3-10. The Old Keep Chapel

10. The Old Keep Chapel – 29th May 2015

The Temple of Hidden Light
After resting through the night, the group headed back to the Temple of Hidden Light to be reunited with their stalwart companion, Ulrik.  They found him in good spirits, still battle-scarred but alive and very glad to be so.

While the rest of the companions reaffirmed their bonds with their dwarven companion, Titan took the opportunity to go and speak to the Priestess of the Temple of light about the rather grizzly item he had been carrying with him since before they had started their grand task of clearing out the slavers from the Horned Hold.

Although the Priestess was initially receptive to the idea of purifying an evil artifact from the world, it soon became clear that this was not going to continue.  She looked upon the item, which was the skin from the necromancer face that had been torn off during battle, a certain level of hesitation came to her, and then she suddenly seemed to recognize who it was.  It seemed that the necromancer of whose face Titan now held, had been a valued member of the Temple, and indeed of the Seven-Pillared Hall.  Horrified, not only at his demise, but also being talked to by his murderer, she refused to have anything more to do with him.

When it seemed that Titan was going to be carrying around the darkness-imbued face of the necromancer for some time, a new figure stepped into the room.  A burly dwarf who bore the sign of Kord upon his armour.

He introduced himself as Ammeric, a priest of Kord.  It seemed that he had sensed that Titan was also a follower of the same God, and was willing to help him with the task of making the detestable item safe once more.  But for a price.

The price was not, as one of the Temple of Hidden Light might have done, of gold, but of a task to hunt down a dragon that was lurking in the depths of the Labyrinth as a show of strength and courage, to prove his worth to the God, and bring back the heart as proof.  Titan seemed not to question this at all, and agreed readily.  Across the room, I could see Corvar’s gaze upon the pair, noticing the extremely pleased look in the Priest, and one that was not necessarily that of one religious pride.  Was something more going on there?  If Titan succeeded in his task to slay the dragon, perhaps only then would we find out.

Rothar’s Taproom
So the group headed out with Ulrik in tow.  Perhaps feeling a keener sense of his mortality, and the need for some extra backup, he decided that a trip to the taproom might yield some success if there were some mercenaries there.

Upon entering, it became clear that this was not the cleanest nor the most pleasant of taverns.  The floor was dirty, and most things seemed to have a level of grime that was almost fitting with the type of clientèle that were seen frequenting it.  They were a long way from the well-kept tavern of Winterhaven, that was for certain.

It came as something of a shock for them when they saw that many of the customers, other than goblins and orcs, were in fact Duregar, who likewise did not appear, and with good reason, to be pleased to see them.  However despite half-rising at the sight of them, the group seemed unwilling to take that further step to combat right now.  The reason for this may well have been the massive ogre, of whom Corvar had so recently had dealings with in the Customhouse; Brug, the Mages of Saruun’s enforcer, who was arm-wrestling across the other side of the room.

Corvar went to the bar and bought himself a drink before seeming to disappear into the shadows along one wall, something he seemed to be getting more adept at doing.  Ulrik on the other hand had spotted some rather depressed looking dwarves and went over to sit with them, offering to buy them all a drink, in the hopes of striking up a more friendly drinking experience.  This seemed to cheer the dwarves at least a little, pleased it seemed to be talking to one of their own race.

It seemed that the dwarves were hired as miners by the Deep Gem Company there in the Seven-Pillared Hall, but they hated it, not only because it was back-breaking work, but also because they were paid barely enough to survive.  As the conversation started to flow between them better now they had a willing ear, and some foul-smelling beverage, they appeared far more open to talk with Ulrik, who, by his very nature, was open and friendly.

Worryingly, across the room, the Duregar all got up and left the tavern, not liking sharing it with our group perhaps.  Corvar, worried they were leaving to make some manner of trap for them, gestured to the otherwise un-engaged Ayanna to go and check on them while he remained watching the room.  However, just as she was going to do so, and as if out of nowhere, a massive hand came down towards her shoulder, something that likely might have crippled her had it made contact on such a small personage.  Her swift reflexes stood her in good stead however, and the hand met only empty air, however the massive form of Brug still lingered, looking none-too-pleased at having not made his target.

He told her, and in a loud enough voice that it carried to the rest of the group, that there would be no fighting the Duregar in the Seven-Pillared Hall.  Through spittle-coated words, they came to understand that the Hall was seen as a sort of neutral ground, with the Mages of Saruun seeing that it remained so, primarily with Brug doing the enforcing.  “I know you been going after those stiffle bearded freaks.  Bold, stranger.  Bold.  But not in the Seven-Pillared Hall.”

His point having been made, he goes back to his arm-wrestling across the room, and soon the general noise in the taproom returns to normal.

Meanwhile across the room, Ulrik had been in deep conversation with the dwarves there, who had taken note of the conversation, and the fact that Ulrik and the group he was with were fighting the Duregar.  It seemed like the dwarves, much like Ulrik himself, had no love for the Duregar and indeed, seemed almost as vehemently against them as Ulrik was.  Seeing an opportunity, Ulrik told them how the Duregar had indeed killed him, and showed off the still-healing scars he bore.  This had enough of an impact on them that he then asked them if they would be interested in being hired by him as mercenaries to help take down the Duregar in the Horned Hold instead of struggling for the pittance that the Deep Gem Company were offering them.

After some negotiations, money was changed hands, and the dwarves, filled with visibly renewed purpose, finished off their drinks and headed out to prepare for the battle to come.  They would work with Ulrik’s group, as they called it, by attacking the front entrance, while Ulrik’s came through the rear in a sort of pincer movement that they hoped would strike the enemy down quickly.

So it was that both the dwarves, and our group left the tavern, with Corvar adeptly dodging a random glob of spit on the way out, and the sound of a breaking bone and relevant cries from both contestant and watchers as Brug succeeded in his arm-wrestling bout.  A well-timed win for Brug, and perhaps more of a statement for our group than it was an accident.

Gendar’s Curios & Relics
Moving outside of the taproom, the thoughts of the group became focused on the inevitable battle to come.  Ulrik, remembering the strange potion in their bag that they had not yet identified, took it out and contemplated if for some time, before coming to the conclusion that it was  Gravespawn Potion, something that helped fight against poison and the damage of death magic.

Searching through their various gathered loot, they found some healing potions, which they split amongst themselves for emergency situations.  Satisfied with this, they headed to Gendar’s Curios and Relics.

Entering the place, Gendar was in as fine a state as ever, this time seeming to hide behind the door to surprise his customers, however both Corvar and Ulrik noticed him with an ease that he hadn’t seemed to expect.  Still, the drow was friendly, and as ever, more than pleased to attempt to sell them goods from his store.  Ulrik picked up a stronger healing potion, and Corvar related the information about his acquiring the contract for trade within the Seven- Pillared Hall.

Horned Hold Keep
All business and preparations taken care of, they gather to start to head out to the Horned Hold once more.  However just as they are about to leave, Titan, who had been absent during the fight in which Ulrik had lost his life, took Ulrik aside a moment, telling him “I am sorry I was not there for you.  I swear on my life to protect you.”  The sentiment seemed heartfelt and genuine, and was, perhaps, a surprise coming from the creature they knew so little about.

And so the group headed off to the Horned Hold, a trip that was becoming fairly frequent as to be an easy route to follow, or one might think.  Ulrik, perhaps still addled from his recent demise, got them lost.

It took a few hours to re-find the place, and much to their surprise, the Keep seemed deserted.  Soon though, as they moved cautiously through the corridor in which they had encountered the arbalesters, they heard faint screams that they had heard during the fight the previous day.

Since their original intent of attacking the Horned Hold had been to rescue the slaves that had been taken, it was decided to go to the east where the screams were originating.

Heading through some doors and up the stairs, they soon came to a corridor in which Corvar noted some runes were faintly inscribed upon the floor.  It was far too far to attempt to jump, and the runes covered the entire corridor from side to side, so there was no way around.  Clearly, to get to their target, they would have to find some way across, and walking over what appeared to be a floor of spelled traps, was not really seemed to be a good option.

The group stood and contemplated this, for they could see small pieces of bone fragments in amongst the rubble and general dust around the place that hinted to previously unsuccessful trespassers.

It was Ulrik that came to the decision to attempt to make contact with the spirit world and try to talk to the spirits of those that had fallen at this place.  The first attempt brought forth the spirit of a dead Minotaur whose glare seemed to make Ulrik flinch slightly, as if it had harmed him.  Needless to say, Ulrik didn’t pursue the matter with this spirit any longer and dispelled it, before taking a moment and trying again.

This time it was the spirit of a Duregar that could be seen, or rather, seen by Ulrik.  I myself, being of the spirit realm, could take note of its presence, but the rest of the group seemed oblivious.  It seemed to be trapped in a never-ending sort of fire and the spirit appeared in agony to this.  Despite the fact that the Duregar are the group’s enemy, I could not help but feel a certain amount of pity for this spirit, for my own afterlife has indeed been rather idyllic by comparison.

Ulrik, seeing he would get no communication from the Duregar when it was in such a state, attempted to get its attention, pointing out that even if he was on fire, which he couldn’t be since he was dead, the Duregar are pretty resistant to fire.  This seemed to allow some manner of peace to come over the spirit, and the flames died back until the perceived agony was reduced enough that he could understand and communicate.  It seemed to matter not to the spirit that this was a Dwarf he was talking to, and he warned Ulrik not to go on past to the door.  His speech was somewhat incoherent still, but it seemed like he had been told that it was the third line to use, but that had been a lie.  It was the second.  Again, he warned Ulrik not to continue, before the shaman allowed the spirit to rest once more, hopefully in a better state than he had been upon summoning.

Looking at the floor, the group contemplated which line the Duregar had been talking about.  It was Corvar who put forth the question as to how the Duregar language was read, as this might change how the runes were read and might explain the spirit’s untimely death.  This insight proved invaluable, because after some discussion, they did indeed come to remember that the Duregar read from right to left, unlike the common language.

So it was decided that Ulrik should send over Landshark to check whether this route was indeed the correct one.  The spirit companion made its way over without trouble, but then it occurred to them, as solid as Landshark could appear at times, he was indeed merely a spirit and would cast no weight upon any of the traps.  Ulrik huffed a bit, and started to make his way over the second column of runes from the right, and after it was seen that he was unharmed, the rest of them followed.

