# The Adventures of the Endhome 6+1.  Rebirth of Barakus! (9-27-06, 19 and 20 back up)



## Scorch (Sep 18, 2006)

Hello all,

After the "Great Board Borking of 2006", as I referred to the loss of data on ENWorld a few months back, all the postings I made about our gaming groups adventures in "The Lost City of Barakus" were lost.

Going through some old files at work, I came across the original documents I had saved my postings to.  I decided to finally get off my duff and finish out the 32 part saga that was "The Lost City of Barakus".  

I had a lot of fun running this campaign. The group I gamed with, which most of you know from the Savage Sword of Meepo Story Hour and the currently running Zad/WizarDru Shackled City Story Hour, were great fun to DM.  They always surprised me and kept me on my toes.

Without further ado here is the glorious re-posting of the adventures of the Endhome 6+1:

<snip>

I want to try a Barakus Story Hour that is more of a journal of me as a DM and how I learned to Game Master again after a long hiatus.  I decided to post this here rather than on ENWorld since my players frequent that other board.  Here I will chronicle my struggles with this module and becoming a DM again.

Our gaming group has several campaigns running with some one shot adventures occasionally being played.  I decided to try my hand at DMing again.  My last attempt was a home-brewed campaign run in GURPS Fantasy that only lasted six sessions.

After observing how our different players and DMs ran and played different games I decided to compare it to what I was shooting for in a campaign.  I wanted something where I did not have to put much thought into the world and the adventure and I could concentrate on learning the rules from a DMs perspective.  Mainly I just wanted to have fun.  A mega-module in the same vein of “Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil” was what I was looking for.  

I saw Barakus sitting on the shelf of a FLGS and after some debate I picked it up and read through it.  I then announced to the Meepites, our gaming group, that I wanted to try to DM casually again between the sessions of our main campaign.  They all were eager, especially WizarDru, our main DM who was desperate to actually play in the game rather than always being the DM.  

I picked up some bookmark stickies and poured through the Core books and bookmarked the heck out them.  I did the same with the Barakus book.  After re-familiarizing myself with the rules from a DM’s point of view, I then told everyone to put together a well-balanced party, 28 point attribute buy, core rules only.

They came up with the following:

Absinthe:  Elf rogue, female.  Very good search, sneak, and spot skills.  Fences with a rapier.  I like to call her the asthmatic elf because she has such a low fortitude.  This leads to some hilarious role-playing on the player’s part.  “I ain’t going in there!  That’s dangerous!”.  Played by Zad (on the EN boards).

Adson:  Human monk, male.  Quick with the Shuriken and the Sai.  Played by Tantra.  I allowed him to re-create his character after a few sessions when some mis-readings of the rules lead us to believe he could use a bow a certain way.  Amusingly Tantra brought up a complaint that he could not find any good monk miniatures that were not bald.  He eventually found a good one with hair from Reaver Minis.

Aislenn the Wraithborn:  Human fighter, female.  The tank!  She wields a bastard sword two-handed style.  Right now the player is going the generic fighter feat progression path (power attack, cleave, etc. etc.).  Nothing wrong with that but my poor monsters should learn to turn and run when she comes onto the battle field.  Played by Valanthe.

Keldin:  Halfling ranger, male.  The ranger who is the goblin-hater!  Going with the ranged bow progression.  With a lot of the beginning game happening in the wilderness it is always good to have someone who can track.  Played by Dravot.

Micca:  Dwarf cleric, male.  This character has sort of become the heart and soul of the party.  The player does a great job of being a noble cleric of Hieronius and is easy to sink the adventure hook into.  Played by Argent.

Ravenspur:  Gnome sorcerer, male.  Is the picture of health compared to the rogue.  Right now the player is going with heavy enchantment spells like sleep and such.  Gets a lot of mileage out of that along with Ray of Frost and Harm Undead.  Also, the party’s “charisma monkey”.  Played by WizarDru.

Next posting:  How the heck do I get them into the game?!?!


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## Scorch (Sep 18, 2006)

*Adventure 1:  OK I got them to roll up characters.  Now what?*

The night had arrived for my first game as a DM in so many years.  After gaming with the others for so long I had a good idea of what tools I would need.  I had my three core rulebooks all bookmarked up as well as the Barakus adventure book.  For mapping we were using one of those large presentation tablets you can pick up at an office supply store.  It had a one-inch grid on it.  We had plenty of painted and plastic miniatures.

Days before the game I had written up a two-page summary document of what I wanted to happen.  The players were hired guards for widow merchant’s caravan heading through Fool’s Pass.  She had made the run before and knew it was a tough go but it shaved weeks off of the normal, safer, route.  

Each of the players had their reasons for going to Endhome but I decided I needed to plant a seed for a possible adventure hook.  I told Micca, the cleric, that he was being sent to find out what happened to a fellow priest of Hieronius who ran the local temple chapter in Endhome.  He had been missing for a year.  The missing priest was the NPC from level 3 of Barakus.  Later on I would build on this adventure hook to incorporate in some of the other NPCs who are wandering around Barakus, driven mad by the artifact down there.

I also included an NPC fighter as the captain of the caravan guard in case the adventurers got in over their head with some of the freakier encounter table entries for the wilderness.  I decided I would start this first adventure by letting the dice fall as they may and see what happens.

Sure enough the first encounter in the hills surrounding Fool’s Pass was with four grimlocks.  I decided to interpret these encounters in a way that made sense.  The four grimlocks were hiding behind rocks on the slopes on either side of the pass and were waiting an opportune moment to ambush the caravan.  Scouting by Absinthe, the rogue, alerted the party to what was happening and a bad hide roll by a grimlock initiated combat.

This was my first combat so I had my laptop open next to me with an Excel spreadsheet listing names of combatants, initiative, AC, and hit points.  I had purchased DMGenie but, frankly, it was a little intimidating to me at the moment.  Everyone rolled init, I rolled for the monsters, and I sorted the fields. 

A little history first:  Flashback four years ago when we first had the 3.0 PHB and the Sunless Citadel module.  None of us had played DnD in years.  Our first combat was with a twig blight and we felt pretty good how the six of us schooled it’s a$$.  We had reached the entrance to the Citadel and the paladin, played by Tantra, climbed down a rope to the first room.  Where he was promptly taken to pieces by a single dire rat.  Since then none of us has really played a first level party in a while and I was well aware how a missed roll could KILL a player at this level.  This was running through my head as the players charged into combat.

The grimlocks fought in two teams of two.  Spells and arrows flew while swords and battle-axes clashed.  Things were getting hairy for a moment there as hit points on PCs were whittled down and I thought I may need to bring the NPC fighter in to help things out but then some point was reached when it all came apart for the monsters and they were finished off in one round’s time.

Years of playing with the new rules had honed our tactical combat skills on the grid map so the combat had gone off without a hitch.  Another aspect of low-level gaming came up at that point:  the players are POOR!  They stripped the grimlocks down of everything they had.  Loot was loot.

The party passed the first noted area on the map.  Unfortunately this was my first problem I came across with the module.  The I and the J on the map look too much alike so what should have been the entrance to Barakus was turned into the Caves of the Dead.  When I later found this out I decided to keep it the way I read it.  I had the cleric get a feeling of great evil over towards a certain area, secretly hoping they would investigate knowing full well the undead there would probably wipe them out.  Instead the party made a note of it and moved on.

I knew it would take them four to five days to get to Barakus from where they were at so this was a good test run for me to just through stuff at them and see how they reacted.  

The next encounter was at night when they camped near the wizard’s tower.  Ravenspur and Micca were drawn to it while camp was being set up.  I let them figuratively bang their heads against it until they gave up.  That night I rolled on the encounter tables and came up with two gnolls.  I played it as a father and son coming up to the tower for an adult initiation ritual.  Only Keldin, the ranger, spoke gnoll and he was privy to my bad Red Green imitation as I had the father drone on and on about how generations of gnolls had come to the big stone spike to pee on it as a part of their initiation into adulthood.  The caravan was camped off a ways so neither they nor the gnolls were aware of each other.  The ranger just happened to spot them.  Since they were not goblins and obviously not up to any mischief he let them be while observing them hidden.

The next encounter was the rogue scouting ahead and coming across six goblins lounging about a stream that crossed the road, skinning a deer they had brought down.  She decided to settle in a watch their reaction to the approaching caravan.  Now when I roll encounters I want to role-play it out.  These monsters did not just appear out of the ether and charge into combat.  There is a reason why they are here doing what they are doing.  I decided to think how a band of hunters from a goblin tribe would treat an approaching, well armed, caravan.  They heard it from a distance off and skedaddled.  

The ranger was disappointed when he heard he had missed a chance to fight goblins.  He and the rogue went scouting together and I rolled up the two half-orc brothers.  Both parties were suspicious of one another and after some cautious conversation parted ways.  The module stated their attitude if treated a certain way and I decided to role play it that way.

That night I rolled the worse possible roll for the location they were in: double zeroes… the red dragon.  I played it like the book recommended I do:  as an opportunity to frighten the pants off of the party.  Being experienced players who knew what they saw flying in the distance, outlined by the light of the full moon, they got the caravan off of the road into the woods as quickly as they could.  The dragon dived into the hills to the north, they saw the brief flash of red flame, and then it rose up again with half of something large clutched in its claws.  It flew off into the distance and they decided to camp in the woods for the rest of the night.

The rest of the journey to Endhome was pretty uneventful with the exception of an encounter with a monstrous bee that the sorcerer led off with dancing lights.  They also encountered the rider-less horse, which they kept.

Upon reaching the north gates of Endhome they were paid 50 GP each for their services and given a letter of introduction they could present to Bragger Bondhome, the captain of the city guard.  More plot hooks for me to use.  I ended the adventure there for the night.

Now came the fun part of experience.  I calculated up all the CRs for what they fought and won against.  I added it all together, divided it by 6 and then halved it.  This was keeping with the adventure’s recommendation to slow level progression so that the party was not level 5 by the time they hit the actual dungeon.  I wanted to run them through some city and wilderness adventures to get them to level 2 before they hit Barakus.

Next Up:  What do I run them through now that will not KILL them…


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## Scorch (Sep 18, 2006)

*Adventure 2:  Finding a good adventure…*

Our second session was coming up and while re-reading the city adventures for Endhome I came to the belief that they might all be a little bit too hard for the players.  Later I learned that I should stop worrying and just throw stuff at them but at as a DM getting back into the game after so many years I was worried about those dreaded three letters:  TPK.

I felt that the adventures they recommend for starting players in the city were a little too tough.  The slavers and the were-rats were inviting trouble.  No way in heck they could tackle the vampires.  There was Barakus but I wanted to build up to that and it would require some trekking through the wilderness.  They had just gotten into the city and I thought the narrative flow would be odd if I had them turn around and head back out again.

Fortunately help came to me in the form of a fellow ENWorlder and contributor on this forum as well:  Pogre.  He had written up a nice 1st level campaign that he emailed to me.   Those of you familiar with his posting of Barakus on ENWorld know this as the Micon adventure.

During the hiatus between the first and second adventure I had created some miniature sets using Hirst Art blocks.  I used my surplus of parts and laid out the entire complex written up by Pogre in his adventure.   After taking a few photos of it on a digital camera, so I could remember the layout, I packed it all up for the game later.

Feedback from the players was very positive.  They had a ball playing as first level characters again.  I guess it was the adrenaline rush from the possibility of being one failed roll away from oblivion.  It was a nice change of piece from the main campaign we played under WizarDru where we were annihilating invading armies of githyanki from the Prime Material Plane.  Boosted by their encouragement I wrote up another outline of how I wanted to get them into Micon’s hideout.

The game started up where we left off last time, outside the city gates.  I knew the first thing they would all do:  look for the nearest inn to set up base.  One quick inquiry to the local constabulary pointed them towards the King’s Road Inn outside of the west gates of the city.  To reach there they would need to travel through Endhome.   This provided me with an opportunity to layer on the flavor text, describing Endhome and some of its history.  I made sure to point out the Temple district and the Wizard’s Academy, two points of interest to two of the characters.  Of course, all ears perked up when I mentioned the market.  They were eager to spend some cash but first, the Inn!

They arrived at the Inn during the lunch rush.  The place was packed and after the usual “Meet the Innkeeper” banter, they got some rooms and sat themselves down for a meal.  It was amusing to watch them count their silver pieces when it came to rooms and meals.  The stark contrast between epic level and low level game play was very interesting.

Never one not to throw more plot hooks at the players, I had the evil adventuring party led by Dagon Ziss make a dramatic exit from the inn, knocking over a serving maid.  Micca, the cleric, became upset at this rude behavior and tried to make his way to them but the crowd was too much and they were gone by the time he got outside.  The evil party was book level at that point and could have mopped the floor with the player characters.  No, I had other plans for them…

The players then decided to engage in what I consider the biggest time sink in any game:  shopping.  Sure, it’s fun to role-play the bartering but after a point you just set a house rule on core book prices and what percentage they get for used equipment.  It makes things go a lot faster.  Also, it is a good excuse for the DM to hit the kitchen for snacks while they debated what kind of bow they want to buy.

As soon as the last gold piece was spent and the last arrow purchased I hit them with the opening story hook to Pogre’s adventure:  a big sewer explosion.

The sewer grate from the explosion landed right at their feet.  Like any curious adventurer they made a bee-line right for the origin of the explosion.  They found some city guards had pushed the crowds back.  No one was hurt by the explosion and the guard were now debating what to do.  Upon seeing the adventurers they said they would provide some monetary reward if they went down and took a quick look see.

The rogue scouted down into the hole and discovered the source of the explosion was a magical firetrap going off by a door set in the sewer wall.  Another rogue had set it off while trying to disarm it.  The doorway led down a five foot wide corridor into the darkness.  Absinthe made her way back to the top, after looting the corpse, and made her report.







I was worried when some debate arose among the players that they had done their duty and could go but more reckless heads prevailed (yay!) and they decide to investigate further.

Standard marching order was then discussed and implemented by the party.  Rogue up front by 15 feet followed by the rest of the party.  I made a note of who had a light source and who had low light or dark vision.






After marching down a 20’ corridor they came to the first room containing two zombies.  The rogue sneaking into the room activated them and the fight was on.  Three rounds of combat later the zombies were down and no one suffered any injuries.






The next room was investigated as well as the adjoining bedroom.  There they discover Micon’s notes on his desires to become a lich.  Ravenspur tucked those away for later.  






Another room revealed four skeletons.  The party charged into battle.  The rogue, fearing bodily harm ran back two rooms when it looked like the skeletons were going to push past the front line bricks.  Ravenspur started using Harm Undead to great effect at this point.  His player gloated that he had yet to cast a first level spell so far in the game.  A turning by the cleric sent two of the skeletons running away down a passageway carved into the earth.






The party started heading down the earthen passage.  I believe Pogre stated that it goes off for two thousand feet before reaching the tomb that Micon is hiding in.  I decided that Micon would be alerted to the players by the two skeletons and that he would take command of them to help him in his fight. 

The problem was that after 700 feet into the passageway the players were deciding to turn back.  I really, REALLY wanted them to fight Micon, a CR3 Ghast, so I shortened the distance of the passage so they eventually reached it before turning back. They reached the end and came to a ladder leading up to the tomb within which Micon awaited.

Absinthe climbed up the ladder to sneak a peak and nearly got her head taken off by a skeleton.  She caught a glimpse of what was waiting the party and she boogied back on down to let them know before running back down the corridor (did I mention she has very low hit points).  The rest of the party follow, hearing Micon and his minions chasing after them.  They decide to set an ambush at a choke point back where the passageway opened up into the room.

Micon sent his skeletons through to try and push past the party but they cut them to pieces.  The monk then tumbled past the ghast to get the flank and they start taking him down.  They were very worried that if he connected with his paralyzing powers then things could get ugly but they finally cut him down with minimal damage done to the party.






They scour the entire complex for any treasure they missed then make their way back out to the market to report to the lone guard who was left behind to watch the hole.  The guard wrote up a voucher for their reward.  5 whole gold pieces… YAY!

To wrap things up I decided to finish some business with what Micca’s player had inquired about which was the location of the Temple of Hieronius.  The party traveled with him to the temple district and they found it without a problem.  It was in disrepair and boarded up.  An inquiry to a local guard revealed that it had been abandoned for over a year and the city had it sealed up six months ago.  If Micca wanted to enter it he would need to inquire with the city government.  On that note I ended the game for the night.

Experience was tallied up and reward.  Unfortunately one player was not present for the game and neither was his character so:  No experience for him!  I decided to rule that if you were not there and there was a plausible reason for the character not to be there then they did no participate and no XP for them.  If this happened in the middle of a dungeon crawl then I thought it would be silly to say that the character suddenly had to take a powder.  The player would get XP since their character was there and contributed resources to the adventure.  Of course this would mean they were run as a brain dead NPC by the DM and the other players would lose that much experience.  No one seemed to mind this ruling.

Next Adventure:  Why the hell not?  Let’s throw some were-rats at them!


