Thunderspire Labyrinth #4

I really need to update the links on my blog. For one I need to add Dale’s blog about his home made world:
http://worldoferrin.blogspot.com/

I like his world because it is an old world that has slowly evolved to meet Dale’s needs and he doesn’t run things the way I would. Visit it and give it a read.

If you’d like me to link to your site, let me know. I just ask for you to link this site in return.

Also, feel free to comment on blog entries. I like it when (non-malicious) comments are left.

Amazingly, I’ve recently had to turn away a couple of prospective players. That’s quite a turnaround from just a few months ago, or our post-WLD player collapse when half our group disappeared in a week.

But I don’t know. With our constant fluctuations on player attendance, maybe adding person #8 is needed.

On that thought, our lineup for this session:

Aaron, playing Valenae, the level 6 eladrin rogue

Mike, playing Ander, the level 5 elf cleric with some ranger multi-classing

Justin, playing Stout, the level 5 dwarf fighter

Brian, playing Hadarai, the level 4 eladrin wizard

Dale, playing Brom, the level 4 tiefling infernal warlock

We started the session with the party regrouped at Winterhaven and starting their 3 day trek back to Thunderspire Mountain.

Along the way they had a random encounter against some starving kruthiks (5 adults & 1 hivelord on the King’s Road map).

Note to all players: in 4E your abilities do not change in mid-combat. There’s no need to redo that map each and every action.

The combat was just another training exercise for the party, though the hivelord’s ability to double the damage of nearby kruthiks made the front liners a little nervous.

But soon enough they were back in the Seven Pillared Hall in Thunderspire Mountain, resuming where they left off.

(They had to dust off their notes to remind them of their current quests and goals within the mountain.)

Their current goal/quest was to follow a lead they found in the Bloodreaver’s hideout. It was a contract to the Bloodreavers from Murkelmor Grimmerzhul about selling slaves.

Now the group knew that there was a place in the Seven Pillared Hall called the Grimmerzhul Trading Post, which is run by duergar, and they killed two duergars in their big fight with the Bloodreavers.

But the party is quite afraid to anger the Mages of Saruun, who run the hall, and don’t want to start a fight within the hall. So they instead went about gathering some information from their two biggest sources within the hall – the halfling Rendill Halfmoon of the Halfmoon Inn and the drow Gendar of Gendar’s Curio’s and Relics.

Rendill told them that he noticed the Grimmerzhul’s buying a lot of food recently and had heard a rumor that the Grimmerzhul’s occupied a fortress somewhere in the mountain.

Gendar, talking only to Valenae and Brom, confirmed that there was indeed a fortress the Grimmerzhul’s occupied, and gave them the information for a favor – he wants a skull scepter he knows the Grimmerzhul’s have, but needs 300gp to hold as insurance until brought said scepter.

He gave them directions along the Road of Shadows from the Seven Pillared Hall to a place known as the Horned Hold, a set of three interconnected fortresses over a 300’ chasm.

The party discussed plans of attack; whether to sneak in or just charge in weapons and spells killing every duergar in sight.

Both of those plans were thrown over the cliff when they saw the only entrance to the hold, a set of portcullis being guarded by 5 orcs wielding crossbows and longspears.

They changed their tactics to Chewbacca-style trickery. Brom, who no one knows about, acted like he had captured Stout, and was hoping for a reward from the Grimmerzhuls, while everyone else hid a good distance away from the entrance.

After some role-playing and some excellent bluffing, the orcs fell for it and when they opened the portcullis they were rewarded with an axe to the face.

Stout charged into the room while Brom stayed back a blasted, while the rest of the party charged from their hiding place.

Orc after orc fell, but one of them managed to run away to the next door and shout out a warning before he was finally killed by Brom.

Since the party wouldn’t get to rest, we just kept the same initiative and kept on with the combat.

All 5 orcs were now dead but were being replaced by 2 more orcs, a pair of duergar scouts, and Urwol duergar’s “Master Smith”, who have had 1-2 rounds to prepare.

When Hadarai opened the door (I have no clue why the wizard opened the door, so don’t ask), he was greeted by a pair of orc berserkers who were happy to say hi and block up the passage so the scouts and Urwol could freely attack from range.

The scouts could turn invisible then come back with a sneak attack, while Urwol had several blasting spells he could throw at the front and rear of the party.

Once Hadarai got away, it wasn’t long before the orcs fell, and once the orcs fell, Urwol and a scout fell.

The other scout was able to get away and this time the party was in no condition to run after an invisible duergar to possibly start another combat.

“The word is out, Stout’s in the Hold” – said by Dale (I think), but it’s true. Those who took out the Bloodreavers are in the Horned Hold and that is concerning to the duergar.

The party took this time to rest and search for treasure.

Among the treasure was the scepter Gendar wants.

We stopped there for the evening.