Session 45 - Burn, Baby, Burn... Literally.

Tue 6th Apr 19:30 - 00:45

In-game timeline: Uktar 23 - Nightal 10 DR1489

Our "Heroes" regather - both physically and mentally. Redback the werewolf, now transmogrified into a large, rather buff, human male, lies dead at their feet, but Lispeth the somewhat rat-like gnome 'girl' has escaped through one of the pictures.

Surprisingly, the group delay at least 5 minutes before looting Redback's body. Primarily because Devon and Grarth are both racing to one of the rooms in order to grab loot (or, as they would claim, find useful items for the group's benefit).

Over the next 20 minutes or so, the group find all sorts of useful items in the two bedrooms that obviously belong to Lispeth and Redback, as well as a set of keys on Redback. They spend some time working out how the portal bracelets work with the pictures. As they are about to try them out, Drogan, who was getting a little bored at the constant 'looking for stuff' rather than 'killing stuff', wandered back into the dining room area and focussed on evaluating the nice ruby brooch that Alwaith had grabbed off of Redback's body.

He was so focussed on the jewellery that he didn't notice the grate in the floor behind him opening up and a strange, disfigured humanoid creature rising from the stairs below, calling for Lispeth. A fight!

With Drogan in a state of poor health, and his friends in the next room, unable to immediately help, it was lucky that this creature missed Drogan with the initial swings of his heavy, spiked chain. Drogan makes a useful hit on the creature before turning and running towards his fellow adventurers, hoping to escape the dangerous chain. Alwaith hears Drogan shout and run away from something in the next room and decides that he doesn’t want to risk his full health, and blinks out of this plane. Grarth readies his maul and swings at the creature, which they later realise is the "Deggmir" referred to in the papers Alwaith found. Grarth and Deggmir exchange hits - Grarth is looking pretty beaten up after the previous fight and is unaware of the terrible risk he is taking, standing between Deggmir and Alwaith.

The risk, however, is not from Deggmir. While Devon helps his new friend by causing Deggmir to fall to the floor in fits of laughter - a strange sight in one so deformed - Alwaith reappears in this plane and fires an Eldritch Blast at the creature, who is now mostly hidden by the large frame of Grarth. As seems to be becoming a common occurrence, Alwaith's blast misses its intended target and instead hits Grarth in his back with full force. Grarth is close to losing consciousness, primarily through actions of his 'friend', but stays where he is, blocking Deggmir's movement towards the party.

Drogan, now with the support of his party around him, runs back in towards Deggmir and lands a perfect on the still-prone creature. Unfortunately this hit is rewarded by an attack from Deggmir's chains that takes Drogan into unconsciousness, for the third time today.

Luckily Devon runs in and connects with a hefty, roguish blow and Grarth, almost unconscious himself, follows this up with a mighty hit from his maul which takes Deggmir down before he has a chance to take another party member down, and before Alwaith can share out more friendly fire. Devon uses one of their precious few remaining healing potions to revive Drogan.

Alwaith picks up the flask that Deggmir was carrying and sees a swirling mist within. Suspecting that it may be the soul of some poor creature, Alwaith unstoppers the flask and releases the soul, which dissipates in the slightly stale air of the ruins.

Wanting to take advantage of the remaining time of his Blink spell, Alwaith descends down the stone stairs into the darkness beyond to check out the room from whence Deggmir came. Once he is certain there are no more bad creatures down there, he fetches the others and they descend back down with him, though Devon stays behind just long enough to blast himself with acid from a trapped lockbox that he was discretely fiddling with.

The single room below contained a disturbing and unnerving sight. The unmoving body of a contorted human male was strapped to a table, with a chained up female elf, unkempt and bedraggled, looking on at the body with tears in her eyes and a scream upon her lips. When she was finally calmed by the group, she told them in a broken and strained voice that she was Starwyn and that she and her husband Horgarth Greystone had come looking for their daughter, Suriel, and had been captured. As her voice started to break at the story she was telling, she pointed towards a chair by the table, covered in a large mass of wire and bloodied chain, stating that there was something in there. Something alive.

Quick as a flash Drogan grabbed a torch and flung it at the chair. The wire did not burn, but it did get hot very quickly. The wood of the chair started to char, but something within the mass of chain and metal did catch and burn. As the group looked on, mainly in surprise at Drogan's instinctive reaction, they all heard a child's painful scream coming from within the chair. A scream that was quickly and ominously curtailed.

Grarth beat out the flames, and Drogan looked into the mass of still hot wire. He saw the small, blackened, lifeless body of a small humanoid, with piercing white eyes - frozen wide open in its last moments of terror. A silence descended upon the group.

Devon spotted a padlock within the wires. They found a key upon Deggmir's body upstairs and Devon used his Mage Hand to unlock the padlock from within the steaming wire mesh. The tangled cage opened to reveal the body of a young boy - scarred and marked with welts and cuts of quite recent origin, but with ragged clothes still burnt into his now blackened and charred body. Attention turned to Drogan, who threw the flame, and to Alwaith, who left it a little late to share information with the group regarding the possible use of children as 'batteries' for a soul stealing device. Recriminations were saved until later, but the lifeless body of the young boy added a rift between the group that may take a little time to heal.

