23rd Day of Reaping, 580 CY - The Party Hunts for the "real" Markessa

This week was a short session because we all decided to stop early and go see The Last Jedi. I highly recommend it. Go. Now. D&D can wait.

The party was hurting after the the fight with Blackthorn, the ogre mage. Cadwin was still unconscious from earlier, Jarrus was now at negative hit points - stabilized, but at risk (I recently updated the house rule on what happens when characters recover from death and near-death. Pontus was extremely hurt, Sarril was completely out of spells and Luapan was still a statue, so the party really had no choice but to find a safe place to retreat and rest. Upstairs was not an option, as they knew that Turrosh Mak would be marching an orc army into the keep first thing in the morning. The current level was not yet safe, as evidenced by a small patrol that came by (and saw the dead werewolves, so wisely decided to back away - for now). So, after searching the room and finding a secret entrance to a treasure vault that they had no way of accessing at the moment, the party decided to retreat back into the secret hallway they explored earlier, hoping that anyone else who knew about it was dead or gone. The plan seemed to work, as the party was able to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening there, and then get a full night's rest without being found. It would have been peaceful if it weren't for the torturous screaming coming from somewhere in the distance.

Getting to spend some quality time together, Sarril decided to ask the new thief, Cassius, about his background. He explained that he comes from a merchant family in Greyhawk, and were captured not long ago outside the city when they attempted to leave. Someone captured them and sold them to the Slave Lords. Sarril then asked for an update regarding what news he has missed from the city in the last year. Cassius informed the party of the following:

• War broke out between the Shield Lands and the Horned Society about a year ago and has been raging continually since then.
• Furyondy did not come to the aid of their ally, due to its own internal political strife. It is rumored that King Belvor is being influenced by his advisors to stay out of the conflict. It is no secret that most of his nobles are resisting any additional taxation as the economy has severely suffered since trade through Celene had been cut-off, and Keoland and Nyrond were dealing with struggles of their own.
• In Nyrond, King Archibold was dealing with problems to its north and south. The recent collapse of the Theocracy of the Pale into civil war, removing a necessary buffer between Nyrond and the Duchy of Tenh to the north, and Duke Szefrin's move against Almor to reclaim the lands into Aerdy (the Great Kingdom) to the south. Without Almor, Nyrond was most certainly looking at a full-scale war with Aerdy in the near future. For these reasons, Nyrond could not send much help to The Shield Lands, though King Archibold did send a naval fleet to Admunfort to at least protect the capital, which may be the only thing keeping them from losing the war at this point.
• The war has created a massive refugee crisis in Greyhawk, which is exacerbating an already strained economy. Desperate people also make good recruits for evil cults who take advantage of their situations. As such, the problem of evil cults within the city has grown, and has strained the City Watch
• The city is in near economic collapse, and merchants have been leaving the city to seek their fortunes elsewhere - of course this is having a progressively negative spiraling effect, which is weakening the guilds as well. At this point, it is primarily the Rhenee who are bringing goods into the city
• The churches, many of which have been helpful in fighting cult activity in the past, are mostly gone. The Temple of Pholtus was overrun by a renegade cult of proclaimed Pholtus followers, the Temple of St. Cuthbert emptied out to send all of the help they could to support the war effort, and several other temples, such as Xerbo and Zilchus, simply left without explanation, leaving only empty buildings behind.
• The Guild of Wizardry and the College of the Magical Arts seem to be functioning, but people aren't seen walking around the campuses anymore

In summary, Cassius made it clear that going to Greyhawk is not advised, as it was quickly turning into a dump. Of course that made Sarril that much more interested in getting there as soon as possible.

Resting in the the hidden hallway worked as the party was able to avoid detection and get a full rest and prepare spells in the morning. After healing up, they headed out in the direction of Markessa's room, which Blackthorn had previously pointed them to. When they go there, Markessa and her bodyguard were prepared. Cloaked in invisibility from Dust of Disappearance, Markessa unleashed a lightning bolt at the entire party as soon as Pontus opened the door. The bolt hit everyone in a nice, clean line. It hurt, but everyone was still able to push forward. Jarrus and Pontus engaged the bodyguard while Sarril, Cadwin and Cassius focused on dealing with the invisible Markessa who was tossing spells in their direction. The battle took a minor toll on the party, but it was over quickly. Sarril, using his Gem of True Seeing, looked over Markessa's body. It looked like her, but like the woman they encountered upstairs, this one had no equipment of value on her. Pontus, who had seen Markessa loading up with magical equipment when he scouted previously, insisted this was not the real Markessa.