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## Scorch (Sep 19, 2006)

*Adventure 3:  Mmmm… Were-rats!*

We had a long hiatus between the second and third adventure.  During that time I was experimenting with foam boards and Hirst Arts blocks to create cavern like set pieces.  I decided to create a piece that used the sewer pieces from before and made a two-part cavern for the were-rat lair adventure.  

I had a full turnout for the third game and I was happy since I felt no guilt about throwing were-rats at the party.  I still stacked the deck in their favor as the adventure progressed.

After claiming their reward at the Barracks the party attempted to get a meeting with Bragger Bondhome using the letter of introduction they had received.  Bragger was not in since he was out checking on another report of a highway robbery by the Green Tree Bandits (mmm… plot hook).  

Micca finally got permission to claim the abandoned temple of Hieronius as his own.  I used Father Beamus’s temple for the floor design just so I did not have to draw something up for him.  The other members of the party helped him clean up the temple and that night I had the cleric experience a vision showing him the hill above Barakus.  He dove down through the first and second level and came to the room where Kabbal Sharn, the missing cleric, was currently living.  

This was my method of moving the story towards where the party wanted to get to Barakus.  I decided to put together a lost adventuring party made up of Sharn, Fenton Barmey (the lost sorcerer), and several other of the mad NPCs deep within Barakus.  Micca had already begun collecting news and gossip at how Sharn and Fenton had done research on the lost city and had put together a group to go out to the hills to explore for it.

The next day the party wanted to sell their loot and pick up some master work items they had ordered from the day before.  At this point the party split up to do separate business.  I love it when the party splits since then I can do some mischief.  News of what had happened in the sewers had spread from the night before and several interested parties now wanted to meet with the group.  The first was Dagon Ziss and the evil adventuring party.  Dagon wanted Micon’s notes from his lab.  He offered to buy them for 25 GP from Ravenspur.  Since Micca was not with the group Ravenspur was with at the moment the sorcerer readily agreed (after one alignment check).  The transaction took place without a hitch.  I had written up what would happen if Ravenspur had said no and it could have been messy.  Micca was not happy when he heard of the deal.  

The other person interested in meeting the party was Curley Barnes, the gnome bard.  As per his description in the module I had him leech onto the party without giving them much choice.  I knew how they would react, with suspicion, since a similar situation in “Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil” had almost ended in a PC death (MINE!) when the bard turned out to be an assassin.  Curley was as he was written in the module, just a bard who wanted to join up with adventurers who seem to be going places so he could get good material out of them.  He was also my way of adding someone who could help the party out in a tight situation.  That he was yet another XP anchor was a plus.  

On to the adventure hook!  After regrouping and having dinner, the party was heading back to the Inn as night settled in.  A distraught child ran into them claiming his father was kidnapped.  The child was too upset to give details and just kept wailing to be taken to Father Beamus.  Micca knew of where the priest of Pelor was and ten minutes later they were knocking on the door of the sun god’s temple.  Beamus let them in and listened to their story.  He eventually calmed the child down and got the details from him.  When he described big walking rats who shrugged off a dagger blow dealt by the father while the child got away the party start getting nervous.  The players all knew the signs of were-rats and wondered where they could get silver weapons at this time of day.  They were under the belief that the clock was running out for the father before the were-rats ate him or turned him into one of their own.

Father Beamus then told the players of an infestation of were-rats from 10 years back that nearly brought Endhome to its knees.  The temples worked with the local law enforcement to clear out the sewers but now it looks like some had survived and were laying low.  Fortunately Beamus’s temple kept a cache of weapons.  He would lend them out to the party if they went into the sewers to rescue the boy’s father.  Micca was ready to do it for free but the more mercenary members of the party needed some more incentive.  Beamus said that he would offer his healing services for free if they helped the boy out.  That was all they needed to hear.

I had provided the silver weapons since they would not have a fighting chance against the were-rats at their current first level.  I was also setting up some resources they could draw upon later.

The now calmed down boy was able to give a description of the alley the were-rats had carried his father into.  The party returned to the scene of the crime as a heavy rain began to set in.  The ranger, Keldin, easily tracked the were-rats and the dragged body of the father to a nearby sewer grate.  Now I could have figured out how hard the DC of tracking the were-rats were but I decided that Tousice, the leader, was getting a little careless with his body snatching and this time they did not bother to hide their tracks.  

“Into the sewers again!” bemoaned Absinthe.

Marching order was established with the ranger and the rogue leading the way.  One rolled encounter had the party coming up against a wandering beggar who had sought refuge from the heavy rain underground.  He didn’t want any trouble but he did point the players in the right direction saying he had seen the were-rats in the past.  With a silver piece for his troubles he headed in the opposite direction of the players.

I made note to the players that the heavy rains were beginning to fill up the canal between the walkways in the sewer tunnels and the current was swift.

The ranger and the rogue soon found the secret door leading into the were-rat lair.  Here was where I had to start keeping track of the location of the were-rats versus the party due to their scent ability.  Since the tunnel in the lair was not straight line I had to decide if the 30’ scent range worked by line of sight or by straight line.  I decided line of sight.






Absinthe managed to disable the trap and alarm on the secret door and gained entrance to the lair.  The party believed they had gained undetected entry to the lair but the light from the sorcerer’s lantern alerted the swarm of rats in the first cave area.  They swarmed forward but a sleep spell from Ravenspur knocks them all out cold.  The activity does not go unnoticed further into the cave as the first group of were-rats come to investigate.  

As soon as the first adventurer entered the cave, the scent ability of the were-rats detected them and the first fight is on.  The frontline bricks in the party formed a wall to block off the were-rats and blows are exchanged.  Another sleep spell goes off from Ravenspur and the majority of the creatures go down.  The one left standing was quickly dispatched.  Those left sleeping on the ground are disposed of as well.  All this noise has alerted Tousice who is preparing his followers to charge out and engage the party.






The final group of were-rats led by Tousice were rogues so if they got behind the party with tumble checks then they could get some nasty sneak attacks in.  TPK still loomed in my head and this was both a test for myself as well as them.  Tousice and the others formed up as the party came within sight of them in the main cave.  Init was rolled with no surprise round since both parties knew what was coming.

Tousice rolled the best init and led off with a thunderstone attack against Adson who happened to be closest.  The monk failed his save and was deafened.  The other were-rats moved in and started stabbing away at the front line fighters of the party.  

Two rounds in and neither group made much headway with missed rolls or very low damage.  The were-rats were beginning to get the upper hand and the party retreated back down the corridor.  A sleep spell set off by Ravenspur failed miserably while Absinthe, fearing that she would get killed in one hit retreated out of the cave complex entirely.  Keldin could not use his bow to good affect in such tight quarters.  On the plus side, the were-rats could not tumble through with the way the corridor was configured.






Things did not look good and talk was made of retreating but then the tide turned on a single spell.  Ravenspur set off another sleep spell and this time two of the were-rats went down.  They were quickly dispatched before the others could react and attempt to wake them.  The group then rallied and it became a slaughter.  

Tousice watched as his minions were cut to pieces.  Fortunately for him all the were-rats going down cleared room enough for him to tumble through and escape.  He dodged and weaved between players but he still got cut and nicked from AOOs.  He was low on hit points when he finally burst out into the sewer tunnels startling Absinthe.

The adventurers did not want to let him go and what followed next was a chase down the sewer tunnels with balance checks being made on the slippery ledges bordering the rapidly rising water.  Tousice made it to a ladder leading out but was delayed a round while he failed his initial strength check to move the grate open.  Aislenn got below him and climbed up high enough to take a swipe at him knocking the were-rat down to one hit point.  The leader of the kidnappers missed his balance and fell off the ladder hitting Aislenn and they both tumbled into the flowing water.  Tousice made his swim check but not Aislenn.  I gave the players who caught up to the ladder a decision:  go after Tousice who had disappeared underneath the water or rescue the rapidly sinking Aislenn in her heavy armor.  They went with rescuing their comrade while casting furtive glances up and down the sewer tunnels.

The were-rat lair was ransacked and they found the missing father, beaten into unconsciousness but with no signs of bites or scratches which would indicate they wanted to turn him into a fellow were-rat.  One interesting thing they found was a letter from Tousice’s client who had hired him to kidnap fresh victims.  It was signed TP.  This is, of course, a story hook for another adventure involving the vampires at the Pulanti estate.

The party then high-tailed it back to Father Beamus’s temple, convinced that Tousice was going to show up with a war band of were-rats, ready to slaughter them all.  I found it amusing they were so paranoid when in reality poor Tousice was currently fighting for survival with only one hit point left to him.  He had survived his ordeal and was very slowly making his way back to the Pulanti estate where he would report to the vampires of his failure.  The party had just gained an enemy who I would use later.

The party was healed up by Father Beamus and thanked for their efforts.  He had no idea who the letter was from but recommended they report what had occurred to the city garrison first thing next morning.  He offered them to stay the night at his temple but the group, still paranoid that they were about to be attacked again, did not want to involve him in the fight and they barricaded themselves into Micca’s temple for the night.

At this point I was coming down with a cold and my throat was killing me.  We called it a night and I doled out XP.  Everyone said they had a great time and that the fight had their adrenaline pumping.  I knew then that I should stop worrying about killing them since they were all very experienced players and knew how to evaluate threats and deal with them accordingly.  

Next adventure:  Back into the wilderness!


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## Scorch (Sep 20, 2006)

*Adventure 4:  Almost killed by a vine.*

The next adventure had me confident that I would not kill my players.  Barakus was written with a well-balanced party of four players in mind and I had six players plus an NPC smashing their way through it.  With the success of the were-rat lair behind I decided it was time to try out some of the wilderness encounters.  But to get them out into the wilderness surrounding Endhome I needed to reel in one of the story hooks I had placed beforehand.

The night passed uneventfully with no attacks from vengeful were-rats.  The players felt more confident now that they were healed back up.  The first order of business was to report the were-rats to the town watch.  Bragger Bondhome was back in town after being out in the field and he met the players.  Their previous work in Micon’s Hideout plus the letter of introduction from their former employer were major pluses on his reaction to them.  He listened politely to what they had to say and thanked them saying that he would take care of checking out the sewers despite all the other problems the city was having.  At which point the players asked if he was referring to the Green Tree Bandits they had heard about.

When reading about Bragger I got that he was a pretty “no nonsense” kind of guy who maintained his position for so long as the Captain of the Watch in Endhome because he did the job well and did not let the internal politics of the city distract him from keeping the populace safe.  As an 8th level fighter he was also one of the most powerful NPCs in the city.  Bragger knew an opportunity to use the players as a resource so he told them about the recent spate of attacks on merchant caravans coming down the north-south route to Endhome.  He had just come back from investigating the most recent attack.  He then mentioned the 500 gold piece reward plus the possibility of additional rewards from merchants if their merchandise was recovered.  

All the players needed to hear was “500 gold pieces” (a king’s ransom at that level) and they were ready to go running out the door.  More level heads got additional information from the Captain including a location on the map of all the bandit attacks.  At this point I would like to say how useful the PDF file containing the maps was.  I printed up a keyless map of the wilderness when one of the players purchased one from a city vendor and we pinned it up to the corkboard in the game room where we played.   On it I penciled in notes and locations that the players knew about.

Before setting out for the wilderness, the players made a stop at the big weapons shop in town (which just so happened to be outside the barracks) to place some advanced orders for masterwork and silver weapons.  Aislenn spent a few minutes with her nose pressed up against the display case, admiring the magic weaponry within.  

“One day” she whispered “One day…”  

They also sold off the loot from the were-rat lair.  Micca spent his share on hiring workers to fix the temple and get some new locks put on the doors.  Father Beamus promised to keep an eye on it while they were out in the wilderness.

The next morning they were ready to head out.  Curley Barnes, having proven himself in battle against the were-rats, was hired on by the party.   The players paid him with a masterwork flute they had found earlier.  

Now here is where I decided to compress travel time.  The players had already traveled down this road before.  I wanted things to move quicker and I thought it prudent not to bog them down with mundane travel.  I just rolled for encounters five or six times a day in rapid succession and three times during the night.  There were only two encounters of note.  The first was with giant bees (They were not falling for that dancing lights trick again!).  The other encounter was one of the goofier ones. During the night the players split into three watches.  During one watch I rolled “The Hanged Man” encounter.  We decided that it was silly that the person on watch would turn around and notice a dead body hanging from a tree they had not seen before so I just rolled again.

After three days of travel they reached where the most recent bandit attack had taken place.  I started reading up on how the ranger could track.  I took into account all the factors in the environment, time that had passed, etc. and came up with a number.  The player running Keldin promptly took 20 and picked up the trail left by the bandit hauling the merchant wagons they had stolen into the Penprie Forest.  

Here is where I had to make some decisions about “Taking 20”.  How it was written in the PHB led me to believe that if a player had 2 minutes to spare on a task then they could Take 20 on a task.  I sort of felt that it was like Aragorn in “The Two Towers” sniffing out what had happened at the scene of a battle, though he was probably hitting a DC 80 as opposed to the DC 25 to 27 I was hitting my ranger with.  For Keldin tracking this was not much of an issue but later on Absinthe started taking 20 for everything she was doing.  

In any event, Keldin had picked up the trail of the bandits and the party set off into the woods.  By coincidence the line they were taking would lead them through several encounter locations in the forest.  I still rolled for encounters with the appropriate modifiers since the forest is a pretty dangerous place for a low level party.

Their first encounter was with the flying monkeys.  They ignored the advance guard of the ranger and the rogue and went right for the central pack of the party, raining darts from above.  They then moved in to get the flank attacks on players, using their flying to get around the battlefield quickly.  The party did pretty well against them slaying four of them in the first round and then picking off the others.  One or two of the creatures fled the battlefield but were picked off by the ranger.  A search of the area revealed some gold carved into the form of acorns.

The other encounter of note was when they camped at night in the woods and were attacked by two big spiders.  The two players who were on watch quickly dispatched them before the others even had a chance to awaken fully and grab their weapons.

The next day the party came across the river that runs through the forest.  The bandits had entered the river and then traveled down along its shallow bed to the south to throw off the trail of anyone tracking them.  The DC of tracking them adjusted appropriately and the ranger could not make it even if he took 20.  They would need to guess north or south.  The party guessed north and started up the west bank of the river.

After a few hours the Absinthe noticed an unusual looking hill set back in the woods from the riverbank.  The party stopped to investigate and made out the broken doorway leading into the hill.  This was the Mysterious Crypt encounter.  I made mention of the thick vines hanging down over the door.  Absinthe’s player started scouting ahead and then made the flip remark “Yeah, watch these suckers animate and attack me or something.”

Poor, poor rogue.

WHAM!  The assassin vine got the surprise round in and KOed Absinthe in one shot.  She fell into negative HP and dropped like a sack. 

Everyone stared at me slack jawed and I just shrugged saying “Well, you did walk right into it.”   In my defense, the ranger missed his spot and wilderness rolls.

Init was rolled, the action music started, and it was ON!  The assassin vine went first and for it’s action it dragged the rogue over to its root structure where it would feed from her decomposing body… that is if she was dead.  I decided that since the vine is a mindless plant it could not tell if what it had attacked was dead or not and if you stopped moving then it grappled and moved you to where it could feed on you.

The party worked as best they could in the situation.  Aislenn moved in and just started power attacking but she was not rolling that well on the damage.  Keldin and Ravenspur stood back and peppered the vine with arrows and rays of frost.  Micca and Adson attempted to move in as well to see if they could free Absinthe and heal her.  It was pretty tight for three rounds as bad rolls on the party’s part and good rolls on the vines part had the party almost at the point of death.  A final blow from the fighter finished it off and the party grabbed Absinthe and ran back to the riverbank.

At that point I called it a night.  I had many dark looks thrown my way as I calculated up experience.  Fortunately those went away when they realized they had all hit second level, even the ranger who had missed a session.  I ruled that if they got a good night’s rest then they could level up.

They did so and everyone was happy that they had survived to second level.  They would need it for what would come next…

Next up:  Into the crypt then bandit bashing time!


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## Scorch (Sep 20, 2006)

*Adventure 5 Summary*

At this point I knew exactly how things were going to go with this session.  Everyone was feeling more confident having reached 2nd level and I knew the encounters coming up would be easy to run.  The player running Absinthe was not available for that night so the “paper rogue” would be run as an NPC by me.  

The party had just finished a deadly encounter with the Assassin Vine at the entrance to Area E:  The Mysterious Crypt.  Having rested the night they decided to tackle the structure before them.  Now this group of people know the drill when it comes to dungeon crawling.  They pretty much scoured the entire crypt entrance room from ceiling to floor, taking great pains in taking 20.  Ravenspur found the four symbols and was able to interpret their meaning.

They then descended down the hole into the narrow tunnel.  Keldin and Absinthe spotted the goblin bodies at the intersection.  I had created the entire crypt using Hirst Art block pieces I had made for generic square rooms as well as a custom built piece for the rat tunnel intersection.  While the ranger and the rogue were trying to be sneaky the cleric tumbled down the hole in his armor and made quite a racket.  I then pulled out a pile of plastic dire rat minis and placed them on the board.  Thank you, WotC plastic minis!