As if needing a distraction from what had happened, and from the still smoking body of the young child,  attention turned to the device itself, which they had noticed when they entered the room, but had not investigated until now. On a table between the smouldering chair and the torture table, with tubes connecting it to both, lay a small, metal cage, about a foot in diameter and height, made from an unknown metal. Within this cage there seemed to be floating a dodecahedron device. Alwaith recognised it as a Necromical, but would say no more to the others about his knowledge of such things other than that is was used to extract souls.

Disconnecting the tubes, but avoiding touching the device itself, Alwaith gathered up the object in some rags and placed it carefully in his pack. Then, taking only the body of the man on the table and the elven woman, our group of "Heroes" left the chamber - the smell of burning flesh and the sound of screaming children still haunting their senses.

The group discover how the paintings work, and decide to use them to transport the children back to the town of Moonfall. With Alwaith and Grarth resting in Lispeth's room, Devon and Drogan use the paintings to appear in the lizardfolk shaman's room at the top of the ruins, and then they head down to where they left the children. They then discover that they had completely forgotten not only the secret knock that they had agreed with Talfen, but also Talfen's name! Unsurprisingly, they get no response when they try to ask the boy whose name they could not remember, to open the door.

Devon heads back down to fetch Redback's keys from Alwaith, who, in a surprising display of openness, shares Talfen's name with Devon, though he too did not remember to make a note of the secret knock.

Back on the first level below the surface, Drogan uses the keys to let himself in and is faced with Talfen holding a sharpened stick at his face. Talfen is unimpressed that he was the only one who remembered the secret knock they had agreed, but soon all that was forgotten, and the group of adventurers managed to use the portal bracelets to transport the children back to Moonfall, where they were very gratefully received back by the town, though the four missing children were obviously noticed, and missed.

The party had not finished in the ruins, however. They suspected that more souls were being kept in storage, as implied by a note they found addressed to Lispeth (which also mentioned a figure named Sperax, who seemed to be the intended recipient of the souls). They decide to tackle the room containing the stained glass knights once again.

With Grarth and Drogan feeling decidedly unhealthy and exhausted, it is left to Alwaith and Devon to tackle this room. These two are unused to being even slightly injured, and the front line is not somewhere they feel very comfortable. They hatch a plan.

Alwaith turns both himself and Devon invisible. As Alwaith opens the door, Devon slips inside, using his halfling size and roguish abilities to avoid the stained glass knights who are standing where they were left just inside the door, but who are unable to see either target. Devon runs to the torch that is still burning on the floor and uses his prestidigitation to extinguish it, hoping that will cause the knights to disappear. Unfortunately, as Devon's becomes visible once more at the use of a spell, he didn't spot the lit candle high above him near to the ceiling, which seems to be casting light through a small, coloured glass plate and thus still feeding the stained glass knights with their needed pastel light. They turn to face the now very visible Devon!

Fortune, however, favours the brave. And, it seems, the less brave. And the lucky. Devon acts quicker than the knights and uses his faster reactions to re-cast his prestidigitation to extinguish the candle from a distance. Immediately, with the last of the light in the area having gone out, the stained glass knights disappear and both Devon and the still invisible Alwaith breathe a sigh of relief.

They check out the room beyond in darkness, not wanting to trigger the return of the knights. They find a number of bottles, sealed and with labels containing dates and races. Alwaith surmises that these are captured souls and proceeds to unstopper them all and release the gaseous contents. The mists rise from the bottles and seem to sigh in relief and gratitude as they dissipate into the air. Alwaith feels happy with his good deed though, as usual, his outward demeanour remains surly and mysterious.

The two of them find a number of silvered weapons at the back of this room, and an unsilvered warhammer, which Alwaith uses to throw up at the candle to knock it over to hopefully prevent the knights from reappearing should the mirror above catch any more light. The candle is knocked away from the focal point of the curved mirror, and both it, and the thrown axe, lie on the ledge above out of harm's way.

Before the group decide to leave the ruins, they want to check out the strange device in the room on the second level. They light the brazier in the centre of the room and the room becomes bathed in light, revealing metal discs in the walls portraying what some of them recognise as constellations of stars in their sky. With some investigation, they work out that the device is some sort of orrery that can be used to show the phases of the moons of their own world, as well as the progression of their world around the sun, and can be used to accurately predict eclipses, both past and future. They proceed to use the device to find out the date of the double-lunar eclipse that is due to happen in the coming year, and find out the exact date - Ches 12, Dr 1490. Alwaith quickly sends this information on to Ripley who can pass it on to the Order of the Planes (who she works for) and Council of the Veil (who they have links to). Alwaith is proving to be very communicative all of a sudden.

Having found out all the useful stuff they can think off from this room, and from the Ruins of An-Sen as a whole, the party head back to Moonfall for a well-deserved long rest.

In the morning, the town is in good spirits, having received back most of their children, though they are concerned about the four missing ones. The party tell Elder Eldred that one of those children may have died at the hands of Lispeth and Redback (admitting no liability themselves, of course), though they don't know which one (Hansel,  Godfrey, Chuck and Ingrid were the names of the children taken, according to Talfen). The villagers club together and hand over all their currently stored wealth, a total of 500gp, in recognition of the help given by the party. They also hand the Poem of Moonfall and the Cryptex to Devon (who promptly manages to open the Cryptex using his well-honed problem solving skills, to reveal the impressive Titanic magic within). The party then hurriedly say their goodbyes, collect Dwarrowsteel's body from The Hunter and head back to Neverwinter, via the stone circle and Oakhurst, to ensure they get to Neverwinter before the Gentle Repose spell on Dwarrowsteel runs out.

