5th Day of Goodmonth, CY580 - Finally free of the Scourge of the Slavelords

Today the group finally finished the last of the AD&D first edition super module known as Scourge of the Slavelords (A1 - A4), though, this last chapter (A4) didn't resemble much of the printed module. It's all to tie into the larger campaign.

A few days earlier, during the immediate chaos following the slavelord's defeat, Dame Gold and her party were rescued by a mysterious man named Ko, and thus avoided the horrific fate of the other slaves that were sacrificed to summon the Tarrasque. As the party was trying to escape the beast themselves, they ran into Ko who introduced himself as a member of her party and led the heroes to where they were hiding. They didn't spend very long before the tarrasque came crashing down the street and Dalec Clay, the heirophant druid that Cadwin had been seeking, revealed himself and, through an awesome display of power, opened a fissure in the ground, sending the beast into the magma below. Warning the party that this would not stop the beast for long, he urged them to be on their way.

Cadwin, having spent the last several months searching for this great mythic druid, did not want to leave. There were so many questions he wanted to ask. He wanted to stay and help Dalec on his mission, and learn his great secrets. "You must help your friends," he said "we will see each other again some day."

With that, the party hurried on their way, and they can see that time was running out. The earthquake did more than just open a fissure. The volcano that overshadowed Suderham, Mount Flamenblut, erupted with a gigantic explosion that was causing fiery meteors to rain all around. Sarril sent his familiar up in the air to investigate and received a report that the road up ahead was clogged with people rushing toward the docks trying to escape. Several fishing boats were tied up on the docks and some were starting to capsize as masses of people rushed to overload the boats. Fights were breaking everywhere and, to make matters worse, some kind of gray-skinned humanoids were crawling out of the water and attacking people, dragging them into the waters below. On the west end of the docks was a walled off and gated area behind which was a long dock with a large galley. This must be the Water Dragon as it was heavily guarded by town guards and elite soldiers in gold scale armor. The party decided to go as far as they could down the main road until they hit the crowds, then start cutting through side streets and around buildings. The had the following people in tow:

1. Dame Gold - Noblewoman and leader of the Town of Safeton

2. Thaddeus – A person with a dangerous reputation as a thief, never proven. Charming and witty.

3. His Excellency, Derish of Safeton – High cleric of Safeton (St. Cuthbert)

4. Bruthas Badenson – A merchant of some repute

5. Jack Knob – A dwarf who specializes in locks and safeboxes for the rich

6. Hammish of Drone – A sage, specializing in ancient lore, given to pessimistic musings

7. Mitgan – An artist of wide repute whom Dame Gold had commissioned to perform some work.

8. Ko - the man who rescued the group, and the party would soon learn is a monk, follower of Zuoken, who was investigating the Scarlet Brotherhood's dealings with the Slavelords

DMs Note: This session was setup as sort of a timed mission for the party to "get off of the island." Each turn, I rolled randomly for where a meteor would fall within the town, creating some risk for the party (they had a couple of close calls). Each turn I also rolled for each of the boats on the dock, including the Water Dragon, to see which boats would capsize (for the smaller boats) and which would leave. The longer the party takes, the less boats there would be. The party wanted to get to the Water Dragon, but if that wasn't possible, they would still need to find a way off the island.

As the party moved through the Scumslum toward the docks, I had random encounters I would roll for, as well as some planned encounters depending on where they decided to go. If the party spent enough time, they had the potential to get back all of their lost stuff, and a lot more of the the slavelord's personal treasure. But doing everything *and* escaping was unlikely, not that I actually expected this party to do that. That's not their way. When they have a goal, they go straight to it. They do not pass go. They do not collect $200. That's pretty much how this session went.

The party managed to simply avoid most encounters, making judicious use of the Sleep spell and other means. They were almost to the docks when they passed a warehouse with two Scarlet Brotherhood monks standing outside guarding, while others were inside gathering up crates of goods. Cadwin cast Charm Person on both of them and waved as the party walked by, content with avoiding a fight. It worked on the first one, but not the second, and a fight soon erupted. The two out front were soon joined by four more from inside. The monks, who were too unimportant to have magic items, were no match for super-strong Jarrus with double-longsword specialization. But they did slow the party down and do some damage. Cadwin asked the charmed monk what was going on in the warehouse and he answered that they needed to get out of town and were grabbing all of their goods. The party decided they didn't have time to search through crates (DM: It turned out to be a good decision because while some of their stuff and the the dead slavelord's stuff, was in those crates, had they spent the time to look, they would have missed the Water Dragon).

The party then moved up to the wall surrounding the far end of the docks. They approached far away from the gate and Cadwin cast Obscurement, which fogs a ridiculously sized 300 ft. radius. This created more chaos as neither the guards at the gate, nor the crowds of people trying to storm the gate could see more than four feet in front of themselves. The wall was short enough to allow Pontus to climb up and pull up the others from down below. It was at this point that Ko revealed his true nature as a follower of Zuoken and stated that his mission required him to go in another direction - to the Scarlet Brotherhood's boat. He wished the party well and then ran along the wall toward the east, taking out the guards on his way. The party then ran to the end of the long dock only to find loose moorings and no boat. (I had just rolled that round for the chance for the boat to leave and it did).

There was a moment of confusion before the DM reminded the players that they can only see four feet in front of themselves due to the Obscurement spell, so they really don't know where the boat is. Cadwin then dismissed the Obscurement spell, revealing the rear of the boat a mere 6 feet away and slowly drifting toward the center of the lake. This is where having a thief/acrobat and a barbarian in the party really came in handy. Both were able to make the leap to the boat, ropes in hand, and quickly tie off the ropes to the boat. Dame Gold's group was able to start reeling the boat back to the dock while the rest of the party jumped over.

On the boat were four elite Gold Scale militia, the Gold Scale Commander, and the dark-elf slavelord known as Edralve. Although Jarrus had a longsword in hand, the rest of the party had only clubs, and Sarril and Cadwin had only a limited number of first and second level spells. This was shaping up to be a tougher fight than the six slavelords a few days ago, and only two party members stood at the end of that one.