I played the rats as a swarming mass of rodent furry that would do move-throughs in an attempt to get the flank.  The party was split by the tunnel intersection with Absinthe and the Ranger backed up against the strange door and the rest of the party constrained by the narrow tunnel.  The fight lasted three to four rounds but the outcome was not in doubt.  I knew they would carve the rats up.  The only question was:  who would succumb to filth fever.  Answer:  the fighter, Aislenn, and the rogue, Absinthe (big surprise there).  The incubation period was a few days off but I made note of it for later.

After searching the goblin bodies and investigating both ends of the rat dug tunnel the party turned its attention to the Strange Door.  Ravenspur’s player played twenty questions with me and eventually figured out how to open the door without killing himself.  They happily made use of the Underground Garden’s resources and healed up.

Remembering that they were in the forest to look for the Green Tree Bandits the party then continued heading north along the river outside the crypt and eventually exited the forest to the north.  Recognizing the Fool’s Pass they realized they had been going in the wrong direction.  Back south they went and eventually picked up the bandits’ trail leading back to their hideout.

Before the game I had drawn the layout of the entire bandit camp on a 1” grid tablet page.  I ran the encounter almost exactly as it was described in the book.  The bandits had lookouts watching but the sharp eyes of the ranger and the rogue saw them and took them out with some well-placed arrows.  As the party approached the camp luck failed them and some low hide/move-silent rolls were overcome by high spot/listen checks by the bandits.  An alarm was raised and the fight was on.

Grump, the dwarf fighter, quickly organized the bandits while Garland, the bard, threw down a sleep spell that took down Adson, the party’s monk.  Absinthe snuck around a pile of stolen merchandise to go for the flank while Aislenn went charging in, hoping to get some cleaves going.  Ravenspur started throwing down his own sleep spells having some good success but could not get quite as many bandits into the area of affect as he had liked.  Someone woke up the monk who spent a turn getting back up.

Then Fell Tarmick exited his tent.  “All right” I thought, “This guy is going to give them a challenge.”  Then Aislenn got to move and she critted him knocking him right into unconsciousness.  

It turned out the real challenge for Grump and Garland.  Grump, with the help of some bandits knocked Absinthe down below 0 hp and I wondered if I was going to have to tell Absinthe’s player that I had gotten his rogue killed while he was not present at the game.  Grump also managed to almost kill Aislenn as well but then the ranger finally got into position and started hitting the good rolls with his bowshots and bandits started dropping.  Micca and Adson were able to drop Garland and Grump and the combat finally ended with two of the surviving bandits surrendering while a third ran off into the woods (where he got eaten by a troll a few hours later).

Combat had ended in the manner that was satisfactory to the both myself and the players:  with a few of the players still standing, exhausted, and a paper grid mapped heavily marked up with dead bodies and pools of blood drawn with Sharpie markers.

The wounded players were healed up.  While the cleric was distracted by healing the others, he did not notice the other players finishing off some of the unconscious bandits.  Grump and Fell Tarmick survived this since it was determined they would be better off brought in alive.  Garland had dropped below –10 and succumbed to his wounds.  The camp was raided and the party loaded up the stolen carts with boxes and crates of stolen goods and hitched up the draft animals that bandits had taken from the merchants.

The next morning they set off to try and get out of the forest and back to Endhome.  Fell Tarmick attempted to sweet talk his way out of the situation he was in but they were hearing none of it and he was promptly smacked around and tied up.  Later on I got to read up on Use Rope as he attempted to wiggle his way out of his bonds (no such luck).

A failed roll on Keldin’s part got them all good and lost in the forest.  They managed to stumble upon another Assassin Vine which the ranger spotted and steered them around.  They also came across the Black Unicorn encounter area but did not hang around long enough to encounter it.  Finally they were found by Silvar and Thuss, the Araneas, who showed them how to get out of the forest.

The party stayed outside the Roadside Inn, keeping guard on their prisoners, and then continued on to Endhome the next day.  Word had reached the city from travelers who had left earlier from the inn and people lined up to gawk at Fell and the remnants of his band of highway men.  The players were rewarded the promised amount by Bragger Bondhome plus a bonus from the merchants whom had their merchandise returned. 

The players then asked what had happened while they were gone.  They were all still nervous that an army of were-rats was going to track them down and kill them all.  In actuality I had decided that Tousice, having been reprimanded by his vampiric employers, was now plotting his revenge using resources from the Pulanti estate.  

Bragger did mention an incident in the sewers involving a wizard name Bezlur Orloff attempting to tunnel into the Wizards Academy put it was foiled by Dagon Ziss and his party.  I had come to the conclusion that the party would not be able to do all the side adventures listed in the book so why not have the evil adventuring party do them so they could level up and be a threat to the party later.  They would be doing the adventures for more sinister reasons though.

With that I ended the session and the group began to think about what they wanted to buy with their reward money next session.

Next up:  Barakus… no, really, they get there!


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## Scorch (Sep 20, 2006)

*Adventure 6 Summary*

One would expect that while playing a mega-module named “Lost City of Barakus” the adventurers would eventually reach said city.  I had been reluctant to let them dive right into it since at first level they would be slaughtered.  Instead their first level was spent familiarizing them with the city of Endhome and the surrounding countryside.  This gave them a chance to get my feet wet as a DM and reacquaint them with first level game play.

After finishing the Green Tree Bandit story I knew it was time for them to go to Barakus.  I had laid the groundwork with several hints and story hooks through the previous six adventures and want to see them come to fruition.  Unfortunately the player who runs Micca was not able to make the adventure but no problem.  I knew I could run him as an NPC and move the adventure towards where I wanted it to go.  

Balancing the game between moving the players towards a goal and railroading them into it is a skill I have come to appreciate while watching the DM of one of our other games run an adventure.  I had read enough horror stories on other forums to know that I did not want to run an adventure where the DM’s pet NPCs do all the heavy lifting.  With Barakus I had a self-contained world that the others could mess around in and I only had to nudge them occasionally towards adventure.  They were eager to get into trouble and I was eager to give it to them.

With that in mind the story for this session opened up with the party visiting the marketplace to sell their loot and purchase equipment.  I found that some hand-waving was necessary at this point with some house rules on selling items rather than role playing every haggling merchant.  During this I had them all make listen checks.  Those who succeeded heard Micca talking to a distraught woman a few stalls down in the market.  He was agreeing to help her with something.  The player who ran Micca had done a fine job of playing the dwarfish cleric as a noble defender of the weak so it was not a stretch to have him readily agree to the woman’s request.  The players around the table rolled their eyes and made jokes of the cleric getting them in trouble again.

The woman was Penelope Barmey and she had heard of the exploits of the “Endhome Six” as they were becoming known thanks to the bard, Curley.  Those familiar with her character description know that she was the wife to the sorcerer Fenton who was trapped down on the second level of Barakus.  Psychic visions of his plight had been haunting her the past year but the previous night she had a vision that the cleric, Micca, and his companions would be able to help her.

The party took her back to the King’s Inn for a midday meal and she told her story.  Her husband had discovered some ancient manuscripts while researching in the Wizard’s Academy detailing a lost city of mages hidden in the hills to the north.  Fenton was friends with the cleric, Kabbal Sharn, who suggested they put together a party of adventurers to investigate.  They met a paladin named Vladoff and two half brother halflings, one a rogue and one a monk.  They poured over ancient maps and notes and one year ago had set off for the hills north of the Fool’s Pass.  The group had not been heard from since.  Fenton had taken all his notes with him but had left a map which showed a general area where the entrance to Barakus could be found.

The players were ecstatic.  A dungeon to delve into!  What joy!  They investigated the lead of Vladoff and found that he had been staying at the local temple of Kord before setting off for Barakus but that was all.  They began pouring through the manuals and making shopping lists of equipment they would need for such an adventure.  I made sure to keep track of who was where since one of their enemies was keeping track of them.

Then an opening:  Ravenspur, the sorcerer, was eager to purchase some scrolls and potions that could not be found in the marketplace so he journeyed alone to the Wizards Academy.  It was evening by the time his business was concluded and he made his way back to the inn.  A good spot check on his part had him notice he was being followed by a suspicious man and a hulking humanoid hidden in a heavy cloak.  A quick chase through the streets and a very good hide check on his part had Ravenspur duck out of site in the crowded streets behind a cart.  There he was able to overhear Tousice, the were-rat in human form, and one of Pulanti’s ogres arguing over which way to go.  The sorcerer waited until they had departed and then shakily made his way back to report what had happened.  The party decided that a trip outside of the city was a good thing at this time.

The party headed out the next morning with their single horse.  It was a three day journey to reach the general vicinity of Barakus.  Due to the mixing up of the I and J on the map in the module I had place Barakus in the upper right hand corner of the map rather than the upper left hand corner.  This worked out since it shortened the time it would take to reach there and I wanted the party to have easy access back to the city in case things went sour.  I rolled encounters for the three days and nothing of note came up.

Successful wilderness rolls on Keldin’s part led them right up to southern face of the hill that Barakus laid under.  They saw the old totems of the former orc tribe that had inhabited the caves and followed them to the broken doors leading up into the hill.  They looked for an area to hide the horse and worked out a marching order.  Absinthe, the rogue, would lead while the others followed fifteen feet behind.  

She made her way slowly up the rubble strewn stairs.  Around the midway point was when the two dire rats leapt out and attacked.  Aislenn went charging up the stair to help, missed her balance check, and went tumbling back down again.  Same with the cleric.  Absinthe was able to ward off the rats until help slowly made its way up to her and defeated the rodents.  A quick search revealed some treasure on the goblin body the rats had been gnawing on.  “The goblin died eaten by rats?” asked the ranger “Good!”

They reached the top of the stairs and saw the large cavern stretch out before them with a strange red tile set in the floor that led off into a passageway to the north and east.  The rogue then spotted the ghoul that charged out of its hiding spot at her.  The others moved in and attacked, quickly defeating the undead threat.  Investigation of the cavern revealed the ledges set high up and some of the more dexterous members climbed up to find the treasure hidden there.

A decision was made to head north.  Absinthe led the way into another cavern that was dominated by a statue of Orcus looking down upon those entering the area.  

“Well, we know where the orcs worshipped” quipped someone.  

The orc barbarian and his two war dogs did not see the rogue but they heard the loud party coming up from behind and he moved in to attack.  Absinthe saw them coming and warned the others then started positioning herself for the flank.  Ravenspur rolled high on init and let loose with a sleep spell that dropped the orc and one of his dogs (a rules mistake on my part that would be pointed out at a later session).  The second dog was killed and the poor orc and his remaining hound were put to the sword.

The group decided to continue going north.  They entered another cave and the rogue descended down a cliff to investigate the bottom, discovering a secret door on the north wall.  The rest of the party descended carefully on ropes.  

Following the narrow passage behind the secret door the group came to a cavern with passageways leading out to the north and east.  Absinthe accidentally set off a spike trap but narrowly avoided it.  She found another one further in the cavern.  Finding nothing else of note they decided to go north.  

Just to give you an idea of where the party was, they were at the T section with a hole in the ceiling that lead up to a cave where some bandits were hiding.  They made note of the hole but did not investigate it further.  Instead they went west and came to a dead end cave with a large pile of sand on its southern wall.  Spot checks were made and they noticed the slight rippling across its surface.

“Go ahead and throw a rock at it!” dared Absinthe “I bet you spiders or something are going to erupt out of it.”  

Someone took her up on that dare and threw a rock onto the sand pile which promptly erupted as eight monstrous spiders attacked the party.  Everyone gave the rogue a mean look as I yelled out “Surprise Round!”

The spiders swarmed over the party but the rolls were not with me that combat session as the party quickly squashed them.  The combat was noisy though and someone had heard what was going on…

I decided to end the session there.  

“So we are really in Barakus?” asked a player.  

I saw no reason to hide the fact “Yes, you are.” 

“No, really?  This is Barakus?  Not a trick or something.”

“Yes, really!”

“Wow, that was easy.”

I took that as a complement.  I didn’t want them banging their heads in frustration trying to find the place.  Now that they had arrived I hoped to make their stay there as exciting as possible.

Next Session:  Annihilating Kobolds…


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## Scorch (Sep 20, 2006)

*Adventure 7 Summary*

Barakus is a campaign that our group plays between sessions of our main campaign run by WizarDru, who plays Ravenspur.  Typically it is when not all the players can make the main game or if WizarDru is too burned out or did not have time to put together an adventure.  I always have the books ready to play at a moment’s notice, which is why I picked Barakus.  We can just pick up and go from where we left off.

I had such grandiose plans for using miniatures, Hirst Arts, and Dwarven Forge pieces to layout the entire dungeon but after a point I came to realize that it would slow down the pace of the game.  Laying out the pieces beforehand, transporting them over to the house we played at, and storing them there would be a chore.  Instead I went to on old standby:  the one-inch grid presentation tablet.

I picked up two from the local office supply store and I spent the night drawing out the entire first level of Barakus, the caverns, on the first twenty pages of the tablet.  I then made some pieces of paper I could use to cover up the unexplored parts of the map and reveal them as the party moved on.  I traced it all out with colored markers to add some flavor.  I also re-read the entire first level adventure and made notes of the possible creatures they could run across.  Going through all our miniature collections I laid aside all the figures they could run across. 

This lead to one awkward exchange between me and Valanthe, who plays Absinthe:

“So you bought the basic D&D box set at Southern Exposure?” I asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“Well I need to get something out of it.”

“It is over there.  What do you need out of it.”

“Oh, nothing important.” I replied as I palmed the black dragon medium sized mini out of it.

Having this all prepared.  I started the next session of Barakus.

The party had just finished off the monstrous spiders hiding underneath the sand pile in the northwest corner of the map.  The sound of their combat had alerted the Pogin gang who were hiding in the cave above (I rolled their listen checks and got some high numbers).  They shined a lantern down the hole in the floor at the back of their cavern so they could see what was happening.  Spot checks by Adson and Ravenspur alerted the party to the source of light down the corridor from where they were.  The party debated for a bit in silence and during this time the Pogin Gang decided to seal up the hole with some boards and place heavy boxes on top of them.  They were taking no chances.  The party decided to move on.

Standard marching order was set up and the group moved east down the corridor.  Absinthe was able to hear and eventually see six kobolds practicing with crossbows up ahead.  Unfortunately as she approached she did not spot the trip-wire, which dropped a net on top of her.  She was promptly entangled.  The rest of the group charged forward at the six kobolds who had time to fire off their first round of crossbow shots.  Five of the six kobolds went down but the sixth near the back went charging off to the south to warn the rest of the tribe while his comrades died.

The group heard a warning horn blow and knew that they had just kicked over an anthill.  I rolled a d4 and came up with 2, which was how long it would take the kobolds to get organized and attack.  I made a note that two rounds into the next combat that the kobold rogue sorcerer would lead a strike force around and attack the party from the rear through the passageway leading from the east.

The group formed up with their bricks in the front while Ravenspur and Keldin moved to the east to provide fire support while keeping an eye on the eastern exit.  Ravenspur’s player made sure I knew he was keeping an eye out.

The kobolds formed up ranks and all moved on the same init.  The first wave was to use up AoOs as they charged forward to try and get the flank.  Some made it, some died.  The crossbow target range soon became a killing ground as kobolds swarmed into the room.  The party were slaughtering kobolds but were slowly being overwhelmed by the numbers.

The kobold rogue then made his move and his hide and move silent rolls exceeded the spot and listen checks of Ravenspur.  The sly kobold got his sneak attack in and I thought I was about to have my first character kill when I rolled double ones for damage.

“You are SO lucky!” I snarled at Ravenspur’s player.

The group knew a new threat when they saw it and two of them spent a round to turn around and annihilate the poor kobold before he could do more mischief.  The strike team that followed did a little better and the party was now flanked.  Keldin and Ravenspur backpedaled through the party to get clear of the kobolds and their stabbing blades.

The tide had turned after another round of combat as my dice failed me and the party started hitting their stride.  Soon all the kobolds were dead.  The tribe had been wiped out root and branch.  The adventurers took a breather and heal up their wounds before taking a body count.  They had fought over 20 kobolds and won.  Careful exploration of the rest of the kobold complex revealed no survivors.

The party then decided to investigate the hole back near the spider cave.  I did a quick ruling on what the DC was to climb up the hole without a rope secured at the top and the monk took 20 and made it up no problem.  He started banging on the wooden covering the Pogins had placed over the hole and they came to investigate, weapons drawn.  Based on their write up in the module I decided that they were pretty fearful of anything in the caves so after an initial scare they realized they were looking at a human and did not attack.  Adson conversed with them for a few minutes, letting them know that the kobolds had been destroyed.  The brothers and their half-orc compatriot were not looking for trouble and thanked the monk for the news.  Adson dropped back down the hole and let the party know who was up there and that there was another exit from the caverns there as well.  

The party then decided to range east and south from the kobold caves and came to the western edge of the giant cavern containing the lake.  They decided to avoid it and start investigating some passages to the west to see if they linked up with what they discovered already.  