The party then searched the room and found some secret doors, one of which lead to what looked like Markessa's bedroom. They found a safe that they could not open (Cassius, the new thief, has not yet acquired any thieves tools). They then found another secret door behind the fireplace leading to a narrow passage which looked like it had some footprints from use. The party then heard a booming sound in the distance and felt the floors shake. Turosh Mak and his forces had arrived upstairs, they assumed. The passage led to an intersection where it forked south, and turned northwest, looping back up into the keep. They decided to follow the northern loop and ran into a minotaur lair. The minotaur was an easy fight, but the wounds are starting to add up again.

This is where we were forced to pause until after the new year. It is 8:00 am on the 24th Day of Reaping, 580 CY

23rd Day of Reaping, 580 CY - Back into the Slaver's Fortress

We began the session with Sarril using his aerial familiar to locate Pontus. Soon, Cadwin and Sarril were able to connect with Pontus and Jarrus, and Pontus was able to tell the rest of the party about the deal so they could make plans. They decided the best option would be to cover the outside of the fortress with fog using Cadwin's Concealment spell, and then levitate up onto the wall, clearing out the battlements and towers one room at a time. For Jarrus, who was now mostly healed thanks Sarril and Cadwin, this was an easy task. It wasn't long before most of the upper level was clear (although the party didn't check every room, so who knows for sure).

Along the way, they came across a room full of slaves, entranced by some kind of swirling shadows that surrounded them. The effect, the party soon discovered, was caused by a Cloaker, which caused the party some difficulty, but they managed to dispatch it, freeing the slaves. One of the slaves named Cassius agreed to join the party in the hopes that together they might find his family and other members of his merchant caravan that had been captured.

The lower level started off just as easy. There were two main rooms that Pontus had already scouted. This first was a large cave where goblins and worgs were busy healing up. That was nothing that one of Sarril's wands couldn't handle. The next room was Markessa's Lab, where Pontus had previously seen a very much living Markessa speaking with a monk. Though Markessa was not present, there were plenty of goblin archers and a couple of owlbears in the room. A well-placed Ice Storm from Sarril's wand took out the goblins and then Jarrus and Pontus finished off the owlbears. Easy so far.

Pontus had previously found an alchemy storage area through a secret tunnel and was hoping to lead the party there to find healing potions and a Scroll of Stone to Flesh. The party found the secret door and investigated the area, picking up a few items. While looking around, Pontus bumped into a candelabra. . .  or maybe it was setup to fall over on purpose. A chemical reaction took place when the candelabra dumped some interested liquid into some other liquid, which filled the room with red smoke. Cadwin began acting strangely, casting spells and eventually attacking Pontus. The party was forced to subdue Cadwin, taking him out of adventure for a little while.

From there, things took a turn for the worst. The party encountered three werewolves, who weren't that difficult by themselves, but after the leader was killed, the other two ran for shelter in another room. When the party chased them down, they encountered a tall, thin man behind a desk counting money. Blackthorn was his name, and he acted annoyed by the party's presence, wanting to know what they wanted. When Jarrus said they were there to kill Markessa, Blackthorn gave them directions to her room and then told them to leave. Jarrus decided to attack instead. It turns out that Blackthorn was actually an ogre mage, and his first move was to blast everyone with an 8d8 Cone of Cold, nearly killing Jarrus. Jarrus was able to get a nice blow against Blackthorn, but it did not kill him. When Blackthorn retaliated, it put Jarrus below zero hit points - dying for the second time in two days. The party was able to finish the fight, but this is where we paused.

It is the afternoon of the 23rd Day of Reaping, 580 CY. Jarrus and Cadwin are both out, Luapan is turned to stone, leaving Pontus, Sarril and Cassius to decide what to do next.

22nd Day of Reaping, CY 580 - It's evening now

The following events occurred during some online chat sessions over the course of two weeks, so we were able to advance the story forward before the next session.