The commander sent the four guards from the bow of the boat to the stern to intercept the party. This gave Edralve time to prepare and watch the fight from a distance. If the party survived, she would be able to deal with them in a weakened state. Using Prayer and a few other clerical spells, she was able to boost the fighters. The fight took a long time, partly because the logistics of the boat only allowed for two on two fighting, keeping Jarrus and Pontus engaged while the spellscasters provided what little aid they could, and partly because these elite soldiers were 9th level fighters with 54 hit points each.

While the fighters engaged, Cassius jumped overboard and swam to to the bow so he can sneak aboard and backstab Edralve. Cadwin cast Faerie Fire on all enemies to increase everyone's chance to hit and Sarril cast Silence on the bow of the boat to stop Edralve from casting. Unbeknownst to Sarril, even with her innate magic resistance, Edralve had cast Spell Immunity on herself to inoculate her against the Silence specifically, as she knew that was a common tactic by Sarril to shut down spellcasters. She responded with a Faerie Fire of her own, ensuring that, between the Prayer and Faerie Fire, the Gold Scale guards would be unlikely to miss with any of their attacks.

Still, Jarrus was dealing 22+ damage with every swing of his sword. And while Pontus and Jarrus were taking a lot of damage in return, Sarril was standing behind them casting healing spells every round. When it looked like the last of the Gold Scale guards was about to fall, the commander started to move up to join in the fight while Edralve worked on stepping up her offensive casting. That was when Cassius snuck up behind her, delivering 40 points of damage from a critical roll on a backstab (remember, this first edition AD&D, where damage is multiplied without limit). While this move didn't kill Edralve, it did stop her from focusing on the party as she turned around to cast Slay Living on Cassius. He made his save and was able to dive back into the water to escape the remainder of her wrath. Still, taking her out of the fight for two rounds was enough for Sarril to cast Hold Person on the commander and for Jarrus and Pontus to finish off the last of the gold scale guards.

When Edralve was able to focus back on the fight, she immediately dispelled the Hold Person enchantment on the commander, allowing him to engage Pontus and Jarrus while she spent the next few rounds healing herself. The commander was an interesting fight. He had exactly 100 hit points, and a special helm that allowed him to cast a full Heal spell on himself once per day. That's almost like having 200 hit points! As a 12th level fighter with specialization and a magic longsword (though no strength bonuses), he was striking twice per round for 1d8+4 per hit. Not a lot for someone like Pontus, but after being worn down by other Gold Scale fighters, it was quickly adding up.

Possibly the most insane part of the fight came next, when the Gold Scale Commander had only a few hit points remaining and spent his next round action activating the Heal spell in his helm, restoring him back to 100 hit points. The party surely thought this was the end, but then they pulled out a miracle. First, Cadwin transformed into a Badger Mole, giving him a claw/claw/bite attack. Second, Cassius had climbed up out of the water and snuck up behind the commander to perform a backstab. Once again, he rolled a critical roll on the backstab, taking him down to half of his hit points. Cadwin the badger mole dealt a series of significant blows, followed up Jarrus and Pontus really laying the hammer down with two attacks each. The entire team dealt 102 hit points worth of damage in a single round, dropping the commander where he stood.

DM's Note: It is worth mentioning that, other than Jarrus and Cassius, who had picked up a plain longswords earlier, all of the other party members, including Pontus, were armed with only clubs.

The party quickly raced toward the bow of the boat to face Edralve. Cadwin unleashed a Dust Devil spell on her, which he expected would prevent her spellcasting. Unfortunately, her innate magic resistance cancelled the spell. Edralve knew she would have to remove Jarrus from the fight quickly and cast Hold Person on him, which he was able to shrug off. In desperation, she cast it again, targeting only Jarrus in order to improve her chances for success, and again, he shrugged it off. At this point, Pontus, the fastest of the group, was up on the bow of the ship ready to attack her. She responded by levitating Pontus 80 ft. into the air, taking him out of the fight.

At this point, Edralve was surrounded by the entire party, who were landing blows on her already. In response, she cast Blade Barrier in a circle around herself in order to catch everyone in melee. (DM's Note: I think I've mentioned this in previous blogs, but the spell Blade Barrier does not have a saving throw associated with it because it states that anyone who passes through it takes damage. Yet is also gives the cleric flexibility over where to cast it and the shape that it takes, so it is reasonable to cast it in a place where PCs are already standing. In this case, it would no be unlike a Wall of Fire spell, which does provide a save to jump out of the way - with PCs landing on one side of the wall or the other. So I have allowed a cleric to cast Blade Barrier in a circle or semi-circle around themselves, catching anyone in melee, but giving them a save to jump outside of it. If they jump outside of it, they take no damage, but are then unable to re-engage in melee). The entire party made their saves, and were now outside of the circle, unable to re-engage in melee. But Sarril had an answer for that - casting Dispel Magic and rolling below the percentile score needed to negate the effect.

At this point, Edralve needed to execute her escape plan. She had a Ring of Swimming and a Ring of Spell Storing on her. The Ring of Spell Storing had Magic Missile, Invisibility and Lightning Bolt in it. Her plan was to go invisible and then jump overboard and swim away, but the party was expecting such a move and tightly surrounded her to prevent her escape. She had to kill Jarrus in order to make her move, so over the next two rounds she hit him with both the Lightning Bolt and Magic Missiles. He made his save against the Lightning Bolt and the Magic Missile wound up being some bad rolls, so Jarrus managed to live long enough to return the favor with two vicious hits that ended her life.

Pontus, on the other hand, didn't fare so well. Edralve's death ended the levitation and he fell 80 ft. to crash onto the deck of the ship, dropping him down below 0 hit points, though not outright killing him. Sarril was able to stabilize him and, between the three healers on the boat (Sarril, Cadwin and the high priest of Safeton), Pontus was soon back up and moving.

Most importantly, since Pontus was prevented from killing the captain of the boat, Cadwin was able to cast Charm Person on him and get him to take them safely away from the burning volcanic island. This was especially important since navigating the river down the mountain to the Wooly Bay required not only knowledge of how to operate a boat, but specific knowledge about this waterway and how to navigate an intricate system of locks and magical contraptions along the river that allowed only certain boats into and out of the secret mountain lake. The slaves attached to the oars were set free, and those that were strong and willing volunteered to row the boat to Safeton - about a four day journey by sea. Cadwin, however, had other plans and decided to transform into a bat and fly back into the volcano in the hopes of speaking to Dalec Clay, whom it turns out he had been searching for when he was originally captured by the slavelords.