The tunnel they chose lead to the stone pillar containing the Warrior’s Prayer.  They made note of it and continued exploring eventually coming across the strange cave with the three stone rocks and the red circle on the floor.  After poking and prodding they stumbled across how to activate the ritual to drain CON from three players by 2 and place 4 on the player in the circle.  Unfortunately one of the players drained was Absinthe who dropped down to a CON of 6.  I told the players that she was not looking so good, even worse than she normally looked.  The asthmatic elf decided that she could not go on for the rest of the day and needed to rest.  Adson, on the other hand, was the picture of health, just having gotten 4 more CON.  The party decided to rest for the day in the cave.

They set watches and I rolled on the random encounter table, dropping encounters that made no sense considering where they were and also that they had wiped out most of what was in the western half of the caverns.  They waked the next day with the effects of the CON drain/boost gone and ready for adventure.  

While they had breakfast, Keldin started worrying about the horse they had left outside.  He and Curley volunteered to sneak back the way they had come to check on the horse.  The rest of the party stayed and got ready for the day.  Since Keldin’s player was not attending this session and Curley was an NPC this was just my way of setting up another encounter.

Keldin returned and reported that an ogre was now in the entrance cave where they had fought the ghoul.  This was the ogre from the east who was happy now that he could leave the caverns.  The party came up with a cunning plan to take it out and free up the southern exit from the caves.

While Absinthe snuck into the cave and hid, the others would raise a ruckus and draw the ogre into the northern passageway.  The bricks would be up front fighting while the rogue would come up from behind for the sneak attack.  Absinthe was able to gain entry to the cave without drawing the ogre’s notice.  The party started making noise and the monster went to investigate.  It charged in with its club and smashed the monk knocking him down to low single digits.  One more hit and he would probably die.  Ravenspur then cast the Daze spell and the ogre failed the save.  It would lose its next action.

We found out later that we had made a mistake here.  We thought that the ogre was a humanoid and thus affected by the spell but it was a giant.  None of us knew this until a few days after this session but the mistake probably saved a few lives.  Live and learn.

With the ogre dazed the party moved in and hacked it to pieces in the space on one round.  The monk was healed up and the ranger went and checked on the horse:  it was okay.

Still feeling up for a fight the party then investigated the caves to the east of the entrance.  They winded their way through several empty caverns and Absinthe’s keen ears picked up sounds from ahead.  She snuck up to where the cave passageway widened and she saw two rodent humanoids on guard duty.

“WERERATS!” squeaked Absinthe’s player.  We ended the session for the night on that note.

The session was probably the most fun the players had according to the feedback they gave.  They loved the kobold encounter.  Ravenspur’s player stated that it had a great low level encounter feel to it in that the dice could turn at any moment and members of the group could certainly die.  I tried to play the kobolds intelligently with them setting up flanks and moving in formation and the result worked out very well.  

Next Session:  Where oh where are the were-rats?


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## Scorch (Sep 20, 2006)

*Adventure 8 Summary*

We were going to play our normal adventure but unfortunately one of the players required for the plot, Micca’s player, called in sick so Ravenspur’s player, WizarDru, turns to me and says:  “You wanna run Barakus?”

A quick 30 minute round trip back to my house and I had everything I needed.  Since then I have always kept the Barakus materials in my car just in case.  A good DM is always ready for a pick-up game.

We picked up right where we left off with Absinthe having just spotted the rat men.  The party was not sure if they were were-rats or if indeed related to Tousice and his gang back in Endhome.  Some of them had placed orders for silvered weapons back in Endhome but had not picked them up yet.  The rat men had rolled suck and suck on Spot and Listen so Absinthe backed out of the cave and a plan was made.

The rogue would sneak in as best as she could and then the party would strike in as quickly as they could on the surprise round hoping some charge and sneak attacks could be made before an alarm was raised.

Absinthe was able to get in place, inits were rolled, and surprise round went into affect.  The rat men were caught off guard and were quickly overwhelmed by the party.  The group was relieved when their regular weapons were able to score damage.  One of the guards survived long enough to blow on a silent whistle and thus alert the rest of the colony.  The party knew what was coming so they finished up the guards and got in formation to proceed further into the caves.  

They heard movement and up ahead as the colony mobilized for defense.  Vexper and Contra had the rat men well organized and I played them so that the rogue, Vexper, would lead the main force while Contra would take a smaller force and defend from another direction while casting spells over the heads of her bodyguards.  I had my strategy planned out while the party warily edged forward with Absinthe in the lead.  

Oh, how the dice turn.  Absinthe blew her spot and listen checks and snuck around the corner right into two rat men who made theirs.  They KOed her and she went down.  The other rat men rushed into position under Vexper’s commands.  They spotted the adventurers rushing up to save their comrade.  Since she would be in the way of deploying his troops, Vexper dragged the elf’s limp body behind the line of combat and out of sight of the party.  They had no idea what they were going to do to her so the battle plan now evolved into a race to save her.  I was not about to coup de grace her since the rat men were disciplined enough to concentrate on the more immediate threat of heavily armed foes in front of them.  Absinthe was just tossed aside to be dealt with later out of the way of combat.

Aislenn, Adson, and Micca moved up to engage the main rat man force while the other stayed back to provide fire, song, and spell support.  The line held and Vexper looked for an opening to tumble through so he could start hitting the flank of the invaders.  Contra finally got into position and threw a sleep spell at the rear of the group.  It did not take.  Ravenspur returned one in kind and knocked out two of her bodyguards.  The rat witch sent her familiar, Ben, to go wake them.  

Curley and Keldin saw an opportunity and charged Contra and her guards and started hacking them to pieces.  The main group of fighters were systematically butchering the main force of rat men and Vexper failed his tumble check and was dropped by a sword blow dealt by Aislenn.  Contra soon fell as well as did Ben and the rest of her guards.  Keldin, decided that the cave the witch came from must be connected to the rest of the lair started double moving, while always turning left.  His hope was to come out into the cave where they had dragged Absinthe and rescue her.

The dice turned again and the rat men were beginning to inflict damage against the adventurers but by then Keldin’s gamble had paid off.  He reached the rear of the rat men’s defense and saw the Absinthe was OK, just unconscious.  He began firing into their rear ranks.  Soon the remaining rat men were brought down and finished off.  One of Contra’s guards managed to escape and he went to warn the remaining guards at the other guard posts.  They decided to flee to the north and then east… right into the dragon’s lair.  They were not heard from again.

Absinthe was revived and the party dealt with its wounds and looted the lair.  They turned up Vexper and Contra’s room and scratched their heads over the partially working water clock they find there.

The party then decided to follow the cavern passageways north.  They eventually wandered into the low cavern containing stone coffins  arranged along the walls.  Searching them revealed the false bottom of one under which the stone steps lead down to the second level of Barakus.  This is where I came across my first big typo in the module.  The text reads the stairs come out in the room number that contains the Heart of Darkness, which I thought was odd.  That room makes no mention of stairs leading back up.  In reality they should lead down to the large room full of mausoleums and the ghast.  I did not catch this mistake until much later but it did not change the part of the second level they came out on all that much so I left it.  The only problem was that it led to a trap that could potentially kill them all.  

The party came out into the room containing the glass sarcophagus set in the floor.  The rogue decided to check it out and discovered a hidden compartment protected by a trap way beyond her skill to disarm.  The group decided to leave it be and followed the low corridor leading into a hallway lined with mirrors.  They soon realized that they were in a vast complex that lay below the caves.  Micca recognized the stonework from his dream vision from days back revealing that Kabbal Sharn was still alive.  

They began to explore to the north, passing through strange rooms whose purposes and architecture were strange to them.  They had no idea who the former inhabitants of Barakus were except that they were great magic users.  One room had four huge statue heads set in the corners looking inward towards the center.  Another was a torture chamber of some sort filled with the bones of the tormented.  Hidden within a secret closet was a weapon of great evil that the party decided not to touch for now.  There were workrooms filled with strange tools and in one of those they were attacked by a giant scorpion that they took down with little effort.

The noise of taking down the creature drew the attention of five goblins in the next room who were prepared for combat when the party kicked the door in.  Keldin was ecstatic to finally fight his hated foes for the first time and waded right into combat.  The goblins went down quickly before they realized they should have run when they had the chance.

The party looted and moved on, heading to the north and finding a staircase leading back up to the caves above.  They terminated at a door that Absinthe cautiously opened.  She peered into a mist filled cave from which she could hear running water.  The elf rogue spent a few seconds surveying the scene before turning back to the party and letting them know what she saw.  That is when the invisible mist demon clawed her back, its form now visible within the mist after the attack.  Absinthe whimpered and scrambled to the back of the group as the group forced their way past the door and took it down.  The creature screamed and evaporated as the mist in the cavern slowly began to filter away with its demise.

With that we decided to call it a night.  Absinthe’s player, realizing that she was getting chewed up by being the scout decided that she would change her tactics.  XP was awarded and the group realized they were soon coming up on third level.  Long term plans were made about character advancement.

As for me, I went on the Necromancer Games boards and started going through the official and not-so-official errata, penciling in the book the changes needed.  I was and still am a little peeved about the first to second floor typo mistake that had me dump the party out in the wrong location and decided I would not let that happen again.

Next Up:  Paladin Bashing


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## Scorch (Sep 20, 2006)

*Adventure 9 Summary*

I guess I can comment for a bit about one minor complaint that came up around this session and the one that follows.  Along with the XP slowdown that I need to do so the party can finish the module at a challenging level, there is also an income slowdown as well.  This is especially noticeable in a game such as ours that has six players plus one NPC and the treasure splits appropriately.  The front line fighters were beginning to save up their take of the loot so they could afford some +1 items they new they would need soon.  It also didn’t help that the party had been steering around some of the better loot.  That would change in these next two sessions.

Feeling a bit worn out after the encounter with the Mist Demon, the party decided to camp for the night in the cave.  By barring the door they effectively had a safe area to hole up.  I decided that random encounters would not take place in the room under those conditions.  I doubt that monsters would wade through the stream.  An investigation of the pool the stream ran through turned up some hidden treasure.

After an uneventful night the group head back down the stairs and investigated the door east of the room where they had encountered the goblins.  There was only one door to the south (one of the ones I drew in with pencil on the map since it was missing according to the errata on these boards) and a rough hole in the middle of the floor.  A quick search of the room turned up a secret door to the north but their investigations alerted the dire weasel living down the hole.  It raced out of its lair and attacked Micca. 

As soon as I announced the attack I went searching among the plastic minis and got out a dire rat mini.  

“What are you doing with that?” asked Aislenn’s player “We just got a dire weasel mini in the new Abominations pack.”

I was pleased as punch that we had a mini exactly matching the encounter. 

The weasel missed and did not get to latch on to the cleric (I really wanted to try those rules out).  The players dog-piled on it and it went down in a round.

Absinthe had finished checking out the secret door for traps and then turned to Aislenn.

“You go ahead and open it!” the rogue stated.

The elf had decided she would only check for traps and unlock the door but her frail constitution prevented her from actually opening the door and facing whatever was inside first.  Aislenn rolled her eyes and kicked in the door…

…and was promptly confronted by a lunging bear.  It took a few seconds for the group to realize she was attacking a stuffed animal.  The group filed in after the excitement was over and they started investigating the room.  Ravenspur turned up a scroll hidden in the bear.  During the search Absinthe thought she heard a faint voice coming through a door to the north.

They exited the room into a corridor and the raving voice became louder.  The corridor ended in a T-intersection with the glimmer of torchlight coming from the west.  Absinthe crept up to the corner and peaked around into a large room with a three-tiered pedestal set in the middle, each tier five feet high.  Standing on top was a ragged man in badly maintained armor and a tattered tabard.  He was alternately mumbling to himself and screaming at the ceiling above him.  The elf rogue noted the deadly looking great sword he had on his back and the bow and arrows he waved around in his hands.

A spot check and knowledge religion by the cleric confirmed that he was wearing the symbols of Kord.  The party all agreed that they had found Vladoff, one of the missing adventurers, but that he was not quite right in the head.  Micca decided to see if he could talk some senses into him.

Micca’s player role-played this extremely well.  He held out his holy symbol and spoke in a calm, even voice.  Unfortunately the module is very specific about Vladoff’s actions and I was going to follow the encounter to the letter.  Vladoff listened for a few seconds then whipped out his bow and started firing away.  

That tore it the party boiled into the room while Micca kept yelling out “Don’t kill him!”  They agreed to try and subdue him but first they had to reach him.  Everyone but the monk was at a disadvantage when they reached the bottom of the tall pedestal.  Adson just started leaping up level by level.  There was some discussion what the monk could do with his very high jump and climb skills.  Everyone else had to take a full turn action to get up one level.  During all this Vladoff was filling them full of arrows as they climbed.

When Adson started climbing the pedestal the fallen paladin dropped his bow and drew his sword.  He started making his way down the pedestal so he could escape the room through a passageway to the north.  By then the party had him surrounded and tried to subdue him.  Aislenn stepped up to engage him.

That was when the paladin opened up with his great sword.  I rolled extremely well on damage and Aislenn was almost knocked down to zero.  She yelled out that she could not take another blow like that but then decided she did not need to.  She dropped her weapon and moved in to grapple, avoiding the AoO.

What then proceeded to happen was a painful slap-fest where-in Vladoff was pummeled into submission.  Micca, who had been studying Vladoff very intently noticed the bracers and decided he need to wrestle them off.  Since the player was very insistent that he believed the madness to be external in nature I had him make spot checks and he saw the insane runes scrawling across the bracers.  He made the intuitive leap and decided they had to go.

With the bracers off they revived the poor paladin who remembered all that he had done while insane.  He cried, moaned and beat his chest in grief and it was only Micca talking to him that got the whole story.  

Vladoff, Fenton, and the rest of them had been exploring the first level when they encountered the black dragon (“Hello, DRAGON?!?” yelped the ranger).  They had stumbled down onto the second level where they were fighting a running battle against a tribe of goblins when they acquired the bracers.  Vladoff, in his pride, put them on and went insane.  He attacked the others and drove them off but got lost himself.  He ended up where our adventurers found him.  During the year he spent down there he slew two other adventurers and has been keeping their bodies in a small alcove that he was running to before being subdued .

Realizing that they would need to return him to his temple back in Endhome, the group made preparations to leave.  A quick search of the area turned up the dead adventurers’ corpses and their possessions as well as the possessions of Vladoff. 

They made their way back up to the first level and decided to travel through the rat-men caves.  I had rolled the restock chart and came up with some goblins which the group had no trouble trouncing.  The only other encounter on note was with a xorn out in the hills surrounding the cave but they stayed far enough away from it so that it did not smell the precious metals they were hauling back.

The party dropped Vladoff off at the temple along with what they determined to be his possessions.  An hour was spent book keeping.  Always good since I can take a break, sip a cola, and answer the occasional yes or no questions while they haggle over loot distribution and bemoan the fact that they could not afford the magic items they wanted yet.  They were a tip away from third level and I was adamant that they could not gain xp until the end of this night’s session.  Micca spent some of his share on sprucing up his temple and he got to role play being a priest to some of the town guardsmen looking for someplace to worship.  Ravenspur blew his entire share and then had to borrow some more from Keldin to pick up two wands from the Wizard’s Academy:  a color spray wand and a magic missile wand.  These turned out to be a very wise investment later on. 

After all this was handled they decided they wanted to truck on back to Barakus as quickly as possible.  Absinthe was becoming paranoid that other adventurers would find out about what they had found, especially Dagon Ziss and company.  She even suggested that Curley Barnes should get some extra payment to impress upon him to not start bragging about town until after they had discovered the missing adventurers and figured out the mystery of the lost city.  When they left the city, they took the west gate and then tracked through the wilderness while having Keldin hide their passage.  It was well worth it since I had already planned on the evil adventurers to track them but they had no hope of matching the Halfling ranger’s skills in the wilderness.

Halfway there they had a nighttime encounter with an Owl Bear.  They were able to spot it coming so the spread out and Aislenn made herself a target.  It charged right at her while taking fire and she engaged while the others closed in to flank.  It was a well-executed, short combat.  Aislenn was a little wrecked up but Micca got her fixed up in a jiffy.

Upon returning to the caves above I rolled the restock table and came up with two ogres.  The party was feeling confident so they decided to engage as soon as Absinthe scouted them up ahead.  It nearly led to a TPK.  The party was just not rolling well and the ogres were rolling a bit too well.  Ravenspur attempt to get them both within range of a color spray attack but got his move invoked an AoO and he was down for the count.  Two other players were pummeled into unconsciousness before the ogres fell.  The party picked themselves up and dragged their sorry behinds back outside to rest for two days in the wilderness.  During that time they spotted the red dragon flying off in the distance over the hills.  They wisely doused the campfire and hid.

After getting back up to snuff they wandered back down to the second level where they decided to investigate the southern end of the hall of mirrors.  There they came across a vast room filled with mausoleums.  There, in the cramped quarters between the stone structures they encountered a ghast.  The combat took longer than normal due to where the undead creature ambushed them but finally they took it down.  A quick search of the rest of the room turned up its treasure.

