Tragic, ironic, epic session. The action picked up where it left off during the previous game: The party was in the middle of a running battle in the secret passage into Lakehaven. The passage ended with a chamber full of baddies: A hill giant, 3 ogres, 3 mace orcs, 3 ax orcs, 2 wargs.

The ironies:
• The normally “cautious” Falca charged ahead, sacrificing himself but avoiding the TPK
• Dremler died, however, Alex didn’t play him
• Roger single-handedly defeated 3 orcs and held the party rear (?!)
• Abeneer cast 2 really useful fireballs
• Harlech lost courage
• Brecon was out of spells (well almost)
• Gabe, well, he didn’t really do much…

The icing on the cake was when the hill giant, lined up AC 10 Abeneer with a fastball boulder, and rolled a “1”.

Falca vs. The Hill Giant.

The only proof of Roger’s “heroism”!!!

Session started with the party under attack from Preytons and Abeneer and Roger below zero hit point. luckily the dwarves Brekon and Harlek had caught up with the party and with their added muscle made short work of the remaining Preytons, but not before the foul creatures caused more damaged to the battered crew.

Throwing caution to the wind the party trekked on coming to a small shack built in the hill side. Quite possibly the sack that consoled the old smugglers tunnel that was supposedly a secret, even the crazy moonshiner Oren they met last adventure knew about it?

They saw movement near the entrance of the shack boldly called greeting. The form slipped in the shack and they sent Roger through the fog to check it out. A failed move silently check alerted the orcs the halfling had approached and they let loose arrows.

Roger fled back the rest of the party charged and made short work of all but one of the orcs who managed to flee up a dark tunnel in the back of the shack that was built on the hill. The party took more damage was low on spells and not wanting to brave the tunnel they returned to the boat.

They luckily avoided the attention of more Preytons on the journey back to the boat but that night while switching watches the party saw the large unmistakable shape of a dragon fly over them and all but Gabe were wracked by the deep chill of fear. The dragon did not seem interested in them…this time…

The party was convinced that it was most likely Krisenven, following the shore line back to the keep.

The next morning the party used the boat to travel back to the shack. As their boat pulled out of the fog a horn was sounded and more orc archers peppered the landing craft as the party rushed the german pill box old fishing shack.

At this point the DM started rolling really good.

The party managed to take the orcs in a running battle from the beach, into the shack, and then up the long slopping tunnel into the hillside. The superior underground vision of the orcs allowed them to snipe at the party from the darkness of the tunnel and the short legs of the dwarven pursuers allowed the orcs to keep their distance.

The session ended after 9 rounds of this combat as the party lost sight of the last orc and paused to catch their breath after a long sprint up the sloping tunnel. Then the heard a menacing sound from the darkness ahead, The sound of something clearly too large to be an orc.

The PCs quickly made a decision to leave the isle and travel by boat towards Lake Haven. They kept the shore in sight, due to the fog and lack of seamanship skills.

The PCs stayed on the boat, offshore, on the first night to heal up and recharge.

They kept traveling south on the lake for another day and decided to make landfall near some ruins. They searched the area for any threats, finding none, they bedded down for the night in a small ruin boat shack near the shore.

Out of the darkness an “old man” named Oren appeared and asked to warm himself and talk to the PCs. He used to live in Lake Haven and left about 6 months ago. The PCs interrogated him for answers, but he just responded with half answers and riddles. The PCs became very wary and decided to abandon the site and hurried to get back to the lake. They spent another night in the boat and landed near the “back door” to the Ruins of Lake Haven. After hauling up the boat unto the rocky shore they started moving towards the city.

The PCs were attacked by six Peryton’s. Immediatly, two PCs went down. The Paladin, Falca Breks, took out one monster and damaged another one. One winged creature decided to try and carry away one of the PCs but dropped him 10 feet to the ground. Time was called at 230pm.

