Down the Hole (with a Druid Coming from Behind)

A Bitch and her bitches!

Having laid waste to the insidious Ironfell and his crew of kobolds, our motley crew returned to Winterhaven and made their way to Salvana Wrafton’s inn.

Lord Paidrig, as was his usual, was seated in his corner seat at the inn and patiently awaiting our party’s return. Much to the noble’s surprise, Thenor unfurled the late Irontooth’s head from a small pouch as proof of our heroe’s exploits. With the threat removed, (and the threat of losing the morning’s meal fast approaching) Lord Paidrig eagerly paid the bounty posted.

During the transaction and subsequent discussion, Kyatual (being ever alert) spied a pattern of clothing he had seen recently. The handwritten note found on Irontooth’s body was scrawled on a piece of cloth matching the clothing belonging to and being worn by the extremely unfriendly elf, Ninaren. When pressed about this, the elven archer (quite literally) sprung into action, landing on top of the bar. With a cry to Orcus to protect her from her foes, a pack of foul Shadowhounds materialized around our party. The civilians in the room made short work of retreating into the inn’s sleeping rooms to hide.

Not to be outdone, Thenor himself launched his body onto a table to make himself the centerpiece of the fight. Kyatual and Akishar fell back into one corner, with Dancingfox confining herself to the opposite corner of the room. Mechanos remained in the center of the room to provide melee relief to Thenor.

The Shadowhounds (not responding to the names Gozer or Zuul and having positively no idea who the Keymaster was) provided quite the fight for our crew, especially with Ninaren providing artillery support from a third corner. The scales were eventually tipped in favor of our friends and she made a break for it…only to be pulled back into the room by the mage, Akishar. With the Shadowhounds banished back to the realm from which they came and her wounds mortal, Ninaren surrendered.

Her bow confiscated, a brief interrogation took place providing some more detail to what our party might encounter in the future. She was then summarily hauled off to the town’s jail with only hopes and dreams of surviving the night. For his keen perception, Kyatual gifted himself with Ninaren’s powerful Vicious Greatbow.

Having relieved the town of another threat, our party took some rest for the evening. They awoke to a grateful town. Thair Coalstriker bought the spoils of our party’s adventures for some gold and provided his smithy expertise to add scaled armor to Thenor’s Dwarven Chainmail. A search of Bairwin’s store revealed some healing potions and some magical items for our heroes to brandish.

Douven and Valthrun were relieved to see our party and were eager to extract what mysteries they could from the Mirror of Shadows, but the business at hand would take precedence. Valthrun’s research into the Keep on the Shadowfell proved invaluable and a small hand drawn map of the keep of itself was produced.

Lord Paidrig graciously offered a warm breakfast in his home, but could provide no further help in conquering the Keep. He only offered another request for help in discovering the whereabouts of his missing villagers with some information obtained from Ninaren. Having scoured the town of all the resources it could muster, our party set out to find the missing townsfolk and make their way towards the Keep on the Shadowfell.

WAR!

After a good nights rest and payment rendered for the previous days work, our glorious band was prepared for more action.

Lord Padraig was eager end the scourge of the foul hobgoblin, Irontooth, and found our heroes to be the perfect remedy. With Okan being an extremely heavy sleeper, a vampire by the name of Mechanos was hired to fill his role. After (again) forgetting to sell their spoils of war, they set out in search of the Kobold Lair.

A quick game plan was established for the initial assault using stealth and cunning…the kobolds didn’t know what hit them. A few quick fatalities were racked up on the opposing side and the battle along the river was in full swing. Utilizing an arcane circle of power to boost their melee skills, Mechanos and a Kobold Dragonshield went toe to toe for several rounds until our friendly vampire was the victor. All of our heroes got into the act and the vanguard force was dispatched (with Thenor testing his first mage assisted jump into combat!)