We decided to call it a night.  I calculated up the experience, taking into account the bonus for rescuing Vladoff rather than killing him and for having the bracers destroyed, and awarded it out.  The entire group leveled to third and insisted that they camp the night in the mausoleum room so they could take full advantage of their new level for the next adventure.

Next Adventure:  Zombies, Ghosts, and Squids


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## Scorch (Sep 20, 2006)

*Adventure 10 Summary*

We had a full house once again for our latest session in Barakus.  I was getting a little lazy in my prep work since the party was intent on cleaning out the northern section of the second level.  I was familiar with what was there so I just jotted down a few notes and drew out some of the maps on the one-inch grid tablet.

After resting up in the mausoleum room, the group decided to head to Vladoff’s area and explore the rest of it.  They came upon the room filled with five zombies that started stumbling towards them.  Micca noticed the aura of evil that filled the room and could define where it started and ended.  A bit of meta-gaming took place here where the group guessed (correctly) that the zombies would keep coming back if left in the area of evil.  They lured them out one at a time and destroyed them.  You learn something new everyday and my lesson was that zombies are sloooowwww….

They then entered the room with the pool in the center and evil infernal writings on the wall.  No one could decipher it but they new it was just plain bad.  The grate in the pool was spotted but they decided to do nothing about it.  Instead they decided to strike out to the east from Vladoff’s area.

Absinthe led the way as they descended a flight of stairs.  The ceiling did not descend with the stairs, eventually reaching up twenty five feet above them.  The poor elf rogue was the first target of attack as stirges came swooping down from the darkness above.  One latched on to her and next round it would start sucking blood and draining her constitution, something that sent her into a panic for obvious reasons.  Fortunately she and others rolled high on their inits and the stirge was killed before it could do any damage.  The rest were taken care of in short order.

At the bottom of the stairs the group stood around wondering why they ended in a dead end.  Some quick searching revealed the secret door high above on the wall which led to some speculation about who had designed this fun house of a city.  Some climbing and rope use got the party up through the secret door and into a square room containing a well with the water level way below.  Absinthe just knew there was a secret door down there and she tied a rope to the iron hook above the well and descended down to look for it.  Her keen elf eyes found what she knew was there and she managed to open it and jump inside.  

Micca and Keldin followed her down, which was just as well since a group of dire rats decided to jump them at that moment.  The rats swarmed over them and the walls in the cramped tunnel, provoking AoOs but getting behind those trapped in the tunnel for flank attacks.  After a few panicked rounds of combat they managed to slay the rats.  The rest of the group climbed down the rope and they continued on to the room beyond.

The group moved into the area inhabited by Basil the Ghost.  I had some worries that this could turn into a TPK but the book was very specific about how Basil reacted to intruders into his lair.  The party slowly edged forward into the lairs, creeping around corners and getting very paranoid.  I was playing up how spooky the room was and they knew flavor text sometimes equals pain.

Basil started throwing rocks and debris at them from unexpected angles using his telekinesis but the group was not frightened off.  The ghost finally decided they had come in too far and he let out a horrific howl.  Micca and Curley promptly turned around and ran for it, unmanned with fear.  Basil then revealed himself and combat was engaged.

He let out a sleep spell that affected no one.  Absinthe, Keldin, Aislenn, and Adson attempted to strike at the ghost but to no effect.  Ravenspur then realized what they faced and that no normal weapon could do anything.  He decided it was time to cash in on his investment.  He whipped out his wand of magic missiles and started firing away.  Basil attempted another sleep spell and failed while his ethereal form was torn to shreds by the magic missiles.  It then turned into what I refer to as a crotch-kicking contest between the ghost and the gnome sorcerer and the gnome was ahead in the game as magic missiles were exchanged back and forth.  Basil realized that he could probably lose the fight and made a run for it.  Micca and Curley had shaken off their fear and were charging back into the area.  Basil tried to head for his hide out, attempting to reach an area where he could phase through the wall easily but that was his downfall.  He came to a screeching halt when he ran into Micca, expecting that the cleric would attempt a turning and his hesitancy was his downfall as one last magic missile from Ravenspur dispersed his ghostly form and sent him on to his final reward.

“Best investment of 750 GP, EVAH!” roared Ravenspur.

The party explored the rest of the lair and found Basil’s hidden room and his treasure.  There was some oohinh and ahhing over the magic ring since it was probably the best treasure they had come across even though they had no idea what it did (it was a ring of jumping).  Finding no other exit from the area (due to the cave in to the south) they decided to go back and investigate the grate back in the pool room.

The only two characters with a decent swim skill were Aislenn and Micca.  They both stripped down to their skivvies and dived in.  They managed to wrestle the grate loose and Micca had a rope tied to him.  He took a deep breath and dove through the hole.  The dwarf managed to reach the other side with little trouble but the two squids sensed him coming and attacked.  He pull on the rope and signaled that he wanted to be yanked back ASAP.  The others started hauling him and one of the squids who grappled him back through the underwater tunnel while Aislenn swam near the hole so she could help as soon as he was through.

What then ensued was a very frustrating combat of tug-of-war and blind-mans-bluff as the squids grappled and tugged while releasing inky clouds in the water.  In brief they managed to kill both squids but not without nicking each other up.  The group, as a whole, was pretty soured on attempting any further combat underwater.  I recalled a fight I got into back in “Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil” with a chuul and decided I would not put them through this again either.

A quick exploration of the cave beyond turned up some treasure, particularly the +1 staff.  The group was happy that they were finally getting some decent loot out of this level.  They camped out for the night in the pool room and we ended the session for the night.

Next Session:  Massive Goblin Smackdown!


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## Scorch (Sep 21, 2006)

*Adventure 11 Summary*

Before this session, I decided that Curley had been mapping the dungeon.  I went through the Barakus book and drew out a crude map of what the adventurers had explored so far and peppered it with miscellaneous notes that the bard had written.  I handed this out as a prop so the group could decide what they wanted to do next.

Based on what they had explored so far I had a good idea of three things they would want to do:  Explore the rest of the first level, wander south into goblin territory, or wander east and run into some drow, orcs, and flesh golems.

The group went for door #2 and head right into goblin territory smack dab in the middle of the second level map.  They did not try to hide their progress since Aislenn had no chance of even making a basic move silent check.  The goblin guards heard them coming from outside the entrance to their area.  As soon as Absinthe opened up the door to the death trap that was the goblin entrance, they slammed shut the opposite door and barred it while the archers got ready.

Absinthe decided there was no way in hell she was going down that corridor so the party decided to hunker down outside the door and had Ravenspur loudly announce that they would instead go another way.  Ghost sound was then cast to make it sound like the party had moved off when in reality Aislenn was standing right by the door as still as she could waiting for an opportunity.  

The gnome sorcerer had made a very good bluff roll while the goblin guards had nothing even resembling a good sense motive roll so after ten minutes they choose one of their number to go out and investigate.  I rolled a 1 on a straight INT check and the goblins forgot to close and bar the inner entrance door.  As soon as the poor fool opened the outside door, Aislenn smashed right past him with a held action and charged through the deathtrap corridor, avoiding arrows sent her way by the goblin archers, and right into the first guard room.  She took in the situation and decided to rush around the corner to take out the first set of archers on the east side.  Meanwhile the goblin archers in the second room started firing at her.

Keldin let out a war cry, happy to be fighting goblins, and led the charge with the rest of the party following.  While Aislenn was slaughtering goblins, the ranger headed over to the west side to take care of the archers over there.  Micca went for the door to the second guardroom and discovered that it was barred.  He started smashing away at it while taking fire from the archers in the second guard room.  Ravenspur took care of them by going right up to the archer slit and throwing a sleep spell through taking out first one set of archers then the other.

Aislenn joined Micca in smashing away at the door while Keldin finished up the remaining goblins in the first guard room.  The door finally caved in and the group rushed into the second room.  Ravenspur and Absinthe went around killing the sleeping goblins as Aislenn and the others went running down to the third guard room, taking fire from the goblins there throwing javelins.  The main goblin room was alerted to the presence of the invaders and their chief, the cleric of Orcus, was organizing them for battle.  I divided the goblins into groups of five and had each member of the group move on the same initiative.  It made things a lot easier.  As for miniatures, I was in heaven since I got to break out and use EVERY single goblin miniature I had including the goblins from the Lord of the Rings miniature game.  My only regret was that I did not have a Hirst Arts block set built for the room since I had the exact pieces needed. I had decided it was too much of a hassle to haul them over from home, especially since I was not even sure the group would come to this location.

The third group of goblins fell and the group attacked the door leading into the main goblin warren.  They smashed the door off of its hinges and were immediately under fire from javelin throwers.  The goblin chief started buffing himself up.  Absinthe and Aislenn insisted that the group stay in the corridor and let the goblins come to them into the bottleneck, thus preventing possible flank attacks.  Some of the goblins were not listening to the orders of the cleric and in a battle fervor went charging at the group rather than peppering them with missile fire.  They were promptly carved to pieces.

Seeing that amazonian fighter was slaughtering his minions wholesale, the goblin cleric let loose with a hold person that took Aislenn out of the fight for a few rounds.  The group despaired for a moment but Micca, Adson, and Keldin held the line until Aislenn was able to shake off the effects.  Ravenspur and Curley provided magical support taking out goblins with sleep spells or buffing with bardic song.

The goblin leader decided it was time to wade into battle and managed to get in one or two solid hits against Aislenn before she took his head clean off its shoulders.  I gotta remember not to send the leader right at her.  She is murder!

More goblins from the side rooms to the northwest joined the battle in the room but it was not enough to turn the tide.  Three tried to escape but were cut down before the reached the southern exit to the room.  The battle was over and the group had killed over 43 goblins. 

They took their time searching the rooms, not bothering to even look at the guardroom to the south.  (The goblins there decided to take their chances with the orcs and minotaurs.)  They grabbed whatever treasure they could find and decided to beat feet out of there back to the surface and return to Endhome.

When they returned to where they kept their horse they had the unpleasant discovery that the black dragon had gotten to the poor beast and had left parts of it strewn across the area.  This was just my way of reminding them that they could not take it for granted that they could spend days inside Barakus and not expect things would be safe outside.

On their return journey to Endhome they had a discussion with Curley about keeping Barakus a secret for a little while longer.  Curley agreed but also stated that he wanted a full share of the treasure and be treated as an equal member of the group.  The party readily agreed since they felt that Curley’s inspiring songs were what kept them alive for the last few battles.

The journey back to Endhome was uneventful and we decided to call it a night.  Treasure selling and distribution was done offline through email.

Overall the group told me they had a blast with their “Balin’s Tomb Moment” where they got to unleash on a horde of goblins.  I felt pretty satisfied with how it turned out as well.  

Next Up:  A new member to the group.


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## Scorch (Sep 21, 2006)

*Adventure 12 Summary*

This game session had the addition of a new player to the group.  We knew him as a member of ENWorld who commented on the story hour for our other campaign.  Micca’s player found out that he lived in the area and met up with him.  We had him over to play as an NPC in the Epic level campaign run by WizarDru.  We had such a cool time with him that we invited him to participate in Barakus when he had the time.

So without further ado:

Ivo:  Half-Elf Wizard, third level.  His character was studying at the Wizard’s Academy as an exchange student from abroad when he was approached by Stylus Kant, the head of the academy.   Kant was curious about the sudden influx of old minted coins and artifacts that were circulating around the city over the past month and he easily tracked them down to the adventures.  He said he was willing to pay Ivo to join the party under the pretense of finding Phenton Barmey but was curious in the whisperings that the Lost City had been found.  Ivo agreed after payment was worked out.

The party was resting at the King’s Road Inn when I had them make a series of spot checks.  The first was for a wizard that Dagon Ziss had hired to check out the players, particularly Aislenn.  They did not see him at all.  The second set was for them to spot Ivo checking them out.  Adson saw him and alerted the others.  Ivo decided that he should just approach them.  He did so and introduced himself.  After some initial suspicions on the their part they accepted his story of him looking for Phenton for a third party and that this party meant no harm to the lost sorcerer.  He sweetened the deal by offering to buy horses and pack mounts for the group.  That pretty much cinched it since Absinthe always bemoaned the fact of having to leave behind armor and weapons.  A lot of this was role played out at the table for about ten minutes.  There was no doubt that they would let Ivo join since an extra spell caster was an extra spell caster.  

The group spent the rest of the day purchasing goods and mounts.  They then set off from the west gate, hoping to fool whoever was spying on them again.  Their fears were well founded since I had planned that the Dagon and company had also taken an interest in the  group’s sudden big spending.  After a few miles of travel, Keldin led them cross country, skirting the forest to get back on the north road.  Dagon Ziss and the other evil adventurers had been misled the last time they did this trick but this time the necromancer was ready.  He had hired a wizard to scout out Aislenn and then got an agreement to scrye her three times over the next week to find out what she and the others were doing.  I had her make a will roll which she failed.  The hired wizard saw her and the others traveling on what he identified as the north road but got no more information than that.

That night the group was attacked by an ogre.  This was a get your feet wet encounter for Ivo so the player could get used to how we ran combat.  He had not played third edition until he grouped with us.  Despite catching more than half the party asleep, the ogre was taken down in about three rounds of combat with hardly any damage on the party’s side.

After one and a half more days of uneventful travel (they were really digging the horses) the group reached the entrance to Barakus.  Never having seen it before I took my time laying on the flavor text for Ivo.  The group had been somewhat secretive of where they were going but by the time the reached the hills they open up to the wizard and let him know what to expect.  Keldin found a suitable place to hide the horses where he thought the dragon would not get to them this time and stayed behind to watch them (since his player was out sick for this session).  

The group then entered up through the old orc lair entrance and made their way towards the orc tomb entrance down to the second level.  Along the way they attacked some ghouls and Micca turned them.  The three undead ran off into the caves and Adson pursued, striking one and drawing it back to the party where they destroyed it.  The other two ghouls were not seen from again.

Eventually they returned to the room of the large goblin fight and were greeted by the stinking corpses of over forty goblins.  Not having the ranger with them they did not notice that someone had been through the area after they had left.  While the group was back in Endhome, the goblin wizard had returned with her bodyguards and was captured by the orcs who were in the process of interrogating them about what had happened.

After investigating the strange posts some more a decision was made to explore into the next room and the group moved past the last goblin outpost into the large history room.  After setting off some of the traps they began reading the main inscription above the secret door out loud which opened it.  They discovered the first key inside and promptly pocketed it for testing later with the posts back in the old goblin lair (used for empowering the sword).

The party moved on to the next room and were promptly attacked by the six orc guards there.  The guards had heard them messing around in the next room and setting off the traps.  They knew the party was coming based on what they had gotten from the goblins they had captured.  The fight was short and brutal and the orcs went down fairly quickly but not before they had revealed that they had some knowledge of the party based on them crying out to get the sorcerer (Ivo understood Orcish).  

We called it a night at that point and divided up the XP.  Ivo’s player said he had a blast and we made plans to game next time.  The choices of what the players were going to do next were pretty limited so I knew what to read up on for the next game.

Next Session:  Orc Dog Pile!


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## Scorch (Sep 22, 2006)

*Adventure 13 Summary*

We were on a roll for running Barakus.  Ravenspur’s player was on hiatus from our other campaign while he worked on a module he wanted to get published.  Our schedule was almost one game a week which is pretty darn good for us.  I was eager to run the game and the players were eager to play it.  I kept getting good feedback from them so I guess the pace of the game was to their liking.

This session, Keldin’s character had family obligations once again (him and his wife being new parents and all) so his character was still out watching the horses.  The rest of the group, including the new player playing Ivo, was present.  We stocked up the fridge in the game room with a wide variety of beverages and got started.

The group was currently in the orc guard room outside of the location of the first key room on the second level.  While Absinthe examined the door opposite where they entered, Ravenspur and Ivo decided to wander down the tunnel to the east just to see where it led.  It curved around and led to a cave encrusted in crystals.  The orcs guarding it had been alerted to the sounds of combat coming down the tunnel began chucking javelins at the two arcanists.  Ravenspur started screaming “ORCS!!” as the others realized that the two spellcasters were missing.  The gnome and the half-elf dashed back to the others and told what they found.  Absinthe and Aislenn were piqued that they had wandered off on their own but there was nothing to do about it now but to go clear out the bad guys.

Absinthe snuck forward but could hear nothing from the cavern.  Ravenspur used his racial ability to cast some dancing lights down into the cave and the light reflected beautifully off of the crystals but no reaction from the orcs that were within.  The group moved forward and heard frenzied activity from down another tunnel.  I had the orc guards dash back to the main colony and alert their leader who prepared the tribe for combat.

The party decided that both sides knew what was coming so they charged into combat.  I asked Aislenn’s player to break out their plastic minis.  They had the perfect dire wolf mini and more than enough orcs.  There were 19 orcs in total plus their ranger leader and the dire wolf.  I broke them into five groups of four orcs each, each group being the same kind of mini so I could tell what groups I was moving on what initiative.  The orc tribe had had time to set up a barricade of benches and tables at the entrance and had readied javelins to start throwing as soon as the players entered the main cave.