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the one where party tries to kill each other again and Mr. White/Brown/Black saves the day again

The party finally left Nisha’s lair before it became their tomb, and retrieved the boat from the villa and proceeded on to lakehaven. However, the magic users noticed an old tower along the way on an island that once belonged to a powerful Mage and wanted to stop and “collect all of the magic item’s lying around.” Sigh. The party was able to find the isle with the aid of Harlech’s direction sense, landed, and found the ruins of the tower and associated hall fairly quickly. After digging through the rubble for a few hours, half the party gave up and started to go back to the boat. The mages however were more tenacious and cast a Detect Magic spell and determined something magic to be just a few more feet below. The rest of the party returned and was able to uncover a metal seal, like a manhole cover, beneath. There appeared to be no way in so half the party started back to the boat again, but Roger the Thief discovered an illusion that covered a keyhole. The rest of the party came back again, but he tried to pick it, and that’s when the curse was triggered.

About half the party failed their save vs. Magic, and immediately felt protective of the seal, and that every other PC was a threat. Falca immediately struck Harlech for 15 hp of damage (the hardest he ever was hit), Brecon cast Hold Person which held Falca, and Abeneer, (Harlech saved), Gabe started attacking with his Spiritual Hammer. Harlech charged out of the room until he saw that Brecon and Gabe started fighting so he charged back in but both he and Brecon were held. Mr. White and Roger were both hiding outside of the room, but Mr. White cast Acid Arrow on Gabe which prevented him from casting spells. When Gabe rushed out of the room, he ran past Roger who was hiding just beyond the door. Roger successfully back-stabbed Gabe, bound him, then revived him. The rest of the Held Party was also tied up and dragged to the beach, where the curse wore off after 24 hours. The party sailed away after that, a sadder and wiser adventuring party.

The One where the DM finaly gives up on using his 3D model

Roger doing something heroic…wha???

The party continued to hang out at Nisha’s to rest and were waylaid by more orcs. The party managed to mask the entrance with Phantasmal Force from Mr. White, and Brecon supported it with Produce Flame spells. Roger must have been possessed by an ancient berserker god, because he volunteered to sneak through he orcs Invisibly to get some clay for a Stone Shape spell. Upon his return, Stone Shape was used to barricade the entrance with a stone portcullis-like structure while Mr. White continued to concentrate and maintain the illusion. The spells worked well enough to delay the orcs just enough for Abeneer to rest and recover his 3rd level spells. They broke through just as his 8-hour alarm clock went off, but the party was still not ready. The dwarves could not out race the orcs to the right-side entrance, and were surrounded by orcs and dogs. However, Gabe held the orcs on the left-side entrance single-handedly. Eventually enough orcs were killed (about 25 or so), that the attack stalled. Roger snuck up to the entrance and saw that at least two orc factions were squabbling outside. Abeneer saw his chance, and struck: he dropped a Fireball right in their midst. Another 25 or so orcs were roasted and the remainder fled.

Yeah, Put ’em back in the box!!!

the one where the party learns Orc are still deadly at any level.

Nisha’s loot was divided and the party found a naked dwarf ( Alex new party member) tied up in the back.

The dwarf told the party that he had been headed to Lakehaven with a party of adventures but had been attacked by an evil cleric. this same evil cleric had placed him on a boat rowed him across the lake and the traded him to Nisha in exchage for Nisha to try and slow the parties pursuit.

the party then ignored the +2 battle ax and argued over who got to get the mask that increased charisma towards the oposite sex. Gabe the cleric one and then a few weeks latter his player had three dates in two days. Coincidence? I think not.

The party hung out at Nisha’s place to study spells was were attacked by a horde of orcs. In a role reversal the party was forced to defend thier dungeon from curious invaders seeking treasure.

The paladin was severely wounded by arrows, but the party eventually drove the orcs off with their new fireball spells (?).

but the orcs had the party blocked in and were using a war drum to gather more and more forces.

The one where the party enters the third dimension

Arden 2012 Kickoff: Very trying session because our Game Shop changed its hours without our knowing, and we resorted to playing in the back of a pickup truck for a while, until we decided to drive down to a different game shop.

