Session 71 (5/22/15)

*Satisfaction of the Slavemaster, or 'The Journey's End'*

Aric, Verget the 17th, 868 ID

Badger wakes up at the Crimson Harpy, to find that two Eidolorn privates have been dispatched to fetch him back to the Keep. He makes them wait for a while so he can get a final answer from Hayley Hosspotch on the brothel he wishes to set up. The halfling shows up and confirms the Hosspotch support for the venture. Solveig and Baro wake up to a far different situation, a panic within the Armory Square in Floivin Keep. A bizarre, anomalous vortex of blood has manifest within the center of the military district, and it seems to be doing nothing but spin and drip. The Last Eidolorn look on in awe. Gruulsh is fetched at the southern pass west of the Keep by a pathetically disguised Private Jolson, and Ballyhoo wakes up in a heavily occupied suite at the Seven Floods Inn. He hears a commotion downstairs about the missing serving boy, Brand. Eventually, all six of the PCs are assembled at Armory Square, with Hoary, Mistlethroe, and eventually Schnoo the Sorcerous, who is summoned to attempt to dispel or destroy this unknown, horrific manifestation. The attempt fails, but it triggers a response, as the small tornado transforms into the visage of Kra'alt Zuult, emissary of Sothos Karr and high priest of Gruumsh.

Zuult tells the gathering in no kindness that Dror Gheel, the Slavemaster, desires satisfaction for the offenses of the Champions of Floivin Keep at both the town of Badash and the Mimresh fortress, both of which he considers to be breaches of the 'truce' that was made between Zuult and the former Regent-General of Floivin Province. His demands are that they be sent forth to face his own selected Champions on the 'Ratog-Gotar', a trial of combat used by the orcs to settle scores in the fairest manner possible. If they refuse the challenge or run, Zuult swears that Sothos Karr will launch an invasion upon the beleaguered, weakened Province that will destroy it long before Imperial support can arrive. Should they fight and win, or fight and die, the Slavemaster will be satisfied and the 'truce', as temporary as it is, will be reinstated in 'good faith'. The PCs decide to take up the challenge, but debate over who to bring along as the seventh champion. Hoary volunteers but is shot down as he is needed to lead the Floivin soldiers, and Baxter says he'll need to be paid a lot of money. They do eventually settle on Mistlethroe, who is prepared more for returning to the Crowslode than for an outright combat, but may have tricks up his sleeves to help.

Before marching off to the confrontation, the PCs check local magic supplies for anything that might help them. Gruulsh has the Last Eidolorn store her money, and Badger gives all his to Flake Falloway to hold in the event of his inevitable death, to continue the soldier's dreams of building a brothel. Baro goes to Bishop Conniff to confess to what he did to Brand, polymorphing the whelp into an iguana. Conniff seems surprised that the evoker would lose his cool, but tells him the best way to right this wrong is to find the lizard and change it back. Baro agrees to work on it. Lord Ballyhoo goes to see Swyft one last time, and the tailor is working on something large, armor-like, but will not reveal it through confidentiality. Swyft offers to fight in Ballyhoo's place, and in fact, a large number of city folk seem to think 'they're just orcs' and that the heroes will be back in no time. With a host of Eidolorn soldiers, the PCs march towards the Mimresh.

They arrive to see that the 7 on 7 duel will be fought in a 250' x 250' grid, surrounded on all sides by alternating witness of both forces. Ignoring various insults slung at him, the old priest Zuult, who is here in person to oversee the combat, explains the rules. Combat is to the death or surrender, in which case the losers who survive are taken into slavery (or servitude, should the orcs lose). Though the Mimresh itself is armed with readied catapults and ballistas, the orcs are not to intervene, nor are the Eidolorn soldiers present. If the PCs run: WAR. If there are any false Champions among them (which several orc officers confirm there aren't): WAR. If any of the orc witness around the battle square are harmed: WAR. Both teams will cast bone dice to determine first placement in the arena, and this is critical to how the combat will flow. Once they are placed, and the orc Champions have arrived, the PCs realize this will not be an easy fight to just group up and make area attacks, since there are other strategic decisions right from the start.

The frantic battle begins, with the enemy cleric, Aarshlut launching a major strike against Badger almost immediately with a harm spell. Gruulsh squares off against Dagam-Burz, a barbarian, in the center of the grid, while several other clumps of PCs attempt to group up for defensive purposes. Unfortunately, this leaves one corner of the battle field open, where the orc warlock Sharku and sorcerer Oghash begin hurtling spells at the players. Although heavily damaged, the orc cleric took down Badger in the following round, and the fight grew more desperate. Flailin Mary', an enemy warrior and trainer of some repute, was left useless in the opening rounds when Ballyhoo fled from her, but she began crossing over to where Solveig was dealing with the slipper orc rogue Kraibag of th Cold Crows. Graygear found some difficulty getting into position to deliver his most lethal attacks, but his innate Spell Resistance protected him from a lot of the magical attacks slung his way. The enemy's dragon shaman Shadaauk made a rush to deal with Baro, and the evoker was constantly being harried by the warlock's eldritch blasts which also imparted blindness upon him. Nonetheless, he threw a cyclonic blast at the dragon shaman and was able to put up a minor globe of invulnerability on himself, the bard, and the deep gnome.

Gruulsh was at long last victorious over the barbarian Dagam-Burz, but was severely weakened by the effort, and Oghash the sorcerer and his quasit familiar managed to finish off the bugbear-gone halfling. A reinvigorated Aarshlut brought down a flame strike upon the PCs within the minor globe, felling Baro, and a follow-up eldritch blast from Sharku dealt with Lord Ballyhoo, leaving only three combatants on the field for Floivin...Graygear, Solveig, and Mistlethroe, all of whom surrender rather than follow the suicidal alternative. Zuult proclaims that the Slavemaster is Satisfied, the Champions who have offended him now lay dead or prostrate before Sothos Karr, and that the Floivin folk can sleep in peace at night...at least for the time being. Hoary has to restrain his men while the two gnomes and the druid are disarmed and dragged out through the gates of the Mimresh...

~FIN

PCs: Badger, Ballyhoo, Baro, Graygear, Gruulsh, Solveig

NPCs

Aarshlut 'Dawn-Killer' (orc female): An attractive priestess of Gruumsh, she represented the Slaughtertree clan of Sothos Karr at the trial before the gates of the Mimresh. She fought with a spear and shield and deadly magics which slew both Lt. Badger and Baro Helliger.

Private Barry (human male): One of the privates sent to fetch Lt. Badger from Hobfast, took a bribe from said superior officer and basically became 'his man'.

Dagam-Burz 'The Belly' (orc male): A white-haired barbarian representing the Dreadfoot clan of Sothos Karr, adorned in silver skulls, hide armor and wielding a brutal greataxe. He was the only orc Champion to fall, slain by Gruulsh in a taxing melee.

Flailin' Mary (orc female): A famed Champion and combat trainer of Sothos Karr, who represented the Ironbole clan in the trial at Mimresh. Was unable to bring any foes down, much to her dismay, but dig quite a lot of damage to Solveig in her bear form. Wields the great flail weapon of her namesake.

Kraibag 'The Wistful' (orc male): A rather dashing, happy-go-lucky orc rogue who represented the Cold Crows at the combat. His poisoned short sword thrusts were entirely useless against Solveig, and to be honest it's a miracle this fellow survived...

Oghash (orc male): An orc sorcerer representing the Grays of Sothos Karr, had a particular bone to pick with the PCs since several Grays were slain trying to deal with the exposed Syriux during the flight from the pits of Badash. Has a quasit familiar. Slew Gruulsh with scorching rays.

Sadaauk 'The Bleeder' (orc male): A dragon shaman who represented the Shatterfang clan at the trial before the Mimresh. Had red dragon totems and could breathe fire, while wielding a terrible longspear.