As for the rest of the party, they spent the next four days resting, talking to Dame Gold and her crew, and going through the many chests that Edralve had loaded in the cargo hold. They recovered a number of their own missing gear, and even acquired some new gear - like Gauntlets of Ogre Power

that Pontus had been dreaming of since he was neck-high to winter wolf. They also found a letter to Edralve, which could be an adventure hook. The letter reads:



"Our spies tell me that Stalman Klim has secured the artifact. Our plans are falling into place. Do all that you can to ensure that Klim is successful but be prepared to leave Suderham as soon as he starts the ritual. Do not take part in it. The brotherhood must believe the lords were brought down by the interlopers without suspecting your involvement. Klim is not to be trusted and will shift the blame to you in the event of failure, so be prepared for this possibility.

Know also, that if Klim succeeds, the way home underground from Suderham will be closed to you. You must travel overland on the surface world. Seek out Viconia in the west.

Aunrae failed at the temple. Much depends on you now now.

- Eclavdra of House Eilserve      "

The party also learned from Dame Gold that the slavelords kept her and her party alive because they wanted information about an alchemist's potion she was trying to acquire from an alchemist named Black Kerr. Dame Gold told the tragic story of her brother who became infected with the Red Death after a recent visit to Elredd. The Red Death is a terrible disease which is unaffected by any divine magic. Clerics are helpless against it. Only one man has ever been known to have discovered a cure. He was a half-elf bard named Diambeth who is rumored to have cured an outbreak of it about one hundred year ago. Diambeth died around 50 years ago, but he had an apprentice named Black Kerr. Dame Gold tracked down Black Kerr and invited him for the Feast of Edoia. Unfortunately, Black Kerr was not able to help her brother before the slavelords attacked and captured everyone. The slavelords did not know they had the alchemist and, assuming he was one of Dame Gold's servants, they placed him on a slave ship to row while talking Dame Gold and the more important-looking members of her group to Suderham.

At this point, Sarril informed Dame Gold that Black Kerr was placed on the same boat they were, and that he died of exhaustion and his body was thrown overboard. Dame Gold broke down in tears, believing her last hope to save her brother was truly gone - though, she soon composed herself, recognizing that enough time has passed that her brother was likely already dead. Nonetheless, the hope for thousands of people across the Flanaess was now also dashed.

"Maybe not," replied Derish, "there is still that strange man, Joseph. If there is any truth to what he had to say."

Curious, the party inquired about this man named Joseph. Dame Gold explained that, just before the party, a man came to Safeton who called himself Joseph of the Light. Joseph claimed to be a messenger of Pholtus, but did not look like any cleric of Pholtus she had ever seen. He wasn't decked out in bright plate mail and gold trimmings and silk tabards as is common for clerics of Pholtus. He was dressed only in the simplest plain rags. On his forehead was branded the symbol of Pholtus, and he carried only a simple club for a weapon. Her description fit that of some fanatical Pholtus worshipers that some members of the party had previously seen in Greyhawk and elsewhere.

DM's Note: Yes, I was inspired by the Sparrows from G.R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series - or Game of Thrones for those who watch the show.

Joseph of the Light claimed to have the cure for the Red Death. While Dame Gold was skeptical, she was also desperate, and allowed him to stay for the party so she can talk to him and find out what he knows. Unfortunately, she doesn't know what happened to him after the attack. If he was taken, he wasn't with her group.

This is about where we left off. We agreed to do some online continuation of the story so that the next session can start with the party in Greyhawk. I will likely do an interim blog update to fill in the story between Safeton and Greyhawk before blogging about the next session. In game, they party will arrive in Safeton late on the 9th Day of Goodmonth, CY 580.

2nd Day of Goodmonth, CY 580 - The Climax of the Slavelord Adventure

I'll go ahead and answer some questions up front, now that the players have played through most of the Scourge of the Slavelords super-module, as customized by me. I was asked when we first started what level I boosted the slavelords to. Clearly we have a party that, at an average of 8th level but with great stats and really good magic items, tend to easily deal with things intended for much higher level characters. That would necessitate increasing the power of the nine slavelords, as the original published materials places them between 8th and 11th level each, with relatively mundane magic items. Some of the dual class slavelords are even lower level.

I ended up doing a combination of things. First of all, there were some great 2nd edition Greyhawk source books published by TSR in 1999-2000, before they went to third edition. Although it is listed an adventure module, Slavers is really a source book for the Pomarj and contains information about NPCs that may have survived the original Scourge of the Slavelords adventure, including Markessa, Stalman Klim and a monk named Brother Kerin who, in the original module, encounters the party after their fight with the slavelords, but in my version, I just made him one of the nine (replacing Brother Mileroij). So for Markessa and Stalman Klim, I was able to pull the information directly from the Slaver's sourcebook, including all of the information about the Earth Dragon Priests and their special abilities. These folks were tough.

For Brother Kerin himself, I bumped him up to 10th level to match everyone else. For the big-bad fighter, Eanwulf, I kept him at 10th level, but I customized his build to include specialization with a scimitar, because it seems to me the main reason to choose a plain fighter in first edition is for weapon specialization, so I like to give major fighter NPCs specializations. Theg Narlot was the biggest change. In published Greyhawk canon, Theg Narlot escapes and later becomes Turrosh Mak. As the party has already encountered Turrosh Mak, a former slave intent of destroying the slavelords, I have clearly gone another direction. Theg Narlot is a fighter/assassin custom build. I just took the total experience point average for the slavelords (including Klim) and calculated how much that would give him when divided between fighter and assassin. It actually turned out to be 10/11, which surprised me. Edralve was also a custom build, but I will keep her particulars close to the vest for now, as she still lives. I also customized Ajakstu and increased him from level 9 to level 10, but didn't change much except what spells he had memorized. Nerelas the assassin was bumped up to level 11 and customized a little. For the most part, if they were listed as having a +1 weapon, I changed it to +2, or even +3 in the case of Eanwulf, because these guys were very wealthy and powerful and were capturing important people like Dame Gold, so it made sense they would keep the best weapons for themselves. I also gave each of them a small magic item of some sort, like Ring of Protection or Ring of Free Action or, in the case of Brother Kerin, a Ring of Shocking Grasp. The remaining slavelords, Lamonsten the Lazy and Slippery Ketta were completely unchanged.