Back in Neverwinter they use the last remaining time before Dwarrowsteel's body decomposes too much, to debate whether or not to raise him from the dead. This proves to be a difficult decision, involving lots of soul searching from the characters, and discussions with the Temple of Berronar. After all, it will cost them 1400gp, which is most of their spare cash (after levelling up of course! If it had eaten into their levelling up kitty there would have been no discussion at all, I'm sure).

In the end it is decided to at least give it a go, though the deciding factor seemed to be the money they would save on trying to remove their lycanthropy curse from Drogan, Alwaith and Grarth - this would have cost them 100gp per attempt, but if Dwarrow is raised from the dead, then they could get each casting for half price!

The attempt to raise Dwarrow from the dead succeeded and Dwarrow has returned to them, though his personality has undergone a few changes, they suspect. Once he recovered, and had a good meal, his first actions back in this plane was to remove their curses. They are reminded of Dwarrow's limited abilities when it takes 6 attempts to cure the three of them - they wonder whether asking a more competent cleric to do the job may have been cheaper in the long run, but outwardly they express thanks.

Grarth is given a share of the treasure and rewards, though as usual for Grarth, he in no way receives a quarter of the loot. Luckily he is unable to count, let alone add up, and he is quite happy with his pocketful of magic apples which seem to make him laugh when he eats them. So he is relatively content. He is also able to level up to Level 6.

The rest of the party, other than Dwarrow who is busy recovering from being dead for over a week, all LEVEL UP TO LEVEL 7 and get all their magic items identified using the last few gp of their spare cash - though Devon seems to have a curious ability to produce gold coins upon request despite others being stripped down almost to their underwear to pay for things… hmmm.

And so we leave our "Heroes" in Neverwinter, learning their new skills and preparing for the next adventure. They seem to have finally realised that the antics of the Order of the Black Sun are potentially quite serious and world-changing, and there is talk amongst the group of discussing next steps with the Council of the Veil. Dwarrow expressed a desire to return home, if only briefly, to see his family and his betrothed, Silvermoon, and Drogan, upon hearing that Dwarrow came from a place close to the fabled Mithril Halls, wanted to tag along. With the date of the upcoming double-eclipse looming, they (should be) wonder(ing) what they need to do to prevent Malar from returning, and a Second Corruption from occurring… 

Session 44 - Drogan Rushes In. No Change There Then!

Mon 29th Mar 19:30 - 23:30

In-game timeline: Uktar 23 - Uktar 23 DR1489

Our "Heroes" survey the scene of more dead lycanthropes lying at their feet. Alwaith searches the bodies, wanting to get in before Devon and Grarth realise they hadn't been searched yet. The dead werewolf, now shown to be a human female, has a tear-stained face which receives absolutely no sympathy at all from our honourable adventurers.

They search the nearby room, finding the body of Jacob, the werebear, lying on a bed, next to an empty bottle of a greater healing potion. Luckily they also find a full bottle of a greater healing potion, as well as two standard healing potions, in a drawer. Given their current state of health, and lack of healing, these are welcome additions to the party inventory and are shared around.

The group cautiously check out the remainder of this level of the ruins, finding two more rooms, empty of creatures, though one of them contains the dead bodies of the werewolves they killed on the level above, and the other is obviously the bedroom of the corrupted wererats that they recently killed, now known to be young male dwarves in their non-were forms. Drogan is none too impressed.

Finding the stairway heading down, Devon heads down first, quietly, and reports no creatures immediately below, so the others follow.

The next level, the fourth below the surface, is quite small. Only a single room and a second staircase (going down), though they do find a blocked corridor heading off of the single room - the blockage is old and seems to be impassable.

Getting into the room however was somewhat eventful - for Devon at least. The room is locked, so Devon uses his family heirloom - Milo's thieves tools. Unfortunately they break in the process. Whether he will be able to repair them, and at what cost to repair a magic item, remains to be seen.

The room is of interest, however. It contains a large chair with restraints built into it, and a number of implements and vials on the tables nearby. A box of dried tangleweed is a welcome find, given that two of the party are now suspected to be infected with The Curse during their battles with were-creatures. A few vials of a strange black liquid are found and handed to Alwaith. In addition, a number of flasks of the purple poison that they believe was supplied by Belak were also found.

Alwaith discovers some interesting notes on the table that he spends some time reading. Then, living by his mantra of "knowledge is power", he decides the notes are not fit for showing to the others, and he mysteriously and cryptically drip-feeds information he obtained from the notes to the others. Strictly on a Need-to-Know basis, of course.

The group presses on.

They work out that the staircase heading down will lead to the 5th level below the surface. Milo's note implied that there are (or at least, were) only 5 subterranean levels, so our "Heroes" are even more cautious than usual, thinking that the next level must contain all the bad stuff that they have been expecting.

It leads into an empty room, and an empty corridor.

Relaxing a little, they open the door at the end of the corridor to find themselves in a dining room of sorts. Nice pictures adorn the walls and a table is set for four, with inviting fruit and sweetmeats in bowls on the table. Grarth immediately tucks in and starts to smile and relax, whilst stuffing more fruit into the small space left in his pockets. The others check out the rest of the room, wondering only briefly why Grarth was smiling sweetly (whilst the DM wonders how the half-ogre could pass TWO wisdom saving throws!). Two locked doors, one with a notice on it - "Lights!" - and a heavy iron grating in the floor leading to a set of stairs heading down, all pique their curiosity.

