relatively speaking, member of the house, handling most of its business and being the one who primarily leaves the house. The family is a reclusive lot, and only leave their estate for very important matters - even Sir Dorian only leaves every few weeks.

They eventually decided that they needed to go directly to the Trannyths, and to that end they attempted to break into the estate by enchanting one of the guards - they discovered that the guards were themselves enchanted, and when Amnon's enchantment failed, the guards attacked. The party took some licks, but managed to knock all of the guards unconscious. Once inside, they noticed that a number of guard patrols were moving along the grounds. We stopped here.

Session #51: Elanath's End

The party started where they had left off, heading to the Jolly Knave to seek answers on Elanath's whereabouts. There they found a group of pirates, and pretended to be assassins asking the captain for payment. The pirates turned out to be forced into silence by a hermit mage, one of Elanath's apprentices, who attacked once the characters' ruse started to show holes. This proved to be an easy encounter, as once the hermit mage was defeated, the pirates surrendered. They directed the party to Elanath's location, a secret cave inside the cliff wall, and offered their help should the party require it.

Inside the cave, they found Elanath and Sejuk, the apparent leader of the group of Fangs of Zehir sent after them, talking with a group of people from the entourage of House Millenbras. They looked to be exchanging the Hand of Vecna, and were arguing over price. The party tried to sneak up and steal the hand, but failed, and combat began. The House Millenbras entourage fled, and the party was left to fight Elanath, Sejuk, and a pair of bronze warders. They had a fairly easy time with this encounter, all things considered - there was one death at the end, the result of Elanath using an encounter power that was lethal on a failed saving throw on Vorgym.

Recovering what loot they could, the party returned to Kesselia's manor and gave her the Hand of Vecna; she seemed distressed that House Millenbras had apparently been after the Hand as well, and did not seem to understand why House Trannyth, who had placed a seal on the assassins' contract given to Sejuk, would want the characters dead. We stopped here, after the characters were given some information on House Trannyth: they had lost their status as a noble house for conspiring with Albacoran pirates, but had recently been reinstated by Archduke Graeme for reasons unknown. Rumors are abound that the family regained their influence through use of the dark arts, and some even say that the house lady, Baroness Une Trannyth, is a witch...

Session #50: The Wintersend Assembly

This session began with the party finding out from Lukash that Elanath had most likely fled the tower with the Hand of Vecna. They returned to Falconia to inform Prince-Commander Wolfswift of their success in defeating Ctenmiir, and as a reward, he granted them permission to attend the Wintersend Assembly. He also gave them dire wolf mounts - Vorgym claimed a black one named Fury, Shivra claimed a white one named Whitewind, Amnon claimed a white one named Landes (which he renamed Akmenos) and Deckard claimed a light gray one named Karren.

The party then attended the Wintersend Assembly, where they found nearly all of Titania's major players in attendance: the noble houses of Falconia (House Wolfswift, House Urthadar, House Trannyth, House Millenbras & House Francesca); the ruler of Highroad, Count Adrith Loyalar; the master of the Tower of Heiserrah, Archmage Desehr; the ruler of the Tarranine Dragonborn, Ataxaxes Ironscale; the general, or "legatus", of the recently-arrived Dythan's Legion, Legatus Darius Dythan; the Arkhosian dignitary Cyrus works for, Zanuss Atraxas; the ruler of Vulkannen, Baroness Valarde, and her personal bodyguard, Andrei "The Bastard" Blackgate; and dwarves from the Amberforge, Blackhammer & Redbeard Clans. Additionally, the Archduke Graeme Hawklane and his family, Princess Terina Hawklane (his daughter) and Countess Daran Hawklane (his sister) presided over the assembly.

Things at the assembly ended up being quite eventful: the dwarves (apparently at the behest of the Amberforge Clan) broke their ties with the rest of the assembly, stating that they would stand on their own from now on, since they now had a king for their queen. Count Adrith, noticing his sister's absence, questioned why Archduchess Lyriana was not in attendance; when Graeme attempted to avoid the question, Baroness Valarde surmised that Lyriana had been kidnapped, which sent the assembly into an uproar.

This uproar was interrupted, however, by the Earth Titan, an ancient being made of the stuff of the earth who has long ruled over the hill giants as one of the last remaining titans on Titania, only known about through tomes written by the most intrepid of explorers. The Earth Titan claimed that the Titans had long tolerated mortals on Titania, but would do so no longer, because Falconian soldiers had apparently killed several hill giants in cold blood. The Earth Titan and the hill giants responded by destroying Orcbane Keep, providing evidence of this to the assembly by dropping Marshal Rendon's broken body into the middle of the assembly floor. The Earth Titan and its subjects then left, stating that they were now at war with the mortals.

