The Valley #20-21
Well unfortunately Mike has had to leave the group due to family and work. He may be able to show up one or two more times before his job takes him somewhere else.
So we must recruit one to two more players as right now it’s just Scott, Aaron, Justin, and me (Dale is on medical hiatus). While I could allow the players an opportunity to run a second PC, 4E requires a bit more attention from player than previous incarnations of the game, so I’d rather just scale back modules.
So if you’re a sane and polite person who can play D&D 4E on Friday evenings, send me an e-mail.
Our cast for Sessions 20 & 21:
Admon (Scott); level 9 human war wizard
Duncan (Justin); level 9 Silverhome dwarven cleric of Moradin
Edward (Aaron); level 9 human paladin of Brekaneth
We last stopped with the party having failed in taking out Stefforri/Niyah.
The disappointed but understanding silver dragons (Polaris and Ajell) flew the party back to town where they were greeted with some fanfare and questions of what feats of bravery they performed with the dragons.
Eventually the PC’s return to their prospective homes and rest to prepare for the fun the next day may bring them.
The next morning Edward is questioned by Father Jason about what happened, so Edward repeats the same information he told Girvan Torl which Torl was supposed to relay to Father Jason but didn’t.
But Torl has not been seen since the fight in the market with Stefforri.
About that same time, Duncan was awoken by an angry Mayor Ryan, demanding to know where Niyah went.
When Duncan fills the mayor in on everything that has occurred, and points out to the mayor all of the odd things he’s done while under her control, the mayor immediately decides to set things right.
He thanks Duncan for being a good friend and asks Duncan to be his right hand man (dwarf) when it comes to spinning all that has happened to him into something that will make him look better to the public. Duncan takes on that task, and soon his days are filled with questions and advice for the mayor while the mayor throws himself into his work to both fix what has happened and to avoid dealing with his wrecked personal life.
Admon’s family barely notices that he was missing. Their heads are full of business and he’s always going out on some adventure anyway.
A day or two later while Edward is tracking down the missing elder paladin Girvan Torl, he is attacked by a dwarf assassin (who had no real chance of winning, but did more damage than I expected, bloodying Edward easily).
The dwarf is still no match for the paladin of Brekaneth and is shortly subdued by the paladin, who then gets some backup from the city guard.
They all head to the nearest guard tower to interrogate the dwarf, but the he’s not talking and he makes it clear that he won’t talk unless he’s let go. He also knows the paladin won’t kill him, and he’ll be out of any prison that the town puts him in before the night is over.
Edward reluctantly agrees, and the guards have to let the dwarf go as he’s only attacked Edward.
He says that a dwarf follower of Brekaneth put a 1000gp bounty on Edward’s head.
It doesn’t take much to research that this dwarf is Grandinack; a non-native of the Valley who rents a space in the Ironmonger housing area (rental areas cut out of the cliff side), and is very aggressive, even for a warmonger follower of Brekaneth.
While doing his information seeking for Grandinack he is also asked to find Girvan Torl. Naturally Edward believes Grandinack may have something to with Torl’s disappearance.
Edward grabs the few adventuring friends of his that are available and they head to Ironmonger territory.
At first they are greeted with interest as many of the dwarves try to sell them one thing or another, but once it is determined that the party is not here to shop the happy attitudes turn sour, especially towards Duncan.
Soon enough they find a simple door with the holy symbol of Brekaneth painted on it.
They knock and the door is opened by a dwarven worshipper of Brekaneth.
He rudely asks “What do you want?”
Edward says, “We’re looking for Girvan Torl.”
The dwarf slams the door shut saying, “Never heard of him!”
“Then we’re looking for Grandinack”
“He has no interest in seeing you”
They knock again and wait but hear nothing; not even the sounds of someone moving around on the other side of the door.
So they open the unlocked door and find an empty chapel, no dwarf. There are just a few benches and a statues of a sword and shield, with the sword prominently displayed (indicating that this is a militant group of followers of Brekaneth).
Looking around they find a secret door that leads to a passageway with several alcoves but no obvious door out, but each alcove has a lever.