Sharku 'The Ancient' (orc male): A warlock of the Kneebreaker clan, played a pivotal role in the trial by the Mimresh by harassing PCs with his eldritch blasts, many of which were imbued with invocations that could bounce them to additional targets and temporarily blind their victims.

Online 5e Reboot Session 3 (4/19/15)

Here is the link to the transcript for session #3. We're now using the Roll20 web browser gaming interface, so I've cut and pasted this to a Word .doc for the time being.

Session 70 (4/10/15)

*Does a bear clit in the woods?*

Evalais, Verget the 16th, 838 ID 

Rather than return immediately to the Crowslode, the PCs decide they'll spend a minimal amount of time recuperating in Floivin Keep. Graygear, unfamiliar with the surface civilization, decides to scope out the urban setting, remaining hidden; while Lord Ballyhoo misses his audience, and goes to the Seven Floods Inn to play for them. The rest sell more of the haul they've made over the previous few months, and decide to clear out their adventurers' vault as much as possible. A decision is made to pass off the manual of Abyssal rifts to the Arkana Arkiva, for safekeeping, rather than sell it off to Teven, which would have netted a profit large enough to finish paying off Ettenhead...but at what cost, if the nefarious and potent mage decided to USE it? Gruulsh and Baro seek out Monch and the bugling's daughter Shari at the dwarves' manor, to find that she continues to grow, and her host's fascinating with her has not only unsettled his own wife, but grown to the point that Monch no longer wishes to continue the expedition into the Crowslode that he was so excited about...Baro pays the affluent dwarf around $12,000 of his treasure share towards the Ettenhead debt.

Meanwhile, Solveig, having little use for her newfound wealth, decides to shower some of it upon the local soldiery, most of which immediately head to the most expensive drinking hole they can find: the Seven Floods Inn. She is accosted by Hoary, who thanks her but deems it more appropriate to put most of her donations into the Last Eidolorn coffers to benefit everyone. But he spares them all a handful of coins. Badger heads off to the Fiery Rat tavern, where he comes up with a business proposition for Flake Falloway, offering not only to expand the tavern itself, but to invest 6,000 gold in a brothel. He justifies it as a chance to 'give back' to the community, in particular the Last Eidolorn. Seeing the potential profits of such a venture, Falloway agrees, provided there are no dwarven women used in the establishment. Badger takes it upon himself to hire 'the girls', but realizes he will need some help, so decides to take a trip locally to the town of Hobfast, hoping the Hosspotches will get involved.

Baro and Gruulsh return to the Armory Square to find that all the off-duty soldiers have jettisoned, and the army cooks have no one to serve, so they bring around the franks & beans that were being prepared and offer them to local families, an act of charity. They then decide to follow up with the soldiers at the Seven Floods, to ensure no trouble is being caused by the sudden influx of thirsty men. Solveig tries to sleep outside the city on the outskirts of the Tooth Marsh, in bear form, which stuns Badger, also traveling that way. He puts an arrow in her before realizing his mistake, and then he is on his way. Solveig decides to sleep in human form after that. Baro and Gruulsh find a long line at the Seven Floods, being tended to by Brand, the annoying waiter/host they've run across in the past. Finally finished with his insults, Baro, at the cost of part of his very soul, casts baleful polymorph on the brat, transforming him into an iguana, which then stalks off through the Keep. Not seeming to care, the line clears, everyone rushing in to the Seven Floods. Baro goes inside to make sure there is no problem, while Gruulsh returns to speak with Monch once more...

Solveig is interrupted a second time this night, by a trio of orcs wielding blades at her, asking all manner of questions upon the fortifications and manpower currently within the Keep. She does manage to escape in a bird form, but not before the interlopers can nearly bring her down! She flies off to get help, and inside the city a soldier helps her back to Armory Square. Badger inevitably arrives at Hobfast, and is let in by a crafty guard who profits off the act. He is met by a local merchant known as Harley Hosspotch, who eventually becomes intrigued by the soldier's business proposal, and offers to get involved, hiring guards and servants for the yet unnamed brothel. He then grants Badger complimentary bed and breakfast at The Crimson Harpy. Back in the city, Monch informs Gruulsh that a guaranteed means to return her to non-halfling form might come in the form of a wish spell, which she'd require a high level caster to perform, perhaps even the Regent-General of Toul Tabor himself. She leaves for Armory Square, to find out that Solveig has been attacked, and with several attentive soldiers, rushes West of the Keep.

An exhausted and wounded Solveig receives some healing, and then decides to shack up with the persistent Private Jolson for a misery/pity shag, which greatly disturbs everyone nearby. Baro clears out the soldiers from the Seven Floods Inn, sending them scurrying for armaments at the new rumors of an orc attack. Gruulsh is unassailed as he travels the road towards the Mimresh, and she finds no war party on the plains in the Pass, but then discovers that the Last Eidolorn patrol which spies on the orc stronghold has been slaughtered to a man...and horse. She rushes back to inform Hoary and his fellow soldiers, and collect the other PCs, including Ballyhoo and Graygear, before investigating further. 

PCs: Badger, Baro, Gruulsh, Solveig 

NPCs

Harley Hosspotch (halfling male): A charming negotiator based in Hobfast, with impeccable brown curls, stunning green eyes, and favors cream-colored robes and garments. He is 'on duty' when Pvt. Badger comes to the halfling community to seek help in his dubious prostitution scheme...
 
Private Jolson (human male): A trapper/furrier who has recently taken up service in the Last Eidolorn guard. Salt-and-pepper, fine beard and a haughty attitude, he takes a fondness for the druid Solveig which results in a torrid love affair, since the middle aged man, when intoxicated, does not seem to mind her sporadic wild shaping amidst the copulation.

Online 5e Reboot Session 2 (3/15/15)

Here is the link to the transcript for session #2. We're now using the Roll20 web browser gaming interface, so I've cut and pasted this to a Word .doc for the time being.

Session 69 (3/13/15)

*Giving the Shafts the Shaft*

Ivric, Verget the 15th, 838 ID

As the party proceeds deeper into the caverns, they find yet another of the deep gnome statues they ran into in the medusa/basilisk lair, and by the mercy of Ballyhoo, decide to return it too into the realm of flesh. This time, the svirfneblin doesn't flee, introduced itself, and claims to hail from a far off city of its kind, Ilindolph. He was seeking a long estranged clan of his people in this particular area of the Underdark, when he happened across the medusas, and attempted to flee. He is quite shocked to hear that the date is roughly 200 years later than the one he could remember! At any rate, he decides to stick with his saviors for the time being, who might help him find the lost clan he has been sent to reconnect with. It doesn't take terribly long to uncover some evidence, since the next cave is full of smashed crates and deep gnome equipment caches. The following chamber is hung with gruesome beast trophies, including troglodytes, and beyond that, they come across some sort of museum of small armor suits. Unfortunately, they trigger a quartet of these, and a battle ensues. The animated constructs wield humming swords and get into an excellent position to deal with the PCs, but our heroes eventually win out, rendering them into piles of plates and cans...

The armor museum is a massive cavern with several exits, and they decide to travel west, when they encounter an odd dead end where two chests, each with three parallel locks of strange sizes, are set into the floor. Baro uses knock on one of the chests, which lifts its lid, but also spawns a massive incendiary cloud which begins to sear the characters until they run out of range. They seem ready to give up, but once Monch discerns a sliding/shifting wall beyond those chests, they come up with an alternate solution: Wendel first jams the chests to disarm the cloud trap, and then both Gutwrench (the new gnome) and Wendel to simultaneously pry open the locks on each side, using Baro as a backup to knock another one if they blunder the timing. Had they but one lockpicker, it might have proven impossible, but as they moved from the outer locks to the smaller, closer devices, it became gradually simpler. After popping the inner locks, the lids flew open and the wall spun, depositing the pair into a grisly looking torture chamber. They managed to figure out how to use the chest lids as levers, and then retrieve the rest of the party before pressing on. They find a feeding shaft which is crammed with viscera, especially brain matter, and Solveig wild shapes into a rat to search through it, finding an unfinished note from a fell halfing explorer, Hal Hosspotch.

