25th Day or Reaping, CY 580 - The Party Enters the Hidden City of Suderham

Due to illness and scheduling conflicts, it has been a while since we last played. We started earlier than usual today, but the players spent the first 45 minutes trying to catch-up and get their bearings. Once caught-up, discussions were had and decisions were made.

The party basically had three choices to figure out how to cross the mountains and get into Suderham. They could see the switchback road that would be used by wagons that went up to a guarded gate - the main way through. They could also see a network of caves,  one of which could possibly be a lesser-known or secret way through the mountains. But as they were riding on the back of wyverns, it wouldn't be a problem to simply fly up over the mountain peaks to the other side, where they had good reason to believe Suderham lies. The party decided to storm the main gate (because that's what they do).

The entrance to Suderham

This may have just been Cadwin wanting to try his "Call Lightning" spell, which is incredibly powerful, but of very limited use. In this case, from the back of the wyvern, he cast the spell, which takes one full turn to get started. During this time, clouds began to form and the sky grew dark. At the
end of the turn he lowered the wyvern down the guarded gate and, looking like Raiden, the Japanese Storm God (the Mortal Kombat version), he dropped a 12d8 lightning bolt into the middle of the guards, completely incinerating them. Then, every 10 minute turn for the next hour, he continued to drop lightning bolts on the gate until all of the wood was blasted away and all of the metal reduced to molten slag.

Once inside, the party found themselves in a long, torchlit tunnel wide enough for a horse and wagon to move through, and extending out of sight. About 20 ft. high on either side was a shelf that ran the entire distance as far as they could see. The party quickly used levitation and some rope to pull themselves up onto the left-side shelf and noticed that archers were lining themselves up on either side. The shelves were wide enough to allow two people side by side, and about 60 ft. in front of them, two archers were kneeling and two were standing behind them, preparing to shoot, while on the opposite shelf, archers had lined up about every five feet, preparing to shoot from the other side. Jarrus and Pontus charged the archers in front while Sarril used his Wand of Ice Storms to take out the archers on the opposite shelf. This became a pattern that repeated every 40 ft. or so as the party advanced. After a few hundred feet, all of the archers were dead, Pontus and Jarrus had a couple of arrows stuck in them (but nothing serious) and the tunnel came to an end. The party found some steps down to some doors that opened to the outside.

This approach of barging through the front door, causing destruction and fighting whatever the enemy throws at them has been the Bad Ass Motherfucker's modus operandi for a while now. That certainly wasn't changing anytime soon.

Temple of the Earth Dragon

The tunnel emerged on the low side of a volcanic mountain peak that rose up around a crater lake. A road led down to a heavily armed, walled city near a some docks on the lake. In the distance could be seen what appeared to be an abandoned keep. Carved into the side of the volcano, rising above the city was a temple where brown-robed figures seemed to be going in and out. The party discussion could be summarized as "That must be the temple for the Earth Dragon Cult. Whoever is running things most likely is in there, so we need to go inside and kill everyone." Using Invisibility 10 Ft. Radius, the party headed straight up into the temple to check it out.

The party was able to explore the temple while invisible. The ancient hollowed out structure was very alien in appearance, and, although he could not understand them, Cadwin recognized many of the carvings as ancient Flan. From his druidic lore, Cadwin was able to explain that the prehistoric Flan settlers to the region were known to be dragon worshippers who built great civilizations, and ultimately brought destruction onto themselves. The earliest druids were those who wished to prevent such a thing from happening again. They believed that the destruction was vengeance from Oerth itself, and in turn they rejected civilization, choosing to worship and preserve nature and balance. (Note: it is also said that the first druid was Obad-Hai, and that Beory, the physical manifestation of Oerth itself, was so impressed that she raised him up to godhood that he may continue to nurture and grow the druidic faith for generations to come. Hence, the "Old Faith" as it came to be known, became the largest religion in the Flanaess for thousands of years before the great migrations). Cadwin went on to explain that in these early times, black-robed men with horns and devilish masks plagued the world. Some believe they were druids who were corrupted by infernal or demonic influences. They were the original Horned Society, from which the modern Horned Society takes its name. Amongst some druids they were also called Vasharans. The early druids banned together and ultimately drove them away, but their legacy lives on through the Flan oral histories preserved by the druids. Whatever was going on in this temple, Cadwin was certain it was related to these early Flan dragon worshipers, and connected, in some way, to the black robed figures that Sarril said were associated with the black shards the party was previously investigating. Convinced now that this was all tied together in some way, and that the clerics in this temple must be evil, the party decided the best thing to do would be to start killing everyone, which should draw out the slavelords, whom they would then kill, thus finishing the module and gaining lots of experience.

After passing through a library and loading up with a bunch of books, the party wound up in what looked like a main worship hall with four large columns in the corners of the room and a dias in an alcove from which a priest might lead. There were four robed men in the center of the room trying to figure out what happened to the books on the bookshelves. The party decided to move up to the dais and unleash their attack from there, which came in the form of an Ice Storm from Sarril's wand. It was incredibly effective, killing all four clerics instantly, and triggering some kind of trap at the same time. The four columns began sinking as the floor itself split open to expose a pit of lava below. Luckily for the party, the dais remained in place, and they were able to use levitation and some rope to get over the lava pit and escape back out of the temple.