After some surveillance of the two cave entrances, our party entered the lair of their foe. Near chaos would ensue. Our party was quickly met with stiff resistance, alerting the entire cave network of the intruders. A foothold was made at the intersection of two cavern entryways to help stem the tide of onrushing enemies. What our friends had not counted on were some crafty kobolds exiting the lair from other exits and attacking them from the rear.

Thenor held his ground valiantly against Irontooth and the seemingly unending waves of new arrivals. With most of the attention on the dragonborn, Mechanos was able to wreak havoc amongst the horde before attracting a large amount of attention and taking some serious hits of his own. Left to defend the soft underbelly, Kyatual was left to act as rearguard…and defend he did. He continued to rain arrows upon his foes and as they were almost at his toes he eluded capture with the assistance of Akishar. Continuously shape shifting to meet the needs of her comrades, Dancingfox was able to deliver damage and relieve the stress put on her fellow fighters, taking down a few enemies of her own.

With most of the heinous crowd taken out of action, Akishar delivered a powerful spell, knocking Irontooth off of his high horse and allowing he and his friends a chance to regroup. Dancingfox delivered the killing blow to the hobgoblin with Thenor cleaning up the rest of the mongrels. Beaten to a pulp, our party could then revel in their spoils. A mighty new hammer for Okan was discovered and some powerful chainmail armor was gifted to Thenor. The mysical Mirror of Shadows was discovered in a nearby chest, thereby completing this section of their quest. A return to Lord Paidrig (with Irontooth’s head in tow) was next on the agenda to receive some well earned pay. With these things accomplished, there is no reason not to believe that an encounter with Balgron the Fat would soon be in their future!

Skill Challenge!

Our motley crew was last seen in the midst of a hostage situation. It was now time to become more savvy in the ways of D&D…

It was quickly discovered that it was not a hostage situation, but a botched kidnapping instead! The attempt was foiled by our group of kids (and their dog too!) team of heroes as they approached Winterhaven. With superior rolling abilities and our Dragonborn finally learning the fine art of door suppression, they were successful.

It was learned that Bairwin was behind this plot as well and it had not been limited to this single incident. The kidnappers could only speak for themselves but let slip that young maidens were being kidnapped and submitted to rites associated with Orcus! With a final bit of intimidation from our Dragonborn, the foul leader and his henchmen were allowed to escape, leaving behind only a Skull & Ram Horn Necklace, kept as further evidence of the foul plot taking place. After a brief discussion, it was determined that the two parents were also in jeopardy of being sold to a “Metal Tooth” who was associated with the “blood something clan.”

With the gratitude of the small family, our crew headed to town speak with Lord Padraig about the coming confrontation with Bairwin. With a collection of evidence (pendant and necklace) and two witnesses (Agrid and the young girl), the noble was persuaded to speak with Bairwin with Rond Kelfem, the local captain of the guard as an escort. Our mage, using very wizardly like powers, was able to help the group listen in on the conversation. Bairwin denied any wrong doing and when Lord Padraig returned, accused the gnome of lying. The noble was persuaded to return to the shop, with our party in tow, to settle the matter.

Milk carton needed: Have you seen this man? Bairwin seemingly vanished from his store, but a trap door in the floor was soon uncovered. With an accidental reconnaissance of the Orcus chapel below (provided by our GM), our fine heroes elected to ambush the worshipers inside. Utilizing stealth, Kyatual landed the first shot of the foray with his longbow…the fight was on! Our dwarf artificer unleashed a mechanical spider for the first time and used it to wear down Bairwan as the rest of the party dispatched a pair of skeleton warriors and two moderately powerful acolytes. Kyatual used his longbow to dispatch the sleeping Bairwin, much to the chagrin of some of his fellow adventurers (absolutely no fucks were given on his part!).