Moving into the next area, they find a pair of ghastly abominations guarding a stone door engraved with tentacles. They engage, Baro and Mistlethroe wielding deadly magics that almost fully cut down the creatures, but not before a good chunk of the party is mysteriously put to sleep. But the PCs do make short work of the things, which deflate into oozing giant pustules on the cavern floor. Some study of the forms reveals that they are related somehow to illithids...perhaps a more primal version, or 'pets' of the mind flayers. They collect some random treasure littered about the area, and discover that the next chamber contains a glowing, pulsating glass sphere set into a stone shaft, which seems to ebb abjuration magic, the source of the teleporation block located in the Hazard Shafts area of the Crowslode! The rest of the PCs back off, and Badger shatters it, allowing them to now use these magics in this region of the Underdark.

Evalais, Verget the 16th, 838 ID

After a long rest, interrupted only when Gruulsh-ling hears a group of frustrated bugbears arriving at the dead end where the chests used to be, Mistlethroe and Baro teleport the party successfully back to Floivin Keep. Monch and Gruulsh take the rapidly aging dwarf offspring to Gnarlbottom Manor, and Wendel says his goodbyes, though he does mention he might hang around the Keep for some time. Then the group sells some of their new stash to Teven the Worm, hands out some of the gear, and prepares to return to complete this almost impossible task.

PCs: Badger, Ballyhoo, Baro, Graygear, Gruulsh, Solveig

Session 68 (2/6/15)

*Basilisk Bordello*

Ivric, Verget the 15th, 838 ID

After collecting the treasure from the misshapen, hunchbacked giants, some of which is too heavy for them to carry, the PCs head south through the caverns, with Wendel checking for traps all along the way, and a group of them protecting the Gruulsh's unusual dwarf offspring as best they can. Though she can hardly speak yet, she does occasionally bark out simple phrases in dwarven, and seems to have grown at an unbelievable rate, to years overnight. Monch also seems strangely smitten with the child, moreso than he should, and Lord Ballyhoo determines that there is some enchantment effect overtaken the noble. The heroes enter a new area with a pair of giant statue dials depicting a fell dwarven archmage known as Denzeth 'ManyFates' Dourmug, a descendant of the very rogue they have come to track through the Crowslode. Badger shoots an arrow at one for good measure, but then remembers that they had acquired a script in a nearby cavern, with rune-numerals similar to those on the massive dial bases of the statues.

After some debate, they decide to try the codes. With great exertion, and Solveig taking on a brown bear form, they manage to lock the two statues into the three sets of rune-numerals found on the parchment. As each pair is 'locked in', they can hear mighty movements somewhere in the earth beneath them, but there is no effect on the cave they are in. Before further exploring the garden of statues they encountered earlier, they decide to retrace their steps through some of the level to see what changes the statues might have caused. The vent room, spider egg chamber, massive spider web cavern and sludge-poo chamber all seem unaffected, so they decide it's time to explore what they dread to be a basilisk's lair, since it seems to be in the way of any further progress. Lord Ballyhoo stealthily scouts out a vast cavern while invisible, making out several serpentine forms slithering around, but also alerting a quartet of medusa sisters and their basilisk pets to the presence of the party thanks to his light source. Though the deadly petrification gazes of these particular creatures do not seem to affect one another in close quarters, the garden of statues clearly shows what might happen to the PCs should they cross those stares...

Alas, the medusas have other defenses in place, two more stone golems very similar to the one the PCs dealt with above! The battle is joined in full, with the golems taking the front line and the basilisks slowly creeping forward. Almost the entire party is engaged with the golems, some healing and some trying to do whatever damage they can, when a pair of basilisks get close enough to try and affect them. Fortunately, they all make their saving throws. They are picked off by a combination of magic attacks and arrows, and then Baro throws down black tentacles to slow any other attackers, who are then forced to take another route around. On that route is Wendel, who himself had decided to sneak around and perhaps surprise attack someone, but failed miserable...as the medusas and remaining basilisks come around to flank the party, the rogue flees! By this point the stone golems have finally been chipped away, and thanks to Baro's big gun spell for the day they make pretty quick work of the remaining enemies.

They search the medusa's stone habitations and find that they were primarily used for cooking, rutting and other things, perhaps with their pets themselves! Loathsome. Ballyhoo reverts two of the statues (those of gnomes) to flesh again, but both flee from the PCs, their gratitude difficult to determine. The PCs press on to find a treasury stash down a side corridor, where an imposing statue of something like an umberhulk with tentacles looms over their treasure. A pair of male medusa (maedar) are also chained up here, and able to communicate with Lord Ballyhoo. The PCs grab the gems and items, and deliberate what to do with these captives while they scope out another side corridor with stairs descending to the third level of the Hazard Shafts...

PCs: Badger, Ballyhoo, Baro, Gruulsh, Solveig, Wendel (PC-NPC, +1 session credit for Jarrett)

Online 5e Reboot Session 1 (1/11/15)

This is a reboot of our online Udders Well solo campaign. After retiring Six-Shite, we decided to dive into 5th edition with a fresh 1st level character and test drive the new rules. Though this storyline does exist in the same setting and time as the main Udders Well tabletop campaign, and also contains a lot of the same personalities, the characters from each won't be able to interact directly until I have upgraded everything later in 2015. If Ryan shows up for tabletop games in the meantime he will use an NPC and be credited attendance/XP sessions for this solo run.

Here is the link to the transcript for session #1. We're now using the Roll20 web browser gaming interface, so I've cut and pasted this to a Word .doc for the time being.

Udders Well Renown Tracker (5e)

Arkana Arkiva

1 Pupil
3 Aide
10 Graduate
25 Instructor
50 Chancellor
75 Dean

Church of Eleste

1 Acolyte
3 Chaplain
10 Lector
25 Bishop
50 Prelate
75 Archbishop

Circle of Crake

1 Aspirant
3 Ovate
10 Fielder
25 Warden
50 Archdruid
75 Great Druid

Fifth Eidolorn

1 Private
3 Lieutenant (Sergeant)
10 Captain
25 Major
50 Commander
75 General (Admiral)

Fourth Eidolorn

1 Private
3 Lieutenant (Sergeant) Baro
10 Captain
25 Major
50 Commander
75 General (Admiral)
 
Gnarlbottom Clan

1 Arbiter
3 Smith
10 Patron
25 Noble
50 Lord

Hosspotch Family

1 Associate
3 Soldier
10 Made Man (Woman)
25 Underboss
50 Boss
75 Grandfather (Grandmother)

Imperial Recognition

1 Friend of the Realm
3 Partisan of the Realm
10 Hero of the Realm Baro, Gruulsh
25 Champion of the Realm
50 Knight of the Realm

Last Eidolorn

1 Private
3 Lieutenant (Sergeant) Baro, Gruulsh
10 Captain
25 Major
50 Commander
75 General (Admiral)

Reddenbalm Clan

1 Rube
3 Soldier
10 Patron
25 Elder
50 Patriarch (Matriarch)

Roodeye Clan

1 Rube Ivellio
3 Soldier
10 Patron
25 Elder
50 Patriarch (Matriarch)

Wizards Elite

1 9th Circle
3 8th Circle
10 7th Circle
20 6th Circle
30 5th Circle Baro
40 4th Circle
50 3rd Circle
60 2nd Circle
75 1st Circle

Session 67 (12/12/14)

*Squatter's Rights (To Die)*

Ivric, Verget the 15th, 838 ID

The PCs are beset upon by a number of spiders of various sizes, all equal or greater to a man, and they seem to reflect a steely tint from the lava below their strangely thick, rubbery webs. Though the creatures seem to be resistant to numerous forms of attack, they are quite easily dispatched by magic from Baro and arrows from Badger, to the point that the melee fighters barely got to engage any of them. Gruulsh explores a ledge near the webs to find a few old boxes, one of which is still locked and contains some loot and an interesting script. As the heroes pick their way across the rest of the great web to a new area, they notice a gargantuan spider beneath, rolling in the roiling magma, possibly a more mature end-stage to the vermin they just destroyed... 

