Game Session Four

Session Four: Sunday, Feb 11, 2001

Link to Last Session:
Players map of Session Four:

The game opened on the morning of Earthday, Flocktime 27, 3080 YE. The adventurers were awakened from their beds at the Ol' Boar Inn by the sounds of the village children cheerfully shouting and playing below. Looking out their window, it seemed as if every child in Ruti was gathered outside. They were using sticks for swords and "attacking" the statue of the Dark Elf that they had brought out of the Sunless Citadel. The party decided to have a good breakfast and since they were all healed and provisioned up, to get an early start back to the dungeon.

Arriving at the dark ravine overlooking the entrance to the Citadel, they figured on going in and checking out some of the rooms they had to bypass before (especially now that they had people who could both speak *and* read Draconic), take out those pesky goblins, and find Meepo's dragon for him. Carefully climbing down the rope, alert for the presence of Dire Rats they entered the Citadel. They went to the kobold room where they first met Meepo, finding the room empty, they saw no sign of Meepo. The room looked unused and there was one door in it that they had not looked in before. Listening they heard some muffled noises on the other side. Moss politely knocked on the door (!) and it was open by some of the kobold guards. Looking inside the room they could see a small fire pit and several small woven hair rugs. The stench of unwashed bodies confined or too long in a small space assailed them. Asking them where Meepo was all they would say was they had to ask Yusdrayl. When asked if there was another way into the goblin areas they said yes, there was a front way, but you had to ask Yusdrayl.

So the party trooped down the corridor to the Hall of Dragons, the long shadowy corridor with the carved marble columns, where Yusdrayl has her throne. When they got there it was easy to see what had happened to poor Meepo. The little kobold's body was tied to one of the columns and badly bruised and cut up, it looks like the poor little Meepo had been tortured to death. Mentioning this to Yusdrayl, she said that was the price of failure that Meepo paid for not recovering the clan's dragon . The characters asked again about the key clutched in the carved dragon's mouth on the old altar behind her throne. Yusdrayl offered one again to sell it for 200 GP. They asked about returning the dragon and Yusdrayl said they would reward the characters with 200 GP. The players are starting to wonder if Yusdrayl knows what 200 GP even is.

They asked if there was another entrance to the goblin areas and Yusdrayl stated that there was a front way in, but that the kobolds had "trapped it good" and if the adventurers went in that way they wouldn't be able to come back out. Deciding that they would prefer a clear line of retreat, based upon their past forays into goblin territory, they decided to return to the "back way in" and more thoroughly check out the areas they had to bypass before.

The first stop was at the dried up fountains and empty rooms where they had been nearly decimated by Dire Rats earlier. Moss rechecked the little side rooms to make sure they didn't leave any booty behind from last time. The first fountain was in a room with another of the carved stone doors. They looked at the fountain and did a detect magic on it and it radiated magic. Corian looked at the inscription and noticed that it said in Draconic Nainarya (translation: Let there be fire). Stopping at that they checked out the stone door on the western wall. The relief carved door radiated an aura of coldness when they got close to it. The inscription in Draconic above the door read Tana Aman Heka Men (translation: Channel good, open the way). Not understanding what it meant they prepared to figure out another way in. Cebo, using his new lockpicks, tried to find someway to open the door. As he did so a huge scythe blade came slashing down, just missing him. With that trap disabled now, they looked for a way to open the door. Finding no way to open it, they got out their hammers and chisels and started to pound away at the door. Eventually they managed to break the door down.

Looking into the dusty chamber they saw five dust covered sarcophagi against the wall of this obvious sanctuary. Each of the stone sarcophagi was carved in the likeness of Dark Elves bearing noble visages and wearing ceremonial robes. At the back of the room was a obsidian altar in the center of the west wall with a single candle burning. The entire altar was carved with dragons. On the altar, in addition to the candle they could make out two other items, a small glass whistle and a potion flask.