Faced with a barricaded door between them and their quarry, the screams from beyond loud in their ears, Titan smashed the barricades aside with the help of the group and they charged inside, hoping to take their foes before any more damage to the slaves could happen.
But the sight that met them was not of slaves being tortured, but a room with a large statue of the Minotaur god Baphomet, and six wights who had been making the screams to lure in prey.

to be continued [the rest of the notes are currently missing, I will update this when I find them]

Continue to Chapter 11

3-11. Meeting Macklemore

11. Meeting Macklemore – 12th June 2015

[I need to find the notes on this encounter, they have gotten lost.  Please check back another time]

to be continued

Continue to Chapter 12

3-12. Fateful Keep

12. Fateful Keep – 19th June 2015

We had left off on our story with our group attacking the resident Duregar in the main Keep of the Horned Hold, along with the group of Dwarves that Ulrik had managed to secure, through charm and money, to aid them in their quest.  

Banhart had joined the group, a rather confused mage who had appeared among the dwarves in the initial attack, having been teleported there through some manner of magical mishap and was now fighting alongside them.

The fight was fierce, since those Duregar who had remained had gathered and reinforced themselves in this area of the Horned Hold.  Two of their number had fallen, but the group was by no means in an obviously easy position.  To make matters worse, Ulrik and Ayanna seemed to lose consciousness and had to be dragged  quickly out the door, while Titan and Heskan stepped into the places the two had recently vacated.

Many of the dwarf allies seemed to be in poor health, and Corvar took a moment to rifle through the unconscious Ulrik’s belongings, knowing he had some health potions.  Taking them, he then quickly helped stem some wounds on his dire wolf, Brannoch, before passing the healing potions to the dwarves, knowing that if they fell, the group was in fairly serious trouble.  Titan also uses his skills in healing before attacking the now-giant dwarf in front of him.

What followed was very much a heated battle, for although they outnumbered the enemy, those they faced seemed to be both better prepared, and harder hitting.  The only stroke of good luck that the group got was when one of the scouts moved up onto the raised platform at the rear of the room and Macklemore, the leader of the Duregar, really didn’t like that, moving up after him and kicks him off, doing a considerable amount of damage.

Although they managed to do a great amount of damage to their enemies, with Heskan killing an arbalester, Titan making a killing blow to one of the giant dwarves and the thurge, while Mosco and Banhart felled a scout, the enemy also killed two of their dwarven companions; Kilthet, who would never again see his family again, nor carve any more chess pieces from pebbles, as well as Manalo, who Macklemore strangled to death.  Never again would we hear of his cheerfully related  exploits with the many and varied dwarven women he had bedded.

The group also seemed to be plagued by misfortune, both through their attacks doing little or no damage due to the Duregar’s superior armour or defences, or through random occurrences of poor luck.  Banhart, when trying to intimidate one of the Duregar, for instance, managed to instead become terrified upon seeing a small spider nearby on a wall, and one of Heskan’s arrows failed catastrophically, splintering in his face, seeming to damage his hearing, not to mention Corvar tripping and falling to the ground when trying to fire his own arrows.

Despite the hardship of the fight, they continued on, and bit by bit, the Duregar numbers were lessened until it was only their leader Macklemore that was left alive.  The group’s mood was improved by this, seeing that they could overwhelm the Duregar, despite his skill in combat.  However they were not prepared for the quick movement their enemy made, stepping into the fire they had already witnessed him being immune to, and disappearing down a secret passage there.  Escaping into, what they presumed, was the next room.

Many of the group in poor health, they would usually spend time healing and perhaps heading back to town after looting the area, if history is any predictor, however with an enemy freshly escaped such leisurely activities were out of the question unless they planned to leave the keep once more.  With two of the dwarves dead, the rest of the mercenary dwarves seemed to have lost their earlier jovial and celebratory demeanor, and though resolved to see this through, were not as optimistic as before, and with good reason.

It was decided that they should take a breather for a few minutes to patch up their wounds as best they could, before moving into the other room, in which they had heard the sound of devils coming from.  They knew this was likely to be the hardest fight, not only because of the devils, but because this was where Macklemore had likewise escaped to, likely to warn and pre-arm the Duregar in there.  

While the rest of the group planned to move through the main entrance to the room beyond, Titan decided to follow Macklemore through the passageway in the fire, hoping perhaps to take them by surprise that way.  Having spied a bath filled with water at the end of the room, he picked it up, hoping to tip it onto the fire and douse the flames.  However a stumble on the stairs ended up with him dropping the tub and most of the water splashing onto the floor.  Putting what water was left on the fire, the group were then witness to the huge companion rolling around on the floor to wet himself on the spilled water as best he could, before deciding that this was indeed sufficient.

So it was that they went for the two-pronged attack, with the main group, with Corvar’s dire wolf in the lead going through the main door, and Titan going through the fire to the secret passageway.

Macklemore was, of course, waiting for them, along with two hovering devils, and five other Duregar, including one that bore a startling resemblance to him.  This would be no easy fight.

“You were fools to follow me!”

They were also dismayed to find the delicious smells of roasted boar coming from the room.  Too late to save Ulthand’s dire boar, it was now roasting on a spit across the room from them.

The fight initially went well, with the Duregar missing several times, as well as both Macklemore and one of the devils being knocked down into the pits that held the remaining slaves.

Most of the group focused on trying to take down the Duregar guards, while Titan lingered near the fireplace he had come into the room from, intent on killing Macklemore, and then alternating to the Duregar guard that came to aid him.

This separation from the rest of the group proved to be too much, for soon Macklemore was joined by one of the devils, and in a devastating attack that had compounded on previous injuries, Titan struggled to retain his defences, but fell and was quickly pounced upon by the devil as he struggled to keep consciousness.

Things were not looking at all good for the group, for none of them could get to Titan to help him, for there were Duregar between him and the rest of the group.

This was then compounded by Corvar becoming stunned, Banhart missing with one of his spells, and then Heskan also missed with his skills, cruel memories from his past seeming to flash before his eyes, as tears started to streak down his face.  He struggled to gain control of his emotions, but the memories seemed so clear that the tears only flowed faster, rendering him blind in the middle of their fight for survival.

The Duregar took full advantage of this lapse in fighting prowess, with a blast knocking Corvar, Heskan and Banhart prone on the ground, and one of the Duregar hitting Hamlet with a powerful attack.  Across the room, the devil continued to claw at the downed Titan.

Seeing the tide of battle had turned fully against them, Corvar calls the retreat, commanding Brannoch back to him.  The dire wolf took a vast amount of damage trying to return to his Master, all but stumbling up to him, blood pouring from his wounds.  Heskan tries to lay one of his powerful traps, hoping perhaps to slow or kill one of their foes, but blind as he was, the trap failed to set properly.  Hamlet had better luck, killing one of the guards before retreating with the rest of the dwarves.

Unfortunately Macklemore was not going to let them retreat so easily.  He attacked Banhart, pushing him away from the exit before moving after him, swiftly followed by an attack by the other devil, who, much like had happened with Titan, was felled, struggling with consciousness.
Although, miraculously, he managed to draw strength and purpose enough to haul himself to his feet, it seemed like his shifter nature took over, for he seemed unwilling to retreat even when surrounded by enemies.  In what might indeed have been something of a noble sacrifice to give others time to escape, or merely an offensive reaction against foes, Banhart chose to linger, attacking the Duregar and devils while the rest retreated.

With three Duregar, including Macklemore and his brother, between the group and Banhart, and others closing in, there was little hope of them being able to retrieve him, and certainly none of them getting Titan considering that all of those surviving were bloody and without any healing or health potions.

Not about to throw their lives away on a hopeless attempt, Heskan was the first to make it out, quickly followed by the bleeding Brannoch, and after a quick bluff to distract the Duregar who followed them closely, the dwarves helped Corvar shove the unconscious Ulrik and Ayanna into his magical backpack and dashed out the door.

Back in the room, I was the only witness, other than that of the Duregar and the devils to the untimely demise of both Titan and Banhart, who, unable to sustain life with such vicious attacks, especially from the devils, they breathed their last, becoming only corpses on the floor under the poisonous claws of the devils.

Seven-Pillared Hall
So it was that they made their way swiftly, and thankfully without event, back through the labyrinth to the Seven-Pillared Hall.  Corvar made it known that he was not going to linger around there, and the dwarves were much of the same mind.  They had lost both Kilthet and Manalo, and while their hearts burned for revenge, attempting to go back now would be a fool’s choice.  Even staying in the Seven-Pillared Hall may well not be a safe option.

The dwarves talked of their home, now overrun by goblins and gnolls,and as they traveled, talking through the pain of their many wounds, they came to the decision to leave the Labyrinth and head back to their lost homeland and try to reclaim it.  From there, they argued, it might be possible to regain their strength and return to garner proper revenge against the Duregar.

So they made it back to the Seven-Pillared Hall, splitting ways temporarily.  Corvar and Heskan headed to the inn to patch up their wounds as best they could and gather their belongings from there.  Corvar also wrote a short letter to Gendar, explaining that some circumstances had arisen, and the trade agreement they had made should be put on hold until the matter was resolved. He wrote another to the Temple Priestess also outlining the delay on their agreement due to the slaughter of two of their party.

They said a quiet farewell to Rendil, and Corvar passed on the letters to him to give pass on later that day.  Cautious as ever, the Kenku seemed to feel that it was better to leave swiftly and quietly before any sort of ambush might be organized, for as much as he enjoyed conversing with the shopkeeper, he was under no illusions that such information would be worth quite a lot to someone, and Gendar was, if nothing else, a sensibly mercantile Drow not to pass up such an opportunity.

Meanwhile Hamlet, Mosco and Hanor had gone to the Deep Gem Company, their former employers, but also it seemed, friends or at least allies in the past.  They told Ulthand of the demise of his boar, despite the valiant efforts to save it, they had just been too late.  This seemed to weigh heavily on the dwarf, for great tears streaked his face.
“It is the end then.  My poor Roderic.  He had a good life, he did.  But what am I to do without him?  My heart just isn’t in this any more.”

The dwarves then told him of their plans, along with those of the adventurers that were left, to gather their kin and try and retake their town.  They would surely need a priest to re-sanctify the temple, a place where Ulthand had once been happy, before the days of his prime when the excitement of the world to explore had been too great.  “Yes.. yes I could do that.  It has been so long since I was there.  To make it ours again, that is a worthy goal.  I shall join you then. Armarr can look after this place without me.  He has been doing it fine without me since Bob was lost.”

So it was that four dwarves, not three, met Corvar and Heskan outside, before making their way swiftly from the Hall.  They would go to Fallcrest, they decided, for it was a large town, and they knew of at least some of their kin were residing there.  Hopefully they could gather enough force to retake their home.