I don't know how best to narrate this fight. I couldn't remember all of the details if I tried. There were six slavelords in the room, and they knew the party was coming and had a couple of rounds to prepare. When Pontus slid the secret door open, they all unleashed a surprise attack (though Pontus, as a barbarian, was not surprised and leaped straight into action). The six slavelords in the room were:

1. Eanwulf
2. Theg Narlot
3. Brother Kerin
4. Ajakstu
5. Lamonsten the Lazy
6. Slippery Ketta

Standing attention against one wall were three guards in brown scale mail and three guards in black scale mail (also from the Slavers supplement).

Ajakstu had already placed Strength spells on Eanwulf and Brother Kerin earlier, and had put up a Globe of Invulnerability (immunity to 4th level spells and below - he was well aware of what Sarril's wands could do). When Pontus slid the door open, Ajakstu immediately released a Wall of Force spell from his Ring of Spell Storing to block the passage behind the party, cutting off their retreat (unbeknownst to them). Eanwulf threw an axe at Pontus that landed squarely in his shoulder, which was followed by a poisoned throwing knife from Theg Narlot (Pontus saved vs. poison). Before Pontus could take an action, however, Lamonsten, an illusionist, cast Hypnotic Pattern on the wall, causing both Pontus and Jarrus to become hypnotized. Sarril was able to avoid the effects of the hypnosis and having the initiative on the next round, he used his Wand of Ice Storms to fill the room with icy hail, which immediately killed Lamonsten and the three brown scaled guards. Lamonsten's death released Pontus and Jarrus to do their thing.

Since Sarril had earlier cast Fly on everyone, the party was able to move about just an inch above the floor and, when needed, fly to the ceiling. This made Jarrus immune to the movement restrictions of the ice covered floor and immediately closed in on Ajakstu to prevent further spell casting, but not before Ajakstu cast a Cone of Cold, hitting everyone but Sarril, who had flown into the room and took position 20 feet in the air so he can continue to cast spells without being in range of melee.

DM's Note: The decision by Ajakstu to cast Cone of Cold was a change in game plan. The original plan was for him to dispel the Flight on the party, which he would have have a reasonable chance of success to do. But when he saw that Jarrus was trying to close in on him, self-preservation kicked in and he cast Cone of Cold to try and kill Jarrus. It hurt him badly, but did not kill him. This made all of the difference as the flight is what gave the party the advantage. Had Ajakstu not freaked out and instead did what he was supposed to do, the party would have been on floor fighting with everyone else, and would have quickly been overcome by the powerful melee fighters. Nonetheless, I felt the decision was appropriate for the circumstances. If a bear is charging you and you have a gun in your hand, you use it.

Eanwulf closed in on Pontus to fight one on one while Theg Narlot threw poisoned knives at Sarril, occasionally hitting him, trying to wear him down. The remaining three black scaled guards closed in around Jarrus as did Brother Kerin, who was trying to take him out before he killed the spellcaster. Brother Kerin and the three guards brought Jarrus down to just three hit points, but Sarril cast Mirror Image on Jarrus, buying him a little more time (DM's Note: this was a mistake, as Mirror Image does not work on targets other than the caster, but in the intensity of the battle, I didn't think about it and let it happen - we will call it a divine miracle). Thanks to this spell, and the help of an invisible Cassius striking the mage from behind, Jarrus was able to kill them all, just before Ajakstu was able to get off a Mirror Image of his own.

Cadwin entered the fight by casting carefully directed Lightning Strikes (this is the druid version of Lightning Bolt - from Dungeon Magazine). Though he didn't kill anyone, he severely wounded Theg and Eanwulf. Eanwulf soon dropped Pontus below zero hit points so he was bleeding out, then turned his attention to Cadwin, dropping him before he could fly off. During this time, Slippery Ketta, having earlier drank a Potion of Invisibility, snuck over to Jarrus, who was still under a True Sight spell and able to see her. She could not get the backstab and was forced into melee, and soon met her end.

Jarrus, having just killed the last of the guards on him, rushed at Eanwulf, who was able to swing first and drop Jarrus. This left only Sarril and Cassius standing. Cassius took another swig of invisibility potion and moved around to backstab Theg, but missed. Sarril, realizing that Jarrus and Pontus were both bleeding out, put himself in harms way to come down to the ground and heal and stabilize them both. This allowed Eanwulf to get some solid hits in on him, severely wounding, but not killing him. Sarril responded by flying back into the air and firing off magic missiles until both Theg and Eanwulf were dead.

Sarril then flew back down to check on the Cadwin while Cassius began to look at the bodies of the dead slavelords. That's when they heard the sound of footsteps coming down the spiral staircase. A dark elf (Edralve) and a tall man, 6' 2" tall in brown robes, gold scales and a dragon skull helm plated in gold. He slowly clapped his hands and said "Well done, well done. I really wasn't expecting you to get all of them in one go. It seems everyone keeps underestimating you." At this point, Sarril recognized the voice of the man as the same man they met in the tavern who told them about the assassin's guild and gave them advice on how to divide the slavelords and take them out one at a time. Both figures then cast Dispel Magic on Cassius and Sarril, removing their flight ability.

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Stalman Klim, High Priest of the Earth Dragon. This is my companion Edralve. You have done me a great service here today. Now that this messiness is done, I just want to make sure I know where we stand. Are we going to do this the easy way, or the hard way?"

There was some talk back and forth during which Sarril was considering his options. He then decided to quickly cast a spell. Unfortunately, Stalman Klim got the initiative and was able to shout "SILENCE!" before Sarril could get the spell off. "I guess it's the hard way then" he said, looking at Edralve, who then tossed a vial of liquid at Sarril, striking him in the chest. The liquid splashed and turned to a smoke that filled Sarril's lungs, causing him to drop into a deep sleep.

Stalman Klim then looked at Cassius "And what about you?"

"No, I'm good." replied Cassius, surrendering, but not before carefully hiding a set of lock picks in a place that we will not discuss.