They decide to try the door containing the notice first. Not knowing if the "Lights!" sign is an instruction or a warning, they manage to open the door and Drogan immediately throws a lit torch into the room. As Drogan, Devon and Grarth stand and stare down the long corridor which seems to end in a room containing some bookcases, three strange looking, 'glass-like', knights seem to materialise before their eyes. Alwaith fires off a couple of Eldritch Blasts, one of which misses completely whilst the other does seem to make contact with one of the knights, but the ray of force seems to pass right through the target and hits the wall beyond. Drogan quickly decides to reach in to grab the door and close it before anyone else can act, though he does provoke swings from all three knight's swords, all of which manage to miss him. He manages to get the door closed and nothing else emerges from the room.

Believing that the knights are now trapped the other side of that door, they focus on the larger doors to the west. Devon fails in his attempt to pick the lock (now using his 'normal' thieves tools) and Drogan fails to break the door lock using his strength, though he does make a bit of a racket in the process. They decide to use the table to ram into the doors and manage to break them down on their first attempt with this method.

However, it seems that whatever was beyond these doors was aware of their presence. Grarth runs in and immediately slips on a slippery patch on the floor. He manages to recover and runs back out of the room as a javelin is thrown by a very powerful, and very vicious looking werewolf from the southern end of the corridor. At the same time, a swarm of rats appears close to him in the corridor, looking to attack.

The rat swarm was quickly taken care of. But soon after another appears. Drogan runs in and manages to avoid the slippery floor using his clever boots - he runs towards the werewolf and what looks like a young, female gnome that they recognise as Lispeth. Alwaith is not so fortunate and falls on the greasy floor. He decides it is safer to blink out of this plane rather than stay and be peppered by javelins or crossbow bolts, that seem to be being fired down the corridor. Drogan continues to rush towards the two enemies at the end of the corridor, despite having javelins thrown at him. He reaches them and very quickly regrets his decision as he takes the full force of all their numerous attacks. He is surprised at just how many attacks he receives, though he shouldn't be - he is, after all, in their lair.

Drogan decides the safest course is to run back, using the extra speed granted by his boots. Unfortunately the werewolf is just as fast, and catches up with him, biting him and clawing him badly. As Drogan falls unconscious to the floor, he feels The Curse enter his body and start to flow through his veins. Devon and Alwaith are trying to take down the Werewolf, and scoring important hits, but it remains standing over Drogan's unconscious body. Grarth rushes in and manages to get a potion of healing out of Drogan's pocket and down Drogan's throat, then uses his action surge to get a couple of key hits on Redback, the werewolf, ensuring he is looking pretty beaten up now. However, the wolf is still standing, and gets some good hits on Grarth. Lispeth is firing her hand crossbow from a distance too. Things are looking difficult, but the whole group pile in on Redback, getting good hits with Eldritch Blasts, hammers and axes. He still stands, but a final attack from a distant shortbow from Devon, firing a silvered and poisoned arrow hits Redback straight between the eyes, finally taking him down.

Devon runs towards Lispeth, hoping to take her out before she can do more damage to the beaten up group but she disappears, reappearing behind Devon, near to one of the pictures on the wall. She runs to the picture, touches it and immediately disappears from the corridor.

We leave our "Heroes" nursing their wounds. Drogan is walking slowly, having been downed twice in one afternoon. Grarth is looking a bit worse for wear too. Alwaith and Devon are looking healthy, but worried about their survival chances, should their primary meat-shields fall again. Lispeth seems to be gone, and Grarth touching the picture did not seem to have the same transportation effect on him. They consider their options….

Session 43 - A Lesson In What Happens When You Let Them Get Away

Mon 22nd Mar 19:30 - 23:30

In-game timeline: Uktar 23 - Uktar 23 DR1489

With their new-found insight into the thoughts and feelings of the creatures they are facing, our "Heroes" decide… to continue to kill everything they come across.

They lay in wait. And wait some more. Nothing ventures into their hold-out. So they wait a little longer. They open up the chest in the room to reveal some stuff, including some nice silk scarves. Drogan takes a pretty red one and stuffs it in his backpack to give to Hawkeye later. The romance is blossoming! At this point Grarth decides to go and check out the corridor. As he exits the room he almost bumps into a humanoid/bear hybrid, and a werewolf who seemed to be lying in wait for such an event.

They manage to get an attack in and Grarth is bitten by the wolf, only to feel 'The Curse' flow through his veins. The fight is tough - Grarth needed to run back into the room to get help for the fight, but the bear and the wolf followed, only to be faced by a raging Drogan and a hard-to-spot Devon. Not only that, but a recovering Grarth and Alwaith were then attacked from the other direction by another pair of werewolves.

The battle becomes even tougher. The bear was especially difficult to bring down, and was dangerous with those sharp claws. Grarth needed to use the greater healing potion and later his second wind to recover some health, and was bitten more times - he once again felt more of The Curse flowing into his body. Alwaith plays fast and loose with his Eldritch Blasts, usually so accurate, but every now and then one flies off wildly. Unfortunately this was the case in this battle - attempting to hit the werewolf attacking Grarth, Alwaith shoots an Eldritch Blast which veers away from its intended target and hits Grarth instead - the Half-Ogre is less than impressed and is suspicious that it wasn't as accidental as the pale half-elf claimed.

