Game Session Seven

Session Seven: Saturday, May 12th, 2001

Link to last session:
Players map of Session Seven:

The game opened in the late afternoon of Sunday, Wealsun 2, 3080.
The party started in the ruined library and were soon joined by Flairian the Bard.

Marveling at the charisma increase gained by Corian, the rest of the party tried their hand at stepping into the rune inscribed circle in front of the Dragon Shrine. Starting with Roth, they each took a turn reciting the Draconic words, Ea serpenta rau kaluva nyawisti (Let the sorcerous power illuminate my mind). As with Corian, each was enveloped in a puff of spectral flame and each could feel an increase to their Charisma. Everyone congratulated each other, but none dared try it a second time.

Deciding to continue onward, they checked out the door in the north wall of the ruined library. Behind the door was a short corridor that lead to a set of damp and crumbled steps that lead downward in a sort of "underpass" before rising upwards again. Looking to the south they could see a long corridor that had two doors along the eastern wall at the end.

Going down the corridor the party checked out the first door they came to and found it locked. The halfling Eldon checked the door for traps and picked the lock. Opening the door they looked in and found a room with soil covering the floor and rough wooden shelves filled with a scattering of tomes and scrolls. A rough wooden desk sat in the center and the entire room was dimly lit by the fungus hanging from the ceiling. The party searched the writings, looking for anything of value and interest and found that most of the stuff was charts and recording of temperature and growing conditions of the surrounding lands, going back at least a dozen years. They did find a large tome with a metal strap holding it closed entitled "Treasures of the Fire Lords" (the title written in Draconic), they put the book away for later reading without opening it. There was two scrolls of divine magic, one of entangle and one of slow poison. The only other book of interest was a large tome written in Druidic (which no one could read).

There was also a door in the room that lead to the south. This door was also locked. Eldon took some time and managed to unlock this door also. Carefully peering into the room Eldon saw four goblins inside a small room. They seemed to be sorting a rather large pile of twig and roots in the center of the room. The south wall of the room was collapsed and opened into what seemed to be a vast cavern filled with sickly briars, bushes, saplings, and other woody plants. Ruined walls and towers protruded from the briars. The whole scene was lit by the sickly glow of the fungus, which hung from the walls and ceiling of the cavern.

Rather than "risk" an encounter with the goblins, Ulfgar sent his weasel familiar Dweezil into the room to investigate. Carefully sneaking past the goblins Dweezil went scouting into the large cavern. On his return he wasn't able to report much due to the height of the brambles and other bushes, but he did see that it was a large cavern filled with brambles and bushes. He spotted at least two of the twig blights and could see the very top of a large black tree at the far end of the cavern. With this news the party decided to storm in and kill the goblins. Swinging open the door Cebo and Moss rushed into the room with others providing arrow fire. They quickly managed to kill the goblins before any alarm could be raised.

Entering the room they could now see just how big the cavern was. In the light of the fungus they could see ruined walls and towers, and at the far end of the cavern, behind 20' tall ruined walls they could make out the top of a dark, black tree. The party spread out and started moving slowly and quietly through the underbrush towards the far end. As they began moving through the brambles they could see two twig blights start to move toward them. Cebo and Roth moved to the front and awaited the approaching twig blights while the rest moved back and readied bows. Beyond the first two twig blights they could see several more ranks of the creatures moving towards them. As the twig blights advanced towards the party they started firing arrows into them. Cebo and Roth (later joined by Rhino) made short work of any that made it through. Eventually all the twig blights were destroyed, with the warriors taking only minor damage from their thorns.

The party advanced up to the ruined wall surrounding the giant black tree. Carefully peering within they saw a courtyard dominated by a spreading black tree, it's blackened, twisted limbs reached upward like a skeletal hand clawing it's way from the earth. Brambles and bushes covered the floor everywhere except under the canopy of the branches. Within that cleared area stood three human figures. One, wearing scale mail, was holding a longsword in his hands, another was obviously a female spellcaster of some sort. The third was a man wearing a simple brown cassock, near his feet squatted a three-foot long tree frog. Looking closely at the figures, Ulfgar noticed that the warrior and the spellcaster both had rough, bark-like skin. The party figured that the warrior was the paladin Sir Braford and the female was the missing Hucrele, Sharwyn. From the looks of their skin they figured they were charmed by the tree somehow. The man in the brown cassock could only be the evil druid, Belak the Outcast.

Backing off the party discussed options and made plans. They split into several groups. Ulfgar went off by himself to an opening along the western wall, Rhino and Corian to an opening in the eastern wall. The rest of the party planned on staying in the center.