Realizing that something bad would happen for sure in this room, they debated how to handle it. They really wanted the items on the altar. Flairian decided that the whistle was light enough he could retrieve it using a mage hand spell. So Flairian stepped into the room in order to get within range, and the rest arrayed themselves for battle with missile weapons in the room with the dried fountain. As Flairian spoke his spell and lifted the whistle all the sarcophagi open and he found himself surrounded by five skeletons. In a fierce battle Flairian found himself struck repeatedly by the claws of the skeletons as his party members struggled to switch weapons. Within seconds he was down on the ground unconscious and the skeletons started out of the room to the others!

The remaining party members formed a "kill alley" and let the first couple skeletons pass, then they used their melee weapons to bash them into pieces. Quickly forcing two potions of cure light wounds down Flairian brought him almost back to full health. Searching the room they found the whistle and the flask, and after careful searching, a hidden drawer in the altar which contained a small chest with six gems carved into the likeness of dragons. The small glass whistle was taken by Flairian, Roth took the everburning candle, Moss claimed the small chest and gems, and the flask went into the group booty. Looking again at the dried up fountain, they spoke aloud the inscription on the base; Nainarya (Let there be fire). As they did reddish drops of liquid began to form at the spout, which was a dragon's mouth. As it pooled in the basin, Cebo sopped up as much as he could and filled up one of the empty potion vials they had.

The next stop was to the end of the corridor to the room with the two pit traps that were blocked open with spikes. In this room also was a second dried up fountain. This is where they saw tracks in their previous journey down here. Four sets of human sized prints going to the door in the room and three sets going back. Checking out the old fountain along the northern wall they had Flairian look at the Draconic inscriptions along it's base. He told them they said Naihuine ("Let there be Death"). Not being particularly sure about what the meaning of the inscription was, everyone backed out of the room except for the barbarian Roth. He stepped up to the fountain and uttered the word that was carved on the base of the fountain, Naihune. As he did a poisonous mist sprayed out dousing him with a stinging poison. Luckily he was unaffected by the mist.

Turning their attention to the door in the room, the party listened carefully and heard no sound what so ever from inside the room. Cebo and Roth elected to go point into the room with the rest of the party backing them up. Opening the door they were greeted by the stench of rotting meat, rising from the much-chewed carcasses of several normal cave rats, other small vermin, and the some suspiciously humanoid-looking bodies. The bodies were lying on the floor in the filth along with old bones, hair, and bits of fur that all combined to make a particularly large and foul nest. Cebo could see that the northern section of the wall was smashed, opening unto the rubble-strewn darkness that was the outside of the Citadel.

Carefully they stepped into the room. As they entered past the doorway they were surprised by three Dire Rats that were laying in wait on either side of the door. Quickly they attacked and killed the three rats with Cebo taking only minor damage from rat bites. Just as they were finishing off the rats a huge bloated Dire Rat rushed from a hidden pit and savagely attacked Cebo. This rat was twice the size of a "normal" Dire Rat, easily six feet in length. After a quick combat, with the other party members helping with missile fire and magic missiles from Corian, the giant rat was finally dead. The party now started to poke through the noxious trash looking for loot.

After poking through the refuse of the rats nest the group found quite a stash of loot. Adding it all up they found 300 SP, 68 GP, 3 gems. They also searched the dead, decaying, rat-eaten bodies in the room. Only the body of what was once a human had any goods left. On him they found 5 daggers, studded leather armor, shortbow, a sack of supplies, aquiver with 6 arrows, two potion vials (later identified as cure light wounds), and a pouch with 6 GP. They also found a gold ring on his finger, the ring was engraved with the name Karakas (in Common). Remembering that this was the name of the ranger that accompanied the Hucrele children down into the Sunless Citadel.

After this fight they figured they needed to rest, regain spells and get prepared for their assault on the goblins. They went back to the room where they fought the Dragonpriest and spent the night behind the secret doors.