After this, we skipped a month of story time - Amnon returned the Doresannic shard he had taken from Elanath's Tower to his master Sirilis Starsburden, informing her of the events which had transpired; Shivra returned to Vulkannen to deliver her money to the thieves' guildmaster, Vielia, personally, discovering along the way that Dythan's Legion had cultivated a heavy presence in the area. Cyrus was allowed to remain in Falconia and aid in the war effort, his friend Zanuss remaining with him to assist in whatever ways he could. After waiting for Kesselia's informants to drudge up some information, the party finally found that Elanath had come to, of all places, Falconia - they headed to the Tracts, the slummy section of the city, to speak with the informant. Amnon & Shivra briefly had their coin purses stolen before they killed the bandit and recovered them. The informant, Norros, agreed under duress to lead them to where he had last seen Elanath, but was quite concerned for his life due to the fact that he believed others were tailing him.

Norros' suspicions proved to be correct, and he was killed by yuan-ti assassins who then turned their weapons on the party. The assassins were led by a human man in a black coat of studded leather, Vincent Gravelstoke. After a healthy fight, the party defeated the assassins and recovered a note from Vincent stating that they should head to the Jolly Knave, a ship docked in the harbor at a pier indicated within the note. They also heard some about a group of assassins known as the Fangs of Zehir, and the "Great Fang" in taunts thrown at them by Vincent. We stopped here for the night.

Session #49: The Vampire in the Tower, Finale

This was the final session of Elanath's Tower, and of the heroic tier in general. The party was faced with Ctenmiir the Cursed and his minions, and it was a hard battle (with 2 PC deaths), but in the end they were victorious.

They began by opening the way to the observatory, an enclosed dome with a slot for the telescope (closed at the start of the fight) - within, they saw Ctenmiir conversing with five distinctly-styled death knights, their images presented by large scrying pools. The death knights appeared to be the leaders of the Clawed Gauntlet, or at least higher-ranking members. There was a male of a humanoid race in red armor with a bull-horned full helm and black cloak; a female eladrin with solid violet eyes and white armor, face covered by a silver visor; a male drow in gray armor with a black hood shrouding most of his face; a male dwarf in gold armor, wearing a full helm with a visor patterned like a skull and a red crest; and their apparent leader, a male humanoid in black armor wearing a full helm with sharply-pointed horns, his eyes glowing green. Two of these death knights were referred to by name: the eladrin was referred to as Inastara, the eladrin princess who established the mixed elven/eladrin community of Silvershade in Whitebough Forest, and the apparent leader was referred to as Kas. They dismissed Ctenmiir from the Clawed Gauntlet, much to his chagrin as they had apparently promised to remove the curse that prevented him from leaving the tower, and left him to die at the hands of the party.

This proved to be a very difficult battle; Ctenmiir wielded a legendary dwarven warhammer known as Whelm, and he wielded it to great effect, crushing the party members with its every swing. To boot, his dread zombie knights proved to be un-killable (at least by any means the party discovered), returning to life nearly as soon as they had been put down. This battle took nearly the entire session, as Ctenmiir regenerated constantly, and had a very high Armor Class - 31, to be exact. Laz's Brain in a Jar was brought out to help the party about halfway through, but once it was in danger of being destroyed, it fled - its location is currently unknown. Cyrus was brought down despite all manner of healing effort being expended by Deckard, then killed outright when Ctenmiir's attempt to force the party's surrender was rejected - both Shivra & Vorgym went into dying twice, and Shivra failed 3 straight death saves to become the 2nd death of the encounter.

With Cyrus and Shivra both dead and Vorgym dying, the encounter was left to Deckard & Amnon. At this point, I threw them a bone and pointed out something that they had failed to notice to this point - this observatory, windowless and lit only by the magic of the scrying pools, had a slot in its wall for the large telescope within to look out of. This telescope had a switch on it which allowed them to open the slot and expose the room to sunlight - the great weakness of any vampire. Deckard rushed for the switch, flipping it and opening the slot - but the sunlight did not reach Deckard. Ctenmiir, confident in his victory, laughed and prepared to finish them off, when Amnon broke away from the dread zombie knight engaging him and used his beguiling strands power to push Ctenmiir into the light. Real fear crossed Ctenmiir's face for the first time as the sunlight incinerated him, wiping out what little health he had left.

With the battle over, the party took two consecutive extended rests to use Deckard's restore life power on Cyrus & Shivra, keeping the current party intact despite Ctenmiir's best efforts. Cyrus now wields Whelm, a weapon which is outside the spear style he learned to fight with and will take him some training time to get used to - perhaps a time skip is in order...

With the heroic tier finished and all of the party now at level 11, we are now looking at the beginning of paragon tier. There will be some story situations to resolve once the party sets out again; thereafter, I am currently unsure where we will go. We'll be discussing sometime before or after the one-off on Sunday what we want to do going forward.