At last! At the end of our last session, the party discovered the exit from Castanamir’s home. Not only that, they also found quite a bit of treasure in the process. However, it was not easy and not without loss. Lavinia fell in the last battle before their escape and much of the magical treasure found was “sacrificed” to discover the location of the exit. I have a feeling that different characters might answer differently if asked which of those two was the greater loss. đŸ˜‰
For this session, we had Muse, Rachel, RJ, and Thomas AND a guest appearance by Bridgett. So that meant we had Callie, Grim, Morgraen, Riordan, Rurik, Bronn, and Lilly. RJ has elected to not make a second character to replace Lavinia. Bridgett got to play an old favorite of hers, Katerine, from our old Company H campaign…although a much lower level version of Katerine than she was when we ended that campaign. She still had her “stick with a string” though (a magical bow that looks, essentially, like a big stick with a string). We did a potluck for dinner and so we started about an hour late with all the socializing, eating, and getting seconds or, in RJ’s case, thirds. When we did get started, we picked up with the party (sans Katerine) using the portal to leave Castanamir’s island.
My GM comments, as usual, are in [italics and brackets].
Faced with the near hurricane storm battering the island, the party made all due haste to the portal that would take them back to Valley and Hell’s Haven where they could collect their fee for the six books. Morgraen led the way through the portal and was followed by Rurik. As Bronn, third in line, started to pass through the portal, he noticed small arcs of electricity coming from the portal. This was something that had not yet been experienced by any in the party. Both Lilly and Riordan noticed these “sparks” but had no real choice than to follow through the portal. By the time they did, the sparks had faded.
Rather than exiting into the chamber where Chakos and the hobgoblins had led them days prior, Morgraen stepped into a small clearing in the middle of some woods. An elderly man was running, albeit relatively slowly, across the clearing and a trio of hobgoblins crashed through the trees at the clearing’s edge in obvious pursuit of the man. Before Morgraen could even blink, an arrow cut through the air to strike one of the hobgoblins in the throat. As Morgraen moved to engage the Hobgoblins, more crashed through the trees and into the clearing.
The battle continued with each of the party popping through the archway, one by one. When Bronn came through, small strikes of lightning arced from the archway to strike him in the backpack and shocking him to no small degree. The battle was not an easy one and a number of the party were damaged and incapacitated by their foes. The old man continued his flight through the clearing and into the woods with a single hobgoblin in pursuit. At one point, a voice shouted out in goblin that their quarry had been caught and called for a retreat. The hobgoblins in the clearing did just that but did not make it out of the clearing before the party cut them down.
Introductions were quickly made between some of the party and their archer ally in the woods, Katerine. She and some of the party members set off after the old man and the hobgoblin while the others saw to their wounded and to looting the bodies. A short distance in the woods, Katerine…in the lead…was ambushed by a trio of hobgoblins but they were quickly dispatched and the old man, Grant, rescued. Meanwhile, the others tied up two of the hobgoblins that were still alive but unconscious [sleeping, actually, from Rurik’s sleep spell]. The two groups rejoined back in the clearing to rejoin the others and then Grant’s story was shared. He, along with about a dozen other elderly individuals, had been captured by a bunch of hobgoblins. They were being taken somewhere into the woods. Grant had the opportunity to slip away to seek help and so he took it but the hobgoblins quickly followed him.
Katerine, for her part, explained that the party was in the Vesve Forest in Greyhawk. Neither name was very familiar to any of the party. The half-elf archer continued to explain that she and some absent companions had once rescued this group of elderly individuals from the advances of a horde of advancing hobgoblins but that they elderly had later mysteriously gone missing. She had come across their trail while traveling alone and so sought to save these folk. The trail that the hobgoblins had been taking led to a ruined village in the woods that is rumored to now be the lair of Midoritosh, a green dragon. One of the hobgoblins was questioned and he was quite helpful, stating that they were, indeed, taking the people to the village to be fed to the great dragon. He agreed, rather enthusiastically, to lead the party to the village and said that he could help them avoid the sentries and traps. The party did not trust his offer and killed both he and the other unconscious hobgoblin. The party then, some rather reluctantly so as no direct compensation was being offered, agreed to help Katerine rescue the elderly (some solace was taken in the idea that a dragon would likely have a nice hoard of treasure).
