Playing catch up, I will try to summarise the two sessions as best I can. The party had a town adventure, then went out to investigate the lair of a criminal organisation. They ended up slaying a powerful monster and claiming a huge treasure trove.
Characters
Andros – Cleric 1
Davy – Fighter 1
Malik – Fighter 3
Vahan – Fighter 1
Retainers
(Andros)
Guludad – Magic user 1
Tully – Magic user 1
Hestia – Cleric 1
Kull – man-at-arms
(Davy)
Hodorun – Thief 1
Ciric – NH
(Malik)
Thalzir – Barbarian 2
Zi – Cleric 1
Glenn – Cleric 1
2 light foot pirates.
The town of Ronton-on-Fie had new visitors. A massive merchant caravan from the capital had come to the town, owing to the large quantities of treasure that had been sold there recently. The caravan contained around three hundred individuals, mainly guardsmen, and thirty wagons. Malik recognised the colours of the heraldry on display as belonging to House Drakos of the city state of Acron.
The party made use of these new merchants, selling the gems from their last expedition and buying armours, weapons, and other goods and sundries. Unfortunately, the huge boom in population for the lake side town meant that all the inns had increased their prices nearly one hundred fold. It now cost 10 gp per person for a bed for the night. Not wanting to waste their coin, the party opted to camp in one of the recently tilled fields beside the temple district.
Some figures approached the tent during the night. They were minstrels, and they seemed most upset. There were eleven of them, some had bloody mouths and swollen eyes. They told the party that they’d been paid to perform at a local bordello in the docklands. The security guard at this establishment, a chaotic dwarf named Girin, had mocked them, beaten them, and stollen their instruments. Without their instruments they would soon become beggars and wanderers. They pleaded for the party help them retrieve the instruments, and if they could, to wreak revenge on the bullying dwarf. For this the minstrels would hand over all their coins as reward.
After a little deliberation the party agreed.
“How hard can a single dwarf be?”
Thinking the better of taking their new cleric retainers to a house of disrepute they figured they would travel to the bordello with a reduced party. The remaining characters were left to get some shut eye.
Andros, Malik, Davy, Guludad, Tully, and Hodorun all went to the cat-house.
They found an old warehouse in the dockland district, it’s factory doors open wide. There was a crumpled man laid on the ground. They tried to rouse him, but he was unconscious with a bloody gash on his head.
Two soldiers came out of the factory doors and told the party that the place was best avoided. No fun to be had in there, they said.
In the party went. The factory doors led into a wooden hallway with a curtain pulled across a door. They pulled this aside and found a large saloon like room. There was a bar with an old mistress pouring beer. There were many empty tables, overlooked by a high up gangway, holding many bedroom doors. In the centre was a stage, where a poor girl cried and tried to sing. Before her, leaning in a chair, was a bulky dwarf who hurled bottles at the girl.
“Come on girl, you call this entertainment, sing damn it.” The dwarf yelled. A bottle smashed at her feet.
The party sat down and ordered some drinks. Andros the cleric took the time to scan the minds of those in the bar with his medallion of ESP. The old matron was simmering with hate for the dwarf, who was her slave master. The girl was terrified. Girin the dwarf was enjoying his sadistic cruelty.
The party struck up a little conversation with the matron, she warned them not to stay too long, for Girin was in a particularly bad mood. Davy enquired, “Surely this dwarf was ruining the business, how was it that he was allowed to do so?” The mistress said that he was very well connected, and tolerated by his bosses as a favourite.
Soon the dwarf came over to the party and began to intimidate them, asking if they enjoyed the show. The party did well to remain calm and not provoke him. Almost as a taunt, the dwarf then pulled out one of the stolen lutes, and began breaking strings whilst butchering a song.
Eventually things came to a head. As Andros confronted the dwarf, Tully pulled out a scroll of charm person and began to read from it. Girin had the initiative however, and he grabbed Andros and pushed a dagger against his throat.
“Finish casting that spell and I’ll cut his throat.” He barked.