Now the party turned their attention once again to the task of getting past the goblin guards and their defenses that have defeated them twice before. Quietly going to the room outside the hall filled with caltrops, Cebo managed to disable the bell that had announced their arrival the previous times. Lining up along the wall the plan was going to be sending Roth down the hallway to jump the wall and engage the goblins. The rest of the party would fire missile weapons, the hope was to surprise the goblins so they could not warn the rest. The plan unlike so many others work perfectly, Roth quickly went down the corridor, avoiding the caltrops and jumping the low wall. Corian managed to kill one goblin with a single magic missile spell. The archers were pretty ineffective because of the cover provided by the low wall, but Roth didn't need much help as he killed his foe with the first stroke.

As the rest of the party re-grouped to prepare for the assault on the goblins in the practice range, which was the next room, Moss went and took down the door to the room. Flairian scouted out to make sure that they knew where the goblins in the practice range were and how many there was. Figuring on doing the same plan, only having everyone rush down and jumping the wall, the party lined up in the corridor. Getting surprise on the goblins, the adventurers quickly moved down the room to the low wall at the end. Here is where it started to go wrong, as everybody managed to not make it over the wall. Luckily, by the next round, the party along with Corian's magic missiles, had managed to kill three of the goblins and subdue and tie up the fourth. All without managing to alert any other goblins. After the poor, tied up goblin, regained consciousness they grilled him for information. They learned that the goblin leader was called Durnn and that he was the chief of the Durbuluk tribe. And they learned that the tribe served someone called the "Outcast" who lived below, the goblin prisoner said that the dragon was in the treasure room to the east and that there was no more traps between there and here. Figuring they had learned enough the ranger Moss dispatched the goblin while the rest of the party investigated the doors leading off from the practice range.

One door they knew led to a storage room and they discovered the other was the goblin dungeon. Opening the locked wooden door they discovered a long, low dungeon. There was three kobolds tied with crude ropes to a large spike near the entrance and at the back was a dwarf, stuck inside a rusted iron cage, much too small for his size. The party freed the kobolds who quickly scattered out of the room to return home while Cebo unlocked the iron cage holding the dwarf. The dwarf introduced himself as Erky Timbers, a dwarf who belonged to the Zarast Clan of dwarves living in the Raven Pinnacles. Erky is a cleric of Berronar Truesilver, and was traveling between clans arranging marriages, acting as a Baba, when he was captured by the goblins almost a year ago. In questioning Erky the group managed to find out the following information.

• He was captured almost a year ago, and had been locked up in the cage ever si nce. He thinks the goblins forgot about him, and he only survived by using his curing spells to keep him alive, otherwise he would be dead of starvation for sure.
• The goblin tribe serves someone known as Belak the Outcast, some kind of evil druid who lives in something called the "Twilight Grove" farther down. Belak tends some kind of enchanted garden and harvests an enchanted fruit from something the goblins call the "Gulthias Tree". The goblins seem afraid of Belak and terrified of the tree.
• The enchanted fruit ripens at midsummer and midwinter. The midsummer fruit restores spirit and vigor while the midwinter fruit is poisonous. For some reason Belak allows the goblins to sell the fruit on the surface, but he doesn't know why.
• There are supposably more Twig Blights living down below in the Twilight Grove, Erky doesn't know if there is any connection between the Twig Blights and the Gulthias Tree.
• Regarding the lost adventurers, especially the Hucrele children, Erky remembered when the goblins captured them almost two months ago, they were captives with him for a while. They said their names were Talgen, Sharwyn, and Sir Braford. The goblins kept them in here only about a week before they removed them. Belak wanted them the goblins said, and that's the last he had heard of them.
• Erky will be happy to join the party, he doesn't mind giving a little back to the goblins for their treatment of him.

After getting Erky to heal the party members back to full hit points (not that many were down anyway) and helping to identify two healing potions, , they continued out of the practice range to the door in the northern wall. In the corridor was a door in the north wall, Cebo listened at it and heard some low noises behind it. Moss then tried the handle to see if it was locked, the door wasn't locked but the noises behind the door stopped. Figuring they no longer had surprise the party just busted in the door and attacked. Behind the door was four goblins who were at a definite disadvantage as they were holding saps, obviously planning on capturing the adventurers. Since the adventurers had no such plans they quickly dispatched the luckless goblins. The room was just a stench ridden small room. The stench, garbage, rotted carrion, and half-eaten legs of unknown animals pointed to years of use by the unsanitary goblins. There were tattered hides forming six small hammocks around a much-used fire pit. Searching the goblins yielded a handful of silver and a couple gold pieces.

