In our prior sessions, the party came together, got employed by the main authority in the Vale, fought an ogre, a bunch of gnolls and kobolds, and defeated a dragon. They also acquired some treasure and perhaps more importantly, a new plot hook! This hook is a rock, affectionately known as the “rock sausage,” found in the possession of an evil wizard from the Illustrious Order of the Black Pearl. It can act as a lodestone to gates to the Abyss in the demonic fortress Slaughtergarde. Remnants of this fortress lie scattered about the Midrealm and these gates could be used to summon demons. The group also built various contacts around Fallcrest, solidifying their relationship with Lord Warden Markelhay, meeting Nimozaran the Green, and others: Selarund Halfmoon, owner of Halfmoon Trading House; Ressilmae Starlight, priest at the Moonsong Temple; Dirina Mornbrow, priestess at the Temple of Erathis; and, Grundelmar, priest at the House of Pelor.
Oh, and Woody kept winning prizes at the Nentir Vale Inn for being the nth patron. Usually, it was a pitcher of ale delivered to his room. Once it was three free nights at the Silver Unicorn Inn (the posher establishment in town) but Wisara Osterman, the matron at the Silver Unicorn, was not having a Sky Pony in her establishment!
Hooked, the party started more direct investigation/intervention into the Slaughtergarde stuff starting with session 6.
- The group finds a secluded spot outside of town and everyone, except Aran contributes some blood for filling the bowl. The rock floats and points to the north. They head in that direction and travel until dark (much to my surprise). As they start to look for a campsite, they are ambushed. As they learn later, it is darklings and quicklings…a mix of Shadowfell and fey creatures. One quickling flees but all other enemies are slain.
- Continue following the “rock sausage” the following day. Find another campsite in a small valley where it looks like others have camped before (fire pit, cleared ground). A standing rock is in the center of the camp with various runes that Gandave believes are a combination of arcane and druidic magic to keep something bound within.
- More blood in the bowl the next day and continue to follow the “rock sausage.” Come to the confluence of the Nentir and Winter rivers and find some ruins atop a nearby hill. Stairs in the rubble lead down. In the first chamber below, the group encounters and defeats orcs. Further exploration of this dungeon leads to the discovery of:
- An encounter with some darklings and a shadowy portal. A shadowy gargoyle like creature is summoned from it by one of the darklings. The portal is stone, but not the same black stone as the “rock sausage.”
- Various crypts for the Riverroar family are found. Also an old altar with a broken skull…a symbol of Vecna. The Riverroar family was rumored to be cultists of some sort and being noble, they were exiled from the Nerathi Empire.
- Another chamber had ettercaps hiding within…more fey. More quicklings…now a “favorite” monster of the players.
- Stairs lead to a lower level and a mushroom filled chamber. Deeper in this level is a small chamber with a magic circle that most likely was intended to keep a creature trapped within.
- Back up to finish exploring. A room with a pedestal shaped like a hand holding an eye (Vecna?) and multiple sarcophagi, more Riverroars. The chamber glows with a reddish light. As the party passes through, there are whispers just at the edge of their hearing and everyone suffers psychic damage. Next chamber has an old fountain and a single sarchophagus, Dallin Riverroar (the patriarch of the family). Dallin (presumably) emerges as an undead and is defeated. The family blade, Wind Sabre, is claimed by Fiona.
- Head back and the sarcophagi in the prior chamber open and more undead are defeated. More exploration…more undead end up defeated.
- A deep pit is found in part of the complex. Some 80′ down is a sloping passage that leads to a cave that looks to be bisected by a short wall made of black stone with large, rough, black iron doors. Three misshapen and grotesque creatures attack, leaving behind remains that look like piles of tar and smell of brimstone. The stone of the wall is very similar to the stone of the “rock sausage.”
- Opening the doors to a hissing of escaping air, the party can hear voices crying for help. Normal farm folk are imprisoned in cages around a chamber. As soon as Woody breaks the door of one of the cages, these farmers transform into demonic creatures which are defeated, more melted tar and brimstone. Continued exploration leads the group to realize that this is part of the Slaughtergarde and the following is found:
- A chamber that appears to have been a library but is full of shredded and torn books and papers. Only one book remains intact. A froggish imp thing attacks when the book is touched, possessive of the book, but ends up a pile of tar despite its invisibility.