Return to the Home Page to find more of their adventures

3-09. Assault on the Main Keep

9. Assault on the Main Keep – 22nd May 2015

The night went without incident, and the next day the group headed out to take a look around the stores, to offload the various arms and armour they had collected on their adventures.  Corvar, seeing the as-yet unvisited provisioners, headed that way, thinking to come to a deal about the various large barrels and goods in the keep.

The Provisioner
Entering the shop, the place is packed with a great variety of foodstuffs and provisions of different types and from different races.  There were also quite a few climbing kits, some in better condition than others, and a torch the group identified as being one of the rare ever-burning torches.

However it was a dusty bow of a rather vibrant pink that caught Heskan’s eye, having been looking for a new bow.  The shopkeeper, Dreskin, a rotund man of annoying vocals, seemed only too happy to show the bow to the dragonborn, his eyes gleaming with delight in his chubby face.  It was with some surprise then that the shopkeeper, after ascertaining that Heskan liked the bow, that he gave it to him, without cost.

But of course there was a cost, just not one we might expect from a store.  The giving having been done, Heskan would become aware that there was more to this bow than merely its rather odd colouring.  The bow was, of course, cursed.  “Ah, I have been trying to get rid of that bow for years!  Wreaks hell on my love-life it does.”  The bow was called the Greatbow of Seduction, and while powerful, could also turn enemies that it was fired at, in love with the holder.  This could work in their favour, but, Drekin warned him, that if their will was too weak, that love would turn into something more all-consuming and fanatical.

Despite what he now knew about the bow, Heskan did not attempt to gift it back to the shopkeeper, perhaps showing just how powerful the magics that bound it were, for he seemed unwilling to even take his hand from it.  However he did show his displeasure at being so tricked by attempting to lick the shopkeeper in what must have been some cultural gesture, “Feel my love tongue of joy!” was the cry, even as the shopkeeper tried to get away.  Such a strange scene that I would initially have put down to the curse of the bow overwhelming the male’s senses, however I have now seen him do other odd things in the past.

Once Heskan had calmed down enough, Corvar tried to talk to the shopkeeper about the goods, however after considering it, the man shook his head, stating he didn’t have the resources to set up such a thing, but did try to get them to sell their armour and weapons to him, however, especially after the situation with Heskan, Corvar, who held the loot, seemed unwilling to part with it to him, deciding he would try with Gendar, for he seemed to prefer the drow in his business dealings, despite the male’s obvious mercenary tactics.

Ulrik also attempted to do some business with Dreskin, asking about the warhammer he had, hoping to get more information on the weapon, but the shopkeeper’s price for such a thing was far too steep.  While Ulrik, for a while, seemed to enjoy haggling, ultimately he thought he or Corvar might be just as successful at identifying it, and so they left.

Spurred on by this hope, Ulrik peers at his hammer, turning it over in his hands for a few minutes when they come out of the store before a glint of knowledge comes into his eyes.  It seems that he has indeed figured out the magic of his hammer, and tells the others of it as they head to Gendar’s store.  That it seemed to catch fire while wielded had been noted before, but he now knew how to avoid getting burned himself.

Gendar’s store
As the adventurers entered Gendar’s store, the proprietor had that same mercantile gleam to his eyes as always.  This was the first time that Heskan had entered the establishment, having been carrying around the box of goods from the merchant in Winterhaven for some time now, he was able finally to pass them over to Gendar, who was only too glad to have them.  He gave Heskan some jewels to return to the merchant there when they were next passing through.

Corvar also had some business with the seedy looking Drow, able to hand over the skull scepter that they had picked up in the Keep’s watchtower, assuming that this was indeed the one that Gendar was looking for.  After checking it over, possibly for flaws he could exploit out of the reward price, he did indeed deem the item to be sufficient, allowing Corvar to purchase the hat he had been wishing for a vastly cut-down rate.  To a casual observer, the hat looked like nothing one would give a second glance to, being both old and dusty looking, but clearly the Kenku saw more, for he was very well pleased with his newest acquisition.

It was with good cheer then from both of them, that Corvar negotiated a price for the many and varied weapons and armour they had salvaged from the keep earlier, before he broached the subject of the many barrels of foodstuffs they had encountered.  After some thought, Gendar agreed that he would be interested in a deal, but they would have to get a certificate of import and export goods from the Mages of Saruun at the Customhouse, as all large trades had to have those.

Equipped with both hat and possible extra trading agreements, the group headed for the Customhouse.

The Customhouse
Entering the customhouse, a place that looked far more like a mercenary barracks inside than it did any place of upstanding commerce, Corvar looked around for anyone that might be able to aid him in his task.  Sadly, all seemed either asleep or busy drinking or gambling, and none but the ogre appeared to be anything even nearing in-charge.  It was a long moment of indecision before Corvar finally moved towards the ogre, who despite appearances of slumber, seemed to become instantly intent upon him, proving that there was more to this mass of muscle than one might believe.

Seeing no other option than to attempt to converse with the ogre, Corvar asked about gaining one of the trading certificates.  Amazingly, the ogre actually seemed to not only be coherent, but also communicative, though his breath smelled fairly horrendous.  It seemed like this trading agreement, was less of an agreement and more of an extortion contract, demanding 30% of profit from any trading made.  Corvar seemed reluctant, however it was either signing this or not getting any trade income from the vast quantity of barrels at the keep.

So the ogre called for one of the men in the room to go and get a contract, which Corvar, despite his reservations, agreed to sign, if there was ink, for no quill had been given.  With a grunt of annoyance, he slammed his fist into the face of the mercenary for being incompetent as to not bring one, picked up a bit of straw from the floor and dipped it in the blood.  Corvar, it seemed, now had some ink.  Not really able to find any other way around it, Corvar signed.

He seemed about to leave, when it occurred to him to ask about the zombie wings he had gathered, for none of the other traders wanted them, however he had had heard that the Mages of Saruun might have use.  One of them did indeed appear, and looked over the wings, buying them, then left Corvar with a rough warning not to continue to overbalance how things ran in the Labyrinth, likely meaning the Duregar they had been systematically wiping out.  To this Corvar made no reply other than a grunt, which could have been taken to mean an agreement, or merely that he had heard.

The Slaves
With no other business, Corvar exited the customhouse, only too pleased perhaps to be gone from it, and it was about then that he seemed to remember about the slaves that had been following them around since they had returned.  It was clear that they certainly couldn’t keep them, and really, considering the people dwelling in the Seven-Pillared Hall, and indeed the business types that took place here; leaving the slaves would only likely return them into slavery or to a rather shortened life.

After some discussion with the others, it was decided to arm the slaves and send them on their way back to their home town of Fallcrest.  They made a copy of their own map, roughly, on a parchment, which showed the main roads at least, and then cast the camouflage upon them and the donkey Hendrix, before sending the extremely grateful slaves on their way with the donkey and some food provisions, enough, it was hoped, to get them to their destination unharmed.  There were some sad looks from the group at the donkey leaving, but it was agreed that the Labyrinth really wasn’t the best place for such a helpless creature.  Much like the slaves in fact.

Now, with their bags cleared out, themselves rested, and the slaves taken care of, the group were once more free to return to the Keep (despite the Mage of Saruun’s warning) to continue to clear it out in search of the rest of the missing slaves, and indeed the missing boar.  So it was that the group headed forth back along the now more familiar roadways towards the Duregar Keep.

The Keep
The group headed back to the keep along the back route they had travelled before.  Upon getting there, they found both watchtowers were still empty of enemies, though the corpses of the fallen were gone, and there was evidence of a fire in the kitchen that had been put out.  They cautiously moved through both watchtowers, before heading across the bridge to the main keep.

Ayanna cautiously tries the lock on the door, unlocking it, before stealthily opening it so they could get a better idea of what might await them.  On the surface, it seemed like there were few foes here, and certainly nothing too taxing for them considering their previous experiences.  The only change was the addition of some mechanical looking crossbows or arbalesters.

Hoping to compound on their stealthy entrance, they moved in, however Ulrik was noticed immediately, calling attention to the group and the fight began.

There were three Duregar guards, along with the two arbalesters and a Duregar theurge or mage, the latter two being something that the group had never faced before.

Already on the front line, Ayanna capitalized on her earlier skill with the doors by hitting a Duregar, but then both she and Ulrik fell victim to the arbalesters bolts, taking heavy damage.  The theurge followed this up by sending a wave of magic over the group, but while many managed to escape its effect, all the group seemed to be a little less sprightly in their confidence from then on.

Heskan, eager to use his new bow, shoots at one of the Duregar guards.  The Duregar, stares at him, the arrow sticking out from his torso with a look of such shocked confusion at these sudden and powerful feelings of love.  Unfortunately for the Duregar, who it seems had never experienced such intensity of love before, found it too much, for they had a heart attack, before keeling over, dead.  Love can, it seems, be a cruel mistress.

Meanwhile Ulrik was trying to figure out more about the arbalesters, seeing as how they had never come across these before.  Unfortunately he failed in this, and in his frustration tried to hit it with his new hammer.  He missed, with a grunt of annoyance.  Sadly, things were not deemed to go well for Ulrik, for he had already taken heavy damage from the metal monstrosities, and when the Duregar got a lucky shot on Landshark, sending him back to the spirit world, the throwback damage rendered Ulrik to the ground, struggling to stay conscious and alive, and no one close by to help him.

Ayanna had moved through the rooms, sneaking up behind one of the Duregar and an arbalester, and despite her small stature was able to topple the great machine over.  The Duregar theurge attempted to right the machine, but his strength was not sufficient, and in a stroke of poor luck, the machine fell back down atop him, hurting him and pinning him to the ground under it’s weight. Heskan, seeing the foe partially disabled, ran over and lept atop the machine, further squashing the theurge underneath it.  This also seemed to damage the mechanisms of the arbalester, jamming it.  Ayanna, still in the vicinity, pulls the arbalester with a tossed noose, hauling it up a bit before dropping it back upon the heavily damaged theurge.

One of the guards, seeing this called them all crazy and went running off for help.  Unfortunately there was no one nearby to stop him.

Corvar had, in the mean time, made his way out of the main guarded areas, having divined that the arbalesters only functioned for those in the rooms they were guarding.  He had Brannoch drag Ulrik, who was still struggling with consciousness, into the room with them while he was facing off with the Duregar guard leader.  Corvar, his health already low, seemed to make the decision that a speedy resolution of this situation was needed, considering the imminent approach of more troops when it was clear from the bloody mess of most of them that another wave of foes would be more than they could handle.  So he tried to seduce the guard leader.

I was as astonished as you at this tactic, however for long moments it seemed like it might actually work.  The Duregar was verbally considering it, before the thought of the ogre reinforcing them reminded him of his job and he steeled himself against such distracting thoughts.