As expected, they pull a lever and something bad happens. First it’s a dire stirge, then a gelatinous cube, then fire is blasted at them, and so on.
Two particular levers are need to trigger a door appearing, which has a battle-ready Grandinack, half a dozen of his followers, and a Galeb Duhr he had time to summon since the party took a short rest.
The fight went pretty much as I had expected with the dwarf followers being mostly fodder and the Galeb Duhr doing a nice job of pounding Admon and Duncan while Edward was busy with Grandinack and his buddies.
The party started with the idea of capturing Grandinack, but decided against it (probably because they broke into his home…).
The group returns to their respective home to begin the fun again the next day.
Session #21
The next morning Edward is ordered, not asked, to find Girvan Torl by Father Adrek.
Edward has been questioned often about where the elder paladin has been, and in the hopes to build the pedestal high, he tells people that Torl must be off doing something heroic. That way, when Torl returns, unless he’s done something truly amazing, it will be a let down.
So the three adventurers regroup and go about the city looking for the missing paladin.
The mayor has not seen him, and he is deeply concerned because he and Torl have been friends for quite a long time.
They find Torl’s parents’ house and ask them if they’ve seen anything. They are not remotely polite to Edward and refer to him as a “fallen paladin” in reference to some issues Edward’s grandfather had when he was the elder paladin. In any case, they know nothing of his disappearance.
When they head to the elven areas to talk to Thlyria Isara, they hear sounds of metal clashing and yells of battle.
A few elves run past them and inform them that a green dragon has found Ivellios’s Shame (the name for the elven tomb that’s been having undead containment issues) and it seeks to break into the place to take the place as his lair and control the undead as his servants.
Given that an adult green dragon is a level 12 solo and the party is only 3 level 9 PC’s, I gave them each a simple eladrin warrior to control (level 9, with minor special abilities like fey step and crits on a 19) (I also cut the dragon’s XP in half – because elves need XP shares too).
Other than taking a bit longer than I expected it would take, the fight went as I expected it to.
The eladrin offered consistent, but low, damage while the party was appropriately challenged on all sides.
When the dragon dropped everyone got to work putting out the several small fires that Admon had started with many fire spells.
After the party had rested up they noticed that dark energies were escaping from the prison and were entering the corpse of the dragon. That’s when the inanimate gargoyles suddenly animated and the dragon rose again as a winged putrescent undead dragon, with even more evil and malice than before.
Reusing monsters is not something new to me. One time previously in the Valley, in one of Justin’s first D&D sessions (3E), the party rolled a random encounter, so I threw a wyvern at them. It was a tough fight and the party won, but Justin’s fighter PC dropped.
So the party rested as that fight took a lot out of them. During the rest I had them roll another random encounter check (1 on a 1d6=random encounter), and they had another fight on their hands; this time against a zombie wyvern. They had a tough fight and fewer resources, but they won, and Justin’s fighter PC dropped again.
So they rested…and rolled another random encounter. This time the bones of the wyvern burst free of the flesh and attacked the party. Justin’s PC did not drop that time.
After that they destroyed every last bit wyvern before resting. Even then they were afraid the wyvern’s ghost would show up. But alas no, they did roll another random encounter and rested just fine.
Anyway, the two gargoyles and the dragon attacked the party (the eladrin warriors were busy dealing with other risen elven soldiers this time around).
The dragon had some interesting attacks, so the party bashed it severely, but that left the gargoyles opportunities to attack the party’s weak points (like an undefended wizard).
So the party stopped beating on the dragon to take out the gargoyles. This was funny to the DM because the dragon only had 4 hp remaining and he was given at least 3 additional rounds to use his special attacks on the party.
They made sure to burn the dragon corpse when it died (again).
Thlyria showed up and saw the fading power of the prison. With much fear she asked if the party had found anything to restore the prison. The party had nothing other than needing a special kind of silver.
They could hear ghostly voices talking from inside.
“Are we free?”
“Yes sister, we’re free.”
“I don’t think so”, says Kergan.
He’s holding the Vial of Purity.