Andros nodded to his retainer, “Do it!” He yelled. The spell was cast, and the words became sulphurous smoke coiling from the page. The Dwarves eyes glistened momentarily, but he swung his massive head and shrugged off the magic. The dagger was drawn across Andros’ throat. The rest of the party leaped on the dwarf to try and pull the dagger away, but he was immensely powerful and bulldozed through them. Andros fell to the ground with his throat opened, but still alive.
The party encircled him, but again, Girin was swift, he came at Malik with his dagger, which scraped off the human’s plate male. Tully then pulled out his scroll and cast charm person. This time the spell took.
“What are we doing?” Said the dwarf, his eyes suddenly full of golden light and confusion.
With things calmed down the party collected the instruments. The matron of the cathouse called to them. “You are making a terrible mistake, you should not mess with his ilk.” The party shrugged, the spell was cast, they had already committed to this course of action.
With Girin charmed they learned that he was connected with a shadowy organisation named ‘The Guild.’ He had messed up a mission for this institution, usually this would have meant death, but since he was a blood brother with the local guild leader, he was instead left to operate this bordello.
“The Guild are obsessed with finding six children who have tattoos on their backs. These tattoos are said to be a map to find the City of Splendours, a lost land said to be cobbled with gemstones. A fools errand if you ask me, our efforts should be more focussed on banditry, like the old days. See here …” Girin showed them a map, “our secret base where all the gold of our raids is kept. The Guild should once again cut the throats of travellers and fill our pockets with gold.”
The map showed a location twenty four miles to the north, a location known as The Manse of the Troll King, a cliffside castle of great antiquity. A place that can only be seen under the light of the full moon.
The party took the map.
Then Girin offered to take his new friends to meet the guild master. They accepted.
They walked across town to the fish market. In a back ally they found an battered cobbler shop. An old man answered the door, and when Girin explained he was taking his new friends inside a scrap ensued. The old man was knocked down, and his grey hair fell off. A wig! The man, suddenly lithe, dashed down into the cellar to raise an alarm.
The party quickly withdrew from the shop, leaving Girin behind, and went to their camp. They packed up their camp and rode north, for they knew one of the moons was full on the ‘morrow. Time to break into the Guilds hideout.
Riding fast along the rich grasslands, with the golden sun arising, they made good pace. On the way, into a new map hex, they saw a tall tower made mostly from iron. The tower was five levels tall, and powdery with rust. Atop the tower was a statue of a nun like figure. A saint of some kind.
On they rode, eventually coming to a gorge with a dried up river. This they followed for a full day. They made camp a little away from where the map said the castle was, and waited for the moon to rise.
With the rising of the two moons, one of the smoother cliff faces suddenly dissolved into a two towered gatehouse. The western tower had collapsed. The huge gate was carved in the shape of a troll’s face. They saw lights in the eastern tower, and several shadows within, passing before the arrow slits.
The party waited a little longer. Soon a few riders came to the keep, flashing a signal with their lantern. The doors were opened and the riders went inside.
At this point the party thought better of assaulting the castle, even though they knew many treasures were sure to be inside. They camped, and tried to sleep. All the party members had odd dreams of the nun like figure they’d seen atop the iron tower earlier that day.
Unfortunately a random encounter was rolled for that night. Four guards came out of the keep and began trailing the gorge on the look out for interlopers. The party launched a few arrows at them, one finding purchase. The guards closed their lantern and rushed back, towards the keep. Panicked that they would soon be swarmed with bandits, the party got atop their steeds and rushed south.
Unfortunately, as they passed the guardsmen, arrows were fired into the party’s rear, a footman was killed, Davy was hit brutally in the helmet and was knocked unconscious from the saddle. He was quickly picked up. Then the party had to ride past the castle proper. More arrows were loosed from the tower, one of which hit Vahan’s steed. The party made away, but soon the steed became weak and dropped dead.
“Poisoned arrows. Those swine.”
With day breaking again, the party decided they would breach the iron tower with the nun statue. They made good time as dawn arrived, reaching the tower at around eight in the morning.
They formed up a marching order thusly:
1st rank: Hodorun
2nd rank: Malik +Thalzir
3rd rank: Vahan +Davy + Cirin
4th rank: Glenn +Zi
The rest stayed with the horses on guard.