We continued our story walking up a wash toward a cave that the horned one had visited to investigate his reasons. Hopefully he dropped off the key there (fat chance). The Owls, a cadre of Rangers escorted us up the wash, and left one of their cohorts, a goblin tunnel rat, with us for back up (Maggies new character).

We entered the cave and a booming voice thundered, “Who dares to intrude upon NISHA!!!” Well, we tried to bs our way through it, but it didn’t work, and soon we found ourselves in combat again. The room was a large natural cave with a stone bridge formation spanning it’s width about 20’ above the ground. A small stream followed the left side of the cavern and a small opening in the back clearly led to the chambers on either side of the bridge. DM Jeff crated all of this in 3D with Styrofoam and boxes, and did a great job advancing his candidacy for DM of the year because of it (He even glued a grid onto the floors!).

Orcs with bows started firing at us from the ledges and the bridges above, and it was obvious that they would soon pour out the opening in the back. Furthermore, Nisha showed herself. She was a half woman half slug creature with 4 arms, one of them oversized,and wielding a large axe. The dwarves “charged” ahead as usual, but the rest of the party held back and returned fire. The next round the reserve moved forward, the paladin took the path on the other side of the stream, but then a trap was sprung. When most of the party was under the bridge, Nisha disappeared into a side room and cut the rope for the trap. A large spiked Log swung down from the ceiling and smashed into three characters in the way, killing the mage Tez. Gabe andAabaneer survived and Roger and Mr. White where unaffected.

a round or two later as the party regrouped to heal Abaneer learned how to cast fire ball the hard way and died 120 XP short of fifth level his spellbook, magic wand, and various other items also got burned.

Meanwhilie the dwarfs cut their way through the first wave of orcs and ran to the right and killed an ogre. Falca and Roger ran left and dispatched Nisha in fierce Hand to hand Combat. There was much loot. Enough to satisfy even the dwarves.

A scroll of Raise Dead Was alos found and used to bring the smoking corpse of Abaneer back from the dead. Once he found out his spell book had burned and that Taz’s spell book only held three spells he regretted the choice to come back.

The one where the party tries to kill each other

The party decided to hang out and heal and recharge after the battle and NOT pursue the horned one. While we were waiting the 2 johns and steve showed up. We were surprised and suspicious but they checked out. Then Roger showed up. The party was suspicious of the thief because no one else had ever survived the horned one’s company.

The cracks in the party cohesion started to show. The party took a vote on how to proceed next. There was a split vote between sailing on to Lakehaven and pursuing the key, or to sit tight, and wait for the HO to return. Gabe was the swing vote, and Abeneer called him aside presumably to try to talk to him. However, when out of earshot of the rest of the party, Abeneer attempted to cast Charm Person on Gabe to sway his vote. Gabe saved, and seeing this as an aggressive act, he cast Silence. Abeneer made his save and the Silence spell took effect in the air just behind him. The rest of the party drew weapons and there was a lot of confusion, but eventually bloodshed was avoided. In the end, Falca Brecs used his sound judgement and fined Abeneer 200 gold as reparations. Gabe was amenable to the result and the party decided to walk up the coast to verify Roger’s story. Along the coast two zombies were encountered and easily dispatched.

The party countinued to walk and eventualy found a location where the horned one had landed, supporting Roger’s story and decided to investigate.

The one where “Clanger and the Gang” becomes just “The Gang”

Yet another epic battle in the iron worm chamber!!! The session started with the party hidden in the extra-dimensional space created by Abeneer’s Rope Trick Spell. The horned one’s party was below us, but Abeneer and Tez were below talking to the Horned one trying to convince him to pass on by. The horned one seemed to play along and he and his entourage exited the room, but when he saw he was being led into a dead-end hallway (more-or-less, the tilted bridge was located at the end), he cast silence and the ogres advanced to attack the two wizards. They had no choice but to run, race across the tilted bridge, scale the ropes to the iron tower, then cut them behind them. Leaving two ogres behind to guard them, the horned one re entered the room.