Corvar tries to stabilize Ulrik, but the bandages slip through his fingers, likely from the amount of blood he himself was losing. Knowing his position is poor, he makes one last attempt to seduce the guard, but unlike the last time, the guard looks disgusted by the thought and starts verbally cursing and insulting the Kenku.  Oh, dear readers, the look of venom in Corvar’s eyes then as he looks upon the Duregar he would have bedded.  He straightens up and fires his bow using all his reserves while commanding Brannoch to once more fully attack.  There was no chance for reconciliation now, not between these two, not by the look in Corvar’s beady black eyes.

The battle between Corvar and the guard leader continued, but the short time seemed all too much, for no matter his skills in healing, it was not enough when his own health was in such a state.  His last breath expired while the battle went on above him.
Corvar and Brannoch continued to take on the last guard.  Brannoch, now fully engaged in the battle does significant damage to him while Corvar attacks from the front.  Using all the tricks that he can to survive, he tries to intimidate the guard, and perhaps it was his severely bloodied form that added to the determined malicious glint in his eyes that gave him the edge over the other.  The guard fell, his cooling corpse ripped into by Brannoch while Corvar tried to see to Ulrik, but finding him dead.

While Corvar quickly searches the room, knowing they have little time before reinforcements arrive, Heskan manages to kill the mage, giving the corpse a ‘lick of victory’.  There seems to me to be a great deal of licking in dragonborn customs.

With little time to get Ulrik back to a temple to get resurrected before his body becomes too far gone to attempt such a feat, and with so many of them in dire need of healing themselves, they agree to make a sharp exit out of the keep and return to town.

Corvar pushes the corpse of Ulrik into his magical carrying bag and he and Brannoch head to the now quiet room towards the door where they had entered.  He was staggering and not at all sure on his feet, clearly only a small wound away from being as dead as Ulrik now was.  It could only be such a state that left him in confusion, for as soon as he entered the other room, both arbalesters became active and fired upon them as they stepped into the room.

I cannot say for sure what manner of luck it was that helped Corvar in those moments, for both arbalesters, which had not so far missed a single target, both missed Corvar, and gave him time to retreat back into the other room.  He seemed rightfully shaken by the experience, and the group headed through the room towards the other bridge instead, out of sight of the mechanical pests.

Ayanna took the lead, but the bridge was not in a great state of repair, with the winds from the void below only hindering their stability.  In a terrifying moment, Ayanna stumbles, but recovers, however her favoured dagger got caught on one of the railings and came loose, falling over the side as she herself might have done if not for her reflexes.

Bloody, their confidence shaken, and without their usual guide of Ulrik at the front, the party got lost, wandering for hours through the many tunnels of the Labyrinth.  Eventually though they found themselves at the Chamber of Eyes, and were able to make their way back into the Seven-Pillared Hall without incident.

The Temple of Hidden Light
Moving through the Hall, they went straight to the Temple of Hidden Light, the best place they could think of to find resurrection for Ulrik.  The group was bloodied, and garnered many stares from those that were around.

However, when they asked about resurrection for their dwarven companion, they found, much to Corvar’s particular annoyance, that they were on the receiving end of some rather probing questions about how they had come to be in this situation.  Guarded as ever, Corvar answered vaguely but truthfully about how they had been sent to try and locate the slaves that had been taken against their will.  This answer seemed to suffice for the priestess, however the charge for resurrection was not merely in gold.

In order to allow Ulrik to regain his life, there was of course a gold charge of 250 gold pieces, but also the temple said that they would only do it if the group agreed to do a task for them at some later stage.  Not at all happy with this unknown boon or task, Corvar was adamant that he could not agree to something without knowing what it was beforehand.  The priestess seemed unwilling to divulge the task and the negotiations came to a standstill until one of the priests recognized the bloodied and brutalized body of Ulrik as one who had come seeking aid earlier in the week.

For some reason this appeared to tip the balance, and they were told of how the temple was looking to get some proof of the location of somewhere called the Well of Demons.  To do this, they would need to gather a bodypart from a type of demon named only ‘spined demons’ likely due to their appearance.  With this, they said, they could divine the location.

Grudgingly, Corvar signed yet another agreement, and the body of Ulrik was taken to be resurrected while the Kenku verbally prodded the priests for more information on this quest, not only about the quest itself, but of how to defeat such demons.  After all, it was in their best interests to now give the group as much information as possible to aid them in this quest.  It seemed that the temple was particularly interested in getting rid of this ‘Well of Demons’ because demons personified chaos, and as a temple that promoted justice and order, this was not something they could stand.  They also mentioned that the spined demons they sought were likely to be proficient in both unholy fire and the use of poisons, and the group should prepare for this.

While Ulrik was being seen to by the priests, the rest of the group returned to their rooms at the Halfmoon Inn to recover from their own injuries, and would be reunited with their dwarven companion the next day.

Continue to Chapter 10

3-08. Rundarrs Keep

8. Rundarr’s Keep – 1st May 2015

After they had rested and regained their vigor, the group decided to press onwards.  They had two choices; to press on to the main keep over an exposed bridge, or head south to the other watchtower through a passage carved from the mountain.  After some discussion, it was decided that going through the passage and clearing the other watchtower was the safer option, not only because it offered less chance to be exposed on the bridge, but also because clearing the watchtower mean there be less reinforcements the main Keep could bring later.

After a few false starts in which a trap was sprung, they entered the watchtower, which seemed to be lacking in the usual aggravated response from enemies.  Indeed, the initial area they moved into was devoid of their foes.
They soon ascertained that there were three slaves in the area, but one of them panicked when seeing them and ran through the main room, alerting some hefty looking Duregar of their presence.  Devoid of other options, the fight was on.

While Titan, Corvar and Brannoch took on the Duregar, Ulrik seems to get distracted by the thought of food and heads to the pantry, before he tried to talk the slaves into moving somewhere safe and out the way.  This succeeded so well that the slaves were overcome with relief and gratitude, seeming to think he was some manner of chosen one destined to come and save them.  Taking his advice to heart, they scampered off to the store room where they thought the safest place for the moment.

Thus freed of moral obligations, the group engaged with the Duregar, but it fast became obvious that the Duregar in charge was not as easily dealt with as his brother Urwol had been.  Rundarr was, by dwarven standards, a massive hulk of a male, being around the height of an average human, but with the breadth of a Duregar.  Overall, he posed an intimidating figure, especially as it became apparent that he was not only skilled in battle, but bloodthirsty for it.

The battle raged, for although there were less Duregar here than in the last keep, Rundarr’s expertise and sheer might more than made up for this.  Like many battles the group had fought over my following of them, this one appeared to be less a well-executed battle, and more of a mish-mash of luck, both good and bad.  Sometimes they seemed to show tactical excellence, while at others, whether through poor luck or poor decisions, the enemy gained ground.

Their job was only made harder as the slaves, whom had been so won over by Ulrik, decided that they needed to help their savior beat off their oppressors.  Despite Ulrik’s attempts to tell them again to go to safety, they seemed only to be more determined to help him, with one of them all but flinging themselves at their Duregar overlords in an attempt that was surely to end in their untimely demise. The second slave tries to run after their friend, trying to turn them from this course of action, while the third sees the Duregar and panics, running to Ulrik and grabbing him in what can only be described as an outpouring of relief bordering on fanaticism.

The second slave, failing to get her friend to stop, tries to run, but seeing that escape is not an option, then flings herself at the Duregar attacking Corvar, before retreating hastily when their retaliation misses.  Corvar moves to block the entranceway the slave had run through, ensuring the Duregar had to deal with him first, rather than the slave, who regained some of her courage enough to shout past him at the Duregar tauntingly.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Ulrik tries to get the slave to stop grabbing him, since it was making it fairly difficult to help in the fight, and redirects him to go hide in the pantry.  Taking this as a command for food, something that the slaves had likely been commanded to do for years on end, the slave happily goes off to prepare a meal, glad, perhaps to have an order to follow that was within the realms of possibility to complete.

Thus freed of the clingy slave, Ulrik makes his way into the main room to help dispatch the Duregar there.  Rundarr, who was by no means dismissable in the fight, became absolutely enraged when he sees him, and even more so when he sees the beard of his brother attached to the shaman’s totem Ulrik carried.  Such was the rage, Rundarr, before now large for a dwarf, seemed to grow, and indeed do so until he was by far larger even than Titan, throwing all those around him back.  With a move far swifter than one might expect from such a gargantuan dwarf, he flings Ulrik across the room.

With Rundarr distracted, Ayanna darts in and deals massive damage to the monstrosity.  Unfortunately, even damage such as this seemed to do little to hinder him, such was his constitution.  Further attacks by Titan, Brannoch and then Ulrik, hits that would have taken down a normal foe many times, has only shown the tiniest spot of blood on the Duregar.  Clearly this foe was unlike any they had fought before.  If this is the standard of foe in the watchtower, I can only fear what would lie in wait for the group in the main Keep.

Meanwhile the most fervent of the slaves had lept upon a table and was attempting to wrestle with one of the Duregar scouts.  I could only watch with trepidation and worry over this slender hooded female trying to take on a battle-hardened enemy.  The fear of her situation seems to have completely bypassed her, driven on by years of enforced slavery and then the liberation by the group, she seemed heedless to the danger, only intent on trying to do as much damage as possible to aid in their escape.  Corvar, surprisingly perhaps out of the whole group, appears to have taken it upon himself to aid in the otherwise suicidal attempt by the slave while Brannoch continues the attacks on the massive Duregar leader.

Rundarr was not one to be ignored,  for with rage fairly frothing from his mouth, he executed a large attack that hit Titan and Ulrik  then reaches over and backhands Ayanna away.  None of the group were looking that healthy now, and I feared for Ayanna, who had taken many blows to the head of late, but she appeared to recover fine and maneuvered herself back into the fray.

One of the scouts however took advantage of Corvar’s diverted attention and shot him in the back, though thankfully it seemed to have missed most vitals organs, though was undoubtedly painful. Realizing the he was fairly cut off from the rest of the group, he followed the slave through the bed chamber and back around to the kitchen, using the walls to cover his escape from the Duregar with the crossbow.  Meanwhile another guard had attempted to attack Brannoch from behind, but unlike his compatriot, he was not so lucky in his shot, for it swiftly became clear, when his eyes started overflowing and he started to sneeze repeatedly that he was fairly badly allergic to wolf fur, and had to stumble away, getting bitten for his trouble.