- Another chamber has multiple leathery, egg like things scattered about. They are recognized as being the eggs of low level soldier demon things and avoided.
- Another chamber has large gouges on the inside of the metal doors and a glass ceiling with holes and cracks in it. Some creature with chains and blades is trapped within, swinging its weapons about. The ceiling begins to descend upon entering the room so the party heads out and avoids it.
- An altar to Abraxus is found in another section of this complex, sounds of chanting fill the room with no apparent source. The party presses on to another chamber but comes back later. When they do, they attempt to smash the altar. This summons a massive demon with a woman’s torso, six arms, and a snake as the lower body. This creature badly damages the party and quickly captures Sulrinn, but it disappears with a scream a few moments later.
- A room of of this altar room has a few shelves, a small tunnel leading up and out, shelves with a handful of items, and a dead halfling. The halfling has magic leather armor, a choker with a pendant that depicts a demonic face flanked by two snakes. She also has a magical patchwork cloak, magical gloves, and a map of the Nentir Vale with various locations marked and notes on the back in Primoridal but written in Barazhard script (used for Primordial and Abyssal) but using Halfling words. The map is labeled Mari’s Map. The other items of note in the room include:
- A dark sliver ring stylized to look like a snake swallowing the moon.
- An iron spike with a glowing red sigil atop it.
- A large scythe with a fleshy, dark red handle, and a blade made from a large jaw, lined with incisors.
- A dark metal candelabra.
- An ingot of some dark silver metal.
- The gate! Of course, it wasn’t protected. Another demon fights the party and is defeated. The gate is smashed and explodes, ending the potential for summoning demons…right?
- After some additional exploration and killing of demons, but nothing too important, another interesting site was found. A room with nearly a dozen large mirrors on the walls. Many were broken but a handful showed not reflections but images, some moving:
- One was an image of a square room with broken metal scattered about and a pony-sized metal dragon curled up.
- Another had the image of a woman with six arms like the creature fought near Abraxus’ altar, her lips are moving as if she is saying something.
- A large toad like creature opens its mouth wide and then walks out of view is in another mirror, a moment after it walks out of view, the scene repeats itself.
- A bearded man with most of his face obscured by a heavy cloak nods and then fades away. It repeats a moment later.
- The party heads back out of this Slaughtergarde and back out of the Riverroar “crypt.” Once outside, Mari’s body (which they had brought with them) decays and rots very quickly. The buried the remains.
That covers sessions 6-9 and the beginning of session 10. As they were able to later identify all the items recovered in the prior sessions, I wanted to toss them in here before continuing with the rest of session 10.
- Robe of Useful Items (patchwork cloak)
- Gloves of Thievery (Mari’s magic gloves)
- Leather Armor of Poison Resistance (Mari’s armor)
- Wind Sabre: A +1 rapier that can be used to make a ranged attack, has the Finesse property, and grants the bearer immunity to wind-based effects like gust of wind.
- Signet of the Nightwitches: Green flames spread to any creature you strike with a melee attack for an additional 1d4 fire damage. You may also raise up to three dozen corpses as zombies; can only be done once per year.
- Rotskiff of the Rhymers: Plunge the spike into a corpse and toss the corpse into a body of water to summon an Abyssal skiff that can travel over any terrain, carrying up to 10 Medium creatures.
- Glutton’s Harvest: Counts as a +1 glaive. If you strike an organic foe with a critical hit, you heal the amount of damage done. Always hungry and must eat twice as much as normal.
- Candelabra of Veyla: Once per night, black candles can be placed in it and lit to summon a random fiend to serve you until dawn (from an abyssal chicken to a nightmare).
- Basilidian’s Choker: Grants +1 AC and a +1 bonus to saving throws.
- Putrid Steel: An Abyssal tainted ore that can be crafted into armor and weapons that leak an odorous black oil. If cracked or broken, it will slowly repair itself over time.
Phew…that’s a bunch of mostly nasty magic stuff. I guess that’s to be expected when you plunder an “armory” of an Abyssal fortress, right?
We’ll pick up with the rest of Session 10 and onwards in the next recap. Only 20+ sessions to go!