Next session – a Temporary Solution
So we must recruit one to two more players as right now it’s just Scott, Aaron, Justin, and me (Dale is on medical hiatus). While I could allow the players an opportunity to run a second PC, 4E requires a bit more attention from player than previous incarnations of the game, so I’d rather just scale back modules.
So if you’re a sane and polite person who can play D&D 4E on Friday evenings, send me an e-mail.
Our cast for Sessions 20 & 21:
Admon (Scott); level 9 human war wizard
Duncan (Justin); level 9 Silverhome dwarven cleric of Moradin
Edward (Aaron); level 9 human paladin of Brekaneth
We last stopped with the party having failed in taking out Stefforri/Niyah.
The disappointed but understanding silver dragons (Polaris and Ajell) flew the party back to town where they were greeted with some fanfare and questions of what feats of bravery they performed with the dragons.
Eventually the PC’s return to their prospective homes and rest to prepare for the fun the next day may bring them.
The next morning Edward is questioned by Father Jason about what happened, so Edward repeats the same information he told Girvan Torl which Torl was supposed to relay to Father Jason but didn’t.
But Torl has not been seen since the fight in the market with Stefforri.
About that same time, Duncan was awoken by an angry Mayor Ryan, demanding to know where Niyah went.
When Duncan fills the mayor in on everything that has occurred, and points out to the mayor all of the odd things he’s done while under her control, the mayor immediately decides to set things right.
He thanks Duncan for being a good friend and asks Duncan to be his right hand man (dwarf) when it comes to spinning all that has happened to him into something that will make him look better to the public. Duncan takes on that task, and soon his days are filled with questions and advice for the mayor while the mayor throws himself into his work to both fix what has happened and to avoid dealing with his wrecked personal life.
Admon’s family barely notices that he was missing. Their heads are full of business and he’s always going out on some adventure anyway.
A day or two later while Edward is tracking down the missing elder paladin Girvan Torl, he is attacked by a dwarf assassin (who had no real chance of winning, but did more damage than I expected, bloodying Edward easily).
The dwarf is still no match for the paladin of Brekaneth and is shortly subdued by the paladin, who then gets some backup from the city guard.
They all head to the nearest guard tower to interrogate the dwarf, but the he’s not talking and he makes it clear that he won’t talk unless he’s let go. He also knows the paladin won’t kill him, and he’ll be out of any prison that the town puts him in before the night is over.
Edward reluctantly agrees, and the guards have to let the dwarf go as he’s only attacked Edward.
He says that a dwarf follower of Brekaneth put a 1000gp bounty on Edward’s head.
It doesn’t take much to research that this dwarf is Grandinack; a non-native of the Valley who rents a space in the Ironmonger housing area (rental areas cut out of the cliff side), and is very aggressive, even for a warmonger follower of Brekaneth.
While doing his information seeking for Grandinack he is also asked to find Girvan Torl. Naturally Edward believes Grandinack may have something to with Torl’s disappearance.
Edward grabs the few adventuring friends of his that are available and they head to Ironmonger territory.
At first they are greeted with interest as many of the dwarves try to sell them one thing or another, but once it is determined that the party is not here to shop the happy attitudes turn sour, especially towards Duncan.
Soon enough they find a simple door with the holy symbol of Brekaneth painted on it.
They knock and the door is opened by a dwarven worshipper of Brekaneth.
He rudely asks “What do you want?”
Edward says, “We’re looking for Girvan Torl.”
The dwarf slams the door shut saying, “Never heard of him!”
“Then we’re looking for Grandinack”
“He has no interest in seeing you”
They knock again and wait but hear nothing; not even the sounds of someone moving around on the other side of the door.
So they open the unlocked door and find an empty chapel, no dwarf. There are just a few benches and a statues of a sword and shield, with the sword prominently displayed (indicating that this is a militant group of followers of Brekaneth).
Looking around they find a secret door that leads to a passageway with several alcoves but no obvious door out, but each alcove has a lever.
As expected, they pull a lever and something bad happens. First it’s a dire stirge, then a gelatinous cube, then fire is blasted at them, and so on.