A secret chamber was discovered in the room…with loot! Dancingfox was rewarded with an Earthroot Staff and Akishar spent his DKP on the Orb of Inevitable Continuance. The party also received a ritual for Comprehend Languages and a large sack of gold and silver. Plotwise, an incriminating letter from Kalarel to Bairwin describing shipments and a ritual involving Shadowfell!

With the promise of rest and reward (500g!!!) our team retreated to the inn to conclude this episode.

After a quick breather, our heroes again set forth in search of Douven. To their surprise, the party came across a dwarf by the name of Okan, who also was looking for the same man! He gave a harrowing tale of being the sole survivor of a kobold raid and how he had lost his hammer in the fray.

After some brief discussion, Okan was welcomed into the party (strangely, to the adventurers, it felt as if he should have been with them all along…) and the adventure continued. Our heroes would not have to wait long for more action.

Arriving at the Burial Ground, a very nervous gnome was unable to fool our party into anything other than combat. Featuring a mostly vagrant force, the enemies were able to provide the greatest test in combat yet, by featuring a pair of stubborn Guard Drakes and potentially overwhelming numbers. As one could guess, our party was still yet victorious, is spite of some serious blows being dealt to two of it’s members. The original gnome (now known to the group as Agrid), that led our party to fight actually surrendered (by laying face down in a cloud of fiery gas while being rained down upon by drops of molten metal, no less) just prior to the release of Douven.

The plot thickens! Having saved their friend and mentor from certain doom and the discovery of their first magical item (an Amulet of Health, given to Thenor), the party was led to a hidden cave entrance. The only apparent way to open said cave would be with a magical mirror, according to Douven.

Both ex-kidnap victim and prisoner in tow, our party began the trek back to Winterhaven. At one of the outlying farms, a hostage situation was unfolding as the party crossed by. The dwarf immediately smashed in a window and attempted an interrogation as the Dragonborn twice fell on his rear trying to kick the door in. Just as tension was about to boil over, the mage smashed a window on the other end of the house and simply asked the attackers to release the young captive girl…

The adventure begins in earnest!

Dancingfox, a Druid, was joined by Akishar and Thenor, a Mage and Battlemaster, respectively, as well as Kyatual, a Ranger. The party found themselves on the King’s Road, headed towards Winterhaven in search of their lost friend and mentor, Douven Staul.

A small band of kobolds unsuccessfully tried to prevent adventure from continuing. How foolish for them! With the first real combat encounter under their belts, our party made their way to town for a bit RP.

Once at the town, several new characters were introduced and a few key details were discovered! The innkeeper, Salvana Wrafton, mentioned that Douven had not been seen for a few days. The town historian and farmer, Eilian the Old, provided a map to the “Dragon Burial Ground” (or trash heap as it is sometimes referred to) and the local noble, Lord Paidrig, was introduced to the party. A mysterious female elf, Ninaran, was disinterested in talking to the group, but with a Dragonborn blocking the door and the arcane workings of the mage, some basic introductions were at least completed. Our Battlemaster even managed to drink horse piss!

Back out into town, the local blacksmith, Thair Coalstriker, bought what was left of the kobolds equipment and gave his version of the local gossip. The shopkeeper, Bairwin, also indicated he had last seen Douven headed for the Dragon Burial Ground. A bit of a recluse, Valthrun the Prescient was discovered to be living in the Tower near the town square. Having an arcane background he provided a bit more background for the town as well as the trash heap. Having tapped out the well of information available, the group set forth for the Burial Ground in search of Douven.

Ambushed! Having barely crossed the threshold of the city gates, our heroes were again set upon by kobolds, this time by complete surprise. The smelly ratkin were dispatched, albeit with a few bumps and bruises. Among the bodies, among other things, a small necklace featuring the mark of Orcus was discovered.

Edit: New characters will be introduced with Bold, new locations with italics!

Meet and greet! No real activities other than sorting through technical difficulties and the most efficient use of the d20 system. Attacks were practiced on the DM and player sides ending a small skirmish fairly quickly.