They end up in an egg-chamber, loaded with 100s of the spider-things in their embryonic state. Some are destroyed, but they notice that there are tools lying about, a sign that other humanoids had come along and removed some of the things. A nearby tunnel has a strange ribbed appearance, and as they travel to the end of it, they find the corpse of a dwarf who must have escaped one of the miners' many struggles above (or below). Wendel suspects the tunnel itself might be the maw of some great beast, so they are hasty to pass through. Pressing on, they find a number of strange stone statues which seem a little too realistic for comfort, in a large cave where there is also a pool of strange gray sludge. Neighboring caverns contain a number of additional statues...humans, dwarves, troglodytes, and larger creatures. They decide to avoid the larger concentration of the things and enter a chamber marred by steaming magma fissures which must be connected in the deeps to the lava pool beneath that massive spider's web. They carefully wind their way through to avoid being scalded.

In the next area, a rocky cavern with uneven ceilings, they run across a trio of other 'explorers', unusual squatting giants which have the ability to 'unfurl' and grow more powerful wherever the ceiling is high enough. A gruesome conflict erupts, and though the PCs are eventually able to bring down the violent beasts, Gruulsh is battered to death...and upon her death, the damnedest thing happens...her womb splits open and a dwarven babe spills forth. Baro recalls the strange 'pricking' incident from the Sunken Forge, when they were exploring the shrine of Sharindlar, and puts two together...believing that the same gender-swapping magical trap must have simultaneously impregnated Gruulsh with what might be the avatar of the newly-rediscovered dwarven goddess!

Ivric, Verget the 15th, 838 ID

Thankfully, Solveig is skilled enough in her natural magic to reincarnate the bugbear, only into a new form...that of a halfling, the next day. Gruulsh must adjust to her new form...which is wildly different than the previous.

PCs: Badger, Ballyhoo, Baro, Gruulsh, Solveig, Wendel

Session 66 (11/7/14)

Ivric, Verget the 15th, 838 ID

After their nasty run-in with the umber hulk, the PCs have now healed and rested to regain their spells, before setting off further into the Crowslode. They find another cavern area which is was a last stand site for a group of dwarven and human miners. Within is a slightly preserved journal kept by one of the prospectors, Slott Squatbottom, which has a few entries intact. He has named this top region of the caverns the 'Hazard Shafts'. Apparently the explorers and miners had discovered a number of antagonistic races within the depths. Deep gnomes have rigged specific areas with some truly deadly traps, while bands of troglodytes have been harassing and killing them, recently massing to repel the decades old expedition. Slott himself appears to have died from the infection of wounds sustained in such a battle. And it looks like a lot more of the old remains in the cavern belong to the dwarves than trogs. The PCs decide to press further, finding a pit to the next lower level, which is unfortunately guarded by a stone golem that activates once they try to use it. Although the construct proves impervious to many forms of attack, and renders the melee fighters' attacks weaker, the group eventually manages to bring it down through teamwork, though Wendel hangs back for safety.

Once lowering themselves to the second level, they find a corridor oddly guarded on both ends by a low wall of placed stones...with a few shreds of cloth swirling around inside. They sense that there is strong illusion magic in the area, but Wendel can't figure out if it's trapped, so they decide to check out another cavern and discover several hidden caches of small-sized weapons, in mine carts that were tucked into alcoves in the wall. The PCs return to the strange corridor that bars their progress through the 2nd level, and dispel a chunk of the corridor, revealing a complex system of churning, completely silent spiked columns of death that will grind anyone up moving through the area. Wendel can't disarm it, so they decide to send Gruulsh through in gaseous form just to scout out the other area, where they get a peak at the next room. She returns and becomes corporeal again, and they attempt a number of other bypasses like using one of the mining carts to jam some of the columns, but it fails because the cart is too big. They decide to return to the first level to see if there is anything they might have missed...rather than send someone to an almost certain death.

The only place above they hadn't examined further was the chamber mostly submerged in water, so Gruulsh and Wendel head out to the little island and examine the small hooded skeleton. They find an everburning torch inside the lantern, a silver fishing rod and a gorgeous goblet, and bring over Baro to examine their magical radiations. When he raises the fishing rod, the skeleton also raises, and begins to follow the evoker. He also notes that divination radiates from the lantern, and conjuration and necromancy from the goblet. After further exploration of this cavern, including some diving, the PCs return to the second level, where they keep banging up against the obstacle of the trap corridor, until finally Mistlethroe identifies the lantern to possess proprietary detection and negation properties, which not only give a full reveal of the 60' hallway of grinding columns, but they also neutralize it. The party squeezes through, while Baro goes last, backwards, making sure the lantern is keeping the trap from restarting. Once through, the columns begin to spin, silently, eternally, again...

In the next chamber that had been scouted, there is a massive six-armed statue to a troglodyte god with emeralds in its headdress. The deity is so obscure or ancient that even a well reasoned Religion knowledge check can't place it. There are offering bowls surrounding the thing, some filled with the charred remains of reptilian humanoid offspring. Badger decides to remove some of the emeralds while standing on Gruulsh's shoulder, and he picks out too, but is cursed after each. Luckily for him, Ballyhoo has an ability to counteract the effects of said curses. They decide to leave the rest of the emeralds be, and then head south into the next area. a larger cavern full of rubbery, steel-colored webbing that also serves as the floor...deep below there is a red, bubbling glow of what is most likely magma. Ballyhoo uses his tongues spell to shake the webs and hopefully communicate something to whatever has made the webs, but the only response he gets is an overwhelming emotion of...

'HUNGER'.

PCs: Badger, Ballyhoo, Baro, Gruulsh, Solveig

Online Session 65 (11/4/14)

Here is the link to the transcript for online session 65. We're now messing around with the Roll20 web browser gaming interface, so I've saved this one as a Word .doc for the time being.

Coincidentally, this is the final session involving Six-Shite, who we have retired since it made sense for the character and in favor of running a 5th edition solo game in the same campaign/setting. This new character will not be able to cross over with the normal Udders Well group until we've made the jump from 3.5e sometime later this year, but they will still run concurrent and can potentially affect each other in terms of events. The fate of Private Tharbalas has yet to be determined, though the Wintersbreath defector left him with as much shelter as possible while he heals from his wounds...

Online Session 64 (10/20/14)

Here is the link to the transcript for online session 64. We're now messing around with the Roll20 web browser gaming interface, so I've saved this one as a Word .doc for the time being.

Session 65 (10/17/14)

Essel, Verget the 13th, 838 ID

After unsuccessfully searching for hidden exits from the chamber where they discovered the illithid skull, the PCs decide to drag the copper-dowsed dwarf back to the entrance area and then proceed down the one tunnel they had yet to explore. They spied an unstable chamber covered with webs of cracks and nooks in it, and a damaged cart track. A single mine cart remained, and from this they saw glints of something shining...so Gruulsh and Wendel went into to get a closer look, while the rest of the party stayed near the entrance. It turns out there was a pressure plate trap, so rather than attempt to disable it, Wendel recommends the party stay clear of the cart and the coins stacked within, and press onward. They do so, but somehow their very presence manages to trigger an enormous 10' x 15' worked stone block falling in the entryway! Had Wendel removed the coins earlier...the rest of the party might have been completely crushed...