But just before that, Brecon poked his head underneath the box and successfully turned the 4 ogres that were left behind to guard the room. When the rest of the horned one’s party could be seen returning, we sent Falca Breks, the paladin, out to block the entrance, trapping the turned ogres in the hallway. Basically this evened the odds, because our mages were trapped in the tower.

That left the horned one, 4 super skeletons, and the undead Malik (a strange undead lit on fire and burrning like the a human torch) versus Harlech, Clanger, Roger, and Brecon, and Gabe. Not bad odds. We were able to harass the HO with Hold and Command spells, but were unable to affect him because of his magic resistance and excellent saves, and we were unable to close to combat because of his use of the skeletons to block us. After we chased him across the room he divided the room with a Wall of Fire, splitting the party; trapping Falca, the Berserk Roger, and Clanger on one side with the exit and the evil necromancer, and the rest of the party with the remaining skeletons on the other. After a few rounds, Falca leapt through the fire, the HO slayed Clanger with a Slay Living spell, and left Roger to die at the hands of the ogres. The rest of the party fled and repaired the ropes to the tower, freeing the wizards.

The one where the party forgets to stay together.

Turns out the party had traveled into the lich’s tower on the plane of fire and were trapped and dying of dehydration. The lich Altree Graetus had been surveilling the parties’ progress, and was very amused that the two short swords that were stolen by the battle-cautious halfling were Cursed Berserking Swords. The party decided to bargain for their lives, and Mr. White the gnome proposed that the party would recover the final key to the tower and return it to the lich. The lich graciously acquiesced to the parties request with the small caveat that the party submit to a Geas spell. The party will have to return the key to the tower or report back to the lich within 30 days or the ill-effects of the spell will begin.

With the clock now ticking, the party fled the tower and went straight to the boat. The undead bat was released from its cage, and the party had only to wait until it reached the Horned one. The bat was to be used by the orcs who were digging at the villa as a signal for the horned one that they had found the hidden keep. The horned one was sure to return soon. And the party would let him simply pass by into the keep with the key, thereby fulfilling the geas, and the party could return to town and collect the original prize from the half elf wizard and be on with their lives.

Well, surprisingly enough, there was a wrinkle in the plan. The two dwarves seemed to remember that there were two gems in the eyes of the falcon atop the tower (opposite the tilted bridge), and decided to retrieve them. That went well enough, so the dwarves decided to see if there was a way to retrieve the paladin’s maul which was lost when the bridge tilted. They descended the stairs where they had battled the demon days before, and found some strange porthole-like stones in the wall in the tower at what they estimated to be the tower level. They spent several hours chipping away at the stone with chisels.

At that point the sound of oars in water were heard from the party in the villa above. It appeared that the horned one was here! Instead of forsaking their dwarves to their well-deserved fate, the entire party went below and warned them. By the time the dwarves made it up to the Iron Worm Chamber, the horned-ones party had landed and had discovered the secret passage into the dungeon. Quickly the party decided to cast Rope Trick and hide most of the characters in the interdimensional space created by that spell, and the two mages would cast Invisibility on themselves. Roger the halfling begged to be tied up so that the beserker rage brought on by the cursed swords would not get him killed, but the party decided that would not be a good idea because the spell would expire and he would be killed falling 20 feet. “Besides,” said Brecon, “you do have two magic swords, and we need the help; you’ll be fine..”

Soon, six enormous Ogre Zombies, four “super” skeletons, the Horned one, and one additional zombie, which turned out to be the former party member, Malik, who died at Ogre Jima, but whom the Horned one re-animated for his own vile purposes.

The session ended after it was apparent that the invisible mage Tez was eventualy going to be found by the undead to the undead, and he decided the jig was up, and became visible and tried to convince the Horned One to proceed through the chamber to the Lich’s Tower.