Eventually Grarth manages to take down one of the werewolves and Drogan, after an intense fight and taking numerous wounds, is able to finally take down the werebear. Unfortunately Grarth is then brought down by one of the remaining wolves, and the others are too busy with the remaining creatures to be able to immediately help him. His death saves don't go well.

Drogan finishes off the werewolf attacking him and, while Devon pours a potion down the unconscious Grarth's neck just in time, Drogan moves in on the final werewolf attacking Alwaith and takes it down with a clean swipe from Cleave, who is very much enjoying the fight and is disappointed that no more combatants remain.

As Grarth rises back up, exhausted, and wondering what happened, the group nurse their wounds and contemplate the decision to allow the werewolves to run away unchallenged from the previous encounter, and the deviation from the previously "agreed" "plan" by Phil Specter. Many recriminations abound, which is pretty much the norm for this close-knit group of friends.

At this point the group of "Heroes" decide they need another rest. It's been a few hours and a few battles since the last rest, and they need to recover some health. Wary of resting without checking out the remainder of this level of the ruins, the group patrol the corridors to see what else is around. They spot a narrow, natural tunnel leading off into the hillside, but decide to ignore it for now. A pair of double doors cannot be ignored, however, and they cautiously open them to check out the room beyond.

Inside this room is a very strange contraption - a pedestal of gears and levers, near to a small, flowing aqueduct carrying a stream of water from one side of the room to the other. In the centre of the room is an unlit brazier, surrounded by strange orbs fixed into iron poles which fit into slots in the floor. Grarth is generally confused by a simple lever, and really cannot get his head around this device. The others take a brief look at it and decide it is a problem for another day and ignore it. They also decide that this room is a good place to rest, and close the doors and recover for an hour. Which passes uneventfully - at least that's what they think.

Emerging from the room after an hour, the place looks much as they had left it. Except, as they soon discover, the bodies of the werewolves, and werebear (which, once it had reverted to human form upon death, Grarth recognised as Jacob, the person who recruited him a few days ago) had been removed!

They approach the stairs heading down to the next level, and spend a small amount of time marvelling at the (Dwarven, of course, according to Drogan) workmanship in the bas relief panels depicting more Titan vs Gods battles of the Titanic Wars.

Devon is sent sneaking ahead and reaches the next level. He spots what looks like a wererat patrolling the corridor ahead, and returns to inform the others. A plan is hatched, worthy of this group of "Heroes". They sneak down the stairs together, none too quiet, but none too loud either. Unfortunately no one told Grarth to extinguish his torch, so the stealthy movement is somewhat negated by the fact that a brightly lit torch is descending the otherwise unlit stairs. By the time they reach the bottom of the stairs, there is no sign of the wererat, and they are faced with an empty corridor.

The progress cautiously down the corridor, but it seems a group of wererats are waiting for them, and launch an attack on Drogan when he reaches a corner. The initial attack consists of another werewolf, and a 'corrupted' wererat, with the now-dreaded sight of purple poison running through its veins. During the battle, three more corrupted wererats join the fight.

Drogan, being at the front, bears the brunt of the fight. The corrupted animals use their vomit attack to good effect, and necrotic damage abounds. Many of the group take damage, but Drogan takes most, and eventually falls after the second vomit attack hits him.

After Drogan is taken down, the others take up the battle. Cleave had already claimed the life of one of the wererats, and Devon had managed to finish off a battered werewolf with his Shard of Eltrys, boosted by sneak attack and booming blade. Grarth and Alwaith luckily resist more bites from the rats, and Alwaith's Eldritch Blasts are a bit better targeted now, and before long the remaining three rats are taken down. A potion is used to revive Drogan and once again the party stands victorious amongst a number of bodies, though they are once more battered and bruised and with very little healing abilities or items left between them.

And so we leave our "Heroes" on the field of another battle, contemplating their options and considering their remaining health and the possible battles to come…

Session 42 - Fight in the Playground!

Mon 15th Mar 20:00 - 23:30

In-game timeline: Uktar 23 - Uktar 23 DR1489

Having descended the impressive stone stairs into the impressive circular stone room, complete with impressive bas-relief carvings, our "Heroes" are impressed. 

"Damn fine Dwarven work", says Drogan, still wrongly insisting that these whole ruins are Dwarven in nature.

Once the group have adjusted their eyes to the dark, Grarth lights a torch and they all need to adjust once more. They walk up to the stone door at the end of the tunnel. Drogan listens at the door and can hear some muffled voices from beyond but can't quite make out what they are saying. So he opens the door a little in order to hear better.

He does hear them better, but he cannot understand what they are saying. So he calls over Alwaith to see if he can make out what the language is.

At this point, and for the rest of the session, the DM spent much of his time putting himself into the minds of the creatures in the ruins, and working out how they would react to the antics of the group. So the session's blog will switch to their perspective…

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The lizardfolk in the room are a little confused. They are just finishing off a fine lunch of grilled fish and bread, when they hear the large stone door open a crack, and nothing more. Drissal calls out in his native draconic, expecting to get a reply from his colleagues who he assumes are for some reason behind the door, or at least accompanying visitors, but are refusing to enter. Then he hears some whispering in what he believes is the common tongue, though he never got around to learning it. He calls out again in draconic for the people outside the door to identify themselves and come in.

When he hears nothing but more whispering outside, he becomes suspicious. He tells his mates to grab their weapons and shields, and asks Brains, their nickname for the Render who was busy stuffing his face with grilled fish, bones and all, to go and open the door and see what is going on.