They pressed on to the next area, and found a ribbed looking, naturally eroded cavern where some water was dripping from the mountainside above. Four strange stalagmites were scattered through the place, and there were weird, spongy net-like surfaces on the ceiling which seem like they might have been left behind by the miners. Unfortunately, as they began to search the walls for anything less than obvious, they were attacked by deadly Strength-sapping strands, as the stalagmites turned out to be aberrations! Furthermore, the things on the ceiling joined the battle, lurkers above who would drop and then attempt to grapple the heroes, a dangerous proposition if they've had their Strength drained. It was a dodgy battle, with Ballyhoo, Mistlethroe and Wendel finding themselves in potential danger; inevitably the PCs proved victorious over the aberrations. They found some treasure in a shallow pit on the floor beneath where one of the creatures was prepping its ambush. It was also in this battle that Ballyhoo and Baro discovered their teleport-like spells did not seem to function in the Crowslode... perhaps this explains the abjuration the evoker detected near the entrance to the caverns.

They took the corridor running east, and found a place where rivulets of water running down the walls were beginning to pool, and a heap of humanoid bones and scales which they deduced might belong to troglodytes, since they are aware the Marrow Suckers and other tribes are reported to dwell beneath the Vernal Wall. Within the bones, they find a shale-encrusted, slowly pulsing egg which must have been hidden here by one of the stone ropers in the previous fight, and they claim the thing, deciding to press further along where the water was gathering. A larger cavern, with dank, opaque water at least 4-5' deep, full of bioluminous cavern fish, the surface slowly rippling and undulating. There is an islet in the center of the chamber with what a cloak-shrouded, small humanoid skeleton sitting alone near a lit lantern on a leaning pole. Badger fires an arrow at the figure to see if it moves, and then the party decides to search elsewhere and then return here later, once the mages discern there are numerous sources of magic on the islet...including necromancy.

They next come across a cantine of some sort that had been set up by the miners, who must have assumed their operation would be quite large and prosperous. A number of stone benches and tables hewn from the cavern floor itself are in the place, dubbed the 'Crows Nest' in dwarven on a small sign near the entrance. To the south of the area is a semi-circular bar-like structure. Stone bowls and crude utensils lie strewn about in webs and dust. The 'scout team' of Gruulsh and Wendel heads towards the bar, with the rogue searching all the while for any traps...there are no 'traps', it turns out, but a massive and terrifying umber hulk has taken up residence in a burrow at the middle of the bar, and it 'rises to the occasion', using its confusion ray on the two scouts! Shenanigans commence, but luckily Baro, Badger and Mistlethroe are on the job, raining down hostile magic upon the thing whilst Solveig turns its burrow into a thick mud with a transmutation. spell. It is hard to fell, but manages to only get one heavy attack off on Gruulsh who can take it, before Baro's disintegrate erases it from existence! A close call...if the beast had been able to take action again, it might have slain one or more of the confused characters.

They find it's treasure within the burrow, after digging through the mud, and set Monch to identify an item, which he does for the cloak of the mountebank, that is given to Wendel. The PCs heal and then decide to rest and regain some of their spent magic, before pressing further into the Crowslode.

PCs: Badger, Ballyhoo, Baro, Gruulsh, Solveig, Wendel

Session 64 (9/12/14)

*Where Crane Flies Dare*

Varony, Verget the 11th, 838 ID
 
After arousing suspicion from several groups of Last Eidolorn soldiers for his strange armaments, the explorer Wendel Eumatic Tork III is led to the Fiery Rat Tavern in Floivin Keep, where he is treated to a meal by the curious Flake Falloway. Flake determines that the wandering rogue's unique skill set might be aligned with the needs of Captain Banghorn's men (the PCs), and offers to put Tork up for a night at the Seven Floods Inn if he's willing to speak with them. Afterwards, Wendel goes to reserve his room with the offered coin and then jaunt over to the Cathedral of Blades in search of curative elixirs should he end up with some dangerous employment.

While they wait for Badger to finish selling items, and to connect with this wandering rogue they've heard about, Gruulsh and Baro decide to discipline Privates Chara and Laisso in the Armory Square. Solveig cannot wait to get out of the city and move into the next chapter of her life, since the locals at Floivin Keep do not seem very comfortable around her pet bear Hrufgar. Lord Ballyhoo decides to head over to the Seven Flood Inn once he is informed through Flake that Wendel would be headed there. The rogue does arrive, after being unsuccessful at procuring potions, but had a nice chat with some of the acolytes of Eleste. Meanwhile, Badger goes to the Dirty Dagger Alehouse, making the barkeep and clientele nervous, after what happened the last time. He tells them his brother is dead and none of them seem to upset. He also notes Monch Gnarlbottom entering to meet up with his chosen bodyguard, Baxter the Mighty, who none of the current PCs have met but their predecessors once traveled with for a spell. Badger introduces himself and tells them they'd best gather up with the rest of the PCs shortly.

After having discovered that Swyft the Tailor is weaving a platinum outfit for the Yellow Hen (to surpass even his own gold outfit), and commissioning a truly expensive gem-studded outfit of his own, he decides to magically disguise himself as the other minstrel and mess around with the tailor. Swyft falls for the ruse, partly distracted by a new customer (Wendel, whom the Lord has brought along to freshen up), and manages to make Swyft brainstorm an outfit imbued with magic and or magical items, the one thing that might surpass Ballyhoo's projected jewel-clothing. After this, most of the PCs gather up to ride off towards Littlewolf and Ettenhead and get their mission to the Crowslode going. Captain Krennyk has stocked a wagon full of rations, torches, casks of water and a few of ale (a gift he hid in there).

Gruulsh and Baro had already teleported to Littlewolf earlier to talk some business with Silas about the missing relics and possibly acquiring them later. They confront a few of the snotty house guards and also meet Grail 'Whistleblade', a former citizen of Littlewolf who is back in the village briefly. Gruulsh does not convince him to come along for the Crowslode quest, and in fact the elfin duelist tries to discourage them from journeying anywhere near the Underdark, but he does agree to help patrol the Ettenhead for a stiff fee, since the Lt. and Sgt. fear that the 'talent level' of the present defenders might not be enough to turn away any retaliation from the giants in thrall to the Titan of the Glen. After this, they too head out to Ettenhead, and by late night, all the PCs have gathered once more. Monch is happy to see his cousin Scuff, and Wendel shows off his inventions to the dwarf engineers and laborers who are inevitably impressed. Mistlethroe shows up.

Verne, Verget the 12th, 838 ID

After organizing marching orders, gathering their last minute supplies and eating a delicious, massive breakfast courtesy of Odd Jon Stuckle, the expedition sets forth, westward along the Vernal Wall. En route, they get to know the new folks. Baxter speaks highly of the late Mudgol and all the other old PCs he knew, and eventually they arrive at the Pinewater, but are forced south to ford the river with some rowboats at the abandoned Cedarway. Evening has fallen so they decide to set up camp here, testing their watch rotation. In the middle of the night, a bunch of giant stag beetles enter the camp area, foraging for plants and smashing up whatever gets in their way, but they do not seem highly interested in the party, and there is no confrontation.

Essel, Verget the 13th, 838 ID

After a breakfast of rations and departing Cedarway, the expedition turns back northward and rejoins the Vernal Wall west. Gruulsh realizes this is Blood Eagle territory, his former kin, and that survivors have been known to ascend to the heights (reported by Doorjamb and Ginkwrench among others). The foothills become spotted with nooks and small caverns, so they must be near the old hazardous mine. Monch eventually leads them to a half-circle copse of trees which conceals the Crowslode entrance. There are signs of recent firepits, probably set up by daring prospectors or humanoids from the Skunk Ridge, and the mouth of the mine itself is barricaded by a wall of timbers, support posts, overturned mining carts and tree trunks over which a kudzu has begun to creep. There are other signs of damage, like evidence of an avalanche or two flanking the entrance. Baro detects magic and learns that the entire place beyond the barricade seems to radiate abjuration...