Going back out into the corridor they approached the western door. As they neared it the two in the front (Cebo and Roth), tripped a pit trap before the door. Only quick reflexes prevented them from falling into the pit. After cursing the lying goblin who said there were no more traps, they finally came to the door. The door was locked so Cebo had another chance to try out his new lockpicks, eventually he managed to get the door unlocked. As they opened the door they saw a fairly large room with stuffed and mounted animal heads on the walls (including dire rats, cattle, a few kobolds, but mostly unimpressive animals). Smashed and broken cabinets and tables littered the periphery of the room, like some sort of mass destruction had gone on in the room. In the center of the room was a rusted iron spike, driven into the floor, from which trailed a broken iron chain. Thin patches of ice coated section of the walls, floor, and debris.

The party entered cautiously and started looking for any signs of loot. As they were looking around, a small white dragon wyrmling suddenly jumped on top of one of the overturned tables and breathed it's icy breath at Cebo and Roth, both of whom took little damage from the icy cone. They had finally found what must be the kobolds pet dragon, Calcryx, now what were they going to do about it. Shouting out about hitting to subdue the party crossed the ice covered floor to reach the dragon. Striking with the flats of their blades, and the with the dragon attacking and breathing cold, the combat took forever. The dragon doing a little damage with each attack that succeeded, and the adventurers finding it hard to get a non-lethal blow to land. Eventually they managed to knock the dragon unconscious. Quickly tying it's jaws shut and winding it in rope they hoped will hold, the adventurers went looking for the treasure they knew must be here.

What they found was that Calcryx had found everything of value and gathered it in it's nest, sort of a little dragon's hoard. Kind of cute really. There was not a great deal of items here though. They found a dragon-shaped jade figurine, a crystal goblet, 24 pieces of fine silverware, and a curiously carved bone scroll case. Runes around the top of the scroll case spell out the dwarvish word Khundrukar, which Erky translated as meaning "the Glitterhame".

Inside was an old, crumbling parchment. Time and water damage had destroyed most of the parchment, but a short message in Dwarven remained: ". . . the remaining few. By order of Durgeddin the Black, we have created a secret dwarven redoubt. None shall find us, however, . . ." Erky professed to not know anything about a dwarvish place called Khundrukar or what the message means.

So with the dragon safely tied up and unconscious, the treasure, what there was, bagged, and with the two newest party members, Clarion and Flairian, ready to go up to second level, they decided to stay for a while in this room and figure out their next steps.

So the session ended with the date being Freeday, Flocktime 28. The next game will begin on the at the same time this one ended, in the evening of Flocktime 28. Currently they are in goblin territory with an unconscious (for now) dragon wyrmling. Physically not in bad shape but with two members ready to go up levels.
Link to next Session:

Unanswered Questions:

• What is the magic potion that Erky couldn't identify?
• What are you going to do with this dragon? Bring it back to the kobolds for the "200 GP" reward? Somehow bring it, along with some of the marble statues back to a big city like Greenswabs and sell it? Maybe convince it to tag along with you while you take out the goblins? Or, just kill it and not bother?
• Now that they know there is a evil Druid (Belak the Outcast) and some sort of scary Gulthias Tree down below, does it change your plans? Remember that the Hucrele kids were taken down to the "Twilight Grove".
• What's the deal with the fruit?? With the Twig Blights??
• What's the story behind the scroll tube with the dwarven writing. What is the "Glitterhame" and who is Durgeddin the Black??
• Hey the Sorcerer and Bard are ready to go up levels, what spells, feats, and skills will they be getting??

Left over questions from previous sessions:

• Remember the party still has to do a favor for Corkie in Ruti, wonder what she will want?
• Anyone figure out what to do about that barrel yet?

Page Last Updated Monday, April 29, 2002