And they are faced by a band of adventurers, weapons drawn, ready for a fight! Brains takes a swipe at the dwarf behind the door, but in his haste he completely misses. He then, strangely, collapses on the ground, laughing manically. None of the others had ever seen Brains laugh - he was a miserable sod at the best of times, so they are a little taken aback by this, but recover enough to at least challenge the group, who seem to be coming in fighting.

Brains is no use at all, what with him lying on the ground, and Drissal and his two friends are not faring well. Drissal shouts to the other two to keep them busy, and runs off to fetch The Boss, Grodrith. Unfortunately for Drissal, he didn't bank on the group making fast work of his friends and the mad dwarf with the mohawk coming running after him and stopping him in his tracks, literally dead, before he could even get halfway to Grodrith's room.

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Grodrith is just finishing his fine meal alone in his room. He never liked eating with the other guards, especially that barbarian, Brains, who has no idea how to eat without spilling most of the food on the floor, which only encourages rats. As Grodrith rises from his chair he is a little surprised to see a great oaf burst in through the door, wielding a large maul!

Grodrith is intelligent enough to know that this giant is not friendly. And if it got to his room, it must have got past his Scaleshield guards. Luckily the oaf is quite slow. Grodrith manages to launch his Jaws of Semuanya in the direction of the great lump, hoping they will chomp down on the large target, but it doesn’t seem to do very much. Grodrith dodges the attack from the maul, and then Commands the half-ogre to run away. Luckily this seems to work, and he turns to run! Grodrith takes the opportunity to turn and run himself, hoping to get some help from the lower levels.

Unfortunately the mohawk dwarf is on his heels. As Grodrith runs, he sees a barbaric dwarf, hands covered in green blood that he is sure is of lizardfolk origin. He debates whether to turn and face this new foe, or continue to run, when suddenly the spectral form of one of his men appears right next to him and takes a swipe!

Grodrith does not last long. Under the onslaught of this strange and scary spectre, a mad dwarf, some arrows that seem to come out of nowhere, and some magical blasts of force that smash him into the wall, he stands no chance. Indeed, before long he is not standing at all.

-------

Meanwhile, Beryl is guarding the children. At least, she *thinks* she is Beryl. She is not sure. She hasn't been sure for quite some time. But thinking hurts her head, so she stops wondering who she is, and turns her attention to the children. Guard Them was the order, so that is what she is doing. She is sure she knows some of them - memories try to force their way into her brain, but again, that amounts to thinking, and that hurts.

The children are scared. She doesn't like that. She doesn't want to scare them. But they seem scared of her. She remains as still as she can to avoid worrying them. Some of the younger ones are playing in the middle of the room - they seem to have adapted well.

Suddenly the door opens. You turn to look out of the room and see a bloodied head of a Lizardfolk Render, on a stick, dripping all sorts of bodily fluids onto the ground in the corridor. You are unphased by this - you've seen worse. Indeed, part of you thinks that YOU are worse, but you are fairly sure a lizard head on a stick isn't normal. The children in the room, however, look up to see this scene and start to scream.

Children screaming. That is not a sound that Beryl likes to hear. It's a bad noise. Bad memories. Thinking. Pain. You revert to your command - Guard Them.

A little figure runs into the room. He has strange red hair cut in a weird style on his head. And he's wielding a big axe that you are sure exudes an air of enjoying the mayhem. An arrow out of nowhere flies into the room and buries itself in your shoulder. You feel nothing. You pull the arrow out and throw it to the floor. The children are still screaming.

Suddenly the axe pierces your body. That DID hurt. It puts you off, and your attempt to slam the dwarf into the wall fails. You try to defend yourself against an onslaught. The arrows don't bother you, but that axe definitely does. Some crossbow bolts fly past you and you worry that they may hit one of the children. You try to put yourself in the way of any projectiles, only to be faced by the strange glow of what seems to be the spirit of one of those lizard things. It's not something you've seen before. Whilst you consider what it may be, and how you can prevent it from harming the children, you are hit by blasts of force coming from outside the room.

As pain surges through your body you come to a realisation that your body cannot take much more of this. You feel a relief. You will be released at last. Free from this torment. You must still Guard Them but you relax into the thought that this will not last for much longer. However, whilst you welcome the idea of your death, your final thought as the clean, bloodthirsty axe cleaves you upwards from between your legs, is that you have failed in your duty to Guard Them. You have failed the children.

-------

Talfen Strong is 12 years old. It was his birthday only two weeks ago, and he was looking forward to being able to plough the fields with his father next year. Until the other night, that is. Now he is unsure if any of the children, himself included, will live to see the other side of winter. But his name is Strong. His father is Strong. And he must live up to his name for the sake of the other children - they need someone who can lead them.

He hears the young ones start to scream. Talfen looks up to see what is the matter and sees them staring towards the doorway, some screaming, others crying. He moves into the centre of the room to see what is frightening them and spies an open door. Beyond the door is a wooden pole and atop this pole is a large crocodile head, blood dripping down the staff, bits of flesh hanging from the severed head and its eyes rolled back in their sockets. He has to stifle his own scream before he regains a small amount of composure, unnatural in a 12 year old, and tries to usher the smaller children back in the room, away from this grizzly vision.