Cassius, along with the unconscious party members, were all led or carried by guards in gold scales far away and then underground into 20x20x10 ft. prison cells carved into cave walls, with iron doors. Cadwin was placed inside a steel cage with cross bars inside his cell. The holes were too small for a bat to fit through - almost as if the cage were custom made for him. Each party member remained in their cell, isolated for two days. During that time, Stalman Klim came to each of their cells to interrogate them. He asked questions about the Temple of Elemental Evil and about an alchemist who was part of Dame Gold's party. Some of the party members asked Stalman Klim questions in return, and in classic evil villain style, he answered them - to an extent. He explained that the Earth Dragon is a god of retribution who will cleanse the world so that it can be built anew. He confirmed with Sarril that Captain Gahrana had indeed sailed to the Isles of Woe in the Nyr Dyv to recover an artifact, and said they would soon see what he intended to do with it. He told Pontus that he has been carefully watching the party ever since they destroyed the Temple of Elemental Evil, and has been very interested in what they have been up to. He also confirmed for Jarrus that it was he who raised him from the dead on the boat and had punished Captain Gahrana for allowing the alchemist to die. He also told a few of the party members that he formed the slavelords just over a decade ago, but was forced to "make a deal with the devil," so to speak, with the Horned Society and the Scarlet Brotherhood in order to finance the operation and ensure its success. While he wouldn't reveal exactly what he had planned next, he did make it clear that it was all possible because of the parties actions in removing the other members of the council. He admitted that he didn't care about the organization anymore, as it has served it's purpose.

Two days passed as the party members each contemplated what Klim told them in their cells, and wondered what it all meant (and what the role of the dark elves are in it all). Sarril's familiar, who was still above ground flying around and spying, communicated that a massive number of slaves were being moved from the city into the temple - several hundred of them. Soon, tremors began to shake the cells, and the party heard Stalman Klim's voice outside the cells. "The Earth Dragon has spoken! He is hungry, and the time has come to feed the weak to him."

The tremors kept coming, one an hour, then every 40 minutes, then every 30 minutes, closer and closer together, and stronger, until eventually the floor split open in a long fissure that ran across the cells. The party members were able to climb down inside and meet up with each other. Everyone was accounted for except for Cadwin, who was still trapped inside a steel cage. The party reach him and Cassius was able to produce a pair of lock picks out of someplace that we won't talk about. And a good thing to, as nothing else would have likely gotten this cage open. With Cadwin free, the entire party was able to follow the fissure down into a cave, where is was pitch dark, but on the ground was a scroll case with scrolls inside, though no one could read them. Those with infravision were able to lead the party through the caves, first following some light which they quickly decided was a Will O' Wisp trying to lure them to their death (they were right), and then choosing another direction, ending up in a pool of water.

So, this part of the module used to be a timed tournament module. The idea being that the party has to find a way out before time runs out and the cave collapses. The purpose was to test the wits of the characters to see if they can figure out how to survive by making makeshift weapons, etc. I was very concerned they would be stuck down here for a long time, and we would miss the big climax as 5 pm was approaching. But it turns out the party, through what I assume is pure luck, found their way straight to the exit.

They were able to bludgeon some fire beetles to death and make light from them, which allowed them to read the scrolls. A series of useful magic user scrolls, including Read Magic, and a note. The note read:

"This is the best I could do to help. May your gods be with you. If you escape, seek your revenge on the one who lured you here. Seek out the Water Dragon at the docks.  - D.C."

The party soon found their way to a bat cave which was already dimly lit. They heard the sounds of chanting echoing from further ahead. Cassius went to investigate, and found himself staring over a ledge into an enormous room surrounding a chasm. On the far side was Stalmin Klim in full regalia, along with the high priestess and several brown robed clerics, all chanting. Surrounding the chasm on all sides were slaves.

Cassius returned to inform the rest of the party who then followed him back up to the ledge. The party watched as clerics brought forth a familiar looking crate and opened it. Stalmin Klim reached inside and pulled out a gold ovoid shaped object, similar to objects they saw on pedestals in the temple when they investigated before. He placed the object on a pedestal before him and started speaking in a language that Cadwin recognized as ancient Flan, though he could not understand the words. As he spoke, a white mist began swirling around the object, eventually forming into multiple tendrils that began reaching out and flowing through all of the people in the room, flowing through all of the slaves and even some of the clerics. Each person the mist flowed through began to wretch and their bodies began to shrivel as they let out silent screams before withered, lifeless bodies fell into the chasm. As all of the slaves were consumed, the tendrils continued to move about the room. The party noticed that, up on another ledge, overlooking the events were three men in black cloaks, who turned and walked away.

Once all of the slaves and unfortunate clerics were dead, the mist returned to the device, and it and the pedestal it was on, sunk into the earth. Stalmin Klim again raised his arms and shouted "Oh great and powerful Earth Dragon - AWAKEN! Show yourself and bring retribution to this world!" With that, the ground began again to shake and the bridges over the chasm started to collapse. A loud roaring could be heard from the chasm below, growing louder and louder with each passing second.
Then, a larger than life form leaped out of the chasm, its great claws clinging to the ledges as it pulled itself up, demolishing everything it touched. A great horned reptilian head reared up out of the chasm and in one swift motion bit down at a surprised Stalman Klim, removing his head from his now lifeless body. Panic ensued as those still living ran screaming in terror. The high priestess cast Meld to Stone to escape as the beast ran crashing through the entrance, leaving a giant hole in it's path.

The party ran back to the bat cave where they saw a small hole in the ceiling about 100 ft. up. Sarril cast Spider Climb from the scroll he found onto Jarrus, who was able to carry Sarril. Cassius and Pontus climbed while Cadwin transformed into a bat, thus getting everyone safely out of the cavern. They could see from this venue that the tarrasque (not that the party knows what it is, but it was obvious to all of the players) had crashed through the front of the temple and was already destroying the city. They decided they needed to get to the Water Dragon before that thing does, and began running in that direction. They steered clear as best they could, but could see the beast knocking down buildings, walls, and towers with a whip of its tail like they were nothing, and stomping, crushing and occasionally biting at people running in all directions. Before the party could even get to the Scumslum before the docks, Suderham was already reduced to rubble, and the could see that the beast would be heading their direction soon.

Getting to the docks was not so easy, however, hundreds of people had all fled in the same direction. Boats were capsizing from the sheer numbers of people desperate to climb aboard. Fights were breaking out everywhere and some gray, slimy humanoid creatures were crawling out of the water to join the fray, adding to the chaos. As the party pushed their way toward the last pier, where they believed the Water Dragon to be located, they ran into a guard dressed in official uniform of Suderham. He seemed to recognize the party and said "are you the ones? Are you the saviors who destroyed the slavelords?"