Two particular levers are need to trigger a door appearing, which has a battle-ready Grandinack, half a dozen of his followers, and a Galeb Duhr he had time to summon since the party took a short rest.
The fight went pretty much as I had expected with the dwarf followers being mostly fodder and the Galeb Duhr doing a nice job of pounding Admon and Duncan while Edward was busy with Grandinack and his buddies.
The party started with the idea of capturing Grandinack, but decided against it (probably because they broke into his home…).
The group returns to their respective home to begin the fun again the next day.
Session #21
The next morning Edward is ordered, not asked, to find Girvan Torl by Father Adrek.
Edward has been questioned often about where the elder paladin has been, and in the hopes to build the pedestal high, he tells people that Torl must be off doing something heroic. That way, when Torl returns, unless he’s done something truly amazing, it will be a let down.
So the three adventurers regroup and go about the city looking for the missing paladin.
The mayor has not seen him, and he is deeply concerned because he and Torl have been friends for quite a long time.
They find Torl’s parents’ house and ask them if they’ve seen anything. They are not remotely polite to Edward and refer to him as a “fallen paladin” in reference to some issues Edward’s grandfather had when he was the elder paladin. In any case, they know nothing of his disappearance.
When they head to the elven areas to talk to Thlyria Isara, they hear sounds of metal clashing and yells of battle.
A few elves run past them and inform them that a green dragon has found Ivellios’s Shame (the name for the elven tomb that’s been having undead containment issues) and it seeks to break into the place to take the place as his lair and control the undead as his servants.
Given that an adult green dragon is a level 12 solo and the party is only 3 level 9 PC’s, I gave them each a simple eladrin warrior to control (level 9, with minor special abilities like fey step and crits on a 19) (I also cut the dragon’s XP in half – because elves need XP shares too).
Other than taking a bit longer than I expected it would take, the fight went as I expected it to.
The eladrin offered consistent, but low, damage while the party was appropriately challenged on all sides.
When the dragon dropped everyone got to work putting out the several small fires that Admon had started with many fire spells.
After the party had rested up they noticed that dark energies were escaping from the prison and were entering the corpse of the dragon. That’s when the inanimate gargoyles suddenly animated and the dragon rose again as a winged putrescent undead dragon, with even more evil and malice than before.
Reusing monsters is not something new to me. One time previously in the Valley, in one of Justin’s first D&D sessions (3E), the party rolled a random encounter, so I threw a wyvern at them. It was a tough fight and the party won, but Justin’s fighter PC dropped.
So the party rested as that fight took a lot out of them. During the rest I had them roll another random encounter check (1 on a 1d6=random encounter), and they had another fight on their hands; this time against a zombie wyvern. They had a tough fight and fewer resources, but they won, and Justin’s fighter PC dropped again.
So they rested…and rolled another random encounter. This time the bones of the wyvern burst free of the flesh and attacked the party. Justin’s PC did not drop that time.
After that they destroyed every last bit wyvern before resting. Even then they were afraid the wyvern’s ghost would show up. But alas no, they did roll another random encounter and rested just fine.
Anyway, the two gargoyles and the dragon attacked the party (the eladrin warriors were busy dealing with other risen elven soldiers this time around).
The dragon had some interesting attacks, so the party bashed it severely, but that left the gargoyles opportunities to attack the party’s weak points (like an undefended wizard).
So the party stopped beating on the dragon to take out the gargoyles. This was funny to the DM because the dragon only had 4 hp remaining and he was given at least 3 additional rounds to use his special attacks on the party.
They made sure to burn the dragon corpse when it died (again).
Thlyria showed up and saw the fading power of the prison. With much fear she asked if the party had found anything to restore the prison. The party had nothing other than needing a special kind of silver.
They could hear ghostly voices talking from inside.
“Are we free?”
“Yes sister, we’re free.”
“I don’t think so”, says Kergan.
He’s holding the Vial of Purity.
Next session – a Temporary Solution
posted by BlueBlackRed at 12:04 PM
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