I played it so that the orc leader kept one group back in reserve plus his dire wolf in case he thought things would get hairy.  The party fighters rushed the barricade and started attacking over it.  The orcs behind it had cover but then so did the players.  Ravenspur started tossing down sleep spells but the few orcs he did get were woken up by their comrades.  The leader barked out to watch out for the sleep spells from the gnome since their prisoners had told of it.  Ivo, who spoke orcish, heard this and told the party that the orcs were expecting them.  He tried to yell at them to surrender but the orcs were having none of that (I played them as the book said:  they will fight to the death).

The party eventually pushed pass the barricade and were mixing it up in melee when the dire wolf moved in.  I made the mistake of thinking that it had a 10’ reach since it was a large creature but the group corrected me on that when AoOs started becoming an issue.  The wolf still did major damage to Aislenn and the others were in danger of being swamped by the horde of orcs in front of them.

Ivo then mentioned that he had web on a scroll and he was hoping to save it to scribe into his spell book later.  Ravenspur looked at him desperately and yelled “I’ll buy you another scroll!  CAST IT!!!”

The web went down and caught half the orcs in it who missed their saves miserably.  Only a handful were free but now had to make strength checks to move through it.  The combat  became very one sided after that.  The dire wolf went down and the orc leader burst out of the web to lead his remaining orcs at the group.  He went a few rounds with Aislenn but eventually went down.  The last few orcs were picked off and the two left alive in the web yelled out that they surrendered.

The group questioned the orcs for a few minutes, getting from them that they had captured the fleeing goblin wizard and her guards and had tortured information out of them as to what happened to the rest of the goblin tribe.  The party let the two orcs flee and they beat feet to the last remaining orc guard outpost and departed for parts unknown.  The group looted and explored the rest of the orc colony and discovered the goblin prisoners who had died of their wounds from torture.

Since their resources were tapped the group camped out for the night back in the history room.  During the night Ravenspur and Ivo, with help from Curley, started recording the history of Barakus and found out about the great evil buried below.  The group looked at me and then looked at the cover of the book and snarled “Lich!”  So much for the surprise…

I had Aislenn make another will save as she was being scryed by the wizard hired by Dagon.  Her player was getting very paranoid about the will saves I was asking her to make.  This time Dagon and the wizard got an eyeful of the room the party were camped out in.  The evil necromancer then knew that the group had discovered an ancient ruin of interest.  He was even able to decipher some of the history written on the walls.

The next day they explored past the door in the first orc guard room they were looking at until they were so rudely interrupted by orcs.  It led into the minotaur maze.  The two minotaurs were alerted the moment the door was open and they moved to flank the party.  Absinthe scouted forward and came across the room with the dead orcs and the dead minotaur.  She was so well hidden that the minotaur coming up to ambush the party did not see here.  She tried to alert the group but it was too late.  The other minotaur bellowed and charged at the group from a side passageway.

Inits were rolled and the charging minotaur got to move first.  Poor Curley was in direct line of attack and he got smacked by the minotaur charge attack of 4d6+6.  I rolled 22 and he got knocked right down to –6.  His body went flying over the group and slide 20 feet down the corridor.  Aislenn engaged the second minotaur with Absinthe providing sneak attack support.  The others desperately engaged the first minotaur in their midst.  The group’s dice decided to abandon them.

Almost all the group got knocked into single digit hit points and Absinthe was knocked down to –2.  Earlier someone had mentioned that today was “Official DM’s Day” and the following day would be my birthday.  I had joked that a good present would be a TPK but was not serious.  Oh, how I wished I could take that comment back.  I was seriously considering a deus ex machina to come along and save the group but they finally rallied and finished off the two monsters.  

Unfortunately during that time, Curley had slipped down to –10 hit points and had died.  I had thought that he needed to make a DC 10 Fortitude save each round to stabilize but I was told that it was a straight 10% percentile roll.  By then it was round 4 of the combat so I rolled four times and did not make it.  

“Sorry, guys. Curley gives off his death rattle and shuffles off this mortal coil.”

“Curley!!! NOOOOOO!!!!!!”, wailed someone.

I felt so bad about it that I had them roll on the treasure tables for the two minotaurs since the treasure given by the module was pretty weak in my opinion.  The group decided that they needed to head back to Endhome and see what their options were for Curley.  The cost of raising him would be 5000 GP, way out of their resources.  Plus, there were no clerics in Endhome who could raise him.

After an uneventful and somber journey back to the city, Micca had the gnome bard’s body laid out in his church and held services.  The groups was surprised by the variety of women who came out to pay their last respects to the charismatic Curley.

With that we called it a night.  The group was a little bummed that they had lost the bard since he was an important component to their combat strategy with his singing (and they kind of liked him as a person).  They still enjoyed the session.  The death of the bard brought home how fragile they were and they made a decision to do some major shopping next session.

I made a decision that they would take a break from the Barakus dungeon next session and that I would run another of the city adventures that they were the perfect level for.  I would also have Dagon Ziss act upon the new information he had to make their lives a little more scary.

Next Session:  Trouble with slavers…


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## Scorch (Sep 22, 2006)

*Adventure 14 Summary*

We had planned a game for Friday night but the threat of inclement weather was keeping away three of the seven players in the game.  Not even my promise of full experience for the night could lure them all in.  Only Keldin, Aislenn, Ravenspur, and Adson could make it to the game that night.  I was fine with that since they were back in the city and I could have characters conveniently go missing for the adventure.

The first thing the party wanted to get accomplished was purchasing new items.  Of interest to Keldin was a mithril chain shirt he wanted to get enchanted.  We role played him getting Albin (of Albin’s Armory) to find a third party who could sell it to him and he made a Gather Info and Diplomacy check to get it.  I ruled that it would take three days for him to acquire the shirt and have it enchanted.  To discourage a run on the mithril market I decided that each subsequent request from players to get another item would up the DC of finding it by 5.  Aislenn was considering get it as well but finally just decided to get a regular chain shirt enchanted.

During all this, Ravenspur got a request for a meeting to take place in the bad part of town.  He had a good idea who was requesting it so he asked for Keldin and Adson to scope the place out and hide nearby in case of trouble.  The ranger and the monk hid themselves outside the entrance to the bar the meeting was to take place.  Ravenspur showed up later and wandered into the establishment, a dive called “The Prancing Unicorn”.  The place had only one way into it.  There were a few patrons and an uninterested half-orc bartender. Ravenspur sat himself at a corner table and a few minutes later Dagon Ziss and Zero Stranglevine entered the bar. 

I had decided that Dagon knew what the party had found but had no idea where it was except that it was north somewhere.  His efforts to find Barakus was becoming expensive and he decided to try and appeal to Ravenspur, since they had done business before, to share in the effort to clean out the dungeon and pillage its riches.  The gnome sorcerer was no longer the naïve 1st level character he once was and told Dagon to go pound sand.  Dagon took offense and left in a huff with a bemused Zero following.  Keldin and Adson decided to follow them in case they were going to cause trouble.  The two villains made their way back to a house of ill repute where they were staying and did not emerge from it while Keldin and Adson waited outside.

Ravenspur, in the meantime, wandered out of the bar thinking that Keldin and Adson were watching his back hidden in the shadows.   As he headed back to the inn he heard the sounds of a fight coming from a side alley and recognized the voice of Father Beamus.  He entered the alley and saw the cleric being confronted by three thugs.  The gnome threw down a sleep spell and he and Beamus were able to take down his would be assailants.  Father Beamus tended to the muggers wounds before the two headed back to the Temple of Pelor.

Along the way Father Beamus related to Ravenspur why he was in such a bad part of the city.  Since he came to Endhome the priest had been helping out the local homeless and beggar population of the city, providing healing, a dry place to sleep, the occasional warm meal, etc.  Recently some of the regulars had been turning up missing.  Father Beamus noticed that this coincided with the opening of the Temple of Da-Jin six months ago.  The new priestess there, Elan Kanto, had also been tending to the homeless but in a different manner.  She had her acolytes gather them up, clean them up, and then find jobs for them as servants outside the city.  The funny thing was that those who she helped never were heard from again, not even contacting or visiting relatives in the city.  Beamus became suspicious and began to investigate.  Father Beamus believed that he had bitten off more than he could chew and wanted to ask for help from the party.  Ravenspur readily agreed.

The next morning Keldin, Adson, Aislenn, and Ravenspur headed over to the barracks to try and talk to Captain Bondhome.  The captain of the city guard was not in, he was still out investigating the reports of a new bandit gang led by a giant out in the hills.  The bored bureaucrat they talked to listened with disinterest to their tale and told them that he would get word to the captain when he got back.  The group left the barracks but not before they were approached by a guardsman who had overheard their conversation.  He told the party of how he saw a ship come into the docks at midnight during the night of the new moon.  He saw people hustled on board and the ship departed just as quickly as it had arrived.  When he reported it to his superior on the watch he was told to mind his own business. 

With that in mind the party decided to actually check out the Temple of Da-Jin (I liked the name better than Jamboor which the module used as the front name).  When asked I told them that it was a southern religion that resembled the worshippers of Wee-Jas.  The four of them approached the temple and hung around outside while Adson snuck in through the front door.

The ranger was able to easily sneak in unnoticed by the guard and the one servant who was scrubbing the floors.  (With Absinthe’s player absent, Keldin had to be the sneak monkey for the game).  From the shadows of the large foyer he observed one of the beggars taken in by the temple trying to sneak back out.  The poor fellow was intercepted by a guard who bullied him into staying.  Keldin snuck in as far as the main temple itself and observed Elan Kanto bullying her minions around.  Not wanting to get in too deep he snuck back out with some help from Adson who was hanging out in the foyer pretending to be a blind mendicant.  The monk was able to distract the guard so the halfling could get out unseen.  

I don’t know if I ever mentioned it but Adson wears a blindfold and does not use his eyes to see.  It is just a cosmetic affectation of his that does not give him any bonuses.  Just flavor text for his character.

The four adventurers met back at the Temple of Pelor and tell Father Beamus what they discovered so far.  The plan was for them to attend the evening services at the Temple of Da-Jin and then decide if they will act then or not.  Father Beamus promised to alert the others as to where the four were.  This was my way of allowing the other players to join the adventure if they showed up next game.

While the group attended the service, Keldin snuck out once again and explored the temple.  Since the slaves were locked up for the night, the guards were either guarding the entrance and main hallway or hanging out in their barracks.  The ranger had free reign of most of the temple.  He managed to find the slaves and tells them he will be by later to free them though they were skeptical about his sincerity thinking it may be a trick (he was whispering to them through a locked door).  He checked out Elan’s room as well as the acolytes’ quarters (stealing some potions along the way).  Keldin then headed to the kitchen and snuck past the cook.  He finds the “correction room” and decides it is time to leave.  He drew the attention of the cook who he intimidated into silence.

Keldin timed his exit into the foyer with the letting out of the rest of the congregation.  The party met up and decided that they wanted to take the temple guards and free the slaves as soon as the last congregant leaves through the main entrance.

I called it a night since I know if they were going to start a fight in the temple it will be a long one.  I handed out some role-playing XP since not much combat took place and we packed it in.  I had some planning to do for the next session.

Next Session:  The Big Brawl!


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## Scorch (Sep 25, 2006)

*Adventure 15 Summary*

Had a pretty full group this session.  Everyone was present except for Adson’s player.  I had made provisions last game session so the others could join in easily if the group decided to take action against Elan Kanto and her minions.

The days leading up to this session I broke out all my Hirst Arts pieces and built the temple foyer, center hallway, and the alter room for the first floor.  I also built the basement section as well.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that I only needed to create two small interface pieces to complete the look.  I packed it all up and hauled it over to Ravenspur’s and Aislenn’s players’ house the night of the game.

As the congregants of the temple filed out Aislenn, Adson, Keldin, and Ravenspur moved off to the side and held a quick whispered conference.  Keldin related what he found deeper within the temple and the party was convinced that the priestess, Elan Kanto, was holding the beggars against their will and was up to no good.  A decision was made to attack as soon as the last worshipper had exited the foyer.

Meanwhile Ivo and Absinthe had met up with Micca at his temple and asked him where the others were.  Micca remembered that Ravenspur was helping Father Beamus with something and maybe he knew where they were.  They headed over to the Temple of Pelor and found a worried Beamus.  The priest told them what Ravenspur and the others were doing and he had a bad feeling that things could turn ugly.  The three adventurers decided to dash over to the Temple of Da-Jin to make sure their friends were all right.

Back at the Temple of Da-Jin, the last worshipper had left the foyer and the guards were getting ready to close up.  Aislenn had held onto Keldin’s bow while he went sneaking and she tried to hand it back to him unseen.  One of the guards noticed this and began to walk over.  Ravenspur hit him and one other with a sleep spell and the others attacked.  I ruled that Absinthe, Ivo, and Micca would hear the sounds of fighting and be at the temple in three round.  Inits were rolled and combat began.

The three guards in the foyer were taken down fairly quickly but the others in the main hallway heard the noise and one opened the door.  He started yelling for help.  Elan’s right hand man, Durgan Procuro, was in the hall and he ordered the guards up to block the foyer doorway.  Elan and her acolytes came out of the main temple area to see what was happening.  The party had chosen a good time to attack since Elan and her two clerics were not in armor.






The group moved up to engage the warriors and the fighter in the doorway leading into the hall.  Elan threw down a hold person and it took Aislenn who was paralyzed right in the doorway.  The others moved up to make sure she would not be killed immediately by the enemy.  Absinthe, Ivo, and Micca came bursting into the foyer and saw the mayhem surrounding them.  Absinthe was particularly confused as to why her friends were attacking this temple.  Ivo had no problem with the situation and he moved up as close as he could get and threw a web into the hallway entrapping Elan, one of her acolytes, and a guard.  Elan and the acolyte were hidden from view due to the thickness of the web.











The one acolyte who was free moved up and healed Durgan who was taking heavy damage.  Aislenn was able to shrug off the effects, engage Durgan, and take him down.  Ravenspur burned a charge from one of his wands and color sprayed another guard who keeled over unconscious.  The free acolyte was taken down quickly as well.

Ivo mentioned that he could dispel the web at will (after a discussion and quick check in the PHB confirmed this).  The group got ready to charge at Elan and the remaining acolyte.  The web was dispelled and the priestess and her remaining minion were gone.  During the combat I had them do nothing but free themselves and they were dashing back to her quarters as quickly as they could move.

The group decided to split up at this point.  Ivo and Adson checked out the main temple to see if anyone was hiding in there while the others charged down the two corridors leading towards Elan’s quarters.  Absinthe, Micca, and Keldin burst into her quarters first to find the acolyte staring at them surprised.  Absinthe moved into the room, hearing the clinking of chainmail but noticing that the acolyte was still only wearing robes.  Her movement triggered off an AoO from Elan who is invisible and just finishing shrugging into her armor.  She popped into view as she attacked and missed.






Micca and Keldin moved in ready to attack when the priestess began speaking in a soothing manner.  She started arguing that this was all a misunderstanding and that maybe they could work things out.  All three adventurers in the room are enthralled by her voice (though we found out later I misused the spell, she should have taken 1 full round of talking before they had to make their saves).  As she spoke, Aislenn barged into the room from the other door and was also enthralled.  Micca listened but no longer feels compelled to attack her.  As she spoke Elan and her acolyte leave the room and the spell is broken.  Micca charged after her but Absinthe, Aislenn, and Keldin stand around for 3 rounds and argue about what the priestess had just said.  Absinthe is not even convinced there are slaves.

Micca tried to catch up with the two departing clerics but his stubby legs can’t catch up.  Elan ordered her last minion to turn and block the corridor.  She was going to get some help from the basement.  

Ivo, meanwhile, had dashed into the room where the others were arguing and wanted to know what all the fuss is.  Adson had been freeing slaves using a key he got from one of the dead guards.  The slaves don’t need to hear twice that they are free and run out of the temple.  He only got two locked rooms open when he saw Elan dashing past down the stairs leading into the basement.  Adson decided to stop what he is doing and follow.

I don’t think this description does justice to how hectic the combat was.  We had players all over the map running to and fro.  We broke at this point for dinner since we had been going three hours non-stop and people were having so much fun we almost forgetten to eat.  After an order of take out from our favorite Chinese place we dove back into combat.

The others finally realized they were arguing over nothing (the spell effect wore off) and head back into the corridor to help Micca take down the last acolyte.  Elan, meanwhile, had managed to get into the secret basement temple and order the silver golem there to attack whoever was following her.  Adson arrived just in time to see it leap down from the wall and start stomping his way.  Ivo arrived behind him, turned around and started running back to the kitchen.  Everyone else except Aislenn, who was freeing the rest of the slaves, piled downstairs into the kitchen and lined up nicely for the silver golem to let go with its gout of flame attack.  Ravenspur went down unconscious and everyone else was hurt pretty badly.