Entering the triangular tower, they saw a relief of a nun burning skeletons with a torch around the door. The front door has been smashed inwards. In the first room there was an altar made of steel with a sculpture of a torch. In the north there was a spiral staircase, atop this was a statue of the pointing nun. A voice boomed throughout the room, “Steel is stronger than Bone. Offer up thine.”
The party deliberated a little, then put some of their weapons upon the altar as tribute. A gong like sound fired off in the room. The party then proceeded to the next level.
The next room was triangular as well, and the floor was made of highly polished steel, polished into a mirror like surface. In the south was another staircase. Hodorun was ordered to run to the southern door. As he did so he slipped over, and had to crawl to the door. The party then, one by one, crawled across the slippery surface to the stairway.
The next level had a massive font in its centre, which was erupting with steam. The bellowing steam was being vacuumed up into two huge gargoyle’s mouths. The party took a long time deciding what to do here. They tried to throw some torches into the font to see if that would reduce the steam. Davy approached the steam to see if it was deadly, and deemed it would be, if one got too close. Eventually the party circled the room hugging the wall, and passed below one of the gargoyles. Then they were off onto the next floor.
The forth floor was square in shape. In the east there was a mosaic of the nun, she was reclining on a chais longe, her habit opened at the throat, revealing her sharply form, and she drank wine from a skull. In the east was a bronze statue of a laughing fat man in lotus position, a monkey atop his head. The cleric Zi recognised this as the laughing god. In the south there was a highly realistic stone statue of a warrior in a battle pose. This latter statue faced the spiral staircase in the centre of the room that went up.
The party took their time with this room, investigating the various statues. The stairwell in the centre stank to high heaven. The stone statue had no plinth and was eerily realistic. The bronze statue of the laughing god had a magical ring on one of its fingers, but the party would have to break the finger to get it off, and decided not to do this.
They went up to the final level. On the stairway up there were hundreds of gold coins strewn about, and an empty sack. At the top they saw a room filled with hanging rags, the stench here was unbelievably bad. There were even more gold coins on the floor, and a statue of a man laid down trying to cover his face.
A voice echoed out from inside the chamber. It proclaimed to be the goddess of the tower, cursed to be trapped here. When questioned why she couldn’t leave, she told out how an evil guardian kept her here. A massive four armed man with a bulls head. If they slew the guardian, she would be free and gift them all the gold they could see within. The party agreed, and marched through the hanging rags. Their visibility was incredibly poor. Their feet were marching through hundreds upon hundreds of gold coins. Eventually one of them stood atop a skull, cracking it in twine. Then, by the final door they saw a statue of a wizard screaming, and holding his face.
“Before you go into the next chamber, I have something to offer you, my heroes.” The woman called from behind them, she was laughing mockingly. The party turned, and saw a hooded women dressed in rags. She pulled down her hood and revealed her hideous face, wreathed with snakes.
Almost the entire party instantly turned to stone upon looking at her. All save Malik and Vahan. The woman laughed, and told them it had been a long while since someone had not succumbed to her visage, she would enjoy slaying them. She ducked behind the flowing rags that hung from the ceiling.
Malik threw oil, and missed. Vahan drew his cloak over his eyes and dashed towards her. His blade struck true and inflicted maximum damage. She screamed. She tried to lash Vahan with her snake hair, but missed. Then Malik, holding his hand mirror before his face, changed into battle. The two warriors both struck true, Vahan again hitting with max damage, but it was Malik with his magic sword that struck the killing blow. The Medusa screamed and fell onto her hoard of coins, withering into a crispy waif of snake skin. Victory!
The two warriors searched around a little, before sweeping up the huge hoard of gems and coins, finding a map also. The map lead to the Cave of Souls, many, many leagues to the east, where, in a secret cavern grotto, a statue of Apollo held two arrows that could slay any creature.
The next stairway led to the roof, which was pyramidal, and atop this was the statue of the nun like figure. Malik dared to look upon her, the statue turned to him, smiled. His Wisdom increased by one point. Vahan refused to look at the saint.
All the guarding characters helped Vahan and Malik to collect the masses of treasure, and they all rode back to Ronton-on-Fie to enjoy the splendours of their victory.
Dreadlord Games 