The slaves had not been idle, for the one in the kitchen had finished making food it seems and was, despite there being a massive amount of fighting going on, determined to get it to Ulrik.  Perhaps the years in slavery and fear had cracked his mind.  Corvar attempted to get him to return to the pantry where it was safe, but the Kenku had never been good at convincing others, and the slave paid him no mind, attempting to get past him to Ulrik.  He then shouts for Ulrik to command the slave to get to safety and for Ayanna to help take down the Duregar scout that was engaged with the slave, but both ignored him.

I could see Corvar glancing between the Duregar coming up from behind him, to the one that the slave across the room was still fighting, only able to make one shot that might have a difference.  The shot fired across the room to the scout that the hooded slave had managed now to actually hit and then knock off the table before leaping on him.  Corvar’s choice had been made, and unfortunately for the slave with the food, the scout that had been following Corvar decided to take his frustration out on that one, killing him instantly.

The others were more focused souly on the massive threat of Rundarr, with Ulrik doing some healing before he and Titan do all they can to bring the massive male down. The Duregar was not about to be felled easily though, and does a circular sweep of his weapon, hitting Brannoch and Ulrik.

Seeing little difference in Rundarr, Titan turns to attack a scout that Ayanna had been engaging, the blow so hefty on the already wounded scout that he fell to the ground, dead.  Likewise, Corvar kept his bow focused on the dazed scout that the hooded slave was attacking, managing to finish that one off to.  The two remaining slaves are euphoric, and one moves from where it had been flailing pointlessly at Rundarr to try and heal the hooded one.

Meanwhile, Corvar, found himself cornered by a Duregar guard and a scout.  Seeing no other option, he attempts to execute a complex menouver that was only partially successful, knowing as he did so that the move would leave him open to counterattacks.  Heavily wounded, he props himself against the wall as the battle fights on.

Brannoch was still souly focused on Rundarr, who had been his primary target for some time now.  He had been fairly heavily wounded, and was taking damage from a poisoned shot.  Heedless of this, and aided by the rest of the group, his vicious bite seems to have been what finally took down the gargantuan dwarf, his own huge heft slamming into Rundarr, snapping his legs off from where special greaves had been keeping him steady.  This was the end of Rundarr who could no longer sustain such grievous wounds.  He bled out on the ground.

The last two Duregar, wounded and having seen the messy end of their leader, seems to give way to fear and panics, running, but doesn’t make it a few steps before he is cut down.  The second guard attacks Titan, then runs, with both Ulrik and Titan chasing after him, but it was quiet Ayanna that finally put an end to the messy business.

The watchtower once more silent of combat, I watched as the group wandered around, tending to their wounds, picking over the corpses.  Ulrik knelt beside the fallen Rundarr and hacked off his beard to add to what was clearly becoming a grizzly collection.

Meanwhile Titan was fixated on the dwarven greaves that lay lodged in the ground, still holding the remains of Rundarr’s legs.  With some help from Ayanna to fix the jammed mechanisms, he picked them up and put them on himself before bagging some cheap longswords while an iron key was added to the group loot, since no one had any idea of what it was for.
Corvar had been checking the other rooms, taking note of the foodstuffs that were stored there, his sharp eyes also noticing some imbued dust from old hunting trophies that he pocketed out of sight of the others.

I couldn’t help but think that while the group appeared to be one of cohesion in a fight, it was more a collection of individuals that was slowly learning to work together, than the molded mercenary group it could be.  Perhaps would be in time.

Meanwhile the slaves spoke up, hoping to return to their hometown of Fallcrest, but needing to get to the Seven-Pillared Hall safely first.  Ulrik seemed disinclined at first to stop their hunt in the Keep, but to rest here and continue into the main keep, but it was Corvar who championed need for taking the slaves back safely to the Hall, offloading their filled packs of loot, before returning to the Keep to finish the job.  Titan agreed, seeing as he would be able to visit the temple there to deal with the dark skin of the necromancer he still carried, so Ulrik agreed, and the group, along with the two slaves and their pack mule, thankfully still alive, returned to the Seven-Pillared Hall.

Thankfully there was no trouble getting back to the Seven-Pillared Hall, and, perhaps more exhausted than they had thought, they settled down for some rest at the Halfmoon Inn, the two slaves included.  What would happen to them from now on, was thoughts for another day.

Continue to Chapter 9

3-07. Urwols Keep

7. Urwol’s Keep – 24th April 2015

The group stepped forth from the shadows of the passageway and headed for the first and closest of the watchtowers, the only one in fact that they could reach from this direction.  If they had hoped to take the watchtower by surprise, they failed, for not only the guards on the inside of the portcullis noticed them, but guards from the main keep did also, soon firing barrages of arrows at them from across the void.

Unfortunately the volley of arrows hurts their pack mule, Hendrix, and only the quick reactions of Corvar stop it from panicking and running off. Removing the healing potions and the Court of Bones key from the packs on Hendrix, he sends the mule off back out into the darkened corridor out of sight, hoping that the scent of the undead zombie wings in the packs will keep scavengers  away.

The group charge the portcullis and set about attacking it, and the orcs on the other side.   Ulrik summons Land Shark inside, while the others attack through it or try to damage the portcullis itself.  The latter was a long and drawn-out process, for while some damage was done, poor communication or insight seems to have caused others to undo the damage.

One orc seemed to decide it was best to try and sneak out through some manner of trap door to the outside, and try to take on the group from behind, but this backfired upon him and he ends up surrounded and so scared that he runs off, before leaping to his death into the void.

Perhaps it was the screaming death-cry, or the sudden appearance of Heskan that managed to worry the orcs sufficiently that they were turning to run for help, with Titan translating their worried cries, letting the group know of this problem.  The group redoubled its efforts to getting the portcullis open, even as the orcs are running towards the back of the room, intent on getting help.  Two of the fleeing orcs realize that the other remaining one hasn’t understood the call to retreat,and turn back to get him.  Blapath the Slow was, it seemed, not named for his physical speed.  Killing Land Shark to clear a path, they pull their fellow towards the other room.

It was a blow from Ulrik’s force hammer that finally felled the portcullis, and the group charged inside, fully intent on stopping the orcs from reaching their reinforcements.  Brannoch manages to pounce one of the orcs and brutally devours its head.  It was perhaps the crunching of the bones that led to the lack of understanding between him and his handler, for three times Corvar tried to tell him to go after the remaining orcs, and only on the last try did the command finally get through.  Skulls, it seems, are loud when eaten.

Blapath may have been slow, but he was now fully intent on reaching the other room, and despite the valiant return of Land Shark directly in front of him doing major damage, and the devastating impact of Brannoch’s jaws ripping into his leg, he continued on, disappearing through double doors to relative freedom.
Titan takes the initiative towards entering the place where the orc had disappeared.  This tactic did not turn out well however for as he tries to open the door, a trap triggers and the door slams him back into the wall with such force that he gets stuck there, quickly followed by Brannoch on the other side, who was still trying to get at Blapath the Slow.

The sight that the group met with was a room filled with burly Duregar brandishing weapons, the largest of which started bellowing at them “I will use your skulls as anvils!” only for Heskan to reply to the taunt with “We will use your faces as toilet paper!”.  This seemed to enrage the Duregar more, until he caught sight of Ulrik and that rage turned into outright fury.  Spittle and bilious verbal curses poured from his mouth.  Urwol the blacksmith, it seemed, was no fan of surface dwarves.

Despite being outnumbered by about 2 to 1, our group charged into battle against this burly group of forge workers and guards.  At first it seems to be going quite well despite the initial disastrous impact of those door traps, but the sheer number of enemies stood in their way of victory.

The group fought on amid the shouting and cursing of the blacksmith whose knowledge of the forge seemed to enhance his fighting style, using forge enhanced ranged attacks while the other forge workers and orcs attacked from  up close.

Despite this, the group held their own, Heskan managing to do a move so vicious that it rent his opponent’s sword in half, passing through it before cleaving the orc’s head horrifically with both scimitars.  The group were so impressed with his double-strike death blow and subsequent victory dance, that they failed to notice the Duregar that moved stealthily out of a side room.  They did notice him however when Ulrik fell to the ground, with Land Shark disappearing from the fray.

Moving over, Titan managed to heal Ulrik enough that he regained consciousness and could get up, but soon therafter things for the group took an even greater turn for the worse.  Urwol threw a vial at Ulrik, and an inky black cloud of vile fumes encased the area where most of the fighting took place.  Titan seems to have become disorientated and became stuck once more behind a door while Corvar was unable to see any of the key targets he had been going after.

There was a great deal of shouting and confusion, and just as the fumes dissipated yet another vial flew through the air at Ulrik creating a storm of iron fragments that exploded on impact causing  a whole section of the corridor to become much like a storm of iron pellets, damaging and dazing all within it.

Heskan, seeing poor Ulrik dazed and bleeding in numerous places, takes exception to the burly Duregar’s antics and circles around, laying his hunters cock trap down.  It hit with critical precision on Urwol, whose howls of pain and fury gave hint to his future lack of offspring.

Insensed by the pain, Urwol focuses on Heskan and takes his revenge, and it was brutal and bloody.  Heskan ended up struggling with consciousness on the ground, bleeding and on fire.

Meanwhile, given a brief reprieve from the relentless barrage of damage from Urwol, Ulrik manages to get himself out of the storm of iron shrapnel, taking out a nearby orc on his way to aid Heskan while Corvar and Ayanna helped deal with the Duregar who had sneaked into the room with them.  Urwol, seeing Ulrik coming, once more curses at him, calling up a fireball, tossing it up in the air before slamming his hammer into it, sending it directly to Ulrik.  Still recovering from his previous injuries, this proved too much for him, and he was floored.

The group’s luck was not holding, for in addition to both Heskan and Ulrik struggling on the ground to even stay conscious, Ayanna seemed to take a hit that made her go glassy-eyed, and it was clear that she was no longer in a state to fight.  Luckily for her, the Duregar they had been fighting noted that as well, and ignored her and focused instead on the others that posed more of a threat.

Things were not looking good for the group, for although they had managed to kill or hurt many of their foes, only Corvar and his dire wolf were now on their feet. The vile-mouthed blacksmith gloated over the fallen Ulrik, but this seemed to be too much for Ulrik, who managed to find some inner reserve of determination, and hauled himself up to the astonished and impressed gaze of Urwol.  Brandishing his warhammer, Ulrik tried to smack it into the smith, but his numerous touches with death seemed to have left their mark, for he missed, and the warhammer smacked down on the ground and broke.  With a frustrated grunt, Ulrik tossed it aside and punched Urwol in the face, Urwol spitting out a broken tooth soon thereafter.