Micca managed to lean over and cure Ravenspur.  Adson and Absinthe sneak past the golem and chase down Elan in the secret temple.  While the golem pounded on Micca, Keldin tried to snipe it from across the room but his arrows bounce off of its armored body (good old DR).  Ravenspur crawled under a table and starts shooting it with magic missiles from his wand.  Ivo missed it entirely with a poorly aimed Melf’s Acid Arrow.  Soon the group was screaming for Aislenn since she is the only one who could possibly power attack through its defenses.






The fighter heard them just as she freed the last of the slaves.  She charged down the stairs into combat.  Absinthe and Adson were having a tough time with Elan as she keeps healing herself.  She decided she was in a losing position and flees her attackers, hoping the silver golem can help.  The evil priestess made it to the kitchen and was promptly glued to the floor by a tanglefoot bag tossed her way. She is pummeled to death by the monk.  The silver golem and Aislenn trade mightly blows before it finally went down.  The next round it would have been able to fire off another gout of flame.






Thus the combat ended with almost all the party’s resources expended.  We had gone another three hours of real time with this portion of the combat.

The group quickly searched the rest of the basement (Micca set off the trap in the treasure room using the Wulf Ratbane method of disarming) in hopes that they can loot enough before the town watch shows up.  Others checked out Elan’s and the acolytes’ quarters and find her ledgers and treasure. 

The town watch does show up and the entire party is brought before the night court (the honorable Harold Stone presiding) along with the prisoners and loyal servants they had captured.  After presenting their evidence in the form of ledgers and testimony from the free slaves the judge rules that the temple and the assets there in would be seized by the city.  This includes the treasure found in the basement but the judge overlooks items looted elsewhere with a wink.

We call it a night at that point.  The group tells me they had an absolute blast with this session.  I had a lot of fun as well.  It was worrying there for a minute since they were fighting two CR5 opponents but they managed to get through it with some good tactics. 

Plans are made for the next session to return to Barakus.  

Next Session:  Cleaning up a lot of loose ends


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## Scorch (Sep 25, 2006)

*Adventure 16 Summary*

The group had finished up all their shopping and after running through the city adventure were ready to head back to Barakus to kick some butt.  We had a full house for this game session which was seven players plus myself.  We had to find some extra chairs to seat us all around the table.  The mini-fridge was packed full of caffeinated products and dice were warmed up with practice rolls.

Keldin’s player approached me about some possibility of laying an ambush for the evil adventuring party.  He was convinced that they would try to follow.  I told him that he believed an attempt was made to follow them two trips back but the last trip no one attempted to tail them.  Dagon Ziss and company were no longer attempting to follow the party.  They had leveled up to 4th level doing some of the city adventures the party ignored or never got a chance to find out about.  They were waiting for Curley’s body to be put into the grave and the main group to leave the city so they could grab the corpse and perform “Speak With Dead” upon it.  More on that later…

In order to speed things up for the trip to and fro I started playing fast and loose with the wilderness encounter charts.  I was now skipping over small encounters that would be an annoyance to them.  When they hit a major one that was their only encounter for the rest of the trip to wherever they were heading.

This time I rolled up a troll.  They encountered it at night and those keeping watch woke everyone before it closed the distance with them.  The group was a finely honed team at this point.  Ivo seemed to click right into place as another magical support member.  They whittled it down while Adson provided fire to burn the remains the moments they cut it down to zero.  I no longer felt bad about throwing CR5 encounters at them.  Which was good because there are some doozies they walk into later.

Their entry into Barakus was uneventful and they made their way back down to the second level outside the entrance to the old goblin lair.  This time they decided to head down the stairs to the east into the room filled with statues of kings and queens.  After a few minutes of examining them, they decided to head to the north.

The room they were approaching was inhabited by a wight.  Even though Absinthe was silent as death, Micca and Aislenn were like a walking scrap heap.  The wight easily heard them through the door and hid in some rubble nearby.  Absinthe checked the door over and opened it and started creeping forward.  The wight waited until she passed and then leapt out and attacked the main body of the group as they entered.  It landed a solid blow on Aislenn and she failed her save.  She was stuck with a negative level.  A good rule of thumb when dealing with level drain is to say:  “Anything that involves you rolling a D20, subtract the negative levels from.”  The group managed to kill it before it did any more damage.  Micca had was able to restore Aislenn’s lost level from a scroll he had handy.  The group looted the room and seeing that it was a dead end, headed back into the statue room to go east.

They stumbled upon the vast hall whose northern end was a collapsed heap of rubble.  Recent signs of excavation attempts intrigued them but without time and equipment they were not going to be able see what was being excavated.  The goblin wizard and her body guards were already dead at the hands of their orc interrogators a few adventures back so the group would have no way of knowing what they were doing digging here for.  

The large iron doors to the south piqued everyone’s interest so Absinthe check it out.  She discovered the trap there but guessed that she would have little chance of disarming it without setting it off.  The group decided to leave it for later.

The passageways that split southeast and southwest was their next destination.  Absinthe was guessing that there was another ways past the iron doors this way.  They headed southeast and were attacked by the two half-orcs hiding in the secret passageway.  These two hapless foes were taken down quickly.  They then bashed through the arcane locked door and ran right into the orcs in the old library.  I decided that all the orcs they had missed when they cleared out the orc lair earlier were now holed up here.  There were 9 orcs plus their new leader.  Ivo was wondering if he should try to cast fireball off of a scroll but the others noticed they were in a library and quickly convinced him otherwise.  The orcs were defeated and the room looted of items of interest.

Allow me to pause a second and talk about mapping.  With Curley gone, the group decided to expand his maps of the area as they explored.  To make this easier for them, I downloaded the map booklet and converted the first and second floor maps into TIFF files.  I then used Paint Shop Pro to open the files and white out the sections they had not explored yet and printed it out for them.  They then penciled in areas as I drew them on the larger one-inch grid map that we used for tactical miniature combat.  It really helped move things along.

Consulting the map, the group decided that they were not getting any closer to getting to the area behind the trapped iron doors.  The group headed back and decided to have Aislenn set off the trap.  Aislenn did so and was hit by the 3d8 lightening attack.  (“That’s all?!?” yelled Absinthe.  She was expecting something more.)   While the trap reset, Absinthe quickly picked the lock and got the door open.  I described the duplicate set of iron doors behind and the group groaned expecting to have to deal with another trap but a quick search show these doors were neither locked nor trapped.

Absinthe opened the door and peeked into the large, pillared hall beyond.  I took my time with the flavor text, describing the mace set atop the platform and the two large, deformed creatures that started lumbering forward the moment the doors were opened.  

“Golems!” yelled Ravenspur and Ivo.  The group quickly closed the doors, ran out into the other room and closed those doors as well.  Absinthe locked the doors and trap reset itself.  They waited for the flesh golems to come bursting through the doors but after five minutes decided they were safe.  Since they had not taken the mace, the golems had returned to their guard positions.

The party began arguing about if they wanted to take on two flesh golems or not.  The stakes were high since the mace beyond was of obvious high value.  Ivo, Ravenspur, and Micca were able to translate the glyphs on the outer doors which spoke of the great Gromm.  This led them to believe the items within was some sort of artifact of power.  

Since it was getting late, we called it a night but the group had a lot of food for thought weighing whether the mace was worth the risk.

Next adventure:  BURN IN HELL, MUMMY!


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## Scorch (Sep 26, 2006)

*Adventure 17 Summary*

At the end of the last session Adson, Aislenn, and Ravenspur had leveled to 4th level.  I have a rule that you need to rest a night before gaining the benefit of the new level.  I know some people say you have to train for X number of days but we were here to roll some dice and kick some monster butt, not role play out finding a sensei in a far away temple to train you in the inner secrets of your craft.

As it stood, the group decided to leave the room full of flesh golem pain behind for now and camp outside for the night.  Since Adson’s player was not present for this session he got to watch the horses.  We had a slight scare before the game got started.  It was pouring cats and dogs outside and we were beginning to get some flooding in the basement where the game room was located.  A mad dash to fix the drain pipe outside causing the flooding, grabbing towels, and using a wet vac got the problem under control.  Nothing like some bad weather to cancel a game.

After resting and leveling up the group headed back in to Barakus.  This time they decided to explore the other branch of a passageway near the flesh golem room.  I was a little relieved since I did not want to have to kill them all for foolishly taking on those creatures.  As it stood they only had five adamantine arrows between them.

The passageway they explored ended in a room guarded by two drow.  They heard the group coming but did not see Absinthe who successfully snuck into the room with a hide and move silent check.  The two drow warriors started firing their crossbows the moment they saw the next player in the marching order come within sight.  They then threw down darkness.  Now darkness combined with their vision abilities in v3.0 of the game was a pretty good tactic but in v3.5 darkness just gave everyone a 20% miss chance and that was about it.   Long story short:  it did not save the two drow warriors from getting themselves killed.  

They did manage to alert the drow in the other area who came charging in after two round to engage the party.  The wizard, rogue, and remaining drow warriors gave the party a run for their money but eventually were taken down.  The group looted the outpost and speculated a bit on why there were drow there.  Some thought was given to salvaging the poison on the crossbow bolts but I made it clear it would evaporate as soon as they took it above surface.

From there it was on to the area guarded by the aranea, Risstor.  I had already read the errata posted on these boards and corrected her to a more survivable encounter.  As it stood she heard them coming and webbed the doorway as Absinthe entered, then crawled out of site from those in the corridor.  There was some confusion on my part since I assumed that Risstor’s web ability was the same as the web spell but this was not true.  The aranea’s ability is easier to deal with and Absinthe was able to free herself while Ravenspur attempted to negotiate with the chatty spider being.  Once she named her price for free passage, 1500 gp, the party decided to kill her for her presumption.  Someone threw a flask of alchemist fire on the web and it slowly started to burn away while Risstor began to cast spells on herself such as mirror image.  The party then dashed into her lair and found her clinging to the ceiling high above.  Micca and Ivo began pelting her with spells and managed, through extremely lucky rolls, to hit her every time rather than the mirror images about her.  That and bow shots from Keldin took her down.

The party searched the area and investigated the long stone stairway leading down to the fourth level.  I made it sound as ominous as I could but did not need to since the group had no desire to travel downwards since there was still much of the second level and first level to explore.

Ravenspur and Keldin consulted the map to see where they wanted to explore next.  This had more to do with the two players sitting next to one another at the gaming table than with their characters being the leaders of the group.  Absinthe would lean over every once in a while and make suggestions.  

Unfortunately before they could explorer further, Keldin’s player had to head home since his wife called letting him know that they were getting some flooding as well.  He left his character in the care of another player and headed off.  Since he was there for a good chunk of the session, I had no problem awarding him XP for the night.

They explored one dead end crypt and were attacked by eight skeletons.  Micca managed to totally annihilate them with a turning.  The cleric was very happy.  They then meandered past the library into an abandoned bedroom and closet.  From there they stumbled onto the electrical pillar.  What followed was almost something right out of an episode of the Simpsons with Ivo and Aislenn repeatedly electrocuting themselves on the thing while trying to discover its secrets.  Absinthe found two of the three secret compartments on it before they decided to move on to the east.

There they found the secret panels with the buttons to disable the pillar.  They only were able to play with them for about a minute before someone opened the door to the east and alerted the hobgoblin guard who promptly charged off to warn the tribe.  The group entered the guard room and spent a few minutes arguing what to do which gave the hobgoblins enough time to warn their two warring leaders, the bugbear brothers, to call a truce to defend their lair.  The two brothers and their hobgoblin lieutenant each took 6 hobgoblins and attacked from three different sides at once.  

Since they coordinated their attacks they all got to move on the same initiative.  I called surprise round in the middle of a debate between the players and the doors burst open and the group was flanked on three sides by 21 opponents.

Now this could have gotten very dangerous for the group and I expected them to retreat back down from where they came but Ivo pulled something out of his hat.  The crafty wizard had purchased a scroll of fireball and had managed to puzzle out is secrets enough to cast it.  I had ruled that the two parts of casting a spell off of a scroll that was a higher level than you could cast could be split into two different tasks.  The deciphering of the scroll could take place at any time and the player could take 20 on it to do so.  The spell caster check needed to take place at the time of actual casting.  Ivo easily cast the spell off of the scroll and the fireball went roaring down the corridor to detonate just far back enough so as not to backwash into the room with the party.  Seven hobgoblins were instantly burned to death and I had Ivo make a fortitude check not to be deafened by the explosion.  That was a flavor text touch on my part since he was casting an unknown spell for the first time in an enclosed area.

This changed the tone of the battle completely as the party now only had to deal with attacks on two fronts.  The two bugbear brothers put up a valiant fight and managed to get their troops into the room with the players but after another few minutes of combat they were taken down. 

The lair was looted (“How nice that they left us the keys to their locked chests!” piped in Absinthe) and the group moved south.  They came to a sealed door which I added some flavor text involving warnings in goblin written across it.  That gave them all pause and they decided since they had blown almost all their resources against the hobgoblins that it would be a good idea to camp in one of the rooms.  They chose the abandoned bedroom because it had a bed.

During their rest I rolled two encounters with gnolls so I decided to combine it into one big encounter of six gnolls sneaking up and charging them at once.  Those on watch were able to warn the others but not before the small room was suddenly hip deep in gnolls.  The combat was over quickly but was notable in that it started a trend for the rest of the night where I could not hit Ravenspur to save my life.  I must have had him targeted three times during the combat but could not roll over a five.

The random encounters for the group were becoming more of an annoyance for me to run.  The group was third and fourth level at this point and most of the stuff on the chart was pretty low end for them.  I might have to start rolling from the encounter charts for the levels below soon.

There were no more encounters for the rest of the night (or at least what they thought was night, since it was hard to keep track underground).  A quick discussion decided that they would check behind the locked door in the hobgoblin lair.  They get past the door and explored the corridor beyond.  Absinthe discovered the pit trap and triggered it so the group could edge around it to the door on its other side.  They get past that door into the crypt beyond.  Ravenspur took an interest in the stone sarcophagus in the center of the room and cast detect magic.  The gnome sorcerer detected the illusionary magic within.  After Absinthe gave it the all clear for traps, Micca popped the lid open and the secret area opened up and a mummy shambled out making a line right for the cleric.

Thinking that it may be an illusion the group started chanting “Disbelieve!  Disbelieve!” but unfortunately for them it is all too real.  Half the party was paralyzed with fear at the very sight of the undead horror.  Micca took a hit from the mummy and was able to withstand the curse of its touch.  He skipped back and cast “Calm Emotions” which had the immediate effect of removing the fear keeping half the party from joining in the combat.  Fire spells and alchemist fire was readied and all do significant damage to the creature.  It still managed to do massive amounts of damage to the group but luckily every hit did not land the dreaded mummy rot.  

One last fire spell knocked it down to zero hit points and I could have just said it collapsed but the group had been really struggling to fight it so I gave them some rewarding flavor text.  The mummy burst into flame and stumbled past the group, moaning all the way, and fell into the pit beyond the door where it was impaled upon the spikes below.  I actually got a round of applause for that.

After the tomb was looted the party then checked out the door to the west and, after opening it, found another crypt much like the one they had just left behind.  

“NOT AGAIN!” they all howled, knowing that they were most likely going to have to fight another mummy.  Their greed for XP was what decided it for them.  They had a plan!

Micca would edge forward and flip open the stone sarcophagus with a rope tied around him.  If he was paralyzed by a mummy fear effect then the group would pull him back in.  Meanwhile, Ravenspur had his necklace of fireballs ready to chuck one in as soon as the mummy showed itself.

The plan pretty much went off as they had hoped.  Micca flipped open the lid and the second mummy shambled out of its secret hiding area.  Micca was hit by the fear effect and was paralyzed.  The others began dragging him back as Ravenspur threw a bead from the necklace of fireballs into the crypt.  The mummy was horribly burned but it was a much tougher specimen than the one they fought before.  It shambled after the limp Micca as he was dragged into the first crypt.  Aislenn went up to engage it as the others pelted it with missile weapons and magic missile spells.  

It smacked Aislenn a good one and she succumbed to the curse.  I rolled two six sided dice and she lost 5 constitution and 6 charisma.  OUCH!  During another attack it wound up and attempted to slug Ravenspur who got a little too close but the bad luck I was having hitting him that night protected the little gnome.

After some hectic combat the last mummy went down.  There was some confusion on my part on how mummy rot worked.  After reading the rules on it I decided that it would hit once.  If she got hit a second time and failed another save then she would suck down even more CON/CHA damage.  Fortunately that did not happen.  The next day I did some research online and found that I had made the correct decision according to some on the EN World forums.  I also found out that I had totally forgotten about the mummy’s DR but that did not matter as much since 90% of the damage done to it was magical fire.

Since Aislenn looked like death warmed over, the group decided it would be best to return to Endhome.  They wrapped her in a cloak so the city watch would not take her for a leper (4 Charisma, YIKES!).  The journey back was uneventful (they had cleared out most of the threats to and from Barakus).  Their first stop was Micca’s temple to see if they could ask Father Beamus to recommend a cleric to be able to cast remove curse then cure disease. 

The cleric of Pelor was distraught and he had some disturbing news.

“Yeah, what?” joked Absinthe “Curley’s body gone missing?”