The battle started with the party gaining surprise on Belak and crew. The barbarian Roth went into a rage and headed at as fast a run as possible straight towards Belak. Corian fired a magic missile at the tree frog while Rhino charged towards it. Ulfgar fired a magic missile at Sharwyn. Cebo headed into the brambles towards Sir Braford while the rest positioned themselves around the center opening with bows.

Roth managed to reach all the way to Belak. After the surprise round Belak pulled out a wand and cast an entangle spell at the characters in the center, everyone, except Cebo, managed to make their saves. Cebo became stuck in the brambles. Sharwyn does nothing, and Sir Braford swings at Roth's back. The twig blights started advancing on Cebo.

Ulfgar shoots another magic missile at Sharwyn, who successfully counter-spelled it. Roth swings and hits Belak, Rhino attacked the giant tree frog with Corian shooting magic missiles at Sharwyn, killing her. The rest of the party fired bows at the twig blights and Sir Braford. Cebo tried mightily, but was unable to free himself from the brambles entangling him. Belak swings his sickle at Roth missing him, but Sir Braford managed to connect. The tree frog attacked Rhino but was unable to hit. The twig blights advanced upon Cebo, trapped in the brambles.

Roth hit Belak again, this time killing him. Rhino continued attacking the tree frog, with Corian shooting another magic missile at it. Ulfgar moved to rejoin his comrades at the center opening. Cebo attacked and cleaved through the two twig blights that dared to approach within range of his greataxe (still trapped in the brambles). The rest of the party finally brought down the remaining twig blight with arrows.

Sir Braford swung and missed again as Roth turned to face him, Cebo again tried to free himself and failed. Rhino and Corian (with another magic missile) finally kill the tree frog. The rest of the party tried taking shots at Sir Braford without hitting Roth.

Finally Sir Braford hits and scored a critical hit on Roth, killing him on the spot. The rest of the group concentrated missile fire on the paladin and filled him with arrows, killing him also. Cebo finally managed to free himself from the entangling brambles as the fight ends.

The group quickly looted the bodies finding the second Hucrele signet ring on Sharwyn's finger. With the help of a detect magic spell they sorted out the "good stuff" from the ordinary and quickly bagged up the swag.

Ulfgar and Moss checked out the Gulthias Tree, noting human sized depressions in it's trunk. If anything the Tree looked even more scary up close. Not sure just how to kill it, they stood off any fired arrows into the trunk. See as how the tree didn't make any motion when so attacked, Cebo used his greataxe to chop the huge tree down.

As a final action in the Twilight Grove they buried poor Roth, with his arms and armor, in the ground under what was once the shade of the Gulthias Tree. After the burial, they headed back towards the upper levels.

As they came back into the kobold controlled portion of the Sunless Citadel, the party were greeted by the kobolds as heroes for slaughtering all the goblins. They were ushered into the kobold throne room and saw that the kobolds had piled all the goblin heads (of the goblin women, children, and warriors) in great piles around the pillars in the Hall of Dragons. Yusdrayl, the kobold queen, invited the party to stay and celebrate with a feast in their honor. The kobolds brought great bowls of meaty stew, plates of Elf Pudding, and mugs of goblin liqueur. Crowds of kobolds, woman and kits, along with many more males than they had seen previously, joined the festivities. They all have a good old time, managing to not be noticed as they slyly hid the fact that they weren't really eating any of the goodies the kobold's placed before them. Yusdrayl presented Moss with several more dire rat heads and claimed the silver piece each bounty. After Moss said she could keep the heads they were tossed into the stewpot.

As the kobolds got drunker the party hatched a plan to steal the clans dragon and leave the Citadel with it. They sneaked back unnoticed to the room with the dragon cage and the most recent "Keeper of the Dragon", Moopo. They tried to convince the kobold guards that Yusdrayl wanted the adventurers to bring the dragon to safety and that they should help carry the cage. The kobolds refused to help carry the cage but otherwise don't try to stop them. The increased charisma of the party was coming in very handy. Moopo insists on going along to look after Calcryx. The party covers the cage with blankets and cloaks, and with a final bang on the dragon's head from Moopo, they start to the surface. As soon as they left the Sunless Citadel they hurried back towards Ruti. As they neared the village they had a little "talk" with Moopo and told him that he had new masters. Rhino gifted him with a 20 gp gem and told him he was still in charge of looking after the dragon. Deciding that his fate could be much the worse Moopo agreed.