This distraction and show of determination from Ulrik seemed to rally Heskan, who also hauled himself up with a rather ostentatious display of a somersault and the battle-cry of “Dragon Balls!” while Brannoch kills one of the forge workers beside Urwol.  Ulrik called Land Shark once more, and, now surrounded and likely shocked at this swift turn of fate, Urwol fell, his life cut short by the whack of Ulrik’s ghostly companion.

Meanwhile Corvar struggled with a Duregar scout, while Brannoch was following another one through to the small room beside the forge where the other was digging around in the pool there for something.  Luck was not with Corvar, for during what should have been a simple attack, he dropped his weapon, then tripping and falling atop it.  His foe took the opportunity to run.

Corvar’s momentary stumble seemed to have some impact on his ability to command Brannoch, for the wolf went temporarily out of control, misinterpreting his command and instead of continuing to try and take down the Duregar, he turned tail and went to attack Land Shark.  Thankfully his heart didn’t seem to be in it, and after the initial attempt, it changed into playful nipping between the two.  Land Shark seemed just as happy, heedless to the fact that the Duregar scout had managed to trigger the trap door in the pool and had disappeared down it, escaping.

The last scout was making his way to the room with the trap door as well, having decided, as the last one had, that only death awaited him in this watchtower, despite having started out with overwhelmingly good odds.  Unfortunately for him, the previous scout seemed to have blocked the trap door from the other side, and he was caught there in Brannoch’s teeth and his flight was put to an abrupt end.

Leaning over the corpse of Urwol, Ulrik picked up the blacksmith’s magical hammer, before taking a small pocket knife and cutting off Urwol’s beard, in what might be a dwarven custom, or show of contempt.  Heskan also made his way over to their dead foe and in a strange custom perhaps peculiar to the dragonborn, he did a squatting maneuver he referred to as ‘teabagging’, but stopped short on using the foes face as toilet paper as he had initially intimated.

All their foes dead, but for the one that had made his escape, the group regathered and tried to tend to their most immediate wounds before searching the place carefully for loot.  Unlike other places, this place held not only the belongings of those they had killed, but also a good supply of stored food and weapons, more than they would usually be able to carry to be sure.

Thankfully along with other items however they found a strange magical bag of holding that seemed to have many different pouches attached.  Corvar wasted no time in pouncing upon it and claiming it as his own, having found little in their recent hunts that would have upgraded his equipment.  Ulrik on the other hand was gripping the handle of the Duregar blacksmith’s warhammer in a way that discouraged others from attempting to lay claim to it.  The racial tention between the Duregar and surface dwarves seems to have lit some manner of fire in Ulrik’s eyes.

In addition to the goods they hoped would get them some monetary wealth, there was a skull scepter that looked much like the one that Gendar had asked them to find, as well as a note that had warned the Keep of their imminent arrival.  It was signed only with an ‘R’, and who that could be was anyone’s guess.  The only person they knew by that name was Rendil, who seemed an unlikely candidate for such an informant.  And yet the person did seem to have eyes in the Seven-Pillared Hall to have known when they had left there.

With no answers about this person, they carefully packed the numerous pieces of basic weapons and armour, as well as food supplies into the bag for taking back to town, though I noticed Corvar eyeing the large barrels of cooking supplies that had been unable to fit into the bag.

Thus done, they decided that it would be best to try to get a proper rest before continuing on.  Going back to town was decided to be inadvisable due to the fact that the keep would only be retaken as soon as they left, not to mention probably reinforced, and yet they were in enough trouble with their health that a good amount of time to heal would be necessary.

So after Corvar retrieved Hendrix, they took some time to reinforce the keep they had cleared out, hoping that the defences would be enough to buy them enough time to heal while Brannoch went about eating some of the corpses.

Continue to Chapter 8

3-06. Collapsing Roads

6. Collapsing Roads – 17^th April 2015

Back in town, the group left the majority of their unsold loot in the secure storage at the Halfmoon Inn and after some discussion about the route to take, they headed out towards the Horned Hold after Corvar had gathered them together and done the ritual Traveller’s Camouflage upon them to aid in the ability to travel unnoticed.

Once on their way, things did not go to plan, for an unstable part of the road quickly gave way, landing them, thankfully unharmed, in a darkened chamber beneath the road. It was not, what you might call, an auspicious start to the journey.

Both Corvar and Ulrik could hear some strange sounds from the adjoining room, almost like sails flapping in the wind, as unlikely as that was deep within the mountain. So instead of trying to climb back out of the hole and back onto the road, they intended on going to see the source of the noise. Like before Corvar attempted to open the door stealthily, however despite doing so, once more there were also those looking at the door when he did so.

What lay before them was a room with four large pedestals, and upon those appeared to be four humanesque gargoyle-like statues. However both Ulrik and himself swiftly understood that these were no statues, but undead zombies with wings; the source of the flapping noises. They wasted no time in starting to leap down from their perches and moving menacingly towards the group.

It soon became apparent that while the winged zombies were rather clumsy, they were not a weak foe that could be dismissed quickly, despite sharing the weakness of many undead to the radiant touch of Gods. Their use of velocity to charge foes did massive damage, leaving the group reeling while the necromancer shouted at them. I cannot say precisely what the necromancer was shouting, it seemed filled with spittle and a good amount of ego though. The rest of the group seemed to be equally as unimpressed by it, or perhaps they merely had their hands full dealing with the fluttering zombies.

Despite there being only five foes against our battle-hardened group, it was by no means an easy fight, especially since Ulrik was soon rendered blinded and then petrified by wicked spells from the necromancer. I watched warilly as even the paladin was rendered into a compromised state by the rotting ichor left by struggling with the zombies. Ayanna was likewise grabbed, but in a deft movement managed to extricate herself from the grip in such a way that the zombie died instantly.

Buoyed by this victory, and one less enemy to contend with, Corvar attempts to figure out how to get the spell off Ulrik while his dire wolf continued to attack the necromancer. While he could see that this was not a spell of petrification as such, but one that encased the dwarf in stone, he was too distracted to manage to break the stone, or merely unsuited to doing so. Changing tactics, he commanded Brannoch to attack one of the more damaged of the rotwing zombies and the wolf was so vicious in its attack that it ripped the entire ribcage of the zombie out, before tearing a leg off for good measure.

Such carnage of the enemy might have been more victorious to witness had the necromancer not used his skills to then resurrect the previously felled rotwing zombie to his command. However the necromancer was not yet finished, for he tore off his face, skin peeling away to reveal the horror beneath, and cast a large spell that hit the majority of the group, and was able to move them around the area (much to Ulrik’s unheard outrage), putting them tactically into a more compromised position.

Ulrik meanwhile had not managed to escape his stony prison, but the shifting of such a heavy object had overbalanced him, knocking him into a wall and the stone around his face cracked, falling away even as his stoney body landed on the floor. He was able to summon Land Shark to try and get him out, but this fails. Likewise he tried to struggle more to get himself free but only managed to turn himself, face-down on the ground. Only muffled curses can be heard from him.

Across the room the struggle between the group and the undead continued. The necromancer, having taken quite some damage from both Titan and Corvar’s dire wolf Brannoch, reached out and touched Titan and seemed the better for it, unfortunately.

Ulrik at last managed to break himself out, and the group had managed to take out most of the rotwing zombies, and although the necromancer attempted to start the ritual to resurrect yet another of them, he never got the chance.

After considerable damage from both Corvar and his pet, the necromancer surrenders, trying to buy his life with bribery. They learned that the large door at the end of the room was to the Court of Bones, an inauspicious title to be sure, and that it could only be opened with two keys, one of which the necromancer had, and the other he could tell them where it was located. When further questioned about the slave trade, he had little useful information other than the fact that he had purchased slaves for reagents in the past. This was of note for the group since it was clear that a necromancer had freely been able to visit and purchase from the Seven-Pillared Hall in the past.

Unfortunately for the necromancer, Titan was unwilling to negotiate with an undead creature and did a coup-de-grace upon him without any agreement from the rest of the group. I wasn’t sure whether I was the only one that noticed the way Corvar’s gaze upon him became distrustful and unfriendly. He said nothing, but for the journey onwards it would likely have been noted that Brannoch picked up on his mood and would often growl at the paladin if he came too close.

There was little loot to be gained from the necromancer and his minions, other than the solitary key and the part-peeled off face that emanated dark magic. It was decided that Titan should carry the face, since he was the only one that would be unaffected by the item.

Ulrik looked around for anything of interest, especially considering the necromancer could not have got in where they did, while Corvar carefully extracted two intact zombie wings, perhaps hoping to sell them to Gendar or someone else later. If the others were surprised by this, they didn’t say. Meanwhile Ulrik had noticed a slight unevenness in the floor at either side of the room and quickly found that when pressing a button, one side raised in an elevator.

Ayanna and Corvar, with Brannoch and Hendrix in tow, decided to follow Ulrik, while Titan went to explore the other side which also seemed to have such a device. It was thankful perhaps that the elevator on that side got stuck, for they could hear the screams of the Underdark and Titan quickly returned to the group and followed them up and out into what appeared to be a side passage of the Labyrinth.

Upon exiting the chamber, Titan tries to encourage the group to head back to the Seven-Pillared Hall in order that they can deal with the necromantic face skin that he picked up, however it was unanimously voted to continue. Whether this was truly only an interest in keeping to their original plan of assaulting the Horned Hold, or a reaction against the unseemly coup-de-grace of an unarmed and begging foe was anyone’s guess.

The group set out in the direction they hope is towards the Horned Hold. Whether through luck or skill, Ulrik seems to get a good sense of where they are going, and the group follow him south and soon find themselves in a shadowed passageway that leads to the Horned Hold. The dwarf’s sense of the stone having appeared to aid them well. As yet unseen, they take in the view of the two massive watchtowers that guard the way to the main Keep, the place that so many of their targets seem to reside.

Continue to Chapter 7

3-05. Chamber of Eyes continued

5. Chamber of Eyes continued – 10^th April 2015

The battle continued, Orag stepping into Titan’s position, surrounding himself with hobgoblins. It didn’t initially start well, for when trying to intimidate one of them he instead caught sight of himself in the reflection of his axe. The sight of such a fearsome visage seems to have overwhelmed him, and instead of affecting the hobgoblin, he did indeed intimidate himself. One can only wonder at such an action. Indeed, your scribe was astounded that such a thing was even possible.

Despite this initial setback, the battle did indeed improve. Ayanna managed to regain enough health to continue to fight, while the slavers started to run away. The group seemed to take heart from the fleeing opponents and seemed set on continuing to deny them exit. Corvar’s dire wolf ran after the hobgoblins and in a swift motion, directed by Corvar’s shout, blocked the exit. However, despite the fact that they now had nowhere to run, they continued to flee further into the building, all cohesion amongst them seeming to have dissipated.