Jarrus replied "yes, that's us. We are responsible for this."

The man replied "I am a member of Dame Gold's party. We were all captured together. We managed to escape when things turned chaotic a couple of days ago. I stole this uniform and we've been hiding out in the slums looking for a way out of here."

"Is Dame Gold with you?" Jarrus asked.

"Yes."


With that, the man led the party back into the scumslum and into a building where several people were hiding. He introduced a woman claiming to be Dame Gold and some members of her household. The party agreed to take them with them, in the off chance that this really is her. As they left the building, they could see the creature charging right toward them. It looked like they would not escape, but just then, the boy, Oric, stepped out from his shack and stood in the middle of the road, looking the creature straight in the eye. He then transformed into a full sized man in green robes and antlers on his head. He raised his hands to the sky, said a few words, then, just before getting trampled, he thrust his hands onto the ground causing a deep fissure to rip open in front of him, splitting open the road in front of the beast and causing it to fall into the exposed magma below. He then turned to the party and said "that will not hold it forever. You must go now."

The party, with refugees in tow, headed back to the docks. It is now late afternoon on the 5th Day of Goodmonth, CY580. The climax of the adventure is complete, though we had to stop short. When next we meet, we shall play out the epilogue to wrap this up, and then see what new adventures the party will seek. I think right now, they'd just settle for getting some of their stuff back, which they hope will be packed up on the Water Dragon. We shall see.

2nd Day of Goodmonth, CY 580 - One Slavelord down (?) then. . . holy crap, they did it again!

DMs Note: I've been playing a 5th edition game over e-mail recently (Play By Email - or PBE). PBE has its limitations, not the least of which is that some players respond more quickly to e-mails than others, and those players end up making most of the decisions. But from a narrative point of view, it is superior. The DM has all the time in the world to write up descriptions, research things as needed, and generally make sure the story has all of the necessary elements. And the story has its own log that everyone can search through, which is a lot of what I am trying to do here (as I don't expect that most of what I write is interesting to others, but thank you for reading if you are not one of my players). But most importantly, the players really take their time and think things through. Interactions between player characters and NPCs are richer and full of intrigue. Player characters can have private conversations, or otherwise split up and do their own things in town and come back together whenever they want and nothing gets interrupted or slowed down for everyone else. Its a lot of fun for players who enjoy ROLEplaying (as opposed to ROLLplaying).

The point of this musing is to say that when we only get together for a couple of hours in-person every other week (if that), there isn't a lot of time for that stuff. Thus the players do what they do - which is barge the front gates and fight their way to the boss. As a DM, I knew this type of play would eventually get boring, just as people get tired of video games, and its a challenge to insert an interesting narrative into the middle of the chaos. But I think I am figuring it out. . . 

After laying low for a few days in the ScumSlum, the party decided to disguise themselves as best they can and re-enter the city using the sewer passage that Oric showed them. Oric was able to tell them where some of the more important or interesting buildings in the city are, and an inn called the Sign of the White Knight, where, if the party was extremely careful and spoke to the right person, they may find some folks who are not allied with the slavelords that could be willing to provide additional information. He also shared what he knows about the slavelords, which is

The slavelords are never seen, and act on reputation alone. Its just one of those things where everyone knows they are in charge, but only officials of the highest rank have actually seen them. Some people say they walk among the citizens from time to time, and like to keep their anonymity for this reason. Some say the anonymity is because each slavelord is a title rather than a specific person, and if one gets killed, another takes his place. If no one knows their faces, this works very well.

The following names are known. By reputation, their class can be inferred:

1. Eanwulf (fighter or barbarian - a real brute, larger than life)
2. Nerelas (rumored to be the head of the assassin's guild)
3. Stalman Klim (associated with the Temple of the Earth Dragon)
4. Ajakstu (a mage, possibly - not much known)
5. Edralve (rumored to be a dark elf)
6. Brother Kerin (mysterious - said to be associated with the strange men in red robes and shaved heads that occasionally are seen in the city. There are ships with these same men that frequently arrive at the docks and purchase slaves)
7. Theg Narlot (a fighter or assassin - ugly and short tempered. Said to be most brutal of all the slavelords)
8. Lamonsten the Lazy (another magic user of some kind - also little known)
9. Slippery Ketta (a thief, and said to have eyes and ears all over the city)

Oric also stated that there was no way the party would be able to take the slavelords on directly. Any one of them would be a challenge, but the nine together are unstoppable. He said they employ an elite guard force in three factions, known as the Brown Scales, the Black Scales and the Gold Scales. There aren't a lot of these guards, but they are an elite fighting force that are deployed for special missions, and they never fail. They also have strange men in red robes who fight with their hands and feet, and are extremely deadly. These men operate some of the ships that come to harbor to trade slaves and they will generally enforce the will of the slavelords when they are around. It would be best for the party to gather as much information as they can and come up with a plan.

And so the DM was done helping, and let the players pick up and decide what to do.

They emerged in the Thieves Quarter, where most of the inns, taverns, and houses of ill repute are located. They headed up toward the building that Oric indicated was the Sign of the White Knight. For good measure, Sarril cast Invisibility on Cassius, the thief acrobat, so he can scout from the rooftops as they walked. From his scouting position, Cassius was able to see two other buildings behind the inn with marking that he recognized identified them as an Assassin's Guild and a Thieve's Guild right next to each other - which was odd for guilds that tend to be rivals in most cities. He can also see there was a large slave auction going on in the middle of town, and this had a lot of people distracted.

While Cassius maintained watch on the roof, the rest of the party went inside the Sign of the White Knight and pulled up to the bar. After ordering drinks, Sarril began slipping money to the bartender for information. After upping the bribe a few times, the bartender made a point that "the nine have eyes and ears everywhere" but did casually point out that the party may want to talk to a man who was sitting back in the corner of the tavern, alone. Pontus went up and spoke to the man. Although his barbarian ways were a little gruff, Pontus' really high charisma made up for it. He was able to drive the conversation to a point where both men understood that they had it out for the slavelords. The man called himself "Erik the Red" (a nice northern barbarian name, though the man clearly was not from the north) and claimed to be a sailor from the Hold of the Sea Princes who once had a very profitable business before being forced into retirement by the slavelords. He has spent the last several years spying on them, looking for a way to disrupt their business. While he has gained a lot of intelligence about their operations, he is but one man and can't do much against them. But now that the party was here, they may be able to accomplish what he could not.