But then their Guard, a strange patchwork-figure who initially scared all the children with its cold stare and sewn-together flesh, but who they have come to realise is no threat to them, moves into the doorway, trying to stop the invaders. You see a dwarf, not one that you recognise, run into the room and start to hack away at your guard, seeming to take great pleasure with every hit. The children are all scared now, and you are too. You back away, pulling the young-uns back with you. There is nowhere for you to go. You are trapped.

And then the ghost appears. It flies through the walls - no, not through the walls, through the Guard herself, and appears in the room. A GHOST! A ghost of one of those lizardmen. This is too much for you. As you turn away you catch sight of another of the attackers. It's that big ogre! The one who was with those lizards when your guardians were attacked in the Town Hall. They have come to get you again. To kill you all. You cannot contain your fear any longer and you cover your eyes, waiting to be killed. Killed by a ghost. Or a mad dwarf. Or an ogre. Or a head-on-a-stick. Your hands cover your closed eyes. Waiting for the end.

And the fighting stops, though only briefly. You peer through a gap in your fingers. And see the Ogre pushing someone in the corridor. It looks like an elf. Sort of. But he is pale. A pale elf with a glowing sword and black armour. He is fighting with the Ogre. Maybe he is on your side? But then you hear him command the ghost and the ghost obeys him. No, he is not on your side. None of them are. They are fighting over which one gets to kill you. Of that you are certain.

As the shouting dies down you wait for the final blow. But someone is talking to you. Talking gruffly, but sounding kind. It's the dwarf. And he is standing next to a halfling. A halfling who looks a lot like that big statue of Milo The Great in your town square. Maybe you won't be killed after all. You look around - the kids are crying, wailing, hiding. They need someone to take charge. You need to be that leader. You move your hands away from your eyes and try to bravely look the dwarf in the eye. He seems nice, now his axe has been put away. And that halfling looks harmless. He's no taller than you are. And he has a big smile on his face. And his clothes are clean - he's not been anywhere near a fight, you're sure of that. Maybe you should talk to this dwarf and see why they are here. You ignore the strange elf, and the scary ogre who both seem to be glaring at each other out in the corridor…

-------

Greyson is relaxing with his family. The kids are all secure, Lispeth seems happy, all seems well. You can relax. It seems normal for you now to remain in your hybrid form - not really much point reverting to human form when in the ruins. It's warmer in hybrid form anyway. You chat with your wife, Glyness, and younger brother, Harcourt, as you warm yourself by the fire.

Suddenly the door to your room opens. Strange. You weren't expecting visitors. No one enters. Even stranger. You lean to the centre of the room to get a view of the now open door and see an empty corridor. Nothing there. Just an open door. This doesn't seem right. You look at Glyness and Harcourt and they seem similarly on edge.

All of a sudden something enters the room. But it is not someone you recognise. Worse, it is not even someTHING you recognise. A ghostly, spectral form in the shape of one of those mercenary guards who live upstairs. And it's floating straight towards you!

Leaping to action, you try to attack, before it gets a chance to harm you or your wife. Your attacks seem to have an effect and all three of you pile in on it, biting and scratching.

But it has attacks of its own. And it uses them, harming Glyness. But the three of you manage to overpower it and before long you get one last scratch on it and it fades into nothing. And then, silence.

You look at Glyness and Harcourt, wondering what is going to happen next. Nothing appears around the corner, and you do not want to go looking. You're not stupid. Anything that has got this far, will have got past the guards. There may be more ghosts, but then if there were, they can come through the walls, so you must stay alert.

When nothing happens for a while, you all decide to make a run for it. You hatch a plan. When you're ready, you bolt out of the far door, expecting attacks. But only a single arrow flies your way, and luckily it misses. All three of you make it to the other door and manage to escape the room. Now to the next part of your plan…

Session 41 - I Love It When A Plan... Doesn't Quite Work As Intended

Tue 9th Mar 19:45 - 23:15

In-game timeline: Uktar 23 - Uktar 23 DR1489

Our heroes awake, not quite as refreshed as they hoped, as the sun rises over the swamplands. They set off quickly for the Ruins, not wanted to waste any more daylight in these marshes.

Arriving at the Ruins they look over the area, which seems strangely dry and barren, upon which the ancient Ruins of An-Sen lie. Grarth seems to think there may be lookouts in at least one of the 4 towers that surround the ruins, and it is clear that the main approach, via a bridge over a river, is very open and obvious to anyone looking out of the tower. So they hatch a plan.

Alwaith reveals that he can not only fly, but also turn invisible. And can turn someone else invisible too. The others express surprise at Alwaith's abilities that he seems to drop into conversation every week or so. They decide that sending a couple of invisible people over to scout out the ruins would be a good idea. Devon was the obvious choice, but then they decide that whoever goes over should possibly try to take out some guards whilst invisible. So maybe Drogan? They take one look at Grarth, busy picking vegetation out of his toenails with his teeth, and rule him out quite quickly. So Alwaith and Drogan it is. They promptly turn invisible and at that point realise that they may struggle to see and communicate with each other while they are both invisible.

Drogan suffers the indignity of having his mohawk grabbed by Alwaith as they walk over the bridge. Still, it's better than holding hands.

They enter the first tower and climb the stairs. Alwaith slips and stumbles on the stairs, causing a lizardfolk guard to check out the staircase. Drogan quickly rigs up a trap in case the guard comes down, but the guard, seeing nothing, retreats back into the room at the top of the tower. Alwaith and Drogan breathe again, and then spend a while trying to find each other once more.