I watched with interest as both groups split up, one side chasing down the hobgoblins, while the hobgoblins themselves merely continued to attempt to flee until they were attacked. In the past, such situations would have brought our group low, for their strength has always been in their aiding each other, however now it seemed they each were holding their own independently.

One goblin did attempt to free the captives, however so unconvincing he was that neither of them would even let the goblin close to their chains. In frustration shortly thereafter, the goblin attempted to hit Corvar, and instead of wounding or killing the Kenku, the arrow ricochets off one of the nearby chains and doubled back on itself, lodging itself in the goblin’s eye socket, killing him outright. If the captives had had any lingering hope for freedom outwith the directions of the group, I expect it was wiped out with the unhappy corpse of the goblin at their feet.

As Orag continued to chase down the hobgoblins, I was reminded of his athletic feats in the goblin caves on the way to the temple of Pelor where he had nimbly vaulted over traps and to a tiny ledge not once, but twice. Here again, with such skill as to be almost breathtaking, the goliath who had only recently managed to intimidate himself to a standstill, now leaped from wall to wall in the corridor, up and over a hobgoblin who had a higher and better position, and landed a fine blow. Such a thing of grace it was, that the hobgoblins seemed astounded and fell quickly to his axe while another fled into the blades of Ayanna who, despite her bloodied state managed to fell the opponent that must have been at least double her size.

The Chamber of Eyes now silent but for the uneasy shifting of the two captives, the group went about systematically looting the corpses and searching the place for any additional treasure as well as any lingering evidence of where the slaves might have been taken. The main treasure chest was locked quite well, as Corvar found out when he had tried numerous times to open it out of sight from the others, but eventually everything was collected. There was a letter alone that spoke of the slaves, showing an order sheet but no record of where they had been delivered to.

So it was that the group turned its attention to the captives, who by this point were in terrible fear for their lives. It was an unpleasant conversation, though the group did not touch the two, both ended up sobbing in abject fear for their lives. It seems that the slaves were picked up by some Duregar, as they tended to do but once a month. Neither of the would-be slavers knew who was ordering them nor where they had been taken, and nothing more could be got from them. In a gesture far more befitting heroes than had been previously done to surrendered captives, the group let the two go. One was so thankful for the retention of his life that he gave up the location of a stash of goods half way back to the Seven-Pillared Hall.

Alone once more, Ayanna went to the calming room with the water to rest up, with Orag standing guard. Meanwhile Corvar went about the grizzly business of dealing with his wolf who was, by all accounts, in great need for food.

Living with the slavers had not been good to the dire wolf, and its body was a mess of old and new scars, as well as vastly undernourished. It was with brutal efficiency that the kenku helped divest some of the fallen hobgoblins of their armour, and twenty minutes later they were ready to set off, the Chamber of Eyes holding far fewer full fleshed corpses than before.

They did stop off at the small treasure cache, and found it to have been surrounded by a pack of hyenas. However the sight of the well armoured group along with the dire wolf proved to be too much of a gamble for them, and they fled before a shot was even fired.

Thus fortified with more treasure after a successful clearing of the Chamber of Eyes, the group returned to the Seven-Pillared Hall.

Returning to the Seven-Pillared Hall

The Hall seemed busier than when they left it, with far more people clustered around the rituals at the base of the minotaur statue. It was with a greater amount of wariness that the residents viewed our group upon their return, due mostly to the fact that a huge dire wolf traveled with them. The people here knew well the reputation of such animals and were rightfully worried.

Upon seeing the looks, Corvar seemed to grasp the difficulty in living in such a town, for while the dire wolf was indeed extremely useful when out hunting, it did not make for easy relationships with those in an area of greater civilization. Worried that trying to talk to people, or indeed even listen unheeded in a taven was going to be made far more difficult with the dire wolf around, he went to speak to Rendil about leaving the dire wolf in their room. Unfortunately the halfling was just as wary of his newest pet than everyone else was, something that showed in the fact that he would only allow him to have the dire wolf in the tavern when they were in their room for sleep, nowhere else. He worried, and rightfully so, that the presence of such a beast would only make the customers uneasy, and indeed perhaps even unwilling to enter their establishment. He does intimate that perhaps Bersk the Wainwright might have a place in his stables for such a creature, where he might be left safely.

So it was that Corvar met up with the group headed up to the northwestern corner of the Hall to speak with a rather large and muscular man whose job it was to build and repair wagons. It seemed to that the man, although skilled in the art of wagons, was not what you might call sharp of eye, for when Corvar opened discussions on the stabling of his pet, the Wainwright seemed to think it a rather large and hairy horse. After some negotiation, Bersk agreed to stable and feed the dire wolf when it was needed for the duration of time he was stationed in the Seven-Pillared Hall, and for only 10 gold pieces. Corvar thought this a great deal, and agreed, borrowing 5 gold from Ayanna to pay the difference until they sold the loot and the coin was distributed.

Thus with the diplomatic problem dealt with, the group headed back to Rendil at the Halfmoon Inn to ask more about possible locations for Duregar places of operation in the Labyrinth. They had, after all, remembered him mentioning the trading post that the Duregar kept in the Hall and figured he might know more if asked. Rendil was most glad to see Ayanna, whom he had had a close bond with from his rescue from the Bloodreavers, but it was with shock and sadness that he learned of her memory loss during their last outing. He spoke with her consolingly, comforting her in her befuddlement and it was clear that although she didn’t remember him, she was none-the-less comforted by his words. Clearly worried for her safety, he spent some time with her outside, showing her some tricks to aid in her future survival in the labyrinth and she seemed in much better spirits afterwards.

Upon their return to the Inn, Corvar inquired if Rendil might have more information on where the local Duregar might have taken or kept slaves, after they had found their involvement in the Bloodreaver’s lair as buyers. Unfortunately Rendil didn’t have much more information on them than he had already offered, though did mention that the trading post was very well guarded. He did think they had a stronghold somewhere in the Labyrinth, but didn’t know where it might be, although did give the group a map of the Labyrinth that would likely help them navigate it on their search.

Upon seeing the sleeping form of an ogre across the room, Corvar asked about this presence. Apparently the great giant of a man was one of the enforcers of the Mages of Saruun and Rendil thought it best to leave the ogre well alone. The group had no other chance to ask questions, for when speaking of the mages, Rendil had spat on the floor in what might be a show of contempt or disgust, however his mother was not taken with such an action and her shrill voice called the group’s halfling friend away to more fully reprimand him.

Corvar stayed in the inn a while longer with the group, doing what it seems was the norm for him; listening. There were mutters of discontent about obligatory donations or tithes they had to give to the Temple of Hidden Light, comments on the poor state of Ulthand who had appeared not to have eaten since the disappearance of his boar, and general fear over the mages of Saruun, likely helped by the presence of the sleeping enforcer, but nothing more of note.

The Deepgem Company

Concerned that the potential income-generating quest to find the boar might be for nothing if Ulthand died prematurely from lack of sustenance, the group went to the Deepgem company within the Seven-Pillared Hall, where Ulthand was said to work.

When they saw the man, he was indeed looking worse for wear, but despite seeming entirely uninterested in things around him when they entered, even discontent at being disturbed, he quickly became engaged with the conversation when the group told him they might be looking into finding his pet boar (whom they found out was named The Mighty Bobby) since they were going to be hunting in the Labyrinth anyway.

Unfortunately there was little that he could tell them about the possible location of the Duregar, though he did mention that he thought that it might be gnolls that currently held the boar, rather than Duregar, although he didn’t know where such a place might be.

Still concerned for the state of the man, Ayanna tried to entice him to take better care of himself while they were seeking the boar, however he didn’t take it well and promptly threw them out. The dwarf in the store front gave them a long-suffering shrug at the behaviour, though did mention that as a cleric of Moradin Ulfhand would not die of hunger, merely lose some of his health.

Information in hand, and reassured that Ulfhand wasn’t about to die on them, they made their way to the last port-of-call for information, the one who would undoubtedly have it, and yet there might be a price to be paid. Gendar.

Gendar’s Curios and Relics

Gendar was much as he had been the last time they had encountered him, very much a savvy businessman. Despite their worry over what he might charge for the information, it turned out that he was happy to tell them that the Duregar hired gnolls, and told the group that the strongold was along the Road of Shadows in The Horned Hold, marking the location on their map. It seemed that the Duregar held court there.The group were indeed surprised, much as I was, that this information had been given freely and without price, until Gendar mentioned the fact that while he usually sold such information, it was in his own best interests to direct the group there, since the item he was wishing them to find for him was located there anyway.

He did mention other information he might sell to them, however they decided that, for the moment, they would forgo that for now. After haggling with Corvar over some potatoes he had picked up in the Chamber of Eyes, the group left, heading back to the Halfmoon in to sleep and rest before whatever the next day would bring.

Continue to Chapter 6

3-04. Chamber of Eyes

4. Chamber of Eyes – 3^rd April 2015

The morning after, the group made their way back to the Chamber of Eyes, determined to make a better job of clearing out the Bloodreavers than they had the previous day. Moving back into the building, it was clear that the areas they had cleared before had been left as such, perhaps not even noticed despite the time.

Heading left into the room that had been used as sleeping accommodation, and into the hall past it, Corvar stealthily opens the door into the next room. Although there had been no sound, luck was not with him, for both of the Duregar guards there had been facing that way and saw the group, instantly springing into action.

The fight was a protracted one, for the guards, much like those they had met the previous day did not merely fight to the death unaided, but were quick to bellow for some help from those further in the building. The leader of the Bloodreavers, Krand, soon showed himself along with some other guards, intent on putting the interlopers to their operation out of business.

So many, in such a crowded room did not make an easy fight, and what was more, Krand seemed able to push and pull different members of both his own side, and that of our group. What Krand had not counted on however was the vast swell of rage from our shamanic dwarf at being moved or knocked over. Such a great rage there was from him that it seems all tactical caution was thrown to the wind and he ran at the enemies, his beard bristling with rage. Such a fierce opponent seemed too much, for one of the Duregar tried to run, but Ulrik was having none of it, swinging his force hammer with such velocity that it actually disemboweled him. The second Duregar guard seemed almost overcome by this, his eyes glassy as he looked down at the very dead corpse of what might have been his closest friend or lover. His plight was not long in the coming either, for Heskan’s attack had him falling. I was possibly the only one that noticed the pain-filled look of grief and heartbreak in the Duregar’s eyes as he looked at his fallen comrade in those fleeting moments before he to breathed his last.