After further conversation and a few bribes, Pontus learned that the Sign of the Rose (a house of ill repute next door) is used as a way for the slavelords to come in and out of the city from their hidden base. This is based on the fact that certain people have been seen going in and not coming out over the years. He also said that the while the slavelords operate as a council, there is internal strife among them, and they are known to effectively be three separate factions within the council, each vying for power. The political fighting between them is reflected throughout the city. Erik says that he believes it wouldn't be hard to exploit these political divisions by unbalancing the council. Taking out a few of the slavelords one at a time, and dismantling their networks from within. He suggested starting with the assassin's guild, which is known, unofficially, to be run by the slavelord Narelas. Targeting him first will be important because the Assassin's Guild has eyes and ears everywhere, and they could easily kill the party while they sleep. Removing that threat would give the party some freedom to plan out and execute the remainder of their operations against the slavelords.

The party had originally planned to stake out the Sign of the Rose to gather their own intelligence, but agreed that this information was too good to pass up and decided to go visit the Assassin's Guild. They would present a cover story that they wanted to pay to have a thief assassinated who had stole something from them. Once again, Pontus did the talking at the door. Flashing some gold got the attention of the assassin's inside, which were speaking through a slot in the barred front door. Using "detect invisibility" Sarril noticed two invisible assassins on either corner of the building, acting as guards, and moving around to the party's rear as Pontus engaged in conversation. The assassin's told Pontus to give them his name and where he is staying. Pontus refused, insisting now on speaking to their leader. Once again they asked for his name and where he was staying (this is protocol for the assassin's - they will send an agent to you, not the other way around). Pontus was insistent that they speak with the leader right away.

Sarril, sensing that things were going to go badly and wanting to have the upper hand, cast Knock on the door, then Pontus kicked it in. Two of the assassin's inside ran down a hallway to the back of the building. Two more inside sprang into dark corners in order to backstab the first person to walk through. The two assassins at the rear of the party sprang into action, the first one getting a lucky roll and succeeding on his assassination attempt against Jarrus, who was now dead. 

Note: I have never liked the idea that an assassin can just roll a percentile die and kill someone without the other person having any check against it. So I borrowed something from 5th edition and decided that, in cases of assassination, the character will get a Saving Throw vs. Death Magic. Success means they are reduced to 0 hit points and are bleeding out, but have the opportunity to be saved. Failure means death. Jarrus failed his save. He wasn't just dead, but dead-dead.

The rest of the party continued on, finishing off the two assassin's outside while Cadwin lit-up the assassins inside with Faerie Fire. Pontus chased down the two at the end of the hall, finishing them off before bounding back to help the others. On his way back, Pontus was back-stabbed by an invisible assassin who failed his assassination attempt, but still did 5X damage. But 5x6 is only 30, and that's a small fraction of Pontus' incredible barbarian hit point total. Pontus also saved vs. poison, staying in the fight, much to the surprise and frustration of the assassin who just stabbed him. As the party was finishing off the two assassins in the front room, six more came out from side rooms and filled the hallway. Knowing Pontus had the hit points to handle it, Sarril unleashed Boccob's Rolling Thunder down the hallway, killing all but two assassins and wounding Pontus, though not considerably. While Pontus engaged the last two assassins, the party shut the front door and barred it while Sarril used a Resurrection Scroll to bring Jarrus back to life with full hit points. One round later, Jarrus entered the battle and Jarrus and Pontus finished off the last two assassins, one of whom was clearly a leader - maybe even Narelas himself.

On the leader's body the party found a map of the sewer system, with traps and other things of interest noted. They also found some magic weapons and armor and a token with the symbol of the slavelords on it. After searching the rest of the Assassin's Guild, the party decided to follow a secret door in the back that led down to the sewers, eventually intersecting with the map they now had. Though wounded and having expended most of their healing and other spells, the party decided the course of action would be to follow the map in the sewers to see where it went. One of the tunnels on the map showed a long trek before a dead-end, and the party guess that there would likely be a secret door there leading to something important, as tunnels don't usually get built to nowhere. So off they went. They did manage to set off one trap and take damage, and got into a fight with a mimic, but pushed through to the end of the long tunnel, finding, as expected, a secret door in the north wall.

Opening the secret door revealed a large, 70x70 room. In this room were 9 thrones in a semi-circle facing a hallway coming in from the west. In the room were four people that the party could see and guess were four of the slavelords (from Oric's descriptions), and several guards around the room wearing brown or black scales. Sarril, who still had his Detect Invisibility up and running, could also see an invisible magic-user crouched in one corner, and a thief hiding in shadows in another corner. The six slavelords in this room knew the party was approaching and were waiting for them to open the door, triggering a surprise round in which we know that at least one thrown axe and one thrown dagger were unleashed, in addition to some number of spells at the party.

But we had to stop there, as it was 5 pm. It is still the 2nd Day of Goodmonth, CY 580, now late afternoon.

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.

24th Day of Reaping, 580 CY - Out of the fortress

This was definitely not the most fun game day for most of the players (or even the DM, for that matter). I think it was because we took too long of a break between sessions, and so players didn't quite have their head in the game. Frustration over how long it was taking to explore this fortress was causing stress, and as room after room turned up empty and clueless, player frustration reached peak levels. But the day had a truly epic ending, so all is well. . . 

We picked up where we left off, with the party in a room with a now dead minotaur, whose head Pontus immediately cut off to keep as a trophy. Exploring some secret doors eventually helped everyone map out the rest of the area of what appeared to be Markessa's private quarters and those of her bodyguard. One room had a pentagram on the floor, with a gold necklace in the middle. The party has learned their lesson about messing around with such obvious arcane/demonic traps, and left it alone. During the time spent searching, they also had time to look through the papers they had collected from Markessa's desk and found the following letter.

