Wow…I never really expected we’d have six sessions of this campaign under our belts by this time. This was supposed to have been the alternate campaign but it has become (and will remain) our primary campaign through at least the end of the year. I also never would have dreamed that we’d have four PC deaths by the sixth session. Yep, we had another one in this session.

When we last left our heroes, their numbers had been cut in half by the predations of a vampire! The survivors–Callie, Grim, and Lavinia–had fled to the temple below the Silvery Eel Inn, hoping that the wolves chasing them on behalf of the vampire could not open the flagstone trapdoor. After briefly mourning their fallen companions–Ander, Aramil, and Gurdis–they collapsed, physically and emotionally exhausted, and succumbed to the peaceful embrace of sleep.

Muse had to miss this session and so Callie and Grim were missing. Rachel was back and so that meant that Morgraen and Riordan would also be back. RJ created Rurik, a mountain dwarf wizard, to replace Ander and Theo brought in the “viking” cousins Aelwulf, a human fighter, and Bulwein, a human cleric, to replace his fallen characters. This meant that Lavinia was the only PC that had been played in the prior session and I pick up with what happened below the break. My GM comments, as always, are in [brackets and italics].

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This session was quite a doozy but I’m getting ahead of myself

In our last session, the party had traveled through the “Moon Door” and had discovered the small town of Tepes in, presumably, a different plane of existence. They took shelter for the night in the only building that appeared inhabited, the Silvery Eel Inn. Here, they encountered a night of horror and rats that culminated in a harrowing battle against a pony-sized rat. They defeated this monstrosity just as a massive way of regular-size rats was about to wash over half of the party. The death of the “queen” rat also resulted in the death of all of the other rats in (and below) the inn. This is where we pick up things below the break.

Rachel missed this session and so Riordan and Morgraen were missing. Theo joined us again after having missed the last couple of sessions and so Aramil and Gurdis rejoined the group. Because of the various comings and goings of the players, we are just “hand-waving” all of this. Characters simply will or will not be involved based on player availability. It will be the responsibility of each player to keep up with the happenings of sessions that they miss…plus we recap our prior session at the start of each session anyways.

As usual, any GM comments are in [italics and brackets].

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When we last left our heroes, Riordan had been grabbed and taken into a cave by an ogre, apparently, for lunch. The elf had shouted that the others should save themselves. For various motivations ranging from heroic streak to the possibility of recovering an ogre’s treasure, the other PCs did not take Riordan’s final exhortation to heart. Instead, the gathered together and cautiously approached the cave into which the ogre and Riordan had disappeared.

Peering into the relatively large cave mouth, they could see that a short corridor of worked stone led to a t-intersection with corridors leading off in two opposite directions. No sound could be heard coming from either direction. Gurdis offered up that they had been in some caves earlier, full of goblins, and that the corridor leading to the east might link up with those caves. Peering down that way, the party could see that the corridor led to another small passageway turning to the south. Reasoning that the ogre wouldn’t have gone that way given the corridor’s small size, they turned to the west.

The western corridor ended in a door. Opening it, the party found a small room that was largely filled with a small pool from, upon further investigation, a natural spring. With no sign of the ogre or Riordan, the party headed down the eastern corridor but before they could get very far, the ogre squeezed through the narrow turn at the end and he was carrying a…

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Our regular campaign was put on hold again this past session because both RJ and Todd were missing. So, as is now our backup plan, we played The Side Quest again with only one player, Theo, who played in the prior Side Quest session joined by Muse and Rachel, both playing The Side Quest for the first time. Two random characters were created for both of them:

• Callie Greenbottle: A halfling fighter (duelist) who is a former highway robber and is played by Muse. Callie wants to be rich and famous and will take great risks to achieve both.
• Grim Tallstag: A less than aptly named human wizard who was an urchin and is played by Muse. Grim is looking to expand his magical repertoire and does not like to have the mismatch between his small stature and his name to be pointed out.
• Morgraen Brawnanvil: A dwarven rogue and former military scout played by Rachel. Preferring the direct and simple approach to solving problems, Morgraen has difficulty admitting that she’s wrong.
• Riordan Oakenheel: An elven cleric of Oghma and discredited academic played by Rachel. Riordan has some rather unorthodox theories and seems to be torn between sharing his thoughts and keeping them secret.

Riordan, who has something of an obsession with books and knowledge (and some less than commonly accepted theories on many of the topics of said books), had been discredited from his academic post. In his studies or discussions, he had heard of a fabled library that contained many rare books that was said to be hidden in a valley up in the Nether Mountains, near the settlement of Hawk’s Nest. This library is guarded and cared for by a most unusual ogre.

Not wanting to travel alone in the wilds and having had something of a sheltered life, Riordan sought out a guide who could assist him in his search. This help initially took the form of a dwarven woman, Morgraen Brawnanvil, who claimed to have served as a scout for one of the southern dwarven clans before she had come north to seek out fame and adventure. This pair was joined by a scrawny and short young man who had overheard the deal struck by the pair in one of Neverwinter’s many taverns. With his small stature, wild orange hair, and freckles, not only was Grim Tallstag inappropriately named but he looked nothing like a typical “adventurer” type. He did, however, want to seek his fortune and, hopefully, magical knowledge. Why study under some bossy mentor when you can go out and find the knowledge yourself?

The trio set out together for Hawk’s Nest and Hell’s Haven. As they camped one night, they were not alone. A small halfling, Callie Greenbottle, eyed the group from her hiding spot a short distance away. It became quite apparent that the elf must have something valuable in his pack given how he protectively held it and even used it as a pillow when he settled down to sleep. Although her preferred “prey” were the rich, this person did look to have lived a rather comfortable and pampered life and could easily be one of her favored prey.

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In my last post, I laid out the first half of our first session of our alternate campaign that we’ll be playing when regular players are missing. RJ, Theo, and Todd each are playing two characters and spent a good portion of the session interacting in the Three Leaves to the Wind Inn in Hawk’s Nest. After a relatively quiet night (only Geth was arrested and caused any real semblance of trouble), the party headed out for Hell’s Haven, a “wall” that cuts off a valley of adventure some six miles from Hawk’s Nest. Yes, the valley is essentially an homage to the Caves of Chaos. However, I’d probably be hard pressed to say that there are really any spoilers for the classic Keep on the Borderlands below the break. For one, I’m using an alternate map and I also pretty much just made it all up as we went. 😉

The “misadventures” of nearly getting their butts handed to them by a handful of goblins are below the break.
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