Krand, sensing the tide of battle turning against him, called for more reinforcements. However one of the first to make it into the narrow corridor was a dire wolf, whose bodily proportions seemed too large to easily fit, thus blocking further enemies from entering. Its attempts to squeeze down the corridor while being pelted by arrows was pitiful to behold. Slowed to the point of almost inaction, the dire wolf, fierce though it was, didn’t get into the room before Krand fell in battle. This had an instant effect on the wolf, for it let out a howl of grief and turned tail, as much as it could in such a narrow corridor, and fled back to where it had come from.

It was this action of grief that seemed to change something for Corvar, whose attention seemed to focus souly on the dire wolf now. While the Kenku would usually appear at the very back of the room, cautious and fleet of foot, he was now the one that led the way down the corridor after the dire wolf, the rest of the group soon following. In his forceful movement, he manages to bluff one of the goblins that it has no chance and gets it to flee out the way, allowing him a more direct and unimpeded course towards the wolf. It might have seemed on the surface to be a full-hardy maneuver, but there was something almost fanatical in those glittering black eyes.

Heedless to the rest of the violence in the place, or indeed the fights between other of the group and the enemies that were in the large central room, Corvar’s attention was purely focused on the dire wolf. It was such a massive creature, and had been so cruelly treated by the Bloodreavers that I was personally surprised when those skills that Corvar put to use, one would assume as having been learned in the forest, made the grief-stricken and confused wolf actually became attentive and tamed to Corvar’s hand. Corvar helped to heal the injured wolf and the two seemed to bond.

This was not what the goblins were wanting. For all the time that Corvar had spent bringing the loyalty of the dire wolf over to their side, the results more than spoke for themselves, for the massive wolf, emancipated and ragged, immediately went to attack the goblins who had treated him so harshly. Goblin cries of ‘bad wolf!’ were heard amidst the crunching of teeth into flesh and bone.

Meanwhile, Titan was fighting a rather rotund hobgoblin, and his demeanor was so intimidating that instead of surrendering, as I expect was wanted, the hobgoblin decided that running away was the best option and no amount of bellowing from Titan was going to stop it. The goblin disappeared into a side room and Titan soon was after it, coming face to face with several large hobgoblin warrior types. Retreating, he stood ready for their inevitable attack.

The battle between Titan and the hobgoblins was fierce, even as in the other room more enemies appeared out of a second entrance to try and deal with Ulrik, Corvar and Ayanna. Unfortunately for Ayanna, a human bandit managed to overbalance her, and she fell onto the floor from the upper area to the lower, getting knocked unconscious. Even when she regained consciousness, it was clear something was not right in the way she stared around vacantly.

Titan lured the hobgoblins he was fighting back towards the main room so they could concert their efforts as a group once more, and this seemed to work, although Ayanna was too far gone to have anything more than some stabilizing her condition done to her. Two of the enemies surrendered and were moved to be questioned later, and Corvar sent his wolf after the hobgoblins that were fighting Titan, and this seemed, along with a lucky bite on its part, to be enough for them to decide that living was better than fighting, and they started to make a run for freedom.

The fight seemed to be going their way, and yet would the hobgoblins manage to escape? Only time would tell.

Continue to Chapter 5

3-03. Entering the Chamber of Eyes

3. Entering the Chamber of Eyes – 13^th March 2015

Upon waking the next day, Corvar sought out the dwarf Ulrik in the hopes that he could discern the dwarven rune writing on the slips of paper that he had pocketed. With Ulrik’s knowledge of the dwarven language coupled with their ruminations on the papers they were able to figure out that these were gambling strips, and one of them appeared to be marked as a winning one. Thanking Ulrik, he stashed the papers away once more before heading downstairs to meet up with the others.

It seems likely that he intends to cash in that gambling slip, but it remains to be seen whether an establishment that seemed happy to deal with such a degenerate as the dwarf from whom the papers were taken would so easily give up the cash, nor whether anyone trying to claim it could successfully extricate themselves from such a situation with their lives and the cash in hand.

On exiting the Inn, our group was pleased to find that the shops in the area seemed once more to be open for business, but it also became clear that one of their number was now missing. The wizard Quelanna, it seemed, had taken off during the night. However fate was smiling on them, for upon leaving the Inn they were approached by one of the Warforged, who was looking for purpose in the dark halls of the Labyrinth. The group, seeing as how they were now down a wizard, and had been in dire need of a heavily armoured group member, did readily agree to the paladin joining them. Ulrik however seemed to agree mainly through remaining silent. No one seemed to take notice of his abject fear of the towering newcomer.

Gendar’s Curios and Relics

Thus with their group numbers fortified, they headed over to Gendar’s store of Curios and Relics, hoping to sell some of the basic armour they had accumulated before arriving.

It was the Kenku that led the group into the shop, hoping to offload some of the basic armour that the group had picked up from the initial confrontation outside the Seven-Pillared Hall. Upon entering, they were accosted not only by a rather shady looking Drow, but also a shop that was literally filled with all manner of items, so much so that it was difficult to perceive what might actually be worthwhile to purchase or not.

The most prominent of items in the shop however was the humble potato, whom the shop owner, Gendar, told them with some pride that he was the only supplier of in the Hall. This, the group were lead to believe, made this merchant a canny businessman, since potatoes, it seemed, were the primary food-source in the mountain.

Despite the chaos in the store, Corvar seemed to put his perception skills to good use (the rumours that birds such as crows did indeed have an eye for such shiny things), and picked out a number of items that caught his eye while the rest of the group merely watched, perhaps with some amusement at the interaction. After some discussion and a little haggling, Corvar sold some of the group’s extraneous loot and purchased a ritual scroll from Gendar’s collection, one he hoped would aid them in their journey into the labyrinth, for it had become clear that their trusty loot-carrying mule Hendrix was under threat where they would go, and the ritual would adequately hide her, and the rest of the group while not in combat.

Just as they were about to leave, Gendar, having noted a certain gleam of interest in the eye of Corvar at one of the items, a rather shabby looking hat (personally I saw nothing interesting about it, but both Gendar and Corvar seemed to be of a different opinion). Gendar proposed that should the group retrieve a sceptre for him that had been stolen in transit, he would cut the price of the hat down by 1000gp. Interested, but non-committal, the Corvar said he would consider it.

Ulrik seeks divine insight

Upon leaving the store, Ulrik made it known that he was still uneasy about the loss of connection between himself and Land Shark. Corvar did attempt to comfort the dwarf, however the kenku had never been good when talking with people and only proceeded to make Ulrik feel worse. However it was, perhaps surprisingly, words from the titan that held the most consolation, strange as that might seem coming from a being Ulrik was clearly fairly terrified of. Filled with renewed hope, and after asking around for directions, sought some enlightenment in the Hall’s temple, The Temple of Hidden Light.

Although Ulrik seemed to find the Temple a relaxing place to sit in, he didn’t appear to be any closer to finding out how to reconnect to Land Shark. Making a donation to the temple anyway, he left with only some more peaceful thoughts and a spell for some poor travel rations that the temple had offered him upon leaving.

Strange rituals

Upon leaving the temple, intending to go to the Chamber of Eyes to follow up on the trail of the Bloodreavers, the dwarf’s attention is drawn to a gathering of people at the base of a massive minotaur statue. How the group had remained oblivious to this edifice until now is beyond comprehension, but it seemed to be the truth. Ulrik’s eyes widened as he looked up at the 30 foot-tall statue, not, as one might imagine due to the size, but because of the likeness it held to his once-companion Gwenn, whom had disappeared just before their journey to Thunderspire Mountain.

Personally I cannot tell one minotaur from another, but apparently to Ulrik, this statue was the spitting image of his troubled friend. What was more, the humans who deigned to talk to him intimated that he was sure that the statue hadn’t looked quite like that in the past. With the unspecified ritual taking place at the base of the statue, and the possible changing of the statue’s visage Urik became more and more insensed with worry, and not without cause. Gwenn had been volatile at the best of times, with her temper and blood-lust well known. Ulrik became worried, and tried to get the group to be as concerned as he was about the fact, seeming to believe that she was now in the Labyrinth and would hunt them down if they didn’t do so to her first.

At first, such dire professions fell on deaf ears, but it was the unlikely target of the titan who proved the most amenable to the idea, perhaps hoping for a more worthwhile hunt on the horizon. The group, although none-too-convinced, still deemed it something they could potentially look into once they had dealt with the Bloodreavers.

So it was, with such thoughts that the group once more turned towards the path that lead to the Chamber of Eyes, hoping to have the situation dealt with quickly to collect the reward. Such things however rarely go to plan.

Into the Chamber of Eyes

Stepping onto the path that they had been led to believe led to the Chamber of Eyes, they made the mistake of setting out without a proper map of the route or guide, and very quickly became lost. Thankfully, whether through fate, luck or providence, they re-found their route and ended up outside the Chamber. Relieved that they had not been attacked or become lost forever in the maze, they set their mind on the task in front of them: to deal with the Bloodreavers.

Initially cautious, they entered the first room of the Chamber only to find that it was empty, of guards or otherwise. There was a locked door with the image of the evil God Torog on it flanked by two statues, and a raised platform at the end of the room. Deciding to look around, they decided sneaking up onto the raised platform to see whether it led anywhere was a good plan. Unfortunately, Ayanna, who was almost at the top of the climb, slipped, crashing to the ground. There were shouts from beyond the locked door, the group having alerted the guards to their presence.

With quick thinking on Corvar’s part, he engaged the guards in conversation, and convinced them that he was a potato seller (having found out from Gendar earlier that potatoes were the primary food source in the Mountain). Amazingly this seemed to work, and the guards unlocked the door, not to attack, but expecting a merchant. Chamber_map_01

They were disappointed.

Although the fight started well, things swiftly became overwhelming for our intrepid group, for the foes that now faced them had a greater strength and skill than they had yet faced.

The one bright light in an otherwise poor situation was that, despite the damaged connection between Ulrik and his companion, he did manage to summon Land Shark during the battle. In this shared battle, the connection between the two seemed to once more reassert itself, much to the visible relief of them both.

The fight on the way to the Seven-Pillared Hall had been difficult for the group, and this fight seemed to further challenge them. The enemies they faced seemed far better organized as a group and were far more eager to call for backup than others had in the past. One enemy in particular, a bugbear, they had never come across before, posed a challenge to them that nearly proved too much.

However, despite the fact that the odds seemed set against the group in battle, they did in fact succeed, however limped their way back to the Seven-Pillared Hall to rest and recuperate, tending to their numerous wounds before they would even consider going back to the Chamber of Eyes to deal with whatever other foes still waited for them there.

Continue to Chapter 4