“Actually, yes.”

“NO WAY!”

Ah, my plan to move them into direct conflict with the evil adventuring party was coming to fruition.

This was probably the most experience for a session they had ever received.  Everyone would level to fourth level.  The second level of Barakus was almost completely cleared out but there was still the matter of the black dragon on the first level and the evil adventuring party to contend with.

Next Session:  Picking a fight!


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## Scorch (Sep 26, 2006)

*Adventure 18*

Knowing that the group was angry and ready to pick a fight with the evil adventuring party, I spent some time leveling up the Dagon and company to fifth level.  I then plotted out where they were staying, their defenses, precautions, and the disposition of their hirelings.

The game started with our heroes working out what had happened to Curley’s body.  Ravenspur and Micca investigated the desecrated grave but found no clues other than someone dug up the body and hauled it off.  They guessed (correctly so) that Dagon and company wanted it to perform “Speak With Dead” to find out about Barakus.  Their guesses were not something they could go to the authorities with so the more hotheaded members of the group (Ravenspur and Keldin) decided to do something about it while the enablers of the group (Adson and Aislenn) encouraged them on. 

First, though, they needed some intelligence on where the evil adventurers were headed.  Some inquiries by Ravenspur and Absinthe found out that Dagon and company had hired a bunch of thugs and had disappeared from the city, last seen heading north a week back.  The timing looked like it was possible that both parties had missed each other in the hills if the evil adventurers were indeed head towards Barakus, which is what had happened.  

That afternoon Absinthe and Keldin asked some teamsters just arrived from the north road if they had seen a group resembling Dagon’s and indeed they had.  The teamsters were just leaving the roadside inn as Dagon and crew pulled in with a cart and some wounded henchmen.  They were very protective of the wagon the teamsters recalled, letting no one get near it.  

The rogue and the ranger decided that the others were puttering around too much and they headed out to the north to watch the road and see for themselves.  They camped out a few miles north from a hidden vantage point and the following morning they spotted the other adventuring party at the end of a wagon caravan heading back into the city.  From where they watched the Elf and the Halfling could not tell what was in the wagon since it was covered by a canvas tarp.

Absinth and Keldin followed the caravan into the city gate and watched as Dagon paid the hired thugs and sent them on their way.  Keldin then followed Dagon and the others along with their wagon while Absinthe tailed the hired thugs.  Keldin followed the wagon back to the apartment building he had seen a few weeks back after Dagon’s meeting with Ravenspur.  The ranger then entered a neighboring building so he could spy the layout of the stable where the wagon was kept.  He saw the Da-Leek and Zero leave the stable but not Dagon and Gilgar.  Keldin then headed back to the King’s Inn to tell the others.

Absinthe, in the meantime, tailed the thugs to a local dive where she walked in as any other patron and listened in on them commiserating their bad luck.  It turned out that Dagon used them as cannon fodder in the caves of Barakus.  They attempted to enter two caves, one they were repelled by ghouls and another by the black dragon.  Eventually the thugs split up and headed their own ways.  Absinthe followed the one most likely the leader and cornered him at his rented room where she interrogated him on the details of his unfortunate adventure.  A Rogue 4 scaring the snot out a Warrior 1 is not a pretty sight and she soon got confirmation that they had indeed found Barakus but had not penetrated that far into it.  Absinthe warned off the thug from ever doing business with Dagon again (something he and the others were already considering) and then headed back to the inn as well.

Keldin arrived at the inn first but found only Ravenspur, Aislenn, and Adson present.  Ravenspur became so excited over Keldin’s report that he fired the others up to go attack the stable behind the apartment before they can find the others  He was convinced that Curley’s body was in the wagon.  This led to some wonderful role-playing as the four most gung-ho characters charged off while the three most cautious players were elsewhere.  I recalled Absinthe’s player bemoaning the fact that he could not get back fast enough to prevent what he saw as a disaster in the making.

Ravenspur put a hired guard to sleep at the mouth of the alley leading to the back of the apartment where the stables were.  He slept yet another guard and they attempted to sneak into the stable.  They found the cart but also Gilgar who shrugged off Ravenspur’s sleep spell without even making a save.  Some meta-gaming on Ravenspur’s part alerted the players that this guy is above 4 hit dice and that they no longer have the element of surprise.  The evil cleric started bellowing for Dagon.  At this point common sense seemed to seep into Ravenspur and the others and they decided to run for it.  While the others escaped, Adson climbed a nearby building so he could watch what happened next.  He saw Dagon and the other evil adventurers boil out of the apartment building and discuss what happened. After a bit, Adson left to join the others.

Soon our adventurers gathered back at the inn where Micca and Absinthe take Ravenspur to task for attacking the evil adventurers but the sorcerer is angered beyond reason that a fellow gnome’s body is being desecrated by Dagon and company.  I was having the time of my life as they argued in character over the situation they found themselves in.  They knew that the evil adventurers were pretty powerful and were not going to take this lying down.  They were right on that count, I already had a response planned out involving a certain were-rat named Tousice.  Consensus was reached that they needed to leave the city and head back to Barakus until things cooled down.  

They left as soon as they could and made tracks for Barakus.  Other than one random encounter with hobgoblins they made it back to the caves above the city.  Some scouting by Keldin revealed the camp site were the evil adventures had stayed.  They waited three days in hiding to make sure they were not followed (they were not, Dagon was back in the city striking a deal with Tousice) and a decision was made to finally take on the black dragon.

They were pretty paranoid about Zemfer.  They slowly crept into the east cave entrance and made their way south.  Absinthe scouted forward and the group tried to spread out so that they would not get hit all at once by a breath weapon attack.  Zemfer was aware of their presence a few seconds after they entered his lair and slowly moved around to attempt to flank them from the rear.  He chose his moment when Keldin and Absinthe were around a corner and Adson and Ravenspur where in line for a breath weapon.  The dragon took his five foot step around a corner and let loose with an acid stream that nearly killed the gnome sorcerer but only mildly scarred the monk.

Aislenn and Adson charged the dragon and I was afraid they were going to get killed but my dice failed me.  None of my attacks landed on Adson while a full attack on Aislenn only landed one blow.  Adson then wound up and stunned the dragon with his attack and kept him stunned as I rolled nothing but suck for saving throws.  The party then just annihilated the poor thing.

We called it a night after quickly searching the lair and finding both stashes of treasure.  After being frustrated by Dagon the evil adventurers they felt better after pounding the snot out of what I thought was going to be a tough encounter with a dragon.  It was the first dragon they had taken down so they were pretty proud of themselves.

Next Adventure:  Waiting for Dagon


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## Scorch (Sep 27, 2006)

*Adventure 19*

I am sure all of you DMs out there have come across a situation where your players take a course of action that totally bogs down the flow of the adventure.  We all face it at some point and we can attempt to railroad or coax them along to get things going again.  That is the problem I faced during this session.

The group had explored the rest of the dragon’s cave, encountering the poor goblin adept who attempted to scare them off with a poorly created illusion of Zemfer.  They strolled right through the illusion, slapped him around some, took his pocket change and items, and sent him on his way.  I decided not to have them encounter the two lost drow since they would have been a speed bump that would just slow things down at their current level of power.

I was all ready for them to finish out the first and second level and what they did instead was camp out in the dragon’s cave hoping to ambush Dagon and company.  I had already planned out what Dagon and his cohorts were doing and it would take them nowhere near Barakus.  Unfortunately I could not tell the players this so I decided to use higher level encounter tables to see if I could encourage them to move on.

The first night an Ettin wandered into the cave from outside.  They were able to defeat but were so exhausted from the battle that they camped another night in the same place.  The next night I rolled up a wyvern which they had a tougher time killing but managed to do so without getting themselves killed.  I think they got the hint from the grudge monsters I was throwing at them and decided to move on.  On the plus side I got to test some higher CR creatures against them.

The next area they explored was the vast cave and the lake contained within.  Those who had dark vision capabilities were able to see the three islands out on the surface of the cave.  Micca decided to strip down to his skivvies and swim the short distance to the closest island.  He soon discovered the empty box that once held a key and the trap door leading down.  

A few of the others crossed over and it was at that point, with the group divided between those on shore and those on the island, that the water mephit attacked them.  It splattered Keldin with a Melf’s Acid Arrow and incapacitated those on shore with a stinking cloud.  The arcanists in the group were able to defeat it with a barrage of magic missiles and some help from Keldin’s accurate bow shots.  The hardier of the group dived under the waters surface and discovered the mephit’s lair and his treasures within.

The nimble Adson climbed down the shaft leading below to make sure nothing nasty was waiting.  A rope was lowered and the rest descended easily.  They found the other two shafts leading up to the other two islands and Adson explored those as well confirming they were much like the first island including the empty key boxes.  Absinthe, in the meantime, examined the triple locked door and after consulting with Ravenspur and Ivo came to the conclusion that they needed three keys, probably the missing ones from the boxes, to open the door before them safely unless they wanted to trigger three deadly magical traps.  A decision was made to come back to this area later after discovering one or more of the keys.

Some more exploration of the cavern containing the lake turned up a pile of bones and a ledge above them.  While the rest poked at the bones, Adson scrambled up the stone face to the ledge (a quick lookup of grappling hook rules was needed) and discovered a small shrine with a silver medallion sitting in it.  The monk picked it up and the bones promptly assembled themselves in the skeleton of a large cave bear and began attacking.  No one had any crushing damage weapons readied so the skeleton was able to shrug off their initial attacks.  It then opened up with its full attack on Aislenn and nearly knocked her down to zero after I rolled a critical.  Adson leapt down from above the cliff and started pummeling the undead bear with his fists.  Soon they had it destroyed.

They continued to explore and eventually end up heading through some caverns to the east when they came across a door set in the cavern wall.  Upon examining it they are confronted by a voice floating at them from the passageway to the north.

“Who are you?  What do you want?!?” it challenged.

After Ravenspur convinced the disembodied voice that they meant no harm, the door opened revealing a gnome illusionist.

He had been living the life of a hermit here in the caves and had all sorts of information about the first level that was now useless since the first level was all but cleaned out.  The group spent lunch with him and got the feeling that he wanted them to leave after it is apparent that they had nothing that he wanted.  The decision was made to continue down to the second level.

The party worked their way through the area where they fought the mummies and found the stairs leading down, which they avoided, and a room filled with pots and urns.  They tossed the room and eventually find a key that they believed would fit one of the three locks on the door underneath the lake.

They continued west and began to cross a slippery stone bridge leading over a vast cavern.  The sound of running water came up from below.  When they were about halfway across, a large monstrous spider clambered up onto the bridge from underneath and attacked Micca.  It did not provide much challenge and Micca made the finishing blow against it but unfortunately he lost a balance check and over the side he went.

4d6 damage later and he was at the bottom of the cavern.  While the others lowered a rope he thought he heard voice coming from the northwest, somewhere in the darkness of the cavern but he was not sure because of the sound of the running river nearby.  Micca was able to climb back up to the bridge with assistance from the rest of the party and they continued to the west.

So close yet so far from finding Fenton.  Ah well, this will give me fodder for when they get back to Endhome.

Next Adventure:  Ambush at the Roadside Inn


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## Scorch (Sep 27, 2006)

*Adventure 20*

My pace for writing these journals is a bit off thanks to the crashing of the EZ Boards.  I took notes but it has been over two months since we did this session and a lot more gaming has happened since then.  Fortunately a lot of what happened here is fresh in my mind.

A few sessions back I had planned out that Dagon Ziss had made contact with Tousice after Ravenspur spurned his proposal.  Dagon provided the vengeful were-rat with what the party had been up to all this time and where they had been traveling.  Tousice saw an opportunity to ambush the players to take his revenge at the Road Side Inn while they were coming back from Barakus.  I wrote up an encounter that included Tousice, two ogres, five low level were-rats, and about six human thugs.  Their stats were all right out of the module.  I also had some building pieces and trees all ready for the miniature fight packed up in a box in the trunk of my car.  Now all I needed was the players to spend the night at the Road Side Inn.

This session opened up with the group deciding to explore the southwest section of the second level.  They discovered the prison area with the strange words written above the door and the maze with orange squares.  The squares were avoided until they encountered the ghast.  Then in the heat of combat they walked all over them but nothing happened. 

The undead creature was defeated and the hidden room in the center of the maze was found.  There they found the second key to the triple locked door underneath the lake.  I knew they were not going to find the third key since they already passed it a long time ago and had no reason to go back to the area it was hidden in.  It was in the well near the ghost’s area in the north east of the second level.

Having explored the prison maze, they decided to start playing with the orange squares.  They found out what the first two words did as they teleported around the maze.  Then Ivo spoke the third word and found himself somewhere else.  More specifically he was on the third level near the Stone of Madness.  He decided to stay put, hoping the others would find him.

After some debate the others decided to follow Ivo by speaking the third word on the teleporter squares.  I had everyone make will saves and they were all successful (DAMN!).  The arcanists examined the mad scribblings on the walls of the room they found themselves in and could not make heads or tails of them.  After some debate they decided to head south following one wall until they could find out where they were.

As they followed the corridor they came across the feuding Halfling brothers, Kiva and Teelo.  The one who was the monk is amiable enough to them (although insane) and a debate broke out among the characters what to do about him since he was on their to-do list of people to rescue.  They decided to come back to him later and continued to the next room where they were promptly ambushed by the rogue brother who was wearing his ring of invisibility.  He managed to inflict some massive sneak attack damage before the group overwhelmed him and beat him into unconsciousness.  

Another argument broke out between Micca and Absinthe about heading back and knocking the monk out as well.  Finally they all managed to get on the same page and headed back and dogpiled on the monk.  They tied up both brothers and after an uneventful fight with a troglodyte, they found the stairs heading back up to the second level.  Not once did they cross the line into the second area where they Stone of Madness would force more will checks (double DAMN!)

Since they were now burdened with two crazy Halfling brothers who would try to kill one another, a consensus was reached to head back to Endhome and get them cured of their madness.  This of course would have them spend the night at the Roadside Inn where I had planned the ambush (JOY!)

I arm waved the journey to the inn and asked them some basic questions about how they would handle the brothers.  Since they were hauling the two back in manacles and gagged they needed to answer some questions of curious patrons of the inn.  This allowed me to find out who was staying in what room that night.

Halfway through the night I had the attack begin.  Players had to make listen checks as the inn was surrounded and lit flasks of oil were thrown on top of the thatch roof, setting it ablaze.  After setting the roof on fire, the human thugs surrounded the inn, armed with crossbows with the ogres as muscled backup.  Tousice and his were-rat rogues hid nearby.

Absinthe and Keldin awoke almost instantly and roused the others.  There was a mad scramble for weapons and armor.  Aislenn shrugged into her chain shirt while Micca just picked up the two bound Halfling brothers and started trudging downstairs.  Absinthe and Adson secured a rope and climb out their window, dodging fire from crossbows.  The others ran down the steps into the common room along with the other guests and staff of the inn.  They were pinned down by crossbow fire from the front.  Keldin and Ravenspur started sniping away with bow fire and magic missiles at the thugs outside while the others dashed out the back entrance.  

Absinthe and Adson were surrounded by thugs with the two ogres charging at them as well.  Things did not look good for them until Aislenn, after throwing most of the groups possessions out the window that they could not carry, jumped down to the ground and started laying into their opponents.  I had Tousice split his were-rat rogues so half would come around one side of the Inn while the others engaged the three party members on the ground.  His hope was to flank them.

By then most of the human thugs were unconscious, slept, or just plain dead.  The were-rats that came around the back of the Inn, including Tousice, were engaged with Ivo and Micca.  Absinthe rushed back to help them and started going one on one with Tousice.  A well-aimed tangle-foot bag glued the were-rat leader to the ground and Absinthe finished him off with after getting the flanking bonus with a sneak attack.  The rest of the were-rats and ogres were put down and the fire was put out before it destroyed the inn.

Four of the human thugs had survived the fight and were bound up for delivery back to the authorities at Endhome.  The journey back was uneventful but it would trigger several events I had planned out.  Dagon Ziss had watchers at the city gates who would report whether Tousice or the adventurers would return.

The thugs were turned over to Bragger Bondhome and the Halfling brothers were brought to the temple of Kord were the party paid for the remove disease which cured them.  Teelo and Kiva fell into a deep sleep and the head priest said it would be a few days until they awoke.  The group headed back to Micca’s temple but on the way they were accosted by Mrs. Barmey.  I figured since she kept on having psychic visions of her husband’s well being that she would see that Micca was within one hundred feet of him.  She started berating the poor cleric in the middle of the street for leaving her husband behind in Barakus.  Absinthe made the suggestion that they quickly get her into Micca’s temple so as not to make a scene.  We decided to break the game at this point.

The players were very happy that Tousice was taken off of their to-do list.  There was quite a bit of satisfaction when he was glued to the ground and could not go anywhere while they finished him off.  I have big plans for the consequences of that encounter including the evil adventuring party and the Pulanti Estate.  

Next Adventure:  Big, Stupid Giant!


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## Son_of_Thunder (Sep 29, 2006)

keep up with the updates. i'm liking.


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