They check out the room at the top - two guards. Rather than take them on there and then, they decide to check out more of the ruins whilst their invisibility lasts, so they head over to the second tower, and find the same situation - two guards at the top.

On the way there, they had seen a couple of intact areas of the ruins in the centre. Drogan decides they should check these out on the way to the two towers at the rear of the ruins. Alwaith listens at the first door and hears nothing from within, so Drogan, perhaps forgetting that he is invisible, decides to open the door and see what is inside.

The Lizardfolk shaman preparing his lunch in the room is surprised to see his door opening with no one there. Being of a magical nature, he is immediately suspicious and rushes out to investigate. Alwaith and Drogan quickly hide around the corner, and make their way back round to the first tower, giving a wide berth to the centre of the ruins. They are unseen, but the shaman is still very suspicious, and he rouses 4 guards from the other room who fan out to investigate the ruins, alerting the guards in the towers as they do so.

Alwaith and Drogan decide it is time to take out some guards, especially as the area is now on high alert, and their invisibility is running out. They climb up to the first tower and take advantage of the fact that the two guards are now peering out of the window. Both "Heroes" use their invisibility to surprise the guards, and both score impressive hits. Drogan then follow up with a hit so clean that the guard is unable to shout out a warning. However, Drogan decides to press his advantage and shove the guard out of the window after almost killing him with his newly acquired warhammer, Traxiil (Cleave is REALLY unimpressed at being left out. He is sulking). This does indeed kill the guard, but the sight of one of their colleagues falling from a tower to the ground below does somewhat alert the guards patrolling outside to the presence of someone in that tower.

Meanwhile Drogan finishes off with another hit on the other guard, who responds by defensively swinging his morningstar and managing to score hits on the barbarian. Alwaith follows with a swing from his magical longsword which cleaves the guard in two. Just in case the rest of the guards weren't aware of their presence, Alwaith decides to finish with a flourish and ignite the body with magical flames - the light and smoke from which does an excellent job of advertising to all around that they are here in the tower.

With all the guards below now alerted to their presence, Drogan descends to the lower doorway to make a stand. Alwaith follows, but not before he has checked out who is coming, and manages to get a Shatter spell off at the shaman and two guards as they are running across towards the tower.

Meanwhile Grarth and Devon, patiently waiting in the undergrowth on the other side of the bridge, are perhaps unsurprised to see the great commotion going on in the Ruins. Bodies being flung out of tower windows and flames and smoke is probably not how Devon would have gone about it, but it is an obvious marker that Drogan is in town. They start to run over to join the fight.

This fight goes so much better than the last one against these lizard-like foes. Drogan is mildly concerned when suddenly 8 very large actual lizards appear right in front of him, but he has the sense to focus his efforts on the distant shaman, and uses the power of Traxiil to bring down a bolt of lightning upon the magic user, ending his life before he could do more damage, and managing to make all the summoned lizards disappear in the process. 

Which just leaves the 10 guards to take care of - four of which join the fight a little later on, as they came from further away. But Grarth and Devon are now in the fray, and seem to have a tag-team routine going, though Grarth is a little unsure as to the rules of this particular set-up. Devon shows off as usual by sliding through the half-ogre's legs to score a hit on an enemy before disengaging and sliding back through Grarth's legs again. Unfortunately this tactic comes a little unstuck when Devon 'runs out of movement' and finds himself standing next to an enemy - a very unsettling and unusual position for him to be in! Luckily Grarth manages to take that enemy down with a crushing blow from his maul before Devon could be in any real danger.

Meanwhile Drogan and Alwaith are, almost literally, holding the fort against the lizardfolk guards. Drogan is taking some damage, but his barbarian rage is cancelling out much of the this. The most significant damage to Drogan in fact comes from Alwaith, whose usually accurate Eldritch Blast goes astray an hits Drogan instead. Not for the first time, Drogan mutters under his breath.

With their shaman taken out so quickly by a sudden lightning bolt from the sky, and some strange, magical vine growth covering some of the arid ground (as a result of Alwaith's use of Belak's staff), and then the rapid demise of a further six fellow guards at the hands of the four adventurers, the remaining four guards decide this life is no longer for them, and flee the battle. They take a few hits in the process, but manage to slink away into the waters below the plateau and escape.

Our trusty "Heroes" check out the rest of the ruins, finding no more guards, but some tasty lunch, a set of stairs heading down into the darkness below, a strange painting on the walls of one of the rooms and a chalice filled with dark liquid - Grarth promptly tastes the liquid, spits it out, empties the rest on the floor and pockets the chalice. Devon now has a rival! Or maybe an apprentice.

After a short rest, the group decide to check out a possible entrance that they spotted from the other side of the bridge - a cavern or tunnel in the side of the cliffs. Devon is promptly lowered down on a rope from above, and then goes exploring through the winding tunnels. He doesn't reach the end and isn't sure if it goes where they hope to go, but it is a little narrow in places, and although Devon thinks Grarth could get through, with a bit of help, there is no guarantee he'd make it all the way through. After travelling only about 80 or 90 feet into the tunnel, Devon turns around and rejoins the others.

With time getting on they decide not to try to force a reluctant Alwaith to check out the water-filled tunnel nearby, and instead head back to the shaman's room where they agree to head down the steps into darkness.

Arriving at a circular room below they are impressed by the ancient bas relief carvings on the stone walls, depicting some form of battle involving mighty dragons and impressive magic. As they take all this in, we leave our "Heroes" about to venture into the underground Ruins of An-Sen….