[A bit of explanation here. In our old Company H Campaign, they had, indeed, found a group of elderly individuals holed up in a small village. These individuals had been left behind when the village evacuated in the face of an approaching horde of hobgoblins and other beings. The party escorted the elderly, that they had taken to calling the Gray Panthers, to the relative safety of another village and had arranged for them to all be evacuated when that village evacuated. Before any of that could happen, the Gray Panthers disappeared one night and the party found no clue as to what had happened to them. This current session actually had nothing to do with what had happened to them but I knew that at least a couple of the players, Bridgett included, would probably get a kick out of finding the Gray Panthers again so that’s what I went with rather than with what really happened to them.]
The trail was easy to follow; the hobgoblins had made no attempt to hide their passage. They were probably at least half a day ahead of the party. After a number of hours of travel, the party arrived at the outskirts of the village. Callie and Katerine scouted around the edge of the village. A good number of the buildings were largely ruined but a handful still looked relatively intact. In addition, a tower, some four or five stories tall, was largely intact on a hill at the opposite side of the village from the waiting party. Two relatively larger buildings that were still intact were not far from this tower. There was no sign of guards or movement in the ruins. The party decided that they’d start their explorations with one of the larger buildings near the tower. The whole group moved to a point some sixty feet or so outside the village and close to first building targeted for exploration. As Callie, Katerine, and Morgraen cautiously and stealthily approached this building, the others nervously waited as squirrels chittered at them and then ran off.
Peeking into one of the windows of this building, Morgraen saw bodies lying on the floor. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light inside the building, she realized that they were the elderly group that they were seeking, hooded and bound! She saw no guards inside. Peeking in another of the building’s windows, she saw much the same from her new position. Worried about hidden guards, the trio split up to circle around the building and move deeper into the village. As Morgraen passed between a couple of buildings, a loud bell began to ring out from just in front of her…a magical alarm. As she slipped around a corner to hide, Callie and Katerine both climbed trees to hide, disturbing some chittering squirrels. Three hobgoblins were quickly spotted, approaching the area cautiously.
A sinister and sibilent voice called out for the hobgoblins to muster their troops to deal with the intruders. It even pointed out that two of the intruders were up in trees while the others were hiding out in the woods! Presumably, the voice was that of Midoritosh and it knew exactly where the party members were! The scouting trio made all due haste into the woods to join their less stealthy companions. It was quickly decided that they should fight rather than flee and headed back to the ruins after a short delay.
The party split up into two groups to circle around the building holding the elderly captives. The group that went around the southern side soon encountered some hobgoblin archers and a ranged battle took place. The other group, going around the northern side of the building, encountered no resistance and reached the buildings door. Opening the door, they discovered why they had faced no resistance…a group of hobgoblins was waiting inside and let loose with a volley of crossbow bolts as the door was opened. Both skirmishes were hard fought. Before the hobgoblins inside the building with the hostages could be defeated, the voice hissed out again. This time it demanded that the party surrender or the hobgoblins would kill all of the elderly. The party did not surrender (assuming that the captives would be killed anyways if they did) and redoubled their efforts. They were able to defeat all of the hobgoblins but not before one of them murdered one of the bound and hooded elderly.
By the time all of the hobgoblins were defeated, the battled had ranged outside of the building with the hostages. Both of the party’s two groups had clear view of the tower and could see the head of a dragon rear up over the parapets at the top of the tower. Already bloodied and with magical resources low, the arrival of the dragon did not bode well for their continued survival.
[However, they all have to wait until the next session to see what is going to happen as that is where we stopped for the night.]