As suspected, their efforts drew attention and there were now 2 priests with dragon skull helmets, 6 clerics and a dozen guards coming up the road to greet them. Sarril was able to get the initiative and released a fireball from one of his wands that immediately killed all of the guards and clerics, leaving the two dragon priests who looked to be mostly unharmed. Jarrus and Pontus started running down the temple steps to engage in melee as Cadwin cast Lightning Strike (the 1st edition "Improved Druid" version of Lightning Bolt, from Dragon Magazine), which did substantial damage. The first high-priest called a devastating Flame Strike down on Sarril, Cadwin and Cassius, but Sarril's minor magic resistance kicked in and prevented damage. The second high-priest, recognizing they would likely get eviscerated in the next round from Jarrus and Pontus, cast Transmute Rock to Mud, destroying much of the temple steps, but trapping everyone and buying some time. Cadwin transformed into a bat to get out, while Jarrus was able to use his Ring of Levitation to get out of the mud. Everyone else was stuck, able to shoot and cast spells.

Jarrus managed to pull Pontus out of the mud and they both closed into melee. The second high-priest, now dealing with Pontus and Jarrus on her, cast Meld Into Stone and disappeared (presumably to get help). The first high-priest managed to cast a Blade Barrier around himself before Sarril cast Silence 15 ft. Radius, for the most part cutting off his escape. The Blade Barrier, however, caught both Jarrus and Pontus, doing significant damage to both of them and taking Jarrus down to just 1 hit point. Having no ability to cast other spells, the high-priest resorted to using items for which spoken commands were not required. That included a devastating Silver Dragon breath attack. Pontus was able to save Jarrus by covering his body with his own and leaping to the ground. Shortly thereafter, Sarril cast Dispel Magic, which dropped the Blade Barrier, allowing Pontus to jump back into melee and deliver a killing blow. To be sure, Jarrus repeatedly skewered the body, then picked it up as the party, under cover of Cadwin's Obscurement spell, ran for the nearby woods to escape the reinforcements that were on the way.

Sarril was able to use Dimension Door to move the party up to a high cave visible at the lip of the volcano. From here, they were able to see hundreds of city guards and clerics scouring the forest looking for them. They were well hidden and safe, however, and able to rest and recuperate.

The next morning, feeling strong from being healed and having spells refreshed, the party decided the best approach would be a full frontal assault on the city, certain that such an action would bring the slavelords out of hiding. Once again using Invisibility 10 ft. Radius, the party was able to move undetected and approached the heavily guarded front gates of the city. From here, Cadwin cast Call Lightning, summoning an ominous thunderstorm over the city and having a lightning bolt strike the front gate. This made the guards seek cover in the towers as the front gate was reduced to slag. Cadwin then cast Insect Swarm, which covered several city blocks, driving everyone outside to seek cover indoors. With the city streets empty, the party stepped through the broken gate to look for the tower entrance so they can begin killing the guards. That's when they saw a lone, small figure walking toward them. It was a small beggar boy - the only person on the streets, and the insects did not appear to be bothering him.

"Alms for the poor?" asked the boy as he approached. The party was convinced he was an apparition of some sort, to be not affected by Cadwin's spell. As the boy got close, he looked at the party and asked "Are you the saviors of Suderham?"

"We are here to kill the Slavelords" replied Jarrus "can you tell us where they are?"

"Yes," replied the boy "but you have to stop all of this." He gestured at the destruction. "Follow me and I will tell you what I know."

The party decided to follow, and the boy led them through a secret passage through the sewers and outside the city walls to a shack in the ScumSlum by the docks. The boy introduced himself as Oric, an orphan who is unsure of his age, but knowledgeable about Suderham and the Slavelords. He explained that Suderham was founded by Olarek, a self-styled King of the Drachensgrab who built the city and prospered for many years until the humanoids invaded the Pomarj after the Hateful Wars. Olarek was deposed and the city survived in chaos for several years until the Slavelords arrived about a decade ago. Although they brought some amount of order to the city, that order comes through an oppressive rule. No one in the city dares to cross any of the slavelords, who seem to see and know everything that happens in the city. A little less than a year after the slavelords arrived, the abandoned Temple of the Earth Dragon started to see activity, and has since grown to be the predominant faith in Suderham. It is rumored that one of the nine slavelords is a priest of the earth dragon, and the reason for the temple activity starting up again. Oric warned the party that any direct attack against the slavelords would be foolish, as they will be well prepared for anything they might do. It would be best to lay low for several days outside of the city walls until things calm down, then carefully sneak back into the city and see if they can find the hidden way into their stronghold, which Oric believes is connected to the House of Ill Repute, given that slavelords have been seen going into, but not out of that building. Subtlety is the key.

And so the party decided to rest, hidden away in the Scumslum for three days. This would give them time to prepare, including identifying newly acquired magic items. And so we move forward to the second day of Goodmonth, CY 580.