Lady Markessa,

It is agreed that old Klim has grown soft hearted. I shall look forward to having you sit on the Inner Council with me. There will soon be many openings. It is imperative that the operations fail at the hands of the outsiders. Others will be blamed for their escape and any destruction they have caused.
Do not concern yourself with this decision. Turosh Mak grows too strong and we would need to move the base anyway. We will deal with him once we have dealt with the others, but for now, everyone must play their part.

- E

Despite the fact that it has been almost 48 hours since Pontus saw Markessa packing up to leave, the party felt that she was their only clue as to where Dame Gold and the other slaves might have gone, and they needed to track her down. They explored another branch of the escape tunnel she used, allowing Pontus to set off a pit trap which did a small amount of damage to the barbarian. After working around that, they followed the tunnel to a secret door which opened into a natural cave tunnel the went left and right. Hearing some sounds coming from the left, they decided to check them out.

The sounds were coming from a about a dozen drow in a large cave, standing around some wagons. Behind them was a large tunnel opening the went south. In front of them, the cave opened up into the wide hallway of the lower level of the fortress. The drow appeared to be a merchant of some sort and his guards. By the looks of the shackles on the cart, it would seem they were here to buy slaves, although there were no slaves loaded yet, and the pack animals that would be pulling the carts were not around at the moment. Two of the drow guards saw Pontus and immediately fired crossbows at him, which missed. Sarril then dropped an Ice Storm into the cave, killing all of the drow and almost killing Cassius, who had snuck into the cave to attempt a backstab.

The party assumed Markessa must not have come this way, and backtracked through the cave to follow the other path, which eventually led to an abandoned encampment, and a small tunnel leading out to the hillside, too small for a caravan of slaves to be led out. From the hillside, the party could see the road and look back on the fortress. Turosh Mak's forces were surrounding the fortress and orcs could be seen along the battlements of the walls.

This is the point at which the party started to become frustrated. Backtracking yet again, they decided to check the remaining doors of the lower level fortress that they hadn't checked before. They found another natural cave leading to some warg breeding pens (the wargs did not bother them thanks to some herbs they had managed to get earlier). The breeding pens led to a large goblin cave where dead goblin and warg bodies were strewn about from the previous day's encounter. This cave wound around to the east and ended in a door from which Cadwin could hear buzzing sounds coming from the other side. The party decided to leave that door alone. Backtracking again, they went to the northern end of the fortress and checked all previously missed doors (Note: I played "Yakety Sax," the Benny Hill theme song, whenever the party decided to backtrack - this might have added to the frustration, I'm not sure). All doors led to empty kitchens, dining halls barracks and a latrine. All except two final locked doors.

After failing to open the door through any other means, Sarril cast Shatter on the door to destroy it. Inside was a large room with row and row of cages full of human slaves in terrible condition. Some were missing, many were dead, others were lethargic and non-communicative. But the few that could speak told the party that the "overseer" took about a dozen slaves two days ago in a hurry. They could not see where he went. One slave was able to confirm that Dame Gold was with them at some point, though he didn't know if she was one of the ones taken. Since they party could not find Dame Gold, they assumed she must have been taken. Pontus gathered some food and water from the kitchen and distributed it to the slaves. Sarril then cast Strength on Jarrus, who was able to break open all of the cages to free the slaves.

The slave room was split into two halves and the northern half had three large cells. Two of the cells contained lethargic slaves unable to speak and barely able to move. The last large cell contained a white circle on the floor with a statue in the middle of it. The far wall had a hole blown through it that opened into a dark cavern. When Jarrus tried to break the door of this cage, he found that it was unlocked. When Pontus went inside to examine the cell, a pile of rags in the corner lifted up to expose a disgusting abomination. A "human" with no eyes, ears or nose - only a mouth, and no legs, but four arms. It crawled on four arms up to Pontus and said "Be ye the thrice cursed messengers? Woe to the world!" Pontus replied "Yes, yes we are" but being without ears, the thing did not hear him. Since it did not attack, the party left it alone and decided that the slaves must have been taken down the drow tunnel into the underdark, and that's where they needed to go. So off they went (queue more Benny Hill music).

The drow cave spiraled down into the mountain for a long way. The party followed it for about 30 minutes, before realizing they didn't really want to play around in the underdark and started discussing giving up on the slaves and trying to get back to Greyhawk. Turning around, they walked back up and took the other cave exit out to the hillside where they picked up Markessa's tracks and were about to head out.

At this point, the group had a long discussion about where the slaves could possibly have been taken. They reviewed the map multiple times, made some conclusions, and were about to quit out of frustration. I decided to drop some hints. Primarily that at each apparent cave exit they spent the time to look for tracks - everywhere except for the cave leading out the back of the slave pens. And no one questioned why the slave pen with cave opening in the back of it was unlocked. Well, it turns out it was too difficult to lock from the other side, and that's exactly where the slaves were taken. The party headed back up to that set of saves. While the tunnel entrance from the back of the slave pens was too narrow to fit a wagon through, slaves could be chained and walked through there just fine. On the other side, the tunnel opened up into a wide cavern where there were wagons, pens for pack animals (which were gone), shackles and chains, and barrels of food and water. There were also a recent set of tracks leading out one of the many tunnels - obviously the direction the slaves were taken. The party followed.

It took a couple of hours, and it was evening when the party finally emerged on the other side of mountain, overlooking a valley. From here an obvious trail wrapped around this mountain peak,

down into the valley and up into the mountain on the other side. The party decided to camp for the night. All night long they watched a half dozen flying creatures circling over the opposite mountain peak, occasionally passing nearby when they swooped over the valley. As they flew closer, the party could see they were wyverns. The party was safe for the first couple of watches, but by the third watch they were spotted by two of the wyverns who swooped in to attack. After the first round, Jarrus woke up Cadwin who calmly said "Wyverns, you say? I'm a druid. I got this" and started to cast his highest level Monster Summoning spell, summoning 6 animals of up to 8 HD each from the surrounding area - which happened to be wyverns (wyverns are considered animals for the purposes of the spell because they have low intelligence). It worked, and not only did the two wyverns fall under the command of Cadwin, but the other four flew over to join the group. The Bad Ass Motherfuckers now each have a 35-foot wyvern under their control, and there is one to spare.

It is morning on the 25th Day of Reaping, 580 CY. The Bad Ass Motherfuckers are coming for the Slavelords, and yes, they are riding on the backs of wyverns.

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.