Wendel puts himself to work immediately, discovering that one of the old mine carts is actually a swinging door set up to allow access to the 'Lode proper, and he disarms an old wire/dynamite trap well enough to permit passage to the PCs. Unfortunately, Hrufgar won't fit, and Solveig decides that the bear would not enjoy the subterranean spaces beyond, so sets him to hunt in the area and stay out of trouble in her absence. The PCs enter to discover the opening area has been blasted out by some sort of explosive from within, perhaps an unsuccessful attempt to seal it off forever. Despite some rumbling in the walls and ceilings of the place, meaning it could be unstable, they press forward, finding an old netted off pit containing heaps of copper ore. They also come across a horrific site...a dwarf dowsed in melted and hardened copper, stuck to the top of an overturned mine cart. Badger shoots an arrow into the unfortunate's eye to make sure it's not alive, and then he overturns the cart...revealing a sack...

And in that sack, they find a familiar looking humanoid skull....that of an illithid, obviously stashed her as a warning, perhaps by the copper-dowsed victim himself...this does not bode well for the depths of the Crowslode.

PCs: Badger, Ballyhoo, Baro, Gruulsh, Solveig, Wendell

NPCs

Private Chara (human male): A nervous, pale, scrawny new recruit to the Last Eidolorn who has the misfortune of being paired up with Private 'Party' Laisso. Known to wet himself when the pressure of his position becomes too much.

Private Laisso (human male): Likes to par-tee. Par-tee. Where's the par-tee at? A fresh young recruit with wild hair and a one-track mind. Also enjoys dice games and not so subtly mocking anyone who doesn't like to party. According to Baro and Gruulsh, his name is now Pvt. 'Lacey' until he earns his own name back after a thoroughly brutal reprimand from the bugbear lieutenant.

Online Session 63 (8/16/14)

*Mergers & Acquisitions*

In the flesh. Tabletop regulars were permitted to attend for a bonus experience session.

Evelais, Verget the 8th, 838 ID

Six Shite and Tharb make their way to the village of Littlewolf, where they are met with little but derision save for the elf maids trying to sell them candies, flowers and baubles. Tharb, relieved that the place hasn't been touched by the Kindness curse, decides to introduce the northerner to his uncle Visyo Reddenbalm, who snottily agrees to an audience. The elf patriarch attempts to convince Six Shite to retrieve a cache of heirlooms that was purportedly lost to a 'lake fairy', with which he might be able to embarrass his rival Silas Roodeye and his clan. Reluctantly, in need of cash, the ranger agrees, and a sum is settled upon, part of which is that the Reddenbalm clan ceases to insult Tharb over his hefty appearance.  On the way out, they run across Shayla the Swineherd, who asks Six Shite to return to her barn, where he meets another Wintersbreath refugee, Solveig, a druid who has sought Shayla's assistance. Solveig has arrived with her polar bear companion, Hrufgar, partly to find out why the Empire hasn't officially responded to her province's plight, as well as bear a warning about some massive footprints and other signs of passage she found leading into Floivin Province. The two agree to assist one another.

Meanwhile, in the Keep, Baro receives a message in the form of a shadowy crow from Shayla, telling him there are curious events unraveling with some strangers in Littlewolf. He summons forth his trusty phantom steed (Black Unicorn!) once more and rides off abruptly. Baro has gone off to get the treasure haul from the Haunted Horrn battle identified, and Gruulsh has a proposition to make at the Cathedral of Blades. Badger, mourning his fallen brother Ox, decides to neglect protocol and make a brief return to Nobbish where the half-orc could be properly buried. He pays for round trip teleportation via Teven the Worm, who takes him almost instantly to the city of Durmoral where he pays off a local soldier to transport Ox to their home village for burial. He pays the guard so much, in fact, that the soldier up and quits the Third Eidolorn instantly, realizing he has just made more than he will in decades of service...after that, Teven transports Badger back to his new 'home'. Gruulsh has inquired with Bishop Coniff if he might speak with dead, so they could ask the Score's late cleric leader Gremek a few questions. Conniff agrees, they will arrange the ritual once Commander Hoary can attend to hear the answers.

Ballyhoo arrives in a few hours to Littlewolf, where he is fawned over by the local female elven populace, before riding off to speak with Shayla. She tells him this is all business, but the lecherous bard still slips in some innuendos before he goes off to meet these unusual northerners. While he is being introduced to them, he discovers that Six Shite has almost gotten in a brawl with Lomi, the elf the PCs had sent to accompany the fisherman/brigand Bastaro on his task. Lomi is drunk and barely able to stand, so the bard dominates him to go relax in the shade somewhere, after hearing his explanation of how he lost the blind fisherman. Ballyhoo rides ahead to assist Six Shite, Tharb and Solveig in finding the Roodeye heirlooms, reaching the Everness Isle first, where he is tempted by a strange female creature in the lake-water. She manages to lure him to the depths and attempts to drain his very essence! Ballyhoo manages a slick escape once he breaks her grasp and reaches the service, and rides back to the other three on the boat, still approaching. They decide it's a bust, but Lord Ballyhoo vows to return for the shirt that was commissioned for him by Neddyn, which he had stripped off due to the lake being's seduction!

After severely pissing off Visyo Reddenbalm, Ballyhoo summons a phantom steed for Tharb so the fat elf can proudly show off in front of his people. The bard decides to race back to Floivin Keep and rejoin the other PCs, while Six Shite and his two companions head off to join the forces at Ettenhead and see what work Banghorn can arrange for them. Their journey is uneventful, and when Ballyhoo returns to the capital he finds that Gruulsh and Badger have been insulted out of the Seven Floods once more. The three go off to the Fiery Rat, where Flake gives them drink and meal on the house, sharing in the news and rueful at the loss of Mudgol. Badger drinks the memories of his brother Ox under the table, and then before long the three race off towards Ettenhead, arriving even ahead of the newcomers, who have set up camp nearby rather than approach the unsuspecting garrison at the old giant ruins.

Aric, Verget the 9th, 838 ID

In the morning, the newcomers do at last arrive. Tharb and Gruulsh greet one another warmly, having met during the quest to crack open the Sunken Forge on Greataxe Isle. Scuff the dwarf and nearly a score of his workers are already at work on the ruined castle, and some of the North wall has already been completed, while cheap shelters have been built for the camp to protect the garrison from the elements until more permanent structures are finished. Badger finds to his dismay that Bernice the Golden Hen was devoured by some of the hungry dwarf workers, Odd Jon unable to stop them. Jon himself morns the loss of Ox and (possibly) Mudgol, while the archer goes off to his broken tower perch to mourn (and hopefully not fall off this time).

Learning that the Haunted Horrn hideout for the Score has been eradicated, along with some of the villains there, Banghorn urges the PCs to begin their mission to infiltrate the dreaded Crowslode mines, and the subterranean sprawl beneath. They are to assemble a team of three competent companions and seek out the Southerner Wendel Eumatic Tork III, who supposedly is seeking to test his mettle against the fabled, deadly caverns. They first convince Solveig that her interests lie in helping the heroes, and then decide upon Mistlethroe and Monch Gnarlbottom to join them, in addition to a personal guard hired on to protect the dwarf nobleman directly. Banghorn then decides it is time to promote Badger and Ballyhoo, so that he may also promote the newly recruited Six Shite to Lieutenant so he can start his own branch responsible for scouting out the Vandrakki fortifications and numbers to the north, and possibly pull off some assassinations. Six Shite chooses the loyal Tharb, and sergeant Grenjar Gnarlbottom to work with him, and so Ballyhoo and Gruulsh race off on phantom steeds to retrieve him.

