Date:
Weather:
Player Characters:
Garreth, Half-Orc Fighter, 472 points
Ibizaber (Demented Avenger), Human Thief, 472 points
Polly (Kalzazz), Wood Elf Archer, 466 points
Seépravir (Archon Shiva), High Elf Wizard, 477 points
Significant NPCs:
Elias, Wood Elf Cleric (player not present)
Lance Corporal Wolfrik, Possessed Duergar Guard
Hutgreth, Charmed Duergar Watch Captain
Zombie Ettin
Stone Golem
Lots of Duergar Guards
Duergar Cleric
We resumed in mid-battle, inside the Duergar fortress of Narborg. There was one Duergar guard in the room with most of the PCs, and two more across the hall in the room with Seépravir in the Invisible, Possessed body of Wolfrik.
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| Start of the Session |
Things went poorly for the outnumbered guard, wedged into an arrow slit. Garreth used Rapier Wit to insult his beard, stunning him, then chopped off an arm, then killed him. Meanwhile Polly ran south, then west underneath the hallway to join Seépravir in the other room. Seépravir tried pickpocketing the duergar guards' crossbow bolts, but only got a few of them, and was noticed. (Neither she nor Wolfrik actually had the Pickpocket skill.) One guard heard exactly where she was, and tried shooting her at point blank range, but she parried his crossbow. The other guard followed his buddy's lead and shot where the invisible opponent appeared to be, but she Blinked away.
Polly ran into the room with the two remaining duergar, shot both of them, and stunned both of them. Then she shot one of the stunned ones again and killed him. A second later, she shot the just-unstunned one, knocking him out. Garreth arrived right behind her, but found no enemies left standing in that room. Polly went to the north end of the room and peered through some arrow slits. She noticed a duergar facing away from her, guarding a doorway with his mace. She shot him in the head until he fell down unconscious, then shot him in the head again to make sure.
Elias noticed a lewd statue of a female duergar that he thought was offensive to his goddess Elyr, and spent a couple of turns smashing it. Sadly, there was no treasure inside. Zaber searched a door that he'd been told was trapped for traps, found the trap, and disabled the trap. Then he listened at the door, hearing nothing. Then he picked the lock and found a tiny room containing another statue of the Duergar god with tentacles for a beard. He played with the statue a while, found nothing interesting, opened another door, and found another statue of the same god, and a barrel of crossbow bolts. Meanwhile, Elias found and smashed another offensive statue.
With the local population of enemies depleted, everyone stopped for rest and healing. Elias cast Bless on Zaber, and also some of Stop Bleeding and Major Healing spells on Garreth and Wolfrik. Wolfrik, who'd been running around unarmored (because the PCs had looted and sold his scale armor before Seépravir came back and Possessed him) then took some scale armor and a large shield from one of the dead guards.
With everyone healed, Polly and Zaber explored the area a bit. They looked through more arrow slits to the north, and found an ettin zombie waiting to ambush anyone would came through a doorway. She shot it in one of its four eyes, and it did enough damage to destroy it.
The group decided to head east. Hutgreth asked Wolfrik if they should go west to the Thane instead, since Wolfrik had an important message to deliver. Zaber pointed out that they didn't want to lead the traitors to the Thane, and needed to kill more of them first. This made sense to Hutgreth (mostly because he was Charmed to do whatever Wolfrik wanted) so he led them to the east, unlocking a door for them. Zaber scouted ahead invisibly and reported a couple of duergar guards watching an intersection. Hutgreth offered to take them out, and charged. A quick three-way battle ensued, in which all three duergar died.
After Hutgreth's death, Zaber heard three loud crashes to the southwest. After some exploration he saw that the three portcullises to the south had been lowered, blocking escape to the causeway. The group chose to continue exploring to the east.
Zaber unlocked one door, beyond which was a minor armoury, with some spears and armor, and a desk with a log book on it. He flipped through the book and saw that it appeared to be logs of weaspons issued, returned, lost, and damaged. The group ignored it and kept exploring. Zaber opened another door, into a barracks with a bunch of bunks and chests but no enemies. He searched one chest and found some brass knuckles and a gem. He grabbed the loot but they kept going. Another door revealed a smaller barracks.
A door behind that led to a small library. The shelves contained several books (a quick check showed that most were about tactics), and one contract, between The Company of the Black Osprey and someone named Wolfrun. Polly was very excited, because they'd found an Important Quest Item. Garreth stuffed the contract and books into the magic backpack.
Polly found a corner of a room that looked Very Suspicious, and searched for secret doors, but failed to find any. (She rolled a 17.) She then asked Zaber to search there, and he found a secret door, leading back to the small room with the statue of the duergar god with tentacle beard.
The group continued exploring. Zaber listened at another door, and heard a sound like scraping stone behind it. Everyone formed up, then he opened the door. Inside were three duergar and a stone golem, in a strange room containing a pool of water with stones next to it, and some bars high above a spiked pit. The duergar and golem were not surprised, and a battle ensued. Polly shot one of the duergar guards in the head multiple times quickly, and he went down. The rest of the fight was not so easy. The other duergar and the golem were pretty good at defending themselves. Also, one of the duergar was a cleric, and cast Missile Shield on himself and his comrade. That kept Polly busy for a few turns, Mysteriously Missing, before she figured out what was going on and switched to her rapier. The stone golem had Parry Missile Weapon, and sometimes parried arrows with his feet. He also had a ton of DR and HP.
Eventually, numbers and superior skill (plus Luck, which saw a lot of use) prevailed. Four of the PCs surrounded the two duergar and the golem, while Seépravir used Grease spells to mess with the golem. The golem critically failed an attack with its huge maul, injuring its stone shoulder joint and reducing it to barehanded attacks. Garreth eventually crippled one of the golem's legs, which lowered its dodge to the point where he could pound it into smaller rocks. Meanwhile Polly stabbed the duergar a lot, while Elias bashed the duergar a lot, and Zaber grappled one of the duergar to make it easier for his allies to stab and bash. Eventually both duergar went down.
We stopped there for the evening, with the PCs temporarily victorious, but their path out of Narborg blocked.
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| End of the Session |
GM's Comments:
Hutgreth's fatal charge was GM fiat with no dice involved: I was running too many characters, and we were having many similar battles against doomed outnumbered duergar guards, so he won a battle and died in the process, to move things along.
The group is pretty sure the contract is the last of four items needed to satisfy Elweiss's quest. Which Garreth isn't in any hurry to finish because he doesn't want to return Elweiss's spear. So we'll see if they actually get around to finishing it anytime soon.
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