Arriving back in Ruti the group headed straight towards Hucrele House to claim the reward on the signet rings. They left the cage in the street outside, still covered in blankets and cloaks (now frost-coated). Ulfgar, Flairian and Eldon decided to wait outside along with Moopo. The group outside tried to be inconspicuous, which was pretty hard. Not everyday does a group of adventurers bring into town a large cage, covered in frosted blankets and cloaks, along with a kobold who keeps hitting something inside the cage with a dented up frying pan every couple minutes. After a while several of the townspeople had found an excuse to wander past the small group outside Hucrele House.

The rest of the party knocked on the door to Madame Hucrele's residence. On being announced they were brought into a nicely appointed sitting room and were met by Madame Hucrele. She was extremely nice to the party, unlike previous visits. They were offered the choice of fine wine or strong ale (they all chose the wine), and were feed fine meats and snacks. She asked politely about their adventures and almost absentmindedly paid the reward for the return of the signet rings. She mention how she had talked to the dwarf Erky and he had told her of their adventures in the Sunless Citadel, and that they might be able to get a hold of a live dragon. At this point she also mentioned that she had noticed they brought a rather large container with them back to town. Madame Hucrele said she had a "factor" in Greenswabs who would pay well for the delivery of such an item. She offered the party the use of a wagon and horse team to bring the dragon to Greenswabs, offering to pay 3,000 GP for it's live delivery.

Madame Hucrele also mentioned that she is aware of their promise to Corkie and the Temple of Pelor, and that she had mentioned to Corkie that maybe a simple task could be arranged if they agreed to her offer for the dragon. Unstated was the threat that a much harder task could await their refusal of Madame Hucrele's offer. The party quickly agreed to sell the dragon to her factor and deliver it to Greenswabs.

After the talk they all left to go to the temple across the street. As they exited Hucrele House they could see a servant in Hucrele livery scurry across the street in front of them. Ulfgar, Flairian and Eldon again wait outside by the cage.

As they entered the Temple of Pelor they saw that Corkie was waiting for them. She thanked them for returning the signet rings of Madame Hucrele's relatives and for defeating the evil druid. She told them their task was to deliver a letter to a person named Arlen, who was the mayor of the town of Discam. Discam is located to the west off of the Old Road, and in the opposite direction of Greenswabs of course. After agreeing to the task they went back to Madame Hucrele to bargain for the rent of the wagon early so that they could bring the dragon to Discam along with them. For a hefty fee, she agreed.

With all their obligations and tasks over with for the moment they retired to the Ol' Boer Inn. Rhino insisted on bringing the cage with Calcryx inside with them. Rhino called for buckets of beer and cleared out a large space in front of the cage (the length of Calcryx's breath weapon range). He set the buckets of beer down inside the cleared area and whisking off the coverings he let the dragon "chill down" the beer. The party, with their high charisma impressed the patrons greatly with this act (and the free cold beer). Gargon, seeing how they were not doing any damage, let them continue to buy buckets of beer and pass them out to the people in the Inn. Soon a large crowd had gathered as everyone in town it seemed stopped by to see the dragon and the adventurers who had captured it. As the large crowd gathered Flairian tried to do a dramatic retelling of their adventurers but only managed to produce a mediocre rendition. Trying it a second time, this time with feeling (and hand gestures) he managed to amaze everyone present with their tales in the Sunless Citadel.

Erky Timbers, the Dwarvish Baba, was also at the bar and asked the party how they were doing and what task to "bring Glory onto Pelor" the cleric assigned them to perform. Finding out they were delivering a letter to Discam, Erky said that he was headed to Discam himself, having to confer with a dwarven sage who lived their about lineage's. Erky said that he would be happy to accompany the party on their travels to Discam. Erky also mentioned that he would be glad of the company because Discam was a "strange" town and a big group might be better to travel with. He didn't mention anything else.

After healing everyone up, the group finally went to their rooms. After locking their doors they split up all the treasure they had gained and went to sleep. After waking up late the next morning the adventurers were aghast to discover that their increased charisma had vanished, leaving them as they were before.

The game ended at this point. The next game will start in the late morning of Moonday, Wealsun 3, 3080 YE with the party well rested and hung over (along with most of the rest of the town).
Link to Next Session.

Unanswered Questions:

• Would the dwarven sage in Discam know anything about the scroll tube with the dwarven writing? And maybe who was Durgeddin the Black?
• How much trouble are you going to have transporting a cold-breathing dragon by wagon? Already the blankets and cloaks cover the cage (which he had escaped from before remember) are showing signs of severe frost damage. How many days will it take you to go to Discam and then to Greenswabs?
• How much can you trust Moopo, "Keeper of the Dragon"?
• Why does Corkie need a group of adventurers, hauling around a white dragon even, to deliver a letter to a distant town?
• What is "strange" about Discam? And why does Erky think a larger group of people would be better to travel there with?

Page Last Updated Monday, April 29, 2002