After acquiring the dwarf, they stop back at Littlewolf, first accosting Lomi who has somehow been freed of his spell. Gruulsh is enraged, physically abusing the House Guard, who is now inhaling opiates in a wagon, and rolling him before Silas Roodeye, who is deeply offended, but offers a 'refund' by sending another soldier to work the Ettenhead later. The PCs and Grenjar go back to Evernesse Isle to find Ballyhoo's shirt, which is now gone. They do, however, find the corpse of Bastaro, drained of its blood, on the isle itself, with a last note scrawled out in his blood, as best a blind ma might: 'TO MY WIFE. FUCK YE! I DIED HAPPY IN THE ARMS OF A YOUNG BEAUTY. - B' They do not find the Roodeye heirlooms, and instead embark to Ettenhead once more. Grenjar is surprised that he has been called upon by Six Shite, worried that his unfortunate 'curse' might have embarrassed him, but the barbarian greets him warmly and thinks his 'skill' might be of some use ahead. The heroes rest, to depart for Floivin Keep the following morning.

Tault, Verget the 10th, 838 ID

The PCS, along with Grenjar and Tharb, all roll in to Floivin Keep, where they retrieve Baro and the items he had studied. They divvy up the goods, and fetch Commander Hoary for the death-speaking ritual, which Conniff conducts beneath the Cathedral. They learn that the Score was definitely hired by the Seven Lords of Syn, servants of King Tomas the Unspared of Vhorinyr, the being responsible for attempting to repair and resurrect the Death Titan Ulan Vhor. They also learn that Syriux is most definitely some sort of living construct, and that the Score not only had hideouts at the Skull Collar Hideaway (conquered) and Haunted Horrn (conquered), but in the Free-Mest and every town in Sothos Karr, whether it's a full-fledged safehouse or a cache of supplies or a sympathizer. That is all the pertinent information Gremek's corpse can provide them, since he seemed not to know too much.

Hoary ensures the PCs that a few squads of hardened Last Eidolorn soldiers will crack the Hud Horrn, now that the majority of the dangerous Blooded Lash captains and their employers have been taken out. There has been no news of the Kindness curse...the Cathedral has been freeing what citizens the clergy can from Castle Floivin, a few each day, but the surviving mob that fled towards Hobfast has not been encountered, nor have the halflings been heard from. Gruulsh and Ballyhoo have an audience with Monch, who is delighted to join them on their quest into the Crowslode, almost like he was planning on being asked...Badger takes a bunch of the PCs excess treasure haul to be sold and/or stored in their vault, and the group gets ready to seek out the southern adventurer Wendel while Monch arranges for the last member of their next expedition. Captain Krennyk begins to arrange a supply wagon for them.

PCs: Badger, Ballyhoo, Gruulsh, Six Shite, Solveig

Session 63 (8/1/14)

*Raining Half Blood II...*

Ivric, Verget the 7th, 838 ID

Furious at the loss of their friend Mudgol, the PCs press on hopelessly against the turning tide of the battle...while being peppered by the newfound air superiority of the Score. Baro begins to target the Red Wizard Melek-Tha exclusively while being harried by his imp familiar and various other trolls and sundry who realize the threat he presents with his evocation. Ox and Gruulsh contend with the remaining bugbear and goblin troops not caught up in the reverse gravity, while Gremek the priest begins to cast hindrances upon them, for instance blinding Ox. Realizing that they will need further support or repositioning, Lord Ballyhoo deftly dimension doors the bugbear and half-orc to relatively safety on the rooftop where Badger had fallen, and they begin to revive the archer, needing his help against the flying opposition...despite a color spray being splashed upon them by the invisible illusionist Parodee, they heal Badger and quickly dispense with a troll that climbed the rubble to stop them!

Meanwhile Baro is in a full court press, being harried and damaged by a Blooded Lash troll but still managing to take down the Red Wizard at last! Gremek, realizing the danger, uses several dispel magics to release Warlord Ultroon and a handful of other fighters from the reverse gravity. The bugbear chieftain raises in challenge, storming off into the ruined Horrn to deal with the surviving PCs...Gruulsh, Ox and Ballyhoo transport to face off with him so he can't get to Baro, who has his own problems, and there is a last confrontation where the Warlord manages to deal the blind Ox a fatal blow...sending yet ANOTHER half-orc to his early grave (well, some would argue Mudgol's was a 'late grave'). Gremek throws some last minute hexes and curses upon the PCs, including a nasty one at the bugbear Gruulsh, before he is and the Warlord are taken down by a hail of magic, arrows, and sling stones. But not before the cleric promised that Klasp will replace the lost Score and the Empire will never be safe for their 'fatal negligence' (presumably their giving up on the slaves of Sothos Karr which formed the organization).

The troll captain Blukk is then defeated by Baro's magic before the rest of the reverse gravity fails, and most of the other humanoids in the field perish after falling (a few goblins and trolls have escaped southward to the Hud Horrn), and then the long process of mourning and wealth accumulation begins anew...Baro uses a few teleports the following morning to bring the survivors back to Floivin Keep. Some...well, not many are dismayed at the loss of Mudgol, but few seemed to even have known of Ox, the brother of Badger, from distant Nobbish. Our heroes begin to appraise their takings from the Score before planning the next operation...

PCs:  Badger, Ballyhoo, Baro, Gruulsh, Ox, Wendel (attended but not introduced yet)

Online Session 62 (7/22/14)

Here is the link to the transcript for online session 62. We're now messing around with the Roll20 web browser gaming interface, so I've saved this one as a Word .doc for the time being.

PC: Six Shite

Online Session 61 (7/15/14)

Here is the link to the transcript for online session 61. We're now messing around with the Roll20 web browser gaming interface, so I've saved this one as a Word .doc for the time being.

PC: Six Shite

Session 62 (7/11/14)

*Raining Half Blood*

Verne, Verget the 5th, 838 ID

Unable to finish removing the insidious damage done to Ox's person, the PCs decide to stay overnight at the Flabbergast Manor and renew their attack on the Score and the Blooded Lash at the Haunted Horrn the following morning. Gruulsh acquires some consumable magic items after the group pays Mistlethroe a donation for some of his healing magics. Mudgol scrys the plain robed man Gremek and discovers that the party's intrusion was indeed noticed, and that the enemy has made some plans to defend against the PCs' next strike.

Essel, Verget the 6th, 838 ID

The group decides to teleport back into the corridors beneath the Horrn, and pick up where they left off. Gruulsh scouts ahead, revealing a spike trap on one of the landings leading up into the cavern stronghold above, and notices that there are some shadowy bugbears guarding the ramp into the dwarves' enclosed village, and a coppery scaled dragon! They navigate through the trap and arrange themselves to assault the guards, but when they finally emerge they trigger another trap...as explosives are set off, and the Haunted Horrn collapses nearly on top of their heads, they must think fast to escape! Baro has a flashback to a time when a mountain pass was detonated and crushed many of the Toul Tabor reinforcements during the War for Floivin Province! The Score had apparently not run out of whatever devices were sold to them in Toul Tabor by that creepy wizard in Wattlewinch. Luckily, they are able to spell themselves away to Floivin Keep just in time while the cavern fell around them, destroying the ruins and possibly the dungeon level beneath...

 
Ivric, Verget the 7th, 838 ID

Once back at the Keep, the PCs decide they will need to refresh and renew their attack once again, and so this time they plan to appear right in the midst of the Blooded Lash enemies and wreak some havok, while Baro and Badger teleport to a safe ranged vantage point...as if there is going to be a safe, ranged vantage point. They scry the location of Warlord Ultroon, and decide to center the attack there. There is some hesitation, and Ballyhoo tries to purchase a teleport off Teven to spare the group a spell slot, but ultimately they do it themselves. Not before Mudgol receives a magical taunt from his Score counterpart, and finally receives confirmation that 'if you stare into the abyss long enough, it will stare back'. Having had enough, the PCs, primed for battle, launch themselves into full on battle, six men against the Blooded Lash's elite warriors and their Score benefactors.