DM's Note: It turns out Pontus drank Oil of Etherealness, which is supposed to be rubbed on the body and clothing/equipment. Some crueller DMs than I might have determined that such a thing would kill the character (after all, if your insides go ethereal while your outsides stay intact, your body surely cannot survive). I decided it just meant that the body would go ethereal, but not clothing or equipment, and so Pontus disappeared, leaving his stuff behind.

Being unable to communicate or interact with the party, Pontus decided to use his altered state to explore the lower levels of the fortress. While below, he discovered that Markessa was very much still alive, and had some powerful allies around her. He also managed to map out a good portion of the lower level to help the party when and if they should decide to come down here.

In the meantime, the rest of the party, suspecting, but not knowing what happened to Pontus, decided it was not safe to stay where they were, and packed up to leave. This included placing the statue of Luapan in the new found large bag of holding. The party then covered themselves in dead worf pelts to mask their scent before Sarril cast Invisibility 10' Radius to aid in the escape. They managed to slip past some hobgoblins who were bringing in a makeshift siege wall from which they could try to block the party in the room while shooting at them from safety. That plan certainly wasn't going to get executed.

The invisibility worked well to get the party into the inner courtyard, where they started to encounter trouble. The hobgoblins in the courtyard were using boggles to track scents, and one of them managed to pick up on the smell of humans through the worg scents. Alarms were sounded and enemies began closing in. The party decided to rush for the gatehouse and work their way up to the battlements above, taking arrow fire but not fighting, so as not to break the invisibility. With hobgoblins hot on their trail, they broke through several rooms, running into more enemies, dodging weapons and running.

They managed to make it to the corner of the south and east walls, when a very lucky arrow struck Jarrus in the neck, taking him below zero hit points. Having no time to stabilize him, Cadwin and Jarrus propped him up between them, held on, and lept over the 30 ft. wall, using Jarru's Ring of Feather Falling to allow them all to safely land. Cadwin then cut off Jarrus' ring finger (for later resurrection) and then ran with Sarril into the distant woods.

Meanwhile, Pontus had returned to the room to find it empty and began searching the upper level for signs of the party. Still being ethereal, he moved slowly, but could pass through all walls. This allowed him to map the rest of the upper level, and soon see the commotion that had just started on the battlements above. He floated up to where the party had just been and followed the trail of Jarrus' blood down below. As Pontus tried to check out what looked like Jarrus' dead body, he began to rematerialize, which started drawing arrow fire from the hobgoblins. Jarrus was not dead, though at this point he was one round away from it. Pontus was able to use his First Aid skill to stabilize Jarrus, taking two arrows in the back in the process. He then picked up a nearly dead Jarrus and bounded away to the south and started to hide. It was then that the orcs captured the two of them and took them to their encampment.

These orcs call themselves the Bloody Hand, and it turns out are the same orcs the party had encountered on the road earlier that morning - or at least were part of the same organization. Amongst these orcs, however, were several very bad-ass looking half-orc leaders. One of these leaders Pontus recognized as Grunk, the half-orc gladiator who had previously killed him in the arena. After some exchange of words and expressions of mutual respect, Pontus was introduced to the clan leader, a fearsome half-orc by the name of Turrosh Mak. Pontus bargained for the life of Jarrus, who was currently being kept in a cage, and not expected to live through the night. Although Turrosh despised

Turrosh Mak

elves, he soon recognized that they were fighting on the same side. Turrosh was also a former slave, and has been very busy uniting the many hundreds of humanoid clans of the Pomarj to fight against them. Though Turrosh wanted Pontus to join him to help lead his armies, Pontus refused, but he did offer to help Turrosh in another way if possible. And thus the deal was made. Turrosh agreed to save the life of Jarrus and, in return, Pontus agreed that he and his companions would re-enter the Slavelord's fortress and clear it out and open the gates to turn it over to the orcs, who would be arriving the morning after next.

And so Turrosh kept his bargain, healing Jarrus just enough to get his hit points into positive territory. The next morning, both men were escorted from the camp. And this is where we left off with the online gameplay, in preparation for our next session. It was morning of the 23rd Day of Reaping, CY 580.