The main group appears right around Ultroon's scryed location, and a devastating melee begins. The dragon they saw earlier seems to have been another mysterious illusion, but the bugbear and goblin troops the PCs face seem more hardened and dangerous than most they've dealt with before; and on top of that they have perhaps the strongest chief of all the Floivin Province tribes, who dishes out large amounts of damage to Gruulsh right away to make a point. However, the PCs also make some blows, with both Ox and Gruulsh cleaving and slaying large numbers of the tribal warriors in the first round of actual confrontation! Mudgol uses his overland flight to escape the melee, but realizes he is not alone up in the air when he is attacked by an invisible hippogriff rider! Baro and Badger arrive and acquire a vantage point to rain down destruction, but the Red Wizard Melek Tha of the Score decides to harass them with Evard's Black Tentacles, which briefly trap Baro until he can use his other teleport to move.

Ballyhoo manages to dimension door Ox and Gruulsh out of the eye of a major brawl to surround the enemy cleric Gremek, who is then forced to withdraw defensively and not utter a spell. And then the stakes are raised when Mudgol casts reverse gravity on roughly half the enemy force, including their bugbear and troll leaders, changing the tide of the battle?!? Not for long...as the heroic half-orc diviner is taken down by a lethal combination of attacks...a thrown javelin, an imp familiar, and the telling blow...a phantasmal killer shaped like some horrific woman, presumably created by Parodee, the Score illusionist who is providing air support. Mudgol tries to resist but his mediocre saving throws seal his doom, and not only does the spell stop his heart with fear, but he then plummets the 210' to the battle below...the rest of the party screams and renews its attack, but now some of the enemies with flight options have adjusted themselves and prepare another counter. Badger and Baro send lethal projectiles (arrows and chain lightning) at the Red Wizard, wounding but not finishing him, and the cleric Gremek decides to respond with a flame strike on the Nobbish archer, who is then sent into unconsciousness. Gruulsh and Ox manage to finish off the ground troops nearby with the support of Lord Ballyhoo, but things look grim as they might be forced to face the air superiority of the three Score casters...and who knows if Ultroon might survive the reverse gravity once it ends?

Things seem dire for our heroes...again.

PCs: Badger, Ballyhoo, Baro, Gruulsh, Mudgol, Ox

NPCs

Blukk (troll male): A gnarled old, grey-skinned giant with a stinking, greased mane who seems to hold some officer status over the trolls that serve the Blooded Lash. Fights with a great axe up close, but seems more effective at range, sending nasty, large javelins at foes (including at least one with magical capabilities).


Captain Frackas (goblin male): A backstabbing goblinoid scoundrel who also serves as that races' superior officer within the Blooded Lash. He is the fanciest dressed of the tribe, with fine leather armor adorned in narrow, colorful cloth bands, and flits through the battlefield weaving and poking and taking advantage of his peers' stronger fighting techniques.

Warlord Ultroon (bugbear male): A large, fearsome bugbear chief who lords over the Blooded Lash tribe, covered in slash and scar marks and armor bristling with spikes and spines. He fights with an unusual arcane greatsword made of razor edged stone, and seems capable of meting out a level of single-minded pain which rivals the half-orc Ox!

Session 61 (6/6/14)

Varony, Verget the 4th, 838 ID

Before the night is out, the PCs decide to teleport a scouting group to the mines beneath the Hud Horrn and scope out the situation there with the Blooded Lash occupants. They find that the place is relatively empty, so Mudgol uses a clairvoyance to check the walled town above. Unfortunately, it's a little too dark to make out exact details, but there are easily several dozen guards including trolls, bugbears and goblins, not to mention the hippogryph aerial vanguards. Back in Floivin Keep, the brothers Ox and Badger head to the Seven Floods Inn with Lord Ballyhoo, since it has now once again opens its doors to the public after the 'King is Kind' scare. They are let in with some suspicion by Brand the server, and the bard decides to perform some tunes, while Ox tries his hand at dancing and Badger buys whatever expensive booze the Inn still stocks (the nobility purchased most of its during the epidemic).

The scouting party returns to the Floivin Penitentiary, from which they are currently operating in the Keep. Ox, Badger and Ballyhoo retire to their the minstrel's nearly permanent rooms at the Inn.

Verne, Verget the 5th, 838 ID

After getting breakfast at the Seven Floods, the PCs pay a brief visit to the Cathedral of Blades, Ballyhoo wanting to 'thank' Bishop Conniff for curing him during the outbreak. While there, Badger tries his hand at a Bally-ism and cries wolf about some damage that he'd very much like a female acolyte to 'attend to', but he is caught in the act by Conniff, who casts a hold person on the archer and then once again exiles them from the church. They meet with the rest of the PCs at the penitentiary and determine that it's time to take on the Blooded Lash and their Score affiliates before they can make further progress on their primary mission to retrieve the Axe of Dwarven Lords. Once more, teleportation is used to transport the party in its entirety to the mines beneath Hud Horrn, and then the PCs try and recall what lore they can of the place. There is supposedly a hidden treasure of a Mad Myko somewhere in the tunnels, but none of the current party remembers precisely how to traverse the underground passage from the Hud Horrn towards the Haunted Horrn...

They discover a trapped, rubble strewn passage in which Mudgol's familiar the Professor is nearly killed, and eventually an almost infinite, 5-hour long side trek which takes them out of the mines to the west slopes of the Vernal Wall, where they can see such regions as the Rat Strand, Fox Knolls and Castle Roy off in the distance. Through his spyglass, Baro spies a group of refugees rowing and poling down the Midge Creek towards the independent dwarven stronghold, and he thinks he recognizes the craft as belonging to the village of Tarndim. The PCs decide to turn around and head all the way back, and on the way encounter a sniveling goblin named Shnoggo, who is secreting a stash of fat rats he likes to take for meals in the area. He is Blooded Lash, so the PCs press him for information, with Ballyhoo charming the creature and offering him gold for his assistance. Sadly, they couldn't get much from the pathetic thing, and Badger decides to put an arrow through its face, ending the goblin's potential usefulness...

Eventually, they find the tunnel that leads Northwest towards the Haunted Horrn, and come across the old rickety bridge crossing a subterranean chasm where the PCs once fled from the dwarf barbarian Dondrys Buld of the Score. Pressing on further, they come across a pair of troll sentries guarding the depths, but when they charge them to attack, they discover they are mere illusions, which set off a pair of massive, painful ringing alarms that seem to resonate all the way towards the Haunted Horrn! They discuss fleeing the caverns and taking another approach, now that their vector has likely been discovered by the Blooded Lash and the Score, but instead they press forward, seeking to combat anything that arrives to stop them. At long last, they arrive at a trapped steel portcullis which shocks Ox...beyond that, a chamber full of stone sarcophagi which apparently must have belonged to the dwarves...

After somehow managing to breach the gate into the room, it turns out the tombs are occupied not by dwarves, but by undead, mummified bugbear ancestors of the Blooded Lash! A grueling contest breaks out, with the PCs victorious, but Ballyhoo and Ox are infected and they must use their remove curse scrolls to free them, only the affliction is so strong that one of the scrolls doesn't even work! The PCs thus teleport to Flabbergast Manor where, after several attempts, Schnoo is finally able to destroy the curse on Ox, but not before he's taken hideous damage to his health and...already lacking charisma...

PCs: Badger, Ballyhoo, Baro, Gruulsh, Mudgol, Ox

NPCs:

Shnoggo (goblin male): A filthy, nervous, pathetic goblinoid who was encountered by the PCs as they were exploring the old mining tunnels beneath the Hud Horrn. Claims he is often bullied by the other Blooded Lash members, so sought to escape and devour his rat prey hours west of his station. Lord Ballyhoo charmed the creature to use him for information, but soon after Badger put an arrow through his face. The bard left him with gold coins in his eyes.